cm funk

People do it with legit sports all the time. A game might be termed an "instant classic" or a "great game" or whatever, or people will talk about how sloppy the play was with turnovers and errors and bad playcalling/coaching, mental mistakes etc. etc. A low scoring baseball game could be considered an exciting pitchers duel with great defensive, or two inept offenses shitting the bed in a boring display. Team sports as a spectator event always get judged subjectively like that.

He was the most vocal. Jericho criticized, but he's not on the payroll right now and it was way tamer than Foley's crazy rants and destruction of his television. Austin criticized some of the booking....but in a much saner more measured way that was more about putting Bryan over, plus he's not beholden to WWE. Foley was collecting a paycheck and expected to be a "brand ambassador". Even after that they kept using Foley on the pre/post roundtables and public appearances, so I'm guessing whatever anger they have towards him right now is more due to the complaining about his royalties and not signing his new Legends deal. Add to that the other stuff and HHH (who's never been high on Foley) was probably like, "fuck this guy", and I wouldn't blame him.

I actually think Sting became a very good talker in TNA. He's basically cooked in the ring, but when I was still watching TNA I thought he was a good promo in the Main Event Mafia, with Hogan and Bischoff and with the "Joker Sting" character. I know that gets knocked by a lot of people, but I thought it was great. In WWE the only real dream matches I'd want to see are with Undertaker and Shawn Michaels, neither of which is likely to happen. Two contemporary 90's counterparts who he never really crossed paths with. If he was used to put a young guy over, I'd go with Bray Wyatt. Bryan-Sting isn't a natural matchup to me. Cena-Sting works as Cena was always compared to Sting when he was young, but I don't think Sting can go at that level. HOF and contributing to the Network are no brainers. I wouldn't be opposed to him being on TV in an authority type role as has been rumoured, but I wonder how much shelf life it would have.

Could have made a deal with Punk. He, coming back the night after Mania and ruining things for Bryan saying that Bryan had stolen his adoration and his fans and his movement, etc. It would have worked. If a deal with Punk was realistic he'd already be back and he would have been at WM. WWE doesn't really have control over that. They could bring back Jericho and use him to put Bryan over.....but as with Punk, that's not a realistic option. If those guys wanted to be back they would be.

I highly doubt Sid was being paid his "going rate". ECW was a stopover between WWF and WCW for him, and he wasn't even wrestling. All of these guys who passed through the company......Foley, Austin etc. have talked about how they made no money at all working for ECW, but it was a place to go and keep your profile up in between WCW/WWF. Where Heyman got hurt with contracts was the guys he had to give big guaranteed deals that he really couldn't afford just to keep them from going to WCW or WWF. The talent raids were a double edged sword where he'd either lose key talent, or give them way too much to keep them around. No promotion has ever survived when it's being poached the way ECW was. Heyman just did a 2 part interview with Steve Austin which I highly recommend if you're interested in this topic. I always take everything wrestlers/promoters say with a grain of salt, and we all know Heyman's "used car salesman" rep......but he makes a fairly strong argument for his side of the death of ECW, and how the company could have been saved if a few things had broken the right way.

Just think.....it could have been Del Rio! When I look at the landscape and where guys are positioned in the company right now......Kane is a perfectly fine choice. The fresh, over, well booked heels are guys who deserve a better lot than jobbing to Bryan in their first main event match. Under the assumption that Bryan is winning clean and strong.....why would you waste a Cesaro or Barrett or Wyatt in that spot? It makes no sense.

Agreed I guess I don't understand what people want sometimes. The criticism is always "not enough longterm booking"......Bryan-Kane is about the longest running thing they have, which has never had a proper PPV blowoff to it. They've probably did the match a bit too often on tv this year, but this will be the blowoff to a years long story and a strong win for Bryan. Orton could be the first challenger since he's due a rematch and didn't get pinned or tapped at WM, but everyone complaining about Kane would be complaining just as much about Orton, and honestly, they'd be right. They did that match on like 4 straight PPVs and pissed everyone off with it, they've ran it as the main event on RAW a half dozen times......they're always good matches, but I think that's even weaker and less interesting than a Bryan-Kane gimmick match. And Evolution vs. The Shield is WAY more interesting than yet another Bryan-Orton match If it's not Orton and it's not Kane, and Evolution-Shield is the biggest match on the show, who's the challenger? Too early for Cesaro. Bray and Cena would be potential challengers.....but too early for that when they're having only their second match on this show, which I expect Bray to win. Either is a strong challenger for Bryan, and we could potentially see a triple threat with them at some point.....but this isn't the right time for that. Bryan needs a strong win in his first title defense. So who else could it be? Big Show who just got manhandled by Cesaro at WM? Mark Henry who's a glorified jobber now? Sheamus? None of the up and coming midcarders are ready for that spot, plus whoever it is is taking the loss, so why would you put a Cesaro or Barrett in that spot when you're trying to build them momentum? I also really liked the angle on RAW. It felt special because you rarely see the tombstone used anymore.....and especially not three times on the table and the ringsteps and the floor.

