A New Era for the Wrestling Thread

[Hunter Rider]

Just finished NXT, Roxanne was great in the promo segment with Giulia at the end and then Stephanie Vaquer popped up on the screen to say she's coming for the winner of the title match in Chicago. My prediction is Vaquer interferes and it becomes a triple threat at Halloween Havoc.

The Don's Rocky training montage was fun, I wonder with this build up if they are actually contemplating having him beat Oba Femi. 🤔

Kelani vs Wren Sinclair was overall a solid match, there were a couple of awkward transition spots, but plenty of good, athletic exchanges and decent strikes, Wren has taken her opportunity really well with her recent push in the NQCC.

Some decent promos from Trick, Page and the Grayson Waller Effect segment.

Ooh that would be a great choice.

I could see it happening if Liv gets by Rhea at Bad Blood, they could do one of those tag matches like at Summerslam 2000 with Val & Trish vs Eddie & Chyna.

 

[Lobo]

I expect Raquel to return and be the Diesel to Liv's Shawn, giving Rhea a side quest before winning the title back.

 

[Herolee10]

Still hoping that they introduce a women's mid-card title soon for both brands. I feel like the women's division is finally large enough to justify its inclusion.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Still hoping that they introduce a women's mid-card title soon for both brands. I feel like the women's division is finally large enough to justify its inclusion.

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[Lobo]

I like the one with the statue of liberty

 

[Hunter Rider]

I like the one with the statue of liberty

Me too, it's a cool change to the eagle.

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[Hunter Rider]

Naomi vs Bayley on Smackdown was good, I thought Naomi should have went over but the bit of friction afterwards was interesting, a heel turn might freshen things up for Naomi as her in-ring has really improved but she's had the glow gimmick for ages. In truth I think Bayley was doing better as a heel but I don't see them switching her back so soon.

Andrade vs Melo was good again, but did Melo hit Knight with a sleep grenade? That one backstage shove took him 10 minutes to recover from, and they never should have done that superplex cutter counter if it wasn't going to be the finish, it was a spectacular spot that shouldn't have been a throwaway 2 count.

I'm liking this little feud between Michin and Chelsea, the match with Piper was solid and next week's dumpster match should be fun, I'm sure Chelsea will end up in the trash and then she'll have 3 more week's of segments trying to get rid of the smell, it's ideal material for her.

The throughline of the story between Cody, Owens and Orton was good development as the distrust is creeping in, this is all surely building towards an uneasy alliance between the 3 and Roman for War Games.

Obviously they'll need a 5th man and the video preview for next week's big return could be the answer.....

 

[chamber-music]

Yeah it was made for casuals and people who don't know anything about pro wrestling but there were small nuggets of new info like Vince Sr. thinking about giving his company to Gorilla Monsoon instead of his son. But I thought it did a good job covering as much as they could in 6 episodes with the good and the bad and I heard they had enough material and footage for 10 episodes.

I also found it funny every time they get into a new McMahon scandal, they also cut to Phil Mushnick talkin mad sh**. lol

Overall it was a pretty disappointing documentary. Not much stuff that hasn't been covered before. I guess the only real thing you learn is Vince really believes he is the hero of his own story. The documentary makers show how much of a hypocrite he is.

Phil Mushnick is like a real life Frank Grimes from The Simpsons.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Pretty good AI. You can tell it's AI because on the first title, there's a word called "IUSE"

 

[Hunter Rider]

The Mr. MchMahon documentary on Netflix was well made but didn't cover much that wrestling fans didn't already know, the only thing that surprised me was Vince corroborating Hulk's story about not knowing if Andre was going to put him over at Wrestlemania 3 until they got in the ring, I'd never heard anyone but Hogan claim that, I'm pretty sure even Bruce denied it on his podcast.

The thing was all most people were interested in was the recent allegations and scandal, and this was made prior to that so it only scratched the surface, and I'm sure now Netflix are partners with WWE they won't be doing a follow-up documentary.

Of the talking heads I thought Triple H, Shawn and Rock were pretty measured and Taker is clearly loyal to Vince because he made him, so he's going to view him differently, the same way JR and Cornette see Bill Watts in a different light to mist people. Tony Atlas had zero filter lol and Austin's CTE comment came off badly. Hogan was uncharacteristically low key, there was no time travelling from Japan or Andre dying from a bodyslam stuff. Bruce Prichard unfortunately doesn't get where the line between loyalty and coming across like an in denial toadie is, and Bret is still maintaining a safe distance from humility and self awareness.

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[Lobo]

The Mr. MchMahon documentary on Netflix was well made but didn't cover much that wrestling fans didn't already know, the only thing that surprised me was Vince corroborating Hulk's story about not knowing if Andre was going to put him over at Wrestlemania 3 until they got in the ring, I'd never heard anyone but Hogan claim that, I'm pretty sure even Bruce denied it on his podcast.

