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

[CaptainCrunch]

It was hinted at in a conference call with the WWE CFO.


As much as we hate this, I think they need it, the Woman's division is a mess.

[d_phaneuf]

It was more than hinted at, Nick Khan said Becky and Ronda would both be back soon

Women's division does need a boost, it's super top heavy. There's really only 7 women who are top of the card worthy on the main roster right now

The 4 in the title matches this weekend, Becky, Charlotte, and Bayley

Maybe Ronda makes it 8

Alexa has the character work better than anyone probly, but not the in ring to really compete with them, and who knows if she can even wrestle anymore with her injuries

Shayna is the only other one on main roster who you would trust in a 10 minute + match, and have it be good, but her booking has been horrible.

My guess is toni storm and io come up, but one on each show.

[SuperMatt18]

Only way to fix the entire roster is to get rid of the brand split.

Have certain people appear more frequently on each show if you want but I still think if they just went to a single Women's Champion that would be a better move.

To d_phaneuf's point you really only have 8 real believable women's stars, max 12 if you count Alexa, Shayna, Toni, and Io.

Trying to split that between 2 shows (3 if you count NXT) means you only have 4-6 people rotating through the title picture at a time. Makes things feel stale.

However if you get rid of the brand split between Raw and Smackdown, and you could put Sasha, Bayley, Charlotte, Becky, Ronda, Asuka, Ripley, and Bel Air on the same show, the storyline and matchup potential suddenly looks great

Get rid of the brand split, consolidate the womens & tag team titles, maybe get rid of the US Title, and you have a much better product.

WWE Universal Title
WWE World Title
WWE IC Title
WWE Tag Team Title
WWE Womens World Title
WWE Womens Tag Team Title

Too many belts right now, and this is what i'd go with.

[rubecube]

I think AEW has shown that you can get away with having less belts if you do more storyline development. There's no reason a title has to be the focus of every feud.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by rubecube

I think AEW has shown that you can get away with having less belts if you do more storyline development. There's no reason a title has to be the focus of every feud.

WWE used to be that way too.

In the Hogan / Next Generation / Atttiude era there are lots of fueds that didn’t have a title. Hell even NXT did a great job of this before they added more belts to that show.

Overall though on the main roster it feels like a belt is always required for a feud, with maybe only the Fiend being the exception lately.

[CaptainCrunch]

Ok, so it looks like Bliss turned on the Fiend because she learned that she didn't need him anymore and now she has a new friend named Lily who's a doll, or could be a wrestler or something.

[SuperMatt18]

I just really hope it’s not Nikki Cross

[CaptainCrunch]

It won't be, I expect they'll bring up someone from NXT.



So they did a fire fly fun house, and it looks like they've simply dropped the Bliss Wyatt relationship and it feels like they're going to repackage Wyatt as a revival faith healing preacher.



What a mess.



I have a feeling that this was to transition Alexa to more of a full time managers role. She's struggled with concussions and maybe its for the best.

[SuperMatt18]

Yeah that’s so weird. Not sure why they wouldn’t have opted for more closure in that case, especially if Bray is no longer going to be the Fiend character. They could have easily closed the loop on that whole angle at WM if they want to.

Have Alexa distract Fiend, Orton hits RKO and pins him.

Lights go out.

Alexa has Fiend in the Sister Abigail hits him with the move.

Lights go out.

Alexa is gone and it’s Bray in his normal clothes lying in the ring.

Then have the story be that Bray failed, and now Alexa is in control, and she was bringing in “Lily” to help her right the wrongs that Bray couldn’t.

Bray can go do whatever he wants to wants to do now, and kind of gets them out of the corner they painted themselves into with the Fiend and how he was booked.

[CaptainCrunch]

Its interesting that they chose the name Lilly for Alexa's new friend


If they're referring to Lillith, the first wife of Adam and a precence of pure evil and temptation. I at first thought that Bliss was going to have a new wrestling friend that's a woman, I took it further that she would do to a woman competitor what the fiend did to her. But I think that Alexa is going to have two persona's the one you see, and a wrestling persona ala fiend.



Is this the end of the fiend? I almost think so, I don't think he won a lot and he was pretty much killed against Orton. I mean who cares if you get lit on fire if you don't come back and kill the villain. So yeah, I expect that Firefly funhouse will go away they won't bring back the swamp preacher. They're going to create a new Brother Love that maybe wrestlers, though Bray doesn't seem to be that good at it.


Its a pretty sad example of character writing and script development.

[SuperMatt18]

Think you are right. And if that is the route they go, then they could have really had closure.

Have Alexa wearing the Fiend Mask to close the match at WM, with Bray in the ring as his normal self again.

Make it seem like she is taking over as the "Fiend" from Bray.

If you look at the Lily doll it really does look like Alexa wearing the Fiend mask. Same pigtails, same clothes, but the creepy fiend face. My guess is for Bliss they might go with facepaint instead of a mask though, since her facial reactions are a big part of her character.

[d_phaneuf]

Would have been a perfect switch imo, have the lights go out and when they come up she has him in sister Abigail, hits him with it and they go out again.

