Official WWE/TNA Wrestling Thread

I think it would be great, with the rumored return of Flair for Monday. To have him open the show and call out The Shield. Tell them that he has stood back and watched what has gone on with his old running mates (Evolution), and have him give a fiery speech about how they can't let HHH and Co., run roughshod over them. Stand up and fight, etc., etc.

HHH comes out and sarcastically agrees with Ric, and then books Ric in a match with Roman Reigns for tonight. Ric looks mortified, of course. As the match is about to start, later in the night, HHH comes out again and says he forgot to mention it is a lumberjack match. But to be fair, the rest of The Shield are banned from ringside and sent to the back. His usual suspects come out to crowd the ring.

Reigns is naturally suspicious and is barking at HHH when Flair delivers the predictable low blow from behind. Typical beatdown occurs, and we see Batista and Orton in the back, laying sledgehammers into Ambrose and Rollins. The FOUR Evolution members stand tall as RAW goes off the air for the week.

The next week, Evolution is gloating about their victory and how The Dirtiest Player in the Game, did it again. The Shield interrupts with a camera man they borrowed and talk about how they weren't outsmarted, just outgunned. And behind every shield, is a sword at the ready.

With that, the lights go out, and when they come back on, Sting is in the ring, bat in hand, dressed like a Shield member (but with his own logo, of course). Evolution is stunned as The Shield makes their way through the crowd and joins Sting in surrounding Evolution. They pull out their own bats and the beatdown is on.

The next week? Wargames is announced.

 

Awesome fantasy booking. Which means that it will never happen.

 

Eh I'd rather not have to watch one of the best wrestlers in history continue to embarass himself by wrestling in his advance age. And I wonder if he'd even pass the physical. If Evolution is going to stay together for a few months adding a new 4th member like Sheamus, Ziggler, or Miz (j/k) sure why not?

It's a shame that the WWE will never do Wargames because Vince didn't think of it. But why not an Elimination Chamber or HiTC match that's similar, ok basically a rip off of Wargames minus the double ring, and just have guys enter every 2 minutes until someone gets pinned or submits?

Isn't next PPV/Special Battleground? That makes more sense to do something like that instead of at ER. I guess you can always add Kane and Bryan to the match too if the WWE doesn't want to add a 4th member to Evolution.

 

Battleground is rumored to be the only arena for their PPVs where a double ring can happen. Although, I don't think you NEED a double ring to do Wargames. Like you said, use the same rules but put it in Hell in a Cell or whatever and call it good.

As for the players involved, I think it has to be Flair and Sting in this scenario. It serves a couple of purposes. It introduces Sting to the WWE and associates him with a hot act. It tips the cap to the Flair-Sting rivalry, and hides both of their aging corpses in a gimmick match where they don't have to do much, in terms of physicality. Sting will be a specialty act, and Flair even less than that. So having them in an 8-man tag where the other six can be the heavies, is ideal. And it is a license to print money on all kinds of levels.

As for Evolution being around long term, I doubt it. I think they were put together to help get Roman Reigns over, more than anything else. I don't see it as a long term answer. Although, I have to say, I enjoy Batista/Orton as a duo more than I do as individual parts.

As for Bryan, I would have him dispatch of Kane, and quickly introduce someone for him to feud with over the summer. My suggestion?

Have Bryan come out on Raw the night after beating Kane. Ribs are taped up, and he is showing the ill effects of being a fighting champion. He talks about how he has been on an emotional roller coaster since Wrestlemania, where he won the title and solidified the Yes! Movement, to marrying his new wife, to the tragedy of losing his father and the physical battles he has had with Kane. He is emotionally and physically drained, etc. etc., etc.,

As he prattles on: The familiar guitar riff blares out into the arena. Cult of Personality starts playing and the crowd goes bananas as Punk slowly walks out, hoodie on, street clothes on, and smirks and plays to the crowd for a few moments before making his way to the ring. He extends his hand to Bryan, who does the same, before Punk grabs him, throws him onto his shoulders and delivers the GTS.

The next week, Punk cuts a promo about how he was frustrated with the WWE, its fans and how he was treated. And despite everything he did for the WWE, and being the best in the world, he was cast aside and forgotten about when it came time to WM. So he walked out. He left and never had any intention of ever coming back and performing for the idiots in the office, or the morons in the stands. But as he sat back and enjoyed his time off, he kept tabs on his friends. He rooted for them, and he was happy for Bryan for making it to the Main Event at WM and winning it all. He was happy that Bryan was able to succeed in what was Punk's spot, after Punk gave it up.

But he can't stand to hear him whine and moan about his emotional roller coaster after only a couple of months at the top. Punk did it for years, and held the top prize for 400+ days while taking on all comers. So if Bryan wants to belly ache about how hard it is to be the guy, then Punk will give him something to bellyache about.

