2023 Pro Wrestling Thread

Security guard probably was a Nailz fan.

 

Yep, Vince is in charge. They just had those metal pipes fall backstage. I don't think I've heard those since Trips took over.

 

So are they setting up Riddle as the next opponent for Solo or for Roman?

 

I would assume Solo since he’s the one who took Riddle out.

 

Good story on Kevin Patrick/Egan and his job balance. He's done a good job for someone who's not a pro wrestling natural.

Dodging broken tables in WWE and calling golazos in MLS, get to know Kevin Patrick Egan

 

*LA Knight voice* YEAH

 

Two things from recent Kurt Angle podcasts:

1. Three years is too long for one person to hold a championship, and WWE should’ve moved the belts off of Reigns at Mania. His logic is that it worked years ago when you might only see pro wrestling once a week or even less, but that when it’s on TV multiple nights a week it’s just overkill. (For the record, I agree.)
2. He thinks WWE isn’t making enough new stars. That’s related to the problem above with Roman Reigns and the Bloodline, I think, although I’m not sure if WWE isn’t making enough new stars or if the stars they are making simply can’t break into that stratosphere.

 

It probably was the best of all of the biographies from this season, but that's no surprise since the family and all four kids were so closely involved. It just wouldn't have been the same if they weren't able to get Dustin involved.

Got really tough when Dustin fractured with the family. Never knew how much the family resented Terri/Marlena.

The last chapter of Dusty's life as a teacher and with his sons together was a beautiful story, but that was crushing at the end -- especially that the older daughter couldn't get there in time at the end.

 

1) I do agree with that. At least Reigns has been more visible on TV than when Lesnar was an absentee champion, but they're threading the fine line of both of their championships becoming afterthoughts. They really need to split up the belts somehow. Maybe Money in the Bank is the tool. Have it give the winner a shot at one title, but not both, or something. Or do the old school two out of three falls triple threat match where one belt is on the line in each fall and Reigns loses one without actually losing.

2) It's funny, because if you go back to the pre-Bloodline era it seemed like they were hellbent on trying to make guys into stars by giving them a world title reign.
Between 2016 and 2020, the following people won one of the big belts for the first time — Kevin Owens, Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman, AJ Styles, Jinder Mahal, Kofi Kingston, Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley and Big E.
You can definitely make the case some of those guys had their potential blunted by the Bloodline. Others probably hit their ceiling. But I also think they've found other ways to botch the potential for Kofi, Lashley and Drew, and maybe even Strowman, to get to the next level of stardom.

 

I think in hindsight they should not have unified the titles and they’ll split em at the draft.

They had Lashley and Big E on the way to mega stardom because of the Raw title. E’s injury wasnt anyones fault

BUT the mainstream buzz at the Rumble, Montreal and Mania was like nothing they’ve had in 10+ years. Is it the same if Romans not on a 1000 day heater? Probably not

Disgaree they’ve made no new stars. Gunther is on the way. I mean thats 1, but better than none

 

Roman is at 1,000+ days, according to the ole Wikipedia. I don't think that's an issue in isolation, but now that they didn't put the belt on Cody, there does seem to be some "but no, when does this end, then?" in the air. They could build toward Cody again, but it feels like if they wanted to do that, they would have done it at Mania. The Rock is always lurking out there, but it would seem like a bit of a stunt to have him come in and actually win the title. Oddly, Reigns hasn't had a singles match with Randy Orton in roughly 8 years, so that's a match they could heat up quickly when Orton comes back from his back injury.

 

*if Orton comes back from his back injury.