Vince aint never gonna let that shit go

his current target audience weren't even sperm when that happened

WWE showing the DX invading WCW moment is pretty hilarious considering how butt hurt they got when Bullet Club pulled a similar stunt last year.

Lol

WOW

:eek:

OH SHIT

IT'S HAPPENING.

Reigns should just get counted out

What a time to be alive.

Now if we could go swoop up AJ....and put !them all on SDL

Double count-out tonight, cage match TBA.

Lets go Joe

Which one..

why did Cole brag they are live tonight

Ouch at that landing to the outside by Joe.

Fatmanpunch

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Roman Reigns vs Samoa Joe is the best WWE tv match of 2018 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RAW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RAW</a></p>&mdash; DavKind (@DavKind76) <a href="https://twitter.com/DavKind76/status/948028458235580417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2018</a></blockquote>
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How does Joe ram Roman into the steps not dq but Roman using them would be

Early match of the year candidate

dammit I want Samoa Joe to win

IC match was really good.

fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyoooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

#buried

Would have been funny if Reigns got DQed for shoving the ref out of harms way.

Don't see Reigns' IC reign ending in any other way than something really anti-climatic especially if it happens after his eventual Universal title win.

Roman is the best wrestler in WWE

You go sit in the corner and think about what you said

:lol: at Gulak correcting Enzo's worded promo.

Best was the time he spelt "SAWFT" correctly while doing an Enzo promo.

Anthony Hopkins needs to be banned for a Wellness Violation

Did gold dust lose weight

Ummm don't think Goldust weighs under 205 lbs.

Mixed weight tag match

Wrestling version:

https://i.imgur.com/Iee1pjw.gif

Women are evolving at the Royal Rumble

cowbell? :lol:

Another week, another ungrateful WWE crowd who can't appreciate great music by Drifter and his pals.

Women going over the top rope too. Really cool. Getting excit3d for the women's rumble now. 30 wrestlers too. Heck ya.

I would mark if Sable returned and eliminated Bayley tbh

Finn technically main-eventing RAW again to start off 2018 right

What a world we live in.

Angry Miz girl lol

USA Network's new show after RAW called "Football Fanatic" seems like its going to be really terrible based on the constant commercials shown tonight.

Year of the Beast is going to end up Year of the Dog at WrestleMania

Camera work on this brawl is utterly terrible.

Year of the (COCK) Blocker

Lesar sitting up and laughing harkens back to doing that VS taker without Taker's goofy look

hush

RAW was decent this week (imo)

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Retirement idea #353<br>Duplex City: a block of poorly maintained housing for marks. USA network is the only TV channel that works. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RAW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RAW</a></p>&mdash; ShinigamE (@WWEBigE) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWEBigE/status/948043940816740352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2018</a></blockquote>
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To be fair, quite a bit of that was the retainer/mouthguard he needed to wear afterwards. I'm guessing he doesn't "have" to wear it anymore, likely hasn't for awhile, and the joke has run its course. So he is "allowed" to promo without it in his mouth.

Anyone else actually kinda bummed about the Women's Royal Rumble? Like, I used to spend all PPV looking forward to the Rumble, and now they're probably going to serve one up right at the start. And it's been a while since they've booked a good Rumble, so now they're going to have to do two.

Ive noticed definitely the last 2 weeks they've given most of the wrestling matches time to breathe a bit, kinda interesting to see if thats a trend or just because of the holidays

Really depends on how the card shapes up but can see the Women's Rumble be in the middle of the card. Too historic of a moment to be thrown as just a curtain jerker and last thing WWE needs is to burn out or sour the crowd that early into the show.

Pre-show matches
1-2 matches to open the show
Women's Rumble
1-2 matches as a breather
Men's Rumble to end the show

Then again WWE also rarely does stuff that makes sense so I could see it actually start the show and have an abysmal ending to kill the crowd till the Men's Rumble.

Right now, neither of the bookies favorites or rumored possible winners are that appealing as choices for both Rumble matches.

What!? Yes! No half-assing it if you want a revolution, dammit!

A woman is eliminated when she is thrown over the top rope and BOTH FEET TOUCH THE FLOOR or this is all a sham.

Meh. Even a bad Rumble is still usually the highlight of the card so I'm fine with it.

I guess they could do it that way. I'd just prefer it if they did it at another point in time over the course of the year, or give them their own concept. Whatever. I'm curious to see how they agent it out, and there will obviously be some outside talent being used, which could be a lot of "fun." I doubt it will be great, but you only get to do the first one one time, so we'll see how it pans out. I actually think the women would get a lot more by simply them building up a Women's Title match to get spotlight while the Rumble is the Rumble.

