Wrestling

[Taynted_Fayth]

some moves I'd like to see in the shake up;

Bray for Seth - Bray controlling Braun again might give braun a little direction,  right now braun just bouncing around with no real angle, maybe eventually get a KO/Joe vs Bray/Braun showdown.  I think Seth has a lot of potentially good match ups on SD vs the miz, Orton and Styles

Enzo and Cass for the Usos.  The Usos vs the Hardy's would be a good tag team match up

Sami Zayn for Baron Corbin

Charlotte for Naomi - turn sasha banks and pair up bayley and Naomi

 

**edit also wouldn't mind them moving Reigns to SD. I think it would be a good opportunity to turn him and get him some fresh matches... but also leaves the door open for a shield reunion.  If WWE was wise they would form the Balor club on Raw by survivor series next year so instead of Team Raw vs Team Smackdown it would be the club vs the shield.  then next time they do a shake up bring AJ styles over and he can challenge balor for head of the club.. this stuff just writes itself lol

Edited April 4, 2017 by Taynted_Fayth

[Taynted_Fayth]

So Shinsuke makes his SD debut, but doesn't wrestle... that's disappointing.  But I guess Styles has himself a new (familiar) rival once again

[The Unknown Poster]

12 hours ago, Taynted_Fayth said:

So Shinsuke makes his SD debut, but doesn't wrestle... that's disappointing.  But I guess Styles has himself a new (familiar) rival once again

He worked the dark match against Ziggler.  I dont watch SD often, do they usually do those weird segments that just end?  Like with Shane and Styles, Nak etc.  What they did with Nak wasnt bad because the draw is now next week when wrestles on TV.

Bray/Orton is bad.  Very bad.  It needs to end.  On a brand that has Nak and Styles, for example, wasting time in the main event on Bray, Orton and Rowan is mind boggling.

[The Unknown Poster]

 

[Atomic]

Just now, The Unknown Poster said:

 

Aiden English has been working singles matches for awhile.  I guess they were planning on this?  Another NXT team that got a big pop on entering WWE and then lost all fan support rather quickly.  Not that they ever really had much of a chance.

[The Unknown Poster]

Gotch apparently not the nicest guy. Got beat up by Sin Cara. 

[Atomic]

19 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Gotch apparently not the nicest guy. Got beat up by Sin Cara. 

Everyone gets in fights with Sin Cara.

[SpeedFlex27]

I don't watch NXT. I admit I'm not a hard core wrestling fan like I used to be so NXT really doesn't mean a lot to me. I think a lot of WWE fans feels the same. When we see a bunch of new NXT guys get called up the day after WM like has been done the past few years we just shrug our shoulders & go who cares? Former NXT guys like Simon Gotch come & go. For them to stick around they have to be special. Like Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, Seth Rollins & Fin Balor. For women, Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks & Bayley. I know there are NXT fans here that are genuinely excited to see NXT talent come up. Sorry to say that I'm not. Now if they develop into top WWE wrestlers then I'll become interested. They have to prove themselves in a WWE ring before I get excited as a fan.

Edited April 6, 2017 by SpeedFlex27

[Taynted_Fayth]

I'm more or less excited to see guys I'm familiar with beyond NXT come to WWE, Styles and Samoa Joe for example. I also watched matches of Shinsuke Nakamura back when it was rumored he would be leaving NJPW and coming to WWE just to get myself up to speed, and he's a fantastic wrestler... looks drunk AF all the time lol but i guess that's his thing.  Next guy up, Bobby Roode

Edited April 5, 2017 by Taynted_Fayth

[The Unknown Poster]

I think there is a pretty good awareness of NXT talent among the WWE fans, especially the TV audience (fans at TV) so they always get the strong reaction.  But its like anyone else, if they are cool and interesting and talented, they get over.  Fans seem to reject gimmicks more so than talent.  The Ascension, Vaudevillains, the Peurto Ricans...all "gimmicks" more so than talent and they didnt last long.

And plus, the "big" guys are all guys fans knew before NXT.  Its funny when Hunter always credits NXT for these guys but they were known commodities beforehand.  Like Joe could have debuted on RAW on day one instead of NXT, like AJ did and got just as big a reaction.  Nak too.

Roode is probably a ways off.  A few new guys will enter NXT at some point like Kyle O'Rielly.  Ring of Honor had backed WWE off on some of them due to tampering threats.  But they'll be in eventually.

I have a feeling AJ goes to RAW which would suck in that Nak vs AJ would be....amazing.  If they do switch AJ hopefully they do that as a "farewell" match on TV.
 

EDIT: Forgot a point I meant to make.  TNA gets around 300,000 viewers but look how many fans knew all the Hardy's chants (I think more so from Matt's amazing social media stuff).  Fans find a way.

