Monthly News Thread (April 2019)

[GKJ]

That’s what he said. The match on Raw was intended to wrap up the program.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

The Oliver segment, like a lot of his, definitely seems to have picked up steam. I am reading about it in a lot of news outlets.

 

[ColePens]

The Oliver segment, like a lot of his, definitely seems to have picked up steam. I am reading about it in a lot of news outlets.

And like Saudi... will do nothing.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

And like Saudi... will do nothing.

 

[Shoalzie]

I liked the Last Week Tonight segment but they cherry-picked some stuff. The shot at Roman was kinda lame...and they picked the promo on the Raw following him beating the Undertaker at Mania. That clip had no context given to it.

How they didn't bury them over the Saudi/Crown Jewel fiasco is beyond me. They just lightly mentioned it.

They also cherry-picked the wrestling who "died young". They didn't really talk about the ones died in their 30s.

What was said on that piece was stuff that needed to be said but I doubt that will change much. Vince is not someone who changes with the times and would probably feel better never having to be questioned on how to run his businesses. I'll curious to see what happens with XFL consider the AAF is floundering.

 

[Paris in Flames]

I liked the Last Week Tonight segment but they cherry-picked some stuff. The shot at Roman was kinda lame...and they picked the promo on the Raw following him beating the Undertaker at Mania. That clip had no context given to it.

How they didn't bury them over the Saudi/Crown Jewel fiasco is beyond me. They just lightly mentioned it.

They also cherry-picked the wrestling who "died young". They didn't really talk about the ones died in their 30s.

What was said on that piece was stuff that needed to be said but I doubt that will change much. Vince is not someone who changes with the times and would probably feel better never having to be questioned on how to run his businesses. I'll curious to see what happens with XFL consider the AAF is floundering.

tbf - John Oliver already buried them on that leading up to the event. This is his second attack on the WWE.

 

[Shoalzie]

I used to watch that show regularly on-demand but haven't seen it lately. If they did cover it, I didn't see it.

 

[Emperoreddy]

There is also so many things you can dig into in a 20 minute piece. Plus they picked wrestlers non-fans would know.

Wrestlers absolutely die young on the regular, most of them people are not familiar with though.

And yes they did cover Saudi Arabia right after the journalist died. One of the few places to call WWE out on it.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

I finally got to watch the segment (thank you CraveTV) and he did not say anything outlandish. The Reigns comment was in poor taste, but given the context in which he made it, it isn't THAT bad (he was talking about Reigns being booed for 8 straight minutes).

He raised important issues we have been talking about here for years (offseason, healthcare, independant contractor vs employee, etc). Hopefully it has an effect, but I fear it won't.

 

[Shoalzie]

They don't need a so-called offseason...just write out some people for blocks of time. You can still do WWE weekly but have different top people while others are kayfabe hurt. After blow-off a major feud, have some out written for a while and that's their vacation or off-time.

Have them return to start a new feud and it'll be a big deal. Having everyone on the shows every week makes their appearances less special or unique. Again, that's probably why having a 3-hour Raw is so bad because you have jam every star in every week. If you have a few stars out of the pictures a little while, then if gives the lower or midcard people something to do.

We'll joke about someone not being on TV for a long time and then show up for an angle like the Shane-Miz brawl (see Sanity, Shelton, et al). I'd rather watch a decent midcard match than listen to Cole repeat what's happened on the show a half-dozen times.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

I finally got to watch the segment (thank you CraveTV) and he did not say anything outlandish. The Reigns comment was in poor taste, but given the context in which he made it, it isn't THAT bad (he was talking about Reigns being booed for 8 straight minutes).

He raised important issues we have been talking about here for years (offseason, healthcare, independant contractor vs employee, etc). Hopefully it has an effect, but I fear it won't.

It won’t. WWE wont do it, people thought AEW would do it but they back tracked.

It’s never going to happen unless they actually unionize.

 

[Jussi]

The independent contractor moniker is a ****ing scam I have no idea how they keep getting away with it

Apparently the AEW talent are also independent contractors.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

Apparently the AEW talent are also independent contractors.

Right now they are. They’re allowed to work anywhere.

We’ll see what happens when they get a TV deal. I’d imagine those not in the front office would still be allowed to work anywhere though.

 

[GKJ]

Office people in AEW are getting health insurance. One thing about insuring your employees is that its expensive. WWE could do it. AEW can't until they get actual revenue.

 

[GKJ]

Dave wrote in the Observer that it looks like the KSA show is being moved from 5/3 to 6/7. That would mean there’s no PPV after Wrestlemania until Money in the Bank which isn’t until 5/19. Talent would also have to travel to the west coast afterward for TV instead of staying in Europe.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

Apparently, they actually are listening to fan reactions and realized they can't decide who the fans cheer for, and it's why Becky Lynch is in the main event: because of the fans. The plan is to push Becky Lynch as the female face of the company. The decision to turn Ronda Rousey heel was totally due to fan response.

Daniel Bryan's match at Wrestlemania was supposed to be vs. Kevin Owens, but again, fan reaction swayed WWE to put Kofi Kingston in the title match instead.

