[Gorefest]

Spoiler

Well, assuming this was Taker's last ever match, it had to go on last to give him a proper send-off. Taker has always said that in his opinion a wrestler should always leave the business on his back, i.e. Your final act should be to put someone else over. Reigns is the new compsny kid so Taker did the honourable thing and made Reigns relevant for the next few years. It is Taker through and through, the guy is class. Even though I don't like Reigns.

Goldberg vs Lesnar was cool, finally a decent showing. Of course Lesnar had to win this one, but it was well played and made Goldberg still look like a behemoth even in defeat. His legacy is at an end now and he can go into the hall of fame next year.

Orton vs Wyatt was the most disappointing match of the evening, so much wasted potential. But sadly this is an annual thing. WM is not for the fans, it is designed to attract new audiences. So months of careful storyline build-up mean nothing, it is just fuel for a 5-minute intro to get the uninitiated up to speed with what these guys are about. Was hoping for a Rowan, Harper or Strowman intervention, but it was flat rubbish.

Women's SD title match was very short but that is no doubt due to being bumped up last-minute from the preshow and time running out. Decent showing with a logical winner.
Owens vs Jericho was a tad disappointing. And so was Ambrose vs Corbin. Decent matches, good work, but nothing that you wouldnt expect to see on a Raw or SD main event. Not much love for the midcard titles tonight.

I really liked the Raw women's match. It was well laid out, good storytelling, decent spots. One of the best matches of the evening.

Loved AJ vs Shane. It keeps amazing me how Shane can turn up for big events. The guy is a class act. Nobody expected that he could go toe to toe with AJ in a straight-up wrestling bout but he really shined. And some cool though rather predictable spots as well to please the crowd. Great showing, considering it was always supposed to be a filler match. One of the best of the night.

The ARMBAR match was decent as well, although i had hoped for Strowman (he really deserved something for his recent performances) or Harper or Zane. Mojo is a very weird choice to win, but I guess they had that new england patriots guy handy and with shakeel o'neal not coming they needed some celebrity endorsement. Nice for Mojo, but I don't see him getting anywhere. Weird to keep Jinder in so long as well.

The HHH entrance I found rather naff to be honest. He and Steph looked ridiculous on that bike. Solid match though, you can rely on Trips and Rollins to deliver the goods.

And the Cena/Miz thing was fine. Considering that each mania usually has several gimmicky filler matches with cheap pop old-school guys turning up or dodgy promos, this Total Bellas promo was well built up, brief enough to stay entertaining, and with a very obvious but still quite endearing feel-good moment at the end. I thought it was quite lovely, kudos to them.

Compared to previous manias we had a refreshing lack of unneccessary and time-consuming run-outs and celebs/ex-wrestlers cluttering the event. The biggest pop of the evening still came from some oldskool runouts, but these runouts are bloody relevant. The Hardy boys!!! Bloody aye!!! I had hoped for their return but I thought they would save it for Raw. Amazing stuff. And fantastic that they won. They are without a shadow of a doubt the most relevant tag team in the entire world at this point in time (well, perhaps it is a toss-up between them and the Young Bucks). They are meant to have the belt and it is a brilliant decision of WWE to give it to them on a night like this. These guys have broken the mold, redrawn the charts, and basically revamped indy wrestling in the past 2-3 years since they got themselves cleaned up. I am really excited for a final epic run for these guys before taking their rightful place among the legends of the business.

Overall a good WM, definitely a top-10, perhaps even top-5 depending on how we look back on some of this stuff in a few years. Nice one.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 03 April 2017 - 12:05 PM

[Aptorian]

Pssst spoiler tags look like this

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Gorefest]

Ah, thank goodness, I was searching frantically for that info!

[WinterPhoenix]

