Burgundy LaRue

They're apparently changing ropes, mats and canvas after every match, along with sanitizing the PC regularly. But doesn't keep a wrestler or crew member from walking in with asymptomatic COVID-19. I don't think we see Roman before Summer Slam, if it happens as scheduled. He lives in Florida and it hasn't peaked there yet.

It's possible Roman came to the choice on his own. There is so much we don't know about the situation, other than Roman saying he was thinking about his family, which I took to be whoever is living under his roof. Roman signed a new contract around last Summer Slam. Have to figure it's a multi-year deal, but there's nothing stopping him from sitting at home for however long it takes to get the pandemic under some kind of control. Then taking more acting roles if Vince is being unreasonable. @sek69makes a good point: Roman knows what he can and can't get away with. Using his leverage to protect his and his family's health is a no-brainer.

The match with Buddy Murphy, second match with McIntyre, along with the tags with Taker and Bryan were all good to great, and happened in the last year. And no to Adam Cole. For all the talk about finding a needle mover in wrestling, a 5-foot-8, 190 lb. guy who looks like a middle school vice principal ain't going to cut it.

Vince will have to tread lightly with punishing Roman, if that's what he wants to do. A number of cancer-related charities praised Roman for making the choice not to compete at WrestleMania. With WWE making charity a major part of their public image, they don't want to risk looking like they're railroading a guy who's a two-time cancer survivor. This could have been avoided if Miz (supposedly) doesn't show up sick. And we don't know if Roman had been talking with WWE officials about his concerns already. Not doing WrestleMania doesn't sound like something he chose on a whim. Miz may have been the proverbial final straw. And as already mentioned, if Vince wants to play hardball with him, Roman speeds up the timeline on becoming a full-on Hollywood talent. Or he forces their hand and takes a sabbatical form WWE to work with a non-US promotion or whatever he wants to do. Long story short, they'd have to be careful if they do have issues with Roman's stance.

I wouldn't say Drew is ruined, but I don't know if anyone is going to care by whenever they have crowds again. Braun is in worse shape. He's DOA right now. And for someone who puts down others for 'wanting handouts,' he only won because Roman Reigns medically pulled out of the match. Did nothing to earn the spot and even less to become champion, which is likely to be used against him in a feud when they get back rolling. Brock and Roman may come out of this better than everyone else. Neither will be traveling through this COVID-19 mess to make shows in whatever location WWE can find. Out of sight, out of mind and will be major returns when the time comes.

I think Vince or Hunter is smart enough to know punishing a two-time cancer survivor who will get national attention for correctly thinking of his health would be a terrible PR move. If anything, they can use it as a means to further their charity work. I know--Stephanie, philanthropy as a marketing tool--but that's the case with every major company. There isn't going to be much going on post WM anyway with the pandemic still running rampant. It may be easier to keep the belt on Goldberg and wait for SummerSlam to run Goldberg-Reigns.

Best wishes to everyone impacted by COVID-19 so far. It's somewhat quiet in my area, but I expect that to change soon.

Tampa city officials showed their hand last week by saying they'd call the show if Vince doesn't. So Vince will let them cancel and go from there. If the city doesn't do it, the state will. Either way, Vince doesn't have to do anything. Another question is if the city cancels, do they give up their right to host WM this year? WM will happen in some capacity in a couple of months, and Tampa still wants to benefit from the economic boost. But there are questions of space availability, the Florida summer being unfavorable for a stadium show in June, etc. The indie scene is screwed, no matter what. The big boy standoff doesn't help, but they'd be in bad shape regardless. Many of them won't survive or have to start from scratch.

They were careful not to mention April 5 as the confirmed WM date on Friday. They know the show isn't happening as planned. It's just a matter of Tampa shutting it down so Vince gets his cancellation fee. That said, I think they'll try to do a couple of the bigger matches in some fashion. Fast 9 has been pushed back, but they can't count on Cena being available past April. Ditto with Goldberg. Lesnar probably intends to take his usual hiatus post-WM, win or lose. Vince will want some stability coming out of this situation, and having the world title scene taken care of may help with that.

This. It's become clear that if Vince cancels WM, WWE doesn't get paid. If Tampa city officials cancel, WWE still gets their money. Also keep in mind how Tampa is/was counting on WM to bolster their economy. The last thing they need is paying for a show that likely won't happen as currently advertised. Everyone is also hoping that by March 31/April 1, the pandemic has peaked. That's 18/19 days from now and maybe it's possible. I wouldn't count on it, though.

I seem to recall Cena having at least one good match with Wyatt, but I'm fuzzy on the specifics. Reigns managed to do pretty well with Bray during their singles feud in 2015. Bray's a solid enough worker with the right opponent. Bryan no doubt has done the best with him, though.

The Fiend shouldn't have been in the title picture this soon. He could have gone a year or longer without it. WWE backed themselves in a corner. They not only put Fiend in the main event, but against Seth Rollins, a babyface on shaky ground. With how poorly they handled HIAC, they had no choice but to belt Fiend and try to salvage Rollins with a heel turn. I think Vince/creative had a decent understanding of The Fiend, at least at first. But when they saw how much money he was making, they went too far and began overbooking him. Ultimately, Goldberg's win comes down to it being Mania season. If WWE looks to sell the rights to their Big 4 PPVs one day, it's easier by showcasing Goldberg/Reigns in the moment. Fiend still can get a top match if they put him with Cena. Reigns/Fiend can happen later, and likely be better with Fiend chasing a champion Roman. Like Joker chasing Batman. WWE definitely put themselves in a bad spot, but they used the Goldberg loophole to get out of it as best they could.