The thing was all most people were interested in was the recent allegations and scandal, and this was made prior to that so it only scratched the surface, and I'm sure now Netflix are partners with WWE they won't be doing a follow-up documentary.

Of the talking heads I thought Triple H, Shawn and Rock were pretty measured and Taker is clearly loyal to Vince because he made him, so he's going to view him differently, the same way JR and Cornette see Bill Watts in a different light to mist people. Tony Atlas had zero filter lol and Austin's CTE comment came off badly. Hogan was uncharacteristically low key, there was no time travelling from Japan or Andre dying from a bodyslam stuff. Bruce Prichard unfortunately doesn't get where the line between loyalty and coming across like an in denial toadie is, and Bret is still maintaining a safe distance from humility and self awareness.

Good review Now I don't have to watch it.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Still hoping that they introduce a women's mid-card title soon for both brands. I feel like the women's division is finally large enough to justify its inclusion.

I do not think they are big enough for midcard titles. The problem is Hunter has trouble building wrestlers who aren't great promos, without titles. It's even worse with the women. So the title would be decent shortcut for them.

But they shouldn't do it. There are way too many titles already and they don't use the tag titles in any meaningful way for the men or women.

 

[Lobo]

 

[blue scholar]

The Mr. MchMahon documentary on Netflix was well made but didn't cover much that wrestling fans didn't already know, the only thing that surprised me was Vince corroborating Hulk's story about not knowing if Andre was going to put him over at Wrestlemania 3 until they got in the ring, I'd never heard anyone but Hogan claim that, I'm pretty sure even Bruce denied it on his podcast.

The thing was all most people were interested in was the recent allegations and scandal, and this was made prior to that so it only scratched the surface, and I'm sure now Netflix are partners with WWE they won't be doing a follow-up documentary.

Of the talking heads I thought Triple H, Shawn and Rock were pretty measured and Taker is clearly loyal to Vince because he made him, so he's going to view him differently, the same way JR and Cornette see Bill Watts in a different light to mist people. Tony Atlas had zero filter lol and Austin's CTE comment came off badly. Hogan was uncharacteristically low key, there was no time travelling from Japan or Andre dying from a bodyslam stuff. Bruce Prichard unfortunately doesn't get where the line between loyalty and coming across like an in denial toadie is, and Bret is still maintaining a safe distance from humility and self awareness.

Shane McMahon clearly won the documentary

 

[Hunter Rider]

She is absolute gold!

Shane McMahon clearly won the documentary

It was interesting to hear how his relationship with Vince pretty much mirrored Vince's with his dad. Shane has always came across as the most likeable of the MchMahon's.

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[Hunter Rider]

This is easily the best thing I've seen him do, and looks like a different approach than the insincere, smiley manipulative heel he's been portraying.

 

[Herolee10]

They finally added some much needed blue to the IC Championship.

 

[Hunter Rider]

I was glad to see the 'Last Monster Standing' match get the main event and they understood the mission, it was exactly what it needed to be, carnage everywhere and some crazy bumps for guys that size, Reed in particular shone, he led the bulk of the match, and Strowman looked like he might have legit hurt his knee.
I was surprised to see Seth run-in after the ring collapse, especially since they'd shown him at the NFL game earlier, it felt a bit anticlimactic and he didn't seem intensely angry about Reed putting him on the shelf. Regardless, this was a star making performance from Bronson Reed.

The rest of the in-ring action seemed a bit rushed, lots of short matches with several botches from usually dependable workers, the best of the rest was Gable vs Kofi, it was too short but there were some good exchanges.

It was a strong Raw for storyline development, Punk and Drew absolutely knocked it out the park with money promos leading into Hell in a Cell, Gunther and Sami also had a really strong verbal exchange, Gunther ramped up the intensity and is clearly getting comfortable on the mic. Even Jey cut a solid promo once he got the Yeet stuff out of the way, and I wasn't expecting Bron to come out and shake his hand, seemed like a face turn after a few months as a tweeter, and it was interesting to see him confront Gunther backstage later, I believe I'm right in saying he's one of only 3 men who've beaten Gunther in WWE/NXT, the others being Sami and the sadly injured Dragunov.

They've done a really good job getting some heat and momentum behind the Judgment Day over the last few weeks, and they added to it this week, Balor was simple and effective on the mic and I thought Rhea cut her best promo to date, not what she said but how she said it, more natural than usual. I feel Liv and Finn need to win at Bad Blood to maintain their progress as Raw's central heel faction.

All the week's of the Karrion Kross stuff finally had some pay-offs, with Miz turning on R-Truth and Woods on the brink of turning on Kofi, and I wonder if the new Wyatt Sicks promo was aimed at both men, I could see a faction feud between them and the Final Testament, and was that Alexa Bliss at the end of the video? 🤔

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[Hunter Rider]