Current WWE

[cm funk]

I haven't been reading the newz and I'm skipping ahead on this thread.....

 

Is D-Bry really having neck surgery?

 

If so, I'm not surprised. I've been semi-ranting about how dumb he is with the insane dives out of the ring and the Benoit/Dynamite headbutts.....I like his work but he really doesn't need to do that shit. Yes, it pops the crowd. Yes, it gets you over. But yes, you are risking permanent damage to yourself doing those things. And it's not like this is a huge shock...Dynamite ended up crippled in a wheelchair.....Benoit was so fucked up he murdered his family and himself.....Harley Race would tell any kid not to do the flying headbutt spot....it basically crippled him.......so......Bryan is a dumbass for doing it. I honestly cringe and get angry when I see the reckless shit he does sometimes. He doesn't need it, and I don't like seeing it

[Fantastic]

I haven't been reading the newz and I'm skipping ahead on this thread.....

 

Is D-Bry really having neck surgery?

 

If so, I'm not surprised. I've been semi-ranting about how dumb he is with the insane dives out of the ring and the Benoit/Dynamite headbutts.....I like his work but he really doesn't need to do that shit. Yes, it pops the crowd. Yes, it gets you over. But yes, you are risking permanent damage to yourself doing those things. And it's not like this is a huge shock...Dynamite ended up crippled in a wheelchair.....Benoit was so fucked up he murdered his family and himself.....Harley Race would tell any kid not to do the flying headbutt spot....it basically crippled him.......so......Bryan is a dumbass for doing it. I honestly cringe and get angry when I see the reckless shit he does sometimes. He doesn't need it, and I don't like seeing it

 

Bryan doesn't do it as recklessly or as frequently as Benoit and Race did it though.

[cm funk]

he does it a lot. He also does the dives to the "dasher boards" where he takes the full impact on his neck/back/spine

 

I'd like to see him take that stuff out of his moveset. It helped him get over, but he's over now, he doesn't need it. He could get ground based catch grappling over if he wanted to

[anarchistxx]

Agree that Daniel Bryan should give up the diving headbutt. Never understood why people do that spot, especially after Harley Race has talked about the damage it did to him. It doesn't even look especially cool, and way safer moves like a splash, elbow drop and senton get a better reaction. Something like the diving leg drop looks ten times better and must be much better for you.

 

The neck injury might be a blessing in disguise if it saves him from a dreary buried alive match with Kane that would hurt his popularity even further. His interviews aren't really helping him, that gawky laugh he did after the "Now I know how it feels to be John Cena" line made me cringe, especially since the line was greeted with tumbleweed in the audience.

 

And he is also being featured as the second feud on the show, maybe even the third with Wyatt/Cena still going on. The parrallels with Benoit are amazing - wins the strap after beating HHH clean, proceeds to have a heatless feud with Kane whilst HHH and his buddies still take up the top of the card. Not complaining so much in this sense, because Evolution vs Shield is a genuinely hot feud stacked with talent, but there is no denying they could have handled the early stages of his title run better, even if it was just him running through Kane and mid level heels like Ryback, beating them clean and convincingly before the bigger fueds.

 

'The Demon Kane' is so laughably bad that even the live audiences don't tend to take it seriously. Agree that it could benefit Bryan to be off television in the short term.

[Ryan Faulconer]

WWE should go the way of the NFL and NHL and just report things as "upper" or "lower" body injury. I'd rather not know when it comes to some of the more serious (for normal humans) wrestling injuries. Hollywood doesn't do a roll call of stuntman injuries when it puts out a movie. Heck - they would be idiots to do so but most of us don't think twice about who does the stunt when the movies hit the theatre. WWE informs the audience about injuries for many reasons. They need to inform people who think that it is harmless and/or "fake". They also want to put over how tough the wrestlers are for playing in pain. Reconciling those two viewpoints makes me feel a little more guilty for enjoying pro wrestling.

 

No matter how minimally invasive six to eight weeks for neck surgery recovery is asinine. These guys are stupid for coming back after neck or back fusions to begin with. Trust me. My back makes a freakin' squeaky sound most days that I do more than the usual walking or physical activities. I had a disc fused (winter 2006) after my initial discectomy (summer 2006) only served to make my back completely unstable and almost making me a paraplegic back in 2006.

