The Wrestling Thread

Ellsworth to enter 30 and win it

 

Elimination Chamber match is back always enjoyed that.

 

can't see that.

 

Aj v Shane at Mania

 

AJ should go back to Japan anyway.

 

Cena mixing the pot.

 

Natalya acting like a brat is the best thing ever.

 

Orton and Bray V Harper and Rowan when he's back.

 

great promo from Dolph Ziggler.

 

Mickie James returns.

 

Was so sure taker would win the rumble and go against Cena.

Now though I think that will make Braun a beast and get massive heat by throwing him out leaving it open for either Rollins our Finn to win.

 

Raw was * this week, so much filler with pointless matches. Smackdown is the perfect length, straightforward and punchy.

 

Smackdown live is brilliant love the edginess of the promos etc
RAW just seems to be stuck in the constant Reigns v Owens, Jericho v Rollins main events
3 hours is just too long for RAW with the roster that they have most of it ends up being boring filler

 

There's been a lot of recent talk within WWE about Michael Cole's future on TV.

Cole is reportedly becoming more and more interested in moving to an off-camera role as he continues with behind-the-scenes duties. Cole handles some parts of WWE production and works to groom the up & coming WWE announcers, including Nigel McGuinness.

No word yet on when Cole might transition into a full-time backstage role but lately there's been more talk of it happening.

 

Raw and Smackdown bang average this week, boring even.

Roll on the Rumble!

 

As much as he is criticised and not taken seriously with what he says (some stuff quite rightly so), Russo made a good point when he said as long as Vince is calling the final shots with story lines being filtered through him the WWE product will never improve. I tend to agree with him on that.

 

Monday’s WWE RAW, featuring an appearance by Brock Lesnar and a six-man main event with Braun Strowman, WWE United States Champion Chris Jericho and WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, drew 3.271 million viewers. This is up from last week’s 2.907 million viewers.

For this week’s show, the first hour drew 3.519 million viewers, the second hour drew 3.221 million viewers and the final hour drew 3.074 million viewers.

 

Triple H appeared on the FOX Sports Wrestling Compadres Slamcast this week and confirmed that WWEstill has plans for a women's tournament this year. The full interview will be released later this week but here is the exchange with host Dale Rutledge:



Last time on the show, [Stephanie McMahon] mentioned an idea for the women's talent that you were working on. Has there been any further development on that?
"So, that's another one of my big, big kind of passions, is to go do that, a women's tournament. And we're down the road a bit of — the harder thing now, in a changing landscape, I feel like sometimes in WWE, like, you know, Tuesday, I'm like, "Okay, so this is where we're going, right? No changing it? Yes!" On Wednesday morning, you have to call, it's like, "We're not doing that anymore."

"So you look at the landscape and how much it's changed in the last year. NXT Takeovers now are attached to our "Big Four" pay-per-views. Raw and SmackDown have split brands and have pay-per-views of their own, but there's more pay-per-views. When you look at the big calendar of where do you stick an event, that's changed. And you have to look for the space where you go like, "Do it here! … no, that's not good, you have a holiday." Right?

"So it's really just been a process with the women of us finding the right time and space. This one worked out great with the little gap before Rumble here, to fit this tournament in and doing it in a shorter time frame, doing it live.

"The women, we're probably going to do this summer, is what I'm hoping, and a lot of women performers just [reacted] when I said that, but that's the plan anyway. And you know, again, much like cruisers, it's to go scour the globe and maybe find the girls that are out there doing this that no one's heard of, that no one has seen, that are like these diamonds waiting, and bring them up. And let's see what they can do, and entertain people with the tournament, and let them be exposed to this new talent. And at the same time, just massively increase the opportunity and the talent pool for us, and for everyone, really."

 

A good NXT this week, can't wait for Takeover! Would love to see Roode take the title, only of course to pave the way for Nakamura to make the step up to the main roster, can't see it happening anytime soon though with Samoa Joe looking like he's the next to go up, highly doubt the two of them would leave so close together. Nakamura on Raw and Joe on Smackdown would be perfect!