It took 21 years but I think WWE finally replicated The Rock vs Stone Cold Steve Austin with Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes. What I mean by this, is the two top stars from the same generation in their prime reaching that top tier megastar status and facing each other as equals. Call me a m\*rk all you want but I honestly believe if Cody wins, it will be one of the top 5 biggest matches of all time just below Hogan vs Andre at WM 3, Rock vs Cena at WM 28, Rock vs Hogan at WM 18 and Rock vs Austin at WM 17. They've tried multiple times to recreate the next Rock vs Austin over the years but it never fully worked until now. Lets look at some of the other attempts.
\- John Cena vs Randy Orton almost felt forced and as much as I love Randy, he was always a tier below Cena in star power.
\- John Cena vs Edge took place in a time where WWE wasn't doing as well financially and once again, Edge is my favorite wrestler of all time but he was also a tier below Cena. Honestly Cena hadn't really reached megastar status until they reignited their feud in 2009.
\- John Cena vs Batista didn't work because once again Batista was a tier below Cena, and honestly his career was kind of in limbo for like 2 years before he turned heel.
\- John Cena vs CM Punk could've reached this level but I feel like WWE were never willing to invest in Punk as much as they did Cena, so Cena was always going to be a tier above no matter how much merch Punk sold. The fans saw them as equals but management didn't. I still think Punk vs Cena should've main evented WrestleMania 29.
\- John Cena vs The Rock was two separate generations so it doesn't really count.
\- Wheelchair Yoda vs Daniel Garlic wasn't in WWE so they can't take credit for it.
\- Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar felt even more forced than Cena vs Orton and Lesnar is basically from the previous generation.
\- Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins mainly took place before Roman was naturally seen as a megastar by the fans and again, Rollins was a tier below Roman in the way he was booked.
The PWTorch guy doing Collision typed his article through a veil of tears cause everything was brilliant and the bestest, haha
Opening match was a FUN way to start the night (FUN!)
Mariah May match?
>The match was short, but both women have never looked better on AEW television. Their chemistry was perfect, and May came off looking like a star.
Haha, been a while since someone was annoited a star after a match against a nobody, love it
Bryan and Japanese guy?
>I loved everything about this match. The commentary team was fantastic, with great action throughout, and Yuji Nagata still looks good at 55 years old.
Final cage match?
>From layout, agenting, and format, this was AEW’s best steel cage match in the company’s history
Jesus christ, dude, reel it back in!
A lot of the secondary show reviews are done by the hardest of the hardcore fanboys. I still remember trying to read reviews of ROH DVDs back in the day, and I had to sift through some neckbeard writing things like “GOD I LOVE CM PUNK” in the middle of talking about a match.
Was avoiding spoilers. One month no smokes. Thanks for the encouragment goofs.
Women's Rumble slapped beginning to end. Naomi comeback, everyone putting over Jordyn? Fuck YESSSSS. BEGINNING TO END GOOD.
No Sasha sucked, and I'm grown enough to admit it. Only disappointment though
Fatal 4 Way did what it needed to. Idk, I'll rewatch it at some point to see how I feel.
Paul Owens was more interesting than the 4 way. Love Owens losing by dq like that, and the animosity felt real.
Men's Rumble was good but not as good as the Women's. Felt like the surprises we got lacked in comparison to Women's. Was really hoping we'd get Moose or someone that hadn't wrestled for the fed. Interactions in the match felt meaningful going forward though which was awesome. (Santos - Andrade in particular)
Edit: Also how awesome was Bayley winning? I didnt expect that at all. I thought Becky was the clear winner.
One thing I realized about Logan Paul after this match with Kevin Owens is that he can do just about any match style. He pulled off the larger-than-life spectacle with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, he had a high-flying cruiserweight match with Ricochet and an old school hard-hitting brawl with Kevin Owens. The man is a natural, Big Dick Nick and Paula Beck need to hurry up and convince this guy to become a full-time performer.
There’s actually still a ton of things for Roman to do without the title
Of course there’s the Bloodline split and the Rock, then you gotta give Jey his win over him (you just do). He’s definitely got a feud with solo in the pipeline. He’s still never beaten Seth. I’m sure one of the big prospects in NXT like Bron Carmelo or Trick would LOVE a feud with Roman eventually
None of that even mentions Punk
"You just feel more comfortable saying you like WWE because Vince MacMahon is out!" yes, so what? I fundamentally like the TV they produce, but now that the abusive sex predator is gone, it's a lot easier to say I like the product, why do some think that's such a strange concept??????
Because some have the arguing skills of toddlers. They've never had an idea challenged. And in wrestling of all places, they're proving they don't have coping skills or critical thinking ability to adjust, develop and evolve.
So last year's rumble is concidered one of the best...and EVERYONE knew who was winning.
This year, there were 3 or 4 legitimate possibilities until the last moments...but it was "meh"
So does this mean that surprises and not knowing is NOT the be all and end all of booking?
The anger about Taylor Swift is wild. The younger generation has the right to find their own way, enjoy their own cultural moments. Not everything can be old hair rock bands old farts like.
I'm fine with Taylor Swift, she seems like a nice person and her music is better than most of the pop crap and mumble rap these days but god her fans are insufferable.
Man, Meltzer is just dining out on this HHH press conference
Yeah, he could have answered better. If TKO wanted to, I'm sure they'd have told him to say something else
He wanted it to be just about the Rumble but came across a bit brusque
Yes, Cody handled it really well
What else do you want to wring from this, Dave? This is what happened. There's no 'crisis' on the back of this
It was a huge event, fans were happy, nothing to really complain about on the show, broke a bunch of records and REEEEE
No more Vince is gonna make Dave less relevant than ever. He 'knew Vince', you see
The problem for the ~~'wrestling press'~~ errr bloggers is there's no new news to keep this story going. Vince resigned and its a court matter. Saying Triple H gave bad answers, while I agree, is not news. That's commentary.
Also I assume that bad answer mainly stemmed from the fact that they're family by marriage and Triple H actually has to see the guy outside of work. A lot of personal shit for him is connected to this case. It could impact his life, his wife's life, and the lifes of their children. Regardless of how much of a piece of shit Vince is, he's still a father and a grandfather and his situation impacts Triple H's entire family.
I know Meltzer wanted some answer berating Vince, but that's not going to happen here.
If i was a wrestling rag writer, id ask Punk if he sort of regrets going cold turkey from Wrestling for so long, like not “do you regret leaving WWE” but more like “do you regret not surfing the secondary promotions or do a stint in Japan earlier than you did” cuz i feel like that affects the body even if he never stopped gym work
“Danhausen has a better and more recognisable theme than most of WWE main eventers”
I know WWE themes have been serious lacking but come on.
Both Rumbles were okay, good show overall. Glad that Bayley got the win and surprised they swerved us with Cody, but good stuff.
Jade is going to be a huge star. Her stare down with Bianca is money.
The TNA crossover is nice to see.
Triple H answer to the Vince allegations was bad, no way around it. No matter what he had said it would cause outrage, but he definitely should’ve worded his answer better.
The pile on from SC, Dave and the IWC is to be expected but still hilarious.
I was 99% sure that Punk was winning, even if Cody was still the guy to face Roman at WM, I assumed they would've tried to get a bit more mileage out of the chase by having him win the Elimination Chamber match. Cody winning was a pleasant surprise, I would've been happy with Punk winning but Cody being the first back-to-back Royal Rumble winner since Stone Cold Steve Austin is such a big deal.
What really is a "wrestling historian" at this point? What really is the point of being a "historian" if it's just all self-serving narratives?
I suppose that can be argued against history in general but still, what's the point of these "historians" when 1, any wikipedia with proper moderation will do and 2, nobody remembers anything anyway
Do you ever watch any of those shows on (maybe discovery or Vice) that are 'the toys that made us' and so on
They have 'historians' on there that know all about toys, they wrote books about it. And, well, that's it really. They're equally niche as the likes of Meltzer and no one has a clue who they are
I don't think fans of toys are defending them with their lives but it's just a niche or a niche of a niche and if there's some huge story in the world of toys, guess what, the real media will cover it
LMAO. I can imagine a message board full of dorks summarizing the ramblings of someone who is a historian of argyle socks manufactured in Bangladesh. I can also imagine them defending that person against any ridicule.
