Slasher

I can believe it. A few years ago when Kofi was doing a main event program with Randy Orton, there was a discussion here or on WCMB about if Kofi could have pulled off a serious vibe to his character. Someone then linked to a promo he cut in the indies before he joined the WWE. He was a heel in that clip and he actually showed a good aptitude to convey a serious urban menace. I was surprised but ever since then, I've been waiting for him to do a heel run in the WWE just to see if he could do that on the big stage. The character he has now isn't the same as what I saw but he's effective, definitely.

He'd probably have as much success as Bret Hart did against Hogan in the WWF. Probably but you can bet Punk would make a bigger fuss out of that than Bret ever did. Which probably puts Punk in WCW by the end of 1993...then ECW in 1994/1995 when Hogan jumps over.

How do we even know that Punk only started following them in 2013? I am a Blackhawks fan, have been since the Tony Amonte years, but I've only started being vocal about it since 2009 or so. Doesn't make me a fair weather fan or anything like that. Obviously it is more fun to talk about your team when they are winners. Same thing with the White Sox, Bulls and Bears.

Punk is super into hockey and he takes great pride in the Blackhawks. At this point anyone who bothers with hockey should definitely know how to pronounce Jonathan Toews's name or who is coaching the conference champions. It is really in bad taste when a celebrity takes a gig doing special announcements and can't be bothered to learn a thing or two about the thing he is doing.

Brock has always been a guy who never went along with the Authority. He was booked to be at odds with them last year too when he was destroying guys and demanding a world title shot before the Undertaker took his attention away from that issue. Also although the WWE knows Michael Cole isn't a guy the fans liked, booking Brock to destroy him on his way out after Mania this year wasn't supposed to be a babyface move. The reality is Brock is, in their eyes, a tweener with heelish tendencies. The only reason he gets cheers is because the fans respect him as a megastar part time attraction. So if they wanted Austin vs Brock, they don't have to do a single thing differently with him to make the program make sense. That doesn't scream "babyface" to me but that is just my opinion.

I think Owens is a different case, especially compared to all of those others that are all comedy/prelim characters. He has also paraded the belt around on all of the shows he has been on. Just strip it from him for something and have a tournament. The fanbase of NXT would love a tournament. They have already booked Owens opposite NXT officials like Regal in storyline so they can very easily write him out of the show via suspension or termination only to have the evil Authority sign him to a main roster contract.

Nobody in the office turned Brock babyface. It was the fans who turned him. Doesn't mean they have to comply for the sake of the storyline they want to tell.

Didn't Austin and Hogan run promos on each other at the Hall of Fame ceremony? Wasn't Vince present then as well?

It is not that Vince doesn't see them as draws. It is that he doesn't want someone to transcend the WWE brand name. It doesn't matter if you're a male heavyweight, male lightweight, woman, white, black, giant or midget-Vince wants it to be "WWE", not the Steve Austin and Dwayne Johnson show or the Sasha Banks show or whatever. This point isn't really what this thread is about obviously but it is a waste of time IMO to debate anything relating to creating draws for the company when that philosophy is pretty blatant. John Cena is likely the last ever "Ace"/draw for the WWE. After he goes I don't think they are interested in developing someone on that level again.

For me, the problem with Balor is that he doesn't wrestle any different in his body paint than when he is a regular guy. They should be booking it as if Finn is a regular wrestler but that in big time matches on big shows he allows for the eye of Balor to open, donning body paint and just eating his opponents alive. And to combat the idea that fans might have where he should just be Balor all the time to win, book it so that being Balor does take a lot out of him. Maybe he collapses in exhaustion at the end of his victories or during matches where he is just Finn, being prone to more mistakes or something. They developed an interesting idea with the whole Finn/Balor dynamic and should play that up to the hilt.

Because it worked out so well for WCW and Bill Goldberg, right?

I think Vince McMahon the true heel character already had his blowoff with the Bret Mania thing. Now he should be retired as the face of the WWE, which should be reflected in a positive manner, not humiliation or getting beat down.

I still think the answer is simple: 1. Present your product in "seasons" format, with a premiere and finale in place and offseasons to rest your talents. 2. Make it strictly a television/internet property, so you would have them wrestling in something similar to television studios with no wrestling audiences. Maybe you have studio audience for extra revenue but I would prefer if not. 3. Going back to the first point, having a season means having a storyline arc with a clear end game leading into the season finales. This means developing characters and creating an internal logic that never betrays itself. 4. Actually have auditions for roles. This means you are likely to have actors playing characters rather than wrestlers attempting to act. Obviously the ideal guy would be Dwayne Johnson who can do both, but you can branch out to guys like Channing Tatum or etc who can credibly play tough characters while possessing a higher skillset in acting. As an addition to this point, ideally you put your chosen actors through something akin to wrestling school/performance center so you aren't asking actors to do unsafe moves on each other with no training. It also means getting rid of the old "lets break them down so we can build them up" mentality. Treat your actors with respect when putting them through training and try to enhance their experience so you can have more people wanting to audition in future seasons rather than be scared off with horror training camp stories. I think that is the real future for non WWE mainstream wrestling...if such a thing could exist.

