This is oddly beautiful:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">pro wrestling is the only true art <a href="https://t.co/jHW4s412bL">pic.twitter.com/jHW4s412bL</a></p>&mdash; Albert Ching (@albertxii) <a href="https://twitter.com/albertxii/status/949808387709022208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 7, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"> <a href="https://t.co/X14P8Xduhk">pic.twitter.com/X14P8Xduhk</a></p>&mdash; filthy fanta (@Filthyfanta) <a href="https://twitter.com/Filthyfanta/status/950156803018579968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Jesus. Warrior did all the cocaine.

“Killing the business”

By the way, Warrior had one of the if not THE lamest finisher ever.

Pretty sure if WWE did the first one, it wouldn't be an urn but a fresh corpse.

The better question is which superstar would be having relations with said corpse?

Gotta keep the BEST IDEAS for the family of course!

In preparation for my favourite event I am going through the Royal Rumble matches and just finishing 1991. Been a while since I've watched the early ones and got to admit the standards are shocking. Never seen so many axe smashes, chops and banging two guys heads together.
Oh and also guaranteed Jake Roberts to talk his chances up before the match and get eliminated early.

Very exciting, unique, and rare match booked for Raw tonight....Seth Rollins vs Sheamus!

Hopefully it's a leprechaun on a pole match.

Owen Hart was awesome , just watched his tag match at Royal Rumble 92.

I am going to revisit his Wrestlemania match with Bret soon.

Don't make me kick your leg out of your leg

The Bret/Owen story arc at WM10 really was done beautifully. Owen beats Bret and finally is able to successfully one-up his brother only to end the night staring in disbelief as Bret is being hoisted onto peoples' shoulders and hailed as the hero.

I loved that whole feud, staying up into the early hours to watch it on the tv. The matches between Bret and Backlund, the pleading from Owen to get his dad to help Bret. The emotion that Owen was showing , which instantly made you think that Owen didn't want to see his brother hurt then...BOOM, the change in his face when Backlund ended up winning. Man that got me as a kid.

So I've been watching RAW and SD on hulu for a few months now, and it's pretty great (both are condensed to 90 minutes).

I'm wondering, though: How do they decide what gets cut? Who do you think makes those calls?

The abridged version is usually just the stuff they actually cared about the most plus anything else that was notable to fill out whatever time is left for Hulu. So basically the lower card and anything thrown away on tv to eat time is the easiest to cut out.

Probably Vince and Creative since they were the ones who booked the original episode.

It's basically the main event and whatever champions are doing things. Barely any cruiser stuff. Apparently the revival came back? Didn't make the cut. Also the first 4 Matt Hardy things made it.

I think it's a good sign that Elias has been on for the last few months.

I’ve been doing the same.

Watching the ‘93 Rumble Match right now. Strange how they face Flair so much focus/such a good showing knowing he was out of the door.

Carrying on with Flair , the end of the 92 Rumble where they don't even give him the belt in the ring but in a backstage interview so the focus is on Hogan.

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Gorilla Monsoon describing Carlos Colon as a youngster at 44 and 43 year old Backlund as old :)

lol Titus O'Neal seems to be a pretty amazing manager.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Careful now everyone. The Beck is back and blazing trails (in an environmentally friendly way of course) . <a href="https://t.co/xaJPzsdZIM">pic.twitter.com/xaJPzsdZIM</a></p>&mdash; Becky Lynch (@BeckyLynchWWE) <a href="https://twitter.com/BeckyLynchWWE/status/950470156794376192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
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A Bitterer End.

I still can't help but love Becky. Her main roster matches are always just there, but she's still adorable. I hope that if they pull the trigger on Charlotte vs. Ronda at Mania, Becky and Shayna get to have a Kickoff match as the seconds.

Can we talk about how terrible Michael Cole is? I know he has the ability to be a good announcer when he doesn't have people screaming in his ear (see: the Japan shows) but feigned enthusiasm, corporate brand shill Cole is just the dirt worst.

He could commentate on the birth of my first child and he'd make me not interested in seeing the kid.

