Television Tho Prop Grops Throps

Punk looked out of his depth in the main event scene in AEW. Body seems broken, his cardio isn’t up to scratch and he’s a mediocre wrestler compared to the guys competing for spots. He’s comfortably the worst champion the company have had, and I was very excited to see him back.

I’m a bit surprised WWE was even considering having him in their title picture so soon. It was never gonna be a success. There’s a reason his one televised match so far has been the Royal Rumble.

The bit in bold is pure unadulterated nonsense. Punk was regularly the very best thing about AEW TV when he was there, he put on plenty of excellent matches, and was half of comfortably the best feud AEW have ever had. There's a lot more to being a good wrestler than workrate, I'd take a slow and storied Punk match over a flippy deathmatch with blood drinking every day.
 
The bit in bold is pure unadulterated nonsense. Punk was regularly the very best thing about AEW TV when he was there, he put on plenty of excellent matches, and was half of comfortably the best feud AEW have ever had. There's a lot more to being a good wrestler than workrate, I'd take a slow and storied Punk match over a flippy deathmatch with blood drinking every day.
He’s compelling TV more often than not, but he shouldn’t be asked to wrestle frequently or many extended matches any longer. He’s nothing close to the wrestler he used to be in ROH and his first WWE run, and his body can’t hold up to what it needs to do to frequently wrestle matches at the top of the card. There’s a real reason why he hasn’t been wrestling much since returned to the WWE.

There’s no shame in any of that. He’s 45 and was never an athletic, physical specimen to begin with. Time catches up with everyone, and it’s a shame he wasted much of prime not being involved with wrestling.
 
Some of the women weigh like 90 pounds it's not sexist to think they're not very believable.

Did you think it was believable when Chyna was beating Chris Jericho clean?

You're getting into what is believable or not in an industry and era where Roman Reigns won a match because God caused the ring ropes to break as Fin Balor was standing on them.

And where Sami Zayn lost a match to Johnny Noxville after getting caught in a giant mousetrap and then punched in the face by a giant jack in the box boxing glove.

Lot of Cody dislike here which is bizarre. Thankfully this place isn't real and doesn't translate to people who go and watch.

Sometimes predictable can be good, like Austin winning in 98 or 01, or when Brock won it the first time, or when Batista won it. It doesn't always have to be unpredictable imo.

I do agree the women's one was better though they do have a lot of random tag teams that don't get much reaction.
Also rumble is a good way to see how generic some entrance music is, as when it hits people don't react straight away as they wonder who now...

Annoying Punk got hurt but makes sense why he struggled and actually he did well to do as much as he did with a triceps injury

No dislike for Cody I just don't get what has been achieved by dragging his "story" out for an entire extra year just to not actually build on it at all and then wind up back in exactly the same place. What exactly has keeping the title of Reigns an entire extra year achieved, other than making the whole thing very boring. One thing you shouldn't be aiming for in pretend fighting, is boring.

They COULD swerve and have Cody vs Rollins and free up Reigns for The Rock or someone else, but then that wouldn't make much sense either apart from explaining why they were reluctant to take the title off Reigns.

Predictable is fine when its fun or engaging. It was completely predictable that Cargill would come out when she did and eliminate Jaxx imo, but that was done well so was also one of the best parts of the whole night. The whole men's rumble was devoid of anything fun at all....and not only has EVERY Reigns title match for about 2 years been completely predictable and uninteresting, but they have also basically been repeats of each other. The only exception being Mania last year when it was still boring and a repeat, but wasn't predictable as I thought they'd have the sense to give Cody the win.

Also maybe I'm overly cynical but that Rock appearance the other week now just looks like a dick move to lure Netflix into thinking they were getting something more than they actually are.
 
You're getting into what is believable or not in an industry and era where Roman Reigns won a match because God caused the ring ropes to break as Fin Balor was standing on them.

And where Sami Zayn lost a match to Johnny Noxville after getting caught in a giant mousetrap and then punched in the face by a giant jack in the box boxing glove.



