FUM

Do we include house shows in everyone’s win/loss record now? Granted he’s not won much on TV since Cena but the way people exaggerate the impact by including house shows is a bit silly. He’s had 5 TV matches this year of which 1 has ended in a no contest, 2 have ended in DQ’s and 1 was a handicap match where his team were outnumbered. On TV, his only loss he’s actually ate a pin in 2024 was to Randy Orton.

It was up 29% to be fair. The big test is next week as to how many of those fans decide to stick around or were just there for the Punk scrap. The main aim was surely to get fans to tune in, see what else is on offer and stick around.

Double post wanker.

This is the thing with the Punk stuff though - was it unprovoked? There’s no audio. Just for the record, I’m absolutely not defending the actions. I just think the exaggerations and hyperbole used over a lesser scuffle than I’ve had with genuine mates is mental. It’s a wider item on Punk on this forum though, anything he does is met with a ridiculous amount of hyperbole. Again, not defending this particular action - he was the one in the wrong by the looks of it but it’s handbags really.

Probably Jericho and Lesnar that was reported but many go unreported. I was more talking about historically though, as I say, using autobiographies as a reference point. And historically, a lot of those mentioned in books have not been reported at the time. WWE has a more united locker room no doubt but that doesn’t mean the odd scuffle doesn’t happen. Sin Cara, as an example, said after he left he had been in a few backstage scraps during his time. I’m not saying it’s acceptable but “assaulted a co-worker” doesn’t really have the same strength in wrestling as it does in the office.

You’d never like anyone in the industry if you rated your respect for them on backstage assaults either. Every wrestlers book you read is littered with backstage fights.

Granted it may have been different purely due to the pandemic times but states pay WWE about $20m to bring WrestleMania to them so they aren’t really paying for stadium hire.

Nick Khan said they aren’t touchy over moving the day of TV shows and were happy to negotiate different days when discussing the rights. Of course now the deal they struck kept it on Fridays but they could have easily moved it to Thursdays as part of the new deal if they fancied moving Mania. SmackDown has had 3 different days since it began.

Yeah, TV wise they very much see Haku as part of the family. He teamed with Rikishi for a spell too so it’s not like it’s something that has been randomly whipped up. It’s not like The Bloodline is totally protected from outsiders joining anyway - Heyman and Zayn aren’t exactly bigging up their Samoan heritage. And it’s not like they totally stick to reality, The Usos have said before they don’t refer to Roman as their cousin, they call him Uncle. Rock and Roman aren’t even blood related either.

Didn’t Vince return in person and take over the show last year?

The issue with the strap is they purposely designed it as a “get the badge in” belt so they could get their logo everywhere when they present it to people. I can’t see them steering too much from that in this current “branding is everything” world so any amendments will be slight.

What I really like is that Cody didn’t actually win because of any of these guys. They were there to protect him from The Bloodline and I think other than an AA from Cena which he recovered from before Cody was back up, Roman didn’t take any damage from them.

What a different style ending with the scenes, getting on the mic etc. but all for it. Real emotion being shared, felt like a genuine achievement and mountain climbed for Cody. Jimmy and Jey putting on a better match in that main event than their WrestleMania match.

It probably didn’t help the match that Jimmy decided he wanted to look every bit the guy who used to do the haka. Samoans naturally need to do a little more work to stay in shape and it was clear only Jey was arsed about that.

Every journo is reporting it’s not a bait and switch. He genuinely intends to show the footage.