The WWE Thread

[Kiva]

Not sure if this is the actual plan, but I feel bad for Reigns. Seeing how messed up he got by Lesnar, with the lump on his head and getting busted open, only to lose again, because Vince doesn't want him to get booed when he wins.

I've felt sorry for Reigns for years. The " smarks " didnt give him a chance before he had even started. I remember going to live events when The Shield were new, people were loving him, they were saying they hope he becomes to new face and takes over Cena. But this is when the dirt sheets were all reporting that Ambrose was going to be the breakout one of the faction. Then one day Meltzer or whoever noted that Vince was high on Roman and then Roman was dead in his boots because people like to think reading behind the scenes politics makes them more of an intellectual and cultured wrestling fan and they like to feel a sense of self worth by throwing a spanner in the works and upset the apple cart. It really made me hate the IWC. I know his promos can be cringe, i know his matches arent super exciting. But dude has been travelling 300 days a year, getting crapped on for no reason of his own and when he legit gets hurt and injured the crowd cheer. It makes all the smart fans look like actual bad human beings. Thinking because they know he is the chosen one its fine for them to wish death upon him on twitter.

But i am kind of over Reigns myself now. I was a fan, but im just done. Any life and enthusiasm i had for the guy has been killed. And its not through his fault. I really hope the superstar shakeup adds some spice to the show, as it should because its a bit stale at the moment.

 

[Hosam-G]

Turn RR heel already. Everyone is booing him!

 

[SwedishHeat]

The best thing for Roman to do is blow out his knee, go away for 8 months and come back after next year's Wrestlemania. People will cheer him on his return.

I'm not sure you can get any heat on him at all at this point.

The main problem being Lesnar is the heel, which is literally the company's choice to be the top star. So you can't turn Roman heel, when Lesnar is a heel, or tweener or something, I'm not sure what his role is. Then you've got Joe, who is a heel, but gets cheered. It's odd because Lesnar and Joe are almost the same character, just go out and be vicious and beat people up. But they cheer Joe and boo Lesnar. I guess mainly because they're tired of Lesnar.

That's what's frustrating about this whole situation is that the company is posturing like Roman is the next big thing, yet they're signing Lesnar to these sweeheart deals. So, in a sense it's hard to make the argument that Roman is "Vince's choice" ... as it's actually clearly Lesnar at this point.

The thing that really gets me is, after 30+ years of this business, Vince hasn't figured it out. Like, how after 4 years of trying, have you still not gotten Roman over? I can only imagine it's much harder than it looks, behind the scenes, but you'd figure as a promoter, he'd understand how people (as a group) operate.

 

[Hosam-G]

The Roman problems, IMO, are:
- The desperate push.
- Being the top guy and baby face of the company in a very short period.
- The lack of moves inside the ring. (All of them are repetitive and executed poorly)
- Bad mic skills.
- Shield attire and theme all the time. (The opposite of Dean and Seth solo run)
- Another image/copy of Cena.

 

[Kiva]

One thing id really change about Reigns is his in-ring style. He has the moveset of a Undertaker and Goldberg hybrid but he sells and does the facials of somebody who fights from underneath. Its a bit contradictory. He does power moves, but sells like he is weak. So when he is laying in the corner looking like he has had his head caved in and then starts doing his superman punches and spears it really doesnt work. It looks like he is no-selling and thats a big bone of contention with the fans because of the wwe "making him look strong".

His mic skills... you cant really click your fingers and fix thoes. He does carry himself in interviews as a cool dude so mabye just no script? I quite like his ring attire, it makes no sense but at the same time its because he has a tubby belly. And even though i was on board for a music change a few years ago, by this point its almost iconic.

Id maybe like to make him the leader of a new trio, but be more of a leader kind. Doesnt wrestle every week, wears a suit or something. Have him be the new leader for the Authors Of Pain?

As much as Reigns is divisive as the WWE likes to say, its really fun discussing him.

 

[guyver1]

I think Reigns just needs to repackage himself , and a start would be going on SDL . On SDL, the formula to be a standout is not so much as Mic skills but wrestling. Seems Raw has become the show where the promos and Mic works are primarily the focus now with the matches as fill ins in between promos and spots.

