As the WWE continued their “fresh start”, SmackDown featured several performers returning from the WWE’s witness protection program, Shane McMahon provides an update on Paige, the return of Sanity, a big night for Mustafa Ali teaming with AJ Styles against Daniel Bryan and Andrade Cien Almas, plus Asuka defends her women’s title against Naomi.
We discuss TODAY’S TOP STORIES with Raw’s viewership rising with the return of Vince McMahon, a look at the NXT call-ups that were announced on Raw, and why certain performers were chosen for those spots. Plus Café feedback, comments & questions from thePOST Wrestling Forum.
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Wai Ting and John Pollock chat Being the Elite’s latest episode Leaving the Territory as the group finishes up their final Ring of Honor commitments and give their decision to “H”
A review of the recent WWE Chronicle profiling Becky Lynch on the road to TLC, detailing her early days in professional wrestling, leaving the industry for several years, her love of media and her appearance on the Ariel Helwani MMA Show.
Plus, the two chat about the excellent tag match involving The Golden Lovers against Hiroshi Tanahashi and Will Ospreay from Korakuen Hall this past Saturday.
Is it just me or I’m I the only one That’s already tired of the mcmahon’s as authority figures? And the funny thing is, where probably going to be stuck with them for the whole mania season which will get old really quick.
How could you be tired of such a fresh and new concept so soon?
I kid…we’ve all gone through this for many years. The whole idea of a face or heel GM is just tiring. I think many of us would be fine going back to the Gorilla Monsoon days where the GM seldom appears on tv at all unless a situation really calls for it. Just acknowledge that someone sets up matches and authorizes things backstage but they don’t have a weekly presence at all.
So I guess “The McMahon Family” is the new approved term for our fearless leader. Here’s my guess for which family member will be “in charge” of what.
Shane: Smackdown
Stephanie: Raw and anything involving the women doing something for the first-time ever
Vince: Anything (perceived as) monumental or the next time the ratings dip
Triple H: When it’s time to set up his next 20-minute slog of a match
Get a show that featured a.new guy in the mainevent, having a great tag match, vmy right in teams we haven’t seen in months, offered a title match and people are making it all about the McMahons…smh.
No wonder they can’t make new stars, people can’t get off Vince’s nuts to remember anything else.
Paige was a wasted opportunity. She never got into it verbally with Becky or Charlotte which could of led to some great segments.
Becky’s momentum is really dying. Here was a chance to spar with Vince for the first time ever. A well placed “Screw you!” would have reminded everyone why we fell in love with her in September and October and instead she just pantomimed outrage. Everything feels like a holding pattern until the New Year making it almost pointless to bring out either her or Charlotte if Ronda is the target.
Asuka/Naomi was good, but I felt like the crowd was maybe 55/45 Asuka? Time to build up Sonya Deville. She can say she took Asuka to the edge of that battle royal to get into TLC.
Looking back at it, this whole scenerio feel really similar to when they first tried to get Roman reigns over. I don’t what it is but the fact the are forcing new talents on tv and the McMahon are the focal point of everything again just feel like they are trying to side with their audience in hope that they can get the audience to react the way they want them to react.
The McMahons were the major storyline on both shows and seemingly will continue to be for at least another few weeks. So yes, it’s the main thing that’s being talked about.
The fact that they were all over the show and they are the reason the ratings are up, that’s the reason why we are talking more about the mcmahon’s. They made the show all about themselves and it seem like that trend will continue for a while
The whole product right now is currently about the McMahons “shaking things up”. It’s not just when one of them is physically on screen. Listen to the commentary.
And you know this because you’re not stupid, but you’re just being argumentative because it’s your thing.
Next week, you get the start of the miz/Shane tag team which mean we will get a lot of Shane McMahon on tv every week on smackdown and I doubt that Stephanie and HHH will just stay backstage every week on raw.
Only one show (each brand) into this new era so it’s too early to fully judge but so far they made the entertaining show feel a little bit more fresh, and didn’t do that much with the show that people were complaining about… They need to take the Universal title off of Brock at Royal Rumble, ditch the Lashley/Elias stuff, ditch the Rollins/Ambrose stuff (revisit it later), give the tag guys better talking segments and have Sasha fully turn heel and move Corbin to a midcard role. That’d be a start.
All things that will probably not happen. I see lesnar holding the belt until mania where he will drop it to Seth Rollins, Corbin will probably staying in the upper mid card level, rollins/Ambrose still have legs and Elias/lashley will probably die after the holidays.
As for Sasha, I feel like they are dead set on starting a tag division for the women by wrestlemania, so I don’t see her turning heel anytime soon. As for the tag division, they really don’t have any team on raw that really can carry the division on raw. Even on smackdown, it’s hard to take any of the team seriously because of the way they have treated the division for years now.
This feel like a stunt for the holiday season because they don’t have anything to lose during that period. If it works, it works, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t and we move on with the plan they have for mania. I feel like this should have been done after mania when you could have made a bigger impact with this instead of here when it will be lost in the shuffle and drop so they can put the spotlight on the real stars going into mania.