uklaw

30 minutes ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

This is HHH booking from September, finding his feet in the new role and against the backdrop of lots of other stuff behind the scenes. Imagine what he’ll conjure up in a full Wrestlemania-to-Wrestlemania cycle with the shackles totally off. 

This is, of course, if circumstances don’t change again, and Triple H remains Head Of Creative.

Not sure what to make of this. It always comes out in the wash, so I’m sure whoever wants to know will find out.

I’ve seen everything speculated from he actually being injured to being upset by Brock Lesnar preferring to work Omos over him, to Vince being a LOT more involved in setting the general direction and messing up his stuff. 

3 hours ago, air_raid said:

It’s the line Ross used at Fully Loaded 98 when Jackie took her robe off, preceded by words to the effect of “I don’t want to say too much, my mama’s watching.” Mama, not wife. I always found that amusing, like he didn’t care if Jan knew he was a sleaze, but his mama was a different kettle of fish.

Ah thank you.

3 hours ago, air_raid said:

I dunno, that Crossrhodes sell being so different than anyone else takes it (a flat face bump), I don't like, much like I didn't like an RKO Chad took a while ago that people seemed to love. The difference of the effect of a move being so clearly to do with who it's done on as opposed to in the control of who's doing it triggers that smarky impulse in that it kills some of my suspension of disbelief. Rocky was athletic enough to bounce around like a rubber ball in comparison to everyone else taking a Stunner - I hated it. GREAT, you're making it look more devastating than anyone else receiving the finish of the top guy - umm, why isn't Austin "doing it with that much impact" to every other opponent? Doesn't make sense. Let me believe it's real, please.

No idea how old these suggestions from Google are but I have JR in the head saying "She has obviously trained very diligently, folks." That could crack walnuts, couldn't it?

Have I/we missed something? 🤔

Always had time for Jeff Jarrett, both as a performer and a creative mind and always respect someone who is able to acclimatise and stay relevant. Before he settled into his current ‘pattern’ that’s exposed him, I would have put Chris Jericho in that category. Just my opinion, of course.

My view that had Tony Khan not been a stubborn as he is regarding AEW creative then she should lean on Jeff Jarrett remains the case. Sonjay Dutt, who Khan has placed in his creative inner circle, got his producing and creative start under the learning tree of Jeff Jarrett, I believe.

I wasn’t going to jump in at the risk of being repetitive. But I have a sense of excitement/dread about all of this in all ways. I’ll detail some of the permutations and assume the hyperbolic voices for and against in a stream…

Scenario 1: Sami wins (no questions asked) and going into Wrestlemania as champion possibly won’t have the same pull or engagement as this story does. A large chunk of current wrestling fans no longer look to wrestlers as superheroes, instead as representations of their own selves. People they can identify with. Hence why whenever Adam Page and Sami Zayn have strayed from their insecurities and anxieties on screen, they aren’t seen as rootable in some quarters. It’s been stated within this very thread. Imagine him getting his big moment tonight, both belts in the air, tears in his eyes, his beard trimmed, his hair shortened, whipping up the hometown crowd, Kevin Owens in the vicinity… then comes RAW, he’s beaming, undisputed champion, another standing ovation (especially if RAW is in Montreal, I’m not sure), bigger TV audience because Roman has finally been dethroned…

But the big, showpiece Wrestlemania is still to come… and the big blowoff in the mind of many has already occurred.

Cody has his title shot, so does he assume the role of heel? (and ‘heeling’ Dusty Rhodes in the process). Roman can’t be shoved aside, he’s the man, he’s the franchise, so we get a 3 way? Unless people would quite like Cody to ‘do the decent thing’ and step aside, giving Sami and Roman the Night 2 main event? But Sami won (no questions asked) because tonight was the right time to do it. This rematch won’t have the same heat and emotion as the Montreal match already achieved optimum catharsis. Another option would then be…

Option 2: Roman leaves Elimination Chamber as champion through means foul. Meaning the clamour for a rematch is there and Sami ends up in the Mania main event, 3 way surely, unless people would quite like Cody to ‘do the decent thing’ and step aside? But why would he do that? He won the Royal Rumble, or are we advocating that Roman defends twice, once on each night of Wrestlemania? 

Option 3: Roman beats Sami Zayn, who ends up partnering with Kevin Owens to challenge the Uso’s for the tag titles, while Roman defends against Cody Rhodes. The Plan (a term usually invoked in wrestling fandom as a pejorative when some feel WWE isn’t listening to what they want or what they feel is a better option there for the taking). Until recently, that seemed to be the locked in plan, and enough of the booking put those pieces into place. But the Sami-sized fly in the ointment means anything other than Sami challenging Roman at Mania  (if not winning tonight) means a growing ‘Not My Main Event’ sentiment will grow. Up until last night’s Smackdown, I would have said that WWE did a good job of playing the competing interests very well in a way that didn’t cast a shadow over Cody Rhodes’ journey, or telegraph punting Sami into the midcard, but yesterday felt like the first time some of the online feeling spilled onto the screen. 

