RAW RAW RAW RAW
RAW RAW RAW RAW
RAW-itty RAW! RAW-itty-RAW!
I will be going to my first live event in perhaps 30 years tonight. Fourth Row behind the announcers. I’ll be the 53 year old balding, grey bearded guy wearing a Finn Balor shirt that you don’t see. 
Don’t have any large paper, but I’ll experiment with some single printer sheet ‘signs’ I can fold up and put in my back pocket.
If you see some idiot hold up a regular sheet of paper that says “Becky Lynch Section” behind the announcers. (Or “SDMB” or “FARK”), that’ll be me.
You should totally try a smdb shoutout, that’d be awesome
or you know, SDMB for “Straight Dope Message Board” as I listed above. 
Straight message database?
Straight message dope board?
Obviously it stands for SuperMetaDudeBoard since we’re all guys and don’t talk in kayfabe
Yeah, let’s go with that story
Forgot to look for you Chimera, but don’t think the camera took in anybody past the first row anyway.
I love seeing the ex-Shield vs the Wyatts, and kept expecting a DQ or post-match brawl, but it didn’t happen. Ambrose was hilarious, as always. I’m wondering if Bray will desert Harper at SS, or if a swerve is imminent with Dean turning on Roman, because Bray poisoned his well.
btw, turns out that Dalton Castle from RoH is also a radio DJ. Here’s an interviewhe did with Luke Harper back when he was Brodie Lee, doing a truck driver gimmick and dressing the same way.
Anybody for SS predictions?
Cena vs Rollins: I’m going for a weasel finish where Seth gets DQed because Kane and J&J make a not-really-surprise return.
UT vs Brock: I’m leaning towards a UT win, and both contestants basically kill each other and have to be taken out with gurneys.
Dolph vs Rusev: I’ll go with Dolph winning because otherwise he would look like a complete chump and be relegated back to the undercard if he loses.
Cesaro vs KO: Cesaro, because he’s on an upswing and KO can claim the deck was stacked against him bc he had to face Finn Balor in a ladder match the night before, so the feud continues.
RKOrton vs Sheamarse: Don’t really care, but Shame has to have some kind of veracity for the MITB briefcase, and he needs a win to not be regarded as a joke.
Divas: Team PCB wins, but it will lead to some kind of internal strife between the three to see who gets to take on Bree (or is it Nikki?) for the title.
Clusterfuck Tag match: Noo-hoo Day-hee wins, because whatever
Ryback vs BS vs Miz: Ryback, because it would be amazing for him to carry both Miz and BS on his shoulders for the Double Shell Shock.
ex-Shield vs the Wyatts: I’ll just go with the safe assumption that Roman pins Harper for the win. Whenever I predict a bizarre twist, nothing happens, so I’ll just let myself be surprised.
Oh yes, Stardust & Cosmic King Barrett vs Red & Green Arrow: Neville gets off his finisher, lets Amell get the pin, and Barrett destroys being King Anything in frustration.
Don’t think the camera ever got me square, even though it panned over us a couple of times. I did notice myself in the corner of one shot on the big screen, way in the back, and put my hand on my head just to say “yup, that’s me back there”. Don’t believe I was DVR’ng it, though in retrospect I should have been.
Yeah, if you want to be on camera, be on that one side opposite the hard cameras.
Was a good time. I’ll definitely go back sometime, but I’d rather sit in the stands than four rows back on the floor again.
At one point had a slight row with the guy in front of me and his kid. Kid was all over the place and I understand that he was a bit small to see well. I said nothing at all as he jumped off the chair onto my foot a couple of times, but at one point dad picked him up and was holding him high directly in front of me. I said “Sir, when you hold him like that I can’t see anything”. Dad put him down, then got angry and said “He’s just a kid!”. I replied “Yes, but I get to watch the show too”. After about 2 minutes they stomped off and didn’t come back for about 15 minutes. No issues, no words for the rest of the show. (Security also intervened with them because the kid kept standing on his seat, and had already had one slip and fall that came close to hurting him, so they didn’t want to see that again.)
Guy across the aisle from me was very loud and very funny. Then he got a ‘warning’ to stop or be ejected. Came down from ‘the booth’, so apparently Vince himself (possibly) got tired of hearing the guy and threatened to throw him out.
Curtis Axel got a good reception from the home crowd.
New Day chant was about half and half ‘sucks’ and ‘rocks’. Me saying “rocks”.
Felt sorry for Sasha in her match with Nikki. It looked to me like Nikki was calling/leading the match and it wasn’t going over well. The two of them have no chemistry together.
Brock Lesnar was greeted like a conquering hero. Just a HUGE babyface reaction.
