The Official AT Wrestling Thread

fac said:
She was live interviewed (presumably at WWE's request) on CBS a few hours after his death was announced - https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2...rview-positive-comments-hulk-hogan-wwe-racism), and led off the segment with "apart from polarizing political views" which was I think her deftly saying "I don't agree with some of his comments and behavior, but not talking about that now".

And it isn't as if the interviewer then asked her "What were his polarized political positions you mentioned?" and she ignored the question, they didn't follow up on that at all and she answered puff piece questions about his importance to the company and his persona and so on.
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You're right. I was thinking of her 'clarification' tweet and got mixed up.
 
Liked night 1 of SummerSlam - solid show.
  • Liked the opener except having Jay get the pin - I think having Bron and Son of Bron get the win would have made them more formidable and I don't think Jey or Roman needed the win.
  • Liked seeing Alexa and Charlotte win (mainly because I am an Alexa stan and admit it), their team-up has been amusing and entertaining and honestly a good paring - which I didn't expect. I think it is time for the Judgement Day overall to collapse, they have run their course.
  • Jade v Tiffy and Kross v Sami - seemed like filler a bit. Kross is an enigma to me, I like his presence, Scarlett as a classic valet/manager is a nice touch, I like his promos, I get the methodical heel style - but despite that he just doesn't seem to have "it". Tiffy needs some seasoning and Jade I think works best in a tag team.
  • I was sports entertained by Orton/Roll and McIntyre/Paul - props to JR, not smooth but not terrible and he sells pretty well - I liked the spot where we wanted to stay in vs Drew only to instantly regret it, and that frog splash on the table was impressive - I had a slight question at first if he might have really been hurt until they made such a display of his walking out. Standard face protocol to come back and fight on - but also think him being pinned will lead to maybe another match vs Paul.
  • Gunther vs Punk - never felt the chemistry was there between them, Punk took a bit too much of a beating at times (I wish they would play into the age of some of these guys a bit more and that they can't take the punishment but need to win faster). Gunther's crimson mask was strange in that if he was blinded why not just take the DQ? I'm not sure if the goal was to make it seem like it wasn't "fair" to protect him. Anyway, my hope is that Gunther has a bit of a non-title feud before he turns his sites on Cody (I wished they hadn't had Cody beat him in SA, I liked the idea that he had Cody's number but Gunther never had the chance to challenge him for the title.
  • Rollins vs Punk - I did enjoy the whole tease of his music hitting (HE'S CASHING IN!), then him on crutches (Guess they just wanted to keep that story going), then throwing the crutches away (HE'S CASHING IN!). I assume this feud will continue to at a minimum the Royal Rumble but more likely WM before Punk gets the title. I don't much like Heyman with Seth, you don't need too talkers together as Seth was already his own hype man (unlike Roman and Brock), I don't really like Bron and Bronson in a stable as they both seem to work best as wildcard forces of nature.
Will see how night 2 goes. I liked this card on paper a bit more than tomorrows. But without Netflix, I am realizing that I can't muster much excitement for the Raw based matches.

Edited to add - check out Becky's Instagram which has her reacting to Seth throwing away the crutches and cackling that some of her posts may have been misleading (she had posted him on crutches going to the store for instance). Love it.
 
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Summer Slam Night 2 -

I found the cards a little odd - night one was pretty straightforward matches, this had all the gimmicks and no DQ stuff. Kind of felt unbalanced overall.

I don't like it when AEW does it and I didn't like it for this event - too many kick outs after a dozen "finishers", too many big bumps that didn't really flow all that well, too many instances where the weapons used would kill someone if they connected (the crowbar in the Becky/Lyra match), etc. Seemed a bit over the top to me.

