The Wrestling Thread

[Raging Justice]

I'm still hearing that Roman vs The Rock is on for Mania, so where does Cody fit in if Seth is gonna fight Punk?

Not that I care really, but it's odd to have a guy win the Rumble and he's not main eventing Mania.

[Reprise]

Oh yeah, I forgot about The Rock. Hmmm interesting... Does the Royal Rumble winner still get to choose who they challenge though? I can't imagine it would make sense for Cody to challenge anybody else but Roman. I remember last year when they created the World Heavyweight Championship, Cody said straight away that winning that wouldn't count as "FiNiShInG tHe StOrY". I am not sure how The Rock inserts himself into a title match against Reigns either and for it to make sense.

It could still be a triple threat I guess, but I don't really like that idea.

[Raging Justice]

So I watched the women's Rumble match, it actually wasn't all that bad. I think being familiar with all of these women like I am helps a lot. There's a lot of little things I enjoyed that somebody who isn't that familiar with these ladies or with WWE's product in general would miss out on. It's not just a bunch of generic women who are all the same when you know their characters and stories like I do. Royal Rumble matches, whether its the one for the men or the one for the women, are always going to be more entertaining for people who know the roster well. It's arguably the only time of the year where it feels like the brand split actually matters as it's the only time of the year where you get to see all of these people intermingle in one big match.

Some highlights for me were Tiffany Stratton and Roxanne Perez (two NXT future stars who looked pretty good here), Nia Jax (who was effectively used as a monster), Shayna Bazler and Zoey Starks (looking like badasses like they always do), and the comedy spots with Piper Niven and Chelsea Greene (the prettiest woman in that match by far). Kairi had a pretty cool, Kofi Kingston style spot. I'm not sure if she was still supposed to be eliminated though, so maybe she botched it, but it looked cool

I think overall it was a fun match. There were some fun spots. I didn't notice any major botches, there was a little sloppiness here and there but nothing major. Also, what I said about Jordynne Grace was maybe a bit harsh, they made her look pretty good actually. They also did everything I would have done with her. She had a moment with Ivy Nile, who is like a mini-me version of her, and she got a nice standoff with Bianca Belair, who is not only one of the top main event players there but also a powerhouse like Grace herself. I still feel like a TNA champion should make it all the way to the last 3-5 competitors in a match like this though. If I was booking she'd have been there at the end instead of Liv Morgan.

It's fitting that Morgan came in at number 30 though, as it seems that every big moment she'd had in like the last two years has been due to luck. She has a lucky horseshoe embedded in her ass I swear. I feel like that's her gimmick even though they try real hard to convince us that all of her success is because she's just that good. If you look at all her big wins in recent memory, they are never clean. She once won the tag titles because 1/2 of the opposing team turned on their partner. She once beat Rhonda Rousey for the Smackdown women's title via a Money in the Bank cash in. She retained that title in a rematch because the referee didn't notice that she tapped out to Rousey's submission, and she came damn close to winning the Royal Rumble only because she randomly got the coveted number 30 spot. I can't remember the last time Liv Morgan has truly earned anything and anytime she holds a title she makes it look weak.

Much as i hate to admit it, they used Jade Cargill well and she got a nice response from the crowd. If I put my own personal biases aside, I'd have to say it was a successful night for her. If I was Triple H, I'd probably be satisfied with how everything involving her went down. They immediately set up Cargill as someone who could take Bianca Belair's spot, which I thought was VERY interesting. In fact, she already proved that she may be way stronger than Bianca in terms of physical strength. Cargill definitely feels more at home in a WWE environment, just like Cody Rhodes. I would have thought a guy like Punk would be a better fit in AEW...but we saw how that turned out.

They really put over Bayley's win on commentary. I'll give them credit for that, and she actually made history lasting for one hour and 3 minutes. Bayley's got quite a list of accomplishments in her career. I never doubted Charlotte and Becky Lynch as future Hall of Famers, and probably Sasha Banks too, but now it seems a certainty that Bayley has to be in that conversation too. They even said "Hall of Fame career" on commentary. So that's cool. I don't know where things go from here and WWE is always capable of fucking things up, but on this night she looked like a star, especially with all the women at ringside and Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky backstage looking at her as she celebrated. This was a damn good night for her and I was not expecting that.

I skipped the rest of the show as I really didn't care about anything else, especially knowing the match results.

[Reprise]

Yeah, I was thinking in retrospect I was a bit harsh on the women's Rumble. I do think I did overall enjoy it more than the men's. It was mostly just that I wasn't aware who a large number of the women were. Probably unconscious bias, as I are more familiar with the men and the their ongoing storylines and gimmicks.

Also, Michael Cole was pissing me off. He kept introducing people as "so-in-so... Has another ally"

So a woman would come out and I would be like "who's that?" before the name appears on the screen and Michael Cole would shout a random name and I would think either "ohhh" or "that's not [insert name here]" only for him to then say "has another ally"

It goes back to me complaining his commentary is so repetitive. He says the same shit over and over again. Also, I thought the whole point of a Rumble is there are no allies, no friends, it is every man and woman for themself

[RCBH928]

I don't think RCBH928 knows how much wrestling has evolved over the years. A lot of wrestlers today can do some absolutely crazy things that you didn't see in the 80s and 90s. Even larger wrestlers defy expectations these days with some of the athletic things they can pull off. There are giant men who can do moon saults and leap frogs nowadays. It's crazy. As a result, I feel like smaller guys and lucha libre types have had to up the ante on the kind of insane stunts they can do.

