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The Official Wrestling Discussion Thread 17.0

iLorangine

Karen is NOT a Slur, sis
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:dead:

CRIIIIIING!!!


They couldn't WAIT to put ha asson the RAW banner and she literally just wrestled her 1st match on there
oprah_wow.gif



Meanwhile they won't even put the damn SDL womens champion on theirs either. CharGOAT has yet to even have a match there :dead: Guess the popular women get that spot :disdain:

Chile.... this attempt at vernacular.
 

cherryboom1

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Honey, don't even bother trying to speak logic to that one...she's/he's a crazy stalker that doesn't live here in the real world. I would just ignore and scroll like most of us here do to it.

Thanks for that, and I will
 

UseMePlease

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R.I.P Matt Anoa'i aka Rosey...condolences to the Anoa'i family
400px-Anoa'i,_Matt_(USGov).jpg

Thankfully, Roman has a build-in support system on the road:

Former WWE performer Matt “Rosey” Anoa’i, an older brother to Roman Reigns and son of Sika of the Wild Samoans, has died, WWE confirmed. He was 47.

A cause of death has not been released, but he had been hospitalized in 2014 with heart disease.

Anoa’i was trained by his uncles and wrestled in numerous independent promotions before signing with WWE in 2002. He was introduced as a member of “3 Minute Warning” with a cousin who took the ring name Jamal as enforcers for Eric Bischoff, then the RAW general manager.

After Jamal was released, Anoa’i donned a superhero mask and teamed with “Hurricane” Shane Helms and was known as a “Super Hero In Training” during the Attitude Era. The duo won the world tag team titles. Jamal, whose real name is Eddie Fatu, later returned to WWE as Umaga.

The family released a statement Tuesday:

"The Anoa’i family is mourning the loss of Sika's son, Matt aka Rosey, due to an untimely death.
"We want to let his fans know that he loved them and the wrestling world so much. In his passing, he left three beautiful young children and a heartbroken family. Please respect the privacy of his children and family as they mourn the loss of this kind, loving, gentle man, who was a father, son, brother and a superhero to us all.

“Our family appreciates your prayers and continued support during this very difficult time."

Anoa’i, who wrestled at nearly 400 pounds, was released in 2006 and returned to the independent scene, appearing for various promotions, including ones owned by his family. He also was part of a number of business ventures, including owning a Samoan restaurant in Cincinnati, where he lived.
As a youngster, Anoa’i played high school football in Florida and later earned a scholarships to the University of Hawaii. After football, he worked as a bouncer in New Orleans before deciding to get into the family business.

“I sat there one night and was looking at the bartender,” Matt told WWE.com in 2012. “He was probably in his 60s. It just dawned on me that I needed to get out of this town and pursue a career. Wrestling became the glove that fit.”

He is survived by his wife and two children.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2017/04/18/matt-rosey-anoai-wwe-dies/100599372/


[IGM]p/BTCARF_gT1g[/IGM]
 

Lovenwear

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Lol paige got pretty annoyed with del rio on periscope. She asked 'Which are better mexican girls or european girls?'

Del rio turned his head the other way and said 'next question please' :highly_amused::highly_amused:
 

Illyria

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JFC, reading is very fundamental. :disdain:
Guess I really am surrounded by idiots on here... :dead:


Anywho,

WWE has a new poll asking fans which Superstar who just swapped brands will be the first to win a title - Charlotte Flair, The New Day, Rusev, Lana, The Shining Stars, Sami Zayn, Sin Cara, Jinder Mahal, Tamina Snuka, The Miz, Maryse, Bray Wyatt, Alexa Bliss, Mickie James, Apollo Crews, Kalisto, Heath Slater & Rhyno or Curt Hawkins.

As of this writing, 33% went with Flair while 32% voted for Bliss, 9% for Sami, 8% for The New Day and 4% for Wyatt. The rest received 2% or under.

Of course they are the top two :dance: I can see AlexxxaBAE winning at Payback (hopefully) but CHARGOAT is def snatching that title at whatever PPV SDL is having. #FeelTheFLAIR
sass2.png
 

DreamBlue

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Lol paige got pretty annoyed with del rio on periscope. She asked 'Which are better mexican girls or european girls?'

Del rio turned his head the other way and said 'next question please' :highly_amused::highly_amused:

Well to be fair, it was a pretty stupid question. Did she expect the man to say that European girls are better, thereby putting down his entire home country just to give her a self esteem boost? :disdain: She is still very immature.
 

