The Wrestling Thread

No Paige chants.

 

Balor on Social Media

 

Who the * is this 'Sam Zayn' Kofi is talking about.

Lulz, no way in * they're letting New Day into the arena tonight.

 

Main event time.

expect Taker to show up.

 

We want taker chants.

 

And Taker shows up.

 

Crowd went totally dead after Roman speared Taker, gonna be a rough Mania when he beats him clean.

 

Just suffered through another terrible edition of Raw. You would think less than 2 weeks out from WM they would be doing everything to make sure that WM is as good as it possibly can be on the Raw side of tings, but uggh...

Triple H v Seth Rollins.

With so much history, this should be easy, but Rollins injury hasn't helped the build here, and we don't even know for certain there will be a match at WM, but the build for it, if there is, has been terrible, aside from the incident at the end of last week's Raw.

Goldberg v Lesner

Neither of them showed up, but uggh, I just can't be bothered with this. Lesner just hasn't been the same since the fued with 'Taker. Had that lazy and underwhelming streetfight with Ambrose at last year's WM, goes off to UFC, wins a fight, gets busted for PED's, squashes Orton and has been doing the job to Goldberg ever since. Maybe he has been punised because of the PED thing, but he hardly has been booked as a monster. On the other hand there is Goldberg - a man who hadnt wrestled in 15 yrs, has had 3 matches since his return, totalling about 5min in the ring, and has taken exactly 1 bump... and that F5 from Lesner really seemed to knock him. Not just selling, but he was sweating something fierce by all accounts from that. I just can't get into this.

Roman v Taker

The conclusion of the Strowman v Roman main even on Raw should have been the finish that was booked at Fastlane. 2 weeks late. Good work, WWE. I just can't with this. This has to be the least interesting 'Taker matches in forever, and the buiold for it has again been woeful. So they are fueding over whose yard it is? Is that right? Seriously? They could have a * contest to sort this out, so who cares? Unless RR is turned heel, what is the point of this? Especially if it is shaping up and they are going to leave Strowman out of the scene. Often a Fatal 3-way doesn't work that well, but this is a contest crying out for the inclusion of Strowman.

The Women

First there was Dana v Charlotte, and all it really did was highight just how much Dana Brooke has regressed since being called up to the main roster. She needs to be back in NXT as she just cannot keep up with the rest of the division and really offers absolutely nothing.

Then there is the title scene itself. Every week as WM gets closer they find new and worse ways to destroy what seemed just a few months ago the most straight forward and easy to book build to what would be a truly awesome moment for Bayley to win the belt at WM. They have been completely tanked with terrible booking. The latest, setting Jax v Bayley in a NO DQ match... what the * were Charlotte and Sasha doing if it was no DQ? Why were they not out there interfering also, to prevent Jax from being involved in the mach at WM? Nia Jax is being built as some monster heel, and literally is twice the size of every other woman in the division, so you would think as soon as theyu announced it being No DQ, surely there would be interference. But, nup. And even if Sasha or Charlotte had helped prevent Jax from winning, what is to stop Stephanie McMahon from just adding Jax to the match anyhow, just because? I mean, isn't that her whole raison d'etre?

Sami still looks a chump, sadly. Cesaro and Seamus getting through their little obsticle after Steph had put implications on their match at WM also. But the tag scene on both brands is a complete joke.

So yeah, we got a whole lotta Steph, and ugghh... until she really gets her cummuppance, and this is Steph we are talking about, so she never does, we got more and more. Just stop.

TJ Perkins destroyed in less than 2 minutes by Kendrick. After the CWC this was the fued the divison was centred on. A few months later, it is less than 2 minutes so Kendrick can carry on fueding with a guy who wasnt even in country supposedly. I guess the match had ot be that short to fit in another Steph segment.

The list of positives is precious few. One, in fact.

Literally the only match/segments that are constantly delivering are the ones that centre on KO & Y2J. This week was no different. These 2 are gold. They were gold together and they are gold apart. Y2J's highlight reel was fun, the appearance of Joe, and the blindside assault by KO was right on the money what was needed. Out of every match Raw is contributing to WM, this is the only one that seems like they have done thie homework and built it properly.

 

Do any of you watch WCPW?

 

ive seen the cards, ive seen what they are doing and it looks good, i know they have joe hendry hosting shows on youtube now. but there theres just something about them i cant be arsed with. i think its probably the reditt hate and billion podcasts i listen to that are affecting me

 

The only people I really want to see wrestle at Mania are Charlotte, AJ Styles, Y2J and Austin Aries. Maybe Nakamura but it seems they've left it too late to work him into anything.

The rest is just meh. Unless they flip the script on what everyone expects them to do with Brock and Roman, i.e., clean Roman win over Taker and Brock squashing Goldberg, then the last chunk of the night is going to be hugely deflating. They're coming off a poor Mania and hopefully see the need to go above and beyond, but to them 32 was probably a 'good' event due to the massaged attendance record.

 

I can see a triple threat that way Roman can pin Strowman and take the heat off him a little bit

 

Tonight's WWE SmackDown and 205 Live will take place from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT as the Road to WrestleMania 33 continues.

SmackDown will feature The Usos going up against SmackDown Tag Team Champions American Alpha and the fallout from Daniel Bryan "firing" AJ Styles last week. 205 Live will feature Austin Aries delivering a message to WrestleMania 33 opponent and WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville.

WWE is focusing on the following points for tonight's SmackDown:

* Is AJ Styles fired or heading to WrestleMania to face Shane McMahon?

* American Alpha to defend the SmackDown Tag Team Titles against The Usos tonight

* Will John Cena and Nikki Bella or The Miz and Maryse emerge as SmackDown LIVE’s A-List couple?

* Who will survive the mind games en route to The Ultimate Thrill Ride - Bray Wyatt or Randy Orton?

* What will happen when Ambrose & Corbin clash again?


Monday's WWE RAW, featuring Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman in the main event plus an appearance by Triple H, drew 3.048 million viewers. This is down 5.7% from last week's 3.232 million viewers.
For this week's show, the first hour drew 3.163 million viewers, the second hour drew 3.117 million viewers and the final hour drew 2.866 million viewers, a 9% drop from the first hour.

 

TMZ reports that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was involved in a car accident today that left his black Bentley banged up.

The accident reportedly happened about a mile away from WWE HQ in Stamford, CT. Law enforcement sources confirmed that Vince was driving the car when something went wrong. Another car was involved in the accident but further details have not been confirmed. One witness described it as a "minor accident" and noted that everyone was okay.

Vince was seen walking around after the accident and appeared to be fine.

 

Pretty good start to SD.

 

Uso's winning the belts