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 bbb wrote:
We're only halfway through last night's Smackdown, but the Sami/Bloodline storyline has been a lot of fun so far and pretty good long term storytelling from WWE.

Yeah, I can see Sami pulling off a Mick Foley face turn and run off of it, like when Mankind was trying to be Vince's friend and just annoying the hell out of him.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Agreed. Turns out the first WWE PPV I ever saw was her debut on the main roster. And quite apart from be Easy On The Eye, she was a truly great wrestler.

But…..if Edge can be cleared? I have hope we’ll see Saraya get back to it.

Terribly easy on the eye, especially given the context of the divas from back then. Yeah, one can only hope she'll be good to wrestle again in the future.



Sami Zayn is great on every level. I don't watch much WWE weeklies these days, but the things I see him do with the Bloodline is fantastic.

Mrs. Gargano just showed up for a squash of Nikki A.S.H. on RAW.

Boy, the Easter Eggs are strong with HHH. Note what appears just to the left of Edge's head in the official poster...


Finding the Easter Eggs are almost as fun as watching the matches...

I just watch summaries of all the white rabbit insanity on youtube, but somebody put a LOT of thought into that Sounds fun.


edit: Caught most of this week's RAW last night. It seems perfeclty okay.

Righty, Extreme Rules is around the corner:
SmackDown Women's Championship -- Liv Morgan (c) vs. Ronda Rousey (Extreme Rules Match): Liv Morgan. By some sort of trick. She's the tricksy one and the champion we need.

Raw Women's Championship -- Bianca Belair (c) vs. Bayley (Ladder Match): Bayley. Bianca Belair isn't the cunning-est.

Matt Riddle vs. Seth Rollins (Fight Pit Match): Riddle. I don't care much about the feud, but I like that Matt Riddle a.) got his first name back and b.) got a brain. I'm sure they'll put on a great match.

Edge vs. Finn Balor ("I Quit" Match): Bálor got this one. No point in having Edge win. Maybe this is where the white rabbit is resolved, and I sure hope it doesn't have anything to do with Edge (not that he is the white rabbit, but I don't want him in any stories about that either).

Karrion Kross vs. Drew McIntyre (Strap Match): Ha, a strap match! I say that Drew wins this one, because I don't want him bouncing down the card again after just having almost beaten Roman. I know that McIntyre is good for stuff like that because he'll always be over in an instant, but I don't wanna see it happen again so swiftly.

The Brawling Brutes vs. Imperium (Good Old Fashioned Donnybrook Match): Imperium win, Pete Dunne splits from the Brutes.




Wrestle Princess 3:

Moka Miyamoto & Juria Nagano vs Arisu Endo & Kaya Toribami - Endo&Toribami
Mahiro Kiryu, Yuki Kamifuku & Haruna Neko vs Yoshiko Hasegawa (GanBare), Nao Kakuta & Yuna Manase (Ganbare) - Team Tokyo University
Suzume vs Ryo Mizunami - Ryo Mizunami
121000000 (Maki Itoh & Miyu Yamashita) vs Riho & Hikari Noa - Itoh/Yamashita (that'll be good!)
Mizuki vs Hyper Misao - Mizuki
Aja Kong, Raku & Pom Harajuku vs Max The Impaler, Rika Tatsumi & Yuki Aino - Max, Tatsumi, Aino
Princess Tag Team Championship: Yuki Arai & Saki Akai (c) vs The Uprising (Rhia O’Reilly & Nightshade) - Arai/Akai
International Princess Champion: Alex Windsor (c) vs Miu Watanabe - Miu Watanabe, if they feel like she's ready to be sent abroad for matches. Which I think is the case. Anyway, that'll be a good match as well!
Princess of Princess Championship: Shoko Nakajima (c) vs Yuka Sakazaki - It will be a battle of several acts, it'll be a 'fight forever' scenario and in the end Sakazaki wins. It's time.

On the Edge vs Balor?

Chances of a GOTCHA! face turn from Dominic, or do you think this is a deliberate push of a youngster some might feel is only signed because of who his Dad is?

I hear rumors that current 'leadership' is high on Bálor- no surprise there as he's a favorite of HHH, I think.

Hopefully this means he holds one of the two big titles...'soon'!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
On the Edge vs Balor?

Chances of a GOTCHA! face turn from Dominic, or do you think this is a deliberate push of a youngster some might feel is only signed because of who his Dad is?

