Current WWE

[Exposer]

I ought to re-watch the 6-man from last night. I liked it a whole lot until the final stretch which included major whifs on offense from the Shield. Reigns promo was bizarre. He seemed comfortable which was a good thing. The opening line was weird, but I did like the rest of it.

[Exposer]

Also, the headliner for the house show in Chattanooga this weekend that I'm trying to go to is Kane/Wyatts vs. Cena/Shield. That's a helluva a match to be running around the horn.

[Loss]

It's so awesome just how many people are simultaneously climbing the ladder right now. Daniel Bryan is the key guy obviously, but it's not just limited to him. That's when wrestling is its most fun to watch.

[goc]

I still wonder if Daniel Bryan's momentum is sustainable. It was all built on him fighting the machine and people thinking he was legit getting fucked over by the company. Now he's the champion, they're building the show around him and he's obviously the star of the company for the moment. I wonder if that hurts him at all?

[Loss]

I wondered that at first, but I think he's a made man now. A lot of his long-term success will depend on WWE lining up a machine of strong heels to send his way. I don't feel like there's any shortage of matches they can do with him as champion. In terms of crowd reaction, he's the most over guy since Steve Austin. Wrestling has changed so the same indicators that we would normally look to aren't there anymore, but the indicators that are there look good.

[Badlittlekitten]

I ought to re-watch the 6-man from last night. I liked it a whole lot until the final stretch which included major whifs on offense from the Shield. Reigns promo was bizarre. He seemed comfortable which was a good thing. The opening line was weird, but I did like the rest of it.

 

Yeah, there was execution problems all over that match, especially from Rollins. The crowd were pretty crap too. Otherwise I enjoyed it a lot. I'm a Dean Ambrose guy and this was his breast performance yet. He's an unlikely yet brilliant face and one of the best in the company at selling. I'm loving All Japan Terry Funk 2014. Him raising his arms for victory before splattering into the mat was icing on the cake.

 

The promo was bizarre, the post Raw one was too. And they were vibrant and cool and funny and believable. I love them chaps.These Renee Young post show interviews have been an excellent addition so far. Bryan's promo following Raw had the old ducts dripping.

[shoe]

I think the next month or 2 on the ppv's they have him headline against Orton, and then Batista. The 3rrd special event you put Bryan and Cesaro with Brock or Heyman interference backfiring. This starts a slow building feud between Cesaro and Lesnar that leads to a mania match. Next up is Summerslam and we get Bryan/Lesnar at Summerslam. Cesaro gets involved and costs Lesnar somehow. Bryan goes on to face Bray Wyatt/ and a re pushed Big Show or Mark Henry type. Finally at Survivor Series HHH makes a Bryan/Cena rematch. Here Cena turns heel during the match and wins the title. Bryan's got to win the Rumble for a title shot. He does and it's Heel Cena vs. Bryan for the title at Mania.

[Stiva]

I still wonder if Daniel Bryan's momentum is sustainable. It was all built on him fighting the machine and people thinking he was legit getting fucked over by the company. Now he's the champion, they're building the show around him and he's obviously the star of the company for the moment. I wonder if that hurts him at all?

 

i think he's a made guy now. Say, if he loses the belt to Lesnar (though I think it'll be Batista who transitions to Lesnar), there's going to be people pissed that he's dropped the belt full stop and people pissed that he lost the belt to the guy who broke the streak so that's going to guarantee a crowd willing him to win the belt back no matter what.

[Loss]

I'm really not a fan of Roman Reigns in the ring, even though I enjoyed the promo. I think the Superman punch looks awful and I haven't seen any proof that he can sell, or take bumps, or get over in a singles match, or really do anything except get his shit in and look good doing it. Maybe I haven't seen the right matches, but he seems like he's carried by the other two.

[(BP)]

The only memorable singles he had off the top of my head was with Bryan, which is cheating. Though, I was impressed with his selling there.

[NintendoLogic]

I basically agree with what Loss is saying, but I also feel that it's impossible to work with the current WWE crew night in and night out and not improve significantly.

[goc]

I really think the reason they decided not to split up The Shield yet was because they don't think Reigns is ready yet. They should be putting him in more singles matches on house shows to try and get him ready but I don't think they've done that at all.

 

I just watched the Daniel Bryan "Journey to WrestleMania" thing on the Network and it really kind of spells out that the company has decided to go all in on Daniel Bryan with John Cena and Austin kind of acknowledging it.

