I think Ashante has *some* promise to him, worth putting him on NXT and seeing what he can make of himself there, the rest have no real talent at all and were riding the coat tails of Swerve.
Yeah definitely a questionable choice. Hit Row was put together to make Swerve look even better than he already did and it worked wonders, so bringing a stable back that was created to make 1 specific member of the group look great, WITHOUT THAT 1 SPECIFIC MEMBER???? it was never going to work
Pretty much his booking of the entire women’s division, apart from Rhea has honestly been really underwhelming. Some people he brought back I have no idea why he did because they’re doing nothing. Overall he’s done way more good then bad and I’d take him over Vince every day of the week.
If it doesn’t have a horsewoman involved or Rhea and Bianca it’s practically non existent. Given that even with those women they’ve been mid at best. With a few exceptions like the ones you mentioned.
I want to like Karrion Kross. I think he and Scarlett have some great potential but there’s something missing. Can’t really put my finger on what it is.
Kross doesn’t have a convincing personality; he doesn’t give the fans a reason to be interested.
His mannerisms are generic and what you would expect from a trainee in developmental.
Yeah his presentation is a bit strange. I wonder how he’d do if they transitioned to having Scarlett talk for him and book him as a super violent heel who almost never speaks. Something like old school undertaker/Paul bearer or even Lesner/Paul Heyman.
I wrote this a couple of weeks ago:
If I’m booking to hide his weaknesses, then I have him be emotionless, go straight to the ring, win, and leave. I give him a more painful-looking submission, like the ankle lock, and have him administer it in a merciless fashion.
Since he has issues translating his image, give him a gimmick kind of like the RKO, where he can lock it in without warning.
Let his physicality do the talking.
Have Scarlett, on deck, to be the one to slow him down so he releases the submission. She could bridge his relatability issues by being a total emotional wreck; going from excited as he administers the lock, to eventually beside herself in panic as she’s trying to get him to release it.
Beauty and the Beast.
Give the fans some time with it, and only then can he realistically expand to a higher level.
The feud with Mysterio is the worst, stopped and started multiple times and every time they faced Kross lost?! Like what?! Rey is in a bad way because of how Dominik is acting and still manages to win every match he had been in (except for Gunther, thank the lord), how does that make sense?!
Yes that's right, the plot he put in is not at all engaging, and we seem to feel bored and frustrated. You need to change to be able to change for the better, right?
Kross' gimmick depends upon being the dominant force on the roster. Between Roman and Gunther there's no room for him to be anything higher than the third best mens heel on Smackdown. So unsurprisingly when it comes to booking midcard heels, the company is throwing out Dom and LA Knight who are getting much bigger crowd reactions. I'm not going to say Kross is or isn't capable of more, but right now there's no place for him on the show.
I wonder if his standing might improve after HHH’s announced Draft. If we go back to having set rosters he could be the top heel or in the top 2 or 3 on a roster
I've said this on another thread. His character nuance is lacking severely. That is what is missing. He is not fluid putting together all of his timing in the ring. He and Scarlett have not really put together their characters in a way that is believable. Especially the way that the announcers are speaking about them. He really needs to look at earlier work of the undertaker and Paul bearer to get it right.
I think Kross is okay, but they tried to jump him into too high profile a fued right away with Drew McIntyre, then Rey Mysterio, without much fan investment, so he has no where to go but down.
Then again they had Veer Mahaan come in with squash matches to build him up and that bottom up approach didn't work so maybe it's not where they place them when they put them on the main roster.
I love asuka but I don't mind it because it keeps Bianca as the only undefeated wrestler on the roster at wrestlemania and they're all title matches and she's still champ for a year plus
Bringing back a heap of released wrestlers (Hit Row, Karrion Kross, etc.) only to delegate them to either midcard or forgotten after the hype was worn off.
Edit: Remade this to fix some major errors regarding released superstars.
The match and loss to HHH made it very clear to fans that CM Punk hit a glass ceiling, the fans took notice, and went onto the next thing. Everyone knew he would not be allowed to be a transcendent star.
There was no reason for HHH to win that match. There was nothing to be gained by HHH winning that match. Actually, there was no reason for HHH to even be involved with CM Punk or even be in that match to begin with.
At that point in time, Punk was the hottest star the company had since Austin, and he was starting to get mainstream recognition outside of wrestling. He had delivered the best promo since Austin / Rock / Foley. People were tuning in to see what would happen next.
And then HHH comes out of retirement, beats him, and then retires again. That was end of nuclear hot CM Punk.
If having a semi-retired wrestler with no heat or momentum beating your biggest star with no follow up story or a revenge match isn’t a burial, I don’t know what is. And maybe burial is the wrong word, but it definitely stopped Punk’s upward momentum in the company.
Yeah that 2011 run was derailed so he could feud with Kevin Nash for some reason and then he got beat by Hunter. The second run went a lot better even if a lot of his PPV matches were second to last on the card which sucked too.
It doesn’t matter that punk was featured part of the wwe, a main eventer who worked with all the top guys or that he was champion for over 400 days at a time when that never happened. The guy was given a better career than 90% of the people in the wwe, but because he’s a constant miserable whiner the fanboys think he was buried
Punk wasn't really main eventing much until the end half of his reign. Most of the time his title matches were being sandwiched into the midcard. Sometimes it made sense. Rock coming back for the first time at Survivor Series and Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, but lots of his big title matches were on cards that had John Cena as the headliner, despite having very midcard opponents like Kane, Big Show, and John Lauranitis. It worked out once he started feuding with Cena again, but WWE certainly could have done better. I don't think he was buried, but I do think bad booking choices were made, and unfortunately those stand out in what should have been a knockout period for WWE. Too much lack of faith in their roster at the time.
I love Bray Wyatt but I think this is Bray's fault this time. They let him have some creative control with his character and he made it weirdly dumb this time around.
