General

A hybrid of that and Hollywood Rock could kick ass.

Just watched the press conference. They're definitely doing Roman & Rock vs Cody & Seth at WM, with both titles on the line. Guarantee it.

I don’t know how a tag match with titles on the line on both sides would work. Maybe a 4 way with all the titles up for grabs? I’m infinitely more intrigued than I was yesterday that’s for sure.

It wouldn't surprise me if they decide to unify the titles again. WWE can't ever seem to decide how many champions they want to have.

It all just seems like such a convoluted way to get to the only match most folks actually want to see, that being Cody vs Roman. I will say the messiness is more interesting than whatever the road to Rock vs Roman would have been otherwise, but it's still just a bunch of nonsensical booking. Fun enough, but nonsensical.

I'd be sort of into a tag match at Mania... but if it were for the titles, I wouldn't like either outcome. Either Roman retians and Rock becomes WHC which... is lame. Or Seth retains and Cody becomes WWE champ which... deflates Cody's "story" in that he couldn't defeat Roman one on and one and needed partner + the chaos of a tag match to finally win the belt.

If they do a tag match, it needs to just be an exhibition. Maybe they do Rock/Roman vs. Seth/Cody on Night 1, with the winning team deciding what the Night 2 main event is? Rock takes the pinfall to lead to Cody/Roman on Night 2 (with Cody promising his partner, Seth, the first shot at the WWE title should he win as an incentive).

Wouldn't be surprised if it turns into a 4 way... I just don't like the idea of them unifying the titles this early considering Seth is the literal only guy to hold the WHC. And, of course, the crowd would be sorta pissed if it didn't come down to Cody/Roman, so what's the point?

I dunno, hopefully it's a fun road to getting these answers. And I'd also hope, with Rock being on the TKO board and WWE in full-on Mania mode, that he actually shows up weekly along with Roman to move the story forward consistently.

They could always do Rock vs. Cody on night 1 and then Cody vs. Roman night 2. Rock and Cody have a storyline issue now, so it’s plausible. I don’t like that Seth got bumped to the side as hard as he did, but really if he was going to be there at all, that’s what had to happen. A tag match is lame, and somehow a 4 way for all the belts seems worse.

I don't necessarily like any outcome that isn't just straight-up Cody vs Roman II, I'm just trying to piece together possible scenarios for this mess of a storyline.

Cody vs Rock Night 1 then Cody vs Roman Night 2 seems like the best option to take if Rock HAS to be involved at all, but yah like you said, Rollins is the outlier. Why have him out there for the angle at the press conference if he wasn't going to somehow play into the WWE title scenario heading into Mania? Just doesn't make sense, which is why I'm trying to figure out ways for the dude to be involved. Otherwise, having him just be an onlooker for the angle at the presser and then just... go off and fight McIntyre or somebody at Mania makes him look like even more of a doofus.

I don’t know if there’s a solid way out for everyone, but it seems course correction happened hard. We also have like 8 or 9 weeks left and there can be a lot of twists and turns to get it righted. I think we’re all trying to make the best of a crap sandwich right now though.

theJaw wrote:


Unfortunately I don't expect either one to be there tonight. After all that chaos last night, I wouldn't be surprised if they just show a recap on the TitanTron and leave it at that, maybe Triple H or the GM say they were barred from the arena tonight or something. I hope I'm wrong, because even if I don't like the guy, it'd be nice to see The Rock live for the first time in forever (a house show at MSG in June of 2000 would be the last time I've seen him). But we still have to get through Elimination Chamber first, and Roman isn't even booked for that show.

I don't know how tonight's show came across on TV, but it was pretty fun live (I've never been to a live show I didn't have fun at tbh).

I was disappointed at only getting to see Damage Control for like 30 seconds. There wasn't any DC merch either, though now with Bayley kicked out I guess their merch is a bit outdated now and they've probably got new stuff coming. I ended up just getting a Hell Froze Over shirt. Drew was there but they didn't have his meme shirt, and no Judgment Day shirt even though R-Truth was there (and Dirty Dom, but he was only in a backstage segment). As expected, Cody, Randy Orton and CM Punk had the biggest presence at the merch booth.

