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Keeping Nakamura in NXT as Champion is the smartest possible thing for them to do, and I'm loving shocked that anyone believes otherwise. He can anchor that brand for 2 years basically alone if necessary, and as long as he's not getting screwed on either money OR merch, which all accounts say he's not, he's better off doing that than risking the pitfalls at the top of the mountain. I don't think I need to list all the reasons why anyone should be skeptical of Nakamura being properly pushed outside of NXT. Yes, in theory he could sell more T-shirts if he's pushed like Cena on Raw than he is being pushed like Cena in NXT, but there's a heck of a lot of risk with that reward when he could be the next idling Upper Midcarder like Sami Zayn instead. That being said, as soon as he drops the belt Samoa Joe should be on Smackdown (or Raw, but realistically Smackdown needs him more esp. after the draft). And Austin Aries and Hideo Itami should also be called up post-haste after feuding with and falling to Nakamura. If all three of those guys aren't on the main rosters in 4-6 months it's a huge ball-dropping on WWE's part. Clear those three out and give their slots to Bobby ROOOOOOOO, No Way Jose and maybe PERFECT 10 if the reports that they're pumping the brakes on Almas are true.
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Jul 20, 2016 05:19
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MassRafTer posted:Nakamura is getting up there in age and his body is not in great shape. I doubt the guy left NJPW to not be on the biggest stage possible and I doubt WWE signed him for the kind of money it would take to get him to come over to do that either. He needs to be in front of as many people as possible as soon as possible because the product needs as much new as it can get. Meanwhile a guy like Itami should probably be in NXT a bit longer because he wasn't making the transition especially well. Nakamura's age and ever-shrinking upside is the most reasonable argument for bringing him up immediately, I'm certainly willing to admit that. And of course what Nakamura wants is a factor, if he wants to roll the bones on the Main Roster and risk the damage a failed push or a long-term trip through the Midcard Lost Woods because (insert anything from race to funny accent to Vince's whimsical fancies here) could do to his value because he's hungry for those stadium crowds, I'd not be the one to tell him otherwise. I'm just saying that the way the stars are aligned right now, his situation is stable, lucrative and not a big strain on his health, all of which could disappear in a split second once he moves up. And that's not even discussing NXT's part of the equation, and the health of that brand does clearly matter to people in WWE even if its never going to be a money making part of the company.
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Jul 20, 2016 07:26
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The Cruiserweight Show is supposed to be on Tuesday right? Maybe it'll be smackdown branded as a result of this match and treated as part of a larger Smackdown programming block? I feel more and more confident about my theory that Miz is going to betray Smackdown, cost Dolph the belt, and defect to Raw when Sami takes the IC title back with him. If Kallisto were to scoop up the Cruiserweight title to replace it that would make a lot of sense. I'm actually kind of satisfied with Shane being the 5th Man on Smackdown's team rather than Corbin. Especially if its justified by continuity callback to the end of the Invasion.
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Nov 8, 2016 23:14
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gently caress. I'm never going to get Nikkisawa vs Asuka in a First Broken Skull Loses match.
