The Wrestling Thread

[Raging Justice]

Raw ended with one of the worst segments I've ever seen. It's another in a long line of Paul Heyman/Cody Rhodes segments that absolutely suck because even though Paul Heyman is one of the greatest of all time, he can't weave a story around someone who doesn't have one, and he can't really do anything memorable with a charisma vacuum like Cody. Sammy Zayne should have been in this spot. Kevin Owens should have been in this spot. They have stories. As of now they've got nothing going on and Sammy is looking like a jobber at this point. Gunther threw lots of shade at him tonight. LA Knight should have been in this spot. He has charisma.

Paul came out with a bunch of suspended police officers...for some reason. Cody was like, "Where's the Bloodline set up! Bring it on!". Paul is like, "The Bloodline isn't here". Then Paul told Cody that he shouldn't go after the Rock and Roman because yeah, I'm sure that'll work Paul. Just tell the face that he shouldn't fight the heels and I'm sure he'll just back down, because that always works. Cody was like, "Screw you! Where's the Bloodline set up! Bring it on!". Paul is like, "um, The Bloodline isn't here. I just wanted to talk to you". Cody is like "Screw you! Where's the Bloodline set up! Bring it on!". Paul is like, "Can I just come in the ring and talk". Cody is like, "Screw you! Where's the Bloodline set up! Bring it on!"

Then he beat up all those dorky looking, "suspended police offers" and was like, "Screw you Paul! Screw you Bloodline! Bring it on!"

and that was the end of the show



Meanwhile, Seth Rollins is acting like Roman Reigns is Ganon and he has to help his buddy Link save all of Hyrule from this great evil

His Wrestlemania title match with Drew is just taking a backseat to this cinematic, epic, battle of good and evil between ironman Cody and Thanos Roman

God. AEW is having a title match soon involving a star on the rise who has done everything to get to the top, including some despicable things that he won't deny, a dominant badass champ just looking to show the world that he's not to be fucked with, and a guy who is out for revenge. It's simple. it works. I'm invested. Meanwhile, WWE's top story line is just annoying the fuck out of me.

Also, Raw has so many goddamn pointless matches with predictable outcomes and the in ring work is not even in the same galaxy as what we see week to week from AEW

Tell me again that Vince isn't running things? Sure feels like he is.

[Reprise]

Is this all just setting up Seth to turn heel on Cody at the last minute? So they utterly destroy Cody only for him to 'fight back' and be triumphant in defeating Roman at Wrestlemania, finally "finishing his story"?

I am still not sure if Cody will actually win. His whole character personality revolves around him 'FiNiShInG tHe StOrY", defeating Roman and winning the title. Once he achieves it, then what? His character doesn't have enough depth for him to remain interesting once he wins, in my opinion. I'd have Damien Priest cash in and immediately snatch the title from him.

I rewatched Double or Nothing 2023 over the last couple of nights. I really enjoyed it. I think it's kind underrated. Although I am saying that with the benefit of not watching it live having just paid for it, being able to skip matches and not having any kind of expectations that won't be met. The opening Battle Royal for the International title was so much fun! And Swerve was incredible. How he has been built up from this point up until now has been brilliant. The four pillars match is amazing. So many people shat on that at the time and I fully understand why, but the match itself was just so damn good. It's one of my favourite matches of 2023. And even the Anarchy in the Arena bollocks that I usually hate was a lot of silly fun.

I am really looking forward to Revolution 2024. I don't know if Swerve will win or Joe will retain, but either way I think it will be an amazing match and Swerve will have that title soon.

Here's a wildcard option though: Complete the double turn and have Hangman win the title. Then have Hangman as heel champion and Swerve continue his rivalry with Hangman.

Then again, I can see Swerve being the champion before All In, as heel, so they can have Will Ospreay as the face challenging him in the main event of All In.

[Reprise]

New releases received today. Anthem need to hire better graphic designers. The cover for Bound For Glory looks pretty amateur to me; it almost looks like a homemade copy someone has sold on Etsy.

[Raging Justice]

Cody is good when he plays a character, like Fuego Dos, Dashing Cody Rhodes, or Stardust. He's not interesting when he's being himself. When he was with the Elite, he seemed cool because the Elite was cool. Once he started distancing himself from them, and doing the "Codyverse" thing, we started to see more and more of Cody just being Cody...and we know how that turned out. Brandi is even worse. She's awful when left to her own devices and is just being herself.