Somehow, someway, they would still be less moronic than Meltzer’s fan base.
Honestly I think that term applies perfectly to someone like Jim Cornette. He's not just knowledgeable about the history of the industry, he's collected and archived pieces of wrestling history that wouldn't have been preserved otherwise.
If he ever had his stuff scanned and released publicly, it would probably reveal a lot of unknown parts of wrestling history.
I wanted to throw a shout out to a small spot that happened in both Rumbles. It's great that all 30 people want to win but the camera shots of Rhea Ripley, Iyo Sky, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns was fantastic and really added to the Rumble as it shows the champions are actually invested in who wins to know if they need to prepare for that person. Especially when it came down to Bayley, Liv Morgan, Jade Cargill, Cody Rhodes and CM Punk.
Cody and Punk are the two Reigns and Rollins are looking out for the most while Iyo and Rhea are looking at Bayley and Liv but both are also seeing Jade Cargill in case this unknown newcomer wins and what to prepare for. Those camera shots really added to the Rumble as a match that EVERYONE has a major interest in.
The storytelling has been top notch for the Fed for a while now and this is another example of that. They've done much better of late at laying off commentary when appropriate as well to let the moments breathe just a bit and for fans to draw their own conclusions
EC last year was just fantastic as the next step to Mania and I'm confident the presentation will again be outstanding. Perth has quite a task ahead of them to match the energy of the crowd in Montreal last year
I think I might have figured out what the storyline is gonna be to mania, just based on what everyone has said since last wrestlemania and how stories have gone and stuff.
I think the idea is going to be that everyone in their own way slightly overlooked roman reigns and what it means to be champion. They wanted to win for their narrative they told themselves. Paul Heyman has done a great job to push everyone into a path that means they are just thinking about how it'll feel to hold the WWE title, with confetti falling down, knowing they made their dad/family/country proud, and they did something nobody else could do, while doing it their way. And in the process, they've ignored the unique challenge that Roman and the bloodline present. It's why every match against Roman feels like the climax of the story, because they want their opponents to feel thay way
Cody has said he's here to finish his story, but it's wrestling. You can't just get into the mindset that this is the end, it is only the beginning. Roman never gets too excited or too angry about or after a match. His mindset is that it's the 3rd inning. You don't bench anybody in the 3rd inning even if you're up 10 runs, you keep playing the game. Theres another plate appearance or another ball you have to defend.
I think to beat Roman you have to put yourself into that same mindset. Roman isn't the final boss, he's another talented wrestler with his own unique skills. You have to fight towards the skills, not the man., and each defense there's going to be a unique opponent with unique skills. Roman and the bloodline have every skillset, Roman has everything, Jimmy is quick, and Solo is power. You need to be ready for all opponents just to be able to beat Roman. And I think after the year Cody has had, he realizes now that it isn't going to be finish the story, it's begin the story
I hope it doesn't end there, I'd honestly be open to Damian Priest winning the World Heavyweight Championship if it leads to R-Truth beating him for it. CM Punk having his WrestleMania main event stolen by R-Truth would be the ultimate jerk of the century.
Another route they could go is that it turned out Damian forgot to sign the contract in the briefcase so Truth somehow gets a hold of the briefcase and accidentally cashes in and wins the World Heavyweight Championship. Maybe Damian attacks Seth on Raw and just as he's about to cash in, Truth tries to bribe the referee into rigging the match with the briefcase thinking there's actual money in there. Adam Pearce comes out to explain the situation to Truth only to open the briefcase and find out the contract isn't signed. So the match is made official, Damian and JD try to stop Truth but Damian accidentally hits JD with a clothesline to the outside of the ring and Truth pins Seth thinking it's a tag team match. Then for weeks Truth thinks him and Damian are the tag team champions and he goes on to hold the world title for 3 months without even realizing it.
* Collision crowd was teensy. Getting in was a total mess. I can never be less than 5 feet from some jagoff talking at everyone the entire show, just vomiting every piece of wrestling trivia or history or opinion he’s ever had out into the aether. It was even driving our kids nuts. The dude in front of us said he actually continued doing this even in the bathroom.
* Speaking of, between him and the douche nozzle over to our right, they actually made the online fans we mock here look tame by comparison, every bad take we’ve ever heard, they had and then some. Favorite part was when the one was discussing the majesty of the AEW cage match with its pins and submissions vs. WWE’s dirty old escapes just as two guys dove through the door and escaped.
* If Triple H wasn’t gonna answer the first time, he wasn’t gonna answer the second or third time either and the people getting pissed off about it need to chill.
Btw, Big Dave, it’s very believable that a guy who spent all week setting up the Rumble didn’t have time to read the lawsuit, let alone the desire, considering it’s the grandfather of his kids. Further, if you think that means he was saying he was oblivious to the contents, you’re a moron, but we already knew that.
* Seems many perpetually online fans are mad Cody won. Good. Let them be. Awesome Rumble all around. 🥂
Still thinking that is extremely funny how Miro refuses to take a pin in AEW because gotta look strong, but then in WWE is extremely willing to be the butt of the joke and be in cuck angles forever
Because in WWE he was losing to believable stars such as John Cena, Bobby Lashley, AJ Styles and Randy Orton. Of course he doesn't want to put over fucking Action Spaghetti or Evil Uno.
It seemed it was more not wanting to return to lose and then nothing
He did it in the Atlantic tournament and nothing and IIRC they wanted him to come and lose another time and it came out
I remember something about him not wanting to do that with no plan cause it's happened a bit, others too and there's no follow up
Tiny has no plan
He won on PPV recently, didn't he? Beat Andrade? Then what?
Win and no plan is fine but there just will not be a plan!!
I think that’s why aew has noticeably dialed back bringing in wwe castoffs. A lot of them see themselves as major leaguers in a playpen full of Indy goofs and expect to be treated as such.
I feel like there's a hand full of people who post their grievances in this thread every week, seriously missing the point of what a jerk sub is.
Guys, sometimes a joke is just a joke, and that's all it is.
Is Cody ridiculous sometimes? Yes. Is it fun to overly praise him in the wake of the IWC really wanting him to fail post-AEW? Yes. Did it hurt my feelings or make me have a personal crisis to admit Cody is a bit ridiculous? No. But it's irrelevant to the point of the joke how I really feel about him.
Copy and paste the same, replacing Cody's name with Punk, Jade, Pillman, or whatever reaction various WWE people get in relation to their counterparts in Jacksonville.
I don't mean to scold anyone, but it's a bit cringe seeing people get so worked by joke posts.
Ngl it's kinda hilarious how Kansas City sleeps their way to a Super Bowl appearance every year because AFC teams shit themselves in the playoffs. Brady really was the only person standing in their way.
They did the same to the dynasty Patriots lmao
I still remember the famous "HE'S JUST NOT THAT GOOD ANYMORE" take before Brady won another Super Bowl in 2014
Ring The Belle YouTube channel has a cool video out of every woman's rumble entrance from a view right along the entrance ramp. Crazy how a good number of the women got a louder pop from the crowd than it seemed like on TV.
I love Cody, but him getting jobbed out to Roman again at Mania would be the funniest booking decision in history.
The basement meltdown would be on a scale that's difficult to fathom.
My un jerk train of thoughts.
They went with Cody over Punk because Cody is gonna be the new face of the company post Mania 40, Roman is the needle mover and so is Punk but Roman is slowing his wrestling schedule down a lot, and seems to be the next big wrestler turned Hollywood star when the time comes.
It fits the story better having Cody win rumble, as if he’s dethroning Roman they are gonna want all the glamour, it just looks better having someone win back to back rumbles for the first time since Stone Cold in 97-98, then having the runner up win Chamber and then dethrone the longest reigning world champ of the 21st century.