Heck, I forgot about Dominic. If they turned him face again that would be a major sign they have no idea what to do with him and wanna backpaddle. But to what end? Have him tag with his dad forever in one of the stalest tag teams on the roster? I like where Dominic is right now, with his evil goth dom girlfriend. That's a fun role for Rhea, it's a good way to present Dominic as a proper heel (ie have him have some more character) and more of a solo guy. I think there's a lot of potential in Judgement day. They're all HHH's guys (well, except dominic maybe, but I like him as an addition), they're all good wrestlers, they could do good things. We need factions in WWE anyway.

I'm attending Extreme rules.

Looks like a really nice card, hopefully they deliver.

Three quarters of Legado Del Fantasma just showed up on Smackdown.

 bbb wrote:
I'm attending Extreme rules.

Looks like a really nice card, hopefully they deliver.

Oh, cool. Have fun. Could you bring a sign with a QR code to my website, please? I hear those work really well on WWE tv these days.

Well, we are already in a mad dash to finish our own signs...

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjdCm-_ORcf/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 bbb wrote:
Well, we are already in a mad dash to finish our own signs...

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjdCm-_ORcf/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Great stuff.

Btw, I failed to mention that I watched some live wrestling myself last weekend! Been to Vienna comicon, EWA had a ring put up and showed two matches and a royal rumble. Saw Brother Chaos of Watschn Club ("Watsch'n" = slap to the face. Basically a rather self-aware mix of A-Team and Bullet Club.), one of the Team Turbulence guys, saw Krampus for the first time (Krampus of course being a big part of folklore here. Despite a scary mask he's a big babyface) and of course Bambikiller. Good fun, it was well received. I went with a friend and his son (7), neither of whom are wrestling fans. I think the son found it pretty cool though.

Again, it's always a bit embarassing that Italians are the go-to heels and that heel heat is bascially only built on nationality, but it's all in good fun. Germans of course automatically are top heels, but they got plenty of their own promotions, so I assume that they got other places to go than Austria. But yeah. Fun was had.

Sounds like some fun stuff!

Signs finished with 2 hours to go!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cjdw9EQOS4O/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I don't know what you can hear on the broadcast, but there are a LOT of Bray Wyatt chants tonight.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Edge and Balor came right up to our section and my friend texted me that my sign was clearly visible.

My sign said: A Bingo Hall in South Philly

Photo/video dump from last night.

Got the screenshot from the Edge vs Balor match where we got on TV too.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjfrKfYOexL/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

,,, just showed up on RAW, followed later in the show by...

 bbb wrote:
Photo/video dump from last night.

Got the screenshot from the Edge vs Balor match where we got on TV too.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjfrKfYOexL/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Aw, that's cool. So I take you had a good time?


I enjoyed Extreme Rules.



Also watched RAW, very much enjoyed that one too. What a novel feeling that WWE weeklies aren't irritating, but actually enjoyable. It had something for everybody.

It’s definitely sounding like WWE has its head screwed back on post-Vince.

I’ll never understand why they cut Strowman. He was so over, whether as a face or a heel. A rare (well, within WWE at the time) of a Proper Splunger being put to effective use.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
It’s definitely sounding like WWE has its head screwed back on post-Vince.

I’ll never understand why they cut Strowman. He was so over, whether as a face or a heel. A rare (well, within WWE at the time) of a Proper Splunger being put to effective use.

I believe it all came down to $$$ (or ₤₤₤ in the UK ),

Ah yes, yeah, that's what we were told was the reason. And let's be honest, it probably was. At the time Strowman had been one of the few main eventers after all. Roman was out due to Covid concerns, Bray was being used badly (that was pre-fiend) IIRC, who had that Wrestlemania match with Strowman for the championship? Not that Strowman was a particularly good champ, but he, as mentioned above, is a great example for a WWE success story. I think it was Jim Ross who says "there'll always be a place for an athletic big man". Not sure if he's hella athletic, but he sure is a big man And he improved SO much over the first two years.

Yet he must’ve been shifting merch? Surely. I mean sure he got a push, but he didn’t need the push, because he kind of had it all.

Here’s a pitch for you….Strowman and Lesnar form their own stable to take on Reigns and his goons.

Back when Lesnar worked a short program with Sami I was hoping that he would challenge the Usos for the Tag Team Championships to annoy Roman. Lesnar would tell Sami that they were now a tag team (an offer Sami could not say no to), "The Canadian Alpha Males." Brock would start the match, destroy both Usos and win the titles without ever tagging Sami.

