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

[Crown Royal]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Exactly. I actually give WWE props for putting on a pretty decent show all things considered. In my ideal world MLW also gets a major TV deal and we have wrestling 4 nights/week.

Triple H and Cody both seem to get that it's not a competition. It's just old man Vince who insists on it being this way.

I'm not sure Cody does, AEW fairly regularly takes small references/jabs at WWE. In recent weeks Brodie Lee, Big Swole and Britt Baker have all made subtle references to WWE, Lee's making a couple directly at Vince. Now this may be due to the talent having more creative freedom, but it comes off as petty quite often IMO.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Crown Royal

I'm not sure Cody does, AEW fairly regularly takes small references/jabs at WWE. In recent weeks Brodie Lee, Big Swole and Britt Baker have all made subtle references to WWE, Lee's making a couple directly at Vince. Now this may be due to the talent having more creative freedom, but it comes off as petty quite often IMO.

*flashes back to Cody using a sledgehammer on a throne at Double or Nothing*

You might be right. Either way, my point about ratings stands.

[SuperMatt18]

Under the circumstances I think the WWE put on a pretty good show.

I'll start off with the things I would have improved:

Lesnar vs Drew should have been more than just finisher spam considering both guys can actually work a match, but for whatever reason that's what they want to do in all of Brock's matches now.

Edge vs Orton was very physical and well done, but probably was too long at 36 minutes long and it dragged on. I guess that's just part of it being a last man standing match though but with the ability to edit and cut things they should have had a crisper match.

Zayn vs Bryan was telling a great story but with this being pre-taped and the event being over two nights there was no reason for this to be a 10 minute match. Could have easily went 20 minutes.

Goldberg should have never had the belt to start with, so at least the right guy won from that perspective.

Now on to the highlights for me:

Women's elimination 5 way was probably the surprise of the shows for me. Lacey Evans actually has come a long way in-ring and did a good job in the match.

Some people didn't like the way it ended but I thought the Tag Team Title Triple Threat was a strong match too. Rare to see ladder matches with only 2-3 participants now but thought they pulled it off. Personally I liked the way it ended with the three guys battling over the belts and Morrison being able to pull the belts away and then exploding on the ladder.

Owens vs Rollins was great. Really strong story telling with the false DQ finish, and then the jump off the sign was a great way to close off that storyline.

Charlotte vs Rhea was a really strong match showcasing two of the top talents in the womens division. Rhea probably should have went over, but I hope they keep building this story line to give Rhea the win back maybe even build towards WM 37. Feel like they should have given it the WM 13 finish where Rhea never taps but passes out due to pain.

The Boneyard match was perfectly done. Right amounts of cheese and seriousness that the WWE should have. Undertaker did a great job of being menacing and just plays that character so well. Really interested to see what they do with the OC from here, I really hope that they give AJ a deadman gimmick. Have him be like AJ-Taker until he wins his soul back from the Undertaker or something similarly cheesy like that.

And I think in the end my favorite part of the weekend was the Firefly Funhouse. I don't think this should even be called a match but honestly this should be used as a gimmick to build up more of Bray/The Fiends matches moving forward.

As a guy who is a fan of Cena for the most part I think it did a great job of really pulling at his career. The comparisons to Hogan and the calls for him to have a heel turn that were shadowed with Hogan turning with the NWO, the Ruthless Aggression and Thugonomics flashbacks, and to me the best part was the WM 30 with Bray deserving the win and Cena not giving it to him. Honestly think it was well done and I really hope they keep this going, either with Cena appearing as a puppet in the fun house, or with some build with Cena as a heel. Just was a great view of the type of stuff the WWE should be doing to build stories.

For me that is the biggest takeaway of the whole weekend. Sure stuff like the Boneyard Match, and Firefly funhouse wouldn't be great payoffs for a PPV under normal circumstances but this is the stuff the WWE used to do to build stories on RAW/SMACKDOWN that made them successful in the 90s and early 00s. I honestly kept thinking about the old Ministry of Darkness Vignettes and Austin/McMahon skits when I saw these matches and thought "Why did the WWE move away from the pre-taped story building vignettes they used to run in their glory years"

[CaptainCrunch]

Just looking at how they're dealing with the Undertaker with him appearing on Stone Colds Broken Skull Sessions, and the network special on him where he appears out of Kayfabe, which he never used to do, I think that was it for the Undertaker, he was hinting at retirement, and he even admits that he lives with a lot of pain, and its harder and harder for him to get ready for these matches. I expect him to pack it in.