Spoiler

It was a solid Mania for sure, but that ending was always going to drag it down for me, even still I was surprised by how depressed it left me feeling. For weeks I had myself convinced that Reigns would win clean, no heel turn, retiring Taker in the process, but a small part of my brain still said - even now after I have been proven wrong on so many occasions - that even WWE is not that stupid, that this whole 'make Roman look strong' neverending push couldn't go that far! It genuinely left a bad taste in my mouth and I'm sure that Roman Reigns is a nice guy and obviously I've never met him but at this point it is a genuine dislike to be frank. Don't get me wrong as you said, Gorefest, Undertaker is and always has been a class act and a strong advocate that a wrestlers last act should be put over a younger guy and go out on his back as it is, so I am sure he had say in this matter. The problem is Reigns is utterly, utterly undeserving of the accolade and I refuse to believe that Taker himself - though this may just be out of nostalgic love for the guy - would choose him over all other young guys in the WWE, if all others were actually a choice, he cannot possibly be suffering from the same myopic delusions as Vince, who after all cares not a jot for actual quality, just money-making potential. If Taker wanted to go out putting over a youngster the perfect thing to have done would have been to do a passing of the torch sort of scenario with Bray Wyatt, Wyatt at least actually deserves the recognition - but of course he still languishes in a space inhabited by anyone not a veteran, or named Reigns, in a special kind of booking hell. The pathetically obvious thing about this is it's obvious set-up, retiring Taker wasn't even the main focus, they've just done this so that when Roman inevitably steps foot in the ring with Lesnar once again they can bill it as the 2 guys that defeated the Undertaker at Wrestlemania. I hope they get the whole process of feeding Lesnar to Reigns over with relatively fast, say Summerslam tbh, but I fear that's probably the Mania 34 main event tbh!

There were some rumours prior to Mania that AJ making his way to Raw would be a straight swap for a Raw top guy with some suggesting it could be Roman Reigns. I genuinely believe that Seth Rollins makes far more sense at this stage, what with both him and AJ having McMahon commissioner issues right now, but the suggestion is there. There's also the rumour that Finn Balor will return to the same rocket push he had before, a big feud is supposed to be in the offing, and I guess Lesnar is a possiblity. So there's still some doubt as to how the eventual Reigns/Lesnar match will take place, but they've wanted it to happen for years now, if they're waiting till Mania next year they have plenty of time to set it up.

Shane/AJ was actually a really good match and I'm happy about that fact, I always like Shane but AJ needed the win and he is hands down my favourite wrestler in the world right now so that was great that he got his Mania moment. Enjoyed the actual match more than I thought I would, Shane's missed shooting star was spectacular and it still boggles my mind how easy and fluid AJ makes everything look at near 40 years of age.

Mid-card title matches seemed to be somewhat shafted this year, especially the intercontinental title which has been relegated to the pre-show despite arguably the greatest match in Mania history being for that very title. Think Ambrose was the right winner considering his recent booking but the match was forgettable. Owens/Jericho was better but the ending felt stale and flat, needed something else in the ring after the powerbomb spot I felt. I did enjoy Owens cinching in the Walls on Jericho though Once again, right guy won, obviously with Jericho needing to leave to tour with Fozzy, but I think Owen's should have been winning anyway.

The battle royal was just weird in the end tbh. Either Strowman or Zayn should have been winning that match, it was just strange. Mojo Rawley winning that I would never had guessed in a million, million years lol Which isn't to say it wasn't a decent battle royal, just a strange as hell ending.

I rarely really enjoy the women's matches, but between them Bayley, Sasha and Charlotte have managed to put on some genuinely great matches in the past couple of years - some botch filled messes as well but yeah - so I was surprised by how seriously lame the Raw women's match actually was. Enjoyed the triple powerbomb spot to eliminate Nia, because Nia Jax is just awful. But other than that it was just super-lame, the ending felt very abrupt as well - the winner was obvious too but that's not necessarily a bad thing, Bayley was the right winner. The thing I just can't get behind any of the 3, Charlotte is fantastic in the ring but I dislike her intensely and could do with less Flair. Bayley is far too saccharin sweet and also far too botch prone. Banks is similarly botch prone and her mic skills leave alot to be desired. I barely even remember the Smackdown women's, Naomi winning in her home town was the way to go though so no complaints on that front, except Becky Lynch - the one of the 4 horsewomen I actually do like - is still being under utilised in my opinion.

Didn't watch Miz/Maryse Vs Cena/Nikki, was never going to tbh. Cena can put on classics with great in-ring workers, this was obviously not supposed to be that and while I believe Miz' heel work to be absolutely top notch, it's his promos I enjoy, not his wrestling. The Cena proposal was great as a feel good moment though, I kinda knew it was coming, after the way Miz/Maryse's pre Mania segments had made a big deal about him never popping the question. It worked as a lighter, nice moment for Mania though.

Loved the ladder match, thought it was exactly how a match like that should go down and it tip-toed the line of overblown clusterfuck really well in my opinion. Also The Hardy Boyz return was easily the best moment of the night, was incredibly well done by the New Day as well. Bit disappointed that it's Team Xtreme and not Broken Matt and Brother Nero, but not enough for it to matter, Wrestlemania had it's 'delete, delete, delete' chants And that swanton from the ladder!!!

