Coffey

That would be huge & have me pretty hype, I won't lie. Which makes me sound like such a huge hypocrite as I've been complaining all day today about WWE's reliance on old stars & being grumpy about Kane, Big Show, Jericho & The Dudleys.

Super excited. Good news today.

I think all the women Sek mentioned as in the game were on the main roster when they were making the game cuts, no? Emma was teaming with Santino for awhile. Eva Marie was "working" matches & botching the DDT. I mean Layla is on there & she's not been on TV for awhile. But aren't members of the NXT roster in the game this time around too, like Finn Balor? Because THEN the exclusion of Sasha, Becky & Charlotte looks REAL shitty.

At this point, I want to see The Shield keep looking for a third man to help them stop the Wyatt's but always coming up short due to the third man on their team never working out. Like Jericho last night didn't. Then have The Authority turn on Seth Rollins & turn Seth babyface. The whole Triple H jealousy bullshit. Have Seth be the mystery third man for babyface Shield to finally overcome The Wyatts. Have The Shield dominate the Rumble & Roman win. Wrestlemania have Roman win the world title, Seth get his revenge on Triple H & Dean beat someone else. Then have The Shield pretty much running amok on RAW due to thwarting The Authority. That's my crappy fantasy booking idea. Authority gone, Roman as the top guy, Shield back together, Seth as a babyface. Good to go.

My money on the mystery partner is still Kane. Not that I want that to happen, mind you, but this is WWE.

The new drifter character in NXT should come out to Tom Waits! I'm in the camp that the entrance/music alone can get a wrestler/character over. It's a big part of the reason why I like Bray Wyatt and the Wyatt Family so much. That entrance is incredible. The live-performance at Wrestlemania was one of the best entrances I've ever seen. Hell, The Undertaker has to at least in part be so fun because of his entrance... which kept getting switched up & made special at big shows to differentiate one from the other. Seeing it live is awesome. I agree that there's way too much generic rock songs used. Edge came out to Alter Bridge. WWE, in the past, has used both Limp Bizkit & Kid Rock. Compare it to ECW, that was using all kinds of stuff, like Metallica, AC/DC & Guns N' Roses to Prong, Pantera & Soul Coughing. Most of it was still rock music though, sans like New Jack coming out to Natural Born Killas or The F.B.I. coming out to the remix of Stayin' Alive. Although he's not used much anymore, I really like Mark Henry coming out to Three-6 Mafia. Stephanie McMahon coming out to a hip hop song though? Just eww. Hell, Trish Stratus came out to Lil' Kim, I think. Why does Trish get that track? WWE needs to be more diverse from the top to the bottom. Not just in terms of music but in general. I still feel like we're in the camp where groups/teams are determined by their skin color over anything else. Team B.A.D., PTP, New Day, Los Matadores, Lucha Dragons. During this Divas Revolution, my first thought was Team P.C.B. were the babyfaces because they were the white chicks. Shoutout to Grado for making the Madonna entrance so awesome.

I feel like the worst possible scenario tonight is any result that involves Charlotte walking out with the belt.

I'd rather they not bring back The Rock at all. I'd love to see them start pushing the guys that they have there everyday instead of bringing back guys like The Rock and The Undertaker to sell their big shows. They could have already made Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt but they get cold feet. Why was Seth Rollins the one they chose to give the uber push to? Why is Seth Rollins wrestling against fucking Sting? Just seems silly to me. The show right now, in my opinion, should be built around Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins & Rusev. Instead it's built around Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, Sting & The Authority.

If John Cena wins the U.S. Title back & returns to having his U.S. Title open challenges, Kurt Angle would be a great surprise opponent. Bayley/Sasha Iron (Wo)Man should, in theory, be a good match. I'm curious what exactly the point is though? Sasha is on the main roster now. Bayley just won the title. Does anything think that Sasha has a chance of winning it back? Even in kayfabe. It wouldn't make any sense. Is the whole purpose just so they can talk about Sasha "evoking her rematch clause" - because I don't think that shit really needs to exist on the damn developmental show. "Hey, I'm on RAW now & tapping out the current Divas champion but I need my rematch for the developmental title." And why the 30 minute gimmick? How does that play into the story at all? It's like they just picked a gimmick match out of a hat. So I assume Joe/Balor are gonna have an NXT title match sometime down the line when Joe turns on Balor in this tag tournament, yeah?

