JANUARY 2017 WRESTLING DISCUSSION

[RIPPA]

Someone is going to have to talk me out of going to Takeover on my birthday

(That someone will probably be my wife but still...)

[Matt D]

I went up to Philly two years ago for the Rumble. Poor Rocky. Most hostile crowd I've ever been a part of by far. It was surreal.

This might be the only road report I've ever written actually: http://placetobenation.com/matt-ds-rumble-road-report/

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

I think I'm going to attend. 

[Craig H]

Fuck this idea of Styles vs Shane. For fucks sake. Furthermore, fuck the idea of Styles not being champion going into WrestleMania or even challenging for the title. What a bunch of dumb bullshit. He and Cena have been the biggest breath of fresh air lately, pushing Cena to change up his persona and actually having a heel be portrayed as someone who is more ultra-confident athlete and less of a chicken shit.

By the way, there's still talk of Angle doing something, possibly one last match. If Cena isn't facing Styles or Joe or Undertaker or whatever...then how about Angle challenges Cena to one last match. Angle was Cena's first opponent and now he can be his last. Angle has something to prove for his legacy, going out on top, while Cena showing that he's a million times more the man that originally face Angle so many years ago.

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

I dont think Vince will ever put Angle in the ring.  Not after what happened to Lawler and Sting.  I don't think he takes the chance again.  

[Phantom Lord]

Well, I guess it's a good thing Wrestlemania is at an open air stadium this year. The boo's will just go up and out (hahahahaha) if Reigns beats The Undertaker.

So here's an interesting question for you all. If Balor didn't get injured would he of had a mediocre Universal title run just like Owens or would he have all ready lost it Reigns by now?

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

Just now, Phantom Lord said:

Well, I guess it's a good thing Wrestlemania is at an open air stadium this year. The boo's will just go up and out (hahahahaha) if Reigns beats The Undertaker.

So here's an interesting question for you all. If Balor didn't get injured would he of had a mediocre Universal title run just like Owens or would he have all ready lost it Reigns by now?

I mean the booking is so bad, I can;;t see how he would have had a good reign.  

[RIPPA]

18 minutes ago, Playa Shunna Ver 3.0 said:

I dont think Vince will ever put Angle in the ring.  Not after what happened to Lawler and Sting.  I don't think he takes the chance again.  

Lawler just signed a year deal and they appear to be setting up a Lawler/Ziggler match based around his heart attack so shows what you know

[RRR]

Suplex City versus Finisher kick out city here we come. 

 

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

18 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Lawler just signed a year deal and they appear to be setting up a Lawler/Ziggler match based around his heart attack so shows what you know

lol.  I guess so.  It's just a long list of legends who were nearly killed or paralyzed in the ring, and Angle is always trying to one up people.  

[Web Conn]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

Lawler just signed a year deal and they appear to be setting up a Lawler/Ziggler match based around his heart attack so shows what you know

Wouldn't it make more sense to continue the Ziggler vs Crews feud with Lawler becoming a coach of sorts for Crews teaching him his little nuances so he's better equipt to beat Ziggler at his own game. Crews goes on a winning streak applying what Lawler taught him. Then with Lawler in his corner at Elimination Chamber have Crews beat Ziggler by the skin of his teeth using one of Lawlers little tricks he learned. The streak and the feud of Crews and Lawler vs Ziggler continues.

At Mania Crews and Ziggler and even Lawler are participants in the Andre Battle Royal. Some point during the battle royal, Crews eliminates Lawler using what Lawler has taught him. Lawler is at first surprised then he throws a fit at ringside. Ziggler and Crews are the final two in the battle royal having a five or six minute little mini match until Crews eliminates Ziggler winning the trophy.

The next SmackDown have Crews cut victory speech in the ring with the trophy. Ziggler comes out says some shit then Lawler comes out says some shit about being betrayed by Crews then Ziggler and Lalwer jump Crews until a debuting No Way Jose comes down and makes the save making Crews and Jose a team. At the next SmackDown PPV have Crews and Jose vs Ziggler and Lawler. Lawler's contribution in the match can be minimal. Crews and Jose get the win Laler and Ziggler argue after the match and turn on each other.

At the June Smackdown PPV Crews and Jose win the Smackdown Tag Titles and Ziggler faces Lawler going over. You Lawler to put over three talents instead of one and you have a program that goes 6 months instead of one or two. I don't know makes sense to me.