 

[xtra]

Apparently, they actually are listening to fan reactions and realized they can't decide who the fans cheer for, and it's why Becky Lynch is in the main event: because of the fans. The plan is to push Becky Lynch as the female face of the company. The decision to turn Ronda Rousey heel was totally due to fan response.

Daniel Bryan's match at Wrestlemania was supposed to be vs. Kevin Owens, but again, fan reaction swayed WWE to put Kofi Kingston in the title match instead.

I’ll believe they are listening if they don’t force Roman into a world championship match before summer slam

 

[M.C.G. 31]

I’ll believe they are listening if they don’t force Roman into a world championship match before summer slam

Hey, they're listening to us on Kofi and Becky. To them, that means it's okay for them to do their own thing on 1/3 things and have Seth lose and put Roman in the spot.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

Hey, they're listening to us on Kofi and Becky. To them, that means it's okay for them to do their own thing on 1/3 things and have Seth lose and put Roman in the spot.

To some extent, they're correct to believe that. Seth has lost his momentum. I mean, they should be able to try things in certain programs so long as there are some things they're giving to the fans for these sorts of things. Of course Reigns is going to be a miserable failure if they try that again but I have a hard time holding it against them thinking that they can try Reigns after going through what he did.

 

[Paris in Flames]

To some extent, they're correct to believe that. Seth has lost his momentum. I mean, they should be able to try things in certain programs so long as there are some things they're giving to the fans for these sorts of things. Of course Reigns is going to be a miserable failure if they try that again but I have a hard time holding it against them thinking that they can try Reigns after going through what he did.

Seth continuously loses momentum because the WWE continuously sticks him with Roman because it's the only way the Big Dog will get cheered. I'm sure Seth (and Dean) are well paid and probably generally okay with it but it's gotta be beyond frustrating that your career is basically used to try and get a man who can't get over...over.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

Seth continuously loses momentum because the WWE continuously sticks him with Roman because it's the only way the Big Dog will get cheered. I'm sure Seth (and Dean) are well paid and probably generally okay with it but it's gotta be beyond frustrating that your career is basically used to try and get a man who can't get over...over.

I mean that's fair but the results are still what they are and I feel that so long as one or two of the main programs are going in the direction that the fans actually want that the other stuff can be let go to a large extent.

 

[HandsomeHollywood]

Seth continuously loses momentum because the WWE continuously sticks him with Roman because it's the only way the Big Dog will get cheered. I'm sure Seth (and Dean) are well paid and probably generally okay with it but it's gotta be beyond frustrating that your career is basically used to try and get a man who can't get over...over.

This would be correct if this were last year or earlier. But Reigns has been getting a good chunk of cheers since announcing his cancer. Rollins being met with indifference.
To me, Rollins lost momentum because he's Rollins and it's what he often does. It's not always the case that you can blame Roman. Rollins is very one dimensional. Let's break down his pushes that didn't take...
Pushed as a top heel after the Shield breakdown.
Wins the belt (injury stops this)
Turns babyface on, and defeats Triple H at WrestleMania.
Proves to be a workhorse with the IC title.
Wins Royal Rumble.
How many times is this guy going to get "made"?. I'm not a huge fan of Reigns but I don't think he's the only scapegoat to blame Rollins' constant floundering on.
I think it's clear this may happen to Kofi too. Rollins' latest push came from a great gauntlet performance. Got cheered because of it. Come later he's wrestling Dolph and Ambrose in matches the crowd couldn't care less about while Roman was gone.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

Seth continuously loses momentum because the WWE continuously sticks him with Roman because it's the only way the Big Dog will get cheered. I'm sure Seth (and Dean) are well paid and probably generally okay with it but it's gotta be beyond frustrating that your career is basically used to try and get a man who can't get over...over.

Well Dean obviously wasn’t because he’s leaving now. lol.

Seth’s biggest downfall is what you mentioned, and WWE not capitalizing on the right time with him (because of Roman). They put him as a heel vs. Roman in his first program back from injury, even though Roman worked the match itself as a heel, and this past summer Rollins was the hottest thing running but it was Roman’s chase to dethrone Lesnar at Summerslam rather than Seth.

His reactions cooled considerably after September, and the botched Ambrose/Rollins program was the nail in the coffin.

The honest to god truth is that as long as Roman is around, and I like him a lot, Seth and Dean were never going to get a fair shot, and that was with Dean having MASSIVE reactions in 2014-2016 until the Austin podcast made WWE cool on Dean big time.

 

[GarbageGoal]

I feel the limitations of Seth as a personality are really playing out.

 

[GarbageGoal]

To no one's surprise.

Legendary WWE broadcaster Jim Ross, sometimes referred to as the “voice of wrestling,” is taking his talents to All Elite Wrestling (AEW).

Ross will be a “senior advisor” there under what AEW is calling “the most lucrative deal in pro wrestling commentary history.” No other details — including financial ones — about Ross’ contract were shared. TheWrap asked an AEW rep to put a dollar amount on that terminology, but we have not immediately heard back.

Ol’ J.R.’s first in-ring appearance for AEW will be at the indie startups next big event, “Double or Nothing,” which takes place Saturday, May 25, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.