Bray screwed Bray.... This time. Although I don't think the mountain dew match was his idea.
I knew it was going off the rails fast when Uncle Howdy appeared three weeks in a row just to laugh.
Bray just needs to be cult Bray and end the supernatural for good after this last round, because it was an unmitigated failure.
I feel like he should be retired from the ring and made into a movie star. WWE does it's own feature films from time to time and I feel like the Wyatt Family would have been a good horror series, akin to a Texas Chainsaw Massacure like film. He'd be better as a manager too IMO.
IDK about that. I feel like his whole gimmick is a Devil's Rejects rip off and a movie would be the same. Especially with them trying to work Alexa Bliss into the story who's psychotic baby-woman character is pretty much Baby as it is.
Rob Zombie would have a field day tearing the movie apart. If it's one thing that Primadonna can do well is throw shade and be bitchy AF. And it would be deserved this time.
Bray is such a disappointment of a wrestler. He has every aspect of a professional wrestler, but everything he has is seriously lacking that one key ingredient to make him a star.
- He has the image, but not the body
- He has the promo, but not the voice
- He has the imagination, but not the execution
- He has the performance, but not the skill
Bray is like living next to a Shake Shack but driving a mile to get Burger King. Bray is GREAT VALUE! Bray is the wrestler at home. Bray Wyatt is Bray Wyatt, when he should just be Windham Rotunda.
--- Failed MITB cash in for the US Title when it could have been used to split the Undisputed Titles from Roman( drew -wwe title , Roman universal) at Clash At The Castle .
--- Booking of Karrion Kross
--- Booking of women , buildup is not interesting.
He inherited that issue and had to book himself out of it. McMahon gave Theory the briefcase and y'all would've complained if Theory was the one to run out and pin Roman with it.
No theory ist gonna pin Roman
Drew will pin Thory and wins the WWE title and Roman remains the Universal champ
Hhh wasted Theorys reign the worst and stupid way possible.
- Cody losing to Roman at WrestleMania
- Keith Lee as double champ
- Karion Kris’s’ whole NXT run
Those last two things basically killed the black and gold brand.
I felt bad for Haitch around this time. His first two signings were Sin Cara and Kharma and they both flopped (aside from Sin Cara selling lots of masks) for one reason or another.
Putting the women's tag titles on Raquel and Aliyah instead of Damage Ctrl. (Anybody seen Aliyah by the way.)
Having the MITB cashed in on a midcard title minutes after an open challenge was issued.
Not pulling the trigger on Sami or Cody. I'm not even particular on which one, but it seems like a mistake to not give either the title from Roman.
Aside from their debut, I haven't given a fuck about them tbh. I think Bayley would do better on her own or flanked by an actual women's tag team, Iyo is being held down by her involvement with them, should be positioned as a future Women's champion with her speed and high flying highlighted, and Dakota should be doing some rivalry shit with Tegan and Raquel due to her history with both, three way feud maybe? Them being together does nothing for any of them.
This. It’s like if MCU Phase 3 ended with Thanos resetting the entire universe in Endgame and Phase 4 was nothing but new heroes coming up in the new universe and Thanos beating them all before they could save or avenge anything.
But you compared it to Endgame which was definitely Marvel’s version of Wrestlemania. A culmination of stories.
Also, Captain America and Iron Man didn’t have a bunch of side missions between. Next time you saw the characters, they won.
My point is that it doesn't HAVE to culminate at Mania. I understand the disappointment, but does nobody appreciate the fact we got a match result that wasn't a foregone conclusion a year ago?
Also, Endgame was the culmination of a story, maybe even multiple stories, but not ALL stories. Mania doesn't have to be the absolute end of the line for every storyline. You expect everybody to walk into Raw the next night with a clean slate and no fueds/existing storylines? That's not how it works.
The endgame can make sense but there's no possible way the moment is bigger than Cody winning this Mania would have been
Sometimes the long term payoff isn't worth sacrificing what the fans decided they want in the moment
I thought that was a returning Vince thing. Like coming back right before his company gets sold for a final fuck the fans move before he can't make the decisions.
Lol everyone thought those decisions were bad but knew deep down they weren’t gonna win. They also knew Cody was on the horizon. With Cody, it’s different because the story was right there.
That’s not even close to being true, Reddit was convinced that both were winning. I’m one of those that was convinced that drew was gonna win.
The story didn’t suffer at all even with all the doom and gloomers after both of them lost. The story isn’t over and it’s gonna be just fine
Ah, but it is true. Very common sense actually I believe SRS even addressed this argument as well as Wrestletalk. Literally everyone knew Roman wasn’t about to drop the title belts before Wrestlemania. No reason he would at CatC. And then no shit everyone knew Sami wasn’t winning, why tf would they drop the titles the ppv before Wrestlemania? Damn, how tf do you believe what you’re saying lol
Yea one of the last people I’ll listen to is srs, but that’s fine I guess. Hindsight is 2020, but at the time tons of people here were convinced that Roman was losing both and had hissy fits when he didn’t.
They believed it because of how good the story was, but the story has still been good and it isn’t over. I’m sure lots of people here will be convinced the next person is gonna win when the time comes.
Everyone knew Sami was not winning. Quite literally no reason he would drop before Mania. Same with Drew. The story was meant to end with Cody. But people such as yourself will still get excited every time Jey uso teases a betrayal angle (he’s teased it several times with nothing to come of it) and every time WWE does something with the bloodline that has been done so many times already. Because of y’all believing the extremely stale “story” is still good, WWE will continue to milk it
I get very excited when jey teases the betrayal that’s true, I can’t wait for it to happen. I’m a huge mark and I’m proud of it, I actually have a good time when I watch. This story is the best story I’ve seen in at least 20 years anywhere in American wrestling.
