cm funk

SMH She might be the worst, most sensationalistic, most shameless talking head on tv....which is saying a lot

They pushed CM Punk "the skinny fatass" as champ for longer than anyone since Hogan. Their shows are very workrate-centric now. Even the "big guys" for a while now have been a different kind of big, and are expected to be able to go. New big guys in recent times include Harper, Rowan, Big E, Titus, Russev....all impressive specimens, but all athletic and able to move. Far cry from the all physique guys of years past. Batista is smaller than he ever was in his first run. Even Brock is smaller. In the last several years guys like Mason Ryan have been few and far between. This isn't a new trend.

Roman has only been training/working since mid '10, exclusively in the WWE system. Ambrose and Rollins have both been wrestling for a decade with the benefit of working the indy scene for years. For where Roman is at now I think he's developed quite nicely. Of course Rollins and Ambrose carry the bulk of the work, but Roman holds up his end in 6 mans and tags just fine. He's perfect in his role in their matches. And compared even to when he started on the main roster in late 2012 to now he's improved exponentially. I'm really glad they held off on breaking up The Shield. It was too soon, and Roman still too untested/green outside of the tag formats. The Shield has a big babyface run in them that can last for the next year, and they way they slowbuilt the break up, teased it, and came back with a more united group where all 3 guys are now being pushed as "the leader" ended up working perfectly. Any one of them can take the reigns (seriously no pun intended) at any time, which is a really cool dynamic for a stable to have. The Shield/Wyatts match on Main Event was the lesser of their 3 6 mans (I think the RAW one where Rollins walked out, forcing Ambrose and Reigns to get on the same page was actually my favorite of the 3, if not the abject best) but it was still really good and fun. It did get a little sloppy in the end stretch, but all their matches have been wild and chaotic, the fast pace and "sloppiness" (mostly just some execution not being perfect) kind of added to it for me. Ambrose was really great in this one. Totally agree on the post match promo being great with all 3 showing unique personality and the crowd just super into it....plus Ambrose selling by flopping on his face after the pinfall and wheezing/clutching his ribs during the promos

It airs in a lot of international markets

This might be the most bizarre wrestling death ever with the timing of it. My first instinct was heart attack or that he was hiding an illness. Hope it wasn't suicide. So eerie. RIP Warrior. It was cool to see him go into the HOF. It's like he was wrapping up loose ends and knew he didn't have much time left. His poor daughters.

I think Ambrose broke a rib

Another outstanding Shield-Wyatts 6 man on Main Event tonight. Ambrose's selling after the finish was fantastic

I'm glad to see a lot of you guys digging the product right now. I've been preaching about how good it's been for a few years now, in terms of young talent being pushed and probably the best level of "workrate" the company has ever had, and free tv matches that blow away what used to be considered high end WWE ppv quality stuff. And I've also been saying how much they understand their audience right now, and troll the "smart marks" at every turn obviously mileage will always vary on booking choices and individual performers. I know a lot of people think Del Rio and Sheamus are stale and hurt by a history of poor booking....and I totally understand that. I like them because I think they're both excellent performers who have really fun matches in spite of spotty booking and character stuff......but I get why people don't dig them. Things @ WM and RAW last night did feel like a changing of the guard, announcing that the future is here, etc....whatever phrases you want to use.....but this has been building on screen for quite a while. It's been gradual, but the last few nights felt like HHH really putting his stamp on the product. They've embraced their audience and self-adjust constantly when things don't quite work the way they want them to. There's been a return to tag wrestling for a while and the best tag division they've had in years. They've brought managers back in a big way. Even all the cool little stuff on the Network and on the website (their website has been great for a while now) is just tailored to smart fans. I've been defending the booking of Bryan constantly, thought it was obvious he was due for a big payoff, thought they were just killing time to get to WM with him....and I thought stuff like Meltzer being convinced that Bryan-Sheamus was the plan, or Alvarez flip flopping constantly on what he thought the plans were was WWE working them hard. I think WWE has been working Meltzer pretty hard in recent years, more often than not he's way off on booking stuff, and Bryan and Dave both try to retcon and cover up the fact that they have no idea what is going to happen next. I might be way off....but I thought from the moment Orton cashed in MITB on Bryan that they were building to Bryan winning at WM......and that's exactly what happened. He was never being buried or minimalized.....he was pushed as hard as anyone.....most tv time of anyone. There were a few mis-steps along the way, but overall there was a very clear direction with him, to me at least So yes, WWE's current product is very good, I'm glad to see people enjoying it, and I hope you guys stick around. It's not going to all be like WMXXX and RAW from last night.....but it's a good time to be a fan. I never thought I'd see people here digging an Evolution reunion in 2014

I liked the Main Event a lot The Batista Bomb into in an RKO on the tables was INSANE......and I never want to see that spot done again because it looked like it killed both Orton and Bryan, and probably wasn't fun for Batista's body as well.....but it was a cool spot, WM moment, etc. I know that a lot guys on this board don't care for Orton much, but I'm a big fan of his work, and I thought he was aces in this match. Batista too.

