He's like the Hollywood Hogan of the division.

As far as I can remember, Cena hasn't "tapped out" since his first WWE Championship victory at Wrestlemania 21. Although, he has lost via submission to Rusev and Kurt Angle ever since. He has definitely tapped out to Jericho, Benoit, and Angle in the past.

I was a bit disappointed with the headbutt that Vince took on the Sin City SmackdownLive episode. Not only was it unnecessary, it sends a conflicting message backstage. I remember reading Chris Jericho's book and how Vince fined Batista a hefty amount for blading during a cage match on RAW.

The rules don't apply to mad old Vinnie.

ouch

Progress uploaded chapter 55 to their on demand service today. It may be my favorite top to bottom show this year. The build ups were great and every match ending was incredibly satisfying. Definitely go out of your way to see it.

Maybe the ring is trying to tell him something.

Oh no!

The ring is so afraid of Pentagon Jr, it broke it's own arm!

I think he took the "larger than life" line of "Holding Out for a Hero" too far.

Wish he would have hung himself.

I agree

yikes thread took a dark turn

Would you say that it took a Pentagon Dark turn?

I searched Mike Bennett to find out if he was still working for the WWE. His Wikipedia page says "On August 29 episode of SmackDown Live, Kannelis was defeated by Bobby Roode, solidifying his status as a mid-card jobber."

He is someone who could really do with being sent to NXT being repackaged with the possibility of being recalled to the main roster.
Wouldn't know how it would work with his contract though , guessing he brings In more than most guys on the NXT brand and whether they would think he was worth doing that with .

I've never really seen his work from before apart from a few matches in TNA but from what I heard he's worth persevering with.

I've heard mixed things. Some people love him, some people think he's really bland. I wonder if he was kind of misrepresented to Vince a bit. A lot of people think of him as a traditional WWE-mold guy, but when you look at him, he really isn't.

To be fair a bit, he's also currently dealing with trying to get clean from a drug addiction which is why he's barely been used in recent weeks. Having access to WWE's rehab program has helped him out a lot.

The "Power of Love" gimmick is pretty terrible but WWE has only spent very little time building it due to outside issues. Even then, everyone usually speculates and jokes he only got hired because he came as a package with Maria who the WWE was interested in a lot more and for a longer time.

He's basically Skip but without even getting to talk.

Interesting thought, though...

The original Kingdom are all WWE talent now...

Listening to Batista's interview on Jericho podcast, I found myself scratching my head as to why the WWE would not be receptive to someone of his fame and Hollywood success? A final feud with Hunter doesn't seem like the worst thing ever. Besides, there's a good chance that Batista might be well received by the fans with respect to his success in the Guardians franchise, Spectre, and the upcoming Blade Runner film.

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media...q2q3exkm9v.png

Batista could be over as a face with the fans in a comeback if they don't butcher it so unbelievable bad like they did last time.

With their cost-cutting I doubt they could afford him right now. Besides what is really in it for him? He's a big star and why risk injury after the movies are hits. There was a "What if" if he was considered the gimmick actor in the big budget Guardians but he has had great success.

Triple H will really want that match with Batista now.

From what he said on the podcast he wants a better final run. He wasn't happy with how WWE handled his return; he was adamant he should return as a heel but they tried to force him as a babyface.

To be fair the timing of his last run was unfortunate. The crowd wanted Daniel Bryan - and only Daniel Bryan.

It's a totally different scenario now. Not only is Bryan off the table (and there's nobody the audience is really getting behind), but Batista is becoming a bonefide star in Hollywood, his role as Drax will likely score him some points with audience where there is crossover.

"WHAT AN ACT OF COWARDISM!!!" :'(

Funny that: I remember giving WWE too much credit, as I thought that's what they were banking on since they want so badly to make a homegrown Hollywood star factory that they were trying to bank on him being over as to why they tried to forcefeed him as a face to try to ride that proverbial gravy train of cross promotion/mainstream media attention Vince has always been super fond of...


...but then later learning that important folks in the company thought Guardians of the Galaxy was going to flop, and it was just a piss-poor booking decision backed by nothing.

In fairness nobody predicted the incredible success of GOTG.

No, but anyone who was paying attention to Marvel's track record would have told you it wouldn't be the flop WWE thought it would be.

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I have a perception that Hunter is like a big brother who likes to keep Batista in check. Like "I know what's best for you, buddy." kinda shtick.

TNA/Impact/GFW rumored to be getting another name change. Mainly just them going back to the Impact name as a company.

Seems the future status of Jeff Jarrett in the company is a lot more murkier than previously reported and Anthem supposedly no longer willing to finish the legal paperwork needed to merge GFW with Impact.

Lol, it was a part of the Marvel machine. No way was it going to flop.

Fuck jameson

In more fairness, tell that to The Inhumans.


But Figgy hit the point I was trying to make square in the head. WWE wasn't paying attention to a trend that has been popular for like the last decade? Even if it wasn't the runaway success it turned out to be, management pretended it was going straight to SyFy with 3am timeslot and Bat's career trajectory make less noise in Hollywood than HHH did in Blade 3.

They had the perfect timing to make him the type of "part-time/big match" attraction Brock Lesnar is now, and do nothing but raise the profile of everyone with a de facto pimping of his movie... but instead wanted to shoehorn him as a full time top babyface only because he "fit the mold" when nobody was having it and couldn't care less about what was going on outside of their bubble, as seems to happen more often than it doesn't.

Anyone who thinks the HHH is going to have his finger on the pulse of popular culture should study that whole incident.