The WWE Thread

[supersonic]

There is no Orton suspension currently.

[famicommander]

what a gong show of an event


Lesnar gets to do this intentionally, but they'll stop an NXT title match at Wrestlemania weekend over a small accidental cut? And he of course gets to take steroids, refuse to put on a decent match with Ambrose at Mania, and get booked in the main event over any one of six title matches on the card






this is like late Hogan era TNA had a baby with last year's Triplemania

[supersonic]

Universal Title vacant as Finn Balor is out 4-6 months due to a labrum tear. That would have him back in time for the WrestleMania payday he deserves.

[supersonic]

Sami Zayn appears to have injured his right ankle during the ongoing match against Seth Rollins. This is similar fluke situation to Neville's injury.

[isles11]

I gotta say. I thought overall SummerSlam was a pretty good show, with odd booking. The Womens Title match going on 2nd was weird, The US Title fight going on 2nd to last, and Roman acting like a heel in that. Why was he that pissed of at Rusev? Roman crashed their wedding and insulted both Rusev and Lana, then talked his way into a match on Monday, then he gets all pissed and destroys Rusev, before the match could start. And then the Main Event.

Most of the matches were pretty good I thought. NXT was better I thought though. But, despite the odd booking, and terrible ending I am glad I went.

[supersonic]

https://twitter.com/davemeltzerwon/stat ... 9915937792

[supersonic]

Observer:

The departure of the Dudleys on Raw was really strange on a lot of levels. First, they had been building an angle where the two were going to split up for weeks, even as late as the SummerSlam match the night before the departure. There was a verbal agreement in place for a new contract for both going back a few weeks to coincide with the expiration of their one-year deals this past week. They had been used as enhancement guys and are both in their mid-40s, so by that regard, with WWE always youth oriented you could see them being dropped. But they could still go and were two of the most experienced guys on a roster filled with a lot of younger talent and the depth of talent right now isn’t the best. The farewell angle on Raw had every sign of the Mark Henry farewell to turn into an angle that heated them up, but instead they got to turn babyface, do their spots on The Shining Stars, and then got laid out at the end by the top heel team, Gallows & Anderson, to give Gallows & Anderson heat. The decision was made for whatever reason to nix the split angle and not execute the agreed upon deal. We’re not certain at this point how that went down. It’s too bad because we saw in TNA that Bubba has the ability to be a true top heel, and there aren’t a lot of those around these days. Bubba was going to get a singles heel position, but how much he’d really be pushed isn’t known. Bubba is 45 and Devon is 44, making them two of the oldest guys on the active roster in a company that has a long list of people in NXT ready for the main roster. As a team they had been used just to put others over for months now. Because of their tenure and name value, they would probably be able to work as much as they wanted and get a good price on the indie market and do really well for themselves. They had a long tenure in TNA and Bubba was a major star there, but that depends on TNA’s financial situation right now and it wouldn’t surprise me for TNA to spend big and try and get Del Rio

Since there are a lot of questions regarding Paige’s contract status with Del Rio having the option to leave next month, from what we understand, Paige’s deal expires in April 2019. While nothing is certain, the betting line is that Del Rio won’t be back. As far as Paige goes, she wouldn’t be able to wrestle anywhere else unless WWE fired her

Nikki Bella had been cleared for a return after neck surgery several days before SummerSlam. She had been told when being cleared that she would have to be a part-timer

Regarding Bryan wrestling, while I don’t know this factually, one would presume that because he’s General Manager and working regularly again, the time is ticking on his contract, which means that at some point he would be able to leave the company and work elsewhere. Whether it is healthy or prudent for him to return as a wrestler on a full-time or part-time basis is still a question that he has to come up with an answer for, as different doctors have given him different opinions. Whether he would want to give up the financial security (which seems to mean less to him than for most, as he’s seemingly happier being an artist on his own terms than being rich) of a guaranteed WWE deal is something else, although he could make huge money away from WWE. It wouldn’t surprise me if he could make more away from WWE as a wrestler than his downside in WWE without the money you make when you wrestle as the main event level, plus he’d make all his merch money outside as opposed to just a small percentage of it