And Adam Cole WWE-bound too of course, I forgot him.  He'll be in NXT first and be a great addition.

Edited April 6, 2017 by The Unknown Poster

[Mike]

On ‎04‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 4:37 PM, SpeedFlex27 said:

I don't watch NXT. I admit I'm not a hard core wrestling fan like I used to be so NXT really doesn't mean a lot to me. I think a lot of WWE fans feels the same. When we see a bunch of new NXT guys get called up the day after WM like has been done the past few years we just shrug our shoulders & go who cares? Former NXT guys like Simon Gotch come & go. For them to stick around they have to be special. Like Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, Seth Rollins & Fin Balor. For women, Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks & Bayley. I know there are NXT fans here that are genuinely excited to see NXT talent come up. Sorry to say that I'm not. Now if they develop into top WWE wrestlers then I'll become interested. They have to prove themselves in a WWE ring before I get excited as a fan.

That's totally fine, but for the most part, these guys are proven as commodities before they ever step foot in NXT. Case in point, every guy you named - Owens, Joe, Rollins and Balor - were world famous before they hit a NXT ring.

[The Unknown Poster]

Very interesting read about JBL specifically and WWE's culture in general. 

 

[ediger]

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Very interesting read about JBL specifically and WWE's culture in general. 

 

With all their anti-bullying campaigns, I just don't see how they can keep JBL around these days. Then again, VKM has never been afraid to be a hypocrite.

[The Unknown Poster]

It will be interesting to see if he survives this one. Mauro isn't just a wrestling announcer that no one will pay attention to. He's a very respected sports guy. 

Although ESPN's Coachman blew it off and basically insulted Meltzer for talking about it, saying it was a non story which isn't true. 

But JBL has been doing this for a long time at Vince's behest. Some of it akin to sexual assault really. But it's the culture. Orton harrassed a female talent until she quit including crapping in her bag. Nothing was done. 

Wrestling is so closed off. If someone actually sued, the depositions would be dynamite. 

[SpeedFlex27]

On ‎4‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 1:41 PM, Mike said:

That's totally fine, but for the most part, these guys are proven as commodities before they ever step foot in NXT. Case in point, every guy you named - Owens, Joe, Rollins and Balor - were world famous before they hit a NXT ring.

Styles & Joe I knew before they came to WWE/NXT. Rollins is a phenomenal wrestler totally wasted.

[SpeedFlex27]

JBL always had a rep as a bully. That's no surprise. If he's a close friend of McMahon he'll probably stick around. As far as the WWE anti bullying campaign & being hypocritical about Layfield, it's all about image. Does the WWE actually care about bullying in school or the workplace like the ads say? Probably not. All the storylines are about bullying in some way. Do they care about sick kids or women's breast cancer? Maybe but it would be no surprise to me if they didn't & just saw supporting these initiatives as simply marketing of their brand/product.

[The Unknown Poster]

Stephanie actually admitted it was all image. She caused some raised eyebrows when she tweeted about charity being the way brands win. Ie PR etc. 

Rehardless WWE does great work with charities. But their culture is very passé. Many other businesses would have been sued to oblivion. 

Regarding Seth, agree and disagree. He's a former world champion. So wasted? Well he was on fire until his injury. And then the booking totally cut his balls off. 

Bad booking strikes again. 

Early word is Styles going to RAW. Roman was to go to SD but now that's apparently not happening. 

[SpeedFlex27]

13 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Stephanie actually admitted it was all image. She caused some raised eyebrows when she tweeted about charity being the way brands win. Ie PR etc. 

Rehardless WWE does great work with charities. But their culture is very passé. Many other businesses would have been sued to oblivion. 

Regarding Seth, agree and disagree. He's a former world champion. So wasted? Well he was on fire until his injury. And then the booking totally cut his balls off. 

Bad booking strikes again. 

Early word is Styles going to RAW. Roman was to go to SD but now that's apparently not happening. 

That's what I was referring to about Seth Rollins. When he came back, had it been as a face he'd have been massively hot but as is the WWE, they failed or more likely refused to recognize that & kept booking him as a heel & it eventually backfired. Now he's a face & until his victory over Triple H at WM, nobody seemed to care anymore.

[The Unknown Poster]

8 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

That's what I was referring to about Seth Rollins. When he came back, had it been as a face he'd have been massively hot but as is the WWE, they failed or more likely refused to recognize that & kept booking him as a heel & it eventually backfired. Now he's a face & until his victory over Triple H at WM, nobody seemed to care anymore.

I agree. They really show themselves in the foot. It was obvious Seth could be a big face before the injury because his work was really "face" with all of the athleticism. He was probably the best they had until the injury. 

