air_raid

53 minutes ago, Loki said:

Incidentally are WWE going to rename Cora Jade?  They don't usually have two people with the same name.

Back in the day they'd simply rename the good Jade just "Cargill" and have done with it.

Fucking "Riddle" vs "Theory." Utter joke.

It should have been cancelled. Nobody deserved that much Jack Victory.

Cyrus "You, give belt-o, to Rhino!"

Tajiri : "FUCK! YOU!"

.... but they also used it to expect us to believe Scotty Riggs was a threat to RVD, so you know, swings and roundabouts.

NOVEMBER 2019
Tour time! Fucked if I can keep track of who's on what show here. It's a bit of a chore, hope people are still reading!

MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN
Roman Reigns vs King Corbin (what a fucking waste of time) hits Brighton on 7th then 9th-13th in Minehead, Dublin, Vienna, Lille and Zurich - no, "The Man" was not booked in Dublin this year. After a draft lands the Universal title on the blue brand, 16th in Washington its The Fiend vs Braun Strowman in a Last Man Standing match, 23rd in Grand Rapids Bray goes in a cage with Daniel Bryan, 30th in Mexico City its still a cage match atop what I think is a cross-brand supershow and (LOCAL INTEREST) Rey Mysterio challenges.

THE CARDS
It’s most often Shinsuke Nakamura vs Mustafa Ali for the ICT, tag title is usually either The Revival vs New Day (repeats in Washington) or a three way with Luke Harper & Erick Rowan and there are three instances of Daniel Bryan vs Harper, plus Bryan & Ali vs Nakamura & Sami Zayn in Dublin and Lille after a DQ in the title match (repeats in Washington). Four instances too of Sin Cara vs Andrade, Bayley vs Charlotte continues. It's Carmella & Dana Brooke vs Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville in the British Isles, then vs The Iiconics in mainland Europe. There's also Apollo Crews, Shorty G & Heavy Machinery vs Dolph Ziggler, Robert Roode, Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel before they board the plane to Vienna.

VARIATIONS
In Brighton Dana vs Mandy goes to a DQ in a wholly unnecessary extra singles match before the tag. Minehead get Nakamura vs Ali vs Rowan. In Vienna - (LOCAL INTEREST) Walter vs Jordan Devlin for the UK belt, Gable wins a battle royal vs other potential participants in the Lucha House Party tag clusterfuck (and Andrade) and later is involved in the ICT - Nakamura vs Ali vs Rowan vs himself. Lille see Crews, G, Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado beat Dallas, Ziggler, Roode & Cesaro. Zurich it's Nakamura vs Ali vs Crews, Rowan vs Sin Cara, Kalisto/Dorado/Shorty vs Dallas/Ziggler/Roode and (LOCAL INTEREST) Cesaro goes over Andrade. Washington has Bayley vs Nikki Cross, Lio Rush vs Angel Garza for the CWT, Dana vs Tamina, Crews, G, Dorado & Kalisto beat Ziggler, Roode, Cesaro & Harper. Grand Rapids - Nakamura vs The Miz for the ICT, Ricochet upsets Randy Orton, Revival lose to Machinery, Charlotte vs Kairi Sane, Drew McIntyre vs Akira Tozawa, Cross vs Lacey Evans, Rusev vs Bobby Lashley and Andrade loses to Humberto Carrillo. Finally Mexico City, Seth Rollins vs Kevin Owens, Braun beats Nakamura & Zayn in a handicap, Aleister Black vs Andrade again, Asuka & Kairi vs Bayley & Sasha Banks vs Alexa Bliss & Nikki vs Becky Lynch & Charlotte and - huh??? - Gallows & Anderson lose to Humberto and Cain Velasquez.

MAIN EVENTS - RAW
Its The Fiend vs Seth Rollins for the U belt in a cage match 9th-13th in Leeds, Aberdeen (Becky on last for some reason) and Glasgow, a streetfight Amsterdam and Erfurt before Bray heads to SmackDown and now without a champion on the brand (realistically) 14th/15th its Seth vs Drew McIntyre (topical) in Mannheim and Regensburg, then 16th in Dusseldorf Rollins beats AJ Styles by DQ leading to - you guessed it - Rolins & Viking Raiders vs Styles, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows. 29th in Little Rock its Rollins vs Kevin Owens on last.

