The Official WWE / NXT Discussion Thread *May Contain Spoilers*

[Mootinie]

Neville sounds like a superhero, Adrian Neville sounds like a footballer.

 

RAW was a little boring though, running the Lesnar angle that early killed the show for me. It was like half 2 in the morning and they then ran three commercial breaks with literally nothing going on, then Byron Saxton was making me snooooooooze.

 

It wasn't until 3:15 that I got my enthusiasm back, and that was only because me and my friend started discussing wrestling from a kayfabe point of view and started wondering why a wrestler doesn't kick out. Like, if they're conscious enough to roll over once the three has been counted, why not just kick out?

[milamber]

Raw Review:

 

Opening segment - Another glorious Heyman monologue.

Ziggler vs Bryan (IC Championship) - Great match. 2 babyfaces fighting and not holding back makes a nice change. I enjoyed the return of Heel Sheamus, although the mohawk needs a trim.

8-Man Tag - Good match. Kalisto is already over. NXT chants!

Lesnar vs Rollins - Fun tease. F5s to Cole and a cameraman, Steph suspending Lesnar = face turn. So Reigns vs Rollins at Extreme Rules with Lesnar showing up unannounced to wreck them both?

Stardust vs Mizdow - OK match. Miz got good heat. I felt sorry for Byron Saxton who was totally lost on his own.

Axel vs Neville - Solid debut match. Cool entrance for Neville, but dropping his first name sounds weird. Works better with 3-4 syllables for chanting like "Ce-sa-ro."

Cena vs Ambrose (US Championship) - Good match.

AJ, Paige & Naomi vs The Bellas & Natalya - Good match. Natalya and Nikki busted out suplexes and submissions like they were on NXT. "We want Bayley" chants!

Goldust vs Rusev - OK match.

Rollins, Show & Kane vs Orton, Ryback & Reigns - Solid but uninspired match. The crowd were more impressed with themselves. I love how Rollins reacted to it.

 

Verdict: Great Raw but it ran out of steam in the last hour, proving once again 3 hours is too long. I hope Charlotte debuts next week.

 

[RayW]

Random pet-peeve: non-wrestlers that get hit with a finisher and then roll out of the ring instantly. I know the casual viewer won't really care, but it bugs me that if Brock hit the F5 on another in-ring worker, they would at least lay and sell it for a moment before slowly getting out of the ring. Michael Cole, within 2-3 seconds of getting hit, shot out of the ring as quick as he could. To me, in a kayfabe sense, that doesn't make sense. A non-wrestler shouldn't be able to move out of the ring faster than a wrestler after being hit with a finisher, they should have to be helped out of the ring by staff / paramedics.

[Rickymex]

Neville sounds like a superhero, Adrian Neville sounds like a footballer.

 

Neville doesn't sound like a superhero at all...

 

Plus isn't for a freakish athlete doesn't an pro athlete sounding name fit better?

[Self]

I hate the 'Neville' name. Maybe it sounds exotic or interesting to some people, but to me it's just... It's Neville. It's a dorky English first name.

 

EDIT: Is it an issue with first names? Or first names beginning with 'A'? Antonio Cesaro. Alexander Rusev. Adrian Neville.

[RKOwnage]

I hate the 'Neville' name. Maybe it sounds exotic or interesting to some people, but to me it's just... It's Neville. It's a dorky English first name.

 

EDIT: Is it an issue with first names? Or first names beginning with 'A'? Antonio Cesaro. Alexander Rusev. Adrian Neville.

 

If they changed Adam Rose to just Rose I'd think you're onto something

[scuba steve]

I was among those outspoken about how dreadful the buildup to this year's Mania was & how mediocre the card looked

 

I was quite entertained with Mania on Sunday & will readily admit that not only did it surpass my expectations, but it was a straight up really good PPV (Divas match, HHH's entrance, Taker/Wyatt & the mini-concert were the worst spots to me)

 

I was then curious who had put together Mania b/c there was zero chance I was buying it was the same people who were booking & writing the last 2 months worth of crap (no offense to any WWE fans, just my opinion on the last few months of programming)

 