I also disliked more of the booking choices -

  • I thought Lyra needed to beat Becky, and let Becky and Bailey feud for a bit. Lyra took a beating and to me if you do that and have her come back each time, and then get knocked out by an interference punch - it made little sense. Also, Bailey coming out after Lyra had been ziptied, hung up to be beaten by a kendo stick, had a chair wrapped around her neck - all OK but it was the crowbar that was the issue - one reason I dislike some of these streetfight type matches is that is everyone supposed to be like "ok, I can't stop this if you want to bash someone's head in with a crowbar". I don't know, it was an impressive match at times but ended poorly and I have a hard time taking Becky seriously as that level of a villain...
  • I felt Solo winning was the same thing - if Fatu can break a handcuff, how is he supposed to lose that match 30 seconds later. I was fine with Solo winning but not if you have a guy acting superhuman.
  • The ladder match was of course insane and in spite of myself I do enjoy the spectacle of it at times, even if t was too many "let's set up this spot". The Wyatt's do nothing for me so not thrilled with the outcome.
  • Naomi as champ is fine for me, it won't last much longer and she has been a good heel so far.
  • Cena being old, noble Cena and Cody going a bit dirty seemed pointless if you weren't going to go all the way with it. Maybe they will, but I would rather have had Cena decide mid-match that he could no longer be the cheater, and maybe realize that he was making Cody go to far and that wasn't good. I don't know. And if you are going to have Brock come out, why not do so with Cody in the ring, so that you don't know who he is going for, and then if he goes after Cena, let Cody go a bit more heel and let him F5 him -or the other way, have Brock go after Cody, Cena interferes and get demolished, setting up their final meeting. Seemed like a missed opportunity - granted I was fine with Brock not coming back so a Brock v Cena feud does nothing for me.
Overall, kind of a weird scene now in WWE - Cody is back as champ, Rollins is champ, I guess Punk, LA Knight, Drew, Randy et al will be chasing them, Gunther when he is back if he is out for a bit. Two heel women's champs. Too much nostalgia with Brock, Cena, Punk at this point. Not feeling it right now with WWE...
 
Mix of high quality matches and soe mediocre ones

Highs: Naomi retaining and that match in general ruled, god Naomi's so great
Charlotte & Alexa get to continue being fun face team
Seth cashing in and denying crybaby punk his title

Mixed: Bayley should have cleanly turned and cost Lyra the match
 
I'm not a regular of Cagematch.com, but I read something about them having to stop or delete user ratings for Summer Slam, mostly due to negativity around Brock. Setting aside the allegations, I was never a fan and would've been perfectly fine never seeing him in the ring again, but now I'm kind of interested to see if there's genuine heat from the fans during his appearances and I do like what he's been doing with his hair.
 
oh yeah, Brock was the big low point, what a bummer.

god i hate the company yet like some of the talent and matches
 
ESPN announced they are will be adding WWE PLEs to their soon to be launched streaming service (in the US) starting in 2026, so they will no longer be on Peacock after the end of this year. The new ESPN service will be $30 a month.

I probably wouldn't watch much else on the ESPN service (or at least not that much), so not likely to pay for this (I did and do watch things on Peacock at times so WWE on there was a plus) and also not interested in getting Netflix, so if the only WWE that is included in services I have already is Smackdown there is a good chance I will just stop watching altogether. (I have gone in cycles with WWE, watch for a few years or more, it gets old, revisit in a few years...)
 
I use my sister's Peacock account to watch PLEs anyway, I'll just pirate them when they switch to ESPN because I'm definitely not paying for that. Unless it's part of the Hulu/Disney+/ESPN bundle I already have.
 
Updated that ESPN (maybe on their main channel, maybe just on the app) will air the PLEs starting in Sept - last PLE on Peacock will be Clash in Paris.

I wonder if splitting the WWE Universe over so many different platforms will be a mistake in terms of audience interest. It is one thing for a true sports league to have assorted games on different platforms - maybe you miss a game or two if you don't have platform X or Y but each game is a standalone event - so if you miss a game, it doesn't mean you can't catch up on the stakes for the next game. Casual fans can keep up.

But WWE is a TV show with continuing stories - as it stands now, if you only have one of either cable or Netflix you get half the storylines that are resolved at the PLEs. And if you won't get to see the resolution at the PLEs (unless having ESPN), does it make sense to watch the weekly shows?

I feel like they ought to go back to brand split PLEs except for the Big 4 which can be two nights and both brands...
 
Being in Canada, I get a totally different experience because I think everything WWE does is now just on Netflix for us. Get yourself a VPN and just watch Canadian WWE.
 
I think I am going to enjoy Punk/AJ vs Seth/The Man... Lots of potentially great promos coming up...

I wish Brock was nowhere near Cena's last run.
 
I missed AJ's entire run since she debuted after I quit watching but that was a crazy pop. I'm looking forward to seeing where this story goes.
 
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