In response to questions about this subject, we’re under the impression Eric Young agreed to terms with WWE some time back and they’re just waiting to debut him

Orton did an interview and said his time away reinvigorated him. At one point he wanted a part-time schedule (he called it the Shawn Michaels schedule) but said he now would like to go full-time for ten more years if it’s possible. Part of that is he had a divorce a few years back, has a new wife with several kids, and his wife is pregnant with a daughter, and those are motivating forces to make money now when you’re 36 in a business with a finite career length as far as making the kind of money he’s used to making ($2.5 to $3.5million per year)

The original plans for SummerSlam included a Corbin vs. Kalisto match but because of new match additions and 13 matches scheduled they ended up being the odd men out. Balor was always scheduled to make his PPV debut on the show but originally it was to be against Jericho since Reigns vs. Rollins was the scheduled title match main event. Originally Raw was to get the real title and Smackdown would get the made up title (which Styles was to have won). The Reigns drug test failure changed all the plans and the decision was to have another babyface put in the top position on Raw and Reigns be moved down as punishment. The Raw face side was very weak as with the exception of part-timers Lesnar and Show, the top faces were Cesaro and Zayn. Rather than go with them, since Cesaro has been typecast at a certain level and even though Zayn did beat Owens, clearly the decision was made not to go with him, they decided to instantly make Balor the top guy, at least until they go back to Reigns. Of course now everything is up in the air

Life & Style asked the question whether Johnson’s feud with Vin Diesel was a publicity stunt. Well, a lot of people asked that question given it was so out of character for Johnson to be bagging on people he works with in social media (if he was mad he’d be mad, but it wasn’t like him to go public with it) and he’s got pro wrestling blood flowing through his veins. Actually they reported it was all a publicity stunt although there is a rivalry between the two, and that the two are planning on doing something with WWE in April to help promote “Fast 8.” Well, certainly if Diesel works in some form with Johnson at WrestleMania, that would answer that question

[Balor's injury] led to a complete change of plans for the already-written Raw show, which was focused around the crowning of a new champion. This came at the same time as Smackdown introduced both a tag team and women’s titles, not called Universal but just called Smackdown championships, both of which will be crowned on their 9/11 Backlash PPV from Richmond, VA.

The plans for Balor were to defend the title against Kevin Owens at the Clash of the Champions show on 9/25 in Indianapolis. Plans were made to have a finish that would lead to a Balor vs. Owens vs. Chris Jericho three-way on 10/30 in Boston.

Instead, the title will be decided on 8/29 in Houston in a four-way with Owens, Seth Rollins, Big Cass and Roman Reigns. Reigns and Rollins, who would be the highest on the totem poll right now, were both originally scheduled to be kept out of the title picture for a few months, but due to the injury, may be back in. The tournament showed just how thin Raw was on top on the face side, as the fans don’t like Reigns, but he’s the company favorite. They were trying to put him in with Rusev and keep him out of the title picture hoping this new vision for him would work. But no matter who gets the title, if Reigns isn’t the top face, the pickings are slim, apparently limited to Sami Zayn, Big Cass and Cesaro. They’ve kept Zayn at a certain level, and didn’t even bother with Cesaro in the tournament. Cass was obviously a long-term project who isn’t ready for a top singles position just yet.

Orton was the subject of the biggest mainstream WWE story of the week, regarding both his main event match with Brock Lesnar, and the aftermath.

It’s part of what appears to be a new promotional philosophy of blurring the lines and creating controversy, which started the night before with them working a Samoa Joe injury spot using the “X,” continued with the finish of Lesnar vs. Orton and two nights later featured Daniel Bryan walking off the set of Talking Smack leading to a Miz promo about how he doesn’t get respect and how he’s knocked for his wrestling but he never gets hurt .

The story behind Lesnar vs. Orton was to create a scenario where nobody knew where reality ended, and preferably where people thought Lesnar was breaking the code or script.

