The Professional Wrestling Thread

This is the place for us all to get-together and have a nice chit-chat about everything related to wrestling! Let's kick off this thread with the following topic: Have you been enjoying the angle that's been going on in WWE lately?

As for me, I like it. I like it a lot. Orton's finally made his long-awaited heel turn, and HHH and Stephanie turning heel alongside him was a nice touch. Plus, I love how they're giving Daniel Bryan this much exposure by making him chase after Orton's championship title. Bryan's one of the very few guys who really knows how to work a crowd, so he truly deserves it. I'm looking forward to Night of Champions this Sunday, because I want to see if Bryan can pull of the win against Randy Orton and take back the championship or not.

I'm liking it, too. I like the way Orton made his turn; It's not because he's a bad guy, but rather, because he did what everyone else would've done in that position. Triple H has been playing his role great as well. He's treating Bryan like crap, but he's consistent with the rest of the roster, in the sense that he's doing what's best for business all around (Ex. Axel tonight having to defend against Kofi, his treatment of Heyman in recent weeks, Big Show, etc.) Not just a d-bag heel treating faces poorly, but a d-bag heel treating/rewarding faces AND heels who deserve it, because it's what's "best for business."

That all being said... I'm super glad how the main event when down tonight. RAW will be exciting tomorrow. :]

I was expecting Bryan to win last night, considering how much he was able to dominate The Shield and Orton during the last couple of weeks. xD I'm happy that he's gotten his hands on the championship, but in my opinion, it happened a little too soon. They could've made him chase after gold until the next pay-per-view if they wanted, because the crowds were deeply into it. I have a feeling that Triple H will strip the title off of Bryan tonight on RAW due to the ref's counting speed, which seemed to be faster than normal. Either that, or a rematch will happen. Orton is the former champion, so he's definitely entitled to a rematch clause.

Also, I'm a little disappointed for not having any of their other titles change hands last night.

I only managed to catch the tail end of the Bryan-Orton match tonight, but I was both pleasantly surprised and shocked to see Bryan pick up the win, especially so soon. I've got the sneaking suspicion his reign won't last any longer than 24 hours, though (still, that's better than his previous 5 1/2 minute reign). That being said, Triple H has been playing his role as the corporate bad-guy perfectly, and it's nice to see that he isn't completely favoring the heels, either. At least this whole angle's got me interested again, as for the longest time I'd just record Raw and skip through a good portion of it, but now I find myself watching from start to finish.

And on a side note, I think it's interesting how Ryback is the newest Paul Heyman guy (or so it seems). Funny how in less than a year, it's Heyman and Punk vs. Ryback, and now the two of them have just swapped places. Anything to get Ryback away from his weird bullying gimmick is okay with me, though.

I'm okay with Ryback being a Paul Heyman guy. Ryback is not that bad in the ring, and a manager is the only thing that he needs in order to get himself to the next level. If he made his debut as a Paul Heyman guy (like Brock Lesnar), then his career would've been a lot further than it currently is. I'm not really sure why a lot of people seem to dislike this guy, though. Is it because of his looks? Is it because of his character? Is it because of the way he walks to the ring? Well, I'm not exactly a big fan of his character, but it has grown on me over the last months. Also, his spear seems to be quite devastating. It's almost as good as Goldberg's.

I don't think I should have checked this thread so soon as I haven't watched Night Of Champions yet, I'm downloading it haha.

Although I'm kind of glad that Bryan got to close the PPV out with the title in his hands, I think giving Orton a decent title reign before dropping the title back to Bryan would have made it more meaningful. If they want Bryan to become a huge star and get more over, they should keep screwing him out of his title victories and end the feud at TLC or Royal Rumble with Bryan coming out on top as the WWE champion, kind of like what they did in the past with Austin and the McMahon family rivalry. I'd like to see where they're going with this next.

I consider the rivalry between Heyman and Punk to be the best feud in the PG era. Despite the fact that this feud has been going on ever since the Monday Night Raw after Payback where Brock Lesnar hit CM Punk with an F5, it still hasn't gotten stale thanks to the phenomenal mic skills of Heyman and Punk. These two are the main reason why I still keep watching WWE.

As for Ryback being the new Heyman guy, I'm not excited at all. I got bored of Ryback after they ruined all his momentum by turning him heel and then job to Super Cena. Then he bullied people behind backstage and kept losing more matches, so that kind of made him look like nothing more than a high school bully. His in-ring skills don't interest me much either, he can't sell and tends to botch moves every now and then. I would have been satisfied if they had chosen Wade Barret, Antonio Cesaro, Drew McIntyre or even Paige over Ryback.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on Dolph Ziggler being treated like a jobber now?

The feud between Austin and the McMahon family was the greatest of all-time, and I don't think anything will ever be able to top it unless something forces them to give it their all. Heyman-Punk rivalry is all right, but I wouldn't call it the best. For me, the best rivalry of the PG era would have to be between Cena and Nexus. When Nexus first made their debut, I honestly thought that it was all a shoot. Nobody's seen it coming (not even WWE's own creative team) except Vince McMahon himself. Shawn and Undertaker rivalry would have to be the second best, with Cena-Punk rivalry being close to third. I'm not the biggest fan of John Cena, but he can certainly put on a good show if others can bring out the best of him (which Punk was able to do).

Orton used to be the one to put over young stars, but he left a huge void when he made his heel turn. I think Ziggler's just filling in this void until someone else comes along who can take over for him. He will go back to his main event status before we even know it.

NoC was solid. DBryan vs Orton was good, but I was totally expecting HHH to come out and reverse it. Instead, Bryan celebrated for a good 10 minutes. Totally cool with that, but I didn't expect the title change to come so soon. They're definitely going to mention that ref bump tonight on Raw, considering that it did absolutely nothing for the match yesterday. Probably the excuse for a rematch, or even a title strip, maybe.

no love for tna eh?

