Reminds me of the Invasion angle. Could've sworn Foley had a promo about unifying everything after Survivor Series of that year. Basically saying if you don't have a belt there's obviously something wrong with you lol. Just seems to be the business in general these days what with there being trios and ten man tag belts.

Jan 28, 2024 18:23:08 GMT UT said:

Watching last night it felt like everyone had some sort of belt. And is there two tag belts for each gender?

One set, at least for the women anyway. They unified the female tag titles, back in June of last year. Admittedly that kind of sucks, cause what's the point in investing in any pairings down there, when they have no goals/desires to be champion/etc..

Edit: Like Kiana James (who I like), well from a kayfabe perspective her goal is making as much money as possible. So with that in mind, why waste time in a tag team division with Izzi Dame? Keep her around as muscle sure, but why waste time in tag team matches without titles to challenge for, when she should be going after Lyra, cause again in kayfabe being the champion makes you the most money.

I do think the WWE women's tag titles should occasionally be defended on NXT as well if they aren't gonna have its own tag team titles on the brand. I think one time since June of last year, the WWE women's tag titles were actually defended on NXT (during Halloween Havoc).

I’m guessing they didn’t want to take the Undisputed moniker off Roman mid-reign and that it’ll get dropped once (if?) Cody wins. I completely agree it’s dumb though.

Jan 28, 2024 19:07:07 GMT Todd said:

I’m guessing they didn’t want to take the Undisputed moniker off Roman mid-reign and that it’ll get dropped once (if?) Cody wins. I completely agree it’s dumb though.

That’s how I always felt about it.

You figure they're gonna keep the charade up with 3 world titles?

Tell you who I was pleasantly impressed by with their rumble performance..

Jimmy Uso.

Jan 28, 2024 14:48:55 GMT Lony said:

I enjoyed the women's rumble match, especially with Chelsea Green going all Weekend at Bernie's. It was great seeing Jade Cargill in the match, I enjoyed her in AEW, and I'm excited to see what she brings to the table in WWE. It is the same with seeing Liv back, although underwhelming to see her single-handedly eliminate Cargill by herself, still though, it's great to have her back.

I was dying! Green plays the Karen character so well.

Jan 28, 2024 4:20:20 GMT @ness said:

Rumble party threads are like the show itself. Usual suspects and a few surprise appearances.

Foos your annual watch is demanded

I watched today! Unfortunately it was spoiled for me by who won. I think a Bleeding Cool tweet. I usually remember which accounts to mute. Oh well!

I enjoyed seeing all the new wrestlers again this year and trying to remember ones that I saw for the first time last year when they showed up again. Ivar the Viking was pretty fun! Same with the other big guy who had the same body shape as Otis. Omos is large but I'm guessing really really sucks at every thing. There was that other guy that got pops who looked like his outfit was for the 90s? Already forgotten his name. Bron something.

Why was Kofi Kingston in the rumble and not do a spot? That's literally all I know about him. Disappointing. Ricochet looks like he could be fun in real matches. I also really liked what Carmelo what's his name did in his short time.

Looking forward to the Rumble 2025 match!

Question for the group.

There is a twitter post going around that is being shared on wreddit now about the production affecting the excitement of the Rumble matches. The gist was that with all the generic theme music and poor camera work, nobody knew who was coming out half the time and it affected the crowd reaction, thus taking away from the excitement of the match.

As someone that doesn’t watch often I did not expect to recognize many themes so I expected to feel that way watching, but I am curious if people who watch regularly felt the same. Did it affect your viewing pleasure? Did you notice that you couldn’t tell who was coming in based on entrance music alone?

Women's Royal Rumble was up and down, but an overall thumbs up. Started terribly with some laughable straight outta wrestling school wrestling. Then it picked up for a while once Jordynne Grace came in. Then it got boring again as the ring filled with jobbers. Then Queen Nia Jax made it interesting again by doing Andre The Giant. It was good from Nia on.

I thought this was a well booked Rumble even if the wrestling was only so-so or worse at times. Last year I theorized a "good Rumble" just means checking off a checklist of tropes. This one did well on that front. We got surprise appearances, some clever elimination teases, a story with Bayley and her stablemates, a dominant monster heel, and best of all they built to big confrontations in Jordynne vs. Other Strong Girl, Nia/Piper, Nia/Jade, Jade/Bianca. I kinda wanna see all those matches now and I only watch this promotion like 2-3 times a year. So that's good booking. Bayley winning was whatever.

Men's Royal Rumble- Before one of you kids comes in with "Baker is just a grumpy old fart!" I want to remind you I put last year's Rumble over real hard. This one is thumbs in the middle at best.

I admittedly missed the first few minutes, but didn't think it really got going until the Final Four. Up to then the only memorable (in a good way) stuff was Dirty Dom being his usual awesome self and Bron Breaker's nice little run. Oh, and Truth's comedy spot was mildly musing. Starting to think Pat Mac was a one hit wonder. Thought he was great the first time I saw him a few Wrestlemanias ago. Since then he's suffered from the law of diminishing returns. Omos wasn't as good as Nia in the Andre role. I can never keep my Usos straight. Which one turned good guy and which one remained a baddie? I'm sure other stuff must have happened before the Final Four, but none of it stuck with me.