I guess I would agree with the larger point but honestly Cena's finisher is already done with as a protected finisher and has been for a while. As long as they aren't kicking out of that springboard stunner/AA combo or the top rope AA, I am fine with them kicking out of the regular AA.

Why? If you were a guy stuck with no direction and you had the opportunity to win a championship off the long time "The Man", wouldn't you wrestle it like it was your Wrestlemania main event match?

The arm injury happened before the match began. Cena immediately covered it by injuring the arm. When I was a kid and really into basketball, Marcus Webb, a benchwarmer for the Celtics broke his finger cracking his knuckles on the bench. This injury is kind of up there with that. Eh I think Kevin Nash blowing out his quad WALKING in the ring has that beat.

Considering the usual booking involving newer not quite main event level MITB winners, it is somewhat refreshing they have stuck firmly with keeping Seth Rollins relatively strong. Yes people wanted to see Dean Ambrose win but somehow I don't think that was their point with the whole feud. It was clearly meant to be Rollins' big showcase feud, showing he is in fact smarter or better than his ex-Shield mate. I am sure Dean will have his day someday down the road. This wasn't it. The hierarchy is clearly meant to be Reigns-Rollins-Ambrose and no wonder because Ambrose has the personality to serve as a mechanic of some sort with other characters whereas you have to kind of be more careful with Reigns and Rollins.

This may not be a popular opinion but I think Ambrose is reaching his peak already. I can't imagine him turning his persona up even more for a "blood" chapter in his feud with Rollins. He has already pretty much done almost everything there is to do as a man on a mission babyface.

It is actually quite simple. Regardless of their philosophical leaning towards being heels, they are still the Authority who wants what they think is best for business. If Triple H and/or Stephanie calls on Brock to defend the title in future main events, Brock holds all the leverage in the world. Perhaps one too many refusal to comply with the Authority's demands could force them to take action. They already stripped Daniel Bryan of the title when they discovered his not being able to work. Why wouldn't they do the same for the champion who refuses to defend against "subpar"/"non drawing" opponents two or three big events in a row?

Always thought the Ascension was something that Triple H has kept in mind ever since his time filming Blade.

It hinges on connection. You don't have to have ethnic undertones or overtones to your character to get over but there has to be something there that makes people go "That's my guy in there". For such a long time ethnic identity WAS the natural way to get that connection. The Sammartino and Morales examples up there, but you also had Junkyard Dog and Jim Duggan in Mid South playing men of the people and in Duggan's case later on, country. You had Dusty Rhodes doing the American Dream schtick. Even Hulk Hogan was rooted in the hyper patriotism of the Cold War 1980s America. I mean really, you don't see this? How about Bret Hart as the Canadian hero who was the defender of all that is decent? It was the Attitude Era that kind of tapped in a different way of finding that connection with Steve Austin, Mankind and The Rock. But before that? Yeah Ethnicity played a big part of the game. Nowadays I think it is silly to dust off old stereotypes and put them out there but there is definitely room for an updated model of the ethnic heroes. ADR's wasn't it though.

Unless of course it was ADR's brilliant WWE employment equation to suicide by cop. If the guy wasn't happy there and didn't want to wait out the contract this is a genius (please note sarcasm) way to get out. Not everyone can be Punk, I guess.

Catching up on NXT lately and don't get me wrong because obviously if you pull 49 women off the street and lined them up alongside Charlotte, she's probably top ten hot/attractive, but in the scope of who they have right now in the WWE, I am not getting the Charlotte push at all as a pretty girl. They should be playing up her family lineage although I do know it would probably put extra pressure on her to always be compared to the guy most folks consider the greatest wrestler of all time. Maybe strike a good balance between the Flair thing and her natural athleticism? The BFF push just doesn't suit her IMO.

Problem with that is the concept is usually predicated on the fact he was once a dominant personality in his career when in fact...he wasn't ever put in such a position. Compare that to what Triple H has been doing this year-losing to Daniel Bryan in a major Mania match and losing convincingly to the Shield on back to back pay per views after a career of neverending domination. It is more startling what Triple H has been doing this year. Jericho? Not at all anywhere close.

I don't buy in the idea of Rollins being a double agent. At what point in the feud between the Shield and Evolution did the Shield look out of their element? They beat Evolution every time in the important matches, they've seen Batista "quit" on Evolution... there wouldn't have been any reasonable scenario where the Shield found this tactic beneficial to them. Let's suppose Triple H approaches Rollins with the offer and Rollins goes to his teammates and they talk the idea out, there is no logical reason for them to decide "Yes... this is what we need to do here". They should have the confidence in themselves to just beat Evolution at every turn from that point on. Now in terms of creative booking, if this was the direction, they picked the wrong guy to do it with. Rollins has been pushed as the architect/mastermind, Reigns the golden boy/future main event star, and Ambrose the... third wheel? Ambrose would have been the better fit, because whether fans wanted to admit it or not, he oozes insanity and unreliability. His turning heel and aligning with Triple H would have come across much more effectively, due to the nature of his character and the fans would definitely get hooked easily on the idea. Here's this psychotic jackal finding value in getting the backing of the Authority. Wouldn't that be much more believable? Then add in the moment where it's eventually revealed as a double agent move, I think it would get Ambrose that much more over with the fans... realizing their reservations for his character to be unfounded. Just my two cents.