Pro Wrestling discussion topic--WWE, AEW, ROH, Impact, New Japan, indies

Some of these have pretty dedicated followings, I doubt WWE would be that stupid. Adam Rose I can see, and maybe the Ascension dudes. The only other possibility is Swagger, who I feel like if he was going to get cut would have a long time ago. Someone backstage must love the dude.

Otunga will be kept on just so that when he goes to events with his wife WWE can go "Hey hey look! We're relevant!"
Which of those wrestlers have dedicated followings? Which of those wrestlers were more over than Damien Sandow?

Looking at my list again, the only one I'd keep on the roster is Curtis Axel.

As far as Otunga goes: WWE is more socially relevant than an American Idol nobody. They're only keeping him because there aren't many wrestlers who can say they're a legit lawyer.

 
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Which of those wrestlers have dedicated followings? Which of those wrestlers were more over than Damien Sandow?

Looking at my list again, the only one I'd keep on the roster is Curtis Axel.

As far as Otunga goes: WWE is more socially relevant than an American Idol nobody. They're only keeping him because there aren't many wrestlers who can say they're a legit lawyer.
American Idol nobody? She's won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a SAG award, and a Grammy, among many other awards.

 
They could still cut:

Adam Rose
Curtis Axel
Darren Young
David Otunga
Fandango
Heath Slater
Jack Swagger
Konnor
Titus O'Neil (good guy with charities, but...)
Tyler Breeze
Viktor
I'd be fine with Swagger and Axel going. Tyler Breeze doesn't come along often. He's having match of the night with Nakamura on live shows. You can say it's just Nakamura, but it takes two. Tyler loses a lot, but makes his opponent look like a million bucks without hamming it up.
 
I wonder what creative was thinking when they brought Coulter back in a pairing with Del Rio. It didn't fit, it didn't make sense, it didn't go anywhere and it just evaporated. Why not just bring him back and push Swagger again? Create another Real Americans stable?

I was expecting to see Swagger on that list but perhaps they have plans with him.
Since they now have Bob Backlund's Mr. Backlund character in the suspenders get-up and all, wrestling-coaching/life-coaching Darren Young and cutting promo's about "Make Darren Young Great Again" (which looks and sounds like a shot at Trump), they should pair Young up with Swagger and get another Real Americans stable going.

EDIT:

I'd be fine with Swagger and Axel going. Tyler Breeze doesn't come along often. He's having match of the night with Nakamura on live shows. You can say it's just Nakamura, but it takes two. Tyler loses a lot, but makes his opponent look like a million bucks without hamming it up.
I still don't know why Breeze and Ziggler ain't teamed-up. It's not like Ziggler's doing much storyline-wise, these days. Ziggler character is a Show-Off, while Breeze is...basically another Ziggler-style cocky-like character. They'd make a good tag-team.

EDIT 2:

I'd be fine with Swagger and Axel going. Tyler Breeze doesn't come along often. He's having match of the night with Nakamura on live shows. You can say it's just Nakamura, but it takes two. Tyler loses a lot, but makes his opponent look like a million bucks without hamming it up.
Tyler's a pretty good seller, just like Ziggler.

 
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Global Wars main event
had a pretty disappointing finish. The BC reveal is cool and all... but c'mon, more Cabana! Also, is the superkick party really that over to need the counter and whatnot? It's been funny/entertaining for a bit, but it's gotten... I dunno. It's just a bunch of super kicks.

That said, them superkicking their dad was fun, and I loved the closing camera shot.

 
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I'd be fine with Swagger and Axel going. Tyler Breeze doesn't come along often. He's having match of the night with Nakamura on live shows. You can say it's just Nakamura, but it takes two. Tyler loses a lot, but makes his opponent look like a million bucks without hamming it up.
I'd like Axel to stay if he shaves his head. Him and Corbin. Those overhead lights aren't doing those dudes any favors.

 
I'm really enjoying The Miz lately. Over the last few months, and he hasn't really changed all that much in that time (Maryse notwithstanding), I've really, really gained an appreciation for his in-ring work, the way he keeps the attention of the crowds, and how crowds uniformly want to see him get his ass handed to him on a silver platter.

Praise Kevin Owens for being a 'classic' heel who isn't trying to get fans to like him. The deck is stacked against Owens b/c he was an indy darling and people want to see him succeed (same as Daniel Bryan); Miz is a classic heel in that he's so reviled nobody notices that he's doing a really, really good job being hated.

 
The deck is stacked against Owens b/c he was an indy darling and people want to see him succeed (same as Daniel Bryan);
Plus he's fat, and I think there's really only been one time where anyone said anything about it (Orton). You'd think Vince would have someone bust that shit out at least once a month.

