Is the empire crumbling before our eyes?

[Flyin' Brian]

24 minutes ago, strobogo said:

Hear me out

 

 

What if they did Steinerized but with a trap beat under it

I found a piano version. 

 

[NintendoLogic]

Scott is on extremely bad terms with WWE, so we'll likely never see Bron use the Steiner name in the company. That's also why I expect him to get kneecapped politically at some point. Like I said before, though, it's a blessing in disguise because that means he can use the Steiner name without restrictions once he leaves the company.

By the way, when Joe Hennig was in FCW, he wanted to be his own man, but they had him look and work exactly like his father. But then they brought him onto NXT as Michael McGillicutty and it was all downhill from there. I guess they learned their lesson from that debacle because they've cut out the middleman and gone straight to horrible gimmicked names for second-generation wrestlers ever since.

[El-P]

20 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

Scott is on extremely bad terms with WWE, so we'll likely never see Bron use the Steiner name in the company. That's also why I expect him to get kneecapped politically at some point.

I was thinking about that yesterday when I was watching him. I can totally see Vince just getting tired of his new toy eventually, like he does with everyone else that isn't Roman Reigns or Brock Lesnar, and humiliating him on the main roster just to prove a point about those Steiner guys who were WCW products anyway.

BTW, Curtis Axel hasn't popped up anywhere yet.

[Al]

There have been some wrestlers who didn’t take their family name initially. Greg Valentine comes to mind. I could see that being a consideration where they don’t want to put that expectation on just yet. Of course being WWE, probably not.

[pmo]

On 9/25/2021 at 10:35 PM, Al said:

There have been some wrestlers who didn’t take their family name initially. Greg Valentine comes to mind. I could see that being a consideration where they don’t want to put that expectation on just yet. Of course being WWE, probably not.

Yeah what he did was really odd.  He took the name of another famous family becoming John Fargo and tagging with Don after he and Jackie split.  That always struck me as odd.  It was like Charlotte decided to be Ashley Valentine when she started...

[El-P]

Ashley Valentine actually sounds like a cooler name than Charlotte Flair, which does have a gimmicky feel to it (the Charlotte part next to the Flair last name). Of course it's not as odd, in a way, as Dominik Mysterio ! 

[NintendoLogic]

I thought Greg Valentine used a different name early on because Johnny thought he would be seen as too old to headline if people knew he had an adult son.

[El-P]

Wasn't that Lawler's deal too ? Not sure in his case it was just to not seem too old to headline though...

[Al]

Lawler didn't want people to know he was old enough to have an adult girlfriend.

 

(I've said it before but screw it, it's a good line.)

[El-P]

6 minutes ago, Al said:

Lawler didn't want people to know he was old enough to have an adult girlfriend.

Holy shit didn't see this one coming ! 

[MoS]

LMAO Nick Khan quietly removing all the McMahon kids while he gets Vince all the billion dollar deals

[El-P]

What if the Khan vs Khan feud was a work ? What if in the end, Nick Khan is working for a sell and the one buying was.... Shad Khan ? 

All jokes aside, if that means no more Shane O-Mac match at Mania, this is a win-win for everybody.

[sek69]

On 9/27/2021 at 12:16 PM, NintendoLogic said:

I thought Greg Valentine used a different name early on because Johnny thought he would be seen as too old to headline if people knew he had an adult son.

I've heard that as well but considering Greg looks pretty much exactly like his dad it's not like people couldn't connect the dots. 

[Ricky Jackson]

I think Greg was even originally billed as Johnny's brother when he did take the Valentine name in order not to make his father seem too old 

[ohtani's jacket]

Greg is billed as Johnny’s brother in the Florida footage. 

[fakeplastictrees]

I didn't think Shane had a job  in the office since his return. I only remember seeing his performer contract salary and not WWE employee salary. I may be incorrect. Shane should pull a real life Invasion announcement at this point and get in bed with Khan. He should burn that bridge and ensure he is out of the will, all for the good name of pro wrestling!

[strobogo]

Remember how many years people wanted Shane back, and then the huge reaction when he came back, and everyone was absolutely sick of him within 3 months

[sek69]

He was a breath of fresh air at first, but all his storylines eventually boiled down to being shoehorned into matches so he could fall off stuff. Which has always been the case,  but it's like at some point they stopped even trying to come up for a reason other than "Shane needs a match for this show".  

[KawadaSmile]

I dunno but I will never not laugh at him having the best match of the night at Wrestlemania 33. Him and AJ tore the house down

[sek69]

29 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

I dunno but I will never not laugh at him having the best match of the night at Wrestlemania 33. Him and AJ tore the house down

Pretty sure AJ earned himself a job for life with that one. 