Orton wasn’t told until he got to the arena, as he was planning for a usual main event. He was told when he got there that he was not going to have a normal match, and that the match wasn’t about going back-and-forth and keeping both men strong, but about making Lesnar stronger. The original idea was to be a total destruction for Lesnar, where Orton would be on the ground bleeding. It was supposed to look like Lesnar “went against the script” on him and hurt him. There would be confusion and the match would end, with Orton seemingly concussed and the referee stopping the match.

Vince McMahon treats Lesnar differently from everyone else. Perhaps it’s the idea that he’s legit and Vince deep down still thinks the way the old-school promoters do about shooters and legitimacy even while talking entertainment. And it is true the vibe when Lesnar comes out is very different from everyone else on the roster. Nobody else is allowed to bleed. Lesnar’s matches are supposed to have blood. Lesnar’s finishes are kept secret from all but a few, including, as with this match, the referee.

There will be people denying this most likely, because they have to, but Orton was told that Lesnar knew how to graze him with his elbow to open up a cut without hurting him and was told that was what would happen in the match. As it turned out, Lesnar elbowed the hell out of him, and threw some stiff punches, and Orton was bleeding like crazy from a cut that needed ten staples to close. Orton stayed down and was acting like he was knocked out, as he was supposed to. Medical personnel and the referee acted confused, because they were. I don’t know this as a fact, but I believe the referee knew going in that Lesnar was winning, but if he did, was given a different finish, because the fact Lesnar was going over was not kept secret.

So amidst all the confusion, they did a ref stoppage due to blood since Orton was acting like he couldn’t get up and there was no other way for the ref to end it.

So next came the Chris Jericho incident.

There is a back story here. In the 2015 Royal Rumble, Lesnar stiffed Jericho with some punches, and at around the same time also hurt Alberto Del Rio’s back. Del Rio is one of the most popular wrestlers with the crew. While it is not Lesnar’s fault he’s the second highest paid wrestler in the company and only works a few dates, nor his fault that his deal precludes him from getting drug tested or even suspended when he fails a drug test in another sport which would be a violation for anyone else, but it does create resentment because of the double standard. You have no idea how many people have mentioned to me about how bullshit it is that Del Rio in particular was suspended for 30 days while Lesnar has carte blanche to do whatever he wants. I don’t know if Lesnar did or didn’t care that Jericho gave Orton the “enhanced” line in that interview, but it is possible that could have played a part in what happened next. In addition, Lesnar was allowed to use the word “shit” on Raw with no repercussions, which nobody else would have been allowed to do and Brad Maddox was fired for using the word prick during a non-televised segment at a taping.

Jericho came to the Gorilla position, essentially to check on Orton and to find out what happened. He went to Michael Hayes, who was one of the few who did know the finish, and asked what the finish was supposed to be. Hayes wouldn’t answer him, and Jericho said, “That’s bullshit.” The reality is if Hayes had just answered the question, given it already happened, nothing would have transpired and management kayfabing talent on things like this leads to mistrust which ends up being a morale killer. There is so much natural distrust in wrestling to begin with, but stuff like this makes it impossible for even talent that wants to believe what they are told to fully trust it.

At the same time, Lesnar just came back from the ring and heard that, and apparently thought Jericho was talking about his match. There are multiple versions of what happened, although all are relatively consistent. Lesnar called Jericho a pussy, or worse, and told him to shut up and mind his own business. Jericho started yelling back. They got face to face and were yelling loudly at each other. Lesnar pushed Jericho with his fingers and Jericho either pushed Lesnar back or did what was described as the Ronda Rousey-Miesha Tate forehead press (from the weigh-in before their first fight). They ended up in a skirmish or sorts against the wall. Lesnar then told Jericho to either punch him or kiss him. He may have put his arms behind his back to dare Jericho to take the first shot (some have said this happened, others that it didn’t) with the idea Lesnar then couldn’t be sued if he hit back. Paul Levesque was in immediately and broke it up. They ended up still yelling at each other and were back against the wall when Vince McMahon came in and yelled at Jericho saying it was all a work and to be professional. Levesque then told McMahon that Lesnar started it and Jericho was only standing up for himself.

Jericho also got mad when he saw how badly Orton was bleeding and the cut, and Orton assured him that he knew everything was coming.

