Wrestling Discussion Thread II

Drunkalilly wrote:

There's a joke to be made there, but I actually like Roman...

Cena's out for 6-9 months. That's another of the WWE's top guys injured, so I can definitely see Bullet Club being a proper purchase.

I really hope so as with the injuries WWE does need a shot in the arm.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

That's really bad news that John Cena is injured - I was thinking that this was the year they would hold Undertaker/Cena at WrestleMania. I struggle to think what a lot of the roster might be doing at WrestleMania, what with WWE's mounting injury crisis.

The only match I think is a lock at this stage is Triple H vs Roman Reigns. No idea if it'll be for the belt or not, but surely they're building towards it?

Seems rather likely, perhaps Haitch will enter he rumble and win the title leading to a Wrestlemania defence. On the subject of the rumble I'm rather annoyed by the decision to make it for the title, whether Roman wins it or not it makes it incredibly obvious he'll be one of the final two and for the third year in a row will make the match just another excuse to push him. Don't get me wrong, I like Reigns, I just think it's another bad booking decision that's only going to harm his overall perception.

So have any of you seen the latest smackdown? Mauro Ranallo was a breath of fresh air on commentary & King seems to be back to being a heel which is where he's always done his best work.

Hopefully this means SD can kick on and become much better than it has been in recent times.

Yeah, I'd heard good things about Smackdown's commentary change this week. I shall have to check it out - SD isn't really a must-see for me so I usually skip it.

I haven't watched a full SmackDown since the one where The Great Khali won the heavyweight title and held it upside down.

~

I've been watching a few Royal Rumble matches lately - I used to binge on them quite often but this is the first time that I've re-watched the ones from the last four years. The 2012 Royal Rumble is hilarious to look back on - it's just full of shite that has no chance of winning. The 2013 one was better, but gubbed by the fact that there was only ever going to be one winner. Watching it now in the knowledge that John Cena did indeed win to set up the "Once In A Lifetime" WrestleMania rematch with The Rock, it's a little bit ordinary. The 2014 one is remembered for the way in which the crowd turned on the match when thet realised that Daniel Bryan wasn't even in it. Up until Rey Mysterio came out, it was actually half-decent, some with all right stories threaded throughout. Batista looked keech, though. Still, it wasn't the worst one they ever did...

...because the worst one they ever did was in 2015. Bloody hell, it's even worse than the 2006 Eddiesploitation Hour. I re-watched it as I genuinely didn't remember anything about it. I must have wiped it from my mind: it's utter baws. At the time I looked on it as having real potential, but it's just so anaemic, nobody looked good and it wasn't interesting in any way. When I watched it earlier on I asked myself loads of questions, like 'why are Kane and Big Show in the last three?', 'why did they bother with The Boogeyman?' and 'why is Stardust a thing?'. Roman Reigns did hee-haw as well. I've seen some shite stuff from the WWE, but that was really, really bad. It evoked memories of December to Dismember, it was that pish.

I used to love the Rumble, but that's four in a row that have ranged from not very good to A3HeadedMonkey bad. I don't have high hopes for this years, to be honest...

I'm decently optimistic for 2016's Rumble. At least it's not glaringly obvious who's going to win this one, although the smart money is on Brock, I reckon.

Speaking of the Rumble, is anyone keen for doing another Rumble Raffle like last year?

Always up for that

Agree with those Rumble sentiments. The last one I enjoyed was the one where Nexus was a thing and CM Punk was the leader (I think). They was bossing it and then Booker T's music hit. I lost my s***.

The feeling I get from Raw at the moment is that Roman Reigns "feels" a bit like how Austin used to be booked. Not because he is in anyway similar, but the show feels like it is built around him and that his storyline could interact with any other match. Him against the McMahons again. The Rumble is a prime example of this. I used to love when McMahon had all this stuff going on during the PPV to try and stop Austin from even getting to the ring, but I find Reigns so wooden and hard to empathise with. Getting Jericho back is just making me go and watch old Jericho matches and remembering what a top wrestler he was/is. I need to pick up his second book actually.

JayMoyles wrote:

Yeah, I'd heard good things about Smackdown's commentary change this week. I shall have to check it out - SD isn't really a must-see for me so I usually skip it.

TCK wrote:

I haven't watched a full SmackDown since the one where The Great Khali won the heavyweight title and held it upside down.

That last one is definitely worth a watch with the highlights being Kalisto vs ADR, Charlotte vs Becky Lynch & Kevin Owens vs Ambrose oh and the miz tv segment was quite funny.

The WWE are understandably trying to recapture the magic of Austin and the Rock at their peak; first with Bryan's title win and now with Reigns and Ambrose. In my opinion, their big mistake is pushing Reigns instead of his BFF. If they want a super over, unpredictable face wild card they already have that in Dean.

Drunkalilly wrote:

The WWE are understandably trying to recapture the magic of Austin and the Rock at their peak; first with Bryan's title win and now with Reigns and Ambrose. In my opinion, their big mistake is pushing Reigns instead of his BFF. If they want a super over, unpredictable face wild card they already have that in Dean.

Agreed.

