_MJ_

I thought the Pat McAfee smokes weed stuff from Paul was the tamest/lamest of the bunch. Although it would be funny, if that not-so-startling revelation is the one that actually gets him in any type of trouble at ESPN.

The Paul Heyman clips on Pat McAfee's ESPN show, that will be going around if you haven't seen them yet, is great timing considering the AAA acquisition news. PR doesn't matter much if it aligns with a certain administration these days, I guess. Ugly years ahead. Eh.

Thought about putting it there, but I had some board control issues so didn't want to double post by mistake. Feel free to delete it here and/or move it there, Dolfan.

Behind the scenes. Propaganda. Kayfabe vs. Unreal. Meltzer's job security. Netflix's Formula 1 formula.

Yeah, I noticed they ended the 4-way intercontinental match the same way they ended the women's 3 way match too. It would have been neat if they had Dom watching the match in the back in one of their many breaks, and/or have the commentary team make an offhand remark about Dom taking notes on it. Speaking of the commentary team, Wade came off the best imo, which is hilarious considering how long Cole has done this and even Pat. To be fair, that might be because I have less experience with Wade's verbal ticks and calls.

That might have been the lowest pop I've heard for Stone Cold Steve in decades. Meanwhile, I think Dirty Dom's win got the biggest reaction of the night. 2025. Priest/McIntyre and Bianca/Iyo/Rhea delivered. I think they are going to have to make this year, Drew's year. He keeps delivering for them so it's going to be tough to keep putting him on the backburner on every big PPV. Expect vague Meltzer Rock gossip after this event.

Cena/Cody segment was the best one so far in regards to their WrestleMania. Not sure if it's pivot or intentional progression: first Cena addresses the audience on the point of the heel turn, which wasn't great, and now Cena goes at/addresses Cody on the point of the heel . I guess if it's intentional progression the next step for Cena would be addressing the Rock connection to the match/heel turn, which I think is a weaker point than the Cody reasons imo, but hopefully I'm wrong.

Lylo victory makes sense if they got certain plans for the Jade/Bianca feud.

Depends on what timeframe you're basing this on as I don't think he's better than 2000 babyface Rock. I think a lot the success of this angle is weighted on the tone and execution of Cena's first promo after this incident. I think Cena only gets cheer if comes across as "cool heel" vs. "loathsome" to the audience. Cena can pull it off though and has enough pull to pretty much do/say what he wants in it so whatever the promo, it's going to be his way. The good news is that he's obviously thought about it for awhile.

Well, I doubt Austin's asking price to appear at Mania has decreased from last year to this year (at least, it shouldn't) so TKO might be willing to cut the check this time

You know if it was anyone else, I would say the ending of the ladder match would have been the first planted seed toward a Cody Rhodes long play heel turn. Nah...maybe...nah.

Let's pretend like this wasn't a double post and say Trish Stratus visually looks in better shape and a better presentation than John Cena now. Hot Take.

I'm more a causal now, but it let me have little less bias than I use to with favorites so I noticed: Alexis Bliss pop/ovation/cheers/whatever when her music hit and when she got dumped out were noticeably louder than Charlotte's entrance and her win cheers. May not mean anything but facts. To be fair, Bliss return was obviously a surprise vs. Charlotte's predictable win and they were building up her return with vignettes. Charlotte is a boring pick and crowd confirmed that with the reaction, but if they want Tiffany to have a big moment than Tiffany/Charlotte thing works though I don't understand how they would book it. Bron speared that Speed youtuber before he was in position and could brace for impact, and I think legit hurt that dude. Damn. Bron's spear on Roman looked good too, but the spear on the youtuber Speed guy was stiff. Damn^2. Did Penta feet hit the ground early on? Haha. I felt like I saw him a couple of times almost miss catching the rope after someone toss him out and almost got eliminate once or twice before he was supposed to during the match. I appreciate Logan Paul eliminating Punk. Kevin Owen is going to store that one in his bag for future use in a promo with Punk. TNA champ getting legit ovation tells you how valuable entrance music is for wrestling especially in the WWE and times that by 2 at the Royal Rumble. In contrast, Finn came out to some free sample generic rap song that I cannot even remember one lyric from right now, and it sounded like very few knew who was coming out or cared. AJ comes out to his old WWE rap theme music and it's a decent tune (at least has a memorable beat and chorus chant, which is half the battle even if you don't like the song) people still remember. It's not science. WWE needs to step their in-house entrance music game up or dig deeper into that TKO Corporation piggybank to license some legit songs out there. Good on them for trying to subvert expectations in the Men's Rumble with the winner after going with the easy Charlotte layup win. I don't know if Jey is very versatile and can be interesting beyond the YEET movement/Bloodline storylines but over is over and they are going sell a lot merchandise. I think I would be more cynic about his win if I was watching more regularly but legit surprise when he pull it out and WWE knew it and played with it with the Cena back and forth.

