Loss

Copying what I put in the Heyman to manage Rousey thread: That's at least the idea for the Mania match, but I don't know that it's the idea beyond that. It makes sense if you accept these truths: (1) They care more about television rights and stock prices than house show attendance and network subscriptions since the former are primary sources of revenue. (2) Because of this, their customers are on Wall Street now, not in their live crowds. In fact, we aren't the target audience, we're the product, presented to shareholders in sheer numbers -- number of viewers, number of social media followers, number of countries where they have fans, etc. They don't want the bottom to fall out, but we aren't the end goal anymore. We're mostly something they can brag about to the people they really care about. (3) They have decided that they want their public face to no longer be a man in his 70s, but a working mom. (4) As the face and voice of the company (the Chief Brand Officer), they want to put Stephanie's name out there more and make her more visible, because they think that is good for the image of the company and will make WWE more visible. (5) They think it is more important to the company's future to get Stephanie over with the general public and their shareholders than it is to generate interest in a hot new star or get their wrestling fanbase excited about something. Are all of those things true? I don't know 100%, but I suspect they are.

That's at least the idea for the Mania match, but I don't know that it's the idea beyond that. It makes sense if you accept these truths: (1) They care more about television rights and stock prices than house show attendance and network subscriptions since the former are primary sources of revenue. (2) Because of this, their customers are on Wall Street now, not in their live crowds. In fact, we aren't the target audience, we're the product, presented to shareholders in sheer numbers -- number of viewers, number of social media followers, number of countries where they have fans, etc. They don't want the bottom to fall out, but we aren't the end goal anymore. We're mostly something they can brag about to the people they really care about. (3) They have decided that they want their public face to no longer be a man in his 70s, but a working mom. (4) As the face and voice of the company (the Chief Brand Officer), they want to put Stephanie's name out there more and make her more visible, because they think that is good for the image of the company and will make WWE more visible. (5) They think it is more important to the company's future to get Stephanie over with the general public and their shareholders than it is to generate interest in a hot new star or get their wrestling fanbase excited about something. Are all of those things true? I don't know 100%, but I suspect they are.

Dolph regressed, plus the NXT guys that started getting called up were better (and more importantly, fresher) than he was.

I like KO and Zayn, more so Zayn that KO. I've wanted to see Zayn more featured for a long time, so I guess I'm forgiving considering that he's in such a good spot now. KO is stale and needs some type of change or some time away or something. They're going to have to make a change to Smackdown in the coming months because of DB's contract, so this direction isn't going to last. Plus, how long does Shane plan on sticking around in this role? So I get the criticisms and agree with them generally. But I can also point to Styles and Zayn and the Usos and Rusev and to an extent New Day as positives.

Smackdown isn't the worst show I've ever seen or anything close, but there's no potential end game for Bryan-Shane that they can actually pull off, so I'm expecting this dissension stuff to just go on and on and on and on until they get bored with it.

If you have been to Lords of Pain, it's similar. Just second-hand news sourced from the same old places, but a gateway site for a lot of newer fans.

Probably 20 years or so. Late 90s for sure.

The main thing that bugged me about Booker T was that he seemed to think everyone should avoid all matches at all costs if there was even the slightest hint of adversity. Such a coward.

Styles vs Zayn would be a better and fresher match, and they should have just gone for it.

What if they used Zelina Vega as her mouthpiece and agent? They could build to a match eventually going that route too, and it would definitely be a way to elevate Vega right away coming in.

I used to think that. Now I wish they'd make him that even more. He's never funny or interesting or really anything anymore.

Vicki can't cut serious promos. She's hateable because of her shrieking and I love her, but she's not a Paul Heyman-style talker without being Paul Heyman himself.

I think there might have been issues with Madusa and Aja working together if I remember right. Not sure if it was based on past history between them or not.

Heyman is so stale next to Brock that I don't think this is a good idea. As a creative advocate for her to talk them out of doing something stupid, that's a different story. This is where wrestling suffers for Vince not liking managers. A fresh face that's younger and can cut great promos would be a better fit. Part of me wonders if they should repackage Graves and put him in that role, just thinking outside the box. Arn Anderson would also be awesome if they wouldn't script him.

Trish vs Lita actually wasn't the first women's main event of RAW, but it's the one that they've decided is instead of Stephanie vs Lita in 2000 for whatever reason.

That's what Booker T gets for insulting the incomparable Jason Jordan so much.

It seems like there are a lot of great matches that borrow elements of shoot style that don't get their due because they aren't pure enough stylistically. I don't think that's what's happening with GOTNW, but I do see that sometimes with complaints of UWFI or BattlARTS having too much pro-style influence, for example. There's nothing wrong with doing cafeteria-style pro wrestling if it works.

Yes. It's the lag time between then and the time he hits it, which admittedly, Rey tries to make as short as possible.

I know someone like Dave would disagree, but I personally think Ronda is only a bigger name than Cena if you accept the premise that in a world of all things, pay-per-view matters most of all.

Sami Zayn has upstaged him as a heel in a way that I think he's becoming the star of the team. I just can't figure out if that's intentional or not. KO probably needs a babyface turn, which shouldn't be too hard. He's an every-man, he loves his family, he's quick-witted, and he doesn't seem like someone who should have succeeded.

I think, and I'm sure that this will flip many times, that for now they are going with the idea that their top star is a woman so they have to get the women over as their top stars instead of the men for the first time in the history of the company. So I'd expect lots of women to get chances. It'll be interesting to track, whether I'm right or wrong.

Is he, though? He might be. I don't want to get in too deep an argument about this. I was just pointing out where the criticism comes from. It gets singled out because there is no awkward positioning required that wrestlers don't normally go to for the pedigree, the AA, RKO, superkick, etc. Those moves and their setup I do think have other flaws, but not that particular one. Reigns used to have a similar thing when he would do that thing from outside the ring while the guy was in a similar position to the 619, but he's mostly dropped that at this point. So no, it's not unique to Rey. And yes, it's probably less offensive than requiring your opponents to do back body drops and press slam you off the top rope. It does nothing to really subtract from Rey's greatness.

It's been discussed in great length before, including during the GWE poll. I finally came to term with it like I said, but for the longest time, it really annoyed me. Similar to the setup for the stinkface or broncobuster. Not a natural position in which wrestlers sell. It's something they only do in matches against Rikishi, or Rey in this case. I don't like it, but it's not enough to dismiss him as a worker in the least.

It's not any weirder a name than Big E. Is he a really huge letter of the alphabet?

Why should we believe any of this, Dave has been flat out wrong about WWE's plans for a while now. Just at the Rumble, he said Bobby Roode's opponent would be a HUGE surprise. It was Mojo. Then he stated the surprise was moved to the Rumble. Then he said it was Dolph. He made no mentions of Rey, as well. That may be the plan, or it may be fake info that Dave is being leaked. We'll have to wait and see. I just don't think Dave has any good sources inside the WWE right now. The plan was Adam Cole until late in the day, and that's what he was referring to. Then clarity prevailed as they realized that Cole doing a job in an 8:00 match wasn't a smart idea, either for him or for NXT, and they decided they'd rather offer a disappointing surprise.