The physicality is off the charts these days too, particularly in Japan where wrestlers hit each other HARD. The fight may be fake, but a lot of the hits are REAL. Sometimes today you can see a person's chest literally start to bleed from all of the chops they've taken from their opponent.
.

I am not sure how old you are but this is nothing new in wrestling:

Vader Moonsault
Sabu in ECW

just some examples

[RCBH928]

Whats the dirt on Stone Cold?

He was physically and emotionally abusive to his wife, Debra. He was arrested for beating her up. Since then, she has revealed the abuse she received, that he would basically force or try to force sex on her when she didn't want it

At least one other ex partner has made similar allegations. He pushed one of his exes out of a moving vehicle and would abuse her pets in order to hurt her. On one occasion he locked her pet cats in cupboard before he left for several days to travel on the road. The cats were found by a neighbour a few days later malnourished and surrounded by faeces and urine.

thats sick...

[Raging Justice]

Yeah, I was thinking in retrospect I was a bit harsh on the women's Rumble. I do think I did overall enjoy it more than the men's. It was mostly just that I wasn't aware who a large number of the women were. Probably unconscious bias, as I are more familiar with the men and the their ongoing storylines and gimmicks.

Also, Michael Cole was pissing me off. He kept introducing people as "so-in-so... Has another ally"

So a woman would come out and I would be like "who's that?" before the name appears on the screen and Michael Cole would shout a random name and I would think either "ohhh" or "that's not [insert name here]" only for him to then say "has another ally"

It goes back to me complaining his commentary is so repetitive. He says the same shit over and over again. Also, I thought the whole point of a Rumble is there are no allies, no friends, it is every man and woman for themself

I guess Bayley agrees with you, because she heckles him during her matches which I find hilarious. I don't know if you noticed that during the Rumble.

[Reprise]

Yeah, I was thinking in retrospect I was a bit harsh on the women's Rumble. I do think I did overall enjoy it more than the men's. It was mostly just that I wasn't aware who a large number of the women were. Probably unconscious bias, as I are more familiar with the men and the their ongoing storylines and gimmicks.

Also, Michael Cole was pissing me off. He kept introducing people as "so-in-so... Has another ally"

So a woman would come out and I would be like "who's that?" before the name appears on the screen and Michael Cole would shout a random name and I would think either "ohhh" or "that's not [insert name here]" only for him to then say "has another ally"

It goes back to me complaining his commentary is so repetitive. He says the same shit over and over again. Also, I thought the whole point of a Rumble is there are no allies, no friends, it is every man and woman for themself

I guess Bayley agrees with you, because she heckles him during her matches which I find hilarious. I don't know if you noticed that during the Rumble.

Haha yeah, I have seen that before too. I think someone made a montage a while back of her heckling and shouting at Cole

[Reprise]

You were right, Raging Justice. CM Punk suffered a serious yet-to-be-disclosed injury. It's suspected he tore his triceps though.

Damn, Punk can't go 5 minutes without injuring himself or getting into a fight backstage.

[Raging Justice]

You were right, Raging Justice. CM Punk suffered a serious yet-to-be-disclosed injury. It's suspected he tore his triceps though.

Damn, Punk can't go 5 minutes without injuring himself or getting into a fight backstage.

Yeah, he had his arm in a brace or something on Raw and basically announced that he wouldn't be at Wrestlemania. If it was anyone else I'd feel bad for the guy, but it's Punk so i was laughing. It was even funnier when Drew McIntyre came out and said, "I prayed for this. I mean, I was pretty upset about losing the Rumble, but when I heard that I had beaten you up so bad you were injured, I slept like a baby"



Drew McIntyre in 2024 feels more like CM Punk than CM Punk does. A decade ago Punk was badmouthing the corporate, handpicked, chosen one that was John Cena. In 2024 we have him on Raw verbally kissing Cody's ass, right before McIntyre interrupted him and saved us from the rest of Punk's boring promo.

The heels were on tonight. Bayley's promo was pretty good too:

"Bayley hasn't been the same since coming back from her injury they said. Bayley keeps losing all the time they said. Well it's a good thing I didn't listen to you idiots because I went and did what I said I would do at the Royal Rumble and Damage Control has all the belts just like I said they would. Take a picture. You're looking at history in the ring right now! i even beat Rhea Ripley's Royal Rumble record at one hour and three minutes, isn't that right Michael Cole!"



Bayley was even getting some cheers from the crowd despite still being in full heel mode. When you say you're gonna do something and you do it, people respect that.



Bayley's segment was probably the most interesting one on the show, and it consisted entirely of heels (Bayley, Damage Control, Rhea Ripley, and Nia Jax). Most of WWE's top faces right now really suck except maybe Seth Rollins and of course LA Knight. Seth did a passionate promo trying to convince Cody that he should challenge Seth because Seth's title means more than Roman's title, but I wonder if he was trying to convince Cody or convince himself. It was a good promo though, and showed how much better on the mic Seth is than Cody.