Of course mega boo's when Paul Heyman said he'd have Roman and The Rock with him next week instead of tonight. I think next Friday they are taping two weeks worth of SD, so good for those fans, but the live crowd doesn't want to hear about what big plans you have for next week, you need to satisfy us tonight.

First dark match was Gable Steveson vs Cedric Alexander. Big pop for Cedric, since he's the hometown boy, he definitely wouldn't have gotten that pop anywhere else. Gable won via Angle Slam. Not a terrible match, but...there's a reason why it was not featured on the show itself. No flippy-floppy stuff from Cedric, which is what got him over during the 205 Live days. Not to sound like a dick, but not sure why either of these guys are kept around. I mean, I guess in Gable's case they want him to improve enough so they can capitalize off his name and Olympic history, but Cedric's time is up. He's lost in the shuffle, they should cut him loose, let him make a name for himself elsewhere and come back as a star, like Cody, Drew, Lashley, etc.

Post-SmackDown dark match #1: Cameron Grimes vs GUNTHER. Pretty decent match, we all knew GUNTHER was going over. People were really wanting to hear his knife-edge chops in person, and they got to. Again, big pop for Grimes for being from the area. Afterward GUNTHER grabbed the mic and said "was this really the best this city has to offer?" cue R-Truth's theme music to one of the loudest pops of the night. GUNTHER says that he is in the best shape of his life, while R-Truth is 55 years old and is no match for him (Google says he is 52, but who am I to correct GUNTHER?) They fight a bit back and forth, then eventually R-Truth has GUNTHER down and he hits a Five Knuckle Shuffle to another big pop.

Post-SmackDown dark match #2: Cody vs Solo
Cody with a big pop (I hope nobody was expecting otherwise). Jimmy was eventually ejected yeeted from ringside when the ref caught him trying to trip Cody. Cody won, grabbed a mic afterwards and gave a turnbuckle pad to a lucky fan. Then he told us a secret that not many people know, and it's that he was actually born in Charlotte, NC. So he had the ring announcer re-announce him again, this time saying he's from Charlotte. Big pop, of course. I don't know if that is true, or if he just says that after every show to make the fans pop, but until I'm convinced otherwise I'm just gonna pretend he only says it for the pop and that every week he was born in [insert city here]. It's more fun that way,

As for the show itself that made it on-air, that tag match with Bate/Dunne vs DIY was good. I couldn't tell from my seat, but was Johnny busted open? For a quick second on the big screen I caught a glimpse and thought his hand/wrist tape might've had blood on it.

R-Truth had a backstage segment. What was it about? I couldn't tell ya, because I couldn't hear a damn word of it. As soon as he appeared on screen the "We Want R-Truth" chants erupted, maybe worried he wasn't really there and this segment was pre-taped or something, because he's from Raw. But because of the chants it was impossible to hear what was being said. Same thing again when Dom was on the screen, I don't know what the heck was being said between he and Kevin Owens except for the last thing Kevin said before Dom walked away. I'll have to catch a replay on Hulu tomorrow and hope it wasn't edited too much (they chop down Raw from 3 hours to 90 minutes every week, idk how much they shorten SD to).

A little disappointed we didn't get a promo or anything from LA Knight, only the viewers at home got to hear him on commentary. Even though I'm starting to not care about him as much these days, I'm all for anyone that can get a live crowd to make noise. AJ Styles vs Drew was good though, as was Sami vs Orton. Am I wrong or did Sami used to have pyro in his entrance? It was the only one tonight I remembered to brace myself for, but then it never came..I thought it was at the "Let's Go!" part.

Ugh....I used to go to the live shows all the time when they came to Winnipeg, but haven't been for many many years. Not on them....but the public events up here have so many stupid rules, massive pain in the ass to find parking, and vendors inside are stupidly priced....just really not worth the hassle anymore.

As for Elimination Chamber, I have this weird hunch that Dom Dom's going to get in somehow. It's also a bit suspicious that none of the Aussie wrestlers are on the card other than Rhea.

It's kinda sad that Jade isn't ready yet, but I trust it'll be worth the wait. I think it would be worse for her to show up and look off.

