WWE TV 02/18 - 02/24 Governmental Twitter Dirty Laundry-Washing

[peachchaos]

Guys, the cage match between Wyatt and Bryan was fine. I'll take that any day over Old Man Angle or Undertaker hobbling out there one more time.

[peachchaos]

Plus I'd rather they save Zayn and Owens for something good. Keep them fresh and have them come back and make an impact on the WM Raw.

[KawadaSmile]

Wasn't the cage segment like five years ago? Wyatt's number of actually good singes matches is way too low for a guy touted by many to be a star and his promos are sub-Taskmaster levels for someone considered to be a killer on the mic. I'm usually more positive than most, but Wyatt has been trying my patience for years and years now.

His role as Matt Hardy's tag partner was fun because he wasn't the leader, and so was his tag run with Orton, but that's it. He's zilch as a singles guy, and the fact that Orton got cheered when he set Wyatt's shack on fire just shows how much sympathy he can garner as a face. 

I'd rather have Ali or Joe or Jeff or Almas or Orton or Cesaro or Sheamus or Harper or Black or Ricochet or AJ or Kofi or Big E or Xavier Woods.

[peachchaos]

It clearly should have been Bryan vs. Joe vs. Styles but Vince gotta Vince.

After Chamber it really should be Kofi. That's the exact crowd reaction they need from a babyface and a very simple story to tell.

[DMJ]

I highly doubt they're going go with Wyatt. I think they want a strong babyface in that spot and Wyatt isn't a strong anything right now. 

My dark horse pick is Cena. The few reports I read said that his schedule makes it unlikely that they would feature him so prominently - as he won't be able to do weekly TV - but I also just can't believe they're going to do this Mania without him when, in terms of star power, they are probably at the lowest point they've been since what? Maybe 09' or '06? Maybe even the pre-Attitude Era 90s? 

Granted, this is a company with Lesnar, Rousey, Bryan, Becky, Mysterio, Orton, AJ, Jeff Hardy, Seth, and Braun - so its not like they don't have popular stars - but it still feels light because the past 10 Manias have been so centered on what Cena is doing, what Reigns is doing, what Triple H is doing, what Taker is doing, and what Brock is doing (but only if he's working one of the other guys on this list because his feud/match with Ambrose was treated like an after thought). 

[SomethingSavage]

Just to touch on a few things...

Bray was the heel when his shack was burned to the ground. So Orton getting cheered was the desired result, as bizarre as that sounds.

And Bryan vs. Bray in a cage never happened. The match was the Usos against Bryan & Bray. The post-match scene, with Bryan fighting back, is what everyone remembers.

But yeah. Their Rumble match was excellent. If Bryan could somehow get something similar out of Wyatt again, that would be remarkable.

[Jmare007]

By the way, Dave already changed his report and is saying Kofi is the front runner for the Fastlane title shot (he wasn't on those plans either as of the WOR post RAW) he also says it's not clear if that will change the plans for Mania.

 

I hope the crowd stays behind Kofi. He needs to be the most over male talent on the roster in the next month to have a legit shot at Vince changing directions.

[NintendoLogic]

Rusev and Lana have a Youtube channel now. More accurately, they've rebranded the channel CJ Perry set up in 2012 to host her acting reels. Everybody seems to agree that scripted promos are a major problem in WWE, but when I see crap like this, I can't really blame them for not trusting the talent with a live mic.

 

[peachchaos]

1 hour ago, SomethingSavage said:

Their Rumble match was excellent. If Bryan could somehow get something similar out of Wyatt again, that would be remarkable.

Yes, the Rumble match is what I'm referencing, it was all just booked in reverse and in my head the cage should always be the blowoff. Bryan seems capable of any small miracle at the moment. But again, slim pickings here. Bray would never be my choice in a million years and if the crowd can organically get Kofi into the spot I'm all for it.

[sek69]

Amazing how Mustafa Ali has disappeared from everyone's mind after missing one show. 

[El-P]

1 minute ago, sek69 said:

Amazing how Mustafa Ali has disappeared from everyone's mind after missing one show. 

Poor fucker. Pro-wrestling fans are fickle bastards.

[peachchaos]

Yeah. Ali got Beefcake'd.

