Talking Smack is AJ TEASING ELLSWORTH!... and a pretty fun Smackdown as well

[MORELOCK]

Mauro needs an electric shock every time he brings up rap.

So were Nick Mitchell and Johnny Jeter busy?

[Fallacy!]

AJ Styles really missed an opportunity on Talking Smack to call back to Bret Hart's "who are you to doubt El Dandy?" promo when he challenged James Ellsworth.

[Niners Fan in CT]

Miz TV and the face off between Cena, Styles and Ambrose were both tremendous.   I used to really like the Spirit Squad so it was very cool seeing two of them back.

Ambrose has been so good on the mic since the brand split.  Not that I thought he was bad before but he's so great with these instense, chip on his shoulder promos.

I think Miz is winning the match with Dolph and ending his career but it'll be some real shady circumstances.

[RIPPA]

1 hour ago, Cristobal said:

When does Eva Marie's suspension end?

It's over - it ended back when Paige and Del Rio's ended too

She is off shooting a movie (which is why I think she now has the black hair)

[Just Dave]

Losing the belt was the best thing that could've happened to Ambrose, and I was pissed when it went down. He's been bringing the fire the last couple weeks. 

Mojo Rawley is a goober and Zack Ryder kinda feels like he's going through the motions, but they have some nice double team/transition stuff together. 

Becky Lynch is on another level right now. Alexa Bliss is gonna be a fun challenger, though...

[Raziel]

I'm guessing Ryder is pissy since Emma is getting repackaged on RAW while he's on Smackdown.

 

Like we knew was going to happen.

[The Green Meanie]

18 hours ago, Eivion said:

The Dolphumentary segment was easily the highlight of the show. Watching it made me sad because its even more obvious there is no way in hell Dolph loses this Sunday.

So is anyone buying into the story that's been going around that Dolph loses this weekend and gets repackaged?

[colonial]

7 hours ago, MORELOCK said:

Mauro needs an electric shock every time he brings up rap.

So were Nick Mitchell and Johnny Jeter busy?

Jeter mentioned on the Pancakes and Powerslams podcast that he was invited to participated in the skit, but couldn't due to a "conflict of interest" with his current line of work (non-wrestling).

[Rev Ray]

6 hours ago, Fallacy! said:

AJ Styles really missed an opportunity on Talking Smack to call back to Bret Hart's "who are you to doubt El Dandy?" promo when he challenged James Ellsworth.

I think it would almost be along the lines of when Cornette would talk up how the Midnights wanted to face the real number one contenders, not the Road Warriors, not the Fantastics, the Mulkeys!  The pay off for it was they were booked against the Mulkeys in Anderson, SC (their home town) and Jimmy having a coronary claiming they weren't going to get a fair shake because everyone in Anderson was inbred so the referee would probably be a Mulkey family member.  I also seem to recall that they actually did it as a main event and the Mulkeys were apparently in terrible shape to be working a main event lengthed match.

[Burgundy LaRue]

3 hours ago, The Green Meanie said:

So is anyone buying into the story that's been going around that Dolph loses this weekend and gets repackaged?

Not saying it will happen, but I think it's being considered.  When Miz said "no going to Raw or NXT, no mask, no coming back in 30 days"--if he's repackaged, Dolph wouldn't come back.

[Rev Ray]

11 minutes ago, Burgundy LaRue said:

Not saying it will happen, but I think it's being considered.  When Miz said "no going to Raw or NXT, no mask, no coming back in 30 days"--if he's repackaged, Dolph wouldn't come back.

Dolph is repackaged as the invisible man! 

[Burgundy LaRue]

2 minutes ago, Rev Ray said:

Dolph is repackaged as the invisible man! 

Leave the Invisible Man out of this!  He's actually cool.

[Matt D]

10 hours ago, Sammo~! said:

It's been mentioned (by Ric Flair, on his podcast, so take it with a grain of salt) that there has been talks between Dolph and the office about him moving into an agent role

I don't get this at all. The perennial complaint about Dolph that Meltzer presented over the years is that he had a way that he felt like he WANTED to work (quicker, spottier, over the top) that was against the notes the office consistently gave him. So he had a ceiling. That's the exact sort of guy they would not want as an agent.

[odessasteps]

38 minutes ago, Burgundy LaRue said:

Not saying it will happen, but I think it's being considered.  When Miz said "no going to Raw or NXT, no mask, no coming back in 30 days"--if he's repackaged, Dolph wouldn't come back.

Return of the caddy.

[JonnyLaw]

12 hours ago, Matt D said:

I don't get this at all. The perennial complaint about Dolph that Meltzer presented over the years is that he had a way that he felt like he WANTED to work (quicker, spottier, over the top) that was against the notes the office consistently gave him. So he had a ceiling. That's the exact sort of guy they would not want as an agent.

"Ok, so what's the plan for our match?"

"You're going to go out there and STEAL. THE. SHOW."

"Yeah, cool.  So what are we supposed to do?"

"Let everyone know that you are THAT.  DAMN.  GOOD."

"Sigh..."

 

 

[Sublime]

you left out the part where he tells them to bump landing on their neck a couple times and use superkicks as transition moves (the only transition move to be used the whole match)

[zev]

13 hours ago, Rev Ray said:

I think it would almost be along the lines of when Cornette would talk up how the Midnights wanted to face the real number one contenders, not the Road Warriors, not the Fantastics, the Mulkeys!  

This might not be the match you speak of, but whatcha gonna do when Mulkeymania something something.

