Coffey

I like Brian Cage. Moose is still green but I think he'll improve. He has thus far. Keith Lee, I've not seen a lot but he's fun. I also like Hanson but I'm not sure which ROH guys are under contract & which aren't. That's not to say there's not room on a roster for other wrestlers too, of course. But I was operating under the idea of working from the top down, so starting with the main event. I also didn't mind your pick of D.H. Smith. I know if contracts were ignored my #1 overall pick would be Rusev.

Sweet this is going to be fun! Oh... *crickets* Woof. Alright, this might ruffle some feathers but hopefully start some conversation: I'll be honest - one of the biggest things that matters to me is physical presence. It's why I like Braun Strowman. And dudes on the Indies? They don't have that. I need wrestlers that don't just look like normal, everyday people. I actually think that's one of the biggest things hurting current WWE. Everyday people do not want to watch guys like Kevin Owens in the main event. That's for hardcore wrestling fans that only care about match quality. But match quality doesn't really sell tickets or merchandise. We, here, on this forum, care about match quality of course, but if we were trying to make a wrestling company that turned a profit? You gotta appeal to the most number of people. You're not going to draw them in by just having good matches with normal looking people. It's different in legitimate sports, like MMA, because if you're a bad dude you'll still get fans from winning. Everyone knows wrestling is a work though, so it's a different beast. How do you even get heat nowadays? Everything is so politically correct & everyone is on social media & everyone has a cell phone that can take pictures/record video 24/7, it seems impossible. The wrestlers themselves are walking on eggshells. They break character constantly. They don't want to piss people off because then they'll sell less T-shirts. Plus, like with ROH in the past, if you just have everyone going out there all the time having MOTYC matches all up and down the card at every event, the matches start to blend together & then none of them really matter anymore or stand out. Even in 2016, I'm still a firm believer that the main event sells the card & the wrestlers themselves, not the promotion, sells the main event. The wrestlers themselves, as characters, telling stories, matters a lot more than the match content. By the time the match is happening, the people have already paid. Your goal is to make them care about the outcome & want to continue to watch the story progress. There's not sixteen guys on the Indies I think I would take. If I include TNA & Lucha Underground, there's a few more people that I would be interested in but I still don't think I can get anywhere close to sixteen. I still think Drew Galloway is really good. I liked Paul Burchill but I just looked him up & he has seemingly retired. Matt Morgan is also retired. I would take Mike Knox, he still seems to be working. I don't know, man, it's hard.

I still have a shelf of those toys. I have Hogan, Warrior, Savage, Rick Rude, Jake the Snake, Ted DiBiase and Demolition Smash. All these years later! I also have a stack of old WCW Valentine's Cards... that I have no idea where they came from.

Mark Madden was awful. Stevie Ray was terrible. Jerry Lawler is quite bad. Vampiro is the pits. Matt Striker isn't great. Mike Tenay is a parody. Don West was pretty bad. The Pope is one of the worst of all-time. At this point, it's harder to name GOOD commentators than shitty ones.

How many people even watch Evolve shows, period? This just seems like a service that there won't be enough interest in. Maybe I'm wrong? Independent wrestling is a niche of a niche. This does not strike me as profitable.

Oh, there's no doubt there's more deserving people. This is 100% because of the way he looks. He looks like the biggest jobber that ever jobbed. Like a six-year-old could cold-cock him & knock him out cold. I think the appeal to WWE was because he looks so absolutely pathetic. So, in that regard, think of it as not exactly being something that anyone else that you might know whom is more deserving would want to be remembered for. Regardless of the money.

I'm going to re-watch all three matches before voting, so that they're eat fresh in my mind again. Fun thread!

Rusev looks more like Attila, the bad guy from Jean Claude Van Damme's "Lionheart" every time I see him. Now he's grown in the mutton chops!

Oh god no they are booking a guy who has been doing absolutely nothing in a match that will make him look like the underdog babyface he should be instead of just some dude cosplaying as a Japanese wrestler like his matches with Kevin Owens! You seem to have been exceptionally bitter lately. I hope everything is alright, homie!

I remember reading Foley's first book & him going into detail about getting a blowjob & how the woman was like "some girls like doing it" & him talking about how it blew his mind or whatever. I remember thinking "why the fuck did you put this in the book?" He was weird then. He's weird now.

I like Samoa Joe but I'll admit, I do think some of the "dream match" stuff like him in a feud with Brock Lesnar on the main roster seems... really delusional. I still don't buy Kevin Owens as a top guy either. It just feels... hokey. Too fake. Unrealistic. Booking is obviously a factor but it's going to be really hard to get the main roster audience to buy into a Kevin Owens or Samoa Joe beating a Brock Lesnar. I agree with C.S. in that Samoa Joe is WAY past his prime. It's a shame he was wasted for so many years in TNA. He should have probably been picked up by WWE in 2005 after his great run in ROH.

I feel like I'm getting worked! This is all so damn insane.

The real question, to me, is who WWE are going to have win. There's a good chance we just don't get a decisive winner so that we get a rematch, right? I mean, paying Goldberg a ton of money to come in and lose to Brock, whom doesn't need the rub, would be silly. Paying Goldberg a ton of money to come in to beat their unbeatable guy would be silly. I just don't see how this is a winning scenario no matter what they do. It's not like they'll have a third guy show up to take them both out. Will Goldberg stick around through Wrestlemania?

I have a feeling that with the brand split, outside of the main event opening (which I assume was just because of the presidential debate so we won't see it again anyway) that this is going to be the norm.

