Television The Propgropthrop

You rewatch kofimania, and the fact it's highly regarded as one of the best mania moments ever, and you think you're bang on the money?

A fantastic example of seeing what you want to see and not what's actually going on.
I could say the same to you

Dunno how anyone watches Jey Uso and thinks that’s good wrestling. Just seeing what you want.
 
I’ve had time to calm down and I’m still annoyed.

Jey Uso winning this year’s Rumble is like us signing Andy Carroll after being linked with Isak, Osimhen, Gyokores and Kane.
 
I could say the same to you

Dunno how anyone watches Jey Uso and thinks that’s good wrestling. Just seeing what you want.
Cool.

I mean you're right if we ignore all of his entrances, promos or even matches in the past 1.5-2 years and try. Or even ignore the fact he's one of their biggest merch sellers (literally 4th last year, behind Roman, punk and Cody). If you take away all that, yes you are right, I'm seeing what I want to see.
 
I could say the same to you

Dunno how anyone watches Jey Uso and thinks that’s good wrestling. Just seeing what you want.

Subjective really isn’t it like everything? Who gets bigger reactions than him currently? I’m actually being serious. You’ve got Reigns, Punk, Rollins, Cena etc on the roster right now. Huge talent. None of them outdo Jey for reactions right now in the arenas. He’s in the top five for merchandise selling. He’s a genuinely likeable person with a very good story behind him. You can see why they’ve gone for this while he’s this hot.

I can’t say you’re wrong for disliking him because it’s subjective, if it’s not your thing fair enough but then others could say the same about somebody like Cena for example who looks well over the hill if we are being honest or some could say they don’t want Reigns in a title match yet again and so on. If he wins the title at Mania is will be a huge moment.
 
Cool.

I mean you're right if we ignore all of his entrances, promos or even matches in the past 1.5-2 years and try. Or even ignore the fact he's one of their biggest merch sellers (literally 4th last year, behind Roman, punk and Cody). If you take away all that, yes you are right, I'm seeing what I want to see.
Forward to any point in one of his matches and play. The first thing he’ll do is a superkick. If you like his entrances and merch, fine. But not what I’m talking about. I want to see wrestlers put on good matches.
 
:lol:


Do you not think he's retiring?

I don't think anyone in the combat game of any form knows how to retire. Since casually coming back is so easy, and even easier when it's pro wrestling, where taking the L doesn't hurt the ego in the slightest, since well, you know. HBK was the closest we got, but even ignoring the Saudi comeback, he did actually retire in 1997 and 1998 anyway.
 
Also, you could not pay me any money to take that back body drop on the side of the ladder that KO did. Jesus Christ.
 
I completely forgot he was going to be in it, so imagine my disappointment when his music hit.

Don't have to imagine. Just watch the show and you'll see a dead crowd showing that "we totally forgot despite knowing" disappointment. Dude can barely get X-Pac heat at this point and more or less confirms that they pipe it up for Raw, which plenty in attendance already said anyway.

Also, you could not pay me any money to take that back body drop on the side of the ladder that KO did. Jesus Christ.

KO came from CZW, that whole match was tame to him, as a viewer, I guess I'm still lost in my youth, because I felt it was well done and executed safe.... the stunts Swerve and Drew did with their backs straight on centreblocks had me a bit more, especially Swerve's - since you could actually visualise the bend. Ouch. But Khan let's them run free a bit much clearly... though it does then lend into WWE in the following weeks, JD's injury this week was clearly as a direct response to the double moonsault on Dynamite :lol:
 
Feel bad for Drew, he should have been involved in Romans elimination. Feel like they’ve done him dirty a little.
 
Feel bad for Drew, he should have been involved in Romans elimination. Feel like they’ve done him dirty a little.


From what I've read he was angry about Logan and LA Knight showing off and getting in the way leading to his being thrown out before he was supposed to go
 
Blimey, it’s 2025 and people are using the “he can’t wrestle” schtick to critique whether they think a wrestler should be in the main event or not. That’s proper retro that.
Did ten years of whinging about Cena not give you an idea on how many fecks WWE give about this sort of fan viewpoint.

