Official WWE/TNA Wrestling Thread

I'm sure we will get it in time as Lesnar should streamroll the whole company between now and WM time.

 

Wow according to John Cena's Twitter Feed starting July 23rd, RAW will be 3 hours each Monday. Not sure if this is a good idea, smells like overexposure unless they're thinking of getting rid of Smackdown (which I highly doubt). Unless of course the extra hour is for a pre/host RAW show like how real sporting events have a pre and post game show (which again I think is kind of a dumb idea).

 

They can't make enough good matches to fill a 2 hour episode of Raw.

 

Get ready to see a lot more of Kane!

Yeah I agree, it's one of the mistakes WCW made with Nitro. It just waters down the product and it gets over exposed. The WWE has a tough time as it is to fill 4 to 5 hours a week.

I can barely sit through a 2 hours RAW as it is, there's a zero percent chance I ever watch a 3 hour RAW straight through.

 

Awful idea. It will kill interest within a few weeks. Way too much wrestling on a weekly basis. The idea is for the first hour to be interactive where fans can decide matches for later in the night, stipulations, etc. I suppose the idea is interesting, but the execution has never really been pulled off correctly. I guess people may stay and watch if the things they vote for come to fruition later that night.

This also leads to a greater problem of hot shotting and even less long term planning from the writing staff.

The only way I see this even remotely working is to end the brand split completely. Lump everyone into one brand, merge the appropriate titles and go from there. They will need a larger talent pool to pull from and no sense pretending it is split anymore. Even then, that is a short term answer for a long term issue. Beyond merging and expanding the roster, me think that they will have to change formats all together.

I wouldn't mind a tip of the cap to the old ECW/Pulp Fiction angle/interviews that used to be done. Basically, there was about a 5 minute section of the old ECW shows where a bunch of wrestlers spoke directly to the camera in pre-taped segments and helped get the undercard and their feuds over by running them over some music, cutting the interviews back to back to back in a fast paced manner and throwing in a little bit of silliness to help the flow.

I also wouldn't mind if this allowed for longer matches, obviously. I think having one 10-15 minute match per hour is a must and a few five minute specials as well.

Having said that, it probably means more mic time for the top guys, 10 minutes of review of what we just saw and a Hornswoggle skit.

 

Cue Daniel Bryan: YES! YES! YES! YES!

 

There is one way they can make it work....by using that extra time to give up and coming guys some air time and develop their characters through interviews, back stage things like attacks, segments, etc. I doubt they make it work though.

 

It would still be a bad idea, consistent 3 hour RAWs are just too much TV time to fill each week, it's just going to water down an already watered down product. If anything they should eliminate either NXT or Superstars, since no one watches it anyway.

I do like your idea on giving "rookies" more TV time but they should revamp NXT/Superstars and use that show as development time for characters etc. Almost like a minor league/indy show just with younger guys. You don't even need to waste TV time, put it on their website (or WWE network which I'd be shocked if it ever happened now). People might watch it, plus it gives the rookies time to work on things.

 

Very true.

Even aside from the real young guys though....I'll use Kofi Kingston as an example. Everyone knows Kofi as a wrestler, but when was the last time he ever cut a promo "You know I don't like you so and so" or whatever, called a guy out, there is a long list of guys we see in the ring every night but don't have any character depth. I'm hoping they add depth to these guys with the extra time.

Fingers crossed but knowing it won't happen.

 

you're obsessed.......

 

There's probably a reason why you don't ever hear him on the mike but you're right why not just give him a shot. If he sucks, he sucks and you move on but maybe you find out he's the next Austin on the mike. Oh course, let the wrestlers cut their own promos don't give them a script to read.

 

I'm embracing the hate.

 

I think aside from the actual wrestling, there was a lot more emphasis in the attitude era on giving the non "top guys" promos and mic time. Obviously like you said....some guys will suck and if they do hey you move on.

By top guys I mean WWE/WWF Title Contenders. You had the Dudleys coming out getting mic time, Edge and Christian were great. When Jericho wasn't a top guy yet and in the intercontinental division he was on the mic all the time. Now you rarely see that aside from a silly Santino skit or Cody Rhodes and his lisp.

 

This is completely true and during that time the guys actually cut their own promos. Now they're given a script so when the promo falls flat the wrestler gets blamed and not the writers of it.