After Smackdown and tonight’s show, I feel a ‘Sami or nothing’ sentiment will ‘Brood Blood Bath’ into the live crowds leading into Wrestlemania.

For the record, I’m not advocating one over the other anymore, but the options are there.

Is it a triumph of a new, disciplined unpredictability of the creative now? Or have they stumbled upon something that turned into a runaway train that they can no longer control?

It’s been said by others but I agree, everything feels cold and disjointed right now. It took me nearly a day to get round to watching this week’s show.

Creatively, Tony Khan is running on empty, and I think he definitely needs more help than he will seemingly ever accept. And with him almost certainly writing the upcoming ROH TV shows as well, he’ll be spreading himself even more thin. 

I’m not even advocating him turning the book over, because he won’t, unless he’s out of the day-to-day picture. But there needs to be more honesty within the company towards him.

1 hour ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

McAfee hasn't really had time to watch much of the current product. Between College Gameday which is huge, his own show and him and his wife going through IVF I'd be surprised if he has much time to watch anything. Love him or hate him, and I love him, he lives his life at full speed all the time. 

It wasn’t intended to be a knock on him, more an observation. He was still arguably the best voice on the air last night, so no foul. 

As per PWInsider, Graves and Cole were legitimately not clued in that Pat McAfee was going to appear. 

To be fair, Graves adapted quite quickly, and got ‘in character’ with his reaction.

Michael Cole, on the other hand, couldn’t gimmick his reaction. At least we know that when Cole said McAfee is his favourite broadcast partner, he wasn’t fibbing 🤣

What I found amusing was it seemed that McAfee hadn’t watched much of the product while he was off.

The existing name of the thread seems quite apt. 
 

MLW has announced a TV deal with cable channel, REELZ.

https://www.pwinsider.com/article/167164/mlw-signs-tv-deal-with-reelz-mlw-underground-to-debut-next-month-full-details.html?p=1

There has been quite a bit of tweet deleting and backtracking/repositioning on this item. 

Have people been swept up by a Twitter storm and mischief? Or perhaps WWE are sitting tight before a deal is done? 

Guess we’ll find out in due course. 

3 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

All shoot me down, but I'll say it again, I desperately want to see Sami vs Roman, but he shouldn't be beating him for the title.

EC in Montreal would be absolutely perfect for them to have a match, and let Sami have several VERY near falls, and just about get beaten to compound everyone's heartache. Although this feels quite soon-ish I'd agree. What's this, 6 weeks away?

But he shouldn't beat Reigns for the title. That's very silly. Sorry.

I don't think he needs to either. The story is in the heartbreak and the nearly. For me anyway. 

I won’t shoot you down. I agree with you.

For one thing, Sami Zayn and the Undisputed WWE Universal Title hasn’t even been mooted on-screen. The story has been about a number of things (seemingly conceived by Vince as a delusional blag for a bit of light relief, turned by Triple H into a tale of seeking acceptance, manipulation, turning against his very best friend when he actually needs him the most, and so on). But what hasn’t been factored or mentioned up to now is a desire for Sami to have the title. Of all the things Jey Uso objected to and all the things Roman blasted Sami for when his mask slips, the title hasn’t come up.

His crumbled relationship with Kevin Owens has been a consistent thread, so it makes most sense Owens picks him up when The Bloodline discard him and they dent the Bloodline.

With the WM30 situation, Bryan had history with the title and some sort of built-in fan engagement and the fans could see the company shoving him out of the way in a ham-fisted way. The sense of justice in seeing that ‘wrong’ righted was understandable. 

The Sami situation doesn’t fit that specific scenario. I know the fans are engaged and wedded to Sami and his journey so I’m not discounting that.

Also with Sami Zayn, yes, the payoff could be emotional, could be a Wrestlemania moment.

But then what?… 

‘Kofimania’ was the result of similar fan desire and pressure that also benefited from a generous champion, Vince’s erratic booking and the fact the title being contested was comfortably the secondary title. I don’t know about anyone else, but the only things I remember about that title reign were the moment Kofi won and when Lesnar beat him for the title in seconds.

Injury prevented us from getting enough of Bryan’s title reign to know exactly how business would have thrived or dropped with him as the on-screen company figurehead. 

So to this day, the idea of positioning someone unplanned as the FOTC remains largely untested and in a year that the company seem to want to bat its eyelids at potential suitors, I can see them wanting to have their biggest, most marketable names front and centre. It’s probably not fair to the most ardent watchers and fans, but that could be a factor.

I can see Sami facing Roman one on one, maybe even with the title on the line, between the ‘big lockout angle’ and Wrestlemania, but I don’t see Sami beating him, even suspending my disbelief.

I don’t usually put my head above the parapet here, but I’m seeing that either a massive story pivot will take place that will not ultimately benefit the company post-Wrestlemania with the fan-appointed hero of the piece being blamed, punished and sideline. Or we are on course for another 2014-style crap show where fans derail the product. Entitlement related to wrestling is not the reserve of those in it.