The Raw choice for the Rumble winner is Roman Reigns, which is a definite possibility, because Vince would not mind trolling the crowd. But they can get a huge pop for whoever eliminates him him last. I imagine they'll want it to be a babyface then. I can see them switching the WWE Title to Owens and turning Shane heel, with either Nakamura or Orton winning the Rumble to challenge him. And I think the pop is going to work better for Shinny Naks, and he's a fresh choice. I think Nakamura is 3 on the bookies picks?

Honestly, I think Nakamura has a better shot at winning the rumble than Reigns simply because WWE tries to go for "shock value" when they can and Reigns losing doesn't stop him from going for the title at WrestleMania anyway.

I'm leaning towards Nak, I just can't see AJ vs. Nakamura at Mania for the title, haha. Reasons why:

* Vince does not want "New Japan!" chants during his WWE Title match at his big show.

* AJ vs. Nakamura is face versus face, and Styles has delivered more -- it's easy to imagine the crowd being "frustrated" by a Nakamura title win under those conditions, even when they shake and blah, blah, blah.

* I personally love AJ on the mic, but he's not exactly the sort of stickman you get to carry a feud.

My gut is telling me that AJ and Nakamura are going to be like ships passing in the night. I was thinking that they might go with Owens winning the belt at the Rumble to set up something with Nakamura, but I'm also thinking Orton could get it at Fastlane or something. They've kind of "linked" Orton and Nakamura a lot on television. I could see Orton winning the belt and then "officially" welcoming Nakamura to the main event scene in WWE by turning on him.

As for what Styles does -- if they go with Owens, I can see Shane turning heel to help him out, which sets up Styles vs. Shane II: This Time It's More Personal. But I can also see Owens & Zayn vs. Styles & Shane if they go with Orton.

Since 2006, when there are two world title matches at WrestleMania, the winner of the Royal Rumble has opened the show as much as he has closed it out. Much like winning titles in the 2 title era, winning the rumble isn't treated as a major accomplishment as much as it used to be.

I can't see Nakamura winning it either. Just more than Reigns, really.

I can see Owens winning it though.

No, you're 100% correct. That's why it's hard to pick a winner from SmackDown, because the title match almost doesn't matter. It could be AJ Styles vs. Baron Corbin, truthfully. I think the biggest thing about a SmackDown guy winning it would be that they're likely going to eliminate Reigns last in Philly, which is going to get them a MOLTEN pop. More than winning the actual Rumble itself, the moment will stand out for people. Kind of like when Dolph Ziggler cashed in Money in the Bank.

They love the shock value of putting it on the guy going for the secondary "world" title and Owens vs Styles seems like a possible WrestleMania match. Maybe with Owens being like "You can't fire me because I won a contract for a world title match at WrestleMania" like Orton did that one year.

Hmm, Owens is a possibility. It seems insane to give it to a heel, but with two Rumbles, I can see them putting the men's one on first to make a big deal out of the women's one, so it being sort of an afterthought and just a long Battle Royal that Owens wins.

Why does it seem insane to give it to a heel?

I mean, what I can see about Reigns is Vince just loving the idea of the 2018 Royal Rumble pissing off the Philly crowd in the same way as the 2015 one. Come on, that's totally Vince. Can't you just imagine them getting Rey to come in as #30 again, and for Rusev to be the last guy in there again, especially given how popular he's gotten? Vince will be laughing maniacally in the back -- "Goddammit they hate him!"

Because it's missing the golden opportunity of everybody expecting Reigns and for a babyface to oust him last.

Seriously, if you wanted Nakamura to be the sort of babyface they seem to want him to be, this is really your best window, because if he kicks Reigns off the apron, the crowd is going to melt and he can pose in the ring and look fucking cool for once.

But I'm also predicting Ronda Rousey to win the Women's Rumble, and for her to challenge Charlotte. So that would be two SmackDown winners. It might be more logical to kind of go back to Roman Reigns winning the men's one.

Vince is too back and forth with that though. He appeases the marks half the time and then pisses them off the other half. When he's got an opportunity to not piss them off, he usually goes with what they want though. Like... when Reigns won, there was only one world title and he was dead set on Reigns going to WrestleMania. So it's not that he was doing it to piss off the crowd. It was the only realistic way to get to what he wanted.

With two world titles, he can give them the same false hope he loves to give when there's two world titles. "OH MY GOD! WRESTLEMANIA IS SAVED! REIGNS (or Cena before him) LOST THE RUMBLE AND ISN'T GOING TO MAIN EVENT WRESTLEMANIA!"

