sek69

I was thinking that, or at least AJ/Cena as the top Smackdown feud for the summer.

Also I seem to recall someone (one of his doctors?) trying to claim the coconut angle was proof he has long term brain trauma.

Certainly a 73 year old who's been taking bumps for well over half his life having dementia is not out of the realm of possibility, right? It has to be just as possible as Snuka fooling multiple doctors and lawyers and getting his family to lie under oath? I'm sure his family believes it, or at least believes he didn't kill her. I'm also sure his body is a wreck from taking bumps, if nothing else from years of doing the Superfly Splash on those hard-ass rings of the 70s/80s. All the medical tests and experts seemed to agree he's no more or less impaired mentally than any other 73 year old person.

Workers never quit working.

My grandfather was a big wrestling fan, and when he'd go to Florida for the winter he'd watch shows there and became a fan of Dusty Rhodes. I would spend summers at my grandparents' house, and the only thing he'd watch on TV besides baseball and Jeopardy would be NWA wrestling on TBS. I'd watch it with him and got hooked. It didn't hurt that it was around 1986 and it was really really good. I started watching it at home and my mom didn't like it and just figured it was a phase I would grow out of. That obviously never happened. When I started watching the WWF it was right when they were hitting their peak too, right between WM 2 and 3. So I guess starting to watch when the biggest two companies were on a roll played a big part in me still watching today.

There was something on one of the recent daily WON updates where Ospreay already is having back issues which he said is causing one of his legs to go numb. That will probably curb his style more than any criticism ever will.

I also think it's funny Vader of all people is taking it upon himself to tell the youngin's how to work. I love the guy, but "legit beat the shit out of your opponent" isn't the best working style either.

I'm still not sure what everyone's upset about here. The whole "mirroring each other's moves into a standoff" spot has been around for decades, I don't get why it's an issue here. Sure, theirs was way more intricate but it comes off to me like old baseball guys still bitching about the DH rule. I get why it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but that particular horse is well gone from the barn.

Their main focus the last two years is to keep Roman strong, and the whole gimmick is that the MITB is pretty much a guaranteed title win. There's no reason for them to create a second title (and thereby risk recreating the main issue that sunk the brand split the last time) unless they wanted another belt for the briefcase holder to win

Reigns won't lose, the winner is going to cash in and win on the Smackdown titleholder. That's probably the whole reason they are going to go with two champions.

Having a Money in the Bank match with mostly "new era" guys only to have Jericho win and ultimately fail to cash in seems like a colossal waste. Especially when they are going to need to elevate some guys to fill 5 hours of TV a week with a split roster.

I loved the whole exchange between Aries and Nakamura, especially the "me too" line.

I fear for what will become of Mauro with Vince being more heavily involved in producing Smackdown.

If more than one person is the top star, then nobody is the top star. Because that really hurt Cena from becoming the top guy during the original brand split. Seems pretty simple that someone could be the top guy on Raw and someone else would be the top guy on Smackdown but then just accepting the very simple logic of that (and how that would keep a top guy for each touring group) would eliminate hundreds of message board posts and tweets bitching about "omg devalued titles!" Except that the top guy on Smackdown will almost inevitably be slotted as a B+ player, and just like the last time it leads to no one going to SD branded shows.

Two champions not only repeats the mistakes of the last split, it dilutes their efforts to make Roman the Top Guy (since of course he'll be one of the champions).

From Triple H's twitter. Then the Shake Them Ropes twitter posted that NXT doesn't have any house shows outside of Florida past June 17, all interesting. Probably just waiting for Vince to decide who gets called up/when before booking further out. Summerslam was pegged as the callup point for a lot of guys before all the brand split stuff came back, so it's a smart move for them to wait.

They aired a coming soon promo for the Artist Formerly Known as La Sambra, so that's something to look forward to.

What's important to people like us is very different to casual fans and WWE itself, The company really can't make it any more clear by what they do. WWE doesn't consider Smackdown an important show no matter how good the wrestling can be on it. Whenever there was an injury or Raw's ratings would dip, they would raid any stars from SD instant.

So much this. He's still trying to work like 1999 Jericho in 2016. I don't know why he seems to think adjusting his style is some kind of admission of defeat at the hands of Father Time. I was starting to think they were adding the extra time at the PPV to the cage match as a rib, since it exposed him so much.

This. It only got bad when Smackdown was clearly positioned as the B show and their world champion was portrayed as the lesser guy nearly 99% of the time. The biggest problem with a brand split is that Vince has an attention span of a toddler with ADHD and will quickly lose interest in things. If they have one world champion who faces guys on both shows, that eliminates one issue. All they have to do is maintain interest in SD long enough to keep it level with Raw, which is something they've historically had a problem doing.

I'm sure it would have been fun times for her to stick around after Cody's goodbye letter was the written word equivalent of flipping the double bird on your way out of the office.

Honestly, I think a lot of it comes from how they were able to take a gimmick that initially was death incarnate (does anyone remember their first few weeks before they went full-on silly?) and make it into something that sells merch. They clearly have smart business minds and you'd have to think the company respects that on some level that they had the hustle to make chicken shit into chicken salad. Still, I would expect them to move the tag titles off them soon as it seems that they are getting more comfortable using the NXT guys on the main roster. Enzo and Cass clearly have the advantage, as you can see Vince's big-man boner peeking from behind the curtain every time Cass is on TV. I can see them becoming the focus of the division since Enzo has undeniable charisma. If American Alpha can make it to the main roster without getting slotted into jobberdom for being smaller guys, you're going to have the serious tag team division people are waiting for.

It was the right call, and Rollins executed it perfectly (and it was smart to have Reigns come out to confront him but not speak). Yet still Rollins will be cheered and Roman will be booed at the PPV. Dave keeps saying "well they spent two years building the guy what to you expect to happen", to which it seems the logical answer is "knowing when to stop throwing good money after bad when something is obviously not working". Hell, Roman gives all signs of being a great heel so there's a pretty solid chance it would pay off great for them.

The last couple of pages were filled with people saying that fans booing Roman are dummies trying to look cool, and literally the only thing that has changed is he was programmed with one of the best in ring guys in the business. Yes, he's holding up his end of the deal much better than he had been, but he's being rejected so soundly as the top guy that teaming with him essentially turned the Usos heel. How many times is he going to get laid out to thunderous ovations before the message gets through?

So are we now saying he isn't being pushed down everyone's throats now because he's having good matches? That sounds just as dumb as the silly marks everyone's rushing to make fun of now.