Pinc

I want Rollins waking up to find Rey Mysterio's eye in the shower and realising the whole empty arena era was a dream.

Also fine.

Yeah let's just close this eh.

I'd have loved to see either Rock or Austin challenge the Streak. And fuck it when Sabu was back in 2006/07 I thought he'd be an awesome Streak challenger too. Given the timing it would've had to be Mania 23 in place of Taker/Batista, which I'd have taken any day of the week.

There was a time when I'd have loved them to build to The Shield vs The Bullet Club at a Mania too. In fact I thought that was possibly where they were going for Mania 33 after they had the three Shield lads triple powerbomb Styles through the announce table during the (excellent) Raw/SD survivors tag at the previous years' Survivor Series.

Speaking of the Shield I also had a wacky idea around that time of parlaying the brewing Vince/Triple H/Authority angle that never really resolved into a big six man at Mania featuring The Shield (with Triple H in their corner) against John Cena, The Rock and Steve Austin (with Vince in their corner) in a winner take all six man tag. Its not as far fetched as it first seems either, since Cena could've done most of the work/bumping on Vince's side and let Rock and Austin strut about and hit their key spots. It needn't have been much more of a workout for Rock than his match with Erick Rowan at whatever Mania that was. The story writes itself as well - Triple H and his creation vs Vince and his three biggest non-racist creations. Makes me balls ache just thinking about it.

Sticking on Austin as well can you imagine the money they could all have taken in if they'd got their heads together with WCW in say Summer '99 and promoted a big supercard with Goldberg/Austin on top. Not completely without precedent given the way Japanese promotions have occasionally promoted joint supershows over the years. Fuck knows how you book the winner or even a finish but who's arsed, it'd be all about the build. Vince in Austin's corner, Bischoff in Goldie's. Have them go to a schmozz finish where Vince gets a Jackhammer and Bischoff gets stunned. Beers all round for the lads at the end. Magic.

That promo where he went on about 'crackheads' as well. Really distasteful.

I think The Rock's just a bit of a bell end, especially in his post-comeback weird juvenile life coach gimmick. He's had some fucking honking shouts over the years.

29 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Thing you have to remember about Tony Khan is that he posted on DVDR for his entire 20s.

I never heard this before - what was his username?

1 hour ago, CavemanLynn said:

That they couldn't get Roman Reigns over as a megastar face is one of the great failings of recent years. Every glimpse you get of the real man, he comes across as absolutely mint, a doting dad who loves his family, with buckets of charisma and Hollywood connections.

Then again, if Vince really does still hold all the sway, then the idea of a superstar face being someone who loves his kids and has a genuine respect and brotherhood with his relatives might very well seem alien to him, based not only on what's he's booked himself in onscreen but also the weird incestuous shit he's rumored to have tried to book, and the stories of his mental lifestyle completely in his bubble.

It's a shame Goldberg did the superhero dad gimmick so well, because that's part of the angle I'd take with Roman. Acknowledge the connection with the Usos, maybe use the association to update his look. Have him help Jimmy and Jey in some greatest hits style multi mans, then thank them for easing him back in before going single. No need for a heel turn.

Give him a solid string of wins, tuning him up, maybe while some upper card heel (Rollins?) is running a bullying angle. After a few months, he's had all he can stands, he can't stands no more, and walks out and casually spears the fuck out of the heel. Then have the heel promo for weeks leading to the PPV, only to have Reigns Goldberg him in a 4 minute squash. 6-9 months and he'll be ready for a title run again.

I do like this idea but the fans are just never taking to him without him going heel first and giving them the chance to feel they turned him back.

It’d do him good as a performer to learn how to be a heel again too. Hasn’t done it in years, and back then he was the silent muscle for Ambrose.

1 hour ago, wordsfromlee said:

I really hope this thread doesn’t turn into another one where JakeRobertsParoleOffficer gets horny over images of The Ultimate Warrior so roided up it looks like he’s about to burst out of his skin. 

Well I hope it does lad.

34 minutes ago, The Cutting Edge said:

I say just go with him all the way when he's back, get the strap and smash through everyone, no more fucking about being 70/30 club, Austin, Hogan, Cena didn't lose often and neither should Reigns.

Can anyone be arsed with dreary Roman face push part 48,229? Go with someone else. Once he's no longer meant to be top guy it should give them chance to be a bit more creative with him, like actually trying out a heel turn. The guy deserves it, hard worker, really good at certain things. Just not the complete package. It's fine, give us the heel stable with The Usos and let him salvage something from his otherwise tainted career.

27 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Do we think Roman can ever be the star they want him to be? Or have they fucked him up so much over the years that he'll never get any further than he has?