 

Bryan could go back and use most of his indy moves like the airplane spin or the Romero Special. I'm pretty sure he hasn't done the first but he used to do the second at least as far back as a couple of years ago. The flying headbutt is definitely something that shouldn't be done either. Do the majority of fans really enjoy it that much? It has always been one of those moves that looks far too convoluted to hurt...unless it is done from some ridiculous height.

 

WWE should do away with all the collisions into the stairs and ringside boards. Those moves can't be much safer than the chair shots they now cherish and protect. They think that whips into stairs = cool visual. It makes a "cool" sound but when everybody does it in almost every single match it has the same affects as a resthold. They seem to have found several different ways to throw people into the boards/ring apron/stairs over the past few years too...so you know they think it works.

 

The spear should be mothballed as well. Rhyno had a serious neck surgery. Edge eventually had a career ending neck injury. Roman Reigns' days as a future star have been shortened now that he does it. Maybe they should also look into some sort of policy that prevents half the roster from ripping their pecs/biceps/shoulders/quads. Maybe have some kind of "three strike" rule. That could work. Yeah. That's the ticket.

[cm funk]

WWE should do away with all the collisions into the stairs and ringside boards. Those moves can't be much safer than the chair shots they now cherish and protect. They think that whips into stairs = cool visual. It makes a "cool" sound but when everybody does it in almost every single match it has the same affects as a resthold. They seem to have found several different ways to throw people into the boards/ring apron/stairs over the past few years too...so you know they think it works.

 

The spear should be mothballed as well. Rhyno had a serious neck surgery. Edge eventually had a career ending neck injury. Roman Reigns' days as a future star have been shortened now that he does it. Maybe they should also look into some sort of policy that prevents half the roster from ripping their pecs/biceps/shoulders/quads. Maybe have some kind of "three strike" rule. That could work. Yeah. That's the ticket.

 

Agreed.

 

Edge has talked on podcasts post-retirement about how the spear really messed up his neck, to the point where he was losing feeling in his right arm.....but it was a spot and it popped the crowd so he kept doing it. And he went to the "safe" weak looking spear that everyone complained about because to do it full throttle like he used to do just wasn't possible

 

I also think the WWE policy is really fucked up in ways. Like, they have no problem with all these dudes doing insane dives and shit, but nobody is allowed to blade? Blading and brawling is way safer for long term health. Scar tissue on your forehead doesn't compare to permanent spinal damage

[Sean Liska]

They've cut down on crazy dives too. Last year's MITB matches were safer than usual. The TLC PPV only had one big gimmick match, Orton-Cena, and it was safely worked.

[DMJ]

 

And he is also being featured as the second feud on the show, maybe even the third with Wyatt/Cena still going on. The parrallels with Benoit are amazing - wins the strap after beating HHH clean, proceeds to have a heatless feud with Kane whilst HHH and his buddies still take up the top of the card. Not complaining so much in this sense, because Evolution vs Shield is a genuinely hot feud stacked with talent, but there is no denying they could have handled the early stages of his title run better, even if it was just him running through Kane and mid level heels like Ryback, beating them clean and convincingly before the bigger fueds.

 

 

I agree with so much of what everyone is posting above, but this one sentiment really bothered me.

 

Daniel Bryan main evented Extreme Rules in the truest sense of the word. His match went on last when most believed it wouldn't. One can spin that any way they want, but it doesn't change the fact that Bryan's title defense went on in what is regarded as the main event.

 

As for his lack of RAW screentime since Mania - Daniel Bryan's father died, which means that on one episode of the build to ER, he basically needed to be written off entirely. Ditto for this week and the build for Payback. Other than that, he's been on TV plenty. Whether you like the angle or not, or think Kane is over or not, it's not like Bryan hasn't been on the flagship show every week for a considerable number of minutes. If I'm not mistaken, either, he had the most TV matches of any wrestler in 2013. In 2014, he'll probably still be in the Top 3. I have to agree with Dave Batista when he said Daniel Bryan can't be in every segment.

 

Finally, the solution offered by the poster above - and by others, so I'm not just knocking him - was that, as Wyatt is busy with Cena and Shield/Evolution is red hot, Bryan should be getting clean victories over mid-level heels like Kane and Ryback. Um, isn't that EXACTLY what IS happening?

 

I understand that people wanted to see him defend and defeat Batista and Cena...but if you blow those feuds in May and June, you really are leaving yourself with nowhere to go for SummerSlam and September's show, when a lot of fans are going to need to renew their Network subscriptions but might need a really good match to help motivate them.

