WWE Clash at the Castle - Roman is gonna overthrow Gareth Bale as this generation's greatest Welsh

[KawadaSmile]

Little Uso doing the Lord's work. Gimme Solo vs G00NTA as a segway to a Gunther/Roman feud

[Stiva]

Damn good show to jump back in with. It was great to watch a WWE show where it felt there was a genuine plan and direction for people that weren’t called Roman Reigns. I’m still not watching 3 hours of Raw though 

[Coffey]

After this show, it feels like Gunther & Roman are clearly ahead of the other people, which is how it should feel as they're the champions. They're both heel & both have a title though, so they can't & shouldn't run into each other.

 

...why are they singing American Pie?

[C.S.]

WTF is happening right now?
 

[Stiva]

Fury sang American Pie after his last fight at Wembley and it was a bit of a thing for a week or so. This does feel like a post-show promo that is being aired wrongly though 

[C.S.]

The asshole fan with the "Better Dad Than Chris Benoit" shirt should have been ejected from the arena.   

Just now, Stiva said:

This does feel like a post-show promo that is being aired wrongly though 

My thoughts exactly.

[The Thread Killer]

That was pretty goddamn good I have to say. I would have rather that Drew went over, but all in all it was pretty good.

Although I probably could have lived without the sing-along as well.

[Jmare007]

3 minutes ago, C.S. said:

WTF is happening right now?
 

Fury loves to sign American Pie after his Ws in boxing.

[Coffey]

Austin Theory getting knocked out by Tyson Fury when trying to cash in his briefcase was like an all-time moment. That was hilarious.

The main event delivered & I'm glad that Drew didn't win the title because I think they have something special going with Roman's long reign & the Bloodline story. Especially if they're trying to build to Roman Vs. The Rock at Wrestlemania. Of course, The Rock shouldn't win that either because he'll be gone but whatever.

The Gunther Vs. Sheamus match was great. I really liked the Dominic heel turn too. Fun show. First WWE show I've watched in quite awhile.

[The Thread Killer]

3 hours ago, Stiva said:

Wait, they actually called the German guy LUDWIG KAISER?! That’s an incredible bit of 1970s regional wrestling heeldom brought into 2022

Considering some of the names WWE has slapped on guys over the years, dude is lucky he escaped with just that, and didn’t end up as Baron Hans Von Sauerkraut or something.

[Coffey]

56 minutes ago, Coffey said:

ACKNOWLEDGE HIM!

 

[Timbo Slice]

Fucking GOAT right there. 

[Matt D]

1 hour ago, Coffey said:

The main event delivered & I'm glad that Drew didn't win the title because I think they have something special going with Roman's long reign & the Bloodline story. Especially if they're trying to build to Roman Vs. The Rock at Wrestlemania. Of course, The Rock shouldn't win that either because he'll be gone but whatever.

That really doesn’t need a belt. But it probably does need to be the main event so that screws the belt if Roman doesn’t have it.

[sek69]

It would be amazing if the Bloodline keeps adding cousins until there's an army of A'noai coming out at Mania. 

[NintendoLogic]

Sheamus/Gunther was a hell of a thing.

[KawadaSmile]

2 hours ago, Timbo Slice said:

Fucking GOAT right there. 

Yes, he is.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Rollins' Elton John gear fucking ruled. So did Cardiff shitting on Riddle while adoring Rollins.

[Johnny Sorrow]

6 hours ago, sek69 said:

It would be amazing if the Bloodline keeps adding cousins until there's an army of A'noai coming out at Mania. 

Like that collection of Cenas that one year. I want to see every living Samoan or Samoan adjacent wrestler lining the entrance ramp for the Reigns/ Rock match that I don't think is gonna happen. 
Endgame is Cody, along with Owens and Sami taking the tag belts. That's my prediction and I wish I could gamble on booking on those gambling sponsors.

[Jimmy Redman]

I still think they missed a trick.

There are some moments that you just have to capitalise on. The first real UK PPV in like two generations, in that giant packed stadium, and you just so happen to have a top babyface like Drew to challenge for the title in front of that crowd... nah man. They would have exploded. They could have owned that crowd for life.

