The Smackers Thread

[BomberPat]

the Rumble winner not main eventing Wrestlemania isn't the worst thing in the world - they can be selective about whether they say "main event of Wrestlemania" or "guaranteed World Title shot at Wrestlemania" depending on what they're selling - but whatever main events over it should be pretty exceptional; or, given they have two "World" titles for the men and two for the women, it should be one of the other titles main eventing. It doesn't really make sense to effectively have four "World" Titles and two nights of Wrestlemania, yet find a way to close one night of 'Mania without any of those champions in it.

What makes this time around particularly egregious, though, is that the point of "main event of Wrestlemania" has become the story. That CM Punk really wants to main event Wrestlemania, and apparently him having a strop about that a decade ago allows his match to take precedence over any of the World Title matches. Even ignoring the fact that the reason CM Punk felt he deserved to main event Wrestlemania back then was because he'd been champion for most of the preceding year, so by his own standards hasn't earned the spot over Gunther or Cody Rhodes this year, if the story is "CM Punk wants to main event Wrestlemania", then can anyone come up with a less satisfying way to reach that conclusion than just having somebody tell him, "oh by the way, your match is main eventing". It's not something he's had to fight for or earn, it's not a hard-won accolade, it's just been given to him, and we're expected to feel like him being handed that spot is the fulfilment of a hard-fought for lifelong dream. If they at least tied it into the "favour" that Heyman owed him, it would be something, but apparently they've even flat out said that this isn't the favour. This is just nothing.

[LaGoosh]

9 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

if the story is "CM Punk wants to main event Wrestlemania", then can anyone come up with a less satisfying way to reach that conclusion than just having somebody tell him, "oh by the way, your match is main eventing". It's not something he's had to fight for or earn, it's not a hard-won accolade, it's just been given to him, and we're expected to feel like him being handed that spot is the fulfilment of a hard-fought for lifelong dream

And fundamentally the story here should be "CM Punk wants to win the title in the main event at Wrestlemania". The story just being "CM Punk wants to be in the main event of a Wrestlemania" well he's accomplished that now and he had to do literally nothing whatsoever to get it...so why does the outcome of the match even matter at all? What's the story being told?

Edited March 31, 2025 by LaGoosh

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

If Cena wins the Rumble he doesn't need to turn as Ket King Dwayne has nothing to offer him that is better than the marquee match at Wrestlemania for the world title, so he can't win and turn. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

21 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

the Rumble winner not main eventing Wrestlemania isn't the worst thing in the world - they can be selective about whether they say "main event of Wrestlemania" or "guaranteed World Title shot at Wrestlemania" depending on what they're selling - but whatever main events over it should be pretty exceptional; or, given they have two "World" titles for the men and two for the women, it should be one of the other titles main eventing. It doesn't really make sense to effectively have four "World" Titles and two nights of Wrestlemania, yet find a way to close one night of 'Mania without any of those champions in it.

What makes this time around particularly egregious, though, is that the point of "main event of Wrestlemania" has become the story. That CM Punk really wants to main event Wrestlemania, and apparently him having a strop about that a decade ago allows his match to take precedence over any of the World Title matches. Even ignoring the fact that the reason CM Punk felt he deserved to main event Wrestlemania back then was because he'd been champion for most of the preceding year, so by his own standards hasn't earned the spot over Gunther or Cody Rhodes this year, if the story is "CM Punk wants to main event Wrestlemania", then can anyone come up with a less satisfying way to reach that conclusion than just having somebody tell him, "oh by the way, your match is main eventing". It's not something he's had to fight for or earn, it's not a hard-won accolade, it's just been given to him, and we're expected to feel like him being handed that spot is the fulfilment of a hard-fought for lifelong dream. If they at least tied it into the "favour" that Heyman owed him, it would be something, but apparently they've even flat out said that this isn't the favour. This is just nothing.

I think the favour thing is really interesting - and I could just be seeing something that's not there - but when Punk dropped the 'that's not the favour that I'm owed' line, Heyman responded like he was shocked/like his team had missed the winning penalty.

I like the idea of Roman being so on edge about what this favour is that he's having Heyman pre-suppose what Punk wants to get it over with. 

