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...Elimination Chamber was a "Raw Exclusive" PPV?

In fact, it was the last of the 'Exclusive" PPVs.

I actually like having a part-time champ, as it makes their appearances feel more special if they aren't on TV all the time "How can I miss you if you're never gone?".

I'm the opposite - but I can see your point.

IF the champ was a little less 'part time' than Lesnar.

Look up how many times Lesnar has defended the title since he's held it.

It's...not a lot.

Daniel Bryan has been declared fit for in-ring!

YES! YES! YES!

Just watched his introduction - nothing firm yet, but no way he's not on the Wrestlemania card, right?

Roman Reigns wins Universal title, boos all round the arena then bam! Flight of the Valkyries rings out. Bryan beats Reigns for the championship (just make something up about a clause in his contract which said that if he ever was found fit to enter the ring again he could have a title shot of his choosing in compensation for having to drop his title when his injuries sidelined him).

Then afterwards Daniel Bryan vs Finn Balor feud for the universal championship as Finn wants his shot at the title he lost without actually losing it, he's fed up of waiting for his shot and seeing Bryan get it on his immediate return really pisses him off when he's been waiting for his chance.

I would love to see a Bryan v Balor match. Both are mightily impressive in terms of technical skill. And Bryan certainly knows how to work a crowd!



Still hoping Paige makes a full recovery. She could do with some good fortune now.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Roman Reigns wins Universal title, boos all round the arena then bam! Flight of the Valkyries rings out. Bryan beats Reigns for the championship.

Then afterwards Daniel Bryan vs Finn Balor feud for the universal championship

I like that - I'm giving you the book!

That would mean that Balor would have to play the heel, but he's good at that, so...sure, why not?

There's never been a Demon Heel though, and the crowd loves to pop for Finn, so maybe he'll just have to walk the line between Heel and Babyface?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I would love to see a Bryan v Balor match. Both are mightily impressive in terms of technical skill. And Bryan certainly knows how to work a crowd!



Still hoping Paige makes a full recovery. She could do with some good fortune now.

Agreed about Paige.

Ask and ye shall receive :


Just think of how much they've improved since then and wonder....




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 Mysterio wrote:

There's never been a Demon Heel though, and the crowd loves to pop for Finn, so maybe he'll just have to walk the line between Heel and Babyface?

True, but who else could potentially facilitate a heel turn better than him going after a returning Daniel Bryan, the living embodiment of fan support?

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Mysterio wrote:

There's never been a Demon Heel though, and the crowd loves to pop for Finn, so maybe he'll just have to walk the line between Heel and Babyface?

True, but who else could potentially facilitate a heel turn better than him going after a returning Daniel Bryan, the living embodiment of fan support?

Oh, that would definitely do it - at least for a while.

But Finn's too good at what he does to stay heel for too long.

I had to laugh at the cheers that came out of the crowd when it was initially announced by Angle that Roman wouldn't be in attendance due to his suspension - funny stuff!

 Mysterio wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Mysterio wrote:

There's never been a Demon Heel though, and the crowd loves to pop for Finn, so maybe he'll just have to walk the line between Heel and Babyface?

True, but who else could potentially facilitate a heel turn better than him going after a returning Daniel Bryan, the living embodiment of fan support?

Oh, that would definitely do it - at least for a while.

But Finn's too good at what he does to stay heel for too long.

Could tilt into that, have them gain respect for each other by the end of the feud, maybe even resulting in a Dragon and Demon tag team.

Signed on the WWE Network again. Currently catching up on my PPVs with Elimination Chamber.

Trying to cram before Wrestlemania in...er...2 weeks?

This year's card seems...underwhelming. And predetermined.

Well, even more so than usual, of course.

And NOT having all the matches finalized yet is not a good idea either.

Still, I'll be watching.

As long as they don’t do what they did with Wyat and Orton again. That match sucked.

Wot? No Wrestlemania discussion?

Finally watched it all (Monday was busy. Work, Walking Dead and The Last Jedi also vying for attention!), and I've got to say I really enjoyed it.

Women's Matches again managed to leave many of the male wrestlers in the dust. Ronda's debut was predictably and enjoyably silly. Braun Strowman remains a favourite. The power of Brock Lesnar, but with greater personality than a cabbage.