No dislike for Cody I just don't get what has been achieved by dragging his "story" out for an entire extra year just to not actually build on it at all and then wind up back in exactly the same place. What exactly has keeping the title of Reigns an entire extra year achieved, other than making the whole thing very boring. One thing you shouldn't be aiming for in pretend fighting, is boring.

They COULD swerve and have Cody vs Rollins and free up Reigns for The Rock or someone else, but then that wouldn't make much sense either apart from explaining why they were reluctant to take the title off Reigns.

Predictable is fine when its fun or engaging. It was completely predictable that Cargill would come out when she did and eliminate Jaxx imo, but that was done well so was also one of the best parts of the whole night. The whole men's rumble was devoid of anything fun at all....and not only has EVERY Reigns title match for about 2 years been completely predictable and uninteresting, but they have also basically been repeats of each other. The only exception being Mania last year when it was still boring and a repeat, but wasn't predictable as I thought they'd have the sense to give Cody the win.

Also maybe I'm overly cynical but that Rock appearance the other week now just looks like a dick move to lure Netflix into thinking they were getting something more than they actually are.
They’ve spelled it out to us, Rock v Roman is next years WM match. Rock basically said as much in an interview recently.
 


Drew McIntyre, playa hater of the year 2024.

Are we getting worked cus Drew's playing into this a lot.

I did notice punk came out in a sling to begin with, and then backstage after his segment with drew, no sling.

Though Seth's promo was compelling, we are not flinching, and codys coming after Roman. Because if not Cody, genuinely who's left to take the title off him?
 
They’ve spelled it out to us, Rock v Roman is next years WM match. Rock basically said as much in an interview recently.

But then why keep the title on Reigns for so long? He's surely not keeping it until next year. They seemed to run out of things to do with Cody after his Brock feud - and even that was the standard Brock thing where he fights someone for 3 ppvs in a row based on absolutely no story or meaningful reason at all. Which personally I find incredibly dull. Where as Roman being the forever champ got boring about 2 years ago....to the point they've literally had to recreate one of his titles and then just pretend the one he still actually has, doesn't exist anymore....which is actually really quite dumb considering wrestling isn't real so he isn't actually invincible.

I'm not interested in Cody vs Reigns again and the Rumble was boring. I'm also not really interested in Rock vs Roman for the "head of the table" in 15 months time, because it means another 15 months of Roman being stuck in his head of the table role, which means he either keeps the belt for ANOTHER 12 months, or The Rock vs Roman is based on them both wanting to be in charge of one half of The Usos.
 
He’s compelling TV more often than not, but he shouldn’t be asked to wrestle frequently or many extended matches any longer. He’s nothing close to the wrestler he used to be in ROH and his first WWE run, and his body can’t hold up to what it needs to do to frequently wrestle matches at the top of the card. There’s a real reason why he hasn’t been wrestling much since returned to the WWE.

There’s no shame in any of that. He’s 45 and was never an athletic, physical specimen to begin with. Time catches up with everyone, and it’s a shame he wasted much of prime not being involved with wrestling.

This is more reasonable, but the idea that he was out of his depth at the top of the AEW card isn't at all. He's older and less durable than before, but he had far more good to great matches in AEW than bad ones. Danielson is getting injured more often than Punk for example, and nobody questions his position on the card.

Despite being more reasonable, I still don't agree with this post either, Punk is one of the biggest names in wrestling and him being around the title scene elevates everyone else involved.
 
But then why keep the title on Reigns for so long? He's surely not keeping it until next year. They seemed to run out of things to do with Cody after his Brock feud - and even that was the standard Brock thing where he fights someone for 3 ppvs in a row based on absolutely no story or meaningful reason at all. Which personally I find incredibly dull. Where as Roman being the forever champ got boring about 2 years ago....to the point they've literally had to recreate one of his titles and then just pretend the one he still actually has, doesn't exist anymore....which is actually really quite dumb considering wrestling isn't real so he isn't actually invincible.