Was looking forward to Raw for the first time in at least a year (and not just because it was the post-Mania show). First hour & a half or so of the show was great. Plenty of action, even in a lot of the non-match segments. The promos served a purpose & were more direct & to the point than they typically are. Also, I thought Kallisto looked great out there (& I'm not even big on the flippy guys in general). Then after Brock went on his rampage & "got tossed," the show went back to being a typical Raw. Not saying it was especially due to the lack of Brock, but the booking for everything post-Brock felt more like a typical Raw than everything that had preceded it

 

I get that Saxton was trying to pull off acting somber to try to put over the devestation of the Brock attacks, but (to me at least) he came across more as bored & disinterested. Not knocking Saxton, if you're out there alone in a situation on live TV that you may not have the acting chops & experience to pull off yet, then that's a tough break. Still, I'll take a lone Saxton that attempted to call a match over 3 people who literally will never shut the hell up for 2 seconds about the network & apps & the authority during every match

 

And then when they tried to sell Cole as having a cervical injury in his neck I cringed as hard as Kevin Dunn did during all the lewd Divas match chants. Does Vince live to try to exploit the deaths of Latino wrestlers? I wonder if they have a plan already in place for how to exploit Rey's eventual death? As someone who doesn't get easily offended, I wasn't offended in the least, but I was shocked that when you're marketing yourself as such a family friendly business and then do something like that, it literally shocked me that they had the balls (or stupidity) to do that

 

Also, they need to either have Stephanie stop being an utter bіtch on TV, or drop her from the anti-bullying campaign spots. Because doing both is just pants-on-head retarded

 

Then loved how the crowd totally shіt on Big Show & Kane in another Raw main event. I wouldn't say they need to retire, but the guys do need to disappear from TV for a month or so. Not a knock on the guys, but like Cena, on the way they've been used & portrayed. Just too repetitive & boring & predictable. Cena sells merch, but do they even have Kane or Big Show merch? Do they have the official Kane Corporate Slacks on their site or something?

 

As far as I can tell, there's 1 major draw for this company & it's clearly Lesnar. Not a knock on Cena, but I don't hang out with a lot of kids or parents, so maybe I just don't interact with the Cena demographic enough to fully grasp his current drawing power, maybe he is actually on or near Lesnar's level. Orton & Bryan are probably decent enough draws & you've got guys with the potential to become big draws like Rollins, but this time last year people were talking about how Cesaro was about to become a draw too, so I'm hesitant to buy on anyone breaking through WWE's current roster of sterilized & castrated personalities

 

Also, as seemingly the only person who wasn't bothered by HHH going over Sting (not saying I approved of the decision, but I do get it), I was however bothered by the handshake afterward. HHH had multiple runins to help him & then used a hammer shot to beat Sting...why on earth would it make sense for Sting to shake his hand afterward? Yeh, the NWO coming down didn't make a lot of sense either (especially when you consider they're HHH's buddies), but for me that was easier to overlook than the handshake

 

Longer post than I intended (and probably so long many won't bother reading), but overall a surprisingly good Mania, a really good to great first of the post-Mania Raw & then a snoozer for the backend of Raw

[Self]

If they changed Adam Rose to just Rose I'd think you're onto something

 

Bah. Thought I was close to uncovering some past trauma in Vince McMahon's life, caused by a bloke named Alan.

 

I actually assumed Cesaro's was a case of Antonio Cesaro sounding too similar to Alberto Del Rio. However, Adam Rose comes along to again ruin my theories, by having a name ludicrously close to Dean Ambrose.

[LoganRodzen]

I think a lot people should go back and watch the HHH / Sting match. Sting practically dominated the match which is why DX ran in to begin with. I think NWO coming out was awesome. Sure, Sting and NWO never saw eye to eye, but NWO Wolfpac and Sting did. I thought the entire moment with both run-ins was special (what Wrestlemania is supposed to be). It was a great match that HHH didn't win cleanly (he used the hammer and pinned him).

 

Sting didn't need or most likely want to win. He was so happy to have this run and get a chance to wrestle at the biggest wrestling event of all time. You could tell with the look on his face when he came out that he was simply thrilled to be there. He's a lot older than HHH and he knew beating him didn't do anything to further either of their careers. He just wanted to wrestle in a WWE ring and do it at the biggest event ever. The result of the match never crossed his mind in my opinion. He was just happy to be there.

