Serious question...has Lince Dorado ever met Vince McMahon?

Hahaha Drew Gulak already sucking Drake Maverick's dick

Not literally though, that would not be PG

Why did Drew Gulak give that Oompa Loompa flowers

He didn't even sing a song

Nice of Gulak to show his appreciation to the new GM by also having an orange face tonight.

So 16 man tournament...

Akira Tozawa
Ariya Daivari
Cedric Alexander
Drew Gulak
Gran Metalik
Hideo Itami
Jack Gallagher
Kalisto
Lince Dorado
Mustafa Ali
TJP
Tony Nese
Tyler Bate

3 open spots. I don't think Kendrick and Dar are set to be back anytime soon. Surely Neville won't come back just to be a cruiserweight again.

Is Rich Swann coming back with his legal issues dropped? Wonder who they'll get for the final few spots.

They should do a sumo show called 502 Live.

Sin Cara? Maybe Drake Maverick himself?

I'd probably actually watch that :-\

Akira Tozawa is fucking awesome.

Tyler Bate looks like a "right wanker", but less so than when he only had the mustache.

Is Fabian Aichner still a cruiserweight?

Tyler Bate's theme is boss

Still looks like a midget rasslers, though

Funny thing about TJP being the CWC winner and 1st Cruiser champ was it only happened because the other guys in the Final 4 either didn't want to sign (Ibushi & Sabre) or needed time before they could work full time for the WWE (Metalik).

The Moustache Mountain team doesn't work as well when they de-emphasize their moustaches.

What about Mysterio? Add some star power to it.

Of course I was just thinking that.

Dude, TJP is nice in the ring.

I'd be down for that. Wouldn't even necessitate a full time schedule for him. He'd just need to come in for tourney matches and maybe the odd Raw here or there to keep people interested in the ongoing tourney.

I'd guess he'd put over someone in the finals at Mania since he can't be on the road all the time. Don't want him breaking down again.

Don't forget about Trevor "Ricochet" Mann.

Rico Shay bypassing NXT would be interesting.

Wonder what "class" he got put in. Apparently there are four levels.

Beginner: Robbie Brookside
Medium: Scotty Too Hotty
Advanced: Steve Corino
Finishing: Shawn Michaels and Terry Taylor

They've put plenty of indy dudes into the beginner class and had them work their way up. Feel like Ricochet will fly through quickly regardless.

:| TJP beat Tyler Bate.

Itami/Roderick Strong next week

Damn, good match.

There's nothing wrong with that. You should have known from the promo that TJP was gonna win.

Oh shit, Roddy. That match could be dope.

Match itself was good, just wasn't a fan of the end result. Might have been TJP's best match since the CWC Finals.

TJP had his pre-match promo but felt WWE missed a really good opportunity by not having Bate win.

Bate doesn't need the Cruiserweight title. He's got that whole UK thing going on.

...or whatever's happening with that. What's happening with that?

TJP winning makes sense unless they were going to have Bate full time 205 Live guy.

Or I guess they could have eliminated Bate in the second round and done a story with TJP where he snaps and becomes a badass submission machine because he won the last tournament he was in but lost in the first round in this one.

It's almost like an entire team of writers don't know what the fuck they're doing with a whole pool of talent and a midcard belt.

Yeah wouldn't have him win the tournament either but at least win his first match or two depending on how the bracket looks. A lot more beneficial to Bate and WWE's UK division than whatever the payoff to TJP's run will be considering he's arguably been a bust as a big star in the division.

Also legit thought Spudd/Maverick said a "60-man tournament" at first because the way he said the number 16.

TJP is a geek and putting over the geeks in the tournament is probably not the best idea. They need to press forward with people that actually have a hope. Hideo is still pretty fresh, Roddy is fresh, Tyler is fresh. They should be owning the only stages of this tournament. Pete Dunne is fresh within that cruiserweight context, he could be doing the same thing. If they wanted to get Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa, they could do that too -- they're probably the guys people care most about and are going to half-way follow. That's 6 of your 8 guys. Gulak seems to do well and Jack Gallagher has always worked to a certain degree, but if you want to push a former champ, give Tozawa a first round win.