It's been 5 years, and some still want to burn Roman at the stake for it. I've heard of holding a grudge, but really?

Roman gets used as a heat magnet more than anyone, and these are the comments he still gets.

While it's clear they haven't cared about the RAW/SD women's division since Ronda left, I'm still surprised at how little they've promoted it. We all know any able-bodied woman on RAW/SD will be in the match, along with several NXT and NXT UK people. But only four announcements to this point! No Bueno.

I'll cut them some slack. It seems Roman wanted to take a step back last year to focus on his health. He barely worked any house shows for the first 4-5 months after his return. Did a number of tag matches. He needed to get back to full strength. That said, they should have put him in a tag team for a few months with someone they were looking to build. Have them win the tag titles. It takes pressure off Roman, uses his status to elevate a new star, and gives the division a boost with some cool matches. Even if one feels they haven't done enough with him--no argument from me on that--Roman is the only SD person to consistently get strong pops. Even Bryan can sometimes get lukewarm receptions, which boggles my mind. People care about the guy. Which I believe FOX notices, along with the numbers Roman puts up for the WWE on FOX YouTube channel and other social media platforms. It seems FOX wants a full-on star from the WWE deal and Roman is that star for them. Just a hunch on my part, I'll admit. If nothing else, we all can agree they spent far too much effort on Rollins. Who else could beat Lesnar twice and have no one care?

It's not that Corbin is bad. He's pretty good, and is willing to be a true heel when that's not the case for most these days. The problem is he's pushed well beyond his limits. His booking during King of the Ring was great. He was exactly where he needed to be: an upper-midcard guy who uses his size to bully smaller opponents. He can main event a B-PPV with a top guy occasionally. But he's not a permanent main eventer and they've got to stop giving him a third of a show's time like he is. As far as the longest, hardest pushed, confirmed audience killer ever? Rollins has got to be in the running. At least Corbin hasn't been a multi-time World champion who squandered all the good will he had in less than a year.

There are a couple of rumors floating around that WWE is aware about possible bad ratings. If true, I say it's coming from FOX, considering how invested they are in promoting SD. @Mad Dogmakes a good point: Corbin was blamed for RAW's rating slide this time last year. The McMahons directly ridiculed him for it. So why give Corbin a prime spot on SD as they transition that show to a wider audience? Weird. And pinning Roman doesn't help Corbin. He still looks like a goober, needing 15 guys to take down one. Part of me thinks this is going to build to Roman snapping and destroying everyone in the locker room. Because why wouldn't he? They can't be bothered to help when a dozen guys jump him, so it's only fair. He worked a TV-only schedule for about 4-5 months after his return, but he's clearly back to full speed now. So wrap up this Corbin angle and let's get the actual show back on the road.

I was just teasing ya!

You've convinced me. Bayley is hideous! Elias is right, burn her at the stake!

The Bayley/Elias segment was terrible. It's one thing to say Bayley's haircut makes her look like she wants to speak to your manager. It does, and I imagine that's intentional with Bayley leaning into her role. But no one with good sense would think Bayley is ugly, haircut or not. Sadly, some fans are trying to push that narrative. Seeing WWE play into it is frustrating, to say the least. I'm not sure what they're doing with Elias. He insults Bayley, and he implies he'll have sex with Drake Maverick's frustrated wife before spanking Maverick in the ring. Not only is Elias embarrassing others for no apparent reason, but he's using their intimate lives to do it. I guess it'll tie in with Dana Brooke, who's been onscreen with Elias for all this. But it's weird and as others mentioned, gets no one over. The ham thing wasn't bad. Otis got Sami in the Secret Santa draw was the setup. Otis gets Sami a baked ham, because who doesn't like ham? But Sami is rightfully offended because he's vegan. It showed Otis as an impulsive but well-meaning guy, and his apology to Sami seemed 100% sincere. Otis is written as a bit of a lug, but he's got a good heart and having Sami/Nakamura/Cesaro get decent heat on what could have been a throwaway backstage segment worked fine. And Otis is super popular, no question about it. The dog food bit may seem OTT, but it's an old-school trope that worked with Roman and Corbin. Folks were UPSET at Corbin, and ready to beat his ass. It revved up the feud, so mission accomplished. I think they've done a decent job building TLC. It's a weird-feeling show, but the big matches all have stories behind them. It'll be interesting to see it unfold tonight.

It's definitely a southern territory tactic. They were in North Carolina, so it makes sense to do it there. I agree, it sounds like a Prichard idea. Big Dog, dog food. It fits. If Roman puts a choke collar on Corbin at TLC, the story has its perfect ending. Corbin and Ziggler didn't put any of whatever mystery meat that was into Roman's mouth. They didn't slop the stuff completely over him, either. Enough to make the point, but he wasn't drenched. The act itself is visceral enough to make the crowd scream for their heads on a stake. And since we haven't seen it done in who knows when, it made an impact. Some will be OK with and others won't, but it got the desired reaction they wanted. Vince and Heyman's fantasies come to life is another ball of wax, no argument there. Roman gets handcuffed with Alpo dumped on him, but Drake Maverick being spanked like a child over Elias' knee was more humiliating IMO.

I try to understand why so many like him, but I don't get it. And the only reason we didn't get a triple threat with the men's main event titles is because Brock and Bray would have made him look like a child.

Very true. It's one thing to want your team/brand to win, but Candice being a sneak goes 100% against her character. Especially working with Io to do it.

I agree with your overall point, but Bischoff knew going after Vince with guns blazing would cause a ruckus. He embraced it. I don't know if those currently involved have the same devil may care approach. If everyone is in on the joke/work, using social media to build a full rivalry would be fun. I just don't think it can happen with how things operate now.