WWE TV 07/22 - 07/28 RAW Reunion! Candice Michelle is back!!!

[El-P]

5 hours ago, sek69 said:

You can probably make an argument if it's effective (I personally don't think anyone can get clean unless they deal with the underlying issues that cause them to use in the first place), but it definitely exists. 

Of course it's effective. I know alcoholics who quit cold turkey and never drank a sip of alcohol in their entire lives since. I know we're at an age of "no one's responsible for anything and you gotta blame society and context for everything that happens to you", but quitting drinking is way doable, either alone or helped. Some people just don't want to quit because they don't give a fuck about other people, or themselves. Again, I've lived through the whole "being in a relationship with an alcoholic", and some family members were alcoholics, so I speak out of experience. There, I said too much already about that topic I think. PWO.

Fuck the Usos. And yeah, if AEW would jump on them after they would get fired from WWE, there would be a negative reaction over here, for sure.

[Coffey]

The only time I ever liked Dolph Ziggler is when he was packaged with A.J. Lee & Big E. Langston... and then I just realized that I was a fan of A.J. Lee & Big E. Langston. Pre New Day.

I actually think WWE lost a lot when they lost A.J. Lee. People still talk about CM Punk but no one seems to mention her anymore. And not just talking about her wrestling pretty fake looking matches. Her as a valet was great. Big E. in the Mr. Hughes role I liked a lot too. It was like an entourage that looked & felt legit.

[War is Raw]

11 hours ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

Just this, and in no way am I defending either drunk driving or being one of these "WWE apologists" that keep being brought up that don't exist here.

While he was drunk when Naomi was pulled over, I'm positive that was some profiling shit, and perhaps he got hot knowing that while drunk. We're in an age of black people getting killed for nothing during traffic stops. 

Yet EVERY headline is "Second DUI". No, this was his first. The media is like me. Can't tell twins apart.

Hi Johnny Sorrow, I love your podcasts. And you and I probably on the same page when it comes to unfair police stops and how People of Color are treated differently in the criminal justice system. The media tends to blow up when celebs get into (relatively) "minor" traffic incidents. I say "minor" because in Florida, most people will be fined heavily, lose their license for a while (Uber time), insurance gets hiked, and they be forced to give piss tests and be forced to take classes. But of course, innocent people die or get hurt from DUI every day.

FYI one of the articles said this: "This is Jimmy Uso’s 3rd arrest for DUI, his other two having been in 2011 and 2013. Law enforcement has stated that Uso was swerving his vehicle and smelt of alcohol when he was pulled over. He is alleged to have refused a DUI test."

So that wasn't even about the earlier disorderly conduct charge with his wife and they did not confuse him with Josh, who was arrested in 2018 in Texas. But yes, most headlines acted like this was Jimmy's 2nd time this year.

My point from before basically is that Jon Fatu is part of an old school wrestling family where this behavior is normalized and downplayed by them because they are rasslers- some of them have gotten into trouble in Pensacola and nearby areas before (not so good neighborhood BTW). From bar room brawls to DUI to yelling at cops...I've seen reports and heard stories about that giant wrestling family. Yes, fans love the stories that have come out. 

My other point with rehab is that Vince already has the drug program and it is good PR to ask people to sign up for it. Heck, maybe it would actually work or help a little bit- even if it is so boring that Uso would get scared straight. LOL

So if Hardy and the Usos keep having run-ins with the law for alcohol-related charges, it would be wise for WWE to suggest it, or even offer legal advice or life coaching. You know, like don't drink and drive, how to drive in one lane (the right way), how refusing to take a roadside test will be used against you, and not to sleep in stairwells in a drunken stupor?

As it stands now, not only did WWE wash their hands, but so will Uso (based on him saying he did nothing wrong previously). PR-wise it appears they don't take DUI seriously. They take domestic abuse allegations seriously. They take racism seriously nowadays (Hulk was excommunicated for a while). Lars Sullivan got fined for exercising his freedom of speech from ancient forum posts. So modern WWE does act sometimes. A drunk Alicia Foxx apparently is retired now, after the Arn Anderson situation.

I don't have an axe to grind or hill to die on with this. But to me, it's embarrassing and disappointing for the Uso. I'm not into punishments but I am into getting people help, but if it doesn't work, it's on them. 

But yes, I guess legally WWE has no obligation to do anything, especially since Uso is an independent contractor. Morally, it's hypocritical to discipline someone when the CEO himself did much harder drugs and crimes back in the day (with the whole roster). But the Usos actually got awarded the tag titles for last time's traffic infraction. And don't they have new contracts anyway? No wonder CM Punk triggered when Vince and Trips told him to piss in a cup.

Anyway...

