Lurker > TheRock1525

Strife2 posted...

It's different when the cuts are like 75 people in 3 months versus 5-10 once a year. Sure, the words are the same, but the timing and tone feel way different than "standard business practice." Also, Punk said this to Vince himself. Liv said it to Becky...who has no stake in that sort of thing.

The other big problem is having Edge say it.

Like dude, you have to have enough pull at this point to put your foot down on using fucking John Morrison's recent release as part of an angle.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

ScareChan posted...

rip cody

why would you do that spot

It was such a weird spot because I'm pretty sure Cody took the brunt of the table fall but somehow pinned Andrade off of it.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

So is the North American title the most cursed WWE title in existence.

Never mind that the inaugural match crowning the champion, 5 of the 6 participants are no longer with the company, here's the championship history:

Adam Cole: gone.
Ricochet: jobber on main roster.
Johnny Gargano: NXT lifer, likely gone.
Velveteen Dream: gone.
Roderick Strong: NXT lifer, technically re-signed over the summer but still likely gone based on how things are going.
Keith Lee: gone.
Damien Priest: only "success" story. Does have a midcard title and a WM match under his belt, but then again so did Ricochet.
Gargano again.
Leon Ruff: gone.
Gargano again.
Bronson Reed: gone.
Isaiah Scott: gone.
Carmelo Hayes: current champ.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

paulg235 posted...

Time for Vince to buy up more of the territories!

If he buys ROH's video library, he gets All In.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

So Big E was on Fox's Big Noon Kickoff to hype of the Iowa/Penn State game, then he was the hype man for the preview of Wilder/Fury III.

Been pretty good to be Large Epsilon lately.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

They broke up Retribution even further!

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

So let's see how NXT 2.0 is going.



Okay let's not.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Actually I do know who they're building up to take down Reigns.

It's Bron Breaker. Who's still in NXT. So it's gonna be a little while.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

FFDragon posted...

Did you just insinuate that Brock is back

...as a face?

That's what all the reports say, and he's challenging Roman at Blood Money.

FFDragon posted...

Secondarily: Who is his mouthpiece then, because he can't do it himself >_>

One of the sub-plots is "who's side is Paul Heyman on" with Heyman at one point doing his intro for Brock, only for Brock to threaten Heyman into getting his match with Reigns.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

Bruh they're pushing Roman so hard they had him go to RAW to win two matches over the guy they hotshotted to the title.

I'd like to point out, however, that Big E did have Roman beat twice in that match only for shenanigans to occur, and E didn't take the pin in that triple threat.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

StealThisSheen posted...

I disagree Balor should have won, Roman has been fantastic.

But the ending was very dumb.

Problem is they're building up zero concurrent babyfaces to realistically dethrone him. It's Brock and... that's it. Rock has already been ruled out for WM38.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Also apparently Roman Reigns put on a mask before going into the crowd to brawl with Balor.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

https://puu.sh/IedwS/b66ce4bdcb.jpg

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Jakyl25 posted...

Vince McMahon has struck again

I read what happened, which ironically happened the same time SCSA just did a BSS with Rollins and Rollins literally said he wanted to strangle Vince after the HiaC ending.

This was almost as bad.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Jesus he even has the same cadence.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Big E managed to get a "Brodie" chant going on RAW.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

https://twitter.com/aew/status/1439967601854226434?s=21

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Extreme Rules is a week from today.

There is not a single match with an "extreme" stipulation.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Fastbreak posted...

New Day vs Bloodline seems like a money match, giving it on raw feels really desperate

Unfortunately a lot of their talent is over in the UK right now so they need something to put on the show.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

BTW AEW beat RAW again in the ratings, despite being a rather pedestrian episode compared to RAW having two title matches.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

SRS says that Adam Cole told TVInsider that he was not pitched the idea of being a manager.

It's amazing how he's supplanted Meltzer as the gold standard for dirtsheets info. I can't think of the last time Dave broke an accurate story.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Caucasian Tom.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

To be fair, it was going against a really crazy Monday Night Football game and the cash-in itself did 1.844 million.