Brock vs Reigns was quite dull - but then it always is with Brock. Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, F5 herp-de-derp I are wrassle. I really, really wish they'd ditch him as a wrestler. He's got no charisma at all.

Definitely an improvement over last year's, which I found underwhelming. Culprit for me there was the Orton vs Wyatt match. Stupid maggot and gross projections just killed any momentum, and not just in their match. It wasn't spooky, it wasn't atmospheric. It was just lame.

Just watched HBO's new documentary on Andre. Pretty good. Nothing new, but some cool vintage clips I remember watching as a kid.

"Superstar Shakeup" tonight (and, by default, tomorrow too, I guess).

Should be interesting...

Possibly controversial opinion time.

AJ Styles. Overrated. And majorly so. I've found all his matches to be dull as dish water.

I liked his match against Brock a lot and just AJ's matches in general, his matches against Nakamura are disappointing though.


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The only thing I dislike about AJ is his politics, but as far as a talent goes I think he's one of the best in ring workers of his generation.

There's just something about him I find inherently yawn inducing.

I get that he's a skilled wrestler, but I just don't feel his matches. Could be that WWE just don't know how to bill him. Could also be his hair and beard, and gloves, remind me of Rio Blast out of He-Man....



I actually think that might be it. Which is weird, because I had that toy, and it was ace! Full of dakka too.

Well, Vinnie Mac is apparently enraged over fan reactions Backlash PPV.

Apart from a couple of matches. Rollins VS the Miz (A cracker on a sub par card) and AJ vs Nakamura Fans were pretty vocal and in a lot of cases voted with their feet and walked out of the arena!

Being in the New York area means a lot to McMahon and by all accounts hes darned upset. Its taken him around 4 years to get to that stage mind.

I wonder if hes upset enough to change and, hats on, look at providing a wrestling product thats entertaining rather than the entertainment product with some guys in a ring that WWE currently produce?

Honestly I prefer NXT, the booking makes a lot more sense, doesn't seem as overproduced and the matches on average are better.


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Also does anyone get the impression that Nakamura is phoning it in, like he's supposed to be this great Japanese worker (at least in NJPW) but almost all his WWE are just okay nothing special, whereas with AJ he's worked all sort of promotions and styles of wrestling but at least it feels

like he's giving it his all and has had great matches with several guys in the WWE already, where I feel like it's safe to say he's one of the best workers of his generation. Even in some of his more lackluster matches it doesn't really feel like his fault so much as bad booking or not having a

great opponent.

NXT is a superior product for Wrestling. And I've always felt it's a shame that people highly competent in the ring soon get too caught up in the (admittedly fun) pantomime of the main roster.

My suggestion for fixes?

1. Get rid of Brock Lesnar. He's boring. Even Paul Heyman can't save him from being boring.

2. Much as I like him, stop push push pushing Roman Reigns. Let him turn heel, mid-card him, let him work his way up. He's a good wrassler, just needs to better earn it. Mebbes back into Tag Team?

3. Get original with your heels. The whole 'OH NOES THEY R CHEATEDS!' is dull and repetitive.

4. It's time for some of the Old Guard to go. Sheamus and Cesaro just aren't entertaining.

5. More. Wimmins. Wrasslin. That is where WWE is absolutely killing it. The matches are faster paced. The action is more athletic, less 'blimbo blambo, me Brock'.

6. Stop tinkering with characters when people come over from NXT! Seriously! Just knock it off.

 Cheesecat wrote:
Honestly I prefer NXT, the booking makes a lot more sense, doesn't seem as overproduced and the matches on average are better.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also does anyone get the impression that Nakamura is phoning it in, like he's supposed to be this great Japanese worker (at least in NJPW) but almost all his WWE are just okay nothing special, whereas with AJ he's worked all sort of promotions and styles of wrestling but at least it feels

like he's giving it his all and has had great matches with several guys in the WWE already, where I feel like it's safe to say he's one of the best workers of his generation. Even in some of his more lackluster matches it doesn't really feel like his fault so much as bad booking or not having a

great opponent.