Then they go on to main event WrestleMania anyway because there's another world title and so his plans aren't fucked with at all. If there were two world title during the whole Daniel Bryan debacle, Bryan probably would have won the rumble that year too because Vince would have been like "Why the fuck not? Let them have their other title and put Batistia in the WrestleMania main event anyway. I don't give a fuck."

You are absolutely correct with that. I kind of forgot about the one title thing. But also, Vince sometimes goes "gun-ho" with his desires, and as you said, it's spotty. It's just as likely he says "NO! Reigns has come this far, we're going aaaaaallll innnn," as it is "Fuck it, let's swerve these motherfuckers and have one of their heroes beat him."

It depends on what mood he's in on the night as much as anything. He might decide he wants Taker/Cena to be for the WWE Title, so he might just send Taker out there to toss a few bitches over to close the match. It's not beyond the realm of plausibility with Vince.

Meh. They've had a heel eliminate him and win it the past couple years. And Owens will get a pop anyway if he does it and the kids will hate him for it. I don't think it's that crazy.

I'm leaning towards him popping the crowd, because the heat you're going to get from trolling Philly "isn't worth it." It's better to create hope and a positive stir about your product these few months out. I can see him setting up everything to look like a Reigns win, only for him to just come up short.

I don't mean "crazy" as in absolutely bat-shit out-of-your-mind weird. I just mean that's it actually a really good opportunity to get a guy properly "over." At least to the point where they can build on it if they don't fuck them up the next week (which they might). And I don't much care for Owens, so I'm finding it hard to get enthused. As I said though, I can see him winning the WWE Title.

I also think it depends on the story. If the storyline requires Reigns winning the rumble, they'll do it of course. But Owens winning and using his guaranteed title shot as a reason Shane can't fire him seems like something they would do. And then Reigns would just win a #1 contenders match or something.

Yeah, we're in agreement there. That's actually a pretty good story for Styles/Owens. Especially if Owens beats the piss out of Shane and makes Styles watch or something.

The difference between here and with Emma was a) Alexa is the champ, whilst Emma was *just* established to be the bottom of the food chain on the main roster... and that was before the release, and b) they did aaaaaaalllllll that hype and build for Asuka's dangerousness and mystique, and almost killed it with two "competitive" matches against the aforementioned bottom of the food chain after she spent the previous number of months either killing bitches outright in singles, winning in handicap matches, or winning multiple-way matches to retain her streak and strap. It would be like if they brought Goldberg in during the middle of his streak in WCW, acknoledged said streak in WWF, even put over the damn streak in an unprecedented move... and then had him him in his debut match against Road Dogg where he mostly took bumps for about 20 minutes and THEN gets a jackhammer and spear.

Asuka struggling *at times* is okay, just so long as they pick the right times. Bliss is the champ, and while she plays a great chickenshit champ and liking to hide behind Nia and such, it is kinda cool when a heel evolves beyond that, especially when it makes her look legit holding the belt instead of it just being her turn to carry it for awhile. She doesn't like to do the work herself, but she *can* at least hold her own if she has to.

Otherwise, she would just be like Jinder.

I dig it all around. :y:

Nope. Porkchop Jones only.

Never really get a chance to watch Raw, due to the time difference over here and finding it hard to put aside time to watch it.
Just caught up on the show report though and read that Balor teamed up with Gallows and Anderson, was I right in reading that they cut to commercial and didn't show their entrance to the ring.

Man, the Rumble hasn't been interesting in years, and now there's two 30 person ones. And a horrible Universal title match.

Seems like the most interesting thing to watch will be to see if the Philly crowd just shits on it.

It's in Philly again?

Why does Philly keep getting Rumbles? Fuck those guys.

Also, really want Nakamura to win, because Styles vs Nakamura is the match.

The womens Royla rumble is going to be so awkward. The girls are too short to be easily thrown over the top rope so we are going to see a number of women just thrwoing themselves over, and we are going to see a bunch of botched clotheslines that dont knock somebody out so they will try two or three times. Cant believe its he main event.

Wait they already did Asuka vs Alexa?

Heels dont chase

If a face is champion going into WrestleMania, they do.

They can't and don't have a face win the rumble every single year.

I mean thaypretty much have with very few exceptions.


More since the two title deal which allows them to not have the rumble winner main.

Yeah. And there's two titles now. And like I said earlier, the rumble winner has actually opened the show as many times as they've closed the show when there's been two titles. So it's not insane to think a heel would win since it's likely just gonna lead to a match in the middle of the card anyway. Both title matches don't have to be the face chasing. They can tell different stories.

Not on the version I watched. Gallows and Anderson entered first to their music, then Finn to his.

