Hope not NXT is far to good for that.

Anyway they won't be allowed to actully wrestle just do promo after promo after promo.

Look at last night a major reason it sucked I didn't listen to most of them and went to put the bins out during the Reigns one.


NXT has matches on it and limited promos that's why it's the best thing in WWE the only show I don't get bored watching.

Just catching up on the thread (a million times more entertaining than actually watching RAW), and oh my goodness, seriously? The only angle more predictable than AJ failing to win the WWE title is AJ failing to beat Cena. Vince doesn't like to wait very long to settle his petty scores does he?

Is Vince so insecure that he really has to make fans sit through his "demonstrating" (via a fixed sport lol) that the TNA franchise star isn't good enough for the WWE title? And then immediately after, that he's no match for the WWE franchise star? Good grief. Maybe he can feud with Seth and get a career ending injury immediately after. Job done.

You wanted a WWE wrestling monopoly guys. Hope you're enjoying it.

And turning Smackdown into NXT? That's so stupid I literally have no idea where to start.

I don't think there are too many promos, there are just way too many pointless ones. Opening segment is a massive example of doing a promo for the sake of doing a promo. Just there to tell fans they are going live which would be fine, if it was part of a storyline. They seem incapable of segregating real life situations from it's on screen manifestation.

I wouldn't have acknowledged Smackdown was going live last night. Last night I would have kicked off Steph vs Shane which would culminate at MITB with rep of Steph facing rep of Shane. The winner gets control of whichever show they choose. The winner CHOOSES Smackdown, making it look like the show they wanted rather than the show nobody wants but was forced into.

Throughout the following weeks, Shane and Steph start recruiting for their shows, some matches to determine it and some are handpicked and then a couple weeks before, the person running Smackdown declares it will go live from Jul 19th.

The problem is there will be nothing to identify the shows. I think they need to spend a bit of money on a Smackdown exclusive set, a new logo, new theme, move the announce team backstage in a little studio which they can hold interviews etc.

I would have Reigns in a situation where he will defend his title against a Raw star and Smackdown star at Summerslam, Smackdown would launch a tourney on July 19th to determine who their star would be (let's say Ambrose). Seth would be on Raw and would be their star.

Sorry I'm banging on with storylines that will never happen but that's what I'd do with the World Title going through Summerslam and how I would have launched the new Smackdown. Sorry again for length

OMG of all the Raws I can't believe I stayed up to watch last night's show never have I felt so bored in my entire life what an awful show.

Can't wait for Steph Vs Charlotte at Summerslam

I could see them very easily doing that and granted it would be different but I hope that is not the route they are going down because Shane right now is all about the new talent.........basically the same role Triple H has in real life and if Stephanie comes back that doesn't mean Triple H wont come back with his NXT wrestlers anyway and then Shane's left with basically the NXT guys thats ALREADY there and the older WWE stars for his show.



I don't care what anybody says, this can be tracked right back to Daniel Bryan not being eliminated early in the Royal Rumble and the fans forcing the WWE's hands and it's not all the fans, it's the minority with the loudest voice, these smart marks and I don't know what is going on in Vince McMahon's head but he is listening to them and ever since then the WWE has catered to this hardcore crowd and the more he listens to them the more the casual viewers tune out. And the more these NXT wrestlers are on TV, the more people tune out cause it's not wrestling. 10 million watched wrestling on Monday nights in 1999/2000. Now it's down to 3 million. Well done to these smart marks, they have done a great job killing the wrestling business and killing any bit of credibility it once had to the point where in 2016 it's not even possible to save it. It's done. They've taken something which drew 10 million viewers in America in one night and slowly killed it to the point where it's down to 3 million in America and i'd bet the house on it, i'd bet everything i own that the 3rd hour absolutely fell below 3 million again last night and it wouldnt surprise me if this is the first time the 2nd hour does too.


And I'm ready for it tonight at 9pm. I'm ready for these smart marks to throw every excuse they can at the crap rating. It's a holiday. This was on that was on. Always an excuse. As the almighty Vince McMahon himself, the man that single handedly created the world and the wrestling and this and the that, he's so great, the man himself for 5 years in his own living room used to tell Vince Russo.........if it's good, they will watch it. Right out of his own mouth. Well Vince McMahon you are right, they're not watching it anymore cause it's no good and it's not even professional wrestling. Call it something else. Call it tumbling. Call it scripted acrobatics. Call it anything but wrestling cause calling it wrestling is an insult to those that were professional wrestlers for the last 60 years. I've no idea what that is on WWE now or TNA or ROH, it's not wrestling. Call it something else.

And I guarantee you that's what's happening, people will sit with the remote in their hands, old fans and those that have never watched a minute of wrestling in their life, they'll switch that on and say 'who's that?' Either something completely unrealistic will be said or some guy will flip flop through the air only to get back on his feet and not even pretend to be hurt and that's it, channel changed right away. Forget about it. They wont give that a minute of their time.



Anyway that's my rant over. It's Tuesday night which means a light dinner, River City on BBC 1, listen to some music and maybe have some 'me time' to get me relaxed for bed.

Jesus Christ, it's not an anti-TNA conspiracy. No one gives a shit about TNA.

There's plenty of wrestling companies out there that aren't WWE. NJPW, ROH, Lucha Underground, CMLL, AAA, TNA and ICW to name a few.

Also, who wanted a WWE monopoly?

This is the part I didn't get either, I don't recall anybody ever saying that's what they want or even giving off that impression. Such a strange comment. I'm just surprised there hasn't been more people talking about how Smackdown moving to Tuesdays is just to get one over on Dixie and TNA, everything else WWE does is to harm TNA.

