WWE

Time flies. What are our thoughts on the concept? What are it's strengths / weaknesses? Fond memories and missed chances? For me, having two briefcases was as redundant as having two belts. Especially when it was a reductive holder, such as Damien Sandow. The concept has also been used as a cheap heat vehicle too often in my opinion. Cena cashing in on Cena was fine as it set a tone, but the scenario was repeated far too many times. Looking back to RVD winning: it was a breathe of fresh air for the booking: Rob used the opportunity to put the odds in his favour: getting a world title shot at an ECW event in home territory. I'd like to see more stuff like thi…

Remember the crowd reaction? Also, remember the fact that WWE loves to try and duplicate stuff with the intention of exceeding the original success. Cena's pretty much guaranteed to equal Flair's 16 world title reigns at some point in the not-to-distant future, Reigns broke Kane's Rumble elimination record, etc. My question is, is there anything WWE could possibly do, be it at a Wrestlemania or any even that could possibly come close (or even exceed?) to shocking the audience that Taker going down for the 1-2-3 at XXX did?

This is tonight. The card seems a little bloated where matches I want to see get time might not get it.

Looks like business is about to pick up. WWE, who is famous for waving their lawyer dicks in everyone's faces, settled with Punk so this should be fun times if it goes anywhere.

Since the WWE is the largest wrestling company in the world who tries to appeal everywhere and have TV deals and tours everywhere you would expect them to have some diversity. It turns out, it's pretty lacking. First there are 53 wrestlers on the active main roster and 43 of them are male which is 81.1%. 38 of those 43 males are American at 88.4%. What about this, 12 of the males are either black, Spanish or Samoan. So, yes, 72.1% of the male roster is white males. Those numbers seem way too high. I think if you are trying to appeal to a mass audience around the world, maybe the WWE should mix it up a bit. Obviously they should focus on the ones that w…

Announced Card - The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) vs. Cesaro, Tyson Kidd and Adam Rose - The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) vs. The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor) - Paige and Natalya vs. The Bella Twins (Brie Bella and Nikki Bella) - The Usos (Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso) © vs. The Miz and Damien Mizdow (WWE Tag Team Titles) - Brock Lesnar © vs. John Cena vs. Seth Rollins (WWE World Heavyweight Title) - 30-man Royal Rumble match

I have a question to pose to everybody still watching WWE.... What's the one thing they could do, be it a PR debacle or booking decision, that would stop you watching, or warrant an extended break from viewing WWE?

I have heard about it a few times, but do not know exactly what happened. Was there a backstage fight? Did they shoot on each other in promos, ala Shawn's "Sunny Days" comment? If someone could tell me exactly what happened on Raw or SD! as a part of said heat, I will be very grateful, as I want to see it for myself and will check those shows out. And if someone was reading The Observer back then, can they tell me what happened backstage relating to the fight? What their complaints were? Whom did the wrestlers support? I imagine Triple H, for obvious reasons, supported Nash. I thought about this because there are reports floating about that Rock got legit pissed at P…

Um, this is an odd story that's worth a thread. Yesterday, on Off The Record, Chael Sonnen claimed that he had gotten a call from WWE, where he was invited to their Hall Of Fame ceremony and WrestleMania weekend to talk to him about stuff, teasing that it could have to do with Wanderlei Silva, as he knew that he had been invited too. This is Chael, right, so most people were naturally sceptical. Then earlier today, WWE debunked the rumour to PWInsider.com with the following statement: "There has been no invitation from WWE for Chael Sonnen to attend WrestleMania." So this was Chael being full of it, as per usual. Apparently not. Dave Meltzer has doubled down o…

Oh God Hunter used the term "vocal minority". That's why they book Bryan the way they do

With the Royal Rumble fiasco I thought this might be fun to think about. In a few places I've heard people float the idea that WWE created the monster that results in reactions like they got at the Rumble by pushing the whole "WWE Universe", "we listen to the fans", Twitter voting to make matches etc. It's resulted in a fanbase that not only sees themselves as the stars of the show, but also as entitled to call the shots. The flipside of that though (and probably why they do it) is that they've created a fanbase that's far more invested in their product, even when it's bad. There's a significant section of the fanbase for whom Raw isn't simply three hours of enter…

What is everyone opinion? Once I saw all the backlash last night and today about the Rumble and the fans and the #CANCELWWENETWORK, I thought that "Hey, WWE will see this and make a change of direction (like last year with Bryan) and put things right for their fans and start moving back in a positive direction (as good as it looked post Mania last year).. But then this WWE 1 million subscribers comes out and now I think WWE will stay the course as they will see its working, the stock is going back up and money is being made...they start thinking, "We know what the fans want more than they do…just look at the stock and network…" "They dont know anything....they get…

Thinking about this at work today...with all the talk of Bryan getting such huge pops, Cena still around, and Reigns obviously a choice by the WWE to be THE GUY, Dean Ambrose is gonna get lost in the shuffle behind those 3 on top as a babyface. Before its too late, turn him heel...have him help Seth cash in MITB and win the title....they have their Shield past. They feuded but Dean couldnt get over and then couldnt get by Wyatt, so if you cant beat em, join em (for now). He tried for so long to get to the top, but got screwed along the way, so he's joining in to get there quicker... Keeps him elevated and in storylines instead of becoming "well, we have our main…

No Raw tonight, and many are probably snowed in for the next 36 hours. What wrestling are you watching in the meantime? On tap for this guy: 1994 Yearbook (up to the beginning of June) Best of Japan 2000s list -- up to Kanemura vs. KENTA (NOAH 5/26/2002) Jun Akiyama vs. Takao Omori (AJPW 6/15/2014) Go Shiozaki & Kento Miyahara vs. Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori (AJPW 12/6/2014) Rush vs. Negro Casas (CMLL 8/1/2014) Titan vs. Barbaro Cavernario (CMLL 7/29/2014) Maybe some '89 NWA as well. What you got?