UseMePlease

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Well to be fair, it was a pretty stupid question. Did she expect the man to say that European girls are better, thereby putting down his entire home country just to give her a self esteem boost? :disdain: She is still very immature.

And extremely stupid.
 

Illyria

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I'm kinda salty as hell Charlotte gonna be the 1st woman to hold both titles before Alexa lol :cry 512x512:

But I'm all here for Queen CharGOAT's reign. I'm so excited! #ItsAWrap #NoPeasantsAllowed
tumblr_ont5ouEGoG1uxtjooo7_500.gif


When she win the belt next week, hopefully they get Naomi out the way at the next PPV and move on from her so I can get my Charlotte/Becky 2.0 feud. I wouldn't be mad at Char/Natalya either cos I loved their feud in NXT and Smackdown has the right creative to make that feud fun again. No more novices for CharGOAT on SD...PLEASE Vince
tumblr_inline_oomuyedg3S1tvwlwl_500.gif
 

EthanCarterIII

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I switched over from the Phillies game to see AJ Styles' butt and it never disappoints
 

UseMePlease

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[FONT=&amp]Mike Bennett and Maria, formerly of TNA and ROH, are headed to WWE’s main roster, according to PWTorch sources. A return to Impact Wrestling was a possibility, but WWE’s offer more appealing. They are expected to land on Smackdown.
[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]Keller’s Analysis: It’s surprising they’re jumping right to the main roster, according to what we’re hearing. They are a WWE-style act, based on their presentation on Impact Wrestling last year, and Bennett’s in-ring style is more along the lines of “WWE style” than “Indy style,” so I’m not shocked Vince McMahon would have interest in them.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]Damn, it's like a reverse exodus.

Wonder how Nicholas feels about Maria Kanellis-Bennett's pending return?
[/FONT]
 

Hoodnique

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Sucks Naomi lost tonight but I hope she retains next week. Not my favorite SD but it was still better than RAW. I'm also happy Jinder is number one contender for Randy's belt
 

BalmainBaby

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UseMePlease

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Why is Lana trying to do a Naomi dance routine??

Idk when this was, but I just saw it was posted on Twitter today:

https://twitter.com/slicewrestling/status/854513560252284928

I AM YELLING.


Sent from my iPhone using Lipstick Alley mobile app powered by Tapatalk

*cringe*

Why does it look like she had to think about EVERY.. SINGLE.. STEP.. before she did it.


Sucks Naomi lost tonight but I hope she retains next week. Not my favorite SD but it was still better than RAW. I'm also happy Jinder is number one contender for Randy's belt

The one time Jinder truly needs to stiff someone in the ring
 

MOKUJIN

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Jinder's promo was all truth. Sami should've won, and it looks like Naomi might be losing. Either the three girls will turn on Charlotte or align with her. They're all generational, so you never know.
 

BlayzeA

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If they try to do what they did at Royal Rumble 2K17 with Jinder then :fork_off:.
 

Illyria

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[FONT=&amp]Unfortunately, there isn’t a timetable for Nikki Bella’s WWE return. Her neck is an issue, but she’s no longer expected to be a full-time performer for the company. Nikki making some appearances on WWE television and only having big matches is acceptable going forward. On paper, that means Bella versus Charlotte could happen heading into [/FONT]WWE Summerslam[FONT=&amp], especially if Charlotte captures the [/FONT]SmackDown[FONT=&amp] Women’s Title.[/FONT]


tumblr_inline_oomzy8vUDH1tvwlwl_500.gif



CAN WE NOT! No one wants to see this! Keep Nikki far away from the title....and WWE. Let her stay in her delusional Hollywood fairytale.
This is from the Inq so maybe this won't happen, but alot of other people credible people suspect this will happen. I hope not........UGH.
 

SimplyCiCi

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[FONT=&amp]Damn, it's like a reverse exodus.

Wonder how Nicholas feels about Maria Kanellis-Bennett's pending return?
[/FONT]

Like karma is finally being served?

*cringe*

Why does it look like she had to think about EVERY.. SINGLE.. STEP.. before she did it.




The one time Jinder truly needs to stiff someone in the ring

I hope Jinder crushes Randy. As for Lana, I hope they just let her wrestle. She's pretty decent.

