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Also Nikki Bella is now the Executive Producer of Total Bellas, so an in ring proposal from John would be an ideal MUST SEE EPISODE of that show.

Apparently there's noise on Twitter about people canceling the Network due to the Trump affiliation, but I have a feeling that's like when #CancelWWENetwork trended after Roman won the Rumble and it ended up being their biggest signup day ever.

He hasn't exactly been the most popular guy, even places you'd think would be welcoming like Harley Davidson plants are canceling planned appearances due to fears of mass protests. Last thing WWE wants is any negativity on their big weekend. The most political they'll get is anything involving Linda which can be handwaved by just saying they are happy for the family.

Mattel would get mad at them.

It's not about making the best matches anymore, hasn't been for a while. It's all about making the best Wrestlemania Moments they can put in video packages and do Network specials from.

Kind of random but not since he's returning for this set of tapings, but man is Kassius Ohno the stupidest fucking name in history. I get he first went there when they were on a "everyone gets a stupid name" kick, but why keep it on him in the age of NXT: Indy Superfed?

I wonder if they'll name someone else as GM or just forget it exists.

There was a time around 1999 or so where they let Jimmy Hart book Saturday Night more or less in it's own universe which was pretty good.

The only thing about WWECW is that they were pushing You Know Who right up to the week of everything hitting the fan, and that might make them reluctant to put that up.

Purazzo appeared on NXT, Impact, and ROH within weeks of each other, which is kind of amazing when you think about it.

I could see them fleshing out the PTWs and Saturday Nights, and I believe they just started doing the late era Worldwides right before 24/7 was shut down. Still don't know why they can't do a mass dump of the AWA/WCCW/Florida stuff that was already digitized.

The only thing that really changed is that Vince is more willing to give smaller guys more than just a courtesy run with the belt. Rey only won because it was capping off the Eddie Guerrero Death Exploitation Bonanza, and Vince couldn't wait to have all the bigger guys squash him. Now it doesn't seem like a major issue having smaller guys actually carry the ball for a bit.

Not exactly an answer to your question but someone asked Dave if we'd ever see Florida footage on the network and his reply was pretty much that they don't seem to think it's worth the time and money needed to make them network worthy. Which made me the saddest of pandas.

Gallows calling people NERDS! Is never not funny to me.

I wonder if it's Shane feeling that he needs to have a Mania match to justify sticking around, or does Vince really think a Shane match would be a big draw?

True, but again on WWE TV where 95% of their fans get storyline info from, you have your supposed top babyface acting like a dick and your top heel completely justified in his behavior. So either Cena wins and validates his opinion that AJ is a zero, or AJ wins and comes off as a valiant babyface overcoming the odds of the oppressive heel Cena and his sort of brother-in-law GM plotting against him. It's a weird dynamic to have where two characters seem to be written as the complete opposite of how they're supposed to be pushed as.

I'd like to see Styles win. It kind of sucks that he basically carries Smackdown since day one of the brand split, only to have the Cena Express roll in just in time for the march to Mania and get all the glory. It's another thing that makes this storyline so weird since AJ is basically 100% correct in his heel promos. It's also the kind of shit that encourages the "you deserve it" chants that a lot of people here hate when companies like WWE kick guys to the curb who carried the ball for them just to reward their security blanket guys.

Not to say that he doesn't legitimately support the cause, but above all else John Cena is a #brand robot and his significant other is a main cast member on a E! show with a high female audience.

Maybe he mentioned his name on the Today show, but what we saw on Smackdown was John Cena not even acknowledging the name of his opponent. Doing that reminded me of the old wrestling trope of build up your opponent so when you beat him it doesn't come off like you just beat some unimpressive geek. Actually they way they presented it made Cena look like a dick so it didn't really do anyone any favors.

It always appeared that early on WWE seemed enamored with him getting 50/50 reactions since both sides were so adamant. Looking back, it was better than the "we'll make you love him" approach they took with Roman,

It made for a really good angle and back and forth promo on SD, but man was Cena referring to AJ as a "guy from Atlanta he's fighting at the Rumble" a burial to non-fans and/or casual fans. It was a noticeable flat note on a show that has been running circles around Raw's stories for months. Either they telegraph an AJ win, or Cena beats a guy he considered such a geek he couldn't be bothered to inform the hosts of the show he guested on what the guy's name is.

To be fair, people (in the business normally) have been saying Dave's ruining the business) since like the second day he had a newsletter.

The 6:05 NWA Saturday Night show is a treasure trove of this. You can pick nearly any episode on the Network and likely find several.

It's more likely they were pulled just to spend the weekend backstage at a WWE show to learn the proper way to genuflect to your elders and whatnot.

Strowman for me, and not in that "ironically liking a big man" style that seems so pervasive these days. I didn't think he was anything more than Vince's big stiff flavor of the month until a few weeks ago. They were doing a backstage promo between him and Foley and Mick was asking him why he was terrorizing people when he told him Sami wasn't there. Braun's deadpan response of "I can multitask" won me over. Just the way he said it made me think "ok, this guy gets it" in terms of not being just another personality free musclehead.