undercover elephant

My new found investment from the weekend is a future programme from Strong and Lethal in ROH.

After 30th June, Main Event in Aus won't be showing anymore TNA as they won't be renewing their contract with them. Can't say I'm that fucking bothered, although someone from Foxtel recently said that if RoH could find a distributor in Australia then the chances are that they will be featured in the future.

I felt that during the Owens segment, Cena pretty much pushed Owen into a dead end when he referenced the cancer patient holding the sign. From that moment Owens couldn't exactly come back at Cena in response. What could he say? Never give up I suppose!

Although I can't stand listening to Wade Keller and his shite phone line set up, his chat with Joe Koff was pretty interesting last week. Jericho ruining the Owens interview once again.

NXT's always been great though. The tide hasn't turned, it's just got bigger. Waves up to our ears.

That just reminded me. I've got to try and find my speech and go figure it out (of)

 

The tide really has turned now

 

Turned from where to where? WWE's going to go from undisputed number one and most successful wrestling promotion in North America to undisputed number one and most successful wrestling promotion in North America?

Quality of output compared to Raw for example. Mundane story lines poorly told compared to the way Hunter and Dogg see it. Adding Joe to a list of incredible talent in and out of the ring exceeds the majority of what main roster stars are given by the likes of Vince and Dunn

Game changer for that Joe entrance alone. The tide really has turned now. That was a solid wrestling show for two hours. As for keeping his name that is just brilliant by Hunter.

 

The Womans title match was brilliant. Both worked it very well and told a nice little story on selling. Both stars.

 

God it's got a high production level compared to ROH but "they're" bad for having Sinclair doing sod all on production to the level it should by now. I don't want to see any of this NXT roster on main TV because it won't be the same as where it is right now and thriving at this level of competition. I don't want to see this change but only time will tell when Vince rolls them out.

 

I do honestly wonder where the ratings would be if this was on USA for example or going up against a Raw from back in the day. WWE have done an excellent job getting over NXT on mainstream for the past few weeks, especially in the build up to their last showcase on the Network.

I quite liked the Finn Balor podcast with Jericho. With Devitt, I just wished that he could go back to his old name on the main roster but wishful thinking unfortunately

A tad surprised with some of the negative Owens comments on his promo. I was pretty lit when I watched this afternoon and was screaming that they hit a home run on this as it unfolded. I was sceptical on Cena doing the job right away for Owens, but both I thought delivered exactly as I wanted it to happen. What more could you want to set up NXT and a programme with Cena. Clearly he wants to work with Owens so I look at it as a good thing. I thought he fitted in quite nicely on Raw. He didn't look out of place at all I thought.

 

I've got no problem with the Owens look whatsoever. Fat, thin, athletic, giant whatever, he's Kevin fucking Steen and he'll do well whatever he's thrown by Hunter

Rusev reminds me of Umaga. Unstoppable monster, hugely over, had a manager everyone loved. Then they took the manager away, he got humanized by a bunch of defeats to high profile wrestlers and he became just another guy. Hopefully for Rusev's case he doesn't slip into the midcard. WWE midcard in 2015 is the last place you want to be. Exchanging wins and losses with the likes of Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose is the holding pattern position.

Interesting thoughts. If Rusev is the only guy they have who did have a clear directive on his booking for several months on end. The Lana pairing still had so much more mileage to move past the summer and into next year if done the right way long term. The outcome to where he stands today thus far has been mixed. Some great positives, yet the negatives seem fairly straightforward to iron out. If they want to piss all over it then the likes of Ziggler, Barrett, Seamus and the rest of the nobodies they've turned them into are pretty much doomed to fail. I'm completely over King Barrett now! Jeez what a waste of his services in modern Pro Wrestling. They succeed making me not think much of their product bar NXT.

Anyone listened to Dixie on Austins show yet? Worth it?

Lie Detector test!

Kurt Angle's music hits. Crowd pop. 10 seconds go by and Tyler Breeze walks out. Enter the WWE's newest heel.

 

Genius idea. But you know they wouldn't dream of doing something so brilliant like that

I'm at a lost for words by sticking Dean Ambrose in the four way. What you see is what you get with what looks like no real thought than lets throw Ambrose in with them! For good measure why not have Lana lose her accent, wear good Ol red, white and blue and suck up with Cena!

It's the whole lengthy process to signing someone for NXT development that's had a good licking from previous promotions, earn hardly any money unless given guaranteed contracts until they move to the main roster and make some good money.

 

What happened to monitoring someone's style and try to eliminate the amount of high risk moves which can easily put paid to their career sooner rather than later. For me personally I think it was such a lunatic idea to bring Bryan back when they did. So why the fook did they not protect his safety with his neck injury allegedly knowing full well his prognosis. It's a basic question to ask someone.

 

I've seen in the past two weeks several AFL players suffer concussions in games. When early reports suggested these players may return the following weekend, the alarm bell started ringing in the media. Thankfully several players made the right choices and sat another week out to recover. The emphasis to play the following week is such a warrior type thing here, but sense has to prevail for their futures.

 

The same for guys like Ziggler and Bryan. The bump card slogan is certainly at the forefront for many wrestlers all across the board.

Yeah, I thought the interview was pretty good too. Anybody disappointed needs to manage their expectations of these things. Obviously Stone Cold's shows were better, but he's in a league of his own with this stuff. While I'd be disappointed if we didn't see Austin do these Network shows in the future, Jericho is a decent fit for the role and it's the sort of content I want from the Network.