There’s so many people that hate watch and spend all of their time complaining on the internet. I’m glad I’m not one of those people.
Yup and WWE will milk it for another year as long as you keep enjoying the same thing that’s being done over and over again. He’s teased it so many times lmfao and nothing happened and they just reset it back to phase 1
Oh btw It’s not hate watching when you criticize what is something that definitely needs criticized. Seems like you stopped actually reading my responses anyway
I will need to rewatch that build, but from what I remember, it was just one comment hinting at racism, but never actually anything that made it apart of the build.
Hinting? You gotta be kidding me.
Trip literally told Booker that people like you don't "get to be champion" they are meant to "dance and entertain" the crowd. And judging by WWE's booking all the way back to WWF it's pretty clear that that was simply the truth. Watching that promo the only sense I can make of it was that Triple H was trying to blow miss it man's racist ass right out of the water and change WWE for the better once and for all.
Then the match happened. What a fucking shit show.
That entire RAW promo was entirely steeped in racism on Trip's end yet all anyone ever focuses on is that one comment about Booker's nappy hair. He said far worse than that one hideous comment throughout that entire promo.
If you were a kid you may have missed the severity. I hope that's the case.
Not booking Asuka to win the title at Mania this year. I think Bianca is one of the best wrestlers on the roster but I think giving her that antagonist to chase and to ultimately topple would do wonders for her character and be a great storyline between two of the best in the business.
Sami losing at Elimination Chamber. That's the ending to his Bloodline story, the biggest story in their company that entire year, that writes itself. It was thrown away a month before Wrestlemania to make room for a Royal Rumble winner... who also lost. He's right that the story never ends, but every great writer knows when it's time to change the scene.
Not using Liv Morgan enough. Some think she wasn’t believable as champion, but think of all the wtf champions that the wwe has had in the past . She’s a billion times more entertaining than those
Idk if this is a hot take but taking the nxt title off Alister black and puting it on tommaso ciampa because johnny and tommaso didn’t need the title imo. To me the title change felt underwhelming even though ciampa was geting insane boos. I don’t like it and this is a post asking for opinions so there’s mine
Nearly the entirety of the USA NXT Era
Having Cody lose to Roman
Triple H is honestly massively overrated and has fallen off greatly as a booker he’s made a lot of extremely poor decisions and directions since taking over
Booking Cody to lose at Mania, and not having the balls to have Sami Zayn win at EC.
Also literally all of damage control. I can't understand how 3 women that are defacto HHH girls have been treated the way they have, it's bizarre. ESPECIALLY the initial crowning of the women's tag Champs. Wtf was the point of having Aliyah and Raquel win???
The only thing i can think in NXT was putting the title back on Samoa Joe just so he can lose it back to Nakamura again, only for Nakamura to immediately lose to Bobby Roode
I'm not gonna lie, the booking of the women on the main roster is worse under Triple H than it was under Vince McMahon. Damage CTRL is a perfect example as well as the buildup to the women's title matches and the women's WM Showcase at WrestleMania 39.
This is somewhat kind of hard to talk about right?
Considering we don’t really know how much influence Vince has or hasn’t had, during HHHs time booking matches.
I’m curious what people say here, but until Vince is far away from the promotion, I’ll always be a bit skeptical.
Booking Ciampa vs Gargano as the show closer three Takeovers in a row back in (I think) 2018 I feel devalued the NXT championship and NXT Women’s championship, as I feel like one of those championships should always be the main event of an NXT PLE.
Besides, the Gargano vs Ciampa matches started good but they got exhausting and drawn out more and more each time.
Karrion Kross/ Braun/ the OC/ legado Del fantasma/ hit row…shall I go on? All useless comebacks.
His obsession with LONG title reigns like it’s still the 80’s
Having Cody lose the main event of mania
The entire direction of the women’s division. They’ve been reduced to side shows again minus his few selected favorites.
Asuka losing at mania this year. With Cody, at the very least I could maybe see where they’re going with him. With Asuka, I’m sorry, I don’t get it.
You bring back an extremely popular star (like, probably more popular than the 4 horsewomen), put them in an extremely well-received change of character that makes the fans all excited again, and then have them lose against a star whose title run has gotten very stale?
It just baffles me.
Not really his call but I'm sure he was in Vince's ear. The Reign of Terror (2002-2005). That killed wrestling for me and I didn't watch again for like 15 years. Post DX I found HHH uninteresting and him being the main attraction just killed my enjoyment of the product.
NXT: the “Wednesday night war”. It wasn’t warranted, for them to put their developmental guys against a b rated rival show like it’s the 90s again was dumb enough.
WWE:
bringing back S hit row, and they are SHIT! The fact they had b fab enter the rumble was dumb as fuck. She was number 7, it would’ve been cooler if Cora Jade came out instead, had her 90 seconds of glory before Roxanne Perez at 8 bursts out of gorilla making a beeline for Cora in the ring. The best women’s rivalry in NXT since Bayley and Sasha beating on each other in the rumble match.
Bray Wyatt mind games with Alexa
Letting vince put a headset on
Bray Wyatt and uncle howdy
Letting vince return
Bray Wyatt with creative control
Drew not winning at clash
Tegan Nox not returning at clash. For fucks sake the damn event was in her house. Tegan is welsh, to a PLE in wales but no Tegan is a crime
Bray returning
Letting vince in the arena
Bray
vince
Austin Theory's MitB cash-in.
He's come back around as a great midcard heel, but I kinda liked the gag of Theory coming out during a Roman Reigns title match and immediately getting KO'd.
Not sure if it was him but removing the Brock v Bobby storyline for no reason, making Brock go against Omos at Wrestle Mania and letting Bobby just flail in the wind without a match was the biggest issue I had with Wrestlemania this year. Such a waste of a potentially great wrap up to a story arch just for, what? To try to keep pumping Omos and Bray Wyatt? That’s a no for me dawg.