Jinder's promo was all truth. Sami should've won, and it looks like Naomi might be losing. Either the three girls will turn on Charlotte or align with her. They're all generational, so you never know.

Charlotte shouldn't win this early. She needs to chase it a bit longer.
 

Hoodnique

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^ Agreed. I don't mind Charlotte becoming Smackdown's Women's Champion in the future. However Charlotte shouldn't beat Naomi so soon. Nor at the next Smackdown paperview. Reading Lana's post besides her dislike for Nikki. I'm sorry to hear that Nikki's neck is really messing with her. If only she knew sooner that her original "Rack Attack" was putting pressure on her neck. Anyways I can't wait to see both Bella Twins again in action. Even if it's only for special events.
 

UseMePlease

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^ Agreed. I don't mind Charlotte becoming Smackdown's Women's Champion in the future. However Charlotte shouldn't beat Naomi so soon. Nor at the next Smackdown paperview. Reading Lana's post besides her dislike for Nikki. I'm sorry to hear that Nikki's neck is really messing with her. If only she knew sooner that her original "Rack Attack" was putting pressure on her neck. Anyways I can't wait to see both Bella Twins again in action. Even if it's only for special events.

Don't be....

a. if the average fan viewing her pre-surgery matches knew something was off back that particular move, then she had to know. and probably ignored anyone that told she so.

b. 99.99999 percent sure Nicholas felt a different type of pain in her neck and upper shoulders after every match BEFORE the problem reached the "you need surgery" point.

c. doing a move that should've been reserve for a power/heavy lifter (ex: Chyna, Beth P., Nattie) or someone with good in-ring execution technique and upper body strengthen AFTER getting breast implants that puts additional strain on the upper body.

d. being an attention hoe and glory hog backfired. rushing to return to the ring after having neck surgery was beyond stupid.
 

BabysScorpio

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yeah tbh Nikki must have known or at least have been told that the rack attack would put heavy strain on her neck. She should have saved that move for ppvs only because it was honestly really good. Not gonna blame her or anything because i'm sure she felt pressure from everyone about becoming a better wrestler, especially with the nxt girls getting the call ups.... Regardless I don't think we have to worry about Nikki because I honestly don't think she's coming back, at least not to wrestle. Necks are nothing to play with and I hope she isn't rushing to come back, if it's bugged you for a second time, it's always going to bug you, at this point. Just retire and call it a day.
 

Dnaijessica

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[MENTION=210331]BabysScorpio[/MENTION], I don't see Nikki coming back at all because she's got the ring. She has no reason to come back especially since she's injured.
 

iLorangine

Karen is NOT a Slur, sis
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Her dancing has always made me cringe and I've been hoping it would never be brought to the main roster. :shame:

So this isn't new??! Baby got moves like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. Smh.
 

Blandy Borton

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@BabysScorpio, I don't see Nikki coming back at all because she's got the ring. She has no reason to come back especially since she's injured.
Nikki and her stans have it in their minds that the women's division is nothing without them. But Nikki needs to stay home and "plan her wedding"
 

Dnaijessica

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Nikki and her stans have it in their minds that the women's division is nothing without them. But Nikki needs to stay home and "plan her wedding"

I'm sure she's worrying the pure sh!t out of the wedding planner as we speak. I don't think she wants to come back though.
 

Kenny Omega

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Ember Moon may be injured.

Ember Moon may have suffered an injury at tonight's WWE NXT TV tapings from Full Sail University.

A battle royal to crown a new #1 contender to NXT Women's Champion Asuka was taped for the May 17th episode. During the match, Ember was knocked from the top rope to the floor. Our correspondent noted that she essentially did a suicide dive and nailed the guardrail with her shoulder. The match soon ended while Ember was seen crying at ringside. She was helped to the back by referees and medics.

http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0419/625437/possible-injury-at-tonight-wwe-nxt-tv-tapings/
 

BalmainBaby

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So this isn't new??! Baby got moves like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. Smh.
:dead: I'm never gonna be able to look at her the same again. But no, she started doing that routine months ago at the NXT events. I'm afraid she'll come out on SmackDown doing her little cabaret thing and then break out with that dancing. :highly_amused: Let's hope not.
 

TERRASTAR18

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Sucks Naomi lost tonight but I hope she retains next week. Not my favorite SD but it was still better than RAW. I'm also happy Jinder is number one contender for Randy's belt

I didn't like how they made it a squash match. They bend over backwards for Flair.
 

