4 hours ago, sek69 said:

I'm not as hard on WWE as some are (I've come to terms with "It Is What It Is" at this point), but the thought of Wrestlemania being main evented by Brock vs Some Real Fighter Guy is kind of soul crushing. 

WWE will never come close to achieving the potential their roster has if they don't create new stars, but it's clear at this point Vince will never allow that since he cannot stand when his guys leave to be bigger stars outside of his control.

There is a perverse amusement to seeing Vince turning into Inoki though

Well at least Vince (usually) will book his wrestler to beat the Real Fighter Guy, Inoki would have sent Brock out to get his ass beat in a shoot fight to try to establish pro wrestling as strongest. 

Didn't Bam Bam main event Wrestlemania XI against a NFL dude?

28 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

Didn't Bam Bam main event Wrestlemania XI against a NFL dude?

 He did, but to be fair that NFL dude was Lawrence Taylor who's probably the only person who could out-cocaine Vince.

LT was also a huge star at the time. To the point that at least in the NJ/ NY market the real sports media were shitting on LT "demeaning" himself.

 

 

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, sek69 said:

I'm not as hard on WWE as some are (I've come to terms with "It Is What It Is" at this point), but the thought of Wrestlemania being main evented by Brock vs Some Real Fighter Guy is kind of soul crushing. 

WWE will never come close to achieving the potential their roster has if they don't create new stars, but it's clear at this point Vince will never allow that since he cannot stand when his guys leave to be bigger stars outside of his control.

No one get too carried away with this. But I've heard WWE is trying to bring back absolutely everyone. Or was around a month ago. In-ring matches with Austin, Rock, CM Punk and everyone you can think of. John Cena is rumoured to have said he wants to do something substantial on the show. Also obviously Edge is coming to the ring in some capacity. Not a forum favourite but his return match should be a pretty big deal. 

I personally expect and wishful thinking wise we are getting Austin & Rock vs Reigns & Cena, CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan and Becky Lynch vs Ronda Rousey. 

WWE really does need to bring back the real stars for the FOX ratings given what FOX is paying them. Wrestling being cool again even briefly should help the XFL indirectly too. 

Something has to be up as normally we would have a strong working idea what the Wrestlemania card is at this stage.

Austin/Rock vs Cena/Roman?

They better let Roman be that guy who's charismatic as shit in those WWE.com vids, or else he's getting cooked on the mic. Dude can talk but he's against the three greatest and WWE scripts fucked him over some years ago.

This has just been posted too:

Over the weekend, PWInsider.com reported that WWE would return to Saudi Arabia on Thursday 2/20.

WWE sources have since indicated to PWInsidercom that preliminary date has been moved to the following week, Thursday 2/27.

Another reason why I believe they are going the direction of bringing every part-timer they can find back for Wrestlemania season is that a lot of the full-time roster probably won't go back to Saudi after what happened last time. And in general, part-timers seem to have fewer qualms about taking Saudi blood money than younger wrestlers do.

Not to mention they are once again having a Saudi show the day before a Smackdown show,  where folks are going to have to rush to the airport after the show and hope the Vince & Prince Connection don't have another blowup. 

Rovert:

 I think Becky v Ronda is close to a lock at Mania , right? I mean they already had Becky and Shayna at Survivor Series, and there really is no big matches left with the full timers. Unless they go non wrestler(Steph?) or bring back a part timer, it's gotta be Ronda

Wrestlekingdom was intensely memorable, but not just because the wrestling was amazing. It was also because all the wrestlers and their characters, motivations and stories had been built and the fans cared about them. When Okada made his entrance on the first night, the roof blew off. I don't think I have ever heard a reaction like that in a dome/stadium - where noise dissipates more - in the last 15 years. At that point, he could have had a 10 minute sprint and the fans would have still gone apeshit. 

 

Meanwhile, NXT last week had a couple of excellent matches and I don't think they will be even focused on tomorrow because every show on TV has multiple excellent matches.

For Pete's sake, Cena is not one of the three greatest mic workers of all time or even in WWE history. He's had his moments to be sure, but his actively bad promos far outnumber his great ones.