Final 4 was good though! I thought Drew looked really good in particular. Gunther & Drew are the tag team I never knew I wanted. Who could believably beat them? Finishing stretch with Punk/Cody was fine, maybe even good, but not half as good as last year's classic confrontation between Cody/Gunther. Punk was moving so slowly I wasn't sure whether he was hurt for real, selling like a champ, or just gassed. I'm still not sure  :lol: Knew he was losing once he dropped the "Dusty's kid" line. And I was cool with that because, duh, it's CM Punk. WWE booking him as the Buffalo Bills of wrestling would be amazing. I don't think they have it in them though. Maybe this was just a test to see if he'd play ball? Is it just me or was the crowd real lackluster for what they clearly wanted to be an EPIC finishing stretch? Cody winning again doesn't not my socks off, but at least it's better than Punk winning. Only question now is will he finally win at 'Mania or will he get Lugered again?

Other Matches I only saw bits and pieces of. Roman Reigns is the Kansas City Chiefs of wrestling. Anybody else, please. Just my luck they'll hold me to my word and run Reigns/Punk at 'Mania lol. Sucks they still haven't pulled the trigger on LA Knight when he's been over like rover for so long. Oh well. I'll still be back for 'Mania...probably.

Jan 29, 2024 16:59:12 GMT RT said:

Question for the group.

There is a twitter post going around that is being shared on wreddit now about the production affecting the excitement of the Rumble matches. The gist was that with all the generic theme music and poor camera work, nobody knew who was coming out half the time and it affected the crowd reaction, thus taking away from the excitement of the match.

As someone that doesn’t watch often I did not expect to recognize many themes so I expected to feel that way watching, but I am curious if people who watch regularly felt the same. Did it affect your viewing pleasure? Did you notice that you couldn’t tell who was coming in based on entrance music alone?

Yes, this has been a problem ever since CFO left. The music is so generic I never know who's coming out, even on Raw, until you see them.  Real problem and seems so simple to fix.

I wish I understood Baker's sports references. What's a Buffalo Bill? The only thing I know about the Kansas City Chiefs is that they are not in Kansas.

Jake FYI I moved your CM Punk injury post to the CM Punk thread.

Jan 29, 2024 19:35:48 GMT Emperor said:

I wish I understood Baker 's sports references. What's a Buffalo Bill? The only thing I know about the Kansas City Chiefs is that they are not in Kansas.

Don't feel too bad. KING KID just stumped me with a newfangled American Football term, the Octopus, and I've been watching the NFL for a majority of the past 37 years.

Buffalo Bills are a football team famous for losing big games. They lost a record four straight Super Bowls in the early 90s. Now they lose heartbreaking playoff games. 

The KC Chiefs always win. They’re basically the modern day NFL version of the old “lol Cena wins” meme. It’s boring. Just like Roman Reigns.

Kansas City, Missouri being more famous than Kansas City, Kansas is another weird American oddity. The New York Jets & New York Giants play in New Jersey. The Washington Redskins Commanders play in my home state of Maryland. And some of the other teams play outside the city they're named after. Like the aforementioned Bills play in Orchard Park, NY rather than Buffalo. 

In closing I shall try to cut down on the sports references and incorporate more metal references to please you.

Jan 29, 2024 18:31:54 GMT Baker said:

 Punk was moving so slowly I wasn't sure whether he was hurt for real, selling like a champ, or just gassed. I'm still not sure

We now have the answer- injury it is.

Wouldn’t surprise me if something is done about def rebel. Prior to news of Punk’s injury, this was the hot wrestling topic of the day on Twitter, and HHH will have been plugged in. A recognisable theme is hugely important. LA Knight is one of the few guys coming through in the last few years with a recognisable start to his theme, and I think it’s really helped him.

I figured the theme music thing was mostly down to myself not really watching full shows in a while and only catching specific segments/matches of my favourites.

def rebel are definitely having a lot more ‘misses’ than CFO though, and it feels like a lot of their good ones were their earlier ones.

The music man is by far the worst I've heard. TNA themes sound like gold to def rebel.

Only watched this show last Saturday (avoided all spoilers) and I was a little underwhelmed. Maybe my expectations were too high. The Rumble matches were fine, but there was a real lack of surprise entrants. Those that were surprises were cool and/or long-rumoured (Jordyanne Grace, Naomi) but I also felt like they only really appealed to those that watch all products, especially one like Jordyannne Grace.

I preferred the women's Rumble, I thought the ending was very well done, I enjoyed some of the spots (Tiffany Stratton pulling Bianca's hair) and thought Tiffany and Roxanne did well in their time in there. The shot at the end of the losing wrestlers watching outside the ring was great. Men's Rumble was fine but lacked star power, so many underwhelming entrants.