Wrestling Entertainment - we know, you don't have to tell us!

[Miller11]

45 minutes ago, DE. said:

No Undertaker v Sting? You lads disappoint me.

It’s coming!

[Miller11]

I’ve added an interview segment to mine...

 

1. Intercontinental Championship Match

Ricky Steamboat v Kurt Angle v Curt Hennig

 

2. Sherri Martel v Charlotte Flair
 

3. Cruiserweight Championship Match

Eddie Guerrero v Koko Ware v Jushin Liger v Jody Fleisch
 

4. Haku v Brock Lesnar (w Paul Heyman)

 

5. Tag Team Championship Match

Midnight Express - Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane (w Jim Cornette) v Hart Foundation - Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart
 

6. John Cena (w Nikki Bella) v Rick Rude (w Bobby Heenan)
 

7. Sting V Undertaker

 

8. TLC Match

Rock n Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) v Steiner Brothers v Thrill Seekers (Lance Storm and Chris Jericho) v Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray)
 

9. Brother Love Show with Guests Jim Cornette and Vince Russo

 

10. World Title Match

Randy Savage v The Rock

 

11. War games: nWo v DX v Four Horsemen

Team nWo: Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, Syxx

Team DX: Shawn Michaels, HHH, Billy Gunn, Road Dogg

Four Horsemen: Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham

[Bigdoggsteel]

I like this fantasy booking. I was going to go deeper and say who would be the face and heels in the matches. Plus who I would see as the winners. Obviously the above is Wrestelmania. 

I think the card might be a bit too loaded in crazy matches early on, although I think the later matches work because of the star power in them 

Edited February 21, 2020 by Bigdoggsteel

[Bigdoggsteel]

2 hours ago, DE. said:

No Undertaker v Sting? You lads disappoint me.

88 Sting v the Undertaker

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, Miller11 said:

I’ve added an interview segment to mine...

 

1. Intercontinental Championship Match

Ricky Steamboat v Kurt Angle v Curt Hennig

 

2. Sherri Martel v Charlotte Flair
 

3. Cruiserweight Championship Match

Eddie Guerrero v Koko Ware v Jushin Liger v Jody Fleisch
 

4. Haku v Brock Lesnar (w Paul Heyman)

 

5. Tag Team Championship Match

Midnight Express - Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane (w Jim Cornette) v Hart Foundation - Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart
 

6. John Cena (w Nikki Bella) v Rick Rude (w Bobby Heenan)
 

7. Sting V Undertaker

 

8. TLC Match

Rock n Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) v Steiner Brothers v Thrill Seekers (Lance Storm and Chris Jericho) v Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray)
 

9. Brother Love Show with Guests Jim Cornette and Vince Russo

 

10. World Title Match

Randy Savage v The Rock

 

11. War games: nWo v DX v Four Horsemen

Team nWo: Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, Syxx

Team DX: Shawn Michaels, HHH, Billy Gunn, Road Dogg

Four Horsemen: Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham

That main event (Italian kissing fingers gesture) 

Now I think I need to include Angle, Savage and Rick Rude somehow. 

Ok the 3 of them in a pre show no 1 contenders match for the IC title. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

I shouldn't have left Jericho out either 

[DE.]

Super Card needs to be a NJPW Wrestle Kingdom style two-nighter imo.

[Miller11]

10 hours ago, DE. said:

Super Card needs to be a NJPW Wrestle Kingdom style two-nighter imo.

That would be fine by me! It was so hard leaving out a lot of the people I did!

[Miller11]

The latest episode of the Jim Cornette Experience is well worth a listen. He watches Raw for the first time in years and critiques that alongside Dynamite.

Don’t want to issue any spoilers, but highly recommend it!

Edited February 24, 2020 by Miller11
Typo

[DE.]

I just watched Super Showdown. Oh boy. Where to begin. It's funny they are still using "When Legends Rise" as the theme song for these shows - I swear it's been the same song for the last 3 or 4 Saudi shows. I actually quite like the song, but a new one wouldn't go amiss. Anyway...