Guys like Nakamura phone it in because WWE main brand doesn't know what to do with them. He was great in NJPW and a real character,however western audiences are fed specific types of match, and WWE have a specific style to go with that. The main problem is that wrestling matches should evolve over their duration to tell a specific story. WWE main brand don't.

Even the promos in WWE suck now, all the wrestlers are scripted and are almost back in the bad old days of guys being one dimensional parodies. They may as well be dentists or ex cons, or evil sheikhs again.






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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
NXT is a superior product for Wrestling. And I've always felt it's a shame that people highly competent in the ring soon get too caught up in the (admittedly fun) pantomime of the main roster.

My suggestion for fixes?

1. Get rid of Brock Lesnar. He's boring. Even Paul Heyman can't save him from being boring.

2. Much as I like him, stop push push pushing Roman Reigns. Let him turn heel, mid-card him, let him work his way up. He's a good wrassler, just needs to better earn it. Mebbes back into Tag Team?

3. Get original with your heels. The whole 'OH NOES THEY R CHEATEDS!' is dull and repetitive.

4. It's time for some of the Old Guard to go. Sheamus and Cesaro just aren't entertaining.

5. More. Wimmins. Wrasslin. That is where WWE is absolutely killing it. The matches are faster paced. The action is more athletic, less 'blimbo blambo, me Brock'.

6. Stop tinkering with characters when people come over from NXT! Seriously! Just knock it off.

Brocks an okay wrestler and does will with his 1D gimmick, not worth putting the strap on him though.

Reigns is a dead duck and the reason fans aren't tuning in. You can't push a guy to the moon - with the fans against it - and claim hatred of the idea as heat. Story line turn him and have him be against the fans who already hate him. Get him to beat opponents to a pulp and laugh while doing it . Funnily enough Samoa Joe got over in TNA doing this Christopher Daniels, wearing his towel with Daniels blood on it to the ring.

Heels, need to lie cheat and steal and be blatant with it, they also need their comeuppance.

Cesaro is due a main event singles push. WWE will botch it though.

Deffo need more women in action and some positive storylines to carry feuds.

Change WWE creative full stop.

Arise!

What a time to be a wrestling fan!

Lots and lots of stuff going on...

Impact (TNA) shifting TV channels, again. This time to "Pursuit", a channel that has even less viewership than "Pop!", but they somehow still manage to limp along. I haven't watched in a while because I didn't get "Pop!" and, strangely enough, I don't get "Pursuit" either.

Ring of Honor chugs along, and it looks like the rising star that is New Japan (gaining traction in the USA!) will continue their working relationship with them - or will they?

Because all of a sudden, ALL ELITE WRESTLING is a thing? And they look to be where Kenny Omega will land, once his NJPW contract is up at the end of the month?

But, on to WWE!

Where it looks like Finn Bálor is FINALLY getting the push he warrants and deserves!

Trouble is...will WWE pull the trigger on him winning it all?

I hope so - especially after RAW's rating were the worst ever, and WWE broke the glass for this particular emergency and trotted out ALL of the McMahon family - who promised us that this time is different, and they'll change things up, do things differently, etc.

Finn's and Vince's promo was...pretty interesting and certainly injected some 'real life' stuff in there too.

Ironically enough, Finn 'lost' the Universal Championship due to injury, and he's now in the title match due to Storwman's injury.

Finn HAS to go Demon King mode here - but so far, for the most part, the Demon King does NOT lose - except when he's leaving a promotion (last NXT match type stuff).

So...does WWE do the stupid thing, and sacrifice the Demon King to the Beast Lesnar OR, do they do the right thing, and have Finn beat Lesnar at the Royal Rumble?

I know what I want to happen!

Was just thinking of asking whether I should necro this thread or start a new one!

Been catching up on NXT UK. Fell way behind when I was writing my masters thesis. Currently watching Takeover.

The tag title match between Moustache Mountain and Gibson/Drake was pretty phenomenal, loads of great spots and near falls, the suicide dive doomsday device was a thing of beauty and then it was followed up by a dropkick interception of a suicide dive. Can't wait to see these two teams go at it again as they work phenomenally well together.

I marked out a little bit when Finn came out as the replacement against Devlin, though as soon as Devlin said he was the "best irish wrestler in the world" it was pretty obvious what way it was going to go down.