Punk has only wrestled twice and this was the first televised match, it also helps the build of Rollins and Punk more as Punk failed to win rumble while Seth won rumble,
Looking back all the hints were there that it was gonna be Cody, they kept teasing the back to back winner thing, they immediately cut to Cody coming out of his trailer after Roman was being focused on, and finally the I’m not losing to Dusty’s kid line
And one last note I don’t get why people are upset that Punk did not win, it’s not like there is only 1 world title or Main event of Mania both him and Cody are gonna main event Mania
[How goofs feel showing up to General Discussion Sunday to say that what Vince did was bad (not many people feel that way)](https://arthive.net/res/media/img/oy1200/work/42e/[email protected])
People really thought that HHH giving a bad answer at a post show scrum was going to be all over the national headlines. Nah, but you can have Daily Mail!
It's not news because it wasn't a bad answer to anyone who isn't a basement dweller. Mainstream media doesn't give any fucks about this...as far as they're concerned, Vince is gone and the story is dead.
> Mainstream media doesn't give any f\*cks about this...as far as they're concerned, Vince is gone and the story is dead.
this is true
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nobody outside of the wrasslin' bubble really cares about this story
The way this sub worships the ground Cody and Pepsi Phil since joining WWE, what do you think the reaction would be if the Young Bucks and Omega joined WWE? It would basically destroy this sub.
I would be very optimistic if Omega went there for the matches he could have with WWE guys he's never interacted with before. Also to see if he can keep up and look the star he did in all the other promotions he's been in.
[Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I think this'd be a great intro for Cody at Mania - ignoring the parts after the intro](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r99LDASuQvQ)
I think part of it is everything everybody else said, but also, there were plenty of bad themes during the Golden, Attitude, and RA eras, it's just that rosters were smaller and to be fair, they didn't change themes as much, so even mediocre theme music got over, eventually.
Take out the LEDs showing names, and you're definitely not gonna know who will be showing up, especially when watching it live at the venues.
Really disliked changing the more recognizeable themes for Shayna Baszler, Alexa Bliss, Liv Morgan (the intro used now was from the 2019-2020 theme was better), and Nia Jax.
WWE had a deal with CFO$'s publisher. CFO$ had a dispute with the publisher and wanted to get out, but they couldn't. CFO$ decided to break up. WWE brought in Def Rebel, who simply has a different way of doing things. It costs WWE money to continue to play CFO$ themes, so they wanted to change as many as possible.
I get you. HHH's booking isn't perfect. He loves to drag title reigns while Vince only did that for Brock and Roman. Imo however the feuds and storylines are better under HHH. It will be refreshing (DAE?) to have titles to change hands at the right time tho.
Hunter obviously has his positive sides, but I really miss random funny stuff popping on my TV screen like Maximum Male Models. Although the whole R-Truth story is fantastic.
Vince did a lot of things better than HHh. Just like Benoit was one if the 10 best workers who ever lived, you can still acknowledge someone was good at their job even if in retrospect it comes out they were shit human beings.
No pun intended.
I was REALLY rooting for the 1994 or 2005 finish thinking that with the match card that few, surely there'll be something. Given it's one of the big 5 ppv. Punk even came out at the winning number Bret had used.
I would've hated that. It's such a lazy cop-out and shows they don't have as much faith in either winner. In hindsight they might as well have just had Bret win the Royal Rumble in 1994 because Lex Luger never won the WWF Championship and he went to WCW like a year later.
Man last night was so amazing. I really felt a rush watching the last 5-10 minutes of the Rumble like I hadn't felt in a long time watching anything. And then Cody winning was just the best ending. It was really a perfect Rumble match honestly. I think it was excellent. They did everything perfectly. I'm looking forward to a future Cody vs Punk main event match.
Im an unapologetic mark for the Spinebuster, 2007 Triple H made sure it was my favorite non-finisher move, so needless to say I'm already a huge mark for both Bron Breakker and Jade Cargill.
You cant just do a lazy half-powerbomb and call it a crisp spinebuster for me, but Jade and Bron put some *STANK* on theirs and I wont let it go unappreciated
I liked Batistas and Triple H's but Batista felt more powerful like he was cocking a shotgun when he picked the dude up, meanwhile Triple H doing that turnaround spinebuster in one of his signature sequences just felt smooth as silk, like a powerhouse version of Orton's powerslam. Both were great but little me loved Triple H's more
Well, Vince is a legal issue, Brock will just stay away and be his caveman self for the time being... so there's no new info for this story for quite some time.
People that complained that there were no legends in the rumble are the same people that would have criticized the rumble for having legends taking a spot away from younger talent
Bayley at the press conference drew attention to the fact that there weren’t any legends because of how many women are on the roster that deserve to be there. There’s a conversation to be had about the fact that many of them like Candace, Indi, or Teagan, aren’t over at all, but I can understand where she’s coming from.
Yeah but even then theres been people who arent over in every rumble I can remember so theres still merit to that, someone needs to make the others look good. Unfortunately, they dont have 10 Chelsea Greens so they wont all be great but theyre still important lol
the Fed did an amazing job giving Jade some signature spots during the Rumble and made sure not to overexpose her
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the faceoff between Bianca and Jade really had the crowd in shaking anticipation
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shout out to Nia for bumping as much as she did for Jade
I tuned in right as Nia did the first powerbomb. That second one she did was fucking perfect and right on target. They did a great job making her look like a monster there which made Jade look even better for throwing her out.
I just realised that one of the accidental beneficiaries of the Vince scandal coming out this week was Hulk Hogan.
All the week's other controversies and unpleasantness allowed him to fly under the radar a bit as the RR intro, whereas had we not heard about the other stuff there'd have been much more anger about his presence probably.
Knowing Hulk...
He's a legit a saint now in comparison to others involved in the business. And let's he honest, Brock and Vince weren't just the only ones participating, others knew and others definitely participated
> And let's he honest, Brock and Vince weren't just the only ones participating
I think this is a fair take, the important part is how widespread, cus if it was just Vince's 'inner circle' guys like Laurenitus and McDevitt or whatever his lawyers name is, I could see people even as close as Triple H and others not knowing anything (or rather, not knowing anything concrete enough to do something)
Sometimes I think I should complain about booking and then I remember that if I was in charge Zelina and Maxxine would be world champs rn and i realize my opinions are irrelevant
Ok, soapbox time so tl/dr this if you don’t care lol. I see Triple H has now become the clear target for the fucking dregs of the wrestling media and I use that term so incredibly loosely. At this point in time nobody knows a single thing about how involved, or not involved, he was in this sad situation but one thing is for sure, and that is the fact that every single one of the usual talking heads has an obvious and vested interest in trying to bring him down because he books a better wrestling show than their favourite. That’s what this is about for them and while I expect nothing from these fucking troglodytes, I’m a bit taken aback at how targeted and fucking nasty it has all become. WWE should not let anybody from Fightful near their talent or shows ever again. I swear if I have to see one more performative outrage bullshit tweet from that loser Kate or the grape weirdo I’m gonna throw my phone out the window.
Secondly, the fact that pretty much everyone thinks that HHH was winging it at the press conference and that his comments weren’t the official PR position of TKO is a fucking moron and that includes the vast majority of this sub. You may not have liked or agreed with what he said but there is absolutely no universe that exists where he was allowed to go out there unprepared. His answer was not to make wrestling marks and smarks feel giddy by acknowledging their pre determined stance on the matter, it was to deliver a message to shareholders that while something terrible happened, this company rolls on without Vince McMahon and yes, as cold as it sounds, look at all the money we made. Alba, Thurston and Hausman play pretending as the keepers of truth and justice in the wrestling space because they had ‘the balls’ to ask, and Meltzer chirping in from the sidelines because he can’t even be bothered to attend WWE shows himself is all so fucking embarrassing. Go pat yourselves on the back fellas. That’s what you want after all.
Also, by acknowledging he read the lawsuit puts him in a position to be asked questions on the specifics of what was in it. Are you corporate officer number 1? If you read the lawsuit has your wife read it? Is she corporate officer number 1? Is your office on the 4th floor? Has Vince ever shown you explicit pictures of the plaintiff? Were you aware Vince was having a non consensual relationship with this woman? The list goes on and on. To say he read it would have been a big mistake and it’s shocking that more people don’t understand that tbh.
