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Charlotte's PPV win streak is dumb anyway. I'm not sure they even realize it is a thing. It's something I've never heard mentioned on TV (granted, I don't watch every week), but message boards bring up constantly. It's such a meaningless stat. There's nothing to be gained or lost by breaking it.

I think "Watts pushed other black men after JYD because he was a racist and thought his fans would accept any black man" is quite a big stretch. He was always trying to find the next big black star because his biggest star had been a black man who connected deeply with the fanbase he was promoting to. That's pretty much how every promoter works. That's why the McMahons are still using Bruno as the archetype for their top babyface 50 years later. You're going to keep going back to what worked best for you. Of all the things to use as evidence that Bill Watts was a racist, that has to be one of the silliest.

I guess what I meant is that she has a toned body and is physically attractive in the way that WWE wants, rather than any particular look. Even though she's a good worker, I don't think Kellie Skater is going to get hired by WWE and pushed any time soon. Luckily they have a world class training facility where people can get into great shape in a pretty short amount of time if they have other things WWE likes about them.

I couldn't pick out a general theme for the look WWE wants for women in 2016 beyond "willing to put in hair extensions". It's the most diverse group of women they've ever had by far.

Trump is putting legitimate white supremacists who compare themselves to Darth Vader and Satan on his team with little to no blowback or resistance. I think Linda and WWE a re going to be just fine.

See, I thought Seth was the least interesting dude in Shield, too. I didn't think he was a great anything in the group, and everyone conveniently forgets that he was the least liked dude in the group in arenas and online for pretty much its entire existence. Online, everyone was too busy blowing Dean (hilarious in hindsight) and the in arena crowds were way more into Roman. Seth's initial post-Shield push felt very, very forced from the start, and it took him damn near a full year of INTENSE overexposure before he really started getting reactions by himself. Those months where Seth would get the 15-20 minute monologue to start the show, have a backstage segment after every match (sometimes before, too), a mid show promo, and a 10-15 minute match to close the show were dark, dark times. Really, all 3 have floundered since the break up, none reaching near the potential people thought they had, and putting them back together would be a step back for all 3. Some of it is the fault of the wrestlers themselves, more falls on the shoulders of writing and booking, but in the end, Shield produced 3 big enough stars for their era instead of 3 superstars that everyone thought.

Seth is such a bad face, Christ. He's so fundamentally unlikable, and he's never going to be a good enough or sincere enough promo guy to make draw you into believing he's atoned for his sins or is even passionate about anything other than himself. As a character, he doesn't even have the moral high ground to be calling HHH out, considering how he turned on his brothers, and HHH turned on him because he was being a disrespectful and unappreciative shit towards the only two people who fought for him in kayfabe, reality era kayfabe, and in real life. No one should feel any sympathy for Seth, ever. And that's kind of not a good thing for a face. People thought there was so much money in him as a face because he could do flips, but so can 80% of the roster, and his face run has been about as lukewarm as possible. I don't think fans are going to majority cheer him over HHH or KO. Or even Jericho in certain markets, at this point. He went from being a scumbag chickenshit heel who worked like a cruiserweight face to a nondescript face who works like a cruiserweight face and has people as engaged in his matches as they are the actual cruiserweight matches.

James Ellsworth might actually be their most popular guy, though. He's been getting better reactions than Dean Ambrose for a month and a half.

The show is meant to exist in kayfabe. Hence what Bliss did was considered briefly breaking character from her self centered, all about me heel character. Also The Undertaker's parents weren't fictionalized versions of Mark Callaway's parents, so that was still completely in character, at the time anyway. If we're going to get that level of pedantic, Alexa Bliss' parents aren't Alexis Kaufman's parents, so who is to say they aren't fictionalized? Bryan has stated multiple times on and off screen that he doesn't want to be GM, didn't ask to be one, doesn't like being one, and is planning on wrestling again once his WWE contract is up, which would otherwise be frozen if he stayed off TV.

I think some of it is probably how extreme Alexa's character is. She's basically the embodiment of nastiness. You don't want to see that break in the same way that you don't mind other characters breaking. I don't see it as breaking at all. She just reached the pinnacle of her profession, in front of her parents. Seems like a pretty reasonable time to be happy and not a piece of shit for a few minutes. Maybe if she had better parents, she wouldn't be a horrible kayfabe monster? They're probably poachers. Or, like most heels, she's heel because it helps her win matches. Going back to KO, he's a heel who cheats because he wants to win titles so he can have more money for his family. He's obviously not the same piece of shit with his family that he is during a wrestling match. He's usually a pretty normal and sometimes nice guy even on screen as long as he's not in the ring. It wasn't that long ago that she was the sweet bubbly pixie girl, but she changed her attitude because it wasn't benefiting her career.

I think some of it is probably how extreme Alexa's character is. She's basically the embodiment of nastiness. You don't want to see that break in the same way that you don't mind other characters breaking. I don't see it as breaking at all. She just reached the pinnacle of her profession, in front of her parents. Seems like a pretty reasonable time to be happy and not a piece of shit for a few minutes.

