FMKK

I can see them throwing the belt onto Joe just to do a big title change at the Australia show but in reality, they should switch the title to Miz at Suvivor Series and run with him til Mania, when Rumble winner Daniel Bryan can finally get his victory. That seems like the most obvious and the most perfect way they could resolve that rivalry. I don't really know that you want Joe to be champ when he's pretty injury prone nowadays. I can kinda see them transitioning to Orton for the next title feud though, assuming the Jeff thing is done and dusted. The fact that the did that AND did the fuck finish thing to get out of Corbin's money in the bank match is a sign that even they know it's a cumbersome and overplayed booking device. If only they retired it for 5 years or so instead of sticking religiously to the gimmick-by-calendar format.

To what extent do we think the contract situation, now resolved, held them back from going all in on pushing him to the title?

I think we agree mostly, I'm just unsure as to how they could sustain that level of overness. On paper, a feud with The Miz should've been an ideal way to do it given their history and what each of them represents in the minds of the audience. Maybe if he'd gone for the title straight away after Mania it would have made a difference.

I don't quite get the 'Bryan has been marginalised' talk. He's in the second from top feud on the show and him and Miz have probably had the most screen time of anyone since it began. I can understand their reticence to push him so strong right away after the layoff too, but I have a hunch that he'll be working AJ for the title at Mania so he'll get there eventually. I would like him to be portrayed as a living legend a la Shawn as well, but they're basically never going to allow anyone to be as revered as that. I'm not sure it's possible to sustain the overness that he attained around Mania 30 because that whole situation was such a perfect storm of reality and kayfabe aligning and it can never be recreated.

If they do go ahead with a Nikki and Ronda match, I think they should run with Nikki being disingenuously friendly and supportive before doing a proper turn angle. Try to recapture some of what they had with Jason Jordan last year.

There's a serious void in upper midcard babyfaces on Smackdown, a spot that he could have made his own alongside Jeff Hardy. But WWE aren't interested in moving any of the cruisers beyond 205 I guess. I'm sure there's more money for him being a headline independent act than being fourth banana babyfaces on Smackdown though, at least for a year or two.

WWE shirts are so routinely hideous that, although there obviously is a correlation between merch sales and popularity, some poor worker could end up with lower numbers just because the shirts they have out for them are just unwearable.

Incidentally, they booked that match as the guaranteed 'five star dream match' for that portion of the audience and they kinda did the same with Joe vs AJ, so they might well go with Bryan vs AJ at Mania is that's something they clearly feel needs to be part of putting together their big supercards

Oh wow, imagine if they actually spun Bryan vs Miz all the way out to Wrestlemania. That would be awesome. Miz wins here, cheats to get the belt off AJ, Bryan wins the Rumble and then finally gets his win back with the title to boot. Perfect.

That's funny to me because I always thought Austin would be a good guy to have around backstage because he always stresses 'realism' in-ring and whatever.

They've teased a big Roman vs Drew confrontation for a while now but I assume they continue the interminable Rollins vs Ziggler feud with some tag matches with Dean and Drew. Perhaps they can build that up into a Shield thing with another partner and spin off to Reigns vs Drew after Survivor Series or so.

That makes sense and I hope it's the direction because it's really the perfect casting for both of them. I'd love Becky to finally be more than the set-up girl for someone else's feud though, but at least it's something.

Are they actually going to turn Becky heel on Charlotte? Because if they do, that seems like a surefire way to finally get crowds to turn on Charlotte's awful babyface run.

I'd love to know who this is supposed to be arguing against exactly

I agree with the overall message of what Dave is saying, even though I disagree with some of the specifics. They do have some great women workers but I think the tendency to have one or two people dominating the divisions does them a disservice. I don't even hate Charlotte but she's the most overpushed act in the whole company and it is a little bit off-putting because you know anything happening with the women on Smackdown will be swallowed up by her. In fairness, Alexa is the best at projecting her character of all the women so you can understand their desire to push her. WWE are always going to favour someone who's strong on the mic and a bit weak in the ring to someone who's strong in the ring but weak on the mic. It's just to super smug self-satisfaction they exhibit towards the whole thing. Imagine being so proud of yourself for realising that feminism exists in 2018.

I choose to believe they're having Bryan kill time until they establish Andrade Cien Almas a little more, but I know that's not it. To me, it's surely to hold off a Miz match till Summerslam

https://twitter.com/therock/status/998027220017864704?s=21 Does Rock post at PWO?

The inevitable result of this is someone doing star ratings on Sunny's porn

I didn't know this was a thing re KO but I once sent my boyfriend of Goldberg's entrance and his one word response was 'daddy'. I hope it was a joke but I can almost see why it wouldn't be. This was 2017 Goldy as well. EDIT: In terms of the women, I think Becky is quite attractive backstage as well. It's so weird that WWE's presentation of their women makes them look so much worse on camera than they do naturally. How do they not see how shitty their make-up an stuff is?

Is it true that he said Bryan should leave WWE or is that just twitter drama?

Just want to give a shout out to El-P for describing Marine Le Pen as the Stephanie McMahon of fascism. Classic.

The Political Hit was me all along, it was me all along Austin!

Probably. Saudi Arabia & Lebanon don't get along. Cass sucks and he's dangerously sloppy. So of course, let's book Daniel Bryan with him. The wrestling legacy of this shit-show will be Titus sliding under the ring. And Taker vs Rusev had a good match, 90% thanks to Rusev. Well, this card should win Worst major show of the Year & Most disgusting promotional tactic of the Year. It was awful. Oh fuck me, Vince parading with one of the Saudis.... Time to go vomit somewhere. In two weeks : back to business : Women's Evolution and shit. Fuck off. Change happens inside communities. Black communities and the world around them changed by black folks doing activism. Feminism was started by women, for women. It's by empowering Saudi Arabia women that change can happen for the better. It won't happen if some Trump supporters or centrist "social" liberals pretend to care for a couple of seconds about women to justify their Islamophobia. It's a small step, with flaws, but it's a step. It has nothing to do with the women's revolution in WWE. As for being a show for the marks, that's exactly what the perfect wrestling card was, and always will be. Because wrestling ultimately is for marks. As for this show being in some "journalist" list, we won't lose any sleep over it. Wahhabism and absolute monarchy is bad actually. Most disgusting promotional tactic of the century. Glad I tapped out early on and went to see the Avengers. You guys were entertaining as always though!

You'd assume that the men with girlfriends/wives in the company would resent it a bit at least

As mentioned before, it might be the prayer break thing