I wish Becky still wore gear like that and showed off her abs

Ya, that they force her to cover up is nothing short of idiotic. I'd pay to eat dinner off of her abs if given the opportunity.

It's a bit bone-headed, since she's in such great shape and it would help her get even more over. I'm convinced it's a little bit of sabotage. Not that they hate her, but they don't want her to get as over as she can be. She has a place and she better stick to it.

"For the love of Mankind!"

Announcers are supposed to a trusted and knowledgeable conduit to the product. Michael Cole knows more than he's allowed to show, but he's not trusted. They should have made him a manager when he turned in 2010. Or gotten him into the production truck to work on other things.

I cringe every time I hear Cole say: "THE BIG DOG" and "IT'S BOSS TIME."

Fucking brutal. Can totally tell he's being fed those and phoning them in every time.

I often wonder to myself how much commentary is hurting the business. Can't we have a guy that is like a warm hug? Why so sterile?

JR used to make me care about Billy Gunn. Michael Cole can't even make me care about Brock Lesnar.

Doesn't his son work for WWE in production? He could totally help with that instead of forcing himself to yell nicknames haha

I blame Vince. Beast in the East & the UK tournament (especially the latter) he was great on.

Hell, even referenced an old UK commentator.

https://geeksleeprinserepeat.files.w...fans.gif?w=700

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I'm surprised that they haven't had Becky Lynch coming out in a velour tracksuit , coming to the ring in a caravan and asking us if we like 'dags' because remember we can't understand a thing she says.

Supposedly Kevin Dunn hates her accent and has tried for the past couple years to get her tv time cut whenever possible.

Via Triple H getting his My Time music in my dumb WWE 2k18 universe series I've been doing, I only just realised there's a line in there that says "Yo keep your finger off the switch Dunn"

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Actually looked up why Becky covers up her abs and she had mentioned in an interview with Lilian that it's actually her call because she's insecure about body image. And by her own admission when she shows off her abs in a pic it's because she thinks the lighting is perfect.

Basically no matter how great we think she looks, she perceives flaws in her body. A shame really but I'm glad it's not WWE forcing her to cover up.

Picture of Vince during WWE Creative Meeting:

I have no clue about that. I haven't read anything, but it's quite possible. I think Cole himself, at least through the grapevine (as much as you can trust that), wants to move away from commentary (at least slowly), and start doing production stuff. You're not going to oust Kevin Dunn, but maybe have Dunn run Raw and Cole run SmackDown, and give them completely different aesthetics.

It doesn't surprise me, but some people like a husky voice. She's not great on promos as far as eloquence, cadence and articulation and all that goes, but she manages to drum out genuine emotion at times. Sometimes just being likable is enough to get yourself over.

And if you don't want her to talk, don't have her talk as much. Just have her show off those damn abs and showcase how ripped your ladies are.

I remember reading maybe a year or two ago that his son was getting into or just got hired by the production team. Pretty sure it was a front page thing on here though, so it could've been speculation.

I'd like Cole (or pretty much anyone really) to at least be able to get in Dunn's ear a bit just to say: "hey man, how about we try this." From all I've read about Dunn though, that's not really possible. It'd be nice to have a chance to get a...I guess more "stable" presentation.

If Cole does move away from the desk, who would you want to replace him?

Damn, this could be a thread. Gonna do that.

She's pretty ugly so it's understandable.

Ahahahahaa...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is how we are all supposed to watch wrestling right? Slightly angled from the TV but not close enough to damage the eyes. Perfect technique <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WoodsUSchamp?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WoodsUSchamp</a> <a href="https://t.co/brs5rrzKwI">pic.twitter.com/brs5rrzKwI</a></p>&mdash; ��Austin Creed�� (@XavierWoodsPhD) <a href="https://twitter.com/XavierWoodsPhD/status/950909769962917891?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Remember when Neville got injured on RAW and Jericho got himself disqualified?

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The best thing about New Japan is that they don't ask you to give them almost 10 hours a week to be apart of the experience.

I'm just so uninterested in WWE right now, and it's the Road to Wrestlemania, the one time when it's supposed to be fun again. I just can't devote 5 hours to Raw and Smackdown, it's disgusting to spend time doing that and also the show's are just stretched so thin and full of such horrible content. The only interest is in "I wonder who Vince will push this year"....

