Current WWE

[(BP)]

I'm really curious about how Tyler Breeze and Sami Zayn will be treated when they're called up. Breeze has a gimmick that could go either way in front of larger crowds. Zayn would probably benefit if Bryan is indeed going to be out a long time since he could easily play the underdog/workhorse role.

[KrisZ]

Styles just confirmed she is back

[tim]

What does Dunn have to gain from burying Trips' projects? The idea is once Vince steps aside he's gone anyway right? How does ruining the product now save him THEN?

[Russellmania]

i dunno, maybe he think that by undermining HHH, Vince will feel less comfortable letting him take over and remain in charge for longer than he would otherwise.

[El Boricua]

Good to see WWE backtracked on Emma's release. They were really going to make themselves look bad for firing an employee for what may have been an honest mistake in a self checkout line, while having given a slap on the wrist to another employee for a DUI and attempted bribery of a police officer.

[KrisZ]

I'm guessing this goes back to Trips being an active wrestler and beef started there plus how fast he rose in the company must have pissed Dunn off although he had to know it would happen. Trips also wanting to do things his way and not the traditional Vince way also has an effect and then you have the fact that Trips has said that he wanted to replace Dunn in the past.

[The Chief]

In regards to Bo Dallas, I think the best thing to do to get him super hot right now is to keep having him mention Daniel Bryan on TV every week. Then when Bryan is finally ready to return, it leads to the slaughter job to end all slaughter jobs. Bryan kicks his head off his shoulders and just annihilates him. Then Bo can come back from that saying how he's still looking up to the stars and won't let it set him back, adding a little bit of toughness to his character. The kind of shit that ECW used to do to get their "wimpy"characters over.

[Loss]

I still have major hope that there will be a segment with Bo Dallas giving The Miz career advice.

[cm funk]

Bo Dallas seems to be getting over pretty well as far as I can tell

 

Adam Rose is a one note comedy gimmick that was never going to have a shelf life, especially because he's not a very good wrestler. I enjoy the gimmick and some of the stuff they've booked him to do. I'd enjoy a feud with Heath Slater/Hornswoggle. There's lots of undercard comedy stuff he could do that would entertain me. And the bunny has been a great addition to the JBL & Cole show. I don't see him as a failure at all.....pretty much exactly what I expected

 

Emma was debuted/booked horribly since getting called up. She has way more to offer than what we've seen, anyone who watches NXT knows this. I don't think it's a small room vs. big room thing.....it's totally on WWE's booking/presentation of women. Paige has been booked horribly as well. Until they start treating the Divas division somewhat seriously, give them time to wrestle (to be fair there has been more of a trend in this direction), don't put them in death spots on TV/PPV......someone like Emma will struggle to get over.

 

And I have to echo that comment about Coffey's opinions. Not trying to be a jerk, but I find myself disagreeing strongly with almost everything you have to say in terms of opinions on talent. You think Emma is terrible.......you hate Stardust (the live crowd reactions are in complete disagreement with you on this).....I think you're also an Orton hater IIRC......we have wildly divergent opinions

[Guest Eduardo James]

About the recent call-ups, Rusev and Lana are doing fine and I'm not sure where the uncertainty about Bo is coming from. As for Emma, I know it isn't popular to place any blame on the talent, but she doesn't do herself any favours by looking absolutely miserable almost every time she's out there. Could they have booked her better? Of course, but look at Alicia Fox. She makes decent use of the little time she gets.

[The Chief]

I think in a lot of places, people think if somebody isn't a title contender right away, they're a failure. You know, the people who thought Fandango was a complete flop because "Fandangoing" didn't lead to him main eventing PPVs.

 

My opinion on Adam Rose is that if he can settle into a nice Godfather role and ride that out for a few years, that's a success. The dude is 35, which is ancient by developmental years. Good for him if he can.

[(BP)]

The Chief's right about Rose. Those dancing gimmicks aren't going to make top guys, but the first time I saw Brodus with the Funkasaurus gimmick I thought, "that guy is going to be able to do that gimmick on the indies for the next 20 years and make a living." Success is pretty relative, and if you measure it just by being in the top tier of WWE it's an exclusive club.

[Loss]

Here's a fascinating tidbit from the latest WON:

 

 

One prominent wrestler noted to us the increase in frequency of eye poke injuries (Cena and Cesaro just in recent weeks for the type of injury that almost never happened in the past) is because WWE is pushing everyone to be more aggressive in work style. This has led to people rushing, which leads to sloppy execution when it comes to being careful and safe, and thus more eye pokes, potato shots resulting in black eyes, concussions and separated shoulders. They are also working with the idea of just missing. The idea is to throw kicks and strikes really hard and fast, and just miss, which has led to an increase in concussions because if you are rushing, some of the near misses don’t miss.

[flyonthewall2983]

Completely random, but is Droz still a WWE employee?

[Coffey]

 

Emma just isn't very good, straight-up. However I don't think that really matters so much to this issue. WWE seem like hypocrites here.

you seriously have the worst opinions about everything

 

 

Well seeing as how I don't even know who you are or remember a single one of your posts, thanks, I guess?

