WWE

[kingbadger]

Well, All Out was certainly a thing. Christ alive. 

[DareToDibble]

Clash at the Castle was great. Unreal atmosphere - at least it was in attendance, haven’t watched it all back on tv yet.

I simply cannot get my head around the decision to have Reigns retain. Who is there now that he can realistically drop the titles to? Cody is the obvious choice but if it’s him then I imagine that’ll be Mania after he wins the Rumble. Are they really sticking with Roman until then? That’s another 6 months. 
 

[Ozanne]

7 hours ago, kingbadger said:

Well, All Out was certainly a thing. Christ alive. 

I loved it. Punk is World Champion. I love Punk. 

[Padjeq]

16 hours ago, DareToDibble said:

Clash at the Castle was great. Unreal atmosphere - at least it was in attendance, haven’t watched it all back on tv yet.

I simply cannot get my head around the decision to have Reigns retain. Who is there now that he can realistically drop the titles to? Cody is the obvious choice but if it’s him then I imagine that’ll be Mania after he wins the Rumble. Are they really sticking with Roman until then? That’s another 6 months. 
 

Rumour is (or was) Roman's facing The Rock at Mania, so he'd keep the titles until then, beat the Rock, and make him even more untouchable.

They only guy that can beat him would need one of those organic sparks that puts the entire crowd behind him, like Daniel Bryan losing in 6 seconds (or whatever it was) or Becky getting her nose broken. Only guy I can think of could be Big E on his post neck-break come-back. Need some proper sob story videos before he returns.

You've got Austin Theory knocking around who I guess could take one belt off him. But that'd be so limp.

Watching Clash on tele, the ending was so embarrassing for Drew McIntyre. Losing was one thing, but the singalong was just tragic. It's like someone saw Fury do it once or twice and thought it'd send the fans home happy, without understanding when Fury does it it's funny because he's just won an intense boxing match and his brain is in the clouds.

[Andre91]

AEW seems a hot mess at the minute, between all of the backstage brawling, suspensions and Malakai Black leaving. 

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, Andre91 said:

AEW seems a hot mess at the minute, between all of the backstage brawling, suspensions and Malakai Black leaving. 

I only read wrestling results online now so probably not the best person to judge. I get the impression Tony Khan is a bit of a fanboy wanting to be loved by the wrestlers and the internet, as opposed to HHH who I think just wants to be the boss.

[DareToDibble]

The other problem is that AEW sometimes try to blur the lines between what's real and what's a work.

The fact that the triple tag titles and heavyweight title had to be vacated would indicate this is fairly serious though. The company certainly needs some direction.

[Andre91]

Not going to spoil it too much but… HOLY SHIT. That debut at AEW Grand Slam. I legit popped like a motherfucker for it. Did not see that coming at all. 

[Ozanne]

1 hour ago, Andre91 said:

Not going to spoil it too much but… HOLY SHIT. That debut at AEW Grand Slam. I legit popped like a motherfucker for it. Did not see that coming at all. 

Me too, incredible scenes!

[DareToDibble]

20 hours ago, Andre91 said:

Not going to spoil it too much but… HOLY SHIT. That debut at AEW Grand Slam. I legit popped like a motherfucker for it. Did not see that coming at all. 

Yeah normally there are rumours flying around before these debuts but I didn’t see anything to suggest this one!

I wonder why she isn’t cleared to wrestle in WWE but is in AEW. 

[Ozanne]

Anyone watched Full Gear? I don't wanna spoil anything for people that haven't but it's a damn good show.

[DomDom1984]

There was a lot of good stuff there. Found the main event to be a bit of a disappointment, but tiredness could have been taking an effect there.

Great to see The Elite back, and loved their entrance.

[kingbadger]

On 11/20/2022 at 7:14 PM, Ozanne said:

Anyone watched Full Gear? I don't wanna spoil anything for people that haven't but it's a damn good show.

Yeah thought it was a great PPV but honestly, the product has been pretty bang average recently. Hope this can be the turning point and things kick on and Dynamite becomes can't miss weekly television again. 

[Andre91]

I thought it was a great PPV overall. Lots of great matches and some truly awesome moments. I agree though that AEW has been coasting for a little while now and I really want to be dragged back in again. 

[Ozanne]

I've been enjoying the product recently, even though imo Punk is a big absence. The MJF stuff is the best on there and the outcome to the MJF-Mox match was brilliant. I can't wait to see what happens next with them. 

[Ozanne]

There's something about AEW that connects with me, I haven't been able to properly connect with WWE for years but with AEW it's different. I can't even really explain it but it's a feeling, probably linked to my youth and the attitude era. AEW has blood, chair shots, proper hardcore matches and much better babyfaces. Plus it had Punk.

[DomDom1984]

I've only just started to find my way back into wrestling more regularly

I've been finding WWE a lot more watchable than AEW recently. I think AEW are still putting out better stuff on the shows, but WWE has a very easy to watch thing about them on the whole.

Impact has been ditched in short order due to shit audiences making it almost unwatchable. Will still watch bigger shows though, and Overdrive was a lot of fun.

[kingbadger]

On 11/21/2022 at 11:03 PM, Ozanne said:

There's something about AEW that connects with me, I haven't been able to properly connect with WWE for years but with AEW it's different. I can't even really explain it but it's a feeling, probably linked to my youth and the attitude era. AEW has blood, chair shots, proper hardcore matches and much better babyfaces. Plus it had Punk.

