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I saw them open up for Gwar years back at The Chance in Poughkeepsie.

This is what we all get for not watching Black Adam, Young Rock, and the XFL.

This is time stamped at 7 minutes. For 5 minutes and 52 seconds this is a hell of a segment. Roman breaks it down that Cody can be the very best #2 or he can take another crack at #1. Cody comes out, responds, says he wants that title, he's going to take that title, finishing the story now means taking everything from Roman, and then literally 2 seconds later he says he's moving his own goalpost and again says he's going to take that title from Roman. And then 8 seconds later it turns into utter dogshit and nonsense. He's going to take the title. He's going to finish the story. But not at this WM?! So everything said about winning the Royal Rumble was...what? I can't even begin wrap my head around this whole crummy situation. And sure, it's a neat moment when the Rock's music hits and Roman realizes who Cody is talking about, but reality quickly sinks in that the Rock can't go anymore, that this flies directly in the face of everything that was being said by Cody just a minute earlier. The other thought that sinks in is the promo Cody and Punk had with each other. That 10 years ago Punk was where Cody is now and someone came in and stole his spot and this time that person's name is CM Punk. Turns out, no, the person's name is still the Rock. It's 10 years later and it's still happening. And for what? There are no buyrates. Ratings are good and better than they have been, but they're stagnant and they're going to be worse for SmackDown once it moves to USA and ratings will be irrelevant for Raw, nevermind the fact that none of that is happening until next year. WM is already sold out so there's no tickets to move. Cody is already the top merch mover and people are going to be a fuckton of merch regardless. Peacock is in the toilet and the Rock main eventing one night of WM against the Rock isn't going to change that. In fact, Peacock doesn't even give a fuck about live viewers for WWE PPVs or PLEs or whatever you want to call them. The Rock doesn't mean fuck all for Netflix at this moment in time. And this happened on a Friday. When the opening bell on the trading floor rings on Monday morning, is this going to matter that much then when there is still an avalanche of trouble Vince has caused? Maybe there's a bump, but it's going to settle back down. The point is, this is completely and utterly illogical. The Rock came in to raise Roman's hand at the Royal Rumble years ago to try and give Roman some kind of a rub because Roman was trying to become the guy and it didn't work. And yet here we are, again, with the Rock stepping in someone else's way. Someone who isn't old as shit, someone who can actually go in the ring, and someone who can help elevate talent. I think where most of my saltiness comes from is that I started watching Raw again, and SmackDown. I watched the Royal Rumble. I've been into the story of Cody finishing the story and my god, they actually made it a whole year without an injury or something else happening to Cody or Roman, and it's blown to bits. What's worse is Cody didn't even say what he was even going to do at WM. So, what, he goes on Raw on Monday with his tail tucked between his legs and challenges Roman to be the very best #2 in the company? How dumb and weak is that? So I reinvested myself because a lot of things were looking better and then once again it's like Charlie Brown and the football. It makes it feel like WWE isn't a company you can get emotionally invested in as a fan because there's never a payoff. For a short bit it looked that way. And shit, we're still 2 months away from WM. Is Dwayne going to wrap himself in bubble wrap so he doesn't tear something while working out again? So let's say that happens and Cody has locked himself into this not as good match against Seth. And never even mind that you still have Elimination Chamber coming up to determine a contender for Seth's title. The solution to all of this was so fucking simple. Drew wins the Chamber and challenges Seth. Drew wins or loses based on if he re-signs or not. On night 1 of WM you do the Rock vs Roman for Head of the Table. Regardless of the outcome, it's non title, but it's still a huge, huge match. And then night 2 you go with Cody vs Roman. Maybe to even the playing field on night 1 Cody has to overcome the odds against Jimmy and Solo, or hell, Solo and a recently debuted Jacob Fatu. This shit ain't hard to book for, and yet here we are, even after Vince is gone, with overly complicated and nonsensical booking.

How the fuck is the Rock winded during that post-show promo? WTF is going on? At least the Rock can't get injured being put in side headlocks or very long staredowns. Right? And anyone thinking that a Philly crowd, even if it's a WM crowd from all over, isn't going to shit on Rock vs Roman is deluding themselves. God. This endless title reign is fucking lame. It has gone on so long that someone is bound to get injured or get cast in a movie and fuck it all up. No one gives a shit about Roman having a longer run than Hogan. Also, what's this shit that it would have been a mistake to have Cody beat Roman last year? Exactly how would that have been a mistake?

WWE is the company that values stories though

[Cibernetico] You have got to be fucking kidding me. She's gorgeous, especially since they've let her be after she dropped the Lisa Frank kiddie schtick. She looks ten times better than most of their roster, too. But, assholes gonna asshole. Me? Gimme that Bayley Booty (sung to the tune of "Gimme that Frannie Booty" from American Dad) [/Cibernetico]

Bayley promo and face turn 10/10

I also NEED to know what Brandi thinks about all of this lol

fa la la fa la la fa la la

Just got back from the show. We had a fucking blast and it seemed like TK was genuinely appreciative of the response. Danielson/Hechicero was everything I hoped for and that's even with the janky finish.