Taker’s nut shot had us boo’ing him out of the building.
You know, on TV people look larger, and I obviously have some odd perceptions of them. It was very strange to me to see people in person and on the screen at the same time and notice my brain’s perceptual difference between the two. Alicia Fox looked really skinny in person, even her arms were thin. Sasha is tiny. While I saw Lana as a beautiful woman on TV, she was just so much hotter in person.
Held up a “Becky Lynch Section” sign and she didn’t even look in our direction. 
Who was in the dark match? Bray?
Apparently wasn’t one. There was one Superstars match, then into Raw like 20 minutes before 7, which seemed really odd to me.
I left just after the Tombstone, so I could get out of the building in less time than it took to get in. Heard there was nothing more after that other than Brock getting up, saying a few words and leaving.
Rumor central (no link, sorry):
The Vaudevillians are going to use the newly shirt-ed Blue Pants to try and stop the likes of Alexa Bliss.
Dunno how true it is, but if it is we can maybe see a Blue Pants and Alexa rivalry and leave the (probable) new champ Bayley to go against The Cleveland Steamer
Because of the upcoming Brooklyn show, all the matches on this week’s NXT were 10 seconds long. None of the jobbers got introduced. Not even the announcers know their names. It’s like they’re not worthy of recognition.
KO got off a pretty dope heel promo at the end. He knows how to turn Internet-savvy crowds against him.
It’s kind of amazing how the stars aligned for Blue Pants. All she did was wear blue pants and get goofed on by Enzo & Cass, and now she’s gold. She hasn’t even got on the mike yet. If she truly is the Vaudevillains’ mystery partner, she’s going to be more over than Elvis.
This is actually whats bugging me the most about NXT the last…2 months?
Almost 90% of the matches are squashes with these jobbers that don’t even get name checked. I understand that they want their stars to shine, but other than their main guys, they are leaving NO room for characters to develop.
I mean the last ones that have gone from jobbers to main-eventers in recent months have been JJ and Bagels (JJ more than Bagels). I think they’re kind of shangheied by the fact they only have an hour show, so they try to jam all the stars in there, but c’mon guys, you aren’t going to grow if you don’t even try.
It’s been a whole five weeks since we’ve had a WWE supercard. WWE is now making up for that by giving us two big events in two nights. I’ll start by offering the Takeover 6: Balor Does Broadway edition of Smapti’s Absolutely Never Ever Wrong About Anything* Match Predictions;
Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor, ladder match for the NXT world championship. (By old school reckoning, a promotion is entitled to call its top title a world championship once it has been defended outside North America, so I’m rolling with it.) Finn is the easy pick to retain here - Owens is on the main roster now and is probably there to stay, and this is the perfunctory rematch where he goes out on his back and puts over the new guy, just like Seth Rollins, Big E, Bo Dallas, and Neville have done before him. The big question is who Finn would feud with next - NXT is pretty lacking in heels right now, and the only people who are really in a position to challenge for the title booking-wise are Samoa Joe, Sami Zayn, or Hideo Itami (the latter two of whom are still on the injured list.) Perhaps Tyler Breeze finally gets his shot at the gold, or Apollo Crews comes in as a heel.
Bayley vs. Sasha Banks for the women’s title. Same deal; Sasha is on her way to the main roster, and Bayley’s in the same position that Sami Zayn was last year - she’s been chasing the title forever and has had multiple shots at it but hasn’t been able to seal the deal, and this is her last big opportunity to get the gold. I say she just narrowly wins the match and goes on to feud with Emma and/or Dana Brooke. (Speaking of which, it finally occurred to me what bothers me so much about Dana Brooke’s physique - she looks like an overly muscular Billie Piper.)
Tyler Breeze vs. Jushin Thunder Liger. The fact that this match is even happening is a major coup for WWE - Jushin is under contract with New Japan, which has a talent-sharing agreement with Ring of Honor, which is also running a PPV in New York City this Saturday. This is a pretty big sign that WWE is taking ROH seriously as a competitor, which, though it’s probably not good news for ROH, is good news for WWE’s booking, since they tend to get complacent and lazy when they don’t have a competitor.
The easy bet would be to give the win to Liger here, but I have a feeling Tyler Breeze is going to win this one. Picking up a win over a legend like Liger would be a major boost for Breeze’s credibility and make him a viable candidate for a world title shot in the future, and since this is likely the only time Liger will ever appear in a WWE ring he really wouldn’t gain anything by winning.
