Official WWE/ECW/WCW/TNA talk, or whatever v2

[TheIronMaiden]

If I had to book WM today it would be

Gunther vs John Cena
Solo Sikoa vs Jacob Fatu
Bron Breakker vs Bronson Reed
CM Punk vs Seth Rollins
Rock VS Reigns
Cody Rhodes VS Drew Macintyre
Jimmy and Jay Uso VS Judegment Day
Sammy Zayn vs Nakamura
Randy Orton vs Kevin Ownes.


Tiffy vs Nia Jax
Jade Cargil VS Bianca
Rhea Ripply vs Becky Lynch

and Jeez none of that includes DMG CRTL, LA Knight, Logan Paul, Damien Priest, Sheamus or AJ Styles.

It's going to be a fun couple of months of wrestling.

[HitterD]

^^^ Missing Liv Morgan to, and Dom

The WWE has done a fantastic job of elevating so many wrestlers main event status.

[TheIronMaiden]

Poor bigE

[CaptainCrunch]

Clearly Big E can't take bumps of any kind, which forced WWE to be extremely creative in terms of how they did this.


Or they're saving the real heel turn for later when Big E will have to take one final bump.

[trackercowe]

Impressive midcard booking with The New Day. They went from a joke stable that hasn't done anything in years to the hottest storyline in wrestling. The WWE is KILLING IT with longterm booking right now. Whoever is in creative right now really deserves a round of applause for their work. Compare it to a few years ago where everything was a mess. It just goes to show what impact one crazed billionaire can have on a pro wrestling company... or a country for that matter.

[CaptainCrunch]

One of the things that made the Attitude Era really work for the WWE is not the whole risky and adult themed story lines, but the ability for the WWE writers to long term book. We saw over the last few years for the WWE and are seeing in AEW the effects hotshot booking. The WWE has been impressively building long term story lines and character progressions that not only work, but have pushed a lot of Wrestlers into the lime light and as mentioned by Tracker into the Main Event Picture while bringing in new workers and developing them.


The New Day Story line really started building after we heard that Big E would be unlikely to be cleared again and would be moving into his new role. They slowly built the breaking of the new day and then did it in a really novel way where there wasn't a physical attack on Big E, but a devastating emotional and mental attack.



Does this leave the New Day as heels? Fans are going to hate them because they destroyed a really popular and nice guy in Big E, but you can't say that their feelings of abandonment by Big E are based in truth, and that's the key to heel logic. Heels shouldn't see themselves as the scum dogs of the universe, they have to believe that they are doing the right thing.


I would like to see a more determined, and edgy and less fun loving New Day that takes a serious run at the Tag titles and shows off their impressive physical skills.


If Big E can take a big bump, then you could really make New Day hated by having Big E come out to the ring and beg for forgiveness and say that the New Day was right, and they come out and literally end his in ring career.


But I do love the turn without the attack.

[SuperMatt18]

I think the think that makes the shows better is that it really does feel like a "Universe" where things intertwine and the storylines just don't live in their own little silo.

On Smackdown you have KO who attacked Cody/Orton for teaming with Roman.

On Raw you have Drew and Seth that appear to be made at Sami/Jey for siding with Roman.

The you still have Roman and the Bloodline in there too. And all the stories work together and overlap with one another.

It makes it feel more real. I also think it's why the Wyatts have struggled more recently, it's hard to fit into the more realistic universe they want to build. They really should have came back as more of just a cult of Bray followers more than the supernatural angle they went with.

[TheIronMaiden]

A part of what is making Raw feel alive is that it's only 2 hours.

I hope that with Netflix they don't force the show to be any longer than it needs to be.
Right now it is kind of perfect.

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

On Raw you have Drew and Seth that appear to be made at Sami/Jey for siding with Roman.

Oooooh, I don't think Drew is made about Roman....

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

A part of what is making Raw feel alive is that it's only 2 hours.

I hope that with Netflix they don't force the show to be any longer than it needs to be.
Right now it is kind of perfect.

HHH said that with it being on Netflix length might even vary from week to week.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by Inferno

HHH said that with it being on Netflix length might even vary from week to week.

That sounds perfect.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Blaster86

Oooooh, I don't think Drew is made about Roman....

Meant to say Roman / Punk.

