The WWE Thread

[Wilson]

The Fiend vs Seth Rollins was the worst marquee "match" I've seen from a major wrestling promotion. I genuinely didn't think we would ever see these sorts of depths again. Can anyone think of a worse, more embarrassing top of the card match?

[famicommander]

The Fiend vs Seth Rollins was the worst marquee "match" I've seen from a major wrestling promotion. I genuinely didn't think we would ever see these sorts of depths again. Can anyone think of a worse, more embarrassing top of the card match?

Jeff Hardy vs Sting at Victory Road.

Also known as "the last time I gave TNA money"

I have long been of the opinion that Bray Wyatt is a totally overrated hack and he sucks ass, but even he deserved better than what he got last night.

[Wilson]

I guess you have to weigh Jeff Hardy/Sting being a trainwreck (during a time when PPVs were expensive) that could have been avoided with better management against a total farce of wrestling that was planned and curated every step of the way to be provocative or something. I think I give Fiend/Rollins the nod for the amount of bad decisions made over the course of, like, 25 minutes.

[famicommander]

There's also just my expectations.

I'm a huge Sting fan and it hurt to see him treated that way. And it hurts to see any human being as messed up as Hardy was in the ring.

Whereas as I pretty much expect every WWE show to be horrible anyway.

[roacheyyy]

Becky vs Sasha was the second best Hell in a Cell PPV match ever behind New Day vs Usos. ****1/4

[famicommander]

WWE tried and failed to buy both Pro Wrestling NOAH (whose owners didn't sell) and STARDOM (whose owners accepted a better offer from Bushiroad, NJPW's owner).

It will be interesting to see if they decide to try to absorb another promotion instead. AJPW's video library is tied up with different media outlets so probably not them; Dragon Gate seems to be pretty profitable on their own so I don't know if they'd sell. DDT is probably too abstract for WWE to consider. Maybe something like Zero1 or Wrestle-1?

[supersonic]

Voices of Wrestling had a tremendous discussion on the Flagship podcast about it. They're finding out the hard way that the puro market isn't goo goo gaga for the WWE brand name.

[famicommander]

-Half the card no-showed WWE's Puerto Rico house show yesterday
-For some reason they sent Rey Mysterio out there to lead the crowd in a "cocksucker" chant
-WWE just released this blackface shirt for ACH, telling him it was supposed to be Rolling Stones styled:

[Wilson]

If you're someone like me who maybe monitors a little bit of what happens in the WWE but has no idea what infrequently appearing NXT talents are up to, apparently Myles/ACH is doing a smile gimmick, which elevates the mistake from being a huge oversight to being a mistake that implies that either a) there are no black people in their art and marketing department b) no one in the company watches NXT c) some big racist got away with their gross idea.

After ACH left ROH he proved that he was an amazing wrestler (not necessarily saying that it was causal) and I would really hate to see a company as notoriously spiteful as WWE cut him off here for talking about something that obviously psychologically disgusts him so much.

[famicommander]

This is the same company that gave Mark Henry the nicknames "Silverback" and "King of the Jungle".

This is the same company where HHH did a racist storyline against Booker T, then buried him clean in the middle of the ring. Hell, HHH still incorporates the Iron Cross into his gimmick/merch because he was friends with Nazi memorabilia hoarder Lemmy from Radiohead.

This is the same company that had its owner say the N word and wear a du rag on live TV.

[Wilson]

Part of what makes it so shocking is that it's clearly removed from being a "Vince" idea. WWE's racist angles are ongoing. Last year they ran a terrible transmisogynoir segment with Lashley's "sisters" and they're doing a poor taste cheating angle between Lana and Lashley that seems to come from a very bad place. There's also Lacey Evans, who best I can tell is the stereotype of a southern white supremacist while also being coy about her ideas about race.

But I'd like to keep the focus on backing up Myles/ACH. He's come into some pretty terrible crossfire for talking about his humanity and it really fucking sucks.

[famicommander]

It's just frustrating that no matter what Vince and WWE do, they never get in any real trouble for it.

Help Jimmy Snuka get away with murder?
Pay hush up money to that female ref in the early 90s?
Help Pat Patterson get away with sexually assaulting minors?
Have a 30+ year legacy of putting racist garbage on television?
Illegally raise foreign funds to put a racist demagogue in office?

Hell, just this week it came out that they lied to the new XFL players about their payscale. They told people that $75,000 would be the average pay, but it turns out before bonuses the standard pay is about $27,000 and the most a player could make on the standard contract is about $65,000, and the only way they could do that would be to start every single game and have their team go undefeated and win the championship (as there are bonuses per team win and per game started).

[Lynx]

Part of what makes it so shocking is that it's clearly removed from being a "Vince" idea. WWE's racist angles are ongoing.

Shit attracts shit. I understand wrestlers to some extent because WWE is still #1 and for many wrestlers it is often only option to go big and earn a living, but everyone else who works there? I wouldn't be surprised if every second non-wrestler working for WWE is right-wing lunatic.

[famicommander]

ACH hasn't been seen, not even on the house show loop, since he brought this up to management.

[famicommander]

Now he's in a full on melt down, calling out WWE, ROH, and calling Jay Lethal an Uncle Tom.

I wonder what he thinks about Shane Taylor, and what Shane Taylor thinks about this.

[Lynx]

I thought that calling Lethal an Uncle Tom crossed the line.

[famicommander]

Yeah, he shouldn't have dragged Lethal or ROH into this.

Especially now, when ROH has a Mexican World Champ, a black World Television Champ, and two black #1 tag team title contenders.

Also did anybody actually read Uncle Tom's Cabin? Uncle Tom wasn't the traitor in that book.

[famicommander]

Somehow WWE is giving ROH a run for its money in terms of having a disastrous second half of 2019.

WWE 2K20, this Crown Jewel nonsense, ACH, brutal quarterly results, 20% stock drop, Smackdown and NXT underperforming in their new TV homes, AEW on the rise...

[Montana]

Asides from the negatives....

NXT takeover was a solid show. Great main event, with 8 former ROH members in war games (Kevin Owens, Champia, Keith Lee, Dijak vs Cole/Fish / O Reily & Strong.

Now at Survivor Series we get Strong vs. Nakamura vs. AJ Styles. .... Hell of a match so far.

It's pretty amazing to think how much former ROH talent is in WWE & AEW wrestling weekly on free TV.

[roacheyyy]

Worst booking mistake in the last decade? In a very long list my vote goes to butchering Cesaro's push with Heyman