WWE’s been known to call up blasts from the past as RR participants, like Boogieman last year. I can see them bringing in AJ as a surprise entrant to see what kind of heat he gets. Plus, Orlando is smark central, so they should make some noise.
Reports coming in that “Iron” Mike Sharpe has passed away at 67.
I was still buying kayfabe when he was working, and I was genuinely afraid of him. I remember being glued to my screen, hoping and praying that Koko (or whoever) would be able to pull out a victory over such a rugged competitor.
Thanks for the memories, Mr. Sharpe.
ding
Did he still have the cast on his forearm?
The estate of Mr. Sharpe issued a statement saying, and I quote:
“GRRRRRRRRRRRTHEREISNOTHINGINTHISARMBUTTWENTYINCHESOFMUSCLEARRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.”
Hehe that reminds me of the Assassin. He supposedly had something embedded inside his mask to make his headbutts more lethal. I remember one promo he gave where he said “A lot of people ask me, is there a foreign object inside your mask, and I say yes. It’s called my brains.”
It’s been announced this morning that New Japan has signed Jim Ross to do commentary for their English-language show, taking over from Mauro Ranallo now that he’s on Smackdown. It runs on AXS TV (which it turns out I have free with my cable package) and appears to consist mainly of replays from PPVs that aired in Japan several months earlier. I don’t know very much about Japanese wrestling, so I may have to check it out.
He was primarily a jobber for WWWF but he trained many wrestlers. I remember him as a hard worker in the ring, a lot of other wrestlers owe him for putting them over. RIP Mike.
They get our best announcer, we get the worst. What a deal :smack:
I’m always happy to see Y2J return to the WWE. And then time will pass and I’m always happy to see him go.
How about Vince and Steph in the worst routine since the intro of the Shocker?
So now we know for sure Bray Wyatt won’t win the Rumble.
Which is the stupider team, the League of Nations or the Social Outcasts?
The League of Nations will actually hold titles.
The Social Outcasts should start looking for jobs. We know how being teamed with Heath Slater worked for 3MB…
With the lack of healthy talent in WWE right now there is no way they can afford to fire people unless they do a massive callup from NXT which, as I’ve said a million times, should NOT happen.
I think the Outcasts will be here for a while, let’s just hope something semi-interesting happens to them
#freesandow
I assumed that’s the only reason they’re on now.
And yeah. They mismanaged him from the start and when he finally made it work they dumped him. Jerks.
It really is going to be the Roman Rumble. Under the guise of mistreatment, he’s going in at #1. If he wins, he breaks all the records. He’ll have been in there the entire match, so Vince will make sure he’s a wrestling god. Fans will have no choice but to accept him as WWE paragon.
That being said, it could be that Brooooock eliminates him at the very end, setting the two up for the WM 32 main event. Or maybe it’ll be a Bret/Lex finish, where both entrants fall out simultaneously. There’s also the possibility that Broooock comes out as #2, and he and Roman provide an exciting start to the Rumble. Or maybe Roman gets tossed out early, but comes back later as Kane in full mask and body suit and wins. I’m probably going to be paying more attention to the NFC playoff anyway,
I don’t see Brock winning the Rumble. I figure it’s pretty much a given that the ME of WrestleMania will be Roman’s rematch against whatever Authority heel wins the title at the Rumble, and Brock doesn’t really fit there for a couple of reasons - he’s got too much street cred to just be a transitional champion, he doesn’t have any reason to work with the Authority, and I can’t realistically see him and Roman putting on a better match than they did last year. I’m going with Triple H as my pick to win, since Roman vs. Trips would make a great conclusion to this “chapter” of the story, and ideally, would make a great place to finally end the Authority angle.
(Fantasy booking; there’s a ref bump just before Roman’s about to win. Trips takes advantage and sledgehammers him. Scott Armstrong runs out to count the pin, but Roman kicks out and clobbers Scott. Vince then comes out in a ref shirt, blatantly cheats on Trips’ behalf to let him set up a crossface submission, and just when it seems Roman is about to fade, Vince is grabbed by the ankles and dragged out of the ring… by Daniel Bryan in a ref shirt, who then gives Roman a clean three-count after he recovers and spears Trips.)
