The Wrestling Thread

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Raging Justice
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

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Reprise wrote: Sat May 31, 2025 1:00 pm Speaking of Harley, her injury is allegedly a storyline, but was used to write her off of tv for a while. It's a shame. I agree that she is a phenomenal wrestler. So much star power and charisma in her. Her feud with Mercedes was hilarious, as was their recent pairing.

And I agree about Willow essentially being able to side-step the women's titles scene and hang in the main overarching storyline with the Deathriders. Willow deserves to get a big babyface run with the women's title soon.
Seeing Harley bringing out a puppet and doing ventriloquism, doing concerts, or randomly speaking Chinese just reminds me of back when AEW was a bit unpredictable and wrestlers did things you just didn't expect. She's another great example of someone who I have come around on as I was NOT impressed with her AT ALL when she first showed up in AEW. I think she started to thrive when AEW just let her stand on her own two feet instead of being other people's sidekicks. It gave her a chance to just be herself.

I feel a little bad for Tiffany Stratton. I didn't include her in my list, because I think her program with Charlotte did some real damage to her. Charlotte has a way of doing the OPPOSITE of elevating people. It's a shame, because I still like Tiffany but I feel like she has come out of Wrestlemania and her program with Charlotte as less of a star than she was before all that. By contrast, you can see Becky Lynch doing her best to get Lyra Valkyrie over like a true professional. I really don't get what Charlotte's deal is. She has had issues with people before too.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

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Wow, R-Truth has been released by WWE. I never thought I'd see that. He only just had a match against John Cena at Saturday Night's Main Event. I figured he'd always be around as a comedy character.
Raging Justice wrote: Sun Jun 01, 2025 1:55 am Seeing Harley bringing out a puppet and doing ventriloquism, doing concerts, or randomly speaking Chinese just reminds me of back when AEW was a bit unpredictable and wrestlers did things you just didn't expect. She's another great example of someone who I have come around on as I was NOT impressed with her AT ALL when she first showed up in AEW.
It helps that she is naturally funny. It's not forced and it's not just dumb for the sake of being dumb. She's very witty and got over organically.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

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The R Truth thing is surprising and is maybe getting the most backlash we've seen from a WWE release.

Truth is an interesting guy. The guy who comes out to a rap song apparently has a country album coming out soon. It's also VERY hard to believe that he is 53 years old.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

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I wouldn't be surprised if they reverse their decision and offer him a new deal, because of the backlash.

Carlito is also being released, but to be honest I never really understood why they brought him back and he barely did anything anyway.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

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It feels like R-Truth is the straw that broke the camel's back. I have noticed that attitudes towards WWE have started to become less positive this year, but it has been very minor overall. Now though I am seeing huge backlash online and it's not just about R-Truth. The narrative is completely shifting. It is people complaining about R-Truth, not now all the other criticisms are coming out too about the overall quality and current direction.

I also noticed the response to WWE's aggressive counter programming AEW strategy isn't too positive, surprisingly. At the end of the day it's competition, but most people seem to think it's too much and incredibly petty.

The reaction to Trick winning the TNA world title was also mixed.

The problem is once you get to a position where a company like WWE is perceived as being able to do no wrong and being "the hottest it has been since the Attitude era", there is only one direction left for it to go and it isn't up.

Not that I really think WWE is in trouble of course. Nor do I think AEW will ever truly recover and be as popular as it was during its honeymoon period. But I do think this is potentially a turning point and maybe we will see WWE being treated less infallibly for a while.

Of course, things could change. If WWE sees the backlash and gives R-Truth a new contract, then people will forgive the company and everything will be forgotten. Just like when people were revolting last year when the Rock decided to shoehorn himself into the Mania main event and sideline Cody Rhodes and then they turned it into some dumb storyline and pivoted and people acted like it was the greatest thing ever.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

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Amidst all the negativity towards WWE, there is one lighthearted thing. The response to Dominick Mysterio and Liv Morgan kissing in public has been pretty funny.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

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This version of R Truth was really cool. Too bad he got buried by Cena like so many others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A4vkt7Meq0
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

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Money in the Bank any good? I saw that R-Truth / Ron Killings returned.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

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I didn't watch, and from what I have heard, it sucked.

