Live WWE TV Discussion Thread

[The Cook]

It obviously depends on how well she's healing up from her shoulder injury but I'd say it makes the most sense to go with Becky Lynch returning as "The Man" to challenge Ronda at 'Mania, possibly in the main event of Night One, while Ripley beats Beth Phoenix at Rumble or Elimination Chamber and challenges Belair. As for what this means for Charlotte I have no idea, but I like the idea of her trying to get into the Becky/Ronda match again by challenging Becky at EC for her spot or something along those lines, although obviously losing this time so it can stay one-on-one.

[PEN15v2]

Smackdown Preview
Matches:

• Usos vs New Day - Tag Team Championship
• Shinsuke Nakamura vs Santos Escobar - World Cup
• Liv Morgan vs Raquel Rodriguez vs Shotzi vs Sonya Deville vs Lacey Evans vs Xia Li - #1 Contenders Match

Segments:

• Roman Reigns and the Bloodline

• Could the New Day be part of the War Games match vs Bloodline?
• The World Cup is for an Intercontinental Title shot
• Raquel is who I think is best to challenge Ronda, but it feels too soon for that

[PEN15v2]

Raw Preview
Matches:

• Seth Rollins vs Finn Balor - non title

Segments:

• Miz TV - with Johnny Gargano
• Appearances from Bianca Belair, Matt Riddle, Damage CTRL's Bayley, Bobby Lashley, and Austin Theory
  

Thoughts:

• Women's WarGames probably needs some new blood. Bayley vs Bianca is solid, but after months of feuding, I believe there needs to be a big name added to each side. Talks of Rhea and Mia Yim joining can help with that, though I worry that Rhea will be pulled in too many directions. The secret to her ascent to a likely title shot is how little she's had to wrestle. But with the backstage tease with Bianca last week, Beth Phoenix likely returning for a marquee grudge match at some point down the line, and now Mia Yim evening the odds between the OC and Judgment Day, Rhea might lose some heat from too much exposure. If it does end up being Bianca, Alexa, Asuka, Candice, and Mia Yim vs Bayley, Kai, Sky, Cross, and Ripley, I think the focus should be on Mia to be the one to make an impact for the next 2 weeks. It's a subtle story telling point, but an important one.
• Men's WarGames looks to be Smackdown focused, but there's only 4 on the side of the faces so far. I really felt the 5th member would be a specific member from Raw, but sources are sayign that won't be possible. Not sure if we'll see a change in direction tonight.
• Miz vs Lumis/Gargano is starting to lose steam. Many haven't enjoyed it since it started, while others are finding the inclusion of Gargano as the voice of the voiceless to be a turn in the wrong direction. I think the "revelation" was a pretty lame fix. I think the common term is "retcon"? And it's a bad one. I think the Lumis character is great, and there's a lot they can be doing, but we need to get a match sooner rather than later. Whether it's Lumis vs the Miz, or Lumis vs anyone on Raw to earn a shot at Miz, we need to see more from Dexter, and hear less of Johnny Wrestling forcing a bad chapter into an already questionable story.Maybe this Miz TV segment can fix the retcon, but part of it is falling flat.
• Austin Theory cashed in on the US champion... and lost. It's an odd move to say the least, but tonight might be when we see some clarity over this decision.

[Team Farrell]

In a follow-up to last week: interesting move with Theory this week.

Was it a full reset? Not really. But his reasoning for attempting a cash-in on Rollins was solid in my view. I think that they look at the enraged DQ as a way of building a heel and signaling that they're more serious, but I'm not big on that. I feel like if he's more serious, he'd be focused on winning, not beating someone up.

I still would have liked to see him getting this push from the start, but if this means he's going to start winning WAY more than he loses, then good.

I feel that Money in the Bank has run its course. Now that Triple H has done away with the Hell in the Cell PPV, I'm hoping MITB is next.

You can go back now six years (or more) and see that it's pretty much a pointless thing now:

1. Baron Corbin lost his cash-in
2. Braun Strowman lost his cash-in
3. Brock Lesnar won it as a gimmick after not competing in the actual match
4. Fucking OTIS won the thing, only for them to change course and put it on Miz, only for them to basically get it off the board by having him beat Drew and drop the belt to Lashley two weeks later
5. Big E, the babyface, won after beating Lashley who had just wrestled Randy Orton, and had a decent run
6. Austin Theory tried to cash in on the US Title, only to lose.

I'm not looking at the Women's MITB because come on.

