FMKK

Did who carry who? I hate he/him posts without any reference to who he and him are supposed to be. I mentioned a half-dozen people in my post. I think it's abundantly clear that he's asking if AJ carried Nakamura the last time they wrestled.

They definitely could've had a later stage Savage and Elizabeth vibe about them as a beloved couple

Shifting from Roman vs Joe to Roman vs Finn is an interesting move. I assumed that feud would make it to the Rumble. Balors two best main roster showings so far have been TV matches with Roman though so Im more than happy to see them go at it again

It's strange that they'd do Styles vs Nakamura at this point tbh. Cena vs Styles for the title with Cena shooting to break Flair's kayfabe record would be a much bigger match and seems like the most obvious match for Cena out of any I can think of.

Most people, including myself, would probably have indentified the Shield tags with Goldust as Cody's best performance prior to now. Especially the Battleground 2013 one with Dusty's job on the line. This raises an interesting question as to how one measures a great heel performance against a great babyface performance to determine which is better. I've not got round to watching Cody vs Ibushi yet so I can't say for certain in this case but I think it's interesting to think about.

Is it just me or is modern wrestling way too obsessed with statistics and who holds such and such a record title reign? I think it can make for an interesting story if done right but for too often it's brought up months out from the end point and so the time in-between seems like a trudge towards the inevitable. I don't think I've ever seen it done where someone is hyped up to break a record and they actually fail.

I think its pretty clear that they put Reigns over Taker last time around with the intention of setting him up for Brock this year. The finish of Summerslam was a callback to that 2015 Mania match too

Although if WWE does put Reigns over Lesnar for the title at Mania thats the culmination of three or arguably even four years of long-term storyline build

Not sure if anyone else caught New Year's Dash (probably not if you're in the US but the main matches were at like 10.30am UK time) but they set up some coming feuds including a big angle at the end The matches were mostly fun tag matches without being anything special but as always, they've sketched out a few months of programmes that should carry them through to the summer. Naito was the most popular man in the building, with his side of the duelling chant drowning out Okada supporters.

Could you imagine the response if Cena went over Punk or Bryan clean on PPV in those circumstances? It's interesting how on the surface similar scenarios can engender such different responses from fan bases. The reaction to Okada winning has been mixed at best but plenty of the western New Japan acolytes have roundly defended it. I guess the real proof in the pudding is in the Japanese market if we see any decline in business. The crowd in the building certainly seemed like they were let down by the result.

Okada beating Naito feels a bit like when Lesnar beat Strowman in the autumn. Do you stick with the grand plan or do you strike when the iron is hot with someone else? I feel like they're reaching a point where Okada has mowed down all the potential challengers and there's not much drama about his title defences for the next year or so u til the inevitable rematch at WK13. Edit: who gets the credit for the apparent increased attendance this year? Is Naito really that hot or is Jericho coming in the special attraction draw?

Jericho seeming dedicating his match to Benoit is an...interesting call

Waiting for Dave to drop the big seven stars! In all fairness, the Jericho and Omega angles last month actually got me pretty interested in their match from my previous position of not caring so hopefully they try to make it a violent fight that stands out from the rest of the card.

So many times when he was presented as a heel and all he was doing was sticking up for his wife too. It would be a shame to ditch English, who has been a great part of the act, but I always thought there was potential for a babyface pairing of Rusev and Lana a la Savage and Elizabeth when he turned face

This is one of the most unbelievable and mind-numbingly stupid thing I've read. One of the weird quirks of Meltzer being the only figure of his ilk and stature in wrestling.

Those chants of "RUSEV DAY" were deafening. And we all thought that he would never recover from the Cena program. You mean the Ziggler program, right? Losing to the ace of the company is still a much better program than whatever was that feud with Ziggler. I actually heard more people complain about his program with Cena than his program with Ziggler. But yeah, you're right. People complained because they wanted him to beat Cena and in hindsight, they could have had a special top heel on their hands if he won that feud. But really, there's no issue in an upper midcard guy getting built up strong for months and losing to the ace at the big show. It's wrestling 101. WWE's issue for a long time has been the follow up. Plus, there was all that weird shit of them supposedly trying to break Lana and Rusev up by splitting the act and pairing her with others etc.

Hopefully its nothing that will derail plans too much and a few weeks at ringside as a second for the others will be all it takes

Raw was the inferior show to Smackdown when he was the top heel for months on end, now he's switched and Smackdown is the inforior show to Raw with him as the top heel for months on end. Can't be a coincidence. There are obviously other factors too but he's fundamentally uninteresting as a worker or a promo as far as I'm concerned. He's also had AJ Styles worst series in WWE by some distance, only rivalled by the awkward Jericho stuff right at the start of his run that I blame entirely on Jericho. As far as I can see, Owens still living off the fumes of being put over big by Cena a couple of years ago as well as his tandem with Jericho in 2016. He doesn't have much else on his WWE resume outside of that. He's been less effective in his role as the top heel of the brand this year than Jinder Mahal, and that is t an exaggeration.

Not when they've clearly salvaged it and more by changing Jordan's character. He's been the most over heel for weeks on end while interacting with the top stars and getting exactly the reactions they desire so how he's being made to look like a geek is totally beyond me.

Saw a very bad take from some reviewer guy I used to read when I was starting out online saying that Jordan winning the tag titles shows how stupid it was for WWE to move him to Raw and split him from Gable in the first place. Jordan's gradual character development has been one of the best parts of Raw for the last couple of months. It's so odd and irritating that a certain section of online fans that seem to believe that if they dislike a character it's because WWE are somehow mishandling them as opposed to effectively booking him as a heel. It's hard to get heat when everyone is an armchair booker rather than a fan

This

I mean they're doing well and that's good for them but I find everything about them to be embarrassing and cringeworthy on every level And I don't think people should be afraid to say that. Part of what makes this board what it is is the willingness to analyse wrestling on a deeper level to lay out what you think does or doesn't work and that people aren't afraid to slay sacred cows or whatever. The Young Bucks certainly aren't for me but I also thing they're the sort of thing that I'd be embarrassed for a non-wrestling fan to see and god knows there's plenty of moments like that in WWE that people don't hesitate to slaughter. I think I might just hate OTT nerd fandoms in 2017 and to me they and their followers are the encapsulation of that in wrestling.

It's amazing just how many boring guys are clogging up the Smackdown card - Owens, Zayn, Orton, Ziggler, Roode, Corbin - when there are guys like Rusev, Big E, Harper and even Mojo Rawley just waiting to be pushed as stars and provide fresh matches at the top of the card. Those are the types of guys you'd expect Vince to want to push as well. Priorities are all wrong,

He wasn't on the show for whatever reason. I'd love for them to come up with a new gimmick to give the women rather than just replicating all of the men's stuff. Nothing against the idea of a women's Rumble but it does dilute one of the few gimmicks they've protected over the years.

Nah though, that Young Bucks spot was the sort of thing youd be embarrassed to be caught watching by a family member or something