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

[Fantabulous]

I think it testifies to how ingrained steroid use is in wrestling that Smith's own son still decided to use them, even though they contributed greatly to the death of his father.

[Jaysin]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Fantabulous" data-cite="Fantabulous" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I think it testifies to how ingrained steroid use is in wrestling that Smith's own son still decided to use them, even though they contributed greatly to the death of his father.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> My friend and I had a discussion about this awhile back. </p><p> </p><p> On the topic of steroid use, has there been any Wellness Policy issues lately? It seems like its been FOREVER since anything happened and while its nice to think that everything is hunky dory in the locker room, I find it hard to believe.</p>

[Fantabulous]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Jaysin" data-cite="Jaysin" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>My friend and I had a discussion about this awhile back. <p> </p><p> On the topic of steroid use, has there been any Wellness Policy issues lately? It seems like its been FOREVER since anything happened and while its nice to think that everything is hunky dory in the locker room, I find it hard to believe.</p></div></blockquote><p> I believe the last known policy violation was Rey back in 2009.</p>

[juggaloninjalee]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Fantabulous" data-cite="Fantabulous" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I think it testifies to how ingrained steroid use is in wrestling that Smith's own son still decided to use them, even though they contributed greatly to the death of his father.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I thought Bulldog died of an infection?</p><p> </p><p> He broke his back on a trap door for the Ultimate Warrior in WCW under the ring and then got some kind of infection awhile later after a surgery or something.</p>

[Fantabulous]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="juggaloninjalee" data-cite="juggaloninjalee" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I thought Bulldog died of an infection?<p> </p><p> He broke his back on a trap door for the Ultimate Warrior in WCW under the ring and then got some kind of infection awhile later after a surgery or something.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> That happened in 1999. And while lying in his bed fighting for his life, WCW thoughtfully fired him via Fed-Ex.</p><p> </p><p> Davey Boy died of a heart attack with his long-term drug use contributing to it.</p>

[Gabbo]

<p>Watched Jim Cornette rebooking the InVasion. Brilliant.</p><p> </p><p>

Never really liked Cornette, but maybe that was based more on his onscreen persona, particularly in the WWE in the 90's but he came across really well. He came across passionate, knowledgeable and fair. People say he rants and whatnot, but it all came across fairly. Not to mention honest, he says how he feels and doesn't care about friendships and relationships: people know Cornette and they either love or hate him but he is how he is.</p><p> </p><p>

The show was rather heavy on shoots, but I guess it had to be the way he booked it. Very interesting show though and a definite improvement on what we saw. Obviously you can't factor in things like injuries, personal squabbles and whatnot causing changes to plans but he tried to keep it realistic and ended up with a solid 'Mania. There were too many matches on it though, so maybe we should have been given a run down of the feuds and then a Mania card separate. I know he wanted a 5 hour show to demonstrate the significance of this event but very few people will sit through 5 hours of something.</p><p> </p><p>

All in all, really enjoyable and I'll check out more in future. Interested in seeing Raven book Hall and Nash but I'm not sure why they bothered with it. WCW booked the angle brilliantly enough. For a while at least.</p>

[NoNeck]

<p>The Raven one is almost as good as the Cornette one, in my opinion. </p><p> </p><p>

And the reason he's re-booking the Outsiders thing is because in Raven's re-imagining of the scenario, Hall and Nash invade ECW, not WCW.</p><p> </p><p>

It's cool.</p>

[Zeel1]

Seeing that Bella/Natalya match made me realize why Victoria was always pushed as a heel in her last years with them. As a heel, she didn't have to get her shine, as it were, and therefore didn't make herself look blatantly better than the people she was inevitably going to be jobbing to... <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

[Zeel1]

Y'know, this is an issue that I see a lot with Cody's recent promos. He seems like he's supposed to be all dark, and crazy, and Phantom of the Opera-esque, but then it gets kind of silly. I actually sort of like the idea of someone putting the bag on someone's head and having them claim to be the city, but the accent and what was pretty much a "your mom" joke, it makes it seem a lot less dramatic. Just seems like a bit of a waste to have him be built up like that, just to go out and say "She ain't got no alibi, she ugly! She ugly~!" <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

