SpykeDudlei1

JBL has to be right up there. Absolute waste of a good title reign…….

<awaits @d-d-d-dAz’ arrival! 😀

3 minutes ago, air_raid said:

 

Plus The Islanders were Haku & Tama (Sam Fatu). There's storyline kinship between the families dating back to the Coliseum Video days.

If the work of Sean Mooney has been involved in some way, that’s all I need to make it credible.

28 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

Underwhelmed by the thought of Jey Uso (who autocorrect changed to Jet Using) Vs Damian Priest but at least they are focusing on newer guys for main event slots.

I’m ok with it as they probably need a popular holding challenger that offers a genuine threat but will ultimately fall short so they can hold off McIntyre getting his shot until the Glasgow event.

edit: sorry @air_raid - replied to Snitsky before reading your follow-up post and basically made the same point as you.

Slightly off-track but in an attempt to digest anything WM related, I’ve just put latest episode of The Bump on which was done today.

I’ve lasted about 10 mins because good god some things can’t be made to look good in the ‘new era’.

The hosts - Megan Morant & Sam Roberts - were clunky, awkward, often cringey. And Liv Morgan who’s just come out as first guest was hardly convincing when talking about the Styles/Knight match.

Off switch: pressed

1 hour ago, RedRooster said:

Carmello Hayes seems a likely option; even though he’s already made a few main roster appearances. It’s a bit of a difficult one to call though, given that some of the obvious options (Cargill, Andrade and Breakker) debuted pre-Mania. Tama Tonga, maybe? Maybe it’ll be more about keeping the momentum going. I could see Rock turning on Reigns, and assuming the role of the leader of The Bloodline. Or maybe we’ll see the opposite happen; although I’m not quite ready to see The Final Boss character disappear, it’s a tremendous gimmick.

Isn’t he straight off to shoot another film? If so, would perhaps make sense for Roman to send him off with a beat down to tee up their future meeting.

15 minutes ago, Snitsky&#x27;s back acne said:

I'm withholding my opinion until Meltzer's star rating is released.

😂

On the subject of Meltzer and his band of merry men, they’ve posted a WMXL review by Bryan Rose. I get it’s all about opinions and they can be quite wide ranging as we’ve seen on this thread alone but this seems to be a finger OFF the pulse view of the night one main event for me…

“The main event of night one was tremendously boring as The Rock and Roman Reigns defeated Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins in one of the most plodding main event matches I have seen in quite some time. They just kept wrestling. They just kept DOING THINGS until finally, The Rock pinned Cody Rhodes, a sign that perhaps a singles match between the two is down the line. Rock looked fine, you got to see him wrestle for a VERY LONG TIME, and didn’t seem out of step. This would have been a fine match if it were maybe 20 minutes shorter. Instead, it was a dull 40-minute bore”

56 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Look, lads. You can dislike her if you want, but just know that you’re wrong. Extremely wrong.

 

There have been people on here, me included, who’ve confessed to getting emotional watching Cody’s moment. Why? Because we’re fans who’ve invested in the human, reality element of the business. She is clearly no different and no matter how much people will say “she needs to stay professional”, it just doesn’t work like that if that’s in your make-up as a human being. And these guys work and live their lives together so have that connection to each other. What some are criticising is what makes the business special for me still.

Michael Cole had emotion in his voice too. He told Cody “I love you” when he hugged him at the end. No issue with that either.

Just now, SuperBacon said:

This is bordering on stalking.

I think we should all know by now that @air_raid is a details person (and I don’t say that as a dig or a bad thing)

2 minutes ago, air_raid said:

For those that don't recall and thus will have been "whooshed" here.... (snipped for brevity)

 

 

..... I had considerably less to say in the pit of my angst.

 

The most frightening aspect of all of this is I can genuinely remember reading all of those as if it were 1 day ago not 1 year.

I became a proper, full-on invested fan again after that main event (and a big chunk of both nights too in fairness).

I, like others, will admit to being emotional for Cody watching it all unfold. I said to my wife if people want to know why we as fans like wrestling it’s that emotional investment I personally don’t feel you even get from films etc.

I don’t need to go into huge detail about each match as others have already done it so well.

I really liked Drew/Seth and seeing him get his moment wasn’t overshadowed by the surprise cash-in. That seems to be set up perfectly for Drew to get the win and reign in Glasgow in June.

Bayley getting her big match and title win was such a reward for her being one of the workhorses of the women’s division and not always being seen as a star due to being in the shadows of Charlotte, Sasha and eventually Becky.

Styles/Knight as a match was ok and not the dud that some suggest but the one thing that bothered me but I haven’t seen it mentioned was Knight’s selling (or not as was more often the case) of the knee. From the early work Styles did on it, Knight just seemed to forget when he made his initial comeback then after the Calf Crusher and ring post smashes on it he started to sell it a bit more but still inconsistently. After the bit with the ring mat being pulled up, there was a point he started walking at ringside then developed more of a limp. Stuff like that irks me.

Night one highlights were Rhea & Becky (especially in light of knowing Becky was dealing with illness) and Rhea has star written all over her. I saw her work in the house show environment in Sheffield last summer and said the same then. Sami’s match and win was special too. Jimmy & Jey really bombed a big chance to have the match many of us (although not all) thought/hoped they would. And I liked how the tag main event went down.

Finally…bye bye to the term “sports entertainment”, don’t let the door hit you on the arse on the way out.

9 hours ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Wonder if Seth turns heel on The Codester tonight. 

Monday night for me rather than tonight. Said something about this a few weeks ago on here and just said it to a mate (same one I messaged about Samantha Irvin)…

The knee ‘injury’ last night leaves Rollins open to Drew taking the title off him.