Yes, this isn’t ‘Ucey’ and I know I’ll be accused of not getting into the spirit of things- in fact, I’m expecting a Forum-style beatdown 🤣 but even after the biggest and greatest party, there is clean up…

30 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Lockdown always felt like the biggest deal to me, I know some hate the concept and I can understand but it was like how Halloween Havoc felt bigger than Starcade at times.

Funny you mention that. I believe Eric Bischoff has said a couple of times that in his mind, Halloween Havoc was the big show for WCW, not Starrcade. 
 

3 minutes ago, Mr Butternut Squash said:

I think you're right. (Although WALTER was pinned at Survivor series a couple of years back.)

His weakest moment was running away from Braun. That's gonna be an interesting match in regards to where they sit in the pecking order.

Good shout on WALTER. I remember online fan consternation that he was the first eliminated, I believe.

As for him vs Braun, only one of them has been pencilled in for a marquee Wrestlemania match, so I think that informs how the booking goes. The question will be how they get around their inevitable showdown. Unless they want the IC title off Gunther?

Am I right in thinking that Gunther hasn’t been pinned or submitted since he’s been on the main roster?

39 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Haven't been paying too much attention to this over the last few days but it seems to have happened pretty quickly?

Personally I'm gutted for her and feel like her move to NXT was a real success story for her. She worked hard and became a really worthy champion.

Was the FanTime stuff really that bad?

According to what’s be said online by those who have subscriptions and seen whatever she was posting, it has apparently recently moved over into the realm of capturing intimacy between her and her fiancé. Or strongly implying it anyway. 

All of this was news to me until the news of her release emerged, so there you go.

I never met the man (though we had a couple of acquaintances in common) but heard nothing but nice things about him. And for it’s time, and in comparison to some of the other outfits on the Wrestling Channel, RQW was very well put together, production-wise. Especially the first tapings at York Hall. 

I never met the man (though we had a couple of acquaintances in common) but heard nothing but nice things about him. And for it’s time, and in comparison to some of the other outfits on the Wrestling Channel, RQW was very well put together, production-wise. Especially the first tapings at York Hall. 

According to Meltzer, a group of investors have apparently purchased the WOS/World of Sport name and there’s no realistic expectation that ITV are going to broadcast what is planned to be a(nother) studio wrestling show.
 

No real complaints about the show and add me to the people loving the  direction the Bloodline story has taken since Triple H took over creative with the layers, etc

Regarding the ‘tap’ in the main event, it wasn’t a blown spot, and instead it was a ‘Brazilian Tap’, where the competitor taps the mat twice to deceive his opponent into thinking he’d given up when the rules state a tap 3 times is what calls a fight/match to an end.

It would appear the error was Michael Cole and Wade Barrett not explaining that it could have been that. I anticipate that will be remedied in comms tonight.

4 minutes ago, Tommy! said:

How much of the booking does TK do and who else is involved?

Does he micromanage it or just say what endpoint he wants and let's the wrestlers or other staff work out how to get there?

It seems that the set up is that Tony Khan controls the bulk, if not all of the booking but does listen to ideas and pitches from the wrestlers and others.

Suggestions have always been that Tony will not delegate booking to anyone, and does indeed micromanage it. 
 

To the extent that critics come out with the line that he ‘needs help with booking’.

2 hours ago, BomberPat said:

I'm the last person to insist on wrestlers being musclebound behemoths, but there's something very odd going on when a billed height of 6'1" constitutes "quite tall" in WWE.

As for handsome, maybe I'm missing something, but he's an odd looking dude to me.

I said/included ‘subjectively’

As for quite tall… maybe it’s the choice of his adversaries or that wrestler don’t appear as tall as they were in the past? 

5 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

I can't wait to see this version of Owens come up against Roman Reigns - he's absolutely flying right now. On the other hand, I'm struggling to see anything of value in Austin Theory. In ring, he's bang average. Not bad, but far from stand-out. On the mic, he's mediocre. He looks more like one half of a tag team than he does a future world champion. Last, but absolutely not least, you then have the allegations made against him. I don't see what WWE sees in him that would make them think it's worth overlooking this. 

Quite tall, built, young, (subjectively) handsome. 

We live in a superficial world.

1 hour ago, garynysmon said:

Clearly I'm not clued up with current WWE, but why the fuck has Walter/Gunther slimmed down/toned himself just to look like every other fucker on the roster?

Think it was said that he took it upon himself because Vince’s preferences are well known.

He was clearly onto something because of how relatively quickly Vince called him up when he dropped the weight.

What I do like is that RAW is largely treated as a show that runs through the commercial break and doesn’t seemingly grind to a halt. I specifically mean the (Matt again) Riddle and Seth Rollins sit-down interview and unique take they had on the concept with the ‘off-broadcast’ footage. I don’t know if the footage was broadcast uncensored for the live crowd or if there was smoke and mirrors and the crowd actually saw it when the viewers did.