The Wrestling Thread: WWE WrestleMania 31 [NSFW]

[Rog]

Yo who wants to see a John Cena sex scene in the new Judd Apatow movie?

Wonder if it's a direct shot at Ziggler.

[Mafro]

Watching NXT now. First match was really good.

Bull Dempsey is shiiiit. Everything about him annoys me, from his fat strawberry floater face to his awful entrance music.

[Kanbei]

NXT was fantastic. Balor/Neville, Fatal 4 Way and Zayn/Owens were awesome.

[KK]

Does anyone know of a way to watch WWE RAW Live, in high quality, without Sky Sports? There must be some good quality streams knocking about somewhere.

[dix]

Does anyone know of a way to watch WWE RAW Live, in high quality, without Sky Sports? There must be some good quality streams knocking about somewhere.

idntv.net is pretty good. Works for me at least.

[Mafro]

That woman's 4 way was strawberry floating fantastic, especially Sasha. The women's matches continue to be the best thing about NXT. It's gonna be a shame when they get called up to the main roster and start having 2 minute slap matches with the Bellas.

Thought that main event finish was a bit dumb. Almost Raw-style booking there.

[CuriousOyster]

Aye the main event finish was a bit flat and awkward, think the match went on far too long as well. Overall fantastic show yet again. Yer man Owens can fair shift it for a fatty, hes awesome.

Not really doing much with Hideo are they?Tbh I've not been overly impressed with him so far. Finn Balor is shitting on him, was hoping for some Venom face paint but alas. Wasn't that the exact same as last Takeover get up?

Sasha Banks

[Mafro]

Aye his Venom paint was gooseberry fool hot but I can't see WWE ever letting him use that over his current design which they can slap on merchandise and sell.

[KK]

Some news on the Network from the Conference Call...

• WWE Network added 85,000 subscribers during the quarter, representing a 12% increase from September 30, and reached 816,000 subscribers at year-end. The subscriber growth reflected the acquisition of 336,000 subscribers, which was 17% above the gross subscriber additions in the preceding quarter.
  
• Fourth quarter subscriber performance demonstrated the efficacy of the Company’s free trial offering in November and underscored the impact sampling could have on subscriber growth. The November promotion attracted approximately 242,000 trial subscribers.
  
• The U.S. version of WWE Network was made available in more than 170 countries and territories beginning August 12, 2014. At year-end, WWE Network had approximately 44,000 international subscribers.
  
• WWE Network’s compelling live and new original content continued to drive viewer engagement. During the quarter, WWE’s NXT Live program, which features the Company’s emerging talent, attracted increased viewership and social media activity as well as fueled e-commerce merchandise sales. Also exemplifying the power of live content, a network special with Vince McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin® was among the most watched original programs on the network, generated social media activity that was among the top 10 worldwide trending topics on Twitter during the program.
  
• As the WWE Network subscriber base has grown, the network continues to cultivate a high level of satisfaction and subscriber engagement. Viewer data indicates that, on average over 2014, close to 90% of subscribers accessed WWE Network at least once per week and 90% of subscribers are satisfied with WWE Network.
  
• The VOD library is now over 2,700 hours of the over 100,000 hours WWE currently has in their library. At the end of December, they were over 800,000 subscribers. They had 240,000 free trial subscribers in November with 80% of those still subscribers in January.
• UK and Ireland was their second largest country for the Network "almost overnight."
• The Stone Cold Podcast were two of the most watched specials live in the history of the Network.
• They are going to invest in a lot more original content in early 2015, including more Live specials, Talk Shows, Animations and more.

[CuriousOyster]

Aye his Venom paint was gooseberry fool hot but I can't see WWE ever letting him use that over his current design which they can slap on merchandise and sell.

Yup, just looking at his twitter hes got a T shirt with that design on it. Pretty cool though. I want a KO t shirt

[Mockmaster]

Really enjoyed the NXT Event.

The tag champs with the Skrillex theme are money.

[NBK]

Aye his Venom paint was gooseberry fool hot but I can't see WWE ever letting him use that over his current design which they can slap on merchandise and sell.

Yup, just looking at his twitter hes got a T shirt with that design on it. Pretty cool though. I want a KO t shirt

I think there were some embellishments to his face paint this time: the tongue and wings on the back were new, but yeah, would have been good to see a different crazy face.

I thought the NXT card was brilliant and the booking to the main event was actually a pretty interesting way to go. They'll no doubt be able to build Zane back up until the eventual re-match and it gives the opportunity for some interesting title matches with Owens.

There were some pretty ropey exchanges and slip ups in the earlier matches (Bull 'falling' over the ropes off camera was obviously a howler judging by the crowd's reaction) but the overall quality of the matches cancelled them out.

The women's match was fantastic. Sasha Charlotte Becky Lynch I wonder how genuine Corey Graves' dislike of her is?

[KK]

There are many people within WWE who are high on former NXT Women's Champion Charlotte but she also has people who are negative on bringing her to the main roster, including Vince McMahon. The negativity may have to do with some people having their vision of what a WWE Diva should look like and Charlotte not fitting the supermodel image. Charlotte is still expected to be brought to the main roster soon however.

The last time she was featured on RAW was the 8th December 2014, in which she lost to Natalya in about 2:30 with an inside cradle. This was somehow supposed to get people interested in her championship match 3 days later.

[dix]

Don't think they'll ever have Venom face paint for Balór, if anything just because of big potential lawsuits from Marvel, and if they can brand him themselves it means he'll sell much better to kids who can imagine him as having his own superhero alter ego, rather than him just cosplaying as a Marvel character.

[Psychic]

Wow.

[Cosmo]

What the strawberry float am I reading?

Also, Charlotte doesn't fit the 'Supermodel' image? Who gives a strawberry float? Honestly, nobody knows what they'er doing. Why bring someone in if you don't want to use them in a positive way? Utterly astounding.

[Slimgrady]

Charlotte has zero arse,would not bang promote to the main roster.
Im sure Finn Balors face paint will change every now and then,every few months or so like John Cena with his t shirts.And I'm sure Marvel would be cool with Venom face paint as a once off,at Wrestlemania or something.Rey Mysterio had Dare Devel,Flash,Joker etc outfits as a once off and I assume there were no law suits because of them.

[Balloon Sod]

I can't remember ever enjoying a wrestling product as much as I do current NXT.

Literally went from being the worst wrestling show to being the absolute best going.

[tomvek]

Just finished watching Raw and I like the way they finally seem to be turning Reigns heel. I'm not a big fan of his work but they could definitely salvage the WM main event a bit by turning him full heel and making it a triple threat with Brian and Brock. They really need someone like Brian in the match due to his in-ring work, energy and ability to make others look good. Brock vs Reigns on it's own is just be a bit meh.

Also Rollins has been an absolute pleasure to watch over the last while, he's just gone from strength to strength. It's just a shame he won't be involved in the WM main event and will probably be stuck with Orton Though I'm really hoping he cashes in after the main event at Mania

Next up is the NXT PPV, really looking forward to it!

[Return_of_the_STAR]

If Reigns is turning heel then I wonder if they will have rock turn up at some point to try to tell Reigns that he needs to change his attitude or something and then have Reigns take rock out.

I can almost see Reigns turning into a sort of Kevin Nash character basically going around everywhere saying that he doesn't care etc all turn. I'm not suggesting this as a good thing by the way.