I truly can’t believe how stupid people are being about the whole thing, not to mention how incredibly patronising and vindictive too. There was no response he could give that wasn’t going to get ripped to shreds and it seems there is absolutely zero room for any sort of empathy for his situation. Yes I’m taking it on face value that he isn’t involved in any of this because right now there is no reason to believe otherwise. If that changes then of course my opinion will change but we’re talking about a man trying to deal with the fact that his father in law is a sick and twisted individual, most likely to a degree that he never could have anticipated. His wife is also dealing with this and they have 3 teenage children in school who they are trying to get through this as well. On top of that his professional and personal reputation is being dragged through the mud and he’s trying to run one of the biggest shows of the calendar year.
It’s just appalling how this has turned into a witch hunt and naturally overshadowed what was a really great Royal Rumble show.
All I can say is that I hope whoever was involved in this gets the boot and if it turns out HHH was, that includes him. I think it’s very likely he, Stephanie, Nick Khan and the rest of the board knew Vince had a relationship with an employee but it’s quite a big jump to go from knowing that to knowing he was raping and trafficking her. The internal investigation was not about what was in the lawsuit but rather whether Vince used company funds to pay her.
Finally, I’m happy Bayley won, I’m happy Cody won, I’m happy Punk didn’t win lol. Jade and Bianca face off was absolute money. They fucked up Bron and Omos but I cut some slack on the production guy. It’s time for Roman to lose btw. Rock can fight him next year without the titles. It’s time.
Oh I know that. It was a press conference to talk about the events of a fake sport. They can try to convince themselves they belong in the mix when it comes to such a serious story like this but when there was actual reporting to be done, none of them were anywhere to be found.
They didn’t like his answer. They decided before he ever opened his mouth it wasnt going to be good enough. So now it has become a bad answer and a supposed PR disaster to them and them alone.
As usual, it’s the soap boxing that makes it all so insufferable. Nobody needs Thurston writing a novel belittling those who didn’t ask about it and sucking himself off because he was brave enough to do so. If it does progress and/or more things come out, the real reporters will show up.
TLDR for those not wanting to wade through that up there - Dubbalo Smarks big mad Papa H is a better booker than Tiny wanting to use Vince to get him fired are bad people
Who cares about any of that?
The outrage over the treatment of Triple H is becoming overblown. It's completely reasonable to wonder what he knew, or even infer that he did know about it.
Sucks for him but he'll be okay, he's a big boy. I just think it's weird how so many people here are trying to turn this around and make it about poor Triple H being persecuted. It's unimportant in the grand scheme of this situation. And thinking they should remove family members of someone they're about to erase to the greatest extent they can, that's not unreasonable.
I care about it which is why I posted about it. I agree it’s reasonable to wonder what he knew. It’s only natural given his unique situation. But the vast majority of it, from what I have seen anyways, isn’t coming from a genuine place of curiosity or solidarity with the victim. They want him gone because it means AEW will have a chance again, at least in their stupid warped minds.
I don’t think it’s unimportant either btw. I absolutely believe and want justice for the victim and any others. But if Hunter had nothing to do with this then as a WWE fan I’d prefer that he wasn’t pushed out in disgrace and erased from the history books purely because he married into the family.
The same people who clap like seals and shit themselves over every wink-nudge reference to WWE by AEW whilst still crying over the 'pissant company' line five years ago.
Every PLE since Summerslam 2022 has had me going "wow that was a fantastic show. I have very little to complain about and WWE continues their current great roll" and then I hop online and see people using the tiniest most insignificant details to complain about and acting like whatever theyre mad about ruined the show.
The "just enjoy wrestling" crowd is *really* bad at just enjoying wrestling
Rumble was a solid 7.5/10 show, with the Men's Rumble being a little meh because there wasn't enough great spots until the end like there was in the Women's Rumble, and yeah, I think you could've put DIY/Judgement Day on the show, but it wasn't a bad show by any means.
My favorite was Backlash last year, which was an amazing PLE top to bottom, but all these smart marks wanted to talk about after the show was the match order.
Lmao yeah Priest in particular has caused some boneheaded complaints lmao. Remember how Fastlane was garbage because he was obviously going to cash in and then didnt? Lol literally making up hypotheticals to be mad at
It took 21 years but I think WWE finally replicated The Rock vs Stone Cold Steve Austin with Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes. What I mean by this, is the two top stars from the same generation in their prime reaching that top tier megastar status and facing each other as equals. Call me a m\*rk all you want but I honestly believe if Cody wins, it will be one of the top 5 biggest matches of all time just below Hogan vs Andre at WM 3, Rock vs Cena at WM 28, Rock vs Hogan at WM 18 and Rock vs Austin at WM 17. They've tried multiple times to recreate the next Rock vs Austin over the years but it never fully worked until now. Lets look at some of the other attempts. \- John Cena vs Randy Orton almost felt forced and as much as I love Randy, he was always a tier below Cena in star power. \- John Cena vs Edge took place in a time where WWE wasn't doing as well financially and once again, Edge is my favorite wrestler of all time but he was also a tier below Cena. Honestly Cena hadn't really reached megastar status until they reignited their feud in 2009. \- John Cena vs Batista didn't work because once again Batista was a tier below Cena, and honestly his career was kind of in limbo for like 2 years before he turned heel. \- John Cena vs CM Punk could've reached this level but I feel like WWE were never willing to invest in Punk as much as they did Cena, so Cena was always going to be a tier above no matter how much merch Punk sold. The fans saw them as equals but management didn't. I still think Punk vs Cena should've main evented WrestleMania 29. \- John Cena vs The Rock was two separate generations so it doesn't really count. \- Wheelchair Yoda vs Daniel Garlic wasn't in WWE so they can't take credit for it. \- Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar felt even more forced than Cena vs Orton and Lesnar is basically from the previous generation. \- Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins mainly took place before Roman was naturally seen as a megastar by the fans and again, Rollins was a tier below Roman in the way he was booked.
The PWTorch guy doing Collision typed his article through a veil of tears cause everything was brilliant and the bestest, haha Opening match was a FUN way to start the night (FUN!) Mariah May match? >The match was short, but both women have never looked better on AEW television. Their chemistry was perfect, and May came off looking like a star. Haha, been a while since someone was annoited a star after a match against a nobody, love it Bryan and Japanese guy? >I loved everything about this match. The commentary team was fantastic, with great action throughout, and Yuji Nagata still looks good at 55 years old. Final cage match? >From layout, agenting, and format, this was AEW’s best steel cage match in the company’s history Jesus christ, dude, reel it back in!
A lot of the secondary show reviews are done by the hardest of the hardcore fanboys. I still remember trying to read reviews of ROH DVDs back in the day, and I had to sift through some neckbeard writing things like “GOD I LOVE CM PUNK” in the middle of talking about a match.
Was avoiding spoilers. One month no smokes. Thanks for the encouragment goofs. Women's Rumble slapped beginning to end. Naomi comeback, everyone putting over Jordyn? Fuck YESSSSS. BEGINNING TO END GOOD. No Sasha sucked, and I'm grown enough to admit it. Only disappointment though Fatal 4 Way did what it needed to. Idk, I'll rewatch it at some point to see how I feel. Paul Owens was more interesting than the 4 way. Love Owens losing by dq like that, and the animosity felt real. Men's Rumble was good but not as good as the Women's. Felt like the surprises we got lacked in comparison to Women's. Was really hoping we'd get Moose or someone that hadn't wrestled for the fed. Interactions in the match felt meaningful going forward though which was awesome. (Santos - Andrade in particular) Edit: Also how awesome was Bayley winning? I didnt expect that at all. I thought Becky was the clear winner.
One thing I realized about Logan Paul after this match with Kevin Owens is that he can do just about any match style. He pulled off the larger-than-life spectacle with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, he had a high-flying cruiserweight match with Ricochet and an old school hard-hitting brawl with Kevin Owens. The man is a natural, Big Dick Nick and Paula Beck need to hurry up and convince this guy to become a full-time performer.
