The Wrestling Thread Is Full, But We Hear TNA Is Hiring! - - Part 251

[TheVileOne]

That's how WWE does things. It will be Braun.

Called it I want my props.

 

[Dr. Evil]

I hope Braun is the next WWE Universal Champion.

 

[TheFuture]

Long as Reigns is the #2 merch seller he will be "The Guy".

The Big Dawg!!! The Big Guy is some other bloke.

 

[TheFuture]

Braun with mass destruction.

And not surprised that Asuka lost clean since nobody in NXT who goes up to main has been booked well.....except maybe Elias.

Yeah it's pretty crap...3 count on the roll up would have been better. Still....Ellsworth's expressions killed me.

 

[Herolee10]

Frankly, I'm still shocked that the likes of Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe, and Braun Strowman have not been given a legitimate title run (WWE/Universal, Intercontinental, or U.S. Championship) as of yet.

I mean do Jeff Hardy and Seth Rollins really need championship gold around their waste right now?

 

[TheFuture]

Naka should have won last night no doubt about it. He's done some stellar work since Wrestlemania that deserved a run, and it wouldn't have hurt AJ to drop it. Can only assume they're going with Bryan/AJ for Summerslam.

Braun's time is imminent. Anything I feel could happen with Joe now he's on SD and I wouldn't be surprised if they go with AJ/Joe at Summerslam with Joe winning.

Sami....I can only assume that he's happy with his lot. Owens the same. Can't see them getting a look in at the title anytime soon. Miz the same on SD would deserve another run.

That's the problem when you've a stacked roster with no specific purpose in mind.

 

[cyclone]

So what, Braun beats Brock at SummerSlam and leaves with Heyman, then Roman beats Braun at WrestleMania?

Vince's treatment of Asuka and Shinsuke is awful. I'm not going to say he's racist, but it clearly comes down to it that if your English isn't great he doesn't see you as a viable champ. Shinsuke should leave and Asuka too - their talents and skills deserve better.

 

[TheFuture]

Cynic in me wouldn't be surprised if he has AJ in mind to beat a certain someone's modern day record.

 

[nite-owl]

 

[Mani-Man]

Vince's treatment of Asuka and Shinsuke is awful. I'm not going to say he's racist, but it clearly comes down to it that if your English isn't great he doesn't see you as a viable champ. Shinsuke should leave and Asuka too - their talents and skills deserve better.

That is the advice i would give the whole roster.
Its a crime that Vince is allowed to have that much money and stuff while being a complete bonehead.
The talent he currently has under the WWE banner is outstanding and can compete in constant at least 5 star matches i think.
You see good storytelling and character work at NXT so there is no denying that there are people there who know what the god damn hell to do with those people.

Yet the main roster stumbles through 5 hours of weeklies and then mostly "okayish" PPVs.

 

[Loki882]

That was, a mixed bag.

-I didn't care about Roman vs. Jinder or Lashley vs. Sami.

-Hopefully the DB/Big Cass nonsense is over now.

-The Women's ladder match was good, but yet again Sasha and Becky are made to look like losers.

-Ronda vs. Nia was surprisingly good, but WOW am I NOT looking forward to another Alexa title reign. It's reaching Triple H "Reign of Terror" levels of over-push with her now. She's basically held the title for like 95% of her time on the main roster, and she's had FIVE title reigns in a year and a half (Trish Stratus took SIX YEARS to get Seven reigns). And during her last reign, basically every face in the Raw Women's Division were book to look like pathetic loser idiots. WWE, give her a break from the belt for more than ten minutes.

-Asuka vs. Carmella sucked honestly. It was ridiculous how much offense Carmella got in, and that ending made Asuka look like a total careless moron, it was garbage. And once again it shows why her losing at Mania was a huge mistake.

-AJ vs. Nakamura was good, but wow are they misusing Nakamura. First they have him lose repeatedly to Jinder, freaking Jinder, during that title feud. And now they waste his heel turn by just having him lose to AJ anyway. I mean I expected that Vince was be reluctant to put the WWE title on an Asian wrestler given his history, but wow just wow.

-Braun winning MITB was cool, but I question how meaningful it'll be given Brock barely shows up the defend that belt anyway.

Oh and BTW WWE, STOP MAKING YOUR FEMALE BABYFACES LOOK LIKE LOSER IMBECILES!!! It's getting ridiculous at this point.