Also Pete Dunne has apparently re-signed for 3 years.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

Uh, I mean... he got his first singles title 8 years ago. Hung out with a tag team for the next seven years with success. Then he won the briefcase. Then he fought Apollo Crews for months, exclusively. Then he was on the pre-show at the second biggest PPV of the year in a nothing match. Then he cashed in on an injured and tired Lashley to beat him for the title, on a whim when ratings needed popped.

I dunno what you call this aside from forcing him into a spot arbitrarily? He certainly wasn't pushed as a main event guy at all before this.

Some of the timeline here is off. They split him off New Day last year in October, I think, then had him win the IC title in December where they pushed it as a huge win (like they had the entire lockerroom come out and lift E on their shoulders) on that one Smackdown that did ridiculously good ratings thanks to an NFL lead in (like 3.4 million or something). At which point he got into that feud with Crews leading to a WM match where Crews won by an assist from Dabo-Kata. They were likely going to break off from there and have Big E feud with Aleistar Black, but we know how that turned out, so Crews got dragged out until MitB. E has also been pretty well protected. Don't think he has a single clean loss and finally got a good RR showing only to be screwed by Omos.

He wasn't treated like main event, but he was a well-protected upper midcard babyface who just needed one final push, which he got. I wouldn't say it was handled well, but I don't think it was arbitrary, either.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Fuck yeah Big E. I know they only did it in response to AEW beating them in the ratings but I fucking love Big E and am super happy for him.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Johnny Gargano's contract is supposedly up soon, too.

Vince gonna get his Indie-Free dream without even having to try.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Big E with that reverse reverse psychology where everyone knows he's a trickster so they assume he's lying, only for him to actually cash-in.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Samoa Joe forced to vacate the NXT title due to injury.

Which is pretty coincidental for their big rebrand.

Are you ready for NXT champion Odyssey Jones?!?!

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Bryan Danielson is even crazier (according to Meltzer again).

Bryan legit loved working in the WWE and loved Vince. And Vince loved him back, to the point where he tells people Bryan is his favorite wrestler. Both WWE and AEW offered similar contracts, similar work dates, and WWE was prepared to let him work in NJPW.

And Bryan still turned it down because he thought going to AEW was the healthiest decision for the wrestling industry.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Meltzer is saying that the pitch to Adam Cole on the main roster was to be the manager of a heel Keith Lee.

On one hand, Vince is so out of touch that I absolutely believe it.

On the other hand, Cole described WWE's offer as very generous, so I have a hard time believing Vince would want to pay a lot of money for a manager.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Sami Zayn's expires the end of 2021.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Oh and it was believed Kevin Owens' contract wasn't up until 2023 is now actually up in January 2022.

And he just tweeted and deleted a pic with him, Cole, and the Bucks.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Jakyl25 posted...

And Triple H really has no excuse

Even with crowds back and moved AWAY from AEW, their ratings are still down from where they were a year ago in the middle of the war.

Dynamite is up from then. Raw is up. SmackDown is up. Whats his excuse?

One thing Vince is right on is the look of NXT is absolute shit right now. The previews for the new "arena" for NXT feel like a good step in the right direction.

But the biggest decision was putting the main titles on Karrion Kross and Raquel Gonzalez, especially when they took them off more popular acts like Finn Balor and Io Shirai.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Doesn't his son write for 205 Live?

Does that really count as "working there"?
Jakyl25 posted...

this is the price for Triple H losing the war by trying to be a super indie

Pretty much. Hell, the biggest initial change being the logo and to make the arena stop looking like an ROH show is the biggest sign. HHH got out-indied by an actual Indie superfed and Vince said "enough with this Indie crap, where's my next John Cena, Paul?"

So it will now be big meaty men slapping meat.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

I mean I guess at the end of the day, WWE has so alienated the majority of IWC that now has an alternative, the people still attending WWE events will largely still go with the WWE's narrative.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

StealThisSheen posted...

Oh, I never said they aren't stupid.

I'm just saying a paper bag would probably get a Yes! chant if people thought it was going to beat Charlotte. It's just instinct, I think.

