Official Pro-Wrestling Thread (WWE, TNA, ROH etc.)

[sledger]

What an awesome Royal Rumble. Great matches from top to bottom and an awesome Royal Rumble event. I called it in my predictions, Edge wins the Royal Rumble! Best booking decision WWE has made in quite some time.

Was genuinely surprised at how quickly Triple H got eliminated. But looking back, he was pointing to his quad and it seems that he's pulled his quad again. I hope I'm wrong but it seems like Triple H got injured during the Royal Rumble match.

Edge going on to main event Wrestlemania is fantastic. WWE were really stale without him and he adds so much to the shows.

Hmmm, bit dissapointing if that turns out to be the case actually, could have sever implications as well. Apparently HHH was a strong favourite to win the match, according to the Wrestling Observer newsletter. As such it makes me wonder if the decision to give Edge the win was done ad-hoc, it did strike me that the way he won the match was a bit strange and didn't seem to flow quite as well as the rest of the match. I mean, I would have thought that if they had planned him to win from the very off, then he would have entered at number 30 rather than 29, and it would have come down to him and Jericho as the last two in the ring, and the way he bundled out Cena at the end just seemed a bit improvised to me. Maybe it's just me, but it stuck me that the way Edge came in, quickly eliminated Jericho as if to put the spark back into that particular feud and then just lay around for more or less the rest of the match just didn't quite feel right. Thrilled that he has won mind you.

 

[cricman]

I just marking out giggling like I was 8 years old

didn't see that coming

 

[masterblaster]

Hmmm, bit dissapointing if that turns out to be the case actually, could have sever implications as well. Apparently HHH was a strong favourite to win the match, according to the Wrestling Observer newsletter. As such it makes me wonder if the decision to give Edge the win was done ad-hoc, it did strike me that the way he won the match was a bit strange and didn't seem to flow quite as well as the rest of the match. I mean, I would have thought that if they had planned him to win from the very off, then he would have entered at number 30 rather than 29, and it would have come down to him and Jericho as the last two in the ring, and the way he bundled out Cena at the end just seemed a bit improvised to me. Maybe it's just me, but it stuck me that the way Edge came in, quickly eliminated Jericho as if to put the spark back into that particular feud and then just lay around for more or less the rest of the match just didn't quite feel right. Thrilled that he has won mind you.

I think it was planned for all along. Think about it, the marketing campaign had everyone saying that 'I am the one'. It was pretty obvious that 'The One' would be somebody who's a huge superstar who has been under the radar for a long time.

Reports have been coming out as well that they hid Edge from view backstage and did not allow any backstage visitors to keep it a secret. I don't think it was a ad hoc decision at all. I was wrong about Triple H's injury though and he seems to have maybe just tweaked a muscle or was cramping up at the Royal Rumble.

He faced Jack Swagger in an Elimination Chamber qualifying match and won so that would put an end to any talk of a serious injury. I'm glad too because despite how stale Triple H is, he's always good in big matches.

 

[duffer]

Guys, verdict on the Rumble? Worth the download?

 

[sledger]

Guys, verdict on the Rumble? Worth the download?

Yeah was a good watch imo, good way to spend an evening.


RAW last night looked decent enough, only seen bits of it. The below segment was pretty decent, but so sad to see Bret's attempt at a beat down on Vince and Batista's beat down on Bret just because it shows how really bad Bret's condition must be. The whole thing just looked horrible. That said, should set up for WM nicely.

YouTube - WWE Monday Night Raw 02-01-2010 Part. 10/10 (HD)

Clearly going for the Cena in Bret's corner and Batista in Vince's corner type thing. Loved the Cena chants going up at the end of the show, not heard an ovation like that in a while.

 

[GIMH]

Raw was fantastic all round. The qualifying matches were pretty good and the opening and closing segments were a great watch. Edge was great and the fans are right behind him, and Bret cut a great promo on Vince. Obviously Bret getting Vince into the sharpshooter will wait until Mania.

The line-up for the Raw Chamber is pretty good as well, a few different stories going on in there. I'm thinking anyone bar Cena will get the win, actually can't see Kofi getting it either. Dibiase the outsider on paper but could build us nicely for Mania and Orton's face push. Only problem with Orton and Edge both going face is, well, it leaves us a bit short on heels.

Michaels seemed to be hinting at some sort of retirement storyline to me as well.

And duffer, the undercard is passable but not great, the Rumble match itself is very good, so go for it.

 

[sledger]

Raw was fantastic all round. The qualifying matches were pretty good and the opening and closing segments were a great watch. Edge was great and the fans are right behind him, and Bret cut a great promo on Vince. Obviously Bret getting Vince into the sharpshooter will wait until Mania.

The line-up for the Raw Chamber is pretty good as well, a few different stories going on in there. I'm thinking anyone bar Cena will get the win, actually can't see Kofi getting it either. Dibiase the outsider on paper but could build us nicely for Mania and Orton's face push. Only problem with Orton and Edge both going face is, well, it leaves us a bit short on heels.

Michaels seemed to be hinting at some sort of retirement storyline to me as well.

And duffer, the undercard is passable but not great, the Rumble match itself is very good, so go for it.