Hoodnique

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I didn't like how they made it a squash match. They bend over backwards for Flair.

I wouldn't consider the match with Naomi and Charlotte a squash match. After all Naomi had her moments in the match. It wasn't anything like Balor vs Hawkins. It just sucks that Charlotte seems to always have priority over the other female talent. Yeah she loses here and there but usually wins when it counts. I just want Charlotte not to be handed the SD Women's Championship. When there are others who should be in line for the belt. Also while I can only speak for myself. Even without Nikki or Brie. The Women's Division will be alright. I care much more about Nikki's health than wanting to see her get inside the ring. If Nikki feels risking her neck. Isn't worth getting back into the ring. I wouldn't fault her for retire. Even if many others disagree. Nikki was a great wrestler and had an awesome career. The same goes for Brie as well. The only difference Brie doesn't have any injuries. Preventing her from wrestling again. My only concern is people will judge her. Not being a stay at home mom. Anyways I look forward to next week's SD
 

TERRASTAR18

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I wouldn't consider the match with Naomi and Charlotte a squash match. After all Naomi had her moments in the match. It wasn't anything like Balor vs Hawkins. It just sucks that Charlotte seems to always have priority over the other female talent. Yeah she loses here and there but usually wins when it counts. I just want Charlotte not to be handed the SD Women's Championship. When there are others who should be in line for the belt. Also while I can only speak for myself. Even without Nikki or Brie. The Women's Division will be alright. I care much more about Nikki's health than wanting to see her get inside the ring. If Nikki feels risking her neck. Isn't worth getting back into the ring. I wouldn't fault her for retire. Even if many others disagree. Nikki was a great wrestler and had an awesome career. The same goes for Brie as well. The only difference Brie doesn't have any injuries. Preventing her from wrestling again. My only concern is people will judge her. Not being a stay at home mom. Anyways I look forward to next week's SD
I'm just heated about them shoving char down ppl's throats. Vince is really trying to bury sdl by making all the raw ppl come and dominate(well except his precious randy). Pin the champ the first night?! I like Char but they have her worse than Cena. And they made Tamina a damn jobber on her 1st night.
 

Kenny Omega

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Random Dirtsheet Blurbs (copypastaed from this week's Observer)

-Katsuyori Shibata, 37, who remains hospitalized after his 4/9 IWGP title match with Kazuchika Okada at Tokyo Sumo Hall, is said by friends of his to be unlikely to ever be cleared to wrestle again after surgery due to a subdural hematoma from a sick skull-on-skull head-butt spot as a counter to being hit with the rainmaker. The combination of the length of the match, dehydration and the trauma from the head-butt led to doctors advising New Japan that they would likely never be able to clear him to wrestle in good conscience. New Japan has not announced this publicly, nor has anything been said publicly about Shibata’s situation after some brief statements in the days after the match. Dr. Shunji Asamoto, who performed the surgery, noted that he would need a strict examination before being cleared to wrestle and that he’s not optimistic at all.

-The situation with Mauro Ranallo and WWE hasn’t changed as representatives from both sides were working out a settlement regarding the remainder of his contract. It is expected that a non-disclosure agreement regarding everything that happened would be part of the settlement. The story is tough because many people will openly talk about it, but few will go on the record because most are either in the company and aren’t allowed nor would want to publicly talk about it, and those who will mostly talk about the period of a decade or longer ago, where there is no debate about what was going on, since person-after-person has gone on record about it and enough stories have been told confirming things. (earlier last week it came out that WWE was trying to buy his silence which is super sh!tty) I'll post the whole section from this in the next post

-Charlie Haas, 45, who hasn’t been wrestling much in recent years, may have to retire as he was expected to undergo neck surgery this week. Haas was the champion of the Odessa, TX-based Old School Wrestling promotion. The promotion announced this at their 4/15 house show and it was described as possibly career-ending. Haas has had neck problems for many years. He was apparently dropped on his head in a match over the past few weeks, and had inflamed nerves and ended up with numbness in both arms. He had a procedure done on 4/13 but there hasn’t been any word about how he is doing afterwards past he’ll be out of action for a while.