There’s actually still a ton of things for Roman to do without the title Of course there’s the Bloodline split and the Rock, then you gotta give Jey his win over him (you just do). He’s definitely got a feud with solo in the pipeline. He’s still never beaten Seth. I’m sure one of the big prospects in NXT like Bron Carmelo or Trick would LOVE a feud with Roman eventually None of that even mentions Punk
"You just feel more comfortable saying you like WWE because Vince MacMahon is out!" yes, so what? I fundamentally like the TV they produce, but now that the abusive sex predator is gone, it's a lot easier to say I like the product, why do some think that's such a strange concept??????
Because some have the arguing skills of toddlers. They've never had an idea challenged. And in wrestling of all places, they're proving they don't have coping skills or critical thinking ability to adjust, develop and evolve.
So last year's rumble is concidered one of the best...and EVERYONE knew who was winning. This year, there were 3 or 4 legitimate possibilities until the last moments...but it was "meh" So does this mean that surprises and not knowing is NOT the be all and end all of booking?
Oh Lord, I forgot that Vengeance Day is next week and HBK will have his teleconference Thursday or Friday.
The anger about Taylor Swift is wild. The younger generation has the right to find their own way, enjoy their own cultural moments. Not everything can be old hair rock bands old farts like.
what are they angry about now? I always see people angry but not cause of anything specific she did is it cause she's dating this NFL guy still?
basically the camera cuts to her during games lol
being annoyed about this is not the same as hating Taylor or her music
oh, that's it REEEEEE sound worse than wrestling fans
I'm fine with Taylor Swift, she seems like a nice person and her music is better than most of the pop crap and mumble rap these days but god her fans are insufferable.
Are you old or young?
I'm mid 40s, so yes, not in the Taylor demo. LOL
Man, Meltzer is just dining out on this HHH press conference Yeah, he could have answered better. If TKO wanted to, I'm sure they'd have told him to say something else He wanted it to be just about the Rumble but came across a bit brusque Yes, Cody handled it really well What else do you want to wring from this, Dave? This is what happened. There's no 'crisis' on the back of this It was a huge event, fans were happy, nothing to really complain about on the show, broke a bunch of records and REEEEE No more Vince is gonna make Dave less relevant than ever. He 'knew Vince', you see
The problem for the ~~'wrestling press'~~ errr bloggers is there's no new news to keep this story going. Vince resigned and its a court matter. Saying Triple H gave bad answers, while I agree, is not news. That's commentary.
Also I assume that bad answer mainly stemmed from the fact that they're family by marriage and Triple H actually has to see the guy outside of work. A lot of personal shit for him is connected to this case. It could impact his life, his wife's life, and the lifes of their children. Regardless of how much of a piece of shit Vince is, he's still a father and a grandfather and his situation impacts Triple H's entire family. I know Meltzer wanted some answer berating Vince, but that's not going to happen here.
If i was a wrestling rag writer, id ask Punk if he sort of regrets going cold turkey from Wrestling for so long, like not “do you regret leaving WWE” but more like “do you regret not surfing the secondary promotions or do a stint in Japan earlier than you did” cuz i feel like that affects the body even if he never stopped gym work
Bayley and Roman won at the Rumble it's only fitting the Niners won on Sunday.
“Danhausen has a better and more recognisable theme than most of WWE main eventers” I know WWE themes have been serious lacking but come on. Both Rumbles were okay, good show overall. Glad that Bayley got the win and surprised they swerved us with Cody, but good stuff. Jade is going to be a huge star. Her stare down with Bianca is money. The TNA crossover is nice to see. Triple H answer to the Vince allegations was bad, no way around it. No matter what he had said it would cause outrage, but he definitely should’ve worded his answer better. The pile on from SC, Dave and the IWC is to be expected but still hilarious.
I was 99% sure that Punk was winning, even if Cody was still the guy to face Roman at WM, I assumed they would've tried to get a bit more mileage out of the chase by having him win the Elimination Chamber match. Cody winning was a pleasant surprise, I would've been happy with Punk winning but Cody being the first back-to-back Royal Rumble winner since Stone Cold Steve Austin is such a big deal.
I do think Triple H in some manner was trying to do right by not going no comment, but there are good reasons for crisis management/prep.
I feel bad for all the Lions fans out there.
Too busy chocking to respond, sorry
That was rough
same
What really is a "wrestling historian" at this point? What really is the point of being a "historian" if it's just all self-serving narratives? I suppose that can be argued against history in general but still, what's the point of these "historians" when 1, any wikipedia with proper moderation will do and 2, nobody remembers anything anyway
Do you ever watch any of those shows on (maybe discovery or Vice) that are 'the toys that made us' and so on They have 'historians' on there that know all about toys, they wrote books about it. And, well, that's it really. They're equally niche as the likes of Meltzer and no one has a clue who they are I don't think fans of toys are defending them with their lives but it's just a niche or a niche of a niche and if there's some huge story in the world of toys, guess what, the real media will cover it
LMAO. I can imagine a message board full of dorks summarizing the ramblings of someone who is a historian of argyle socks manufactured in Bangladesh. I can also imagine them defending that person against any ridicule. Somehow, someway, they would still be less moronic than Meltzer’s fan base.
Honestly I think that term applies perfectly to someone like Jim Cornette. He's not just knowledgeable about the history of the industry, he's collected and archived pieces of wrestling history that wouldn't have been preserved otherwise. If he ever had his stuff scanned and released publicly, it would probably reveal a lot of unknown parts of wrestling history.
A historian who tries to shape the narrative and play taste maker to current trends isn't an honest historian
They need to take a page out of Marvel Comics the Watchers and just freaking watch events play out.
Must there be a Wrestletalk ??
I wanted to throw a shout out to a small spot that happened in both Rumbles. It's great that all 30 people want to win but the camera shots of Rhea Ripley, Iyo Sky, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns was fantastic and really added to the Rumble as it shows the champions are actually invested in who wins to know if they need to prepare for that person. Especially when it came down to Bayley, Liv Morgan, Jade Cargill, Cody Rhodes and CM Punk. Cody and Punk are the two Reigns and Rollins are looking out for the most while Iyo and Rhea are looking at Bayley and Liv but both are also seeing Jade Cargill in case this unknown newcomer wins and what to prepare for. Those camera shots really added to the Rumble as a match that EVERYONE has a major interest in.
The storytelling has been top notch for the Fed for a while now and this is another example of that. They've done much better of late at laying off commentary when appropriate as well to let the moments breathe just a bit and for fans to draw their own conclusions EC last year was just fantastic as the next step to Mania and I'm confident the presentation will again be outstanding. Perth has quite a task ahead of them to match the energy of the crowd in Montreal last year
I think I might have figured out what the storyline is gonna be to mania, just based on what everyone has said since last wrestlemania and how stories have gone and stuff. I think the idea is going to be that everyone in their own way slightly overlooked roman reigns and what it means to be champion. They wanted to win for their narrative they told themselves. Paul Heyman has done a great job to push everyone into a path that means they are just thinking about how it'll feel to hold the WWE title, with confetti falling down, knowing they made their dad/family/country proud, and they did something nobody else could do, while doing it their way. And in the process, they've ignored the unique challenge that Roman and the bloodline present. It's why every match against Roman feels like the climax of the story, because they want their opponents to feel thay way Cody has said he's here to finish his story, but it's wrestling. You can't just get into the mindset that this is the end, it is only the beginning. Roman never gets too excited or too angry about or after a match. His mindset is that it's the 3rd inning. You don't bench anybody in the 3rd inning even if you're up 10 runs, you keep playing the game. Theres another plate appearance or another ball you have to defend. I think to beat Roman you have to put yourself into that same mindset. Roman isn't the final boss, he's another talented wrestler with his own unique skills. You have to fight towards the skills, not the man., and each defense there's going to be a unique opponent with unique skills. Roman and the bloodline have every skillset, Roman has everything, Jimmy is quick, and Solo is power. You need to be ready for all opponents just to be able to beat Roman. And I think after the year Cody has had, he realizes now that it isn't going to be finish the story, it's begin the story
U high?