There's a poll on WWE.com today asking who is the greatest WWE world champion in history. Hulk Hogan & The Rock are not choices. Randy Savage & Kurt Angle are though. Really weird, although with recent news, the Hogan part makes sense. Leaving off The Rock though? And of course, you know Triple H is on that bitch.

The point being that Kana is a Japanese wrestler coming to work for WWE, where a lot of their viewing audience is ignorant to her previous work. That's the mystique. Same as with Tajiri when he came in, despite him working in ECW & other feds previous to that.

Sometimes not speaking even HELPS a character. Growing up watching guys like Abdullah the Butcher or The Great Muta, those acts don't work if they talk like a normal dude. Part of the appeal of Goldberg during his initial Streak was he didn't need to talk (much). He did his talking in the ring, just bulldozing through his opponents.

I got that look from Hugh Morrus at a WCW Thunder once, from slapping him on the arm. Wasn't scared. Same situation with Scott Norton? I wouldn't even make eye contact... lol I've "met" Big Show before at an autograph signing. Him &, of all people, Spike Dudley. Big Show didn't seem that larger than life to me. I'm a really big guy anyway. Show didn't seem that much bigger than me. When I saw the Undertaker at a house show though? That dude seemed larger than life. I had front row tickets and when he was walking around the ring high-fiving the fans (this was during the biker phase) he was such a huge man it was surreal. He made me feel normal sized, which I'm not. He's just got an aura about him. Interesting point brought up on the Stone Cold Podcast, part 2 Summerslam talk with Wade. They ponder if pro-wrestling is moving more towards an athletic exhibition style. I think it ties into this because when you have a bunch of normal looking dudes, like the Daniel Bryans of the world, putting on great matches, you do get great matches but you lose a lot of the superstar aura that a guy like Undertaker brings to the table.

She's also, apparently, not great at speaking English. Much like KENTA, before injury, I feel like it is going to hold her back too. I'm not entirely sure why WWE seems so hell bent on trying to make people that aren't good speaking talk all the time. Why does KENTA or Kana for that matter, have to ever cut a promo? Just give them a mouth piece. That worked for years in pro-wrestling. Hell, it still works. Look at Paul Heyman with Brock Lesnar. Brock doesn't have to say a word. I'll take a wait-and-see approach, of course, but I wouldn't be shocked to see WWE kill the mystique of Kana by trying to have her cut an English promo in front of the NXT crowd, like they did with Hideo.

I find it humorous that Jericho is putting himself in the same category as Guerrero & Benoit.

I haven't answered in ten months. Currently: 1. New Day 2. Chad Gable & Jason Jordan 3. Pentagon Jr. 4. Sasha Banks 5. The Nasty Boys Been watching a lot of The Nasties lately. Those two fuckers are endlessly entertaining, even in throwaways matches they'll do something that cracks me up & entertains me. Some of those WCW shows when they're feuding with Cactus Jack are BRUTAL. Talk about unsafe, stiff, unprotected weapon shots/strikes. Dude, when Mick Foley gets blasted in the head with that fuckin shovel? Holy shit. My friend John & I rewound & re-watched that like ten times in a row. Nuts. And to add something new, current LEAST favorites: 1. Toru Yano 2. Charlotte 3. Bad Luck Fale 4. Eva Marie 5. Stardust If were were talking non-wrestlers, Stephanie McMahon & Michael Cole are at the top of the list. Also, Titus O'Neil is such a great hot tag.

Is there a good reason for the mystery partner to not be Goldust? Yes there is. He has no reason to want to team up with the Shield members nor a reason to want to go up against the Wyatts. He is also stylistically not a fit with the other two. Hey that's 3 good reasons why not. He's a beloved babyface who wrestled the Wyatts a lot when teaming with Cody. Ambrose/Reigns will have been faces for a year and a half by NoC. Babyfaces back up other babyfaces. That's really simple. Aesthetically, Goldust isn't a stylistic fit with anyone, if anything, the clash between him and the other two gets the principle of the feud over even more. See: Canadian Stampede. They need to call in the "Bizarre One" to match up with the ECCENTRICITY of the Wyatt Family. As a worker, he's Dustin friggin' Rhodes, like he can't brawl? He can't play a good FIP? They keep selling this as "family vs. family". It's easy to play up that the Anoa'is and Rhodeses go back far, and what Ambrose/Reigns learned from Dusty in NXT. They can say that if anyone else is going to understand that kind of family feud, it's Goldust. And... it's in Texas, where the crowd will be hot for his return, and HIAC is the next PPV and logical blowoff point for the feud. It's a perfect WarGames feud. Your reply & description just totally sold me on this. Now I kinda want that... instead, I'll probably get Kane.

