FMKK

Maybe it's unlikely but surely there's every chance that Kofi goes over Owens and holds the title? I mean, they have precious few stars so why not hang on a bit longer with this run? Run him to Summerslam, then have him lose to belt to Shane with a ton of fuckery (would tie up his earlier story with Vince too) and then put it on Roman in the main of the first Fox show. If they give Kofi a decent run here, he can continue to be a Jericho type upper-midcard figure who can slot in anywhere and be credible with any opponent.

The Lacey vs Becky feud is the only one that's actually been going on longer than a minute and it's basically been the exact same promo three weeks running.

Yet another week of TV seems to be drifting by without a single hot angle or programme emerging. The Sami promos have been the most interesting parts of the recent shows and the Bray thing was interesting but both are character reintroductions that aren't currently leading to matches. Where are the fucking feuds?

I hope they can get a proper old school feud going on between the two that can run through their opening run of TV.

If their television is a few squash matches and then a load of videos of this quality, I'm 100% here for it

Not sure the validity of this but a lot of the newz and scoopz type sites are claiming that the AEW-TNT deal is a time buy.

It's easily done too when they film so many of those pretty high quality Chronicle shows. Like, why not show clips of Reigns doing that sort of stuff on Raw etc.? Anyone coming into a company who's being treated as a big acquisition should definitely get that treatment over a few weeks before debut. Also, bring back press conferences instead of played out in-ring contract signings.

Someone coming from a dysfunctional/difficult family but wanting to break the cycle and and create a positive path for her daughter is a strong babyface act if they actually wanted to present her as such

We talk a lot on WWE threads about how their entire format is stale and a hangover from the late 90s, albeit with some modern idiosyncrasies bolted on. Either way, it's very much out of date and needs shaken up if they're to garner the sort of genuine excitement about their product that can lead to a ratings turnaround. Going into this autumn, we have Smackdown debuting on Fox and there have been rumours about the network wanting a more sports focused presentation. It also seems likely that we will have another big time wrestling TV show coming onto the market courtesy of AEW. They've been very successful at using Youtube and other mediums to get their characters over, although it has also been speculated that their show could be modelled on WCW Nitro - a cool aesthetic to be sure but still a throwback to the 90s once again. So with two new wrestling presentations coming to our screens, and thus two opportunities to reboot tired formats, what should wrestling television look like in 2019? Do we go back beyond the 90s for a more traditionalist approach or filter in ideas from different mediums and genres to give a more 'reality approach'? This is a talking point we hear a lot and I'd be interested to flesh it out a bit more and get the thoughts of the good people of PWO.

But I think you have to separate that into the HHH Death Era, then the Cena Era and then maybe something else again around the time Punk and Bryan get to the top of the card.

In theory the character difference between Becky as The Man and Lacey's old fashioned shit would be a nice contrast. Really they should've been prepping to push Bliss strongly again as a first opponent for Becky and also making plans to turn Bayley heel on her. And then picking the best of the newer crop underneath them to work a long programme with Charlotte to elevate them up to that level as a future Becky opponent as well. There's an Asuka rematch on the table as well. By the time she gets through those programmes, they could be ready to bring up Shayna to be the new top heel. They knew Becky was going over at Mania so it really shouldn't have taken much planning to have Bliss looking strong and picking whoever out of Ember, Mandy, Sonya etc to work Charlotte.

Quite concerning that they've come out of this shake-up, which is meant to be one of the biggest TV weeks of the year, with absolutely no hot programmes set up beyond continuing Miz vs Shane. Particularly concerning that there's very little for Becky or Roman when they both, in different ways, seem to me like acts where they needed to strike while the iron was hot after Mania and get them into big time feuds. Lacey vs Becky is fine in terms of how the characters contrast but it screams B-show feud when Becky needs a strong new protagonist after she's put Ronda and Charlotte out of the picture for now. They have a load of women on the roster but there's a big gap between the top three and the rest imo.

No problems with people like Harper moving on and clearing out the huge glut of the talent they have. Hopefully AEW or someone can give him reasonably good exposure. Or even a New Japan run.

I though it was an inevitability that Bryan will eventually get cheers with this character so I'm surprised he hasn't by now. Tbf, he's put in amazing performances to make sure that he doesn't, as well as being booked against the right opponents at the right time. With Reigns, they've really not done enough to establish his character since he's come back. Now that they seem to be more comfortable with letting him speak 'as himself', they need to work on making come across as a badass who's also kinda cocky and easygoing. That's the vibe I get from him. Have they ever attempted to explain how this shake-up process is supposed to work in kayfabe? Last year they kind of implied that it was trades I think. Really they should make it a month long process like a summer transfer window in football and kayfabe it that it's a contract negotiation period or something.

I kinda hope they don't all go because it feels like those guys have been bogging down with fighting with or against each other forever.

I need VIKING EXPERIENCE vignettes immediately

DEAD at the motherfucking VIKING EXPERIENCE

State of Stephanie's jeans

https://youtu.be/PqDv0PnNhU4 Dunno if this has been posted yet but it's an amazing video. Xavier getting emotional after Kofi gets the belt and Ric watching on as Charlotte enters the ring are standout moments. As is Becky being Becky at the end. But the most significant bit was probably the conversation between Cena and Miz early on where John pretty much confirms that he's done.

Maybe she's just making the point that she's not personally pissed at the Iconics.

Is this a historically strong drawing period for Japanese wrestling? I'm not up on the figures but I'm led to believe that that isn't really the case. How does this approach translate to a US audience, if at all?

"Post Benoit Guilt era" Have you always got to pretend that anyone who doesn't agree with you is being insincere or disingenuous? Great matches matter to an extent but we're in an era where there's overwhelmingly an accepted homogenised template for what makes a great match and a lot of this is based around 'workrate'. But there isn't really a clear indication that I can think of where we can see that such a working approach draws well outside of the core wrestling audience, which has become a 'fandom' as is common parlance. I don't know if wrestling can break out of its bubble through a working style that is to some degree 'fan service'. Not that I think Enzo and Cass are the solution to this problem in any way. But I think hot angles, compelling rivalries and larger than life characters will always draw more people in than whatever the fuck Dave is going to give 8 stars to. That's for the people who are already inside the bubble.

Sonya was dating a Nazi too? The same woman as Seth?

Hopefully she can teach him how to cut a promo

I think they're entertaining enough as characters and could probably pull off a short Honky Tonk type reign before getting squashed but yeah, they're both dogshit in the ring in a way you really wouldn't expect in WWE in 2019. Maybe it's just a transitional reign for whatever team Paige is bringing up next week and they can feud the new team with Sasha and Bayley. EDIT: I think it's hard to compare the Neville and Sasha situations in terms of the response because she's just put a lot more of her personality out there than he ever did and I can see why some might find her a bit annoying and thus call her a mark and whatever. She and Bayley have been handled pretty ineptly but she's still had a much higher push than Neville ever got. Really she's a victim of them never booking substantial women's programmes outside of the title feuds. But I would argue that, while Becky and Charlotte are clearly the top two women in the company in terms of push, Sasha and Bayley are in the tier just bellow along with Alexa, Asuka and probably Nia. And I think that's a reasonably fair assessment given her performances relative to the two higher than her on the totem.