Niners Fan in CT Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Meltzer stated that Cody merch... through the roof. He also stated that Cody was a huge draw for a few recent house shows. People want to say Zayn has more support but the numbers haven't shown exactly that. They are both over... Zayn probably does have more support but we are not close to Bryan/Dave levels from 2014 at all.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Cincinnati Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Things are fine so far, but there are clear risks depending on how people respond to where the Sami story is going and there's no reason for anyone to stick their head in the sand on that front. The people are with Cody right now, but there's no certainty it remains strongly one-sided. Cena had great merch numbers at his peak too, that didn't necessarily reflect what people's ears were receiving when they watched the shows. Things can change, but nobody in here is saying the sky is falling. Of course the people elsewhere who strongly feel it's "world title or bust" with Sami kind of ignore the story with the Usos has been the big thing going on there the past year. Hopefully they have something coming out of Montreal that gets people to accept that as an A-story worthy of Sami's time at Mania. It doesn't help that the tag titles have been so often treated as a joke or an afterthought. There's a historic tag title reign going on right now, and that playing into the next step of the story with Sami and the Usos should feel just as big as a world title win. People have speculated such a match could main event night one of Mania. That some people are so quick to see it as a consolation prize for Sami has to be at least partially a reflection of how tag team wrestling has been treated for so long in WWE. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamal Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Outside of when she was batshit Laurel Van Ness, this has to be Chelsea's best character yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 (edited) 27 minutes ago, John from Cincinnati said: It doesn't help that the tag titles have been so often treated as a joke or an afterthought. There's a historic tag title reign going on right now, and that playing into the next step of the story with Sami and the Usos should feel just as big as a world title win. People have speculated such a match could main event night one of Mania. That some people are so quick to see it as a consolation prize for Sami has to be at least partially a reflection of how tag team wrestling has been treated for so long in WWE. I would say its more the reality that as much as Owens and Sami have tagged in the indies and been touted as friends to the WWE audience both guys are singles wrestlers. Sami simply hasn't been a tag guy in WWE, and the person he has beef with the most in the Bloodline story is Roman. Anything less than beating Roman is a consolation prize for Sami realistically speaking. I'm not sure how its even arguable at this point. Saying that I don't think they are in a Bryan/WM30 situation where everything is fucked if they go with anyone but Sami if only because the same type of fans who were in revolt back then are a decent amount of ones who want Cody to succeed. Edited February 8, 2023 by Eivion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt925 Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 The only way they can have Sami lose the match in Canada with the red hot crowd is to have jey betray him and reigns gets full heat and goes super strong heel right? Then the fans will really want to see Cody defeat reigns at mania. I think that will work out. This promo really helped things along though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Would fans get to be behind Cody, or would they just be angry its not Sami in the spot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nofuture Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Pretty cowardly of Gigi Dolan trying to escape thru the Ding Dong Hello door. 1 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kang Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Weird that the real Jannetty known as Jacy attacked the real Michaels Gigi. Anyway bye Toxic Attraction, lasted from Aug 31, 2021 to Feb 7, 2023. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt925 Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 12 minutes ago, Eivion said: Would fans get to be behind Cody, or would they just be angry its not Sami in the spot? We’re gonna find out lol. Hopefully things work out and Sami can come out strong after mania, and the crowd doesn’t turn on Cody. We shall see. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEAN Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Zoey Stark carries a very game Sol Ruca. Ruca is very athletic. Stark lays it the fuck in. Ruca makes Stark's finisher look great. Postmatch, Ruca hits her viral finisher! Dabba- Kato is very big. Hey, he sells a lot. Good for you, big man. Allright! It's Isla Dawn! Tatum Paxley! Like Tatum O'Neal! Paxley is spunky but shows a lot of daylight, which is odd because Dawn shows zero daylight even in this match where she isn't actually beating the crud out of someone. JD McDonagh takes Carmello Hayes! McDonagh is so fucking awesome. Hayes goes up BIG for McDonagh's truly nasty offense. This match is fucking great. Great nearfalls! Submissions! Powermoves! Finishers! Dragunuv! Hayes wins! That match had it all! (oop! I'll finish this tomorrow.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Zoey/Sol was nice. Zoey does well in leading Ruca, but its also pretty impressive how well Ruca has picked up on things so early into her career. Dabba-kato/Dante was a nice competitive squash. Both men came out looking good. The Isla/Tatum segment was fun. The eventual match was pretty solid as well. Hayes/JD was was good like expected. Was nice to see Ilja return. Loved the tease with hitting Hayes only for him to leap completely over him onto JD. Lyra/Feroz was decent enough. Kind of liked Elektra's interference backfiring. Odyssey/Stacks was fun. Jones looked like a beast and Stacks looked good working his way to a victory. Thea telling off Stratton was a bit random but fun. The kidnaping by Rock's daughter was unexpected and kind of hilarious. Pretty Deadly vs. Chase U was so much damn fun. Loved PD feeling so down and somehow still bumping like 80s heels. The return of confidence and comeback led to some nice action as well. The finish with Thea finally breaking free and being scared shitless worked. Its interesting and weird to see WWE and wrestling finally treat a kidnaping like a kidnaping in terms of Thea's reaction. The final segment with Bayley and Toxic Attraction was gooood. Its easily the best promos Gigi and Jacy have given. Loved how everything unfolded with the early tension coming to a boil, only for Bayley to gradually and seemingly bring them back together before Jacy decided Gigi is her Jannetty. I liked TA as characters, but was never impressed with the two as a team. I'm curious to see what both do on their own. Neither are natural faces, but Gigi is the more likely to be liked of the two so it was smart giving Jacy the bigger heel push here. