Strummer

WWE canceled Talking Smack as a weekly show. Will only air after PPVs now

Well I'm sure they thought over 2 1/2 years ago that Reigns would be in the same spot as those four at this moment. Not trying to say he isn't their biggest full time star right now but he hasn't reached their level yet. But obviously that is the ultimate goal

Rovert has been saying for weeks that Enzo has heat on him for partying too much which kinda connects to Dave's story here so who knows

yes I think it's possible to like the Zayn, Owens, Rollins types and still like Braun and Roman, etc but there seems to be "choose a side" a lot of the times

to add on to my previous post when Bryan came back he was doing segments with Stephanie and getting revenge matches with Kane while Reigns was making his comeback against Fandango on a holiday issue of Smackdown and doing comedy promos with Rollins. All the tV going into the Rumble made it look like Bryan was going to get another run when he wasn't. They didn't even try to build up Reigns at all or give him a reason or motivation to rise to the top. It wouldn't have mattered as long as Bryan was there but they clearly thought they didn't have to do any work with him and he was ready made. Hurt the start of his run

Yeah, Loss, I can remember you pointing out how weird it was when Reigns and Bryan both returned in late 2014 how all the tv was centered around Bryan and his comeback and .Reigns seemed like a peripheral player. Obviously wwe had no intention of going with .Bryan so why focus on him and not start an arc with Roman to his eventual rise? The people were given no story about his rise to the top that they could go along he just won the rumble and was supposed to be the new top guy like that. I mean it was going to be a disaster with Bryan in the rumble no matter what but they didn't even try to be creative with Roman. They still haven't really told a personal compelling story with his character

Cena/AJ at Summerslam? Sign me up

Yeah pretty sure they had heat in NXT

Baby face Braun could lead to a lot of great things. Behind this decision all the way

I think Vince had to know that type of product would turn off a lot of old time fans but it was clearly worth the risk. It's important to note that it was probably also the first time ever a promotion was specifically targeting kids. It's how I got into wrestling. I can remember the Kayfabe Memories board having tons of discussion over this very topic

Just coming to post that. Awesome to have a switch on a house show

Yeah he's probably looking at the success of Cody and the like on the indies and thinks he can replicate that

Weird that Dave said that he thought Braun/Reigns might be bad the other day. He liked their other matches but maybe he was just referring to the ambulance stip as a detriment. Again Bryan seemed to be thrown a bit by that

He didn't say WWE wrestling was terrible. I know people around here love that narrative of Evil Meltz Hates WWE, but he very regularly pimps WWE matches as great. As much as I don't care at all about Meltz's tastes for finisher kick out spamming orgies (which also happens in WWE, mind you, as it's the staple for the company's big match self-conscious epics), people being all boo-boo because he loves NJ never ceases to be funny to me. Or, actually, pretty sad actually. Get over it already. Who the fuck care ? People and their need to be validated has gotten even worse it seems these days. Maybe because of the social network shit and the culture of "likes"... Well he said specifically compared to New Japan WWE matches look terrible. He said more than once that after watching their shows and then watching WWE right after the wwe matches look so bad in comparison. I don't think he hates wwe at all. Point is Dave seems to be ( at least certain areas) falling back on his mid 80s persona. Saying on twitter that people don't know what good wrestling is, that certain matches or mma fights help put him to sleep, etc. Dave's opinions don't irk me at all that much anymore. He's still a damn good listen but he has clearly fallen back into his caustic and sharp persona

Dave seems to have made a complete transformation back to his mid/late 80s snarky persona on twitter. Yes he's played that up for quite awhile but now he's in complete "1985 make fun of Junkfood Dog" territory. And him discussing NJPW the other day on WOR and saying how terrible WWE wrestling was when compared to it was something right out of the 80s as well. Even Bryan seemed a little thrown by it there

yeah Bryan was 2013/2014 levels of over last night. Gave the show an electric feel. Rap battle was great. Only thing that doesn't seem to be working is the Orton/Jinder stuff. Paint by the numbers so far. Mahal's promos are repetitive. But that's true of almost all heels in WWE after a while

the Hardys/Sheamus & Cesaro Iron Man has to be the first WWE tag iron man since, Rockers/Rougeaus in 89? Definitely can't think of any others since

as I mentioned earlier this certainly makes things a lot easier creative wise for WWE. Now they don't have to have Roman win the Rumble again or have him win another multi man contenders match. The Cena/Reigns story tells itself. The established guy going against the new guy, Cena going for the title record, both splitting the crowds, etc. Glad they changed plans here now Roman has the title every week on Raw. Most likely defending against the Balor, Rollins, Wyatt types, probably Braun as well

Meltz says that Roman v Brock has been moved up to Summerslam. Thinks they may do Cena v Reigns at mania

also Reigns going in as champion and facing Cena enables them to avoid Roman having to win the Rumble or another # 1 contender match at the Feb PPV. It would make things a lot easier on them creatively

Women main eventing Raw and will most certainly main event tomorrow. Pretty damn cool

Yeah I would prefer Cena/Reigns at mania next year (nothing against Lesnar/Reigns). At this point unless they build up Nak or Braun, etc more it's the last big fresh money match WWE has left

Yeah Meltzer seems to be implying that Maryse is done as a character. Sucks because she's great but I could see Bo and Axel being fun as Miz's dimwitted flunkies. He made it work with Alex Riley and Sandow so I think he can make it work here. I can remember Maryse saying she wanted to start her own real estate business so maybe that's why she's leaving

And a mitb rematch next week as expected. First mitb match on tv. Have to think Becky is going over after her passionate promo this week

Raw went from 2.542 viewers to 3.102 this week. So building the show to the mystery reveal was a wise move. Good to see a fun show do well. They probably will follow the same pattern with the Graves/Angle reveal