WWE: Unreal Discussion

[air_raid]

On 1/28/2026 at 4:27 PM, The Dart said:

Did Seth Rollins - 10 minutes into his match with LA Knight - decide to fake an injury and allow LA Knight to easily beat him, so CM Punk would not think there was a chance he'd cash in on him 3 weeks later, but ah-ha, I will cash in on you 3 weeks later.

 

On 1/28/2026 at 5:13 PM, Supremo said:

Within the fiction, the character of Seth Rollins gained nothing from faking an injury. He simply lost a match on purpose, went away for a while, came back, and then cashed in on CM Punk exactly how he could have done anyway. The only difference was he got to flamboyantly throw his crutches down before doing so.

It’s giving “Without Indi, the Nazis still find the Ark, still open it, and still die.”

I think this and the “masked twat” spot are just further evidence of their obsession with creating “moments” rather than telling stories. It’s part of the reason MITB endures. The reaction here and now so we can stick it on YouTube etc is all that matters regardless of if it matters to the story three weeks from now. It’s why Rumbles are so often a bit crap and War Games needs to involve Io wearing a bin. “What a moment, Pat!”

[RedTwoster]

I’ve started watching the second season of this, and the thing that has shocked me most (and I appreciate this may have been discussed, I’m not reading the thread to avoid spoilers) is how they completely fail to recognise what they have in Chelsea Green. Why can’t she be the person at the top? Because she’s funny? Book her right, and you have WWE’s version of Toni Storm. What do - the examples Michael Hayes gave as people being above her - Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss and Tiffany Stratton have that Chelsea does not? It’s certainly not charisma or compelling characters. They’re not significantly better in ring either - Bliss isn’t a better wrestler at all actually.

I really hope she leaves and becomes a main event performer for AEW, because that’s what would happen if she ever did make the switch. It really just illustrates how close-minded they are when considering what a top performer can be. 

[Supremo]

It’s one of the most frustrating things about the worked nature of pro-wrestling.

Even if you perform to a certain level and every indicator is that you could go all the way, all it takes is an old fart like Michael Hayes to mumble, “I don’t see it,” and then the rest of your run is them booking you as such to prove they were right. A self-fulfilling circle jerk.

Worse still, they’ll decide from the get go that someone like Charlotte Flair is a superstar and thus will push her relentlessly, over and over again, in the hope she eventually puts in an accidentally great performance, proving they were geniuses all along.

It’s what amuses me watching Roman Reigns these day. He’s great right now, there’s no denying it, but he fucking should be for the amount of chances he had! Give anyone on that roster a decade of the preferential treatment he got and they’d be able to finally find a way to make it work!

Except Seth, of course. Hopeless whopper.

Edited February 14 by Supremo

[RedTwoster]

5 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Even if you perform to a certain level and every indicator is that you could go all the way, all it takes is an old fart like Michael Hayes to mumble, “I don’t see it,” and then the rest of your run is them booking you as such to prove they were right. A self-fulfilling circle jerk.

I do wonder who else has been victim to that kind of conversation - I strongly suspect Dominik Mysterio has, given their reluctance to give him the opportunity the reaction he gets deserves. Chad Gable almost certainly has too. It is, as you said, incredibly frustrating to know that they are creating invisible walls for some of their most entertaining performers for no obvious reason.

[Supremo]

7 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I do wonder who else has been victim to that kind of conversation

My dawg.

[Chili]

27 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I do wonder who else has been victim to that kind of conversation - I strongly suspect Dominik Mysterio has, given their reluctance to give him the opportunity the reaction he gets deserves. Chad Gable almost certainly has too. It is, as you said, incredibly frustrating to know that they are creating invisible walls for some of their most entertaining performers for no obvious reason.

I always figured with Gable he reminds Dana Paul too much of Kurt Angle and he has horrible PTSD about the nerve of the 2000 booking team to pitch Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley actually leaving Triple H for Kurt Angle. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

Do you think it’s something that was always the case, or a situation that’s cropped up in more recent times? You always hear about people back in the day being held back due to size; was it actually as simple as that, and the levelling of the playing field re ‘land of the giants’ meant they need other excuses now?