 

[Mani-Man]

Money in the Bank shows good things but as usual the typical dumb WWE decisions.

Daniel Bryan is wasted in this dumb feud with Cass, it doesnt help anybody.

Lashley vs Zayn also a wasted thing, the feud started stupid and ends stupid...hopefully it ends with this.
Lashley is completely boring to me, the little i saw from TNA made him far more interesting than what he shows now...the delayed suplex as finishing move is dumb.

Rollins vs Elias was good, really good and actually a nice IC title match.
That does his job as well as it should.

Womans MITB match was far, far better than the first two.
You could really feel that they gave the woman more freedom.
The timing wasnt always there but its understandable since they are not used to such matches.
Again making the Babyface look so weak is completely garbage, especially when it comes to Becky.
Alexa is the last one who needed the Briefcase...do something new for a god damn change.

Mahal vs Reigns was suprisingly solid but just a weekly.
There was nothing there that you wouldnt see at Raw, so its pointless.
If you have the same kind of match on ppvs that you have on Weekly shows...we dont need it at PPVs.

Carmella as Champ works until she goes into the ring, she has the same problem as naomi and that is not good.
The whole thing was awful and hurts Asuka incredible...but its not like we didnt expect it from Vinnie.
Nice to see Elsworth again however.

LMS match...yeah they wasted a heel turn and a possible fantastic run.
I love Styles as champ, but it was time for Nakamura.
I still cant believe that i was one of those people who would have bet money on the wwe not being able to mess up Nakamura...i should have known better.
They really can crash everything.

Rousey match was really good when you consider she stood in the ring with Nia.
So that has made me even more sure that Rousey can have a good career in the wrestling ring.
Alexa? Really? Again? Really? *Sighs*

Main event was really strong but the briefcase does nothing for Strowman.
He is already pushed as THE guy who stands above the whole roster...except Lesnar.
So the briefcase is pointless for him...especially since the wwe refuses to pull the trigger with him.

As good as MITB was...im left exhaust again by the wwe for their dumb booking decision.

 

[Hotwire]

Another Bliss vs Jax championship match. Oh joy.

It'll be a triple threat.

 

[javonstokess]

I'd say the PPV was, overall, entertaining. The "bad" matches were pretty quick. The "focus" matches were great. Rollins consistently puts on main event caliber matches with EVERYONE.

I've said it before, but I think this PPV just had the most boring outcomes for the MITB and championship matches. Bliss and Stroman don't NEED the MITB push. Bliss doesn't NEED the championship AGAIN. Styles didn't NEED that title win. Rollins didn't NEED to retain.

At a time when the WWE needs new stars and needs elevate talent that is massively over they took the easy road and stuck with the well worn talent.

Entertaining show, but man, it could have been so much better.

 

[Mani-Man]

I'd say the PPV was, overall, entertaining. The "bad" matches were pretty quick. The "focus" matches were great. Rollins consistently puts on main event caliber matches with EVERYONE.

I've said it before, but I think this PPV just had the most boring outcomes for the MITB and championship matches. Bliss and Stroman don't NEED the MITB push. Bliss doesn't NEED the championship AGAIN. Styles didn't NEED that title win. Rollins didn't NEED to retain.

At a time when the WWE needs new stars and needs elevate talent that is massively over they took the easy road and stuck with the well worn talent.

Entertaining show, but man, it could have been so much better.

Thats is accurate and also the most annoying thing about the wwe.
They do have good shows in terms of the matches, its just the outcomes that are so incredible boring and short sighted.

Why the hell are they so afraid nowadays? I dont get it.

 

[DOBSON10]

I started watching WWE again for the first time in years right around Royal Rumble and I agree that there has been some pretty bad booking in that time frame, but the results of last night's matches aren't bad decisions in my opinion. Some of the matchups are bad booking, which I'll hit on but as for the results, I liked all of them except for Asuka/Carmella. Asuka should have won in a squash because Carmella shouldn't be Champion, only Lana, Nia and Mandy Rose are worse in the ring than Carmella. Getting rid of Ellsworth was a good decision, no idea why they brought him back, SMH. What could have been interesting was to have a new NXT call-up be under the fake Asuka get up, to start a feud with Asuka. I don't particularly care for Asuka, but Carmella has no business in the title picture so I agree that was the wrong call.

