Slasher

I agree with what you're saying, but you can't include Punk in that, the guy is made now. He is like Bret Hart in 1995, he can afford to be feuding with dentists and Japanese men with marker pen down their body. the works remaining consistent, the fan base is hot and you know sooner or later he will be holding the title again and producing quality, top line work. Essentially yes but the crowd still wants to see Punk in the main event mix. One of the reasons why Bret Hart isn't regarded higher as a draw is because of this shit with Yankem and Hakushi and Lafitte. I know Bret wasn't that popular as a champion but you still hurt his value long term if you book him like a guy you value but always have an eye on the door for someone better to walk through. It is an interesting comparison because I see Reigns as a guy they definitely pushed Bret to the side for only to see he bombs so Bret/Punk gets another go round with the belt til the next guy up materializes. I like Reigns but his is a character that benefits from a slow burn. Look at Batista. He came in as a demonic associate of Reverend D'von Dudley then he got a bigger but subdued push as the monster of Evolution. He was in a position to be dominant within the confines of the stable. The fans finally received him as a smart badass in a suit who knew what his evil and hated mentor Triple H was up to and he called him out on it in a hot segment where he powerbombed Triple H through a table. At this point is when Reigns should be established as a viable singles threat without the obvious spectre of title matches hanging over him.

It's a mistake. The fans are smart enough to notice when a push gets ramped up too much too quickly. It becomes less organic and I'm thinking if Reigns doesn't put up the necessary work to justify it, they might resist the push. Right now they are dying to see Daniel Bryan and CM Punk get rewarded for their work with main event pushes. If they see Reigns put over them in a top spot, well... we'll see how that turns out.

Won't happen but I'd love if he showed up as a guest of the Authority and played both Triple H and Randy Orton for fools before doing the thumbs down and bombing them both to hell.

I think this debate is pretty stupid, honestly. It's pretty clear that every generation tends to be insular, because it seeps deep through to our psyche. Whatever happens in every individual life is what is important to us. We are born alone, we die alone and everything that happens in between belongs to us. Some people like things that happened outside their life, so they are more diligent in seeking those things out, but generally we are pretty content in letting life flash in front of our eyes. For example, I love old movies and I think if I could, I would own a movie theater and sit in watching all the old stuff, but guess what? I'm generally going to be found watching the movies that comes out in the present moment, because that's what we do. Things tend to be interesting when we fill up our schedule with a variety of flavors in life, present stuff included. I don't fault people for not bothering to seek out old stuff and just focusing on what is flashing in front of them. It doesn't speak poorly to those people, because to be fair, there is a negative stigma to the idea that someone could "live in the past" and lose a sense of the connection that they would have in whatever is happening in front of them. To an extent, "Life is what happens when you are busy making plans" can be modified to "Life is what you miss out when you are busy hunting down the yesteryear".

So you do in fact care? I would go with Hall there, even though Orton is the better worker. I think Scott Hall, in the right position in the company, was a pretty compelling character, especially with the nWo. I always felt like he was the wild card of the original trio. Hogan was Hogan and Nash is Nash, but I could buy pretty much any storyline they did with Hall. I think Orton is in a tough position in that he is pushed above his station and that he isn't a natural character in terms of what the WWE tries to do with him. Even in his great matches over the years, like the Backlash match against Foley or most of his stuff with Cena, his work exceeds his character. Of course, I speak as a guy who watches wrestling for the characters and stories yet my faves were the guys who weren't strong in that department (Hart, Benoit, DB)

Yes. Specifically, it's a Dixieland match, which is a cage match of sorts. To win, you have to escape the cage, go up the entrance ramp, and climb a ladder to retrieve the belt that is hanging above the top of the ramp. I'm not making any of this up. And you win dinner with Dixie, correct? That's seriously what I heard. You win the world title. And a night with Dixie. Maybe Jeff took the bump on purpose knowing these stips?

Ya know, I think I understand what you were saying but reading that void of context, made me laugh.

