WTF is up with this Charlotte promo? I don’t even know what’s going on
She said she has a new confidence in her. I figure it’s some brand of tampon.
Guess they thought Ric was too old and creepy looking to attract a younger audience, so they replaced him with Dana.
Well, as I kept pointing out everywhere I could;
They created a WOMEN’S Division to put renewed focus on Women’s wrestling, and instead they made the primary focus A MAN. I don’t care if he’s Ric Flair, he’s in the way and distracting from the great women they have.
Maybe they finally figured that out.
Of course, the entire thing was to make Charlotte an even bigger heel. I half expected her to turn on Dana too, but that’d turn Dana face too and she doesn’t work as a face.
I do wonder, with Sasha out injured and the program with Nattie seemingly finished, if they will give Becky a run at the title. They’re a bit shy on faces all around, with only Nattie and Becky on the main roster and Bayley and Carmella in NXT.
They could, but that’s old hat. Besides, it’s Becky’s character to be the plucky underdog who ultimately loses, so I don’t think a program with her and Charlotte would even be believable.
Good point about the lack of faces though, they really just don’t have anyone anymore do they? They could try to make Paige face, wouldn’t be too hard since she’s been gone for so long.
Big news this morning; Smackdown is moving to Tuesday, it’s going to be live, and they’re bringing back the brand split.
Could be interesting if they actually stick with it instead of doing it for three weeks and then forgetting about it when Vince gets distracted by an ex-NFL player with rock hard abs.
Something like this is necessary because the overall roster is too big. I don’t think they’ll have the discipline to stick with it. I’m sure it’s not in the cards, but they should separate off a touring group that isn’t on TV all the time.
I like this idea simply because there are too many people on the roster and it would be a shame to cut all of them.
So does this mean they are adding a belt? Or is it just going to be “IC, US and the other guys”, while the tag belts and WHC stays on RAW?
ETA: I didn’t watch when the brand split was a thing the first time, so I don’t really know how it worked
Me neither, but from what I understand, the WWE title was the Raw title and the Big Gold Belt was the Smackdown title. I think the IC was on one show and the US on the other, but I’m not sure which. The two shows also had separate tag titles and womens’ titles, and most of the PPVs were either Raw-only or Smackdown-only except for the Big Four.
I’d like to see them bring back the Big Gold Belt at the very least - perhaps put it on Styles or Ambrose and make them the focus of Smackdown for the benefit of the fans who can’t stand Roman.
It was shortly after they acquired WCW and ECW that they did the first brand split, and called the former WCW belt the “World Championship title” and the other the WWE title. The secondary titles were consigned to either RAW or SD, but weren’t really an issue. They might have had the European title and/or Hardcore title back then too.
Like Smapti said, it wasn’t long until they had the A-listers appear on both shows to boost ratings, and eventually the notion of the brand split eroded. About the only good thing to come out of it was Dave Bautista’s debut. He was originally a bodyguard for DeVon Dudley after they split up the brothers from different mothers, and his career probably wouldn’t have taken off if they hadn’t done the split. They made a big thing about unifying the titles under Chris Jericho, which officially ended the brand split era.
I wonder how this will affect the Women’s division? Is the champ going to stay on one show and there be no women’s matches on the other? Or will they dig the Divas belt out of storage?
IIRC, Jericho unifying the titles was closer to the beginning of the brand split rather than the end. They split the two titles up again after Brock Lesnar became Undisputed Champion, and gave the Big Gold Belt to Triple H who proceeded to hold it more or less non-stop for three years. The split eventually petered out around 2010 or so and they re-reunified the titles on Randy Orton in 2013.
And we’re just going to see the same thing again. There’s no way to have two undisputed champions in the same wrestling promotion without ending up with a unification match. Oddly, you can have multiple undisputed champions in different wrestling promotions, and it works in boxing and MMA also. I guess ‘undisputed’ doesn’t mean what I think it does.
From what I’ve read, the big reason they did the unification in 2013 was because of Batista’s comeback. They were planning at the time for him to be the returning babyface who’d crush the Authority and win the title at WrestleMania 30, and putting both belts on him was probably a big enticement when they were working out the angle.
Of course, it didn’t work out that way - Batista got booed out of the building and eventually walked away four months into a two-year deal, CM Punk took his ball and went home, and Vince was left with no choice but to give the fans what they wanted and make Daniel Bryan champion. (Perhaps he insists on pushing Roman no matter how the crowd reacts because he’s still mad at them for messing up his plan.)
That’s a fine example of what happens when you push part-time guys or big returnees over the guys that have been busting their asses for the company for years.