Firstly, the gauntlet match. Comedy fodder R-Truth going through the likes of Lashley and Andrade - I don't get it. What does this achieve other than make both of the latter look bad? Especially Lashley who was beaten by R-Truth in 5 minutes in a genuinely competitive match. At least you can chalk Andrade's loss up to a fluke with the clash of heads, but either way it was silly. Undertaker returning was fine, I guess, but beating Styles with a single chokeslam? Come on now. He didn't even take his hat or coat off. I think his entrance lasted longer than the time he was in the ring with AJ. Great work if you can get it.

The New Day/Miz & Morrison tag match was fine. I think Kofi looks ridiculous with his blond dye-job to be honest, but that aside it was a somewhat entertaining match. Can't say I give much of a shit about Miz and Morrison winning the titles as it feels like they've time travelled from the previous decade with all growth in between forgotten, but whatever. I don't watch Smackdown anyway so I don't care.

Garza/Carillo was okay. Garza winning repeatedly makes the rivalry seem pretty one-sided though. Maybe they have a plan going forward, but Carillo can't cut a promo to save his life so I'm not sure how far you can go with him. Garza definitely has a lot more upside.

Seth & Murphy Vs The Street Profits was again alright, but the problem is when you have AEW and NXT putting on consistantly great matches just being 'alright' isn't enough, not for me anyway. Standard matches don't really hold my interest and that's exactly what this was. The only other comment I have is that this stupid, bizarre practice of removing first names is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. Buddy Murphy is now just Murphy. OK. Am sure that will help.

Love how Mansoor gets the Roman Reigns treatment in Saudi Arabia, and the Al Snow treatment everywhere else. The first time they had Mansoor win the rumble or whatever it was cute, but now it's so laughably transparent that it's embarrassing. 

Ricochet is such a dork. I don't know if he's like that in real life, but in WWE he just comes across as a massive geek. I didn't follow him pre-WWE so I have no idea if he can cut a promo, but every promo I've seen from him in WWE has been cringeworthy. With that said, banging theme music and a great wrestler. 

As far as the match is concerned, again, I don't get it. Why bother even trying to build up Ricochet as a threat when he literally just got tossed around like a child and squashed. It absolutely ruins Ricochet's credibility as a contender for the belt. They fucking destroyed him, he didn't get a single piece of offence in and was beaten with a single F5 in, what, a couple of minutes? It's so stupid and self-destructive. You would never see this kind of nonsense in AEW.

Reigns and Corbin... please fuck off with this. I don't care if it's in a cage, on a scaffold, in the missisippi river or on mount everest these two fighting is BORING AS SHIT. Just stop it already.

I forgot Bayley was champion, and I'm happy to forget again. Boring. 

The Fiend Vs Goldberg. Ohhhhh man. What the fuck did they do here? Seriously, what the fuck did they do? Poor Bray Wyatt. Now for the record I feel the Fiend was given the belt much too quickly and it severly limited his character and those he was feuding with. I knew WWE would screw up Wyatt's new persona once he got to the main roster.

With that said, the Fiend is still over and has been built up as a ridiculously powerful, practically unstoppable force. He's smashed through huge stars like Seth Rollins and Daniel Bryan, he's also easily beaten the Miz. The scope is there, with the right storyline, for somebody to get over big by beating the Fiend. That first loss should have theoretically meant something huge. It seemed obvious to have it happen at Wrestlemania.

Then suddenly Goldberg challenges the Fiend for a match at Super Showdown. OK, cool. It's an interesting match, Goldberg still has star power left, looks incredible for his age and is enough of a badass that the Fiend still gains a lot by beating him. Or if WWE really wants to protect Goldberg then have the Fiend do something crazy to get DQ'd or brutalise Goldberg to the point where any normal human being would be knocked out or incapacitated. Plenty of options. 

Goldberg wins.

What.