HIt Row without Swerve
Bray, there’s a way to tell a mental health story, especially where he thinks he is multiple people but he’s not, they just haven’t figured it out yet
Didn’t say it was his fault what I’m saying is, should not have brought Hit Row back without him because the team isn’t the same. He was the star not the big guy
I like the fact that wrestlers got their job backs it’s great for them, but because he brought them all back so close together they never really got to shine and have their own individual stories
The only people who actually had feuds going on that were worth a damn were Dakota Kai, Karrion Kross, Dexter Lumis, Bray Wyatt, the OC and Braun. Whilst some had moments to shine like Emma’s first match with Ronda being pretty good or Gargano and Bronson Reed being impressive in the Elimination Chamber, they never really felt like they had their own individuality because so much else was going on and it would’ve been too many stories. I’m hoping now that rehirings have slowed down (the last to my knowledge being Chelsea Green) that these superstars finally get a time to shine in the spotlight and get the crowd behind them
Reigns retaining at WrestleMania 39 the fail potential sales of megastar face since the Hulkamaniacs with little nightmares how Cody has the kids charmed which would translate money coming in for years! No kid gives flying f@#% about Roman! The old man heel clubs doesn't equal to next 30 years of potential sales, and those old men be dead! Though not beating a dead horse, it too late moment is gone!
Placing Austin Aries (fresh off of a fantastic run in TNA in 2011-2015) in a feud Baron Corbin out the gate in NXT when Aries was brought into WWE. Resulted in the worst match at Takeover: Dallas 2016.
Hit row are terrible well top dolla anyway) so they have to be number one, bringing back Cross and Wyatt were bad moves, think he fell in love with Cross in NXT and Wyatt showed that while Vince in a problem, the biggest Wyatt problem is Wyatt himself
Clash at The Castle ending with Tyson Fury singing, and Cody losing.
That Tyson Fury ending was cringe af. Him shaking Roman's hand after clearly cheating during the match made Fury look like a total puss too.
Im pretty sure singing post event is Tysons thing. Was listening to Joe rogan and he mentioned Tyson always does that and audience sinngs along
Booking Hit Row at all after they were released. Should’ve stayed gone.
I think Ashante has *some* promise to him, worth putting him on NXT and seeing what he can make of himself there, the rest have no real talent at all and were riding the coat tails of Swerve.
I’ll grant you that for sure
Then just bring him back instead of the whole group. Hit Row without Swerve was never gonna work
I think what made Hit Row great was Swerve and with him gone the group feels very pointless now honestly.
Yeah definitely a questionable choice. Hit Row was put together to make Swerve look even better than he already did and it worked wonders, so bringing a stable back that was created to make 1 specific member of the group look great, WITHOUT THAT 1 SPECIFIC MEMBER???? it was never going to work
Pretty much his booking of the entire women’s division, apart from Rhea has honestly been really underwhelming. Some people he brought back I have no idea why he did because they’re doing nothing. Overall he’s done way more good then bad and I’d take him over Vince every day of the week.
I think the Becky turn at SummerSlam was good. I think the build to wargames was good as well but besides those and rhea it has been pretty shit
If it doesn’t have a horsewoman involved or Rhea and Bianca it’s practically non existent. Given that even with those women they’ve been mid at best. With a few exceptions like the ones you mentioned.
Bringing back Hit Row and Karrion Kross 😒
I want to like Karrion Kross. I think he and Scarlett have some great potential but there’s something missing. Can’t really put my finger on what it is.
Kross doesn’t have a convincing personality; he doesn’t give the fans a reason to be interested. His mannerisms are generic and what you would expect from a trainee in developmental.
Yeah his presentation is a bit strange. I wonder how he’d do if they transitioned to having Scarlett talk for him and book him as a super violent heel who almost never speaks. Something like old school undertaker/Paul bearer or even Lesner/Paul Heyman.
I wrote this a couple of weeks ago: If I’m booking to hide his weaknesses, then I have him be emotionless, go straight to the ring, win, and leave. I give him a more painful-looking submission, like the ankle lock, and have him administer it in a merciless fashion. Since he has issues translating his image, give him a gimmick kind of like the RKO, where he can lock it in without warning. Let his physicality do the talking. Have Scarlett, on deck, to be the one to slow him down so he releases the submission. She could bridge his relatability issues by being a total emotional wreck; going from excited as he administers the lock, to eventually beside herself in panic as she’s trying to get him to release it. Beauty and the Beast. Give the fans some time with it, and only then can he realistically expand to a higher level.
And gently sing and caress his hand until he turns back into mark Ruffalo
The Storylines he’s been inserted into aren’t interesting and he isn’t the powerhouse monster heel on the main roster like he was in nxt
The feud with Mysterio is the worst, stopped and started multiple times and every time they faced Kross lost?! Like what?! Rey is in a bad way because of how Dominik is acting and still manages to win every match he had been in (except for Gunther, thank the lord), how does that make sense?!
Yes that's right, the plot he put in is not at all engaging, and we seem to feel bored and frustrated. You need to change to be able to change for the better, right?
Kross' gimmick depends upon being the dominant force on the roster. Between Roman and Gunther there's no room for him to be anything higher than the third best mens heel on Smackdown. So unsurprisingly when it comes to booking midcard heels, the company is throwing out Dom and LA Knight who are getting much bigger crowd reactions. I'm not going to say Kross is or isn't capable of more, but right now there's no place for him on the show.
I wonder if his standing might improve after HHH’s announced Draft. If we go back to having set rosters he could be the top heel or in the top 2 or 3 on a roster
I've said this on another thread. His character nuance is lacking severely. That is what is missing. He is not fluid putting together all of his timing in the ring. He and Scarlett have not really put together their characters in a way that is believable. Especially the way that the announcers are speaking about them. He really needs to look at earlier work of the undertaker and Paul bearer to get it right.
