The Ultimate WWE Thread

[7om]

Will also be interesting to see how the likes of Cody and Sami are booked after Mania. Clean cut good guys chasing the villains is booking 101, and I think they’ve done a great job with both of them. However, I think it becomes more difficult after they achieve their goal.

If I heard correctly, Cody starting getting some light boos last night. The exact same thing happened with Daniel Bryan in and around WrestleMania 30. The crowd were 100% behind him in the six months prior to Mania but there was a palpable turn once he started getting closer to winning the title. If my memory serves me well, there were definite boos on the Raws after that Mania. WWE got bailed out of having to carefully book Bryan because he got injured and vacated, so will be interesting to see how they handle these two.

[Ben]

Philly/Mania marks. I wouldn't read too much into it (yet).

[7om]

Potential spoiler

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[7om]

Rollins’ entrance reminds me of Adam Rose and the bastard rosebuds.

Drew wins or we riot.

[Dark Soldier]

That McIntyre tweet for the phone spot is great

[7om]

Fucking hell! No! I was all in on a McIntyre reign.

[Dark Soldier]

Such a great start

[7om]

Best to ever do it via social media.

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[phonics]

This has been 3x better than night 1 already.

[phonics]

Eveery event a friend of mine hasn't seen Logan Paul and are disgusted that wrestling allows him in and 100% of the time they're amazed by him.

[7om]

Well, here we go. Let the fuckery commence.

[Dark Soldier]

This is fucking amazing

[7om]

My fucking God. The most mental clusterfuck ever. Incredible.

[phonics]

lol what a shit show. Mark Calloway desperate for cash clearly.

[Dark Soldier]

Such a good fucking show tonight god damn

[SvN]

I am sports entertained. Great finish.

[7om]

Yep, massive upgrade over night 1. Really enjoyed it from start to finish.

[phonics]

That HHH piece for the cameras is going to look awful when he its mentioned that Vince was doing it with ol Paul Levesques permission.

[wullie]

Not seen any of either day outside clips yet but sounds that the second night was a big step up. Main event seems like classic nonsense that worked, only thing it needed was Steve Austin turning up to batter The Rock.

Good weekend for Rollins, two defeats and one for his wife and then flattened before he can even make his feet for his interference.

[Baz]

Felt like a right mug for falling for the Moxley tease.

[Gray Fox]

only thing it needed was Steve Austin turning up to batter The Rock..

I'm not sure why it was Undertaker and not Austin, but either way it was great. A whole lot of shenanigans, but I still can't believe we've finished The Story.

Felt like a right mug for falling for the Moxley tease.

I marked out big time because I thought the same. Lonely Seth coming out in Shield gear only to not get a hit in was sad afterwards. Great callback to the chair shot that started it all off though.

[wullie]

Hopefully now they do a proper Raw after WM show again as well, the last few have been absolute dogshit.

[phonics]

Undertaker couldn't even be bothered to take his hoodie off, let alone get in his gear so I presume they weren't paying Austin money for that part of the run-in.

[Shindig]

Well, now that story's over, Rick can get back to what matters. Family.

<cue Simone becoming RAW GM>

[Gray Fox]

Seth v Drew - Exactly what it needed to be. Great that Drew got his moment and in a pretty convincing win. However as soon as he was still hovering around the ring a good 5 minutes later you know what was coming next. Good for Priest getting his win too. Just a shame this likely means Drew doesn't get to parade the belt around Scotland.

Tag Match - There is nothing you could have done to make me care about this. Skipped to see who won.

LA Knight v Styles - Again I don't really care for it. This all felt very forced to get the two a match on the show. Correct winner at least. We'll see what they really think of Knight backstage with what he does next. I have a feeling he gets stuck in the upper-mid card, but they've likely already missed him when he was at his most over.

Triple threat - Now we know why KO was involved in this. To eat the pin. Cringey that we had to use the guy inside the prime bottle thing again. Not a fucking clue who the child in it was though. He looked about 14. Probably the right winner again as you'll surely want Randy to shake Codys hand then RKO him and challenge for the title.

Iyo Sky v Bayley - Finally! Bayley has deserved this for quite some time and good to see her get it.

THE STORY - Brandi on the entrance ramp in A.N attire another give away of the finish. The bit where we had to pretend this was a proper match at the start did drag on a little, but then we kick off the interference clusterfuck and it was glorious. This is so very much Sports Entertainment and they nailed it. It was just constant levelling up of star power coming down to the ring. Marking out left right and centre. I burst out laughing when the first gong hit for Taker.
Great to see that Roman loses because he had to hit Rollins with the chair first. I assume the bloodline goes into full meltdown now.