[BillThompson]

Emma is a really good worker, she showed that in NXT. Maybe she'll get a chance to show it on the main show now, but even if she doesn't she's provided the evidence of what she is capable of so there's that at least,

[The Chief]

Anybody else get a Luger landing on the USS Intrepid vibe from Swagger on Monday?

[DMJ]

^ Court Bauer had the same thought on the LAW podcast this week. I'm not 100% ready to say Swagger's stock will rise based on one week, but I've gone hot & cold with him over the years, so, my take on him is not to be trusted. For example, I thought he was great in ECW, had some really good matches with Bourne and Christian and Cena (on an episode of RAW sometime), then thought he was lackluster on SD and RAW leading up to WM29, and, most recently, thought he simply paled in comparison to Cesaro (most would) which made him look like a very weak link in the Real Americans.

 

As for Emma - I place the blame squarely on the writers/bookers who teamed her with Santino. I get it - Santino is over because the kids still cheer him and he uses Mr. Socko and its cute. But the older crowd views him as a piss break character and everything he's done is pure time filler. I compare it to if you had had Cesaro debut as "Evad" Sullivan. I don't care how good a worker you are, that gimmick is just absolutely not to be taken seriously (also see Nick Dinsmore). I know, I know - a great worker will overcome a bad gimmick - but at least Natalya got a few impressive victories as a real competitor before her gimmick was that she had irritable bowel syndrome. Emma debuted as the goofy, annoying ditz girlfriend of a goofy, annoying idiot "wrestler." She could wrestle like a reincarnated Chris Benoit and the adjectives used to describe her character would still be stupid, goofy, annoying.

 

Hit the reset button on her and give her a chance on Superstars or SD without Santino's dead weight under a "no frills" plucky, spirited underdog and see if she has enough natural charisma to go from there. If it works, like it did in NXT, you have something special. If not, at least it won't be because they put her in a position to fail.

[goc]

I don't think Nick Dinsmore could have done anything that would have gotten as over as Eugene. That was more a victim of bad booking than a bad character. It was over as shit until they had him get his ass kicked by HHH.

[DMJ]

I can see why the Dinsmore comparison might not be apt. You're right, Dinsmore was over.

 

I guess I just think Emma would've had a better chance of getting over if she hadn't been paired with a character that is not only 1-dimensional goof character but, and here's a key word I forgot in my previous rambling, stale.

[dexstar]

I think a Swagger/Zeb patriotic face turn is the most interesting thing Swagger will have done in a long time. I've always thought Swagger "should" be more more than he's been but they've had a helluva time finding a role he seems comfortable in. The initial Zeb heel run was interesting conceptually but I don't think Del Rio was a good enough face to hold up the other end, and he was clearly getting overshadowed somewhat by Cesaro in the tag team, especially towards the end. I don't think Jack Swagger USA is a WWE Title type guy, but who knows. I definitely think he could have a good few months as a brooding face while Zeb works some patriot magic on the mic. That Rusev segment was fantastic.

[Bierschwale]

You could definitely do a great, mutually beneficial two-PPV program with Rusev and Swagger.

 

Battleground: Because Rusev HAS now lost a match in the WWE, as long as he doesn't tap out or get pinned, he doesn't really stop being "undefeated". So they have their match, and Swagger wins via DQ after Lana refuses to let Rusev drop the Accolade, with Swagger not tapping out and instead not being able to answer the three-count. Which leads to a submission match at SummerSlam. Just a complete hossoff, trying as many variations on their subs that they can (if they can pull it off, Rusev going for the single-leg dropkick and Swagger pulling him into the ankle lock would be a hell of a thing), with Rusev going over after getting Swagger to tap there.

 

And obviously you can get as much out of Zeb as possible, because it's Dutch fuckin' Mantell. Have him assemble all of the midcard babyfaces that the Real Americans have feuded with and he just pleads his case that this isn't about him, it's not about HIS agenda, it's about this country and why you're here and why you care about America-- "What makes you a Real American?". Assemble a group that can really pull Rusev out of the self-contained "beats one jobber, then the next, then another" bubble that really makes him seem like a threat. You can even give Swagger just enough material in the simple "it was all about me, it was about my success, it was about winning titles. It isn't anymore." vein that just becomes so much more powerful in the context. It feels like something that really could write itself, with a master hand in Dutch driving the on-screen product.

 

I have NO idea why this feud has me so engaged in what it could be, but it seems like an awesome opportunity to make a star out of a gimmick that everyone just called retrograde (because it is) and genuinely reinvigorate the midcarders by giving them an actual purpose and motivation.

[Strummer]

so Miz dressing and tanning like Robert Evans has to be an inside joke by someone on creative, right? I doubt Vince knows who Robert Evans even is so I'm guessing someone like Michael Hayes

[artDDP]

Watching this week's episode of Smackdown and I had two thoughts:

 

1. Cesaro's theme music sounds like what they used to use to dub over licensed music on home video releases.

 

2. Does Chris Jericho just come back once a year to put someone over now?

[SteveJRogers]

2. Does Chris Jericho just come back once a year to put someone over now?

Yes. He said just as much when talking about it on his podcast. He'll come in when they have something intersting for him to do, such as a program with Bray Wyatt.