I didn't mind the Bryan/Big Cass rivalry overall, the premise of big guy vs. small guy, and harping on that was definitely weak writing but Bryan needed someone to shake the rust off, best case scenario Cass steps up and you have a new big man heel, which to a certain degree I feel he did despite the poor writing. He's pretty solid on the mic and in the ring, not great at either but he's still got room to grow. It worked out the way they planned, get Bryan back in the swing of things, and put Bryan into bigger matchups now that he's back in a groove.

As I said earlier, there is some bad booking going on with the matchups, and both the Roman/Jinder and Lashley/Zayn matchups are crap but the results in both matches were correct. Zayn has no business lasting longer than 5 minutes with Lashley, he lasted 6. Works for me. Lashley's booking has been atrocious and this feud was awful, mostly from a writing standpoint. Everyone should always beat Jinder, because he sucks, so Roman winning was the right call. Obviously, they threw Jinder against Roman because it's probably the one person that could get Roman cheered as a baby, even that didn't work. The bad booking here is that they should have turned Roman heel a long time ago, he could be a great heel, something they are sorely lacking right now.

Seth beating Elias was the right call. Seth is my favorite wrestler on the roster and Elias' gimmick does nothing for me and he's just OK in the ring. Elias is a United States Champion level talent, hopefully Seth is off to feud with someone better now. Again, right winner, not that great of a matchup.

Women's Money in the Bank: Now first, let me say I think Becky Lynch deserved to win and I think she needed it the most out of everyone in the match. So, yes, you could say the booking made the wrong call. But given how the night played out, with Alexa winning and then cashing in, I'm not complaining. Alexa is the most interesting female on the roster IMO. The only problem I have with Alexa winning is she has a 300 pound dead-weight named Nia strapped around her ankle. Nia is just not good. If WWE had semi-decent writers she could have a great feud with any of the top Raw females because she knows how to work the crowd, and work angles/fueds with the mic, plus she's good in the ring (I know some don't agree but w/e). Ronda, Becky, Sasha, she could work a good feud with any of them. But the writing is so piss poor, they'll probably go back to the Alexa/Nia thing, which will never work because Nia is awful.

AJ/Nakamura - Again, right call IMO. The best wrestler in the world, who's probably the 2nd or 3rd most popular with the crowd winning is the wrong call? Nakamura is semi-interesting as a heel, but what can you really do with him when he can't cut a promo? They got the best out of him with this AJ feud. That's his ceiling right there. And switching the title over and over has never been a good thing. That's how we ended up with guys like HHH, Edge, Randy Orton and John Cena having more title reigns than Bret Hart, Stone Cold, Underaker and The Rock, in what world does that make sense? Only the truly elite should be World Champion and the belt shouldn't be tossed around as a participation trophy so everyone gets their shot with it.

Braun is obviously the right call to beat Brock, it's the most believable opponent for Brock to drop the title to. Now, whether it actually happens, we'll see. But no one in that match should have beat Braun and no one other than Braun should beat Brock. Right call IMO.

I thought this was probably the best PPV since I started watching WWE again. Not that the bar is high.

 

[javonstokess]

Well written. I have issues with some of what you said and I'll address each (as respectfully as possible). Mind you, every decision I discuss is in the service of WWE building/elevating/cultivating new/over talent:

Seth beating Elias was the right call. Seth is my favorite wrestler on the roster and Elias' gimmick does nothing for me and he's just OK in the ring. Elias is a United States Champion level talent, hopefully Seth is off to feud with someone better now. Again, right winner, not that great of a matchup.

IMO, this is you speaking about your particular preference and that's perfectly cool. I'm speaking on a strictly storyline/heat level. While Elias might not do anything for you, he's incredibly over and now is the time to strike while his iron is hot. Seth losing the title doesn't hurt his status, but Elias winning the IC title continues his elevation. As a concept, you generally push the guy who's getting over.

Women's Money in the Bank: Now first, let me say I think Becky Lynch deserved to win and I think she needed it the most out of everyone in the match. So, yes, you could say the booking made the wrong call. But given how the night played out, with Alexa winning and then cashing in, I'm not complaining. Alexa is the most interesting female on the roster IMO.