 

Depending on the severity of this injury, we may never know if his title run would've gotten better, worse, or something in between. Still, when people call this the "worst title reign in WWE history" after a little over 6 weeks and one PPV main event (that I actually thought was entertaining for what it was), it sounds a lot like much ado about nothing to these ears.

[Russellmania]

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?

[goodhelmet]

Bryan hasn't eaten a pinfall since he became champion. It is already better than Rey Mysterio's reign.

[JaymeFuture]

So they were playing off homophobic overractions by having a guy kissing a girl. Okayyyy. Not sure if I see the relevance in all of this. Oh, anyway, Fandango is irrelavant anyway, as it seems this plants the seed for a feud between his two girls.

 

If they wanted to be topical they should have just had Summer Rae and Layla kiss like that. You know, just to see if the reaction to two women doing it would be the same ¬_¬ That sounds like the kind of shameless logic Vince would go for.

 

The Bryan booking hasn't been as outright horrendous as those Mysterio/Christian reigns when it was obvious Vince just didn't want to do it. But given that the obvious opponent after Mania was Batista, it looks as if HHH just prioritised his own angle over Bryan, which left Bryan with the scraps and put him in a tough position to succeed in, which is a terrible approach if they really want Bryan to make it.

[cm funk]

I'm kinda up in the air when it comes to the Batista booking at the moment. He would be the logical opponent for Bryan...so why did he take the pin an WM? Why hasn't Orton demanded his rematch for his title? Why is Batista losing clean to Roman Reigns? It's been spotty booking, and I can't blame Dave if he's just like "pin me. pay me. I've got better things to do."

 

Dave has been a total pro, but the WWE braintrust should have seen it coming that people would shit on him winning the Rumble and main eventing WM. To their credit they went with it and turned him heel, but they booked him into a horrible position

[cm funk]

also, supposedly Batista was supposed to be a huge surprise at the Rumble but someone leaked it and it was out there so they had to put him on RAW for his return, which didn't exactly do him any favors

[Sean Liska]

I wonder how history would have changed if the Batista return had not leaked. The actual Rumble win probably would have gone over better, but I'm guessing the fans still would have turned on him within a few weeks.

[(BP)]

Everyone would've held their breath hoping Bryan would win the belt in the chamber. Then when he didnt, Orton/Batista would've gotten the exact same reaction with less time for WWE to readjust.

[tim]

Alicia Fox's post match rampages are legitimately the best thing going in wrestling today. Everyone needs to see the post-match on Main Event.

[RWOOD]

Alicia Fox's post match rampages are legitimately the best thing going in wrestling today. Everyone needs to see the post-match on Main Event.

 

Give me all your money.

[artDDP]

Even beyond that, Cesaro is actually less over than he was before they were invested in him. They've stopped playing to his strengths and don't seem to be matching him up with guys that will give him a good match. He hasn't had one since Wrestlemania. I'm glad he likely will tonight. The Cena/Wyatts feud is awful. Paige matches are fun, but never get over that much with the live crowd. I do like how they are positioning The Shield, but we don't see them pulling out the week-to-week matches they were in 2013 either. There are still good things happening, but I'm not sure I want to spend three hours every Monday watching Raw because I like Bad News Barrett.

 

I agree completely with this. I was motivated to tune in every week leading up to and immediately following WrestleMania but since the Warrior tribute show I've found my interest waning and there's more and more I fast-forward through each week.

 

I've been watching since he debuted so I've seen all I need to of Kane. I have zero interest in Bray Wyatt or his zany family. I'm not seeing enough of the characters I do like (Bad News Barrett, Cesaro, Ryback) and too much of characters I don't care about (Fandango, Curtis Axel, RVD). There haven't been many good competitive matches on "Raw" and there's a ton of guys on the roster that could use one or two of those four segments featuring Evolution or The Shield each week.

 

It looks like I'll be spending more time watching classic footage on the Network than tuning in to the first-run shows every week. They should offer the condensed version of "Raw" on the Network and maybe an hour-long "Smackdown!", too.

