Slasher

It is okay to enjoy the show AND to have a criticism of someone or something from the show. Not everyone has to turn off their brains to enjoy something.

In a real combat sport the objective is to be victorious. Not to be the guy with the most memorable match. Although you do see fight bonuses be given to guys with the best knockout or submission or whatever, that is only secondary to the fact that you...won the fight.

It is definitely a way for Triple H to prove to people he can be a viable successor to Vince. It is about that being as visible as possible for stockholders and for the fans that wonders about the future. Unfortunately he is being very heavy-handed about it but I can understand the strategy.

That would be a big deal since the NFL has a partnership with them as well...in fact dedicating a whole month of games to the cause by having them dress in pink gloves and pink cleats and so forth.

No. It is sacrificing a point in order to weaken your opponent for a future point.

Yeah it is very likely Balor turns not Joe. Turning Joe requires having grand plans for him beyond this program. Turning Balor is a natural step in keeping him moving towards wherever they want him to end up.

While it is true Vince has authority over what is on the shows, Triple H has 100% creative control clause written in his contract over his own character. I find it hard to believe that he would want to be someone else and the evil Vince has argued him into submission that he would just say "yes dad" at this point. I think it is very likely this is a compromise between the two entities.

Well then good thing it would appear that Bryan is never coming back as a wrestler again. I really do believe if Bryan wrestles again, it would be either a result of a lawsuit he files against them for preventing him to make a living or that he was released and works an AJ Styles type indy tour style of commitments.

One of the things that held Daniel Bryan back for so long was that he was just happy to be in the company wrestling in front of the fans. He was pretty much the embodiment of the attitude that Vince hates about the "millennials". Like Johnny says, this isn't meant to be literal. It is just their way of saying you have to go after something big. To aspire to be the best worker you can possibly be, someone that can actually stand out with the fans as opposed to being a ham n egger who comes to the shows with their heads down and just committing enough effort to get through a match before going on to the next town.

I love the Mankind match from Shotgun in 97 for what it was, a 10 minute match similar to the matches Bret had with JPL which would incorporate a more wild aspect at times. Being a throw away television match in early 97, both were protected with a lame non finish though. I would have loved to have seen babyface Bret work a proper programe with heel Mankind in 1996 / 1997. You have to believe they would have created a classic or two. I can't see that. Mankind's strength was his bumping and selling. I don't think Bret had enough of a high end kind of offense to highlight Foley. At least with Shawn he could fly all over the place and attack Mankind that way. What is Bret gonna do? Wear him down? Well maybe we would see more of the "stab fork in the affected area" kinda psychotic selling from limbwork.

Sasuke I think is one of the all-timers as far as Japanese juniors go. Amazing Red was a great worker in the American indies but I never felt like he was one of the top 10 in that category at any point in his career. Well except for a list of best TNA X Division workers but that is extremely low hanging fruit.

I am a fan of the idea of part time schedules and maybe rotations of wrestlers available at any given season but there is just too much tv they have to fill. They would probably end up burning out guys even more quickly if they are featured more heavily in their time showcased to offset the loss of the other popular wrestlers who are off. I am not sure a 3 month hiatus is enough. Batista and Lesnar only really felt fresh returning because they were gone for YEARS. I don't think it is possible to take guys off that long even though definitely guys like Orton would probably be one to benefit greatly from that kind of absence.

Sure but I also meant basically getting rid of 95% of their roster who are all overexposed and really stale to the point there is really nothing left the fans haven't seen already with all of them. Then putting an all new cast of characters front and center of it all. I mean that kind of drastic. That kind of ridiculousness that would never happen. I mean what good is a makeover if all of it is boiled down to the same feuds and same programs we have already? Sheamus vs Dolph in the snow of Siberia probably would be out of the world weird in terms of viscerality but it is still two tired midcarders fighting for the same tired reasons.

It was a comment that was meant to prop Rey up more than tear down Red. Rey is a top 5 wrestler all time IMO just as Ric Flair is for most everyone. Red and Jarrett could be in the top 100 for some people but they are no Rey/Flair. It was to demonstrate how silly it is to lump Rey with Red based, presumably, on the idea they are high flyers.

If they were going to do Bryan/Batista, it should have happened the pay per view after Extreme Rules. Orton as the former champ should have logically gotten his rematch first, especially since it wasn't him that Bryan beat to win the belt. No matter how you slice it, Kane was an awful choice to kick off the Bryan championship defense tour. They had history to be sure but Kane was just previously feuding with the Shield when Bryan won the belt. The earliest they should have pencilled Kane in as a challenger was MITB or thereabouts. Of course we all know what was coming Summerslam regardless of who the champ was gonna be at the time.