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Feb 1, 2017 05:27
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dont even fink about it posted:To take a page from MRP's book and/or be a devil's advocate, the very fact that Goldberg and Brock don't have to work as hard as guys lower on the card demonstrates their superiority, because their character work is strong and their wrestling is part of their character work. As opposed to the litany of guys who supposedly have gimmicks but when they get in the ring wrestle identically, making every WWE PPV a slog to sit through (especially now that there is no such thing as a cooldown match on a WWE show). Goldberg and Brock came up in a time where that was much less the case, Goldberg especially. How do you account for Brock's schtick getting noticeably worse recently when you apply this theory? Everything Brock has done since the Ambrose match (and arguably the Triple Threat before that) has led the audience reactions have grow noticeably weaker. Unlike Foochs I don't think its because the Suplex City Match has gotten stale. When Brock first started this run with the Cena squash, everything after that raised the stakes, with the one exception being the Rollins match but nobody cared because Rollins had been booked to be a chickenshit weakling who had also hosed Brock over, so nobody complained. The Roman/Dean Triple Threat he was barely involved with, but he still had momentum so nobody really noticed that he phoned it in for the most part in that bout. Then came the Ambrose match, a match that ended right when it was getting good, almost as if it had been cut clean in half, with a decisive squash of someone who at the time was almost indisputably the crowd favorite. And then came the reveal that he cheated at UFC 200, and a dumbass LOSS to the Undertaker via passout, and a largely forgettable followup, and Randy Orton's Broken Skull Match. For not needing to work as hard, Brock's star sure has been falling since he stopped working a little bit harder with every match so the stakes would go up. Goldberg is a different animal because we're still at the start of his Shocking Monster Run. Him killing Brock is analogous to Brock killing Cena. And just like when Suplex City started, Goldberg is currently raising the stakes and the effort just a bit with every new appearance. If he stops doing that, I think the crowd will sour on him just as they've been souring on Brock for the last 9 months. Maybe Brock vs Goldberg will be the moment when Brock finally breaks the trend and gets back in the saddle, but I think it's just going to be a waste of Goldberg's momentum because Brock is going to keep being lazy because he thinks he can, and his returns will diminish faster and faster as a result.
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Feb 1, 2017 21:43
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dont even fink about it posted:Brock should not be wrestling midcarders for no reason, for starters. Not that many people actually give a poo poo about Dean Ambrose, who is a cool character until he actually wrestles, and that number is not going to expand when you kill him dead. Randy Orton was fighting Brock for no real reason, the match didn't really have heat. Midcarders? You know that Ambrose was #2 in the Rumble and wrestled Triple H for the title just before that match, and main evented multiple PPVs and many months of TV before he fought Brock right? Or were Rollins and Reigns also midcarders when they fought Brock? The 70,0000 record breaking live audience of Wrestlemania 32 were behind Ambrose to win that match regardless of whatever percentage of the worldwide audience likes him and regardless of your opinion of his wrestling talents. Brock killing him and making him look like a jobber in a really lazy match where he took almost no punishment despite a street fight stip instead of at least making Dean look strong in a compelling close-fought match like he gave to Roman was a very clear flashpoint in the audience losing steam for Brock, and denying that is just denying the reality of smaller and smaller crowd reactions every time Brock has reappeared since then. The Orton Match had plenty of heat because Randy had heat off a return from a long absence and all the RKO pop exploitation in the build. The match died because Brock wrestled a less quality and less interesting match compared to his past efforts when they expected him to step up against an opponent like Orton who is traditionally protected and allowed to look strong, just like he had to step up in the Cena rematch after the first squash. There's a clear distinction between someone wrestling a style that allows for squash matches and someone wrestling lazy. Brock has been wrestling lazy for the last year, and its really easy to see because he wasn't wrestling lazy before that.
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Feb 1, 2017 22:24
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dont even fink about it posted:And getting the iron man position in a rumble means absolutely jack poo poo at this point. Ambrose FINISHED #2, as in came within one elimination of winning the thing. If Ambrose was a midcarder when he fought Brock than the entire Shield were midcarders when they fought Brock and none of those matches should have happened.
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Feb 1, 2017 23:20
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No matter how many times I see people say they want Jericho vs Owens I don't understand it. Either of them turning face given the history of this run would be borderline Russo-tier nonsense and nobody should trust Raw's writers to make it good in the time left until Mania. Having them wrestling heel vs heel would be stupid. And either way the result is the most entertaining thing on Raw not named Strowman being brought to an end.
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Feb 2, 2017 00:42
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Chris James 2 posted:Jericho's with Fozzy after Mania and they don't know when he'll be back. Owens has to move on story-wise, and that means something's going to have to happen between the two by Mania at the absolute latest. Crap. I suppose Owens turning face would be too much to hope for? I mean, Jericho is clearly the more evil of the two of them if you actually take continuity into account, and I'm desperately sick of Owen's chickenshit heel booking where he can't win to save his drat life.