Anyway, back to Cody, a guy like that can't be the face of a company.

Is this all just setting up Seth to turn heel on Cody at the last minute? So they utterly destroy Cody only for him to 'fight back' and be triumphant in defeating Roman at Wrestlemania, finally "finishing his story"?

I am still not sure if Cody will actually win. His whole character personality revolves around him 'FiNiShInG tHe StOrY", defeating Roman and winning the title. Once he achieves it, then what? His character doesn't have enough depth for him to remain interesting once he wins, in my opinion. I'd have Damien Priest cash in and immediately snatch the title from him.

I rewatched Double or Nothing 2023 over the last couple of nights. I really enjoyed it. I think it's kind underrated. Although I am saying that with the benefit of not watching it live having just paid for it, being able to skip matches and not having any kind of expectations that won't be met. The opening Battle Royal for the International title was so much fun! And Swerve was incredible. How he has been built up from this point up until now has been brilliant. The four pillars match is amazing. So many people shat on that at the time and I fully understand why, but the match itself was just so damn good. It's one of my favourite matches of 2023. And even the Anarchy in the Arena bollocks that I usually hate was a lot of silly fun.

I am really looking forward to Revolution 2024. I don't know if Swerve will win or Joe will retain, but either way I think it will be an amazing match and Swerve will have that title soon.

Here's a wildcard option though: Complete the double turn and have Hangman win the title. Then have Hangman as heel champion and Swerve continue his rivalry with Hangman.

Then again, I can see Swerve being the champion before All In, as heel, so they can have Will Ospreay as the face challenging him in the main event of All In.

Why didn't people like the four pillars match?

I want Hangman to be champ, but that's just because I'm a big Hangman mark. When looking at things objectively, I don't know if it's the best choice right now, but a double turn could maybe work

New releases received today. Anthem need to hire better graphic designers. The cover for Bound For Glory looks pretty amateur to me; it almost looks like a homemade copy someone has sold on Etsy.

I've been blowing so much money on games lately, don't get me buying wrestling stuff too

This would have been MY Wrestlemania:

Cody versus Gunther for the IC title - You don't NEED a story to do that match. Gunther is basically fighting anyone who steps up and challenges him. Personally, I'd prefer Chad Gable in this spot, but you have to do SOMETHING with Cody at Mania. Cody had a story line years ago before leaving for AEW where he wanted to bring respect back to the IC title. You could have brought that up again.

Sammy Zayne versus Roman for his title, with Jey Uso and Kevin Owens at ringside. Sammy wins, being the only person to beat Roman in three years. Damien Priest then cashes in on him to MASSIVE heal heat. I know some people think the faces should always come out on top at Wrestlemania. I don't. You had Sammy get his moment and finish his story. He'll always be remembered as the guy that ended Roman's dominance. That doesn't change with Priest cashing in on him.

LA Knight vs The Rock - I think the promos would have been fun with The Rock calling LA Knight a Rock ripoff and Knight telling The Rock that he doesn't constantly talk about himself in the third person while having a weird obsession with putting things in people's anuses. I think the similarities between Knight and Austin/Rock are a GOOD thing. I would have loved to see him and Austin in the ring at some point doing back and forth "what" and "yeah". The crowd would love it. Ultimately, LA Knight beating The Rock would show the world that he's not a Rock ripoff, he's BETTER than The Rock. Having the guys on commentary constantly saying that would help. I know in the grand scheme of things it's not true, but right now in the present you could have had current WWE fans viewing Knight as the guy who beat The Rock, therefore he's better than The Rock.

Seth Rollins vs Drew McIntyre - I would have had this exist on its own as a big deal, instead of having a promo segment last night between Drew and Seth where basically all they did is talk about Cody and Roman

Rhea Ripley vs anyone but Becky Lynch. This just isn't interesting to me. Beck has done it all already and doesn't need this. I honestly think Bayley would have been more interesting, but her vs Iyo makes sense especially now that Rhea is starting to act like a baby face after leaving Australia.

[Reprise]

Why didn't people like the four pillars match?