 
Global Wars main event
had a pretty disappointing finish. The BC reveal is cool and all... but c'mon, more Cabana! Also, is the superkick party really that over to need the counter and whatnot? It's been funny/entertaining for a bit, but it's gotten... I dunno. It's just a bunch of super kicks.

That said, them superkicking their dad was fun, and I loved the closing camera shot.
I did enjoy the trolling of not having a single kick during the actual match. Thank you, I was wondering who the old guy in the shiny shirt was. Pretty good show, tag title match was a dud.
 
Apparently NXT was in Kansas last night and they had Tyler Breeze vs Shinsuke. I really hope someone recorded it, I really want to see it.
Son of a bitch. NXT Live Event in OKC got Tyler Breeze vs. No Way Jose and Dillinger/Samoa Joe vs. Balor/Nakamura

 
That's the main event?! 

Who taught WWE that? Proud to see Cass main eventing.

Very curious to see how this plays out.

 
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Poor Enzo might get Jannetty'd just because of a freak accident. It seems like they're trying to strap a rocket to Cass's back.
Cass is just taking the ball and running with it. It's very similar to how they started in NXT as a team. Enzo was injured and in a wheelchair for months while Cass was doing his thing on the mic and in the ring. Big Cass and Aiden English had a fun little feud in NXT back in the early days. If Cass is this over without Enzo, just wait until Enzo returns he'll be 10x more over than he already was. Enzo and Cass will be over for a long time to come.

 
Cass is just taking the ball and running with it. It's very similar to how they started in NXT as a team. Enzo was injured and in a wheelchair for months while Cass was doing his thing on the mic and in the ring. Big Cass and Aiden English had a fun little feud in NXT back in the early days. If Cass is this over without Enzo, just wait until Enzo returns he'll be 10x more over than he already was. Enzo and Cass will be over for a long time to come.
I wouldn't suggest falsely using a wheelchair for an angle (WWE would never...) HOWEVER, wheelchair Enzo was super entertaining and I wouldn't be mad if they brought that back for a bit.

 
I wouldn't suggest falsely using a wheelchair for an angle (WWE would never...) HOWEVER, wheelchair Enzo was super entertaining and I wouldn't be mad if they brought that back for a bit.
I'd love to see an angle where Enzo has amnesia and thinks he's a Wall Street business man. That could be a comedy goldmine.

 
CENA vs NAKAMURA and LESNAR vs OWENS on 6/29 in Hawaii. Holy shit. Why is this random house show 100 times more exciting that Wrestlemania?

They haven't said it's on the Network yet, but they would have to be a drooling bunch of illiterate fuckheads not to broadcast this. I would reactivate the network just for that.

 
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So I just read Vince said that Cena, Rollins, Orton, and Wyatt will all be returning to action within the next 30 days. He also said 13 new talents will be introduced to the main roster, making this the biggest roster they have ever had at one time. Who are the 13 talents that will debut, my picks are as follows.

- Finn Balor (obvious choice)

- Nakamura (I think with how well his merch is selling and the fact that he is scheduled to face Cena on what will likely be a Bash at the Beach Network special)

- Blake

- Murphy

- Alexa Bliss 

- Carmella

- Mojo Rawley (Move this guy up and just do the Hype Bros on the main roster, Ryder needs to move back down the card anyway)

- Bobby Roode (With the number of people moving up, Roode is a guy who should just go straight to the main roster at this point)

- Austin Aries (Same with Roode)

- Tye Dillinger (Perfect 10, enough said!)

Not sure who else is ready to move up. Samoa Joe is an obvious pick along with EY, but I don't feel like they should leave NXT just yet as they need veterans there still. 

 
http://camelclutchblog.com/wwe-respect-ryback-for-not-being-a-punk/

Whatever it is you think about Ryback or Punk, comparing how those two dealt with bringing corporate/backstage situations to the public, Ryback is far classier about it.
As captivating as Punk's post-"pipe bomb" career with WWE was, he was clearly only happy when he was being coddled and put on a pedestal by management. As soon as it came time for him to step back from the spotlight he couldn't handle it. I was interested in hearing his story but in the back of my mind the whole time I couldn't help but feel like the whole thing was coming across as sour grapes. "Why can't I be the golden boy Cena" is certainly something he had to be questioning.

Now, did he raise some legitimate concerns re: WWE? Definitely. You can't help but take this with a grain of salt because he never raised these concerns while he was getting his. It was only after he found out he wasn't main eventing Wrestlemania that he decided to throw a fit about everything.