I had World's Collide on because it was free on youtube. There was some good in ring action, particularly El Vikingo vs Gable but like so many things in AEW and WWE these days I just had no reason to give a shit.

Sigh

Wrestling is so BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING right now.

I've started watching anime recently. Wrestling is boring. Gaming is boring. Sigh

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is an awesome anime that is more interesting than anything going on in AEW or WWE. Oh, and I discovered a badass anime styled show with puppets called Thunderbolt Fantasy and started watching it. Highly recommended. One of the coolest things I have ever watched.

Image

Yes, I have gone completely off topic. On a day when WWE had TWO pay per view events (one of them historic) I am talking about puppets and anime.

Wrestling really sucks right now.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

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"I've sailed the seven seas and returned with a tail of a boring pay per view, but alas a beautiful siren did I see"

Image

Yeah, so aside from Morgan's beautiful legs and beautiful ass, there's little to talk about on this PPV. Becky Lynch and Lyra had a good match, but I wasn't super interested in it. I will say that they work well together though to be honest, and the post match shenanigans were done well. Becky is more of a pro than Charlotte. This feud with Lyra is night and day compared to the Charlotte/Tiffany feud. Becky is trying to get Lyra over, though you could argue that Becky getting the title here doesn't help with that. I don't know if Becky had anything to do with that decision though. Charlotte on the other hand, tried to bury Tiffany for whatever reason.

I didn't watch the men's Money in the Bank because I knew what a disappointment the finish would be. Fuck you Triple H. Seth Rollins doesn't need a Money in the Bank briefcase and LA Knight gets buried once again.

The women's money in the bank was okay, but not great. I wouldn't say that it sucked, but it didn't really stand out either. You know that Smackdown tag title ladder match a few weeks ago set such a high bar for this style of match. It's still fresh in my mind. I like the way the girls interacted with each other, but there weren't any really memorable spots. The crowd seemed down for either of these girls winning which is pretty cool. I think Rhea Ripley and Stephanie Vaquer in particular seemed really over, particularly Ripley. Though as expected the crowd lost their shit when Stephanie did her Devil's Kiss spot, which Wade Barret on commentary called the most popular spot in all of WWE right now. I think Naomi has worked hard to try and make herself relevant again in recent weeks, but I still don't find her as Money in the Bank holder all that exciting. Maybe it's too soon to pull the trigger on Stephanie Vaquer just yet, but Roxanne would have made a lot of sense winning it here. It would have made the friction between her and Liv Morgan even more interesting as she would now have something that Liv doesn't, a chance to become champion. Roxanne is ready for the big time, and she already has worked her way into a main event story line. I like Naomi's new character, but she's still not a compelling choice for the briefcase.

Domnick's title match was a stupid, pointless match that was only entertaining because of Liv Morgan's antics outside of the ring along with her usual smoking body.

I didn't watch the main event, but R Truth came back from what I have heard. That's cool for him I guess. I honestly don't give a shit. Though it's been reported online that Triple H is upset that he had to change creative due to fan backlash about R Truth's firing. God, imagine how good the product could be if fans got upset over THAT instead of just getting mad about a guy getting fired. I really WISH fans would hijack shows more and voice their displeasure. This proves that it gets results. It also got results in 2014 with Daniel Bryan. When fans are complacent, WWE gives them shit. You have to MAKE them put out a good product the same way WCW had to MAKE Vince McMahon put out a good product back in the 90s. WWE is the same whether it's Vince in charge or Triple H. They don't fucking care about anything unless fans force them to. They literally rehired a guy because of fan backlash, that's the power fans have. I wish they would use it more.

People are saying WWE feels full of nepotism right now, with a lot of top spots going to people who are already top stars (Seth, Becky), people with Samoan ties like Uso and Fatu, or people with famous last names (like Cody Rhodes). I can't blame them

I think Triple H has pissed away all of the good will he built up when he was running Black and Gold NXT. Nobody sees him as a good booker now, and things like R Truth's firing have soured people on him even more. I think Tony Kahn has pissed away all of the good will he once had too. We're back to modern wrestling sucking again. We had some hope in recent years but it's back to the status quo.
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