[JaymeFuture]

Well, Evo/Shield is apparently doing very well in the quarters and overruns, so I can understand why they'd feature them more. They absolutely need to have some kind of key issue for Barrett, he's on the verge of being the hottest he's been since the Nexus days, they need to keep that up.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

It happens every year: I tune in for the Mania build and kinda/sorta get sucked back in. Then a week or two after Mania, the product goes back to being mediocre at best.

 

I thought this year might have been different because of the Daniel Bryan push and Mania actually being good, but it didn't take long for things to turn to shit again as usual. How in the hell does WWE expect to retain fans like me with guys like Kane, HHH, Orton and Batista at the top of the card? Nobody gives two shits about any of those guys. HHH is an effective heel in the right situation, but that's about it.

 

If played right, this Bryan injury could actually turn out being good in the long run since it (hopefully) ends the momentum-killing program w/ Kane.

[El-P]

It happens every year: I tune in for the Mania build and kinda/sorta get sucked back in. Then a week or two after Mania, the product goes back to being mediocre at best.

 

I thought this year might have been different because of the Daniel Bryan push and Mania actually being good, but it didn't take long for things to turn to shit again as usual. How in the hell does WWE expect to retain fans like me with guys like Kane, HHH, Orton and Batista at the top of the card? Nobody gives two shits about any of those guys. HHH is an effective heel in the right situation, but that's about it.

 

Precisely what I go through.

[Coffey]

 

I've been watching since he debuted so I've seen all I need to of Kane. I have zero interest in Bray Wyatt or his zany family. I'm not seeing enough of the characters I do like (Bad News Barrett, Cesaro, Ryback) and too much of characters I don't care about (Fandango, Curtis Axel, RVD).

 

Yes, I'm tired of a lot of the people they continually use as well: Kane, Rob Van Dam, Alberto Del Rio, Jack Swagger, Randy Orton...

 

I like others though. I'm a fan of Axel & think he's improved a lot. I LOVE his leap frog. Not too high on Barrett though, he bores me. Cesaro was great but putting him with Heyman has hurt him. I like Fandango but liked him a lot more when he was with Summer. I would love to see Luke Harper as a singles wrestler.

 

Sometimes it feels like WWE fucks with stuff that doesn't need fucking with & sometimes that makes something you used to enjoy be something that you don't enjoy so much anymore.

[Strummer]

As I mentioned earlier the product has become depressing with the Authority stuff dominating the TV. Besides the Rhodes brothers stuff and mania (and I guess the recent Shield stuff) Hunter and Stephanie have not been one upped pretty much at all. They disparage the babyfaces and are often proven correct. The McMahon Helmsley stuff 15 years ago lasted around three months and even when Vince joined them they were always showing ass. This has been going on for nearly a year with minimal babyface revenge. Excellent heel work but often leaves a depressing cloud over WWE TV. This is all going against WWE doctrine and how they've pretty much always presented their product. I don't see it ending anytime soon either

[KrisZ]

Per Meltz

 

 

 

It’s been noted to us what an impossible position Paul Levesque has been put in when it comes to talent relations, because Vince McMahon is still the guy making all the final calls, and he changes his mind frequently. It’s become a big frustration of talent that they are told a certain direction by Levesque, and then Levesque is put in the position of having to get with the talent again and explain that what he told them before isn’t happening. Either he’s really good, or he’s in a bad position, because talent for the most part sees him as one of them and that he’s frustrated from above when things change.

With the first round of network subscriptions coming due on 9/2, the WWE is looking to load up the 9/21 Night of Champions show in Nashville. Lesnar is to return for a two-show program, starting at SummerSlam and continuing at NOC.

[Matt D]

 

Per Meltz

 

 

 

It’s been noted to us what an impossible position Paul Levesque has been put in when it comes to talent relations, because Vince McMahon is still the guy making all the final calls, and he changes his mind frequently. It’s become a big frustration of talent that they are told a certain direction by Levesque, and then Levesque is put in the position of having to get with the talent again and explain that what he told them before isn’t happening. Either he’s really good, or he’s in a bad position, because talent for the most part sees him as one of them and that he’s frustrated from above when things change.

With the first round of network subscriptions coming due on 9/2, the WWE is looking to load up the 9/21 Night of Champions show in Nashville. Lesnar is to return for a two-show program, starting at SummerSlam and continuing at NOC.

 

 

I feel for Trips a bit when it comes to the debut of NXT guys. How can even the best new characters survive the weekly TV grind, the need for content, the post-Lesnarian start-stop booking, and the writers?