The Wrestling Thread

[Applecore]

Wait, so Canada just gets the "streaming now" part of the Network? No on demand stuff? Fuck that!
If the UK gets the same then it's literally only worth it for the cheaper access to PPVs, which means it's completely pointless with how quickly they turn up online. Especially as they air at, what 1am in the UK? So as long as you set the download going in the morning, you'd only have to avoid spoilers for an hour or so (or a work day).

[Bearstock]

Yeah my anticipation for the network is waning heavily by the day.

I already watch NXT and PPVS online and have a pretty decent DVD collection.


Do wanna be able to watch through WCW and ECW though.

[Applecore]

Only select episodes of WCW Monday Nitro and ECW are on it at the moment..

Also as we're now at the halfway point, I can honestly say that RAW fucking sucks this week.

[Applecore]

Can't believe I'm saying this, but the show is saved by a Rusev segment!

[Applecore]

Another disappointing RAW this week..
Rusev/Big Show was decent, but I do think they fucked up by having The Rock squaring up to him last week, as now everyone wants to see Rock/Rusev and that makes the task of creating a good match so much harder for Big Show. That said, the crowd were into it and I actually found myself enjoying the match.
Ziggler/Orton was also probably the best Orton match I've seen for a while, too. That said, I love Ziggler, but I do wish he'd stop selling so much. If he's IC champion, he needs to assert some kind of dominance in the ring. Instead, he acts like every jab is like a baseball bat to the chin, and I find myself thinking "how did he win that belt again..?"

What I did not like, however, was both Divas matches being wasted on piss-poor tag teams, and Orton's demanding to face the loser of Ambrose/Cena's contract on a pole match in the Hell in a Cell main event.
There is no need for Randy Orton to main event Hell in a Cell. He's been as relevant as Kane for the past few months and has no real need to face either Ambrose or Cena - especially if they're removed from the feud by losing the pole match.
Plus, it means at Hell in a Cell, we either see Cena/Rollins (which means no Ambrose/Rollins, which everyone really wants to see), or Cena/Orton (which absolutely nobody gives a flying fuck about because those two have been wrestling against each other for 12 years). As you all probably know by now, they randomly decided to move the pole match to RAW for no reason, and we're getting the latter outcome.

I really hope they add another stipulation to the Cena/Orton match, because if they're really planning on closing the show with that, people are going to be tuning out early (though I suppose they won't care, as ratings don't exactly matter for a PPV, as people have already paid to see it). As it is, I've decided I won't be renewing my Network subscription in time for Hell in a Cell, and I'm just going to watch it after. Not even going to actively avoid spoilers like I usually do, as there's currently no matches where I care about the outcome (there's not even any title matches booked yet!). By the looks of it, it's just Rollins/Ambrose that I want to see, and I don't care who wins that, as long as it's a good match (which it likely will be).

Help us NXT, you're our only hope.

[Matty_the_Emo_Slayer]

Watching Survivor Series 87, actually one of WWE's best ever PPVs.

[Applecore]

I actually enjoyed RAW this week. There were a few odd choices made, but overall it didn't leave me thinking "Why do I watch this shit?" like recent weeks have.

SPOILERS AHOY:


One of the odd choices was having both defending champions going into Hell in a Cell on losses. Though to be fair, I did enjoy the 6-man tag match (for once). I'm now half expecting Miz to let Mizdow take the reigns on the title match expecting him to relinquish it back to him for the pinfall, only for Mizdow to get over excited and end up winning the US title, which would be brilliant.
AJ/Alicia Fox wasn't a completely terrible match, but I am finding that I don't actually care who wins at Hell in a Cell out of AJ or Paige, as I do quite like their feud and they're arguably the two best female wrestlers on the main roster (aside from Natalya). However, with the recent announcement that Paige and Alicia Fox will be appearing on Total Divas as of January next year, I am wondering whether this means AJ will retain (as apparently no Divas can hold the title and be on that show, due to continuity), or whether AJ will retire and they'll scrap that rule, as that'd mean the whole Divas division are on the show, save for Layla.
Also why did Seth need to curb stomp Orton at the end? Unnecessary feud is unnecessary at this juncture. Save it until after HIAC where they can get pissy at each other over Orton's title shot (assuming he wins, which for once I'm actually hoping for) and how he can't trust Seth to not screw him out of it by cashing in.