Neville/Aries was great as I knew it would be, Austin Aries is just an all around fantastic talent and Neville is pretty great too tbh. Wish Aries had won for his Mania moment, but the heel ending was a nice way to further the feud and I wont complain that these two will be putting on more bouts. It still baffles me how Aries failed to get really over in NXT, I think his arrival was just completely overshadowed by Nakamura. Ironically, Aries/Nak was easily Nak's second best match of his WWE career, none of his matches with Balor, Joe or Roode were as good as Aries or Zayn. Also, Neville's Red Arrow is the most awesome top turnbuckle move ever, except possibly AJ's Spiral Tap which he doesn't do anymore.

Wyatt/Orton was probably the biggest disappointment of the night - Taker/Reigns was worse but I knew it was coming - seriously why are they letting a talent like Wyatt go underused when Reigns gets pushed to the moon. I'm still happy Wyatt got his title reign, but why couldn't it have been longer, what is gained by anyone from Orton winning his 13th world title? But the most disappointing thing was just how naff the match was, the psychology build-up was sooooo damn promising but the match was pretty bad - outside of Bray's special effects antics with the ring, which were awesome.

Rollins/Trips went on too long tbh, longest match on the card in the end, which felt like a bit of Triple H vanity watching it. Nonetheless when it finished I was happy, always love seeing Rollins do that top rope superplex into the falcon arrow - think he used to call it the paroxysm in ROH, used to drop the guy more on his head back then though. Right guy won for sure, Rollins' in-ring talent is unquestionable but his character work has needed some work in the past, think he will be better as a face than a heel though. Rollins' winning with the pedigree was great and the Stephanie table spot was the second best moment of the night, loved it lol

Finally, I was pleasantly surprised by Goldberg/Lesnar was definitely better than I was expecting, and despite there being a grand total of about 4 different moves it just felt like a fight. Happy it went on longer than expected, if still not very long at all. And by gawd when he leaped that spear, the timing had to be perfect, it just looked incredible, a man that size! lol

Oh and, JR back to commentate was great, only good thing about the main event. Michael Cole's 'I know you've had a rough couple of weeks' to JR right of the bat felt a bit insincere and just a ridiculous thing to say on air in that manner though tbh. Doubt it was actually insincere, sure it wasn't in fact, it was just odd the way he said it.

EDIT: Just realised I should say, Taker was awful in that match as well tbh, the botches that occurred while not entirely, were largely his fault - both responsible for some bad ones though really. In reality though Taker needed to be with a better worker, Reigns' cardio is awful and he simply isn't a ring general type, if he's leading a match you have serious problems - he simply wasn't up to the task of getting a really great match out of a beaten down Taker. The problem is having seen the match I'm not sure anyone was, Cena and AJ would have done better but how much better is debatable.

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 03 April 2017 - 07:08 PM

[Gorefest]

Well, Taker didnt choose Reigns. He wanted Cena as his last opponent and that was originally rumoured to be the card. But Vince said no.

Did you guys see NXT takeover as well btw? Not as good as last year but still solid, with a fantastic triple threat tag team match. Probably the best match of the weekend.

[WinterPhoenix]

Yeah I know that's what I was trying to get at, he obviously didn't have his choice of opponent here, and I genuinely don't think he would have chosen Reigns even if he was told it had to be a new guy. He wanted Cena hence why he never gave Wyatt the rub, but there's no way he intended for it to go to Reigns. I just can't believe he has ever bought into this Roman Reigns bullshit, I refuse to believe he's as myopic as Vince, but he does what he's asked, he's a standup guy and WWE through and through.


Yeah I saw Takeover, Triple Threat tag probably was the best match of the weekend yeah, everything up to the first elimination was excellent, fell a little flat when the crowd realised who was winning but still a great match. I love Gargano and Ciampa and The Revival are just a perdect old style tag team. Nak Vs Roode was good as well but still nothing up to the Zayn or Aries matches. Good to see Chris Hero back as well, will NEVER call him Kassius Ohno lol

[Gorefest]

British wrestling!

Gods I love Pete Dunne.

And finally a Dutchman in the company, I am so psyched about seeing Aleister Black do his thing. Tommy End is the fucking boss.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 19 May 2017 - 10:44 PM

[Aptorian]

Anyone looking forward to the Samoa Joe vs Brock Lesnar match?