Just a stupid report I read then.

Kinda annoyed though , it just goes to show how idiotic the WWE booking can be. The Balor Club has been teased on social media and certain backstage vignettes for a while now.
They have had ample opportunities in the past few weeks to build up to this reunion, this is something they could make money off. Vince was moaning about how he didn't think Balor is over enough which is a crock of shit, he's just not big enough for his fetish.
Imagine instead that this reunion was to happen at The Rumble , either in the Rumble match itself (which I guess the Philly crowd would go mad for) or in the main event against Lesnar. Carry on the momentum into Wrestlemania in a 3 v 3 tag match against Reigns, Jordon and Rollins with the tag and Intercontinental belts on the line.

I know very little about the Balor Club but they could have hyped it much much more than they did. Just seemed like a generic, "here are my partners" kind of segment.

I don't think Vince wants the Japanese stuff getting super-over on his program, because it lends credence to what they're doing. If The Balor Club sticks, it'll be a quick play for some t-shirts and then a job to The New Day or a re-booted Wyatt Family at WrestleMania.

It's not insane to think that a heel would win, but it's more that they should win that is garnering criticism. I mean, should the Rumble Winner head into an opening match? You're arguing what the WWE does, but I think Destor and I are coming at it from a logical perspective. Why would you waste such a big star-making moment on a heel that you're hopefully going to beat at WrestleMania? It kind of washes away the whole event.

It's like when they give MITB to guys who have won the belt numerous times in the past. What's the point of it?

Don't care anymore. It was never going to be the same on a shallow Raw or SmackDown as it was in NXT. She was always going to be "just another girl." And then Emma killed her out the gate. You watch her lose the Royal Rumble and then still be billed as "undefeated."

This does not come as a surprise. So, so many examples of this.

One that comes immediately to mind; Wyatt’s return following his absence after the “mumps” outbreak.

I'm surprised they didn't rename his finishing move , to further ignore the Sister Abigail angle.

Also love how he's this 'eater of worlds' but remember even men with powers can get the mumps. Surely it was common sense to give another meaning , storyline based, for his absence.

No, I know that's what YOU were arguing. I think Destor was just doing his devil's advocate/arguing for fun thing though. Especially after the "faces pretty much do always win with few exceptions" thing. Since '92, a heel has won the rumble about 40% of the time. Also, he thinks Reigns is a heel so Reigns winning would be insane too by his logic.

As far as what you mean, yeah. I pretty much agree. The two titles thing fucks everything up. Ideally there would be one and if that were the case, it would be a different conversation. Although sometimes a heel chasing works. I don't like the idea of constantly just taking the title off of your face champion at the beginning of every year just to make sure there's a heel champion going into WrestleMania. It gets repetitive and if you keep taking the title off the face so that he can constantly chase then the chase starts meaning less and less. You've gotta tell a different story sometimes. Hell, the biggest match in WrestleMania (and possibly wrestling) history featured a heel chasing.

You're not wrong that heels do win and it can be compelling. I think it makes more sense when you've built up a proper face champion too. Ideally, you'd have booked things out so you've got a strong heel that can win and it's not going to serendipitous.

I don't think this is the year for it. I just think with it being Philly and Reigns being the guy from Raw, there's just too much tension in him repeating history and then a babyface knocking him off that perch and basking in Philly's glory. Owens will get cheered, but it'll be...anti-climatic. This year.

We've also had so many two-time winners lately too. Cena in 2013, Batista in 2014, Triple H in 2016, Orton in 2017. Reigns was the last guy to win it for the first time. There's something rewarding about a guy winning it for the first time that I think should go to a babyface this year.

My gut is that Cena wins with he and Reigns being the final two, "getting his win back" over Reigns without having to pin him.

I'd be fascinated by the crowd reaction to that to see if Philly turns on the whole thing or if they side with Cena now that he's clearly on part-timer status and isn't the current golden boy in Reigns. I mean they're gonna sing "John Cena suuuuuucks" when he enters but that might be along the lines of Angle's "You Suck" chant at this point. I think even the smarky crowds are willing to give Cena his due now that he's on the victory lap stage of his career.

If Jinder was still champ, I'd definitely say Cena wins with him going on to break the record by beating Jinder at WrestleMania. Now, I don't know.

This might sound crazy... but what about Ziggler?

If they really wanna go for shock value and don't wanna mess with their Raw title plans, that actually would make a lot of sense. Seems like Styles has feuded with every other heel on the roster and it also seems like they're building Ziggler to... something. Ziggler vs Styles for the title on Smackdown seems like a program I could actually kinda see happening.