Pro Wrestling Discussion Number IV

[Reaper G]

Samoa Joe made his RAW debut last night. I has a happy.

[EricDent]

I was at the Rumble in person, and it was fun.

Still think they could have held off on the record-tying thing until WM to make it more "special".
AJ is such a great wrestler, and deserves a longer run as champ.

You forgot the pre-show matches.

Naomi, Becky Lynch, & Nikki Bella vs Alexa Bliss, Mickie James, & Natayla: Cool 6 person Suplex spot, but other than that kinda dull.

Sheamus & Cesaro vs The Club for the RAW Tag Belts: since The Club likes to cheat to win, they had 2 refs for this match.
One was outside making sure no funny stuff happened.
Cesaro hits a 619.
Of course Sheamus accidentally blasts the ref in the ring & The Club cheat to win the Tag Belts.
Sheamus & Cesaro tease the eventual break up & resuming of the rivalry.
Decent match.

BTW there seemed to be a "theme" of using other wrestlers moves in this event.

Besides the 619

Owens used a Stunner, did a five star type frog splash through a table, and of course superman punch with brass knucks.
Bayley used Macho Man's Elbow Drop (even did a quick spin the finger thing)
AJ used his old Burning Hammer into knee thing (Adam Cole uses a similar move), plus a proper STF.
Cena used a Figure Four, a Yoshi Tonic, and almost did a Styles Clash.

[jellydonut25]

[Reaper G]

[EricDent]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

[Reaper G]

[jellydonut25]

[Henry88]

oh well ,now how much longer till Roman Reigns flops again.

[jellydonut25]

[Reaper G]

I think Reigns is the right guy for UT to pass the torch to, but as always, it wasn't handled as well as it could have. Reigns might have won the fans over, but between botching lifting 'Taker and using a chair, he failed.

It was nice to see Shane O'Mac do some actual wrestling instead of just being a spot monkey.

Please tell me Vince bought the Broken Matt & Brother Nero gimmicks from TNA.

So James Ellsworth appears at 'Mania but not Samoa Joe?

[Henry88]

is it normal for the crowed to drop f-bombs like that

[Mysterio]

I thought Mania started out pretty good but I got more and more disappointed as the night wore on.

I like the fact that Goldberg returned to the company and he's in great shape for 50 but the level to which they protected him building up to this match just seemed weak... I know they were trying to quickly rebuild some of the old mythology around his character but if they wanted to do that they should have at least had him do a few more squashes to build things up. Winning a championship and going into Mania with like 1:20 of in-ring time just seemed silly, and I'm a Goldberg mark. I knew they were saving him so he didn't get hurt before mania but I'd hoped for a bigger payoff, maybe even extending the run instead of giving everyone the obvious. And I'm not a fan of the suplex city treatment, just watching the same move 20 times, it gets boring. Yeah it looked brutal the first couple of times but I've seen it enough now.

Orton/Wyatt was ok but seemed oddly slow-paced.

Reigns/Taker, just so bad. I love Taker, I knew he had to retire at some point but what a crappy way to go out.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

[EricDent]

Been watching Raw & SmackDown on a regular basis again (my parents are letting me live with them for now).
Also catch some of the Impact Wrestling as well.
I recorded that US G1 thing that NJPW put on, that was great (also seeing Meng/Haku again was cool, and he STILL looks like he could kick butt).
Been watching Lucha Underground via Netflix (up to where Alberto El Patron shows up), must say that it's cool.

[EricDent]

Finished all of Lucha Underground (at least what's on Netflix), it was pretty cool.

I also binged all of the Netflix GLOW series, which features a few real pro wrestlers (including Awesome Kong/Kharma).
Be aware it has lots of bad words, drug use, and nudity/sex.

