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

[Matt_Black]

4 hours ago, The Blonde Bomber said:

I like the idea of Rousey and Bazler together. Feel like they could be good holding the tag belts while rousey hold the world belt. Then she can be double booked on a show and lose it to have an excuse. 

Ronda can barely be bothered to wrestle once a week; no way she'll do 2 matches a night.

[Matt_Black]

At one point during the "Anything Goes" match, The Miz put Dexter Lumis' head in a vice. Which is appropriate, because during this storyline, I often felt like MY head was in a vice. D'oh-ho-hoooo!

[Jaysin]

Other than the Dexter/Miz sports entertainment stuff, Raw was a pretty pro wrestling heavy show. I'll give Dexter and Miz credit, they broke up some of the wrestling so that we got some variety and it was fairly entertaining. Dexter's theme is cool tho. I don't remember if I've heard it before, but it's neat. 

Usually when I'm watching a show I get annoyed seeing highlights of things I've already seen. Yes, that's very much a me problem, but the Bloodline related segments are so good that I don't even mind seeing them again. 

[Blackman]

On 11/28/2022 at 8:49 AM, Matt_Black said:

Ronda can barely be bothered to wrestle once a week; no way she'll do 2 matches a night.

Apparently people don't like her anymore. I watched a recent match and - though I still think she debuted at a remarkable level - it seems she has improved very little in the last years and is still doing the same stint, same gimmick. It will eventually bore people as her E-skills are below average, if not bad.

Still, it seems Trips is doing a great job. PPV's are back to being close to sold out instead of struggling to get 50% attendance.

I'm close to going back to the WWE Network. Needs more Emma though.

[Matt_Black]

1 hour ago, Blackman said:

Apparently people don't like her anymore.

I never liked her that much to begin with. Of course, it didn't help that Creative had her make promises they had no intention of keeping.

 

"I'm not going to jump the line to a title shot!"
Her very next feud was against the RAW Women's Champion.
"I'm going to defend this title every week!"
She did not. Some weeks she wasn't even there. One week, her only appearance on RAW was being in the corner for Natalya, which is NOT a title defense.

 

And, of course, one simply has to look at the ratings when she was champ. OOF. No wonder fans quickly embraced Becky over her. And Ronda is SO bitter about that.

[Captain Kayfabe]

With those braids on NXT last night, Von Wagner looked like every basic white girl who goes to Mexico or somewhere in the Caribbean on holidays 🤣

[Jaysin]

I want to like Judgment Day. I like every member to varying degrees, but as a unit it feels disjointed and missing something to really solidify themselves as an important faction. 

Rhea is killing it and constantly takes advantage of every second of screen time she gets. 
Dom is slowly, but surly improving and getting more comfortable as the smarmy heel. 
Damien Priest seems directionless to me and the fire he showed in NXT seems to be gone. Still delivers in the ring tho
Finn also seems directionless and his matches aren't as must see these days as they used to be and that's a shame because he's genuinely one of my favorites. 

Even tho I loathed Alexa Bliss's terrible lady Fiend knock off gimmick, that moment where she put Bianca in the Sister Abigail was really well done. Alexa has seemed lost since returning. I'd love to see her get a good story to get invested in.

Off topic, but I was talking to some friends during Final Battle and Deadline and I realized that I have not missed a Raw or Smackdown since Vince stepped down. This is the longest I've maintained weekly viewership for both shows in a very long time. Feels good to be a fan again.

On the subject of Deadline, I really enjoyed the Iron Survivor aka King of the Mountain x Championship Scramble matches were fun. The men's in particular kept me entertained. Gacy killed it.

Edited December 13, 2022 by Jaysin

[Matt_Black]

I thought last night's episode was boiler-plate. Serviceable, but nothing exciting, which seems to be a hallmark of Triple H's booking style. Competently wrestled matches that I just don't care about because they haven't gotten me emotionally invested. The highlight of the show was, of course, Kevin Owens. Over-the-top incredulous KO is the BEST KO.

[Matt_Black]

Mandy Rose has been released. 

[CQI13]

Heard nothing of a blacklist. She was fired. Hogan was gone for 4 years after his racist remarks. Flair was edited out after his DSOtR episode, and X-Pac wasn't with the company (I don't recall) during his One Night in Chyna. All 3 have come back. Leads me to believe if Mandy wants to come back down the line she would be accepted. But maybe she will do better with that and decide she doesn't want to wrestle anymore. Sucks though, had really enjoyed her NXT work and even the feud with Sonya before that.

 As an aside, Paige continued to work after her sex tape.

[AlexaBlissFan]

Mandy not on a blacklist in fact reported if she drops her site she can come back to wwe. Still stupid to me though considering a big star failed a drug test twice within months for cocaine and is dating a porn star isnt released.

[Dawn]

19 hours ago, CQI13 said:

Heard nothing of a blacklist. She was fired. Hogan was gone for 4 years after his racist remarks. Flair was edited out after his DSOtR episode, and X-Pac wasn't with the company (I don't recall) during his One Night in Chyna. All 3 have come back. Leads me to believe if Mandy wants to come back down the line she would be accepted. But maybe she will do better with that and decide she doesn't want to wrestle anymore. Sucks though, had really enjoyed her NXT work and even the feud with Sonya before that.

 As an aside, Paige continued to work after her sex tape.

