Tha Black Phenom

Apparently the WWE has soured on him. And Ziggler too. Only one of those guys I'm gutted for, and it ain't Swagger.

I just wonder what happened. What the hell happened there. And I'm a guy who often defends WWE and is pretty open-minded about the business, but that was just... erm.. wow.

If they can push Batista at a late age, they can do it with R-Truth too. Or else I'll choke a very.. naughty woman.

It's a shame, indeed. But it's something which won't go away anytime soon. Even these days, the WWE make it specifically so we don't rely on reports, coming up with random swerves every now and then, which I like for the most part. Because of that, reports have dwindled a tad today. Just a few years ago, they had reports shelling out of which Mania matches were pegged to happen when we were only around Armageddon-Rumble season, who was pegged to win the Rumble, even crucial future feuds such as "X is penciled to work a program with Y". I've always found that irking me and really steered clear off it. At least now, it's toned down a bit. You see some of that here and there, but not as much. Now, the buzz is pretty much only who Taker's gonna face at Mania, and maybe potential Mania main-events although they need to get rid of that too.

Something tells me Batista pitched for that himself. Hilarious moment. And I thought HBK would win the "oh my!" one for kicking off that little annoying chick's head, oh well xD

Sheamus' Slammy speech definitely made me gain more confidence in him.

I think there's a serious difference between main-event status and just being featured in main-events... if you seriously consider Kofi and Legacy as main-event status, then your criteria window must be pretty damn wide. I think we're talking purely straight legit main-eventers here, not hotshots in ECW. Of course they have no problem building top dogs on ECW, that's what the brand is for... So the list should come down to Jeff and Punk. Morrison is almost there.

nope, this ain't a lesnar push: it's a sheamus push. And be damned if i start bashin on it when we haven't seen where it takes us. just like vince winning the rumble in 99 or whatever else, you have to see where it takes us. Edit: fixed typo. oh, and DX as tag champions... another interesting move.

Randy winning clean is perfect, means kofi's push will be long-term and very slowly built. you gotta play with the crowd, mingle kofi a bit before getting a big W.

I *really* hope they have a lining storyline set for this, not just a shock move for the sake of being a shock move like the numerous swerves over the last two years.

because neither of those guys fit the kind of monster push that has been given sheamus. The ONLY thing that irks me about this is how sheamus came about, being trips' favorite partner. not that it bothers me personally, but people are gonna talk about this... but the move itself? I don't approve, nor disapprove. i'm just waiting to see the results of this. It interests me, however...

In my opinion, Cena/HBK had the better match at Mania 23, but that's just me. As for Cena, the only thing I dislike about him now is his character. This generic babyface who is at the forefront no less, of WWE's flagship show... I don't like it. I can do with it. But I'll always wish for a change or so. The obvious reason me and many others don't like it is because we grew up with more than that. Those kids are stuck with him though, so not much damage there. I get the every-kid's-hero stigma here, but would it hurt that much to give him a little.. something? I mean, just last month. Cena had a promo with DX backstage, hyping up their triple threat. Cena made a comment about them beating each other all the time and the Bella Twins were shown in disgust.. his reaction was funny. Why can't there be more simple things like that, just here and there to highlight his funny persona? Because they're definitely trying to pass off John Cena as a funny guy. There's just no... substance, he's just seen as a walking billboard and occasionally, SuperCena who hypes his own matches more than commentators. Before anyone follows, yes I am obviously berating the creative team for this, and not Cena himself. (somehow, someone always needs to follow up with stating that) Cena himself, I don't... well... I still don't like him, but I don't hate him either.

Likewise, I've noticed the lack of low blows or referee bumps. Those have been dwindled for a good while now, still -sigh-

Punk would be the perfect choice to win the Rumble in some way, there's many main-eventers he hasn't faced yet and he's already reached the top of the food chain in the past. Kofi would be the perfect "upper-midcard-megapush" Rumble winner. It seems that role has been reclused to MITB wins though. They can def do it again, it's just a matter of when. Since Rey, the Rumble winners have all been established main-eventers. And am I the only one who's slightly gutted about the fact they threw away a monumental match such as Jericho/Taker on SD? I'm the only one around which has that irking me a bit but I don't mind now. When there were those Jericho/Taker at SummerSlam rumors in the spring, I was ecstatic. But oh well, a feud between them would still be top-notch.

Aye, there's so many iconic things which happened in the past the IWC would be bashful against. My main example is always Vince McMahon winning the Royal Rumble, or Austin winning it a third time. "Could you believe that crap!?"

Ehh, I agree with you on the overall post and the gist of your logic, but there's still some things in there I can't nod. Proclaiming Sheamus' past as two 'solid' feuds... maybe so, but they were easily forgettable tbh. Compared to a US title reign - yes, very monotone but Kofi was still fairly showcased, defending his title quite a lot building up his overness a tad, he was one of those midcarders ready to take the next step. Sheamus never had that, but I'm not one to shoot down this instant push of his. I like it, and I wanna see where it goes. I honestly think this is all circumstantial. There's literally no one credible on the Raw roster to face Cena right now except DX.. or Randy Orton, who've faced 78 times and is now in the process of making Kingston. So while picking Kofi over Sheamus seems a bit hypocritical as you've said, there's no doubt the Raw booking... and the smarks' minds were backed into a corner here. BUT, I figured smarks would be more open to this since it's not exactly like it's the first time it's happened. The Lesnar effect is lost on people I guess. And heck, even in recent memory Vladimir Kozlov got a megapush towards the World title, but too bad he fizzled out. You're right, some smarks are the ficklest it's astonishing. Not just about this, about everything. They label almost everything predictable... which annoys me, "predictable" is not to be confused with "logical booking". And if the booking was illogical, they'd complain anyway. tl;dr I agree with you, all circumstances, go Sheamus, etc.

Well, close-minded smarks that is. I mean yeah, there are those guys who won't let anything pass and want the booking as they see fit and will throw the "predictable!" moniker onto at least one match or angle per show, but I would think the sensed smarks for the most part are quite open-minded. Guess it depends on one's POV, in this day and age we're our own crowd, with many smarky diversified opinions and whatnot. I'm far from being Sheamus' biggest fan but I do enjoy this because I wonder where this will go(and partly because I hate Miz/Swagger ). And where this will take Sheamus. This being a completely fresh match-up, are they actually gonna do something with Cena, instead of the generic heel title challenger angle? Will Sheamus really benefit from it? Any other superstars will come into the fray(without being inserted into the title match that is)? Many questions, which can lead to interesting outcomes.

Holy jilikers @ Sheamus.

Thanks. Bit alienating to see all those threads about the state of WWE. Although I hope if we make threads concerning a certain subject in the 'E, we won't be redirected here...