[jellydonut25]

I only stick to WWE, and only its two main shows...but I might be dropping Smackdown. Ever since Mania, I think it's been dipping, to the point where it's no longer the "good" show and is in fact one of the worst things WWE does every week (205 Live probably beats it out but I don't put myself through that nonsense. I'm not a masochist).
Over on Raw, we've got:
Brock Lesnar, the legit biggest badass in the company and huge mega-star, vs. Braun Strowman, the hottest star in the entire company.
John Cena, the biggest star in wrestling of this century vs. Roman Reigns, the heir apparent in a "Who's the Bigger Pile of Human Feces and Fake Person Who's Lying to the Fans?" feud.
Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose in a Shield Light Reunion vs The Bar doing solid work every week.
The Miz vs It Doesn't Matter, the Miz is next-level with promos and he could wrestle a paper bag week in and week out and make the inanimate object one of the most over faces on the show...but it's also actually Jeff Hardy, which is cool.
Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax in a feud that's been percolating and building for a while. Plus Sasha Banks doesn't suddenly cease to exist, and I actually enjoyed that she lost as usually saying "You've NEVER done this" to a babyface means they're about to do it so hard you turn the show off in disgust and boredom.
And there's guys like Finn Balor (though unfortunately he's stuck with Bray "Boredom Personified" Wyatt right now), Samoa Joe (hurt), The Revival (hurt), Elias (who had some nice matches with Balor and could maybe be being groomed for a potential tag team or a lower-tier title eventually)...all who have potential...hell even Bray has potential if they'd ever let him do things that matter.

Meanwhile, Smackdown has:
Jinder Mahal, literal jobber, as WWE Champ vs. Nakamura, who...sorry NJPW fans, hasn't earned this title shot in WWE yet.
Randy Orton vs Rusev - Holy hell. That's so uninteresting I can't wait to forget it ever happened the moment it's done.
AJ Styles, best actual talent on Smackdown, vs Baron Corbin, biggest dead-in-the-water pile of trash on Smackdown
KO, a true talent, vs. Shan McMahon...a McMahon...and god-forbid there's ever a time where a McMahon isn't actually in the spotlight...and wrestling for some reason.
Natalya vs. Naomi in a battle to see who can give a worse promo than Roman Reigns...with Carmella in the mix as the only potentially interesting thing, but also don't forget there's always gotta be a man to help her because women are weak, lulz.
The Usos vs. The New Day - Greatness, admittedly. Just greatness.
The Fashion Police - The best thing Smackdown does every week. Period.

Smackdown is a nightmare of boredom and rotational Styles/Orton/KO/Corbin feuds. Where's Sami Zayn? Where are the Hype Bros? Where is Tye Dillinger? Where is Luke Harper? Where is Charlotte?

"Watching" Smackdown lately consists of me blowing through on FFWD in about 40 minutes.

[EricDent]

Sami Zayn was on this week's show and KO jumped in to be the ref, and of course screwed his "buddy" by letting Aiden English "win" (though Shane said it didn't count).
Charlotte is with her dad who is still recovering.
Tye accepted the US Championship Open Challege, but tapped to the calf crusher & then got beat up by Baron Corbin.
Not sure what's up with Harper (maybe hurt?)
Hype Bros were on last week and lost to the Usos (Ryder ate the pin).

Also recently added to SmackDown are Bobby Roode (who is GLORIOUS) and Shelton Benjamin (who hasn't lost a step) who teamed with Chad Gable & beat The Ascension.

[jellydonut25]

[EricDent]

Well there was some sort of rumor that they were gonna do another "shakeup" and maybe send some people down to NXT & vice-versa.
Speaking of NXT looks like former ROH guys (Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilley, and Adam Cole) have some sort of stable & are targeting Drew McIntyre.

[Henry88]

Rumors of a Future Undertaker vs. John Cena PPV Match Circulating
http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/wwe/Rum ... Kelly.html

[EricDent]

Unless Taker got his hip surgery, and is fully recovered by WM (in New Orleans) I don't really see the point of that.
Plus Cena doesn't need any sort of "rub" by facing Taker, plus Taker has lost 2 times at WM now, so no point for Cena to win either (unless they are totally giving up on Roman).

It does seem that the show is trying to be a bit more "edgy" and doing those "shoot" promos lately.
Plus bringing back blood, and beating up old people.

[Henry88]

WWE's Roman Reigns Linked To $10 Million Steroid Ring
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alfredkonu ... 41363833b4

[Henry88]

Stephanie McMahon Discusses The Possibility Of WWE Being Sold
http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/wwe/Ste ... _Sold.html

[EricDent]

Well I guess Hell froze over again, cause it was just announced that Jeff Jarrett will be going into the WWE Hall of Fame at WM34.
Joining him (so far) are Goldberg, The Dudley Boyz, and Ivory.

Not sure if they are teasing a Chyna induction, but they have mentioned her a few times in recent episodes.