sek69

Is there any truth to the story Sheik was offered money to shoot on Hogan? Considering how highly Vince views loyalty to the company, maybe he thinks it was true and kept him around for that.

I don't think I can list 100, but I have a few things that I would assert are hampering WWE right now: TV production: Shaky cam/excessive camera switching/zooming in and out make it look dated like a 90s MTV show, not to mention tending to cause nausea in viewers. Security blanket booking: For a company that on one hand will ignore fans when they get behind a guy they didn't intend to get over, they sure panic quickly if there's one less John Cena shirt sold after a loss. Brand uber alles: Putting the company above the wrestlers may soothe Vince's ego to keep someone he created becoming a big star outside of the company, but because they de-emphasized making individual stars there hasn't been anyone who moves the needle since Cena became a top level guy 10 odd years ago. Spending time and effort making NXT a touring brand instead of the developmental group it's supposed to be is something that might be a bigger issue than we realize right now. It doesn't matter for guys like Joe and Balor, but nearly everyone else down there now needs to be spending more time learning instead of running around the country so WWE can wave their dicks at ROH. This may be tied in to my first topic about TV production, but stuff like "no one can look at the camera" in backstage promos and that thing where they keep the camera on someone way too long at the end of a backstage promo always come off to me like they're trying to do a SNL skit making fun of bad soap opera acting. The over scripting doesn't bother me as much as it does others, but man does this "we make movies" concept make nearly everyone involved look like geeks. Over reliance on stars from the past: Wrestlemania is at the point where it's a legit question if they can fill a stadium unless they bring back someone from the Attitude Era. Not to mention when they do, they are never put under the same conditions as the current stars (except when Cena was allowed to go toe to toe with Rock on promos) and it only serves to make the current roster look like geeks. The only other thing I can think of is how for most of WWE's history there were always multiple levels on the roster. Main eventers, Upper mid card guys who won more than they lost, mid-carders who usually went around 50-50, and the low card/jobbers. Now you have a handful of top guys, and the rest are interchangeable parts. Now that might change since they put effort into rehabbing the US/IC belts, but for now it's a problem.

An actual Scientific Wrestler with a lab coat and shit seems like a Chikara gimmick waiting to happen.

My issue with Sheamus is less who his workout pals are and more his inability to keep from hurting people he's matched with.

Man, fuck this year right in the ear.

I've long thought NXT is a modern version of the old school one hour territory wrestling show, which makes it one of the easiest watches of the week for me.

Perhaps I should rephrase, I hope he doesn't do it before his match with Rey since I want to see that, afterwards he can have at it.

Hopefully Alberto doesn't make good on his Twitter threat to beat the shit out of Mystizez (or however you spell that) the next time he sees him.

Yeah it's happened a lot, but Wrestlemania was only a few months ago and it's already like he's an afterthought. It's been a while since it's happened that quickly.

Has there been someone who's fallen as fast as Roman? He was the guy the company was hell bent on making THE MAN for over a year, and now he's in mid card feuds and wasn't on either TV show this week.

I'm not so sure how they would have shoehorned Sting into this angle, I don't even want to think about the promos they'd write for Bray to explain it. Between that and possibly sticking someone in the Wyatt family who wouldn't have been a fit, it's probably for the best they just decided to go with the 2 on 2 match.

I wanted to, but despite my provider being listed as carrying it, they have a nobody's-buying-this TNA One Night Only show listed that day.

I guess "The Kliq is the greatest group ever in wrestling" is the new "Vince beat the mean evil Ted Turner" when it comes to stuff that really isn't true but everyone keeps repeating to make the boss happy.

There's a slim possibility things make a little more sense once they air since things are shot out of order/pretapes will be added, but yeah this seems like it will have to make a vast improvement to reach the levels of 2001 WCW.

They could have pulled the episode, London is 5 hours ahead of the east coast of the US. That surely has to be enough time for someone in Stanford to think "maybe today's not the best day to have this angle shown on TV". I still wonder if it was a lack of sensitivity issue or an "too deep in the bubble to be aware of world events" kind of deal.

You're a better person than me, I read the spoilers and have no idea WTF anyone is doing.

I'm just fearing since they have a boner towards ROH they're going to do the double champ angle with Cena and have him hold both the WWE and US titles at the same time. I'm reasonably sure they won't do that, but you can never put anything past this company if they feel petty enough.

Pretty much. Usually the person throwing the fireball does it from a distance so there's time to react, but when it's up close you just close your eyes and hope for the best.

- How in the heck did they do the fireball on Hacksaw Duggan in May of 1985? Akbar sticks the flame RIGHT ON Duggan's face. Seems incredibly dangerous, yet intentional. The fire thing is done by the person getting burned putting a fire resistant gel on their face, and since pro wrestling fireballs are done using flash paper, it only needs to protect them for a second or two. Undertaker did the same thing to Paul Bearer in 1997 too.

So after WM there was the narrative that Roman Reigns won over some of the crowd by the beating he took from Brock, I wonder if Cena getting his nose splattered across his face and finishing the match will win over some of the people who still won't accept him. By the way, I don't think it's any coicidence or accident that Cena's resurgence this year comes at the same time he's been out of the World title picture. He was the perfect choice to rehab the US title, since then it would actually make sense for him to win all the time and it negated one of his (and WWE's) biggest criticisms that they were too afraid to not have him either be champ or be the main contender for the title at all times. Of course now he's challenging for the title, and if they have him beat Seth at SummerSlam it will render the whole experiment moot.

I see it being similar to Dog the Bounty Hunter who was also caught on tape saying something similar. He seemed legitimately sorry and was eventually able to go back to what he did for a living. The only difference was that Dog's rant was prompted by being pissed off by (IIRC) one of his kids and it was more of an "I got upset and said something I shouldn't have" thing. Hulk's rant being seemingly so casual might end up hurting him even more by how matter of fact it seems to come off.

WCW beating Goldberg because they felt they had to end the winning streak. I mean, yeah at some point it had to end, but having it become a political trophy for the usual suspects to try to be the first was stupid if not predictable.

Bryan had a throwaway line on one of his radio shows implying that there will be a new Wyatt Family member and (based on what he's hearing internally) would be someone underwhelming, so it looks like we're getting a Reigns/Ambrose/Sting vs Wyatt/Harper/? at SummerSlam.

I wonder how much of this WWE reaction is coming from Vince being pissed Hogan knew these comments existed and never mentioned them. Not that I would expect Hulk to volunteer that info, but I can totally see Vince's takeaway being "how dare you blindside me and my company" and not giving a shit about the actual racism.

Yeah if the only bad things about him before now were just of the "exaggerating, carny ex wrestler" variety that would be one thing, but he's built a solid rep of being a scummy human being and the racist stuff is just the cherry on top.