It sounds like our buddy, Tony Khan, has signed Okada and Mercedes. The AEW roster is ridiculously stacked already and adding Okada, Mercedes, and Ospreay has got to have a lot of people there worried. His roster must be at least double the size of WWE's.

@y2k According to https://www.thesmackdownhotel.com/roster/ -- which lists every member of a roster on any given day (pretty neat site) -- WWE's roster is currently at 234, whereas AEW's is at 200. The idea that AEW's roster is too "bloated" compared to WWE's is another strange creation of the internet. Sure, WWE's roster is split up between Raw, Smackdown and NXT... but the same can be said about Dynamite, Collision and Rampage, just a bit less strict/a bit more crossover. AEW has the best roster in pro wrestling right now, bar none.

This booking leading to Revolution has been the most consistent and interesting build toward a PPV AEW has done in quite a while. Lots of good, ongoing stories and lots of the roster getting used consistently. It feels like after the hectic 2022/2023, AEW is finally getting back on a steady foot in 2024.

I also don't know how much more ready Jade needs to get. Of course everyone can be better, but she improved a lot during her AEW run and her last few matches were legit good (especially her last one vs Statlander). She's at least better than some of the ladies WWE currently books on TV (Jax, Shotzi, Maxxine, etc etc). At this point, it feels like WWE just hasn't pinned down their creative plans for her, but according to her pal and former AEW wrestler Fuego del Sol, she knows of her plans and has said she's excited for them, so we'll see. She looked great at the Rumble so I'm really looking forward to seeing her show up.

Also, in other, grosser news, the stuff coming out about Ashley Massaro -- or, the stuff that's already been out and being revisited about her -- is legit awful. I won't type it here, but look it up if you'd like to see how terrible WWE executives have been in the past. Stephanie McMahon has now been named as being aware of the wrongdoings by Ashley's best friend. It's just wild how deep the corruption in WWE goes.

I'll never stop watching WWE because there are lots of innocent performers/crew members who now depend on that machine for a livable wage but any executive with prior knowledge of the gross practices that went on there need to be ousted fast.

The whole industry has a pretty nasty past. Like Snuka killing some broad, Fabulous Moolah pimping her female trainees out to male wrestlers, the abuse Japanese joshi wrestlers were put through by their trainers, etc., stuff that we didn't learn about until many years after the fact. Social media helps out some, like that #MeToo thing back in 2020 where a bunch of women outed Brit wrestlers as creeps/abusers/rapists, but there's still so much crap we'll never know about.

THIS is the Rock worth watching. Full on heel Rock > catchphrase dork Rock.

Dude for real. Hollywood Bloodline Rock rules.

That is the Rock we’ve wanted to see. That was greatly executed and he looked like he enjoyed it.

Heel Rocky is the only good Rocky. But! This promo just didn't do it for me. I'm not a sports guy, but The Rock is, and sounded a little dumb in his promo with that sports analogy.

If you lose the Super Bowl and the next year get back to the conference championship (Royal Rumble) and win...you do go to the Super Bowl (WrestleMania) again! Duh! They completely glossed over the fact that Cody won and deserves this match with Roman, instead choosing to make it sound as if he was handed this rematch out of nowhere. Brian Gewirtz goofed with writing this promo and I'm surprised Rocky didn't correct him. But then again up until a few weeks ago I doubt either one was keeping up with what was going on with the company or storylines etc.

I think they intentionally glossed over that fact about Cody winning the Rumble. That seems like a very big oversight for Rock to make.

Several TNA talent have Tweeted the hourglass emoji. I wonder if they're all planning to walk out with the crap that happened with Scott D’Amore.

I think I read that a lot of the wrestlers were part of the open letter about bringing Scott back. Maybe the hourglass is them waiting for a response to that. Or, could be what you said. Not sure.

That woman Cara Pipia, that went around to the media claiming to be Ashley Massaro's best friend and that WWE/Vince/Stephanie knew about Ashley Massaro's rape and were trying to cover it up, Ashley's daughter has stepped up to say that Cara and Ashley were no longer friends by the time Ashley passed, and after Ashley passed that woman sent her (the daughter) and other relatives some "unsettling/delirious" messages.