I'm so confused at why people think a heel being happy and emotional over winning the title in front of her parents is this huge kayfabe breaking thing. It's great when Bryan actually breaks kayfabe and bitches about his position and how he hates doing it, but when Alexa is happy she won the title, it's not good? It's the reality era, not the golden era. Cheating in the ring doesn't mean you're a piece of shit 100% of the time in your life. The fucking Undertaker had parents that he loved, after all.

I'm quite positive that Heyman used to make deals with Meltzer to hype certain angles and matches/shows/tapes from ECW to his audience. At the very least, multiple promoters would leak him info to get a buzz about something, and there is no denying that. He also worked with Pillman to make his readers truly believe in the Loose Cannon angle. Ultimately, DM is a worker like anyone else in the business, it's just that his fans don't realize it.

I love this idea that Meltzer is some renegade outlaw who bucked the system and stuck it to the man when he was in fact just some random dude writing about pro wrestling for a couple of thousand people and maybe 1% of the audience at any given event know who the fuck he was. His canonization by other fans has always been bizarre to me. He was essentially wrestling specific TMZ who bugged enough people that he got contacts in the industry. I'm sure people here have read the 90s WO recaps on Wreddit where he's wrong constantly, both in reporting and analysis. He's an informative writer on the history of the industry, but he's a terrible writer from syntax and clarity perspectives. Even worse when he's actually speaking.

I for one would have popped for Bruno beating Hogan at KOTR 1993

The WCW Effect is how Sting and Goldberg came back and popped the ratings from people who stopped watching when WCW went under. Disco Inferno is about to make his triumphant return.

Sasha/Charlotte has clear face/heel dynamics but still was a hot mess and it didn't help the match in the least.

Tye is like a Z-Man level guy. Which is fine, because companies need dedicated lower card guys who can pop a crowd when they win and make guys look great when they lose. I don't know why anyone is expecting any more from him than that, though. It's pretty telling that he was far more impressive as "jobber to the new international/indie/TNA" guy than as a guy actually having long matches with offense and wins.

Oh Tye is def going to be Fandango/Breeze tier on the main roster. Zero doubts about that. In fact, they might as well just put him with them from the start and make an angle out of it.

The show was scheduled to go another 30 minutes live, which added into the shock factor of the match being the way it was.

It was probably the best PPV this year, actually. It was a 2016 version of the 1988-1990 SS, which is wonderful. More idiotic than a really simple story (Lesnar totally underestimating Goldberg and paying for it) executed to perfection completely going over your head? You're almost willfully ignoring the broader context of a company that continues to undermine itself by treating the Monday Night Wars as the specialest time in the history of specialness. Not to mention they booked what was basically a one-match show and then didn't deliver the match. If it worked for you, great. To me, it felt like another example of this company treating its customers with utter contempt. Yeah, those fans in the building were just so upset

Maybe because you'd probably be an asshole to say anything about it beyond "that's great father and son got to share that moment with the world".

What are you talking about? The crowd was hot the entire show and was way more invested in SD vs Raw than they would have been in a weak ass 10 man tag from either show. Everyone was consistent in their character despite being on mixed teams against mixed teams. The SD vs Raw SS matches were the best SS matches of the 2000s, too, and those were also a mix of heels and faces. Shane went toe to toe with Taker at Wrestlemania. He's also ALWAYS been treated like a real talent and legitimate threat against top stars going back to 2001, and now he's in far better shape and is actually punching people in the face constantly. You're supposed to cheer for who you like or which side you like more in SD vs Raw matches. It isn't about which team is the heel or face team. The main point of them is seeing interactions and moments you wouldn't ever normally get, like Dean and AJ teaming up, or a Shield reunion, or champ vs champ, etc etc.

Here's the thing: Beating Brock won't help anyone. They booked themselves into a corner with Brock a long time ago. There's maybe one or two people on the roster that could beat Brock and not have a backlash against them for being over pushed, and they don't need the win anyway. Do you really think Braun or Cass or Big E or whoever beating Brock is actually going to do anything for them? Of course not, because Brock is just going to vanish for 3-6 months and come back and still be a way bigger attraction even if he loses every match. So why not have him lose in such a crazy and shocking fashion to a dude who hasn't even been on TV for 12 years and is the most over guy on the roster and is known for winning in 30 seconds, AND is doing it because he wants to be a good role model for his fans and family? It was a great moment. Booking wise, Brock will be Brock no matter what. A full time talent beating him will be booked into oblivion in the following 3 months anyway. Goldberg squashing Brock has way more impact than anyone on the roster beating him in a normal match.

No idea how someone could think this was the worst or even in the bottom 10 SS. This show had more story telling and character moments/development than any WWE show in ages. Felt like more like an 80s SS show than any in at least 10 years. People really getting mad about Brock getting squash because of "the streak". Taker got his win back. Whatever momentum came from the streak was gone the very next month after Summerslam 2014 when Brock went from completely demolishing Cena to having a competitive match where he would have lost had Seth not caused a DQ. And by the time they got to WM with Roman, that was the time to pull the trigger, but they didn't, so the streak hasn't meant dick since then. Goldberg squashing him was perfect.