That belt is so fucking dead it needs to be contested by people that the fans somewhat kind of haven't been conditioned to think of as geeks. I'd argue that Gulak might be too far gone. You can say that Dolph Ziggler has lost weight and is entering the tournament. Maybe Mark Andrews who hasn't been exposed? Let's go with Dolph, because why the fuck not?

* Johnny Gargano defeats Drew Gulak.

* Roderick Strong defeats Jack Gallager.

* Tommaso Ciampa beats Gran Metalik.

* Cedric Alexander beats Tony Nese.

* Pete Dunne beats Kalisto.

* Tyler Bate beats TJP.

* Hideo Itami beats Mustafa Ali.

* Dolph Ziggler beats Akira Tozawa.

Whatever, something like that. I haven't given it that much thought.

* Gargano beats Strong.

* Ciampa beats Alexander.

* Bate beats Dunne (UK Title not on the line).

* Ziggler beats Itami.

* Gargano beats Ciampa.

* Ziggler beats Bate.

* Gargano beats Ziggler and becomes the new Cruiserweight Champion.

Now book it where Renee Young wins the tournament and becomes the new cruiserweight champion.

Honestly, she's more believable than some of the guys.

About as much as that "selfie cam" backstage promo shit that was happening all over RAW. It was one thing as a advertisement of sorts for the Mixed Tag Challenge to put it over as a thing on the internet. As a personal touch to someone like Miz, it works. As a new thing they do for ERRYGODDAMNBODY, it looks cheap and forced and absolutely overdone.

This appears to be the Smackdown answer to that. Both ideas are kind of a lead balloon.

Oddly enough, as cringy as the "ROCKSTAR" thing was, it would have worked (albeit slightly) better as a vid snippet if they were still doing actual titantron vids for everyone instead of just throwing a name up on the big screen. Just doing it randomly makes as much sense as shitty CGI prison doors... oh, wait. :-\

Just spend that money on some damn pyro.

Until it is convenient. The idea that Kane and Undertaker are still "brothers" persisted even though the whole "brothers who aren't really brothers are stupid, stop saying that" era in WWE.

Pretty sure that at some point in future, Yoko will be "Japanese" again to serve some purpose in putting someone over. Like, perhaps, Shinsuke being the "first Japanese world champion in WWE since Yokozuna" or somesuch.

I just saw the Usos promo and Shinsuke entrance.

Holy shit that's awful... Did Kevin Dunn just find out what After Effects is?

Oh God. What did he do now?

Just found out that was Rory Gulak brother of Drew and a current Chikara wrestler.

http://www.prowrestlingdigest.com/wp...ulak-right.jpg

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Man, I feel bad for whoever has to fight the Bludgeon Brothers next on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SDLive?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SDLive</a>.</p>&mdash; Drew Gulak (@DrewGulak) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrewGulak/status/958516595684495360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Alright, I just looked up the Usos promo. What the fuck.

Somebody got sentimental about the fact Impact quit the Lockdown PPV

Just a few ideas about what I've read about and watched.
With the 205 tournament, as much as I was gutted to see Bate lose, it was probably the right call. Bate will be taken off TV long enough for it not to matter too much and TJP won by cheating. Plus with his wearing his British Strong Style pants I really think they should be used as a tag team in NXT.
I can see Dunne being another surprise entrant and getting towards the semis.

I'm hoping that we are not leading to a break up of friendship with Sami and Owens, Samis work has been strong as a heel and if they give a longer build up to the eventual split then it would play off much better.

Braun is just gold at the moment, he doesn't need the title to be as popular as he is as nice as that would be.

Better Watch out you bad boys!

Who is Bate?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I can’t even visualize how something like this could happen <a href="https://t.co/rH5nwtVpTK">pic.twitter.com/rH5nwtVpTK</a></p>&mdash; abrasive negro (@BestInTheGalaxy) <a href="https://twitter.com/BestInTheGalaxy/status/958526554023317505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
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So Ziggler quit a few weeks ago. He as the #30 entrant in the Rumble which prompted an uninterested "didn't he retire or something?" from Cole. Then he wasn't acknowledged or mentioned in any way on SmackDown.

