WWE TV, Rumours and Discussion (On Netflix)

[Nicho50]

It’s the small things they do now that keep it interesting.

The Rock stuff today especially with Cody was somewhat perplexing but I get the view of the debut the Rocks the biggest star ever in wrestling and I don’t think anyone will ever get that big ever again. The place was always going to go nuts for him and everything he did today was “face”

He was still dressed in the final boss outfit and held that stupid title with him. It did leave the tease of will he do it to Roman… I think they’ve well and truly managed to keep the Netflix debut people happy but also leave that seed of it could happen. Still plenty of time he could cost Roman the rumble etc. maybe the rumours of no WM are true this year and they’ve pivoted once again.

Personally I’m not really fussed about Rock wrestling again, I do enjoy the character in relation to Roman and the family but I’d happy not see him wrestle again. I’d rather watch Punk or Rollins v Roman at Mania than Rock.

I’ve never been a Cena fan but I respect what he’s done and unlike some before his time like Hogan he’s more than happy to get people over as much as he can. If he wins a 17th I’m sure the end result will be worth it for someone at the end whether that’s Cody, Drew, KO , or one of “newer” gen Priest, Gunther or Bron Breaker.

 

[Cyber_punk]

Looked like Hogan knew it was coming. He didn't flinch or slow down. Did what he was supposed to do, threw out the "watcha gonna do" to wind it up, and left.

Politics aside, I think it's fantastic to roll out the all-time greats on these milestone shows.
Though they could've used them less on the mic in the arena, and more in segments backstage.

Loved the presentation. Aced it. They took an already quality product and elevated it more.

He looked a bit rattled at first before he started his promo.

I get it, he was the face of wrestling for people but his gimmick has aged about as well as the three stooges. Just so boring.

Also unless there's a big swerve I'm a bit flat that this final boss heel version of Rock seems to be over and he is back to being a face. He's so much better as a heel it's not funny. If he hasn't come after Cody or Roman by the rumble he isn't doing mania.

 

[Cleavy]

Liv doing the frog splat wasn't half bad.

it was more of a splat (frog motion vertical) than splash (frog motion horizontal)

 

[Cleavy]

Paul Levesque comments on SmackDown going back to two hours

WWE's Paul Levesque recently said that Smackdown a three-hour will switch back to two hours sometime down the line.

www.postwrestling.com

SD going back to 2 hours for a time?

 

[nobbyiscool]

He looked a bit rattled at first before he started his promo.

I think that's part of what made me so happy, was the consequences of his own ignorance and stupidity hitting him straight upside the face. Bit harder when it's not just stupid screaming MAGA morons. I want to see the backstage footage, cos I imagine his reaction was just one of shell-shock, and a sudden realisation that he's not for this crowd any more.

Which is the other part of what makes me so happy - he isn't for us any more. Maybe wrestling deserved it's reputation as being a lowbreed hick sport in the past, but it is absolutely not my experience of attending heaps of wrestling, or of discussing wrestling online.

At some point - I think maybe TNAs Knockouts had a bit to do with it, I think 'Give Divas a Chance' (and Evolution PPV) had a bit to do with it, I think Speaking Out had a bit to do with it, I think people like Effy and Anthony Bowens and Sonya Deville and a bunch of others have had a bit to do with it - at some point as recently as the last 15 years or so, wrestling audiences became pretty damn progressive. And I never thought it was wrestling companies causing fans to become more progressive, it was always the other way around, wrestling companies have always been guided by the values of its audiences.

And so is the case with Hogan - despite his increasing outspokenness, it wasn't him that moved away from wrestling fans, it was us as smarter, more progressive fans, who believe in opportunities for women and minorities in wrestling, moving away from his dinosaur bullshit.

The fact that the biggest company in the world, with the biggest audience in the world, was so roundly prepared to tell it's greatest ever star that he could get ****ed and they didn't want to hear from him any more gives me some hope despite the result of their election.

 

[Cleavy]

oh, that's interesting!

