As the end of the year approaches, can we all just reflect on how red-hot Braun Strowman was and then how WWE so terribly mishandled him after No Mercy? I mean I was seeing mentions of Braun in non-wrestling media. And now, nothing. He's been irrelevant ever since then. He was getting huge crowd pops and his matches were must-see. He was Raw, man. He was the entire show for a couple months. His program with Reigns was fantastic and made both guys look good, but they clearly just wanted Braun waiting on the sidelines after that. If I had to guess I'd say they want him to be the universal Champ but had already guaranteed Brock a title reign up to WrestleMania (where he'll lose to Reigns, I assume) so they've been hiding Braun in various, uninteresting side stories. Such a shame. I thought he was riding a wave that would have made him a generational star, but now he's just another big dude. What do y'all think? Agree that it is disappointing? We all probably expect such disappointment when it comes to the booking of smaller guys like Balor, but WWE dropping the ball on a guy like Strowman is unexpected.
Once Brock Lesnar leaves WWE, the booking will be better. Brock holding the belt pretty much screwed the whole roster, LOL.
I feel like Braun's situation is a symptom of the company booking Wrestlemania over a year in advance and never deviating from it for anything. They decided last year that this year was going to be Roman beating Brock to be officially crowned (for the 400th time) as The Top Guy and everything has fed into that, including everyone losing a single F5 no matter who it is or how the match goes (because the climax of the WM main event of course is going to be Roman being the guy who finally kicks out). I don't know if it's because Vince is a cranky old man who doesn't care anymore or if it's because, as a publicly traded corporation, they're terrified of offending shareholders by doing anything spontaneous but it's just sucked all the life out of the company.
I really don’t think we are headed towards Brock Vs Roman like everyone thinks... maybe I’m being hopeful but it just doesn’t even make since. Roman is in the shield and Dean and Seth are way to important to just be Romans lackeys or wrestling the bar at WM... so they would need to break up again between now and Mania which is just to big of a storyline to throw it on something random like elimination chamber. So I think we see the shield fall apart inside the elimination chamber all fighting for the same prize (Thinking probably to be #1 contender at WM since I don’t think Brock will be in the chamber and Nakamura will win the Royal Rumble to set up a match with AJ) while Braun ends up winning to set up a match between him and Brock. So at Mania you get: Brock vs Strowman AJ Styles vs Shinsuke Nakamura And Roman Reigns Vs Dean Ambrose Vs Seth Rollins
Women's Royal Rumble, that's what the *** I'm talkin bout baby!!! Where all the hard ass men at? Trump supporters, got anything to say?
If you guys follow the independent circuit like I do. The Women's Royal Rumble in WWE is lit as fukk! I've seen other small promotions doing the rumble already for women's and it's pretty awesome. You can fap to it too!
Vince just sold $100 million in shares and is looking to bring back the XFL... not really sure but that seems like it would be a sizeable portion of he company. I wonder how much control he is risking giving up?
Wrestle Kingdom 12 will be live on Thursday morning at 3 a.m Houston time. I will provide a link to the show live here.
Probably not. They'll work matches in the middle of Raw for a while then they'll either break back apart unceremoniously or fued against one another - and no one will care.
I'm just happy that it happened Would've been cool if The Club was the one that saved Balor 2 weeks ago with Miztorauge but was cool to see Itami run out there, kind of the switch of Balor's NXT debut as Itami's mystery partner. Hopefully booking doesn't screw this up, I loved stables in the Attitude era, so this makes me happy
Found Jericho/Omega on YouTube last night and watched it. Good match. Definitely the best I've seen from Jericho in a long time; I was trying to remember his last good wrestling match. Was his 2016 PPV win over AJ Styles a good match? I can't remember. I remember thinking that his cage match against Ambrose in 2016 was good (featuring Ambrose's potted plant, and Jericho getting 69 tacs in his back), but I don't know if it was a good match so much as it was entertaining. Regardless, this was a good match. My first time watching a full Omega match. He of course is a star. I hope he only goes to WWE if the situation is right. If they offer him a spot on Smackdown and a nice, long fued with AJ then I'm all for it. But if he's relegated to matches in the middle of Raw/SD against middling, mid tier guys, he should stay in NJPW.
I thought the Jericho/AJ match was okay but nothing amazing. I remember being bored by the Jericho/Ambrose match until the thumbtacks came out This match with Omega I thought was really good and it was paced to play to Jericho's strengths as an older guy who maybe wouldn't be able to hang with the frenzied climax of a regular New Japan main event. If you want to see more of Omega, I can't recommend enough his three matches against Okada from last year. I watched Wrestle Kingdom yesterday afternoon (I lucked out by getting snowed out of work, so I suddenly had an open few hours) and it was a really good show overall. Cody vs. Ibushi was excellent - the crossroads off the apron was an amazing/scary move - the four-way for the Jr. Heavyweight title was lots of fun despite some sloppiness, and the Okada vs. Naito main event was awesome and I genuinely wasn't expecting that ending. About the only match that didn't work for me was Tanahashi vs. Jay White, which didn't feel big enough for how far up the card it was. White needs more experience. Show overall was not quite as good as last year's WK, but last year's show was one of the best events of all time so that's okay.
Let me preface my thoughts on Wrestle Kingdom by first laying out my unpopular opinion. I don't love either Omega or Okada. Both of them are very good performers in the ring. That is without question. I just feel that their personalities are very flat. I think that's the main reason why I've been underwhelmed with their "classic" matches (I honestly only watched the first 2 out of 3). It just seems like two robots fighting over a belt. Guys like AJ Styles and Nakamura have personality in addition to being able to put on technical and athletic feats in the ring. I just get a little disinterested when the personality is lacking. Kind of similar to Roman Reigns. He's a good in-ring performer (except his boring finishers), but I really don't care about him as a character at all. Now on to my thought about WK12: I regret watching the Rumble. Without the stakes of a WWE Royal Rumble, it's a very boring match. Also doesn't help that the only people I knew were Taka, Liger, and Tiger Mask. I love the Young Bucks. Entertaining in every way. Roppongi 3K put in some nice work in this match as well, but it was carried by the Bucks. The 6 man tag gauntlet was pretty underwhelming. I'm honestly struggling to remember anything that happened in it. Kota Ibushi vs. Cody. Two men who the WWE should've never let slip away. Entertaining match. Both men are very good performers. Cody is honestly a star. Also, Brandy is amazing. I skipped the hair vs hair match. There was a little bit of sloppiness during the fatal four way for the Jr. Heavyweight title. But looking past that, this was a good match. All of these guys are extremely talented. Tanahashi vs. Cody White. I remember almost nothing from this match. I'm sure it wasn't bad, I just kinda zoned out. Chris Jericho is the greatest all-around performer in the history of pro wrestling. Great match with Kenny. The No DQ format really helped to mask some of Jericho deficiencies as a 47 year old man. There were some logistical issues with the No DQ format, but I feel like I have the exact same issues when WWE does these matches. Naito vs. Okada. I came out of the match feeling the same way I already did about Okada. But I'm really interested in Naito now. I didn't love the ending. This was a really good PPV. I think my main complaint is that I felt like I knew what the result of every match was going to be, despite not being super familiar with New Japan.