[Kyuubi]

22 hours ago, Sammo~! said:

I guess the appeal is less that we want Dolph to win and more that we want Miz to lose. Miz's character is such an insufferable prick that for him to finally be taken down a notch by perennial loser, and overall knob Dolph Ziggler would be amazing catharsis. Of course if Miz beats Ziggler it makes us hate him even more and makes his eventual take down ever more satisfying. It's acceptable storytelling if you look at Dolph's as the banana peel that the villain slips on and not as the hero.

I get this and am totally for this, but it does not make the title important and undermines all what the Miz set out to do to elevate it.  Dolph is only after the Intercontinental Title because he was knocked out of contention for the WWE Title. He just wants to be relevant again. Miz on the other hand seems to relish the title and wants to do what Daniel Bryan couldn't. He even held Smackdown hostage and got a new contract ensuring that his importance as champion was noted. Dolph winning does not feel earned to me and while I do not like the Miz, Miz is more of a Face and a Heel than Dolph's babyface in this whole situation if that makes sense.

[Sammo~!]

I think it's more a case of Dolph being a bad baby face going up against Miz as an excellent heel. I don't see anything about the Miz that screams baby face to me. Does he want to bring prestige back to the IC belt? Sure. Is he doing that? I'd say so. But like all good heels, that's the kernel of truth to what he's doing. He going about it in a way that makes him a total asshole: cheating to win, bragging when he does, holding up his bosses for a contract, etc. And why is he bringing prestige back to the belt? Certainly not for the benefit of the fans or the IC title legacy, its to the benefit of Miz's legacy (and the secondary goal of rubbing it in Bryan's face). He doesn't give a shit about the IC title, he just wants to be the man to revive the title for his own ego. To the Miz it wouldn't matter if it was the IC, the US or a resurrected European title, Miz just wants to raise his profile and put himself in the history books. By any means necessary.

[HumanChessgame]

2 minutes ago, Sammo~! said:

I think it's more a case of Dolph being a bad baby face going up against Miz as an excellent heel. I don't see anything about the Miz that screams baby face to me. Does he want to bring prestige back to the IC belt? Sure. Is he doing that? I'd say so. But like all good heels, that's the kernel of truth to what he's doing. He going about it in a way that makes him a total asshole: cheating to win, bragging when he does, holding up his bosses for a contract, etc. And why is he bringing prestige back to the belt? Certainly not for the benefit of the fans or the IC title legacy, its to the benefit of Miz's legacy (and the secondary goal of rubbing it in Bryan's face). He doesn't give a shit about the IC title, he just wants to be the man to revive the title for his own ego. To the Miz it wouldn't matter if it was the IC, the US or a resurrected European title, Miz just wants to raise his profile and put himself in the history books. By any means necessary.

This.  If Miz actually cared about bringing prestige to the title, he'd be doing something similar to Cena with the US title and doing his best to defend it against all challengers.  Instead of that he's taking weeks off at a time to film his straight to discount rack movies and weaseling out of matches any way he can.  Sure it shows that he wants to keep the belt however he can, but as said above it's not because he cares about the belt or about wrestling in general, but because holding a belt means a bigger payday and a higher profile.  All of that completely fits his character of a D list celebrity trying to carve out a name for himself and makes him a great heel in that people desperately want to see him get his comeuppance.  The issue is that like Sandow before him, Ziggler has been such a big victim of 50/50 booking and given lousy material by the writers that people have trouble buying him as a credible contender to get behind.

[The Natural]

The Miz is having a great year and is on fire with his promos. Miz vs. Ziggler is the best position the WWE Intercontinental Championship has had in sometime. Great segment with Miz's video highlighting Ziggler's numerous fails. Hope Miz wins but expect the result to go the other way.

[Greggulator]

How is Dolph a victim of 50/50 booking? He's not a guy good enough to anchor a show or promotion. He's good enough to have some really special moments -- the Survivor Series match, his title win and his fun pairing with AJ and Big E come to mind. He's not good enough to be a guy in a string of main events. He's also a good guy to put other people over. He's essentially the definitive "solid hand" of his generation. There's nothing wrong with that role at all. He probably doesn't like it, but what quasi-athlete wants to be told that?

He's exactly the type of person should be in 50/50 booking.

He gets some big wins. He gets some big losses. But he's consistent in his effort. I get why some people don't like him but I think he's a fun worker and he's really brought some emotion lately.

[Web Conn]

I say Dolph should loose tomorrow. Let him go away for awhile focus on his 'stand up" try to get on some comedy shoows. I'm sure the Worlaholic guys would write him into an episode, I also think he'd be great on New Girl or Brooklyn Nine-Nine in a guest role. Separation makes the heart grow fonder keep Dolph on TV for like 6 months to a year then bring him back.
 

Also in regards to who finally beats Miz for the IC title, I think with the spat with D-Bry, aping his moves and being the antithesis of the indie wrestler an indie guy should beat Miz. I think it should be Joe but I'm hearing RUMBLINGZ that Joe might debut on Raw to feud with Strawhat Beauregard, which i think is a mistake as Raw has enough talent and SmackDown could use a few more hands on deck but I digress. If not Joe I think Aries should show up on SmackDown and beat Miz for the IC Title. maybe have Miz issue an open challenge for Survivor Series, Miz gets in the ring cuts a promo and have Aries come out and beat Miz. Granted The Series being in Toronto maybe a Canadian wrestler should debut, the obvious name is Bobby Roode but I don't think it's time yet for Roode to show up on the main roster. to wrap up this long winded paragraph another guy who I think would be a good choice to beat Miz is No Way Jose, yes he worked indie sin North Carolina but isn't an indie darling per say but after seeing him at the NXT show in Portland dude is super over knows his gimmick and does it really well and I think a babyface character like that would benefit immensely from debuting and beating a pipsqueak heel like Miz.