With Cena, I believe its the same thing with him, there's nothing really left for him to do in WWE and he's doing well in Hollywood. I doubt they're going to continue anything with Bray, and use this as a spring board. But I expect that he'll pull off the Rock thing and maybe show up once every couple of wrestlemanias, and good for him, he's done a ton for that company, but he does leave a big hole. Looking at how the match was planned there were three people involved. Pritchard, Bray and Cena, Pritchard and Bray mapped out the match, and Cena added some twists.


I love the idea that as something special that we get a Cena puppet under the thrall of Bray and Bray torturing it, that way they could give Cena some voice over work and keep things alive. Plus a Cena puppet would be full of potential.


It sounds like Charlotte won the NXT title because they want to use her and NXT against AEW head to head. Look for a high end wrestler from the Main Roster to get moved to NXT, but that's speculation on my part.


We're heading into the annual night of terror where the WWE is going to trim its roster down and with the huge loss that's going to happen with this years wrestlemania it should be huge.


I expect Rusev, Lana and Lashley to be shown the door as well as guys like Ryder and Hawkins and sadly the Iconics. I expect that Brock is done for a good long while as well, and they might not renew his contract, which I believe is up.

[Ozy_Flame]

I also expect many releases coming up across all three brands. In no particular order:

Ignoring the strategy of having people signed "just so they don't go anywhere else (see: EC3), I imagine at least 8 of these people are done.

Rusev
Apollo Crews
Lashley
Cedric Alexander
EC3
Curt Hawkins
Zach Ryder
The Revival
The Colons
Bo Dallas
The Iconics
Tamina
Boa
Fandango
Kona Reeves
Tino Sabatelli
Shane Thorne
Aliyah
Taynara Conti
Mercedes Martinez

And I didn't even touch 205 Live or NXT UK.

[CaptainCrunch]

That's a good list, I don't know if they'll release Conti maybe I'm biased, but she did walk away earlier this year and they worked to get her back.

[Ozy_Flame]

If I had to say, probably only 1 or 2 of those guys end up in AEW. Jericho and Brodie Lee both said that AEW isn't going to bring on everyone that leaves; there is a very small group of people they would take from WWE.

I can only imagine of that list, the Revival and Rusev would make it. Everyone else will go to Impact, NWA, ROH, the indies, or retire.

[Inferno]

I think because of how they've used social media to complain the The Revival won't be released early. I can't remember which one it is but the WWE can add 3 months to their contract due to injuries.

One thing that guys like Hardy, Ambrose/Moxley, and GoldDust have shown is if you stay quiet and just let your contract run out or quietly ask for your release you'll get it.

[Crown Royal]

Originally Posted by Inferno

I think because of how they've used social media to complain the The Revival won't be released early. I can't remember which one it is but the WWE can add 3 months to their contract due to injuries.

One thing that guys like Hardy, Ambrose/Moxley, and GoldDust have shown is if you stay quiet and just let your contract run out or quietly ask for your release you'll get it.

Spears as well, in fact he might be the best example as he was released and done so in such a way where he could participate at Double or Nothing, they easily could have released him a couple days later and made it so he couldn't.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Freeway

WrestleMania 36 is going to go down as one of the most spectacular disasters in modern history.

I don’t think this prediction aged particularly well.

To me this showed what spectator sports can be in the interim period until it is safe for crowds to gather again. Not nearly as good as when there is a live crowd, but if you’re a fan of the sport, it can still be entertaining.

[SuperMatt18]

Pretty good breakdown of all the parts of the Firefly Funhouse here and what they were going for as a retrospective of Cena's career.

https://uproxx.com/prowrestling/fire...estlemania-36/

[KelVarnsen]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Pretty good breakdown of all the parts of the Firefly Funhouse here and what they were going for as a retrospective of Cena's career.

https://uproxx.com/prowrestling/fire...estlemania-36/

I was hoping for one scene of Prototype Cena

[Crown Royal]

Bianca Belair has officially joined the Raw roster

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

I was hoping for one scene of Prototype Cena

God you look at the talent on that OVW developmental roster, it's better then WWE's main roster today.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Crown Royal

Bianca Belair has officially joined the Raw roster

Yeah and Nia Jax came back as well, bleah.

[Crown Royal]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Yeah and Nia Jax came back as well, bleah.

I haven't gotten that far yet, but I knew she'd be coming back soon. Depending how she is used, I'm okay with her being around.

[CaptainCrunch]

They're going to uber push her again. She'll go right to the top of the card.

[Crown Royal]

With Apollo moving over to Raw, I don't foresee him being released for at least a little while.

[Crown Royal]

Big Show & Drew was a much better match than Brock & Drew.

[CaptainCrunch]

Wonder if the WWE is going to release Lars Sullivan once he recovers from his knee injury.