Goldberg wins? Are you fucking kidding me? I can't even... I'm not sure I can really articulate the levels of ineptitude involved in this booking. It blows my mind. Not just Goldberg winning, but the way it was done. Keep in mind the Fiend's history, particularly with Seth Rollins. The guy survived about ten thousand stomps and got back up after Seth literally tried to murder him at Hell in a Cell. He's been shown to be practically immortal. Then a semi-retired 50+ year old wrestler shows up and annihilates him in a few moves after easily breaking out of the Fiend's finishing move, finishing the Fiend off with one of the shittiest looking jackhammers ever? Just... what? How utterly shit does that make the wrestlers who got destroyed by Wyatt look, for a start? I know that squash matches are Goldberg's MO and it's what he does, but not like this. It's so, so damaging to Bray Wyatt and IMO the WWE brand as a whole. It cheapens and tarnishes over a year's worth of work on the Fiend's character and storyline. It turns everything into a joke.

For the record I'm not angry. I don't care enough about modern WWE to be angry at their shitty booking decisions. My heart is very much with AEW now, and to a lesser extent NXT, so WWE fucking everything up on the main roster is irrelevent to me. I just can't help but marvel at their utter stupidity, and feel really bad for Bray Wyatt, who deserves so much better after putting this much effort into reinventing himself. WWE just shits on him over and over again and it's just sad. 

As an aside the announcers are idiots who apparently have forgotten Goldberg's history, talking about how he's put 'everyone down with the spear'. No, you idiots, his finisher is the jackhammer. The spear has always been the setup move. I imagine he's pinned no more than a handful of people with the spear alone. Imbeciles. 

2020 and WWE's two world champions are Brock Lesnar and Goldberg. No wonder their younger viewership is disappearing in droves. 

 

 

Edited February 28, 2020 by DE.

[Bigdoggsteel]

I haven't watched it,but I'm annoyed by what happened with the Undertaker and Styles. Styles needs to be winning that match at WM. 

[DE.]

Problem is, how does what happened at SS make anybody want to watch Styles Vs Undertaker at WM? The guy squashed him in 20 seconds with a single chokeslam. Didn't even need a tombstone. If Styles had been in the gauntlet match right from the start then OK, but he'd barely done anything. Also not sure how Undertaker can win the match when he wasn't even officially in it, but whatever, it's wrestling so that part doesn't necessarily bother me. It's more how it happened than what happened. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

36 minutes ago, DE. said:

Problem is, how does what happened at SS make anybody want to watch Styles Vs Undertaker at WM? The guy squashed him in 20 seconds with a single chokeslam. Didn't even need a tombstone. If Styles had been in the gauntlet match right from the start then OK, but he'd barely done anything. Also not sure how Undertaker can win the match when he wasn't even officially in it, but whatever, it's wrestling so that part doesn't necessarily bother me. It's more how it happened than what happened. 

Sounds like SS was a huge mess. I was a huge WCW fan when Goldberg was at his peak. It's just a bit silly now doing the same shtik. 

Certainly not the man to stop the fiend anyway

As I said though ,undertaker burying Styles is wrong on so many levels. 

[DE.]

8 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Sounds like SS was a huge mess. I was a huge WCW fan when Goldberg was at his peak. It's just a bit silly now doing the same shtik. 

Certainly not the man to stop the fiend anyway

As I said though ,undertaker burying Styles is wrong on so many levels. 

Yeah I wouldn't go out of your way to watch SS, it was a bit of a joke. What's worse is that young/newer talent got buried by old/part-time talent three times in one night. Styles squashed by the Undertaker, Ricochet squashed by Lesnar and the Fiend squashed by Goldberg. I'm also an old school WCW fan so I love seeing Goldberg around, but using him like this is just wrong and detrimental to the future of the WWE product on multiple levels.

It would be a bit like Hulk Hogan coming into WWE in 1999 and beating Kane in three minutes after no-selling a tombstone. It's not quite the same as Hogan was still an active wrestler at that time and was still one of WCW's top guys, but it would still have destroyed Kane's mystique at least 3 years before WWE did that themselves. I'm not sure there's a historical comparison for what happened to the Fiend at SS, it might be a first. What made it even worse was at the end of the match the Fiend got back up and was behind Goldberg as he celebrated on the ring posts, but rather than attack him the Fiend just gave a childish "arrghhh!" and then the lights went off and he vanished. Very sad. 