Then they made that heartfelt video about his rehab and return. Of course he was going to be cheered. 

I don't know what their deal was. I think it was that they didn't want to undercut Romans push and they had a plan to turn him for Hunter but not til later. It was very stupid. 

And his wm match did nothing for him either.  Honestly I'd have turned him heel again just to heat him back up. When he teamed with Balor....end the show wirh in super kicking Finn. 

I could see him going to SD though. 

[SpeedFlex27]

23 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I agree. They really show themselves in the foot. It was obvious Seth could be a big face before the injury because his work was really "face" with all of the athleticism. He was probably the best they had until the injury. 

Then they made that heartfelt video about his rehab and return. Of course he was going to be cheered. 

I don't know what their deal was. I think it was that they didn't want to undercut Romans push and they had a plan to turn him for Hunter but not til later. It was very stupid. 

And his wm match did nothing for him either.  Honestly I'd have turned him heel again just to heat him back up. When he teamed with Balor....end the show wirh in super kicking Finn. 

I could see him going to SD though. 

Ha, ha at the end I thought Balor would turn on Seth.

[ediger]

1 hour ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

JBL always had a rep as a bully. That's no surprise. If he's a close friend of McMahon he'll probably stick around. As far as the WWE anti bullying campaign & being hypocritical about Layfield, it's all about image. Does the WWE actually care about bullying in school or the workplace like the ads say? Probably not. All the storylines are about bullying in some way. Do they care about sick kids or women's breast cancer? Maybe but it would be no surprise to me if they didn't & just saw supporting these initiatives as simply marketing of their brand/product.

Oh I don't believe the WWE actually believes in their anti-bullying promos. I agree it's totally an image they're trying to project. Every single decision the WWE makes is financially motivated and right now anti-bullying is good for business. However, I do think that at some point it's going to blow up in their faces. Like Unknown Poster mentioned, some of the fairly widely reported behaviour of individuals such as JBL (but certainly not exclusively) crosses the line from simple pranks into serious criminal behaviour such as sexual assault. Male on male sexual assault is not something that gets reported very frequently. There's a lot of shame involved in a situation like that that often leads to even the victim justifying it in a twisted sort of way as "just something that happens" or whatever. All it's going to take is one person treating one of those over the line situations as it really is in a legal way for everything to get nutty in Stanford.

Edited April 9, 2017 by ediger

[SpeedFlex27]

Yeah, read for years that there was sexual harassment & assault going on with some of the wrestlers. One guy in particular who is a WWE Legend & homosexual. You can't say McMahon doesn't know what's going on.

[Atomic]

You can even hear it in the announcing... I remember watching Smackdown a few weeks back and JBL was like "Mauro you don't know anything!!  That's why you're not married and you never will be!!!!"  Mauro just went completely silent.  I was like, geez that's a little harsh, even for a heel announcer.

Although I certainly agreed with Jonathan Coachman telling off Meltzer.  Someone tweeted a line I thought was pretty funny and incredibly true:

Quote

Dave Meltzer new autobiography title: "Negative on Everything, Never Been in a Ring, Never Had a Match, But I'm Always Right!!!"

LOL.  **** Meltzer and the IWC.

[The Unknown Poster]

26 minutes ago, Atomic said:

You can even hear it in the announcing... I remember watching Smackdown a few weeks back and JBL was like "Mauro you don't know anything!!  That's why you're not married and you never will be!!!!"  Mauro just went completely silent.  I was like, geez that's a little harsh, even for a heel announcer.

Although I certainly agreed with Jonathan Coachman telling off Meltzer.  Someone tweeted a line I thought was pretty funny and incredibly true:

LOL.  **** Meltzer and the IWC.

The opposite is "Im in the business so you should shut up because I know more".  Which is just as wrong.  Meltzer is a legitimate journalist, very very respected and covers MMA as well as wrestling.  Can we assume Coachman has played professionally every sport he covers for ESPN?  If not, how can he cover them?

The idea Dave is "negative" is laughable.  Coachman looked AWFUL in his exchange with Dave.  He really got schooled by the better journalist.  Coachman also said that there was never nay bullying in WWE the entire time he was there which is absolutely false based on the statements by others.  So Coach just simply lied and tried to attack the messenger rather then the message.  It was sad.  But that's coach.

As far as the "IWC", unless someone is living under a rock, all fans are the IWC. 

[Atomic]

1 minute ago, The Unknown Poster said:

As far as the "IWC", unless someone is living under a rock, all fans are the IWC. 

Classic IWC opinion.  I guess all that Roman Reigns merch just sells itself, cuz it sure ain't the IWC buying it!