-Shelton Benjamin, 41, has started taking indie bookings. He had never signed with WWE. He was about to sign in July and vignettes for him starting airing on Smackdown when they discovered he had been working with a torn rotator cuff that both he and they weren’t aware of. He underwent surgery and was just cleared to return. At this point WWE hasn’t given any indication of bringing him back so he’s taking indie dates. He had been a regular in Pro Wrestling NOAH as part of Suzuki-gun, but they were all called back to New Japan. New Japan is overloaded right now with foreign talent and we haven’t heard his name mentioned, but he did give notice there when he got the WWE call.

-The Squared Circle restaurant in Chicago, owned by Lisa Marie Varon and husband (at the time iirc) Lee, closed up on 4/10 after four years. The place was a hotbed on pro wrestling nights and UFC nights. But when Lisa Varon moved from Chicago back to Southern California, the biggest drawing card was gone and Lee had talked of a possible murky future of the place for a few years.

-Ian Riccaboni signed a contract as the new ROH lead announcer. He’d been with the company for a few years and had been doing the Women of Honor shows on YouTube before Kevin Kelly took the full-time gig as New Japan announcer (Kelly still does big shows here when it doesn’t conflict with New Japan, but Riccaboni is the new lead announcer). Riccaboni is a huge baseball fan and even wrote a book about the 100 greatest players in the history of the Philadelphia Phillies franchise.

-Alberto El Patron has signed a deal with TNA. Details aren’t announced regarding how this affects his international and independent dates. He did pull out of all of his bookings for this coming weekend at the last minute since TNA had him booked for Orlando tapings. Other people they have their eyes on are Matt Sydal (who just returned to ROH and generally speaking, unless your name is Cody Rhodes, you can’t work in both places at the same time) and Flip Gordon as potential X Division wrestlers and there was talk of bringing in Mascarita Sagrada as well. There was an attempt to sign Lio Rush that was quashed pretty quickly too.

-
Chad “Akebono” Rowan, 47, who is almost surely the most famous active pro wrestler within Japan, was hospitalized after doing a show on 4/11 for the DDT promotion in Omuta, and while details are sparse, Japanese pro wrestling and sumo reports and other Japanese news reports through the week categorized his situation as life threatening, being in a medically induced coma over the weekend. Others in Japan believed his career could be over. On 4/18, the Oudou promotion released a statement saying that Akebono was currently under treatment for cellulitis and an infection in his right leg, and announced he had been pulled from all future wrestling dates. They claimed that Akebono was recuperating and aiming to return to the ring, and that Japanese media articles on the subject were inaccurate, although they did not address anything specific that was inaccurate. Other reports said that his condition was not critical. Rowan was reported over the weekend as being in a medically induced coma and was expected to be hospitalized for at least another week. His family was brought to the hospital. While this was reported in Japan about him going to the hospital, it is surprising how little has been said about it in public past that. Akebono had worked two shows on 4/11, an afternoon charity show for Earthquake victims in the town of Mashiki, before going to Omuta, about an hour away, for the DDT show that evening. On the morning of 4/12, he was taken to a Fukuoka hospital. His wife and children were rushed to Fukuoka and stayed until 4/17. From a name standpoint, Akebono, who was one of the biggest stars in the history of sumo, would be more famous mainstream in Japan than any living pro wrestler with the exception of probably Antonio Inoki.

-Promotions, such as What Culture Pro Wrestling, who relied on the YouTube royalties as a main revenue source, as well as others who felt that was the future, took a big hit because YouTube has put pro wrestling in the restricted mode, and because of advertiser issues with restricted mode things, it’s cut ad revenue down to nothing. WWE would be hurt the most in theory, since they have by far the most content. But they also may have a special deal. Even if they are hurt, YouTube revenue was a tiny, tiny part of their financial picture and other streams more than make up for it. One person with full knowledge of the situation, because they handle the YouTube accounts for their company, noted to us that this started on 3/25. He also noted that the revenue isn’t that large that we’re talking about, estimating a company will get about $400 per every one million views. That number would drop to about $60 for the same number of views under the new system, so about 15 percent. But the feeling is that if WWE had the same deal, they wouldn’t be putting stuff on YouTube, where they make considerably less money, immediately after it airs on live television, since that particularly undercuts the entire West Coast where you can get the YouTube highlights of the show before it even airs.