It's no surprise Dixie bangs on about WWE so much, she's got so many people willing to push her "no don't look at me, it's all Vince's fault" bs message for her. I'm starting to wonder if Triple H pointing the finger solely at Vince for everything that happens is a tribute to her.

On this AJ thing, they might as well just put him in a feud with Fandango and have done with it. People don't want him in a title feud unless he's winning it, they don't want him in a programme with the biggest name of the past decade. Just give up now, nothing will ever be a good enough story or outcome for AJ.

At no other point in history has professional wrestling been less cool, less popular and more importantly, less watched. There's fewer people watching at home and attending live events than ever before.



Yep the smarks wanted a WWE monopoly. They want wrestling wrestling wrestling, wrestling till it's coming out their ears, they've got it. Soon the audience will be under 3 million in the 2s, then it will dwindle to 1 million in America and then they can have it all to themselves. They can have all the little scripted playfights they want.


And another thing that really annoys me on wrestling forums is this talk of once Vince McMahon retires and Kevin Dunn is fired and the soap opera writers are fired that will fix WWE. Are they kidding or what? IF ONLY WWE was putting out a soap opera every week. IF ONLY.....


I'm sure 38 year old AJ Styles will save the day. A middle aged man dying his hair black trying to kid on he's in his 20's. A joke. Good for the IWC. Good for the smarks. You can have nearly 40 year old AJ Styles and his black hair. They can keep their good little hands that wont draw a penny, NEVER HAVE drew a penny, NEVER WILL draw a penny. It's like the X Factor or going for football trials.........they never had that Vince Russo in their life, they never had that Simon Cowell, they never had the professional manager to look them in the face and tell them you're not gonna be ANYBODY in this business, you're nothing more than a good little hand that maybe we can stick on 45 minutes into the show to get SOMEONE ELSE OVER, but YOU will never be a TV STAR, a WRESTLING STAR, a SOMEBODY. Unfortunately Vince McMahon isn't doing that. I agree with Vince Russo. I too would love to have a conversation with Vince McMahon and say to him Vince, I know you're 70, I know it's hard to keep up with the times but for ffs what is going on in your head, what is going through your head putting this absolute garbage on TV every week, young men that don't even look like wrestlers, women wrestling, no women managers or storylines? You've got them in the ring wrestling having matches all the time? Seriously. What is going on here. What is going on in your head man. Has he forgotton the 40 odd years he's been in the business and HOW THE BUSINESS WORKED for those 40 odd years, how you build a heel, how you build a face, how you work a match, how you GET SOMEONE OVER, has it just dissappeared out the window.

The only thing that they've really obviously got wrong with him was having him lose to Jericho at Wrestlemania, which was ridiculous. But not a single thing on that entire bloody show made any sense.

Rating delayed until tomorrow due to memorial day in the states.

Anyway has someone left a broken record on repeat? Ignore feature activated permanently, no wonder people have left the thread due to the same rambling nonsense.

WWE Monopoly? That to me sounds like a marketing plan.

Bet we now get a AJ Styles Fandango dance off thanks to you.

Bit harsh calling Hollie a broken record? Just kidding I know who you are referring to he who shall not be named could explain the whole WWE Monopoly BS.

I can understand why they booked it due to him winning the fatal 4 way the next night and it wasn't 100% clean, in addition to picking up some decent sized wins opposite former champions Del Rio and Sheamus in the weeks before Extreme Rules. In hindsight it doesn't really matter that much due the long term plans being for him to go sneaky heel anyway.

The only thing I'd have changed is having it as the rubber match to the feud, which Styles did win. A 4th match - even after the Jericho heel turn - felt a bit pointless. Generally, I can see the logic to it and why they swerved the audience.

NJPW put the Ricochet vs Will Ospreay match up officially in HD- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TgbxaQcheQ

Watched it all the way through a second time on a big tv. That count out spot is still ridiculous mind.

I prefer WWE Guess Who

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0188R0M..._.ePtxbEAT1F34

Yes it was quite bad, however the crowd made it 15x worse by being the worst fans I've ever known. More activity at a funeral.

True but what did they have to get excited about? Raw opened with the most pointless 20 minute promo ever and within the 1st hour they also had a Goldust/R-Truth segment.

Raw is beyond stale now and even the brand split won't help as Raw has been shit for 2 years now, yet everyone seems to think that by going live it wil all of a sudden by great. No chance.

On the point of AJ btw, the stories coming out recently regarding a brand split seem to suggest that Reigns will be the main star on Raw and Cena his counterpart on Smackdown so it could be that the AJ/The Club vs John Cena feud is the one that kinda kicks off the newly revamped Smackdown and if there's two world titles again, there's every chance that AJ ends up holding the Smackdown belt as the top heel.

AJ has been in fueds with y2j reigns and now cena. hes looked strong in all of them and regulary takes the raw spotlight

your pro tna bias is silly.

Resurrection of Jake Roberts added to Netflix UK today.

I think you're giving Vince Russo a bit too much credit for the 10 million viewers in the attitude era. Wrestling became cool when one man turned on his friends and that was the Hulk Hogan heel turn, that night turned the industry on its head and created the most over group of all time, the NWO. If it wasn't for the NWO there wouln't have been the same buzz around wrestling. The Monday night wars was what kept viewers coming back for more, once WCW went, it was inevitable that WWE would drop their standards, they had no one to compete against. And this is coming from a huge WWE fan of that time.

Also, guys like Stone Cold and The Rock made themselves, creative held them back to begin with rubbish gimmicks, but luckily for the WWE they found their own voices. Also, with regards to ratings, I used to remember the days when Eastenders got 18-20 million viewers per episode, they've probably dipped by a significant amount now though and that's because there's more choice out there, easier to record more than one show at a time and watch it later etc.

You're probably right that Vince doesn't care as much about the product as he once did and that's probably because he has a steady income coming in from the network etc.