I didn't watch SD last night but from what I read Goldberg was booed a fair bit and Reigns got cheered, so I guess WWE will get what they want at WM with Roman cheered winning the title. Fuck everyone else as long as Roman gets over, I guess. Can't believe they're still doing that after, what, six years of it not working? I like Roman but the whole reason people hated him in the first place was because he was being forced down everybody's throat at the expense of other popular wrestlers on the roster. If they start doing that again it won't be long before Roman is being booed again, which is going to be horrible given Roman's battles with cancer.

[Bigdoggsteel]

Murphy is one shit name for a wrestler too. Is he a stereotypical Irish cop in a movie based in the states? Murphy like. ?

[Bigdoggsteel]

And for all the talent they have, the main even of WM will be Goldberg v Reigns. Unbelievable. Say nothing yet though,it might be a 3 way with Corbin by the time we get there! 

[DE.]

1 minute ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

And for all the talent they have, the main even of WM will be Goldberg v Reigns. Unbelievable. Say nothing yet though,it might be a 3 way with Corbin by the time we get there! 

I could seriously see them having Goldberg Vs Corbin on the SD before WM for the title, with Corbin beating Goldberg clean and then changing the stipulation to a one hour iron man match at WM. Then after one hour it'd be tied, so an extra 30 minutes with Roman winning right at the end and both the Fiend and Goldberg coming out to raise his arms in victory at the end.

Edited February 29, 2020 by DE.

[DE.]

On the plus side it's AEW Revolution tonight. Very much looking forward to watching that tomorrow.

[Bigdoggsteel]

2 hours ago, DE. said:

On the plus side it's AEW Revolution tonight. Very much looking forward to watching that tomorrow.

I'm tempted to get it in. Probably not on tik late though. Must check. Id say Moxley and Jericho will be an epic story 

Edited February 29, 2020 by Bigdoggsteel

[DE.]

Really enjoyed Revolution. Fantastic PPV. Night and day compared to Super Shitshow.

Dustin Rhodes/Jake Hager to start off was a solid brawl. Nothing too special but it had been built well as a storyline, and that carried the parts of the match that were a little sluggish. A good way to start the show and Hager going over was the obvious and logical choice, although Dustin got plenty of offence in to make him look good in defeat.

The build to Guevara/Allin was a bit weak but the actual match was very entertaining. Only slight problem I have is that Guevara loses so often that beating him doesn't really mean much. He's still good enough in the ring that the crowd can see past it for now though, I think.

I absolutely loved Page/Omega Vs The Bucks. The match itself was incredible (and I believe went half an hour) but more importantly the storyline elevated it to being genuinely captivating. The tension between the Bucks and Hangman was played on really well, adding into the uncertainty surrounding Omega and Page as a team. My only complaint in this match was that there were one too many nearfalls. They need to scale back a little on this or it'll become NJPW levels of nonsense. I felt the match should have ended with Page's One Winged Angel on one of the Bucks (can't remember which one it was), but overall an amazing performance by all involved. I genuinely thought they were going to have Page turn on Omega at the end, but I'm glad they aren't pulling the trigger just yet. I think this story still has some juice in it. Page is crazy over at the moment.

One thing I have to note is that I really appreciate AEW's consistency when it comes to storylines. I've mentioned before that it bothered me that Page said he'd left the Elite a few months ago and yet he seemed to now be a part of it again with no explanation. However on last week's Dynamite they did a sit down interview where Page actually referenced this and basically said he wanted to leave but they dragged him back in. If it was WWE they would have totally forgotten/ignored this, but AEW are paying attention to the little details and I very much respect this after years of WWE treating us like idiots who can't remember anything that happened the week before, let alone months ago.

Rose/Statlander was pretty disappointing imo. AEW's women's division isn't quite there at the moment. The match wasn't bad but it wasn't particularly good either. They were in a tough spot after the incredible match previous though.