[RedTwoster]

2 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Do you think it’s something that was always the case, or a situation that’s cropped up in more recent times? You always hear about people back in the day being held back due to size; was it actually as simple as that, and the levelling of the playing field re ‘land of the giants’ meant they need other excuses now?

We’ll never know for sure, but Jon Moxley once said that as soon as you let WWE know you can be funny, you’ve signed your own death warrant. I think they’ve convinced themselves of the idea that you can’t make big money with a comedic character. I don’t think that’s they believe a comedic character can have depth, or that a feud they’re part of can be anything other than silly. Toni Storm and Orange Cassidy, in my opinion, aren’t the exception to the rule, they disprove it.

[thevestofdeanambrose]

Kurt Angle also disproves that theory. He was as goofy as they come but still a legit main eventer. When booked correctly it most definitely works!

The problem with modern WWE is there is no depth to the comedy. It's impossible to succeed past a certain level, when you have to just keep doing the same joke over and over into mid card hell.

[BomberPat]

The reason it's awful to be funny in WWE is because what might begin as you organically showing some personality will, within a month, be them booking you to do their style of comedy, and being someone who LOVES TO HAVE FUN. 

[Arch Stanton]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

The reason it's awful to be funny in WWE is because what might begin as you organically showing some personality will, within a month, be them booking you to do their style of comedy, and being someone who LOVES TO HAVE FUN. 

This has absolutely not been the case with Chelsea though, has it?

[Kamran]

On 2/14/2026 at 2:54 PM, HarmonicGenerator said:

Do you think it’s something that was always the case, or a situation that’s cropped up in more recent times? You always hear about people back in the day being held back due to size; was it actually as simple as that, and the levelling of the playing field re ‘land of the giants’ meant they need other excuses now?

I don't think it's just size too. Thinking back about Rusev, they had a couple of opportunities to push him, first when he faced Cena at Mania but then he also got really over during the whole Rusev Day stuff. For whatever reason, they never used that momentum to push him into the main event.

On 2/14/2026 at 5:54 PM, thevestofdeanambrose said:

Kurt Angle also disproves that theory. He was as goofy as they come but still a legit main eventer. When booked correctly it most definitely works!

The problem with modern WWE is there is no depth to the comedy. It's impossible to succeed past a certain level, when you have to just keep doing the same joke over and over into mid card hell.

My memory isn't the best but did Kurt Angle lean more into the comedy stuff after he was in the main event? The only reason I ask is that they didn't seem to have an issue with it once you're at that level. You've got examples like Triple H and Shawn (DX), King Booker, Steve Austin (Alliance skirts) etc

Although I do think currently most comedy characters seem to have a short shelf life, R-Truth being the exception.

[LaGoosh]

Kurt was always funny from day one really. 

[BomberPat]

12 hours ago, Arch Stanton said:

This has absolutely not been the case with Chelsea though, has it?

I haven't seen of her enough in WWE to know, to be honest. I was more commenting on the Moxley interview where he talked about comedy being a death knell in WWE, because that's how it worked at the time, maybe things are different now. 

A few people have always been good enough, and genuinely funny enough, to rise above WWE comedy - William Regal, Kurt Angle, The New Day - but generally it gets reduced to dancing, bad prop comedy, probably some implied queer panic in there for good measure.

Edited February 16 by BomberPat

[Lenin]

On 2/14/2026 at 2:11 PM, Supremo said:

It’s what amuses me watching Roman Reigns these day. He’s great right now, there’s no denying it, but he fucking should be for the amount of chances he had!

100% this. I saw something at the weekend where he appeared to be bitching about Cody coming in and being THE guy - not sure who was interviewing him - and I was thinking that's a bit rich given you've been pushed constantly for so long that eventually you had to come good. He didn't appear to be on the wind up either and I didn't have him down as someone with a super fragile ego in the way that Seth is. But it's wrestling so no surprises.