THE CARDS
On British legs of the tour there's AJ Styles vs Braun Strowman for the US title which ends up breaking down into Braun & Viking Raiders vs AJ, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows. There's Rey Mysterio & Ricochet vs Randy Orton & Drew McIntyre, Womens title is still Becky Lynch vs Sasha Banks, tag title with Asuka & Kairi Sane vs Nikki Cross & Sarah Logan, every night the grudge match of Rusev vs Bobby Lashley plus R-Truth vs Drake Maverick and Cedric Alexander vs Shelton Benjamin, after which Shelton also loses to Angelo Dawkins. In continental Europe we frequently see Kevin Owens stepping into Braun’s spot for the AJ match and six man. Lynch is often back with Lacey Evans and Logan loses to Natalya. Ricochet vs McIntyre repeats to mixed results. Shelton vs Titus O’Neil is also even and sometimes is followed by Shelton losing again to someone else/getting brought back down to Earth. Dawkins & Montez Ford vs Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins repeats too - still Rusev vs Lashley every night.

VARIATIONS 
Drew nor Ricochet wrestle in Aberdeen ; it’s Mysterio vs Orton and Profits vs Benjamin & Maverick vs Truth & Cedric. In Amsterdam a unique six man has Braun, KO and Rey drop the Bullet Club. In Mannheim Doc & Karl do double duty and work a three way with the Profits and former Edgeheads, and Ricochet pins Shelts after his win over Titus. A unique swap in Regensburg has Ricochet do the DQ with AJ followed by the six-man, underneath after Shelton loses to Titus he complains his way into another match and loses to Kev. Little Rock has Lynch vs Charlotte to a DQ followed by the pair of them teaming to beat Asuka & Kairi non title (boo!), Drew vs Cedric, Aleister Black vs Buddy Murphy, Humberto Carrillo vs Andrade and a three way of Raiders vs Profits vs Club.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
Calming down a bit, all the shows are in Florida this month. Most of them look awful too. 1st in Largo it's all the Forgotten Sons, Wesley Blake, Steve Cutler & Jaxson Ryker vs Pete Dunne, Dominik Dijakovic & Nick Ogarelli (Nick Comoroto in ROH today). 2nd in Venice Dunne and Danny Burch beat Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak, 7th in Ocala "The Outliers" and Brendan Vink lose to Tyler Breeze, Fandango & Babatunde then next night in Tampa (University Area Community Development Center ) Breezango beat the Outliers in a straight tag, 9th in St Augustine it's Dakota Kai & Tegan Nox vs Io Shirai & Bianca Belair. 13th back in Tampa (Amalie Arena) Breezango beat Blake & Cutler, 15th in Citrus Springs Dijak & Matt Riddle beat Cutler & Ryker. What an underwhelming crop! Hardly anyone of note is booked for house shows including none of the champions.

REPEAT - ONE!
Deonna Purrazzo vs Xia Li in Largo and St Augustine.

ASSORTED OTHERS
Largo - Cameron Grimes vs Austin Theory, Mia Yim vs MJ Jenkins, Kayden Carter & Santana Garrett vs Vanessa Borne & Aliyah. Venice - Theory vs Ridge Holland, Io Shirai vs Borne, Deonna vs Kayden, Santana & Jessi Kamea vs Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir. Ocala - Keith Lee & Matt Riddle vs Wesley Blake & Jaxson Ryker, Theory vs Angel Garza, Raul Mendoza & Catalina Garcia vs Denzel Dejournette & Carter, Jenkins vs Borne, Garrett & Kamea vs Reina Gonzalez & Indi Hartwell. Tampa (I) - Bronson Reed vs Mendoza, Io vs Xia, Tegan Nox vs Borne. St Augustine - Isiah Scott vs Tehuti Miles, Taynara Conti vs Catalina. Tampa (II) - Theory vs Mansoor, Danny Burch vs Miles, Reina vs Monique (MJ), Garrett & Carter vs Purrazzo & Conti. Citrus - Scott vs Blake, Xia vs Deonna vs Taynara, Kayden vs Chelsea Green.