So, if I'm misunderstanding, someone please correct me: Am I reading this right, in that it is being insinuated that the Alberto Del Rio stabbing which made him miss the recent wrestling show, was due to a drug deal gone wrong? Because the picture of the slashes on his arm was pretty damn brutal. If so, this is ridiculously beyond a WWE Wellness Suspension.

I just assumed Dolph was losing because it was being reported that he was leaving after No Mercy. So I just got worked. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That Randy Orton Vs. Bray Wyatt match was awful. Glad to see Harper back though. Miz/Dolph was really good & I was genuinely surprised that Dolph won. Wish that match would have went on last but I understand worrying about people leaving to watch the debate.

Shame Swagger/Corbin couldn't make the show & are delegated to pre-show duty. Also a shame about Becky Lynch. If the Triple Threat does go on first, I hope that Miz/Ziggler get to go on last. Make the IC belt seem important & if Ziggler is leaving, that would be a good way to go. Miz has been on fire lately. So have The Uso brothers. I have also been really entertained by Heath Slater. They're doing good stuff on Smackdown. Looking forward to this show. Carmella Vs. Nikki? Not so much.

Mojo Rawley? Yeah, I'm not seeing it either. I'd prefer if they're going to make a new star (which they should) it should not be someone that is the shits (which Mojo is).

It really does feel like an "everybody wins" scenario, including the fans.

Shinsuke Nakamura. I doubt it happens, but it should. As great as Nakamura is & as much as I love him, I don't have any faith in WWE to get behind someone that speaks broken English. At least not on the main roster. RAW is all about 20-minute dialogues, especially if you're a main eventer. If you're in the main event, where someone that is feuding with Brock would need to be, you're going to have to be able to open RAW with a boring-ass, 20-minute Authority promo. I also don't have faith in WWE to actually utilize managers as mouthpieces anymore. Which is a terrible shame. Dutch would have been great. Paul Heyman should be great but we saw what happened when he was with Cesaro. I like the idea of Nakamura beating Brock more so than the speculative Samoa Joe encounter but I guess I would be fine with that too. Anyone can be choked out! I really want both Nakamura & Samoa Joe to work out on the main roster. There's no reason Nakamura couldn't be IC champ for like two years.

How many times, after they are retired, are WWE going to bring back Randy Orton & John Cena for "one more match"? I do agree that I would rather see Goldberg wrestle than Shane McMahon but I honestly don't want to see either against Brock Lesnar. That's just not appealing at all to me. I do still like Brock but he needs to be used to put over a full-time guy that WWE can build around. Same thing they should do with Goldberg if they bring him back. They need to make more stars for tomorrow.

Ric Flair, Terry Funk, Jerry Lawler & Stan Hansen were the four that first came to my mind. After reading the thread, Eddie Guerrero is probably a better pick than Stan Hansen though. I also loved the Nick Bockwinkel name-drop. Hard to argue that one. Also, there has to be a case for Steve Austin, no? When his ring work slowed, mostly due to his body breaking down, everything else went up. The promos, the character, the presence, the effectiveness..

This is where I am at with Sasha Banks. She had a couple good matches in NXT but the hyperbole over her was out of control. I like Sasha and think she can be great but I didn't think she was already great and it felt like quite a few people had already crowned her.

Show wasn't bad but wasn't great. I would say better than average though. I liked the countdown Nia Jax/Alicia Fox match. I see quite a few people are over New Day & wanted a title change in the tag match but New Day still seemed over with the live crowd & I just find Gallows/Anderson boring. Match was fun. Women's match left a lot to be desired for me but I figured Charlotte was going to retain. I hated the pregnant pause spot where everyone stands there & waits for the fans to clap. I think it was right after all three went for a dropkick at the same time. I think they're building to Dana/Charlotte & Sasha/Bayley was just a way to help build to that which makes me sad that they're just background fodder instead of the focal point. I find that I cringe a lot when Sasha takes big bumps. Cruiserweight match was a little sloppy but I like that Kendrick stayed heel at the end & Perkins' entrance is fun. Post-match handshakes are overrated. Jericho/Zayn was kinda just there. Some weird looking bumps off the DDT spots. Jericho has been one of the most entertaining performers in WWE lately from a character standpoint but I find I still don't care about his matches too much. He's found his stride again, for sure, outside the ring though. I was fine with the finish because they have to be leading to a Jericho/Owens thing, right? Cesaro/Sheamus went downhill fast after the scary Suicide Dive from Cesaro. It was starting to heat-up to that point & you could tell that Cesaro was visibly frustrated at the end there. They were laying some bombs on each other. Shame as I was really looking forward to that one & feel like they had at least another five minutes if things didn't go wrong. Rusev/Reigns owned. Liked it a lot. Felt very old school. MOTN for me. Rusev is far and away my favorite guy on the roster & him & Lana together are still a great act. Reigns is right up there for putting on quality matches though. That dude is a big match worker. Still not sure why the crowd continue to stay sour on him. Maybe he can turn that around in the U.S. scene instead of the World Title scene. Main event was a clusterfuck, with outside interference, a ref bump & Steph coming out for... reasons. I like that they're continuing to push the Jericho/Owens friends story because it makes the Jericho win earlier make more sense. I like that we're still in the dark about what Triple H's motives were instead of getting backstage PPV vignettes of The Authority all night. They're building toward animosity within the Authority & with Mick Foley, which isn't really the story I continue to want to see around the main event & main title but we know we're not getting away from it. If Seth is a babyface now & out of The Authority, why is he still using the Pedigree? Kevin Owens is the champ going in but feels like a total afterthought. It's more about Seth being slighted by The Authority, Jericho wanting to have Owens' back & teasing tension between HHH & Steph (even when Triple H isn't there). Owens is a prop.