Slasher

I know that he comes out for the big shows but I dunno- if I was booking his character, I would have it that promotional materials would have him be the normal hero guy he is. You have to actually tune in to see the demon...or use google images lol, but you know what I mean. Then again, I would also be booking the character completely different. The demon would be a last resort nuclear option only because it takes a lot out of him. Just imagine if the demon comes out when all chips are down, hope seems lost, and he is unstoppable- a true supernatural force that no sold everything and ate his opponent alive. But the rub is that it takes a lot out of him where he is weakened for a period after. More prone to losses in matches, having less endurance, etc as he recovered back to optimal levels of normal hero strength.

This is really nitpicky but I don't like that they used the demon look for the title match picture there. It should just be Finn shown with the belt. But then again I have fallen behind in my NXT viewing so I might have missed Balor becoming a demon full time.

They have considered him to be retired. He doesn't want to be retired but he probably doesn't want to wrestle so badly he would leave WWE to do it. So I think he is just resigned to the fact he probably won't be used again as a wrestler but hoping things change. Bryan wants to wrestle so badly that he probably could make waves to do it but he probably is waiting for Brie to be out of the way first.

But I don't think they want to actually turn Summer babyface. I think they would just prefer to discard her entirely from the angle when Lana returns to Rusev.

I think it wasn't made a mixed tag because it would be easier to book Lana turning on Dolph to reunite with Rusev this way. Have Lana take out Summer at ringside at a key point in the match, leading to a Dolph segment where it looks like he is riding a comeback out into victory...only for Lana to turn. If they did a tag, it would just be awkward to have Summer get turned on by Rusev while turning on Dolph. Just my guess.

I mean, they could. They could also do nothing. I still don't know why they put Harper back with Bray, honestly. My guess is they want to keep the Reigns/Wyatt feud going and realized it seriously had no juice to it so they added Ambrose and Harper to liven up the scene. But supposedly Sting was figured in this somewhere at some point so who the hell knows? Sad to say though, without Wyatt it would be "Creative has nothing" for poor Luke.

To be fair, I think it's always been a part of wrestling, for decades and decades, that when they hammer home too hard the idea that someone has someone else's back, a turn may well happen. They usually tease something first. They have teased nothing except them being good friends even family.Maybe in the match they can tease it so it makes sense, but nothing before now indicates anything.Usually but not always. They sure didn't tease it when Rollins turned on the other two. I wouldn't count the one time he walked out of their match in February either since they were as close as ever for a solid three months afterwards. Shitty booking is shitty booking. Agreed. I sincerely hope no one is turning here. Turning Ambrose and putting him in the Family would effectively end any chance he has of being a singles success and fast track him to the same place Del Rio, Ziggler and all those perpetual upper midcarders go to stagnate.

Maybe, but with the permanent free trial month, couldn't they just get this month's show and cancel right away? Is Amell really debuting a new costume at Summerslam? Or is he just bringing his traditional outfit he wore on the show the first two seasons?

Eh maybe but this was Hogan's return match for WWE after nearly a decade of being away. The Rock was always going to be old shoes in comparison.

To be fair, I think it's always been a part of wrestling, for decades and decades, that when they hammer home too hard the idea that someone has someone else's back, a turn may well happen. They usually tease something first. They have teased nothing except them being good friends even family.Maybe in the match they can tease it so it makes sense, but nothing before now indicates anything. Usually but not always. They sure didn't tease it when Rollins turned on the other two. I wouldn't count the one time he walked out of their match in February either since they were as close as ever for a solid three months afterwards.

That probably isn't true. People wouldn't speculate on it if there weren't possible signs. I have watched every Raw for 7 weeks. Where are the hints? Haven't watched much lately but I have heard that they have been playing up the Reigns/Ambrose friendship just a tad bit too much, like as Masked Man of Grantland (ugh) says, a reverse foreshadowing.

LOL. Then what? Taker exits the ring meekly with the segment having served no point? I think the day he retires completely from the ring is the day he either 1. Stops being the Undertaker and from that point on is known as Mark Calloway, WWE legend or 2. Vanishes from WWE tv forever.

That probably isn't true. People wouldn't speculate on it if there weren't possible signs.

If they turn Reigns heel, I truly honestly believe he'd be done as a possible ace. Reigns would have to make an once in a lifetime transformation to recover from the disaster that the past year has been for him capping off with the turn. I am talking Rocky Maivia into the Rock or Ringmaster into Stone Cold level transformation.

Obviously they didn't do the exact same scenario but something similar was the starting point of Daniel Bryan's heel turn a few years ago. He won the MITB and decreed that he would be the first guy to cash ahead of time and at Wrestlemania...then ended up cashing it in December on Mark Henry or Big Show after their match. Would be a cool idea to do the exact scenario you laid out though.