Your expectations on "these things" clearly differ to many others, which is natural I guess. But insulting peoples intelligence (wwe) with the content instructed from Vince down to Jericho and Cena is laughable don't you think? I must manage my expectations on future network exclusives and fully prepare myself for Camp WWE, then get told what did I expect from that pile of shite!

I watched it purely to only confirm what we knew all along with a bit of thought leading in post Raw. A pally 60 minutes with nothing of any real interest other than the pair liking their "in house" shtick. I'm just really not into his kind of interviews to get a real feel of a story being told by his guests.

 

I've not yet listened to Steve Austin's thoughts on not continuing his run of interviews on the Network and its a clear indication of Vince's thoughts on content airing live or recorded.

Renee and Regal are fine for NXT, but they're nowhere near good enough to be mainstream wrestling commentators. Even considering the quality of the mainstream commentators. Commentary is the one thing Renee falls down on. Probably wouldn't have hurt in the circumstances though.

I think she's got enough experience behind her from NXT and backstage segments on Raw. It wouldn't hurt to put her out there during Divas matches to sample a taste. Eventually I hope they do use her in some capacity on the mainstream broadcast in the future.

Of course Vince wasn't going to put two replacements in Renee and William Regal out there, which I think would have come across a million times better for what followed. It wasn't a hard thing to make happen I thought with a bit of thought. I think Saxton comes across a bit dry at times in his delivery. I am and I'm not blaming Byron for not making more of an opportunity than he did out there. Everyone's been saying the same thing on this issue, and alleged comments posted here on Vince's thoughts echos the mindset.

 

I pictured Regal selling the carnage that Brock saying he can't believe what has just happens out here with Brock. He can call him a bloody nutter on camera and that it's bloody mayhem out there, something along those lines. Adding Renee as a duo by far would have exceeded expectations better than a solo guy, regardless of whether he was meant to be playing a somber looking replacement, the bottom line unfortunately was he sucked big time the night after Wrestlemania.

 

Unless Vince was convinced that this was going to work for the remaining two hours, then I blame Vince for that decision as there is nobody else.

I think Steph's problem as a character is that she embodies the 'Reality era' in the sense that when she puts people down it's often based on real life factors which takes me out of the moment.

And that's what I think too. It's real life played out on screen which makes it more intriguing to listen and watch. People in the back know what's going on out there. They know what she's implying in her promos. They're puppets, all of them are.

Has Michael Cole been written off television from last weeks angle, or is the company STILL going through the process of bringing back guys who've taken a beating, then returning one week later?

 

I personally feel that nearly one week on, they may have screwed up a golden opportunity the night after Wrestlemania on Raw having someone like Renee Young do something out there on commentary. This echos the mainstream content prior to Mania on various news and sports outlets. A deer in the headlights strings to mind sending out Saxton to the wolves. Who knows what level of preparation he had prior to walking out there taking over for two hours.

 

The moment Lawler joined him was proof in the pudding that they had problems. Strange, very strange.

Then he'll look an ass for doing that in front of a live audience so yeah, I'd like to watch that go down.

Was last night not taped for the Network?

If Brock's staying, which i increasingly think he is with how thick the WWE are laying it on, I'd like to see Rollins cash in on Lesnar.

Brock 'The Babyface Murderer' Lesnar chasing after and killing The Authority for a few months sounds ace.

Maybe even have Heyman turn on Brock and join The Authority. He could blame Lesnar for ring selfish, with the stories assumption being that Lesnar isn't coming back.

They could be acting all cocky for a month or so thinking they'd got away with it. Then one night, when they're all celebrating a victory together out comes Brock and kills everyone.

I'd be fine with that.

I really do hate the thought of Heyman turning on Brock. They killed off the Undertaker streak and this particular build up with Wyatt just isn't the same for The Taker character, none whatsoever.

 

With Heyman turning, it makes business sense for the deranged McMahon to run with going on his current (no) form, but turning Paul in whatever direction they map out from then on will not be the same again I don't believe if Brock and Heyman ever reunite further down the line for a programme.

 

Everything Heyman speaks about Brock makes no sense to have a weak reason to betray Lesner. Selfish? That's Paul fucking Heyman right there. Money? Selling out? Why? Lesner is a money kickass machine. A humble Paul Heyman selling his soul or spewing his reasons for turning to join the power force is plain stupid to run with. Heyman stands for sticking it to anyone including Vince so I can't fully justify why I think it could be a good thing to do.

Just heard a story and saw various pictures tweeted from a group of guys who all sat in the front row facing the hard camera on Raw last night. Basically they all dressed up as wrestlers, for example I spotted Macho Man, Jake the Snake, Hogan etc.

 

At some point later in the show they were informed to remove the costumes, given various Cena merchandise to wear then posted sad looking pictures of what happened.

 

Unless you turn up wearing Pro IS shirts then I can assume anything goes! Darts sprung to mind when seeing the characters all dressed up. What the fuck has happened to this company who feel the need to inform a group of paying customers, paying homage to past stars that you tell them to take them off. Jesus Christ this whole company is a bloody joke now.

I think the feature of Reigns in that video made Heyman's promo this time around a bit more special than last week. Everything he said is true. Rollins, Montreal (again) the mic cutting out the second time was right on the mark. Without question the man of this programme.

 

Brock has the easiest gig on the planet. He just stood there! Effective to a degree, but wanting more, like calling out Reigns and making him look even more exposed in the build up.

 

What reason if any for not using the real Sting for his voiceover? Why? The video package was actually decent, but listening to this piece of audio doing the rounds which does sound like Dolph Ziggler, I'm now really fucking confused!