[Sublime]

Yeah but putting over talent doesn't seem to make as much sense to WWE's writers these days

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

Yo Web Conn, thats great and all but you are using too much logic.  First you have to put Lawler over Crews on a random episode of SmackDown with no story or build.  Then you have to have a story where Lawler eats Crews catering and Crews challenges him to a match on a random SD and loses.  Then you need an unexplained tag match where Crews and Lawler are partners and love each other and Lawler pins a debuting Jose.  Then you need to inexplicably break them up and have Lawler win another match during a PPV opener.  Then Crews can get his win on an episode od Main Event.  Then we can forget the whole thing happened.  

[mattdangerously]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

Lawler just signed a year deal and they appear to be setting up a Lawler/Ziggler match based around his heart attack so shows what you know

They also seemed to be setting up Bryan vs Miz, so it isn't out of the realm of possibility that they have no plans whatsoever for Lawler vs Ziggler, despite appearances to the contrary.

[Ace]

6 hours ago, RIPPA said:

I don't think there has been a specific thread about it.

It pops up in conversation every once in awhile. Like most recently it came up because Meltzer said he would have loved to have kept making them but I guess the company decided not to. (Ignoring the issue rights ownership now too)

It got a lot of play when it was new, IIRC. The SMW follow-up, not so much.

 

[Dolfan in NYC]

7 hours ago, RIPPA said:

The latest Mania card speculation from the newest WON

Spoiler tag due to size. And again this is also speculation from Dave based on what he has been told. Both the Rumble stuff and Mania card will change 8420924 more times

  Hide contents

The key in charting the winner is to look at WrestleMania. Traditionally, the Rumble winner will be in the title match at Mania. With two brands, that’s two titles. Also, with two PPVs, the Smackdown-branded Elimination Chamber and the Raw-branded Fast Lane, there will be title matches involving both brands’ champions taking place before Mania.

The plans at this point are that neither Kevin Owens nor A.J. Styles will be champions going into WrestleMania. Smackdown has an Elimination Chamber match, meaning six guys will be in, so if John Cena wins the title at the Rumble, and that’s being teased (although they did downplay the tying of the Ric Flair record this past week), that doesn’t mean he’ll retain it in the Chamber match.

The Mania lineup at this point is looking like Goldberg vs. Lesnar, Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns, HHH vs. Seth Rollins, Jericho vs. Owens, Wyatt vs. Orton, Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal and Charlotte vs. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax as the Raw women’s title match. The key is the Rumble winner is likely, although they could swerve, to be the person who will challenge for either the Universal title or WWE title.

The only Smackdown match on that list is Orton vs. Wyatt, and it’s not a secret that Wyatt was scheduled for a title run in 2017. That immediately puts both of them in contention, and if one wins, the other would be favored to win the Chamber match. There’s a story that just started going around about Orton winning the Rumble and Wyatt winning the Chamber match. If that doesn’t happen, it would be because plans changed. Even though historically the booking before Mania always gets out and it almost never changed (it changes for other reasons, such as injuries or guys quitting, but that’s usually known as well), with the increase in social media, my feeling is nothing is a lock until it happens. I doubt we’ll see major destination changes, in the sense the top of the card will probably be pretty close to as is slated now, but how to get there could change.

On the Raw side, Goldberg vs. Lesnar, Undertaker vs. Reigns or Jericho vs. Owens would likely be the title match. Goldberg’s storyline explicitly mentions coming after the title. Owens vs. Jericho would make more sense as the U.S. title match since Owens would figure to win if Jericho is still going to tour over the summer.

Coming off the Rumble, or at least when the Fast Lane main event is announced, that should make the Raw title direction obvious, unless it’s Reigns vs. Goldberg at Fast Lane and Owens isn’t figured in, at which point it won’t be as clear.

Among the key guys, the obvious guys not on the list of matches are Cena, Styles, Balor, Dean Ambrose and Strowman of guys that will likely be in key matches. Cena vs. Samoa Joe was definitely an idea that was pitched, and made sense based on a few things we’ve heard, but we’ve never heard a confirmation on that. There are rumors of Styles vs. Shane McMahon, and Styles did complain about the idea of the Elimination Chamber match to Shane and neither have anything going. As noted before, Goldberg agreeing to stay past one match may have saved Lesnar from this year’s Shane program and Shane pitched for that idea and they had started in that direction before it was dropped cold.