Samoa Joe vs. Baron Corbin. Either one of these guys could be a world title contender in the future. I have no idea what WWE’s long-term plans for Joe are, but they definitely have big things planned for Corbin. This can and should be the longest match Corbin has worked in NXT - Joe should really be able to bring the best out of him here. Joe is massively over in NYC from his ROH days, and they’ve been building Corbin as a heel lately, so a win over Joe would earn him major heel credibility. This could really go either way, though, so my prediction is Joe just narrowly survives and gets the win in a way that leaves Corbin looking strong.
The Vaudevillians vs. the Dubstep Assholes for the tag titles. I’m gonna go with the crowd consensus here - the Vaudevillians align with Blue Pants to take out Alexa Bliss, win the match, and Aiden English finally achieves his lifelong goal of becoming a Broadway star. Only in NXT could a team that calls themselves “villains” get over as babyfaces who fight with honor and would never dare insult a lady. NXT has done a great job of tapping into the demographic of older cynical wrestling fans who have grown weary of standard WWE booking and want to be able to cheer for the guys who put on the best show rather than the people they’ve been told to cheer for, and these two are a prime example. Again, the big question is who they feud with next - Jason Jordan and Chad Gable? Enzo & Cass? The Hype Bros?
Apollo Crews vs. Tye Dillinger. CREWSWINSLOL.
Six matches is more than enough to fill the two-hour timeslot they’re putting on. They’re filming next week’s episode out of Barclay’s as well, and the matches for that show are going to be put on before the live show, which means next week’s episode will probably be skippable since they won’t want to do any matches that will spoil the outcome of Takeover.
Summerslam predictions to follow.
*your definition of “wrong” may very from that used by Smapti, his associates, employees, subsidiaries, or affiliates
Smapti, don’t leave us hangin’!
WOW!!! Goldberg hit the Giant so hard last night it knocked out the video feed!
Heh, wrong decade.
WWE can’t do much more to shock people these days. Every stunt, including death, has been tried.
Of course, with SS incoming, they don’t want to risk injury, and most of the show was promo anyway. Still, the 8-man match at the end was cool. I keep admiring Luke Harper’s skill set more every time I see him. The finisher train at the end was a nice dance. I’ve a mind to sync it to a waltz.
Da da dada dumm… Brogue Kick… RKO…
Da da dada dumm… Super Punch… Abigail…
Da da dada dumm… Powerbomb… Superflex…
Da da dada dumm… Discus Throw… Dirty Deeds…
Didn’t want two posts full of my unfounded speculation in a row. Anyway, since you asked so nicely, here’s the Summerfest 2015 edition of Smapti’s Undisputed* Match Predictions:
John Cena vs. Seth Rollins, title-for-title. CENAWINSLOL. John Cena is and always has been an unstoppable championship-winning machine, and Rollins has been booked as the most ineffectual world champion I can personally recall - he only wins matches by running away or with help from his goon squad, and now his goon squad is gone. Cena retains here, but his win is short-lived - Sheamus cashes in MITB on him and wins the world title, leaving Cena as US champion and setting up a feud between the two of them for the next few months.
Brock Lesnar vs. the Undertaker. 'Taker is playing a heel right now for the first time in ever, and Brock is an unlikely babyface. Unfortunately, they’ve been booking Brock like they do most faces lately - super-gullible, unable to defend himself against a sneak attack, and constantly ending shows on his back. My prediction - Kane interferes. He’s scheduled to make his return any time now (he and Dolph were both off shooting a movie which has now wrapped). I expect he’ll make his return (hopefully as the Demon) and help his brother win the match, or possibly attack 'Taker after he wins on his own to set up another feud between the two of them. (If they can find some way to work Demon Kane vs. Demon Finn Balor into that storyline as well, that would just be great.)
Triple-threat for the Intercontinental title; Ryback vs. Miz vs. Big Show. This is the same match that was scheduled for Battleground and had to be cancelled after Ryback’s leg grew a conjoined twin - the fact that they neither stripped him of the title or set up an alternate program tells me they really don’t want the belt off Ryback yet. I don’t see Show winning it. It’s possible they could do the same thing they’ve done with Miz like three or four times, and have him win the title only to lose it back to Ryback on Raw the next night, and personally that’s what I’d prefer to see, so I’ll go with that just narrowly over Ryback retaining.
Four-way match for the tag titles - Prime Time Players vs. Los Matadores, New Day, and the Lucha Dragons. Los Matadores are right out - they’re the filler team WWE pops in to occupy space whenever they do one of these multi-team matches. I don’t like New Day’s odds either - they’ve gone from being babyfaces the audience hated, to being heels the audience loves, and Vince McMahon’s usual response to a heel getting cheered is to bury them and take away anything they’re doing that’s causing people to like them (e.g. Wade Barrett not being allowed to do the “I’m afraid I’ve got some BAD NEWS” promos, heel Cesaro losing Paul Heyman and the giant swing, Damien Sandow losing the savior of the masses gimmick, etc.) That leaves the Lucha Dragons as the one team I could see beating the Prime Time Players here, and though I wouldn’t mind seeing them as champions, I’d prefer the PTPs to retain.