WWE sucks. I haven't made it through a full episode of Raw in over a year, I can't even remember the last time. Smackdown has a better viewing rate than Raw but even still, a lot of meaningless garbage that means nothing in the grand scheme. Really nothing means anything in the grand scheme because the focus is on authority figures instead of THE CHAMPIONSHIPS.

Hail NJPW for making championships sell the show.

Jericho is gonna go down as one of the greats for sure.

He's just old school crazy enough, still parties, still beats people up who fuck with him, still a rock star. Love Jericho right now.

Apparently there's gonna be a 2 hour pre-show before Raw 25th anniversary.

Fuck it, from now on Raw should just be a 24 hour live stream.

A two hour pre-show for TV? That sounds terrible.

Which means they'll find a way to do it annually.

I found secret plans on how WWE plans to use Asuka based on Raw. 41 minutes 4 seconds.

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Forgot how utterly annoying I found those dudes......

TNA may have found a way to survive

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Well that’s interesting <a href="https://t.co/7qkor0p5u3">pic.twitter.com/7qkor0p5u3</a></p>&mdash; Connor (@ConnorJA_) <a href="https://twitter.com/ConnorJA_/status/951142596700712961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdu8IRdHT13/" data-instgrm-version="8" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50.0% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GP T6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAA AElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; ██████████relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdu8IRdHT13/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">The jiggle of Dana’s big juicy tits is unreal in this one 🤤</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/divakliq/" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> THE ARTIST</a> (@divakliq) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2018-01-09T15:17:41+00:00">Jan 9, 2018 at 7:17am PST</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async defer src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script>

So Gable and Benjamin are heels now?

They’ve been “not babyfaces” for a while.

I'm so lost , when did this happen.

The jiggle of Fandangos big juicy package is unreal in that one

According to the Observer, WWE currently considering using around 7-8 women from NXT and 3-4 legends/celebrities to fill out the rest of the Women's Rumble. Main roster is currently at 19 women not counting champs and anyone inactive.

Really hope Titus O'Neal identifies as a woman soon so he can win the womens Royal Rumble.

Hope one of them is Harvey Wippleman

Jacqueline will be one of them. That’s who Kurt was talking to on Monday. Then she’ll be revealed as Jason Jordan’s mother.

They should get Jerry Lawler on commentary just to shout 'puppies' every ten seconds.

Watched that dana brooke thing like 30 times over

"Puppies!!!"

I'm right there with ya, buddy. It's the same problem with independent wrestling, to be honest, which I would ideally be able to escape to. If the match isn't happening for a reason, then why would I waste my time watching this crap? New Japan makes stuff matter.

I found this show on Viceland called "The Wrestlers. It's an hour long show focusing on wrestling subcultures. First episode was on a wrestling fed who travels the First Nations reservations in Northern Canada. The episode I'm watching now is on Bolivian Women's Wrestling and Shimmer. Mostly focusing on women to fled domestic abuse and got into wrestling. Just finished a segment with Mia Yim. Definitely check this show out. The host is Damian Abraham from the band Holy Fuck. He's an awesome dude. Great fucking show.

Haven't seen the episode but think I've read about Bolivian women wrestlers before on Viceland's website.

According to PWInsider, Paige won't be medically cleared in time to wrestle in the Women's Rumble. Right now her injury is a lot worse than was originally expected.

In brighter news, Candice LaRae officially signed a deal with the WWE and is expected to start training at the Performance Center within the next few weeks. Observer reported last week a deal was very close to being done and this week website Squared Circle Sirens was able to confirm it was done.

According to the latest Wrestling Observer the top 2 matches planned for WrestleMania 34 are:




The headliner for the HOF is




and FOX has shown interest in buying WWE.

Bram v.s. Crimson

I'd like to see Braun Strowman crush Triple H at WM.

Stacey Keibler

I really hope they don't have Rousey in the match.

