Wrestling Discussion Thread III

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Looks and sounds like AEW is about to cave in on itself too.

That press conference they did was bloody surreal. Just CM Punk munching on muffins giving out about being sued whilst his boss sits there next to him looking like a deer in headlights. Mental.

jesus h christ

Fozzy's new single is looking as good as expected.

I like the thought of Xavier Woods spending his Christmas Day doing playthroughs of F1 Pole Position 64 and Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M.

On another note there's a forty-five minute programme on the WWE Network about the best wrestling video games, it's part of a series called This Is Awesome. It's an entertaining enough watch that doesn't just pay attention to the WWE games.

So, that's the Royal Rumble been and gone again for another year. What did we all think?

I thought it was leaps and bounds ahead of last year's Rumble which I thought was an utter disaster and nearly made me skip checking out Wrestlemania had it not been for the novelty of a Stone Cold match in 2022 and Cody Rhodes debuting. I really enjoyed the Men's Rumble a lot. I felt the star power was so much better than last year which was filled with so many lads who made me say "who the fuck are you", whereas this year felt pretty stacked throughout. Gunther was easily the standout for me and that mini-match he had with Cody at the end of genuinely had me biting on a few of the false finishes.

The Women's Rumble had that problem of me going "who the fuck are you" with quite a lot of the entrants, but I enjoyed the ending of the Rumble and also very much appreciated Zelina Vega coming out as Juri from Street Fighter.

Bray Wyatt's match was predictably shite, and the women's title match was a throwaway one, but I loved the Roman Reigns match and thought the aftermath was some of the best storytelling WWE has done in a long time. Really interested to see how that story is going to pan out over the next couple of months.

I though the men’s Royal Rumble was okay, but not very imaginative in the way it was laid out and a bit short on genuine surprises. Like you point out though, there was lots of TV personalities with recognisable music who got a reaction – and that’s much better than in 2021 and 2022. There’s a few folk who look like they’ll come out of it with an enhanced reputation too – and again that’s much better than 2021 and 2022, when the only thing to look back on is old people battering the stars who were supposed to be selling the tickets.

Apart from the finishing sprint the women’s Royal Rumble was no good. There was maybe about four people who got a reaction, and it was predictably rubbish because nobody gave a toss. A fifth got a big reaction from me – Nia Jax, but that’s only because I laughed when I remembered that time she starting shouting about her arsehole.

The only WWE YouTube clips I watch weekly are the ones with Sami Zayn and The Bloodline, and I was well happy that they landed this plot twist with such a brilliant angle. It’s the best storyline WWE have done since Batista turned on Evolution, and it might even surpass that yet.

What a sport.

Looks like AEW are on course for a massive stadium show in Wembley. Supposedly they've sold like 60,000+ tickets so far with the show still four months out.