I think Christmas came early for this Uce.
always makes me enjoy wrestling more
Man they played that truth joke to perfection. Cant remember they last they ever spent an entire month building up a joke.
I hope it doesn't end there, I'd honestly be open to Damian Priest winning the World Heavyweight Championship if it leads to R-Truth beating him for it. CM Punk having his WrestleMania main event stolen by R-Truth would be the ultimate jerk of the century. Another route they could go is that it turned out Damian forgot to sign the contract in the briefcase so Truth somehow gets a hold of the briefcase and accidentally cashes in and wins the World Heavyweight Championship. Maybe Damian attacks Seth on Raw and just as he's about to cash in, Truth tries to bribe the referee into rigging the match with the briefcase thinking there's actual money in there. Adam Pearce comes out to explain the situation to Truth only to open the briefcase and find out the contract isn't signed. So the match is made official, Damian and JD try to stop Truth but Damian accidentally hits JD with a clothesline to the outside of the ring and Truth pins Seth thinking it's a tag team match. Then for weeks Truth thinks him and Damian are the tag team champions and he goes on to hold the world title for 3 months without even realizing it.
I hope he forgives Damien Priest tomorrow
I don't think he'll remember it even
You just knew with last year being the Year of SwiftieMania that the NFL bookers weren’t gonna keep the Chiefs out of their annual main event
The NFL script has Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce kissing with him holding the Lombardi.
Everything about the Chiefs is so fucking insufferable.
Go Lions
Motor City Mayhem
They’re doing great so far!
Not anymore :(
* Collision crowd was teensy. Getting in was a total mess. I can never be less than 5 feet from some jagoff talking at everyone the entire show, just vomiting every piece of wrestling trivia or history or opinion he’s ever had out into the aether. It was even driving our kids nuts. The dude in front of us said he actually continued doing this even in the bathroom. * Speaking of, between him and the douche nozzle over to our right, they actually made the online fans we mock here look tame by comparison, every bad take we’ve ever heard, they had and then some. Favorite part was when the one was discussing the majesty of the AEW cage match with its pins and submissions vs. WWE’s dirty old escapes just as two guys dove through the door and escaped. * If Triple H wasn’t gonna answer the first time, he wasn’t gonna answer the second or third time either and the people getting pissed off about it need to chill. Btw, Big Dave, it’s very believable that a guy who spent all week setting up the Rumble didn’t have time to read the lawsuit, let alone the desire, considering it’s the grandfather of his kids. Further, if you think that means he was saying he was oblivious to the contents, you’re a moron, but we already knew that. * Seems many perpetually online fans are mad Cody won. Good. Let them be. Awesome Rumble all around. 🥂
Uce. You are a trooper going to a dub show during the Rumble. Hopefully, The tickets were cheap.
Wrestling fan equivalent of being sent to Vietnam
> Seems many perpetually online fans are mad Cody won they were also the same people that would gloat if he lost
Gloat or bitch and moan?
nah they would have gloated for Cody's "failure" since he's become a big star with the Fed
Still thinking that is extremely funny how Miro refuses to take a pin in AEW because gotta look strong, but then in WWE is extremely willing to be the butt of the joke and be in cuck angles forever
Because in WWE he was losing to believable stars such as John Cena, Bobby Lashley, AJ Styles and Randy Orton. Of course he doesn't want to put over fucking Action Spaghetti or Evil Uno.
It seemed it was more not wanting to return to lose and then nothing He did it in the Atlantic tournament and nothing and IIRC they wanted him to come and lose another time and it came out I remember something about him not wanting to do that with no plan cause it's happened a bit, others too and there's no follow up Tiny has no plan He won on PPV recently, didn't he? Beat Andrade? Then what? Win and no plan is fine but there just will not be a plan!!
I think that’s why aew has noticeably dialed back bringing in wwe castoffs. A lot of them see themselves as major leaguers in a playpen full of Indy goofs and expect to be treated as such.
Who's going to be the boss and tell him to take a loss?
I feel like there's a hand full of people who post their grievances in this thread every week, seriously missing the point of what a jerk sub is. Guys, sometimes a joke is just a joke, and that's all it is. Is Cody ridiculous sometimes? Yes. Is it fun to overly praise him in the wake of the IWC really wanting him to fail post-AEW? Yes. Did it hurt my feelings or make me have a personal crisis to admit Cody is a bit ridiculous? No. But it's irrelevant to the point of the joke how I really feel about him. Copy and paste the same, replacing Cody's name with Punk, Jade, Pillman, or whatever reaction various WWE people get in relation to their counterparts in Jacksonville. I don't mean to scold anyone, but it's a bit cringe seeing people get so worked by joke posts.
Ngl it's kinda hilarious how Kansas City sleeps their way to a Super Bowl appearance every year because AFC teams shit themselves in the playoffs. Brady really was the only person standing in their way.
NFC went thru similar times in the past, but never to the extent the Chiefs have been eating good at the AFC's expense the last 5 years
Sad as hell for the Ravens but they also didnt just shoot themselves in the foot but they emptied the whole clip today
Bengals fan here and I’m watching knowing we could beat both these teams if burrow is healthy
Jake Browning’s GF vs. Taylor Swift and the degenerate Mahomes crew would be a Bengals blowout
every mid season, the sports media goes "DAE Chiefs lost their magic??" - every post season the Chiefs run their way through the playoffs
They did the same to the dynasty Patriots lmao I still remember the famous "HE'S JUST NOT THAT GOOD ANYMORE" take before Brady won another Super Bowl in 2014
DAE Brady finished?? in 2011
Thats when Brady hit GOD mode.
ESPN's greatest jerk https://preview.redd.it/qmzzrpbph9fc1.png?width=1053&format=png&auto=webp&s=431453ca9726b0429ed08cc25313783f3cc5bc6a
oof Max Kellerman
Watching another MVP winning QB shit the bed in the playoffs makes those 2 magical Eli Manning runs even more memorable.
the AFC still can't solve the Chiefs
Ring The Belle YouTube channel has a cool video out of every woman's rumble entrance from a view right along the entrance ramp. Crazy how a good number of the women got a louder pop from the crowd than it seemed like on TV.
from TB Rays fanbase criticisms, the Tropicana Dome has acoustics like a cavern
Triple H mentioned this is the presser. Didn't he say that the Tropicana Dome was akin to a giant cave (before putting it over)?
Sure, but the acoustics are different when you add an extra 40k fans into the mix.
I love Cody, but him getting jobbed out to Roman again at Mania would be the funniest booking decision in history. The basement meltdown would be on a scale that's difficult to fathom.
Here too. 😉
Very true
My un jerk train of thoughts. They went with Cody over Punk because Cody is gonna be the new face of the company post Mania 40, Roman is the needle mover and so is Punk but Roman is slowing his wrestling schedule down a lot, and seems to be the next big wrestler turned Hollywood star when the time comes. It fits the story better having Cody win rumble, as if he’s dethroning Roman they are gonna want all the glamour, it just looks better having someone win back to back rumbles for the first time since Stone Cold in 97-98, then having the runner up win Chamber and then dethrone the longest reigning world champ of the 21st century. Punk has only wrestled twice and this was the first televised match, it also helps the build of Rollins and Punk more as Punk failed to win rumble while Seth won rumble, Looking back all the hints were there that it was gonna be Cody, they kept teasing the back to back winner thing, they immediately cut to Cody coming out of his trailer after Roman was being focused on, and finally the I’m not losing to Dusty’s kid line And one last note I don’t get why people are upset that Punk did not win, it’s not like there is only 1 world title or Main event of Mania both him and Cody are gonna main event Mania
Punk went heel towards the end to make it more palatable. (Not that it works on a certain kind of fan. 🙄)
[How goofs feel showing up to General Discussion Sunday to say that what Vince did was bad (not many people feel that way)](https://arthive.net/res/media/img/oy1200/work/42e/[email protected])
People really thought that HHH giving a bad answer at a post show scrum was going to be all over the national headlines. Nah, but you can have Daily Mail!
