The Wrestling Thread: WWE WrestleMania XL - 6/7 April 2024

[KK]

Just the way the show looks tonight due to the arena and lighting makes it look like a real big deal too.

The opening hour has flown by, but then these AEW shows never seen to drag. I even watched Dark prior to Dynamite.

From the glimpses I’ve seen thus far the cage design looks to be a little different.

[KK]

Good match between Cobb and Moxley. Didn’t end in a DQ or non finish either which I was kinda expecting.

[Mafro]

So the current Wreslemania card is looking like:

Reigns vs The Fiend
Lesnar vs McIntyre
Undertaker vs Styles
Cena vs Elias
Becky vs Baszler
Charlotte vs Ripley
Bayley vs Naomi
Edge vs Orton
Kabuki Warriors vs Bliss & Cross
Men's Battle Royal
Women's Battle Royal
Probably Raw & Smackdown tag title matches and cruiserweight title match somewhere too.

[Zellery]

AEW is so good lately.

I genuinely look forward to watching it every week and I honestly can't remember the last time I felt like this about wrestling. It was probably the late 90's.

I'll also be buying Revolution as the card is super stacked.

[Cumberdanes]

A non profit organisation founded by Ted DiBiase is under investigation for stealing government welfare money.

https://nypost.com/2020/02/14/wwe-legend-ted-dibiase-curiously-received-2-1-million-in-welfare-for-religious-nonprofit/

[KK]

I’m starting to think WWE is paying rather a lot of attention to what AEW is up to. From ignoring Vickie Guerrero after she appeared on Dark, booking a strap match for the first time in years because Cody Rhodes was getting 10 lashings, and a cage match in Saudi Arabia a week later after AEW has one in their main event on Dynamite. Coincidences? Hmmmmm. It was like last year how AEW had a concession stand brawl, and miraculously the same thing happens on RAW a few days later, and moving their female referee to the main shows and having her do main events right after AEW did it with Aubrey Edwards.

AEW also has mild swearing on their show, so a few weeks ago Kevin Owens is suddenly dropping stuff like “bullshit” unbleeped on RAW as well.

[Dangerblade]

New Japan Cup 2020 brackets have been revealed. Bolded matches are potential bangers.

4th March
Togi Makabe vs. Jeff Cobb
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Toa Henare
Toru Yano vs. Chase Owens
Colt Cabana vs. Bad Luck Fale

7th March
Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White
Yuji Nagata vs. Minoru Suzuki
Juice Robinson vs. Alex Coughlin
David Finlay vs. Tanga Loa

8th March
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Taichi
Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Mikey Nicholls vs. SANADA
Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi

9th March
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. YOSHI-HASHI
Karl Fredericks vs. KENTA
Satoshi Kojima vs. EVIL
Hirooki Goto vs. Yujiro Takahashi

[Mafro]

Alex Coughlin

Whoooooo?

I take it he's an RoH geek?

[Dangerblade]

Nah one of the current crop of Young Lions.

[Mafro]

Fantastic episode of Dynamite last night. Iron Man match was awesome.

There's a ton of cancelled events shows in Japan because of the coronavirus, including the start of the New Japan Cup. Stardom cancelled a bunch and are doing their show next week in an empty arena and streaming it on YouTube

twitter.com/we_are_stardom/status/1232772348438204416

[Zellery]

That Iron Man Match.

[Slimgrady]

Wheel Chair Wrestling

[tomvek]

twitter.com/WWEUniverse/status/1233125306967502848

Oh my

[KK]

At least they got rid of the red light gimmick. The storytelling here is piss poor (Fiend was unstoppable and now he’s going down to a few Spears and a weak looking Jackhammer - Goldberg barely got him up). Still, Goldberg is just a stop gap champion so they can put the belt on Reigns at WrestleMania and so the merry-go-round continues.

Uncoincidentally, ordered AEW Revolution for Saturday.

[captain red dog]

I think it's probably time to class The Fiend as another failed experiment. To be honest, I don't think the character recovered from that first match with Rollins.

I think Bray needs to really change his ring style. He is fantastic at building a character, but since he has been on the main card I can't think of one memorable decent match he has done. Maybe his matches against Bryan are his best, but that was largely Bryan doing all the work.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

I don’t get what wwe are doing. Why not have Goldberg v Cena at mania. You don’t need a title to be involved. Then keep the fiend v Roman if they want to put the title on him at mania.

[tomvek]

I don’t get what wwe are doing. Why not have Goldberg v Cena at mania. You don’t need a title to be involved. Then keep the fiend v Roman if they want to put the title on him at mania.

Yeah, that would make a lot more sense. The only reason I can think of is Goldberg bumped their Smackdown ratings so maybe they wanted more of that with the shock win. Still, makes no sense to build the Fiend for so long then have him lose like that to Goldberg this close to Mania #WWELogic

[Return_of_the_STAR]

I don’t get what wwe are doing. Why not have Goldberg v Cena at mania. You don’t need a title to be involved. Then keep the fiend v Roman if they want to put the title on him at mania.

Yeah, that would make a lot more sense. The only reason I can think of is Goldberg bumped their Smackdown ratings so maybe they wanted more of that with the shock win. Still, makes no sense to build the Fiend for so long then have him lose like that to Goldberg this close to Mania #WWELogic

Indeed. They could surely have had bigger bumps in the ratings with Goldberg and Cena facing off weekly like they did with rock and Cena. I get Cena isn't here yet but he's supposed to be coming so why not have Goldberg has a small feud with someone else for a few weeks first.

[KK]

I think Goldberg’s chances of getting booed have probably gone up as well (at least until Reigns turns up). There was a smattering yesterday in Saudi Arabia. There was for Mansoor too, surprisingly.

[Zellery]

Revolution tonight.

Haven't looked forward to a PPV like this for a long long time.