I'm not interested in Cody vs Reigns again and the Rumble was boring. I'm also not really interested in Rock vs Roman for the "head of the table" in 15 months time, because it means another 15 months of Roman being stuck in his head of the table role, which means he either keeps the belt for ANOTHER 12 months, or The Rock vs Roman is based on them both wanting to be in charge of one half of The Usos.
Is that the standard Brock thing?
 
You're getting into what is believable or not in an industry and era where Roman Reigns won a match because God caused the ring ropes to break as Fin Balor was standing on them.

And where Sami Zayn lost a match to Johnny Noxville after getting caught in a giant mousetrap and then punched in the face by a giant jack in the box boxing glove.



No dislike for Cody I just don't get what has been achieved by dragging his "story" out for an entire extra year just to not actually build on it at all and then wind up back in exactly the same place. What exactly has keeping the title of Reigns an entire extra year achieved, other than making the whole thing very boring. One thing you shouldn't be aiming for in pretend fighting, is boring.

They COULD swerve and have Cody vs Rollins and free up Reigns for The Rock or someone else, but then that wouldn't make much sense either apart from explaining why they were reluctant to take the title off Reigns.

Predictable is fine when its fun or engaging. It was completely predictable that Cargill would come out when she did and eliminate Jaxx imo, but that was done well so was also one of the best parts of the whole night. The whole men's rumble was devoid of anything fun at all....and not only has EVERY Reigns title match for about 2 years been completely predictable and uninteresting, but they have also basically been repeats of each other. The only exception being Mania last year when it was still boring and a repeat, but wasn't predictable as I thought they'd have the sense to give Cody the win.

Also maybe I'm overly cynical but that Rock appearance the other week now just looks like a dick move to lure Netflix into thinking they were getting something more than they actually are.

Right, that is all well and good if they were particularly booking for you or the people in this thread.
The numbers and metrics show that overall this has been the right move for wwe. Cody is in a better position now compared to last year, his merchandise numbers were up based on what I last saw, and his reactions are even stronger when he comes out.

But not only that, if we're talking about Roman retaining and bloodline continuing, if we compare this year to last year, jey is a bigger singles star compared to last year, and that was due to the bloodline continuing and Roman retaining. Solo right now is in a better position. I'd even say Jimmy too despite the ridiculousness of him turning on Jey the way he did.

Cody having wins against Brock, nakamura, JD is really in a better position.

WWE as a whole is in a better position as they've used that time to build around Roman.

I also think if Cody had won last year there weren't many good heels to challenge him. I think wwe have some potential ones now for Cody to go against when he wins the title
 
But then why keep the title on Reigns for so long? He's surely not keeping it until next year. They seemed to run out of things to do with Cody after his Brock feud - and even that was the standard Brock thing where he fights someone for 3 ppvs in a row based on absolutely no story or meaningful reason at all. Which personally I find incredibly dull. Where as Roman being the forever champ got boring about 2 years ago....to the point they've literally had to recreate one of his titles and then just pretend the one he still actually has, doesn't exist anymore....which is actually really quite dumb considering wrestling isn't real so he isn't actually invincible.

I'm not interested in Cody vs Reigns again and the Rumble was boring. I'm also not really interested in Rock vs Roman for the "head of the table" in 15 months time, because it means another 15 months of Roman being stuck in his head of the table role, which means he either keeps the belt for ANOTHER 12 months, or The Rock vs Roman is based on them both wanting to be in charge of one half of The Usos.
Cody is the top baby face now and rightly so. He will beat Reigns with more than likely a run in from Rock setting up next year.

Cody was unbeaten going into the last WM match I think, which might be why they didn’t pull the trigger.
 
This is more reasonable, but the idea that he was out of his depth at the top of the AEW card isn't at all. He's older and less durable than before, but he had far more good to great matches in AEW than bad ones. Danielson is getting injured more often than Punk for example, and nobody questions his position on the card.

Despite being more reasonable, I still don't agree with this post either, Punk is one of the biggest names in wrestling and him being around the title scene elevates everyone else involved.
Danielson might legitimately be the best in-ring wrestler in North America when fit, and an absolute master at working around his injuries and knocks, neither of which things you would say about CM Punk any longer.

