MonteCarl

Finally got around to snapping a few pics from the book I mentioned awhile back. Here's the album on Imgur Lucha Suits https://imgur.com/gallery/PLhB5ns

Watching that Riccochet moveset makes me realize that Riccochet is basically every CAW I've made of myself since Smackdown 2. I've always created "myself" but as a masked high flyer/submission based wrestler named El Fuego del Monte (yeah, yeah....) and I've always given myself these same sorts of moves. Fun times. I haven't gotten a WWE game in about 3 years, but I am leaning towards eventually picking this one up as soon as the price drops for the Gold version where I can get all the downloads as a part of the game. Don't have much time for gaming anymore, but picking up a WWE game for a quick 2 or 3 matches when I have 20 minutes to spare has always been fun.

A multi-man match leaves open the option for somebody to win without pinning Brock, and that should not happen. Brock needs to be beaten or the victory will ring hollow and the threat of him coming back to claim he was never beaten is still there.

Should Abyss be a surprise entrant in the Rumble: 1. What kind of reaction would he get? Would a majority of audience know who he is and would they care? 2. Would he be able to use the name and gimmick of Abyss in WWE?

Bobby Roode and Chad Gable have low key become a really good tag team.

https://i.imgur.com/dfi0Md0.gifv

Wasn't there a report about a month or so ago that Cena's upcoming filming schedule made it unlikely he'd be at the Rumble anyway? This could've been the plan all along. Advertise Cena as being in the Rumble. Play that up for a few weeks. Have him lose a match to "pass the torch" to Balor. Then he is "injured" and can't make the Rumble.

Pretty sure it's Paul Diamond in there and not Konnan. I wasn't sure if there was ever an actual televised match with Konnan in the costume.

Put on a random episode of WWF Superstars while getting ready for work. It was the episode right after Flair won the title back from Savage, the formation of the Mega Maniacs in the lead up to Survivor Series, and also had the debut match of The Komet Kid, who would later go on to become Max Moon. I do not remember him ever being Komet Kid, so that was an interesting find. Also loved how he used his rocket pack to "fly" up each step to the ring.

I think this was the closest it ever got

After seeing Jinder fucking Mahal pushed from absolutely nothing to the WWE title within a one month window, saying it's "too late" for anybody is wrong. Anybody can be chosen and pushed at any time, even if their entire career beforehand was spent as a jobber. Prior losses don't matter if they decide to get behind somebody and actually try to push them as an actual threat. Hell, even Barry Horrowitz ended up with a push and got put on SummerSlam in a featured match once

So, decided to look back at the list of Rumbles and I think I'd consider Haku showing up in the 2001 Rumble as the first big surprise entrant. There were unannounced participants in other years (Mil Mascaras in '97, Bob Backlund in 2000, etc), but nothing too surprising. Haku showing up at the Rumble in 2001 when he was the current WCW Hardcore Champion in 2001 was the most surprising up to that point. After that, as I figured, big surprise entrants started in 2008 with John Cena (2008 also had the surprise entries of Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka). And every year since, the Rumble has featured at least one big surprise return or debut.

They did. I loved the opening video packages with Vince SCREAMING everybody's name who is in the Rumble that year. DINO BRAVOOOO!!!!! RUGGED RONNIE GAAAARVIN!!!!! THE RED ROOOOOOOSTERR!!!!! When was it that "surprises" really started with the Rumble? I think the first big one I can think of was John Cena returning at #30 two months after he left for arm surgery that was to have him out for 6 months. I don't think even the Attitude Era Rumbles were full of surprises, were they? Chyna showed up for one, which was a big deal I guess. But nothing like a returning Superstar or somebody brand new making their shocking debut.

Andrade is the latest victim to lose his last name in WWE. RIP "Cien" Almas

Maybe Naomi puts in a phone call to an old friend and we get the reunion we've all been waiting for!! #BringBackTheFunkadactyls

Man....mid-2000s Smackdown was a weird world

I remember when they called up Emma and tried to re-create the entire program/comedy match on the main roster, and it just did not get over in the same way. I don't think Emma ever really recovered and got a true shot on the main roster. Probably the first example of something that got over with NXT not translating to the main roster, as they never ever truly explained Emma to the main roster audience. She just showed up in the audience for a few weeks, Santino plucked her out of the crowd, and away they went. And they still don't seem to have figured out how to do a proper NXT to main roster call-up.

Aw man....are they going back to being live after SDL is over? I feel like it being taped before SDL really helped the show.

Oh yeah. Tegan Nox, not Kai. Kai wasn't in the tourney. Just swapped the two due to them being tag partners. My bad.

In last true King of the Ring PPV in, I think....2002?.....the one where Brock won, the winner was given a title shot at that year's SummerSlam. That lead to the Rock/Brock match with "PURE SPORTS BUILD!!!". Anyway, I liked that they added that stip to the tourney to give it a bit more meaning. And then, of course, they got rid of KotR the following year.

I thought that Toni not becoming UK champ was because of the injury to Dakota Kai in the Mae Young tourney. I believe Dakota was slated to win that whole thing, but she got injured. They changed the booking on the fly and Toni ended up winning the MYC instead, and they changed the UK tourney to Rhea winning the belt. So now Toni finally getting the title is where they wanted it to be from the beginning. That is how I thought it went, but I could completely be wrong.

How are piledrivers banned, but leaping Canadian Destroyers are not? Carmella looked pretty good in the main event. Didn't seem completely out of place in there with Charlotte and Becky. Surprised Becky won, but Ronda interfering in her match to cost her the title and then Charlotte winning the Rumble is a decent way to set up the Triple Threat at Mania with those three. Wonder who will end up challenging Asuka for the title at Mania? Naomi? Nikki?

I dunno what was up with that Braun segment. I think that whatever may have been lined up for Braun,he killed it dead last night with that horrible performance. It's like they either let him go out there with free reign as a test to say whatever he wanted and he froze, or he completely blanked on what he was scripted to say and he froze. There was a huge pause in the middle there where he just had the blankest of blank stares on his face, then his lips started moving a little like he was trying to remember what he was supposed to say but couldn't get it out. Either way, he looked horrible in that segment, killed any mystique he still had left, and I wouldn't be surprised if whatever was in store for him is over. EDIT: Wanted to add this real quick. This is an old friend of mine, Alicia, doing the interview of Sasha/Bayley. She was recently hired by WWE and has been doing similar work as this with NXT the last two months, but his is her first time "on RAW". Pretty cool to see somebody I know getting on WWE TV.