 

[Cleavy]

That beer ain't gonna sell
Booed out of the building

did you see the press release? WWE is a minority owner.

the beer doesn't sell, just like Hogan not sure which is worse: Hogan beer or Flair energy drink

 

[ptrg]

Personally despised the majority of RAW.
The actual wrestling seemed like a hindrance to the rest of the show.

I get it was a "special" show, but it went too far in celebrity-ism at the detriment of why the average fan watches - wrestling.

The crowd was pretty for the three main matches, with the main event being an absolute waste. Punks face when they were squaring up said "wtf".

There's something off when the biggest cheer of the night goes to an elitist rapper smoking a blunt, and the biggest boo goes to a MAGA washed up wrestler.

Also don't think a lot of the choices worked, from the grey ref gear, to the black mat covered in logos, everything just seemed changed "because".
"Let's make everything futuristic and noir" type affair. (I thought I was watching Shane's death pit or whatever that underground wrestling thing was for a while there)

And the thing that struck me the most was the vibe that Hunter and everyone else behind the scenes had spent so much time promoting the show in the lead up, that they forgot to work out how it would actually run.

So many tech issues and dead air, so many barebones statements and, I'd argue, even matches. Spam finishers all round to hide the fact nothing was worked out in advance!

Borrowed a friend's Netflix to watch it, no chance I'll be paying $19 a month for it.

Such a shame, but like many others, I could justify it since I was buying Kayo for cricket, AFL and F1 - but no way am I paying another $19 a month just for WWE.

 

[mumblingpie]

Had a bit of a sucking up to everyone feel to it, just seemed a little desperate, but I get it they are trying to make a big impression so they get the big cash bonuses which is what they are really more emotional about

 

[ptrg]

Only the USA/LA would cheer so hard for the big announcement that they are the "biggest ever gate" in RAW history..

 

[eddiesmith]

Saw Roman and The Rock shake hands and the crowd went mild...

 

[Ivelisse]

Only the USA/LA would cheer so hard for the big announcement that they are the "biggest ever gate" in RAW history..

Suppose crowd that goes to a WWE show at 5pm on a workday are likely to be enthusiastic

 

[Cleavy]

Only the USA/LA would cheer so hard for the big announcement that they are the "biggest ever gate" in RAW history..

nah, all crowds would do that. same when they announce an (over-inflated) attendance record.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

TBH I feel each match was 10-15 minutes too short which occurred cos of all the celebrity ass slapping .

 

[nobbyiscool]

Now that I have netflix...

Am I going to feel shitty about watching the Mr McMahon doco?

 

[Sippa]

I was just waiting for rock to hit him with the rock bottom , steal the ula gala and walk off

Why did anyone , including HHH, think it was a good idea to send hogan out

Punks been amazing since returning like hasn’t done a thing wrong , except get injured . And when he came back his stock was at a low . But it’s just ironic he was so disgruntled at wwe for losing to part timers in hhh, brock and taker and he’s done the same to drew and Seth now

 

[nobbyiscool]

Why did anyone , including HHH, think it was a good idea to send hogan out

What if...

Hunter knew all along.

He's become such a mark for himself. He's on all the videos. He made sure he was the first face on tv during the Netflix era. He was the voice on the Netflix promotion. And for some unknown reason, people don't see through it, and they still cheer ape shit for him.

COOHHH is the top babyface he wishes he could've been as a wrestler, but his character never leant itself to.

Now he's taking down legends to elevate babyface COOHHH in the pantheon of WWE Legends who get to stand in front of the crowd for big moments and soak in the adulation.

He knew people would boo Hogan out of the building, and COOHHH progresses another notch, like a tyrant picking off his older brothers in the royal throne ascendancy.

 

[ULTIMATE_WARRIOR]

I guess it’s one of two things regarding Rock.

He’s either totally out of WrestleMania as rumoured, and they’ve dropped the Cody heat and story (we may never know what significant item he handed Cody back in April).

