Wrestling Thread: the New Generation

[rjd2]

https://twitter.com/shanemcmahon/status/1058452846624956416

LOL.

[Z]

Shane won? and Brock squashed Braun?

The Saudi's booked this event themselves, didn't they?

[up_the_hampipe]

https://twitter.com/shanemcmahon/status/1058452846624956416

LOL.

Oh boy.

[BeardFaceMan]

Shane won? and Brock squashed Braun?

The Saudi's booked this event themselves, didn't they?

There's a bit of truth to that isnt there? That's definitely the reason guys like Hogan, Undertaker and DX are over there, because the Saudis wanted them (lets face it, they're so far behind culturally they've probably only just started on the Attitude era). The whole thing feels like it was booked by a Saudi Price for his sons birthday party.

[Golden E. Pump]

It sounds like the whole thing may have been a Vince Russo fever dream.

[New Jack]

What the fuck was that? Weird show. It's almost house show booking in terms of decisions and what matters. Shane turning heel from this says Big Dave, lol, great, another heel McMahon authority figure!

HHH tore his right pec. Shawn lands on his own head. I was chuckling at bald Shawn with loads of chest hair, a shame he didn't come out to Sexy Boy.

[Z]

I reckon this ten year saudi thing, ethics aside, is just gonna get increasingly toxic. WWE played them the first time and gave them an utterly shite nothing event, this time they smartened up but WWE still played them a bit with the totally irrelevant DX vs Taker/Kane match as opposed to having Shawn's full fledged in ring return. Gotta only be a matter of time before these guys ask how much for Wrestlemania to be held there.

[Moribunderast]

Evil and Jericho had a really good brawl on the most recent NJPW show. Jericho looks pretty heavy these days but it seems to fit his character and he's having good matches each time he's featured.

Gutted that Will Ospreay's injury appears to have quashed the planned Ibushi/Ospreay match at the Tokyo Dome. That would have been brilliant.

[leighhart]

It sounds like the whole thing may have been a Vince Russo fever dream.

it was nothing like a Russo booked show, at least Russo tried to be creative and throw a bunch of ideas at the canvas and he spent time building the mid card and giving the younger talent a chance to shine.
this PPV was the absolute drizzling shits, possibly the worst Ive ever seen. Its bad enough they were bought and paid for by a morally bankrupt regime and fitting that they the big orange racist racist hosting. Ive never seen a crowd less engaged, at times it seemed nobody had their eyes on the ring
The commentary team were fucking brutal, especially Renee Young, although Cole wasnt too far off being as bad, the last third of the show was horrible culminating in possibly the worst main event of all time, seriously go back and watch that shit. Shawn (looking like a penis) made his long awaited comeback and...nobody gave a single fuck. Kane has always been a shitty wrestler but has reached a new level of shit and his pedigree bump was a disgrace. Why cant the Undertaker just fuck off? nobody wants to see him stumble around with his bad dye job and fat gut, he should never have wrestled again after the Lesnar loss.
I hate this company and what it stands for. Given its roster and wealth it boggles the mind how bad theyve become. 95 is often cited as the worst year for the WWE but at least they had the excuse that the roster was shallow and McMahon was getting caught up in scandal after scandal. The only excuse they have now is indifference

[Deanjam]

Yikes!

[Huxleys Babkins]

It's almost like old, out of practice men shouldn't be wrestling any more.

[Timothy]

No WWE no! That's NOT how you handle a debut!

At least Mysterio vs Almas was great.

[Ja'moke]

Went to the Manchester shows. Raw was hit and miss, but really enjoyed Smackdown. Booing Shane was fun. Almas v Rey was ace. Didn't expect Nikki Cross to debut! Shame she had to lose on her debut, but she lost to the champ, nothing wrong with that. Usos v New Day was great as per usual too.

[Deanjam]

Shame she had to lose on her debut, but she lost to the champ, nothing wrong with that.

I disagree. It's fine to lose a plucky match to a top player when you're already established but she was beaten in 5 minutes on her first appearance. She could have debuted against one of the Iconics for instance and won. She was sacrificed to Becky who in 2 weeks will be sacrificed to Ronda.

Raw and Smackdown are both awful at the moment. Dull and repetitive. There's literally nothing that excites me. The only people they seem to care about are MMA folk who I don't give a shite about.

Whinge over.

[Ja'moke]

The match was only 5 mins? Seemed longer while watching it live.

