Shane O' Mac Version 2

Yeah, it's possible, but I dunno, just seems a little off:

-Poirier shits on Conor

-Conor retorts "fight is off"

-UFC officially announce that the fight is on

- Dustin with the "my bad, guys" shortly after

Honestly, I don't see what's so bad with taking it public. Sure, it's more professional to handle things like that behind closed doors, but on the scale of shitbag things to do, it's about a 2/10, while Conor reneging on a promise to donate to a children's charity is at least an 8. McGregor deserves the hit to his already damaged reputation on that one.

Dustin offers something of an apology for talking about Conor being a fuckwit. Possible pressure from UFC higher-ups there? Feels like a move to take some heat off Conor building to the PPV, very different tone from what Poirier said the other day.

Gutted Tom Phillips is getting demoted to 205 Live. I know he wasn't on Mania for COVID-related reasons, but the news of him getting replaced on the Raw announce team was already floating around. I think Tom is excellent. Yeah, at times he's sounded like a younger Cole on Raw, but his personality really shone through on NXT and to a lesser extent, Smackdown. He's a wise-cracking smart-ass and the banter he used to have with Graves was great.

It's a pity that WWE strip every announcer of their personality these days. Unless you're an already established name like Booker T. Graves is like this weird mix where they've taken away his wit, but left his snark, which just makes him insufferable.

4 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Bayley/Bellas - poor Bayley. Poor poor Bayley. I'd have preferred a 1 on 1 match with Michael Cole over that.

You say that like it's a bad option. I'd love to see a Bayley vs. Cole feud. It'd be ridiculous, shit and amazing all at once. 

If you look on Instagram, Triple H gave him a plaque honouring Vlad as a "superfan" as well. Seems like they really want to show love to fans after not having them for so long.

I just worry that it'll make some of the more obnoxious ones more unbearable. Brock Lesnar Guy seems like a massive tool, and Izzy's been getting featured more on WWE stuff lately- there seems to be an air of cockiness about her, which I guess would come from being a pseudo-celebrity since she was about 10.

Also depends on the inductee. I could happily listen to Kane go into detail on his storied career for 40 minutes. Hillbilly Jim probably deserved about as long as JBL went this year. And I could have listened to JBL for a good half hour. He's a prick, but an entertaining prick.

I understand that this year was a weird circumstance though. Had to be strange for the inductees too, giving a speech in an empty room to really obviously, badly canned noise. Kevin Nash, in particular, seemed to be bemused by the whole thing.

I think the card is fine as far as straight up wrestling quality. I can't see the matches being bad at all. But nothing on the card stands out as special. Drew vs Lashley should be a huge match, but it was on Backlash or Extreme Rules last year as a WWE title match, and neither man has elevated high enough to feel like a WM main event, even though Lashley is definitely doing better. I feel like Smackdown could have had something had they stuck with Edge vs. Reigns OR Bryan vs. Reigns- mashing them together just feels weird to me. Also, Sasha vs. Bianca could have been massive with the right build but feels like a mess too. 

7 minutes ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

Don’t see Charlotte featuring anywhere on the card in all honesty if she’s had COVID

Drew had it, and they threw him back in there as quick as possible against Goldberg.

34 minutes ago, Supremo said:

The sad fact is that it’s almost impossible to think of top WWE moments that don’t eventually fizzle out into tragic disappointment. They’re the kings of kickstarting angles with a bang but the absolute worst at following up. They’ve even managed to ruin the Goldberg thing by bringing him back too many times.

If Goldberg had just walked away after WM33, it'd be one of the greatest comebacks ever. Come in, look like a million bucks, sound like a million bucks, squash the biggest star in the company, then pay it off at Mania with Brock in the match they should have had 13 years earlier. End it on the highest of high notes. My feeling towards Goldberg in 2017 and my feelings about him now are worlds apart.

The whole "announcing it to the inductees" as a surprise has to be a work, surely? There's been people that have refused the honour before. Someone like Molly, who has worked with WWE a good amount in recent times, was probably a safe bet, but Bischoff, given his relatively recent firing and appearances on AEW, might have been a bit shakier. How embarrassing would it be if Eric turned around and said, "Actually, I don't want to be part of that"? 

1 hour ago, IronSheik said:

I've always been completely worked by thigh slapping. Until all this recent publicity I didn't even know the wrestlers performing the kicks were making the noise themselves. 