I've seen Bayley a bunch of times live. Her stomach is completely flat and even if it wasn't.... who cares.... but again I think most wrestling fans on Twitter and Reddit are probably people who never leave the house.

“Why are these attractive young women trying to date these attractive young men and not the gross old men that came up with this contest!!?!?!” - Johnny and Vince, probably

If people wonder why fans like me get pissed that AEW keeps shitting the bed, this is why. We don't want to watch this corporate half-wrestling nonsense in the hopes that Gunther or Drew make the show worth it but the other show is so chaotic and amateurish that it makes WWE look better by comparison. That sucks for everyone

So, one of my resolutions for 2024 was to not yuck other people's yum. I've never thought that WWE's creative was any more satisfying that it had been, but I also chalked that up to just not caring about the folks WWE was choosing to feature. My thought was "Seth Rollins is an active channel changer for me, but if the people who like him think this is good booking, maybe it is." But this decision to go with Rock instead of Cody. Ooof. That's bad. It also reinforces my belief that deep down, Triple H is still the guy who wants to point and laugh at the smart marks for caring too much about the product. He's still the guy who's default is to answer any criticism with "how's your wrestling company going?" One thing I do hope comes from this is that we can all as a collective move past the idea that bringing back Johnny Gargano to come out to silence every week is Triple H "cooking" somehow. He inherited the Bloodline thing, has run it into the ground, and is right back to creative bankruptcy. He had Sami Zayn get hotter than any babyface since Daniel Bryan and passed him over. He had the chance to do something with the Judgment Day besides making them a total joke, but that's gone. Meanwhile, we're on iteration #7-8 of Karrion Kross, and no one gives a fuck. Tony Khan has many flaws as an executive, but I can't remember the last event he presented where there weren't at least 3-4 matches booked that made me think "goddamn, I didn't know I wanted to see that, but holy shit do I." It feels like WWE is right back to saying "we're the attraction, not the talent." It sucks, and I'm not gonna say it doesn't.

I never expected John Cena to be a talented comic actor but he’s incredibly funny.

Uh, what? What do you think he would do with the title? Defend it. More than Roman has. Again, there's zero point to have this title reign last as long as it has. Cody could have put over anyone else, had rematches against Roman, Roman could have kept his shit with the Bloodline going. It would have been a more interesting title picture than the utter boring shit that's happened for the last year.

My man Trips over here subverting expectations~ like he’s Rian Johnson Night 1 is going to have a whole subplot with Shotzi and Chad Gable traveling to a casino with racing camels or whatever the fuck looking for Keymaker Barry Darsow

Collision is my A Show. Dope wrestlers having dope matches because that's what wrestlers should do. Hechicero got pyro. Tony Khan you were on the fuckin' ball tonight. Queen Fuckin' Aminata. Brian Fuckin' Keith. Two women's matches. The Garcia stuff is absolutely clicking. This was a DEAN episode.

The true effectiveness of Jerry McDevitt is revealed when a transfer of power document for Jerry Jarrett circa 1994 is revealed to be still legally binding and all further creative meetings are just Dewey Foley working an ouija board.

Don’t tell that to Beverly Dundee

I think it was director James Gunn who said Cena was the best ad-libber he had ever worked with; that in Suicide Squad when Idris Elba refers to Cena being in his "tightie-whities" and Cena responded "That's racist!" it was completely unscripted and broke them all up.

At least WWE still has the opportunity to do the funniest fucking thing of all time. Give Seth his WM win back over Cody. DO IT YOU COWARDS

Never seen a promotion work as diligently to cool off their product as WWE has over the past year. I mean, plenty of other promotions have done it quicker and more spectacularly, but no one has matched WWE’s steadfast commitment to not giving their red-hot fans what they want circa Elimination Chamber 2023 to Now. They haven’t actually achieved it yet, but I have full faith in their ability to keep their nose to the grindstone and get the job done, eventually.

Let’s focus on the positives. We’ll get a couple of out of breath promos filled with vagina innuendos and 90’s catchphrases.

Per the Roman Gotta Beat Hulk Theory-cum-Practice: the entire idea is based on the notion that by eclipsing Hogan's 1,400~ days, Reigns becomes the longest-reigning champion in "modern" WWE history. But that's based on the notion that the "modern" WWE started the moment Vince Jr. bought the company from his dad, which is an event that is now basically impossible to celebrate.