I mean, they played the Summerslam '92 clip without a hint of introspection that it wouldn't have been nearly the moment it was without Bulldog winning. Sorry Davey Boy, but we need to keep the title on Bret right now, so Bruce Hart will run in and cost you the match and you'll send the crowd home singing show tunes with Paul Gascoigne.

Nothing about Starrcade '97 was ruined by Luger winning the title in August and dropping it right back. You can still have Cody do the comeback and win at Mania. The real hook there is Cody's redemption, regardless of how many days Roman had technically held the title by then. He'd still be the top guy in the company for Cody to dethrone. AND if Drew actually beats Roman here, he has a logical reason to recruit a new member of the family to help him regain it!

Also imagine the TV if Roman loses the belt and goes apeshit and there's Sami's dumb ass still running around trying to ingratiate himself.

ALSO, not that I care because it would have been awful, and fuck that guy, but Kross sitting ringside after cutting promos on Drew all month and then doing absolutely fuck all made him look like a moron. Like again, I'm glad he didn't interfere because they would have sucked 100 times worse, but like, this spooky heel dude flew all the way to Wales to sit in the front row and score a commemorative chair?

The singing with Tyson Fury, and in fact the whole show being far too much about Tyson Fury was the icing on the cake there. Just the same nonsense of "None of this shit matters, wins, losses, we're just about Putting Smiles On Faces (tm) of the WWE Universe (tm) with all of our Real Life Celebrities That Totally Love WWE Because WWE Is Cool (tm)". And they'll wonder forever why the next UK crowd doesn't sound like this one. It's even more infuriating because absolutely everything about the presentation of this match right up until the finish made the match and the title and Drew feel SOOOOOOO important and monumental. They almost get it. Just enough to drive me, personally, insane.

Popped hard for Broken Dreams.

Sheamo and WALTER was as awesome as I imagined. It was like the culmination of over a decade's worth of Sheamus building the Big Meaty Men Slapping Meat division from the ground up. That shit fucking ruled. My one complaint is that skinny Gunther is about 0.01% as intimidating as big fat WALTER was, but hey, that still makes him more intimidating than 99% of wrestlers.

(I hate to bang on but like also, if you're not putting Drew over in the main, why not at least have Sheamus win here? Give them something? In any case the standing O was a great moment in itself and well deserved.)

I've become a curmudgeon and 00s Stace would hate me, but like, I just want to enjoy wrestling. The bad guy winning for TWO STRAIGHT YEARS, even at a magical moment like this that begged for a happy ending, that doesn't feel good. Let me have fun.

[sek69]

Yeah I was thinking how both Sheamus and Drew losing would be deflating to the UK crowd and I'm on the other side of the pond. I get Drew losing for storyline purposes (especially with Baby Uce debuting), but they could have called an audible with Sheamus. It wouldn't have hurt Gunther to lose a brutal match like that and it would have exploded the stadium. 

[sek69]

Also bubba @KawadaSmilewas right, Riddle better ask Cody for Arn's number because he's going to need to bring the glock after Rollins punked him the hell out.

[KB8]

I wasn't sure how it would play on TV, but I was in the stadium last night and it was a total blast of a show and the main event was fucking biblical. We lived and died with Drew Mac, especially the Good Scottish Blokes, of which we were plentiful. Everyone was 100% behind Drew winning and at least two nearfalls blew the roof off. Part of me doesn't want to re-watch the match as it was such an amazing live experience and I kind of want to leave it at that, but I probably will. It was like a proper sport contest feel for the last 5 minutes or so, just real emotion with people fully bought in. If he won that thing there would've been genuine grown adult tears all over the shop. Aw fuck man they should've pulled the trigger. I wouldn't have had my shirt off quick enough, let me tell you. 

[NintendoLogic]

The Luger example is instructive. The argument that it would take the shine off Hogan/Sting made perfect sense in theory, but it ended up not being the case at all in practice. At least in that case there was a concrete goal that was being built toward. What is the endgame here that needs to be protected? Roman killing everybody forever? A prospective Rock/Roman match wouldn't be diminished one iota by a quickie Drew title reign. Neither would Roman/Cody.

[Dav'oh]

The endgame might be a number. 1000 looks and sounds better than 831 or wherever it would land.

[Coffey]