Does Anyone Watch Wrestling? (WWE, AEW, TNA, NWA, etc)

[GTvsForza]

Randy Orton back on Raw tonight. 👍

I was starting to get worried...

 

[Com Fox]

The RKBro stuff was great. I completely marked at the "reunion" and RKO that I forgot I predicted it was coming and still ended up being shocked

If this sets up a blow off match at Summerslam. Definitely the match Im most excited for

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Is Summerslam a two night show? They mentioned that the Goldberg-Lashley match was 'one week from Saturday', genuinely didn't know it was a two nighter.

Good show last night with some good matches, really enjoyed the the whole Riddle and Orton thing throughout, there were still a lot of rematches, distraction finishes and roll up finishes though. There were loud 'we want Wyatt' chants at the start of the Bliss-Doudrop match.

 

[JohnBM01]

Let's be honest- I knew Randy Orton was going to snap at Riddle. Did you REALLY think "RK-Bro" would sustain or reconcile? I do have a feeling there will be an Orton-Riddle match in the near future, likely Summerslam 2021. It would be a pretty dope match between these two.

 

[Com Fox]

Is Summerslam a two night show? They mentioned that the Goldberg-Lashley match was 'one week from Saturday', genuinely didn't know it was a two nighter.

Good show last night with some good matches, really enjoyed the the whole Riddle and Orton thing throughout, there were still a lot of rematches, distraction finishes and roll up finishes though. There were loud 'we want Wyatt' chants at the start of the Bliss-Doudrop match.

Summerslam is on a Saturday with Takeover on Sunday. It's only a one night event just on a Saturday.

Let's be honest- I knew Randy Orton was going to snap at Riddle. Did you REALLY think "RK-Bro" would sustain or reconcile? I do have a feeling there will be an Orton-Riddle match in the near future, likely Summerslam 2021. It would be a pretty dope match between these two.

I think a lot of people knew the fact before the show started, even I did however it was so well executed tonight with their characters it suspended my obvious prediction and just enjoy what was going on so it still caught me off guard

 

[MUSC4EVER]

That schedule is a bit weird isn't it, didn't it used to be Takeover on Saturday with a PPV on the Sunday?!

 

[Com Fox]

Yeah it is most certainly odd and yes, it was Takeover Saturday, PPV Sunday before.

I don't know why. Trial Run maybe? Heck this benefits us Australians as that means the PPV airs Sunday afternoon for us

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Two guys I want to talk about, Baron Corbin and Elias.

So Corbin was on Raw last night to face McIntyre which was pretty random but I didn't mind...as he is one of the best things in WWE right now, which is a sentence I'd never thought I'd say! I'm loving the story and Baron's commitment to it, it looks so organic and believable and the reaction to it has been fantastic, Baron put up a video on Tiktok of his day yesterday behind the scenes and how they wouldn't let him in to the arena at first because of the state he was in and they didn't believe he worked there even though his face was on a nearby WWE truck! A fan tried to give him a dollar during his ring entrance last night and fans were waving money at him, who would have thought this would happen, that he would become one of the better things in the entire company when he was lumbered with the king gimmick for what felt like an eternity, certainly not me, its been a nice surprise this year.

As for Elias, it looks as if he is getting a character change, they showed a vignette of him throwing his guitar in a fire, and this change cant come soon enough for him as his 'walk with Elias' guitar playing gimmick was getting very stale, really looking forward to seeing what's next for him

 

[Darla Starch]

Context: The NWA is running an all-women show on the 28th and outside of a few matches in 2001 and 2017, she has only just started her proper comeback about a month ago after having not wrestled full-time since March of 1993 owing to a terrible leg injury that I'm only hiding because it's about as gnarly as Sid Vicious' broken leg during the tail end of WCW's run.

To give this context, I was roughly one and a half years old then and I'm turning the dreaded 30 this year.


Not part of the Malenko wrestling family, was given the last name by her trainer Boris Malenko and is essentially a honorary member of the family.

 

[GTvsForza]

I actually went and watched Dynamite fully tonight. I know I have a lot of catching up to do, but that's what YouTube is for.

Don't know how Rampage will perform with Smackdown.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

NXT's Candice LaRae is pregnant. Congratulations to both her and Jonny!. 👍

 

[Darla Starch]

I actually went and watched Dynamite fully tonight. I know I have a lot of catching up to do, but that's what YouTube is for.

Don't know how Rampage will perform with Smackdown.

Re: Rampage:

Spoiler: Kenny Two Belts

 

[Com Fox]

Of course I haven't been following AEW storylines but Christian being involved there is a suprise.