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Feb 2, 2017 00:48
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Basic Chunnel posted:The fans are ready to cheer Jericho. The fans have been ready to cheer Owens since his debut.
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Feb 2, 2017 00:51
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DoctorGonzo posted:Jericho and Owens have been bad heels, they are getting cheered anyways so i dont see what is the problem with one of them turning face again My problem with it is continuity. They've been completely despicable at every opportunity, and the one time they teased tension between them that could have resulted in a turn for one of them believably it was revealed to be a ruse on Jericho's part and Kevin wholeheartedly forgave him because keeping his title mattered more than mean words and taking a codebreaker. The way its been written, and the way the two of them have acted it, it strains credulity that either of them would betray the other or that they would suddenly abandon their evil ways for Babyfacedom. I'm sure a good writer could make it work, but Raw's writers do not have a great track record and window they have to get it done is only a handful of weeks. It makes me skeptical to say the least.
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Feb 2, 2017 01:00
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some guy on the bus posted:If it's for the US title, it shouldn't even be done. When it happens, it needs to feel important. It can't be for a midcard belt. That would be an insult to the both of them. Unless they want to elevate that midcard belt? The things been on exclusively main eventers for like 6 months. NOT doing for the belt would be an insult to it.
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Feb 2, 2017 01:18
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some guy on the bus posted:Give the US title to Goldberg and Lesnar then. Sure, Goldberg loves America and its a WCW title. Book it danno.
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Feb 2, 2017 01:35
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When I saw that shirt on sale for like 4 bucks at the TNA shop I almost bought it. I'm also really REALLY strongly debating buying the Kurt Angle TNA Hall of Fame shirt. Sweet irony.
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Feb 3, 2017 07:53
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If a heel can only win by cheating you get Kevin Owens. There is space between a monster heel and a cheating weasel where a heel can just be really good and win against like 75% of his opponents, get heat via non-wrestling related dickheadedness, but in the end clearly be worse than The Best Dudes and have to cheat against them. That was the formula that made Triple H a star, and considering how everyone says Bobby is Triple H lite, it should probably work with him.
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Feb 25, 2017 06:53
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The_Rob posted:It's good easy heat to get, and that's totally cool and fun. My issue with the drifter is I feel like there is someone backstage who feels that he can be the next top babyface badass character. They might be right. Nobody thought Baron Corbin was going to be as good as he is today a year ago.
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Feb 28, 2017 04:32
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TNA's talent for blowing the bottom out of the barrel and finding a new sub-basement never ceases to impress.
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Mar 3, 2017 03:24
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Bray was one of the hottest acts in wrestling when he feuded with Bryan and Cena leading up to Mania 30, pretending anything else was the case is revisionist history. It was not a case of all the heat actually being on Cena either, Bray was earning crowd reactions in his own right, not just playing out The Audience vs Cena Part 26. That being said, his credibility has been shattered so many times now than even with the good booking and worthwhile storytelling he's gotten to be part of on Smackdown his ceiling is probably permanently damaged. Having Orton beat him might be the right call given how the crowd has been reacting. And I hate to say that because I love Bray. If Randy is getting this title so he can have a big match with Corbin, Styles, Nakamura or... I dunno, Johnny Gargano? Someone I'm not thinking of that they're going to push strong enough and write well enough to make them an Ace-level star in 6 months like they've basically done for Corbin. If that's the reason he's getting the title, then beating Bray is probably the right decision. Bray might just be too damaged to make him retaining to do the same thing worthwhile.
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Mar 28, 2017 05:03
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Kind of lovely but it seems like Asuka was not coming up until Summerslam season anyway. Hope ember gets well soon.
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Apr 20, 2017 17:15
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The story of her current feud is "I have been untouchable since I got here but Ember Moon is such a threat that I had to turn heel to defeat her." She's not just Goldberging another chump here, there's nowhere for her character to go once Ember beats her. This has got to be her swan song.