Crowd would have popped massively instead of booing

Then last night do what you did with Alexa, but have Bray back to.being Bray and then he goes away for a few months and comes back as himself again

[Derek Sutton]

The lights didn't have to go down at all. Bliss rises from the Jack in the Box, demonstrating total control and power over the Fiend. She climbs into the ring, with the Fiend under her spell, he just complies as she slowly manipulates him in position, and delivers Sister Abigail on the Fiend. The Fiend sells the living hell out of it. A disgusted, demented Bliss takes the mic saying only she could accomplish what Orton failed to and that was to put an end to the Fiend once and for all. Then as she exits the ring, the lights go dark, when they come back on Bray has lifted the Fiend mask, looking like a dejected failure. Bo Dallas appears ringside along with their Dad and Barry Windham. They take Bray away in an intervention sort of way. We won't see him again until June or so as he re appears with Bo as a tag team going their real names and the team adopting the US Express persona.

The feud with Bliss and Orton continues with Bliss interfering in each of Ortons matches trying manipulate each of his opponents trying to find her next "Orton Destroyer". This goes on for a number of months until she sets her sight on the Viking Raiders. She entices them each week, by first going back to her old Alexa Bliss character wearing skimpier and sexier clothes, acting all innocent until they finally succumb to her and her sweetness. At which point she reverts back the twisted character she currently is portraying and turns the Viking Raiders into the most destructive, demonic tag team. They destroy Orton ending that feud. This sets them (Viking Raiders) on a path to the Tag Team Championship, by this point the new US Express are the Champions. A Royal Rumble match between the two teams ends with The Viking Raiders with Bliss emerging as champions. This sets up the Wrestlemania rematch. For the rematch, the US Express re adopts the Fiend gimmick, win of course and they carry Bliss away in an intervention type way.

At this point the Bliss character could go either way, reappear as a reformed blonde, sweet and innocent. Or come back as if she escaped reformation, more demented then ever, and has it out for the Rotundo brothers, targets another tag team, or other wrestlers and takes another run at the US Epress2.0.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by d_phaneuf

Would have been a perfect switch imo, have the lights go out and when they come up she has him in sister Abigail, hits him with it and they go out again.

Crowd would have popped massively instead of booing

Then last night do what you did with Alexa, but have Bray back to.being Bray and then he goes away for a few months and comes back as himself again

Yup.

If Bliss hits Bray with Sister Abigail the building would have went ballistic.

Instead the whole thing fell flat and just left the building confused and annoyed.

[Inferno]

So it sounds like The Fiend was supposed to win and Orton was supposed to be written off storylines for a while but Vince and Bruce Prichard changed it just hours before the show.

There was also apparently 2-3 other matches that had their finishes changed with one being on Saturday but they aren't listed.

[CaptainCrunch]

Just watching the network and they're showing the debut of Brie Bella versus the always great Victoria and the debut of twin magic.

[rubecube]

Man, The Bucks have always been so much better as heels. Glad they finally pulled the trigger on it. The whole Elite really, except maybe Hangman, are natural heels.

Also this Anthony Ogogo dude has superstar written all over him. Crushed his debut promo last week and just oozes tough guy charisma in the ring. I'm guessing he's probably still pretty green, but I think AEW has something here.

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Man, The Bucks have always been so much better as heels. Glad they finally pulled the trigger on it. The whole Elite really, except maybe Hangman, are natural heels.

Also this Anthony Ogogo dude has superstar written all over him. Crushed his debut promo last week and just oozes tough guy charisma in the ring. I'm guessing he's probably still pretty green, but I think AEW has something here.

Hangman is probably the one that can be both, bucks are such better heels, Kenny outside golden lovers has always been a better heel

Looked ogogo up after last week, completely agree on him, hes only been doing it for 2 years so super green, won a medal in boxing in London. He only retired from boxing cause of an eye issue, he doesnt have full vision.

Hes been on a bunch of uk reality shows, which makes sense after you see him a bit, hes got a ton of personality. Also seems like the perfect guy to build up for when they eventually do a show in the UK

[d_phaneuf]

Also for the ending of raw, sounds like the only good part of the show was mvp

I'm happy they are keeping the hurt business going, it looks like dijakovic and dio maddin are joined now, I'm not using their stupid retribution names. I hope they take off the masks.

[Ozy_Flame]

The annual post-Wrestlemania tradition of WWE releases has kicked off again. This year's victims release-ees include:

Samoa Joe (Last appearance: WrestleMania 37 commentary)
Billie Kay (Last appearance: WrestleMania 37)
Mickie James (Last appearance: NXT TakeOver Stand & Deliver pre-show)
Chelsea Green (Last appearance: Nov. 13, 2020 SmackDown -- injured)
Tucker (Last appearance: March 29, 2021 Raw) Tweet
Kalisto (Last appearance: April 9, 2021 SmackDown before WrestleMania)
Wesley Blake (Last appearance: Dec. 11, 2020 SmackDown)
Bo Dallas (Last appearance: Oct. 31, 2019 Crown Jewel)


Samoa Joe really surprises me. My gut is telling me he wanted to be cleared to wrestle again and either WWE didn't clear it, or he did get clearance and they had no plans for him, so he requested his release.

Billy Kay is surprising too, she was fairly over.