The Smackers Thread

[Supremo]

Most interesting thing about WWE this weekend is seeing how desperate they’ll be to steal the headlines from AEW. With Saturday Night’s Main Event particularly, I’m expecting them to throw a tonne of shit at the wall, just take the focus away of everything that’s just happened in Texas hours earlier.

Roman Reigns’ return and Goldberg winning the Title both feel extremely likely.

[Snitsky's back acne]

Corporate wrestling is pretty boring, isn't it? 

At least 'back in the day' you had the live events if you didn't fancy attending a TV taping and sitting through endless commercials and backstage skits.

Now, there isn't even that. 

Still, look at all the celebrities that are on our show! 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, RedTwoster said:

They’ve also completely missed out on one of the more powerful things Goldberg could say - he’s spent his career telling people they are next. It would have felt pretty significant for him to tell Gunther that he was last.

Unfortunately, he said that to Brock Lesnar almost 10 years ago.

[RedTwoster]

50 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I've said this before but worth pointing out that WWE's previous bad spell lasted over ten years. The problem with WWE has always been that the money has always kept rolling in regardless of how bad the shows are generally and the machine is too big for anyone to take responsibility or lead the charge. From their perspective everything is going fine.

Under the previous bad spell they were effectively a dictatorship - things weren’t going to change unless the man on top decided to, and he wasn’t willing to do that.

And things aren’t as bad as they were during their previous duff spell - they’ve tried some interesting things, it’s just they haven’t worked. Take the Cena heel turn, for example. That was a bold move during his retirement year, and no one would have complained had they run with the predictable route of Cena chasing one final title win. If the heel turn had worked out, that story could have anchored the company in the way the Bloodline plot did. Unfortunately, Cena has been kind of crap as a heel.

Then you could point to the Jey Uso Rumble win - they listened to the crowd and took a risk. He then devolved into a one-note champion who was little more than a catchphrase. This may have been their fault more than his, to be fair.

Point being though, I don’t think they’re coasting, which is what happened during the bleak McMahon years - they’re actually trying new things, and pushing people who deserve to be pushed for the most part. It’s just that things aren’t working too well right now.

That in itself has me hopeful that they’ll eventually get it right again; when the chances they take do pay off.

[Slapnut]

2 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

Then there’s Goldberg’s ‘last match’. The build to this has been so half-hearted that I don’t actually believe it is his last match. I think I he’s going to win and go on a run, or lose in dubious circumstances before wrestling his real final match at Summerslam. They’ve barely mentioned that this is the end for Goldberg, and if it isn’t by design and if this really is the end, they’ve seriously arsed this up. Compare it to Sting’s final match in AEW, and how important that moment was made to feel.

I don’t watch WWE so I won’t pretend to be clued up, but do you think it doesn’t feel like a big deal because he’s only had 12 matches since 2004, the last of which being over 3 years ago? To me, it feels a bit like…so what? You’re hardly ever around so why should I care it’s your last match?

Sting had more than double the amount of matches in AEW alone, and he was also fairly active in TNA for a number of years. That one actually felt meaningful.

[RedTwoster]

44 minutes ago, Slapnut said:

I don’t watch WWE so I won’t pretend to be clued up, but do you think it doesn’t feel like a big deal because he’s only had 12 matches since 2004, the last of which being over 3 years ago? To me, it feels a bit like…so what? You’re hardly ever around so why should I care it’s your last match?

Sting had more than double the amount of matches in AEW alone, and he was also fairly active in TNA for a number of years. That one actually felt meaningful.

I mean, come on - he’s still an enormous star. Since 2004, he’s held the Universal title twice and has consistently been presented as an enormous star. He’s not coming out to crickets either - fans are clearly invested in him. I’d suggest that the number of matches he’s had is kind of irrelevant. The end of his career as an active wrestler matters to enough people for it to be worth making a big fuss about. 

[Slapnut]

I’d say the number of matches is fairly relevant to explain why it doesn’t feel like a big deal to some. It’s hardly the end of an era, is it? I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds it a bit weird that he’s reappeared after 3 and a half years for a retirement match that we all kind of just assumed had already taken place.

