Sports Entertainment

Hosix said:

So The Bar doing vanilla ice was very funny. Guys in the ring were laughing.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the segment last year with the New Day vs The Usos was good, glad they actually reprised a segment that worked for a change.

Bryan vs Mustafa Ali was a cool way to open the show. Charlotte vs Asuka was ok, but between it and the opener, they're really showing why Smackdown is still leagues ahead of RAW. All 3 singles titles on the show and in action, 3 top tag teams in a segment the crowd was behind, Miz and Shane doing whatever that's clearly building for 2019. Smackdown is an hour shorter, yet feels like way more gets done every week than RAW.

I'm excited for TLC on sunday, basically on the back of Smackdown. AJ vs Bryan should be good again, and I hope the women's championship TLC match closes ths show. I think the winner of that one is going to determine where we are going as we head towards wrestlemania. Charlotte wins, I think we are getting the rumored Becky vs Rhonda mania match, hopefully the show closer unless some men's feud catches on in the next 90 days or so (looks real doubtful at this point). If Asuka wins, I think that match becomes a triple threat.

Becky is the best thing going in the WWE right now, and by extension, the whole SD women's division. Raw is just a fucking mess, Seth and Rhonda can only carry that show so much. The whole show needs to reexamine how it's using the talent there.

Angerz said:

Yeah, the segment last year with the New Day vs The Usos was good, glad they actually reprised a segment that worked for a change.

Bryan vs Mustafa Ali was a cool way to open the show. Charlotte vs Asuka was ok, but between it and the opener, they're really showing why Smackdown is still leagues ahead of RAW. All 3 singles titles on the show and in action, 3 top tag teams in a segment the crowd was behind, Miz and Shane doing whatever that's clearly building for 2019. Smackdown is an hour shorter, yet feels like way more gets done every week than RAW.

I'm excited for TLC on sunday, basically on the back of Smackdown. AJ vs Bryan should be good again, and I hope the women's championship TLC match closes ths show. I think the winner of that one is going to determine where we are going as we head towards wrestlemania. Charlotte wins, I think we are getting the rumored Becky vs Rhonda mania match, hopefully the show closer unless some men's feud catches on in the next 90 days or so (looks real doubtful at this point). If Asuka wins, I think that match becomes a triple threat.

Becky is the best thing going in the WWE right now, and by extension, the whole SD women's division. Raw is just a fucking mess, Seth and Rhonda can only carry that show so much. The whole show needs to reexamine how it's using the talent there.

Click to expand...

Totally agree. I've been watching every week since Wrestlemania and I think the midcard sums it up.

Smackdown midcard has established guys like Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio and The Miz who have had multiple title runs before and could step up and fight the champion in the main event at any time - they have the charisma and can't be hurt too much by losing because in the past they were proven winners. I think Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura are like this too but were established outside of WWE, but these two with AJ Styles (also from outside WWE) had the most main event buildup. So over the year Smackdown has increased the number of credible guys on the roster.

Raw midcard has guys like Finn Balor, Brawn Strowman, Drew McIntyre, Baron Corbin, Bobby Roode and Bobby Lashley who haven't had their first proper title runs yet - their characters are not fully refined yet so losing makes them look weak. I initially thought that Finn Balor was amazing but they haven't done anything with him, he's come the closest to beating Braun Strowman but really he should be able to David vs Goliath him to make things less predictable. Brock Lesnar is on a whole other level apparently and beats everyone, so over the year Raw has just buried one guy after another to feed Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns.

Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler have been carrying Raw all year for the men. I want to see them on Smackdown.

The tag division is the same thing, both brands had their champions get injured and Smackdown had three established teams to step up while Raw only had glorified jobbers so they had to get singles wrestlers in.

Raw Women's divison isn't too bad actually if they get rid of boring Natalya, weakest part of Smackdown was the Women but obviously that's gone nuclear now to the point it needs to main event TLC. Smackdown women was bad because of Carmella and they have even made her look amazing now.

I think the Raw Tag Team championship is the saddest title this year. Lets look at the list :

Braun Stroman beat The Bar by himself, then forfeited the titles the next night
Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt won at the first Saudi show
They lost to the B-Team
Drew and Dolph win
Seth and Dean win, then Dean turns on Seth
AOP win 2 on 1 against Seth to win the titles
Drake Maverick pisses himself
Roode and Gable win the titles by pinning Drake Maverick, who is not one of the tag team champions.

PatrickStar said:

Long term booking, boys! Just so happens the best part of WWE is the womens division. Becky wins Rumble to challenge Rousey. Charlotte vs Asuka 2.0 at WM. Rest of the women will be slotted for the tag titles.

Click to expand...

TLC was really good except for the boring and misplaced Intercontinental Title match. Even Natalya vs Ruby Riott was fine, seems like putting three people through tables can make up for months of shitty repeat matches. I think the Braun Strowman match was a missed opportunity, it was OK but I feel like it should have started off with Kurt Angle taking Braun's place for a somewhat regular match then interference at the end (like they just did on Raw)... or have Bray Wyatt show up?

The Triple Threat was the best wrestling match I've ever seen, I'm so happy for Asuka and I can't wait to see what Becky and Charlotte do next. I don't know how they did those moves through the tables and ladder, seemed more real with women doing it. AJ vs Bryan was great too.

EDIT: Raw had a long promo with who is coming to the main roster (Lars Sullivan, EC3, Nikki Cross, Heavy Machinery), who is coming back soon (Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens) and had matches designed to get more wrestlers out there (Intercontinental Open Challenge vs Tyler Breeze, Tag #1 Contender Fatal 4 Way, Women's #1 Contender Gauntlet Match). They got rid of GM Corbin and the ex-champion rematch rule which meant they didn't immediately announce Rollins vs Ambrose and Roode/Gable vs AoP rematches like they usually would have.

No TV deal yet, but they do have offers. I'm interested to see what channel they end up on.

The Young Bucks And Cody Officially Announced All Elite Wrestling

Will be interesting what will happen with Kenny Omega, isn't his contract with NJPW up this month and he is going into a big title match? He seems to be invested in Japan in a way that the others aren't, such as being a fluent speaker.

If NJPW allow their wrestlers to work with AEW then I think they have a really good shot, if they don't then they are going to be in trouble.

RIP

Yeah this sucks. I can just hear old school Hulk saying... "You know somethin' Mean Gene?"

Seriously...He had as much to do with the success of the WWF as some of these super stars. Hulk Hogan saying "You know something Mean Gene!..." is fuckin iconic. Dude was great for wrestling.

He was the best