SPOILERS END.

I also think I am now looking forward to Hell in a Cell, though I'm still not sure of what's on the card.
I know we've got:
Sheamus/Miz for the US title
AJ/Paige for the Divas title
Big Show/Rusev for hopefully the end of that story
Nikki/Brie for a "loser is the winner's servant" match (read: tea break match)
Rollins/Ambrose for the best match on the card
Orton/Cena for number one contendership.

Cesaro's been going on about getting another shot at the IC title - does he have a match against Ziggler for that? Because he should.
Also are Stardust/Goldust defending the tag titles? Because they only seem to have been having matches against the Usos, who lost their title rematch.. Is there any other contenders? Seems odd that there's no confirmed tag team matches on the PPV..

I also saw a theory that the Wyatt situation will be (not sure of legitimacy, but spoiler warning again) Harper and Rowan are getting singles pushes and The Ascension are coming up to the main roster to be managed by Bray.
If that's the case, then I'm looking forward to it.

[Applecore]

Saw this shared on Facebook.. If WWE were an Indy promotion:

[Applecore]

Just caved and bought another month of the WWE Network so I can watch Hell in a Cell tomorrow without having to avoid spoilers while waiting for torrents.
Also realised that I've paid for 26/10 - 26/11, meaning I get Survivor Series, too.

2x PPVs and a month of WWE Network for $12.99.. that'll do

[Matty_the_Emo_Slayer]

Really sick of the way the whole company is being booked at the moment. Time for one of my fantasy booking rants.

Ambrose goes over Rollins with some really brutal hardcore spots but loses the match and Cena beats Orton. On RAW HHH loses the rag at both his guys for losing and Cena does his good guy shtick and offers Ambrose a match for his #1 contendership, which he loses.

The main event of Survivor Series then is a traditional heels vs faces elimination match with the Dust Brothers as new members of the Authority on one side with Rollins and Orton, plus Rusev as a ringer. The other side is Cena, Ambrose, Swagger and The Usos and to give it a big match feel The Rock is guest ref. This is so The Rock can embarrass Rusev again and cause him to be eliminated by Cena though his singles record remains intact. Aside from that it looks to be a clean sweep for The Authority til there is miscommunication between HHH at inside and Rollins Ambrose cleans house and is the sole survivor. After the match Lesnar lays out Ambrose and The Rock, setting up the TLC main event. Ambrose wins the belt at TLC and HHH orders Rollins to cash in, but he refuses. This starts the angle of Rollins being unhappy with taking orders and not being respected for his genius.

Meanwhile Rusev is pissed at being embarrassed by The Rock and declares war on movie stars. First he challenges The Rock knowing full well he's not in the building and celebrates a 10 count "win". He tries the same next week only for The Miz to step in and get squashed badly. He is out then with a kayfabe injury til his contract runs out and it isn't renewed. Yes unfortunately that means no more Mizdow but seriously, fuck The Miz.

Rusev looks like a contender for Rumble winner now but does the old double elimination Duggan/Piper special brawl to the back spot with a returning Batista, who he beats at Wrestlemania. Daniel Bryan also returns as well as the big surprise entrant being Kurt Angle, with those two facing each other at Mania. Naturally though Reigns returns and wins the Rumble. Ambrose retains against Lesnar in a rematch and again at Elimination Chamber and again Rollins refuses to cash in and lays out HHH with the case. This turns him face and he cashed in to make a Shield triple threat main event for Mania, won by Reigns.

