That’s interesting. I remember a few months ago RoH approached Sinclair with the idea of expanding their show and getting more budget, but they got turned down. Maybe they changed their mind.
In his blog, JR said Toby Keith was interested in buying out TNA, but they didn’t want to yield creative control to him. They could probably have had an in to CMT and a bigger audience if they went that route.
You NakaHater.
The only faction I remember NXT doing is when Charlotte, Summer Rae and Sasha Banks were the BFF but that eroded.
There used to be a recording artist named Aaliyah who hung around with Prince. She died back in 2001 in a plane crash. I wonder if Prince owned the copyright to her name and Nooph grabbed it when he died?
According to what I read, Sinclair recently bought out the Tennis Channel and is looking to rebrand it as a general sports channel, so building up ROH might sound like a better idea to them now than it did previously.
Good Lord Man.
Eva Marie. How the fuck is Asuka made to sell for that talent-less creature for ten fucking minutes?
She says she wants to be the next Rock, but she has zero talent in anything. Empty, vacuous looks, backed by nothing but ambition and the whoever she’s fucking, apparently.
Can’t copyright names, especially normal ones like that.
Prince went by a symbol instead of his name for a while. Names have power.
Just when you thought Roman Reigns wasn’t going to turn heel, he goes and tweets about his love for Miller Lite.
Another TNA star jumps ship to NXT: Eric Young!
TNA mainly used him as a jobber goofball, then had him win their world belt after Daniel Bryan did the same for WWE. Maybe WWE will figure out a good role for him, but I don’t see him going much farther than midcard. Still, he’ll be in a good mix with his fellow TNA expats.
Alright, last minute predictions for Payback;
Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles for the world championship. I think just about the only thing we can be sure of with this match is that Bullet Club will get involved in some way and affect the outcome. I think Roman is likely to retain the title (and get booed out of the house, because hardcore Chicago wrestling audiences will boo anyone not named CM Punk, and the casual fans hate his guts anyway). A good way to pull this would be for WWE to embrace the boos Roman’s been getting since 'Mania, have Bullet Club side with him, and he becomes the leader of the new dominant heel stable. I just hope Finn Balor isn’t getting called up yet, because he’s supposed to be appearing at the NXT show I’m going to next week.
The Miz vs. Cesaro for the IC title. Cesaro had damn well better win this one, because I can’t stand Miz’s “I starred in a direct-to-video B-movie and therefore I’m a Hollywood bigshot” persona, and he’s even more insufferable when he’s a champion.
Charlotte vs. Natalya for the women’s title. Charlotte wins - I’m pretty sure that the plan is to have Sasha Banks beat Charlotte for the title at Summerslam, so this is just a filler match to keep Charlotte busy until they’re ready to set up that build. These two consistently put on a good match whenever they work together, so it should be a highlight of the evening.
Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady vs. the Vaudevillians for the #1 contendership. It kinda feels surreal to be typing those two teams’ names in reference to a main roster show. I love both these teams, but I think it’s pretty clear that on the main roster, the Vaudevillians are essentially a comedy team whose role is to get title matches every few months and lose every time (cf. Los Matadores, the Prime Time Players, the New Day before they got over. Enzo & Cass, meanwhile, are red hot and are on track to become latter-day New Age Outlaws, so they ought to win this match and go on to beat the New Day for the tag titles at Extreme Rules (I think that with the three of them emerging out of a giant box of Booty-Os in super saiyan gear we’ve pretty much reached peak New Day).
Chris Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose. Please, oh gods of wrestling, let Ambrose win this one.
Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens. Owens is probably going to murder Sami like he did in both their matches last year.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin. Corbin by a landslide.
Kallisto vs. Ryback for the US title. This is the pre-show match. I’m gonna say Ryback wins this time and when Cena comes back later this month they feud.
