sek69

Otis is an actual cartoon come to life, it's amazing.

Well that went better than expected. I guess now Charlotte gets put in the match as the "replacement".

I would assume it's pretty much a given Rusev's leaving when his deal is up, if not for AEW for anywhere else but WWE at this point. He tries to be upbeat on social media but you can see his frustration leaking through there as well. The cynical side of me thinks Vince is still mad his attempt to break him and Lana up didn't work (plus they had the nerve to get married IRL when they were split on TV).

The Shield is a prime example of what I was talking about. It was always designed as a vehicle to get Roman (and Seth to a lesser degree) over as singles stars. One could argue the intial breakup was done too soon in terms of what more could have been done with them as a unit, but again Vince just saw a tag team as a means to an end.

So among other things, one of WWE's rumored responses to AEW is to put more focus on the tag team divison since AEW made it clear that it will be one of their main points of emphasis. Like a lot of Vince/WWE ideas, it's one of those things that sound good on paper but will fizzle out at best, or at worst turn into some monstrosity no one wanted for one simple reason: Vince has never been a fan of tag teams. I can hear everyone now slamming their keys "what about the 80s when the Bulldogs/Harts/Islanders/Demos/ et al were all around?", and yes, that would absolutely be the high water point for tag teams in the WWF/E. It also was the time the company was running multiple touring circuits and needed bodies to fill all those cards. Not to mention they had an excess of riches with a lot of good tag teams happening to all be in the same time and place under their umbrella. Even then, it was never the focus of any show. The tag titles didn't even get showcased on the biggest show of that era (WM 3), with the Harts and Bulldogs getting put in a six man tag mainly as a blowoff to the Danny Davis: Heel Ref angle. Even in the 2000s when they had the Dudleys/Hardys/E&C it was less tag team wrestling than guys having increasingly more death defying plunder matches. What seems to be the biggest roadblock IMO is Vince's determination that tag teams only exist to break up. A lot of us old farts can recall the days when being a "tag team specialist" was a thing. Yeah, you might see Hawk or Ricky Morton get a singles match once in a while, but most tag teams stayed tag teams unless there was a legit falling out or someone quit/got fired. You had the Rock n Rolls, the Midnights, the Fantastics, Road Warriors, and many others who not only stayed together but managed to get over in different areas. Then you had guys like the Barbarian who wasn't lighting the world on fire as a single, but ended up with a solid career as a tag team guy first with with the Warlord and then with Meng (we don't talk about that stint where he was a bootleg Headshrinker). Tag teams will never get to that level in a place where Vince gets final say because the moment a team gets hot, he wants to break them up so he can push the "Shawn" of the team as a single. More often than not that ends up being the guy who checks Vince's boxes instead of the guy who has the tools to be better suited for the push and they end up submarining a tag team act to make too low quality single ones. For fuck's sake he tried to make Bobby Roode a singles star before realizing something even TNA at their TNA-est figured out, he's better in tags. I hope to be proven wrong and we're ushered into a new era where tag teams get their due and main event shows like it's JCP in the 80s, but Vince is like the scorpion in that fable. You knew what he was, why be surprised when he stings you?

TBF I don't think anyone's jealous here. You do seem to have a habit of frequently mentioning how connected you are, and some folks might be tired of hearing it. It keeps becoming a point of discussion because you keep inserting it into conversations and are continually surprised when people have the same response to it.

That just reminded me that since "Steph takes a bump every year at Mania to prove she shows ass sometimes" is a thing now, this probably is setting up this year's spot.

They are teasing a Stephanie-Becky segment for Raw. Hopefully it's to complete the Stone Cold transformation so Becky can lay her out instead of a heat-killing browbeating.

I wonder what would happen if she messed up with someone like Ronda or Shayna and got whooped over it. It certainly would be something to watch everyone twist themselves to find the politically proper take.

Can't wait for the roster to flood social media with cries of "mean people on the internet are bullying Nia"....after all, that's the standard now after the Brie Bella thing right?

Konnan worked a pace in that match that would cause Kevin Nash to call him lazy. He took a whip to the corner the same speed you'd expect someone 70 years old and broken down to do.

Also watching the Konnan match now and he so clearly hates the getup he's wearing. The ref has to help him with the helmet and his face is just screaming "get this bullshit off me" the whole time.

I was expecting the long tights to be the most jarring part, but not having the classic theme music threw me for a loop.

Lucha handles chops the correct way IMO. It's used there more as a measure of machismo than a move that could win a match, which is perfect since like SomethingSavage said they hurt like hell but aren't impressive strikes.

I've always been of the belief that Vince was mad because it was one of the few times a wrestler got one over on him, and a non main eventer to boot!

I know no one likes seeing Shane do matches, but I really liked the whole storyline with him and Miz. It was really undersold how Shane wanted nothing to do with Miz, until he poured his heart out about only wanting his dad to be proud of him. Then Miz showed he was for real by throwing himself on Shane's carcass after the Bar destroyed them on Smackdown, and of course anything that gives us more MIZ DAD on TV is tops in my book. WWE rightly gets a lot of shit for their angles, it's only fair they should get props for a good one. Kinda...once he went to WWE sponsored rehab, I figured that this would be the next step if he stayed clean. His only crimes were demanding to get paid to drop a title after his deal expired. WWE canon makes it sound like he was holding Vince at gunpoint before the show. I'm glad to see it for somewhat selfish reasons, as he was appearing in AAA as a main eventer which was....not good...even by their extremely loose standards of good. Plus Mexico is probably not the best place for someone to be when they are newly out of rehab.

The thing about Walter is that it started to become a gimmick where guys would get killed by chops and wear the marks as a badge of pride. It''s one thing if it's someone fair skinned who gets red marks easily, he's clearly hitting these guys with chops as hard as he can. Which, if you've got the testicular fortitiude to take one, great I suppose. It does seem to miss the point of it all supposed to only *look* like things hurt though.

Plus since they have six man titles, at least there's a reason for so many trios. Maybe the next time the New Japan guys come in they'll team up LIJ with Rush since he's the OG of the group.

I wonder if WWE will have the self awareness to ponder why so many people are getting sick of their creative direction and asking for their release.

I'm surprised Lana didn't tear an ACL walking around taking bumps with a boot on one leg and her ridiculous six inch heel on the other. Also Bryan is the greatest pro ever not corpsing when the crowd was chanting for Daisy the cow.

I saw someone on Twitter mention that Charlotte with that dark lipstick looks like Tim Curry, and now I can't unsee it.

If you told me Bryan legit made that himself I'd believe it.

It was designed as a pass the torch moment with Benoit/Eddy hugging in the confetti capping off the 20th anniversary of Mania, and was pushed as such until....well.

Wow, WWE just released a statement confirming his departure. For a company usually hesitant to talk about people's contract status (especially in the face of a potential competitor looming) to drop a statement like this is pretty interesting.

One could argue that it would be better for Renee if he went off in a wooded cabin Unabomber style than going to AEW.