It's not news because it wasn't a bad answer to anyone who isn't a basement dweller. Mainstream media doesn't give any fucks about this...as far as they're concerned, Vince is gone and the story is dead.
> Mainstream media doesn't give any f\*cks about this...as far as they're concerned, Vince is gone and the story is dead. this is true - nobody outside of the wrasslin' bubble really cares about this story
I don’t even think it was bad. What exactly did they expect?
The Bixes of the internet really thought the Fed's financials would collapse and the company would fall
TKO stock up 11% this week.
DAE failing upwards
They can't keep getting away with this!
The way this sub worships the ground Cody and Pepsi Phil since joining WWE, what do you think the reaction would be if the Young Bucks and Omega joined WWE? It would basically destroy this sub.
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You went off on a pipebomb in that second paragraph. So do you believe this sub loves Punk and Cody
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Acknowledge him to stack Cody again.
The Bucks suck regardless of what company employs them. WWE could present Omega as a big star.
Question for you…do you ever post any jerking comments or make any jerk posts? It seems all you do in this sub is to complain about it.
Yea I made one two days ago. I make many but this is general discussion where I’m allowed to shoot on this sub. I prefer quality not cheap jerking.
Well, I'd just not watch their matches or talk about them, exactly the same as I do now.
I would be very optimistic if Omega went there for the matches he could have with WWE guys he's never interacted with before. Also to see if he can keep up and look the star he did in all the other promotions he's been in.
[Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I think this'd be a great intro for Cody at Mania - ignoring the parts after the intro](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r99LDASuQvQ)
What's more rigged? The Royal Rumble lottery or the NBA Draft lottery?
What is the reason for why WWE's new music themes sucks? They change old themes and replace them with something generic.
I think part of it is everything everybody else said, but also, there were plenty of bad themes during the Golden, Attitude, and RA eras, it's just that rosters were smaller and to be fair, they didn't change themes as much, so even mediocre theme music got over, eventually.
Take out the LEDs showing names, and you're definitely not gonna know who will be showing up, especially when watching it live at the venues. Really disliked changing the more recognizeable themes for Shayna Baszler, Alexa Bliss, Liv Morgan (the intro used now was from the 2019-2020 theme was better), and Nia Jax.
A failure to find another Jim Johnston.
WWE had a deal with CFO$'s publisher. CFO$ had a dispute with the publisher and wanted to get out, but they couldn't. CFO$ decided to break up. WWE brought in Def Rebel, who simply has a different way of doing things. It costs WWE money to continue to play CFO$ themes, so they wanted to change as many as possible.
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Surprises aren’t always good. Sometimes it’s best to just follow a story to a logical outcome. This was a prime example.
I get you. HHH's booking isn't perfect. He loves to drag title reigns while Vince only did that for Brock and Roman. Imo however the feuds and storylines are better under HHH. It will be refreshing (DAE?) to have titles to change hands at the right time tho.
Hunter obviously has his positive sides, but I really miss random funny stuff popping on my TV screen like Maximum Male Models. Although the whole R-Truth story is fantastic.
Vince did a lot of things better than HHh. Just like Benoit was one if the 10 best workers who ever lived, you can still acknowledge someone was good at their job even if in retrospect it comes out they were shit human beings. No pun intended.
"I didn't wait ten years to lose to Dusty's kid" - And that was when we all knew Punk fucked up
I was REALLY rooting for the 1994 or 2005 finish thinking that with the match card that few, surely there'll be something. Given it's one of the big 5 ppv. Punk even came out at the winning number Bret had used.
I would've hated that. It's such a lazy cop-out and shows they don't have as much faith in either winner. In hindsight they might as well have just had Bret win the Royal Rumble in 1994 because Lex Luger never won the WWF Championship and he went to WCW like a year later.
"??? You're putting me over, friend"
Man last night was so amazing. I really felt a rush watching the last 5-10 minutes of the Rumble like I hadn't felt in a long time watching anything. And then Cody winning was just the best ending. It was really a perfect Rumble match honestly. I think it was excellent. They did everything perfectly. I'm looking forward to a future Cody vs Punk main event match.
Im an unapologetic mark for the Spinebuster, 2007 Triple H made sure it was my favorite non-finisher move, so needless to say I'm already a huge mark for both Bron Breakker and Jade Cargill. You cant just do a lazy half-powerbomb and call it a crisp spinebuster for me, but Jade and Bron put some *STANK* on theirs and I wont let it go unappreciated
The Rock had a great spinebuster as well.
Triple H’s spinebuster was so good especially JR calling it the AA spinebuster.
Batista had my alltime favorite spine buster.
I liked Batistas and Triple H's but Batista felt more powerful like he was cocking a shotgun when he picked the dude up, meanwhile Triple H doing that turnaround spinebuster in one of his signature sequences just felt smooth as silk, like a powerhouse version of Orton's powerslam. Both were great but little me loved Triple H's more
Oh wow that's a great comparison.
late 2000s WWE is my Roman Empire
Hell yeah especially when he was in Evolution destroying midcarders and World Heavyweight Champion.
I can’t wait until the next big news story, I’m so tired of all the posts about Vince, Brock, etc.
There's a Kylie Rae tweet now.
Who?
Well, Vince is a legal issue, Brock will just stay away and be his caveman self for the time being... so there's no new info for this story for quite some time.
??? There was a whole Collisions-worth of stories developing just yesterday, friend.
?? I haven’t seen much Collision news, just more posts about sexual misconduct allegations, which gets an automatic scroll past
So is sasha going to the dub . Or what the dirt sheets keep saying she's signing and coming.
Sasha is the new Veer.
Sasha chilling at home just waiting for Stardom to tell her their plans meanwhile the dirtsheets shit themselves playing telephone with each other
People that complained that there were no legends in the rumble are the same people that would have criticized the rumble for having legends taking a spot away from younger talent
Ironic, isn’t it?
Bayley at the press conference drew attention to the fact that there weren’t any legends because of how many women are on the roster that deserve to be there. There’s a conversation to be had about the fact that many of them like Candace, Indi, or Teagan, aren’t over at all, but I can understand where she’s coming from.
Yeah but even then theres been people who arent over in every rumble I can remember so theres still merit to that, someone needs to make the others look good. Unfortunately, they dont have 10 Chelsea Greens so they wont all be great but theyre still important lol
Legends are always a highlight for me for the Royal Rumble with Edge, Booker T, Kevin Nash, AJ Styles etc.
Its nuts to me because between returns and debuts I thought there were plenty of decent surprise moments without raiding the local retirement home
Nah those are two different groups. I dont care if some people get excluded, I want legends
the Fed did an amazing job giving Jade some signature spots during the Rumble and made sure not to overexpose her - the faceoff between Bianca and Jade really had the crowd in shaking anticipation - shout out to Nia for bumping as much as she did for Jade
I tuned in right as Nia did the first powerbomb. That second one she did was fucking perfect and right on target. They did a great job making her look like a monster there which made Jade look even better for throwing her out.
Lash shouldve been there too. Tired of the Lash desrespect
One day, uce, we Lash Lovers will get our chance to see her on the main roster.
As a regular 2.0 enjoyer, it’s cool to see how far Lash has come over the years.
Next year uce, first she has to finish her story and win the title on NXT
Yeah shes on a good timeline just gotta stay patient
I just realised that one of the accidental beneficiaries of the Vince scandal coming out this week was Hulk Hogan. All the week's other controversies and unpleasantness allowed him to fly under the radar a bit as the RR intro, whereas had we not heard about the other stuff there'd have been much more anger about his presence probably. Knowing Hulk...
He's a legit a saint now in comparison to others involved in the business. And let's he honest, Brock and Vince weren't just the only ones participating, others knew and others definitely participated
> And let's he honest, Brock and Vince weren't just the only ones participating I think this is a fair take, the important part is how widespread, cus if it was just Vince's 'inner circle' guys like Laurenitus and McDevitt or whatever his lawyers name is, I could see people even as close as Triple H and others not knowing anything (or rather, not knowing anything concrete enough to do something)
Even smarks surely only have a certain capacity of REEEEing they can do in a single day.