I've more or less given up on wrestling again after Wrestlemania, the writing is just abyssmal, but Joe vs Lesnar has me excited.

This was their meeting June 12th:



And this was their confrontation during last night's RAW. They made both guys look really strong.

[Gorefest]

Yeah, I had not expected Samoa Joe to win the number one contender match (I had hoped for Balor), but it is a very interesting prospect. Good chance that he might win it as well, because I assume Brock wants to disappear again for a while.

Still watch Raw and Smackdown but mainly just in the background. It is all rather bland at the moment. Really excited though about the current NXT roster (especially Aleister Black, he is bloody awesome. Great match with Kassius Ohno the other week) and about the UK Championship. Those are the two very solid pillars that keep WWE afloat for me. Much better than their main offering.

[WinterPhoenix]

Yeah I've not really been watching Raw or Smackdown for awhile now, I just catch the highlights/get my girlfriend to tell me what happened. I still watch all the ppv's though, and I try to watch Ring of Honour and New Japan as well. The last two ppv's (Money in the Bank and Extreme Rules) have both been essentially the same thing really, god awful cards with genuinely good (some might even say great) main events - the big difference being that Extreme Rules went with a good surprise win in Samoa Joe and Money in the Bank chose to squander a genuinely epic AJ/Nakamura show down with the inevitable Baron Corbin win, I hate him sooooo much! Nonetheless both main events were surprisingly good, especially given how slowly and poorly the Money in the Bank match started off, it really built up! Owens got legit murdered and Zayn was basically killing people! Also AJ Styles might have delivered the most beautiful forearm in the history of professional wrestling in that match, the overhead camera view was so sweet I'd marry it if I could lol

As for Joe, I was so freakin happy when he won that match, and genuinely surprised the match was a good as it was, really thought it'd descend into a classic WWE clusterfuck of a match, but damn was I wrong. Considering everyone thought it'd be Reigns or Balor the outcome was so much better! As for Balor, I don't get the hype, never have, technically he is a damn solid worker and good in the ring don't get me wrong, but that's the best thing about him and even then I reckon I could name 10 better guys just on the main rosters. He is a personality vacuum, and the one cool thing about him - the demon persona - literally changes nothing about him in the ring, he wrestles the exact same way, just with cool makeup :/

Back on the whole Lesnar topic though, I hope to good fucking god Samoa Joe makes him pass out in the middle of that ring, I'm sick of Lesnar. If he wrestled like he did back in the early 2000's. i.e. interestingly and with great skill, I'd be happy, god there are some dream matches there. But the Suplex City shit got old so long ago. However, I'm still not convinced that Lesnar isn't holding the belt until Mania next year. I think we'll see him defend a couple of times - definitely against Strowman at some point - but I still think the plans are to have Reigns main event another consecutive Mania, finally slaying the beast - before defeating John Cena at the following mania, to make it, what? 4, 5 main events in a row, I've genuinely lost brain cells caring a bout this - mark it now, I hope to god I am wrong, but Vince is a predictable, and frankly pathetic and petty, doddering old man at this point!

AJ Styles Vs Shinsuke Nakamura should be Smackdown's main event at next year's Mania, and if there was any justice it'd go on last as well. WWE should just let them go at it too, tell them who wins and nothing else, give them 30 minutes at least and let them tear the house down. Let them approach their Wrestle Kingdon 10 classic from when they were still in New Japan, heck let them try and emulate what Okada and Omega have been doing in New Japan since January, they're both good enough if given free reign. Although I will admit that to really secure a casual audience, Nakamura might need a mouthpiece to speak for him, even despite his great strides in learning the language.

Agree with you completely about NXT and the WWE UK title scene though, Gorfest, been so freaking good lately. The NXT roster is stacked at the moment, and I've still got my fingers crossed for the announcement that Adam Cole has joined any day now. Adam Cole Vs Chris Hero would so frickin epic! I'm guessing you watched the Pete Dunne Vs Tyler Bate match at NXT Takeover: Chicago then Gorefest? That is easily the best match I have seen under a WWE umbrella at least since Nakamura Vs Zayn, and frankly it may have been better than that, and this is coming from someone who marked out like a little girl when AJ Styles beat John Cena last year! But yeah so much better than their main offering at the moment, which is an offence against nature really when you consider that right now, Randy Orton, AJ Styles, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and Shinsuke Nakamura are all on the same damn show!

