goc

What bygone magical era are you thinking of when you're saying this? Because I've sent A LOT of old rasslin and they did way more back then to beat you over the head with "this is the good guy you're supposed to cheer and this is the bad guy you're supposed to boo" back then than WWE does now.

I never said it was designed to make him a heel, but it sure as hell wasn't designed to make him cheered. If Vince was wringing his hands backstage at every event worrying about whether Roman was going to get cheered like some people like to believe, they wouldn't have done that match at all. Honestly I think Roman and his matches would be LESS interesting if he was universally cheered and I think WWE probably sees it the same way. He's essentially the New York Yankees of wrestling where people either love him or hate him but no one is indifferent to him and he's always talked about even when he's not on top.

Are you sure you're paying attention? They gave up on that back in April 2016. If everything was planned around trying to get Roman cheered he wouldn't have retired The Undertaker.

I think one of the issues with 205 Live is they have too many people in the division. It's definitely one of the reasons some of them aren't making any money because they can't get on house shows. Like what do you need a Lince Dorado or a Tony Nese to be on a full time contract for? There are 16 wrestlers on the 205 Live roster which is more than a full time territory like Southeastern would have running shows every night of the week.

Let him keep doing what he's been doing - be the most talked about wrestler in the company with the loudest reactions and the most merchandise sales.

How long are you and other people gonna keep on with this narrative? Do you think Vince was still expecting the crowd to suddenly going to turn around on John Cena after 3 years of him getting booed and them still sticking with him?

Well they did all they could with Roman/Lesnar last time at Mania and it seemed obvious Roman was about to lose before Rollins added himself into the match. The Sheild reuniting should have been set at a major PPV maybe some way like Ambrose goes heel distancing away from Roman so when it happens it's totally unexpected kinda the way HHH went heel when Chyna went face at Mania 15. That moment went offguard and was unpredictable so surely WWE could have done something not predictable next year. You're definitely overthinking it.

I'm not sure what people expect Matt to do as a singles with Jeff out for 6 months. I don't even know if they should even have him in the ring until Jeff gets back because he's been looking like a guy whose body is just running on fumes lately. V1 and Broken Matt both came from Matt's mind. I am sure if WWE wanted to keep Matt hot and interesting for these six months--everyone involved can come up with something good. Which means Matt will just be a place holder until Jeff comes back and there is a ladder match at Mania. V1 was when he was still in really good shape and at his physical peak. Broken Matt had his best stuff edited together in a way no other professional wrestling matches have ever been edited. He's just not a guy you can rely on to perform at a high level in a singles match on live TV at this point in his career and it's not worth the effort to give him a ton of smoke and mirrors when there are other younger guys who need that time.

I 100% second this statement. Honestly the opening tag match with Cain Justice/Ethan Sharpe vs. Dirty Daddy & Faye Jackson is also worth your time but you absolutely need to check out the main event.

Replay of Jimmy Golden vs. Robert Fuller in a Cage with promos from both men 19:52 1/12/85 The Flame wants to kill Bob Armstrong 6/22/85 Probably THE biggest angle in Continental Cage Match: Loser Leaves Town -Ron Fuller & Jimmy Golden vs. Robert Fuller & Bob Armstrong 8/17/85 36:18 The Fullers talk about putting Bob Armstrong out of wrestling 8/31/85 36:40 Loser Gets 20 Lashes: The Nightmares vs. Tommy & Johnny Rich 10/26/85 33:20 Loser Leaves Town: The Bullet vs Jimmy Golden 11/9/85 39:30 The Bullet vs. The Flame 11/16/85 27:00 Feud Recap of The Nightmares vs. Tommy & Johnny Rich 2/8/86 2:55 Ron Fuller puts a bounty on The Bullet's mask 2/15/86 12:00 Wendell Cooley vs Adrian Street - Loser Must Wear a Dress 6/25/86 12:25 Tim Horner goes into the heel locker room 7/19/86 1:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XQCBb8LpW4 Roy Lee Welch gets a call from the President 7/19/86 55:45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XQCBb8LpW4 Ron Fuller returns and confronts Kevin Sullivan 9/27/86 6:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfifbxA5ni0 Recap of Singapore Suicide Match 10/11/86 First 30 mins of show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM31CWvwL74 The New Guinea Headhunters vs. Rober Fuller & The Stud Cage Match 1/10/87 37:00 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOYvhhVlhJY Dirty White Boy hanging Tom Prichard is the most famous Continental angle 4/23/88 14:37 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbxBQO0xeDk The Funeral of The Continental Cat 4/1/89 which starts at like 36 mins here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXFaZIbSrvk Dennis Condrey's heel turn 7/29/89 which starts around 46:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLaLIHjW6O8

