Rusev can still be ace if they don't fuck him about too much, he was over in WWE and the Redeemer thing in AEW looked like it was going to be the business for a while. I liked Aleister Black in NXT but if he's going to be all spooky rather than just a kickboxing goth he can fuck back off. Forgot Andrade's been signed for over a year, has he done anything?
Get a divorce?
Andrade just clearly doesn't give a fuck. The guy peaked as IC champion in New Japan when he was masked, so over 10 years ago. Apart from that he had a cracking match against Gargano in NXT and that's about it.
I'm with wullie about Black. If he wants to be spooky he can fuck off back to PWG. There's talent there but obviously another guy with no idea what to do with himself given a bit of leeway.
He was doing fine on Smackdown along with Carmelo Hayes and then ever since the news about him and Charlotte came out he’s not been seen since
Rumours are that KO needs surgery and wont be able to face Randall at Mania.
Karma for wasting that Zayn match at elimination chamber
That is fucking wild.
I’m not sure Naomi has it in her to carry Jade to a decent length match. Might be a bit squashy.
They fucked it by not making the attacker Bianca.
Yep. I assumed that was there it was going. It being Naomi is just a whole load of nothing.
Naomi has been surprisingly good as a heel
Charlotte yesterday was an utter embarrassment. Sooner she fucks off the better. You just know she’s winning
Bron spearing Carlito into next week. You love to see it.
Picked up Brock Lesnar's autobiography for 50p off the donation table in Tesco. I think it was released in 2011 so it should cover everything up until his WWE return.
Started on this earlier and lasted a couple of chapters before pretty much giving in. It's not very well written at all. So I've just decided to skim through it instead. Brock is very full of himself it seems but this thing is ghost/co-written by Paul Heyman and it makes a lot more sense if you read it in Heyman's voice, so I suspect Brock isn't 100% at the wheel of this one.Originally Posted by Ben
However, there's some great tidbits in here. Brock mentions a lot about wrestling not being a long-term career for him and already by the time he won the World title from The Rock at Summerslam, he's planning an exit strategy from the business. He says Curt Hennig (Mr. Perfect) told him to do this and it seems Brock really idolised him. The passage where he talks about Perfect dying is actually quite sad. Brock also randomly loves RVD and wanted to work World title programs with him. I'm not at the UFC bit yet.
This has reminded me how good wrestler autobiographies can be, though. Bret Hart's and Mick Foley's first one are stand-out offerings and I've got Ric Flair's somewhere that I can't recall having read actually. I'll have to dig that out.
I had Oldberg's one which was signed by him.
No idea where it ended up.
Just finishing watching this for possibly the first time since the event live.
The opening stretch is great (which often isn't the case for long matches) and in the second half it gets very "big stadium" style with all the false finishes which I usually don't like. But the atmosphere is just incredible, no wonder it killed the crowd for the matches that followed. Just like WM18 in that regard.
Back on the book trail: I found Flair's book in some boxes we never even opened since moving house.
It's got the pretty standard egocentric views on some stuff but in the main it's really super interesting, especially on his early career (which I didn't know much about other than the plane crash) and the WCW days. Also really fascinating is his early obsession with Dusty Rhodes (he wanted to be called Rick Rhodes when he first started) and then the gradual transition into really disliking each other. Flair also hated the fact that Sid was getting paid more than him (this is just before he went to WWF the first time) and carried that grudge throughout the book, which I hated because Sid is awesome. He absolutely trashes Bret Hart over the Montreal Screwjob as well. It's released in his Evolution days and clearly with WWE's blessing so there's a lot of fluff around that and hyping up Shawn Michaels and Triple H but otherwise it's a decent read.
I've got my hands on the Vince McMahon book which was released last year and apparently that's absolutely wild in the details of events like Jimmy Snuka murdering his wife and Vince making the charges go away, and also him raping the female referee in his limo.
What McMahon book is that, Ben? Is it an official thing or something that has been thrown together?
I'm sure I've got Bobby Heenan's book on Kindle, really should get cracking on that as it's surely got to be great stuff.
It's not official, no. Was seemingly knocked up quick after the allegations came out in 2022 but is very well researched.
I know you're not a fan Ben but I really do reccomend the Moxley one. It's clearly written by him which makes it a bit hard to read at times as it reads like someone talking, asides and all. But its a great fucking book.
My thoughts of Shane are, he is a quarterback that thought he was going to go in the first round, that went in the seventh round, that knew because he went in the seventh round he had to play harder, but never made it. He threw the ball ten yards shorter. He ran the forty a tenth of a second slower. Everything he's done in life, he's done behind the scenes, and he's cried about everything and everybody. If it's not me it's Nash. If it's not Nash it's Hall. If it's not Hall it's McMahon. If it's not McMahon, it's Bischoff. At some point in time, you got to look in the mirror. Do you think that the fans listen to that s***? The problem is, the kid has never grown up. He told Mark Madden for ten years that he was going to be a doctor. A doctor of what? Mark, what medical school is he in now, Mark?
Anyone else as lost as I am?
Just a little, aye.
HHH forgot who to book a wrestling promotion. Raw and Smackdown have been diabolical for a while now and meh since at least the Netflix special. Go home show for ‘mania and it felt fucking tragic. Raw has basically been the same thing for the past month.