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Apr 20, 2017 20:38
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SamuraiFoochs posted:It's awful, it sucks, and it needs to stop. It''s been like this for over 3 years and it's all because of Roman. You realize these two statements are contradictory right? How can something that is, by your admission, entirely Roman's fault be worse than Roman when the thing itself is part of the Roman problem? The first year of Brock's post-streak push was perfect, with the only problem with the whole thing being Roman. If Daniel Bryan had fought Brock at that Mania instead and everything else had played out identically, it would be remembered as an all-time classic instead of a surprisingly great match that defied expectations of disaster but nonetheless was the start of the current troubles. The second year of Brock's push was a nightmare because they refused to follow through with Brock's natural face turn despite starting to do so at the Raw After Mania and then torched Rollins and Ambrose's credibility and forced those crap Undertaker rematches that should have never happened in an effort to get Heel Heat back on him. I wonder why they wouldn't allow Brock to be a face? Who could they have possibly been trying to protect by not allowing that... The Third Year of Brock's push was great other than the Orton debacle. The Orton thing was yet another attempt to force heat onto him for Roman's ultimate benefit, which is why it was the only poo poo part. The feud with Goldberg was brilliant. The only thing tainting it was the revelation before Mania even happened that they were already gearing up for Brock Roman II to main event the NEXT Mania. Roman is 85% of the problem if not more. I don't even like Brock and I can see that the bile you keep spitting his way is exaggerated and misplaced in the extreme. If you really think "The Suplex City Match," is THAT terrible, fine, I won't deny you that opinion, but Brock's BOOKING in the macro sense has been correct and all the things wrong with it are external and entirely to be lain at Roman's feet.
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May 1, 2017 14:37
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MotU posted:roman isnt booking himself what do you want him to do, say sorry vince i should be midcard i quit. freakin lol, idiot I'm not blaming Roman personally, I'm blaming the fact that what the people who make the show are doing with Roman filters down into every other booking decision and makes the entire show worse, even the best parts. Thanks for insulting me for no reason though, that was super necessary. I'm not here talking to someone who wants Brock Lesnar to retire forever because that will somehow make wrestling better and trying to explain why his reasoning is flawed or anything, so surely I must be idiotically blaming the performer for dumb poo poo that is Vince's fault. Glad I got to start my day off being spat at.
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May 1, 2017 14:53
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Chris James 2 posted:The Del Rio title unification was honestly completely predictable from the moment that match was announced I guess in theory its good booking because Lashley continually screwed Del Rio while beating all his other challengers legit, so Del Rio had to go above and beyond by becoming another company's champion to overcome Bobbo's evil monster heelness? And it was at the second biggest show after a lengthy build and kicks off the rebranding with a theoretically hot babyface as undisputed champion which leaves them wide open for long-term planning toward their Biggest Show at Bound for Glory? Its hard to tell when TNA, or I guess GFW now, is doing smart things vs when they do dumb things because they have such history of taking what ought to be good and making it suck.
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Jul 3, 2017 00:52
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Chris James 2 posted:At the very least it's the most well-booked Del Rio's been in years. Whether one feels he deserves it or not is the only questionable aspect Well, you can invest a lot of emotion into a super talented wrestler and wait for him to finally get the booking and character he's merited for years only to then spiral into depression for several days because he revels the kind of person he really is behind the scenes (say by, I dunno, liking a tweet about how Muslim Invaders are destroying America just to make up a random example) or you can find it in you to separate the human being from the character he portrays despite that being harder in wrestling than any other form of scripted entertainment. I'm still working on that so I don't blame you if you can't.
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Jul 3, 2017 01:22
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Fiveace Attorney posted:imagine the dx reunion but worse The kind of fun one where they were tried to come across as ironically self-aware that they were old now but in fact were just actually old and doing awful dad jokes, or the much crappier rehash of that one a couple years later?
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Sep 25, 2017 05:21
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Fiveace Attorney posted:now they have all been ruined to varying degrees and im sure they can still have great matches together but there is no point in calling them the shield, cause theyre not There needed to be a reason to bring back The Shield, and the loving Miztourage ain't it. When people were speculating about Joe, Owens and some other recipient of Triple H's patronage forming a stable to rolling over Raw to get revenge for the guy who was taking care of them getting taken out by Rollins, that would have been a threat that merited a Shield Reunion. Now they're doing it for... nothing it would seem.