Gotta ask if you've seen any of the New Japan dominion show from earlier this month, Gorefest? Meltzer went insane and rated the Okada/Omega rematch even higher than the last one, yeah this time he went with 6.25 stars! I actually haven't seen it yet, but frankly in my opinion the first one was brilliant but not as good as so many people said, and not even the best match of the year - Dominion excluded for now until I've seen it in full - don't think it was even the best match at that ppv to be frank. So I'm not gonna hype this rematch up in my head, definitely need to see it soon though.


EDIT: God, I'm so sorry about all that rambling, didn't realise I had so much to say when I started.

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 27 June 2017 - 11:26 AM

[Gorefest]

I saw the Takeover match with Dunne and Bate, it was beautiful. The build-up, the spots, but above all the storytelling were everything you could possibly want in a match. Easily the best match on that card.

We went to the NXT Live event in Leeds as well last month. Originally we had tickets for the Manchester show but that one got cancelled due to the terrorist attack, so NXT gave us full ticket refunds and then gave us free tickets for the Leeds show. Classy. And the show was amazing, such good fun compared to recent Raw and Smackdown tapings in the UK.

Don't really see much NJPW tbh. I had of course seen the last Omega vs Okada match but not this latest one. Will definitely check it out. The previous one was pretty good, but as I didn't really follow the buildup I probably missed some of the hype. I also thought one or two of the spots looked more reckless than spectacular. So overall great match but I didn't completely get the insane Meltzer hype. It will be interesting to see what lifts this match above the other one.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 27 June 2017 - 11:55 AM

[WinterPhoenix]

Yeah, beautiful is about the best word to describe that match, the storytelling and psychology was damn near perfect really. Tyler Bate is so impressive man, and so young, that guy has a stellar career ahead of him for damn sure. Part of me syill feels it's a shame that WWE were unable to get guys like Ospreay, Scurll and ZSJ, but then if they had maybe Dunne and Bate wouldn't have got that spotlight.


That was classy of them, glad you enjoyed it. I'm pretty jealous, still haven't got to see the full NXT experience here in London, though I did get to see Balor, Joe, Nakamura and Aries at Download last year which was sweet.


And yeah I have to agree with you about some of the bumps in the Omega/Okada match, the way Kazuchika Okada treats his neck it's like he has a personal vendetta against it or at least has a spare laying around!!!! Actually it's a feature of NJPW in general really, Tomoaki Honma broke his neck earlier this year and Katsuyori Shiibata gave himself a subdural hematoma headbutting Okada too hard - in what is probabluy the best match of the year so far, followed by Dunne/Bate for me, but even still it's completely not worth it. I think both careers might be over, but I'm not completely up on the latest news. It's definitely one area where WWE have their priorities straight these days, even if I believe they tone the whole thing down a little too much.

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 27 June 2017 - 01:00 PM

[Coco with marshmallows]

it's purely the mark in me,

but god i wish Roode would get to enter Wrestlemania with his current theme....

place would pop like hell, guaranteed.

[WinterPhoenix]

Guessing I'm the only one watching g this live, but figured I'd post anyhow, anyone up for Joe Vs Lesnar tonight?

[Gorefest]

WinterPhoenix, on 10 July 2017 - 12:05 AM, said:

Guessing I'm the only one watching g this live, but figured I'd post anyhow, anyone up for Joe Vs Lesnar tonight?

Nope, watching it tonight. Should be cool. I can actually see Joe winning this one, as I assume that Lesnar is going to go away again for a while until the run-up to the next WM. Strowman vs Reigns should be interesting as well. The rest unfortunately is just bland. So much talent, so little excitement, it is a crying shame. They really don't know how to book things anymore.

[Aptorian]

Anyone tuning in for Summerslam 2017? I'm not really feeling it. I've been watching summaries of RAW and Smackdown on youtube for the past months and I think I'll probably just do the same for Summerslam.

None of the matches feel particularly important or interesting. In theory lots of the match-up's are interesting but the writing is just so boring. I just don't care about anything that is going on.

I feel like WWE needs some heel stables or some other kind of bigger competition or power struggle to make the shows feel interesting.

[Andorion]

Alternative Goose, on 19 August 2017 - 03:03 PM, said:

Anyone tuning in for Summerslam 2017? I'm not really feeling it. I've been watching summaries of RAW and Smackdown on youtube for the past months and I think I'll probably just do the same for Summerslam.

