Russellmania

Speaking of Cena rehabbing the US Title. What makes sense for him dropping it at this point? Hold it through Mania? As much as the world title is still the big belt and more important, winning this will do more to make someone outside of the usual crew. In a way, Cena probably can't lose the US title to anyone that is currently in the WWE on the main roster in terms of midcarders/upper midcarders. Not since Cena started mowing down all the challengers that came out for his open challenge. You almost pretty much have to have him lose to a new unknown element...someone like Kevin Owens when he first came in. I can actually see this ending up being Samoa Joe, Sami Zayn (I know he already wrestled Cena but he got injured and it is a natural way to write a rematch) or Finn Balor in full monster form. I actually thought Owens should have won the title from Cena and then started his own US Open challenge as a mockery of Cena. Do that for a few months and then have Sami Zayn make his full-time main roster debut by accepting the challenge and beating Owens for the title. Would have been a great way to go IMO. I suppose they can still do it, but it seems like they've gone into cool off mode with Owens now so they obviously don't have any big plans for him. In any case I think a heel winning the title next has more mileage in it than a face winning it. To me having a heel win it and build up a lot of heat before dropping the title will do more to get a babyface over than just having the babyface beat Cena.

Those are terms that have been used colloquially for like over a hundred years and originated during a time when gender equality was not a thing. It's hard to change something that is used by society as a whole. By contrast the terms Superstar and Diva were invented in the wrestling context in the last 20 years in a post-feminism era when there's really no excuse to go out of your way to highlight the gender separation. Besides WWE keeps trying to push the Divas division as some sort of women's empowerment movement so simply calling them Superstars along with the men instead of using something with a negative connotation like Divas would make sense in that context.

I love the rebound clothesline as a spot...always loved it when Nigel did it and love it when Ambrose does it, but I do think he does it too often. With Nigel it was usually a big highspot in a 15+ minute match. Ambrose does it in 7 minute matches on RAW and just kind of throws it out there. But if you look at a long Ambrose PPV match in a vacuum then he usually uses it appropriately in that setting. As for the selling question, I don't think Ambrose sells any worse than anyone else on the roster. Like the Dave and Bryan criticisms could totally be thrown at anyone on the roster on any given night. And IMO Ambrose from my recollection is at least an above average seller in the modern WWE context so I definitely don't agree with this talking point.

pro athletes in other sports who have long histories of concussions get cleared to play again all the time. If you pass the tests and a neurologist clears you then you're considered 100% and cleared to play. This is all with the knowledge that they may be more susceptible to concussions given their history, but at this point in time in all the major pro sports that fact alone is not enough to stop teams from clearing someone. Maybe there needs to be some kind of line draw there, but that's just not how it is. The difference in this situation is that WWE is super worried about covering their own ass so they are hesitant to clear him in case he gets hurt in the future. Now maybe you think that's for the best, but I'm just trying to point out that the "he should just hang 'em up" narrative does not jive with how other professional sports handle head injuries. Typically if you're symptom free and pass the tests then you will be cleared, and in many cases these guys come back from serious concussions and make a full recovery and never have a problem again. So I guess my point is that I don't think it's fair to jump to the conclusion that he should just retire since it is fairly common to come back from these things and still have a long and healthy career.

Regarding the 3rd Wyatt member, Kane seems like far and away the most obvious choice based on the comments made. It makes sense on so many levels given what we know about WWE and Vince's booking. Kane was just written off with a worked injury and so it totally fits their MO to just totally ignore that and bring him back right away Vince obviously still loves the Kane character and I could see him being totally in love with the idea of The Devil's Favorite Demon joining the Wyatts I think they see Kane as being much closer to Undertaker in terms of value than actual fans do, so they probably see Kane opposite Sting as some kind of appetizer to a possible Taker/Sting match. Kane fills a similar 7+ foot enforcer role as Rowan did in the group Kane sucks big-time so he'd definitely fit the hint that it would be a disappointing choice.

while I'm sure he wouldn't do it long-term because he has put down roots in Arizona with Brie, I'd love to see him have a little run in New Japan. Imagine him working the G1 next year or something or even just a one-off at WK10. I can definitely think of worse things than Bryan working a light indy/Japan schedule if WWE were to cut him loose. He doesn't strike me as the Kurt Angle type who would spend the rest of his career killing himself in a shitty promotion like TNA and I can't imagine anyone but WWE could afford to pay him full-time anyway.

it's kind of funny because obviously the guy's strength is his wrestling. he was the workhorse of the Shield and yet since the breakup they've positioned him as the "architect" and he during his title reign he talks all the time and barely wrestles.

it's sad that you can take any of the NXT girls and think of things that Kevin Dunn probably hates about them. Like I can see Dunn pushing for vignettes where people call Charlotte a man, make fun of Becky's lazy eye, and he'd probably book Bayley as a retard. Sasha I can see him liking her look and gimmick because she's "urban" and "catty", but he probably hates her work. none of this stuff should ever even enter the equation, but that's how guys like Vince and Dunn think.