But I do think lost in it a bit is also that Drew and Roman have their own history and Bloodline also cost Drew the title multiple times.

The overlapping nature of it all is what makes it feel more real.

Roman / Punk teaming together is Drew's two most hated people working together, it makes sense right after that he would return a bit pissed off.

Originally Posted by Inferno

HHH said that with it being on Netflix length might even vary from week to week.

That is such a game changer IMO.

Wrestling has always been restricted week to week by hard time slots indicating how/when stories have to end and it makes it harder to have a "true surprise" now you don't really know when / how things are going to end week to week since it will could end anywhere between 2 or 3 hours.

[trackercowe]

I was listening to Cornette last night and they mentioned WWE should air a show with more adult themes later at night. With Netflix it seems like they will have room to maneuver with their scheduling. So why not start a show that runs after primetime? I always felt that's a missed opportunity for all of professional sports. Yet with wrestling it would seem opportune. That way they can avoid going head to head with Monday Night Football, and all the other primetime content.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by trackercowe

I was listening to Cornette last night and they mentioned WWE should air a show with more adult themes later at night. With Netflix it seems like they will have room to maneuver with their scheduling. So why not start a show that runs after primetime? I always felt that's a missed opportunity for all of professional sports. Yet with wrestling it would seem opportune. That way they can avoid going head to head with Monday Night Football, and all the other primetime content.

On a kind of related note, back in 2016, Smack Talk was such a good show. That's where we got the legendary Daniel Bryan / Miz interaction promo that still sticks in my mind today.

I'd be 100% down for more wrestling-related adult content post-Raw or Smackdown, especially if it's now on Netflix so there's more wiggle room to do interesting stuff. Great idea.

[Blaster86]

Talking Smack, you nerd.

[Muta]

Oh right haha. Smack Talk is much better though now that I think about it.

[Blaster86]

So, at this point I'm sure we've seen all the fun AEW news...

CM Punk's time in AEW is going to carry on like the ####ing Screw Job at this rate. Every year, something new coming out that just adds a new level of nuance or side that we haven't heard yet.

I do find it funny that every layer that gets peeled off this onion vindicates Punk sense of being targeted by people in the company that he was helping lift up.

Still doesn't justify attacking multiple co-workers, but apparently he wasn't wrong about why.

[CaptainCrunch]

The whole situation is weird.



I mean he files a complaint and its ignored.



then he's instructed to cut a promo on Punk where there was no probability of a match never happening.


Then AEW threatens to sue Nemith, then offer's him supposedly three year package, and supposedly try to shift the blame to him for Punk leaving.


Then they let his contract expire.


Maybe I'm misreading things, but it sounds like there was a real leadership issue in AEW, and maybe its still there. But ignoring a wrestlers complaint about physical threats and intimidation backstage is a real bad look.

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Then they let his contract expire.

And then offer him a new contract after doing all this! It's insane.


The issue isn't just that his complaint was ignored. It's also that he was actually instructed to provoke CM Punk and then was ignored by everyone.

[trackercowe]

AEW is in dire need of any kind of senior leadership backstage. It's no wonder Cornette turned down Khan's offer to work backstage for the company. Then you have other workers with significant experience like Regal, Anderson, Blanchard, Kazarian, Steel, Cody, and Guerrero who have all left for various reasons. It feels like the inmates are running the asylum there, and there is a real lack of direction in the company. The in-ring work is still fine, because that creative freedom is allowed. Yet week after week there is more negativity being brought to the company. They need to bring in someone from outside the company to fix these issues.

We hear about more problems within AEW weekly than we have during the Khan/Helmsley era. I can't think of a single backstage issue that has occured in the WWE in years. Maybe they do a better job of keeping it under wraps, but look at someone like Shinsuke Nakamura who sat at home for months and we never heard a peep out of him. Compare that to Starks, Miro, and Malakai Black. They were pretty open about their dissatisfaction, two of which will likely never be seen on AEW programming again. Meanwhile Shinsuke was brought back seamlessly and people adore him. I find it wild Tony is so willing to let all these people sit at home and collect paycheques. The one thing he did do right was to fire Punk! Why is he holding all the rest up, they won't move the metrics like Punk did.

Also does anyone listen to the Stevie Richards podcast? Highly recommended. Very insightful and well-spoken... Richards loves Punk, and usually speaks highly of him.