Russellmania

y'all are sleeping on the fact that Bailey is the best female wrestler in all of WWE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Magee also shame on whoever said Sabu

I think this is really well said anyway I thought last night's show was just 'OK' I don't really get the whole "if you didn't enjoy this then you won't enjoy anything" argument here...I mean there are some shows I might say that about, but that's not a stance I would take on this particular show. Can't speak for others, but I certainly have enjoyed the hell out of several WWE PPV's in the last couple years so it's not like I'm just some joyless cunt. I just thought last night's show felt like a good episode of RAW with the exception of the Cell matches. The Cell matches themselves were both good, but flawed.

anyone know which match is the pre-show match? trying to decide if I should skip it or not

Dolph might be the most overrated wrestler in years. 'Smarks' love him because he is such an acrobatic bumper, but that is honestly all he's good at. And he cuts the cringiest promos. Tyler Breeze could honestly replace Dolph Ziggler on the roster tomorrow and I wouldn't miss him.

honestly, don't even bother

when will Kane just go away already?

yeah AJ leaving poor Emma to get her ass kicked is about the most dickish thing she could do since Emma is so likeable and completely undeserving of that. but tbh I don't even question this stuff anymore because the booking of this company has been so fundamentally broken for years

I think pulling that match was the best thing they could have done. They had a great thing going with Rollins and Ambrose and have really cooled off by forcing Cena into the mix. I mean seriously, how can anyone complain that we're getting Rollins/Ambrose HIAC?

lololololol that *is* pretty good

Meltzer tweeted that "everyone needs to read page 120-121 right now" but didn't provide any context. Can you sum up what it says?

Ziggler jobbing to Orton in a non-title match is exactly the kind of bullshit that makes nobody care about this title. And I'm sure their thinking was "we need to make Orton look strong heading into the PPV". Problem with that is it's so close to the PPV that one win isn't going to really change anyone's mind about Orton. Also, nobody wants to see an Orton/Cena main event. They're not even in a program together. It's this short-sightedness that has fucked up the IC title and a lot of other things in the company. I mean you have Cesaro sitting there on commentary talking up how bad he wants to be champ and beat Ziggler....and then Orton wins making both Ziggler and Cesaro look like chumps. Add in the fact that Orton apparently has no interest in the IC title and it's no wonder it's basically a jobber title.

honestly, I think it's worth it for the monthly PPV's alone. Even a mediocre WWE PPV still features a couple good matches and that pretty much gives me my wrestling fix for the month. If they exceed my expectations then all the better. I also don't keep up with NXT weekly but will end up binge watching it every couple months and think it's a fun weekly show. The NXT specials have been great and also add value to the subscription. 10 bucks a month is really not that much even if I don't take the time to watch a lot of the old stuff.

Cena/Orton in the Cell is such a stupid main event though. I mean nobody on earth wants to see those 2 wrestle again and there is no build and nothing at stake so why should they be fighting in the most violent WWE match?

maybe i'm in the minority here but IMO Orton is better as a face and has been for years.

if Bryan isn't a surprise return at number 30 then this company is beyond retarded

man that mattel deal and the PG rating are really killing this company. It can't possibly be worth it, can it? They're really handicapping themselves by not allowing any serious violence

I just accidentally started reading the first page of this thread and holy shit it's amazing how little has changed in 2 years.

yeah that's one of the problems with this situation. They're afraid to put the IC title on guys they see as future main eventers like Reigns and Wyatt. But since they never do that the belts are viewed as midcard titles and it's just a vicious cycle. IMO Reigns and Wyatt are exactly the kind of guys they should be putting the IC title on. In fact a Reigns/Wyatt IC title feud could help launch those guys like it launched The Rock and HHH if they did it right. Unfortunately the way they book now is to either make a guy a mid-carder forever or launch him to main event status without much build. Another consideration is that they use the money in the bank briefcase to accomplish a lot of what they used to use the IC title for in the past. If this was 1994, Rollins would be holding the IC title instead of the MITB contract and it would almost the same effect.

Herein lies the rub...not that this thread is asking how to restore it to it's former glory, but if someone were to ask I'd say that this would be the key. Fans need to be re-conditioned to believe that if a guy holds the IC title then he will eventually be a main event guy. That's a big problem with the title in the last few years. Guys who hold that belt haven't consistently been pushed to greater heights after losing it. Instead it just gets passed around the midcard and almost none of those guys get pushed after holding it.

not sure what your point is? The Network is now an integral part of their business model so nearly every decision they make at this point is for the sake of the network. Also as others have said, filling a 100,000 seat arena in Texas will be as big a motivator as any for trying to get Austin in the ring again.

I have no doubt that Austin would have and would still be willing to put over Punk if they could make the match happen.

honestly the only opponent for Austin that really interests me is Punk, so....

It says a lot that an hour of NXT feels more substantial than 3 hours of RAW. I mean RAW at this point is outright insulting to fans, not respecting their time at all. They could get so much more out of that 3 hours if they cared to. They have one of the most talented rosters ever assembled at this point (including NXT) so there's no excuse for having 3 out of 4 shows in a month being absolute dogshit.

more than anything I'm just mad that they basically gave Alicia Fox's gimmick to a far shittier wrestler.