Why would RoH pay 300 K per year (adjust for whatever it would be per appearance) for Styles? AJ won't leave TNA for less. The only reason he MIGHT leave for WWE (won't happen) is because he wants the POTENTIAL to earn more by being a main eventer (again, won't happen long term). The best he can hope for is a small run of dream matches with certain guys that WWE knows would get the geeks to shell out money for. ROH needs to sign 3 or 4 top guys to show their remaining fans they are serious about promoting wrestling . Right now ROH is just low budget tv programming for Sinclair. Sinclair Broadcasting had a net profit of $ 36 million dollars last quarter . Sinclair stock is trading around $ 34 per share as oppose to the WWE $ 14 per share. ROH can easliy pay AJ Styles , John Morrison , Alex Shelly , etc. However Sinclair runs ROH on the cheap . Again, no indy in the world should pay a PPA equivalent of 300K. That is an insanely irresponsible way of spending money. Sinclair is not responsible nor should they be for ROH's roster quality and financial cosmetics. The truth is, maybe RoH is JUST a low cost cheap programming to fill their network? If RoH shows growth in that they deserve investment, I am sure they would be happy to, but nothing so far says anything that they should look at the idea.

Why would RoH pay 300 K per year (adjust for whatever it would be per appearance) for Styles? AJ won't leave TNA for less. The only reason he MIGHT leave for WWE (won't happen) is because he wants the POTENTIAL to earn more by being a main eventer (again, won't happen long term). The best he can hope for is a small run of dream matches with certain guys that WWE knows would get the geeks to shell out money for.

I loved Angle/Benoit at the Rumble, but I do agree that Angle wrestling Benoit ruined him. After the praise he got for the series (dude, you are wrestling Chris Benoit, the technically perfect cyborg, it would be hard to fuck that up), he got it in his head that he could be this technician who needed to do a go go go style. Not everyone has the ability to harness that into a good match with him. The guys that do were great workers themselves, but you're not going to be working with a great worker on a nightly basis forever. Angle never understood that, and that was put on display when he berated Eddie Guerrero for selling his suplexes too long and ruining HIS flow of the go go go match he wanted to have in his mind.

Really? She looks a bit rough these days. There's multiple people around the boards who think Vickie is hot, so this isn't surprising. My theory is that guys don't necessarily think they are hot but that since they are labelled "cougars" (well Vickie anyways), they are "attainable".

It was a complete shock that Naylor was liked the way he was because c'mon. It is the WWE. They have the commandment etched in blood to never give genuine fans of wrestling a fair shake.

And he wouldn't have come across as being good without wrestlers bumping hard for him. In WCW, the booking didn't do him any favors but no one there was going to fly across the ring for him like a Masato Tanaka would. Same for WWF but that was more them not wanting to give any of the "WCW" guys anything at all.

I am thinking the stories they have started- Bray Wyatt recruiting Daniel Bryan, Shield dissension will play into these two matches. I think one of the two handicapped will lose and the other will win when something happens. If I had to guess, it will be Bryan losing and Punk winning. I don't see the two matches merging at all.

So late to the party you showed up when the clean up has already been completed, eh? It isn't so much that I cared. I just disagreed that it was something that showed Cena "got it", as evident by my quoting that post mentioning it. We then hashed it out and came to a simple conclusion. Issue ended. Thanks though for the comparison to the oft mocked guy.

Fair enough. I will accept that premise.

I am tired of the argument because obviously I must be wrong if I am the only guy who feels this way but I just want to respond to this one more time- This is a company that has opened up itself to social media and getting fans more involved in the backstage aspect, even if it is still worked. In the realm of what the story is being told, you are correct that they portray Cena as this West Newbury kid who grew up loving wrestling and busting his ass to get where he is. But logic would follow that if people scratched just a little deeper under that superficial layer, people would notice how Cena has typically been a protected asset (yes yes I know, he has been booked poorly compared to other WWE aces, but bear with me). People are not stupid. They see it is Cena who comes to a Zack Ryder's aid. It is Cena who stops the evil menace. He is the guy who has been put in the position typical of someone they favored...like Orton was. Now I never claimed Cena doesn't deserve what he has because he does. Hell I watched Sportsnation the two days Cena co-hosted and I always turn ESPN off after Numbers Never Lie, the show preceding it. Maybe you guys see the value in him calling an audible and "saving" the segment by kissing Bryan's ass in front of the Washington faithfuls. I personally don't. I think the brawl would have turned it around regardless and it sells the show better as it adds the intrigue of Cena and Orton's allegiance to the Authority. That is clearly just me, though, apparently. As for the Rock thing, maybe I imagined it, but I seem to remember Cena kissing the Rock's ass before the story called for the "hate" to be brought in the angle. He wasn't a good example anyways as yes, he heeled it up also, so strike that.

Because as mentioned in the post above, NBC Universal gets a cut of the Hulu revenues. If WWE puts their programming directly on their own server, what exactly would they pay NBC for? That is the concern.