Angle beats Bryan to set up a return 2/3 falls the following year where Bryan will retire Angle and having renewed their feud Wyatt beats Cena in a loser leaves town match with help from his new and bigger family. This includes R Truth as an apocalyptic preacher manager type, Curtis Axel as a disciple who's ashamed of his failure/disappointment, and even Sandow who talks about joining as the only logical thing to do.


Part 2 to come later.

[Jobdone]

Your booking goes beyond the next 24 hours, which means it can't even begin to happen.

[Applecore]

I'm hoping for Hell in a Cell to go as follows:
Cesaro/Ziggler opening the show with Cesaro taking the IC Title.
Dust Bros/Usos - Dust Bros retain.
Nikki/Brie gets cancelled because they realise that nobody gives a flying fuck. The two retire to valet positions.
Big Show/Rusev - Big Show wins to put an end to this terribly storyline.*
Sheamus/Miz - Miz lets Mizdow take over from him halfway through the match, expecting him to hand control back in time for the pin, but instead Mizdow gets the pinfall and wins the belt by accident.
AJ/Paige - I don't give a shit who wins, just give them time to have a decent length match.
Orton/Cena - Orton wins in a close match. Inevitably with an "RKO out of nowhere!"
Ambrose/Rollins - Ambrose wins in the most non-PG match they can get away with.

*Or, Rusev wins, and builds for a match against Cena at Survivor Series, given that his feud with Orton has come to an end, and he's not in the running for the title anymore. Then Cena would have to win that to stay relevant.

[Jobdone]

I've taken the last few mondays off for PPVs, but not really fussed this time.

The Raws have been so shit, and I only really care about Ambrose/Rollins.

Calling it now: Worked shoot where Ambrose ends up blading, and they stop the match.

[Applecore]

I've found myself caring a bit more after listening to The Wrestling Compadres Slamcast each week. When RAW is shit it makes for good piss-taking material, and that's actually made me look forward to HIAC.

The main matches I'm looking forward to are Cesaro/Ziggler, AJ/Paige and Ambrose/Rollins, but I'm morbidly curious about Big Show/Rusev, Miz/Sheamus and Orton/Cena (especially if it's actually going to be the end of their constant feud).

Fuck, I think WWE have suckered me in..

[Matty_the_Emo_Slayer]

Part 2

The RAW after Mania the Wyatts celebrate in the ring when the lights go out, everyone bar Bray gets laid out. Cue long feud with Sting and his stable made up of Finn Balor (bodypaint and all), The Ascension and Kane. This keeps Sting out of matches til the blowoff, which he loses. Sting for HOF 2016.

Also the night after Mania, Cena and Batista make their farewells to the crowd and go one on one in a no contest main event and both get laid out by RKOs. Both go off to Hollywood though Cena still occasionally appears for charity stuff etc. and to squash rumours of a HOF 2016 entry leading to his heel return in 2017.

The Authority is now once again is centred on Orton who HHH shoehorns into title contention and loses to Reigns. Following that The Authority focus on stopping Rollins and Ambrose from getting title shots. This gives Rollins a "can't win the big one" run like he had in ROH til he wins the belt finally in late 2016 while Ambrose brings in Solomon Crowe as his tag partner for a tag feud with Orton and HHH. Cue indy marking out for unofficial Switchblade Conspiracy reunion.

After Orton the next challenger for Reigns is Rusev who finally gets his streak ended qnd drops back to the midcard. HHH has a go himself at the next PPV before Reigns drops the belt to Wyatt at Summerslam. The belt becomes part of his ongoing feud til he successfully defends it against Sting at HIAC.