Oh I don't think anyone who saw the match disliked it. It's generally talked about as one of the best matches from last year from what I see. But people disliked the storyline and the build up to it, because it was painfully obvious that none of them were legitimate challengers and so the only logical result was that MJF would retain. Plus I think Darby, Sammy and Jungle Boy all equally have their fair share of detractors. I didn't really mind it though (and the match itself was awesome imo), sometimes predictable is ok. 90% of the attitude era matches were predictable as hell, but that era was still fun.

Sammy Zayne versus Roman for his title, with Jey Uso and Kevin Owens at ringside. Sammy wins, being the only person to beat Roman in three years. Damien Priest then cashes in on him to MASSIVE heal heat. I know some people think the faces should always come out on top at Wrestlemania. I don't. You had Sammy get his moment and finish his story. He'll always be remembered as the guy that ended Roman's dominance. That doesn't change with Priest cashing in on him.

I would have had this too. Cody's "story" and placement is basically where Sami should be. It was always Sami's story until Cody got shoehorned into it last year. The crowd would HATE Priest cashing in and snatching the title straight off Sami, but making people feel something is good. It creates that emotional hook. Plus, it would take Sami straight back to where he was and keeps the crowd invested in his character. He'll be remembered as the person who finally defeated Roman, finally won the title and then had it all snatched away from him. If anything, it would elevate his status and push that sort of Daniel Bryan effect, as happened following Summerslam 2013.

[Raging Justice]

Why didn't people like the four pillars match?

Oh I don't think anyone who saw the match disliked it. It's generally talked about as one of the best matches from last year from what I see. But people disliked the storyline and the build up to it, because it was painfully obvious that none of them were legitimate challengers and so the only logical result was that MJF would retain. Plus I think Darby, Sammy and Jungle Boy all equally have their fair share of detractors. I didn't really mind it though (and the match itself was awesome imo), sometimes predictable is ok. 90% of the attitude era matches were predictable as hell, but that era was still fun.

Sammy Zayne versus Roman for his title, with Jey Uso and Kevin Owens at ringside. Sammy wins, being the only person to beat Roman in three years. Damien Priest then cashes in on him to MASSIVE heal heat. I know some people think the faces should always come out on top at Wrestlemania. I don't. You had Sammy get his moment and finish his story. He'll always be remembered as the guy that ended Roman's dominance. That doesn't change with Priest cashing in on him.

I would have had this too. Cody's "story" and placement is basically where Sami should be. It was always Sami's story until Cody got shoehorned into it last year. The crowd would HATE Priest cashing in and snatching the title straight off Sami, but making people feel something is good. It creates that emotional hook. Plus, it would take Sami straight back to where he was and keeps the crowd invested in his character. He'll be remembered as the person who finally defeated Roman, finally won the title and then had it all snatched away from him. If anything, it would elevate his status and push that sort of Daniel Bryan effect, as happened following Summerslam 2013.

I think you could do this match with Kevin Owens fighting Roman too, with Sami and Jey at ringside. Kevin has said several times throughout 2023 that he wants to end The Bloodline. He's had beef with them long before Cody showed up. I think Sammy is better in that underdog hero role than Kevin though, and he got more over than Kevin at the height of his feud with Roman. Like you said Sammy has that Daniel Bryan vibe to him. Plus, Kevin kind of already had his awesome Mania moment by bringing Steve Austin out of retirement.

[RCBH928]

The pro-wrestling graphics aesthetics has to change. This style looked new and bold at certain era but every company is using similar looks. Its like 20 years now. Pro-Wrestling used to have different looks

[Raging Justice]

God, this is the whiniest generation of wrestlers in history. Rhea Ripley is whining on Twitter about a house show crowd booing Maxine for being green in the ring. Don't get me wrong, I think it's good for Maxine's co-workers to support her and encourage her, but whining on Twitter and attacking the fans is childish. You're in the public entertainment business, if you can't handle a crowd booing you or a colleague, which they have the right to do since they paid to see your show, then you're in the wrong business. Maybe pro wrestling isn't for whiny, entitled, Gen Zers and millenials with thin skins.

[Reprise]

Tbf, she wrote one tweet and she has a point.

Then again, Dwayne had to put up with "Die Rocky Die"

[RCBH928]

wrestling because tasteless with the death of kayfabe