Really hope Orton doesn't get the push as a face tbh, he's the best heel the E have going pretty much. I really don't understand why the fans are getting behind him rather than DiBiase, fans usually love the story of the clean cut young guy seeing the light and going at it with his former evil mentor, can't see any logical reason for why it isn't going over well like that. One thing that does seem to be maybe on the cards that would help out with the Heel situation though, is that an HBK heel turn seems to be at least teased at...not sure if they will have the balls to go through with it....but we can hope.

 

[masterblaster]

As we all knew, ECW has come to an end. Vince McMahon came out and said that ECW is no more. Apparently a new show will debut in a couple of weeks time in place of ECW and it will be called WWE NXT.

The show will be focused on the newer generation. What does this mean for the ECW Championship and for Christian? Does he get moved onto Raw or Smackdown? Does he face the WWE Champion or the World Heavyweight Champion in a title unification match? Does he stay on WWE NXT and become the WWE NXT World Heavyweight Champion?

Would he have to relinquish the ECW Championship and then go onto the Elimination Chamber on the Smackdown side of things? It'll be really interesting to see where WWE go with the whole WWE NXT brand and what happens with the title picture there.

 

[Majin]

I really don't understand why the fans are getting behind him rather than DiBiase

think the 'E ****ed that up pretty badly personally, quite like DiBiase personally and have been following him for a while, I remember a few months back on Raw when Orton was having a moan like a little bitch about something and insisted on having a match with DiBiase for "punishment" where Ted was supposed to just stand their getting his ass kicked and not fight back. When he was losing it in that match and you could see the rage in his face and the gears ticking in his brain trying to decide whether to **** it and smash Orton's face in was awesome. When Orton was on the floor and he was looking down on him the crowd was going ****ing insane, the noise was madness considering it'd just been him standing there getting slapped about by Orton. They (and I) were all literally begging him to kill Orton. I reckon if they'd turned him there or soon after and had him stomp Orton down he would have shot over the moon.

but instead they spent an extra few months flip flopping him between being defiant and being a complete bitch to Orton and the whole thing feels like it's lost momentum. I still like DiBiase and tip him for big things but they lost me on the angle when they didn't capitalise on how hot the crowd were for the face turn and instead dragged it out and kept making him look like a bitch.

 

[sledger]

I can understand why it has been dragged out, as these types of angles tend to work best when they have some longevity and can do on the slow burn a bit, so that when they finally come to a head they can make an explosion of overness. I feel that the E began to start the process off a little bit too early maybe and immediately were too full on with the not so subtle defiance of DiBiase, it could yet be salvaged...but I agree that it hasn't been handled quite as well as it might.

 

[GIMH]

YouTube - William Shatner WWE Theme Songs CD ! COMING SOON !

 

[sledger]

YouTube - William Shatner WWE Theme Songs CD ! COMING SOON !

that is fantastic.

 

[duffer]

How for real was that Bret-Vince promo? That segment had heat and I didn't think the beatdown was as horrendous as people made it out to be. Bret still had those furious fists going down but his takedown wasn't the greatest. Those fists though, back in the day it was impossible to no-sell them, they were awesome.

Batista was a nasty surprise for me at the end though, I forgot he even existed until that point, and the face golly should provide the promo material for a few weeks. Though the promo was sick, Bret telling Vince he wasn't fit to lace Stu's jock and Vince retaliating with boring jibes. It was actually relevant to the entire backstory between those guys and delivered well. The only promos I remember Bret being that passionate about were his heel turn against American fans and the one after Owen died. Loved every second of it. Even Batista couldn't ruin that.

 

[GIMH]

TBF even if you don't like Batista he was a logical choice to be the heel to do the run in. I thought a few weeks ago that they might have gone with Jericho, but the animal makes sense. And IIRC him and Cena have only wrestled once.

 

[GIMH]

 

[sledger]

Hahaha, I had forgotten all about Chris Kanyon, another person whose run in the E was pretty forgettable. I seriously don't think I can remember him winning a single match, my only memory of him is being awarded the US title on Smackdown one week, and then spending the rest of his time being buried by Kane and the Undertaker. WAG though, genuinely quite a funny guy.

 

[GIMH]

Smackdown looks stacked tonight, non-spoiler line-up:

* The Cutting Edge Returns
* Beth Phoenix and Mickie James vs. Michelle McCool and Layla
* Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match: John Morrison vs. Kane vs. Drew McIntyre
* Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match: R-Truth vs. Mike Knox
* Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match: CM Punk vs. Batista
* Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match: Chris Jericho vs. Matt Hardy
* Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match: Rey Mysterio vs. Dolph Ziggler

I'm tipping the SD Chamber, therefore, to be Taker-Kane-R-Truth-Punk-Jericho-Mysterio

Not sure on Punk/Batista, confident on the rest.

 

[duffer]

TBF even if you don't like Batista he was a logical choice to be the heel to do the run in. I thought a few weeks ago that they might have gone with Jericho, but the animal makes sense. And IIRC him and Cena have only wrestled once.

Don't disagree, was just enjoying the fact I managed to erase him from my consciousness tbh.

 

[GIMH]

fair
edit - IIRC you don't really watch Smackdown either, so that would make a lot of sense on that front

 

[sledger]

Last night's RAW looks pretty damn good again. Not watched all of it yet but it looks like there were some really decent matches and the Cena/Vince/Bre bit at the end was great.