One person noted that Orton was told to do it, but wasn’t expecting it to be the way it was. He wasn’t going to complain publicly about it but also was never going to do that kind of a favor again and wasn’t particularly thrilled by it.

This all came during a week of trying to do worked shoots for attention. The most hilarious thing was WWE did get some mainstream media outlets to report that Lesnar went against the script and opened up Orton because the match went awry, and even worse, several mainstream outlets reported on the Stephanie McMahon fine of Lesnar for $500 as if it was legit. After the match, Lesnar had given Shane McMahon an F-5. Stephanie on Raw said Lesnar crossed the line and there would be repercussions, but the fine was meant for the Stephanie vs. Shane storyline as her repercussions were mocking the idea that she cared.

Lesnar was not at television. Shane McMahon on Smackdown said that he still had business that he’d take care of with Lesnar and Orton said that Lesnar hadn’t heard the last of him. So Lesnar’s return would likely be against one of those two, unless they figure the Jericho publicity is worth working an angle to build a match off.

The craziness in all this is there was a reason intentional hardway juice in wrestling was made almost extinct (guys have tried it in recent decades but it’s rare), which is because blading accomplishes the same thing with no concussion risk, and nowhere near the same pain level. WWE banned blading long ago. Some believe in the Undertaker-Lesnar WrestleMania match that there was blading involved. The official company line was that it was just accidental, although the blood itself was intentional, as they either bladed or did it hardway.

Worse, WWE has a lawsuit out regarding the subject of concussions and safety of competitors. While the company probably trusts Orton, who makes millions per year and wants to keep making that money for ten more years, the reality is they asked a guy to lay there and take shots to the head until he was opened up and all bloody as opposed to more safely getting blood.

The other major story coming out of the show involved Sasha Banks. When Banks won the women’s title from Charlotte, it wasn’t to be a quickie title change. But she suffered a significant back injury. The plan was to drop the title at SummerSlam and then get it taken care of.

Her injury was not disclosed, but she did far more in her match than she probably should have given the injury. At one point something went wrong when she was supposed to be slammed on the top turnbuckle and mostly missed. She seemed shaken up and the match looked bad until she regained her bearings. The last few minutes were very good, with “this is awesome” chants and Charlotte regained the title.

Her diagnosis after the match was that her back wouldn’t need surgery, which was a major break. Bayley was brought to the Raw brand to feud with Charlotte and taking Banks’ spot as top babyface. Bayley was always supposed to be brought up right after Takeover, although had Nikki Bella not been cleared, it could have been for Smackdown. With surgery, she could have been out six months, but is expected to be back now in a month or two.

With Eva Marie suspended, Nikki Bella took her place on the heel side of a women’s six-person match. Eva Marie was scheduled to wrestle on the show until her suspension. Bella was training for a return, and had long targeted SummerSlam as a hopeful show to return on. She was always earmarked for the Smackdown brand since that’s Cena’s brand. She did a double turn angle with Carmella the next night and is expected to be top babyface on that brand.

Since it was her return, that also coincided with moving Sheamus vs. Cesaro from the PPV portion to the preshow portion of the show.

Cena teased the idea of leaving after losing cleanly to A.J. Styles in the show stealer of a match, among the best of the year in the company. He took off his armband and left it in the ring. Cena did work the next two nights, but didn’t appear on television. He is leaving soon to film the second season of “American Grit,” and will obviously feud with Styles upon his return.

[Mike Adamle]

Figure I'd try and throw down a WrestleMania prediction card down as I like to do after SummerSlam. Here's what hopefully happens:

WWE Title Match- AJ Styles (C) vs. Brock Lesnar

The Undertaker vs. John Cena

Grudge Match- Dolph Ziggler vs. The Rock (Dolph is mad at constantly being pushed aside by the returning movie star and attacks him when he makes an appearance on SD!)