TVs
1st in Buffalo has some very interesting results as NXT invades SmackDown - in particular Danny Bry challenges Adam Cole for the NXT title and loses. 4th Raw at the Nassau Coliseum Zelina Vega gets a match tagging with Andrade to beat Sin Cara and Catalina, Rollins beats Cole by DQ and dark, loses another cage match to The Fiend. Wednesday night at Full Sail the main roster returns the favour as the OC goes to a no-contest with Keith, Riddle and Tommaso Ciampa. 8th in Manchester they tape a massive 13 matches for SmackDown and Raw including Revival dropping the SmackDown straps to New Day, Reigns dropping a fairly fateful televised pinfall to Corbin, Sin Cara doing possibly his final TV job to Drew, and Soner Durson (who I once considered a future star in the making) losing to Rowan. Wednesday at Full Sail, dark matches have Dexter Lumis vs Daniel Vidot and Chelsea vs Catalina. Friday's NXT:UK taping at Kingston upon Hull has Mark Andrews vs Kassius Ohno on top of 12 televised matches, meanwhile in Philly there's Cesaro vs Crews before SmackDown and both Reigns vs Corbin and Fiend vs Bryan after it. The only thing you might like to know about Saturday's NXT:UK taping is... Pretty Deadly lose to Amir Jordan & Kenny Williams. 18th Raw in Boston, Fiend vs McIntyre inside a cage is an odd dark main. Wednesday at Full Sail Carter vs Borne and Mansoor & Mendoza vs Outliers are the dark matches, and several ex NXT main roster guys come for a fight (including the first Lynch vs Rhea Ripley match). Friday 22nd at the Allstate Cesaro vs Crews is dark again and on the show proper Ripley wins a three way with Charlotte and Sasha and Undisputed Era (Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, Bobby Fish & Roderick Strong) beat Heavy Machinery & New Day. next night in the same building a well-received TakeOver has Kev go back to his roots and team with Ciampa, Keith and Dijak to beat the Era in War Games, and Rhea's team beats Shayna Baszler and friends. Survivor Series next nighth (11,500) has NXT beat the main roster in three ways between the Womens teams, midcard champions and (on last) Womens singles champions, plus a fairly decent Brock Lesnar (remember him?) defence against Rey no DQ (Dominick gets involved and takes a good bump in a great finish). On Raw next night, fourth night in Rosemont, Matt Hardy does a job for Murphy, Rey wins the UST from Styles and dark Bray beats Drew in another cage match. Finally Friday in Birmingham AL, Revival vs Metalik & Dorado occurs before SmackDown and Fiend beats Miz after it.

NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten this month : Kabucki Warriors (Womens Tag Team Champions) by Charlotte & Natalya

DEPARTURES
Jordan Myles aka ACH is released from his WWE contract on 11/21. He posts a video to socials stating that he quit WWE, explaining he refused to “work for racists” over an apparently contentious t-shirt design, and that the name Jordan Myles is a “slave name” he no longer wished to be known as. Huh. Sin Cara also requests and receives his release from WWE, stating he felt under valued in the promotion, and wanted to continue his career elsewhere. This being decent Sin Cara who was Incognito/Hunico, not Mistico/original Sin Cara who botched a lot. He goes to AAA and goes by Cinta de Ora to honour one of his late mentors. Having been denied his release as long ago as April, and despite being somewhat featured for the last couple of months, Luke Harper's appearance in Washington is his last match for the company and he's released in December. He trademarks "Brodie Lee" for his own use, you probably all know the rest of his story.

8 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

"Get two."

"Two? Wow man!" 

Wild man, wasn't it?

23 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Maybe they could even fake up a body and call it the "Oklahoma Sports Association"? Make the entire state the villain.

Swagger's still on the books, right?

I think there's a golden opportunity here to rehash an old NWA title finish - let's make the Athletic Commissions a heel entity that we can use in the story and have them intervene and stop one of Moxley's matches because he's bleeding.

Shambolic treatment of Nyla though it's been... I'd use it, if she's OK with it.

1 hour ago, SwayWays said:

I think he's one of the best long standing main event WWE style wrestlers they have. I think because he's been there for so long, and his slightly caricature appearance, he gets overlooked than say an Orton.

It's probably because Orton was in the title hunt on and off for most of his tenure to date and held World titles about 10 times, and Sheamus spent half his time there in The Bar. He was stale as fuck when they used him to Luger Roman at Survivors 2015 and that League Of Nations twaddle did him no favours (or anyone, really). That was nearly 10 years ago.