-The plan is for WWE and the Hardys is to go to the Broken gimmick with the idea that it’ll be a major merchandise mover. WWE is attempting to make a deal with Anthem so everything is on hold when it comes to that until the sides come to an agreement. When Matt did his interview on Raw, he was speaking like the old Matt Hardy but did a very quick tease of the accent of the character and they legally can’t stop a guy talking with an accent. So the idea is teases until they have the rights to do it. On social media, Matt is using the phrase “Torn Matt Hardy” instead of “Broken Matt Hardy,” as well as calling himself “Brother Moore,” since Anthem has no claimed ownership of Brother Moore, only Brother Nero.

-Paige is not figured into any plans going forward after her neck recovers from surgery unless things change. Everything that’s happened is the reason. The only thing that could save her is the Dwayne Johnson movie. And nobody knows if she wants to come back anyway, since it’ll be tough on her relationship being constantly back on the road.

-It’s a well-known story that the song “Glorious” was not written for Roode, and that it was written for another wrestler, who turned it down. So it was sitting there and Roode was given it and it’s really made his career. The identity of the wrestler who turned it down hadn’t come out, but it was Nakamura. Nakamura was hands on when it came to his music, felt the song didn’t fit him, and was a big part of putting together the song “The Rising Son” which is the most played of all the current WWE themes. As it turned out, fate was good because, and maybe this is because we’ve seen it, but the song fits Roode better and Nakamura may not fit the song. In both cases, the music they ended up with have helped both tremendously, making them both superstars and allowing them to get over toning down their in-ring work with both nearing 40.

-There was a newspaper report in India saying that Kavita Dalal may be part of the upcoming women’s tournament. Dalal trained at Great Khali’s school and is a former weightlifter who has been on the national team in that sport in international competitions. She has worked on Khali’s big shows in India in the past.
 

Kenny Omega

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JBL/Mauro fuckery from this week's Observer:

The situation with Mauro Ranallo and WWE hasn’t changed as representatives from both sides were working out a settlement regarding the remainder of his contract.

It is expected that a non-disclosure agreement regarding everything that happened would be part of the settlement.

The story is tough because many people will openly talk about it, but few will go on the record because most are either in the company and aren’t allowed nor would want to publicly talk about it, and those who will mostly talk about the period of a decade or longer ago, where there is no debate about what was going on, since person-after-person has gone on record about it and enough stories have been told confirming things.

Ranallo’s return to broadcasting came a week earlier than expected. He was to start back on 4.22 doing the Shawn Porter vs. Andre Berto boxing match on Showtime, but instead returned on 4/16 doing the iPPV of the Rizin Fighting Federation show with Frank Shamrock.

The two were last minute replacements. Earlier in the week, there was a falling out between Rizin head Nobuyuki Sakakibara and Jerry Millen. Millen had gotten rid of Ranallo as the lead announcer for Pride after he had taken over more than a decade ago, and also had problems with Bas Rutten, who quit. After Millen was gone, meaning his announcing team was out, Sakakibara at the last minute contacted Ranallo and Shamrock, which led to Ranallo tweeting “Karma is real. Just ask the dude who wasn’t in Japan this weekend.”

Layfield returned to the company in 2012 as a color commentator after Jerry Lawler suffered a heart attack. He moved to Smackdown in the summer of 2016, replacing Jerry Lawler in working with Ranallo.

Lawler and Ranallo had made a good pairing, in the sense that Lawler been revitalized on Smackdown and was doing his best work in many years. But the plan had always been to phase Lawler out, since Vince McMahon has always had a thing about announcers being old. Lawler’s move to Smackdown was step one, and then from there, he was to be replaced a few months later, no matter how well the team worked.

There was an issue early. Lawler, used to calling Jim Ross “J.R.,” started calling Ranallo “M.R.,” likely an inside rib since decades earlier, when Lawler and McMahon were growing up, the term “M.R.” was considered one of the worst playground slurs, similar to gay slurs in their generation, as it was short for “mental ******.” Of course few would know that since the term went away probably by the 70s. But after a few weeks, it was dropped.

Ranallo started with Smackdown at the start of 2016, as a change for the show moving to the USA Network from Syfy. When he was first contacted by Michael Cole and Paul Levesque, he had come off announcing the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight for Showtime and was getting strong reviews as the lead announcer of New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS.

He was told at the time that they wanted him to be himself, because they wanted Smackdown to have a different feel from Raw and come across more like a sport. Of course, there was the usual stuff of banned words and phrases. For a few months, everything seemed fine, until Vince McMahon wanted him to be more like Michael Cole, essentially the exact opposite thing he was hired to be.