The whole every Heel are friends with each other and every Face are friends with each other trope in wrestling needs to die. Watched Smackdown and Sasha and Carmella somehow being buddies now that theyre heels despite what Carmella has done a few months ago erked me. Continuity is more important than Wrestling thinks.

 

[GTvsForza]

I hope they don't pull an Otis with Big E...

 

[Northstar]

First episode of Rampage was good, although that should be expected when all 3 matches are title matches. Hopefully once the initial push is over they can find a way to give it it's own identity so it doesn't just feel like scraps that weren't good enough for Dynamite.

Spoiler

As for Christian, it makes sense as they will eventually need to get the belt(s) back on an Impact regular and Christian is far more suited to do that than Kenny is.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

That promo segment with Roman and John at the start of SD last night was fantastic, lasted 26 minutes and Roman said '20 years of missionary wasn't good enough for Nikki Bella' and John hit back with 'you ruined Seth Rollins and drove Dean Ambrose out of WWE'.

Rollins also gave a great promo for his match with Edge, and Corbin stole Big E's MITB briefcase!

 

[GTvsForza]

I tried so hard to contain my shock when that part of the segment happened.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Forgot to mention that Nakamura won the IC title from Apollo Crews last night, its a nice moment for Shinsuke and hopefully the start of something great for him, the whole thing was a bit weird though, both Boogs and Azeez were sent packing backstage so they had a one-on-one match without distraction and Shinsuke won with the Kinsasha for his second IC title. The pyro after was way over the top.

I haven't really enjoyed Apollo's reign as champ and I think its to do with Azeez, they are just not the right fit for him and he makes Apollo look weak IMO, the fact that Apollo didn't even have his entrance last night is telling.

Smackdown did a 2.99 rating, they're highest since December.

 

[GTvsForza]

Something happened with the WWE YouTube channel, they posted a gif of Nakamura winning the IC title like 20 times

 

[MUSC4EVER]

So last night was the go home show for Raw before Summerslam, and it was pretty terrible.

The ASH/Charlotte/Rhea thing just drags on and quite inexplicably we saw them twice last night! First was Rhea beating Nikki convincingly with Charlotte on comms and then later on in the show it was a tag match with Rhea and Nikki on one side and Charlotte and Nia Jax...because apparently Raw doesn't have any other female competitors. Also this whole Nikki as 'nearly a superhero' thing isn't working, fans aren't taking to it and it just comes across as pretty stupid, kudos to WWE for going with it and to Nikki for giving it everything but its not clicking and needs to go in another direction.

Drew v Jinder also drags on and we saw Drew take on Shanky and Veer for the second time, Alexa Bliss v Eva Marie has been made for SS (to the excitement of everyone!) and we also saw Miz v Damien Priest for what felt like a millionth time.

Good things, well the Lashley/Goldberg segment was pretty good, quite a nice moment to have Goldberg's son Gage at ringside with some of his friends for it and Goldberg said '********!' before spearing Lashley, the whole thing wasn't pretty but did its job, Karrion Kross is still climbing back up following that terrible debut a few weeks ago and destroyed Jeff Hardy in just a few minutes. And then there was RK-Bro!

Its was bit confusing but yes there are back together (of course they are!) Orton started the night off saying he doesn't have to explain what happened last week, he was closely followed by Riddle and then Styles/Omos, Riddle then had a match with Styles (another one!) before Orton took on Omos and that second match was pretty stupid as it only lasted three minutes when Styles caused a DQ by hitting Randy and this was despite the fact the Omos was just beating Randy up, Riddle came out and helped Orton, Orton said thanks by shaking his hand and they hugged...they are back together, and have a title match v Styles/Omos at SS, HURRAH!

So all in all, there were too many rematches and things we had seen a billion times before, and too many things that most fans just don't care about, and if you look over to Smackdown and their matches for SS, well it just craps all over Raw.

 

[Com Fox]

I don't agree with you on that. Granted I'm in the minority and don't care at all for Cena vs. Reigns. It's treding old ground but this time even more unnecessary fan service, Cena acting more heelish than Reigns and opens a massive Pandora box of stealing contracts. Worst of all, this is just gonna put over Reigns in a highly predictable matter. This has no weight compared to Reigns fueds with Kevin Owen's and Daniel Bryan as while Roman getting over is predictable, it was still exciting to watch the stories unravel. Cena v Reigns is only going off by hype alone and it's honestly boring.