TNA isn't such a bad show. They have a lot of people on their roster who are simply more talented than most of the current WWE guys. Ken Anderson would be a good example. He's an above-average wrestler, and he's always able to deliver something good when he's on the mic. He may not be as good as Punk when it comes to cutting promos, but in my opinion, he's definitely better than guys like Cena, Orton, and Bryan. James Storm is another good example. He has the ability to get the crowd on their feet whenever he's on the mic, and his matches are always excellent.

The only thing that I don't like about TNA is how much they like to recycle their story lines. WWE recycles old story lines as well, but they make significant amount of changes to them before they put them on TV. As for TNA, they only make a few changes here and there and everything else seems to remain the same. d:

I actually haven't seen TNA in quite some time now, I just realized. I've missed out on the entirety of the Ace & 8s angle. Please tell me that's done by now.

I really wish that Hogan and Bischoff (he's still there backstage, right?) would move on, as TNA was actually quite enjoyable before they came along. I think they're main problem is that they're trying to compete with WWE now, when they're not even close in terms of fanbase or resources. In doing so, they try bringing in big names like Rampage Jackson and Tito Ortiz, but in turn fire guys like Jesse Sorensen, who got injured on their watch. It's kind of funny actually, it almost seems like Triple H's new character is mocking what TNA is doing- claiming that something is best for business even if the fans don't agree.

To be perfectly honest though, I haven't watched TNA since we switched over cable providers, and I don't really feel like I'm missing anything.

They really need to stop bringing in big names like that and try to put on a good show with all of their current talents. Big names could bring in more viewers due to their popularity, but so far, this doesn't seemed to have happened yet. If they truly want their fan-base to grow, then instead of paying a big chunk of cash to guys like Hogan and Bischoff, I think they should use these money to be on the road more, get bigger arenas, advertise their product, and make more original story lines.

I haven't watched iMPACT in about three to four months. Whenever I'm watching it, it feels as if I'm watching just another episode of SmackDown. xD" I loved TNA five to six years ago, when they had the six-sided ring. It set them apart from all the other wrestling promotions. Some wrestlers did have a hard time to adapt to it (since they're familiar with only the traditional four-sided ring), but they got used to it eventually.

Hogan should just stick retired. Instead of making the whole damn show about himself.

By the way, Stephanie is a *****. That is all.

Have any of you seen Stephanie's brother lately? Here's a recent picture of him with Vince and Hunter. He looks a lot older now. He almost looks as old as his father. o: He looked much younger five years ago before he made his departure from the WWE. Can't believe he's been able to age this much over the last few years.

Also, Triple H stripped the title off of Daniel Bryan tonight by making the referee admit that it was a fast count. Anyone should be able to get a hold of it now, and I hope it's someone other than Orton.

Oh what I wouldn't give to hear Shane's music hit again and have him work his way into this storyline somehow. I'm pretty sure he's still tied up with that TV company in China as their chairman, but a guy can dream.

And the whole thing with Bryan getting stripped of the title didn't surprise me in the least. It didn't really make sense to give it to him this early (as much as I'd like to see it), but I'm also glad they didn't just hand it back to Randy Orton, as it looks like we'll be seeing a side of him that we haven't for a few years now.

I'm looking forward to his return, too. He's previously stated that he no longer has any type of interest in WWE, but things can always change, can't they? His matches were always exciting to watch, and it would be totally awesome to be able to see him one more time in the ring.

Randy's been working with The Shield a lot lately. I'd like to see them turn him into an official member of the group. I know that it'd do little to nothing for them by having Randy become a Shield member, but it'd be quite epic to see him in their uniform. Haha.

Speaking of Shane, I actually heard something about him retiring as the COO or whatever role he was for that company. He won't be busy 24/7 now, so you never know!

What did you all think about Cody's and Goldust's return this Monday? To me, it wasn't all that bad, but I would've liked it more if they had taken out either Randy or Triple H along with the Shield. It would have made a bigger impact, in my opinion. Also, I've heard that they were planning a feud between Goldust and Cody. Cody's just turned face, so I can't imagine him being a heel again this soon. Goldust would most likely be the one to play the heel role, by aligning himself with the McMahon family one way or another.

I couldn't help but think it felt a little awkward that Goldust came out for the attack in full facepaint, considering they've been referring to him as Dustin Rhodes the past couple of weeks anyway. It also didn't seem to make much sense that they went after The Shield, other than the fact they're Stephanie and Triple H's muscle.

As for a feud between the two, I'd love to see it, considering they've both made it known they want to have a Wrestlemania match together. I just can't see either of them turning right now- at least not right away. I do expect both to be there at Battleground in some capacity though, whether it be something similar to Raw, or a match to earn their jobs back.

The Goldust gimmick has been around for more than a decade, so we're all used to it. If he ever came out without facepaint, most of us wouldn't be able to recognize who he actually is.

Personally, I think Dustin needs a lengthy main-event championship run before he finally decides to hang up his boots. He's been extremely loyal to the company (he has never jumped ship to TNA or any other wrestling promotions), he's been around with WWE for a very long time, and he has spent a lot of time and energy to put over a bunch of young up-and-coming talents. Due to all these reasons, he definitely deserves it. Once he's done, maybe he could drop off the title to Cody to pass the torch. Some people may think that Cody Rhodes does not deserve to be in the main event scene, but I think he does. Well, at least for a little while. d: He's worked quite hard for the WWE over the years, and he has provided us with tons of quality matches. On the mic, he's pretty solid. He could always deliver a good promo if we was ever given the chance.