Jey is hugely popular, pushes merch like you wouldn’t believe, has the crowd interacting on an insane level and people are in here whinging about him winning the rumble because he “can’t wrestle and does the same moves”. I mean if you’re upset about it you only have yourself to blame really. Wise the feck up…

Charlotte winning on the other hand, fml.
 
My 3-year-old was stood on the sofa yeeting at the end, so I'm a Jey mark now.
 
Did ten years of whinging about Cena not give you an idea on how many fecks WWE give about this sort of fan viewpoint.

I always find it bizarre that people still believe he should have gone heel. The guy was extremely popular with kids and still is now. Him going heel would have been a disaster in the market.
 
I always find it bizarre that people still believe he should have gone heel. The guy was extremely popular with kids and still is now. Him going heel would have been a disaster in the market.
Yup, they had exactly what they wanted with Cena. The 50/50. All those kids are now grown up and cheering for him on this last hurrah.
Tbf I wanted him heel but from a selfish viewpoint. I loved heel Cena from 2003-2004.
 
I always find it bizarre that people still believe he should have gone heel. The guy was extremely popular with kids and still is now. Him going heel would have been a disaster in the market.

Except Hogan before him and Roman after him have proven that not to be the case. And it's very well known you can still work your make-a-wish engagements whilst being a heel, Trips and Steph have always been exceptional with the kids and stuff, even when they were mega heels as prime examples, and outside of Cody, those two are the ones I'd put right behind Cena for that kind of stuff.

It's not even a case of Jey not being able to wrestle that well, it's that in reality, everyone obviously knows he's there for engagement, the actual reaction when he won showed that... if he was this mega over star... it wouldn't have taken them ages to adjust to him winning. "Oh they actually had him win? What"

But like I said, I've always quizzed the lack of a surprise winner... and now I've got one, I'm cool with it regardless.
 
Really enjoyed that Rumble. I think it’s good to have an element of unpredictability around things. Cena winning would have been too easy for his farewell, turning him into a underdog has a little more mileage rather than falling straight back into ‘Cena wins lol’. It gives you a chance to elevate guys and get some extra emotional pay off for when he does win the title one last time. He’s still filming and he spent a lot of time conserving his energy for the ending last night, he’s going to be in a way better spot for a tilt at the title at Summerslam.

I’m assuming it’s Punk vs Cena vs Seth vs Roman vs Drew vs Priest at Elimination Chamber. Punk wins and you end up with:

Cody vs Punk
Seth vs Roman
Gunther vs Jey

You can probably also setup Priest vs Drew and Sami vs KO for Mania too. But then it’s hard to figure out what you do with Cena at Mania.

What’s clear to me is the main event scene is far too heavy for long reigning champions now. They need to get back to a few title changes a year. It made sense with Reigns having few legitimate threats but those times are done now. Everyone is at a high level and they should play on that.

I hope they don’t waste too much time prolonging the Fatu/Strowman feud. There’s Breakker/Penta/Fatu triple threat waiting to happen that I would like to see very much.
 
Blimey, it’s 2025 and people are using the “he can’t wrestle” schtick to critique whether they think a wrestler should be in the main event or not. That’s proper retro that.
Did ten years of whinging about Cena not give you an idea on how many fecks WWE give about this sort of fan viewpoint.

Jey is hugely popular, pushes merch like you wouldn’t believe, has the crowd interacting on an insane level and people are in here whinging about him winning the rumble because he “can’t wrestle and does the same moves”. I mean if you’re upset about it you only have yourself to blame really. Wise the feck up…

Charlotte winning on the other hand, fml.
Or as Vince used to say, "Draw me money".
 
I wouldn't believe it as WWE seem to be leaking a lot of fake stuff to the dirtsheets these days, so they may just be setting up a feud down the road.

But if it's real, Drew is being a baby. It's a ring with 10 big men in it, space is cramped and if someone missed their cue then so what? It's not like Drew was meant to win it and was accidentally eliminated. Move on.
 
Except Hogan before him and Roman after him have proven that not to be the case. And it's very well known you can still work your make-a-wish engagements whilst being a heel, Trips and Steph have always been exceptional with the kids and stuff, even when they were mega heels as prime examples, and outside of Cody, those two are the ones I'd put right behind Cena for that kind of stuff.