Failing Trips himself being in the match, I could also see Chris Jericho (who’s been playing heel-ish lately) winning and being the ‘Mania main-eventer, or either Dean Ambrose (heel turn) or Kevin Owens. An extreme long-shot possibility is that they strap a rocket to AJ Styles’ butt and have him win the Rumble and the championship on his first night in the company, but I don’t think that’ll happen (as awesome as it would be) unless every single other top-flight superstar hurts his shoulder in the next four days.
Have any of the Japan guys even signed yet? I keep hearing the IWC freak out about AJ or Nakamura in the Rumble, or even winning it, but everything I’ve heard is that no one has even signed a contract yet.
I would be berry surprised if any of them made the debut on Sunday. Even 'Mania is a long shot IMO, but at least kinda believable.
I think we have more of a chance of seeing them Friday at the NXT show at UCF more than Sunday.
As for the winner? I wouldn’t totally hate Jericho TBH, but I think it’ll be some combination of Brock/Reigns/Trips.
Fantasy booking? Just as I said a couple pages ago. Have the final two be Brock and Reigns and when the very last person comes out have no one show. Make the two guys fight and have Brock win. The audience freaks out forgetting the last person never came in, have the lights go out, the bell rings, 'Taker appears in the ring and throws Brock out straight away. He holds the title until Mania where he faces (insert superstar here…Cena prolly) and then he loses and retires.
Fantasy number 2: Put the belt on Kane (seriously). Have 'Taker get all pissy about it for…reasons. Then have the match at Mania be a belt vs career match and have lose/retire. Run with 'Taker for a PPV or two and have him lose to whoever
WWE hasn’t officially announced that any of them have signed yet, but the extent to which they’ve been reporting about the “rumors” on their own website makes it pretty clear what’s going on. The scuttlebutt in the sheets is that Styles has already passed his physical and has been cleared to compete. The fact that he’s being billed for his final ROH appearance the night before the Rumble, in a non-wrestling capacity, in a show in Georgia that’s easily within driving distance of Orlando, is a pretty telling sign that he’s going to show up.
As for the others, Doc Gallows is reportedly doing his physicals this week, and Nakamura is scheduled to report to the Performance Center next month. Karl Anderson is still under contract with New Japan until the 30th, which precludes him from formally making a deal with WWE, but it appears to be understood that the deal is happening, and that he and Gallows will report to NXT somewhere in March.
It won’t be a clean victory no matter what happens. I’m seeing Vince interference that blows up and leaves Roman the champ. I don’t what they’re going to with Brock (neither do they) but maybe he’ll be set up with the Strohman for Mania while they have HHH and Roman go at it. Brock and Roman at Mania is just to simple and since Brock will leave on vacation shortly afterward there’s no point to making him champ again.
Stroman is way too green for such a high profile match.
I realize that the “WWE Rulebook” changes more often than the National Show Choir Rulebook on Glee, but I don’t think they’re going to retcon the rule that says that once the 30th wrestler’s entry time is reached, the match ends when there’s one wrestler left; any no-shows are out.
Hopefully, it’s not something cheesy, like there’s an apparent winner, somebody holds down the top rope for him as he walks out of the ring with the belt, then there’s an announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, since (insert name here) exited the ring over the top rope and had both feet touch the floor before all of the other 29 did, he is eliminated; the winner, who exited between the ropes, and still WWE World Heavyweight Champion…”
Here’s my current prediction: Reigns wins the main event, then on Raw the next night, Vince announces the main event at WrestleMania: Reigns defends against BONG The Undertaker, with an added stipulation; Loser Leaves WWE Forever. Yes, I did say that there was “zero” chance Taker would job in his final match unless it was to somebody like Sting or The Rock, but this could work.
But then there is literally a ZERO chance of RR losing at 'Mania, and thus would have the belt well into the post Mania season.
This is supposed to be the biggest Mania of all time, they aren’t going to book a show that every.single.person. knows will happen