Whereas SDL is more about the wrestling and actual matches being the focus. This might be due to the extra hour that Raw has so maybe the creative team feels that the extra hour on Raw needs to be filled with promos instead of booking better matches.

I think with the direction that Reigns character is heading, I think he would be more suited as a midcarder on SDL where the expectations are much lower from the fans. The problem is he just doesn’t measure up to a good face wrestler that can win over the Raw audience with mic promos and his wrestling is subpar. That’s why I think putting him in the SDL mid card range would work better as he doesn’t have to be the prime focus and they pull him back and just have him be a presence on the show as a heel.

I hope they do this shakeup right, there is a lot of talent on SDL that needs to help Raw with better booked matches.

Although the Iconics Kay and Royce debut on SDL , I think they would blend better and have more fun on Raw because their appeal is their mic skills. Moon and Mickie James should go to SDL in the exchange because they have better wrestling skills.

For example, I think Iconics forming a faction with Alexa on Raw would be a great storyline until they eventually turn on her and moving Charolette and Natlya back to Raw as heels to this faction would be even better.

They can become the new female nexus taking command of the Raw women’s division

Bayley and Banks would work so much better on SDL and give life to that women’s division, especially now with the angle of Paige being the GM, they can make Paige create better feuds to work with Bayley and Sasha on SDL with Becky, Naomi and even new champ Carmella

Asuka should be on SDL as well

Absolution should breakup with Mandy becoming a face and the Riot squad moving to Raw but this time as faces. Believe it or not, I think even Ruby Riot could work as a face and Liv Morgan should be a face with Logan. Devile to SDL

New Day should come back to Raw along with Owens and Zayn because the Raw tag division needs help .

Balor should definitely move to SDL or AJ come to Raw with part timer Lesnar to SDL

One tag that I would think work well is Corbin to Raw and teaming up with Elias

Miz should go back to SDL and feud with Bryan

Sheamus and Cesaro to SDL to feud with Brothers and USOs

Jeff Hardy to SDL with Balor to recreate the WWE title competition if AJ is still there

 

[dw316]

Here are some wm pics. I loved how each entrance was customized. Unfortunately I don't have cable so I have to wait until tomorrow to watch SmackDown on Hulu. I just caught up on what happened on Raw. Curious about what happens with Owens and Zayn. It would be pretty funny if they temporarily moved both of them back to NXT.

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Nice! How much were your seats? I like the various themes to the set piece. That Undertaker entrance photo is cool.



The heel turn for Nakamura was brilliant. I get that they wanted to "save" more for their next bout, but for their first match billed as a "dream match" I agree they should've let them go all out NJPW style. And for those that follow NJPW, they know heel Nakamura fits his King of Strong Style persona so much better so I'm totally psyched for what's about to come because it allows his his character to let loose. For example, his promo/interview on Smackdown was probably his best yet
Now I'm waiting for Prince Devitt and his infamous Bullet Club to go heel.

Heard the same thing about Nicolas, either a relative of someone or a Make-a-Wish kid. Still though, that was a bloody farce what they did to the credibility of those tag titles, and then to dump them the night after, lame...

Ronda's debut surprised, still green in some areas but for her first match, nicely done. Looking forward to more quality matches as she puts in the work.

 

[karamazov80]

The tickets were a gift from my friend's dad, so I didn't even look at price until just now. Apparently they were $200 a piece! Pretty expensive for that spot, but this is the way it goes nowadays.

I agree that Nakamura's interview was fantastic. "No speak Engrish." The heel approach should work better for him, given that he needs to get by purely on his actions in the ring and his demeanor. I think the same held for a guy like Great Muta. I just saw that WWE Network has old WCW Saturday Night shows from '92, and saw a 2 out of 3 falls match between Muta and Brad Armstrong last night. It went on for about 30 minutes. Really, really good match. And Muta was a face, but his actions in the ring belied that. He would shake the guy's hand, and never cheated, but his moves were so fast and vicious that it seemed weird coming from a good guy.

 

[Grenouille]

Paige has taken to being GM like a young Theo Epstein.