While this is going on Heyman reappears as a face with a lawsuit against HHH for all the times he's been attacked by wrestlers in the last 3 years and successfully parlays that into becoming the RAW GM. He gets involved in the divas division (renamed the women's division) by announcing the first ever Paul Heyman girl. Everyone will expect this to be AJ or Paige but it turns out to be Natalya. Nattie quickly wins the belt and jobs out all the deadweight who can't wrestle (Cameron, Naomi, Eva Marie etc.) making room for the NXT talent and next wave of indy women coming in like Mia Yim. I actually think if she gets taught a bit better Alicia Fox could be worth saving and Tamina will do til a new monster heel can be found. Or fuck it, just bring back Kharma. The Bellas will have to stay unfortunately but make the Total Divas show entirely about them and keep them off RAW. Keep them away from Daniel Bryan too, he doesn't need it.

The midcard gets a serious overhaul too. First Rusev gets his heat back by jobbing out some deadweight who get quietly fired like Fandango, Los Matadores, Hornswaggle etc.) and the midcard titles get to mean something again. First IC champ Cesaro beats US champ Sheamus to unify the belts, which he renames the European Championship. The new title is legitimized with a champ vs champ match against Reigns on RAW and then a gimmick is introduced where each champ can rename it what he wants. So first Cesaro loses to Angle who renames it the US title, Rusev threatens to rename it the Russian title but doesn't win it (ending the Ruskie gimmick so he gets repackaged as a kickboxer type a few months later), Barrett wins it and renames it the British Commonwealth title, Balor makes it the Irish title before Ziggler returns it to US title status.

At MITB a second midcard title called the Jr. Heavyweight Championship is made for smaller guys based around high flying and multi-man matches. Adrian Neville, Tyson Kidd, Hideo Itami and Sami Zayn are the stars while Kallisto, Sin Cara, Kofi, Xavier Woods and Zack Ryder are there to job and make up the numbers. Christian, a returning Chavo Guerrero and a 10lbs lighter Chris Jericho pop up occasionally to put the younger guys over.

The tag division gets a bump around this time with Barrett and Neville managed by Paige as the New British Bulldogs holding all the midcard belts and feuding with the team of Kurt Angle and Jack Swagger. The Usos stay in constant contention too as do the Dust Brothers, although Cody starts to lose the facepaint etc as he feuds solo with Angle to prep him for a main event push where he forces out Orton to be HHHs new (non-gold but golden) boy. Orton heads off to Hollywood as well while Cody will have a heel world title run including turning on Goldust. Goldie gets a 24 title reign in the middle but gets retired by Cody when he loses. HOF 2017 for him.

Ziggler also forms a team with Tyler Breeze, Kallisto and Sin Cara team when they're not busy in the Jr. division and Mark Henry and Big E team up with a powerlifting gimmick and have Titus as their "spotter". Eventually Titus outs Henry to make a younger duo and Bo Dallas becomes Henry's new motivator. Henry retires, as does Big Show who finishes his career off strong with a gimmick where he briefly holds both tag belts solo and Kane retires after the Wyatt/Sting feud. Hall Of Fame entries 2016 for them all.

Bo Dallas keeps the motivator gimmick going though where he has a new Partner every week, a retired jobber who he has gotten to Bolieve again. Guys like Brooklyn Brawler, Koko B. Ware etc. Kevin Steen gets introduced with a similar gimmick of an Attitude Era superfan who gets upset wins by being a deceptively great wrestler over guys like Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, Regal, Finlay, Goldust etc.

Ryback gets a new gimmick as the "Big Guy With The Big Mouth" which incorporates his Twitter shoots into his promos. This includes shooting on JBL and King over backstage bullying, hints of sexual misconduct etc. which turns them both heel and allows Darren Young to feud with both in an anti-homophobia campaign gimmick. Both then get put into backstage roles leading to an announcer overhaul. Cole goes back to his old heel colour commentator persona, Jason Albert or William Regal comes in as the new wrestling expert and JR returns as play by play man.

So for 2016 Angle wins the Rumble and Bryan beats Wyatt for the title, but Angle can't win the year in the making Wrestlemania rematch and retires.

And that'll do I think. A year and a half of booking, none of which will come close to happening.