But it was only a dream.

Now I'd kind of like to see a return to that idea with Brock needling Roman by saying, "You took my Advocate, I'll take your Honorary Uce."

hm. Why not? I'm up for anything that makes Sami's role more sympathetic and makes him a full-on babyface as he tries to hold on to his (apprehensive) friends. I could see it culminating in a Sami vs. Brock match. The Bloodline help Sami (except for sneaky Jay) win. Sami's back with his evil friends, but Jay is being told off for not helping proper, thus sami driving more and more little wedges between the Bloodline members. Eventually we'll get some super group to fight the Bloodline, Sami joins them, him and Kevin Owens powerbomb all of the Bloodline onto the ring apron.


I have to admit, I currently really, really like the Bloodline. That extra drizzle of characterization Sami brought it makes them insanely entertaining.



By the way: Yes, it's true. I'm part of the Wyatt Six.*


*) Everybody's saying it right now to get some clout, so I thought I'd give it a try as well.

Rampage!

.) it's nice to see René Paquette on there. I'm perfectly OK with her being a backstage interviewer. I mean we all know that she's good at everything, she could do commentary without a problem. Thing is that they already got so many commentators. And such good ones.
.) I like Sverve Strickland way better as a heel. He seems like a reasonable, relateable person now.


Smackdown!
.) Liv Morgan is on a good track.
.) I very much enjoy Damage Control
.) Bray Wyatt is a very good promo. I also like the new entrance music. Not sure I'm on board with a "Bray being tortured by baddie incarnations and having to overcome them", but the promo could work either way. Just have him be the devil. Like MJF. Sometimes he'll take the role of the victim (because it's the most powerful role an individual or group can take on), but ultimately - just have him be evil. Maybe I'm wrong though.

Jon Moxley is just the best guy currently, isn't he. Wacky Wheeler Yuta put out a video, admitting to having double-booked himself for Rampage and a New Japan show. He'll go with the New Japan show (correct choice. A.) he's on AEW tv all the time anyway, B.) New Japan probably currently appreciate Western talent honouring bookings, with the whole Karl Anderson stuff going on. I'm not saying that this thing is Anderson's fault. It's just so funny after the OC having talked about all the things that happened in their WWE run and being very, very, very open about their disgruntlement, Anderson especially so. He was very vocal about the whole 'thanking the WWE publically' after they fire you being stupid and so on. And I am rather sure that the OC have been treated unfairly by Heyman and the old regime. But just one year later, Gallows and Anderson will be back on a plane to Saudi Arabia. After all the stuff that happened last time they went. Wrestling is an amazing sport.).

Now back to why Jon Moxley is just the best guy: Instead of Yuta vs. Daddy Magic Matt Menard we now get Moxle vs Menard on Rampage. Did Moxley even have that vacation yet he talked about a month ago? Anyway.


So MJF, eh? He really is the human condition personified, isn't he. Who would have thought that he actually IS the mensch of the cent-sh. I'm a bit afraid that they make him too much of a babyface. On the other hand it would be really lame if that split with the firm would have been just some sort of ruse (and overall AEW probably are in need of a top babyface). We'll see. Things stay interesting.

Rumour has it that TNT move AEW to their sports category and maybe wanna have the tv be a bit more sports-oriented, which I'm all for, because especially lately the shows went very sports entertainment.


Riho is back! For her return she was insanely dressed, now she had a match with Jamie Hayter, Hayter has got to be pushed now, I don't get the focus on Dr.Britt Baker. That's all my glorious, clever thoughts.

And tonight's "WWE Surprise Return" (trademark pending) is...

 Ghaz wrote:
And tonight's "WWE Surprise Return" (trademark pending) is...

Spoiler:

Tenille Dashwood, F.K.A. Emma

...which I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay okay with.



Just caught up on some things. Boy, I love the bloodline. Sami Zayn is brilliant; you gotta love him. We always knew it, now WWE acknowledge him again. Nothing but adoration for that whole Bloodline story right now.

Sami's recent work with the Bloodline has me playing attention again to WWE stuff.

He's brilliant, and this story is entertaining and hilarious!

 Alpharius wrote:
Sami's recent work with the Bloodline has me playing attention again to WWE stuff.

He's brilliant, and this story is entertaining and hilarious!

Yep. Pure gold. It's even be said that the WWE changed it's plans due to the popularity of Sami's work with the Bloodline (something Vinny Mac most likely wouldn't have done).