I like the two belts. It's like the Triple Crown which I always thought was the coolest because it was THREE BELTS or a boxer with a bunch of unified world titles The J-Crown was a little ridiculous

I wonder how much influence the WWE Net and it pissing off the cable companies had on this deal coming to fruition?

Agreed, it would be a big loss. She's great and has been such a positive addition to their product with her backstage interviews and "hosting". Best backstage personality they've had in forever. Plus, she loves wrestling! She's a legitimate student and fan of the sport. I imagine this is a dream job for her, so I hope the lure of ESPN and greater exposure doesn't tempt her. WWE can certainly match ESPN salary wise.

It will be a huge quarter for revenue for sure, but due to the costs of running the Network, it will be unlikely to be a profitable one. Well, it'll be interesting to see what the actual costs of running it end up being. All the startup investments they made were already absorbed in previous quarters. So it's going to be additional staff expenses, MLBAM, advertising and misc. costs. I have no idea what that will end up being on paper.

Well, between the Network, domestic WM buys + international PPV buys this is going to be a huge quarter for WWE. I'm not surprised the traditional PPV did so well, streaming services are still uncharted waters for a lot of consumers. I also think the Network #'s will look pretty damn good once the international (especially UK, Canada, AUS) rolls out. Retention of that 2/3 of a million that subscribed is key now, of course.

The Kane intimidating Brie thing was late 2013, I think early in Bryan's feud with the Wyatts

Every time Bryan is sent to the hospital (happened a few times) Brie is there shown helping load him into the ambulance and getting in it to ride with him. The announcers have mentioned their relationship too many times to count. It's been used in promos. There was one RAW where Bryan got beat down bad and Kane intimidated Brie and sent her out for a match immediately afterward, with Brie crying and distracted and she gets easily beat, and then she goes straight to back to check on Bryan. There's been other backstage stuff where their relationship comes up, I'll struggle to come up with specific examples because it's been rather inconsequential stuff, but it's definitely acknowledged.

It's been played up quite a bit. She's not his valet or anything, but it's been acknowledged on tv quite a bit and Brie has been in angles related to their real life relationship. I for one am glad they keep them separate for the most part....we don't need every Bryan angle involving Brie Bella or backstage segments of Bryan and Brie in their private lockerroom

This. Why the fuck would John Cena want to help The Shield?!!? He doesn't even have any real beef with Evolution. Plus is was at the tail end of match where half the roster, heels and faces, teamed up against The Shield. There's no love lost between The Shield and anyone. The ONLY guy who it would have made sense to have run in was Bryan, to return the favor from last week, but Bryan wasn't there. Now, when Bryan is being viciously beat down and Cena doesn't try to make the save, that doesn't make "logical" sense.....but it makes perfect sense in that they don't want Cena overshadowing Bryan or Bryan being looked at like "Cena's lil buddy" so I get why they don't do it

It's also strange timing wise that right after going back on Bret's contract he'd turn around and offer a deal like that to Warrior I don't see Warrior being a good fit on that roster at all. There's some stuff that would have been interesting (Taker, Kane, Mankind, Vader, The Rock) but he wouldn't be willing to do many jobs, so it's hard to use him to elevate newer talent. The older guys who were successful in the attitude era were the ones who adapted their character to the times, and I don't see Warrior changing his gimmick much. He was big on that Warrior Nation stuff at the time, the best idea I can think of is to have him lead a Warrior Nation stable that could feud with the other groups of the time (NOD, DX, Corporation, Ministry)