I also wonder if that was a legit call-up? Might have just been for the UK crowd, like with Pete Dunne last year.

[Deanjam]

The match was only 5 mins? Seemed longer while watching it live.

5:37 was the official time given. Didn't time it myself.

[New Jack]

I disagree. It's fine to lose a plucky match to a top player when you're already established but she was beaten in 5 minutes on her first appearance.

Not disagreeing one bit, but find it amusing that Cena's debut against Angle, which he lost, went 5:38

[Deanjam]

Not disagreeing one bit, but find it amusing that Cena's debut against Angle, which he lost, went 5:38

That moment has been somewhat mythologised in WWE. It didn't get Cena over in the slightest. He struggled for the next year and was almost fired until he started doing the rapper gimmick. I'd be intererested to know if anyone has really got over after losing in their debut on TV.

[Delete Delete Delete]

AJ styles didn't win the Royal Rumble, does that count.

[Timothy]

Went to the Manchester shows. Raw was hit and miss, but really enjoyed Smackdown. Booing Shane was fun. Almas v Rey was ace. Didn't expect Nikki Cross to debut! Shame she had to lose on her debut, but she lost to the champ, nothing wrong with that. Usos v New Day was great as per usual too.

Disagree. Nothing kills a wrestlers possible momentum more then losing a debut. Really stupid decision.

[rjd2]

To play devils advocate Charlotte lost her first match on the main roster to Natalya and she hasn't done that badly since.

[Deanjam]

To play devils advocate Charlotte lost her first match on the main roster to Natalya and she hasn't done that badly since.

I recall everyone thinking it was a terrible decision at the time. But yeah it turned out alright as she's had a mega-push ever since. Doubt Nikki will get that, sadly.

[Ja'moke]

Yeah, it's all down to the booking from here on out. I don't think Nikki losing in her debut (to the current champ) is intrinsically bad, as long as they book her strongly in the future. There's plenty of other SD women for her to beat before she works her way back up to the champ. But yeah, given how WWE have booked Sanity, the hope for that is probably slim.

[Utter Shit]

I would say that losing a debut doesn't necessarily have to particularly damage you, but if the company has you down to lose your debut then they probably don't have any major plans for you anyway...if the stats show that losing debuts correlate to unsuccessful futures, the causation is probably the other way around IMO.

[hummingofevil]

This conversation and the argument Meltzer is having about Rollins on Twitter is pretty much exactly why I'm done with WWE. There is the possibility that they could do something good with Seth, Nicky and Becky but you just know the writing and booking will instinctively find a way to make whatever happens as frustrating and disappointing as possible and I get genuinely miserable feelings watching something that is supposed to be a enjoyable distraction from real life.

It's increasingly irrelevant how talented individuals are as it's even more grim watching potentially brilliant wrestlers' work get lost in the white noise that is the WWE brand. Fuck

NXT delivers. Seeking out and watching stuff recommended on Network delivers. Other than that WWE is dead to me.

[Ja'moke]

I think the current booking of Becky is great, and for the first time in a long time they actually did listen to the crowd reaction and change tack. She hasn't shit on the fans once since that post-SummerSlam Smackdown. That was stupid they made her even do that in the first place, but they surprisingly dropped it when they realised fans want to cheer her. Now she's in this cool kind of tweener role, even laying down challenges and actually going through with them.

I'm expecting Charlotte to win the Rumble next year and challenge Ronda, so that should hopefully mean Becky holds the SD Women's title until Mania, preferably to face Asuka.

EDIT: Oh, and Drew too. Love his current booking. He looked merciless against Angle on Raw.

[BeardFaceMan]

It's increasingly irrelevant how talented individuals are as it's even more grim watching potentially brilliant wrestlers' work get lost in the white noise that is the WWE brand. Fuck

A million times this. Still can't understand how people enjoy watching people they like get treated badly. WWE are to wrestling what The Asylum are to films, a bad fucking joke. It's wrestling for people who don't really like wrestling, WWE has never given a fuck about wrestling fans, they're always after the casual mainstream viewer, that's why their product is so watered down and shit..

[Timothy]

I disagree with the statement that its wrestling for people that dont really like wrestling. That absolutely makes zero sense.

[New Jack]

WWE is entertainment for people who don't like sports!

[up_the_hampipe]

The indies are wrestling for people who don't like deodorant.