General

We'll know if Rousey's there if the Men's Rumble happens first.

I'm really hoping Asuka returns and maybe Kairi being a surprise entrant. I know Kairi just opened up her own gym in Japan and is not interested in moving back to the US, but maybe she'd agree to a one off appearance.

Can't complain about drawing Rhia Ripley but no surprise with who WWE had win bot the men and women's rumble. WWE is pathetic, no wonder talent goes elsewhere.

mcorrado wrote:

One of the worst RR I've seen in a while.. Woman's > Men's

Mens: No real surprises, crapty celebrity appearances, the Kofi botch and the last 5 guys remaining: Bad Bunny, Shane O'Mac, Riddle, Brock, McEntyre.. Really WWE?

The Edge/Miz match was lame as hell..

Brock/Lashey: Everyone saw the swerve coming as soon as the ref got bumped...

Even the women’s match was pretty dull IMO. Mickie James with Hardcore Country entrance was awesome….but they had to spoil it be announcing it before hand.

Reigns/Rollins was great but a crap ending to protect Rollins and make Reigns look weak. Shield entrance was a nice touch.

Also not sure why Lesnar needed to win the Rumble. Don’t rematch clauses still exist or did they drop that in their screwy universe logic where guys can just demand a title shot? Lesnar getting screwed already sets up that storyline. Should’ve let Big E or Drew win if the plan is for one of them to face Lashley.

I liked the Rollins/Reigns ending, helps continue the story between the two guys and it’s honestly one of the only good stories WWE has bothered to build.

Otherwise yah, pretty average show.

theJaw wrote:

yeah, but this story will be bastardized by brock lesner getting revenge..

theJaw wrote:

How do you see the story continuing? If Brock is facing Reigns at wrestlemania, does it just mean Rollins loses at the next PPV to Reigns or they'll visit the feud after wrestlemania?

@shadyfozzie @mcorrado

To be fair, Brock has a built in story with both men already - we can't forget WrestleMania 31. I think either they keep Rollins in the mix and book a proper Triple Threat for Mania instead of an impromptu Cash-In Triple Threat. OR they simply treat it like all the best feuds in WWE's history - simply book the Rollins/Reigns rivalry the way they've done with several successful rivalries - book it as on/off feud while (hopefully) staying consistently good. Think Rock/Austin, Taker/Mankind, HBK/HHH, list goes on. All these rivalries are only so strong because they started, then stopped, then started again, then stopped, then started again. That way every time they hooked up, it was actually interesting and worth watching.

I think either of those could work but of course, WWE is certainly capable of absolutely destroying any good will they gain with fans so they could just poo poo all over it. Definitely a possibility.

Oof, I gotta disagree with "crapty celebrity appearances". I'll give you that for Johnny Knoxville, but I guess at least he got physical in there unlike Drew Carey 20 years ago. But Bad Bunny, gimme a break, the dude is in there bumping around as much as the actual full timers. I won't listen to his music but he got my respect after last year's WM appearance. He legit spent months training for that crap, it wasn't just him showing up for a payday or free publicity (as if he needs it). He raised the bar for what I expect when celebrities get booked in a high profile match.


I wanna know how Kofi's spot would've played out this year had he not botched it. These Rumble matches are planned out down to every little detail in advance, I'm glad they didn't just pretend both feet didn't hit the floor even though we clearly saw they did.

Apparently during the Becky lunch match the wrestlemania sign caught on fire.. anyone see this?

Yeah and then it caught fire again after the Men’s Rumble lol

Supposedly there's a lot of heat on Shane O'Mac. Plans for the Rumble were changing throughout the day and he insisted he should be one of the last men eliminated. He had Seth Rollins in it at one point. Lots of people going to Vince to complain which lead to everything getting scrapped again.

@theJaw I can see them revisiting Rollins Reigns in the future, but I don't get why they even booked the last month the way they did.

Why put the Belt on Brock, only to lose at the rumble and then win the rumble? Brock already was feuding with Reigns and he didn't need to win the belt at Day 1.

If your theory is right, Rollins is going to disappear from the title picture/Reigns feud? It's honestly their best story line. I also don't want go see another triple threat main event. They've done this far too often and honestly diminishes the value of winning the rumble.

Same thing with Ronda Coming back. She didn't need to win. Have her show up after Becky's match, then have her tear down the wens division leading up to mania and basically forcing a match. Have someone else win the rumble to actually build another wrestler up.

I think everyone is sick of seeing the same handful of guys going after main championships over and over again... Reigns, Rollins, Lesner, Lashey, Big E.. give us some new blood already.. it's getting stale IMO..

shadyfozzie wrote:

I agree with that (except for maybe Big E). But yeah, the Rumble match itself needs to be booked differently, imo. I want the winner to be someone that hasn't already had multiple world title runs in the past. This match needs to be used to elevate someone new, or else it feels pointless. They have a year to decide on one talent that hasn't been to the main event yet but that people can get behind.