Did he deserve to main event Wrestlemania? Probably, but he clearly didn't have the patience to wait. Imagine if he had stuck around though. Look at how hard up for top talent WWE got just recently. Who's to say he wouldn't have gotten his Wrestlemania moment of he had stuck around? It's all speculation but I think it would have happened at some point. Doing what he did though, virtually guaranteed he'll never have a Wrestlemania main event.

Look at what happened with Cena stepping back from the spotlight with his US title reign. He may have pitched the whole idea or it may have been made for him to try and build up other main event talent, who knows. What we do know is that he thrived in a mostly mid card place and kind of re-invented himself there. Punk's response to a similar situation was to just stop showing up.
 
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I mean, I still get Punk. When you've had enough, sometimes it really only occurs to you at the moment it hits you like a ton of bricks - so you haven't really had the chance to grasp how awful things were. I don't know the specifics of his case. And, while his interview w/ Cabana does show bitterness, it's not my place to say he's wrong about that.

I suppose my general point is that Ryback's points deserve some modicum of respect and consideration. We need to focus on the points being made and the avenue through which they're being made, instead of getting hung up on whether or not the person is deserving in the first place. Ryback's points about pay aren't about Ryback's pay - it's about the undercard's pay relative to the top of the card. I recall reading, years ago, about how large Undertaker's check was for his SS main event vs Kamala - and comparatively, how small Kamala's paycheck was. Now, I'm not saying that Kamala sold as many PPV buys as The Undertaker did; but the argument that it takes two to have a PPV match has merit. Undertaker isn't wrestling himself.

Focus more on the patterns than on people: did Damien Sandow deserve the same payday for WM31 as Miz? Does Sami Zayn deserve the same pay as Zack Ryder for WM32? Rinse, lather, repeat.

 
I still don't get the retroactive Punk disdain. He had a legit gripe with management, took it to them directly (repeatedly), got a bullshit response (repeatedly), so he left. He didn't say a damn thing about until after people had begged him to talk about it for months, said what he wanted, then didn't really say much more about it. If you don't like what he had to say for some reason...shrug. Not his problem.

Ryback whined on the internet. Has he even said anything to Vince about it prior?

 
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I still don't get the retroactive Punk disdain. He had a legit gripe with management, took it to them directly (repeatedly), got a bullshit response (repeatedly), so he left. He didn't say a damn thing about until after people had begged him to talk about it for months, said what he wanted, then didn't really say much more about it. If you don't like what he had to say for some reason...shrug. Not his problem.

Ryback whined on the internet. Has he even said anything to Vince about it?
It's not so much retroactive disdain, but that, in comparing the two on the surface, Ryback seems to be interested in making negotiations work for him, whereas Punk was burying the company entirely. We praise the latter and condemn the former - in essence, conflating the (overlapping) points they're making because we liked one as an in-ring performer and didn't like the other. That's not fair. We're judging out of the ring behaviors based on how we see them in the ring. That's silly.

As for Ryback "whining" on the internet, CM Punk's livejournal is still up and running if you want to see some self-absorbed indie bluster.

 
Yeah. I said a lot of dumb stuff when I was 24 too.

(Some of) Ryback's points are certainly worth considering, but I'm just not particularly impressed with how he went about presenting it.

 
So I just read Vince said that Cena, Rollins, Orton, and Wyatt will all be returning to action within the next 30 days. He also said 13 new talents will be introduced to the main roster, making this the biggest roster they have ever had at one time. Who are the 13 talents that will debut, my picks are as follows.

- Finn Balor (obvious choice)

- Nakamura (I think with how well his merch is selling and the fact that he is scheduled to face Cena on what will likely be a Bash at the Beach Network special)

- Blake

- Murphy

- Alexa Bliss

- Carmella

- Mojo Rawley (Move this guy up and just do the Hype Bros on the main roster, Ryder needs to move back down the card anyway)

- Bobby Roode (With the number of people moving up, Roode is a guy who should just go straight to the main roster at this point)

- Austin Aries (Same with Roode)

- Tye Dillinger (Perfect 10, enough said!)

Not sure who else is ready to move up. Samoa Joe is an obvious pick along with EY, but I don't feel like they should leave NXT just yet as they need veterans there still.
My guess is they're including those who have came up, including Vaudevillains, Enzo and Cass, Apollo Crews, Baron Corbin, and now Dana Brooke. That's 7. Definitely Finn, quite possibly Mojo since they're doing house shows. Not sure about BAMF since they did shoot a break-up angle and one of them is out with an MCL injury.

 
Did Bobby Roode sign? If so, did y'all just spoil NXT for me by thoughtlessly posting something that happens in the next series of tapings, or did I miss something? Last I saw of him he was a 'free agent' at NXT Takeover.