None of the matches feel particularly important or interesting. In theory lots of the match-up's are interesting but the writing is just so boring. I just don't care about anything that is going on.

I feel like WWE needs some heel stables or some other kind of bigger competition or power struggle to make the shows feel interesting.

I may watch it. Very low expectations though.

Only two matches look promising - Owens vs Styles and Lesnar vs Joe vs Strowman vs Reigns

[WinterPhoenix]

Yeah pretty much the same as Andorion, will most probably watch it, but the only two matches I'm at all interested in are the two he mentions above.

I feel like the only way WWE will ever be anything like as interesting as it was in the past again, is if either A) Vince dies and someone takes the company in a different direction, perhaps Trips. Or Somehow another wrestling company challenges there dominance and forces them to step out of the utter and complete lethargy. The problem with the latter is that I can't see how any company could do that right now, a NJPW/ROH partnership in a more concrete manner than the one they already have could be damaging perhaps if enough disaffected wrestling fans flocked to a product that actually focuses on the wrestling. Even then though I can't either company really attracting casuals in any great amount, even WWE struggles on that front nowadays, wrestling simply isn't as popular as it once was.

[Gorefest]

Problem is overload. Three hours Raw and two hours Smackdown, plus a ppv every three weeks is just too much. The writing suffers, feuds have no time to develop, and the superstars just get drained. Compare NXT with a one hour show each week and several months between ppvs. Much more interesting to watch and much better wrestling on display. On Raw and Smackdown the wrestlers get smothered into doing the same move sets over and over again as if it is a video game. Finishers get kicked out of more often than not, hardly any move is still protected and you can predict most match outcomes and move sequences. And if there ever is a surprise it usually is because the writers went "oh, they'll never expect this to happen" instead of it making sense story wise or match wise. Smackdown was starting to get interesting for a while but then they realised it was threatening to overtake the flagship program Raw, so they moved the main writer over and pulled some of the wrestlers around to shore up Raw, in the process turnig Smackdown flat again. The wrestling on display is better than ever but the tension and storytelling is just gone.

[WinterPhoenix]

Gorefest, on 19 August 2017 - 06:46 PM, said:

Problem is overload. Three hours Raw and two hours Smackdown, plus a ppv every three weeks is just too much. The writing suffers, feuds have no time to develop, and the superstars just get drained. Compare NXT with a one hour show each week and several months between ppvs. Much more interesting to watch and much better wrestling on display. On Raw and Smackdown the wrestlers get smothered into doing the same move sets over and over again as if it is a video game. Finishers get kicked out of more often than not, hardly any move is still protected and you can predict most match outcomes and move sequences. And if there ever is a surprise it usually is because the writers went "oh, they'll never expect this to happen" instead of it making sense story wise or match wise. Smackdown was starting to get interesting for a while but then they realised it was threatening to overtake the flagship program Raw, so they moved the main writer over and pulled some of the wrestlers around to shore up Raw, in the process turnig Smackdown flat again. The wrestling on display is better than ever but the tension and storytelling is just gone.

Yeah it's true, in terms of wrestling quality the current WWE roster (especially if you include NXT) is hands down the best they've ever had, and honestly it's not even close. But the personalities are almost non-existent in this ere of watered down dull as shit writing and scripted promos that don't allow anyone to get over in a natural way and often actively hamper the attempt. Overload is definitely a massive issue but I think it's only part of it, I wouldn't mind watching so much wrestling if their was anything actually different, RAW is copy/paste at this point and Smackdown is even worse now since Vince actively damaged it to prevent it from ever beating his flagship show in the ratings again. I'm watching Takeover right now before Summerslam, and I still haven't seen either of the main title fights, but already I'm 100% convinced it is leagues better than anything I will see tonight on Summerslam, and yes for sure this is a good amount down to not seeing hours and endless hours of stale product every week, but I also think it's got a huge amount to do with the fact that Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn have absolutely fuck all to do with the product. A blessing for sure, because they are out of touch and the sooner they have nothing to do with anything WWE the better it will be. Whether or not most non-casuals have flocked to an overseas NJPW expansion by then is something we'll have to wait and see about.

I actually think next year will be very, very important for the future of the WWE. When their TV deal comes up for renewal if they cannot improve upon their existing deal, or at least keep the deal the same - and the ratings are in blatant and steady decline - then I can envision some struggles in the near future tbh.

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 21 August 2017 - 01:08 AM