WWE Universal Title Match- Triple H (C) vs. Cesaro

Triple Threat Hell In A Cell Match- Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins

WWE Women's Title 4-Way Elimination Match- Bayley (C) vs. Charlotte vs. Paige vs. Sasha Banks

WWE Intercontinental Title Match- The Miz (C) vs. Daniel Bryan's mystery opponent (Samoa Joe)

Big Show vs. Shaq

WWE United States Title 10 Man Ladder Match- Rusev (C) vs. Chris Jericho vs. Finn Balor vs. Hideo Itami vs. Kevin Owens vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Neville vs. Randy Orton vs. Sami Zayn vs. Sheamus

WWE SmackDown! Tag Team Title Triple Threat Match- American Alpha (Chad Gable & Jason Jordan) (C) vs. Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa vs. The Usos (Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso)

Pre-Show- Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal- Aiden English vs. Apollo Crews vs. Austin Aries vs. Baron Corbin vs. Bo Dallas vs. Braun Strowman vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Brian Kendrick vs. Curt Hawkins vs. Curtis Axel vs. Darren Young vs. Epico vs. Erick Rowan vs. Fandango vs. Goldust vs. Heath Slater vs. Jack Swagger vs. Jinder Mahal vs. Kalisto vs. Kane vs. Konnor vs. Luke Harper vs. Mark Henry vs. Mojo Rawley vs. Primo vs. R-Truth vs. Rhyno vs. Simon Gotch vs. Sin Cara vs. Tajiri vs. Titus O'Neil vs. Tyler Breeze vs. Viktor vs. Zack Ryder

Pre-Show- WWE Tag Team Title Match- The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) (C) vs. Big Cass & Enzo Amore vs. The Club (Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows)

Pre-Show- WWE SmackDown Women's Title 4-Way Match- Match- Becky Lynch (C) vs. Asuka vs. Natalya vs. Nikki Bella

Pre-Show- WWE Cruiserweight Title 6-Way Match- Kota Ibushi (C) vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Cedric Alexander vs. Gran Metalik vs. Rich Swann vs. TJ Perkins

Pre-Show- NXT Title Match- Shinsuke Nakamura (C) vs. Bobby Roode

Unless they wanna make the Andre Battle Royal a 50 man battle royal there's no way to get the whole roster on there without having at least 15 matches...

[supersonic]

There will be a project coming in 2 weeks regarding the WrestleMania 33 card.

[AndyDiaz]

Seeing Kevin holding the Universal Title was such a heartwarming thing. Couldn't be more thrilled!

[supersonic]

Survivor Series Weekend Triple Shot in T-Dot

Saturday 11/19 - NXT Takeover: Toronto
Sunday 11/20 - Survivor Series 2016
Monday 11/21 - Raw

[ROHFanAnthony]

So I just read that wwe will not allow Cody Rhodes to use that name even though his late father owned it? Just when you think wwe can't get any lower...

[TYFDK]

For all the cool things they're doing, they go and do that, and that shitty Old Day skit. Bad outweighs the good in my eyes, no matter how cool the CWC is, it's still the WWE.

[Big Red Machine]

I haven't actually finished watching Smackdown yet, but that Usos turn was pretty great.

[supersonic]

http://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/repor ... att-220641

[supersonic]

Observer:

With all three Shield members as faces, there is talk of setting up another Shield reunion type spot at one of the joint branded PPVs, whether it be in the Rumble or something at Survivor Series

[supersonic]

Chicago NOT hosting Royal Rumble 2017, instead getting an Xmas double-shot of 12/26 Raw and 12/27 SmackDown.

[supersonic]

Per Meltzer on Observer Radio, Seth Rollins is injured with severity TBD, while Cesaro is fine.

[supersonic]

Observer:

Even though WWE has denied this to me on several occasions, numerous sources in Southern California have been insisting all along that the Royal Rumble will be at the Staples Center, and was always scheduled for the Staples Center, with the announcement to be made on 10/3 when Raw is there. I guess we’ll find out for sure on Monday because those who have been insisting it all along have also said that 10/3 would be when the announcement would be made

Here’s a scary stat. Between everything, the WWE writing team will this year be responsible for 580 hours of first-run programming in 2016 (with all the various shows including shows for the network and international). That explains why the TV is often not inspired and the burnout and turnover rate on the team is so high

[supersonic]

http://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-/2017-roya ... -tx-221826