 

Welllllllllllllllllll, well it's the Big Show! I've said many times in this thread that being predictable isn't always a bad thing, it's all about the story being told. But with that said who really wants to see a Big Show vs. Cena feud? Who really wants to see a Cena vs. anyone feud right now? Cena should have just sold Lesnar's beat down and took 3 months off and came back in time for Summer Slam. But back to Big Show, yes he either had this planned from the start or decided he needed his job back so by helping the boss it would get him his job back. Nothing interesting at all there.

 

I missed the PPV but a buddy told me Punk vs Bryan didn't disappoint. True?

 

I heard it was a pretty good match, those two just have great chemistry in the ring together (plus I'm sure there was extra motivation to put on a good match).

 

Wow I'm sorry but Sheamus and Cena against Zigger, Swagger and Tensai? Isnt the team with more people supposed to have an ADVANTAGE?

I would have rather seen a random pairing of three people. Big Show, Tensai, Mark Henry. Something.

 

Hey remember when Dolph Ziggler was suppose to be the next big thing in the WWE? Since then he's been doing jobs and in a going nowhere team with Jack Swagger. And we complain about Zack Ryder here, Dolph has(had) a real shot at being a superstar earlier this year.

And RAW was horrible last night, doesn't the WWE know no one cares about a Cena/Show feud? I really hope the ratings bomb out and the PPV doesn't do any buys. Of course if that happens they'll blame it on Punk and Bryan.

 

First time in about 5 years, I never turned raw on actually I didn't even miss it, Then I read what happened this morning on the observer and can say seems like I didn't miss anything of note. hope the ratings continue to go down like finkel says.

 

Ziggler will get there. I have no doubts at all about that. He is losing a lot right now because, well, he is a bumping and selling machine and makes everyone around him better. But he will be a world champion one day, mark my words.

Again, I think we have to keep it in perspective here. The two guys battling for the title right now are CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. Chris Jericho is feuding with Orton, Sheamus and Del Rio for the other main title. Where does Ziggler fit in? Who do you send down?

Sure you could pair him with Cena, but Cena is about to take some time off and Cena is busy dooing his own program. So do you feed him to Brock? I don't think so. So Ziggler sits on the mid-card sidelines, along with Miz, Cody, Kofi and a few others that are right up against the upper-tier. They will get there, but you have to be patient.

In the mean time, Ziggler/Swagger vs. Kofi/Truth was a GREAT match at the PPV. If it wasn't for the Bryan vs. Punk match, it would have taken top honors. The point is, Ziggler is putting on a great show, night in and night out and will get his.

 

Where does Ziggler fit? Anywhere but the position he's in right now. He hasn't been in a meaningful feud since the Rumble. I know the titles are meaningless now but why not just stick the US title back on him? He could wrestle single matches at the PPVs and put on good matches with Kofi, Truth, Ryder, Christian (now that he's back wrestling), Mysterio when he returns etc. It's better than having Santino run around with the belt or Cody Rhodes not even defending it. They're wasting Ziggler right now pairing him with Swagger. I thought for sure they would have won the tag titles at the PPV, just to give the pair a reason to keep teaming but they didn't. The WWE loves to build up tag teams for a month and break them up yet Ziggler and Swagger keep plugging along. I'm not saying Ziggler should be in the World title picture (although I'd rather see him than Del Rio) but just give the guy something meaningful to do.

The whole problem with the WWE now is they start giving a guy a push and then stop it at a drop of a hat. Fans don't get behind guys because they don't believe their push will last, so why get invested in it.

But it's ok, give us a John Cena vs. Big Show feud or another Cena vs. Johnny match. That's exactly what the fans want to see. When the next PPV's buy rate tanks because no one wants to see a main event of Cena vs. Big Show, the WWE will wonder why then blame Punk and/or Bryan. I'm shocked it hasn't happened already. It's only a matter of time before Triple H returns from his injury to beat Daniel Bryan anyway.

 

I like Big Show as a heel but going against Cena from the start is a stupid/bad idea and I don't really care about it. I wish they would have let Ziggler and Ryder feud for a long while. Ziggler could have taken the angle of "Why do the fans cheer for you and boo me? I am the best in the ring, I do things no-one else can do" and so on and so forth with his show-off attitude.

 

http://www.kayfabenews.com/brodus-clays-momma-wishes-people-would-just-text-instead/

 

I can't believe it's been 13 years since Owen Hart died. RIP Owen.

