rolling Jericho calls The New Day trap queens 2016

Sasha Banks v Becky Lynch was great in nxt right? Its next week i guess, actually they didnt say when.

This is about the tenth time theyve reshown the shane interaction

This show is fucking ridiculously long.

For black history month i guess they run out of black wrestlers and then celebrate noted non controversial figure james brown. Surprised they didnt do it to somebody call my momma.

And then lol the godfather is in the hall of fame. I guess messing up at wm8 is kinda like being a hall of fame main eventer.

Roman gets a few boos, and i guess his phone needed recharging cos he finally put it down.

For the first time in kinda long triple h will cut a long boring promo on smackdown.

Watch it! Woo! Im getting sleepy. Maybe raw *is* the cure to my sleeping problems.

Sheamus loses by countout. Fucking captivating.

Hhh wheres a leather jacket! That means something right? Oh he forgot to put a sleeveless denim jacket over it so the brawl is a bit lame cos hes not at full strength. Hopefully after shane o mac returns this week from 1999, as does the sleeveless denim jacket.

Hhh getting massivr cheers to beat up roman lol. Reigns is busted open and getting beat up by a retired suit and they cheer the old motorhead fan.

Wonder where the league of nations went

"This is the sad reality that Roman Reigns must now face."

This is so meta its ridiculous. Face and heel means nothing anymore. The guy the office obviously want to be the guy is generally loathed or gets indifferent reactions so the evil boss guy gets cheers for making him look like a chump and with either ending people are kinda ok with the evil corporation winning but actually just dont really care? Whens Cesaro expected back?

Idk if i can watch raw again anytime soon. That was hard work and hell i still enjoyed a lot of it.

I didn't see RAW yet but it sounds like one of the more entertaining trainwrecks we've seen in a while. At least they managed to deliver on the rumours that Taker's opponent would be somebody not currently on the roster (as opposed to saying that Cena is injured and thus technically not on the roster, or firing Big Show for five minutes to take him off the roster when they announce the match). Although supposedly the challenge was vague enough for Shane to announce someone (i.e. Rock or Cena) to fight on his behalf?

I wonder how the companies that won't insure Rock to wrestle would react to this ... "yeah, he's gonna need coverage for one night, it's called 'Hell in a Cell' and a seven foot tall zombie is going to ram his face repeatedly into a steel mesh. But he'll be fine ... on the set first thing Monday morning!"

It wont be the Rock. Cena is updating his twitter everyday with some super human recovery to fight a seven foot tall zombie stooge in a steel mesh cage.

Of which Taker's in his home state for possibly the last match of his career, so he cant be anything other than a face but he'll be fighting for the bad guys?

I am kinda loving how much of a clusterfuck this is all being. I wonder if Russo was secretly hired.

I fell all asleep at 10 and only got through like the first 3 segments uploaded to watchwrestling

doesn't look like I missed much

ah fuck that, get Cena to fight someone else, I want Shane-O-Mac in the HIAC match. he's only 46, he could totally still go off the top of the cell through a bunch of tables without killing himself. probably

otm

and a reminder of how fun and grotesque it could get

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3r8uo0_shane-mcmahon-vs-kurt-angle-street-fight-king-of-the-ring-2001_sport

i watched most of raw to see if they'd clarify anything about shane o'mac vs undertaker so i could stop being so confused by the idea, a mostly regrettable decision but i did enjoy seeing the huge pop for vile heel roman reigns finally getting his comeuppance

omg the 2001 KOTR is one of the PPVs I remember sneaking out of bed to watch on a school night at the tender age of 10, during that initial romance with wrestling that I'm sure all young fans must experience where whole promos, segments, matches are just burned into your brain forever after.

so strange to watch it back now with context and realise that A) there never had been and never would be a WWE match that brutal ever again (maybe excepting the Cactus Jack / HHH stuff and B) there was nothing that 2000-2001 era Kurt Angle couldn't do. Technical exhibitions? Check. Big dramatic main-event brawls? Check. Truly and timelessly hilarious backstage comedy skits? Check. Fucking 110% insanse overblown garbage death-matches against non-wrestlers? CHECK. Dude was a fucking marvel, I know everyone goes on about this all the time but he'd literally debuted 3 years earlier!! Amazing. What a guy.

Greatest theme music, also. fuck man bring back Kurt Angle you fucks, give the guy the send-off that he deserves

i'm still v v slowly catching up on lucha underground, but dayyyyyyyym that fenix - mil muertes casket match!

that shane/kurt match is one of the best of all time. they also almost literally killed each other.

When is the casket match? Ive been doing similar, just had aztec warfare.

