GeronimoJacksBeard

6 minutes ago, Jacko said:

L.O.D vs The Hardy boys or vs edge and Christian 

Could have only realistically happened in '98 or '99 when LOD were a mess. Might have been alright in an out with the old, in with the new changing of the guard type thing. Hardys and E+C were only really established late '99 and LOD had fucked off by then.

9 hours ago, Mr Butternut Squash said:

They're setting up Apollo to join MVP, surely? 

Is this something actually being teased? I'm out the loop with Raw and Smacky D, haven't bothered with highlights since CoronaMania has been running wild. Saw someone mention something about MVP starting a stable too one week. Is he done as far as matches is concerned? I quite like the sound of him managing a stable and with Crews being a part of it.

Makes for a good WWE quiz question - 'Who only had one match in WWE and it was for the WWE title?'

Unless there's another example?

2 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

They also had matches at Judgement Day (with Austin as ref) and Survivor Series in 98 (tournament), plus the 3-way with Austin at Breakdown. But the fact I can’t really remember anything about those matches suggests they weren’t much good. Either that or I’m getting old.

It wasn’t singles but I quite enjoyed Taker & Show vs Kane & X-Pac at SummerSlam 99. I also liked that Kane wore the alternate attire he had on the Attitude game as well. 

 

They had a fair few on Raw in the 'Attitude Era' too. There was a number 1 contenders match on Raw with Kane going over to challenge Austin at KOTR, which was the start of the Summer long in-cahoots angle. There was the tag match that was really an angle of Austin and 'Taker vs Kane and Mankind where the Cell came down which was loads of fun.  Sure they had another Inferno match on Raw too with the teddy bear bollocks and the start of the Steph angle and Lord of Darkness/Ministry/'Where to Stephanie?' Undertaker.

I loved that whole summer '98 angle and 'Highway to Hell' period personally. The in-cahoots stuff had loads of neat twists and turns that were logical in the overall story and was just so much fun to watch unfold. Spring -Summer '98 WWF was a highly enjoyable time.

29 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

It can work. I thought Triple H in 2001 added to the title by dropping back down. Obviously Cena did the same for the US Title.

Agree on Cena, certainly. That's the one main occasion i really enjoyed it and felt it really worked. In that instance it did fit with Cenas character and general message. Triple H though, that's one of the main ones that really irked me at the time. Didn't feel right at all. Especially as he'd been so recently established at the very top, associated with the WWF title and been feuding with its now holder in Austin. It had been very recently presented as though the WWF title meant everything to Triple H, hinted as though it was something he cared about more than Steph and getting it brought out that 'that damn sick, that damn twisted', etc side of him. Settling for the next best thing wasn't something "The Game" did just because he could. Putting the IC title on him at that point in 2001 felt totally out of character and more just for the convenience and novelty of the tag match stipulation with Undertaker and Kane.

33 minutes ago, Mikeymike83 said:

One thing I've thought over the last 10 years or so, and has just come back to mind due to hearing Owens is gonna be feuding with Andrade for the US title.

I am really not a fan of main event 'level' wrestlers dipping back down to the midcard titles. I think it genuinely makes the World titles look weak, that people are more than happy to slum it at a level beneath what they have attained to.

I will add, I'm not saying Owens is a true reflection of my argument as (One Universal title aside), imo I don't class Owens at that top tier level. But someone like Reigns, Rollins, Bryan etc (regardless of poor decision making in recent times) pissing about with a 'Lower' championship does more to damage their characters/aura than simply having them title-less for a period of time. There are two 'World' championships again so it's not like they're gonna be waiting years for a reign again.

Not a fan of this either. It's really a byproduct of a few things - more shows and more frequent shows, talent starting on TV much younger, having longer careers and staying consistently on TV in the same promotion much, much longer and i guess lack of creative booking. There's some quite ridiculously decorated champions of the last 15 years.

I'd rather those guys form a proper tag team and chase the tag titles if they step away from the top title picture. Above being a good example, would have loved The Ultimate Maniacs around for a while on a proper tag run.

There's absolutely loads that have had title reigns with 3 or more different partners, more often than not, not as a regular established team::

Austin held tag titles with - Michaels, Foley, Undertaker and Triple H

Undertaker with Austin, Big Show, Kane, The Rock

Foley with - Austin, Kane, Rock, Al Snow (?), Terry Funk (think it was reversed mind and not sure it counted)

Michaels with - Diesel, Austin, Triple H, Cena

Jericho with - Benoit, Edge, Christian, Big Show

Christian with - Edge, Lance Storm, Jericho

Big Show with - Undertaker, Kane, Jericho, Miz

Benoit with - Edge, Jericho, Angle

Rey Mysterio with - Edge, RVD, Eddie, Batista

RVD with - Kane, Booker T, Rey

Booker T with - Test, RVD, Goldust

Batista with - Flair, Cena, Rey

Cena with - Michaels, Batista, David Otunga, The Miz

The Miz with - John Morrison, Big Show, Cena, Shane McMahon

Kofi with - CM Punk, Evan Bourne, R-Truth, Big E/Xavie Woods

Billy Gunn with - Bart Gunn, Road Dogg, Chuck Palumbo

Owen Hart with - Bulldog, Yoko, Jarrett

2 hours ago, Bellenda Carlisle said:

Bald Kane was the best Kane.