 

It made my night just seeing him wrestle in a WWE ring. The way the match ended didn't ruin anything for me. It was a special moment.

[Ashkihyena]

I think a lot people should go back and watch the HHH / Sting match. Sting practically dominated the match which is why DX ran in to begin with. I think NWO coming out was awesome. Sure, Sting and NWO never saw eye to eye, but NWO Wolfpac and Sting did. I thought the entire moment with both run-ins was special (what Wrestlemania is supposed to be). It was a great match that HHH didn't win cleanly (he used the hammer and pinned him).

 

Sting didn't need or most likely want to win. He was so happy to have this run and get a chance to wrestle at the biggest wrestling event of all time. You could tell with the look on his face when he came out that he was simply thrilled to be there. He's a lot older than HHH and he knew beating him didn't do anything to further either of their careers. He just wanted to wrestle in a WWE ring and do it at the biggest event ever. The result of the match never crossed his mind in my opinion. He was just happy to be there.

 

It made my night just seeing him wrestle in a WWE ring. The way the match ended didn't ruin anything for me. It was a special moment.

 

It was more along the lines of the way JBL was bashing WCW and Sting constantly saying crap like WCW was the minor leagues, never mind that WCW was beating WWF for 80 something weeks.

 

And no, for the record, it was not heel announcing, it was a continued WCW/Sting burial.

 

And then on the network they come out and have Sting interact with Bo Dallas, a huge downgrade and a continued disservice to Sting.

[RayW]

It was more along the lines of the way JBL was bashing WCW and Sting constantly saying crap like WCW was the minor leagues, never mind that WCW was beating WWF for 80 something weeks.

 

And no, for the record, it was not heel announcing, it was a continued WCW/Sting burial.

 

And then on the network they come out and have Sting interact with Bo Dallas, a huge downgrade and a continued disservice to Sting.

 

No one's forcing Sting to be there. If he didn't want to do it, he wouldn't.

 

The commentary was annoying, but it wasn't that bad. WCW were the enemy to the WWF and Sting was one of their biggest stars. JBL lived through it as a soldier for the WWF. It makes sense. And I say this as a huge WCW and Sting mark.

 

My only gripe with the commentary was the continual use of saying how evil WCW were that they were trying to make everyone in WWF unemployed. Then WWF made everyone in WCW unemployed. In turn, are they not evil, too, then?

[Hive]

I think NWO coming out was awesome. Sure, Sting and NWO never saw eye to eye, but NWO Wolfpac and Sting did. I thought the entire moment with both run-ins was special (what Wrestlemania is supposed to be).

 

Yeah, the DX vs. nWo part was a pretty great moment. 15 years too late, but great to get it nonetheless. I think most of us can easily overlook the fact that Nash and Hall helped Sting instead of Triple H, since it was laid out more as a WCW vs. WWE thing than Sting vs. Triple H.

 

It was more along the lines of the way JBL was bashing WCW and Sting constantly saying crap like WCW was the minor leagues, never mind that WCW was beating WWF for 80 something weeks.

 

And no, for the record, it was not heel announcing, it was a continued WCW/Sting burial.

 

Agreed, this was completely unnecessary. The elegant thing here would have been to achknowledge WCW as a strong opponent and mark out for Sting's abilities. It's fine to have Stephanie and Triple H bury Sting and WCW, but the announcers shouldn't have. That was simply distasteful.

[RayW]

Then honestly, I don't think you're a good WCW or Sting fan if what you think JBL was doing was fine.

 

There's decent heel commentary like Ventura and Heenan, and then there was what JBL did last night.

 

JBL done a very good job of making it clear how much he hates WCW. That's my opinion. I'm not going to get into an argument about my opinion, though.

[Ashkihyena]

Yeah, the DX vs. nWo part was a pretty great moment. 15 years too late, but great to get it nonetheless. I think most of us can easily overlook the fact that Nash and Hall helped Sting instead of Triple H, since it was laid out more as a WCW vs. WWE thing than Sting vs. Triple H.