Triple threat trios elimination match; Team Bella vs. Team BAD vs. the Submission Sorority… err, PCB. This was their last chance. This was the last PPV they could have taken the Divas title off Nikki Bella before she breaks AJ’s record. I called it back in April - they’re going to let her break it so that they can bury AJ’s legacy and never ever mention her on TV again as punishment for her husband walking out rather than agreeing to job to Triple H at 'Mania. Never ever underestimate how petty, vindictive, and small-minded Vince McMahon is.
But I digress. Since the title isn’t on the line here, they can feel free to have one of the PCBs (let’s say Charlotte) eliminate Nikki for a big pop. This match probably comes down to PCB vs. BAD at the end. I’m going to go ahead and guess that, since Sasha Banks is probably dropping the NXT Ladies’ Championship (as William Regal always calls it) the night before, that she winds up as sole survivor here.
Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro - I’ll give this one to Owens on the same logic I used above - he’s probably going to lose to Finn at Takeover, so a win here will help rebuild his credibility as a top heel. Owens and Cesaro have wrestled each other before many times on the indie circuit, back when they were Kevin Steen and Claudio Castagnoli (here they are going at it in a high school auditorium somewhere) so they ought to be able to put on a real barn-burner here provided that they’re given enough time to do so.
Randy Orton vs. Sheamus - Part 47 in the epic rivalry between these two that WWE creative is definitely certain existed at some point. I feel like I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve commented on this matchup and asked why they felt the need to keep doing it again, but that’s what you get with 50/50 booking - nobody gets over, nothing is resolved, nobody looks strong. I’ll give this one to Orton, since Sheamus will likely get his big moment later in the evening.
The babyface team will win this match, because of course they will. Stardust and Barrett have been acting like '60s Batman villains (and that I’m not complaining about, mind you) and the only reason you bring a celebrity into a match like this is to have them win. Neville hits the Red Arrow on Stardust and tags Amell in to do the pin. If they can find some way to incorporate a boxing-glove-arrow into the match without it counting as a DQ, that would also be acceptable.
Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper. Ambrose continutes to insist on being more over than Roman, so now they’re a tag team again in the vain hope that his popularity will osmose onto Roman somehow. I think the Wyatts should win this one - Bray hasn’t actually won a feud in forever now, since he just loses a couple times and then chooses a new random babyface to pick a fight with for no reason. They’ve been teasing a Dean Ambrose heel turn, and really, Ambrose could work as a substitute third Wyatt if Erik Rowan is still out of action. A second, less likely scenario is that Rowan shows up, turns this into a 3-on-2, and then the Rock - who Roman has been hinting in out-of-character interviews is going to be at Summerslam - shows up to even the odds. It would probably go over a lot better than the last time they tried to use Dwayne to put his cousin over.
Rusev vs. Dolph Ziggler. Русев выигрывает св.
This show is packed to the gills. That’s a total of ten matches scheduled for a four-hour run time, which is absolutely crazy by WWE’s current standards - this last WrestleMania just barely squeezed seven matches into a time slot of that size, and the last time WWE ever ran ten matches on a PPV without bumping any of them was (I checked) WrestleMania 26. They scheduled ten matches for WrestleMania 29, then did one on the preshow and put one off until Raw the next night. I predict, likewise, at least one of these matches gets bumped to the pre-show (probably the tag titles match) and one doesn’t happen until Raw the next night (Rusev vs. Ziggler probably).
*except in Reno, Kansas City, and Galveston
The pre-show for Takeover is starting right now. Who’s watching?
I’ll be mainly posting on a wrestling board, but I’ll keep an eye on this thread if anyone else is around.
I didn’t catch the preshow, but the opening with HHH was outstanding.
Tyler Breeze’s entrance was… well, really flamboyant. NXT ain’t so no-frills no more. The Egyptian motif was a neat touch, but the match was shorter than I expected. Plus, even though Liger is a LEGEND*, it just seems like the matches I’ve seen him in lately relied a whole lot on his opponents making him look good. I mean, the dude’s gotten old and doesn’t have as much spring in his step any more. Still, he knew how to work the audience.
Cool match with Vaudevillains vs Dubstep Douchebags. Alexa Bliss was outstanding being a heel princess, and Og almighty, those shots of her ass obliviated my need for Viagra.