The Gaffer Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 (edited) The big issue - something that matters more than actual booking philosophy to me - is that it's still playing out in a format that's fundamentally just so difficult to digest (overlong, over-recapped Sky Sports News style 'action centre' that's primed to generate clips and not flow as a TV show with a start, middle and end), but if Vince is shadow booking this thing then he's doing a very good job of hiding it. Edited August 9, 2022 by Gay as FOOK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted August 9, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted August 9, 2022 Just a thought, with no better thread to dump it in than this one - NEWZ! sites seem to think it will be Roman vs Rock at Mania next year. Incredibly, it will be a longer gap between Rockys last big (advertised) Mania match with Cena at Mania 29 (10 years) than his return from the biiiiig absence after Mania 20 (7 years). Unbelievable. Or still, longer even than the 8 years since Rock/Ronda Steph/Hunter set up the match that never happened, at Mania 31. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsurutagun Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 You can tell Triple H is in charge. Shit is happening in a parking lot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane O' Mac Version 2 Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 I think the thing that makes that tidbit seem more incredible is that the first gap between matches saw Rock completely distance himself from WWE. Between 2004 and 2011, he came back to induct his dad into the HOF, did a tiny pre-tape for Battle of the Billionaires, and another short thing for Smackdown's 10th Anniversary. He went by Dwayne Johnson, lost a ton of muscle, and it seemed like he was totally out the door chasing Hollywood stardom. In the last 10 years, Rock has been far more tied to WWE, with cameo appearances on TV and PPVs (I believe the last proper one was 2019 when Smackdown went to FOX?), plenty of talking head spots on video packages and documentaries, and he's made a sitcom based around his early life and beginnings in pro wrestling. The biggest thing is that he completely embraces his wrestling past now, so he doesn't seem as far removed from it all as he did after WrestleMania XX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Nick James Posted August 9, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted August 9, 2022 If there's one thing this new 'era' of WWE has done, has got me skim watching Raw spoiler free for the first time in years. That Dexter Lumis return was done very well in that they didn't draw attention to it, it almost felt real, like there was an actual issue in the crowd. Bayley mentioning the ballsed up Dakota's name was refreshing too, which is odd to think, but it makes it feel like they have a bit more scope to go off script. If Lumis returning means The Way come back, I'm all for it. Gets Theory away from the main event scene, but puts him back in a role he was good in. Shame Regal isn't around for them to fuck around with. Gargano getting angry and snapping his pencil was hilarious, Regal sold their shit brilliantly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted August 9, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted August 9, 2022 Lumis already! Amazing. The Countdown to Breezango starts now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Gaffer Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, air_raid said: Just a thought, with no better thread to dump it in than this one - NEWZ! sites seem to think it will be Roman vs Rock at Mania next year. Incredibly, it will be a longer gap between Rockys last big (advertised) Mania match with Cena at Mania 29 (10 years) than his return from the biiiiig absence after Mania 20 (7 years). Unbelievable. Or still, longer even than the 8 years since Rock/Ronda Steph/Hunter set up the match that never happened, at Mania 31. The fact that Batista's second return in 2019 was after a year longer - five years - than he was initially gone between his full time run ending in 2010 and the Daniel Bryan WrestleMania still fucks me up a bit. Edited August 9, 2022 by Gay as FOOK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted August 9, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted August 9, 2022 1 hour ago, air_raid said: Just a thought, with no better thread to dump it in than this one - NEWZ! sites seem to think it will be Roman vs Rock at Mania next year. Incredibly, it will be a longer gap between Rockys last big (advertised) Mania match with Cena at Mania 29 (10 years) than his return from the biiiiig absence after Mania 20 (7 years). Unbelievable. Or still, longer even than the 8 years since Rock/Ronda Steph/Hunter set up the match that never happened, at Mania 31. Roman vs. Rock has been on and off the cards for years; if it weren't for the pandemic, I'm sure it would have already happened. It's probably the only match The Rock would come back for, and the fact that Wrestlemania is in Hollywood in 2023 gives it an obvious additional hook. I'm not convinced it's going to happen, though. Aside from The Rock not even showing his face at a pay-per-view gimmicked around him, he's done a surprisingly good job of remaining scandal-free and a "wholesome" celebrity, and obviously has ridiculously high ambitions (the running joke of him running for President probably won't stay a joke forever), and I don't know if he'd want to risk getting involved with WWE while there's still the potential of more skeletons in the closet being exposed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Nick James Posted August 9, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted August 9, 2022 (edited) Speaking of time between, there are 16 years between these two pictures, the man just doesn't age. Edited August 9, 2022 by Nick James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 1 hour ago, BomberPat said: Roman vs. Rock has been on and off the cards for years; if it weren't for the pandemic, I'm sure it would have already happened. It's probably the only match The Rock would come back for, and the fact that Wrestlemania is in Hollywood in 2023 gives it an obvious additional hook. I'm not convinced it's going to happen, though. Aside from The Rock not even showing his face at a pay-per-view gimmicked around him, he's done a surprisingly good job of remaining scandal-free and a "wholesome" celebrity, and obviously has ridiculously high ambitions (the running joke of him running for President probably won't stay a joke forever), and I don't know if he'd want to risk getting involved with WWE while there's still the potential of more skeletons in the closet being exposed. The news sites have been claiming Rock/Roman is happening at “the next Mania” for years now, with different reasonings behind their explanations as to why “this is definitely the year”, and it hasn’t. At this point I believe it’ll go in the same chapter as Austin/Punk, of matches we wanted, but never got. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dart Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 (edited) 29 minutes ago, Matthew said: The news sites have been claiming Rock/Roman is happening at “the next Mania” for years now, with different reasonings behind their explanations as to why “this is definitely the year”, and it hasn’t. At this point I believe it’ll go in the same chapter as Austin/Punk, of matches we wanted, but never got. To be fair to them on this one, if they want to do it in LA - Mania in LA was originally supposed to be last year, so the "it'll happen next year" rumours date back to 2019 for that reason. Edited August 9, 2022 by The Dart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 Rock v Roman at Mania has become one of those ‘say it each year and you’ll be right eventually’ type deals. When they announced Wrestlemania for SoFi Stadium the first time (WM37 as it should’ve been), people were already saying it would be Rock v Roman there even though it was over a year away and WWE were struggling to book things an hour in advance at that time. I don’t doubt that it wasn’t pencilled in to happen, but it’ll only happen if Rock books in the holiday time from his real job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snitsky's back acne Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 At least Hunter is bringing back guys who look like something. I'm dreading the day Johnny Gargano shows up and gets booked as the top babyface on Raw. Is Ezekiel's beat down an indication that gimmick is done you reckon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Nick James Posted August 9, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted August 9, 2022 Just now, Snitsky's back acne said: Is Ezekiel's beat down an indication that gimmick is done you reckon? I presume its a way to write him off to give him time to grow his beard out at least and return as Elias, although, I wouldn't say no to El Vagabundo returning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted August 9, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted August 9, 2022 1 hour ago, Snitsky's back acne said: I'm dreading the day Johnny Gargano shows up and gets booked as the top babyface on Raw. We might be safe - you'd think that if it was going to happen, it would be while RAW was in Cleveland and Tommasso Ciampa had a heavily promoted match. At Summerslam there seemed to be a bit of a story around who had been training Logan Paul, with Michael Cole deciding it must have been AJ Styles when he interfered. Given that they're both from Ohio, and Miz is knocking about with Ciampa, I thought that might have been a way to bring Gargano in as Paul's partner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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