[Matt D]

51 minutes ago, strobogo said:

Remember how many years people wanted Shane back, and then the huge reaction when he came back, and everyone was absolutely sick of him within 3 months

I feel like that pop was less about Shane and more about the total surprise. There are almost no surprises in the last fifteen years that weren’t at least rumored to prep fans. Something like Cena returning at the MSG Rumble would count for that since it was thought to be impossible. But I can’t think of too many others. 

[El-P]

5 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

I dunno but I will never not laugh at him having the best match of the night at Wrestlemania 33. Him and AJ tore the house down

AJ had the best match of then night. Shane was also in the ring, alongside the ref.

[Jmare007]

On 9/30/2021 at 11:16 PM, Matt D said:

I feel like that pop was less about Shane and more about the total surprise. There are almost no surprises in the last fifteen years that weren’t at least rumored to prep fans. Something like Cena returning at the MSG Rumble would count for that since it was thought to be impossible. But I can’t think of too many others. 

Plus he came back after The Authority stuff had ruined the product for more than 2 years so it was a combination of people being sick of Steph/Hunter, Shane always been perceived as the "good McMahon" AND fans believed he was truly back to takeover the company (which was supposed to be a good thing).

[MoS]

Shane has always been my least favourite McMahon. It has something to do with one of my vivid memories of watching wrestling as a kid being him going toe to toe with The Rock in some post-match brawl on Raw and me just being turned off by this little geek not getting massacred by the WWF champ and top guy in wrestling in 5 seconds. I never really believed wrestling was real as a kid, cuz word on the street (that is to say, playgrounds, school buses, and wherever else kids would assemble) was that it was fake and I had enough sense to understand that a sledgehammer shot to the head would kill a man and not get a long 2 count, but I didn't fully understand what parts were real and what were fake, and Shane-o-Mac with his dumbass jerseys being in the ring with these amazing wrestlers and not having to be buried later that night was something that always stood out as clear fake bullshit to me. I have said this before, but if you take out the post WM 30 Authority Era Steph, then Steph was 10 times the heel and performer that Shane was.

I guess there were some fans on the internet who liked him more cuz he took crazy bumps once every couple of months, and I know the wrestlers liked him a lot cuz he would party with them (but Dave reported when Shane first left that even they thought that Steph and Hunter would be better successors than Shane) but he has nearly always been a turnoff on my TV. And even with the Authority Era Steph, I had stopped watching weekly by the time Shane became a full time character in his comeback, but was she really more obnoxious than the Boy Wonder being in weekly programs with Daniel Bryan and Kevin Owens, and winning dumbass giant trophies?

That said, I agree with Matt about his return popping the fans cuz it was a genuine surprise in a time when no such thing exists. And apparently his HitC match announcement with Taker really moved tickets for WrestleMania, believe it or not. 

[El-P]

30 minutes ago, MoS said:

Shane has always been my least favourite McMahon. It has something to do with one of my vivid memories of watching wrestling as a kid being him going toe to toe with The Rock in some post-match brawl on Raw and me just being turned off by this little geek not getting massacred by the WWF champ and top guy in wrestling in 5 seconds. I never really believed wrestling was real as a kid, cuz word on the street (that is to say, playgrounds, school buses, and wherever else kids would assemble) was that it was fake and I had enough sense to understand that a sledgehammer shot to the head would kill a man and not get a long 2 count, but I didn't fully understand what parts were real and what were fake, and Shane-o-Mac with his dumbass jerseys being in the ring with these amazing wrestlers and not having to be buried later that night was something that always stood out as clear fake bullshit to me. I have said this before, but if you take out the post WM 30 Authority Era Steph, then Steph was 10 times the heel and performer that Shane was.

1000% this. I know he has the good rep because he's probably a "cool" guy IRL, but as a performer, holy shit he was bad. His shit looked bad, like horrific level bad, he went toe to toe with Kurt Angle doing mat wrestling, he did not show fear of the Undertaker in a HITC match, he took completely ridiculous bumps to satisfy his ego while not actually having to work a schedule as a pro-wrester, thus uping the ante for other people to get reactions while taking zero responsibility on the long term because as much as he fantasized it, he wasn't one of the boy, he was the boy from the boss, who did not need to work a day in his life.

Stephy has been unbearable for ever both as the Authority and IRL corporate asshole, but as a performer she has had many shining moments as a valet or even an in-ring performer, not because she ever was a good wrestler but because she was a good character (for instance in the Rousey match, of course) and actually got her comeuppance to get her opposition over.