Ok, I'm reading the thread now Brock was carrying Taker in the match, it was very obvious Taker probably refused to beat Brock, because it would have been ridiculous for him to do so The Streak was a fun gimmick, but it overshadowed every Taker match. Now if Taker has another match it's way more interesting. He didn't need to be 22-0. His record speaks for itself. I'm looking forward to Paul Heyman shouting at the moon and THE BEAST INCARNATE BROCKKKKKK LESSSSNAR destroying everything in sight

I have not tread this thread yet or looked for reactions on the internet yet I thought Brock beating Taker was great. In my mind in the buildup to the match it made so much sense for Brock to win. The streak is boring. Taker is old. And nobody really thought Brock would win, just, because.... So, it was really cool that Brock broke "The Streak". It doesn't diminish Taker at all. He looked very old and rusty in the match, and like I said on this board before, him beating a monster like Brock would have been unbelievable. He can do a retirement match gimmick next year or whatever, and Heyman and Brock can crow to the cows come home for the next year. I don't know what the deal is with Brock's contract, but I'm expecting him to do more dates this year and win the belt. It makes sense. They wouldn't have put him over Taker if that wasn't the plan. Brock-Batista down the road? Brock-Bryan? Sign me up

Good read, but quotes like this Is exactly why I can't stand Keller. He comes across utterly joyless about modern wrestling on his audio shows. It's very much the "this isn't fun for me, it's my job" vibe. And I don't see any great probing or insightful journalism, so it ends up being misery and negativity, which is no fun to listen to.

The royalties thing is interesting. Even if there are unpaid royalties (which I wouldn't doubt, Martha Hart sued them over it and WWE settled) I can't imagine they'd be much given the way WWE has whitewashed him from history. Obviously now with the Network there could be a lot more, but we don't even know how royalties and the network are going to go, and probably won't until someone sues them again

It was

by 91 a lot of people had access to hotlines and newsletters, and WCW crowds were more diehard/hardcore than WWF ones

Dave is a self-employed/self-made guy so in his mind he's always working. The amount of time he spends watching wrestling/MMA, taking/making phone calls, writing, THINKING about that stuff.....120 hours a week isn't a stretch. Even when he's going to the gym or riding his bike or whatever you know he's thinking bout wrestling and/or MMA. It's his entire life. Even when he talks about his son on the radio shows, it's always in the context of wrestling. He took his son trick or treating and noticed kids with wrestling costumes. He goes to his kid's school for something and notices a kid in a wrestling shirt. He takes his son to baseball practice and asks the other kids questions about wrestling. His son isn't a big wrestling fan (and if my dad was such a huge wrestling fan I doubt I would be either). He's just 24/7 obsessed with it. Which is why he's the best wrestling journalist on the planet and I doubt anyone will ever be as good. I also agree that he seems like the kind of guy who can function on minimal sleep. An old high school teacher of mine, one of the smartest guys I've ever met, slept 2-3 hours a night, and was up and active before the sun came up. I could never do that, but some people can. Vince McMahon is another guy, who's legendary for taking brief powernaps, and driving his direct employees crazy with the hours he keeps

Yeah, that Bryan/HBK segment was great and I loved that HBK went into dick mode and Bryan got over on him (two things that never happen), but the HIAC match the night before was ruined by all the HHH/HBK nonsense HBK will obviously be at WM in some capacity. Use him at the HOF, the pre/post shows on the network, all the fan fest stuff, you can even use him on RAW next week in the final buildup to HHH-Bryan and mix him up with Orton (who he has a bit of history with) and Batista too, but making him the ref of the HHH-Bryan match would be really dumb. Every time he's the special ref he ends up becoming the focus of the match, and the focus of the match should be on Bryan Heck, I wouldn't even mind if he was named special ref for the triple threat, just as long as he isn't reffing the singles match

I just listened to the "Sin Limite" show w/ Tom Lawlor. It was awesome, had no idea he was such a big wrestling fan. He actually follows NJPW and watches the IPPVs, and subscribes to the WWE Network! He was a pretty funny cat too. Would be great if he became a regular guest on their audio shows

I think that's how they'll work the match. I don't know if it will be "good" necessarily, both guys are great performers so it should be a good match, but I wasn't very high on Taker's faux-MMA stuff a decade ago, so who knows I wouldn't be surprised at all if they trot out HBK to be the ref for the Bryan-HHH match, but I'd hate that. I don't like Michaels as a guest ref at all. It's way overdone. It works for the story/angle, but it would make the finish so predictable IMO. HBK as the ref for the Taker-HHH match at 28 completely ruined it for me, and I'm actually an HBK fan, I just hate the way they use him. Why does every single angle he's in have to involve HHH?