Kurt is a free agent or easy to get atm right? Him w/ Shane v taker would be glorious, aj and joe have already shown tna can be easily forgotten

yeah he's available. problem is they always said they got rid of him when they did because they didn't want him dying in a WWE ring. that was 10 years and a looooot of matches ago. In this brave new world of concussion awareness and refusing to let people work etc. i just can't see it

casket match is episode 19, 'grave consequences'

ah im only 11 episodes in. <3 fenix though

https://giant.gfycat.com/WavyContentAmoeba.gif

What's going on there?

I was going to ask the same thing. Failing to find a razor blade?

I've heard of "colour commentary" but this is beyond the pale!

Hey Byron when we said we needed you to provide a little colour on the commentary desk we meant in the sense o

Looks like when Lawler calls him "BS" he means "Blade Smuggler"!

Anyway commiserations to Byron Saxton on his forthcoming $90,000 fine

Others are saying it was a blood capsule he was handing off, which makes more sense. I can't imagine Sexy Roman gigging his forehead.

I'm more offended by Vince swearing in the opening segment. So Brad Maddox gets shit-canned for saying 'pricks' in a dark match but Vince can say one of the Seven Dirty Words and get away with it?

http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/2-17-2016/EqslPE.gif

http://i.imgur.com/VTuZJUP.gif

these guys seem unbelievably good at doing other people's entrances, the Finn Bayley stuff on the NXT house shows is kind of mind-blowing

Main roster 2k16: Shane McMahon and (possibly synthetic) blood back on Monday night raw; critically acclaimed developmental brand creating the stars of the future: people in brightly coloured t-shirts jumping up and down and hugging each other

lol dad-approved blood capsule over blade isn't going to do roman's reputation any favors

(triple h is roman's dad)

http://49.media.tumblr.com/0fad04ac163780ca145391a2513b95c8/tumblr_o2zfm1Q2g61s8dwjeo1_400.gif

anyone worked out which bit of this is gonna get Roman Reigns over?

fast coming to the conclusion that animated gifs is p. much the optimum medium for consuming wrestling

The mishandling of Roman Reigns is definitely one of the most bewildering things I've ever encountered in my years following WWE. You'd think you'd really have to try hard to screw him up. And apparently that is a popular theory going around the internet these days (although I still think incompetence is the better explanation, for now).

Yeah I am dubious at some of the conspiracy theory stuff that's being posited, seems like a combo of vince being stubborn and out of touch, and hunter just not being able to help himself.

Kind of awesome and hilarious the way his rep has been rehabilitated what with nxt and so on, Cause I think you can make a pretty cohesive argument that he's still all about putting himself over at all times whatever the cost, and that has never not been the case.

He'll happily lose in big matches but he always makes sure to look as strong as possible during the buildup and in the actual match. I get that you want to keep the champion strong so that beating him means something. But for this particular feud, they really needed for HHH to screw Reigns out of the title at the Rumble, run away from him for weeks before Reigns can kill him, get forced into a title match through some shenanigans, and getting bulldozed at Mania to put Reigns over for good. In other words, Sting vs Hogan (the buildup, not the match itself). Instead it's HHH winning the Rumble more or less cleanly, beating the piss out of Reigns whenever he wants, and actively campaigning to have the match at Mania. And I'm sure the match will be 3/4 Reigns getting his ass kicked and making a big comeback at the end (to a chorus of boos).

The only way it works afait* is it has to go on last, i know i know, and reigns has to flip the fuck out. Like worse than austin at wm17. Hes gotta go fucking mental. Hes gotta have motivation. Preferably a manager or a faction. Possibly bring the cage down just to throw ambrose or hhh off it. Make him a scary motherfucker. If Shane wins, and he should, itll be the first time in 200 years the booker wont be the main heel and they should establish it immediately.

*obv not in the biz, ive just had 2 days off work watching lots of wrestling

If Shane wins, and he should

i think whatever happens - and right now it seems plausible that they are banking on Cena being fit or someone else coming in to fight as Shane's avatar, with Shane going into the cage only in the last extremity - there's just no way that Shane McMahon gets a Wrestlemania pinfall on The Undertaker. I know, nepotism etc. but this is Taker at Mania, that still means something. He'd lie down for Lesnar because it's Lesnar, but no way does Shane-O go over in any scenario if that's the match we get, imo.

I don't know what they're going to do about Reigns/HHH and it'll be interesting to see them figure it out. I think even the scenario you've outlined wouldn't help a great deal, this guy is just dead in the water right now, whatever happens it's got to happen before the PPV to try and shake some life into this match.

itll be the first time in 200 years the booker wont be the main heel and they should establish it immediately.

yeah lol see this is what i mean about HHH, sure he'll lie down for younger or less established guys on the PPVs when the moment calls for it (which is actually a massive step forward, lest we forget CM Punk in 2011 or Lesnar at WM29) but if you think there's any way that the show doesn't continue to be all about him all the time i think you're crazy

Shane/Taker at Mania is gonna be a schmozz in any case. Taker's greatest hits: Kane pop up from the canvas for a helping hand, Papa Shango does a run in, caskets and fire and lighting and shit. As Gorilla might put have it, it'll be a happening. I'll get my workrate itch scratched with NXT TakeOver; on WrestleMania Sunday I just want to be entertained.