Paige didn't earn a lick with her sex tape. That is the difference here, Mandy was actually profitting on her erotic content

[Dawn]

On 12/13/2022 at 9:29 AM, Matt_Black said:

I thought last night's episode was boiler-plate. Serviceable, but nothing exciting, which seems to be a hallmark of Triple H's booking style. Competently wrestled matches that I just don't care about because they haven't gotten me emotionally invested. The highlight of the show was, of course, Kevin Owens. Over-the-top incredulous KO is the BEST KO.

I think he's done a great job making me emotionally invested to be fair...mostly on the SmackDown side of things. To me it's fundamentally unreasonable to ask for December Raw's to be the most exciting of the bunch as we're just treading water until the Royal Rumble, holiday season etc. and of course that pesky third hour still exists.

[Matt_Black]

And? Good for her. Maybe if the WWE paid her more, she wouldn't need to.

[CQI13]

4 minutes ago, Dawn said:

Paige didn't earn a lick with her sex tape. That is the difference here, Mandy was actually profitting on her erotic content

Fair distinction. But someone dating an adult movie star shouldn't get them fired either provided that the public behavior isn't unbecoming of what the company expects. 

[Matt_Black]

1 minute ago, Dawn said:

I think he's done a great job making me emotionally invested to be fair...mostly on the SmackDown side of things. To me it's fundamentally unreasonable to ask for December Raw's to be the most exciting of the bunch as we're just treading water until the Royal Rumble, holiday season etc. and of course that pesky third hour still exists.

There's always an excuse for why a given episode of RAW is subpar. "Oh, it's football season. Oh, it's a holiday. Oh, there's a congressional hearing." Etc. Phoning it in is still phoning it in.

[CQI13]

1 minute ago, Matt_Black said:

And? Good for her. Maybe if the WWE paid her more, she wouldn't need to.

You could argue that she is getting paid what she's worth in both markets.

[Matt_Black]

1 minute ago, CQI13 said:

Fair distinction. But someone dating an adult movie star shouldn't get them fired either provided that the public behavior isn't unbecoming of what the company expects. 

There are a lot of male superstars who's public behavior is what I would call "unbecoming", like Jimmy Uso and his history of DUIs. After the third one, he was punished with... *checks notes* Uh... a record breaking title reign.

[CQI13]

9 minutes ago, Matt_Black said:

There are a lot of male superstars who's public behavior is what I would call "unbecoming", like Jimmy Uso and his history of DUIs. After the third one, he was punished with... *checks notes* Uh... a record breaking title reign.

Sure, big names get leeway. I don't like it either, but I am not making the decisions. Jimmy Johnson of the Dallas Cowboys famously fired a player (2nd or 3rd string) for falling asleep at a meeting. When a reporter asked him what his reaction would have been had it been his star Running Back, he said he would have turned to the room and said "Hey guys...shhhh...he's sleeping."

And I was speaking specifically of someone being fired for who they were dating if nothing happened that would cause the firing. I even did a cursory search to see who it was, and nothing came up in Google's first page.

When is the next PLE? Aside from clips that show up on my YouTube feed, that is how I catch up on storylines.

[Dawn]

47 minutes ago, CQI13 said:

Sure, big names get leeway. I don't like it either, but I am not making the decisions. Jimmy Johnson of the Dallas Cowboys famously fired a player (2nd or 3rd string) for falling asleep at a meeting. When a reporter asked him what his reaction would have been had it been his star Running Back, he said he would have turned to the room and said "Hey guys...shhhh...he's sleeping."

And I was speaking specifically of someone being fired for who they were dating if nothing happened that would cause the firing. I even did a cursory search to see who it was, and nothing came up in Google's first page.

When is the next PLE? Aside from clips that show up on my YouTube feed, that is how I catch up on storylines.

Royal Rumble at the end of January.

[Dawn]

2 hours ago, Matt_Black said:

There's always an excuse for why a given episode of RAW is subpar. "Oh, it's football season. Oh, it's a holiday. Oh, there's a congressional hearing." Etc. Phoning it in is still phoning it in.

Well, I specifically mentioned this now because since he took over Hunter had made Raw's pretty exciting. It's still an exhausting show to watch in one sitting, yes. Not his fault, USA's fault for wanting that 3rd hour to stay.

But at the very least there was a sense of ''anything can happen'' for a while and the U.S. title being put to the forefront after being treated like a joke for freaking ever (IC as well; remember Jericho's interview where Vince said no one cares about that title and by that he of course meant himself?) was a big deal for me. So yeah I'm quite ok with them slowing down the operations a little for this month. To me, asking there to be big things that will shock you happening in every Raw for 9 weeks of Rumble build is a bit much. If every week is special, no week is special. Something something Syndrome from The Incredibles. 

And you can say what you will but you cannot tell me with a straight face that HHH era Raw's have been overall BAD. Even if the content in them have not been your cup of tea, he's put up more long-term storylines in 5 months than Vince had in years! I know you will probably give me some snark like ''if stuff like Dexter-Miz is the long-term storytelling they're going with that's why Raw is subpar'' (I personally do think they missed out on the cutting off point to move on from that story) but oh well. 

I will indeed take more HHH written WWE, please, and keep Vince from that company.

Edited December 15, 2022 by Big Roguey
swearing

[Big Roguey]

Reminder to keep the language family friendly for the board, it's the rules.

[Dawn]

I had gotten used to the leniency in the diary section since I rarely use others, my bad there.

[Matt_Black]

5 hours ago, Dawn said:

 If every week is special, no week is special. Something something Syndrome from The Incredibles.

Syndrome was the bad guy in The Incredibles. I don't think we're supposed to think he was right.

[Matt_Black]

Well, that was dumb.