Live WWE TV Discussion Thread

[Oliver]

I'm officially at the point of skipping over Liv Morgan matches.

Seconded. I have no interest in watching her. I don't understand where her groundswell of support has come from, in all honesty - is it just a longevity thing (I don't think I'd realised how long she'd been on the main roster for at this stage)?

[Team Farrell]

I was in a hotel on Friday night, and caught her match with Doudrop on Main Event. It wasn't awful, but was definitely not a "top star" performance.

I think that her support comes from being an underdog with a scrappy backstory who is really "passionate". It's the modern Twitter fan.

Some of it is probably the fact that women's wrestling is graded on a HARD curve these days, so she's considered by many to be better than she is, and then there's the Male Fans of Women's Wrestling™ who gobble up everything women's wrestling (because they secretly wish these women would sleep with them). That's really it. I know people in the business whose favourite wrestler is Bryan Danielson that are obsessed with Liv. It boggles my mind.

[PEN15v2]

NXT on their best streak since becoming 2.0. They've eased off on Lash Legend, slowed down the amount of fresh talent so that they can elevate the ones they've been developing,

I saw Mandy Rose perform in NXT before she went to the main roster, maybe 2017-2018. She was really solid then, and I think people forget that she's an athlete first. I get it, she's a model and that's her gimmick, but she can actually wrestle. She's certainly better than Liv Morgan. She pulls the gimmick off well, the stable is going well, and she carries the championship like a terrific cheap heel. This likely won't last, and once she drops the title she'll be back on Monday or Friday, possibly with Gigi and Jacy. But she's added personality to the NXT women's division.

Dolph, after AJ and Riddle, showing up in NXT from the main roster. I'm liking it, and so far these little angles have helped those involved. It would be nice if this could happen more often, maybe for longer periods of time.

NXT is exciting again. It's not at the level it once was, and the in ring product is lower, but with a match or two every week that delivers 3*+, and more character work from top to bottom, and the stand out rookies getting nice exposure (Bron, Creed bros, Wendy Choo, Tiffany Stratton, Tony D...) I'm liking 2.0 more and more.

[PEN15v2]

Smackdown tonight:

• Big E & Kofi Kingston vs. Sheamus & Ridge Holland
• Sasha Banks & Naomi vs. Queen Zelina & Carmella

I have rarely felt the online complaints about WWE's rematch dependence, but there is one issue I am starting to believe needs to be addressed. Specifically with the new "champion contenders" matches leading into official title matches. By having the new team of Banks and Naomi take on the women's tag champs in a non-title match, it becomes a little too formulaic that the champs will lose tonight, and then defend the titles at WM against Banks/Naomi, and the Raw team of Rhea/Liv. Formulas aren't always a bad thing, but for some reason I feel this instance to be noteworthy for the disappointment. This is common when the story is "challenger wanting to beat the champions," with no other meat on the bones, which is the case here.

I must also say it's disappointing because Rhea and Sasha really stand out above the 6 women involved in this match. I'm not saying the other 4 will never reach singles championships (again, in the case of Carmella or Naomi) but it's clear Rhea and Sasha are true stars who can headline the women's division anytime WWE wants to pull the trigger.

Anyways, that's a match I don't care about, but likely will enjoy the actual title match at WrestleMania.

But, the other match. Sheamus has been such a great TV wrestler over the last few years. He was always good to great, but I think starting with The Bar, he stepped up his game to another level. Having him mentor Ridge Holland is going well so far, and if it adds another team to the tag division it's even better. I'm disappointed to see where Big E is right now compared to being WWE Champion 2 months ago, but I suspect he'll be back in the title hunt soon enough. I'm looking forward to this.

If Sheamus/Ridge are truly entering the tag division, that makes a solid SD roster. Usos, New Day, Viking Raiders, Los Lotharios, with Nakamura/Boogs and Corbin/Moss potentially in the mix at some point, this might be the best a tag roster has looked since the brand split. I feel they only have 3-5 teams at a time, but we are looking at 7, with 6 of them being legit possible champions (I'm not including Humberto and Angel yet).

[PEN15v2]

COACH , any professional thoughts on the injury botch on Big E?

[Team Farrell]

It looks awful. I feel so terrible for the guy.

That's a move that I'm not sure ever needs to be done on the floor. I know I've discussed it a bit with some folks, and I get it: when you land flat it's not all that bad with their thick mats. It's when you don't land flat that's the issue.

Ridge does the move almost deadlift-style, there's little to no help from Big E because his feet aren't even on the ground. If I'm taking that, I either want to know that the guy's got the hip pop to get me over 100% of the time, or I want to take it from a position where my feet are on the floor because I can give it a jump.