Anyway, bit of a tangent but I’d say he had the perfect send-off when he came back in 2016 for the run with Brock. That was almost note perfect. I would go as far as to say every appearance since has been mediocre to outright bad.

But yeah, like I said I don’t watch WWE so I have no idea what the booking has been like, but the idea of Goldberg retirement match under the circumstances doesn’t scream must-see TV to me.

[RedTwoster]

20 minutes ago, Slapnut said:

I’d say the number of matches is fairly relevant to explain why it doesn’t feel like a big deal to some. It’s hardly the end of an era, is it? I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds it a bit weird that he’s reappeared after 3 and a half years for a retirement match that we all kind of just assumed had already taken place

To some, perhaps - but you spoke on a general sense in your initial post. No matter though- I’d argue that anything can feel like a big deal if the build is good enough.

But ultimately, you have a wrestler here who was one of the biggest stars of the attitude era. He’s been treated like a huge star in subsequent years, and has even won further titles. Whether or not Goldberg retiring feels like a big deal ‘to some’ is kind of irrelevant because objectively his final match is a big deal, and will mean something to a good number of people. Why wouldn’t they go big on that? I suspect it’s because it won’t be his last match, and he’s about to win another World title. 

[Guest]

Just now, RedTwoster said:

I suspect it’s because it won’t be his last match, and he’s about to win another World title. 

Whether the second half of this sentence is true or not, I suspect the first half is. They've been hyping "it's Goldberg's last run" for nearly 10 years now. 

My instinct is that he's winning the belt and then Bron spears him and Rollins cashes in.

It's possible they haven't hyped his last match that much because they're in the middle of a retirement storyline with John Cena. You could do two, I suppose, but perhaps they think it would water Cena down a bit?

[DavidB6937]

4 hours ago, Supremo said:

Most interesting thing about WWE this weekend is seeing how desperate they’ll be to steal the headlines from AEW. With Saturday Night’s Main Event particularly, I’m expecting them to throw a tonne of shit at the wall, just take the focus away of everything that’s just happened in Texas hours earlier.

Roman Reigns’ return and Goldberg winning the Title both feel extremely likely.

Thing is they arguably don't even have to do anything massive. Everything they do is to grab headlines and because of their position it usually works. Most of what they do will inevitably get more coverage whether it's good or not. 

[DavidB6937]

4 hours ago, Supremo said:

Most interesting thing about WWE this weekend is seeing how desperate they’ll be to steal the headlines from AEW. With Saturday Night’s Main Event particularly, I’m expecting them to throw a tonne of shit at the wall, just take the focus away of everything that’s just happened in Texas hours earlier.

Roman Reigns’ return and Goldberg winning the Title both feel extremely likely.

Thing is they arguably don't even have to do anything massive. Everything they do is to grab headlines and because of their position it usually works. Most of what they do will inevitably get more coverage whether it's good or not. 

[RedTwoster]

I might just give up on Smackdown for a while. The Road Dogg era has been abysmal on a good day, and this episode was one of the worst 2-hour episodes since Vince McMahon was ousted. 

Why on earth did they even shake-up the Smackdown creative team? What about the Bloodline storyline did they think went badly? The care taken with that plot compared to what’s happening now is mad. 

Alexa Bliss and Charlotte seem to work well together. There’s your positive. Just assume I hated everything else to varying degrees. I can’t even be bothered breaking down why. If you’ve seen the show, that should be obvious.

 

Edited July 19, 2025 by RedTwoster

[LaGoosh]

Didn't watch the show obviously but saw a clip of Cody doing the laziest frog splash I've ever seen through a table while holding a clipboard for some reason and it was so bizarre and silly I burst out laughing. 

[FLips]

I watched the highlights on Youtube and even got bored by that. A literal car crash.

[Kamran]

3 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

I might just give up on Smackdown for a while. The Road Dogg era has been abysmal on a good day, and this episode was one of the worst 2-hour episodes since Vince McMahon was ousted. 

It doesn't seem to be having any impact with ticket sales, they did over 15,000 for what looks like a regular Smackdown. I do wonder how much of that is because of John Cena or whether the wider audience are still enjoying what they see.