To clarify:

I meant 'Shane'. I really don't think Shane fights, although he'll fall off something or through something.

I also don't expect any of that scenario to happen.

WM will be and needs to be SCHMOZZFEST 2016, at least Taker-'Shane', the title match, presumably a multi man ladder match type thing, whatever crazy tag team thing they have going on and of course the streetfight. Only whatever AJ, KO and the womens title match will be legit. And being SCHMOZZFEST is p much the best way to go, being all serious about the three match ups we currently know about would be criminal. Especially knowing nxt will be a masterpiece.

Went to the OTT Wrestling show in Dublin last night, mostly to see Will Ospreay before he heads off to New Japan. He's a phenomenal performer, oodles of charisma to match his athleticism, he's gonna be a star over there (watch out KUSHIDA!).

Sadly I didn't get to see the end of his main event triple threat, as the show ran long (my bus home was across the city, a 25-minute brisk walk). And the venue/show management left a lot to be desired: the atmosphere changed as the evening went on and the audience necked back more and more cheap lager. So many drunks, a couple getting all up in my face. Had to fight my way through the crowd to get to the only exit. I'm a 35-year-old man, I've never been in a fight but I think I can handle myself, yet I did not feel very comfortable.

I don't need that bullshit with my wrestling - nor the sexist macho/lad-culture replies to my complaints on Twitter - so I won't be going again. And I'm having second thoughts about attending tonight's ICW show, too.

(Update: I went to the ICW show in the end and it was a blast - even if I'd much prefer a seated show.)

MacDara the thread-killer strikes again ha-ha!

Anyway, what did everyone think of Raw? I'll check back in later after I've watched it.

steph promo was a+ (albeit in the classic format of "i am a heel but i'm going to say lots of things that are otm because i'm also kind of not a heel i suppose"), dean-trips stuff was v good, becky-sasha was decent but obviously setting up for bigger things, rest was not really worthwhile

tho i am looking forward to this hilarious odd couple-style sitcom, coming soon on usa network

http://411mania.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Undertaker-Vince-McMahon-Raw-22916-645x370.jpg

Kota Ibushi in "come and get me plea" to WWE Executive Vice-President of Talent Triple H.

i wish no harm upon any man but 4 real i can't wait until Vinnie Mac has checked out and Hunter has the freedom to extend his smart-mark EWR fantasy booking tendencies to the main roster.

in some alternate reality AJ Styles / Kevin Owens is yr WM IC title feud and it's hot-as-hot-can-be, and we're getting 20 mins of them tearing it up in a classic WM match to be remembered forever after.

in this actual real life reality AJ Styles is teaming with your most embarrassing uncle ahead of an inevitable split/heel turn giving us a match we've seen 5 times already in every possible combination that is entirely predictable and does nothing to elevate anyone. Kevin Owens just lost by count out to the muthafuckin Big Show. No one at the top of this company has any fucking clue at all what it is that ppl like in 2016.

AJ Styles has been w the company for 2 months, they've already had him pinned clean by one of their over-the-hill Attitude Era holdovers, killed the Styles Clash as a finisher, labelled him as a redneck and a rookie, mocked his height, dismissed his ability to cut a promo.. are these guys allergic to money or what

Styles was never going to be a main event star in WWE though. Daniel Bryan was a once in a generation exception (i.e. indie star not known for his mic work or having much of a character beyond "guy who likes kicking people" who unexpectedly developed both and was embraced by the fans while still being at the top of his game in the ring).

The Styles Clash has always been a dumb finisher too, and can't be safely or realistically applied to guys bigger than him (which is 85% of the WWE roster). They've been putting the calf killer/crusher over strong, so I have no complaints about any of this.

Jericho can still go in the ring, so he's not the problem, and Jericho/Styles vs New Day in a 15 minute tag title match at Mania could rock bells. The "redneck rookie" crap didn't help, and they've compensated for his mic work (which is poor by WWE standards) by having Jericho as the svengali behind all of his feuds so far.

I dont really mind jericho styles/new day or jericho-styles as pairings. Its gonna be alright for his first mania and hes still being booked kinda strong despite the problems. It'd be sweet if he can come out strong into a high-ish profile fued for post-mania and a good spot for summerslam (beat jericho at wm, wrestle owens for a few months, face a return like cena or orton at ss?).

Its still wwe though.