 

 

 

Agreed, this was completely unnecessary. The elegant thing here would have been to achknowledge WCW as a strong opponent and mark out for Sting's abilities. It's fine to have Stephanie and Triple H bury Sting and WCW, but the announcers shouldn't have. That was simply distasteful.

 

Thank you, glad that a couple of people here acknowledge that JBL's commentary Sunday night was not good.

 

JBL done a very good job of making it clear how much he hates WCW. That's my opinion. I'm not going to get into an argument about my opinion, though.

 

Actually it was more along the lines of Vince continuing to bury WCW, despite them being out of business for a good 14 years.

[RayW]

Agreed, this was completely unnecessary. The elegant thing here would have been to achknowledge WCW as a strong opponent and mark out for Sting's abilities. It's fine to have Stephanie and Triple H bury Sting and WCW, but the announcers shouldn't have. That was simply distasteful.

 

JBL was bashing him/WCW and Cole and King were praising him. I really don't see the issue. It's a basic heel/face combination, surely?

[Ashkihyena]

JBL was bashing him/WCW and Cole and King were praising him. I really don't see the issue. It's a basic heel/face combination, surely?

 

See Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan on how to do good face/heel commentary teams please.

[RKOwnage]

Also, they need to either have Stephanie stop being an utter bіtch on TV, or drop her from the anti-bullying campaign spots. Because doing both is just pants-on-head retarded

 

Just like Sheamus slapping Dolph repeatedly across the face and taunting him after being in all those bullying ads I get that's the point of a heel turn but I found it funny that it was the first thing he did when he got back.

[djthefunkchris]

Obviously Sting was ok with everything, or he wouldn't have done it.

[Adam Ryland]

Thread closed temporarily for some 'maintenance', will be back open in 5.

 

--

 

EDIT: Re-opened now. I have deleted a lot of the petty arguments that have re-started as it's derailing the entire thread. No more of it please; I think it should go without saying that if you hate the WWE and are actively ignoring it, coming into the Official WWE thread isn't going to lead to anything but arguments and bad feelings, so be sensible and don't. If the pettiness continues I will start handing out temporary 'cooling down' bans given that people are ignoring my requests to keep things civil.

[dpoolez]

I think a lot people should go back and watch the HHH / Sting match. Sting practically dominated the match which is why DX ran in to begin with. I think NWO coming out was awesome. Sure, Sting and NWO never saw eye to eye, but NWO Wolfpac and Sting did. I thought the entire moment with both run-ins was special (what Wrestlemania is supposed to be). It was a great match that HHH didn't win cleanly (he used the hammer and pinned him).

 

Sting didn't need or most likely want to win. He was so happy to have this run and get a chance to wrestle at the biggest wrestling event of all time. You could tell with the look on his face when he came out that he was simply thrilled to be there. He's a lot older than HHH and he knew beating him didn't do anything to further either of their careers. He just wanted to wrestle in a WWE ring and do it at the biggest event ever. The result of the match never crossed his mind in my opinion. He was just happy to be there.

 

It made my night just seeing him wrestle in a WWE ring. The way the match ended didn't ruin anything for me. It was a special moment.

 

Honestly I dont think anybody would have a problem with Triple H going over Sting if it wasnt for WWE's constant burial of WCW and them making the feud more about WCW vs WWE than Sting vs Triple H.

 

Stephanie had that "You're a minnow in the ocean" and "you made it to the big time" comments, and JBL's constant burial of Sting and WCW throughout their match was overkill, despite the fact that Sting said in a promo that hes not fighting Triple H for WCW.

 

Overall the match was pretty good. It was probably the best that you could get out of a nearly 60 year old Sting at this rate. Triple H did make Sting look good and it took a lot to beat him. If they made the feud more about Sting trying to stop The Authority then I think the loss would've been better received.

[Ashkihyena]

Honestly I dont think anybody would have a problem with Triple H going over Sting if it wasnt for WWE's constant burial of WCW and them making the feud more about WCW vs WWE than Sting vs Triple H.

 

Stephanie had that "You're a minnow in the ocean" and "you made it to the big time" comments, and JBL's constant burial of Sting and WCW throughout their match was overkill, despite the fact that Sting said in a promo that hes not fighting Triple H for WCW.