You take the upside when Danielson is fit, but there’s also a very good reason why Danielson is not the top champion either. Enjoy the great matches he has left, but don’t hang any long-term plans on him either.
 
Right, that is all well and good if they were particularly booking for you or the people in this thread.
The numbers and metrics show that overall this has been the right move for wwe. Cody is in a better position now compared to last year, his merchandise numbers were up based on what I last saw, and his reactions are even stronger when he comes out.

But not only that, if we're talking about Roman retaining and bloodline continuing, if we compare this year to last year, jey is a bigger singles star compared to last year, and that was due to the bloodline continuing and Roman retaining. Solo right now is in a better position. I'd even say Jimmy too despite the ridiculousness of him turning on Jey the way he did.

Cody having wins against Brock, nakamura, JD is really in a better position.

WWE as a whole is in a better position as they've used that time to build around Roman.

I also think if Cody had won last year there weren't many good heels to challenge him. I think wwe have some potential ones now for Cody to go against when he wins the title
feck off with your logic and reason.
 
Danielson might legitimately be the best in-ring wrestler in North America when fit, and an absolute master at working around his injuries and knocks, neither of which things you would say about CM Punk any longer.

You take the upside when Danielson is fit, but there’s also a very good reason why Danielson is not the top champion either. Enjoy the great matches he has left, but don’t hang any long-term plans on him either.

I agree that Danielson is brilliant, but he's had more injuries and time on the shelf than Punk recently, and has no problem being around the title scene because of how good he is. But the same applies to Punk, he's one of wrestling's best ever talkers, is one of the very biggest stars around, and is perfectly capable of having great matches still. But the idea that WWE were gonna take the guy who's return generated their best social media performance of all time and not put him at the top of the card is crazy.
 
Aussie show is cursed.

Rollins injured, Punk injured, Gunther can't travel due to visa issues apparently, dirtsheets saying Roman isn't going, no Brock for obvious reasons.

They should give Rhea a good feud for it and probably the main event.
 
Aussie show is cursed.

Rollins injured, Punk injured, Gunther can't travel due to visa issues apparently, dirtsheets saying Roman isn't going, no Brock for obvious reasons.

They should give Rhea a good feud for it and probably the main event.
It's their own fault for being Australian
 
Aussie show is cursed.

Rollins injured, Punk injured, Gunther can't travel due to visa issues apparently, dirtsheets saying Roman isn't going, no Brock for obvious reasons.

They should give Rhea a good feud for it and probably the main event.

That great feud? Nia Jax :lol:

They are really really handcuffed with the EC, as the only logical winner left is Drew unless they remove any connection to the World Titles. It's another reason why I think Cody wasn't supposed to win the Rumble(this likely won't be confirmed if true for a very long time, so pure speculation on my part), as he doesn't have a logical opponent to the fill the Rumble-WM gap going into the EC and he's going into it as a prime attraction, whereas he would have had he not won, winning the EC. They already planted the seeds for Drew-Punk at EC as Punk's stopgap.
 
That great feud? Nia Jax :lol:

They are really really handcuffed with the EC, as the only logical winner left is Drew unless they remove any connection to the World Titles. It's another reason why I think Cody wasn't supposed to win the Rumble(this likely won't be confirmed if true for a very long time, so pure speculation on my part), as he doesn't have a logical opponent to the fill the Rumble-WM gap going into the EC and he's going into it as a prime attraction, whereas he would have had he not won, winning the EC. They already planted the seeds for Drew-Punk at EC as Punk's stopgap.

It was clear Cody was meant to win it but Punk wasn't supposed to get injured and then go into EC. I'm not sure what they will do regarding Cody before WM but I'm sure they have a plan as Roman hasn't been appearing regularly for a while.
 