Original full mask Kane is obviously the best Kane. But bald Kane is better than any other masked Kane. For a little period there where he first unmasked he was far and away the best thing on the show and had some of that terrifying aura back. The original look and music though, c'mon.

It goes:

1.Original Kane

2.Setting JR on fire Kane

3.Group Therapy Kane

My contribution - MJF is merely a confident talker, beyond that it's all rubbish heel cliche'.

7 hours ago, King Pitcos said:

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that 21 was also the last WrestleMania before the Money in the Bank cash-in was the standard way to crown a new champion. 

Was going to mention this, Rick was talking about how holding the IC title used to be a precursor to bigger and better things for some and that The Rock was the last one that really had that IC title reign that ended up moving you up a level. I'd say it was Orton myself, but since then the MITB concept has effectively replaced or killed off that booking style. And not for the better, really. That's more down to the lack of creativity and lazy, overdone way cash-ins have mostly been handled though.

Regarding the original question - Brock, for me. Remember feeling leading into SummerSlam it was all a bit too early. He actually had an IC title match with RVD in the run up to it where i was disappointed at the time he didn't take the belt to have one of those aforementioned IC title runs first. But from SummerSlam it changed everything for me, i've mentioned it before but i think that main event is somewhat over-looked/under appreciated as far as crowning of first time World champions is concerned. Brock absolutely arrived in that moment for me, instantly bought into him as champion and from sometimes looking a bit iffy, he suddenly started having bangers with everyone as well.

On a somewhat similar note, Inner Circle are surely getting some nice babyface reactions themselves once they're in fron of crowds again.

Quite enjoyed the A-Train run. Although one of the main memories from that is him wrestling Edge on one of the B PPVs, Edge grabbing his tights in a pin for leverage to reach his leg and coming horrifyingly close to exposing his prince albert.

1 hour ago, unfitfinlay said:

The first one who comes to mind is The Rock.

Get the fuck outta here! He's the complete opposite. That was not - "let's put the belt on him and he might get over" it was "this guy is so over, we could put the belt on him!"

25 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

I’d have done Kane vs. Nash in 2011 after he came back as Diesel in the Rumble. Only I’d have had Kane as Diesel as well.

And I’d have put it on WrestleMania XXVII instead of that eight man tag match with The Corre.

Nash should have been booked for the fake Kane angle gig that Gallows got. Just to bring everything full circle.

Kevin Owens for me. He's had his moments, but he's not had anywhere close to the same aura and sense of excitement he had when he first walked out, as current NXT champ, to accept the John Cena open US title challenge. You could stretch that to his debut match and win over Cena too to be honest, but since that he's never been quite the same level since. Loads of great, fun moments the rest of his tenure, sure. But when he first walked into WWE he came across like a genuine threat that could walk right into the top of the card, be taken seriously there and belong. A lot of that is thanks to Cena to be fair (and what a run that US title open challenge was). Since that, despite plenty of entertaining moments he's been a definite notch below . One guy that should have just stuck with his initial gear/look too. The simplicity of that design somehow fit perfect. All the others since just show him for a fat guy in a t-shirt and shorts.

Randy Orton did the job to put World titles on Jinder Mahal, The Miz and Mark Henry. All guys many felt weren't deserving of such a position (can't agree on Menry, love him and that run). Not sure if that's a sign of Randy being selfless and a company man or just simply not giving any kind of shit,

Mental it never happened in Double Double E, really.

As Butch mentioned, WCW Saturday Night is just a goldmine for this kind of the stuff. You could do a thread on those shows alone with the gems and just some of the mental combinations it produced.

He refers to it in his Broken Skull Sessions interview

In another time and place, had things gone somewhat differently of course, this could have been something.

Had this occurred once Jeff hit puberty could have been interesting too

That match will lead you to Jeff vs 123 Kid too, which i din't know happened. Doesn't really count and i'm sure they met a few times later on. More of a hidden gem though, fun little match. Jeff working heel, Gorilla and Lawler on commentary.