I said it in the Rumble thread but I'm certain Ziggler's entire WWE career is a rib on him at this point.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Anything can happen in WWE... including <a href="https://twitter.com/BeckyLynchWWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BeckyLynchWWE</a> becoming corrupted by ska.<br><br>➡️ <a href="https://t.co/81bOkAzJNG">https://t.co/81bOkAzJNG</a> <a href="https://t.co/WlGb7C81Bj">pic.twitter.com/WlGb7C81Bj</a></p>&mdash; TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) <a href="https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/958537731189215232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/AlexaBliss_WWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AlexaBliss_WWE</a> with a little help from <a href="https://twitter.com/BraunStrowman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BraunStrowman</a>! <br><br>➡️ <a href="https://t.co/81bOkAzJNG">https://t.co/81bOkAzJNG</a> <a href="https://t.co/H8QIQKGtqp">pic.twitter.com/H8QIQKGtqp</a></p>&mdash; TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) <a href="https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/958540001767251971?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Seriously I can't get over this.

Dolph Ziggler threw a tantrum and stormed out, nobody gave a fuck, so he came back hoping for everyone to say "OH MY GOD, we missed you!", and nobody gave a fuck.

It's the most Dolph Ziggler thing ever, and if it's not intentional it's the greatest rib of all time.

Tyler Bate , he was the first WWE UK champion and had what many regard as the match of last year with Pete Dunne, myself included.
He was on 205 live last night fighting TJP in the new tournament.

What's this about Nakamura's entrance? I watched it and I didn't notice anything off (except for how they still won't let him time his role thingy to the music and it sucks)

Why do you keep saying Alexander v. Nese? That's not a first round match. I know this is a fantasy book, but you said it earlier too.

Nah, he bulked up.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">so how long has this been a thing <a href="https://t.co/QQdANpmS2S">pic.twitter.com/QQdANpmS2S</a></p>&mdash; Drake Maverick stan account (@repalec) <a href="https://twitter.com/repalec/status/958506485645897729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Oh... my... God...

I actually cringed.

Yeah, the ROCKSTAR shit was terrible and jarring

Didn't mind the words popping up during promos as much even if it was a bit weird

I watched the Usos promo when it was mentioned and it completely made them look stupid. THIS though...

It seriously is like Kevin Dunn just learned something that teenagers who make Youtube videos don't use for the sake of not making their video look too cheesy.

If someone took a video of Nakamura's entrance and edited that in as a joke to make fun of WWE's lack of self-awareness and subtlety it would actually be funny. They're basically becoming a parody of themselves.

I'm just glad he didn't discover this shit last week. Right in the middle of Austin's stunner of McMahon we would have seen "ANTI-AUTHORITY" scroll across the screen.

Now I don't know which part of the Usos promo #1 has seen. Was it the text as they spoke, or the hilarious cage closing everytime they say lockdown (2:00 in for an example).

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6nPTWsJXsY8" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Ok, I was watching that entrance and didn't see this happen. Saw that tweet earlier in the thread and thought it was one of those edits people do.

Yeah, pretty sure I watched the USO promo and didn’t see/hear the stuff with the cell door.

I saw the cell door stuff

The words on the pre-recorded selfie promos don't bother me much.

But the Nakamura words and the cell door stuff was just dumb. The "live action" stuff doesn't need words and graphics.

The words on the selfies did bother me.

I liked them on RAW because they were short and sweet, and felt "genuine". On Smackdown it was like "ok, someone took this and edited it to add graphics, this isn't just a dude on his phone sending a message"

Just had a cringeworthy thought: they're likely going ro use a full screen flash of "OUTTA NOWHERE" after every RKO now...

Is there such thing as “WWE canon” when they flagrantly retcon whatever they like, whenever they like? See “This is Jinder’s first appearance in a Royal Rumble”

We're so close to this happening.

Main event of WrestleMania. Lesnar grabs Reigns from behind. "SUPLEX CITY" flashing on the screen during each suplex.

The pop up graphics wouldn't be as bad if WWE just had some restraint on its usage.