Or they were catering to new and/or lapsed fans who only really know The Rock as a babyface. As such, they presented him as that via his promo and interactions with Cody/Reigns. And they’re cooking a swerve or something else up which will happen over the next month or two.

 

[James Colorado]

Now that I have netflix...

Am I going to feel shitty about watching the Mr McMahon doco?

I doubt it; it's not a bad doco by any means, but won't really tell you much you don't already know, except where an episode covers a period where you weren't actively watching (I'm only getting back into it these last few months, so the informative episodes for me were the early ones covering his rise to the top and making the WWWF/WWF a nationwide then global promotion, and the later ones covering the last few years; those covering the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression eras didn't tell me much I didn't already know). Vince himself does come across as someone with a certain lack of self-awareness and an inability to separate actual reality from manufactured reality (his family life really seems to suffer from it), and there are aspects of his early life which were very sad, but due to his lack of participation after the Janel Grant allegations came out there isn't too much depth added to the last couple of years.

 

[James Colorado]

Haven't watched the Raw, but I checked out the Hogan promo on YT after hearing about it; I watched WM3 last night as I'd never seen Savage-Steamboat and wanted to see a classic, and also had never seen Hogan-Andre and while I knew the match quality was hardly going to be HBK-Taker, I wanted to see the moment. The difference in the receptions Hogan received on these occasions is massive.

 

[DorothyG]

If you had have told young junior Dorothy in the early 90s that, one day 35 years in the future, weekly episodic wrestling would be this easy to access for anyone interested the world, I don't think I would have believed it.

It was hard work back then trying to watch wrestling here in Aus, I blame my cousins for getting me hooked. Everytime we visited, they would have the latest VHS rented from the video shop and we would watch it all together. Bulldog defeating Brett Hart in London in 92, SummerSlam 93 Lex v Yokozona, Stone Cold winning the 96 KotR, countless Wrestlmainas and In Your Houses.

My bro and I didn't tell any of our friends that we adored pro wrestling. It was a thing between us and our cousins. It wasn't cool back then to like wrestling. We would have been teased by our school friends if they found out.

We missed the best of the Monday Night Wars, it was just so hard to source here. We kept up with going to the local video store once a month to see what the latest WWF release was. It was usually months old by this point, but we didn't care.

It got easier when my folks got Foxtel in the 2000's, I could get my hit of raw and smackdown from them. This was around the Ruthless Aggression era. Prime jorts Cena, Eddie, Lesnar, Batista, Randy. The Undertakers streak started gaining traction. My parents said they hated wrestling, but I think they secretly enjoyed watching along. I got really big into storylines and all around this time. This was peak WWE for me.

It was however, still pretty uncool and my dirty secret not many people knew about. My interest died a little when I moved out and lost the access to Foxtel. Plus girls don't think much of wrestling.

2010s YouTube and Dailymontion hooked me back in. Plus the internet made it so easy to keep up with storylines and the main guys. But this was a bad time for the WWE product. State it was. But I didn't care cause I could find an old classic on the internet somewhere. I dabbled with the network for a while, but I could justify it at the time, I didn't really care for the current crop and was mainly using it for the vault. Plus, the Foxtel deal meant they couldn't show current Raw and Smackdowns till weeks later.

Buy now. It's back in my home weekly. And no additional cost to me (Netflix and apple are our own subs). It's still my beloved wrestling, but it feels different. Fresh. Confident. And it's cool. I tell everyone who will listen now that I love pro wrestling. I'll talk WWE history for hours.

They have had what 1500+ episode of Raw? If they want to throw in a vanity episode every now and then for special occasions, slap themselves on the back and show off just the how big of a cultural phenomenon they have become. All the power to them.

I love pro wrestling. Bring on 2025

 

[RossFC]

 

[BEEG]

I guess it’s one of two things regarding Rock.

He’s either totally out of WrestleMania as rumoured, and they’ve dropped the Cody heat and story (we may never know what significant item he handed Cody back in April).