He didn't just "appear in a picture on instagram" he went outside and took a picture with the group of people who were there to disrupt his employer's wrestling event and then posted the picture on his own instagram account with the hashtag #BCInvasion beside it. He had to know what he was doing was something his bosses wouldn't want him to do which is made even more evident by the fact that there are tons of people in the locker room who are friends with Cody/The Young Bucks that didn't go even go outside to speak to them much less take pictures and post them on social media.

He got the same treatment that Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins got against Braun in the two previous weeks so he's not exactly in bad company. I'm not sure what people expect Matt to do as a singles with Jeff out for 6 months. I don't even know if they should even have him in the ring until Jeff gets back because he's been looking like a guy whose body is just running on fumes lately.

I said the same thing about "overbooking" on twitter recently after the Arik Royal vs Trevor Lee match in CWF Mid-Atlantic. If done right the ref bumps/interference can lead to a much more dramatic ending than just doing endless 2.9 finisher kickouts.

Maybe someone smart realized that if Enzo can manage to piss off all the wrestlers he'd be even better at pissing off the fans and that having someone actually get heel heat was more important than "punishing" him.

I actually liked this match a lot. It WAS kind of weird to have an apuestas match start with a handshake and with wrestling instead of violence but once Chicana started with the kidney shots this really got good. I didn't mind Chicana taking time out to talk shit to the crowd or hitting Fiera with the bottle and getting himself disqualified because it just came off like he was so confident that he had Fiera beat that he didn't care if he lost a fall, he knew he'd win in the end. I get wanting a more definitive finish for an apuestas match, especially if the babyface is gonna come back and win after just getting his ass kicked all match but to me the finish worked because Fiera had tried a few times to counter those kidney punches and Chicana just kept going back to it and finally Fiera figured out the best way to do it and got the win.

The Shield is getting back together for a match on a November PPV, I doubt it's gonna be a full on REUNION that lasts all the way into April or even to the end of January for the Royal Rumble.

If I had a ballot the only person in the Modern category I'd DEFINITELY vote for is Junkyard Dog. I could maybe be swayed to vote Kerry Von Erich but that's it. For the non-wrestlers I feel like Jimmy Hart and Jerry Jarrett both should have gone in a long time ago.

Bumping this again since it's that time of year.

I feel like it's usually fairly obvious watching Memphis when Lawler is the one booking because you have goofy gimmicks and Lawler being like the only guy with an actual program. Jerry Jarrett would get my vote for greatest booker.

TV ratings plummeted post Mania 31 which was when Rollins started his reign of terror and Roman was pointlessly wandering around in midcard feuds with Big Show and Bray Wyatt.

Ratings have been on a downward trend since 2002 and are a dead metric to judge wrestling by in 2017 because THEY'RE NEVER GOING UP AGAIN. The way people view media has changed and nothing is ever going to put that genie back in the bottle. I also have my doubts about the "the audience is old as shit" thing because that is based off cable ratings which obviously is going to skew older now as younger audiences consume media in different ways. You look at the crowds during WWE events and I'm not seeing a super old crowd nor is that who appears to be actually talking about WWE on social media. I'd LOVE to see more old people in the crowds at WWE events because they're generally much better fans than the dorks in Bullet Club shirts but that's not what's actually happening. A better metric would be WWE Network subs which have gone up and not down since Roman's big push started.

I still think people acting like Roman is a "failure" couldn't be more wrong. Step outside of the PWO/wreddit bubble and you'll see the guy has a TON of fans on twitter. I guess you could be a jackass and pretend they "don't count" because a lot of them are younger female fans but when they are buying his merchandise and paying for tickets to see him at WWE shows & autograph signings I'm not sure why they wouldn't. You can't be selling more merchandise than anyone else and be a "failure." It's like there is this weird revisionism that's happened with Cena now where people are pretending he wasn't rejected by the same parts of the audience rejecting Roman now from 2006 until he started to win people over with the U.S. Title Open Challenge gimmick. Roman IS the biggest star in WWE because no one else has the crowd as emotionally invested in their matches as Roman does.

If you're still watching then he's still winning.