WWE TV, May 9th - May 15th

[Parties]

RAW highlights thus far:

Wacky Flair ejection from ringside

Perfectly decent Zayn-Miz match

Cesaro holding a large coffee and nodding

[Strummer]

And there's Dana Brooke's debut

[Loss]

They are at least trying to push a lot of people that have been around forever in fresh ways. It's a big improvement.

[Parties]

Even Sin Cara gets a singles win. (Against Rusev.) Weird finish with Kalisto causing really heelish distraction for a face, but a solid outing. Crowd seems up for everything too.

[WingedEagle]

Really, really excited for the elimination tag. Then we got a couple roll-ups followed by a nice looking finish. Which happened to be during commercial. But Reigns vs. Styles was super heated, arguably moreso than anything else they've done this year. I really love how they've booked it so simply. AJ isn't out there cutting 15 minutes promos. A couple minutes on the mic backstage, and then relying on his actual wrestling to get him over. And its worked! Add on the intrigue of waiting for Gallows & Anderson to turn and the subtle, but clear touches along the way like teasing the chair and you've got the best program going in quite some time. Really looking forward to PPV rematch. Hopefully not too many family shenanigans that night.

[Loss]

Roman Reigns and AJ Styles should feud on and off for at least the next five years. I think Roman found his career rival.

[hammerva]

Yeah if there are still people that believe Reigns can't get over as THE GUY or that Styles isn't a main eventer the end of the match blew that out of the water. I mean when was the last time you heard a crowd that invested in Reigns

[Noah's_Savior]

Roman and the Usos vs AJ and The Club is some real money. It's good that they aren't having Roman and AJ out in the ring cutting long promos, instead having backstage interactions between the teams.

[shoe]

I'm loving the AJ and Reigns stuff. The Samoans vs the Club has been great too. We've getting really fun 6 mans. I'm waiting for one on ppv. Their is months of storyline if they take their time

[Strummer]

The AJ and Roman stuff has been fantastic. Maybe they can go one more month with it. Hate to see it end

[sek69]

Yeah if there are still people that believe Reigns can't get over as THE GUY or that Styles isn't a main eventer the end of the match blew that out of the water. I mean when was the last time you heard a crowd that invested in Reigns

I don't think anyone doubted Roman himself, just that the booking was doing him no favors for someone they wanted to be the guy. They finally figured it out, and lo and behold people responded. The key will be if they can keep it up or will AJ end up being Edge to Roman's Cena.

[Strummer]

WM did nearly 1 million traditional PPV buys. With no Cena on the card. Probably have to admit Shane/Taker drew that number

[WingedEagle]

WM did nearly 1 million traditional PPV buys. With no Cena on the card. Probably have to admit Shane/Taker drew that number

 

I thought I read that they specifically declined to provide any PPV figures?

[Strummer]

Barrios said it during the conference call

[Loss]

Dave has talked before about how ticket sales in Dallas spiked after the announcement too. So it was obviously a huge success.

[Matt D]

There's a lot of value in an honest surprise for people who can't get surprised easily. Also, nostalgia, and freakshow dives, and stakes. Which they make meaningless all the time.

[goc]

[Ricky Jackson]

Good, because I don't think I would want to live in a world where Shane vs Taker was the most amazing money draw of all time

[Matt D]

Probably still a better draw than Brock?

[WingedEagle]

That makes a bit more sense. No basis for 1M PPV buys today with the base number of Network subscribers.

[Gutenberger]

And they really seem to be strapping a rocket on Cass' back as long an Enzo isn't around. Maybe a test to see where they can go with him?

[Strummer]

Christian has been released from his performer's contract. Yeah I guess we're not getting season 2 of the E & C Show

 

I guess his network show contract is separate so he might still be around

[Ricky Jackson]

It's just a technicality

 

When talking about the releases, Meltzer mentions Alex Riley was being groomed until an "incident with John Cena". This would've been around 2011 when he was with the Miz I guess. Anyone know what happened? I don't recall reading about it at the time

[SteveJRogers]

Christian has been released from his performer's contract. Yeah I guess we're not getting season 2 of the E & C Show

 

I guess his network show contract is separate so he might still be around

IIRC, Edge is not under a WWE performer contract. They even made a line about his contract lapsing when he cut a promo on Cena before Cena-Brock at Extreme Rules.

[Alucard]

It's just a technicality

 

When talking about the releases, Meltzer mentions Alex Riley was being groomed until an "incident with John Cena". This would've been around 2011 when he was with the Miz I guess. Anyone know what happened? I don't recall reading about it at the time

 

It was after the face turn against Miz in 2011 and he was being pushed then dropped off completely. Reports at the time said that Riley "didn't react well" to being ribbed by Cena in front of the boys or something, but Tyler Reks did a shoot last year where he talked about how Cena was always singling Riley out, ripping him in front of everyone for any little thing and felt that he was trying to get him fired.

 

Personally I thought Riley was doing very good at that point could've been a top guy at least upper midcard but he got totally dropped. Even recently I felt he still showed some fire in his NXT work, though the booking didn't give him much of a chance in the ring, he was still delivering on the mic and in the build to the mini-feud with Owens last year. Always liked him and wished he got more of a shot. Good look, talker, solid in the ring, and pretty much always got a reaction from the crowd even when he was hardly used.