Exactly. It's why the world title scene with Punk/Drew/Seth, and now Priest has some spice to it. Anyone one of them could credibly win that title, and keep the audience interested (well, maybe Priest plus Judgement Day). They should do the same with Cody, especially if Roman and Rock are gone for a bit. This is one reason why I think they might turn Seth on him eventually.

Sami's story was better than Cody's imo, but I get why the people in charge would pick Cody to be the one to dethrone Roman. Cody is now a polish interview, and generally good at PR. It would have been fun to see a short Sami reign during that time though. I'm not a big Cody guy but considering the old school babyface he's playing, I think a lot his run is going to be determined by the quality of his rogues' gallery of heels during his run. If they aren't interesting and doing interesting things to him, his act could get stale. I wonder who they have lined up (minus the Rock).

I think Seth will eventually turn on Cody, especially if Roman really is taking some time off after Mania, but this could be the first step in planting the seeds.

Rock It's more than just "luck" though. He really could have just come back and did the face stuff even though I would have found it boring. He's been booed before at WrestleMania against bigger stars than Cody. Austin couldn't do this in the same way. Nor Hogan. I think Cena could if he wanted to but not sure. Storyline wise - they've done the "you can't your partner" device (Rock/Reigns and Rhodes/Rollins) now that we've talked about in these threads the past couple of weeks so we can check that one off. Good narrative checkmark there. I heard some people guessed that the Rock would play it safe and help Cody win the title against Roman early on in this his turn, but I wasn't convinced and recent segments from Rock/Cody makes me believe it even less so now. If Rock vs Reigns is still on the cards in the distant future, I can see them keeping Rock heel for it....not sure if they would go full face turn for Roman, but I don't think a turn (or partial turn) is out of the question especially if Rock wins the tag match, but Roman loses the title.

https://youtu.be/9cP4xQKhPtI?feature=shared&t=971 Randomly just watched this moment. Haha.

The Randy Orton cocktail. Yeah, they obviously hinted at distrust with Rock/Roman but if they want to do parallel storylines, they could easily do it with Cody/Seth as well with their history and Seth's Authority background/untrustworthy history. Sets up potential matches with them in the long run too if they go with Cody winning. Unless they are setting up some out of left field surprise Seth turn at Mania, they probably should at least hint at some tension between the those two too in the buildup to Mania.

The Black Adams shots might be worth mentioning since it's so recent (Hurricane pretty much did what you guys are talking about with the Scorpion King shots and it worked well), but I think Cody is the better option to deliver it rather than the other dude with a Sharknado sequel and Armed Response 2017 on his resume. Or maybe that's just plays into the back and forth. I do like the idea of this new heel Rock going to city to city and finding verified awful facts about whatever town they are in for next couple of weeks. I think Smackdown is in Dallas. Layup on the nightlight scene there.

Slight chance that "Fuck your story" becomes a 2024 motto/chant.

I think Austin in 1998-20001 could have played Connor McGregor's role in the Road House reboot but yeah, I agree with your point that the roles he might excel in are in less mainstream movies now.

It's fine not to like his movies, which him and his team likely picked more based on an algorithm for mainstream popularity than quality (see: Will Smith's 90s blockbuster strategy) or even the man himself, but is there really a debate on whether The Rock, of all wrestlers, has been successful outside of wrestling? I think Austin has found a nice niche for himself with the wrestling podcast/beer/and playing himself in various television roles now, but like it or not, the "they haven't been more successful than their wrestling character" description far more fits with Hogan and Austin than the Rock. Hogan is an example of it being bad thing and I think Austin might have found a sweet spot for now.

In ring-wise, I can agree with this statement, but even if they do not do a one on one with those two at Mania this year, Roman/Rock will still get them a lot press even if the match is awful and/or if they do at another PPV, if the Rock really wants to do it.

It doesn't matter if this was the original plan or not, that was pulled off surprisingly well outside of making Seth look like an afterthought at the end. Fans though they knew exactly where this was headed, but honestly, we're all still guessing at this point, which is a good thing at the moment. I said in the last thread that going the heel route with the Rock here would be a fun way to go because the "Cody is getting hosed" movement is easy to make fun of, and even kayfabe wise has holes in it, but I didn't think The Rock and his team would be go for it. It still looks like shades of gray for now but the slap was definitely not a "good guy" move. I don't think the Rock was thrown off by the crowd reaction since it was obvious it was going this way beforehand, which is why he was shit talking on Pat's show. I actually was surprise it wasn't louder from the Cody contingent there for most of it until Rock made the definitive heel move with the slap to Cody. They might manufacture the "good man is being held down by the Powers That Be" audience support level for Cody, but it ain't getting to Daniel Bryan levels....at least not yet. We'll see.