 

http://www.kayfabenews.com/vegan-drug-free-daniel-bryan-violates-unwellness-policy/

On the Owen Hart note, I really wished that him and The Rock actually gained the tag titles. That would have been interesting.

 

Bryan obviously doesn't sleep enough because he's having too much sex with AJ. Yep.

 

Extreme Rules buyrate is in, it ended up doing 257k buys, up from last year's 210k total. So basically the extra 50k makes the WWE about 2 million dollars in added revenue. I'm sure the WWE is hugging Brock Lesnar right now.

 

Here's an extremely interesting blog post by Scott Keith (if you like wrestling you should read his blog daily) from a former WWE Writing Assistant:

http://www.rspwfaq.net/2012/05/former-writing-assistant-speaks.html

It's a semi long read but here are the main points:

Sheamus was scheduled to win the Royal Rumble since last summer
Jericho would only come back to the WWE if he could work a program with Punk at WM and put him over
Cena wants to turn heel but the WWE wants to build another "Cena" first and their choice is Sheamus
Orton and Cena have their own say in what their characters say on TV
Nobody had faith in Daniel Bryan
Kane didn't want to feud with Mark Henry when he came back from injury
If Vince gets bored of something the storyline gets dropped without any pay off

If you have the time I suggest to read it, it's good/interesting stuff.

 

Switching gears, does anyone still watch TNA? Admittedly, I don't watch a lot of it, but I caught a few backstage segments online recently and I have to say, I sort of dig the reality show vibe they have going on with their filming. I think this is Bischoff's doing and it seems to work with wrestling. If nothing else, it brings some "realism" to starting feuds, in my opinion.

It might be something worth exploring further within wrestling. I almost wonder if confessional booths could work as well. A wrestler sitting and talking directly to the camera (essentially cutting a promo) to help further a story along. You can even have someone discuss a recent heel turn they did while or right after it happened. TNA may be on to something here.

And Bully Ray is MASSIVE now. Dude has whipped himself into incredible shape.

 

So Jericho got into a little trouble in Brazil huh?

Good timing of it since he's going to be touring with Fozzy soon anyway.

 

Suspended for 30 days. Meh.

 

WWE needs Lesnar back soon...Also whats going on with Randy Orton. Has not been in a decent story line in forever. He goes out there RKO's Miz and does his pose and calls it a day. He seems to be a filler. Maybe a Ziggler/Orton feud will begin

 

Seems like that's where we're headed which is fine with me, like you said both guys have been floating around doing a lot of nothing, might as well have them feud for awhile.

This marks the 2nd straight time where RAW was awful. You're right they need to bring Brock back and fast, however they want to have the Triple H/Lesnar match at Summer Slam so they're trying to hold out as long as possible. Just bring Brock back and have him start to go through the roster one by one until Summer Slam. Having him and Heyman around is 1000% more interesting than the Big Show turning heel for the 439th time.

 

This Raw is always a throwaway due to the long weekend. The thought is that not a lot of people watch, so story lines tend to stall so that viewers aren't too far behind the following week.

Having said that, we got a great Punk-Bryan match, some outstanding continuity within some story lines (Show calling out Brodus, Johnny Ace reminding Otunga how quickly he tapped), and even a Jericho is suspended reference.

Which leads us to Orton most likely facing Miz at the next PPV in Jericho's stead. Either he or Ziggler is my guess. And as stated earlier this week...Ziggler is in line to get his. I was never worried about the tag team losing streak stuff. Just isn't worth getting all up in arms over.

 

Sorry but not having anything to do for one of your top young stars for 5 months is a pretty big deal in my opinion and they should be criticized for it. It's one of the reasons why they have trouble building new stars and have to bank on calling past superstars like The Rock and Brock to pop the ratings and get buys. Fans just don't get behind guys because of all the starts and stops with the pushes just because Vince gets bored of them after awhile and forgets he has them on his roster.

 

CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan vs. KANE at the next PPV for the WWE Championship. I'm beyond excited for this one. I can just picture Kane winning the title by pinning Bryan.

 

I love how kane is randomly thrown in this feud. Would not be surprise if Show and Kane reteam up as two big monster heels

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

That would make me want to poke my eyes and ears out.

 

Looks like we won't be seeing Randy Orton for 60 days.... (and yes I'm happy about it).

Seems like he's been suspended a bunch of times for PEDs but it's only his second time.