[War is Raw]

On 7/24/2019 at 6:44 PM, sek69 said:

Ziggler's a guy who *should* be a star, he checks all of Vince's boxes, has real life cred, and can bring it on promos when motivated.

Yet he's not.

Like you know how people bag on Miz by saying he's a dude playing pro wrestler? That's how I feel about Ziggler. I never get invested in anything he does since it comes off like a guy who's memorized a How To Be a Sports Entertainer textbook.

He got de-pushed years ago because of his concussions and his stand up comedy hobby.

He was hot for a year or so- when he was champ. Reminded me of Mr. Perfect with the bumping and blond perm. He's always enthusiastic but he's a JTTS.

I stopped getting invested in him once I realized he was capped to be a mid-carder, during The Authority storyline. I stopped defending him after I saw him act loose on Total Divas. It is a complete joke they brought him back in 2019. His matches with Kofi have been boring anyway.

I don't blame him as much as you do, I guess. After Moxley's podcasts, it is confirmed these guys have no say or choice in what they do in the WWE.

[...TG]

54 minutes ago, War is Raw said:

FYI one of the articles said this: "This is Jimmy Uso’s 3rd arrest for DUI, his other two having been in 2011 and 2013.

Interesting - the TMZ post did not mention this, and neither does Wikipedia. (Say what you will about Wikipedia, but the folks who update the WWE pages are generally thorough to an absurd degree.) The cut/paste newz sites all us that phrase, though none of them really appear to be linked. TMZ did report on the 2011 arrest, making it a little strange they didn't link to it. As far as I can tell was not arrested for DUI in 2013 - that was apparently a probation violation for driving on a suspended license. (Please correct me if I'm wrong, that was a pretty cursory search.)

[Strummer]

 Alexa v Becky, Seth v Dolph and Roman and Joe in a "Samoan Summit" announced for Raw.

looks like Roman v Joe is happening at Summerslam again even though Roman already won clean last week

[Stiva]

I have the trust in Joe to heat up that feud by himself if they let him talk. And I really hope the Summerslam match is a heavyweight sprint; those two could work a great one of those.

[Alucard]

They had really good matches a couple years ago but man they are just killing Joe dead at this point. What could've been a dominant US title run, he loses in fluke fashion to Rey and only gets it back via Rey handing it to him. Proceeds to job clean right away to Ricochet, only to challenge for the WWE title immediately after, and get beat yet again in under 10 minutes. Couple weeks ago he beats Finn... but it's presented as a fluke and he gets his ass kicked right after so that's forgotten. Then of course last week, he starts with Roman and gets beat just like that in 5 minutes.

[Jmare007]

So Smackdown is doing a house show in Nashville, they put it on the Network, called it "Smackville" and I had no fucking clue it seems I wasn't alone.

[C.S.]

On 7/26/2019 at 2:42 PM, War is Raw said:

I stopped getting invested in him once I realized he was capped to be a mid-carder, during The Authority storyline. I stopped defending him after I saw him act loose on Total Divas.  

It's a shame, because he seemed poised to break out again after his Survivor Series victory (the one where Sting debuted), but WWE did nothing with him after that.

As for Total Divas, are you serious?! Of all the reasons to cool off on a guy, his scripted actions on a fake reality show are among them? 

[Alucard]

1 hour ago, Jmare007 said:

So Smackdown is doing a house show in Nashville, they put it on the Network, called it "Smackville" and I had no fucking clue it seems I wasn't alone.

They put some of the most predictably boring stuff imaginable on it. I turned it off halfway thru because I get way more than enough rambling Kevin Owens crap on the weekly shows.

[C.S.]

So, who here on PWO wrote this?

 

[SomethingSavage]

Not sure, but that's far too complimentary to have come from me.

10 hours ago, C.S. said:

It's a shame, because he seemed poised to break out again after his Survivor Series victory (the one where Sting debuted), but WWE did nothing with him after that.

As for Total Divas, are you serious?! Of all the reasons to cool off on a guy, his scripted actions on a fake reality show are among them? 

The Dolph comparisons are way off the mark anyhow. You see a bunch of Shawn and Hennig stuff, because that's obviously what he's going for with his style and his appearance.

In reality, the more apt comparison in every imaginable way is Billy Gunn.

[El-P]

53 minutes ago, SomethingSavage said:

The Dolph comparisons are way off the mark anyhow. You see a bunch of Shawn and Hennig stuff, because that's obviously what he's going for with his style and his appearance.

In reality, the more apt comparison in every imaginable way is Billy Gunn.

First time I ever saw Ziggler, my reaction was : why is this guy trying to emulate Billy Gunn ? 