 

[Bardoon]

Roman being brought down to the mid-card for a while and repackaged would be the best thing for his career. WWE has forgotten that is how the system USED to work and did well for years. Successful and popular midcarders eventually became the main event era...look at Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Rock, Stone Cold, Kurt Angle and even John Cena.

Roman has NONE of the charisma of those guys and relies heavily on the scripts. I feel for him as a person and his hard work, but as a character, he sucks and gets the boos because he has NEVER naturally gotten over like many of the other “top dogs”. He’s a manufactured main eventer rather than truly “earning it” in the eyes of the fans. At this point, Vince is acting stubborn towards the fan base to continually push his labrat.

 

[Hosam-G]

WWE Hall of Famer Bruno Sammartino passes away:
https://www.wwe.com/article/bruno-sammartino-passes-away

 

[Shawpaw]

Just watched the HBO Andre the Giant documentary. Brought a tear to my eye. I feel really bad for how it ended with Vince. I get he is a business man but damn, all he saw was $$ signs when Andre wanted out. No wonder SCSA was so popular; people wanted to see Vince get beat.

Great documentary.

 

[Grenouille]

WWE Hall of Famer Bruno Sammartino passes away:
https://www.wwe.com/article/bruno-sammartino-passes-away

One of the better stories of the last decade is WWE finally patching things up with Bruno. It's good to see he gets the recognition he deserves.

 

[Bardoon]

Triple H has been pivotal in a lot of the relationship-patching...

R I P Bruno.

 

[Hosam-G]

HHH is good for business.

 

[guyver1]

Raw is going down hill again ..not enough faces anymore

The shakeup did not help

Hopefully Lashley becomes champ soon

Whenever Roman wins the belt..turn him heel instantly, then feed him to Lashley..done

 

[KingGrayskull]

I never liked Lashley. He is just boring.

 

[karamazov80]

Raw is going down hill again ..not enough faces anymore

The shakeup did not help

Hopefully Lashley becomes champ soon

Whenever Roman wins the belt..turn him heel instantly, then feed him to Lashley..done

As I see it, the main problem with Raw right now is a lack of heels! Watching Raw Monday, Strowman is clearly the guy who should be the primary babyface for Raw. Beyond Lesnar, who I'm guessing is gone after Friday, who is a legit. heel to challenge Reigns? From that POV, I agree with you that Reigns should turn. He would be the instant monster heel Raw needs. But would McMahon do that, after what we've seen with Cena over the years? When he wants to force feed us something, he damn well does that.

They got rid of Samoa Joe, who could be a legit bad-*** if booked right. They brought in Zayn and Owens, but they were weakened tremendously over the last few months, losing in a handicap match to Styles, then getting decimated by Strowman and Lashley on Monday. Jinder Mahal is on a losing streak, and isn't really a main heel anyway. Baron Corbin is going nowhere. Elias is a bit of a joke. Maybe he can get a decent push in the future, but I think his sheen will wear off soon and he'll be relegated to the gimmick-in-a-box dustbin of history.

I think Drew McIntyre could be a heel for the future, but he's not ready for that in primetime, and his teaming with Ziggler suggests a single world title run isn't coming soon.

On the face side, they have Strowman, Lashley (who I'm no fan of, but he's got McMahon's favorite kind of look, and he's decent in-ring), Rollins, and even Balor who could handle things in a pinch.

Smackdown on the other hand has Nakamura and Joe, either one of which could be pretty dominant heels if handled right. Hell, I think Luke Harper could be a bad-*** heel, but WWE is too clueless.

At the end of the day, I don't know that it matters. WWE screws everything up, so it doesn't matter what they have, they won't handle it well. But after Lesnar loses and leaves (which I fully expect Friday), I have no idea where Raw goes with it's main title. Reigns. . .and what? Reigns heel and Strowman face is the only thing that makes much sense to me now, sadly.

I see Aleistair Black as being something potentially special, so that could happen down the road on one show or the other. And Undisputed Era could wreck things similar to the way the Shield did. But they've gotta be booked right. My faith isn't strong.

 

[BurningRage]

Tired of Miz mentioning his kid in every promo.

 

[Grenouille]

Bobby Roode needs to be a heel. Take Glorious away and let him do his thing.