Ronda can debut by being a highlighted ringside guest, who ends up jumping the barricade to get in a heel's face. She can debut by interrupting an "I've beaten everyone" heel promo. She can debut by Asuka beating everybody else, and Stephanie McMahon saying that she's had to go out and find the one person who Asuka might not be able to beat. She can debut by interrupting a promo in which Charlotte, Becky, Sasha or Bayley refer to the "Four Horsewomen" of WWE.

There are countless ways to debut Ronda Rousey - doing it in a Royal Rumble doesn't work at all for me. If she's in the Rumble, she either has to win it - which is at the expense of the rest of the female roster, means she's getting a Women's Title shot, which telegraphs the result of her WrestleMania match as she's very unlikely to be sticking around to defend the title and t throws out the prospect of using the Rumble to set up the story for another women's match for WrestleMania, which a Ronda Rousey match doesn't need.

Or else she loses, which means that in her very first WWE appearance, Ronda Rousey shows up and gets either beaten fairly and squarely, or made to look a fool, neither is a good first impression, particularly when they're going to have to focus on protecting her aura of being unbeatable now that we know she is, in fact, very much beatable.

More than that, debuting her as a surprise in the Royal Rumble means that we see Ronda Rousey wrestling in a WWE ring before WrestleMania - where the draw for her match would be "see Ronda Rousey compete in a WWE ring".

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">GCW presents &quot;Joey Janela's Spring Break 2!&quot; live from the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner, LA on Friday, April 6th at 11:55pm! <br><br>Stay tuned for match and talent announcements! <br><br>Tix available now:<a href="https://t.co/wo4c89DoJj">https://t.co/wo4c89DoJj</a> <a href="https://t.co/8IKrLXIIvT">pic.twitter.com/8IKrLXIIvT</a></p>&mdash; GameChangerWrestling (@GCWrestling_) <a href="https://twitter.com/GCWrestling_/status/951301219586334720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The 2nd match is really dumb when you consider last year's Mania.

I really hope they do Cena-Taker. I'm gonna be there live and Taker at Mania is something I wanna see. Especially if it's against Cena. No one can elicit a response from the crowd like him.

Their singles match from Vengeance 2003 was a lot of fun.

And if anyone can drag a great match outta Taker it's gonna be Cena. I'm pumped if that's what I'm gonna get to see.

Last year's match seemed like Taker was going to die in the ring :(

Spring Break 2 > A Wrestlemania with Reigns/Lesnar and Cena/Taker. Even if they book Marty Jannetty again.

What if taker dies before the match and they pull a weekend at bernies and make it look like his corpse is wrestling.

Dunno if Cena could pull it off. Might have to put Styles in there instead. He could get a 5 star match out of a dead guy.

If Marty Jannetty dies, I could actually see Spring Break 2 doing that.

I mean, they booked Dink and Glacier.

As much as I wanted Cena vs Taker at WrestleMania for years, if they just have Taker come back and have another match as if the end of last year's WrestleMania didn't happen... lolWWE.

Or they could have Cena wrestle an invisible man and put a CGI Taker into those spots like what was done with Tupac a few years ago for a concert.

WWE has had 30 years worth of time and experience with having a deadman wrestle for them. All the need to do is update Taker's CGI graphics to the 2018 edition for this match. :shifty:

Cena/Taker at this point would be terrible. Would've been money in 2014 when Taker was still having good Mania matches and before the Streak ended.

The only interesting development I can see is that if Cena is tied up with Taker, it has me questioning the WWE Title match. Nakamura winning the Rumble and facing AJ is ideal but I could see WWE finding a way to fuck it up and doing AJ/Jinder again or something.

Just watched the Ruby Riot vs Sonya Deville match from a while back.

Really like Deville's moveset. Wish she would have been given more time in NXT. Feel like she could have had a bunch of "cool matches". Now she's probably just going to get lost in the shuffle until it's "her turn" with the belt.

Feel the shelf life for her was going to be very short in NXT once they signed Shayna Baszler. Both have similar MMA-based gimmicks but WWE cares a lot more about Baszler due to the 4 Horsewomen connection and her rep as a MMA fighter.

Putting Deville on the main roster now at least buys her more potential time until either WWE gets bored or Baszler shows up there as well.