 
Did Bobby Roode sign? If so, did y'all just spoil NXT for me by thoughtlessly posting something that happens in the next series of tapings, or did I miss something? Last I saw of him he was a 'free agent' at NXT Takeover.
He hasn't officially signed from what I know and neither has EY, but both have deals in place and just working things out before they put pen to paper. Roode and EY are a given though, they definitely aren't going back to TNA and I believe they are too big of names to just work indies at this point in their careers. Bobby Roode I feel just would work better on the main roster than he would in NXT.

 
I find myself hoping Vaudevillains capture the tag titles in a few weeks at Extreme Rules. They're doing well on the main roster, and The New Day is starting to get stale (I don't think crowd interest is waning, but I do think they're not doing much lately that is new or interesting). Having them chase for the belts can be a great way to revitalize them.

Big Cass with Enzo as a mouthpiece would be a wonderful group to have wrecking the singles division. I like the big guy/little guy dynamic as a tag team, and if they turn, Enzo would be a GREAT chickenshit heel (talking so much smack, hiding behind the big guy). These two - man, they can do so much with them. I'm also impressed w/ Big Cass' mic work from Monday. I was worried for awhile that the Cass/Enzo team was put together to cover up relative weaknesses - Enzo is small in the ring and Cass was small on the mic. They've both shown so much improvement in those respective areas since their early NXT days on the Network.

 
Adam Rose was arrested early this morning for tampering with a witness and battery domestic violence. Really unfortunate too since I think a lot of people sympathized with his suspension over ADHD meds. He seemed like an ok guy, but as has been said previously we really don't know these people outside their character they play on the TV.

It also seems that the Brooklyn Brawler was released last week after over 30 years with the WWE.
 
They released the fucking Brooklyn Brawler? Only release that would surprise me more than this is Howard Finkel.

 
Cass as a singles act with Enzo talking would probably be fine, but I don't want to see that yet. Between New Day and Enzo/Cass they have a basis for a tag division that actually draws attention. If they can get a heel team established, they will have totally turned that division around from a few years ago. You know they're eventually going to give Cass the singles run anyway, so I really don't want to see that rushed.
 
See ya Adam. Don't be a lemon.
 
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:lol:

13177381_525387720980361_5345464915886492747_n.jpg


 
WWE.COM has a video clip titled "6 Superstars who should have been in WWE".

The description reads:

 
"Roman Reigns vs. New Jack? That's a match literally too good to be true, since the ECW Original was never in WWE. What other Superstars should have, but never, made it to the big leagues?"
 
I don't know what drugs the guys at .com are on but Jesus...it's beyond delusional to think that New Jack would be in a "good match" with ANYONE, let alone Roman. Has anyone at that company WATCHED a New Jack match?
 
We're talking about a company that doesn't allow head shots, excess blood or piledrivers (for good reason) so sure, let's bring a guy in that's almost killed a few people and uses a staple gun and a scalpel, that'll be AMAZING.
 
ah-ha. thanks!

That also explains why I was confused - every time I read "Manny" in a WWE context, I assumed it was in reference to Manny Andrade (La Sombra).

Wow, he's super inexperienced. His in-ring presence really does a great job of hiding that, tbh.

 
In other news, Moose may be a free agent soon, and everyone wants him.

Least surprising and most pleasing wrestling news of the week.
I'd say I'd like him to follow his friend Apollo Crews, but we see how well Apollo is being used right now. He could go to Japan as well. He made a lot of money for himself since the start of the year with his performances.
 
What's wrong with how he's being used currently?
Came in with no hype and went straight to Superstars. At least Corbin got a match on a ppv (even though it was secretly demoted to preshow and he lost). I don't understand why bring someone up without an idea when he could have been a legit foe for Samoa Joe in a nice feud.
 
I don't really have a problem with a slow build for Apollo Crews. They have about a year invested in him and he's a young guy. Why not let introduce him to the WWE Universe slowly before giving him a push? I think it's pretty clear that they like the guy and NXT is getting a little crowded. He probably should still be in NXT, but I don't really have a problem with him on the main roster either.

Baron Corbin is in a different place. For him it's make it or break it time. He's already been in the WWE for 4 years now and he's Zack Ryder's age. IMO, he's in a similar spot that Adam Rose was in when he debuted on the main roster.

 
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Reigns/Styles is the top of the 10:00 hour segment, and the McMahon feud/Womens Championship angle closes out the show.

Fascinating.

Is this indicative of a changeup for the sake of a changeup, a tacti acknowledgement that they know the 10:00 is when ratings peak, or them ending the show with the angle they see at hottest (McMahons) - which is subtly implying that they know Reigns as champ isn't working?

 
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