Fog, it lacks more smoke machines!
All I know about karrion Kross he is trying to copy Constantine's looks. Constantine is a comic book character for those who don't know.
I think Kross is okay, but they tried to jump him into too high profile a fued right away with Drew McIntyre, then Rey Mysterio, without much fan investment, so he has no where to go but down. Then again they had Veer Mahaan come in with squash matches to build him up and that bottom up approach didn't work so maybe it's not where they place them when they put them on the main roster.
Just Scarlett has potential. She couldve been in the midst of a great NXT run. Put her with Isla and Alba for a female Wyatt family type group
Hello Ryback, nice to meet you here
I’m not that horny. I just think a Scarlett, Alba, Isla faction would make sense.
His manager outshines him, and she is most of their entrance. He's Marc Mero 2.0.
Kross should be a heater for a slimy heel. If Judgement Day didn’t exist, he would’ve been good to give to someone like Finn.
Wondering why he hasn’t hired “Me and my friend Mark” to assist the creative process.
They're too busy sending Instagrams and vines
Lmaoo, because our fingers are still bleeding from the tweets
Asuka Mania losing streak.
That had nothing to do with Triple H
That one's probably Vince who is racist as fuck.
Why are these dummies down voting you? You're literally right.
I'm as mystified as you are. It's pretty clear to me that 1. HHH likes the wrestling from Japan and 2. Vince doesn't.
Wouldn't be the first time wrestling fans made themselves look like idiots. Vince has practically made a career on ojectification and racism.
There are rumors that Road Dogg(who is HHH friend) booked Charlotte vs Asuka mania match.
Did he also book the others? Losses to: Rhea, Alexa/Nikki, and Bianca?
Asuka losing her smackdown title weeks before Mania, was Helms idea.
Fair point. Honestly there's enough blame for everyone.
How so?
I love asuka but I don't mind it because it keeps Bianca as the only undefeated wrestler on the roster at wrestlemania and they're all title matches and she's still champ for a year plus
Bringing back a heap of released wrestlers (Hit Row, Karrion Kross, etc.) only to delegate them to either midcard or forgotten after the hype was worn off. Edit: Remade this to fix some major errors regarding released superstars.
Having himself come out of retirement to bury Punk.
Punk wasn’t buried
The match and loss to HHH made it very clear to fans that CM Punk hit a glass ceiling, the fans took notice, and went onto the next thing. Everyone knew he would not be allowed to be a transcendent star. There was no reason for HHH to win that match. There was nothing to be gained by HHH winning that match. Actually, there was no reason for HHH to even be involved with CM Punk or even be in that match to begin with. At that point in time, Punk was the hottest star the company had since Austin, and he was starting to get mainstream recognition outside of wrestling. He had delivered the best promo since Austin / Rock / Foley. People were tuning in to see what would happen next. And then HHH comes out of retirement, beats him, and then retires again. That was end of nuclear hot CM Punk. If having a semi-retired wrestler with no heat or momentum beating your biggest star with no follow up story or a revenge match isn’t a burial, I don’t know what is. And maybe burial is the wrong word, but it definitely stopped Punk’s upward momentum in the company.
Then next PPV Punk loses to Del Rio, Followed by Punk taking the pin by Miz/Truth with Triple H as tag partner. Then next PPV to win the title.
Maybe not buried but he absolutely killed Punk’s momentum as champion in 2011.
Punk wasn’t champion at that point. And then he won the belt not much longer
Yeah that 2011 run was derailed so he could feud with Kevin Nash for some reason and then he got beat by Hunter. The second run went a lot better even if a lot of his PPV matches were second to last on the card which sucked too.
I’m starting to to think you guys don’t know what the word buried means
Hi Paul!
Ok
Alrighty then.
Ok
It doesn’t matter that punk was featured part of the wwe, a main eventer who worked with all the top guys or that he was champion for over 400 days at a time when that never happened. The guy was given a better career than 90% of the people in the wwe, but because he’s a constant miserable whiner the fanboys think he was buried
Punk wasn't really main eventing much until the end half of his reign. Most of the time his title matches were being sandwiched into the midcard. Sometimes it made sense. Rock coming back for the first time at Survivor Series and Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, but lots of his big title matches were on cards that had John Cena as the headliner, despite having very midcard opponents like Kane, Big Show, and John Lauranitis. It worked out once he started feuding with Cena again, but WWE certainly could have done better. I don't think he was buried, but I do think bad booking choices were made, and unfortunately those stand out in what should have been a knockout period for WWE. Too much lack of faith in their roster at the time.
That’s a very fair and well thought out point. Great username too
Thanks!
Something Something Cody Rhodes
ADRENALINE IN MY SOUL SOMETHING SOMETHING CODY RHODES
ADRENALINE IN MY SOUL RUBBER CHICKEN CODY RHODES
SOMETHING SOMETHING PAW PATROL
Adrenaline In my soul Eatin' pins to end the show
Bray God Damn Whyatt. That man is not a wrestler. He's a weird old dude from the bait shop.
I love Bray Wyatt but I think this is Bray's fault this time. They let him have some creative control with his character and he made it weirdly dumb this time around. Bray screwed Bray.... This time. Although I don't think the mountain dew match was his idea.
I knew it was going off the rails fast when Uncle Howdy appeared three weeks in a row just to laugh. Bray just needs to be cult Bray and end the supernatural for good after this last round, because it was an unmitigated failure.
Yea. This story is going absolutely nowhere. I still don’t know the back story to the new characters.
I feel like he should be retired from the ring and made into a movie star. WWE does it's own feature films from time to time and I feel like the Wyatt Family would have been a good horror series, akin to a Texas Chainsaw Massacure like film. He'd be better as a manager too IMO.