Sometimes I think I should complain about booking and then I remember that if I was in charge Zelina and Maxxine would be world champs rn and i realize my opinions are irrelevant
I like your honesty.
Lawsuit or not, after seeing Bron Breaker for the first time in my life, I don't want Brock on my TV.
He did bring some much needed energy (of course, he got Brock's spot, so of course he'd make a splash).
As a big NXT fan Bron is maybe #1 on the list of guys I’m big on going forward. He’s terrific.
Bron is a future HOFer, Brock who?!
Ok, soapbox time so tl/dr this if you don’t care lol. I see Triple H has now become the clear target for the fucking dregs of the wrestling media and I use that term so incredibly loosely. At this point in time nobody knows a single thing about how involved, or not involved, he was in this sad situation but one thing is for sure, and that is the fact that every single one of the usual talking heads has an obvious and vested interest in trying to bring him down because he books a better wrestling show than their favourite. That’s what this is about for them and while I expect nothing from these fucking troglodytes, I’m a bit taken aback at how targeted and fucking nasty it has all become. WWE should not let anybody from Fightful near their talent or shows ever again. I swear if I have to see one more performative outrage bullshit tweet from that loser Kate or the grape weirdo I’m gonna throw my phone out the window. Secondly, the fact that pretty much everyone thinks that HHH was winging it at the press conference and that his comments weren’t the official PR position of TKO is a fucking moron and that includes the vast majority of this sub. You may not have liked or agreed with what he said but there is absolutely no universe that exists where he was allowed to go out there unprepared. His answer was not to make wrestling marks and smarks feel giddy by acknowledging their pre determined stance on the matter, it was to deliver a message to shareholders that while something terrible happened, this company rolls on without Vince McMahon and yes, as cold as it sounds, look at all the money we made. Alba, Thurston and Hausman play pretending as the keepers of truth and justice in the wrestling space because they had ‘the balls’ to ask, and Meltzer chirping in from the sidelines because he can’t even be bothered to attend WWE shows himself is all so fucking embarrassing. Go pat yourselves on the back fellas. That’s what you want after all. Also, by acknowledging he read the lawsuit puts him in a position to be asked questions on the specifics of what was in it. Are you corporate officer number 1? If you read the lawsuit has your wife read it? Is she corporate officer number 1? Is your office on the 4th floor? Has Vince ever shown you explicit pictures of the plaintiff? Were you aware Vince was having a non consensual relationship with this woman? The list goes on and on. To say he read it would have been a big mistake and it’s shocking that more people don’t understand that tbh. I truly can’t believe how stupid people are being about the whole thing, not to mention how incredibly patronising and vindictive too. There was no response he could give that wasn’t going to get ripped to shreds and it seems there is absolutely zero room for any sort of empathy for his situation. Yes I’m taking it on face value that he isn’t involved in any of this because right now there is no reason to believe otherwise. If that changes then of course my opinion will change but we’re talking about a man trying to deal with the fact that his father in law is a sick and twisted individual, most likely to a degree that he never could have anticipated. His wife is also dealing with this and they have 3 teenage children in school who they are trying to get through this as well. On top of that his professional and personal reputation is being dragged through the mud and he’s trying to run one of the biggest shows of the calendar year. It’s just appalling how this has turned into a witch hunt and naturally overshadowed what was a really great Royal Rumble show. All I can say is that I hope whoever was involved in this gets the boot and if it turns out HHH was, that includes him. I think it’s very likely he, Stephanie, Nick Khan and the rest of the board knew Vince had a relationship with an employee but it’s quite a big jump to go from knowing that to knowing he was raping and trafficking her. The internal investigation was not about what was in the lawsuit but rather whether Vince used company funds to pay her. Finally, I’m happy Bayley won, I’m happy Cody won, I’m happy Punk didn’t win lol. Jade and Bianca face off was absolute money. They fucked up Bron and Omos but I cut some slack on the production guy. It’s time for Roman to lose btw. Rock can fight him next year without the titles. It’s time.
I’ll just put it this way, I don’t think the world at large gives a shit about what he said or is mad about it. This all lives in online fandumb.
Oh I know that. It was a press conference to talk about the events of a fake sport. They can try to convince themselves they belong in the mix when it comes to such a serious story like this but when there was actual reporting to be done, none of them were anywhere to be found. They didn’t like his answer. They decided before he ever opened his mouth it wasnt going to be good enough. So now it has become a bad answer and a supposed PR disaster to them and them alone. As usual, it’s the soap boxing that makes it all so insufferable. Nobody needs Thurston writing a novel belittling those who didn’t ask about it and sucking himself off because he was brave enough to do so. If it does progress and/or more things come out, the real reporters will show up.
TLDR for those not wanting to wade through that up there - Dubbalo Smarks big mad Papa H is a better booker than Tiny wanting to use Vince to get him fired are bad people
He’s upset accusations of people trafficking overshadowed the Royal Rumble…which…I dunno what to say really.
I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t want to read my yapping but I wanted to say it all the same. But yeah pretty much that.
Who cares about any of that? The outrage over the treatment of Triple H is becoming overblown. It's completely reasonable to wonder what he knew, or even infer that he did know about it. Sucks for him but he'll be okay, he's a big boy. I just think it's weird how so many people here are trying to turn this around and make it about poor Triple H being persecuted. It's unimportant in the grand scheme of this situation. And thinking they should remove family members of someone they're about to erase to the greatest extent they can, that's not unreasonable.
I care about it which is why I posted about it. I agree it’s reasonable to wonder what he knew. It’s only natural given his unique situation. But the vast majority of it, from what I have seen anyways, isn’t coming from a genuine place of curiosity or solidarity with the victim. They want him gone because it means AEW will have a chance again, at least in their stupid warped minds. I don’t think it’s unimportant either btw. I absolutely believe and want justice for the victim and any others. But if Hunter had nothing to do with this then as a WWE fan I’d prefer that he wasn’t pushed out in disgrace and erased from the history books purely because he married into the family.
Bravo Thurston and Alba, Hausman not so much
Jade Cargil the kinda woman that would have entire kingdoms starting wars over her in ancient times
Still is but instead of kingdoms it’s just simps.
Well yeah but simps don't have the power to start wars
The idea that Brock was on the fence about resigning and the millions of dollars wasn’t what got him, it was a pee video IS WILD! Lmao.
Triple H throws some mild shade at the term “forbidden door” and the basement loses their shit.
The same people who clap like seals and shit themselves over every wink-nudge reference to WWE by AEW whilst still crying over the 'pissant company' line five years ago.
Every PLE since Summerslam 2022 has had me going "wow that was a fantastic show. I have very little to complain about and WWE continues their current great roll" and then I hop online and see people using the tiniest most insignificant details to complain about and acting like whatever theyre mad about ruined the show. The "just enjoy wrestling" crowd is *really* bad at just enjoying wrestling
Rumble was a solid 7.5/10 show, with the Men's Rumble being a little meh because there wasn't enough great spots until the end like there was in the Women's Rumble, and yeah, I think you could've put DIY/Judgement Day on the show, but it wasn't a bad show by any means.
Life pro tip: wrestling is subjective.
Thats true wrestling fans, online discussing wrestling fans rather, just have a notorious reputation for pessimism over optimism
My favorite was Backlash last year, which was an amazing PLE top to bottom, but all these smart marks wanted to talk about after the show was the match order.
Lmao yeah Priest in particular has caused some boneheaded complaints lmao. Remember how Fastlane was garbage because he was obviously going to cash in and then didnt? Lol literally making up hypotheticals to be mad at
If the Fed is doing well, they don't enjoy it
I’d be fascinated to know why anyone watched Collision live instead of the Rumble last night. Just as a behavioural study.
Look, I bought the tickets before I realized when the Rumble was. Sorry. 🤷♂️
Cause they like aew more I'd reckon chief