Coincidentally, I made this blog post here today but I'll save you having to click on the link: Basically, I get different things from different companies but all provide me with different means of entertainment. I do still watch & actively follow pro-sports (NFL, NBA) & Notre Dame Football. Pro-wrestling just fills a different void for me, especially in the summer time when I don't have other sports to watch as I lost interest in MLB & couldn't get into NASCAR. I like that it's a spectacle. Big, grand entrances, rabid fans, catchy theme songs, ridiculous characters, etc. The passion, when it's there, resonates. I love when you can get completely wrapped up in a moment & pro-wrestling often has me captivated in that regard. When you get really into a match, or a promo or an angle. And at this point, truthfully, a lot of it is both nostalgia & loyalty. When you've watched something as long as I've watched pro-wrestling, you don't ever really just walk away from it completely. It's a bigger part of my life than many of my family members. It's so over-the-top ridiculous that it comes full circle & becomes charming.

I'm curious, in general, what is the mindset of the title? Why are you more curious about which was worse, instead of which was better? I mean, it's the same conversation/question, really, but one is obviously more inviting of talking about negatives instead of positives. Not that it bothers me or anything but as someone that has received flak for being too negative in the past, little things like that are usually what make my mind immediately start thinking of things to complain about in wrestling.

I didn't really feel like I had anywhere else to post this thought, it wasn't worthy of a thread reply anywhere that I could think of. However, I've realized that I get enjoyment from WWE, especially RAW, the same way that I get enjoyment from watching bad movies. I can get on Netflix and watch shit like Wolf Cop and it cracks me up. I can live-Tweet about a new Sharkado movie & be entertained for hours. That's what I do with WWE & RAW. I get enjoyment & fun from making fun of it. That's where my entertainment from it comes. There's still good matches and funny moments and what not. However, I don't still follow WWE despite hating it. I don't hate it. I just enjoy it differently than some. I like cheesing on it. It's like a campy horror movie to me in that way.

Right there with you. Reading the Dave Meltzer thread has me on tilt right now.

This genuinely has me upset & angry, by the way. Really disappointed with Dave Meltzer here. Unbelievable. Just completely, totally, head-shakingly unbelievable.

Nope, definitely not. On topic, honestly, Dave just comes off as very ignorant. The n-word being defined by him as being used by wrestlers is the epitome of that. Either he's totally out of touch or completely in denial. One of the two.

Can anyone provide a list of Finlay matches to seek out on the WWE Network? I want to re-watch some of his stuff but there's not a lot being pimped in this thread, at least not specifically named.

That brings to mind though, the old adage "if everyone is a main eventer then no one is". This brings to mind a great old Paul Heyman quote too, when talking about Terry Funk in ECW. He only wanted one Legend on the roster so that he would stand out more. He made a comparison to if there's one-hundred blonde women in a room and one redhead, you naturally gravitate toward the redhead with your eyes. Or it was something close to that. I'm of the belief though, that you can have a roster of people, top to bottom, that people care about. You just have to keep them special & have them all special for different reasons. Also, a big thing that WWE really fails at nowadays, you gotta keep them away from each other so that it's special when they do come together. Dudleys just came back cause they want a tag title shot. They already beat New Day on TV. We've already seen Kofi and Xavier take a 3D and Xavier go through a table. Why do we care to see it on PPV now? Big Braun just debuted. He already had a match with Ambrose on free TV. They don't build anything up. In the NFL (sticking to my previous example) there's a lot of stars. Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning (just naming a few QBs for example). But when Brady and Manning go head-to-head in a Colts/Patriots game? It's a big deal. They could do that in WWE too. They did it with Hogan/André. They did it with Hogan/Warrior. I think the biggest problem they face nowadays is how short-sighted they are. They have so much content they have to fill that they just burn through everything way too fast. By the time we're at the payoff, people have already lost interest because it's been ran into the ground.