Vince McMahon announces whether Shane or Steph gets to control Raw going forward. My guess? He says he can’t decide and books them in a match against each other at Extreme Rules. WWE has shied away from intergender wrestling since the move to PG, but with Lucha Underground having the ladies fight men and win, and with Roman Reigns getting the biggest pop in the main event of 'Mania when he speared Steph, I can see them putting one on at a show that’s specifically meant to feature matches with unusual stipulations. (Also, in-character, Vince is such a sadistic bastard that he probably wouldn’t even think twice about making his children beat each other up for his love.)
Considering how WrestleMania was a mediocre show where almost nothing was established and heels won almost every match, I’m cautiously optimistic that this show will be worth it.
We’ll find out in a few hours.
Reigns isn’t losing to anyone not named John Cena, so whatever shenanigans happen are only a reason for AJ to lose.
Vince has a bad habit of having Jericho win at the wrong times, so I expect that to continue here.
I’m going to guess a “Brand Split” where The Authority runs RAW and Shane gets Smackdown, but it could well be the other way around. If they use that to slowly devolve the tired heel authority figure storyline by having the wrestlers now have some power in being able to work for Shane instead, and it causing problems for the Authority, I would prefer it.
I half expect to see Ric Flair completely lose his nut, have to be restrained for his own safety, and then hospitalized.
I wouldn’t be completely shocked if Reigns turns heel and aligns with Anderson and Gallows, but you realize the WWE Universe would completely shit all over Vince co-opting a heel faction from Japan and two of it’s members to attack a third, right?
I mean, I fully expect heel Reigns that everyone hates to be the challenge John Cena needs to OVERCOME THE ODDS and be champ again. But spitting on the Bullet Club is not the way to do it.
Sure, they’d hate it. That’d be the idea. If done right it could be WWE’s “Hulk Hogan joining the nWo” moment.
Oh right, Payback’s tonight.
[ul]
[li]Ryback vs Kallisto: Ryback, so Lucha Dragons can be a thing again[/li][li]Ziggler vs Corbin: Corbin, to attract the fetishists[/li][li]Jericho vs Ambrose: Ambrose bc he needs to win a fucking PPV match, and Jericho probably has another Fozzy tour lined up[/li][li]Zayn vs Owens: KO to keep the feud going and bc Zayn makes such a good victim[/li][li]Cesaro vs Miz: Please Great Og, let it be Cesaro[/li][li]Charlotte vs Natalya: Charlotte, but Brett gets to sit on Ric with the Dullshooter[/li][li]Enzo & Cass vs Vaudevillains: Realest Guys in the Room proceed to feud with New Day and have endless Mic Wars[/li][li]Reigns vs AJ: I just can’t picture the former Bullet Club siding with Reigns. I think the BC interferes, and there will be some kind of “accident” where RR spears AJ instead of Andrews/Gallows and gets the win. AJ turns to the Dark Side, Unbullet Club forms, and the feud continues with Gallows and Anderson getting to job to RR in future shows before the rematch with AJ.[/li][li]McMahon drama: I like the idea of Stephanie and Shane actually having to fight it out to please dad. Steph sells being hurt and cries, Shane checks on her out of concern, she stuffs his birth certificate down his throat and makes him choke out.[/li][/ul]
Shane and Steph wrestle? Nope. Because if he doesn’t completely squash her in the first 15 seconds (which would just look bad), you have the guy who went 1:1 with Taker at Wrestlemania getting his ass kicked by his sister.
Unless, you know, we’re setting up Taker-Stephanie McMahon for next year’s Wrestlemania. 
Well waddaya know, Ziggler doesn’t have to put over NXT callups!
Poop, I’m 0 for 2. Still, that Gorilla Press Slam off the second rope looked cool.
I just realized Enzo Amore has his name clipped in his hair.
He already stole the show.
Yow, is he legit hurt? He didn’t fall so much as drop. I don’t think that was planned.
That did not look good. That did not look good at all.
Did anyone see him moving at all? Like…at all? Other than breathing?
I don’t think that ending was planned. Probably whiplash and/or a concussion.