The Smackdown Womens Division is also quite bad right now. Raws is very repetitive and has no plans whatsoever but at least it makes sense in a narrative standpoint. That contract signing with Sasha and Bianca turned me right off from the story and makes no sense not to mention that Pandora Box John Cena opened made me constantly question why weren't people stealing the contract.

Smackdown only has Edge vs. Rollins for me while Raw has RKBro. I think both brands have been equally rubbish for Summerslam

 

[JohnBM01]

I, too was shocked they didn't bleep out what Bill Goldberg said. Like... wow. On a different note, I sort of like the chances of "RK-Bro" becoming RAW Tag Champs. That's unless Randy Orton betrays Riddle or something.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

The Reigns v Cena has Reigns win written all over it, only because of Cena's other commitments, following Suicide Squad's release it was reported that Warner Bros are very high on Cena right now.

This could legit be one of the last times we see him in WWE.

I think the other major title match has a better chance of a title change, I can definitely see Goldberg as new champ come Saturday.

 

[Darla Starch]

I think the other major title match has a better chance of a title change, I can definitely see Goldberg as new champ come Saturday.

Heh, I see Lashley retaining owing to how Goldberg's contract is structured (2 matches per year).

But yeah on this very well being Cena's last real run which is weird as he was just starting his first US Championship run around the time I started watching and paying attention.

Side note: Belair/Banks might be off for SummerSlam. Both of them missed a second live event lately, betting that one of them rolled a positive COVID test.

If off, then who besides Lynch and Flair (because WWE's go-to card on mixing up a show's womens division) slots into the match?

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Yeah I heard about the Belair-Banks thing too, missing two live shows isn't a good sign, worth keeping on this story in the next few days.

 

[JohnBM01]

Are YOU All-Elite? Apparently, AEW Dynamite tonight will be here in Houston at the Fertitta Center (formerly Hoffheinz Pavillion). I don't love or loathe AEW; I just don't watch it as much. However, I do have a fondness overall for the product. So you all enjoy AEW tonight if you're a fan!

Last night, I saw a little of something else I rarely watch- WWE NXT. That Ilya Dragunov was pretty impressive from what I've seen. If he bulks up, he could easily be a World Heavyweight champion. That means in NXT, he'd have to beat the impressive Karrion Kross.

 

[Gotbeefboy564]

Are YOU All-Elite? Apparently, AEW Dynamite tonight will be here in Houston at the Fertitta Center (formerly Hoffheinz Pavillion). I don't love or loathe AEW; I just don't watch it as much. However, I do have a fondness overall for the product. So you all enjoy AEW tonight if you're a fan!

Last night, I saw a little of something else I rarely watch- WWE NXT. That Ilya Dragunov was pretty impressive from what I've seen. If he bulks up, he could easily be a World Heavyweight champion. That means in NXT, he'd have to beat the impressive Karrion Kross.

I’d rather watch 3 hours of AEW instead of 3 hours of RAW or Smackdown. I barely watch the RAW and Smackdown YouTube clips already unless something interesting happens like a heel turn or title change.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

So NXT last night then, some really good build up for Takeover on Sunday and that card looks fantastic, Walter v Dragunov for the UK title looks great and the first match they had last October was one of the matches of the year, Kross v Joe for the NXT title, Gonzalez v Dakota Kai for the women's title plus the Million Dollar title match also all looks great.

 

[JohnBM01]

All-Elite musings...

* I was impressed with Jurassic Express on AEW tonight. They unfortunately were defeated by the Young Bucks, but Jurassic Express was pretty cool.

* Thunder Rosa was pretty impressive as well when I saw her take on "Superbad" Penelope Ford. Extra credit to Rosa for wearing a Texas flag outfit to the ring. Representing my native state beautifully.

* Jeff Hardy rocking WWE; Matt Hardy rocking AEW. Not sure how Matt is doing in AEW, but good seeing the Hardy Boyz still doing work even on different promotions.

* Maxwell Jacob Freeman. MJF. And my goodness- Jericho has really evolved over the years.

* I find it interesting how AEW has a record system like you see in mixed-martial arts or boxing.

* I see there is this AEW Rampage happening at 10 PM Eastern time. So after this week's SmackDown!, AEW Rampage kicks off in Chicago. I might check in and watch that. I've never seen Rampage, but I have seen a few Dynamite episodes.


I'm still mostly learning about AEW, but its appeal and charm are definitely there. I guess my hook to AEW is to see past wrestling personalities compete in and excel in this league. I kind of like AEW a bit more than when I used to watch TNA. WWE is still the top dog of pro wrestling, but AEW is definitely worth a look-see if you're any pro wrestling fan.

 

[Darla Starch]