Anyway, I’m not sure yet how I feel about the brand split returning.
I wonder if the new split will result in a change in PPV structure - the “big four” (WM, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble), four Raw-branded shows, and four Smackdown-branded shows?
The only problem with this is, they need a fifth combined show - Money In The Bank, with the return of the Red and Blue suitcases. In fact, I was thinking that there might be a “surprise announcement” that they would be doing this at the upcoming MITB show, but then I realized, how could they do it before “the draft” without telegraphing the names of some of the wrestlers heading to SD?
I actually don’t mind having the separate PPVs. With the advent of the network I watch all of them now and I’m actually pretty tired of seeing the same matches over and over and over again. Maybe now instead of seeing RR defend the belt every damn month we can see him every OTHER damn month.
Also, FWIW, a podcast I listen to has a fairly smart and in-the-know dude on it, and he says that it’s not really a brand split, just an emphasis on making Smackdown more relevant by highlighting specific (fan favorite) people
Yeah, the problem with the PPVs during the Brand Split is that the rosters were thin enough that they were trying to get people to pay $30 for mid-hour Raw/Smackdown matches. That probably matters a lot less with the network–even if a couple of the matches seem like “filler,” it’s not like you’re paying extra.
The Mighty Don’t Kneel!
not TM-61. C’mon NXT, that’s SAWFT.
*BAHWANNNGGGGAAAAAHHHHH
BAAANNNNHHHH*
Starts off with Pentagon Jr. wanting to leave Vampiro’s little corner of hell so he can be all Cero Miedo again. Vamp tells him he’s not ready yet. Maybe when he can grab the pebble out of Vamp’s hand?
Joey Ryan’s penis takes on Mascarita Sagrada. While Famous B jumps on the apron and offers to make the referee famous, the valet instructs Mascarita to kick Joey in the nuts. Masc delivers the low blow, then sells pain. The penis is too powerful. Joey otherwise acts like a little person wrestling. He’s weird. Joey gets the victory as the announcers note that Mascarita hasn’t gotten a victory under Famous B’s management yet.
No Catrina this episode, but things still get creepy. King Cuerno is in his trophy room, talking to someone unseen, decapitated heads of animals gawking from the walls in eternal despair. Cuerno says he’s King of the Jungle and bagged the greatest trophy of all. It’s Mil Muertes in a glass case, unmoving and lightly green from decay. The camera kept panning close to MM’s face, and I kept expecting his eyes to open, but I guess that’s a future storyline.
Isn’t it interesting that us lingo savvy internerds are now choosing the term “storyline” over “work” and “angle”? Well, me anyway.
LU has a cadre of masked luchas whose sole purpose is to get beat up during promos. In this case, Taya wears a red ball gown, talks about how she’s the perfect woman, and beats up jobbers in suits. She then joins Johnny Mundo outside like James Bond driving off with the gorgeous babe, but this time with the gender roles reversed. Johnny gets off his shotgun cock to the music as the car burns gravel.
Cage takes on Chavo Guerrero for the Gift of the Gods belt, which he stole because Guerreros. Chavo does what he does best, lying cheating and stealing, and getting off the Guerrero trademark Tres Amigos and the Five Star Frog Splash. Cage sells like somebody half his size and gets off the power moves as well. Cage defeats Chavo soundly, gets awarded the belt, and immediately turns it in to challenge Matanza for the LU champeenship. Cage is scary good.
Backstage, PJ Black and Jack Evans discover their teammate Fenix’s prone body. Johnny Mundo and Taya enter and announce that Fenix had an unfortunate accident and Johnny will take his place in their upcoming Trios championship match.
What a match it is. Evans runs his mouth but still disproves the laws of gravity. (he never studied law) There’s so much action it’s hard to keep track, so just assume it was awesome. Taya and Mundo get off a double super kick and pin El Dragon Azteca Jr for the win and the Trios belts. Mundo, Evans and Black have great chemistry with each other.
*BAHWANNNGGGGAAAAAHHHHH
BAAANNNNHHHH*
Just listened to Jericho’s interview with my future ex-wife Becky Lynch.
She’s had a crazy life. She’s got itchy feet, apparently. She moved to Vancouver direct from Dublin, then Japan, Thailand, the US, and has trained in Muy Thai, acting and clowning. She also used to be a flight attendant. She and Jericho both love puns, and kept dropping bon mots like “Becksploring” and “Becksploitation” and “Jericool.” She said when she trained with Finn Balor, all they had was a warehouse with mats, and an unneutered dog would wake her up in the mornings by dragging his balls across her face. She was a Becksellent interview.