Well, this time they'd be ready for Hunter. He can only turn heel once. He can't turn Heeler. You obviously feel very strongly about this but I think that there's at least an argument the other way and you're not meeting anyone half way on it. That is true. People know what to expect. I am willing to meet people halfway but that also requires people meeting me halfway also. I do find it silly that I am obviously coming on a bit strong with this stance. I like John Cena a lot. I give him a lot of props for the work he has done throughout the near decade he has been on top. I think he is one of the smartest workers they have in WWE and that he is a guy who deserves everything that has been handed to him. I just wish he did not do this ONE annoying thing of which he takes the hot babyface and uses him as a tool to get cheers. He did it with Zack Ryder, Rey Mysterio, CM Punk, The Rock, Daniel Bryan and it goes on. It, to me, is the John Cena version of Triple H coming out to an Eugene segment and playing up the insincere hero worship angle only because Eugene is the hot hand at the moment. I mean, no one buys that Nick Dinsmore, with all his 1980s callbacks, would really rate Hunter his #1 wrestler. It was clearly a play on Triple H's part to leech off the heat. I don't think John Cena sits in creative meetings going "How can we bond this popularity of Bryan Danielson to my character?" or anything insidious like that. But it is an easy shortcut that the one guy in the company who doesn't need it..takes.

Everything else in that segment was great. Cena ripping Orton apart in his promo about being an entitled brat, the pullapart brawl that got Punk, Bryan, Hunter, HBK, and Stephanie, Cena standing tall with the Authority...those things sold me on the PPV. It was great. Cena pulling Bryan out of the crowd in the ring and insincerely giving him props as a guy who worked hard for he got... the thing is Cena is closer to Orton than he realizes. Maybe he is first in, last out. Maybe he works his butt off going around the world granting wishes and being a good ambassador for the company. But make no mistake, he was tabbed from the start as one of the golden boys. He debuted with that memorable angle wrestling Angle. He received title shots not even a year into his WWE stint. He has NOTHING in common with Bryan except sticking his dick in the same looking woman. He is not the guy to pull at the heartstrings of the oppressed.

I didn't say he turned people off. Like I said, he completely pandered to them. Of course they would eat it up. I am saying it was not needed and it made the WWE's job harder selling the show that is coming up in a week. And whatever you want to believe, he WAS completely insincere. As far as being the made man he is, secure in the knowledge he will never be shuffled down the card for the guy everyone is chanting their heads off for. Lets say he wins the unified belts and somehow Triple H, who has showed zero willingness to give Bryan a fair shake, allows for Bryan to challenge Cena at the Rumble. What in the world should we expect? Triple H didn't allow the Summerslam result to stand. So logically we expect Cena to beat Bryan or any other outcome to be nullified, again. Then you look back to this show, and it makes it all worse. Cena basically whored out knowing he is bulletproof. Gee what a great guy!

I am sorry, I have to roll my eyes at this response. It was completely unnecessary for Cena to acknowledge what the Seattle crowd wanted. It was one night. He was better off focusing on the real task at hand, which is selling the TLC match. What Cena did was sell Royal Rumble... which is another month away. Orton and Triple H came across to me as more professional in the segment, even if they were out of touch. They portrayed themselves as not easily swayed by reactions. Cena came across as a puppy dog desperate for affection that he would go to great lengths siphoning any possible positive reactions onto himself. It was a bush league move and something beneath a guy of his stature. But it is no wonder Cena is constantly having to fight a war with fans on his reactions with what he does. The booking is 50% responsible for fostering this kind of thing for Cena but he himself is 50% responsible as well. I understand having to run as soon as possible to defend the guy because he is definitely a guy who understands how wrestling works, but this is something he would have been better off not doing if he wanted to be accepted completely.

You haven't been watching Raw past one episode, have you? All evidence points to Houston being a pro Bryan crowd. Yes Seattle was unique as far as how far they went in supporting Daniel Bryan but umm... this isn't really so unique of a crowd compared to others. Just admit Cena came off poorly here as he has in other instances where he used other people to prop himself up. He is no better than Triple H in that aspect.

Ok, so what happens on Sunday? Daniel Bryan isn't going to compete in that title match. What does Cena do then, when the crowd shits on it? Call Bryan out just to save face, again? Fact is Cena needs to find a way to "save" segments on his own standing, not other people who has nothing to do with the focal angle.

Exactly. I'm not going to go along with giving him credit for doing things like that. He is the biggest star they have and has been for years now. He really should not be resorting to this trick by now, and he has too often.