That great feud? Nia Jax :lol:

They are really really handcuffed with the EC, as the only logical winner left is Drew unless they remove any connection to the World Titles. It's another reason why I think Cody wasn't supposed to win the Rumble(this likely won't be confirmed if true for a very long time, so pure speculation on my part), as he doesn't have a logical opponent to the fill the Rumble-WM gap going into the EC and he's going into it as a prime attraction, whereas he would have had he not won, winning the EC. They already planted the seeds for Drew-Punk at EC as Punk's stopgap.

To be fair, Nia Jax is quite easily the most over female heel they have at the moment. Nobody comes close to getting the reactions she gets as a heel.

Unfortunately the match will be a bag of shit, but the Aussie Crowd will be hyped for it - so that might carry it through.

Also, the problem with Drew vs. Rollins at Mania is they literally just did it on TV a few weeks ago. He does feel like the only hot act that could main event Mania night 1 though. Otherwise it has to be Gunther vs. Seth... unless they heat up someone like Sami Zayn, which they could do to be fair.
 
Aussie show is cursed.

Rollins injured, Punk injured, Gunther can't travel due to visa issues apparently, dirtsheets saying Roman isn't going, no Brock for obvious reasons.

They should give Rhea a good feud for it and probably the main event.
Grayson Waller match fit though ..

Maybe time to bring back the iconics.
 
Id be happy with Drew facing Seth at Mania and winning the title in front of people.
I do wonder what they do with Priest, but would be funny to see Cody win the title from Reigns, but lose it a minute later (but also hope that doesnt happen).
 
Id be happy with Drew facing Seth at Mania and winning the title in front of people.
I do wonder what they do with Priest, but would be funny to see Cody win the title from Reigns, but lose it a minute later (but also hope that doesnt happen).
Seth faces Drew, Drew about to win, Punk costs him title. Seth wins match.

Then Priest cashes in.
 
So Rock vs Reigns. Cody vs Rollins. So was the plan not for Punk to be in a title match? Doubt it so wondering what the actual plan was….
 
So Rock vs Reigns. Cody vs Rollins. So was the plan not for Punk to be in a title match? Doubt it so wondering what the actual plan was….

I’m sure they wanted Punk v Rollins and Cody v Reigns I imagine. I like the Rock but I find this a bit silly. You have someone win the Royal Rumble and looks like they can win the title at Mania then we have the Rock thrown in. They could have also had Drew v Seth for the other main event which would have been brilliant. I have no idea what is happening now.

Also what is the point of elimination chamber now? Hopefully they have a plan for all of this but I can’t see it at the moment.

This summarises it:

 
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So Rock vs Reigns. Cody vs Rollins. So was the plan not for Punk to be in a title match? Doubt it so wondering what the actual plan was….

I think the pans were origionally Punk vs Rollins and Cody vs Roman. Injuries happened and Rock was able to finalise a return so Cody got shifted to take Punks place. Talk that it will be Drew vs Cody vs Rollins as the winner of Elimination Chamber will be added to the match too.

Everyone talking about the Rock and not enough about Bayley, she was the highlight of the show. We all knew it was coming, but it played out well. Now, does she go back to the friendly hugger face Bayley, or does she stay as she is only as a face?
 
I know the card has been hit with injuries but to throw away a 2 year build up for Cody seems fecking crazy.

They must have offered him a huge run in the future or something to compensate

Rock vs Roman is huge but damn
 
It’s a very strange booking decision, but it’s the fecking Rock vs Roman. You can’t turn that down.
 
Get the feeling the Rock was meant to be next year. It was definitely going to be Punk/Seth and Cody/Roman until the injuries.

It’s a bad decision though. Just do Drew/Seth and have Rock/Roman next year. That way there is at least a bit of mystery over who wins if Roman doesn’t have the belt
 
It's also made Seth's title look like shit. Cody will be forced to go after that now I bet and it just highlights further that it's a glorified IC title because people know it's not the real belt he wants

Damn im a massive fan of triple H but this is surely one of the biggest booking feck ups ever. 2 year story absolutely ruined. Also I can't see the Rock winning it he wont have the schedule to be a regular so its going to feel even worse after the event