Cody wins Roman's title.

On Raw, Rollins comes out seemingly to congratulate Cody and ends up turning on him with the reasoning that by trying to help Cody out it cost him his own title.

It's a credible, high profile and competent first challenger for Cody and with him having won their previous PPV meetings it will give fans a thought that maybe Rollins is due one but ultimately fail again.

7 hours ago, Loki said:

In the minority again around here, but I really like Samantha Irvin's announcing - I love the energy and drama she adds to everything and she looked stunning out there.  In the context of Wrestlemania and 74,000 people it made every event feel big.

Just text a very similar message to a mate of mine. I completely agree.

3 minutes ago, Daaaaaad! said:

Clash at the Castlemilk!

That was my other option!

12 hours ago, Daaaaaad! said:

Not sure what castle specifically, but this is quite a shock. 

Clash at the Castle(cary)?

20 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

It's why I think, if he turns, he does so after Mania.

Night 1, maybe The Rock turns on Roman and Cody/Rock cuddle and kiss and mutually masturbate like it was the plan all along; Night 2 shithouse heel Drew beats Rollins, still recuperating from a bruising Night 1; in the main event Cody gets his crowning moment as he defeats Roman Reigns and wins the title.

This drives Rollins mad as he invested time in Cody, got distracted and lost his title... only for it all to be a wheeze set up by Cody and The Rock, so he stomps Cody's head in.

Draft comes, and shithouse heel DM Punk and shithouse face CM Punk are moved to Smacky-D to feud over the consolation prize in the main event, whilst on Raw Cody and Rollins are left to feud over the big boy belt.

Rock and Roman take some time off, before returning to feud over who's THE FINAL BOSS later in the year.

Almost all of this makes total sense. It’s got night after Mania angle written all over it for Rollins/Rhodes to set up his first challenger who won’t win the belt but is a credible enough threat having just been the ‘other’ champ. Also, because Rhodes has his number in their initial meetings it might make a few but into the fact that (surely) Rollins is due one and makes it at least feel achievable.

Only reason I say “almost all” is the Punk involvement as that’s surely months down the track because of his injury so can’t be the immediate angle.

The only issue I’d have with a Rollins heel turn is the impact on his title match on day two.

I realise the clear lines between heel and face are long since dissolved in general but if you turn Rollins, that immediately switches McIntyre’s positioning in the match. He’s been such a great shithouse heel surely it wouldn’t make sense to dilute that.

It would obviously give him his Mania world title moment in front of a crowd but I think he still gets something from that personally without going in as the smiley babyface.

Maybe I’m missing something but just a thought.

13 hours ago, The King of Old School said:

Thought those two had only won qualifiers on Smackdown to advance to the next round rather than straight into the ladder match?

https://www.wwe.com/shows/wrestlemania/40
 

Based on the write-up here on the official site, they decided to do it differently on SD compared to Raw.

18 hours ago, air_raid said:

Just a thought I had. If Otis is teaming with Tozawa instead of Gable in qualifiers for the tag team clusterfuck, might Gable still get added to the ICT match?

I wondered the same. Can’t see how Gable gets overlooked for something significant now Trips has the book instead of ‘he who shall not be named’. No way he ends up in the ‘fill the card schmoz-fest’ surely!

3 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

It's a fine line isn't it. If they're all over each other week on week then it doesn't feel that special when they finally have a match. So I can see why they've been mostly separated. WWE have often had too many interactions between people and lessened the impact. I quite like that they haven't overdone it. There's more than enough there for me to want to see them fight. I don't think it's something that desperately needs more buildup.

I’m going to sound like an old fart with this but that’s why it used to work so much better in the 4 (or 5) PPVs a year era with weekly TV that could keep the big names apart by having them face jobbers with the odd run-in or Brother Love Show/Barber Shop etc segment or showdown.

These days we end up stuck between the rock and a hard place of too little or too much interaction too soon but that so many of the audience have now become accustomed to. So much so that when we have a slow burn, long build storyline like Reigns’ reign, it feels unnatural and a lot of try to pick holes or question the sense of it.

It’s also why rehashes of SNME have never worked because the whole idea of that was it was that extraspecial star vs star opportunity outside of the Big 4.

3 hours ago, Loki said:

I'm quietly hoping that LA Knight v AJ Styles will end up being great, if given enough time.   Always interesting to see two former TNA/Impact champions facing each other at Wrestlemania, from two different eras as well.  Both are guys who seem to excel on a big stage.  Outside of The Rock's match, it's the one I'm most looking forward to on the card right now.  If AJ is up for it, it could be the making of Knight in WWE.

Quoted wrong post 

On 3/11/2024 at 4:20 PM, TildeGuy~! said:

Ali has been announced today, here were the other rumoured inductees.

 

👀

8 hours ago, BomberPat said:

Was it Tod Gordon who told the story of bringing in Kerry as a surprise under a mask, having to explain it to him a dozen times, and then him walking out for his match, in the mask, but with a robe with "KERRY" written across the back?

Full match (with really dodgy camera work) here:

39 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

You were having a shit, weren’t you, and got caught in the moment. 

4 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

If you look back through the thread, quite a few of us thought he was shite as well.

In fairness I was meaning non-UKFFers but for some reason was reading this thread back to front (don’t ask!) so hadn’t seen the other comments on here.

On 2/24/2024 at 11:48 PM, Rockbus2 said:

The casting was really good other than the guy playing Ric Flair having zero charisma whatsoever 

THANK YOU! 🙏🏻 Thought it was just me.