WWE TV 04/15 - 04/21: Superstar Shakeup but the real Shakeup is a country who arrests and beats up its teachers

[Loss]

I think all of this stuff is going to be forgotten by the time SD moves to Fox. I suspect that whatever current things they are doing are just to get them to Summerslam.

[sek69]

I would suspect they do another shuffling before Fox time for sure.

[C.S.]

4 minutes ago, hammerva said:

Did Styles change his look?  

Yeah, and not for the better.

[Johnny Sorrow]

"The Viking Experience"? Fucking really? I mean, I get not wanting "War" in the name, and wanting to go all in on the Viking gimmick. But "The Viking Experience "? That stinks.

[C.S.]

I could see Reigns, Drew, Corbin, and Lashley all moving over to SDL tomorrow. 

[hammerva]

Well I assume Drew is already going to Smackdown since he was with the Bar last week.  Lashley works as well. Reigns might be a necessity now that Styles is gone

 

[C.S.]

Imagine the internet reaction if Jinder moved over and immediately won the title from Kofi. 

[hammerva]

Just now, C.S. said:

Imagine the internet reaction if Jinder moved over and immediately won the title from Kofi. 

Or even worse Corbin.   Fuck I would gladly take Jinder over Corbin

 

[KawadaSmile]

This finishing stretch was some amazing stuff.

 

[C.S.]

IMO, Sami Zayn would be a great challenger for Kofi - but I assume Zayn is officially on Raw now?

[Strummer]

for SD tomorrow:

Quote

The mystery has been heightened by Mr. McMahon, who will be revealing the biggest acquisition in SmackDown LIVE history tonight. Who has the WWE Chairman secured for the blue brand?

 

[C.S.]

People are predicting Roman, and it could be, but my guess is Ronda. Even if she is taking time off, she's still employed by the company. 

[KawadaSmile]

I'm almost expecting a massive trolljob and it's Stephanie the one to be announced

[C.S.]

4 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

I'm almost expecting a massive trolljob and it's Stephanie the one to be announced

Or The Viking Experience with yet another new and even worse name. Hey, I'd pop!

[Strummer]

2 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

I'm almost expecting a massive trolljob and it's Stephanie the one to be announced

Ha yeah that crossed my mind as well

[FMKK]

5 hours ago, C.S. said:

I could see Reigns, Drew, Corbin, and Lashley all moving over to SDL tomorrow. 

I kinda hope they don't all go because it feels like those guys have been bogging down with fighting with or against each other forever.

[Strummer]

Yeah "biggest acquisition in SD history" really does kinda sound like wwe speak for something screwy.

i was thinking Roman as well initially but this projects a heel coming in.  Brock, yeah.  Or Ronda.  Umm, yeah maybe something screwy

[El-P]

8 hours ago, PeteF3 said:

The Simpsons is another outfit that has separate French dubs, and I doubt it's just them and WWE, either. It may not be more than the difference between American and British English but it's clearly enough that mass media accounts for it.

It is more, believe me. Some movies from Quebec are subtitled... in France.

Why the question BTW ? Was there some French on the Montreal RAW ?

(Yeah, really sucks for Notre-Dame. It's amazing it's one of the most famous monument on the planet... )

[DMJ]

The Viking Experience is a woeful name. I remember watching Raymond Rowe come up in the Cleveland indies, so I also dislike his name change to "Erik." I get that its a Viking name, but Rowe, being his real name, was better and less generic. If you're going to be a "one name guy," something as vanilla as Erik (is it more eXtreMe because it ends with a k?) is a dead end. The name Ivar sounds like someone backstage thought, "Well, we can always slide him over to The Ascension if for whatever reason Erik dies." Hanson wasn't a great name either, but Ivar? 

I wasn't dying to pick up War Raiders merch, but whenever they do make Viking Experience shirts, expect to find them in two places almost immediately - the clearance page on Shopzone and a couple slots below the "APA Always Pounding Ass Bar & Grille" shirt on the list of all-time worst WWE tees.

I understand why the WWE wouldn't want a team named "War Raiders" (even though its the same line of logic that would've prevented the phrases "Hulkamania" or "Macho Madness" from existing out of fear that these terms made light of mental illness), but The Viking Experience couldn't have been their best option. I'm not a fan of the Viking gimmick to begin with but if you'd have just kept them as The Raiders, Hanson and Rowe, and allowed them to maintain the Viking-inspired dress and war paint (whoops, there's that offensive word again), you could scale it back and forth as needed. The more they make this team about them being literal Vikings, the more I'm getting a Highlanders vibe. 

The call-up also seems a bit premature to me. Aren't they still NXT Tag Champs? The Authors of Pain, despite their comparative inexperience, felt like a finished product ready for the main roster when they came up and they fizzled out almost immediately (due to injury but it wasn't going great before that either, IIRC). I don't see bright things for The Viking Experience.

[El-P]

40 minutes ago, DMJ said:

Erik (is it more eXtreMe because it ends with a k?)

Well, the Phantom of the Opera's name was Erik. That's kinda cool.

But yeah, the Viking Experience ? Sounds like a name for a roller coster or something.

41 minutes ago, DMJ said:

The Authors of Pain, despite their comparative inexperience, felt like a finished product ready for the main roster when they came up and they fizzled out almost immediately (due to injury but it wasn't going great before that either, IIRC).

Wow, yeah, remember those guys ? They basically vanished into thin air pretty much immediately.

[Blehschmidt]

1 hour ago, DMJ said:

The more they make this team about them being literal Vikings, the more I'm getting a Highlanders vibe. 

I was watching the Takeover during Wrestlemania weekend with my buddies and we were discussing how we thought the War Raiders would end up on the main roster since fat, hairy guys who really aren't that big compared to most of the roster doesn't seem like Vince's cup of tea and someone yelled out "I'm Robbie!!" and we all laughed.

Seems they were much closer than anticipated.

[Jmare007]

7 hours ago, Strummer said:

Yeah "biggest acquisition in SD history" really does kinda sound like wwe speak for something screwy.

i was thinking Roman as well initially but this projects a heel coming in.  Brock, yeah.  Or Ronda.  Umm, yeah maybe something screwy

It's either Roman for "big star" or Braun for "big dude".

[KawadaSmile]

5 hours ago, El-P said:

Wow, yeah, remember those guys ? They basically vanished into thin air pretty much immediately.

Akam got injured, so they just stopped appearing altogether after a while. There was a Rezar/Dawson vs Gable/Roode tag at the Rumble IIRC, but that deal didn't really last long.

It kinda sucks that Paul Ellering wasn't able to tour constantly, because he really helped the act in NXT. Still, they are in their mid 20s so there's time for them.

[C.S.]

I wonder if calling them The Raiders (without the War part) was nixed because of the NFL team? "HO, HO, HO, PAL, we're bringing back the XFL, so we can't make ANY references to the No Fun League!"

[KawadaSmile]

After seeing that Viking Experience/Jimi Hendrix Experience mashup, I'm kinda down with it.

 

Also, naming them Ivar and Erik is actually cool because Ivar, the Boneless and Erik, the Red were pretty big deals but damn if people are interested in the Viking tag team to be named after historical figures.