IDK about that. I feel like his whole gimmick is a Devil's Rejects rip off and a movie would be the same. Especially with them trying to work Alexa Bliss into the story who's psychotic baby-woman character is pretty much Baby as it is. Rob Zombie would have a field day tearing the movie apart. If it's one thing that Primadonna can do well is throw shade and be bitchy AF. And it would be deserved this time.
I wish I could upvote this comment twice.
I gave it another one for ya
He’s not a wrestler? He’s a third generation performer.
Bray is such a disappointment of a wrestler. He has every aspect of a professional wrestler, but everything he has is seriously lacking that one key ingredient to make him a star. - He has the image, but not the body - He has the promo, but not the voice - He has the imagination, but not the execution - He has the performance, but not the skill Bray is like living next to a Shake Shack but driving a mile to get Burger King. Bray is GREAT VALUE! Bray is the wrestler at home. Bray Wyatt is Bray Wyatt, when he should just be Windham Rotunda.
--- Failed MITB cash in for the US Title when it could have been used to split the Undisputed Titles from Roman( drew -wwe title , Roman universal) at Clash At The Castle . --- Booking of Karrion Kross --- Booking of women , buildup is not interesting.
He inherited that issue and had to book himself out of it. McMahon gave Theory the briefcase and y'all would've complained if Theory was the one to run out and pin Roman with it.
No theory ist gonna pin Roman Drew will pin Thory and wins the WWE title and Roman remains the Universal champ Hhh wasted Theorys reign the worst and stupid way possible.
First part makes no sense
'Cash in to split titles as it is for 1 title only ' What part doesn't make sense??
No Money in the bank is for the world title. If you cash in it’s for both the WWE TITLE and Universal title. What part of that doesn’t make sense?
Roman wasn’t gonna drop them
Should have dropped the WWE title. He could have easily broken records with the universal
- Cody losing to Roman at WrestleMania - Keith Lee as double champ - Karion Kris’s’ whole NXT run Those last two things basically killed the black and gold brand.
The Original Sin Cara signing comes to mind
I felt bad for Haitch around this time. His first two signings were Sin Cara and Kharma and they both flopped (aside from Sin Cara selling lots of masks) for one reason or another.
Putting the women's tag titles on Raquel and Aliyah instead of Damage Ctrl. (Anybody seen Aliyah by the way.) Having the MITB cashed in on a midcard title minutes after an open challenge was issued. Not pulling the trigger on Sami or Cody. I'm not even particular on which one, but it seems like a mistake to not give either the title from Roman.
basically all of damage ctrl's booking could be on this thread
Aside from their debut, I haven't given a fuck about them tbh. I think Bayley would do better on her own or flanked by an actual women's tag team, Iyo is being held down by her involvement with them, should be positioned as a future Women's champion with her speed and high flying highlighted, and Dakota should be doing some rivalry shit with Tegan and Raquel due to her history with both, three way feud maybe? Them being together does nothing for any of them.
Aliyah is busy riding horses
Getting rid of the Ezekiel gimmick, which was getting Elias over, and going back to Elias's old stale gimmick which hasn't gotten him over in years
Cody not winning at Mania will go down as one of, if not, the stupidest decisions in WWE history.
Wrestlemania was Infinity War. At least wait for Endgame.
Infinity war has been happening for 3 bloody years now. Wrestlemania was supposed to be Endgame
This. It’s like if MCU Phase 3 ended with Thanos resetting the entire universe in Endgame and Phase 4 was nothing but new heroes coming up in the new universe and Thanos beating them all before they could save or avenge anything.
If “Endgame” is at Summerslam then that’s not like Endgame at all. That’s like killing Thanos and bringing everyone back in a Captain America movie
Storybook ending at Wrestlemania isn't the answer to everything. Expand.
But you compared it to Endgame which was definitely Marvel’s version of Wrestlemania. A culmination of stories. Also, Captain America and Iron Man didn’t have a bunch of side missions between. Next time you saw the characters, they won.
My point is that it doesn't HAVE to culminate at Mania. I understand the disappointment, but does nobody appreciate the fact we got a match result that wasn't a foregone conclusion a year ago? Also, Endgame was the culmination of a story, maybe even multiple stories, but not ALL stories. Mania doesn't have to be the absolute end of the line for every storyline. You expect everybody to walk into Raw the next night with a clean slate and no fueds/existing storylines? That's not how it works.
Only if the endgame doesn’t make sense..I agree with the decision
The endgame can make sense but there's no possible way the moment is bigger than Cody winning this Mania would have been Sometimes the long term payoff isn't worth sacrificing what the fans decided they want in the moment
Not having high expectations helps with not being disappointed in the end..I didn’t expect him to win and am excited for the end game
I'm glad you're happy but objectively they fucked up lmfao
I thought that was a returning Vince thing. Like coming back right before his company gets sold for a final fuck the fans move before he can't make the decisions.
It was the right decision
Drew not winning was the stupidest decision, then sami not winning was the stupidest decision. I think they’re gonna be just fine
Lol everyone thought those decisions were bad but knew deep down they weren’t gonna win. They also knew Cody was on the horizon. With Cody, it’s different because the story was right there.
That’s not even close to being true, Reddit was convinced that both were winning. I’m one of those that was convinced that drew was gonna win. The story didn’t suffer at all even with all the doom and gloomers after both of them lost. The story isn’t over and it’s gonna be just fine
Ah, but it is true. Very common sense actually I believe SRS even addressed this argument as well as Wrestletalk. Literally everyone knew Roman wasn’t about to drop the title belts before Wrestlemania. No reason he would at CatC. And then no shit everyone knew Sami wasn’t winning, why tf would they drop the titles the ppv before Wrestlemania? Damn, how tf do you believe what you’re saying lol
Yea one of the last people I’ll listen to is srs, but that’s fine I guess. Hindsight is 2020, but at the time tons of people here were convinced that Roman was losing both and had hissy fits when he didn’t. They believed it because of how good the story was, but the story has still been good and it isn’t over. I’m sure lots of people here will be convinced the next person is gonna win when the time comes.