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Sep 25, 2017 05:34
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SamuraiFoochs posted:I'm guessing the reason to bring back The Shield will be Braun, Sheamus, and Cesaro. And I'm not gonna lie, if I had to construct a heel faction that necessitates a Shield reunion that'd probably be high on the list of trios I'd pick to do it. I love Shaemus and Cesaro, but there are nowhere near what they need to be to necessitate The Shield because of how long they were made to look like jokes and the fact that neither of them has sniffed main eventer status for nearly a year, plus they lost twice to just Dean and Seth clean, and Braun has lost to Roman clean AND just lost to Brock clean. They may be high on the list, but that's an indictment of the list.
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Sep 25, 2017 06:04
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STAC Goat posted:I dug the cult stuff and saw a ton of potential in him brainwashing people and using them as shields and tools. A less supernatural Ministry or swamp hillbilly Raven thing. Him pulling Bryan into the cult seemed like the good step in that direction and then they rushed through that story and left Wyatt with nothing to show for it, which was a harbinger of things to come. Bray did have something to show for it. Bryan put him over at the Rumble. Clean. And didn't take his win back later as far as I remember. Bray showed that he would not take betrayal lying down and slammed Daniel's face right into the barricade with Sister Abigail to send the message home. He lost the moral battle to the babyface but won the feud in the ring to cement his status as a main event player. All without damaging Daniel's overness or momentum in the slightest. God drat I miss 2014...
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Oct 4, 2017 07:19
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mkay0 posted:Other than Bryan, those odds are as logical as anything I could come up with. The TV just hasn’t done a great job of foreshadowing anything. Interested to see where we’re at when the lines move. I think the fact that they're not foreshadowing anything about the rumble and have spent the TV focusing on the title feuds is one of the smartest things they've done in years. Big parts of why Rumble matches have failed in recent years have been setting audience expectations and then shattering them. Bryan will return from injury that this Rumble... so he can lose to Roman. The title will be on the line at this Rumble, and it looks like Dean Ambrose will be the one to win it... nope, Triple H title reign. Goldberg, Undertaker and Lesnar ALL IN THE RUMBLE AT ONCE... Randy Orton wins by eliminating Roman who shouldn't have even been in the match in a just universe. They've left this Rumble basically a blank canvas and let it kind of hang over everything in the background, like a shadow on a hill. They never even officially said Roman was in it because he's been IC Champ. Realistically only him and Nakamura are viable winners since Sami, KO, AJ, Brock and Braun are all in the title matches, but because they haven't even tried to frame it that way, its easier to come into the match neutral.
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Jan 28, 2018 06:46
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Venomous posted:so what are the chances that Alexa will lose at Elimination Chamber If Charlotte/Ronda is set in stone, I would say almost zero. Alexa is set up as a cowardly unworthy champion and they've planted several specific seeds about how Asuka Wants To Kill Her and she's indignant about it to cover her inadequacies and need to constantly cheat and hide behind better wrestlers to keep the gold. It's an oldschool story and they've put work into it, I don't see them dropping it. They'll absolutely spend the upcoming weeks trying to SELL that they're willing to drop it though. I fully expect Bayley, Nia and Sasha to take center stage all through this build and really push that they each have very personal scores to settle with Asuka and plan to take Alexa's title so they can get that chance, while Alexa gets super pissy about everyone looking past her as if her title doesn't matter compared to THE MIGHTY ASUKA.
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Jan 30, 2018 08:46
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Professor Funk posted:It wouldn't be that difficult to have the Bryan/Miz feud be for the WWE title down the line. It should have high stakes if/when it happens. If they're planning on giving Miz a big push post WM34, have him go to Smackdown in the next shake up, cheat Nakamura out of the belt somehow and then do Bryan/Miz at Summerslam or WM35. Nakamura vs Miz leading to Miz vs Bryan leading to Nakamura vs Bryan sounds like the best 9-12 months of Smackown since Heyman was running it.