I thought this was another good RAW with lots of good wrestling and storyline progression, but the crowd really hurt it. This was a dead and disinterested crowd for most of the actual wrestling. They popped for some stuff, got kinda hot in brief bursts, but there wasn't any sort of sustained heat. Crowds like that distract me and make it hard for me to really dig a show. It's rare that RAW doesn't play to a hot crowd these days, so it's even more noticeable I've said this before, but a lot of RAWs in the south seem to have shitty crowds. I'd rather they not run RAW in that region at this point, it hurts the TV product

I think you read it wrong. It's $750,000 base + royalties + 35% on merch

WWE gets on random kicks where they treat the rope like it's important and it features prominently in matches. Most of the time it's completely ignored. I always liked it as a gimmick/rule. I'm guessing most of the guys don't like it. Some guys use it now, some guys don't, and the ref never cares either way

Also, I agree with StevenJRogers, the whole "who is and isn't on what" game is pointless. I've seen baseball threads derailed by it and it never ends well. I just assume anyone who says, "I'm clean, I never used that stuff" is lying, always. And I don't care. I don't know what Cena is or isn't on now, I find it nearly impossible to believe he hasn't used in the past, but I honestly don't care. I don't think taking steroids or HGH or weight cutters or anything like that is immoral, nor should it be illegal.

It's been a success IMO. Athletes will always use drugs. They'll always find ways to beat the system. And especially in wrestling which is largely cosmetic and the physicality and grind of the schedule, the injuries, etc. etc. There's been some questionable physiques, and obvious stuff like Rock being jacked to the gills. For the overall health of their performers it's no doubt been a positive, and hopefully we see that long term with less guys dropping dead in the 40's and 50's. Top to bottom on the roster guys are leaner and more natural looking. Also, you have to also give credit to the IMPACT testing and a better approach to medical testing/physicals as things that are good for the talent and good for the company.

Then they re-aped the CM Punk angle with AJ Styles and the contract issue story. This is probably the funniest one to me. Meltzer kept saying, "they think WWE dropped the ball on the Punk story and they want to do a better version of it" and then they completely dropped the ball on it, worse than WWE. There was also Dixie Carter becoming Stephanie McMahon literally just as Steph was put back into a tv role as an evil boss. TNA's front office right now is filled with bitter ex-WWE guys who think they're smarter than they actually are, and their "ideas" are an attempt to one up the WWE. Even if any of this shit was any good, you're already looked at as a joke in comparison to WWE, why make it worse? I'm never going to watch this episode of Impact because I simply don't care. It's a dead end depressing promotion and a waste of my time. I've given them about 50 2nd chances over the years.....I'm just completely apathetic now. I think Meltzer said it best on the last audio show he did with Bryan. Paraphrased......"It's insanely stupid....but it doesn't even matter. The belt is worthless, nobody cares who the champ is, and nobody on the roster makes the least bit of difference" The one thing EY does have going for him is that outdoor show he has.....which of course to my knowledge TNA completely dropped the ball on promoting and using him well when the show first hit the air and got good reviews. Maybe this is a publicity stunt because they just realized he has crossover potential? I'd drive myself crazy trying to figure out why TNA does what they do

I think it depends. God forbid anyone on the active roster dies again...but if it was someone on the Owen or Eddy level in terms of respect and performance...how could they not do another tribute show with that sort of format? What if John Cena or Undertaker died suddenly the day before a RAW? Maybe they'd "cancel" RAW like they did with Benoit and run video packages and old matches with "confessionals" peppered in, but they would absolutely have to devote the full 3 hours to them When Savage died, the next RAW was full of guys doing tributes to him, but overall it was a "normal" RAW. I expect it to be the same way with Warrior, but it's a little more personal with them JUST mending fences and putting him in the HOF

I don't think that's what they'd do. They've done that in the past with guys like Owen and Eddie who were active on the roster and literally died the previous day. I love Warrior and his passing was tragic and strange, but there isn't a lockerroom full of guys who just lost one of their best friends here. Most of them just met Warrior for the first time. I think a fitting tribute would to be have Vince McMahon open the show, bring the boys up on the stage, give him a heartfelt goodbye. And then during the show show highlights of his great moments. If they had some guys do a lame "Warrior tribute match" I'd puke, and so would Warrior. Have Cena shake the ropes and point to the sky and pin a guy with the running splash, but that's about it