Or they were catering to new and/or lapsed fans who only really know The Rock as a babyface. As such, they presented him as that via his promo and interactions with Cody/Reigns. And they’re cooking a swerve or something else up which will happen over the next month or two.

Reports are saying he is out of Wrestlemania.

Reigns to beat Gunther at RR and Punk to come in at 30 and win it with help of Heyman.

Cena to win EC and fight Rhodes.

 

[Nicho50]

Still think they were just catering to the world wide fan base with the way the Rock played out. Whilst he was never referred to as the final boss he was still wearing the same outfit and had that people’s championship with him. The tease is still there which is the beauty of wrestling.

Find it funny how people use the word buried, people are claiming that’s what they did to Seth

The guy has just been in the main event of the biggest hyped Raw in forever and took multiple finishes to put him down. He’s still going to be a top player not buried at all…

 

[ULTIMATE_WARRIOR]

If you had have told young junior Dorothy in the early 90s that, one day 35 years in the future, weekly episodic wrestling would be this easy to access for anyone interested the world, I don't think I would have believed it.

It was hard work back then trying to watch wrestling here in Aus, I blame my cousins for getting me hooked. Everytime we visited, they would have the latest VHS rented from the video shop and we would watch it all together. Bulldog defeating Brett Hart in London in 92, SummerSlam 93 Lex v Yokozona, Stone Cold winning the 96 KotR, countless Wrestlmainas and In Your Houses.

My bro and I didn't tell any of our friends that we adored pro wrestling. It was a thing between us and our cousins. It wasn't cool back then to like wrestling. We would have been teased by our school friends if they found out.

We missed the best of the Monday Night Wars, it was just so hard to source here. We kept up with going to the local video store once a month to see what the latest WWF release was. It was usually months old by this point, but we didn't care.

It got easier when my folks got Foxtel in the 2000's, I could get my hit of raw and smackdown from them. This was around the Ruthless Aggression era. Prime jorts Cena, Eddie, Lesnar, Batista, Randy. The Undertakers streak started gaining traction. My parents said they hated wrestling, but I think they secretly enjoyed watching along. I got really big into storylines and all around this time. This was peak WWE for me.

It was however, still pretty uncool and my dirty secret not many people knew about. My interest died a little when I moved out and lost the access to Foxtel. Plus girls don't think much of wrestling.

2010s YouTube and Dailymontion hooked me back in. Plus the internet made it so easy to keep up with storylines and the main guys. But this was a bad time for the WWE product. State it was. But I didn't care cause I could find an old classic on the internet somewhere. I dabbled with the network for a while, but I could justify it at the time, I didn't really care for the current crop and was mainly using it for the vault. Plus, the Foxtel deal meant they couldn't show current Raw and Smackdowns till weeks later.

Buy now. It's back in my home weekly. And no additional cost to me (Netflix and apple are our own subs). It's still my beloved wrestling, but it feels different. Fresh. Confident. And it's cool. I tell everyone who will listen now that I love pro wrestling. I'll talk WWE history for hours.

They have had what 1500+ episode of Raw? If they want to throw in a vanity episode every now and then for special occasions, slap themselves on the back and show off just the how big of a cultural phenomenon they have become. All the power to them.

I love pro wrestling. Bring on 2025

Great post Dorothy.

I felt the same growing up, having wrestling as my secret obsession. I do remember a time in primary school where all the kids were into the Wolfpac and the nWo, but getting older and moving into high school it became much more of a secret indulgence. God forbid the embarrassment if a girl found out you were a fan, and an obsessive one like me….

These days it’s much different. Couldn’t care less and happy to let anyone willing to hear that I love wrestling. Funny thing is finding out just how many other people all watch it too. And the ones who still snicker and laugh all seem to know exactly what’s going on at any given time in a wrestling story somehow! You won’t see me walking down the street in a wrestling tee, but it’s good to be able to talk about our fandom these days without all judging eyes.

My missus still hates it though and reckons I talk like a wrestling promo half the time .

It’s definitely a phenomenon and the WWE getting so hot again has made it so enjoyable.