Was going to stick this in random thoughts, then thought could be worth a little thread while we're on lockdown. Not quite dream matches - matches you'd like to have seen happen between talent outside of your usual dream match discussion of your Austin vs Goldberg, Undertaker vs Sting, HBK vs The Rock, etc.  Matches involving perhaps some more upper mid-card talent. Unconventional dream matches, if you like. But also, matches that could have realistically happened at some point.

For me:

Kurt Angle vs Mr. Perfect. For probably WrestleMania X8. Perfect returned at the Rumble, looking tremendous, having a great little run being in the last 3 i think. He had a little couple of minutes here with Angle where he got all his signature shit in. They just looked like they'd have gelled really well together. Perfect didn't do a whole lot else in that run and Angle went on to face Kane at WrestleMania in a pointless match thrown together at the last minute. Kurt doing an "i do perfect better than Mr.Perfect" type deal in the run up and recreating his famous vignette could have been fun.

And Rey Mysterio vs Umaga. I think it would have been around 2008, but certainly late 2000s. There was an angle where Rey was injured, returned on a Smackdown for an announcement and Umaga at the point he was acting as Vinces goon i believe, comes out and smashes Rey about. And then they were on opposing sides of the following Survivor Series, which i thought at the time would lead to a tease of a match between the two. Only they never even touched. Umaga got disqualified early on. So nothing ever came of it. Would have loved to see Umaga throwing Rey about. Think they'd have worked awesome together. For me Umaga was at his best against smaller guys he could just launch all over the shop. Much of his offence worked great cutting off big fiery comebacks and hope spots on smaller guys. He and Jeff Hardy were wonderful together. And there's few better who do the underdog taking on a much bigger guy than Rey for my money. Believe they were good mates behind the scenes too which can often contribute to working well together. Convinced it would have been magic, shame that it never happened.

So did Sami Zayn, just from over-enthusiastically geeing up the crowd on his Raw debut entrance.

Is "meta" word of the month on here or something!?

Do the Viking Raiders really know what they want to or are meant to be? Why is the fat lad doing handspring elbows and cartwheels!? It's like when Berserker would do his splits sell! Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should.

20 hours ago, Supremo said:

The number one guy vanishing in the lead up to his biggest match of the year must baffle poor kids though.

As must just about everything happening with the current presentation of the product on TV. And why they can't go to school, see their mates, why their parents are at home every day all of a sudden. If they're not confused by that, they've probably realised why there's no audience at the shows and that everything is very weird right now, let alone that Roman Reigns has suddenly vanished. Maybe Roman has requested not to have a fake story line reason for it if they don't want to acknowledge the genuine reason. If i was him in this situation i'm not sure i'd want TV to write me off with my cousin running me over or Rowan pushing some scaffolding and flight cases over on to me or some shit.

And the kids who aren't so on the ball they've figured it out love to make up their own reasons anyway. Ultimate Warrior died after SummerSlam '91 and a different bloke started playing the character at WrestleMania VIII don't you know!?

7 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

What about the kids and others who just don't know where he's gone? They'd never ordinarily not either write him out or explain. They just assuming everyone knows already. No wonder they don't attract and keep new viewers.

Ordinarily, yeah. None of this situation is ordinary though. These same kids and others would be watching these shows with no audience in attendance, while having to stay home themselves. Do they need that explained to them by Michael Cole too? That's already telling them something pretty big is up! Roman's previous health issues have been acknowledged before on screen, as much as they may not have done a great job of it, the whole thing of WWE still doing these shows at all is the big "to provide entertainment/escapism in these times" line. Mentioning the disease or that one of your top stars is high risk from fucking dying from it ain't going to put many smiles on kids faces. Writing him out with some other bullshit is kinda insulting to what he's actually gone through and unnecessary when the global pandemic is someone everybody is aware of, kids included. If there had been a story line reason for it, "dey" probably would have moaned there too. And how do you write him out when you've no clue how long the current situation is going to affect your product in this manner and when/whether Roman can come back to work. It's not ideal for tv storyline purposes, but none of this is. Of all the things people could slate WWE for at the moment, not writing Roman off TV logically should be pretty low on the list.

4 hours ago, Wrasslin said:

I forgot about black Saturn in the smackdown games.

31 minutes ago, UK Kat Von D said:

Kenny Omega is a goof outside the ring too. Being a goof doesn’t really matter in a fight, especially in a fake one 

Point is Ryder got himself over as a goof and loveable loser before WWE presented him as such. Kenny got over from his matches, Zack definitely didn't.

8 minutes ago, DCW said:

He's obviously not going to criticise his employer. But why bother posting a pointless video at all then if you have to tiptoe around the fact that said employer have acted like scumbags? Just post nothing at all instead. 

I don't understand the yoof I suppose!

It's vintage social media Seth!