[Steenalized]

I'm really not a fan of Roman Reigns in the ring, even though I enjoyed the promo. I think the Superman punch looks awful and I haven't seen any proof that he can sell, or take bumps, or get over in a singles match, or really do anything except get his shit in and look good doing it. Maybe I haven't seen the right matches, but he seems like he's carried by the other two.

His biggest singles match afaik was in January against Punk. Some people praised it, I thought he looked very lackluster. He's totally fine in tags and six mans, I don't think he's anywhere ready yet to carry a singles load beyond squashes or short matches with high caliber guys. The superman punch is hit or miss for me. I think he does a good spear. His new apron dropkick spot is pretty cool. But, as charismatic as he's showing himself to be, I do not think he's nearly as ready as Cesaro to go to the main event.

[Exposer]

I've broken the Shield down before, but I guess I'll do it again here.

 

Reigns has tremendous charisma. His presence is awesome, and he always carries himself well. I think he's a good bumper. His selling is average at best, but I don't think he was ever meant to sell as a heel. He was the powerhouse who roughed guys up with his offense. Moving forward, his selling will be more important in some ways, but I still don't think it will mean much in a trios setting. However, in singles it absolutely will. He needs to be plugged into more singles matches. His signature spots are great. I love the set-up for the Superman punch. Sometimes it looks great, other times it looks bad. I don't think it's awful every time. The running dropkick was awesome the first few times he added it to his repertoire. It now looks terrible almost every time which annoys the hell out of me. His spear is the best since Goldberg's. The rest of his offense is mostly pedestrian, but he times cut offs really well and can work stiff when he wants to. Additionally, I love the spot where he powers out of holds with his hands and makes that monster face. Overall, he's probably a very good worker at this stage. His presence and signature spots are enough to satisfy me. I think he eats offense well, has great timing, and can bump too. He's the least of the three at this stage though which is saying something since I marked out for him every match in the Fall.

 

Rollins works a chaotic style both offensively and defensively. He's the workhorse of the team. I like his punches, his dive sequences are always fun, and his finisher is pretty nasty when executed right. The rest of his offense is the equivalent of a trapeze artist. Some of the stuff he does like the three or four variations of spinning kicks and the back flip neck breaker are stupid. Of course, he's a great bumper. Some of the bumps he's taken are totally unnecessary. They make for great fun and cringing though. He's great at selling. He's always selling on the apron which I love. Really, Jeff Hardy is a great comparison. Although, I like Rollins bumping more. Overall, he's pretty exciting to watch off the hot tag, and he bumps like a champion. Right now, he's my second favorite in the group.

 

Ambrose has been on fire this year. Some dislike his tackle save with haymakers, but that's one of my favorite things he does. He's turned out to be a great FIP which is huge. I was concerned about this team turning face because of who would play that rule. He's embraced it and done a fantastic job with it so far. He works stiff as hell, takes a great beating, and sells his ass off. For the most part, he has good, unique offense. There's a few things he does that I don't particularly like, including his finisher when executed poorly, but I like it when he's on offense too. Really, I think he's been the star of this team from a work rate perspective so far this year. Rollins was right there with him for awhile, but has resorted to being overzealous on offense at times which results in poor execution. Ambrose is the best of the group today. I hope he remains the FIP going forward.

[Jmare007]

Yeah, the Network doc on Bryan was just awesome. The big hug from Rock right before Bryan went to wrestle Triple H felt like "Congrats, it's on you now" type of moment.

 

 

Kind of a side note. D-Bry should miss this Monday's RAW due to being on a honeymoon, he joked on an interview that he was gonna turn off his cellphone so no one could call him and fuck over his little vacation. I guess we are gonna get a big match or segment to determine the n°1 contender for Extreme Rules.

 

Regarding him keeping his momentum. Well, before getting to WWE he was always at his best in the Ace role, so it's not like he doesn't know how to get over now that his story has changed.

[Dylan Waco]

I love Reigns, but I also admit that he benefits from low expectations. I figure he would be nothing, and he's turned out to be at minimum a very good trios worker. I think what really carries him is his in ring charisma. In fact he's not unlike Warrior, in that there are times where he probably does things that are sloppy, iffy, or even bad, but it doesn't bother me as much because he comes across as someone who completely believes in himself. In that weird Sheild v. The World tag from Raw last year there was a moment where he faced off with Titus O'Neil of all people and it got the "oh shit, things just got real!" reaction from the crowd, and while I think Titus has an underrated presence to him, I can't imagine any other wrestler on the roster getting that sort of a rise out of the crowd as a result of facing off with Titus O'Neil.