[TheDuke]

I actually enjoyed Smackville. It wasn't groundbreaking or anything, but it was a fun hour of WWE style wrestling. Actually, I thought watching it that this kind of show would be a better format for the weekly TV than Raw or Smackdown. First, it's only an hour, if you added commercials it would probably be like 90 minutes. It doesn't feel bloated with all the crap that is on TV. Just some matches and some promos. It only featured 3 matches and 7 guys in total. I feel like it they didn't have to feature like 20 guys each night the show would feel better. I really think they could alternate between what belts or what wrestlers are featured each week. Like this show was the IC and the WWE titles. Next week could be maybe the Tag Team and the Women's belts. It would really help guys like Baron Corbin or Elias feel less stale if they were not on TV every week, and it would help to see some of the roster who may not be seen on TV other than Main Event right now if they were able to cycle in and out of TV so they could wrestle maybe once a month or so on the main show.

I will admit I did skip over the Elias part until Kevin Owens showed up as I am finding Elias a little blah right now. Also the Nakamura match felt a little sloppy or like the timing was off or something.

[sek69]

Apparently Finn got leveled by stomach flu and Ali was a last minute sub, probably explains why that match wasn't super crisp. 

[SomethingSavage]

2 hours ago, TheDuke said:

I actually enjoyed Smackville. It wasn't groundbreaking or anything, but it was a fun hour of WWE style wrestling. Actually, I thought watching it that this kind of show would be a better format for the weekly TV than Raw or Smackdown. First, it's only an hour, if you added commercials it would probably be like 90 minutes. It doesn't feel bloated with all the crap that is on TV. Just some matches and some promos. It only featured 3 matches and 7 guys in total. I feel like it they didn't have to feature like 20 guys each night the show would feel better. I really think they could alternate between what belts or what wrestlers are featured each week. Like this show was the IC and the WWE titles. Next week could be maybe the Tag Team and the Women's belts. It would really help guys like Baron Corbin or Elias feel less stale if they were not on TV every week, and it would help to see some of the roster who may not be seen on TV other than Main Event right now if they were able to cycle in and out of TV so they could wrestle maybe once a month or so on the main show.

I will admit I did skip over the Elias part until Kevin Owens showed up as I am finding Elias a little blah right now. Also the Nakamura match felt a little sloppy or like the timing was off or something.

The alternating various angles & belts every other week was actually a staple of their strategy through that stellar Smackdown run from summer 2016 to spring 2017.

That awesome string of shows was the last time I followed any WWE television regularly, and the formula seemed so simple. But they sure blew it all to hell with that first "superstar shakeup" and never stumbled across another winning recipe since.

[Coffey]

18 hours ago, C.S. said:

So, who here on PWO wrote this?

Not me because I 100% put the blame on Seth himself, not try to pass the blame to Vince or WWE as a whole. There's a reason he sucked as Tyler Black pre-WWE too.

[KawadaSmile]

Plus comparing him to Cesaro was bad, because he adopts traits from people he's tagging with, not feuding with.

Being able to gel with Tyson Kidd or Jack Swagger or Kassius Ohno or Sheamus just shows how great he is, while Seth defining his character based on the person he's having a storyline kinda shows how geeky he is.

[Dale Wolfe]

Seths biggest problem to me is that it just doesn't seem believable that he'd win any fight ever. His offence is awful for the most part. 

As a cowardly cheating heel, he works. Everyone thinks he's a rat anyway why not embrace it. 

[SmartMark15]

2 hours ago, Dale Wolfe said:

Seths biggest problem to me is that it just doesn't seem believable that he'd win any fight ever.

As someone who enjoyed the 2018 IC Title run, this was my main problem going into his Mania match.

[FMKK]

3 hours ago, Dale Wolfe said:

Seths biggest problem to me is that it just doesn't seem believable that he'd win any fight ever. His offence is awful for the most part. 

As a cowardly cheating heel, he works. Everyone thinks he's a rat anyway why not embrace it. 

That's one of his biggest problems. The fact that a load of his promos are unlistenable is another one.

[Slasher]

I don't necessarily agree with Herodes about the state of pro wrestling, but when I look at Rollins, I get it.

[SmartMark15]

I know the anti-Rollins sentiment has been brewing here for a long while but the rest of the IWC are really turning on him in this last month or so.

[Boss Rock]

23 minutes ago, SmartMark15 said:

I know the anti-Rollins sentiment has been brewing here for a long while but the rest of the IWC are really turning on him in this last month or so.

I think it has a lot to do with this attitude over the last few months, lashing out at fans and his remarks about Moxley. But at the same time, I wonder if folks are seeing his in-ring work and realizing it's just not all that impressive. For the fast-paced athletic style he works (often derisively referred to as "crossfit wrestling") there are so many folks who do it better than him.