 

Overall the match was pretty good. It was probably the best that you could get out of a nearly 60 year old Sting at this rate. Triple H did make Sting look good and it took a lot to beat him. If they made the feud more about Sting trying to stop The Authority then I think the loss would've been better received.

 

Thank you, glad you pointed that that Sting even went as far as to say that he wasn't for WCW, but Stephanie and JBL turned it into that (and it wasn't just heel heat as people say).

 

Now that's all I'm going to try to say on that as my post keep getting deleted, and as long as no one else brings it up, I won't either.

[Peter.1986]

Honestly I dont think anybody would have a problem with Triple H going over Sting if it wasnt for WWE's constant burial of WCW and them making the feud more about WCW vs WWE than Sting vs Triple H.

 

Stephanie had that "You're a minnow in the ocean" and "you made it to the big time" comments, and JBL's constant burial of Sting and WCW throughout their match was overkill, despite the fact that Sting said in a promo that hes not fighting Triple H for WCW.

 

Overall the match was pretty good. It was probably the best that you could get out of a nearly 60 year old Sting at this rate. Triple H did make Sting look good and it took a lot to beat him. If they made the feud more about Sting trying to stop The Authority then I think the loss would've been better received.

 

Stephanie also said to the rock

 

You would be nothing without me, or my father,

 

The rocks father and grandfather would be nothing without her father or grandfather.

 

She also said get out of my ring.

 

To which the rock did go out.

 

My point is, the WWE has always been full of real life references, they surely couldn't ignore the fact sting was wcw's main guy and it's made an even bigger deal he hasn't crossed over for 14 years.

 

They brought nwo out to side with sting because they are so over with the fans (they did the tester a few weeks back on raw)

 

If you look at it from that point of view I don't think it looks like they did bury him or wcw

[djthefunkchris]

Honestly I dont think anybody would have a problem with Triple H going over Sting if it wasnt for WWE's constant burial of WCW and them making the feud more about WCW vs WWE than Sting vs Triple H.

 

Stephanie had that "You're a minnow in the ocean" and "you made it to the big time" comments, and JBL's constant burial of Sting and WCW throughout their match was overkill, despite the fact that Sting said in a promo that hes not fighting Triple H for WCW.

 

Overall the match was pretty good. It was probably the best that you could get out of a nearly 60 year old Sting at this rate. Triple H did make Sting look good and it took a lot to beat him. If they made the feud more about Sting trying to stop The Authority then I think the loss would've been better received.

 

I agree with everything you said basically. I actually liked the match, as silly as it was. I even marked out a little for people I never really liked.

 

The only thing I disagree with as far as the recent going on is concerned, is the hate for JBL in his, what is obvious to me, way to get heat. Same with all the small fish in a big ocean comments, and making WCW out to be small fries compared to WWE. Anyone that watched wrestling when WCW was around knows this to be untrue and these comments are meant to get heat IMO, not to "really" burry a company that has been out of business for 14 years. It's just supposed to look like that, and it obviously worked in this thread with some people.

 

As far as people that didn't watch wrestling during that time period, didn't do any investigation (if that's even possible to ignore the attitude era), and doesn't know who Sting is, it's still obvious that Sting is a huge deal the way the whole thing went down, it's still obvious WCW was huge even with all the little comments, etc.

 

I do get what people said (even the deleted comments), and I do know it does bother people, and I can respect that. To think anyone actually believes anything HHH or Steph, or even JBL says about any of that stuff, I sincerely doubt they would out of the blue just start believing their characters now. As far as it personally bothering people, I can understand that, but I imagine that's exactly what it was supposed to do.

[RayW]

Funny thought I just had: Trips saying that he doesn't want the company associated with Chyna because of what children may find in a Google search, then they put their World Title on Seth Rollins, where a google search will find me a picture of little Rollins thanks to his ex-fiancé. I find that quite funny.

[Teh_Showtime]

Funny thought I just had: Trips saying that he doesn't want the company associated with Chyna because of what children may find in a Google search, then they put their World Title on Seth Rollins, where a google search will find me a picture of little Rollins thanks to his ex-fiancé. I find that quite funny.

 

What do you want him to say? Should he just outright mention her being a total headcase who at any given time is likely to be coked out of her mind?

 

There is a reason Hall didnt go in until he got clean