The daughter doesn't deny that what Cara said could be true (because she refuses to watch the videos to know what was said), but says she and her grandmother/Ashley's mom didn't want the situation talked about, especially by "the last person my mom would want speaking on her behalf", but now this ex-friend is trying to get her 15 minutes of fame at the expense of someone she hadn't spoken to in years.

Just when TNA was starting to get some momentum again and morale was up, Anthem blew it.
https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1761198660...

Such a ridiculous decision by Anthem. The roster is clearly super pissed, as they should be.

Yeah I don’t think I would’ve fired the guy that got positive press and momentum going for TNA after all that time of absolute nothing. Allegedly there’s a talent and staff meeting today and I’m sure at some point we’ll find out what happened in it.

Elimination Chamber was good but really predictable. No result was in doubt, but this is one of those times it’s good to go with what we’re expecting. I do wish they’d have a better spot for Bobby Lashley because that dude is money, but it is what it is. We could say that about a ton of people in WWE, and AEW, and TNA, and MLW and everywhere else though.

I gotta be honest, EC bored me to death. It was nowhere near the quality of the other PLE’s that they’ve hosted in different parts of the world. The Women’s EC was fun as hell though, so maybe that being the first match made the rest feel like a slog.

I just finished watching it. Usually 5:00AM is when I'm just going to bed, I wasn't staying up any later for this. Overall I enjoyed it, wasn't disappointed by any match on the card. Predictable outcomes? Yeah, because we have WrestleMania coming up and they're not going to stray off that path for a B-level PLE. I feel like any show in-between Royal Rumble and WrestleMania is always predictable.

I dunno, Elimination Chamber can usually be fun. This one was the first that I feel truly felt “B” level. Usually it feels like a second Rumble to some degree.

Collision is a taped show, why didn't they let the Acclaimed dude redo his rap intro?

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

Collision’s a live show, they tape ROH afterwards though. I missed it tonight. Did Caster fudge up?

Crap you're right, I was mixing it up with Rampage. I've even attended Collision and should know it was live.

I guess he just forgot his lines during his entrance

AEW Fight Forever may have come up a bit short as far as game modes go but I really do love the gameplay. It’s been a reliable “pick up and play for 15 minutes” game for me lately. I guess there is some replayability after all, contrary to my own beliefs.

But they NEED to add more modes. If there was a booker mode in this I’d be all over it.

Fight Forever is exactly what I thought it would be: bare bones, half-baked and a good start. It’s at the same place TNA Impact! was before Midway went bankrupt. Games aren’t easy at all, especially from scratch, and a sequel will surely be good stuff.

Speaking of Fight Forever… anyone want my copy?

Maybe my favorite moment from any Road to WrestleMania. Loved this crap when it happened.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eiwjNtOoUqU

That was great. I like how Rowan basically just went along with Bryan and what he was doing. He didn’t seem too mad haha

You're right that the core Fight Forever game is very good. There are minor tweaks I would make (some indication of how close you are to kicking out/tapping out, slower build till special, more damage from special) but it really is a great spiritual sequel to those N64 games.

However, we are in a streaming world and to get those streaming views they need to have a more robust CAW system. The reason the WWE2K24 games sell so well is you can pretty much (with a little bit of effort) create almost any wrestler ever known. Most of the time I see people streaming a wrestling game they aren't even playing, they are building dream matches and just watching the computer go through the match. When they are actually playing it's an online game and that is another area that FF is lacking. I played Stadium Stampede a couple of times and I can see where people would enjoy it, but I found it frustrating to control.

They also need to evaluate their cost for DLC. Lean into CAW for both wrestler and stadiums, introduce some new match types, and expand the roster.

Yah the DLC prices are too fudgein much. Haven’t bought a single one.

That segment on Raw a couple minutes ago with Judgment Day and Imperium, that's the kind of stuff I like to see, and the stuff I miss from Attitude Era. Two stables that wanna kick each other's asses, doesn't matter that they're both heels, the crowd was into it.

RIP Ole Anderson

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