I've really enjoyed Christian's latest run in ring. He's one of those guys who despite being slight physically and looking overmatched on sight against all the big guys, through his smarts and his movement and his willingness to try interesting and new things, never seems overmatched, and he always adjusts accordingly to his opponents. And part of what makes Christian so good is that he takes big bumps and does innovative spots mixed in with his rock solid basics and psychology, but if concussions are an ongoing issue you can't keep doing that stuff. Since he's been back there's been a number of "oh shit that had to hurt" moments in his matches It would suck if he had to miss WM, but he just can't seem to avoid injury, and if concussions are becoming a problem maybe he should learn from his buddy Edge and step away before things get worse. Edge has told the story multiple times about how he was really screwed up with his neck going into his last match at WM but didn't want to miss the show and the next day when they did the MRI they told him "you can't wrestle ever again, we're not clearing you". Which is crazy. I don't know if he's covering WWE's ass on it or if he was downplaying how bad he was hurting to the company before the match, but he makes it sound like he shouldn't have been wrestling at that show. He's also talked about how he had numbness in his arms and hands for years, and he started doing his spear so loose because when he did it full speed he'd lose feeling in his arms. That's scary stuff.

That's because the crowd was in awe of the spectacle SummerSlam '94 Undertaker vs Underfaker style Seriously though, this stuck out to me too. I thought the physical contact was a bit of a misfire for that build. Seems kinda unnecessary - I'd prefer if they'd kept them apart physically right up until Brock charges through the druids to start the match at 'Mania or something. I wonder if part of the lackluster live reaction has to do with many in the crowd just kinda intrinsically knowing that it wasn't going to be any type of wild pull apart brawl. I know watching it I just assumed it would be a couple punches and then stare down, exactly like it was, which is hard to get fired up for. Also, for me at least, there's the issue here of Taker's age/body at this point. He looks old, lacking muscle mass, doesn't look strong Brock meanwhile, in his buildup this year, has manhandled and destroyed Big Show and Mark Henry. Completely annihilated Henry twice, tossing him around like he was nothing I guess what I'm saying is I have a hard time buying Taker at this stage of his career beating Brock Lesnar. But of course he will, and that hurts it for me. I think we're reaching diminishing returns with Undertaker at this point. Two epic matches with HBK. Two "epic" matches with HHH (the first one was IMO, the second was a wankfest). CM Punk last year. Now Brock. When does it end? He clearly isn't long for the ring, they need to get on with the Cena WM match while they still can.

There's two ways I've heard - The casket has a fake bottom. He's underneath the "empty casket" as it's rolled to the ring. It's shown as empty and then closed and he gets into position inside it. I imagine there's a pretty elaborate spring action and lock on the inside and something he can use to grip and pull himself into the proper position or - He's under the ring (why it's always rolled directly sideways against the ring) and enters the casket from there I've heard both over the years and they've probably used both methods at different times. I'd guess due to his age/condition that they used the first method here, but they have different tricks they use to get guys under the ring in the middle of a show too

Rumble is down more than 100,000 buys from last year, but that show had The Rock challenging Punk for the WWE title. It's right about what the Rumble has typically done over the last 5 years Elimination Chamber is right about where it's been. Down a bit from last year, up from 2012, but right at the average for the show. And last year's Chamber show had the Rock-Punk rematch plus two chamber matches, so this should be considered a good # for that show

Worldwide had noticeable, bad crowd sweetening for a while in the 90's Heck, even on the live show Nitro they would pipe in Goldberg chants and do other odd things with the crowd noise in the mid 00's when WWE business was down and they had to tarp the arenas for SD tapings because they'd be like half full the fake crowd noise was really noticeable. It would be hilarious when there'd be a huge canned pop for a guy's entrance and you can see the crowd and nobody is popping for the guy

They've also been with TNT since 1988. It's hard to imagine them leaving TNT, or TNT letting them go, but you never know. I have to assume if they did move to a different network that Ernie, Kenny and Charles would migrate. Those guys are doing studio coverage for the NCAAs, it's not like TNT owns them. So while I can't see the thursday night TNT games changing, it wouldn't be for that reason