lmanion

Just when WWE have Roman getting cheered for the most part they have him eliminate edge from the final 3 of the rumble. Apart from that the rumble was really good fun I actually enjoyed the first half and thought his elimination was a good decision. Slightly disappointed they didn't have Shayna win the women's rumble. They could also have told a good long term story if they let Becky lose to Asuka but I don't think anyone was really expecting them to do it. This thread has gone pretty cold but the big shows on tv have been better than average in the case of raw and really good in the case of next and aew dynamite. The only one that's really lagging atm is smackdown. If anyone missed it look up Jerichos entrance during the week. Aew was filmed on the Jericho cruise on the ship. Jericho using his bands song Judas as his theme was sung to the ring by the crowd even after the music was cut they kept singing, was quite a moment.

Just watched the broken skull sessions first episode with stone cold and the undertaker and it was awesome, could listen to these two guys talk for another few episodes. Can't wait to see some more of these. Seems like a better version of his podcast. Hearing undertaker talk so openly about his career is something else, sounds like he has a whole lot of stories stored up for the future

I prefer it to nxt but it's comparing two shows that are 8-9/10 every week so far and quite different to each other. They are both well above the crap raw and smackdown put out every week

It was an awesome match and it drew me in right to the end but looking at the results so far Okada kind of had to lose here if they are going to take it to the final night in this block. Same as Moxley needed to lose to Yano for that block to get exiting at the end. It's really interesting watching how this is being booked, because it's NJPW and not wwe booking I feel like I can invest in the story they are telling

The irony of Moxley suffering his first defeat in NJPW against Yano in the most sports entertainment match you will likely see in the G1 is pure NJPW booking. Yano has beaten Naito, White and Moxley so looking at the way this is going the last night will come down to those 4 and hilariously if Yano ends up equal top with any of them he wins the block. Moxley probably loses the next 2 and has to face Juice on the final night of the G1 which I think will cost Moxley a shot at the final and set up Juice to win back the US title. I think the B block could end up more interesting on its final night than A block which I think will come down to Ibushi and Okada.

Man Ishii and juice is an insane match, these two just beating the shit out of each other.

Man Austin is still a damn superstar, there is no pop like the one from a wwe crowd when the glass shatters and he is still great on the mic. The big problem is how does the wwe build stars now, they were once great at it, 20 years ago you had Austin, hhh, rock, taker, kane, Foley, angle. Since then it's been Orton, Cena and Batista and really Cena is the only one that gets a big pop and none of those guys came up in this decade. Not sure this episode did much for the current roster, sure it was cool to put Rollins over with dx but it came at the expense of the club who have just reformed. I did like Bray Wyatt using the mandible claw on Mick Foley though that was very cool

Raw was much more of a mixed bag this week but Smackdown elevated itself KO was on fire and the stunner still gets a huge pop. Hopefully the rumours that KO and Shane are going to fued leading to Shane moving back into a background role are true. Love or hate Roman that dive to the outside always looks awesome. Pretty big weekend coming up with 2 nights of NJPW, AEW on Saturday and Extreme Rules Sunday. Looking forward to some more g1, the first night was pretty good last weekend and Will Osprey is becoming must see for me, plus Zach Sabre cut an awesome promo after losing last week saying basically screw the g1 all I have to do for a title shot is beat Okada, so really looking forward to that one. AEW have got a pretty good looking card shaping up, I feel like the shorter turnaround for shows has lead to slightly less hype for fight for the fallen. SCU and Luchas should be great, the same for bucks v rhodes and I always enjoy Omega. Can't wait to see what Jericho and MJF do as they are looking like the big heels of AEW to start out. Extreme rules will be what it will be, it could be a banger PPV but there are a few spots that worry me, especially the raw titles match. I think Lacey and Baron need to be binned off and sent down the card, 4-5 minutes with Becky and Seth pinning their respective opponent at the same time, then get them into separate storylines.

Hello and welcome to 1999. What's that you say they are working for Vince and it's 2019. Hopefully this brings some big changes, the crowds really need to be more invested in the stories, it always makes a match better when the crowd is making noise for what they are watching rather than basically protesting the company.

Anyone else listened to the latest talk is Jericho? Episode is called the emancipation of Jon Moxley and he shoots pretty hard on Vince and the wwe creative team

Jericho is still pretty good but he isn't on Kenny's level like he thinks he is, he is the biggest / most recognised name in AEW though and I really enjoyed his entrance. If this show is what we will see with regards to tag team wrestling in AEW then all the better. I havent seen a whole lot of the bucks but enjoy them and that spotfest they had with the Lucha brothers was awesome, especially liked Fenix jumping around on the ropes and taking out both the bucks and the brainbuster he took onto the top rope was insane. It's such a sign of where WWE is right now that Brock using the mitb briefcase as a boombox is the highlight of the show

So AEW kicked off with a bang. A buffet of pro wrestling as Cody put it. Not much to complain about through the card. The women's four-way was probably the weak point but still enjoyable. The tag team matches were all really good and I was pleasantly surprised by the 6 woman tag match with a bunch of Japanese wrestlers I had no idea about. As with All In the ppv built through its run right to Moxley coming through the crowd as Jericho cut a promo on the crowd. My personal highlight out of a show of them was Cody vs Dustin from Cody's entrance to the two hugging in the ring after the match, kind of knew it was coming but still hit me right in the feels.

