Vamp

I really enjoy the San Francisco 49ers match. I don't care about the prestige of the WCW title, I just find it bonkers and amusing. 

That's kinda the answer you'd expect from John Cena though, right? I doubt he's even thought about the allegations much. He's a dick for not coming out in support for the victim, obviously, but he's also an idiot. He's always been ignorant and oblivious. 

I can't remember what match I was watching but I was watching something from the 70s the other day where someone was taking a foreign object out of their tights, clenching it in their fist and then using it as a weapon, only I'm 99% sure that they didn't even have anything. Crowd still bought it.

I don't watch a lot of contemporary wrestling now but whenever I do tune in it seems to me that a cheating bastard would stand out and get over because no one really seems to be doing it. 

Nina Samuels is a good heel, lovely homemade brownies aside. 

Was it proper war games with a roof or was it shit war games?

I kinda assume that's part of why Punk came back to be honest. Must have eaten him up to see Kevin Owens get the match that he always wanted. 

There's got to be a luchador in his 90s on the Mexican independent scene. 

Personally I blame the WWE for listening to people on the internet. For years they've been banging on about long title Reigns, the champion not appearing on every show, title defences feeling special. 

Hot shot the belts like it's WCW 99 baby.

Extremes being the only options in wrestling discourse, natch. Can't be having no middle grounds. 

I guess WrestleMania started with a tag main event featuring a celebrity...

Given how bonkers that was I'm now wondering how crazy they'll get. Reigns and Rock teaming up to try and take over WWE by holding both belts? Reigns and Rock/Cody and Seth on night 1, with Rock/Seth (the thought of which is fucking terrifying) and Reigns/Cody on night 2? You pay tribute to the first WrestleMania main event, you give people the WWE title match they want, you give those that now want a Rock singles match a Rock singles match (which might be a consolation to those pissed that they're now not getting Rock/Roman), Seth gets to defend the World title against a Hollywood star making up for the fact that he's been made to look even more pathetic than he makes himself look, they can do Cody/Rock down the line, once the dust has settled they've still got Roman/Rock even further down the line. 

What's interesting to me, and this is just my bollocks speculation and I'm sure there's a hundred news reports that argue otherwise, is I think the "fuck up" happened about a year ago. 

I don't think they ever really intended Cody to be the one to defeat Roman. Whatever the reason, a far too generous part of me thinks it might be them actually thinking long term about the milage of giving that nod to Cody, I'm not convinced that was ever really the plan. I don't think it was for 39. I don't think it was for 40. And, looking at how they booked the Rumble (with Cody winning, pointing at Roman, Cole's commentary) when they must have already known they were doing Rocl/Roman, I don't think it's logical to assume they would have booked any of the past year differently if they knew they weren't heading to Reigns/Cody 2. 

Whether that would be the right or wrong decision on their part is a bit more up in the air to me. There's a myriad of potential reasons why they might not want to go that way, and as a fan we're never going to know most of them anyway (who knows how long Cody thinks he has left, who knows how long the office thinks he has left, who knows if Cody wants it, etc) but I think their fuck up might have been ever suggesting that was a "story" they were telling. 

Which I think is why its not really comparable to Daniel Bryan. Bryan's momentum was fairly organic. This time I think they've actually sold people on a story they weren't actually telling. 

That's why the mooted triple threat sounds shite. It's not just people desperately wanting Cody in the main event winning the title. It's people being sold on Cody beating Roman 1 on 1 for the title. 

They're not doing either but Cody/Seth and Rock/Reigns on night one leading to a Cody/Reigns unification match is better than the triple threat idea. I mean, the unification stip is meaningless because one of the belts is meaningless but the belt is dead either way and at least they can run both Reigns matches. Fuck knows how you'd get there though.

What a bizarre segment. Roman lists all the reasons why Cody should challenge for his title, Cody says he wants Roman's title, then Cody just steps aside for The Rock. 

It's weird to think that Roman/Rock must have been the plan all along but that they couldn't come up with a better way of doing it.

It ultimately doesn't matter but how do you not read that segment as The Rock manipulating gullible Cody into giving up the biggest match at WrestleMania? I know The Rock's always been a bit of a bully as a character, but I've never really perceived the character as being particularly manipulative, nor Cody as being particularly gullible.

It honestly felt like the set up for a Cody Rhodes heel turn. 

3 hours ago, David said:

My unpopular opinion...

In the interest of equality, male wrestlers should be given names in a similar fashion to many female wrestlers over the years—just random first names with zero real thought.

Philip. John. Paul. Adam. Ron. Jeff. Jerry. 

To be fair, all wrestling names are shit nowadays. Have been for ages. 

Clearly "Die Another Day" by Madonna. 

8 hours ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

We've all looked a bit purple in the rumble Vamp, as Loki says it's our advancing age. 

Speak for yourself. I've been bed ridden with a flu for the past week. I look like a ghost coated in dry snot.

He did look very purple in the Rumble. Sucks for anyone to be injured. 

I'd think if they were going to get rid of anything from 97/98 they'd do it because the actual content is offensive. 

It's quite interesting that there's a few outcomes that genuinely could go either way in the men's rumble. Cody winning is what a lot of fans probably want, but then you have to be certain you're going to give him the win over Reigns at Mania, otherwise he's dead in the water. 

Based on online comments you'd expect fans to shit all over The Rock winning and facing Reigns for the title at Mania, but its The Rock and its probably the biggest match you can offer. Does it even matter if they shit on it?

Do you really want to give Punk the Mania main event? If so, are you really picking him to be the one to finally beat Reigns? Because that would be bonkers. If he loses, are you risking fan backlash anyway? And what does it say to all of your wrestlers about the new regime if you give that prick a WrestleMania main event? 

Plus part of me thinks they're aiming for a rather bonkers Punk/Austin night one and Reigns/Rock night 2. 

Hope he gave her a Starbucks voucher. 

There's a difference between knowing and "knowing." That's something that Ian Hislop tried to talk about during the Jimmy Saville revelations. 

It's probably even murkier in this case, because Vince was playing a villainous billionaire playboy on screen who often, not always, played it for parody. 

In a way, I'm more concerned with whether the culture that enabled it has been fully cleared up than Vince McMahon. Fuck him off, obviously, but what's left of that culture? 

Netflix has wanted live sport for a while. I guess WWE fills that quota as well as anything else they were likely to get their hands on. 

My problem with the segment was that it started off with Punk talking about 2007 and then Cody talked about the pipe bomb from over 10 years ago. It's no surprise that the promo didn't get heated until Punk talked about being the bigger star that came in and derailed Cody's momentum.

It's so weird how the pipe bomb is the most carefully protected bit of kayfabe left. People do all this half arsed shooty bollocks but make up history (Punk leaving soon after the pipe bomb) rather than shoot on the pipe bomb being an example of a fake rebellion while Cody actually did something to rebel against the system. I don't like shooty bollocks, I'm not advocating for it, but it's weird to me that the pipe bomb is the last bit of kayfabe to be so well protected. 

Hogan was still built for wrestling then. Rock hasn't been for yonks. Personally I think they should do a 10 minute finisher spam but if they're going longer I imagine it puts Rock in a difficult position. Does it reduce his stock as an action hero if he doesn't look massive? 

What kinda person drinks Orangina out of a can?