 

I honestly have no clue how he will turn out as a singles guy, but I would note that I thought portions of that Punk match were really good, and I thought Reigns match v. DB from last year was better than Rollins or Ambrose fwiw.

[flyonthewall2983]

I brought this up in the Warrior thread, but think a more detailed discussion would be appropriate here. Daniel Bryan's ascencion as their new made man tells me that WWE's audience is finally tired of guys who depend on their physique, if they haven't been already for some time. The question I have, is this something that the higher-ups are beginning to notice as well, considering how less toned HHH looked as he said he trained more for speed and stamina than strength.

[cm funk]

Roman has only been training/working since mid '10, exclusively in the WWE system. Ambrose and Rollins have both been wrestling for a decade with the benefit of working the indy scene for years. For where Roman is at now I think he's developed quite nicely. Of course Rollins and Ambrose carry the bulk of the work, but Roman holds up his end in 6 mans and tags just fine. He's perfect in his role in their matches. And compared even to when he started on the main roster in late 2012 to now he's improved exponentially.

 

I'm really glad they held off on breaking up The Shield. It was too soon, and Roman still too untested/green outside of the tag formats. The Shield has a big babyface run in them that can last for the next year, and they way they slowbuilt the break up, teased it, and came back with a more united group where all 3 guys are now being pushed as "the leader" ended up working perfectly. Any one of them can take the reigns (seriously no pun intended) at any time, which is a really cool dynamic for a stable to have.

 

The Shield/Wyatts match on Main Event was the lesser of their 3 6 mans (I think the RAW one where Rollins walked out, forcing Ambrose and Reigns to get on the same page was actually my favorite of the 3, if not the abject best) but it was still really good and fun. It did get a little sloppy in the end stretch, but all their matches have been wild and chaotic, the fast pace and "sloppiness" (mostly just some execution not being perfect) kind of added to it for me. Ambrose was really great in this one.

 

Totally agree on the post match promo being great with all 3 showing unique personality and the crowd just super into it....plus Ambrose selling by flopping on his face after the pinfall and wheezing/clutching his ribs during the promos

[cm funk]

I brought this up in the Warrior thread, but think a more detailed discussion would be appropriate here. Daniel Bryan's ascencion as their new made man tells me that WWE's audience is finally tired of guys who depend on their physique, if they haven't been already for some time. The question I have, is this something that the higher-ups are beginning to notice as well, considering how less toned HHH looked as he said he trained more for speed and stamina than strength.

 

They pushed CM Punk "the skinny fatass" as champ for longer than anyone since Hogan. Their shows are very workrate-centric now. Even the "big guys" for a while now have been a different kind of big, and are expected to be able to go. New big guys in recent times include Harper, Rowan, Big E, Titus, Russev....all impressive specimens, but all athletic and able to move. Far cry from the all physique guys of years past. Batista is smaller than he ever was in his first run. Even Brock is smaller. In the last several years guys like Mason Ryan have been few and far between. This isn't a new trend.

[flyonthewall2983]

Maybe just something I'm starting to notice then, now that my attention to the current product has shot up recently.

[anarchistxx]

Titus O'Neill is pretty underrated, he would make at least a great monster heel to feed to face champions or to elevate people. They should have done a lot more with the Darren Young feud.

[WingedEagle]

The Bryan doc on the network blew me away. One of the best things they've ever produced. I'd go so far as to say they'd be well served dedicating an hour of Raw to it. Doing something this great once or at most twice a year for someone on the roster is how you lock them in at a certain level. My wife couldn't care less about wrestling and she found the entire thing riveting. This type of work needs a bigger stage.

[goc]

Titus O'Neill is pretty underrated, he would make at least a great monster heel to feed to face champions or to elevate people. They should have done a lot more with the Darren Young feud.

I JUST came here to post about how much I liked his squash of Zach Ryder from Superstars a month or so ago. I was just looking through Superstars to see if there were any Titus matches recently and thought watching this match that he is a just a push away from being a big star. I hope with all the other new acts they are trying to push right now that he doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

[WingedEagle]

I think Lana would be better served with a character like Titus. Opportunity for some solid chemistry there. The Rusev thing is not going to work. If you want a Russian heel (I know, he's from Belarus, but we know the deal), go for a Putin-type heel and have someone in a suit that carries himself like a big deal with great facials who is carried by someone strong on the mic. The save, foreign menace of the month isn't very 2014 HD.

[Kil]

Bulgaria, not Belarus.