Had so much potential and threw it away. I’m not even sure many of the matches will be any good. McIntyre should not be feuding with Priest but at least it’s a street fight and they both should be able to actually use stuff. Not a fan of Priest but he had an incredible fight in the same conditions with a celebrity so here’s hoping they go wild
The women's triple threat buildup is so weird, there's nobody to root for between two whiny dickheads and an afterthought.
They must have done the Rhea and Bianca squaring off and pushing Iyo out the way about 4 different times
I'm pretty checked out on WWE at this point. I'll watch Mania (not live) but unless there's a big change after then I won't bother with it.
But they continue to sell out arenas everywhere so fuck knows. I'm not saying they're doing a WCW but they kept selling out arenas for at least a year after they jumped the shark. Hopefully WWE see the staleness and book proactively post-Mania.
Great how? I'll give it a go if he's fairly thorough about everything he's done but if he's just cutting promos on Nick Gage then he can fuck off.
Very much feels like there are too many on the card. This is good because all the lads/ladies get paid, but they used to have the battle royale for that.
Night 1 for example. Tag match should be alright, piss break match for some. But then does anyone care for Cargill v Naomi? Same can be said for the womens title. This one has been butchered in the build up and Charlotte is going to bury the hot young thing to absolute silence from the crowd. I get the impression Charlotte genuinely thinks she should be an over as fuck babyface in this one.
Then you have El Grande Americano which is great way to get him on the card, albeit in a pointless match. Fatu should slap the piss out of LA Man. Then we get to the two most frustrating matches on the card really. Jey Uso is terrible. He is not close to the same level as Gunther as a singles guy, but yeet so he's going over. Wonderful.
The last one has some intrigue with Heyman shenanigans surely afoot during the match, but this really should be a singles match between any two of them.
Trying to pay off the Seth v Punk hatred, but also the Seth v Roman hatred, while making up reasons for Roman to be annoyed at Punk is too much for this one match.
Night 2 has several matches no one cares for. There's the womens tag/everyone gets paid match. AJ and Paul which no fucker cares about beyond Paul. Drew being wasted on Priest for reasons. And then Iyo being made to be an afterthought despite being the champ and the one who should be winning here.
At least the 4 way should be some fun and then we get to watch Big Match John break the record.
There’s loads of matches and then yet the woman’s IC and US titles aren’t being defended and Street Prophets are defending their title on Smackdown.
They’ve missed a chance to do a big TLC/ladder match for the tag titles
I would do three or four big money matches each night (defend all titles plus a few grudge matches) and then chuck everyone else in a pre-show battle royal so they all get paid but I don't have to watch.
Make me booker.
I actually think it makes sense that Priest and Drew are feuding.
The MITB cash in, the various "screwjobs" in between etc etc.
Shouldn't be at Mania but I do get it.
How is a man supposed to pledge for Chelsea Green ffs.
Wasn't Rick supposed to be in a tag match or am I imagining that?
He turned up on the Netflix special as a face and then again at Elimination Chamber and not seen since.
He’s been teasing NJPW on Instagram
They still need to find something for Randy Orton to do, I'd have him wrestle Chad Gable who appallingly appears to be missing out again on getting a proper Wrestlemania match.
Please keep The Rock away from NJ, it doesn't need his shit tequila and crap promos.
I'm flying through this. All I'll say at this point is I think you're ribbing me.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/stor...crossover-star
I suppose this is what comes from making a living getting dropped on your head.Trump is one of those guys where he’s got a vast history and a huge background. He’s been in entertainment. He’s been in big business, politics. At this point, I’m supporting a bright future for our country. Positive and competent leadership.
Is Trump a WWE hall of famer yet?
He is.
Anyone else not feeling Mania?
Most of the booking has either been boring or just plain doesn’t make sense. The Rhodes-Cena feud being a particular offender. After that great end to Elimination Chamber we are six weeks down the road and we still don’t know why Cena aligned with The Rock. What are the stakes in the Reigns-Punk-Rollins match? Why is it even happening. The tag divisions are diluted and the mid card singles feuds amount to “I don’t like you fight me lol”. This has been the build you’d expect to a fucking Roadblock of Backlash. It’ll probably be a good two nights but the build up has been crap.
Cena and Cody are both company men. One of them is mad the other one is getting the reception he never got. It's a shit story, even if it did get some quality moments on the European tour. As for aligning with The Rick, he's a heel board member. Of course Cena would do that.
The only interesting thing about the Logan Paul vs AJ Styles feud has been Karrion Kross.
Well, yes, that’s probably what it is. But it would’ve been nice for the Rock to show his face at least once after what was a pretty important plot point on THE ROAD TO WRESTLEMANIA.
Given how they booked the last mania main event, it's probably going down like:
Rick shows up, rock bottoms Cody, glass shatters, Rick gets stunned by Stunning Steve Texas, Cody wins, he and Cena shake hands ('cos they can't have a defeated Cena booed out of the sport?). I haven't decided how a Cena mid-match turn happens. The Rick probably calls him a rude word.
Sounds like they're setting up a "someone save WWE before Cena leaves with the title" story for the rest of the year after.
Surely you can't waste this kind of heel turn and not have BMJ win.
I would be mildly surprised if Cody retains.
As a filthy casual who has no idea what has gone on since the Rumble I can't wait for Mania.
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