So, Cody... what the fuck is up with that awful tattoo? The actual design is fine but on the side of the neck? Just wtf. It looks awful. Also I thought Downstait sounded pretty terrible live and made Cody's entrance worse rather than better. The match itself was good, and again the strong storyline really helped keep me engaged. MJF going over was the right call, although I'm not sure whether this is the end of the program between these two for now or whether they keep it going to the next PPV.

I wasn't sure what to expect from PAC/Orange Cassidy but it was actually really, really fun and entertaining. Cassidy's style isn't for everyone but I dig it in small doses like this. It's very different and stands out - comedic with enough seriousness that it doesn't completely detract from the match or Cassidy's opponent. WWE could never write this kind of character. He's ridiculously over too. Minor nitpick is that I didn't feel the Lucha Bros needed to get involved here. It just seemed to be a way to get them on the show. 

Mox/Jericho was a decent brawl but imo not a great match and I was a tad disappointed. Admittedly it's hard for these guys to follow some of the amazing matches that had come before them, but that's going to be a consistent theme going forward so main event matches are going to need to find ways to stand out. I still enjoyed the match and think it was the right time to take the belt off Jericho for a while, although I expect he'll get it back before too long. 

A grade show for me and well worth watching, as all AEW PPV's have been so far. I love that this company exists.

Edited March 1, 2020 by DE.

[Miller11]

Haven’t caught Revolution yet, but I’m planning on watching it all. Seen the results and bits of clips. Not a fan of Orange Cassidy at all and I can’t see this match doing PAC any favours whatsoever. Big credibility clash.

I’ve seen people awarding the tag match 6 stars and heralding it as “the best tag match ever”. I very much doubt it will be to my tastes at all. And having read @DE.’s summary, I know the near falls are going to annoy me.

I’m massively looking forward to Cody and MJF. They are both absolutely on fire. Both WWE and AEW should be using these two as a benchmark in terms of storylines and character development.

Presume Statlander will be poking noses, so I’ll likely skip that one, but the other matches are intriguing and I’m looking forward to them.

I’m not really on the Moxley bandwagon. Will be interesting to see where the title picture goes from here though. Is Jericho taking some time off to tour? If so I think they will miss him. Badly.

[DE.]

8 hours ago, Miller11 said:

Not a fan of Orange Cassidy at all and I can’t see this match doing PAC any favours whatsoever. Big credibility clash.

Honestly I had the same concern going in, but the match definitely didn't do anything to hurt PAC's credibility. It showed off some of his personality whilst still making him look sadistic and brutal. OC's schtick is a bit marmite, but the crowds love it! 

8 hours ago, Miller11 said:

I’ve seen people awarding the tag match 6 stars and heralding it as “the best tag match ever”. I very much doubt it will be to my tastes at all. And having read @DE.’s summary, I know the near falls are going to annoy me.

I enjoyed the tag match a lot but I wouldn't go as far as to call it 'the best ever' or anything like that. It was just very good with a strong storyline backbone carrying it throughout. The nearfalls did get annoying towards the end though.

8 hours ago, Miller11 said:

I’m massively looking forward to Cody and MJF. They are both absolutely on fire. Both WWE and AEW should be using these two as a benchmark in terms of storylines and character development.

Yeah this was a good match and creative has been superb in the build up. IMO this is why it's better to space out PPV's, as it gives much more time for storyline development leading up to the match therefore making it feel special. It's hard to consistently do that with only 3-4 weeks build max as is the case in WWE (and sometimes they get less than that!).

8 hours ago, Miller11 said:

Presume Statlander will be poking noses, so I’ll likely skip that one, but the other matches are intriguing and I’m looking forward to them.

Yes Statlander is still doing this dopey alien gimmick and it still sucks. The announcers just make fun of her for it and nobody seems to take her nonsense seriously, so I'm not sure what the point is. With the company so heavily focused on 'reality' based stories and characters, the alien gimmick just makes Statlander come off as weird to me. Other than maybe the Dark Order nobody has such an outlandish gimmick, and even the Dark Order's characters are based on genuine cults.

8 hours ago, Miller11 said:

I’m not really on the Moxley bandwagon. Will be interesting to see where the title picture goes from here though. Is Jericho taking some time off to tour? If so I think they will miss him. Badly.