And thus, a summer program of Punk-Bryan is born, which could lead to Bryan vs. Cesaro, and ultimately Brock vs. Bryan at Survivor Series.

 

I see your point about Flair/Sting history and all but I don't know, while it does make sense I just hate seeing older guys keep coming back in worse and worse shape and ruining their legacies for a quick buck. But I guess that's the wrestling business. I do wonder if the WWE adds Flair if Evolution will start to get face pops because Flair, at this point in his career/life, is so beloved.

And yeah it would be great if Punk came back and if he does it will probably be similar to that plan you laid out but I think the WWE would be smarter to wait until Summer Slam time or maybe the week after Summer Slam when the WWE Network's 6 month subscription is about to expire to bring him back, if he even wants to come back, in order to get people to renew who are on the fence.

So, "Mr. Booker Man", my question to you is if Punk isn't coming back who does Bryan feud with next? Who would you put him in the ring with? Would you turn Sheamus a heel? Have Triple H/Evolution circle back to him after their match with The Shield? Include Bryan in the Evolution/Shield feud? Something/someone else?

 

If Punk doesn't come back, then I probably just expedite Brock Lesnar into the fold. Have Heyman weave the tales he weaves and Basically have Brock refuse to show up while Bryan keeps calling him out. Heyman can put up road blocks like Ryback and Curtis Axel (former Heyman guys that he can still say he associates with), that Bryan disposes of rather quickly, while still calling out Brock, before finally adhering to meeting Brock for a title shot at Summerslam.

Brock ultimately wins a hard fought battle, and they run the angle they should have run with Punk a couple of years ago. Brock wins the title...and simply disappears. Heyman comes out weekly to let everyone know that Brock is not contractually obligated to appear more than X amount of times unless WWE wishes to pay him a tremendous bonus, each and every time. He can stretch it until about Survivor Series before having to actually get into the ring.

Meanwhile, the WWE can be sort of interesting to see how the summer/fall goes without having much to wrestle over (in terms of a title). They can run #1 contender tournaments, perhaps it allows the secondary title holders to brag about being the top present guy, maybe super teams are formed to go after the tag titles. It opens up a few avenues of how to approach it before ultimately, circling back to Brock defending against someone.

 

If Punk doesn't come back, then I probably just expedite Brock Lesnar into the fold. Have Heyman weave the tales he weaves and Basically have Brock refuse to show up while Bryan keeps calling him out. Heyman can put up road blocks like Ryback and Curtis Axel (former Heyman guys that he can still say he associates with), that Bryan disposes of rather quickly, while still calling out Brock, before finally adhering to meeting Brock for a title shot at Summerslam.

Brock ultimately wins a hard fought battle, and they run the angle they should have run with Punk a couple of years ago. Brock wins the title...and simply disappears. Heyman comes out weekly to let everyone know that Brock is not contractually obligated to appear more than X amount of times unless WWE wishes to pay him a tremendous bonus, each and every time. He can stretch it until about Survivor Series before having to actually get into the ring.

Meanwhile, the WWE can be sort of interesting to see how the summer/fall goes without having much to wrestle over (in terms of a title). They can run #1 contender tournaments, perhaps it allows the secondary title holders to brag about being the top present guy, maybe super teams are formed to go after the tag titles. It opens up a few avenues of how to approach it before ultimately, circling back to Brock defending against someone.

 

You can say that again.

 

Yeah I would think current plans (and logic) right now have Brock beat Bryan for the WWE title at Summer Slam and then Heyman refusing to give Bryan a rematch thus leading to Bryan to start to doubt himself before finally winning the Royal Rumble and beating Brock at WM for the rematch. In the mean time you have Brock only fight at Survivor Series and the Rumble beating his opponents convincingly so Bryan's win will mean that much more.

Either way I think you have to keep Brock looking like a monster and stay unbeaten that way whoever does finally beat him at WM, which hopefully will be Bryan or a new guy like Cesaro or Reigns and not someone like Cena or The Rock or Triple H.

The only problem is without the WWE Champion on the program each week or at least wrestling at each PPV it will probably lead to problems and possibly devalue the title as it is. Of course there are probably ways around it like the WWE taking the title away from him because he doesn't defend it within a month and having a WWE title tournament at the Oct or even Survivor Series PPV and then you can have Brock beat that new champion at the Royal Rumble or something like that. Either way I don't think you can keep the champion off the program for months on end.

 

/contribution

 

I will be SHOCKED if Sandow doesn't get over now that he dressed up as Magneto and was taken out by Hugh Jackman.

 

Interesting YouTube video about the WWE rings:

[video=youtube;DYL3iSS9hZU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYL3iSS9hZU[/video]

 

Some Sunday morning wrestling news:

WWE and Goldberg are in talks to have him be in the new WWE 2K15 video game and also to return to the company and have a match at WM31. The Goldberg DVD sold very well and the WWE thinks they can capitalize on his merchandise and still think he can be a special attraction draw.

