WWE RAW, Smackdown, & PPV Discussion Thread 2012 & 2013

[ucsdguy1]

Side note, turns out a few weeks ago for an anniversary gift my wife decided to buy me a happy rusev day shirt (something about “well i don’t know what it means but you’ve mentioned it 30 times”). Having still not received, customer service told her today the shirt is already on back order; new products expected to hit their warehouse for shipping on January 1st. Back order already. SO OVER

And yes, thankfully i should still receive in plenty of time for rusev day

[TooCool]

I strongly encourage the watching of NXT from Wednesday night.

Sanity/Undisputed - Eric Young is becoming masterful at the art of the sell. Surprise ending.While I'm not quite sold on the Undisputed guys just yet, Adam Cole does have that certain something in his look and smile.

A fun short promo with Heavy Machinery (bring em along hunter).

Roderick Strong/Lars Sullivan: I think we all knew Sullivan would win, but they let Strong get a surprising amount of offense in. Sullivan took some bumps that were pretty darn good for a guy his size. But man that guy is a beast.

Pete Dunne/Tyler Bate - I swear these guys are incapable of having a bad match. Not quite as high flying as the Takeover: Chicago match, but tons of ring psychology. And a crap ton of "oh my god" moments. These two have incredibly ring chemistry. I think a 20-25 minute match, and so, so, so much fun. I hope these guys wrestle 20 more times.

I finally had a chance to watch this episode last night. Great stuff. Glad the episode went an hour and 12 minutes so you know they didn't have to rush anything by trying to squeeze it under an hour.

- I agree with you on the Undisputed guys. Adam Cole has that look where he oozes charisma but Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly still look way too generic right now.

- So now Riddick Moss and Tino Sabbatelli moved on from losing to the Street Profits to losing to... Heavy Machinery? I can dig that. Unfortunately, Moss and Sabbatelli's gimmick doesn't work for me. Are they suppose to be rich? Because why? They're down in NXT. I'm not saying you're suppose to be poor in NXT or anything but they have nice fancy cars and they wrestle? That's the issue I have.

- Lars Sullivan worked a really good match with Roddy. They even improved on Sullivan's entrance with the dark silhouette while he's standing in the ring. Love it. His music is bad ass too.

- And you were absolutely right about Dunne/Bate. What a freaking match. A bit unfortunate that the crowd was mostly dead for it (unless my volume was too low). There were chants here and there but not everyone was doing it. I don't blame them though since they had to sit through 4-5 hours of taping. That stomp on the fingers looked brutal and I'm seriously surprised they allow that kind of move to be honest. I think if Bate doesn't adjust his hand right as Dunne is going to stomp on it, he could break his fingers for real. It would be cool to have Tyler Bate become a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble too. That weird move he does off the rope where he blocks with his neck/shoulders? I can see him doing that to save himself from a few eliminations.

[ucsdguy1]

Yes not a good crowd. A prevailing opinion seems to be the multi-hour takings are killing crowd intensity. I didn’t even think it was as stellar as it could be for the fatal 4 way this week, which by the way was also much fun.

Killian going at Sullivan was one of those “oh boy it’s on” moments.

Undisputed attacking black was out of nowhere, but I guess sets up a Cole/Black feud. Could be good but at this point who loses?

Gargano getting the win was a nice touch for him. My guess is he still loses in title match as they seemingly want to build some cred for Almas. Was there any word on Ciampa’s injury? Perhaps interference?

Street Profits seem to finally be getting somewhat of a push other than just just over jobbers based on their short mic work.

Bate in the rumble would be great, but he’d probably just get lost in the shuffle. How about Eric young? Or Nikki Cross a surprise entrant in the women’s rumble?

[TooCool]

Yes not a good crowd. A prevailing opinion seems to be the multi-hour takings are killing crowd intensity. I didn’t even think it was as stellar as it could be for the fatal 4 way this week, which by the way was also much fun.

Killian going at Sullivan was one of those “oh boy it’s on” moments.

Undisputed attacking black was out of nowhere, but I guess sets up a Cole/Black feud. Could be good but at this point who loses?