So for this weeks podcast we're going to talk all the fallout of the Rumble PPV as we head to Mania, and want to get some general feedback on the following: 1. With the main event now seemingly in place, how do you see the rest of the Mania card shaping up, and are you excited about it? Why or why not... 2. What are your expectations for the run between now and Mania? Will Reigns will be booed regularly or was Philly a one-off? Will the crowd get behind Bryan stronger? Is Lesnar going to be cheered? Etc.... 3. How do you feel about the landscape of WWE coming out of Mania, based on how things are shaping up? As always we'll be reading your responses on th…

Here's the card... Pre Show: Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs. New Age Outlaws PPV: Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar John Cena vs. Randy Orton Royal Rumble Match (Batista Wins) Predictions in bold.

I was listening to the List'em and Learn episode where they ran down the best WWF matches of the 1990s and all three had Austin-Hart I Quit as number one. Alan & Matt then came out and said it would be there number 1 match in WWF history. What I found striking about that is I don't even think it's the best Austin-Hart match, as I have the Survivor Series '96 one ahead of it. There are a lot of contenders for this crown: Iron Sheik vs Sgt. Slaughter, Boot Camp Bret Hart vs Owen Hart, WrestleMania X Steve Austin vs Bret Hart, Survivor Series 96 Steve Austin vs Bret Hart, I Quit from WrestleMania XIII John Cena vs Umaga, Last Man Standing from Royal Rumble …

Winged Eagle wanted this poll created and I think it is an interesting survey. You can choose more than one answer.

Half way through the decade so would like to see everyone's takes on their own. Here's my Top 10 with the most replay value for me. CM Punk vs. John Cena (Money in the Bank 2011) Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena (Extreme Rules 2012) CM Punk vs. Vince McMahon (RAW 10-8-12) Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton (RAW 6-17-13) Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton (RAW 6-24-13) Shield vs. Usos (Money in the Bank 2013) Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk (Summerslam 2013) Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena (Summerslam 2013) Shield vs Wyatts (RAW 3-3-14) Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton vs. Batista (WrestleMania 30) Also want to mention two randoms that I thought would have got more attention at time and are wort…

I'm thinking it was Jim Ross's 'shoot' on the post-Mind Games Raw in Sept '96, judging from the hushed tones of Lawler and Kevin Kelly?

Yes, because the man who has made more from wrestling than the next TEN promoters combined doesn't know what he's doing and CM Punk and the smart fans do. Not trying to pick a fight, but for as much criticism as Vince gets -- remember that he beat Sam Muchnick, Bill Watts, Fritz Von Erich, Eddie Graham, Verne Gagne, Jim Crockett, Paul Heyman, Ted Turner ... Vince won every single time. And every step of the way there was Dave Meltzer and a 1000 smart fans talking about how wrong everything he was doing was. Every step of the way.

So XXXII is scheduled for the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, TX, that's a big ass stadium (100,000 capacity). My initial predictions? - WWE will announce The Undertaker as the headline Hall of Famer sometime after Wrestlemania this year. I suspect (if Sting gets his way) that Taker vs. Sting will be set in motion following XXXI and this will be billed as Taker's retirement match, not explicitly as a "retirement", but enough for us to fill in the blanks. If not Sting, it's probably going to be John Cena. - If Cena is the chosen opponent, I'd expect the match to close the show. - Taker will do the HOF speech in semi-character. He'll probably mix in some kayfabe e…

Listening to Live Audio Wrestling today and I don't think I've ever disagreed more with Meltzer on the potential of two wrestlers than I do when it comes to his take on Charlotte and Sasha Banks. I get that they're women wrestlers in North America employed by the WWE, so most don't care. However, I'm high on both of them, although I think it's clear as day that Sasha is the far better worker and has firmly established herself as the best female worker in the world currently. She's the complete package with far more upside still to come in the ring. That's not a knock on Charlotte, who I think is pretty good but extremely raw and more a talented athlete than a talented wor…

My buddy sent me this article that is definitely worth a read: http://whatculture.com/wwe/10-wwe-studios-movies-lost-millions.php According to WWE's latest financial reports (from october) the company has lost over $35 million on WWE Studios. What's the point? Why take Randy Orton off the road to cast him in a movie that is going to lose more money than it makes? It doesn't make any sense to me. Why does WWE keep putting out movies?

Tonight we have..... New Day vs. Rhodes Brothers on the pre-show - New Day needs a win, so there's my pick. AJ vs. Nikki for the Diva's Title - I imagine Nikki keeps the gold here. Miz/Mizdow vs. Usos for the tag belts - Miz/Mizdow win when Naomi cost the Usos the match. Rusev vs. Swagger for the US belt - I pick Rusev. Ryback vs. Kane in a Chairs Match - Who cares, but I'm assuming Ryback. Big Show vs. Erick Rowan in a Stairs Match - Rowan should win this. I pick him. Dolph Ziggler vs. Luke Harper in a Ladder match for the IC title - Ziggler regains the IC belt. Bray Wyatt vs. Dean Ambrose in a TLC match - Bray wins this. Cena vs. Roll…