It's amazing how hated Bryan is just a month into his heel turn.

Probably in minority here but Miz and .Shane play off each other very well.  Shane is actually a good comedy straight man here

1 hour ago, Jmare007 said:

It's amazing how hated Bryan is just a month into his heel turn.

While I was sure he had the chops, I didn't know if the fans would go all in on hating him. Good work all around helps greatly I suppose.

That Women's Triple Threat is going to be wild. Berserk Asuka wailing on both Charlotte and Becky was an incredible way to end the episode, and her promo was actually really good - I wonder if they wrote her to speak just in short phrases, because her english is pretty easy to understand.

The visual of Asuka beating up Becky & Charlotte with the kendo stick to close SD Live was awesome. And I thought I couldn't be more hyped for the Women's TLC Match!

He obviously has alot of say in how he's being booked and creative freedom. I'll admit, I wouldn't have believed he could get the crowd to boo him much less Vince even allowing him to turn especially not this early in his comeback. Good for Ali, he deserves this, maybe it could give 205 alittle more credibility. WCW let guys work outside the Cruiserweight bubble without just being used to put over guys and WWE hasn't done that since the 205 started up and that sucks because they kill it every Big show

A CARBON HOOFPRINT!

He’s mega fun right now. 

Bryan putting down the little man with the SUV and Asuka unleashing her fury was fantastic.

I think Mustafa Ali might be the guy

So it looks like good news and Becky is officially cleared for contact (she was cleared for the concussion but not from the broken nose) based on her getting involved last night. 

I wonder what the plan will be, have Askua win the belt and pair off with Charlotte while Becky goes after Ronda at RR/WM? Seems that would be the best case for all involved. 

Obviously cards are subject to change. But here in Cleveland, the radio advertisements for Fastlane (in March, I believe) are hyping the following matches:

Styles/Bryan (WHC Title)

Ambrose/Rollins (IC Title)

Lynch/Charlotte (Women's Championship)

No mention of Brock or Braun (let alone any returning guy like Taker, HHH, or The Rock). I'm thinking none of those matches are actually set in stone for Fastlane, but I thought it was worth mentioning. 

On 12/11/2018 at 11:06 PM, sek69 said:

At the risk of getting clubbed to death from an angry mob looking forward to what surely will be a great match, it makes no sense for the WWE Champion to have a match against what most fans just see as a rando 205 Live guy. I know it's non title, but still.

Bret Hart didn't doubt El Dandy. 

I hope Ali plays a bigger role in WWE in 2019. The 205 Live guys put on a show every week, but Ali, Murphy, and Alexander are all on a different level. All three can easily slide into the US/I.C. title picture and most people wouldn't even blink. Hopefully it happens sooner rather than later.

After Seth's sad comments about how "hard" is too book WWE TV these days, this tweet blew my mind

And the funniest part is that Christley's NInja Country Purge is the most interesting thing on it

"Corey Graves mentions Brock Lesnar. Brock Lesnar is not there"

Somebody on r/SquaredCircle did something like that a few months ago.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/944mhp/i_fed_a_bot_a_years_worth_of_raw_recaps_and_made/

I didn't see Rollins' initial tweet. How lame if he felt the need to stick up for Creative. I get it - the job is hard and these people are friends or co-workers who he feels empathy for and wants fans to have empathy too - but, and I hate to sound like I don't care, but I don't care. Defending Creative is only one step away from "If you don't like it, don't watch it." Personally, I don't watch RAW (and it boggles my mind that anyone does), but the 2 million fans still watching have every right to criticize even if they don't know the full story about why certain crap gets put on air and some ideas, that might be great, don't (the answer is VINCE).