It's not even a case of Jey not being able to wrestle that well, it's that in reality, everyone obviously knows he's there for engagement, the actual reaction when he won showed that... if he was this mega over star... it wouldn't have taken them ages to adjust to him winning. "Oh they actually had him win? What"

But like I said, I've always quizzed the lack of a surprise winner... and now I've got one, I'm cool with it regardless.
Those were massively different thouh. With Hogan that happened during the peak period of wrestling where there were plenty mega faces. And it was in WCW. At that time hogan babyface wasn’t even cool. Society/wrestling fans didn’t want goody too shoes faces. They wanted stuff like the Nwo. The wwes fanbase was very different between 2005-2013 during peak cena.

Roman wasn’t anywhere near over as a face as Cena was. Cenas reactions for the most part were 50/50 or 60-70/30/40 his favour. Roman was booed as a face like you wouldn’t believe. He also didn’t push merch like cena, didn’t have any catchphrases, didn’t have the interactions with the crowd. Reigns turning heel actually made him popular:

During Cenas popularity there was also a distinct lack of top babyfaces. Punk popped up but was too much of a basket case to be relied upon. Daniel Bryan was there and ready but then picked up career altering injuries. There’s no way they were turning Cena heel during that period. The one time they did it was when he was up against The Rock who was a huger baby face. IIRC they teased it with Bryan but of course injury put a stop to that.
 
Don’t think anybody saw that and they’ve gone with the most over guy right now if we are completely honest. People can say it’s an entrance or a catchphrase but nobody has been getting bigger responses than Jey has for a while now. Great curveball and a genuinely likeable guy that has worked his ass off to get a moment like that.

Think that also shows you where the company is now, no way he would have won under Vince.
Jey isn't even in shape. There were far more deserving guys who worked their asses off harder.
I wouldn't believe it as WWE seem to be leaking a lot of fake stuff to the dirtsheets these days, so they may just be setting up a feud down the road.

But if it's real, Drew is being a baby. It's a ring with 10 big men in it, space is cramped and if someone missed their cue then so what? It's not like Drew was meant to win it and was accidentally eliminated. Move on.
Logan and LA weren't supposed to take the spot. The only spot there should've been Drew's elimination and it made it look weak and unimportant.
 
Really enjoyed that Rumble. I think it’s good to have an element of unpredictability around things. Cena winning would have been too easy for his farewell, turning him into a underdog has a little more mileage rather than falling straight back into ‘Cena wins lol’. It gives you a chance to elevate guys and get some extra emotional pay off for when he does win the title one last time. He’s still filming and he spent a lot of time conserving his energy for the ending last night, he’s going to be in a way better spot for a tilt at the title at Summerslam.

I’m assuming it’s Punk vs Cena vs Seth vs Roman vs Drew vs Priest at Elimination Chamber. Punk wins and you end up with:

Cody vs Punk
Seth vs Roman
Gunther vs Jey

You can probably also setup Priest vs Drew and Sami vs KO for Mania too. But then it’s hard to figure out what you do with Cena at Mania.

What’s clear to me is the main event scene is far too heavy for long reigning champions now. They need to get back to a few title changes a year. It made sense with Reigns having few legitimate threats but those times are done now. Everyone is at a high level and they should play on that.

I hope they don’t waste too much time prolonging the Fatu/Strowman feud. There’s Breakker/Penta/Fatu triple threat waiting to happen that I would like to see very much.
Those matches make sense
Also with the tease during Cena entrance you could have him V Jacob
 
Jey winning was absolutely terrible. Didn't he just have a shot vs Gunther?
 
Really enjoyed that Rumble. I think it’s good to have an element of unpredictability around things. Cena winning would have been too easy for his farewell, turning him into a underdog has a little more mileage rather than falling straight back into ‘Cena wins lol’. It gives you a chance to elevate guys and get some extra emotional pay off for when he does win the title one last time. He’s still filming and he spent a lot of time conserving his energy for the ending last night, he’s going to be in a way better spot for a tilt at the title at Summerslam.

I’m assuming it’s Punk vs Cena vs Seth vs Roman vs Drew vs Priest at Elimination Chamber. Punk wins and you end up with:

Cody vs Punk
Seth vs Roman
Gunther vs Jey

You can probably also setup Priest vs Drew and Sami vs KO for Mania too. But then it’s hard to figure out what you do with Cena at Mania.