totally agree about Bayley. such an awesome, natural babyface.

they should have let him keep doing stuff like this except on TV and not just their youtube channel...back when he was a heel anyway. Also they should have let him keep his old Euro hip hop music, that shit was great.

was this something said in the dirt sheets about the backstage perception of Dunn or are you just talking about it being a blow to the public perception of his work?

i've been saying for months that it's not just about match length, but also about pacing. The main roster women seem to always work at a sprint's pace and none of them, even the good ones, have the chops to do that successfully. the main roster women also tend to abandon any semblance of pro wrestling psychology where the NXT women do basic fundamental wrestling stuff really well. I don't know if it's Vince, Dunn, the road agents, the women themselves or what but the pace that they work on the main roster and the way the matches are built is really different from what we see on NXT and it's not just a function of match time.

well said, this articulates a lot of what has bothered me about this angle but I couldn't quite say. The kicker is that this angle has been in the works for weeks according to the dirt sheets. like with all that lead time, why couldn't they do like you said and actually build up to this instead of just throwing it out there? I have a lot of complaints about WWE but I think maybe the biggest one (because it permeates their whole product) is the lack of attention to detail. everything they do just feels so sloppy and half-assed, even their really big angles that they clearly put most of their effort into rarely end up being the best version they could possibly be.

I love Sasha Banks. She's one of my favorite active wrestlers right now. But she's not some kind of superworker who's going to drag moty candidates out of mediocre women on raw or whatever. if given time and the opportunity to work a good match and given someone who can hang with her then she can definitely have some really good matches but I don't see her carrying people left and right. Something I really think Sasha might have difficulty with on the main roster is that so much of what makes her awesome is her brutal submission style. She works really great from on top and is at her best when she's methodically stretching her opponent. on the main roster they seemingly expect the women to go out and work at a frantic pace and hit nothing but highspots and I wonder if the agents there will even let her work at the pace that suits her best.

also to the people getting indignant about others' reactions to this: IMO the problem isn't that the rules themselves are all bad. Some of them do make sense, and honestly many of them are common sense. The issue I have with these rules (aside from the obvious attempt to erase the concept of 'pro wrestling' from their public image) is that they are often contradictory. It must be maddening to be told to be yourself and put things into your own words but then you're prescribed a very specific and often unnatural set of words you can use. The problem is that it is literally impossible to follow every one of these rules and therefore impossible to please the management. Not to mention the fact that these rules clearly change over time on the whims of a crazy old man.

I think what bothers me about "championship opportunity" is that it sounds like the challenger won a contest or something, not like he earned the chance to challenge for the title. Oddly enough you would think that logic would be obvious to Vince because it kind of falls in line with some of the other items in this list, but alas...

a lot of people are going to praise that Cesaro/Cena match but it never quite clicked for me. There were also a shitload of really frustrating WWE-isms that really hurt the match and the sad part is they were really neither guy's fault. Terrible camera work and production, cutting to the cadillac to recap the earlier angle MID-MATCH WTF (nearly missing the springboard stunner), and then Cena fending off the attack from Owens immediately after the match.

the funny thing is that the weeks that I find myself thinking "this show is pretty decent" always end up having the worst ratings lol. Cena/Cesaro and the main event were a blast. Reigns is really on fire right now.

yeah that was so poorly thought out. The biggest element to Brock's drawing power is the idea that he's nearly invincible. When you see someone finally take a piece out of him it should be a big deal and really well-protected (see Reigns' comeback at Wrestlemania). Sticking Brock in the standard babyface beatdown spot on a random RAW is just stupid short-sighted booking. The whole allure of this Brock/Rollins match is wondering how the hell Rollins can possibly hang with him. If anything they should be reinforcing just how screwed Rollins is going up against Brock, not the other way around.

incidentally New Day is basically doing Bo's NXT gimmick

is it just me or did they grossly undersell the Owens attack on MGK? Like...to me that should have been a huge angle. A wrestler attacked a celebrity guest! After the initial shock they should have had HHH and maybe even Vince come out screaming at him, have the cops haul him away, etc. Instead they cut to commercial and come back and start the next segment right on cue and then HHH and Steph barely even acknowledge it. They basically turned that angle into "just another segment" and did nothing to suggest that it wasn't a planned spot.

Why is this one particular guy forcing John Cena to change his game plan? Because he beat him? Is this supposed to have been built to in a meaningful way? In a year's time when people are complaining about the way they company have handled Owens and the whole thing is a flash in the pan are people still going to say it as a strong narrative? Maybe it's good TV on a week-to-week basis. I don't know. I was kind of asking for an explanation how it's different from Cena vs. Wyatt or Cena vs. Rusev, since you'd think (or hope) that Cena having to bust out new moves would be a bit more memorable than a string of B show matches, but I'm not pretending to be in the loop. then stop

For what it's worth, this is why I said I'd like to see it in the context of the match. I think there's still room to discuss how well the move matches with the storyline presented, but context obviously matters here. maybe stop discussing the match until you've seen it then

lol, what a hardcore fan

who fucking cares?