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Apr 1, 2018 09:25
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Re: Eric Young, the thing that has made him so great in NXT and the reason he neither shines enough to draw attention to his flaws or fades in the background is that he is the stable's leader, but only ever wrestles the tag matches. He is able to fall back on the things that have always made him truly great, his character works and ability to project an aura and personality, while the guy who most deserves it (Dane) gets slow burn singles push, and the truly special talent (Nikki) gets a rocket strapped to them, and yet he still gets to hold gold in the tag division. Sanity has been booked virtually perfectly as a stable, in a way no other stable I can remember in recent history was booked, except maybe the original Shield. Everyone in Sanity is special, everyone has their weaknesses hidden and their strengths emphasized, and because of how they've divided up the card and divisions among them everyone gets to look special and unique and powerful, yet the unit doesn't get left behind even when the members get unique variant entrances. Nobody is a minion, except maybe Wolfe and even he gets his fair share of spotlight and isn't just there to eat pins. Nobody is in the group exclusively to make the "real star," look better. Everybody gets over. And honestly, I don't know if anyone other than Young would have worked in that role, because his skillset was a perfect fit, so I wouldn't say he 'backdoored' into it either.
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Apr 8, 2018 04:27
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SamuraiFoochs posted:I don't think there's any debate. You're absolutely right. I don't agree, nor do I agree with the sentiment that going from Unsanctioned to Street Fight is a step backward. The booking is commiserate to the stakes. Johnny was wrestling for his career as well as to settle the score in the Unsanctioned match, it had to be a stipulation that was in line with the gravity of the situation, not to mention the one-year build. Unsanctioned is on the very short list of gimmicks that are fitting for that. Now they're only fighting for the personal score. Their feud should continue because it makes sense storywise for it to continue. Ciampa as a character certainly hasn't learned anything or given up his hatred, he has no reason to stop trying to destroy Gargano. The only things that would logically pull him away are a title shot or a callup, and the former would have made no sense because he lost to Johnny. Think back to Hogan vs Andre. Was their match at Mania 3 the end of that feud even though it was the obvious climax of the story and there was no real way to escalate things from there? No, and it worked out fine all the way into Mania 4 (which is a bad show and all, but Hogan and Andre's part in it makes perfect sense) Now, that's not to say this isn't a relative downbeat in the long-game of Ciampa vs Gargano. But then they didn't blow up any Death Stars in Empire either. This isn't to imply Ciampa should win the Street Fight, but it is to imply that if you're telling a longer narrative and the stakes are so high in one part of the story, you have to pull back and take things to a personal level before you can re-escalate again. Going "backwards," for this part is in fact GOOD writing assuming there is a third act. NXT has more than earned the benefit of the doubt in this I think.
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May 12, 2018 07:10
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KungFu Grip posted:This is really funny considering she doesn't even know how to take an elbow drop But have you considered that her themesong is really really good?
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May 12, 2018 07:24
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KungFu Grip posted:literally couldn't tell you what her theme is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFdFsAuuJtE Let da blud flo~
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May 12, 2018 07:32
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KungFu Grip posted:theme bad You're bad 
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May 12, 2018 07:50
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Beef Jerky Robot posted:Is this the theme for a CW show about vampires No, but you could probably put it in the Rebel Galaxy Soundtrack no problem.
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May 12, 2018 20:04
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D.N. Nation posted:Outside of Cena, who's been AJ's best feud in WWE? Ambrose, despite the Ellsworth stuff (or because of it)? Ambrose/Elseworth/Deano was a great feud. I don't think any of the others really touched it
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May 17, 2018 02:20
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IcePhoenix posted:Against who? Alicia FUUUUUUUUXXXXX
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Oct 14, 2018 10:30
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LOL at Dean losing his title shot. They're desperate to kill him dead and I have no clue why since without him their top heel is.... Drew?
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Nov 25, 2018 12:04
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