WWE TV - 1/8 - 1/12 - They Hindered Jinder

[Timbo Slice]

I do like there’s a bit more intrigue this year around the Rumble. Ton of ways they can go at least. 

[KawadaSmile]

Drew VS Punk seems nice

[Dav'oh]

Waiting to see if Punk has been sharing, ahem, broccoli and chicken recipes with Randy and AJ. 

When they finally take the "Contains Glass. FRAGILE. Handle With Care" stickers off and remove the bubblewrap, of course. In a multi-man.

[KawadaSmile]

Workrate Miz fucking rocks. He is just great.

[KawadaSmile]

Man, nothing about Rollins feels genuine. He is just ASS.

[KawadaSmile]

HARDBODY MAHAL 

[sek69]

It's amazing to me that Rhea remains super over and Dom remains super hated, it's really a testament to the post-Vince era that WWE hasn't messed it up.

[Timbo Slice]

That Drew/Punk promo was terrible; Punk material has been lacking since his return. 

[sek69]

3 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

HARDBODY MAHAL 

It's nice to see Jinder being able to offer more than "guy Vince only sees as his ticket to the India market"

 

33 minutes ago, Timbo Slice said:

That Drew/Punk promo was terrible; Punk material has been lacking since his return. 

At this point it seems like it's being done purposefully to avoid another Hangman type tantrum happening.

[sek69]

Also I love Wade being a big fan of the Meatyweight division.

[C.S.]

4 hours ago, Timbo Slice said:

That Drew/Punk promo was terrible; Punk material has been lacking since his return. 

3 hours ago, sek69 said:

At this point it seems like it's being done purposefully to avoid another Hangman type tantrum happening.

I don't know... I thought it was fine. Drew threw enough minor "bombs" Punk's way.

Will this be remembered a month from now? Probably not. But Drew - like Seth - doesn't exactly have the most "exciting" speaking voice, and this was really a Drew promo, with Punk getting minimal response time. 

[sek69]

The content of Punk's promos (and those of anyone in his nearest vicinity) have been...okay at best. Clearly they couldn't touch the meatiest parts of the story in his return for obvious reasons (the whole nearly killing him with z-paks thing comes to mind), but the people he's been paired up with seem to be noticeably tame in their promos towards him since his return. Seth being used  a sockpuppet for the company in his promo was certainly a choice, and now you have Drew basically doing the same thing with the added twist of being made to look like a puss who got fired because he wanted Punk to hold his hand in the locker room.  Plus Punk's response to these promos of "I came back because I just love WWE so gosh darn much" sound alien coming from the guy who retconned his whole WWE career out of existence in his AEW debut promo.

[KawadaSmile]

I think it was good because it showed Punk is already into petty bitch territory, at least on screen

[Embrodak]

I thought the promo was fine. Nobody in WWE is a talker on Kingston or MJF’s level, but until Punk is firmly established as being back, a soft reboot of his AEW run is pretty much necessary and will necessarily lack the oomph compared to when he did it the first time. The real test will be him against Gunther or Roman or Bron or someone like that, someone he can have standalone issues with.

[sek69]

You know, I'm starting to dig Corbin and Bron as a team constantly trying to out-douche each other.

[KawadaSmile]

Oba Femi being pushed heavy is a nice change of pace. Dude can become a massive player.

 

Plus, people can chant to the rhythm of Mas Que Nada to him.

[sek69]

Also when did Ava become HBK's second in command? I love how she just posted up outside the office and suddenly she's the booker now.

[SirEdger]

16 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Also when did Ava become HBK's second in command? I love how she just posted up outside the office and suddenly she's the booker now.

She referred that NXT Anonymous video from the super NXT show a few months back where they were discussing together. Basically, it was under Paul Heyman's recommendation that she offered to be HBK's assistant.

[sek69]

43 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

Oba Femi being pushed heavy is a nice change of pace. Dude can become a massive player.

 

Plus, people can chant to the rhythm of Mas Que Nada to him.

Dude has potential to be money, might as well see what you have now.

[sek69]

Tiffany and Fallon doing their best Jimmy Garvin/David Von Erich impressions was amusing, I'll say that much.

[sek69]

I want Axiom and Nathan Frazier to go have a crazy spotfest in Arena Mexico at some point before its all said and done.

[C.S.]

22 hours ago, sek69 said:

Drew ... with the added twist of being made to look like a puss who got fired because he wanted Punk to hold his hand in the locker room.

To be fair, this has been Drew's character for years.

He called out Randy Orton during their feud for not helping him out.

He even called back to that in this promo by excusing away Randy's lack of leadership on account of his "demons."

[El-P]

I was clearly way into CM Punk fatigue last Summer already, but there's nothing I read (and the few Youtube clips I watched at first) about his WWE comeback that makes me think I'm missing something. 

[KawadaSmile]

7 hours ago, sek69 said:

Tiffany and Fallon doing their best Jimmy Garvin/David Von Erich impressions was amusing, I'll say that much.

Tiffany not taking herself so seriously to the point she can't be doing sillier storylines will do her wonders in the future. She's an obvious future star.

[DMJ]

12 hours ago, El-P said:

I was clearly way into CM Punk fatigue last Summer already, but there's nothing I read (and the few Youtube clips I watched at first) about his WWE comeback that makes me think I'm missing something. 

You're not missing much. And I say that as someone who is still going out of his way to see every CM Punk appearance.

But we've seemingly already heard all the heavy artillery there is between him and Seth - "You left for 9 years!" "I'm back to main event WrestleMania!" "But the locker room hates you!" "No, everyone in the locker room loves me except you!" "But the fans sing my theme song!" "Your wife is The Man in the family!" - and that's basically all they've got and Punk making that Becky line was a huge red flag to me that the well was already running dry less than a month in. 

Hey, I thought a lengthy Rollins/Punk feud would result in some potentially great promo battles too...until I remembered that Rollins has never once been anything more than maybe a B/B- promo and CM Punk's return run is going to have to go through some awkward phases before it even makes sense. They really couldn't just have him return as a heel, even though Wrestling's Biggest Hypocrite is the best possible gimmick for him, but they also clearly don't want to turn Rollins. So, we're getting a hollow, "I was just kidding when I said this place made me sick!"-version of CM Punk until hopefully the T-shirt sales dip and they do something interesting with the character.

Also, say what one may about where the MJF character landed, but part of the reason that the feud with Punk worked was because MJF was able to pull from an actual character - the bullied kid turned "future of the business," which also played on Punk's own backstory - in a way that Seth Rollins can't because Rollins character is one part "raided wife's closet," one part "do Asuka's dances," and one part "conduct the crowd to sing along to a song incredibly similar to Nakamura's."