Wrestling Discussion Thread III

I missed it this year too. Really enjoyed the 2020 one, and then was last year the Edge return? I'm out of the loop. You're right about the diluted effect having two rumbles has - the viewer is spending two hours not immersed in the match but with one eye on who could be next. Too much of a good thing. Also, why on earth are entrants announced beforehand? May as well announce the winners while you're at it.

I watched AEW Dynamite this week for the first time in six months, and it was alright. The Punk vs. MJF match was enthralling and did that rare thing - told a story. Just give me a good ol' year-long build with two characters that can work both the mic and the mat. There's a reason it's worked the last 100 years... Man, I sound old. (goes back to watching OSW videos)

Aye, I've been sticking with keeping up to date with AEW on their YouTube and then checking out the PPVs. It's been satiating my wrestling fix nicely.

As for has having two Rumbles been draining or not, I'd say it's been grand for the most part. Even if one Rumble's been a duffer, the other Rumble has usually been pretty good. I remember the Women's Rumble was pretty dire last year, but the Men's was solid. I think it was the reverse a couple of years ago. This year had the problem of both being woeful - the roster cuts have never been more apparent considering they had to stack the men's Rumble with absolute no-names and the women's Rumble with one night only "legends" like Summer Rae.

I watched Elimination Chamber live. A 5pm Saturday start basically decided that, rather than anything that I was eagerly anticipating on the card itself. On the whole, I didn’t think it was up to much. I liked the F5 off of the Chamber pod though, shades of playing as Brock Lesnar in Here Comes The Pain there.

Charlotte Flair Vs. Ronda Rousey just seems like such a drab and dire WrestleMania main event. I think Bianca Belair already feuded with Becky Lynch last year too – it’s not usually WWE’s style to repeat rivalries for WrestleMania, is it? Usually they try to present fresh matches.

Mind you, I’m saying that after they’ve set up Brock Lesnar Vs. Roman Reigns for the umpteenth time. I’m not following things too closely so I can’t say for certain, but I’m not getting the impression that this absolutely needed to be a Title Vs. Title programme. They strike me as the two biggest (only?) stars in the company. Maybe the Universal Championship feud with Brock Lesnar as the good guy and Roman Reigns as the bad guy could have sold itself. Having two titles involved doesn’t make me feel any more excited for it to be honest. We’ve seen these two fight so many times anyway – it’ll just be the same old thing they were doing seven years ago.

Whatever way you look at it, the Elimination Chamber basically made the men’s Royal Rumble irrelevant.

I've had zero interest in WWE for most of the year and the Rumble knackered any chance of me checking out Wrestlemania. The card genuinely looks awful as well. There's rumours that 70+ year old Vince McMahon might be having a match, which says it all really.

There's All Elite Wrestling coming out with the GNamer merch.

That's good but too bad Jericho turned to be a right dickhead eh?

I watched WrestleMania, and I quite enjoyed both those nights! Fair enough, I didn’t get invested with any of the build-up - I didn’t really have any expectations. But out of the seventeen (!) matches there were plenty that I thought provided good entertainment. Matches like Benky Lynch Vs. Bianca Belair, Seth Rollins Vs. Cody Rhodes and AJ Styles Vs. Edge gave the whole thing that ‘big night big fight’ feel, and the bouts involving Logan Paul, Pat McAfee and Johnny Knoxville added loads to a fun sense of spectacle as well. Stone Cold Steve Austin’s return on the first night will become the stuff of legends, and Vince McMahon’s wrestling comeback was just mental from whatever way you look at it. All in all, good stuff!

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On another note, last night on RAW they started a storyline where Elia’s “younger brother” debuted:



This is the same as the bit from Still Game, where Stevie the Bookie returns to Craiglang pretending to be Frankie the Bookie. I think there could be a lot of mileage in WWE repurposing old Still Game episodes. Let’s have The Usos joining a choir. Randy Orton enrols on a first-aid evening course. Shinsuke Nakamura wins a free trip to a whisky distillery. Endless possibilities, sure to keep the punters interested during that usual post-WrestleMania lull.

I didn't read the headline so I thought it was Kevin Owens they were trying to reintroduce as a different character. Like, he was pretty well knowens . . .

Mania was pretty decent

This storyline reminds me of the parks story in TNA/Impact.

I'm going to get the Blu-ray in May and watch it with my daughters. Sounds like it was a good one.

All I've seen is the worse stunner ever and the clip of Mick Foley laughing at it.

I watched AEWxNJPW this morning, and we didn't get all the dream matches because of a lot of injuries etc but was some quality wrestling on display.

Looks like the old boy's past has finally caught up with him and there's no coming back. What retiring means in this respect remains to be seen, whether he's just giving up the office job, and will still be in charge of creative - who knows? Either way, it's a bit of a game changer in the ol' grapple game.

Goodbye and good riddance, I may actually start watching again now.

Quote :

time for me to retire

I think that was a while ago chief, but sure, go off.

Anyone else get the feeling he will still be pulling the strings in the background & WWE will till be shit for like the next ten years.

Probably but I'll be optimistic for now.

It is shite for rasslin but so many options now, that I don't mind this is how WWE is because got others.

Speaking of old sex pests finally deciding to retire, Ric Flair had his last match for the third time this past weekend. I didn't buy the show, of course, but I saw a few clips and it's grim viewing. How any doctor cleared post-heart attack in his 70s Flair for a match is beyond me. He took a suplex in the match and lay motionless for minutes until Andrade came along and had to physically stand him up and put some brass knuckles on Flair's shaking hand. Horrendous stuff.

It's got to be big Drew's day. Anybody else watching Clash At The Castle later on?

I'll ironically not be watching it probably because it's in the UK. Would have gone if it wasn't for my daughter's birthday clashing with the castle so now my only option is TV so have to try avoiding spoilers if I want to do that.

On the subject of WWE though, isn't it fantastic its actually becoming a decent product again? The fact I'm even considering a network subscription again was unheard of 6 months ago.

I will be watching it at home.

Did want to go, but the POD lads didn't seem keen, then again 6 months ago WWE was meh

I thought they dropped a bollock in the main event at Clash At The Castle. By having Drew McIntyre win it could have been a monumental moment in wrestling history, the ultimate changing of the guard from the former management to the new leadership, and a massively feel-good ending that could have rejuvenated WWE’s main event scene. Instead, it doesn’t really give us much to look forward to between now and WrestleMania.

Unless it’s Cody Rhodes or The Rock at WrestleMania, there’s nobody that’s got a chance of being the one to beat Roman Reigns. And I think it’s quite a tired championship reign, I’m not very interested in it anymore. Another six months of it sounds keech.

Looks and sounds like AEW is about to cave in on itself too.

Yeah they've really painted themselves in a corner there, they don't even have the MitB get out unless Theory loses it to someone else. The biggest issue with the WWE title picture for so many years now has been everything has revolved around Wrestlemania to the point you don't expect anything to happen until then.

A couple of pals back home were at that Clash.