What’s clear to me is the main event scene is far too heavy for long reigning champions now. They need to get back to a few title changes a year. It made sense with Reigns having few legitimate threats but those times are done now. Everyone is at a high level and they should play on that.

I hope they don’t waste too much time prolonging the Fatu/Strowman feud. There’s Breakker/Penta/Fatu triple threat waiting to happen that I would like to see very much.
Agree with all this, think those are the 3 matches.
 
Those were massively different thouh. With Hogan that happened during the peak period of wrestling where there were plenty mega faces. And it was in WCW. At that time hogan babyface wasn’t even cool. Society/wrestling fans didn’t want goody too shoes faces. They wanted stuff like the Nwo. The wwes fanbase was very different between 2005-2013 during peak cena.

Roman wasn’t anywhere near over as a face as Cena was. Cenas reactions for the most part were 50/50 or 60-70/30/40 his favour. Roman was booed as a face like you wouldn’t believe. He also didn’t push merch like cena, didn’t have any catchphrases, didn’t have the interactions with the crowd. Reigns turning heel actually made him popular:

During Cenas popularity there was also a distinct lack of top babyfaces. Punk popped up but was too much of a basket case to be relied upon. Daniel Bryan was there and ready but then picked up career altering injuries. There’s no way they were turning Cena heel during that period. The one time they did it was when he was up against The Rock who was a huger baby face. IIRC they teased it with Bryan but of course injury put a stop to that.

Don't agree with a lot of this. During most of Cena's reign, people still wanted bad guys, more than ever most likely, Walter White become huge in that period and half of your big TV "heroes" were actually villains or clear anti-heroes in some form... thus why Punk exploded so easily and brought back a lot of adults as reasonably regular viewers with him.... a lot of this laying the groundwork for where we are now with AEW and vastly more interest.

The WWE fanbase was heavily kids in that period, and arguably one of it's lowest phases for general interest, because by forcing babyface Cena throughout it, they drove away so many, and the fact so many actively came back over the past 10 years proves by trying to force things with Cena and Roman... it didn't work. Interest grew as characters became a bit more complex again, the industry grew so much that we've got AEW.

The babyface can work in some angles obviously, but almost never in the goody two shoes way. There's a reason why people prefer Batman or Iron Man over Superman now... they are more complex, and more layered.
 
Don't agree with a lot of this. During most of Cena's reign, people still wanted bad guys, more than ever most likely, Walter White become huge in that period and half of your big TV "heroes" were actually villains or clear anti-heroes in some form... thus why Punk exploded so easily and brought back a lot of adults as reasonably regular viewers with him.... a lot of this laying the groundwork for where we are now with AEW and vastly more interest.

The WWE fanbase was heavily kids in that period, and arguably one of it's lowest phases for general interest, because by forcing babyface Cena throughout it, they drove away so many, and the fact so many actively came back over the past 10 years proves by trying to force things with Cena and Roman... it didn't work. Interest grew as characters became a bit more complex again, the industry grew so much that we've got AEW.

The babyface can work in some angles obviously, but almost never in the goody two shoes way. There's a reason why people prefer Batman or Iron Man over Superman now... they are more complex, and more layered.
It's easy to criticize Cena but one must realize that he was important in attracting a whole new young audience. That is what was required at that time to keep the product going in the long run.
 
Surely no one wants Drew to end up vs Priest

Priest cashed in on him, Priest eliminated him from the Rumble. That seems to be the story they’re building there. It’s not ideal but I’m hoping they go back to 2-3 top feuds rotating around the title picture, long reigns don’t work with how many top guys they have now.
 
There is so many wrestlers across both brands (and others) that a lot of people miss out on being in the 30 for the Rumble. For example Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, R Truth, Karrion Kross, Uncle Howdy, Viking Raiders, Creed Brothers to name a few. There wasn’t even space for some NXT guys.
 
Priest cashed in on him, Priest eliminated him from the Rumble. That seems to be the story they’re building there. It’s not ideal but I’m hoping they go back to 2-3 top feuds rotating around the title picture, long reigns don’t work with how many top guys they have now.
Priest is actually one of the most improved guys in my opinion. His mic skills have improved as well.