Na he's damaged goods as a top baby. And they don't deserve him catch on as top guy at this point anyway, given how they've sustainedly spited the audience with his push over more than half a decade at this point. Still chance for him to be a monster dickhead heel mind, but really they've missed the boat on that too. Would've had nuclear heat if they'd pulled the trigger at the right moment.

Its time to move on from Roman surely. Imagine if they were still trying to get Diesel over in the same gimmick he was in when he won the title in '95 in summer 2000. You'd have had to sideline Austin, Rock, Triple H, Foley and all the other guys who caught fire in the intervening years. That's the equivalent of still trying to get Roman over the line in 2020.

Was listening to the Arn Anderson podcast on Royal Rumble 2015 (the one Roman won prompting much booing and network cancellation) and it had never really occurred to me before that if Bryan had won that Rumble he'd have gone on to challenge Lesnar at Mania 31, which would've been incredible. Brock at the absolute peak of his monster heel powers following the wins over Taker and Cena in the year prior, Bryan as effectively the best underdog babyface of all time. In hindsight it seems like a match made in heaven, though I don't really remember it being talked up as such at the time.

It makes me sad to think we didn't get that. Their match some years later was fantastic with no story behind it, and with both of them playing heels. In their 2015 personae It could have been one of the best Mania main events ever.

I know they were concerned that Bryan wasn't worth the investment as his head was liable to fall off in a strong wind but given they instead spent that capital on turning Roman Reigns into a universally reviled laughing stock, it seems such a shame they didn't just play the hand they were dealt and position their de facto top Blue Eye opposite Brock.

Always thought Heath was the best one in the original Nexus (after Bryan was shitcanned - although in some ways I even prefer Heath to him). Seeing that he's returned as an absolute tank is the first thing to make me check out one of these empty arena Raws.

46 minutes ago, Cod Eye said:

And? If you go on a Man Utd forum, I'm pretty sure you won't find them comparing their players with the players of Macclesfield(for example)

You would if Man Utd were the biggest club in the country, and Macclesfield the second biggest.

1 hour ago, Cod Eye said:

Also, do we have to compare everything WWE do to the same thing AEW does(or vice versa)? 

The hard reset of Austin as a face the night after Survivor Series hurt him more than the original heel turn. If he'd remained heel for a while longer and teased the face turn so that people were desperate for it (and, more importantly, until there was a logical reason for it to happen in the storylines); he could've had one last big 'Old Stone Cold' run before he hung them up. Like a final redemption for the character before he retired.

Instead he was damaged goods for the rest of his career. You can't just turn on a dime like that and retcon the previous year of storylines without breaking the audience's suspension of disbelief. That was the turn I really didn't buy.

10 hours ago, simonworden said:

Well he did do the Mayhem in Manchester show which is about on par with some of those Saudi shows

How dare you compare a part of the world with such a heinous record of human rights offences with the Saudis.

10 hours ago, Frankie Crisp said:

Much like when a handful of Everton fans met up with the Millwall firm for a scrap

I’ll have a false equivalence please barman.

16 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

Probably in the minority here, but I think that cinematic wrestling is shit and that Boneyard match is an appalling way to end a glittering career on.

Totally. They’re kidding themselves if they think that cringey nonsense is a fitting last hurrah.

The idea that Taker, his wife and his daughter live in that little shed has creased me.

16 minutes ago, dopper said:

To everybody else: I googled it, it's nothing exciting.

(Carter invited him to his inauguration but the Secret Service insisted he go without his mask so he didn't go. The end) 

Bloody hell mate lighten up.

Aye I think that's where I am. I'm the biggest Brock fan in the world but I couldn't have given a fuck about his match at Mania this year because it came immediately after my suspension of disbelief had been immolated by the Firefly Funhouse.

It's fine like, I had a bloody good run as a fan. And I always loved how Cena's weird top-babyface-who-everyone-hates character broke the fourth wall. His character eating itself in the Funhouse was a good way for me to go out as a fan.

1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said:

It's only a small percentage of what they're doing at the moment though. Surely it wouldn't stop you from watching completely?

It blows my suspension of disbelief for the rest of it though. The whole narrative of the shows stops making sense if some of the matches take place in a parallel cinematic universe. They can’t really be separated.

All this movie stuff is drawing my wrestling fandom to a close. The thing that’s so intriguing about wrestling is that it’s a fake athletic contest taking place in the real word (i.e. in front of a real audience). If it just becomes fake fights in a fake world I might as well go and watch Dragonball Z or something.

27 minutes ago, Factotum said:

The crowd reaction when they thought Sandman had become RAW GM. The reaction is utterly huge. Then that old villain Regal pop up (he's been hiding) and eliminates him. Sandman always got weirdly good pops in WWE.

I remember this! Sandman was great. Even at that point years after his peak. Such a characterful performer. Would've loved a Sandman-as-GM run around that time.