The most annoying thing about that though is that they totally teased a Ambrose heel turn many times but didn't follow up with it, the bait and switch would have been perfect especially after the promo Dean had about not conforming/wearing suits etc. you have him turn on Reigns win the title then the next time on Raw we have a suited and booted Ambrose.

#SuitAndTieAmbrose

The Stinger's going into the Hall of Fame this year.

http://www.wwe.com/classics/wwe-hall-of-fame/sting-inducted-wwe-hall-of-fame-class-of-2016-28532717

Any other predictions this year? I reckon Lemmy will make it in as the celeb inductee this year.

I think X-Pac is a good shout - I heard that he just bought himself a fancy hair transplant...maybe I'm reading too much into it, but then again maybe's he's heard something that everybody else hasn't.

Otherwise, I'm stuggling.

Seems I was right Roman is the Number 1 entry in the rumble.

Aye, apparently big show just miss spoke the other week.

Well like I said I took it he was the first person to say he was entering not that he was Number 1.

Are we doing the Royal Rumble raffle?

Bloody Big Show...


(I love that the first result of a google image search of "please retire" is Big Show looking sad)

God I hope he retires tomorrow, or better yet today. Having watched all of 2014's PPVs, the only match I remember liking that he was in was his hardcore match with Roman - but make no mistake, that was Roman putting on a show. Otherwise he doesn't do cool stuff, doesn't make anyone else look good, and has gone through so many face and heel turns that nobody could possibly care about his character. If we're going to do stuff with old big men, at least Mark Henry can shift from one side of the ring to the other without the need for an advert break half way through.

He was alright once, but he can't do anything now - except pull that sad, groggy face and wobble a bit as the other wrestler works towards knocking him over.

He's a massive arse backstage as well.

Muss wrote:

He was alright once, but he can't do anything now - except pull that sad, groggy face and wobble a bit as the other wrestler works towards knocking him over.

He's a massive arse backstage as well.

Ooooo do tell. I love a bit of wrestling goss. For some reason I always had Paul Wight down as one of the normal ones. By god is he boring in the ring though.

I liked when Brock Lesnar murdered him a couple of years ago at the Rumble. That was good.

gjones wrote:

Ooooo do tell. I love a bit of wrestling goss. For some reason I always had Paul Wight down as one of the normal ones. By god is he boring in the ring though.

Well, to be fair, I'm sure there are plenty of wrestlers who are cocks and plenty who aren't, and most of what I get is from other wrestlers bitching in shoot interviews so you know the shit I've heard, and what I choose to believe is flawed.

Still, Show seemed to have a thing for backstage fights with martial artists.

Teddy Long talks about Steve Blackman taking out the Show:

Meanwhile Ken Shamrock once said.

And he came up behind me and he grabbed me in this bear hug — and he’s a big dude. He goes, ‘What are you gonna do from here?'”
“And I just went limp and as I went limp I fell through his arms and I kind of tucked and rolled and got him into a leg lock and heel-hooked him. And he was standing up and he was screaming, ‘Okay! Okay! Okay …you got it!'”

Show also had a fight with the Great Khali backstage because the Great Khali's chop was 'his spot' Can you imagine if Khali stopped doing huge chops, what the fuck would he have done in the ring?

In JTG, of Cryme Tyme's, book, Show gave him a massive bollocking for having massages - JTG barely wrestled once his partner was fired, but according to JTG he would just chat with the masseuse because he had nothing else to do and no one else was using the service. He also said Show had another go at him for being the first guy to claim some headphones that were being given away, and not waiting for veterans like him.

To put the last point in perspective, JTG was obliged, like all wrestlers, by the WWE to attend wrestlemania and personally pay for his family to attend to. JTG made a loss on that, he was earning pennies relative to the Show.

-Sidenote- Another fun part of JTG's book is a part where he talks about repeatedly asking HHH for his money after his payment didn't go through. At one stage he followed Trips to Vince's door, waited outside. Trips came out, saw JTG still waiting and made some excuse about having left something in Vince's office. JTG waits another 4 hours, before someone asks him why he's there. He says he's waiting for Trips, to which the other guy says Trips has gone. Trips had escaped out of some sort of Vince McMahon hidden door.

Amusingly, I think he had beef with Booker T as well, but he was too scared of Booker to have a fight.

If we're talking proper shit though, then Hardcore Holly and JBL were total tossers. There are plently of articles on this, but I can't be arsed to find more than one, but JBL hazed Miz hard. He did it to numerous others as well.

Meanwhile here's Hardcore Holly just beating up a tough enough rookie, not telling him he was going to work stiff in a match.

Hardcore Holly:

Apparently, he would haze a lot of rooks by working stiff.

What dicks my cheese about the JBL and Hardcore Holly stuff is that these two men work/ed for a company that does so much anti-bullying stuff, and yet they haze or fucking purposefully slap about their colleagues.

Was it Holly who tried to work stiff with Brock when he joined and paid for it with a broken neck?

I'll give your links a look later. I'm glad to have extra reasons to be annoyed at Big Show's continued presence.

Yeah the rumour was that he was working stiff, but Holly chalked the incident off as a miscue between himself and Lesnar. I've not heard Brock's thoughts on it, but that bump was horrible.

Austin Aries is officially a NXT wrestler