Agreed on the match where he dropped the belt to Show though... that was an exceptional, unexpectedly dramatic one. Show was miserably played out at that point, but the fellah did wonders with him on that night.

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

Mid-90s Shawn or mid 2000s Shawn? Because they would be two very different lists for me.

It was an "of all time" scenario so total body of work, It's all fucking bollocks though isn't it? One loser with too much time on his hands thinks that 100 wrestlers as diverse as Jumbo Tsuruta, Sami Zayn, Bryan Danielson, Bruno Sammartino, Akira Hokuto etc are/were all better than HBK, by some criteria or another... I mean, it sounds daft to me but in the true spirit of "we've all got our opinions" good for him, but... actually making the list to prove a rhetoric of "I can name 100 wrestlers better than Shawn Michaels" .... yeah? Good for you. I'll be over here, not giving a shit.

1 hour ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Just catching up on Raw properly, and I think Sheamus might be on my list of favourite wrestlers - were I ever to sit and make a list.

There's enough lists going on out there. The "100 wrestlers better than Shawn Michaels" one gave me AIDS.

1 hour ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Raw desperately needs a draft, especially with Cody seemingly moving to Smackdown. Raw has a load of talent I love watching, but misses a bit of stardust with Cody and Rollins gone.

I wonder if they shift LA Knight over and try and heat him up.

Draft's happening 26th SmackDown - 29th Raw. Knight would be a decent call for Raw, actually - I imagine they could get people behind him for a crack at Priest.

Not going to lie, saw a mock up for SummerSlam that showed Rock vs Cody, Punk vs Drew, Reigns vs Rollins and Priest vs Balor, and everything between now and July is going to twiddling my thumbs waiting patiently for the crushing letdown when that's NOT what they're able to put on. Christ, throw in Usos vs Solo & Tama Tonga (umm, at least in story terms) and it's the best sequel to Mania I could come up with.

11 hours ago, RedRooster said:

I do wonder if this discussion should be shifted to a standalone topic to do it justice, 

The woke thread is there for people who want (and currently are) discussing the topic in broad strokes.

3 hours ago, Healy52003 said:

could of 

Could have.

The best thing they could do now is get blacklisted by OK state, then throw a show called "I'd Sooner Be In Texas" or similar crap pun, in Dallas/Houston/wherever. Nothing beats a cheap pop.

30 minutes ago, WeeAl said:

The only two names I've ever seen that were to be Vince's choice in 83/84 if he didn't go with/get Hogan were Kerry Von Erich and going with Snuka. Both wouldn't have worked.

Good one there. Take Kerry out of Texas and does he draw? The NWA obviously didn't think so on a big scale.

I hope I don't regret this.

Many casual fans of Belinda Carlisle that love "(We Want) The Same Thing" are probably unaware the version they love isn't the original. The better and more widely-played version (Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! intro) is called the "summer remix" and was used by Peugeot in an ad in the 90s. The original version that was released as a single and was on the Runaway Horses album was a bit rubbish in comparison.

See you back in On Topic.

On 4/15/2024 at 5:38 PM, Carbomb said:

Would he not have been given the same push if Hogan wasn't around? I genuinely can't think of anyone in the WWF at the time who would've enjoyed the same kind of attention and popularity - Andre was on the tail end of his career, Piper was great but better suited to heeldom at the time, and most of the other faces at the time were fun but not exactly main-event.

Well, we're a little at crossed purposes here, but Savage got over really strong initially as a heel working Hogan all over the country, and thats when people realized how good he was - later, in combination with the sympathy Liz got, it made for a logical babyface turn. So the question might not really be "would Savage have got the same push as a babyface in a world without Hogan in New York" as "would Savage have got over as strong in 85 if he's wrestling a different babyface?" As to who that babyface would have been...... still Bob Backlund? I mean, a maniac like Savage would have been a good foil for straightlaced Bobby and his atomic drops, but would it have drawn?

It's still a question for the Vince Jr debate - no Jr to overrule Sr historically blackballing the Hulk, possibly no Hogan for Savage to work. I'm still slightly bitter "Irish" Terry Hogan never saw the light of day, to be honest. Bruno drew the Italians, Pedro drew the Hispanic... let's get the Irish New Yorkers in the building!! Actually, that probably answers my question as to who might supplant Backlund if there's no Hulkster. He may have been 44 at the time but maybe it was time to pull the trigger on Polish Power! Who Randy ended up working later on anyway, albeit for the ICT.