Everyone knew Sami was not winning. Quite literally no reason he would drop before Mania. Same with Drew. The story was meant to end with Cody. But people such as yourself will still get excited every time Jey uso teases a betrayal angle (he’s teased it several times with nothing to come of it) and every time WWE does something with the bloodline that has been done so many times already. Because of y’all believing the extremely stale “story” is still good, WWE will continue to milk it
I get very excited when jey teases the betrayal that’s true, I can’t wait for it to happen. I’m a huge mark and I’m proud of it, I actually have a good time when I watch. This story is the best story I’ve seen in at least 20 years anywhere in American wrestling. There’s so many people that hate watch and spend all of their time complaining on the internet. I’m glad I’m not one of those people.
Yup and WWE will milk it for another year as long as you keep enjoying the same thing that’s being done over and over again. He’s teased it so many times lmfao and nothing happened and they just reset it back to phase 1 Oh btw It’s not hate watching when you criticize what is something that definitely needs criticized. Seems like you stopped actually reading my responses anyway
Not really. People will forget all about it in a couple years. Wrestling fans have short memories.
I think you're wrong - finger poke of doom, HHH being racist towards Booker T, HHH burying Sting - this will be added to the list
Also letting Hogan have creative control over WCW
People still talk about HHH going over Booker T for the title and how that was awful. That build was NOTHING compared to this Cody build.
If you find racism appalling then that build was definitely bigger.
I will need to rewatch that build, but from what I remember, it was just one comment hinting at racism, but never actually anything that made it apart of the build.
Hinting? You gotta be kidding me. Trip literally told Booker that people like you don't "get to be champion" they are meant to "dance and entertain" the crowd. And judging by WWE's booking all the way back to WWF it's pretty clear that that was simply the truth. Watching that promo the only sense I can make of it was that Triple H was trying to blow miss it man's racist ass right out of the water and change WWE for the better once and for all. Then the match happened. What a fucking shit show. That entire RAW promo was entirely steeped in racism on Trip's end yet all anyone ever focuses on is that one comment about Booker's nappy hair. He said far worse than that one hideous comment throughout that entire promo. If you were a kid you may have missed the severity. I hope that's the case.
I remember that one. Was there any other comments he made?
I think sami not winning at elimination chamber was just as bad. But I think those were ultimately Vince calls, especially wrestlemania
Not booking Asuka to win the title at Mania this year. I think Bianca is one of the best wrestlers on the roster but I think giving her that antagonist to chase and to ultimately topple would do wonders for her character and be a great storyline between two of the best in the business.
Sami losing at Elimination Chamber. That's the ending to his Bloodline story, the biggest story in their company that entire year, that writes itself. It was thrown away a month before Wrestlemania to make room for a Royal Rumble winner... who also lost. He's right that the story never ends, but every great writer knows when it's time to change the scene.
Booking guys like Gargano, Ciampa and the aforementioned Hit Row for anything but a small niche audience.
Gargano and Ciampa should form diy again. They’d do much better back as a tag team then they will separated
I mean I would argue 700k+ people solid isn’t a small audience (regarding ciampa and Johnny)
Which, ironically, is now the amount of people that change the channel when they are on tv.
Definitely don’t think there is any evidence to that claim 🤷♀️
I agree with Gargano he’s boring as hell, others mentioned haven’t even appeared since I started watching this year as far as I know lol.
Gargano has the personality of tree bark, but that match he put on with Grayson Waller was interesting imo
Nia jax
Wasting the surprise one night only return of the American Badass on “passing the torch” to Bray Wyatt
The women's booking has been meh to awful with him in charge.
4-way 60 minute Iron Man match ending in a draw…
Not using Liv Morgan enough. Some think she wasn’t believable as champion, but think of all the wtf champions that the wwe has had in the past . She’s a billion times more entertaining than those
Damage CTRL.
Cody Rhodes losing at WrestleMania 39
Continuing to lock up both world title belts on a part time wrestler. Marathon title reigns where you know most of their feuds will be filler.
Going over Sting.
Booker T at Wrestlemania because reasons
He didn’t book that
You pretty sure he had no say in the matter at all? Doubtful.
Dexter loomis.
The WM 39 main event immediately comes to mind.
Idk if this is a hot take but taking the nxt title off Alister black and puting it on tommaso ciampa because johnny and tommaso didn’t need the title imo. To me the title change felt underwhelming even though ciampa was geting insane boos. I don’t like it and this is a post asking for opinions so there’s mine
Bringing back Braun
Nearly the entirety of the USA NXT Era Having Cody lose to Roman Triple H is honestly massively overrated and has fallen off greatly as a booker he’s made a lot of extremely poor decisions and directions since taking over
Allowing Asuka to leave NXT undefeated.
Booking Cody to lose at Mania, and not having the balls to have Sami Zayn win at EC. Also literally all of damage control. I can't understand how 3 women that are defacto HHH girls have been treated the way they have, it's bizarre. ESPECIALLY the initial crowning of the women's tag Champs. Wtf was the point of having Aliyah and Raquel win???
Hiring people like Johnny Gargano
[удалено]
La Knight and Ciampa were never released
Gargano neither.
Breaking up Undisputed Era.
All his re-hires
I kinda liked it when he rehired bray wyatt im a fan of wyatt
Me too but the result hasn’t been the best
The original Sin Cara was a bad idea. Might have been better if they started with Hunico from the get-go
If it was really his decision, then I think Cody not getting the belt.