The recent Guy Evans book Nitro does a great job of showing how certain decisions were out of Bischoff and Russo's hands at certain points, that you can't just book a real wrestling show like Extreme Warfare 2000, that there are variables and factors that fans aren't privy to that make impacts. It is a much fairer assessment of the end of WCW than Death of WCW, but it also doesn't deny that bad creative was an issue and that Bischoff and Russo made errors that fall squarely on their shoulders. There's no reason to defend the writers (still headed by, if I'm not mistaken, Vince, Stephanie, Dunn, and a bunch of the same guys who've been in charge for over a decade) when we're talking about a scripted TV program. If you can't blame the writers (esp. Vince) and you can't blame the wrestlers and you can't blame the production crew or USA, then who should be criticized for what RAW has become?

Stephanie hasn't had any involvment in creative for a while. It's basically 30 or so ex TV writers solely trying to please Vince. Dunn just does the TV production end of things. 

I figured Seth's tweet wasn't so much an expression of his genuine opinion as a way to earn brownie points with the front office. Also, I took "all the extraneous variables that affect the final outcome" to be a euphemism for "having to cater to the whims of a senile psychopath."

WWE announcing Vince is returning to tv Monday.  Man this reminds me of the old days when numbers would be down and Vince would throw himself out there in response

They're not "ex TV writers", they're TV writers. These are TV shows, therefore, they're TV writers. TV writers dealing with Vince McMahon, so there ya go.

This backlash at the idea that it's hard to write TV shows that air live 52 weeks a year is bonkers. I'm not saying RAW doesn't stink right now, and Roman getting sick again is the main reason why. I watched it on Hulu for the first time in weeks, and Wow, it stunk. But Smackdown has been fucking fantastic lately.

Anyway.

The only other scripted shows that go all year long are Soap Operas, and I watched enough of them with my Mom to know that it really is hard to write that kind of TV  

40 minutes ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

They're not "ex TV writers", they're TV writers. These are TV shows, therefore, they're TV writers. TV writers dealing with Vince McMahon, so there ya go.

Except when there's a potential writer's strike, then magically they work for "sports programming" instead of entertainment and are exempt from being able to form/join a union. So in that sense, even if it's the "independent contractor" sense, they are ex TV writers.

I just can't believe Rollins is Tweeting this stuff just a day or two after ripping Raw's content on television. I'm not going all BUT MUH KAYFABE here, but come on, can we at least try for a little consistency when most of the roster is trying to use Twitter to push storylines?

16 minutes ago, PeteF3 said:

Except when there's a potential writer's strike, then magically they work for "sports programming" instead of entertainment and are exempt from being able to form/join a union. So in that sense, even if it's the "independent contractor" sense, they are ex TV writers.

 

Ok, that's funny. I think you were going for a factual joke, and if so? You killed. If not, that reads like something Data would say on TNG, which also kills.

Allow me to correct myself. They are TV writers writing a TV show that airs on TV, who aren't TV writers whenever TV writers go on strike because of stupid WWF bullshit.

Actually, how does that work for writers who are part of the union who go to work there? That's interesting. I can't imagine that any writers already in the union would leave it to write wrestling.

37 minutes ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

Ok, that's funny. I think you were going for a factual joke, and if so? You killed. If not, that reads like something Data would say on TNG, which also kills.

No, not going for a joke--whether I amuse you on a given day is so far down on the list of things I give a fuck about doing that it can't even be charted. No, that the WWF considers itself "sports programming" when it's convenient for them, despite blasting the term "Entertainment" in our faces at all other hours of the day, is a fact.

Quote

Actually, how does that work for writers who are part of the union who go to work there? That's interesting. I can't imagine that any writers already in the union would leave it to write wrestling.

Probably if they're too shitty to get any actual work elsewhere, which explains a lot about how WWE creative has operated for the past 15 years.

It seems like everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room a bit. Smackdown is proving it's possible to have a good show that runs 52 weeks a year, but RAW spent the last 3+ years establishing that Roman is the only star on the show (other than Brock when he's around). Everyone else existed to put him over, so when he suddenly is out for the forseeable future, RAW's left with little more than a roster full of guys fimly established as second tier.