At that point, things started to go sour. The description from those there was that Ranallo, being different, made him the butt of jokes. One person described it as the smart guys being intimidated because they usually could get away with being the smartest in the room, but Ranallo had this insane memory of knowledge of certain subjects that either left people in awe or threatened. He was tabbed as weird and the production room was filled with a lot of people who were emotionally still in high school. Ranallo was in the position of being the weird kid in school. Plus, Ranallo was outwardly bipolar, so that environment in the long-term was going to be trouble.

The way he interacted with people on social media so heavily was almost inherently going to be an issue, but it’s unknown whether it was ever discussed with him. Layfield brought it up on the air during Smackdown a few times, but that came across as acting in character but it being fiction with elements of reality.

Later during the “Bring It To The Table,” episode on the WWE Network that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was noted to us that the subject matter of burying Ranallo was part of that episode and not Layfield going off on his own, and discussed ahead of time as to what should and shouldn’t be said. Even though that was all talked about ahead of time, Layfield’s limited response to everything was to claim everything he said about Ranallo was because he was playing the role of heel on television, which was not the case in that segment. And even if Vince McMahon wouldn’t have been part of those discussions, Kevin Dunn was. More importantly, even after the realization of what happened and how it caused a breakdown, Vince McMahon by this point should have either edited the segment off the replays of the show or just taken the show out of its rotation of the network, rather than continued to promote it.

Another person noted to us that there would be the jibes about appearance and such, very much like a high school situation, and it was far more than just Layfield. Others said that the cool kids were always doing that with the ring announcers and some of the other commentators who weren’t wrestlers first and weren’t seen as real tough guys, or even Byron Saxton, who started as a wrestler but was never a star. It was noted that if Saxton had been Ranallo, that the feeling is by holding it in for so long, he’d probably explode in a bad way, but Saxton was taught early on to no sell everything no matter what. It didn’t make it go away, but he just understood the game and how to survive, as did others. The descriptions of Justin Roberts in his book about Layfield always telling him things like “I hope you kill yourself” from years back, continued with Tony Chimel, who one person recounted Layfield said to him constantly. There was the description that Layfield before the shows, holds court berating people instead of working with his broadcast partners to make the show better.

There was also an incident involving another non-wrestler who was well known to have a close family member dying, and had missed two weeks due to a minor operation. Layfield went off on missing the shows, harassing the person and saying how he didn’t miss any shows after hernia surgery. The person noted that this wasn’t the week to do this, and he didn’t stop until the person was in tears.

There are different interpretations of this. Most point the finger at the people in charge of the company, who they felt encouraged it, and that over the past few weeks, Layfield was the scapegoat for people like Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn.

One wrestler noted, “He (Layfield) F***ed with lots of new guys simply because he could. I don’t know if JBL is tough, but all these guys were scared to stand up to him in fear of getting fired.”

Don Callis, who managed Layfield at one point, noted that he never had problems with Layfield to his face, as they spoke on the phone several times and purported to be friends. He has said he confronted Layfield once because there were stories that Layfield was burying him and Layfield denied all. He said after he was fired, that they talked again and Layfield acted sympathetically to him. Later Al Snow told him that after Callis was gone, Layfield was bragging about how he got Callis fired.

Callis also noted on his podcast this week that he had never previously heard the story about Layfield having the pet nickname “Monkey Boy” for him behind his back, or telling the Hardys to use toothpicks and break them off into the keyhole of his rental car, to keep him from unlocking the doors and being able to drive it. He said that it never actually happened so either the Hardys decided not to do it, or if they did, as many would do to fit in, they would have done it to the wrong car.

Callis also was unhappy about one aspect of the coverage here saying it was too sympathetic to Layfield to dismiss his role as being just carrying out orders from above, because most others would have never done it, and that Layfield took great delight in doing it.

While the story of Joey Styles punching Layfield on an overseas tour has been told to death, it was noted about how bad it must have been for Styles to finally retaliate, noting that whatever people think of Styles personally, he hardly has a history of losing his cool in public or punching people. Nobody at the time was negative about Styles, noting that Layfield had insulted his family members and that was considered a no-no.

“Everything (he) did, he would drink and just terrorize people,” said Mike Bucci (Simon Dean) in an interview regarding that trip. “It was horrible. I was just like, `What does he get out of this?’ There were overseas trips, just all night on the bus, yelling at people and treating them like sh!t because he would sleep all afternoon. In the daytime, he could sleep on the bus because nobody could say anything. They were all afraid. But at night time, he’s yelling at ‘em.”