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 I don't know if the door was supposed to break when Gigi hit the door but it looks so much better when it didn't. Although probably more painful 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEAN Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 6 hours ago, Eivion said: Pretty Deadly vs. Chase U was so much damn fun. Loved PD feeling so down and somehow still bumping like 80s heels. The return of confidence and comeback led to some nice action as well. Pretty Deadly are so fucking awesome. WE'RE BACK, BABY! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 If I can go back to Roman/Sami/Cody for a second… I finally watched the whole segment from last Smackdown, and can we all come to an agreement that it was actually a pretty bad promo by Roman prior to Sami showing up? It was quite meandering and non-committal, and I definitely interpreted the fans boos as less “we don’t want Cody” and more “we don’t like that Roman is using Cody to duck Sami.” Which would be a fine heel note to play in most other circumstances, but when this is your first opportunity to sell the Mania main event, I feel like you don’t necessarily want to start by putting it in the context of “we’re giving you something you want less than this other thing.” Huge unforced error if unintentional. But part of me also wonders if it wasn’t *a little bit* intentional. I feel like this has been lost to history, but there was a period of time during Cody’s BTE era when he was on a Fuck Roman Reigns jag, and I wonder how long the Tribal Chief’s memory is. Would he rather drop the title to a guy he’s been giving the rub to for most of the last year or a guy who was sniping him from the indie scene for years? Not sure how much of a politician Roman really is (although I can’t imagine you get to be champ for eternity without being a little bit of one), but if he continues to obliquely bury Cody as a challenger in the coming weeks, it’s worth keeping in mind. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolfan in NYC Posted February 8, 2023 Author Share Posted February 8, 2023 2 hours ago, DEAN said: Pretty Deadly are so fucking awesome. WE'RE BACK, BABY! I'm getting more and more convinced that Pretty Deadly is such a good Rockers Tribute Act that Shawn is going to superkick one of them just out of instinct. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramo2653 Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Melo/JD was a banger! If Melo has to take on the UK guys before getting Bron all the better TBH. Pretty Deadly are awesome and their bumping in the match was perfect for Chase and Duke offense. The Nikitta injury whodoneit angle should be fun to play out. And we get Satomura next week! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 I didn't believe in X-Pac heat until I saw Toxic Attraction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Comedian Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 I feel like a lot of people are preparing for a fan turn on Cody that's not gonna happen, or at least not for a while. Certainly not before Mania. Keep in mind Cody's actually got a closer storyline to Bryan than Sami does. "Evil WWE Creative tried to bury me but I persevered and now I'm gonna take the gold to prove them wrong once and for all." That will carry him through this. And WWE won't let him do the kind of dumb "Codyverse" shit he got away with in AEW. This isn't like giving the fans a choice between Bryan or Batista, it's like giving them a choice between Bryan or Punk. Either way they're gonna cheer. It's a win/win... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Has there been a bigger apparent discrepancy between “smart fans” and “casual fans” than reaction to the Cody or Sami debate? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hail Sabin Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 11 hours ago, hammerva said: I don't know if the door was supposed to break when Gigi hit the door but it looks so much better when it didn't. Although probably more painful That then Jacy kicking Gigi Right in the Face! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
username Posted February 9, 2023 Share Posted February 9, 2023 7 hours ago, odessasteps said: Has there been a bigger apparent discrepancy between “smart fans” and “casual fans” than reaction to the Cody or Sami debate? I think it is less that and more that the smarter fans have generally been around a bit longer or at least are more familiar with the company's history, and this sort of situation has popped up a few times in the past and it generally has gone a certain way. Bryan/Batista is one but they also ended up switching around Kofi and Owens during Bryan's last WWE title run because Kofi unexpectedly got very hot. Add in that we've seen a different crowd turn on Cody not that long ago and heading into this it was reasonable to wonder if history was gonna repeat once more. Not for nothing, but Batista was a much bigger star than Cody and probably as well liked and he got chewed up by circumstance. As of now I'd say things are looking pretty well for Cody, he's still new enough thanks to the injury that he's still a breath of fresh air but I'd also consider the Roman/Sami match as the last bump in the road Cody has to be worried about. If they randomly fumble the ball there I could see a split in the crowd forming, but they've handled this whole Bloodline/Sami deal so well that I am not hugely worried about that. The interesting thing is to consider what would have happened if Cody never got injured and had several more months of being around and talking before we got to this point. It might not be insane to say that that injury may have ended up being a legit blessing in disguise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Cincinnati Posted February 9, 2023 Share Posted February 9, 2023 12 minutes ago, username said: The interesting thing is to consider what would have happened if Cody never got injured and had several more months of being around and talking before we got to this point. It might not be insane to say that that injury may have ended up being a legit blessing in disguise. This has been my thinking. Came in, scored the sweep over a legit headliner, had a harrowing match before leaving, didn’t stick around long enough for Vince to get bored, return timetable presented an obvious opportunity. Anyway, king: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggy Posted February 9, 2023 Share Posted February 9, 2023 Is anything on the last TakeOver worth checking out? I don't watch NXT but I usually watch the TakeOvers. The one in December really seemed like a waste of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted February 9, 2023 Share Posted February 9, 2023 Lee/Dijak seemed to be unanimously received well, but I can’t vouch for it. The only match I watched was Bron/Waller, which was the most generic WWE cage match you’ll ever see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hail Sabin Posted February 9, 2023 Share Posted February 9, 2023 5 hours ago, Ziggy said: Is anything on the last TakeOver worth checking out? I don't watch NXT but I usually watch the TakeOvers. The one in December really seemed like a waste of time. Wes Lee vs. Dijak & 4 Way Tag Title would be the 2 I would say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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