I've tried getting back into WWE recently as some of The Bloodline stuff seems great, but the presentation is so off putting. The huge LED sets, graphics, awful camera cuts etc. I've found since getting back into wrestling watching AEW that I can't be arsed with all the phoniness of WWE's presentation, in as much as things being shot by a fly on the wall. I like how AEW keeps things presented within a realm of reality to a certain extent, and definitely can't be dealing with the supernatural shit like the Wyatt stuff. Give me Kingston, Page etc wrestling with their demons any day of the week, as opposed to an actual demon or someone literally feuding with themselves. 

Feels like since All Out that Khan has been playing things ultra safe, and fallen into WWE's biggest bad habits - relying on the same big names every week, lots of rematches etc. Hope that Full Gear means a clean slate to allow for some proper roster rotation again, lots of new creative threads etc. Even though the creative and booking has been stale recently, the in ring product is still fantastic and makes it worthwhile to watch weekly. 

As for CM Punk, well, his run was phenomenal in AEW, the less said about Phil Brooks though the better. Glad he's gone, even without the brawl after that press conference his position was untenable. Erased that whole year of great work by just being the bitter, washed out, selfish, locker room cancer WWE always made him out to be. 

[DareToDibble]

4 hours ago, kingbadger said:

As for CM Punk, well, his run was phenomenal in AEW, the less said about Phil Brooks though the better. Glad he's gone, even without the brawl after that press conference his position was untenable. Erased that whole year of great work by just being the bitter, washed out, selfish, locker room cancer WWE always made him out to be. 

Is that him definitely done in AEW then do you think? I've seen a few people still convinced it's a work but I just can't see it. Even if he did come back the reaction to him now would be terrible.

[DomDom1984]

Aye. Take out the press conference, and a similar brawl happens, he probably gets the same suspension as everyone else. That got him punted.

He didn't erase the whole year for me though. He had some great TV and I'm very much glad we got that run from him.

The camera cuts in WWE are probably the only thing about their presentation now that properly bug me. Even with them cut down a fair bit, it's still terrible, which goes to show how utterly horrendous it was before. The big entrance graphics are shite, but they mean so little to me because they're there and then gone a short time later.

I feel like AEW's booking problems have been going on for about a year now. Full Gear 2021 seems like where things peaked weekly, and since then, it's been very stop/start, even if Revolution was probably an even better PPV than Full Gear was.

[DareToDibble]

Has anyone managed to watch Survivor Series yet? I have to say it was a very good PPV. The story telling in the men’s war games match was fantastic. 

[DomDom1984]

Genuinely didn't see any need for those WarGames matches to go as long as they did, and it seriously hurt the women's match for me. That one felt a lot like the men's ones in NXT before, where they were overlong and bloated, while the women had pretty much the perfect amount of time to get their shit across and make it work. The women's one this time also felt all over the place, wrestler wise, while the men's one felt like two aligned groups with common enemies.

I think the men's was probably their best since WWE started doing these as well. Everything worked and they used their time well, but 40 minutes just isn't needed. 2 minute intervals between entries is absolutely fine. 5 minutes is not only unnecessary, but outright stupid. It doesn't help anything.

The rest of the PPV was decent enough. Balor and Styles was some good shit, the triple threat was a lot of fun, but absolutely FUCK Austin Theory. Shotzi is a bombscare.

So yeah, REALLY disliked the opener, thought the women's title match was a bit of a disaster, and the rest was at least good fun.

[DareToDibble]

On 11/28/2022 at 5:57 PM, DomDom1984 said:

Genuinely didn't see any need for those WarGames matches to go as long as they did, and it seriously hurt the women's match for me. That one felt a lot like the men's ones in NXT before, where they were overlong and bloated, while the women had pretty much the perfect amount of time to get their shit across and make it work. The women's one this time also felt all over the place, wrestler wise, while the men's one felt like two aligned groups with common enemies.

I think the men's was probably their best since WWE started doing these as well. Everything worked and they used their time well, but 40 minutes just isn't needed. 2 minute intervals between entries is absolutely fine. 5 minutes is not only unnecessary, but outright stupid. It doesn't help anything.

The rest of the PPV was decent enough. Balor and Styles was some good shit, the triple threat was a lot of fun, but absolutely FUCK Austin Theory. Shotzi is a bombscare.

So yeah, REALLY disliked the opener, thought the women's title match was a bit of a disaster, and the rest was at least good fun.

Get why there is a lot of pushback from the fans on Austin Theory but honestly think he's the future. Got the look and in ring skill, decent on the mic. 

Shotzi/Ronda wasn't great, to put it kindly, feels like they're coasting along a bit with the women division until Charlotte gets back. Which is crazy really as there is a lot of talent there.

Still not sure how the Bloodline story ends but if they do it right then Sami could be one of the biggest babyfaces they've had in years.

[DareToDibble]

Did anyone see the Rumble? Some good matches but the end of the Reigns v Owen’s match was so good. Entire Bloodline story has been the best WWE writing in years. Storytelling after the match was fantastic.

[Justiceforcedave]

Anyone bought All In tickets?