I haven't watched wrestling since 2003 other than YouTube clips and the odd Wrestle Mania, which wrestlers from 1991-2003 would have been thigh slapping?

Tajiri was a big one. I knew that they were slapping thighs to create the sound- I was bullied and beat up as a kid, so I knew it didn't sound like that when you got kicked. But I could never catch Tajiri in the act- he was so quick and adept at hiding it.

Oh, and Shawn Michaels with the Sweet Chin Music.

7 hours ago, Carbomb said:

Something just clicked in my head: a Schiavona is a type of sword. Excalibur is the name of a famous sword. JR is not a sword of any kind. Get rid.

He is a bit of a prick though.

26 minutes ago, thicko said:

I’ve not watched any AEW, but I follow this thread. I barely watch any WWE these days, generally old stuff on the network, in the back ground. I was a massive Cody Rhodes fan in his WWE days, and even went to an ROH show in NY just because I was there and he was on it. 
Reading between the lines, are you (we) underestimating how much Brodie Lee’s death has affected him? 

Nah, every criticism in this topic (bar the pregnancy reveal stuff) was relevant way before Brodie's passing.

My mum has always hated wrestling, which is tough as someone who is obsessed with it. My dad was never a big fan, but he did walk in one day when I was watching Unforgiven 2002 and got really drawn in to Angle vs. Benoit, because it was "more athletic". He took me to my first show a few days after WM21, just a house show in Sydney. As much as he wasn't into it to start, I noticed him getting more and more into the show and even bought himself a Batista shirt. So that was a cool memory. My dad's passed away now, and we didn't always have the greatest relationship, but that's by far the best memory I have with him.

10 hours ago, Scott Malbranque said:

 

I'm fairness, even his belly looks like it's a bit shocked at the weight Jones is about to do a strict curl on... 

 Yeah I was going to mention that, but he's hardly Roy Nelson there. You see lots of people that move up to heavyweight and basically just use it an excuse to fuck their diet off and live on KFC. Gian Villante is a recent example off the top of my head. Jones is at least adding muscle to his frame, makes sense that there'd be a little extra fat too.

Although to Wand's point, maybe "done it right" isn't the best turn of phrase when it comes to Jones. Let's see how he acts the next time USADA stop by.

Same here but a fair while later, I got the WWF sticker book in 1999, I remember Jericho and Big Show being in it.

I think Jones would have a tough time going back to 205 now. He looks to have really committed to this heavyweight move and done it right, packing a lot of muscle mass onto his frame rather than just hitting the fast food.

Never thought I'd see "Wollongong" written on the UKFF. That's where I live! Of course, I didn't attend Wollongong Wars because I'm always late to the party on these kind of things, didn't even know Australia had a MMA scene for the longest time. UFC is ridiculously popular here but the local MMA scene gets zero coverage. But I'm Team Volk all the way here. He's attracted so much hate over those Holloway fights. I can see where people are coming from on the second fight, even as a Volko fan that decision was kind of dodgy. Lots of people trying and claim that he shouldn't have won the first fight either. I'm not having that. It wasn't the most jaw-dropping fight, but Alex won that easily with his leg kick gameplan. I'm hoping he scores a big finish against Ortega- even though I really like Ortega, I want to see Volkanovski get a statement victory just to shut people up.

And we have the heavyweight and possibly Suga Sean's hype train derailed for good. A loaded show indeed!

5 hours ago, RoryFice said:

I'm struggling to pinpoint exactly when Michael Cole went from being ok to unbearable. Perhaps after his feud with Lawler?

I reckon it was his move to Raw in 2008. Being on the flagship meant he was under the microscope more than ever, and it crushed the fragments of personality he showed throughout his Smackdown run with Tazz and JBL. It was all about hitting the points of production (sponsors, WWE app, Tout, Twitter etc etc) more than actually calling the product. I liked him a little prior to that.

An interesting point I've heard is that Cole and Tazz were more free on Smackdown due to Vince being a semi-active performer during that time period. Makes sense, since Vince was too busy with his segments and occasional matches to yell at Cole over the headset.

JR and Lawler still remains my gold standard, although they massively fell off later in their run. Up until around 2005 they were both dialled in, then it seemed like Lawler was the first to really stop giving a shit. JR tried up until around 2008, whenever they paired him with Todd Grisham and he sounded like he hated every last second of it. JR and Heyman were brilliant too, although their run was a little short to give them the top prize IMO.