I haven't heard anything about Jericho leaving tbf. I'd be surprised if he does. I imagine he and Mox will build to a rematch at the next PPV. I love Moxley as a character, but his matches are never that good imo. He does well in a hardcore type environment but in standard matches I find him a bit... bland? I dunno. It never fully clicks with me.

Edited March 2, 2020 by DE.

[Bigdoggsteel]

I got it on ppv last night and watched it having avoided most spoilers(I knew Moxley won,saw it on instagram")

Now,I don't watch dynamite. I catch the odd dark,bit I do follow on social media. So I said I would take the plunge. With the nonsense booking WWE are throwing out,I do hope someone can push on.

Thoughts, I think AEW have the advantage over all non WWE companies with their commentary team. The familiar voices are priceless. Now the commentary wasn't great, a few awkward moments, but it is a difficult job these days. I felt nobody knew what to say when Nyla Rose was on for fear of offending someone. Some tip toeing going on. Not just during that bit. Commentary just has to be a bit bland now. Stu Bennett is one of the best on Power. He gets it. 

Hager and Dustin was grand. I think Dustin got too much in though. Hager is just a bit bland really ,isn't he? They tried to RVD things up a bit with the kiss beforehand,but meh. 

I loved Guevara v Allin. Think the wrong person won though. I think Guevara could be a star. Both of them actually. Get a cruiserweight title on the agenda immediately. 

The tag team match was class. Very good. I agree about the finishes though. How is Matt Jackson kicking out of a buckshot v trigger combo? Makes the buckshot seem so weak. Granted he eventually won with it,but I think the damage was done. Great match though. 

Rose v Statlander was awful by comparison but also because Statlander doesn't look athletic. Ok they said she had flu,so maybe that's what it was. She botched a lot of moves. I thought Rose looked ok. Some drop in quality from previously though. 

Cody and MJF was very good. Again though, makes Cody's finisher look weak by the fact MJF hit him after 2 of them. I know he fell over then as in it was his last bit of energy,but nah. I thought the tattoo was fake. I still think it must be. It can't be real,can it? Brandi a good addition at ring side Oh ya, I thought his entrance was a bit much. I thought the same with Jericho's. 

Pac and Orange was surprisingly good. I feel pac should have bet him down afterwards to make him look more sadistic. Some good offence from Cassidy,but I don't see what longevity he has. His character will need to evolve I feel. 

The title match was ok. Seen better from both, good power bomb on the bell by Jericho. It was a bit odd that he just gave Moxley such a beating for so long without any help from outside. The help from outside did pick up though and that told a better story. I think Moxley will be a good champion. The crowd love him and he gets them involved. 

Decent show. They are trying stuff, which isn't all working,but it's super(intended) to have a wrestling company that at least tries to give the fans entertainment and what they want to see. 

[Miller11]

1 hour ago, DE. said:

Yeah this was a good match and creative has been superb in the build up. IMO this is why it's better to space out PPV's, as it gives much more time for storyline development leading up to the match therefore making it feel special. It's hard to consistently do that with only 3-4 weeks build max as is the case in WWE (and sometimes they get less than that!).

Absolutely! They have got it so wrong in WWE. Every feud is dull as dishwater. They are introduced in a rushed fashion, become massively repetitive, and never have a blowoff at the end.

Back in the territory days they would use TV to build the feuds and let them play out on live shows, meaning they weren’t overexposed. In the early days of PPV they would have one show every three months or so, and they built genuine anticipation.

They really need a rethink. There are definitely too many shows (TV and PPV) but their roster is more than big enough to cope with it. No appetite to change from the current formula though, which is why I’ve all but given up.

[Bigdoggsteel]

I haven't watched WWE SD or Raw in years,but I think the problem this time for me isn't even Goldberg beating the fiend, it's the fact it's Goldberg and Reigns at mania. Why? They say dream match,I say it's a match no one even thought about wanting when it comes to "dream matches". Not a hope Goldberg will be giving Reigns a jackhammer.