Ha, no kidding!

Allegedly the crowd's reaction to Finn, and the overall quality of that match, may have been what FINALLY convinced Vince to give Finn the main event title shot?

Sheesh!

Way to pay attention to your own product for the last year!

Despite being a victim of awful 50/50 booking, Finn consistently gets awesome crowd reactions and is in the top 3 or 4 in terms of merchandise sales - which is apparently an important metric in the world of wrestling and who does and does not get a push!

Sounds like typical McMahon nonsense.

Really, the only reason it is happening is his pet project is out battling leukemia and the other alternative that was getting built up is out of the picture.

If Finn does beat Brock, he hopefully won't just be a stepping stone to pass the belt off to Strowman or Roman when they return.

I think Roman will get a huge pop when he comes back. Nobody wants Joe Anoa'i to be ill after all and him beating cancer again will get a great reaction (fingers crossed here, I hope he makes it). Hopefully WWE will understand that the reaction he will get is a response to that real-life situation and will alter their booking strategy of him on his return. This is the best chance they have of getting the crowd onto his side and properly getting him over as a face but it won't work if they just revert back to their previous booking strategy of him main eventing every wrestlemania etc. If the crowd gets a Roman with more of Joe, the person we saw when he made his cancer announcement, then they will cheer him. If they instead get more of the fist cocking, wedding ruining, takes more finishers to put away than the Undertaker, "suffering succotash" person, then that goodwill will not last.

Well said, and spot on!

Joe > Roman, so yes, more Joe, less Roman, and all will be, if not well, then better.

On the Royal Rumble...

As much as I want Finn to win - and what a win it would be, reclaiming his Universal Title by beating Lesnar! - I don't think WWE will do this.

And even worse - they'll probably end up sacrificing the Demon King to Lesnar too.

I think we'll have an indication of whether or not Finn has a shot by who wins the men's Royal Rumble match too...

It's been way, way too long. Fingers crossed here!

 Alpharius wrote:
Well said, and spot on!

Thanks!

On the Royal Rumble...

As much as I want Finn to win - and what a win it would be, reclaiming his Universal Title by beating Lesnar! - I don't think WWE will do this.

Probably, though that will provoke backlash at the title remaining on a part time wrestler. Lesnar would be ideal to fill the role of a transitional champion for when you need to move the title around and don't want to have two people face off directly (either they are both faces/heels or you want to build one of them up a bit more beforehand). He has the legitimacy to win the title from pretty much anybody without it making the loser seem weak, and that legitimacy also makes anyone beating him look strong (so long as it is booked correctly, of course).

So say you had the Universal title on Seth (face) and wanted to move it over onto Finn (face) without switching either heel. If you don't have a heel who you consider up to the main event standard quite yet (say, Rollins has just beat your top heel decisively to end a feud but you have someone who is gonna be moving up out of the midcard in the coming months), you can bring in Lesnar to beat Rollins. Lesnar holds the title for a short while (maybe a couple of months) and meanwhile Finn cements himself as the number one contender and then wins the title from Lesnar. During that you can also be building up a heel to challenge Finn (Finn beat them to gain the number one contender spot, for example).

Just need to feed some people who won't be affected by the losses to Lesnar but are still believable as contenders for the title in the months you want him to hold the title (established wrestlers are ideal here, someone like Chris Jericho, just for an example, wouldn't lose anything by losing to Lesnar).

And even worse - they'll probably end up sacrificing the Demon King to Lesnar too.

That will be a huge shame. Because of how well the Demon King persona is protected, each loss has the potential to quite badly damage the impact of it. Too many and you risk Bray Wyatt'ing the gimmick.

I think we'll have an indication of whether or not Finn has a shot by who wins the men's Royal Rumble match too...

It's been way, way too long. Fingers crossed here!

Indeed. Thoughts on who you think will win the rumbles? Not sure about the mens rumble, but for the women I can see Becky Lynch being a surprise entrant who wins to set her up for a Raw womens title against Rousey at Mania. If that is the case then she should lose to Asuka in the smackdown title match. That gives Asuka a strong title defence (which she needs to help build her back up as a strong dominant force after her misbooking over the past year) and leaves Becky free to head over to Raw and take it to Rousey.