4 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

For Pete's sake, Cena is not one of the three greatest mic workers of all time or even in WWE history. He's had his moments to be sure, but his actively bad promos far outnumber his great ones.

He is pretty good at making crap WWE verbiage work, which makes him look like Dusty in his prime compared to most of today's WWE. 

- I'm expecting Edge to be announced for an ultra-safe match at the next Saudi show. I don't think he's coming back for a long run considering the risk, but if you believe the rumors, guys like HBK and Taker were getting anywhere from $500k to $2m for their Saudi appearances. For $300k-$500k, for one night of work in a well-rehearsed match against a safe, trust-worthy opponent, and basically no big bumps, I think its too good for Edge to pass up. WrestleMania pay-offs are nowhere near that - which is why Shawn hasn't come back.

- Austin and The Rock still seem like longshots to be in full programs and unless they are permanently done with Roman Reigns being a top babyface, putting Reigns against them would be the dumbest move possible. I tend to think Reigns will be facing Wyatt, but if they do go with a special tag match for him, I'd expect he'll be paired with the bigger, more popular stars rather than against them. Maybe Rock & Reigns vs. Corbin & Co.? I mean, that feud has another 3 months in it, right?

28 minutes ago, DMJ said:

- I'm expecting Edge to be announced for an ultra-safe match at the next Saudi show. I don't think he's coming back for a long run considering the risk, but if you believe the rumors, guys like HBK and Taker were getting anywhere from $500k to $2m for their Saudi appearances. For $300k-$500k, for one night of work in a well-rehearsed match against a safe, trust-worthy opponent, and basically no big bumps, I think its too good for Edge to pass up. WrestleMania pay-offs are nowhere near that - which is why Shawn hasn't come back.

- Austin and The Rock still seem like longshots to be in full programs and unless they are permanently done with Roman Reigns being a top babyface, putting Reigns against them would be the dumbest move possible. I tend to think Reigns will be facing Wyatt, but if they do go with a special tag match for him, I'd expect he'll be paired with the bigger, more popular stars rather than against them. Maybe Rock & Reigns vs. Corbin & Co.? I mean, that feud has another 3 months in it, right?

Jesus, that would be so typical of modern day Vince to waste a Rock match on Corbin of all people

It would be typical but it's not like the seeds haven't been planted, all the way back to the premiere on FOX when The Rock eviscerated Corbin on the mic. What would be worst would be to insert Rock in a multi-men tag match with Roman & The Usos against Corbin, Ziggler, Roode and somebody else (I was thinking The Revival but that would mean an extra partner for the Bloodline).

As for Edge, I don't know if I see him accepting to do a Saudi show, even for that payday. I'd like to think that Edge would want a one-time deal to be more significant, considering the way that  he had to retire. A program a bit similar to the one HBK had with Triple H when he returned in 2002 and when we thought it would be just for one night.

Give me Roman vs Goldber, dammit!

I really can't see Rock coming back to wrestle again. He's literally the biggest star in Hollywood right now. I think that appearance on the SD debut on FOX is about as close as it's going to get. 

I've not seen NXT for a while, so I've put it on while I clean the beer lines in the pub. 

 

My take away thus far is that the opening segment made me angry. Pillmanizing the ankle should be death, not a hobble. I loved the tag team match until during its vinegar strokes a "tag team wrestling" chant took me out of the moment. Great to see two fellow sheep shaggers do Wales well on telly though. 

Fuck me ragged, where has Alex Shelley come from? Great to see him again

Shelley's a coach at the PC I believe.

Why's Brick Tamlin with Chelsea Green? 

NXT is anti-Welsh. 

1 hour ago, ButchReedMark said:

Why's Brick Tamlin with Chelsea Green? 

NXT being witty by turning the former Robbie E of TNA fame into a Tony Kahn spoof gimmick.

6 hours ago, ButchReedMark said:

NXT is anti-Welsh. 

I do wonder how much better NXT UK would be if ICW's hot spell hadn't convinced Triple H that building the title scene extensively around Scottish wrestlers was a good idea, and instead had concentrated on the Welsh scene instead. I've definitely seen Big Grizzly have a better match with Walter than Joe Coffey did at the weekend.