[Candyman]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Gabbo" data-cite="Gabbo" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Watched Jim Cornette rebooking the InVasion. Brilliant.<p> </p><p> Never really liked Cornette, but maybe that was based more on his onscreen persona, particularly in the WWE in the 90's but he came across really well. He came across passionate, knowledgeable and fair. People say he rants and whatnot, but it all came across fairly. Not to mention honest, he says how he feels and doesn't care about friendships and relationships: people know Cornette and they either love or hate him but he is how he is.</p><p> </p><p> The show was rather heavy on shoots, but I guess it had to be the way he booked it. Very interesting show though and a definite improvement on what we saw. Obviously you can't factor in things like injuries, personal squabbles and whatnot causing changes to plans but he tried to keep it realistic and ended up with a solid 'Mania. There were too many matches on it though, so maybe we should have been given a run down of the feuds and then a Mania card separate. I know he wanted a 5 hour show to demonstrate the significance of this event but very few people will sit through 5 hours of something.</p><p> </p><p> All in all, really enjoyable and I'll check out more in future. Interested in seeing Raven book Hall and Nash but I'm not sure why they bothered with it. WCW booked the angle brilliantly enough. For a while at least.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I was certainly entertained by it, and I was fascinated by the insight Cornette provided into what it's like on the "inside" of pro wrestling - especially the stuff about what WWE's relationship with OVW is like. It was very entertaining and informative.</p><p> </p><p> But, honestly, when you actually look at his booking, and imagine what it would be like on TV...to be honest, it's not very good at all. Shoot fights? Really? That stuff might've worked in the 70's, and I'm sure it would be huge with a fringe minority of WWE fans, but I can't imagine it being much more than a gigantic flop. I think Cornette kind of realized this as he was going along, because he kept talking about how he didn't have much time to put it together. I have no doubt Cornette would've done better than what we actually got, but I think he'd have to throw this one in the trash and start from scratch. I definitely enjoyed the DVD as a whole, though.</p><p> </p><p> Unrelated note - what's the over/under on how many people complain about them not mentioning Macho Man's death on Smackdown! tonight? I've already seen two on another message board. Clearly not the sharpest lot.</p>

[Zeel1]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Candyman" data-cite="Candyman" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Unrelated note - what's the over/under on how many people complain about them not mentioning Macho Man's death on Smackdown! tonight? I've already seen two on another message board. Clearly not the sharpest lot.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Heh, yeah. I suppose they could have put a little "In memory of" thing at the beginning, but I'm fairly certain the editing on SmackDown is pretty much finished up by like Wednesday or Thursday, so... then again, they may have sent it to SyFy before the news broke. Don't know exactly how it's all timed.</p>

[Remianen]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Gabbo" data-cite="Gabbo" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I know he wanted a 5 hour show to demonstrate the significance of this event but very few people will sit through 5 hours of something.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Doesn't matter. If they bought the PPV, whether they watched five minutes, an hour, or the whole thing, <em><strong>you still have their money</strong></em>. Short attention span theater is the order of the day but at least one show should shatter that mold into itty bitty pieces.</p><p> </p><p> And I'm sure this is old but I literally fell out of my chair laughing when a friend sent this to me. I thought it was a joke: <a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/2963512/Great-Khali-has-promised-to-open-a-wrestling-school-in-India-to-train-a-new-generation-of-grapplers.html" rel="external nofollow">http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/2963512/Great-Khali-has-promised-to-open-a-wrestling-school-in-India-to-train-a-new-generation-of-grapplers.html</a></p>

[BurningHamster]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Remianen" data-cite="Remianen" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>And I'm sure this is old but I literally fell out of my chair laughing when a friend sent this to me. I thought it was a joke: <a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/2963512/Great-Khali-has-promised-to-open-a-wrestling-school-in-India-to-train-a-new-generation-of-grapplers.html" rel="external nofollow">http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/2963512/Great-Khali-has-promised-to-open-a-wrestling-school-in-India-to-train-a-new-generation-of-grapplers.html</a></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Judging by Khali's experience in wrestling school I can only assume this is some attempt to deal with India's overpopulation problem.</p>

[lazorbeak]

I was certainly entertained by it, and I was fascinated by the insight Cornette provided into what it's like on the "inside" of pro wrestling - especially the stuff about what WWE's relationship with OVW is like. It was very entertaining and informative.

 

But, honestly, when you actually look at his booking, and imagine what it would be like on TV...to be honest, it's not very good at all. Shoot fights? Really? That stuff might've worked in the 70's, and I'm sure it would be huge with a fringe minority of WWE fans, but I can't imagine it being much more than a gigantic flop. I think Cornette kind of realized this as he was going along, because he kept talking about how he didn't have much time to put it together. I have no doubt Cornette would've done better than what we actually got, but I think he'd have to throw this one in the trash and start from scratch. I definitely enjoyed the DVD as a whole, though.