I know but wouldn't surprise me if the company didn't mind burning money in mass producing the t-shirts just to swerve us know it all smarks. I mean they did release the shirts at a very convenient time-a mere week or two before a big match that could give him an extra notch in the record book.

Thing about predicting the title match based on a t-shirt, they have been releasing t-shirts the past few months of Brock's Suplex City customized for the cities the WWE roll in town on, so it isn't totally unprecedented for them to release t-shirts that would soon be obsolete. Especially if they understand it is the new way to throw a meta red herring.

What was even the point of it all anyways? I mean if this girl Sara Lee isn't who she purports herself to be...ok...so? It is scripted entertainment. They are all playing characters. It just feels like something they did on purpose to get people buzzing about the show.

I do wonder what they had planned for him. Owens was already going to be the guy programmed against Cena but yeah Zayn wasn't put in that match just as an one off. Although then again Zayn was also programmed against Owens in NXT at the time so it is possible Zayn would have won that title back and let Owens chase the US title full time.

I know that they have so many hours a week they do with programming but they could just leave Raw and Smackdown alone and instead, turn the NXT and Main Event slots into a new brand. 1 hour each=2 hours a week dedicated to the new brand plus the network specials serving as their pay per view type shows. Obviously Vince is going to want his top stars on the staple show anyways so it could be the new brand is a mixture of the more advanced NXT guys with the lesser featured main roster guys. So you can have an interesting variety of talents including guys like El Torito or Fandango or whoever mixing it up. You could even throw in Jericho as a guest star who shows up to wrestle the top stars of this brand in one off matches or even you can bring in Luke Harper for short programs when the main shows want to focus on Bray Wyatt. Things like that.

RoH probably can't do anything right now to really try to compete. I don't think they should tuck their tails in and bow in to WWE by any means but they really shouldn't think about fighting back. Even though it makes perfect sense to do it, they probably shouldn't try to hoover up fans by booking shows in the same towns on the same weekend as WWE. I know lately the WWE have been aggressive about going after RoH bookings but the WWE is a globally touring company. There is no reason the RoH can't find towns that WWE wouldn't be able to get to at certain times. If WWE books a show in California for instance, they aren't going to rush their team to Pittsfield, MA to oppose a RoH show that is there the same night. They should just focus on improving their roster, their tv shows, their direction, their production, etc etc and find a way to just be a profitable alternative until what Zoo Enthusiast said, the WWE gets bored. A bully stops when they realize there isn't really much of fun in fighting someone who is completely uninterested in fighting.

Everyone they want to call up are going to get called up but there definitely seems to be some kind of weird plan they have where guys are only going to get called up after a certain time in NXT, beyond actually developing. Like when it seems like time is right to end marketing for the guy on NXT and moving him up into the next phase. There is no reason Zayn should have been in NXT this long and that was even without the injury factored in. He was definitely part of their marketing vision for NXT that they wanted sold before he finally got a call up. But yes ultimately NXT is a developmental territory and until that changes and changes so visibly obvious with guys like Orton or Sheamus or anyone with a big name and less of a direction (or hell throw US Champion Cena pre-Rollins program in there) going down to NXT for cup of coffee programs with NXT talents, they should keep Cesaro away if they are serious about pushing him. He already had his cup last year with that excellent program with Zayn, no need to do it again. The only way Cesaro should be involved with the NXT title is if Owens won it back and Ceaaro goaded him into putting it on the line AT Summerslam in a big pay per view event that superseded the NXT scope. Doing it on Raw is just lesser of value and after already wrestling the guy at Summerslam, there is no good reason to do it. But then again, like mentioned, no point in hurting Balor's aura just to run that angle and even moreso hurting Owens by having the guy win a title only to hand it over to someone else.

Honestly I would go with NXT right now because first of all, they will be talents that I would be seeing on TV someday as potential stars, the booking is more old fashioned and simple and there are just more guys I am personally interested in than the core RoH roster. Now if RoH was doing a show with the best NJ has to offer, that would be different but again- that is novelty whereas NXT is not (in terms of storylines).

While I like the idea, they need to start making Cesaro a big deal. Owens worked because he was coming UP from NXT so it was the big dog from NXT going into Raw events. Cesaro is already a main roster member. It would actually be a step down if he went down there to challenge for the title. It would be saying he can't really compete for the big boy belts so he is trying his luck with the minor league belt, even if they have done a great job making NXT more than that. If they want to spin their wheels in the mud with a Cesaro push, by all means go for it. If they want to start elevating him...that means...ELEVATING him. You know, UPWARD movement.

I don't know. Cesaro was a lot of fun last year in NXT but if this is really the time to push Cesaro, he probably should be kept strictly on the main roster. Until they have guys like Cena, Orton, Sheamus etc going down there for a quick program or two also anyways.