Justin Roberts, whose book that coincidentally came out right after Ranallo’s situation started to go public, noted that while he had stories about Layfield, he didn’t want him fired, and made it clear it’s the people above him, McMahon and Paul Levesque, who fostered the culture and Layfield was not the root of the problem. However, he also brought up the treatment of Saxton and Chimel, which others have noted to us.

Booker T, on his podcast, discussed the subject and blew it off saying that once you are out of high school, you’re a grown up and there’s no such thing as bullying.

Others, in a weird twist, felt that it was the fans who were bullying the company, with at one point 500 Tweets per hour with Fire JBL hashtags. But anyone who has been around bullying will tell you that the bullies are often the first ones to complain that they are the ones being bullied.

Still others questioned why this was such a big story now, given it’s been well-known for two decades and there wasn’t a similar outcry when the lawsuit filed by former WCW referee Billy Silverman came out or when Amy Weber and Brian Mailhot (Palmer Cannon) quit the company over similar harassment. The reality is the incidents with Silverman and the 2005 incident where Brian Heffron were significant stories at the time. And a key to the Silverman story is he did complain to management and was told to just get along by doing what they say. He later filed a suit.

Heffron (Blue Meanie) was legitimately punched out, and needed 12 stitches and was left bloody, by Layfield during an ECW vs. WWE televised brawl, before people like Al Snow and Tracy Smothers were able to maneuver Layfield away from him. This was reportedly because Heffron had previously said that Layfield was a backstage bully who preys on younger talent with ribs and outright abuse because he can.

Because that incident led to a significant amount of coverage, Layfield was punished for it. It was turned into an angle on the July 5, 2005, Smackdown show, because it was public and everyone saw what happened. The punishment was that Layfield would have to take a ridiculously hard chair shot to the head in retaliation. Layfield was legitimately busted open by the chair shot. Meanie was given a win over Layfield as well, but it was largely meaningless as he kicked out of the chair shot and the moonsault and it was Batista giving him a spinebuster that led to Meanie getting the win. This was before WWE had any protocol about protecting the head from damage.

When it came to Ranallo, McMahon was said to be frustrated at him for his announcing style and adding Tom Phillips to the Smackdown announce team as the fourth member was the first public sign of it. Those following the show who had worked there or knew the situation noted that his hip-hop references, or using names of moves like ushigoroshi or referencing Kazuchika Okada when somebody would do a great dropkick, were clearly not going to earn him any favors. Still, it’s doubtful anyone actually told him that because if they had, he’d have likely changed given what he was told, like using the WWE lingo, he did change.

Because of the nature of the negotiations right now, neither WWE nor anyone close to Ranallo has discussed the issue, past Ranallo’s former broadcast partners Bas Rutten and Pat Miletich saying they’d like to meet up with Layfield. Rutten, when asked on Twitter to elaborate, said that due to non-disclosure clauses, he can’t do so right now.

Privately, several people from the company, including wrestlers, had contacted Ranallo. Some wrestlers noted that like with Jim Ross, they always wanted him to call their matches because he would get the match itself and the performers over better than the other announcers.

Another announcer noted that Cole had put together a list of rules for announcers and that the heel color guy can do a lot of things, but you are not allowed to publicly emasculate the lead announcer, with the idea that the credibility of the lead announcer is important in selling the product. He noted that the rules never applied to Layfield.

On Under the Mat radio, Rich Bocchini, better known as Rich Brennan, noted “JBL was difficult to work with as a broadcast partner. It’s nothing you can do about it because that’s Vince’s guy. With this whole thing going on, I don’t know, but it seems like he’s entranced there. He basically violates all rules when it comes to broadcast announcers in how we are trained to be announcers, because he can. Difficult to work with. Part of this is his heel personal and some of that is if he doesn’t like you or respect, you, then it’s dialed up a little bit. At times I felt like he really didn’t work to make the product better. He was just there to get himself over. Backstage he was okay to me. Can I see him giving Mauro a hard time? Absolutely, I can.”

While there was a lot of fan unrest regarding Layfield and chants for Ranallo at the 4/11 Smackdown tapings in Boston, by the 4/18 show in Louisville, it had blown over. Layfield’s character flipped into a babyface persona starting on 4/11.
 

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