It's all about technique, and there just wasn't proper technique there. No back arch to make sure E's going to get over flat, he doesn't do much to get his hips below E, and there isn't much of a pop of the hips either.

I also prefer to take that bump with my hands on the guy's traps so that I'm able to push off as well. But it's almost like Ridge picked him off the ground so he had no help with the throw, and then took a bump. Completely improper technique, but I'm not even sure how much you can blame the guy if he doesn't know better.

Dusty Rhodes said it best: "Do not do shit you don't know how to do."

I'm not sure if Holland was maybe a little afraid of the bump so that affected his hip pop and/or his arch. But maybe it was a spot that didn't need doing.

I took a German Suplex last weekend. Ideally, the guy should hook you, get his hips blow yours, you jump straight upward and he can guide you. If you trust the guy, you don't have to jump and his hip pop and arch should land you perfectly flat. Instead, he grabbed me around the waist and took a bump, causing my head to snap back and hit the mat. It was just a lack of technique. Suplexes are a lot harder than they appear. Guy who are good at them make them look easy, 150-lb guys doing suplexes with no technique to other 150-lb guys when are great jumpers and clear the terrible bumps make it look even easier for people in the business.

My back arch sucks. I can pop my hips like a motherfucker, so a snap suplex looks pretty. I can get my hips below yours to pick you up real easy so I have a hell of a belly-to-back. But I'm not going to throw big arching suplexes because they look bad and aren't the safest when I do them. Shocker berated my for an hour before I pulled off what he considered a passible German, but even then told me maybe it's not in my arsenal.

Give that a look at about the 1:20 mark. Ridge's technique is better. He gets his hips low, pops them and arches his back.

I think being on the floor might have spooked him a little.

He has a lot of potential. I really hope this doesn't kill his push.

[PEN15v2]

There are a few clips of him nailing the move from in the ring, which leads to your theory that the outside the ring factor had an effect.

That being said, he also had the bad powerslam on Gargano that was scary within the last year. It's tough to say, and I don't think it's fair for armchair quarterbacks to judge, but I do believe there might be reason to be concerned.

[Team Farrell]

He's relatively green, but should have the mechanics down by this point. Especially being in the WWE system.

I don't want to speculate on anything with him, but I know I've had experience with guys who, like him, come from legitimate sports and, like him, really seem to love wrestling. A lot of times those guys just get really excited once they start rolling, and with the strength and athleticism they've developed by being athletes, that's where accidents happen. I don't know how you fix that other than them growing out of it.

I like everything about the guy other than people potentially getting hurt when they work with him.

[Team Farrell]

Watch the first five seconds of this clip. This is exactly what I mean by guys being spoiled by working with wrestlers who are agile enough to make sure they bump safe every time. The first time Wardlow tries that shit on one of those Bear Country guys we'll have a Big E situation.

[Buzzard Guts]

After seeing him return live a few weeks ago, it was almost anticlimactic to see Xavier Woods return to SmackDown last night.

[Powder]

It was very interesting to me that the ending of RAW tonight with the tag team brawl ended about 2 minutes too soon. While Orton and Riddle were celebrating, you could clearly see the ref call over to Orton, and Orton bent over to the ref, ans the ref told Orton, who then told Riddle that they needed to kill 2 more minutes. So they grabbed Montez and the ref told Dawkins to get back into the ring.

[Oliver]

You know, I'm quite enjoying what they're doing with Lynch and Belair, but is there any point in having a feud revolve around hair, and cutting hair, if it's not going to end in a hair vs hair match?

Maybe they're saving that pay off for Backlash or Extreme Rules or whatever it is that follows Mania, but I can't help but feel doing that build now would have played well into that as a stipulation at Mania.

[Powder]

I know it is Bianca's signature look to have that long ponytail, but it could do her good to get it cut off by Becky. It would be a moral victory for Becky, and not really change a thing about Belair.

[PEN15v2]

Bianca vs Becky has been one of the best stories for Wrestlemania. It's been long term booking (i ThOuGhT oNlY AEW dId ThAt) and been really well escalated getting closer to the big event. I think the story could go either way concerning who will win this weekend, but the story doesn't seem to be over. I could see Becky getting a cheap victory, leading to a rematch where its title vs hair.

[PEN15v2]

Biggest Raw of the year.

Not sure how serious the injury to Roman is, but they set up Lashley and McIntyre as the top challengers to the unified title, with Cody also being possible.

Cody's first Raw appearance will be interesting.

I see NXT call ups this week. I can't say who will go to SD or to Raw, but I suspect we'll get main roster debuts for:

• Io Shirai
• Imperium
• LA Knight

Also possible:

• Ciampa (for some reason I feel he was retiring or leaving - that send off didn't feel like it was leading to the main roster)
• KLR
• Carmelo and Trick