[KawadaSmile]

Hey, one of the first things Kofi said after getting that close to winning the WWE Title was saying how he felt he couldn't let Ali down, due to the position he was in.

But Ali is going to be alright, bubbas. His injury is minor, but had the worst timing for him. He'll be back to bump like a maniac in no time.

[sek69]

10 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

Hey, one of the first things Kofi said after getting that close to winning the WWE Title was saying how he felt he couldn't let Ali down, due to the position he was in.

But Ali is going to be alright, bubbas. His injury is minor, but had the worst timing for him. He'll be back to bump like a maniac in no time.

 He went from having great matches with the champ to not even being on the radar of people like us for possible Mania opponents. He might be "alright" but he sure ain't going anywhere.

[KawadaSmile]

He made his main roster debut not even 6 months ago. I mean, he just isn't in the radar because people are fawning over the possibility of Kofi winning the big one. Also, as far as we know, he still isn't cleared.

It's not a gloom and doom situation for him. I doubt he would even get a WM match if he were healthy, and EC would be the performance that propped him up for good, but it would end there. With Kofi taking his place we had a career defining performance, aided by the crowd support that only a select few would get.

Like, there are still many good options for Ali. He could go up against Orton, or against an US Champ Andrade at WM. It's not so bad for a guy who just started making noise.

[sek69]

It's notable that other than Ronda/Becky/Charlotte and Brock/Seth, there's not any obvious Mania matches even being hinted at. Usually by this point you can at least see the direction they are heading toward.  I can't recall another build where other than the top one or two matches the rest of the card is "I guess this guy can face that guy". 

[SomethingSavage]

I don't follow their TV or anything, but it definitely felt like they were setting up an AJ/Orton match on commentary in the main event.

[Strummer]

According to John Pollock the NXT guys will be at SD

[sek69]

Charlotte posted a photo of nearly her entire arm covered in bruises after the crutch shots from Becky, who also busted Ronda open as well. Charlotte lit up Ronda with the kendo stick shots when they had their match, are we sure these three know it's a work?

[ZThomas]

Didnt Wyatt have a great PPV match with Ryback once. 

I think he's a good tag wrestler, the last Wyatt Family story with Orton was good before they turned heel on Orton. That was some of Ortons best work in a while especially the match he had with Harper,

[KawadaSmile]

Huh, 5 minutes in and the SD crowd is miles above the Raw one.

Let's see how they greet the NXT fellas.

[DMJ]

8 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Charlotte posted a photo of nearly her entire arm covered in bruises after the crutch shots from Becky, who also busted Ronda open as well. Charlotte lit up Ronda with the kendo stick shots when they had their match, are we sure these three know it's a work?

Not to be that guy, but if Nia Jax had done the same thing, I could see many jumping on it as proof that she's sloppy and unprofessional. 

My guess is that these three, like Sasha Banks with her crazy high spots a few years ago, are thinking they need to lay everything in and push the limit to prove a point. I'm not sure they're wrong either. With Nia, there's a history of unsafe work, but then again, Becky Lynch having her nose broken was also a character-defining moment and now she's going to main event WrestleMania. I don't want to see people getting hurt needlessly, but it ain't ballet.

[SomethingSavage]

Orton was solid throughout that whole time. It's the last time any WWE was weekly viewing for me, but yeah. Everything on SmackDown was clicking. Orton had good showings in tags with American Alpha, as well as solo outings against AJ and Harper that I still remember.

Maybe I'm alone, but I wasn't even totally turned away by the initial Bray title win. That didn't happen until they totally shit the bed by going all supernatural with the story.

Instead of being a simple story about betrayal or trust issues within the group, it became this silly shit about haunted houses and sisters' corpses or whateverthefuck.

Remember when Russo took the straightforward (by wrestling standards) sibling rivalry/revenge story of Kane-Taker and shoved it off the rails with too many turns & changes to their history?

This was that, only amplified by a thousand. And without any payoff. At least Taker-Kane got a proper payoff BEFORE it got diluted. Bray/Orton just got ultra shitty, ultra fast.

[KawadaSmile]

I never expected Face Miz to get over like this. He's constantly evolving, fellas.

[Tenese Sarwieh]

Right off the bat this crowd is 1000 times better than monday's. Also this is best Miz has ever been as a face, at this point I'd keep him as is no turning on Shane.