Show over both nights as a whole was pretty good. A few meh matches in it and a few too many video packages. They seemed very very keen to put over that this is now a Paul Levesque product and no longer anything to do with that other guy. I was shocked to see Steph too(she's looking good for pushing 50). First on-show appearance since before the Vince stuff all kicked off?
Production quality has been absolutely top notch. Some great long term storytelling pay offs. Commentary was great. McAfee still just sounds like an excited fan of the show most of the time. I will say I think they need to calm the swearing down a little. Some is great, but it does lose its effect if done too much.

[wullie]

Drew can now chase the title and win it in Glasgow in another massive overbooked match with run-ins by Grado, the Highlanders and the ghost of Rowdy Roddy Piper.

[phonics]

It's so perfect that years and years after his retirement, Wrestlemania has got back to what it's supposed to be about. HHH getting himself over.

The Paul Levesque era. Fuck off.

[Waffdon]

Reigns losing the title by going for Rollins with a chair shot to the back was ‘rasslin greatness

[Waffdon]

Best to ever do it via social media.

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I just clocked that’s why he was on his phone lmao. What a guy

Hopefully he wins the title back asap. Priest is shite

[Ben]

I’m sure they foreshadowed the finish of the Night 2 main event so if that follows through then that’ll be nice.

Indeed they did.

I was thoroughly sports entertained by that main event. Incredible shit. All the callbacks. Brilliant. I wonder why it was Taker over Austin though because that would have been the perfect adversary for Rick. However, minor point. That was beautiful.

Fuck the rest of the card, don't care. The opener was actually a really shit match but Drew is such a legend. The cash in sucks as a fan of his, but it very much works. The tweet lmao.

[7om]

Reigns losing the title by going for Rollins with a chair shot to the back was ‘rasslin greatness

Which is a callback to Seth turning on him in the exact same way to break up the Shield.

[7om]

It's so perfect that years and years after his retirement, Wrestlemania has got back to what it's supposed to be about. HHH getting himself over.

The Paul Levesque era. Fuck off.

Cope.

[Waffdon]

Which is a callback to Seth turning on him in the exact same way to break up the Shield.

Aye, the way he fell into the ropes in the same manner was amazing

Felt like that was a goodbye from Rollins for a while.

Genuinely thought we were getting Ambrose as well. Would have been mega watching him bleed after a poke to the eyes

[Waffdon]

Looking forward to the Raw tonight. Hopefully similar to a few weeks ago and a lot of storylines being created and progressed.

Expecting Gunther to wrestle a classic tonight against someone. Hopefully a few NXT call ups but I think we’ve already had them for Smackdown and we’ll start seeing Bron and Tiff every week

[7om]

Aye, the way he fell into the ropes in the same manner was amazing

Felt like that was a goodbye from Rollins for a while.

Genuinely thought we were getting Ambrose as well. Would have been mega watching him bleed after a poke to the eyes

I questioned Rollins’ involvement in the storyline but fucking hell, they played an absolute blinder by weaving him into it. The foreshadowing in the weeks up to Mania all makes sense now.

[Waffdon]

He did say he’ll be Cody’s shield and it all played out. Everything since the mania press conference has been perfect. Rick was marvellous. Should never be a face again - much better being a dick.

Pretty sure Rollins genuinely fucked his knee. The grimaces were too real and Owens was helping him up the ramp whilst everyone else was standing around not caring about Kayfabe

[phonics]

Thank Christ

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[Waffdon]

Nothing is ever saving that TNA rip off, blud

[wullie]

I found the Karrion Kross nonsense match surprisingly watchable thanks entirely to Snoop Dogg on commentary, get him back in again

[Waffdon]

Hopefully Ricky starks being backstage for yesterday means he’s joining the Paul Levesque phenomenon whenever his contract ends

[Ian]

Three general points:
- Crowd were way better tonight and it makes such a difference. Hats off especially to the Hey Bayley lads who kept the atmosphere going until the rest of the idiots there got with the program in the back half of that match.
- Even by their own high standards the video packages on these two shows have been fucking superb. The WWE video department don't miss.
- Much better night than night 1.

Drew vs. Seth - I wouldn't have had Rollins kick out of three Claymores, but I don't hate the idea on the whole that he was just desperately hanging on, and that it was a 12 minute match mostly filled with the two hitting their best shots because Drew just wanted to end up and Rollins knew he couldn't survive a twenty minute battle so he was just trying to do something to give himself a chance. Good fun, and did the job. And that Tweet is fucking superb.