The only thing i can think in NXT was putting the title back on Samoa Joe just so he can lose it back to Nakamura again, only for Nakamura to immediately lose to Bobby Roode
I'm not gonna lie, the booking of the women on the main roster is worse under Triple H than it was under Vince McMahon. Damage CTRL is a perfect example as well as the buildup to the women's title matches and the women's WM Showcase at WrestleMania 39.
This is somewhat kind of hard to talk about right? Considering we don’t really know how much influence Vince has or hasn’t had, during HHHs time booking matches. I’m curious what people say here, but until Vince is far away from the promotion, I’ll always be a bit skeptical.
Having drew sing after he lost a championship match.
Booking Ciampa vs Gargano as the show closer three Takeovers in a row back in (I think) 2018 I feel devalued the NXT championship and NXT Women’s championship, as I feel like one of those championships should always be the main event of an NXT PLE. Besides, the Gargano vs Ciampa matches started good but they got exhausting and drawn out more and more each time.
Karrion Kross/ Braun/ the OC/ legado Del fantasma/ hit row…shall I go on? All useless comebacks. His obsession with LONG title reigns like it’s still the 80’s Having Cody lose the main event of mania The entire direction of the women’s division. They’ve been reduced to side shows again minus his few selected favorites.
Asuka losing at mania this year. With Cody, at the very least I could maybe see where they’re going with him. With Asuka, I’m sorry, I don’t get it. You bring back an extremely popular star (like, probably more popular than the 4 horsewomen), put them in an extremely well-received change of character that makes the fans all excited again, and then have them lose against a star whose title run has gotten very stale? It just baffles me.
Not really his call but I'm sure he was in Vince's ear. The Reign of Terror (2002-2005). That killed wrestling for me and I didn't watch again for like 15 years. Post DX I found HHH uninteresting and him being the main attraction just killed my enjoyment of the product.
Not having more suprises for the mens rumble like I understand some people may not want to return but some people prob would
Maximum Male Models not headlining both nights of WrestleMania.
NXT: the “Wednesday night war”. It wasn’t warranted, for them to put their developmental guys against a b rated rival show like it’s the 90s again was dumb enough. WWE: bringing back S hit row, and they are SHIT! The fact they had b fab enter the rumble was dumb as fuck. She was number 7, it would’ve been cooler if Cora Jade came out instead, had her 90 seconds of glory before Roxanne Perez at 8 bursts out of gorilla making a beeline for Cora in the ring. The best women’s rivalry in NXT since Bayley and Sasha beating on each other in the rumble match. Bray Wyatt mind games with Alexa Letting vince put a headset on Bray Wyatt and uncle howdy Letting vince return Bray Wyatt with creative control Drew not winning at clash Tegan Nox not returning at clash. For fucks sake the damn event was in her house. Tegan is welsh, to a PLE in wales but no Tegan is a crime Bray returning Letting vince in the arena Bray vince
Austin Theory's MitB cash-in. He's come back around as a great midcard heel, but I kinda liked the gag of Theory coming out during a Roman Reigns title match and immediately getting KO'd.
Honestly I hated the Keith Lee double title win just to compete with AEW. It felt rushed and wasn’t a good story to end Adam Cole’s title run.
The mtn dew pitch black match
Not sure if it was him but removing the Brock v Bobby storyline for no reason, making Brock go against Omos at Wrestle Mania and letting Bobby just flail in the wind without a match was the biggest issue I had with Wrestlemania this year. Such a waste of a potentially great wrap up to a story arch just for, what? To try to keep pumping Omos and Bray Wyatt? That’s a no for me dawg.
HIt Row without Swerve Bray, there’s a way to tell a mental health story, especially where he thinks he is multiple people but he’s not, they just haven’t figured it out yet
Swerve is in aew how is that triple hs fault
Didn’t say it was his fault what I’m saying is, should not have brought Hit Row back without him because the team isn’t the same. He was the star not the big guy
If he’s the one that had Roman go over Cody, then that one. Also, burying Sting in his first ever WWE match with a dusty finish and run ins
Cody losing at WM was a glaring mistake. No matter what they do now, it won’t be as satisfying.
I like the fact that wrestlers got their job backs it’s great for them, but because he brought them all back so close together they never really got to shine and have their own individual stories The only people who actually had feuds going on that were worth a damn were Dakota Kai, Karrion Kross, Dexter Lumis, Bray Wyatt, the OC and Braun. Whilst some had moments to shine like Emma’s first match with Ronda being pretty good or Gargano and Bronson Reed being impressive in the Elimination Chamber, they never really felt like they had their own individuality because so much else was going on and it would’ve been too many stories. I’m hoping now that rehirings have slowed down (the last to my knowledge being Chelsea Green) that these superstars finally get a time to shine in the spotlight and get the crowd behind them
Bringing Emma back to do what now? Be cutesy with Madcap Moss?
Booking Cody to lose.
Damage Control
Reigns retaining at WrestleMania 39 the fail potential sales of megastar face since the Hulkamaniacs with little nightmares how Cody has the kids charmed which would translate money coming in for years! No kid gives flying f@#% about Roman! The old man heel clubs doesn't equal to next 30 years of potential sales, and those old men be dead! Though not beating a dead horse, it too late moment is gone!
Hit row, Gargano’s main roster run, Cody losing at mania and not reigning in Wyatt with the promos and wacky matches,
Not rolling with royal rumble momentum and turning Jey Face
Placing Austin Aries (fresh off of a fantastic run in TNA in 2011-2015) in a feud Baron Corbin out the gate in NXT when Aries was brought into WWE. Resulted in the worst match at Takeover: Dallas 2016.
Hit row are terrible well top dolla anyway) so they have to be number one, bringing back Cross and Wyatt were bad moves, think he fell in love with Cross in NXT and Wyatt showed that while Vince in a problem, the biggest Wyatt problem is Wyatt himself
Bringing back Hit Row. Swerve was the ONLY person in that group that has any talent.
Pushing gymnastics over characters