That'd be a fun little wrinkle.

[tiger_rick]

1 minute ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

If Cena wins the Rumble he doesn't need to turn as Ket King Dwayne has nothing to offer him that is better than the marquee match at Wrestlemania for the world title, so he can't win and turn. 

Didn't he already win the Chamber before the turn? Will bow to your knowledge if incorrect.

[Supremo]

CM Punk just getting the Mania Main Event anyway is another in a worryingly growing list of Vince-style, dead-end writing. Come up with a clever hook or a big angle, but then have absolutely no idea where it’s going or how to pay it off in a satisfying manner.

Woods and Kofi turning on Big E and the Cena heel turn are two more examples. Great ideas fizzling away when they don’t know how to follow them up properly. Echoes of The Nexus invading or CM Punk leaving the company with the Title.

“How are we going to write ourselves out of this?”

”Who cares, just do it and we’ll worry about it afterwards. Have them say YOU PEOPLE.”

[Guest]

Real ones know that Triple H has never been a great booker, he'd just been riding high on long term stories Vince started.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

Didn't he already win the Chamber before the turn? Will bow to your knowledge if incorrect.

He did Tiggs which is a fair point. Never bow to my knowledge, its shite. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, Duke said:

Real ones know that Triple H has never been a great booker, he'd just been riding high on long term stories Vince started.

I didn't think NXT Gold was that bad, but then thinking about it the matches were good and the only booking I can really remember he did was DIY splitting up, feuding, getting back together ad nauseum, so yeah maybe he was always shite.  

[LaGoosh]

20 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

I didn't think NXT Gold was that bad, but then thinking about it the matches were good and the only booking I can really remember he did was DIY splitting up, feuding, getting back together ad nauseum, so yeah maybe he was always shite.  

NXT original black and gold was logical, coherent and good meat and potatoes wrestling TV booking at a time where that was in short supply. Additionally they had a lot of really great acts coming through at the time. It's definitely thought of as being way better than it actually was but that's due to how miserably shit the rest of the US scene was at the time. Once Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano and the like started coming in and it turned into this weird WWE Super Indy it was fucking shite and far removed what originally made it good.

The worst thing it did though was convince everyone Triple H was a super booker when that good run was actually booked by Ryan Ward.

[DavidB6937]

Both Gunther and Jey have been booked better previously.

Gunther's title run in general has been a mess, and then you pair him with a guy who needs strong booking to bring him up a level.. well, no one has been done any favours in this situation unfortunately. 

It was always going to be an uphill battle especially it being a rematch. I'm not sure how much of it is on Jey not stepping up. I feel like the writers never really attempted to present the match and feud as anywhere near as important as anything else. And as we've said, perception is a massive thing. If they're not arsed about it then why should anyone else be.

It was an interesting decision and an opportunity but I think it's a failed one on all levels really. Especially when all results feel disappointing. Gunther wins again? Then what? And Jey as champion? He'd probably lose it on the Raw after at this rate if he's lucky, otherwise night 2.

[Devon Malcolm]

I didn't watch it because I've had an absolute shit of a cold the last week and I didn't want to feel worse, but I did watch the Reigns / Punk / Rollins segment and this made me laugh my arse off.

[d-d-d-dAz]

THE INTERNET is saying Kevin Owens is injured.

I'm surprised the possibility wasn't spoken about coming out of Smackdown actually, as he was walking terribly. He had a really bad limp that kept getting worst.

 

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

THE INTERNET is saying Kevin Owens is injured.

I'm surprised the possibility wasn't spoken about coming out of Smackdown actually, as he was walking terribly. He had a really bad limp that kept getting worst.

 

He’s going to address it tonight apparently.

Someone in a group chat suggested that he still has the match with Randy at Mania, because he deserves to have a big match after being injured for so long and her reasoning was, because Cody wrestled Seth with a torn pec.

[Kfogg1991]

If anyone wants to watch a contender for the worst most amateur/embarrassing in ring segment featuring two main characters go watch the Charlotte/Tiffany shocker.

Almost immediately forgot everything and went full shoot on each other with Charlotte coming off worse didn't serve any purpose because went off script dreadful.