Takeover was awesome as usual I kind of hope Gargano stays in nxt as he will surely be buried on the main roster. The last fall of that main event was insanely good. I think dream will have the biggest career of these guys on the main roster his act is very 'sports entertainment' and he can wrestle to top it off. Mania was as good as a 7 hour show can be expected to be. So good to see all the feel good wins for the big titles plus shane vs miz was actually decent, the iiconics winning I thought was a good choice. I will admit with no shame that I loved Cena interupting Elias as the dr of thuganomics. Then taker coming out on raw after Elias tried to rap was as good a use for him at this time of year as what we can probably hope for. You get the entrance and the greatest hits in 5 minutes, big pop, over and done with.

Well after raw this week it seems Batista and HHH is happening after Batista attacked Ric Flair. The last couple of weeks have had Vince going against what shane stef and trips have been wanting and putting in place themselves. I think they might be working towards a Vince vs kids and trips power struggle survivor series for control of raw and smackdown towards the end of the year. Charlotte Flair is a much more intersting character as a heel. Also out of nowhere and an injury to Mustafa Ali, Kofi might actually get a title shot at wrestlemania

Well if its a work they sure burried him on raw. No kick out and Rollins was even allowed to do his foot stomping burn it down show off bit before the kerbstomp which is never allowed to work for a face, because showing off and getting away with it is pretty much a heel move. After the promo to finish raw I dont really even want to see a triple threat at mania, I just want to see Ronda vs Becky and turn Ronda heel because the crowd is already starting to turn on her a bit. If Ronda is leaving no need for a heel turn and Becky goes over at mania. If shes staying on she turns heel to keep hold of the title gets massive heat. Have an angle where she hurts Becky and Becky goes off for a month 'injured' comes back and rides the crowd support fights back to number 1 contender and becomes the first one to beat Ronda at Summerslam. If main roster storylines could go for longer periods of time that would be a cool way to do it.

Yeah I knew the circumstances of the kotr win and it doesnt suprise me after listening to Austin that he would be the one pushing the shirt idea, he seems very into the merchandising part of the business. Ambrose leaving really isnt a massive suprise his program with Rollins has fallen flat, funnily enough his segment when interacting with hhh on raw was probably as good as he has been since coming back. Probably head to AEW which would be pretty big for them especially if AJ lets his contract run out which is apparently around WM time.

I think the yes movement with Bryan was a pure baby face where I see what Becky is doing as being more like Stone Cold where he calls himself a 'tweener' where he was a face despite doing a lot of things where he was borderline being a heel, he was still getting cheered though. The best thing Becky could do now is throw an improvised line out that will sell merch, im not sure the man tagline is quite it although there seems to be a lot of those shirts in the crowd. Obviously noone is going to drop a line as iconic as Austin 3:16 though.

Its a very wwe thing to have happen and bloody Nia hurting Becky and her bleeding everywhere was about the best thing that could happen to her. Her mouthing off to Charlotte while hobbling on 1 leg was pretty great. Its great that wwe went with it when she accidentaly got over as a face when they tried to turn her heel. Its fun listening to stone cold and Jerichos podcasts when they talk about how these things work.

Womens rumble should have been on last really.

There were rumours they werent allowed to do it for years after Lesnar landed on his head. Ricochet was the first I had seen in the last couple of years that had done it from the top turnbuckle.

Asuka/Becky was great just slightly suprised it was Asuka going over clean, thought Flair might have done something to cost Becky leading to Becky entering the rumble but it still worked. I really enjoyed the Ronda/Banks match and Balor/Lesnar match. 2 out of AJs last 3 big feuds have seemed to not work when they get in the ring, I think Joe was the exception but these were 'dream' matches with Bryan and Nakamora and just havent seemed to get going for me. I was pissed they put Nia in the rumble but happy to see her catch some of the more iconic finishing moves - superkick, 619 and RKO. If she was actually semi decent in the ring and didnt look like she was going to kill or maim someone everytime she does a move it would be a different story. As usual takeover was great although the womens title match didnt do much for me. The 2 mens title matches were awesome and great to showcase different styles with one an amazing spotfest and the other telling a great story. The storytelling in general surrounding Gargano and Ciampa has been great and ongoing for what nearly 2 years now? The Takeover card is a great showcase for what happens with fewer matches on a card that are allowed to tell a story. Riddle looks like he will be a big star but his opponent did nothing for me and looked a step off the pace Riddle wanted to work at. Also of all the insane things ive watched shane mcmahon do that shooting star press might just have been the most impressive. It seems wwe may have cracked open the door for some previously 'banned' moves to be allowed to creep back in, if thats the case then more varied skillsets can really only be a good thing to add the sense of holy crap to some events but only if they are used sparingly and not just a cheap pop in basically every match.

Haha yeah they kind of botched Bryans return until he went heel but I think it looks like Miz and Shane will have a feud that finishes at Mania. It is odd watching Miz not be a heel but it surely cant last long he is just too good as the bad guy.

Yeah thats a tough one, I was kind of hoping he would come out as the demon and get the win to shock everyone but I cant see them taking the title off Lesnar until wrestlemania unfortunately. Been listening to talk is Jericho episodes the last few days and his chat with Mustafa Ali was awesome, made me want to see him get the big push, would love to see him and Bryan for the wwe championship at wrestlemania.

Love the hashtag and yeah once again Andrade #cienalmas and Mysterio tore it up in their match and there wasnt a decisive end with Joe coming out and wrecking the place. That RKO was great really wasnt expecting that, Orton looks like he is having fun being the bad guy doing these spots. Im hopeful the quality is actually lifting bit it does always seem to do that leading into the rumble and the road to wrestlemania. Vince still has it, he can still hold the crowd in his hand and twist them back and forward with the big pop and cheering and then flicks heel mode on when its needed.

Yeah should have said main roster, takeovers have matches that good multiple times per ppv. Rumours are Kushida could be heading to nxt which would be pretty cool.