Strowman is harder to figure, as he’s clearly being pushed for something big. They’ve teased the idea of doing spots with him with Undertaker and Show at the Rumble. But all the guys you’d think they are building him up for, Goldberg, Lesnar, Undertaker, Reigns or Show, are all taken at this point. He could be put in there for the Andre Battle Royal, and perhaps take that one (at one point that was the idea last year but the feeling at the time is he wasn’t ready), and then work with one of the aforementioned names after Mania in a top program. One would think he’ll play monster in the Rumble, and there will be a story built from his elimination to take him to his next destiny.

I could see the Smackdown women’s title in a multiple person match, except you don’t want both women’s titles up in the same type of match. Nikki Bella and Becky Lynch are the most over of the women on the brand, but both are faces. Nikki has been kept away from the title ever since the brand split, and they’ve been feeding her heels to fill her time staying out of that picture, so her chasing would be new.

Undertaker vs. Reigns is notable because Vince McMahon made the call to go from the original Undertaker vs. Cena direction to this match. On paper, this would make it a lock that nobody is coming close to the boos Reigns will be getting on this show. Regardless of the outcome, this to me only makes sense if the plan is an all-out Reigns heel turn and use this as the springboard. Otherwise, the idea of Undertaker beating him and then endorsing him won’t work, because Daniel Bryan and Rock endorsed him and it didn’t work. Undertaker losing to him unless the match is dramatically perfect will only get him more heel heat.

With Balor returning, they do have someone who perhaps can be a top face, since Seth Rollins, even though he’s in a great position the next few months, seems to have been botched as far as being the top of the brand face. Then again, Smackdown had Ambrose in that spot when Cena was gone and everything was fine.

The problem the past few months, is for full-time on the road, they only had two they had in that top slot, Reigns and Rollins, and Jericho and Owens couldn’t be turned early or it would kill the timing of their angle. Still, we’ve heard nothing about a Reigns turn and it’s always the idea that he gets cheered on the house shows and it’s only the vocal minority that boo him. Plus, they’re comfortable since the years of Cena being booed and also being the biggest arena draw and merchandise seller have taught them not to overreact to the television the PPV crowd responses.

So that build all starts this weekend.

An angle for HHH vs. Rollins is expected this weekend, where Rollins finally gets some revenge and sets up HHH finally appearing as a television character. Rollins won’t be a participant in the Rumble, unless something changes the day of the show, since he lost his spot in storyline to Zayn on Raw due to manipulations from HHH and Stephanie. Smackdown has also teased something with Jerry Lawler (who will be announcing the Rumble match itself) and Dolph Ziggler, which is likely for the Rumble match.

 

I am distressed that the words Sami and Zayn appear nowhere near "Mania plans" in this post. 

[MORELOCK]

6 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Of course - we have long since past the point where Mania is going to be a card taylored for what I want in wrestling

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

8 minutes ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

I am distressed that the words Sami and Zayn appear nowhere near "Mania plans" in this post. 

Man, Sami's stock has crashed.  

[PetrolCB]

I agree. He's a very generic guy now. 

[Godfrey]

Sami had a weird year. He started big with the Nakamura match and then winning his feud with Owens, but by putting the IC title onto Ryder and then Miz (which I think we all can agree was the right move in the end) it left Sami with not much to do. The thing with Braun was okay but it wasn't time for either guy to lose so they booked it so neither really did. And now he's definitely treading water. BUT, and this is a capitalized but, stick him in a good feud and he'll be back in form in no time. I'd really like to see him challenge Jericho at Mania because I think those two would have a hell of a build and match, plus he could get a title to defend and that really plays to his strong suit.

[zev]

46 minutes ago, PetrolCB said:

I agree. He's a very generic guy now. 

Generic? Generic...oh...I see what you did there.

 

As for his stock crashing, would that have been the hour he got called up from NXT, or the night of the brand split?

 

[PetrolCB]

After the Nakamura match, his expression pretty much said, "Yeah, this'll be it for me."

[Eivion]

32 minutes ago, Godfrey said:

Sami had a weird year. He started big with the Nakamura match and then winning his feud with Owens, but by putting the IC title onto Ryder and then Miz (which I think we all can agree was the right move in the end) it left Sami with not much to do.

They fucked up by not putting him on Smackdown. He should have been the one to initially beat Miz for the IC belt.

[Burgundy LaRue]

IMO, I think they whiffed on most of the roster split.  It's clear that SDL is the traditionally booked wrestling show while RAW is supposed to be more of a mainstream saga.  Guys like Zayn, Cesaro, KO, and even Rollins are much better suited for SDL.

[Just Dave]

Meh. I mean, I'm curious as to what most of y'all think Sami Zayn's ceiling is in WWE. He's just another guy there....