To me, MITB made all the sense in the world from '05-'09 when you had a number of guys on the roster that were on the cusp of being legitimate top stars, and had MITB give them that little extra boost and get them over the top. Since then it's mostly been won by former Champions who didn't need a lazy crutch to be booked in title matches or win the belt, and thrice in the last six years (Strowman, Otis/Miz and Theory) it's almost as though they've realized they weren't going to do anything with the MITB and used it more just to get it off the board than anything else.

It's time to kill the thing. Its original usefulness is not longer there, or at least not being utilized. There are better ways to elevate a star rather than that crutch, and ladder matches -- even multi-man ladder matches -- aren't special or interesting anymore to get attention for the event.

[PEN15v2]

Theory getting all serious kind of bums me out. I don't mean he won't be good at it, but I find it's the common switch that HHH has flipped with many people since the regime change. Kevin Owens, Ezekial back to Elias, Mustafa Ali, Butch becoming less manic, Giovanni Vinci dropping the smiling European gimmick, Max Dupri becoming LA Knight... It's not that they are bad decisions on their own, but when everyone is acting like a super ass kicker, many are going to pale in comparison to the Bobby Lashleys, Brock Lesnars and Roman Reigns of the WWE. Entitled millennial Instagram guy was a unique gimmick. Now he's even more like Randy Orton, circa 2009 vs HHH at Mania 25.

He's still got a great future, and I'm sure this will work in the end. But too many people give me the same feeling now, and much like Drew McIntyre's face run has fell flat at times, Theory being more generic heel doesn't register my interest at this time. Frothing at the mouth while being overly aggressive has been done before by more interesting people, including the current booker man.


As for Money in the Bank, I'll never agree with doing away with it. Failed or lame runs doesn't make an idea bad. If that was the measuring stick, the Tag Team, IC and US titles would be long gone too. But those titles have been rebuilt, and so can the cash in. The problem with MITB is execution. The excitement still exists, and will always generate reactions. Solid plans have to be put in place, because it feels like many winners who selected because they wanted to push them, but without a real strategy as to how. So, let Theory win it, and we'll figure it out a few months from now. That's unlikely to work, as we've seen. They just need to plan things a bit better. Bring back the WrestleMania challenge that Ken Kennedy proposed when he won. Or, if Theory is the babyface of the future, have him turn by attacking the Bloodline and saying "I'll see you at The Rumble", and plan a face turn accordingly. There will always be options.

Where I do agree with you is the ladder match, which honestly isn't essential to the gimmick. If it's actually returning, ake the King of the Ring prize be for the briefcase. Or do a Championship Scramble match for it. Or a Battle Royal. Again, there will always be options.

[Team Farrell]

I dunno man, I'm happy to see WWE moving away from some of that Vince McMahon silliness. Theory with the selfies was good for a while, worked really well and let him show off that he actually has personality, but it's definitely an underneath gimmick that he needed to lose to be a top star. I can't actually fathom why Vince would have changed Elias's name and everything (though I loved the look of his gear and wish he'd kept that) other than just suddenly deciding -- in stereotypical Vince fashion -- that he was over Elias.

I also couldn't even begin to wrap my head around Max Dupri. You have a silly comedy manager under contract named Robert Stone, why take this incredibly charismatic guy with a unique promo and make him an effete manager of models? To me, that's like taking Roddy Piper and trying to make him Rick Martel, when you have a Rick Martel sitting right there.

I'm hoping we see some of these people move away from being actors playing characters, and start becoming people with interesting tweaks made to their personalities. I think Triple H might have a little PTSD from being the Connecticut Blue Blood and doesn't want to inflict that on anyone else.

There's always a place for more over the top, somewhat silly gimmicks obviously. But, I dunno, give them to the right people. You can make big money with Theory in a few years, and decent money with LA Knight now. But by all means, guys like Rick Boogs, ma.çé and mån.sôör probably aren't ever going to draw you any money so let them be Vince-style entertaining.

[PEN15v2]

Raw Preview - Go-Home Show for Survivor Series
Matches:

• Rhea Ripley vs Asuka - for Team Control of WarGames

Nothing else booked so far, but I bet we'll hear of a couple of things added over social media throughout the day.

[Benjamin Button]

I saw a glimpse of Cena’s bald spot and was thinking It’d be a great heel and set up matches for Cena against top WWE baby faces. For instance, Cena could be talking with Kevin Owens, and when they’re done and Cena is walking away, the bald spot could say “fat piece of shit.” Owens thinks Cena said it, all the while it was the insufferable bald spot going into business for itself.