Russellmania

I actually have no problem with the Shield breaking up, I'm just not loving the way they did it. There was really nothing left for them to do as a group, but I definitely question the move to turn the most babyfaced guy in the group heel in a move that makes little sense from a motivation standpoint.

lol you got worked

I was worried for a second that Sheamus was going to no-sell the giant swing, pop up and hit the Brogue Kick for the win. The flash pin was great though.

Sheamus/Cesaro was awesome and clubbering badass Sheamus needing a flash pin to beat Cesaro was a smart finish. I keep hearing rumors that Sheamus is going to turn heel, so I hope him "stealing" a win like this means they're finally starting to move in that direction.

current WWE is the weirdest mix of awesome wrestling and shit booking. Their big feuds are booked so poorly. In a lot of ways it really defies conventional wrestling logic. They book babyfaces like the Shield and Cena waaaay too strong. Granted Bryan has been made to look weak with the title, but he's the exception. Cena running the table on the Wyatts pretty much for months now has done nothing to elevate Bray really. That feud has really made no progress for either guy. As for Shield/Evolution, I really question having the Shield win the first match. If they were planning to have the Shield sweep the elimination match (which felt like a blowoff match) then why not have Evolution win the first match to make things seem a little more dire for them? I mean I guess now the Shield looks really strong, but the booking just seemed odd to me. And the booking within this match seemed really weird too. The Shield getting totally decimated and then suddenly sweeping the match felt really abrupt after the whole Shield beatdown dragged. Anyway to my original point this show was really fun and the matches were a blast, but the way this company is booked is kind of baffling to me sometimes.

Wyatt really should have won. I'm a Cena fan and even I'm sick of seeing him win

I thought Takeover was a much better show top-to-bottom than Arrival, despite Arrival having the best match of the bunch in Zayn/Cesaro. The rest of Arrival felt like mostly filler and the ladder match was kind of meh, but this show was pretty strong all the way through. Zayn/Breeze was really good and totally made Breeze in my eyes. I wish he could just use the superkick as his finish, though. His spinning heel kick is not bad, but I've been so conditioned over the years to see that as a nothing move that I have a hard time buying it as a finish. Nattie/Charlotte was a real good match with a lot of really snug mat-work. These diva matches, even the really good ones, always seem to suffer from one or two really sloppy looking spots though. Kidd/Neville was tremendous and did a lot more to make Neville look good than the ladder match with Bo. Something kind of cool about this match is that while a lot of big NXT matches feel like pretty modern indy matches, this match felt more like an old ECW or WCW technical match (think like an Eddie/Dean match or something) where it was paced a little slower and really built to the bigger spots. I'm so glad to see Tyson Kidd healthy and getting a push. This time in NXT was a really good idea since he was never going to get real WWE TV time after his long injury recovery. Hopefully they can figure out a way to transfer his momentum to an eventual return to the main roster.

for some reason I think this show is gonna be awesome

yeah if Punk ever does come back (hopefully in the not too distant future) I think him turning on Bryan and letting them feud for a while is the closest thing to a money feud that they have. It would be like the modern hipster "megapowers explode"

Sami Zayn is like an alternate reality version of Seth Rogen where instead of becoming an actor he quit smoking weed, got in shape and became a wrestler.

Pipe dream, but how crazy would that Chicago crowd get it Bryan showed up at Payback and handed the title to a returning Punk?

I know it's nothing new, but in recent months (years?) they have really been overusing the trope where the faces chase the heels out of the ring and then the heels stand in the aisle while the faces cut a promo or flex and grimace as if the ring ropes are a fucking force field or something. Why wouldn't Cena and the Usos go after the Wyatts if they're standing *right there*?

killed the whole segment with a shitty Cena promo. This fucking company is so clueless sometimes.

that was probably the best RVD match you can hope for in the year 2014 and it was still pretty sloppy. Dude calls his spots more audibly than anyone on the roster.

so the last couple pages of this thread has half the people saying basically that "WWE sucks lately" and the other half saying "That's not fair, it's really good if you ignore 70% of what they do". I really hope that 2nd group can see the flaw in that argument. If you have to fast forward through more than half the show for it to be enjoyable then I think that supports the claim that WWE sucks right now. Granted 3 hours every week is a lot of TV to fill (for RAW alone), but at the same time they have a ton of talent and I don't think anyone would argue they're making the most efficient use of their roster. They could totally run a stacked 3 hour show every week if they had the right creative in place. also @Johnny Sorrow how the fuck does an old guy watching this shit for literally decades not understand how fucking lame it is to throw Reigns and Batista out there in a shitty nothing TV match when they could potentially build that into an epic match at some point?

the problem is simple. WWE is run by TV writers while NXT is run by wrestling guys (HHH, road agents, etc.) Also i think Bo Dallas is the best pure heel they've had in a decade and it's a shame that they're almost certainly going to ruin him.

so are they stripping the title or what? What's the word out there?

I think Bray having a short reign would go a long way to putting him over and could further the whole angle of how dangerous it is for him to have a platform to "get his message out". They could sell it as a big, scary deal that the most dangerous man in the WWE is now the face of the WWE and it would feel like a big deal when Bryan comes back to win back the title IMO.

6-8 weeks does sound fast for neck surgery but I would assume it's not a fusion or whatever. I'm guessing he's just getting some bone spurs removed or something. Does anyone know what the actual injury is?

regarding Bryan, I strongly disagree with those who are worried that this will kill his momentum. This Kane feud is one of the worst things they've done in over a decade and was actively hurting Bryan. I honestly think he's better off not being on TV at all for a couple months than is appearing on RAW and running in fear from his challenger. If they take the title off him and he comes back and gets to chase it again it will only get him more over IMO because it will be just one more obstacle he's had to overcome. Personally I think this is a chance for them to hit the reset button and get him back to being booked strong heading into his inevitable match(es) against Brock. I also think this is a great opportunity for them to give someone a short title reign that might help elevate someone a bit. What I would do is strip him of the title immediately then announce a 4-man tourney to crown a new champion. Have it be Cena, Orton, Kane, and Bray. On RAW have Cena beat Kane to earn one spot then have Bray beat Orton to secure the other spot (with Shield interference to further the Shield/Evo feud). The Bray/Orton match could also serve to tease a future Evo/Wyatts matchup. At Payback then you have Cena vs. Bray for the title with the story that Cena is as desperate as ever to win because if Bray wins the title he'll now have the perfect platform for his message. This is where I'd have Bray finally beat him and have him go on a reign of terror for a few months until Bryan can come back and win back the title.

Ambrose was the star of the Shield/Wyatts 6-man from Main Event a few weeks ago. That's when I really fell in love with his work.

The corporate reasons are one thing but I like to think that the wrestlers themselves do it because they really care.

Didn't Bret and Misawa (as Tiger Mask) have a random throwaway match in the late 80's/early 90's that was kind of shitty?

Yes. I asked politely and you never know what someone's life experiences may be. It's valid but I'd rather the word not be used to talk about something as trivial as wrestling matches. Can we use the term "suicide dive?" What about something like "he really killed him with that clothesline?" Just trying to understand what colloquialisms of 'unpleasant' words are allowed to be used on something as trivial as wrestling matches.

that's a perfectly valid usage of the word abortion. He's not literally calling it a terminated human fetus. the Oxford dictionary also has this definition: "An object or undertaking regarded by the speaker as unpleasant or badly made or carried out." i mean, this is a fucking niche pro wrestling forum...does it really matter?