The same fans cheered at Summerslam when Charlotte beat Nikki Cross.

It's hard to attribute it as "anyone but Charlotte" when they were literally happy she won the title a few weeks ago.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

StealThisSheen posted...

Yeah but now the alternative is Charlotte, you see

And so the question became what do they hate more, her current gimmick or Charlotte

And they made the answer clear

But like I was saying earlier, this is WWE fans doing it to themselves.

It just reinforces everything bad about the situation.

"See, Alexa Bliss' gimmick is really over! And Charlotte Flair is a great heel! More winking doll segments, god dammit!"

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

StealThisSheen posted...

I think people are just super desperate for anybody other than Charlotte to be champion, and Bliss has always been atleast decently hot with crowds no matter how stupid or not her latest gimmick is at the time.

She was starting to get booed and "We Want Wyatt" chants in recent weeks.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

So Brian Danielson in the media scrum said he was gonna respect the "Yes" chant as WWE intellectual property, which honestly makes no sense to me but whatever, and the fans can chant "Yes" if they want to or not.

So what would generate the first "Yes" chants on WWE TV post-Daniel Bryan?

https://twitter.com/Era_of_Bliss_2/status/1435068042266959877?

I mean, at this point WWE fans have no one to blame but themselves.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

FFDragon posted...

AEW is basically an arsenic EWR run at this point and it's the highest I've been on pro wrestling in the longest time.

Maybe it means these topics will be active again?

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Andrade's AEW run feels cursed so far.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

https://twitter.com/LocalSoundwave/status/1432531076111650818?

Keep in mind what preceded this was Nia dropping Charlotte on her head.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Adam Cole cancelled his expected Twitch stream tonight, and Britt Baker posted that infamous shot of her from NXT. Rampage is already taped so it's possible that they threw together a quick vignette for tonight's show, but it's also possible he's going to appear on Smackdown.

Or all this means nothing and he's just trolling.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Also Fightful said earlier this week Pete Dunne was offered a contract.

Considering the last episode of NXT featured Dunne in three separate segments, one setting up a future NXT championship match with Samoa Joe and another setting up his current faction for WarGames, I'm gonna guess he signed it.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Adam Cole posted an old picture of him and Shinsuke Nakamura squaring off on his Instagram story.

Nakamura is the Intercontinental Champion right now.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Fastbreak posted...

The crowd was "yes" chanting him, he said that's somebody else's shtick and be a bit more patient for it

Oh they definitely have Brian, then. They might troll on Twitter, but anything they do on TV they're gonna be fairly confident in their position.

ExThaNemesis posted...

WWE will either have to up its game or die over the next 5 years or so. I'm hoping it's the former and we can get that feeling from the monday night wars back

I mean, their response to AEW kicking NXT's ass is to make it into OVW and trying to recruit failed football players and bodybuilders again. There is no "upping their game." They're just gonna have to stumble into another Rock or Cena by this method because they sure as hell aren't gonna win over most wrestling fans anymore.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Fastbreak posted...

Well punk basically confirmed Bryan or did the biggest troll job possible

Not watching cause I'm at work, what did he say?

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Adam Cole update:

It was noted earlier today that Adam Cole had not renewed his WWE contract and was a "free agent" as per pwinsider.com, however, to be more accurate, he is still under an agreement until Friday, August 27 as per multiple sources but first reported by fightfulselect.com. As such, Cole is not technically a free agent and for those wondering, would not be able to appear on any AEW programming should he decide to sign there. The report further adds that with three days left between today and his official contract end date, WWE is expected to continue working to sign him by making at least one more offer, however, internally officials are resigned to the fact that he is almost surely done with the company.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

Also remember when JaKyL said RAW would never hit 2 million viewers?

Somehow it did 2.067 with a .64 in the demo.

That Logan Paul bump.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.

PWinsider is reporting that Adam Cole is officially gone from WWE. Nothing saying he's signed with AEW yet but that seems the next logical step.

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TheRock ~ I had a name, my father called me Blues.