2015 Pro Wrestling Thread

I'm officially intrigued to see what WWE has up its sleeve for Raw tonight. The latest update on its web site makes it sound like they're throwing together something resembling an old school studio taping from the territory days. They obviously won't have a crowd, so are they just doing this in an empty studio? Are there going to be actual matches of any consequence?
This is either going to be incredibly memorable or an absolute Grade-A train wreck. Maybe both.

 

Now that I've had some time to think about it, I don't hate last night's ending. I very much dislike the way it was booked, especially after how strong they made Roman look last year. They made him look like a bitch this year, IMO. I don't remember him doing anything of consequence at all, unlike last year when he was spearing and Superman punching everyone who dared cross his path.

I don't mind Reigns winning it because they're trying to do something we've all complained about for the last several years, and that's build a new face of the company. Reigns can be that guy ... he's got the family name behind him and the look we all know Vince just loves. His mic work is going to be a work in progress, but IIRC, it was that way for the Rock, too, and Cena wasn't the greatest speaker when he came up through OVW as the Prototype.

I think, if given enough time, Reigns can become the next face of the company and get Cena out of that role.

The triple threat match, my god. What a showing by Rollins. And it made Brock look even stronger, especially after they played up his broken rib. And did anyone else think Brock hit Rollins a bit hard with the F-5? Don't guys usually sort of bounce and roll over onto their backs when taking that? Rollins did neither, instead being flattened on the mat by it. And Rollins' Phoenix Splash (I think that's what it's called) would have been amazing had Cena not been almost in the middle of the ring. The guy taking the splash has to be much close to the ropes for that move to work, and Cena was too damn far away. Rollins was lucky to at least somewhat land on Cena to break his fall, or else he could've gotten badly hurt.

 

Yeah, I'm interested, too in what they do tonight. Maybe they can have a hardcore brawl throughout the building into Vince's office. And they can have a Diva snowball fight.

 

They should've put the triple threat on last if they were going with Reigns. I guess they thought Rock would save it. I don't know if it's all Bryan----if Ziggler won the crowd would've been fine. If Rock actually entered and won they might've been fine too.

 

Do they have a ring there in Stamford? I mean, it's their home office, so maybe they don't. But I was under the impression they had a big complex there, so maybe you could do some matches with more of a gritty feel. Small ring, small production crew, and maybe have just the executives (Vince, Triple H, Stephanie, whoever is in the Johnny Ace role now) watching. Give it a weird, insular feel, like what an empty arena match has.

 

Considering the Himalayan-like landscape outside, I'm hoping we get a tag team match with the Yeti and Giant Gonzales vs. The Natural Disasters.

 

Maybe they re-enact Wrestlemania 2, except instead of New York, Chicago and L.A. they scramble the NXT crew and bounce between segments in Stamford and Florida.

On wwe.com they put up a little feature with Instagram and Twitter posts of what the wrestlers are doing with their snow day. Summer Rae and Emma are stuck in a hotel room together asking what they should do. Wonder if Skyping with Sunny is a viable suggestion?
Dolph Ziggler was eating Guacamole and drinking coffee at a Denny's, apparently hoping to emulate Stone Cold's match with Yokozuna made famous on "Tough Enough."

Xavier Woods had some sort of portable PS4 setup that looks like the nuclear football the President carries everywhere. I think he was piloting the drone the landed on the White House lawn.

Superstar snow day: Superstars and Divas' blizzard-time fun | WWE.com

 

Here's a question I had. If you know the show is going to be cancelled, why not take your corporate jet, fly your whole roster down to Florida and have them compete at the performance center?
Then you could book it like a Cyber Tuesday event and let fans decide who is going to fight your big names through the app?
I think that would be awesome. But I'm REALLY looking forward to Raw tonight. This should be interesting (Full disclosure: I'm a mark for the production aspect of the WWE so I'm very intrigued by how they're going to make a three-hour show work under these circumstances)

 

That seems like a really expensive plan, especially considering that from responses to this thread, just the weird aspect of "what will they do???" is enough to get us interested. However, I think your idea could work on its own - Instead of a normal episode of Raw one week, just give it over to NXT or performance center folks, and have them do a King of the Ring style show for prospect purposes. The roster could be all prospect guys, or a mix of developmental and established midcard and top guys. Heck, schedule it instead of the lame show they usually run between Christmas and New Year's now.

 

Apparently Raw tonight will be a replay of the Rumble and last night's title match, along with some interviews. Kind of a bummer. Maybe they can dig up Mean Gene for an interview with Fandango in front of a WWE drop cloth.

 

You know you're filling out time when JBL is drawing pictures of the sun while freezing his ass off on the roof of the building.

 

Doesn't everyone who paid $50 for the PPV feel silly now?