The original plans for the June PPV was Bryan facing Batista, however Batista turned those plans down as he didn't want to lose to Bryan while he off WWE TV promoting Guardians of the Galaxy. Batista is scheduled to work RAW tomorrow and possibly Smackdown on Tuesday then will take time off to promote GoG and will return before Summer Slam.

The WWE Network is going to start to add Clash of Champions and once they finish adding all of them they will start to add Saturday Night's Main Event. This makes me extremely happy and excited.

 

Nice find. Great stuff.

 

WeeLC match was an instant classic.......

 

The PPV was ok but the right/important superstars once again went over. The Shield vs. Evolution match was easily the match of the night and really a very good match that show cased all 3 members of The Shield but specifically Reigns, although Rollins had a few insane spots as did Ambrose. I really hope they don't break up this group even when they give Reigns that rocket ship push. The triple threat match was fine as was the IC title match. I thought the Cena/Wyatt match was pretty boring. The Bryan/Kane match I thought was ok and really didn't pick up until Bryan did the forklift head butt which probably should have been the finish but the match itself was kind of a throwback to the old Attitude Era PPV main events with the wrestlers fighting in the back etc.

Anyway word going around is Vince is still trying to convince Batista to job to Bryan at the June PPV but consider he did last night it's not looking good so the June PPV will most likely be Bryan vs. Kane in a Buried Alive match hence why Kane sat up last night and did his pyro thingy at the end.

I must say I am very surprised, but happy, the WWE title match was the main event match. But kind of bummed out we're getting another Bryan/Kane match. Would like to see Bryan fight someone else now. Sheamus is going to turn heel after the European trip as the WWE doesn't want to lose any merchandise sales from him while overseas.

 

Holy crap the WWE Network just uploaded every single "Clash of the Champions" show, 35 in all, all at once. This is fantastic. Hopefully SNME is next and we get that ASAP. Then bring on Monday Nitro!

 

Well on the plus side of Sheamus winning the US title is that now he'll be jobbing every week until he loses it.

 

[video=youtube;xnK6G0fvsDA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnK6G0fvsDA[/video]

 

Can they just Future endeavor Adam Rose now and get it over with. That Gimmick doesn't stand a chance.

 

You never know, Santino Marella is still around doing his comedy bit. But yeah it seems silly and doomed to fail. But in the very least I could see the WWE sticking him in a tag team with Fandango and have the two entrance music tied together to give the fans something to sing about.

 

Where is BO at ?!?! Rose's gimmick seems terrible. His face is annoying and punchable.

 

Apparently the guy that was in charge of adding new content to the WWE Network was canned last week which is why the WWE has been putting out new stuff so quickly this week like all of Clash of The Champions and a lot of newer RAW episodes.

I'm sure it takes awhile to convert all of their tape library onto the on-demand platform but really they shouldn't be so slow putting out episodes of old RAWs, Smackdowns etc. So I'm glad a change was made.

 

Puts the "Dream" in Tommy Dreamer

 

Vince convinced Batista to stay until Payback but agreed not to have Batista face and lose to Daniel Bryan but instead will be involved in another Evolution vs. Shield match. The originally ending of RAW was going to be Bryan vs. Batista but it was changed once Batista decided to stay.

 

Great team Player Batista is, NOT. Can't even put Bryan over. Him coming back so far has been a disappointment.

 

I mean he DID put Bryan over. At Wrestle mania. Clean tap out. Then he put Roman Reigns over at ER.

He doesnt owe anyone anything. Good thing is with this news however is Batista wont have the strap promoting GotG. Hopefully Bryan ends his feud with Kane soon.

 

Damn I completely forgot about Wrestlemania and Batista putting him over.

I might need to get some better medicine to help my memory

 

Well he's certainly not the first or the last wrestler ever refuse to lose to another wrestler. Batista's point on not wanting to face and lose to Bryan was that he feels it would hurt him both in the ring being the losing wrestler in 3 straight PPVs and also hurt him movie wise when he goes out to promote GoTG, whether it's valid or not whatever.

Like SICK said, he did tap to Bryan at WM30 and get pinned by Reigns at ER so it's not like he refusing to lay down, just doesn't feel that it wouldn't be the best for him at this point in time.

I do think the WWE is kind of wasting Bryan by having him feud with Kane right now, and it would have been nice to see Bryan move on to someone else instead of having him and his wife run away from Kane last night with Brie screaming non stop for what seemed like 20 minutes but felt longer (if that makes sense).

The problem is the WWE doesn't have any other main event heels for Bryan to realistically wrestle, and with Evolution busy with The Shield there's no one else so we get Bryan/Kane 2 in a match no one wants to see.... again. Especially in a rumored "Buried Alive" match. People like Bryan because he's a wrestler not a brawler so it makes no sense the WWE is taking Bryan away from what got him over in the first place.