I don't think Triple H looked at the Rumble crowd and decided "I gotta get in on that action with Bryan". Everything they did for months prior was built up to Bryan/HHH, even though that was apparently not their original intent. They absolutely had to have Bryan vs Triple H to blow off the whole half year storyline. It was one of the rare cases where Triple H was actually the right and logical opponent for the hot property. This isn't like that time where they had the Rock return to ask Eugene who his favorite wrestler was and getting Triple H as an answer. Now that was Triple H shoehorning himself into the hot act's storyline. As for the NFL thing, again, really, what CAN they do at this point? There is no answer that is so obvious that they could just pull a trigger on something with a big windfall. If there was, they would have done it already by now. Yes sure, changing the presentation and the aesthestics of everything they do would make it fresher but that doesn't necessarily translate to better numbers. The fans weren't turned off because they use the same color of ring ropes from 1998. They are turned off because the product itself creatively speaking is way beyond stale and sucks. But that isn't something they can turn around in short order. It would require something mindblowingly drastic like opening the show with Vince McMahon showing his toy chest and then tossing it in the dumpster and declaring a new era of new faces, new announcers, new agents and new sets. And you know that isn't ever happening or is not even anywhere close to realistic.

Could just be that Cena is pretty burnt out and since he isn't in any major angles right now he saw it as an opportunity to take off to recharge his batteries.

The other issue is I don't think Triple H entirely gets the value of having a strong babyface. Especially as goc points out, he was really the NWA heel champion fan. He thinks that because Harley Race and Ric Flair made it work, he would rather build a company on that philosophy rather than the WWF philosophy of having the franchise babyface ace. Who has he even started building up to succeed John Cena as the next guy? He has been more invested in building up the next heel champion superstar than he has in that. I just don't think Triple H's WWE will be what Vince's WWE had always been.

Nope, calling bullshit on this. Vince clearly understood his role was to get the babyfaces over at his expense I do not at all believe he had some secret wish to book himself as God mode HHH but just couldn't get away with it. Especially when Vince's philosophy has always been that the heels make the babyface look strong and his foundation has always been built on a strong babyface Ace of the company while HHH grew up idolizing Harley Race and Ric Flair the traveling heel champ who by hook or crook always retains his belt. Vince has said many times that he is really the Stone Cold character. So in a way he has always played out his fantasies in reverse. Triple H's authority figure character is like a mix of the Stone Cold character in terms of how badass he was and the Vince character in terms of power. I am not trying to suggest that Vince wouldn't put over Stone Cold if he had Triple H's pedigree. But the fact remains, it is still his show and he is letting Triple H run all over the babyfaces so to say he would never have booked that shit is patently untrue because...well he is booking that shit now.

While you are right in just about everything, it needs to be pointed out there is one key difference between Vince and Triple H that probably plays into their mindset of booking the two characters- Vince was never a wrestler and Triple H is espoused to be one of their greatest wrestlers ever. It doesn't make sense for Triple H to piss his pants when he once got dropped in a vehicle from high above and returned a week later to get his revenge. Basically Triple H is probably everything Vince has always wished his own character to be but knew it wasn't possible.

Amazing Red is to Rey Mysterio what Jeff Jarrett is to Ric Flair.

1. I am not making a football excuse. I am saying the WWE and/or people need to stop comparing the WWE's ratings to the NFL because they are never going to be close. The NFL is way ahead of the WWE because it is a sport that is watched by far many more people than wrestling can honestly ever hope to get. I am saying they need to start changing their goalposts to something else than "Well MNF kicked our ass. We gotta get Brock on the show. That'll fix it." No. What they need to do is start figuring out how to change not just for the fall but for the spring when football isn't around. For the summer when football isn't around. Then if you have done well, you will have people still watching in the fall. It needs to have a sweeping change within the WWE. Trying to compete with the NFL now only gets them short term gains that eventually turns into long term losses and those short term gains won't even matter to begin with. 2. I agree the issue is that the product is uber stale and this is why they need to stop worrying about football and start worrying about themselves. 3. I don't care if Triple H is actually off tv or not. I am simply saying Triple H should never be wrestling for anything if not for his departure. The only times Triple H should wrestle are situations like the Shield where he just wrestles to put over his charges as the new top dogs or Daniel Bryan where the only stake is sending Daniel Bryan into the main event to put him over. If Triple H has to wrestle Rollins it should never involve the WWE title. It should just be that he wants to put Rollins in his place vs Rollins wanting to prove that he can be and is the man. Nothing more is required. Triple H is at the point of his career he is actually comfortable as the new Vince. He should be choosing his matches rather judiciously and it needs to carry some significance all in itself without needing to tie in any championships in the equation. I know Vince wrestled for belts a few times but Triple H doesn't need that shot of legitimacy in the promotion of his matches. He is already a "legend". Descending down from his throne in the WWE heavens to strap on his pads and don his tights should be an event in itself even if we don't care to see it.

Genuinely would not be surprised if Triple H beats Seth for the WWE Title around Royal Rumble time, so that Triple H Vs. The Rock (if it happens) will be for the title at Wrestlemania. I hope not. The Rock should be beating Triple H at Wrestlemania but he won't if the belt is on the line because he probably won't be there the following Monday. Or the special event after that. That's not even to get into the fact Triple H should not be wrestling anybody for any stakes other than to write his character off.

Yes. That should be their focus-what they can do to be better in general, not what they can do to beat the NFL because that's never going to happen and could lead to them burning out viable things like Brock Lesnar. He shouldn't be on Raw to beat the NFL if there is no good idea how to actually utilize him at this point. It would make it less meaningful the next time they do bring him out for a good storyline.

There really isn't much they can do. The NFL is red hot and they got games on all three days that the WWE would have big shows (Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays). The best WWE need to do is readjust their mindset that it isn't about ratings anymore but whether they are still making money in other ways that matters.