Given what we know about Vince and Johnny Ace now, I'm going to guess the diva search concept was one of their most audacious and egregious displays of deviancy. Even at the time, the whole thing was so blatantly "how much will these young, attractive women degrade themselves to be on TV" that you kinda got the sense there was much more going on behind the scenes. There was also the infamous unscripted insult contest where Christy Hemme very explicitly said Carmella DeCesare was only there because she was doing sexual favors.

how to kill a territory in one single step

Run back WM 9. Roman destroys Rock in under five minutes. Cody comes out, beats Roman. Everyone goes home happy. No Rock having to do a Mania main event length match, Roman has an out, Cody gets his title. Whether you combine the titles again or not, whatever.

I said last year that once Cody lost, I would no longer care about whenever 'beating Roman' did happen. And sure enough, Cody winning the Rumble this year didn't have quite the same feel to it as last year's (it sucked), and now the Rumble win is basically just thrown away anyways. Hilariously bizarre execution of whatever they were going for here.

Dollars to donuts says to me that every single female wrestler/Diva during Attitude/Ruthless Aggression years had a NDA signed or possibly threatened with legal action if they spoke badly about the WWE when they left. More than likely, they were subjected to whatever Vince McMahon wanted them to do to 'advance their career' while they were there and that led to them leaving. I just think about the women that were there briefly like Kathy Dingman (B.B.), Amy Weber and Joy Giovanni and what they possibly knew.

My mistake for allowing myself to care. I get what I fucking deserve. Lmao.

My interest in WM just dropped to absolute zero. This is completely a lose-lose scenario. First, for a YEAR since he lost last year at WM you continue building to Cody finishing the story which was winning the title Roman has. Then you have Cody win the RR two years in a row. You have him cut this promo about Seth's title is this but Roman's title is the one with all the history and the one that meant the most to his dad and ultimately he...steps aside so a blown up Rock who can't go for more than a minute can challenge Roman at WM for the title that Cody has been going for and finishing the story is now taking the WWE universe from Roman? Uh, what? The mental gymnastics involved here and the galaxy brained thinking is astonishing. Seth vs Cody is a foregone conclusion. Seth's body is fucked. There's no fucking way Cody is losing to Seth so there's no drama there. No only that, but he's settling for a title that Roman just buried two minutes prior. And on the other side you have Roman vs Rock where Rock has zero cardio and Roman puts on a boring as fuck match so maybe, MAYBE it might be ok and he can carry Rock to something passable, but the two outcomes from that match stink. So Rock wins and a dude who is even more part time than Roman or anyone else is champion, a guy whose best option after winning the title is to drop it back to Roman because that dude is going to have shit matches against just about everybody. Plus, the Rock is the one to unseat Roman as champion, not Cody and not even anyone else worth of getting that kind of a rub or torch passed to them. And if Roman wins, great, he continues a title reign that is absolutely fucking dead and boring for another year or whatever the fuck. It's just stupid. It's Vince level booking. You could have easily gone with Drew vs Seth at WM and Cody vs Roman vs Rock with Cody in the Bryan Danielson spot beating an all time great and the head of the table to finish the story, but no, we must do this shit ass match with Roman and Rock.

Can confirm

Funny, I’ve thought ladies gear has gotten more complex design wise but less salacious in modern times, at least compares to the Attitude/Ruthless Agression eras.

Does the gear most of the female wrestlers wear really leave that much less to the imagination than most of the men's gear?

Cody almost had it

While this is just pure speculation on my part, but when aforementioned B.B was promptly and abruptly fired from WWE for dating Bob Holly, the reason given was that it was because Holly was married at the time. To me, it seemed back then that she was actually fired for getting involved with someone so low on the proverbial totem pole. No proof whatsoever, but I remember thinking it was so obvious at the time.

I didn't either but at the same time I'm not shocked? I mean he delivered years of awful promos with the most sincerity for years so once he got some decent writing it makes sense he would look better?

If you think the fan reaction is bad now, wait until Cody beats Rollins and then Priest immediately cashes in and wins the belt.

Cody: That is not the Hollywood title Introduces the living embodiment of Hollywood Profit?

Still posers, I assume? I liked them when they were underground.

All great new keywords that will need to be added into keyword search on everyone’s favorite streaming platform!

Sorry, didn’t mean to post this from my burner.

That's not the story they've been telling for two years or even the story that was told at Royal Rumble where Cody was pointing at Roman.

Wrestling has only one royal family

Lenny Montana, who played Luca Brasi in the Godfather.

Kaito Kiyomiya. I have two more, absolutely Oscar-worthy. If I can find the clips, I'll add them to this post. And to be fair to John Cena, Peacemaker was great and he was great in it. 1) "Looks like you lost your edge,lad!" Seems to be some kind of server issue with YouTube right now, but the entire 2009 Kurt Angle starring vehicle Endgame is up on YouTube.I cannot recommend it enough for anyone who is a fan of wooden acting and atrocious dialogue. It MST 3000-worthy! Edit: Here you go!