 

I completely agree on your assessment of Cornette's actual booking. I wasn't particularly impressed and a lot of it had to do with worked shoots and Terry Funk working a main event program with Undertaker in 2001. I like Cornette but he's only got so many stories and his actual booking isn't great.

[ampulator]

I completely agree on your assessment of Cornette's actual booking. I wasn't particularly impressed and a lot of it had to do with worked shoots and Terry Funk working a main event program with Undertaker in 2001. I like Cornette but he's only got so many stories and his actual booking isn't great.

The thing is, Cornette is really good at WHAT not to book. His criticisms of what not-to-book are basically on the spot.

 

He's a good gatekeeper to wrestlecrap, but a good booker/write/creative all-around he isn't.

[liontamer]

I just watched the tough enough from monday and have a question.... obviously we don't know the specifics of the drill and what moves were called for and didn't see everything the trainers did, but they mentioned it was on AJ because it was supposed to be a crossbody. Anyone else think she was trying to do an axe handle? If it was a cross body I almost think it was largely her fault because she was completely vertical. He still has to keep it safe, but it looked to me like she did the wrong move.

[nucleardonkey]

I just watched the tough enough from monday and have a question.... obviously we don't know the specifics of the drill and what moves were called for and didn't see everything the trainers did, but they mentioned it was on AJ because it was supposed to be a crossbody. Anyone else think she was trying to do an axe handle? If it was a cross body I almost think it was largely her fault because she was completely vertical. He still has to keep it safe, but it looked to me like she did the wrong move.

 

I think why they were putting the blame on him was he may have been too close or something like that which prevented her from pulling off the cross body but also IIRC she panicked a little bit when she got on the top rope too and if that's the case I think she got scared and over thought the cross body and just jumped without really doing anything. I think they were wrong to put the blame on him at all. Plus from the looks of it early in the episode she switched from someone who can't even do a leap frog to suddenly becoming the trainers' darling and Trish's pet project so that didn't help AJ at all.

[ShaunGBD]

Iirc?

[Slim Jim]

I think it was going to be a crossbody but AJ got way too close so she had to improvise (which is why she ended up doing an axe handle instead) and then, after it went wrong, they were angry with AJ for causing Christina to call it on the fly.

[nucleardonkey]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="ShaunGBD" data-cite="ShaunGBD" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Iirc?</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> If I remember correctly</p><p> </p><p> I don't think anyone should be blamed for it really. Stuff like that happens all the time in wrestling and the trainers should have known that. Seeing how well she did at leap frogs I never would have trusted her to come off the top rope to begin with.</p>

[slack]

She got that other girl hurt, so I don't feel bad for her at all. If it was a cross body, he got too close and she adjusted. But if I've learned anything from watching the intros of WWE DVDs injuries do happen.

[Teh_Showtime]

Cody Rhodes and DiBiase on SD were fun to watch. This is the most inspired I've seen Ted ever. I hope this angle they are doing turns into a well done eventual split and face turn for Ted

[ShaunGBD]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="slack" data-cite="slack" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>She got that other girl hurt, so I don't feel bad for her at all. If it was a cross body, he got too close and she adjusted. But if I've learned anything from watching the intros of WWE DVDs injuries do happen.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Your right but they can still be pissed about it. Don't think they should but they can be.</p>

[Jaded]

<p>Great quiz here on Sporcle - can you name the 100 wrestlers with the most WWF/WWE matches between 1980 and 2009. Just about to try.</p><p> </p><p>

<a href="http://www.sporcle.com/games/juror8/mostwwewwfmatches" rel="external nofollow">http://www.sporcle.com/games/juror8/mostwwewwfmatches</a></p><p> </p><p>

Edit: Just a heads up, some guys it takes surnames for, others you need to type in full names. Annoying but still a cool quiz.</p>

[BurningHamster]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="slack" data-cite="slack" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>She got that other girl hurt, so I don't feel bad for her at all. If it was a cross body, he got too close and she adjusted. But if I've learned anything from watching the intros of WWE DVDs injuries do happen.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Yeah seriously, Christina is horrible, injured someone else and has the most irritating way of talking BUT ... it's obvious they were trying to build her up through Tough Enough so ... they are going to put blame on AJ for injuring her. Weirdly they didn't really put much blame on Christina when the other girl got injured.</p><p> </p><p> Ah reality TV, total crap.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> Edit: took the quiz, 71/100 .... kind of embarrassed by some of the guys I missed.</p>