Also, a shoutout to Tom Phillips and Corey Graves in NXT, they were both passionate and funny, great banter, knowledge and sold the stories well. Much like Cole, the main roster production completely took away their personalities, or at least every fun aspect of them. Both get a lot of grief now, but I promise there's great commentators hidden under the layers of corporate molding.

I definitely need an extra few seconds in my head to calculate what Mania was on what year and what happened since they binned the numbers. I can do it, but it requires a little more brain power. Ask me what happened at WM19, WM23, WM29 and I can rattle off most of the matches in an instant. 

I went to WM33 so that helps things a little. My first Mania live. I have like one main thing about each Mania in my head that helps me identify them:

31- Seth cash in

32- AJ WM debut

33- Hardyz return

34- Ronda

35- Kofi-Mania

36- Rona

8 minutes ago, Daaaaaad! said:

Totally get why people aren't on board with Edge, but ehh, I'm fine with it. The bloke has worked his bollocks off and ultimately he's only going to be headlining one night of a two-night event. He gets his match in front of a crowd, which is nice. The spots with Christian were great to see too. Christian's introduction was probably about on par with Todd Grisham's "It's... Christian" from his redebut in ECW in 2009. Poor sod. I bet Vince still wants to put a red spot over his ugly face.

Funnily enough, I actually thought the worst reaction of the night was Tom Philips to Victoria, where he seemed to register little to no surprise or even recognition of who she was. It's bad when Lawler had to jump in to be the one to give a shit. Major "It's Christian" vibes on that one. I get the feeling, like Cole, that Phillips isn't really a wrestling fan. He's got slightly more personality, but he doesn't seem to truly enjoy what he's calling. Maybe Vince has just beat all the excitement out of him. I remember enjoying his NXT work with Graves.

4 hours ago, Supremo said:

Bollocks.

Jerry Lawler either not getting the memo or just not giving a shit and calling it how he sees it was the highlight of the whole Women’s Royal Rumble match. Jerry is correct. Charlotte Flair is a heel. They might say otherwise, they might even think otherwise, but that’s only because they’re useless at writing characters. She’s a complete prick.

One thing I've noticed about Lawler in recent years is that he seems to flit in and out of his heel persona seemingly on a whim. He did it a lot when he commentated with Mauro on Smackdown. His whole tone and interaction with the other announcers during that was heel King all over. Face King is far more passive.

Charlotte absolutely is a prick though.

Enjoyed both Mordecai & Kevin Thorn. I still don't understand what was SO bad about Mordecai that they didn't at least do one PPV match with Taker. Looking back, yeah he wasn't the greatest worker, but they persisted with Heidenreich for what felt like forever.

Another one- he's certainly talented, but more than fits the criteria when it comes to success and popularity- or lack thereof. Tyler Breeze. Dude looked like a million bucks in NXT, even when he always took the loss to everyone. He debuted with promise on the main roster and again, they gave up on him after about a month.

Oh shit, we need 5? Test seems to qualify. Great look but not much else going for him.

Sean O'Haire. Was it always a case of the vignettes hyping more than he could deliver? I don't know, but I remember enjoying him even as far back as the Invasion angle.

Vladimir Kozlov. I think he gets unfairly lumped in with the other unsuccessful big lugs of his generation. He was alright, and while he did well with the comedy stuff, I could have bought him as a monster occasionally threatening the main event scene. Sort of like Kane.

51 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

Obviously on this occasion this was incorrect, but given how accurate bookmakers odds tend to be, I don’t think they belong in a thread like this without spoiler tags. Even if you watch a show thinking it’s been spoiled and that turns out to be wrong it can ruin your enjoyment somewhat.

As far as the actual winner goes, I’ve always been fond of Edge, but as the match progressed I found myself really hoping this was Bryan or Big E’s year. The fact Orton was taken out telegraphed very early on that it likely was not going to be.

I feel slightly deflated by the result, which I wouldn’t have expected if you’d told me Edge was going to win ahead of time. 

I feel the same, and I love Edge. His return last year was my favourite Rumble moment ever, I was excited when he announced he was competing this year.

Been thinking about it for the last few hours. I think it's because he didn't need it. He's a legendary Hall of Famer. On the same show that Goldberg got a title match... umm, because he showed up and said so, it feels weird that Edge had to go coast to coast in the Rumble just to get the same opportunity.

That, and Edge vs. McIntyre or Edge vs. Reigns do nothing for me. I've been wanting Edge vs. AJ Styles and Edge vs. Seth Rollins since last year's Rumble.