Gargano getting the win was a nice touch for him. My guess is he still loses in title match as they seemingly want to build some cred for Almas. Was there any word on Ciampa’s injury? Perhaps interference?

Street Profits seem to finally be getting somewhat of a push other than just just over jobbers based on their short mic work.

Bate in the rumble would be great, but he’d probably just get lost in the shuffle. How about Eric young? Or Nikki Cross a surprise entrant in the women’s rumble?

Happy New Year!

Good points all around. That Fatal Four Way was fun and the crowd was surprisingly kind of alive for that when they were kinda quiet for Bate/Dunne. The table spot was really cool and it's a good way to make Lars and Killian look strong.

Yeah, I'm not sure what the "endgame" looks like for Black/Cole. Cole already lost clean, so surely he gets the win back? WWE does love their 50/50 booking after all. I guess you could just easily have the Undisputed Era continue to interfere to give Adam Cole the cheap win so Aleister Black doesn't look weak in the loss.

I personally don't think Almas is going to successfully defend his title moving forward. Johnny Gargano is winning the NXT title. Plus, Almas already beat Gargano in one of the TakeOver PPV last year when Zelina threw a DIY shirt at him. I think Gargano wins here and it'll set up an epic feud between him and Ciampa for TakeOver Wrestlemania. The whole story behind the betrayal was Ciampa knowing he was hurt and he wanted to make sure Gargano couldn't wrestle either. (That and he was sick of how people only chanted Johnny Wrestling right?) So to have Gargano become NXT Champion without Ciampa, that has to piss him off.

I can definitely see Eric Young make a Rumble appearnace. I wonder if they'll give it to Killian Dain again since he randomly showed up in the Andre the Giant Battle Royal at Mania. One thing I can definitely see happening now is a comedy spot between Elias and Aiden English. Hell, they might even enter #1 and #2 respectively and will try to out sing one another or do a duet.

And on a side note, I'm maybe more interested in the Woman's Royal Rumble match mainly because of all the potential surprise entrants. There has to be at least 10 spots available for NXT and past divas to show up. Any guesses? If Ronda Rousey is in it, they're definitely going to have her win the match for media purposes. I think Trish Stratus and Lita shows up 100%, no doubt about that. We might even see Michelle McCool and Beth Phoenix too. For NXT wrestlers getting a chance, it'll have to be Peyton Royce, Billie Kay, Nikki Cross, and maybe Kairi Sane. Heck, you can even throw in Ember Moon. And last of all... it wouldn't surprise me if Stephanie entered herself in the freaking match. After all, she loves the spotlight. Just like when she announced that Women's Royal Rumble match, she made it all about her lol.

[ucsdguy1]

I’m trying to think of other women’s rumble surprise entrants but drawing a blank. Francine and/or Beulah Mcgillicutty?

[TooCool]

Oh yeah... WWEShop actually had a 30% off T-Shirt sale on Monday. I added the Rusev Day shirt to the cart but couldn't get myself to finalize the order because shipping was ****ing 7 bucks. I mean, come on now.

I tried using promo codes where you get free shipping or 5 bucks off purchases more than 25 (added a Nakamura shirt to get over $25) and it didn't work. So bleh... I'll wait for another deal then.

[ucsdguy1]

And yes real nice having Rusev start off the year losing cleanly to Breezango. I'm all for Breezango but geezus

[TooCool]

And yes real nice having Rusev start off the year losing cleanly to Breezango. I'm all for Breezango but geezus

Yep... that dreaded rollup of doom is the greatest finisher of all time. I seriously hate how the writers have this mindset. "Have ____ person/team lose to a rollup. This makes it so that it's a weak win so it doesn't hurt the loser." But it also doesn't exactly make the winner look credible either. What is most annoying about the rollup finish is that WWE does it at least once a week. Hate it so much.

I think that's how Titus Worldwide beat The Bar too on RAW.

[TooCool]

Dirt Sheet reports are saying that Paige's in-ring career might be over when she got injured in a House Show a few weeks back. That is awfully crappy since she's only 25.

[ucsdguy1]

Saw that. Too bad. She can hopefully stay on as a manager, outside-ring talent, and/or perhaps an NXT trainer.