Of the last 5 Rumble winners: Brock Lesnar, Edge, Drew McIntyre, Seth Rollins, Shinsuke Nakamura.
I'd argue that Seth, Edge and Brock did not need those wins. It just doesn't feel as special to see someone get a guaranteed title shot for a title they've already held multiple times. Nakamura's win was special (though how they booked him after that wasn't). Drew's was too, even if you saw it coming a mile away. Riddle was (allegedly) supposed to have won this year's and I'd have preferred that over Brock.

Yep, I'll allow it.

image

Just How Much of an butt-hole WAS the Hulk Hogan Character, Anyway?
https://www.fanbyte.com/wrestling/just-how-much-of...

Brian Kendrick vs Jon Moxley tomorrow on Dynamite. I'm looking forward to that.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:


It must've been true. He's gone from the company. I guess it could've been a combination of how he booked the Rumble and the utter flop that Raw Underground turned out to be, maybe Vince thinks he's got nothing to offer on the creative side of things.

As much as i been chirping at wwe for various things

vince did the right by letting shane go

in wrestling business especially when vince is involved if there is backstage heat from individuals more times than not they will be let go.

However what gave Shane the right to put his ego power in play to try and get attention when he was booking, I mean he been gone for how many years now before coming back.

The raw underground was a failure if the company wanted to showcase talent just stick to the old NXT before NXT 2.0

anyway looking forward to dynamite tonight

PizzaTheHutt wrote:


Welp, that match isn't happening. An old video from 2011 has resurfaced of Brian Kendrick saying some really stupid crap. Tony Khan has removed him from tonight's card.

Yah saw that. No loss. Great talent in ring but I’m fine with not giving anti Semitic folks work. Didn’t realize he was like that. I have the shoot DVD he and London did years ago and he seemed cool enough then. Oh well.

Looking forward to see if they can pull out a surprise replacement or if they’re gonna give the spot to a roster member.

Damn Mox vs. Yuta was great, glad they gave it to a dude who could use some legit spotlight. Great showing from Yuta. And the combo of Orange Cassidy & Danhausen at ringside is never going to be a bad thing in my eyes.

Goldberg vs Roman reigns at elimination chamber

Rousey vs flair

Hopefully fans will
Witness good matches

I stand correct Goldberg vs reigns next week on smackdown

Chyna vs. Chono. Took until today for me to find out Chyna worked Japan intergender matches (also worked Tanahashi and a few others). Pretty fudgein stiff. Not a classic or anything but definitely makes me appreciate her more, very much an underappreciated wrestler.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8kmIw9IL6Y

Went to Baltimore Celebfest today. This was definitely the highlight:

image

lol that's awesome

I have tickets to go to Dynamite in San Antonio in March, would be just my 4th show, but excited.

@PizzaTheHutt

nice photo brings me memories of two commentators before one went on to do baseball while the other one went to impact to announce

Having said that i pick tony any day over mike tenay

Jim Ross to me is one of the best next to Michael Cole and the Gorilla Monsoon third

speaking of announcers i'm going to delve into announcing pairs


Gorilla monsoon with the brain bobby heenan wa shilarious
mcmahon and jesse ventura they were a riot
ross and the king jerry lawler they were awesome

notable mentions

marc lowrence and i forgot his co announcer (i used to watch a lot of wccw)
and yes i will mention schiovane and tenay

Keith Lee in AEW now.

by gawd

So pumped for Keith Lee. Dude is a fudging MACHINE, his PWG run was insanely good. WWE ate crap with that one, can't wait to see what he does now.

Holy (——)

Cody coming back to wwe? Really

I mean why leave something you help create and now you want to be in wwe again

lazarro wrote:

I doubt it was completely his choice. If reports are to be believed, there has been friction between Cody and the other EVPs for months now, and Tony Khan also came out recently and said "with all these great wrestlers joining, I won't be able to renew every contract". Even Cody has come out and said that they're not as tight as they used to be. Feel like this all sorta stems from that stuff.

If he's not getting along with them as well as he once did, WWE is really the only other option to provide for his family with a paycheck anywhere near what he's been making, so you can't really fault him. I don't have faith WWE will book him well, but he'll probably get a nice little program or two at the start. That is, if he even goes to WWE - we still don't know.

Also wouldn't surprise me whatsoever if this is all just a work.

Yeah, my first thought was it has to be a work. But then again, if WWE can send Shane home, maybe this doesn't seem so unbelievable after all.

205 Live is dead. Tonight begins that spin-off show for NXT they were planning before the pandemic ruined everything. NXT: Level Up is being taped tonight.