MoS

I still think Braun can be the guy, at least in the short term. His match with Balor last week was a perfect example of how he can be shown to be vulnerable and beatable while still retaining his aura and remaining over. If constantly booking him in comedy angles continues for a couple of months, that ship might sail as well. I hope he wins the MitB briefcase in a dominant manner.

This one? I have really enjoyed the posts in this thread. Related to the topic, Jericho v. Omega from this year's WK is right now my favourite match of the year. Jericho went all out both in the build-up and during the match to get as much heat and hatred as he could.

Loss's point about wrestlers not knowing who they or their characters are is very salient. This uncertainty leads to them not believing in their words, and that is invariably the death knell for promos. WM season was not too long ago, and many promos were cut to hype matches, but I thought of the sit-down interview Austin and Rock did with JR before WM 17, and Austin, with an almost deranged look, told Rock that "I really need to beat you Rock. I need it more than anything else in the world." This was after Rock had said, again while displaying great facial expressions, that "I will give you every drop of sweat and blood at WM. Win lose or draw, you are going to get the absolute best of The Rock." There was a conviction there which is simply missing in 99% of the promos today, and that is one huge reason why promos today are not as memorable as they used to be, and arguably do not sell matches and card as well as they used to. Austin's heel turn ultimately was a flop, but that promo still gives me goosebumps, and nothing complex about the nature or meaning of life or whatever the fuck was said. Just a simple "I need to beat you, I will give my best, I will win."

Not completely related, but some posters here have seen me often talk about the Indian wrestling fanbase, which is huge and also mostly "casual". I attended their live event in December last year, and Roman and The Shield were tremendously over. They received a 10-minute ovation during their entrance, and the crowd remained molten throughout their match. Roman literally had a shit-eating grin on his face cuz he was probably not expecting it. Well, the other day I was following a cricket ball-by-ball live feed on a popular cricket site about a domestic cricket match, and the commentator casually dropped in a wrestling reference. That led to a host of readers writing in referencing wrestling. One of them said that some cricketer's name should be "Roman 'Big Choker' Reigns" or something because he always seems to lose hyped, important matches. This is completely anecdotal and literally a single bit of evidence that could very well not mean anything at all, but it made me feel that those who are saying he is done as the ace and can never attain that position are right. The constant pushing him to the main event scene, even when he in theory does not deserve it and comes off as a whiner (all the while talking about how there is some conspiracy by management to hold him down!!) only to make him lose while the live crowd very vividly shits on the match might be seriously impacting his appeal with the casual fanbase that does not really care about whether it is unfair that he was chosen to be the ace while other more "deserving" wrestlers were ignored. However, they arguably do care if someone is constantly inserted into the main event, only to lost most times, before being predictably inserted into it again, often on account of very tenuous and unconvincing logic. Again, it could very well not mean shit, but it is a thought I had while following that cricket match.

I do not really understand what their end-game with this constant carpet-pulling is. What happens next? Reigns claims he got screwed because he won the match and thus he gets another title shot whenever Brock wrestles next? The title is stripped from Brock because of the controversy? The finish is reviewed or whatever and Roman is awarded the championship? Because all of them are distinct heel scenarios and I fail to see how doing any of them would help Roman.

Agreed. It's excellent. His personal tribute at the beginning is also great. You can tell he genuinely regrets not having found the time to call him in the last couple of years, and that he is really upset cuz Bruno was a good friend.

I watched the main matches yes i never tried to derail anything i just state my view on what i see and how i see things. People say i troll becuase of my odd views when i do not troll and i tend not to give out high ratings with ease like alot of people Why don't you state your views on what you see and how you see things in the relevant threads instead of derailing almost every single thread? You can for instance give your ratings on the matches you watched. Ronda was excellent. She was the best worker in the match, and it was her first match. Hell, if someone tried to argue she was the best worker of the night I wouldn't disagree. Brock was in a dgaf mode, and that is a pity. I am guessing they thought Reigns kicking out of 5 F-5s, including one on the table, would puthim over big-time given the move has been rebuilt as a one-shot killer over the last several months. Given his crimson mask, they really did try to get him over ala Austin at WM 13. But it was so overdone and frankly ludicrous, it actually worked against him. He was getting steadily over in the build-up and now he might just be less over than he was at the start of the year.