Priest cash-in - I probably should have realised this was what was happening when Punk took Drew off the table, but they'd put the briefcase so out of my head I really didn't think of it before the music hit. Happy for Priest, and if it's him losing to Drew in Glasgow that crowd are gonna be mental.

We Definitely Call Them 'The Pride' Okay? vs. Karry On Krossing - A match it was already impossible to care about before they designated it the bants match by having Bully Ray and Snoop Dogg involved. Skipped most of it.

Knight vs. Styles - A bad feud with a hype package good enough that it almost had me misremember it as a decent feud. Not a terrible match or anything but yeah(!), not much real heat to it. At least Knight won. It'd be nice to get to see Styles win a match again at some point.

US Title Triple Thread, sponsored by Prime and Ben - I thought this was fun. I enjoyed the early stages where it was Orton and KO hating Paul too much to stop double-teaming him. They kept the pace up thereafter and fair play to Paul, he's always prepared to take his fair share of the heat. Another nice RKO counter for Keith's collection too.

Bayley vs. Iyo - Probably the match of the night / show in terms of Actual Good Wrestling Matches. Really liked this, glad the crowd finally sorted their shit out and got louder toward the end and it was cool to see Iyo get some great moments in defeat.

Cody vs. Reigns - Look, right, this wasn't a good match. But it was a FUN match, in a very Attitude Era clusterfuck sort of a way. I actually didn't even mind the walk-and-brawl or Roman slowly beating Cody bits because they didn't dwell on either part for too long and it came after a reasonably back-and-forth opening. After that part just so many good moments. Roman putting the table away to wind up the crowd for a start, and him basically telling Heyman he hit the Cross Rhodes for a laugh. And then all the overbooking comes. Jey wiping out Jimmy was satisfying, Cena and his bald spot is a slightly odd choice to be involved but between getting beasted by Solo, losing to Bloodline Reigns and history with the Rock I guess it'll do. Undertaker was there I assume only so he could teleport Rock and Cena away after their bit. I had wondered why, earlier beating or not, Rollins didn't really get land even one proper shot on Reigns but using the Shield music was a good callback generally but also to their Rumble match and as has been discussed further up, he was really there to set up the excellent chair shot call back. So much nonsense but I had a really good time watching it, and thank fuck Cody won this time.

[Ian]

Re: Raw tonight, what is actually likely to happen? So far as I'm aware there is nobody really pending a long-awaited return and no proper big names they're likely to have signed (MJF? ) so unless there's anybody obvious I'm forgetting they're just gonna need to set us up with some killer of an angle if they want that Raw After Mania feel.

[Shindig]

Karry On Krossing

That's got my Russo-era booking head spinning.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

That was a lot better than night one.

The Drew tweet

Would have liked it if Austin was in Taker's spot as it would have been a much better moment with Rick overselling another Stunner.

Also, I think Waff is right regarding Seth's knee. He looked bad out there and would explain why he did nothing. Bar the quality chair shot callback.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Oh and I had the Bayley and Cody result spoiled for me.

How? Because WWE Shop sent me a fucking email at 8am with the subject being "Champs Are Crowned: Cody Rhodes & Bayley!", thanks dickheads.

Serves me right for not unsubbing ages ago.

[Gray Fox]

Re: Raw tonight, what is actually likely to happen? So far as I'm aware there is nobody really pending a long-awaited return and no proper big names they're likely to have signed (MJF? ) so unless there's anybody obvious I'm forgetting they're just gonna need to set us up with some killer of an angle if they want that Raw After Mania feel.

MJF coming straight in to bring Cody back down to Earth would be incredible. No idea what his contract status is with AEW. But Tony will likely throw every penny he asks for at the moment. If MJF goes to the other side, it's game over.

I would 100000% put money on Cody saying a line of "You thought last night I finished my story, I'm here to tell you it's only just getting started" or something very similar.

They have signed another Fatu, so yay more Bloodline guys.

I suspect Breakker gets his monster push soon.

[Waffdon]

Uso v Priest at Backlash? That’s gonna be stinky.

[wullie]

Now that they don't have to awkwardly combine two belts into a record-breaking run, surely they can rename it the WWE Championship again rather than Cody being the ULTIMATE UNDISPUTED UNIVERSAL CHAMPION OF THE UNIVERSE

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm watching RAW now, what do you lot reckon The Rock gave Cody?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Cena

So glad they actually did that for Truth, a childhood dream come true.