I'm almost willing to put big money on a Bryan vs. Big Show PPV match for the July PPV with the way things are looking right now.

 

At the June PPV, it will either be The Shield vs. Evolution in a "Chicago Street Fight" or Shield vs. Evolution in singles matches.

The WWE also wants to get people more interested in the pre and post RAW/Smackdowns and will be running angles on them to set up matches for later in the night or for the next TV show.

 

You mean like how they've been doing back in the Attitude Era? Because honestly, that'd be sweet.

 

Yeah, basically the WWE will have Sheamus on the pre show and he'll be talking about how he's the new US Champion and he's issuing an open challenge and The Miz will come out and challenger him. That's something the WWE is really missing, setting up angles to give wrestlers reasons to have matches or issues with each other.

 

Or he can get into a fight with Sin Cara, and that will leak from backstage, then they can set up a real feud /RealtyEra

 

Right, basically anything to give the wrestlers a reason to start feuding with each other. Even if its as simple as "hey I don't like you, let's fight" or a wrestler comes out and says I know I'm better than you and will prove it tonight. Or god forbid someone coming out to challenge a champion because that wrestler wants to be the champion himself because it would mean more money for him as the champion and more opportunities, etc.

It's really eye opening watching some of the older shows on the WWE Network whether it's older PPVs or Clash of the Champions. It doesn't have to be a huge angle to start a feud, it could be something simple and work from there. Take Lex Luger for example when he wins the tag team titles at the first Clash he jumps up and down in the ring like the belt means the world to him. Last Monday when Sheamus won the US title it was like just another victory. Where's the emotion? Part of that is on Vince and Co. for not making the titles as meaningful as they are props now and part of it is on the wrestler.

I mean just take the Bad News Barrett vs. Big E IC title match at ER, why have the match? What's the point other than Barrett won a spot in the tournament. Did the WWE even have Big E come out to watch the finals of the tournament? I honestly can't even remember if they even cut a promo on each other at the go home RAW or Smackdown. Or even the Cesaro vs. RVD vs. Swagger match, what's the point? RVD was only included so Cesaro wouldn't get bigger face pops. It's just lazy booking which drives me crazy because you have The Shield vs. Evolution which has been done really really well. It's almost like if it isn't a feud with one of the main eventers or upper upper mid carders the WWE doesn't even bother setting things up.

It's frustrating as fans because they have the in ring talent to put on good matches and shows and obviously the WWE creative team can still write/come up with good angles/stories.

 

Good article on Daniel Bryan and where he's headed:

http://grantland.com/features/wwe-daniel-bryan-extreme-rules-whats-next/

There have been "reports" that the WWE feels that the "YES Chant" is over and not Bryan himself and obviously sticking him in a 2 month long feud with Kane isn't helping especially if Bryan is in non wrestling type matches. It does feel like Bryan is following the Benoit/Mysterio title win route where even though he's the champion he's being put up against secondarily guys while the main focus of the show is on others. Kind of hard to ignore when Triple H spent 8 months holding Bryan down, then after Bryan finally gets his big win over him and gets the title Triple H forgets about him and Orton or Batista suddenly don't want to go after the title.

 

Can't get the Yes Chants if You spend the whole night in the back being scared of the wrestler that was defeated the night before, If they don't let Bryan have sometime in the ring or do a promo in the ring than of course the chants will stop.

 

I don't think the "Yes" chants will ever fully go away much like the "What?" chants are still done a fully 12 years after Austin retired.

But I think your point is solid in that Bryan's heat will stop if he's not in the ring wrestling instead of running away from the ring in badly written and acted segments.

 

Some Friday morning news:

Apparently the reason why Batista is leaving the WWE early to promote his movie is not because he refused to lose to Daniel Bryan but the WWE has lied to him about plans they had for him and haven't kept their promises to him. The source claims Batista has no problem losing to Bryan but isn't happy the WWE is going against their word to him. He also feels that story of him refusing to job to Bryan was leaked by the WWE to put more heat on him and Bryan.

Lana and Rusev are dating in real life, which just blows my mind.

Some Network news:

SNME will be on the Network by July as will the Monday Night Wars series. The WWE is also happy with the Legends House streaming numbers and will be ordering a 2nd season. I kind of enjoy the Legends House as it has its moments at times and at times it's painful to watch. Hopefully for season 2 they add some more interesting legends.

 

Lana......Rusev?!?!?!?? Lana is ****ing hot, from Gainsville, and speaks like a soccer mom from Florida in real life lol.

The Batista thing eerks me a bit. I hated on him in the beginning of his come back, but hes impressed me and done good. Gotten more stamina in the ring, and I like his heel character. If WWE leaked a fake story about him not wanting to job, then that's bull****.