Really glad Dara Singh is getting some recognition by WWE.

I do not know if he was a gimmick poster or if that is how he actually types English in general, but I felt he was always respectful and open to discussing his arguments, even if I felt some of his opinions were strange as fuck. He certainly seemed inoffensive and I do not think he was breaking rules or detracting from the discussions we have here.

Austin returning at Unforgiven 2000 is one of the biggest pops ever, despite the fact that they fucked with perfection and modified his theme song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5JprJGEmfs (Sound quality is not great, which kind of defeats the purpose, but it is still good enough) I am a huge Austin fan so obviously I am biased, but it is incredible just how many ridiculously huge pops he received during his run at the top.

I love the sit-down interview Austin and Rock did before WM 17. That promo video prior to their match was also amazing.

Sasha got straight-up squashed. Evidently she is being held responsible for what happened to Paige.

Paige got injured in a house show tonight; it was a 6-person tag and it had to be stopped due to her injury. She walked out on her own from what PWI reports. Hopefully it is nothing serious because I have liked the Absolution angle so far. It's not been perfect but it has shown definite promise imo.

By far the best wrestling board on the Internet. I do not have much to add; most of what I feel has already been said by others. However I do want to thank Loss and Will and the others for running this board so well and for creating an atmosphere which fosters excellent wrestling discussion.

For what it is worth, the spot has gone viral. Indian comedy pages which have never posted memes about wrestling before with the exception of the huge stars like Cena, Austin, etc have made memes about that spot. That is not going to earn them any money per se, but it is certainly...something, I guess, even though it is the kind of wrestling I hate. The are certainly gaining notoriety and leverage, so good for them.

It was my first live event also, and it was so much fun!! I had an absolute blast; because it was a house show, there was a lot of playing to the crowd, and it was great!

Let it never saw the light of day. Please. Apparently it was the wwe big match formula and jinder was put over because he got to kick out of 3 pedigrees while hhh kicked out of one of jinders finishes at least that is what someone on Reddit thought the idea behind that was. Also post match there are photos of jinder shaking hands with hhh and bowing to him like he is the conqueror. It is all very Triple H https://imgur.com/a/P5rwp I was there live. He kicked out of one pedigree. Jinder never hit his finisher. Triple H beat him despite interfenece from the Singh brothers. It was a jumbled mess in a way because both took turns playing heel, and it confused the crowd a bit, esp because for many of them it was their first live event. By the end they were randomly cheering spots. The pop for the entrance was massive but the heat died out a bit in the match. Unlike the Shield match, where the Shield got such a tremendous pop Roman could not stop smiling, and the crowd was extremely hot throughout the match. You could tell easily that the participants were really pleased about the crowd reaction to their match. He was put over by Hunter cutting a promo after the match saying Jinder has earned his respect and India is in good hands because Jinder is great no matter what the haters say. He followed that by dancing with Jinder and the Singh brothers before pedigreeing one of them and leaving. Jinder closed the show by cutting a promo thanking us.

Yeah his facial expressions were great. I do not even remember the last time he had sold being absolutely terrified like that.

The main event was shit but Strowman got to close out the show as the last man standing and victorious after paying back Hunter for trying to play him, so that is cool and I like that.

If Shane McMahon eliminates Strowman I am telling you my laptop will feel the full brunt of my righteous wrath!!! Okay maybe not but I will type very furiously.

Wow was not expecting Cena to get eliminated so quickly.

Every time Angle takes a bump I get legit scared.

This has to be the best the tag team division has been in WWE in a really, really long time. The Usos and the New Day deserve quite a bit of credit for that; watching their matches this year, I haven't followed the product closely at all, but theirs might be the feud of the year in WWE.

The commentary is not good. I do not blame them, because 5-person booths are highly difficult to do, but Jesus, one second of peace and quiet with no commentator speaking really loudly would be so so welcome. Shield v. New Day was good. I was honestly expecting better, but it was good. They put over Asuka strong and I liked that. The biggest pop in that match was for the hoss face-off, so I am hoping someone takes notice and we see more such hirings.

lol that's some carny bullshit.