Right now it just comes off like every new thing they've done in recent years where its suddenly the only thing they care about doing and want to spam it at every opportunity.

That's terrible.

Next The Uso's will be accompanied to the ring by someone doing sign language.

I actually only saw the cage closing. The text while they talked was... less ridiculous I guess.

Holy shit. When I heard people saying "pop-up graphics," I thought they meant stuff on the tron or down the bottom of the screen, like a beach ball and a message to say "Watch the Juniors on the WWE Network" or something. I didn't actually think...oh god. Oh my fucking god.

Hahahahahaha! The black blocks behind the text! It just repeating what they say. The cage. Holy fuck. That's legitimately embarrassing.

Usos a lot better at talking than they used to be. Allowed to have genuine charisma as babyfaces too. Of course Kevin Dunn has to try and ruin it. God, his time has to be coming, surely?

lol It's all seriously like an SNL parody of a wrestling show.

There's no justification for someone thinking that was a good idea.

Do you think the firing of Jim Johnston made him nervous? Like, "fuck, I need to prove my worth around here," so we're the seeing the last flailing of a man who never really deserved the position in the first place?

I thought I was having a stroke when I saw it

Don't worry they'll be forced to stop once some parent complains that it gave their child seizures

"Fuck. I need to step my game up." *Googles "windows movie maker torrent"*

The legacy of Kevin Dunn is going to be really interesting. Everybody hates him, by the sound of it. But generally, WWE has always been a fairly tightly run ship. It's just lately that their logos, their direction, their graphics and all that has gotten really...amateur. Not even amateur really. Bad. No one would advise using a camera like the WWE does now. No one would recommend those graphics. No one would say that the entrances now are better than the ones of yesterday (in terms of lighting, entrance videos and how it all ties together).

I'm not sure how much of it Dunn is responsible for, but it's got to be noticed by people who matter. Apparently Triple H and Stephanie have always wanted to get rid of him. Vince has to see it. This has got to be a death rattle.

The interesting thing about Dunn is he has legit no reason at all to improve as long as Vince is there and he maintains a huge ownership of WWE stocks. Even if Vince leaves any time soon, he helped bring back Shane to the WWE solely to put a wedge in Triple H's plans to get rid of him.

Yeah, but Vince has to have loved Jim Johnston too. And a lot of other executives that he's just scrapped. It's "time," you know?

When I named this thread, I didn't know it would be this egregious. I thought maybe a new palette at most.

I kind of love these new graphics and cell phone promos to be honest and that RKO out of nowhere would be the greatest thing ever. I guess because it's fresh and different, I enjoy it. I always loved when guys cut a promo right before their match or tv segment. It's got that old school vibe with a new school touch. i'm cool with it

The RKO thing would seem very Marvel vs Capcom-y

I'm more than OK with the cell phone promos, but the graphics are really a bit much.

Also, why is no one talking about this Top Ten thing?

If Randy Orton walked out and took 20 minutes taking a shit in the middle of the ring, no words, only the sounds of straining until he's done, it would be fresh and different. And just as bad.

As I said before, I was a fan of the cell phone promos on RAW, but adding graphics to them on Smackdown ruined their "genuine quality".

Also Daniel Bryan's top ten thing shouldn't have been one of them. Feel like announcements from the GM should have a staged and produced feel to them. So like the normal backstage promos.

As for the top ten.... I dunno. Will have to wait and see how it turns out. I remember TNA did a fan vote rankings or something and then got rid of it after one week because they didn't like the results or something.

The TNA rankings were based on results. Then they realised it was too much to keep track of and scrapped it.

Fan vote also happened and Desmond Wolfe kept getting #1, so they jobbed him to Abyss.

NXT announcer Desmond Wolf?!

Yeah, I remember now. Had an ongoing feud with Kurt Angle purely because of that and then TNA suddenly realised they were popular in the UK.

This isn't fan vote. It's Superstar vote. They just can't vote for themselves. It's all kayfabe, so at least they're not trying to act like our opinion matters.

This sounds even worse and no doubt they'll flash the numbers up in silly ways. Pass.