*Official* Pro-Wrestling Thread II

[Athlai]

Kane over Balor the night after Balor goes over AJ in an absolute thriller. Just dumb.

Also, Shane’s first appearance on TV since HIAC and its on Raw and he turns heel? Absolutely no context or backstory to the ‘invasion’. Just ugh.

I actually don’t mind Shane doing that at all. Mild McMahon megalomania is a pretty easy thing to just write in, Kurt 2017 was always going to be the babyface in a Raw vs. SD feud. After Survivor Series it’ll all be forgotten.

 

[sledger]

Will be interesting to see on SD if the SD guys are made out to be faces.

 

[Spikey]

They're Americans who invaded something for absolutely no reason. of course they'll be faces

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Global Wars was fun to watch, especially Chicago. Colt vs Yano was so fun haha.

 

[Shri]

i drafted a fantasy booking post yesterday after thinking about it some more and then deleted it because fantasy booking sucks...but well, I hated this booking because we got to the same point (Kurt cleaning house) through via different and insane methods. I mean, it was fun. But so stupid.

Obviously they just took the thing they had planned and plugged Angle in. I suspect even Roman being carried out and then coming back was in the original because obviously Reigns has done that before. It's very weird that Kurt's 'return' match was him cosplaying as Roman Reigns. Anyway, I thought Angle should have changed the match back to Dean/Seth v Cesaro/Irish because, among other people on the brand, Reigns and Miz were not fit to compete, and so he orders Strowman/Kane back to the hotel and demands no interference from them.

And then you do the tag match and you get to Dean/Seth almost winning and Miz comes down (with one of those medical masks on for lulz) and drags the ref outta the ring, Kane and Strowman come down too, and then you can do the whole brawl thing including Strowman being crushed to death by a truck, and then you do Kurt's music, getting the pin etc, except he's ****ing dressed as himself and he uses his own finish.

this company is so weird man. They've moved heaven and earth because people got sick, but they didn't actually change the match layout

Or just have Cena return for one night as a stand in. Or throw Shelton Benjamin in there as a shield member, the guy could have done some sick ladder spots at least.

 

[Niall]

Asuka should not be having competitive matches with a jobber like Emma atm, twice now, that's worrying and really bad booking. I like Emma but ffs this is easy, Asuka should be killing her, this type of back and forth with her is not how you build up a supposed killer like Asuka.

Kane squashing Finn in 2017 like that is absolutely dire, there was plenty other people they could fed to him ffs.

 

[Athlai]

The Fashion Files are officially making the Ascension cool.

 

[Athlai]

Survivor series card:

Lesnar vs. Jinder

Miz vs. Corbin

Bliss vs. Natalya

Ambrose + Rollins vs. Usos

Raw Women roster vs. SD women roster




SDL survivor series team

Randy Orton
AJ Styles (super likely)
Shinsuke Nakamura (super likely)
?
?

Rusev, Ziggler and Roode would be pretty likely for two spots, maybe a New Day member as well.


Raw team

No clue how this will shape up, Reigns and Wyatt very likely if fit, Joe too. Strowman vs, Kane presumably gets added to the card. I’d probably put the Bar in there, and Balor should get a spot.

Could be a gun survivor series.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Ambrose/Rollins vs Usos could be pretty awesome.

 

[Athlai]

Ambrose/Rollins vs Usos could be pretty awesome.

A tag team tournament would be even better...

Ambrose/Rollins
Usos
New Day
The Bar
The Revival
Sheltons American Alpha
The Hardyz
The Club

Even the more secondary teams are pretty gun. breezango, Slater/Rhyno, bludgeon bros, hype bros, Ascension, Colons, Crews/Tozawa, Swann/Alexander, Miztourage, Rusev/English

Man I wish WWE did legit tournaments. CWC was great and Mae Young was good. Why not use the talent you have ffs

 

[sledger]

A tag team tournament would be even better...

Ambrose/Rollins
Usos
New Day
The Bar
The Revival
Sheltons American Alpha
The Hardyz
The Club

Even the more secondary teams are pretty gun. breezango, Slater/Rhyno, bludgeon bros, hype bros, Ascension, Colons, Crews/Tozawa, Swann/Alexander, Miztourage, Rusev/English

Man I wish WWE did legit tournaments. CWC was great and Mae Young was good. Why not use the talent you have ffs

As was the UK tournament. Strictly speaking though these weren't "WWE" tournaments, in that they were not booked by VKM.

There hasn't been a decent tournament on the main WWE roster for about 15 years (or whenever it was they did away with KotR as a full PPV). The various incarnations of KotR we've seen since then have been mostly pretty grim and a big waste of time, and I doubt it'd be any different if they were to attempt similar again, so I have no real desire to see this. Keep the tournaments on NXT and similar.

 

[sledger]

I'm beginning to remember why these brand split rivalry angles never really work. In order for people to really get invested in a one brand vs another brand angle you really need for those people to be either specific fans of RAW or specific fans of Smackdown. But these types of fans only exist in imagination land.

 

[Athlai]

I remember really liking Raw vs. Smackdown back when it was Flair and McMahon for control of the WWE. Though I suppose it was 2001/2002 when living legends still roamed.

 

[sledger]

I remember really liking Raw vs. Smackdown back when it was Flair and McMahon for control of the WWE. Though I suppose it was 2001/2002 when living legends still roamed.

Yeah true, me too tbf, but like you say, that is when there was something behind the story that really mattered (in kayfabe at least). The current backstory is basically just "well, it's the time of year where there's the PPV that requires a load of multi-person tag matches, so let's randomly decide to stoke up a rivalry", which is fine, and so far they have done as well as could be expected with it, but eh...

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the angle by any means. Like I said earlier, I quite enjoyed what happened on RAW. But it becomes tricky to maintain any momentum with it I think.

 

[Spikey]

I'm beginning to remember why these brand split rivalry angles never really work. In order for people to really get invested in a one brand vs another brand angle you really need for those people to be either specific fans of RAW or specific fans of Smackdown. But these types of fans only exist in imagination land.

What, you mean every WWE fan isn't also an extremely passionate fan of the colour red and wants all things blue to die, and vice versa?

 

[Athlai]

Maybe when Vince leaves the business we will get some cool power struggle story lines again. Even the most casual of punter these days knows that Vince is the man in charge, if he were to step aside right now, even the smarks would be at war over who is in charge.

In Papa H we trust.

 

[Athlai]

What, you mean every WWE fan isn't also an extremely passionate fan of the colour red and wants all things blue to die, and vice versa?

Haha the best bit is you can even say Smackdown is a pretty distinctive brand synonymous with names like AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, The Miz, and Alexa Bliss. Or the Raw diehards like New Day, Charlotte, The Kevin Owens show himself, or worth 1000 Eva Marie’s Sami Zayn.

90% of the people they based as the central focus of the brands last year were “shaked up”.

 

[sledger]

Yeah, as well as the issues with the fans, in order for these storylines to really work there needs to be a sense that the guys on each brand actually are really committed to that brand and so on. But when guys just chop and change between rosters it's just hard to buy into the suggestion that anyone working on either roster actually cares about specifically where they are. Apart from the Undertaker maybe.

 

[sledger]

It's why an NXT vs WWE storyline would be manifestly more believable. That said, I hope this never happens either. Don't want NXT polluted by main roster booking decisions.

 

[sledger]

But TV ratings don't matter...