3 hours ago, Your Fight Site said:

Isn’t that what WWE is doing with WWE Speed, albeit on Twitter X instead?

Ah, you didn’t catch the one word that makes all the difference.

4 hours ago, air_raid said:

for maximum "engagements" the matches will all need to be short enough to go on TikTok.

15 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

I'm sorry but I absolutely hate that Danielson Vs Ospreay poster, it's like the worst MCU fan knock up you'd see on twitter.

Works for me.

something something Storm Breaker something something

34 minutes ago, Gus Mears said:

It's Vince, the same man who thought ZZ Top were at the bleeding edge of culture until about 2012. He'd probably end up hosting it all on Bebo.

Well, assuming he does go with his own instincts rather than pay an agency, he can hit ALL the big ones - MySpace, Bebo, Faceparty, Hi5. Let's just hope he doesn't accidentally revert to using Roman numerals wherever he can, otherwise that last one becomes problematic.

Having said all this... remembering WWEs brief fetish for Tout... I still don't know where Vine failed and TikTok has succeeded. Fickle kids.

He'd probably pay some young peoples' marketing agency to help get him up to speed with what all the kids are into these days, and end up deciding that for maximum "engagements" the matches will all need to be short enough to go on TikTok.

@JLM As I may have said before, I wish they'd kept their full names - Deuce Shade, Dice Domino and Cherry Pie sounded brilliant.

From memory... isn't there a fairly decent knock off of Teen Spirit that they dub over WCW's original Teen Spirit knock off, that's miles better than the dreadfully dull, generic Metal jobber tune they gave to DDP when he wrestled for them?

4 hours ago, RedRooster said:

As for Cody, he's been...well...Cody since winning the belt. Exactly as you'd expect, which isn't a bad thing. But I think babyface champions need a bit of time to settle in, and for the threat of them losing the belt to actually feel real, creating that sense of consequence in their matches; making their reign more of an emotional journey. 

This is a tricky one to get right. There's no coincidence that "seemingly unbeatable odds" was the recurring theme of the two most successful WWF Champions in history - Hulk Hogan faced seemingly unbeatable odds because he was usually up against HUGE MASSIVE SCARY MONSTERS and while we all know now there was usually no chance of him losing, as kids it was what we were constantly in fear of. And Steve Austin faced seemingly unbeatable odds because the boss was constantly moving the goalposts and changing the rules to try and fuck him over, and even managed to short term, but Austin always got back up and carried on swinging.

Where you go with Cody to create insurmountable odds now he's already outfoxed The Bloodline (or got lucky, depending on your perspective) - that's the question.

20 hours ago, BomberPat said:

I think that's more likely; how much of his trademarked AEW material has actually got over? Does anyone care about "the Demo-God" or "The Ocho", or is just rattling off every idea in his head hoping that one will catch on?

I saw someone suggest that he's only trademarking "The Vortex of Jericho" so that nobody else merchandises it to make fun of him. But even knowing it's a thing means he's aware of his current reputation, and there's no good being self-aware enough to know that you're an old bloke clinging to younger stars for clout if you're just going to keep on doing it anyway; I'm sure that the story with Hook is going to be built around that reputation, but how do you work with that in a way that's not just doing the exact same thing again?

On the other hand, if there's no plan to change course, might as well profit from it. WWE sold a Cena Sucks t-shirt, after all.

Just now, RedRooster said:

discussion 

I’m just happy we’re calling it that. “Discourse” needs to fuck off.

10 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

If the court case is settled in some way I wouldn't be shocked to see him attempt something - even if it was something that predominantly targeted non-US markets; or relied on an alt-right streaming platform. Heck, perhaps it's the kind of thing Elon Musk would host on Twitter much as he does Tucker Carlson. It's obviously a different kettle of fish; but given their crossover political views; it's not outside of the realms of possibility that it ends up being presented as some sort of 'deep state conspiracy'; and enough people buy into that to allow something viable to exist. I wish it felt more ludicrous to type those words than it actually is. 

Sure sounds like another of those threads I avoid until they start announcing matches.