I don't know who started this, but Alexa isn't "the most interesting female on the roster". She's good talker and decent in the ring, but there were 6 other women in that needed the elevation to either get over or re-establish themselves. Bliss wouldn't have been hurt in the slightest by losing and she can easily be inserted in the title conversation at any moment. Becky/Sasha are stars that really need to regain momentum because they've been buried by Vince's fixation on blondes. Ember Moon could have gotten the briefcase and held onto it while they pushed her so when she DOES cash in the moment is earned. I could go on and on.

AJ/Nakamura - Again, right call IMO. The best wrestler in the world, who's probably the 2nd or 3rd most popular with the crowd winning is the wrong call? Nakamura is semi-interesting as a heel, but what can you really do with him when he can't cut a promo? They got the best out of him with this AJ feud. That's his ceiling right there. And switching the title over and over has never been a good thing. That's how we ended up with guys like HHH, Edge, Randy Orton and John Cena having more title reigns than Bret Hart, Stone Cold, Underaker and The Rock, in what world does that make sense? Only the truly elite should be World Champion and the belt shouldn't be tossed around as a participation trophy so everyone gets their shot with it.

While I'm okay with Styles winning, I do see why he SHOULD have lost. Nakamura, since his heel turn, has been ascending and him winning the title last night could have given him that push to REAL main event status. It would have help him shatter that glass ceiling that Vince can't help but put on minorities.

Braun is obviously the right call to beat Brock, it's the most believable opponent for Brock to drop the title to. Now, whether it actually happens, we'll see. But no one in that match should have beat Braun and no one other than Braun should beat Brock. Right call IMO.

Same thing goes for Braun that goes for Bliss. He didn't NEED the briefcase. At any point, Braun can/could enter the main event title and it wouldn't look wrong. The point of the MITB USED to be helping elevate a talent to the title scene in a quick way that wouldn't look too clumsy. Samoa Joe needed that win, Rusev needed that win, Balor, hell, it would have been SUPER entertaining to see New Day using the briefcase under Freebird Rules. It's not about "no ONE should have beaten Braun" because, storyline wise, you could have had EVERYONE beat on him.


Like I, and others, have said, the WWE used to be about being daring, taking chances and being unpredictable. They've seemed to throw that to the side to stay in a "safe" lane for themselves. Roman, big guys and blondes. No minorities allowed. Over and over again.

 

[SuperBatman]

Braun is obviously the right call to beat Brock, it's the most believable opponent for Brock to drop the title to. Now, whether it actually happens, we'll see. But no one in that match should have beat Braun and no one other than Braun should beat Brock. Right call IMO..

Hmmm the thing is its not like Braun was going to get pin. Braun was going to get a Title match with Brock reguardless IMO. He really didn't need that briefcase because he pretty much is already in the Main Event picture. That Briefcase would've been better suited with anybody else rather than Braun IMO.

 

[Mani-Man]

Hmmm the thing is its not like Braun was going to get pin. Braun was going to get a Title match with Brock reguardless IMO. He really didn't need that briefcase because he pretty much is already in the Main Event picture. That Briefcase would've been better suited with anybody else rather than Braun IMO.

Pretty much.
This is just another move from the WWE to elevate Strowman while the rest of the Roster is sacrificed.
Strowman was in the title picture already, he was booked so strong that the title is the next logical step.
There is no need to also give him now the briefcase(also ignoring the uselessness of the briefcase at raw to begin with)

Everybody else in that match would have needed it more because the WWE has somehow down the line decided that 1 or 2 main event guys are more than enough...when that is completely wrong.

Look at it, braun has booked so much higher than the rest of the roster that it makes them all look like nothing.
What happens now if god forbid, Braun is injured or so? Who do you have then who is believable to take his place?

This is a huge problem in the wwe, focusing on a small few number of superstar and sacrificing the rest of the roster for them, completely ignoring the bigger picture.
This tunnel view of the WWE is a huge problem.

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[javonstokess]

^
Totally agree. I don't know why the WWE seems to be against pushing multiple wrestlers. Hell, Samoa Joe with the briefcase would have been amazing, especially if they Styles has the title. He'd constantly be looking over his shoulder because "Joe's coming for you".

Storyline wise, Braun with the briefcase is boring.

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[TheVileOne]

Nakamura should've won the belt at Backlash, but he's never winning the belt. He's not a top guy.