Board 8 > All Purpose Wrestling Topic 513: Breakking the Cycle

(+) Yeah! (+)

Two last changes to Wrestlemania!

Rey Fenix will replace Rey Mysterio against El Grande Americano tonight

Bayley was ambushed backstage today, Lyra Valkyria's new tag team partner will be revealed tomorrow

ZeroSignal posted...

Del Rio returns! >_>

Technically, he finally fulfilled his destiny of coming back. Sort of

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/933a1077.jpg

Jade v Naomi best match of the night so far, obviously.

WWE pushing an Anoa'i family member too far when they're not at that level yet? That's a new one.

Here's hoping Jey's reign isn't more than a few months. Ride out the initial wave then pass it to the next big heel.

Seanchan posted...

Jade v Naomi best match of the night so far, obviously.

Agreed, though the wrong person went over imo.

Was walking around Chicago so not seen any of the matches yet. They seriously made Gunther tap? That's fucked up

More than that.

He even took a powerbomb from Jey as well

Ratings so far of PPV matches this year (Will add Wrestlemania's later). Out of 5 stars

Royal Rumble
Women's Royal Rumble - ***
DIY vs Motor City Machine Guns - ***1/2
Cody Rhodes vs Kevin Owens - ****
Men's Royal Rumble - ***3/4

Elimination Chamber
Women's Elimination Chamber - ***1/2
Tiffany Stratton/Trish Stratus vs Nia Jax/Candice LeRae - **
Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn - ****1/4
Men's Elimination Chamber - ****

Shattered posted...

Was walking around Chicago so not seen any of the matches yet. They seriously made Gunther tap? That's fucked up

and in like 5 seconds too

Okay, crowd woke up again! Entertaining match but Fatu really put the stamp on that one.

Shattered posted...

Was walking around Chicago so not seen any of the matches yet. They seriously made Gunther tap? That's fucked up

Jey has a submission finisher?

Maniac64 posted...

Jey has a submission finisher?

He used Gunther's finisher and Gunther tapped out a few seconds after they fell to the floor.

Solid match between the luchadores there.

looks like Charlotte was just stiffing and sandbagging tiffy all match

Huge bruise on her forehead and I'm pretty sure she broke a tooth. Maybe several teeth actually, looking at that last shot.

Okay yeah, deffo busted

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/28f00c83.jpg

That's pretty fucked up of Charlotte. She's supposed to be the seasoned veteran and a tooth is permanent damage. She better catch heat if they review where it happened and it's her fault

Night 1
Gunther vs Jey - **1/2
War Raiders vs New Day - **
Naomi vs Jade - ***1/2
Knight vs Fatu - ***1/2
Americano vs Fenix - ***
Tiffany vs Charlotte - **1/2
Roman vs Seth vs Punk - ****1/2

The start and finish were bad, yes, but the middle bumped it up to 2.5

Pretty good main event!

FFDragon posted...

looks like Charlotte was just stiffing and sandbagging tiffy all match

Huge bruise on her forehead and I'm pretty sure she broke a tooth. Maybe several teeth actually, looking at that last shot.

Okay yeah, deffo busted

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/28f00c83.jpg

Now that I look at this again, I don't think that tooth is broken? I think that's a blood mark on the tooth?

Her post Wrestlemania interview and Instagram stories show that her teeth are fine and fully intact

Other tidbits...
- Yesterday marked the first time since 2019 that Roman Reigns walked into Wrestlemania without a World title. His WM record sits at 9-4 after yesterday's match
- Charlotte Flair is only the second woman to fail the guaranteed title shot from winning the Rumble. The first was Asuka in 2018, who lost to Charlotte at Wrestlemania 34
- Jey Uso becomes the first Rumble winner to challenge the current era WHC. He also only needs the US title to complete the grand slam.

Active Roster, 1 title away from a Grand Slam...
Jey Uso (US)
Drew McIntyre (US)
Cody Rhodes (US)
Braun Strowman (US)
Sheamus (IC)
Damian Priest (IC)
Shinsuke Nakamura (World)

Those 1 title away from being a 2x Grand Slam Champion...
Kofi Kingston (World)
Kevin Owens (World)
Rey Mysterio (World. His two WHC reigns aren't part of the modern day grand slam)

For the new Modern Women's Grand Slam, no one's close yet (a few are halfway there, such as Chelsea, Liv, Bayley, etc).

2025 Slammy Awards announced and... oh boy

Male Superstar of the Year - Cody Rhodes
Female Superstar of the Year - Liv Morgan
NXT Superstar of the Year - Roxanne Perez
Tag Team of the Year - Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill
Breakout Superstar of the Year - Stephanie Vacquer
Faction of the Year - The original Bloodline
Social Star of the Year - Drew McIntyre
Feud of the Year - Drew McIntyre vs CM Punk
Match of the Year - Cody vs Roman at WM 40 AND McIntyre vs Punk at Bad Blood (tie)
OMG Moment of the Year - Cena's heel turn
WTF Moment of the Year - Wyatt Sicks debut
Most Memorable Entrance - Cody at Wrestlemania 40, Night 2

Night 2 already off to a better start than Night 1.

Excellent opener!

ZeroSignal posted...

Night 2 already off to a better start than Night 1.

Excellent opener!

Agree. Smart to have the Iyo with a clean victory over Bianca and Rhea.

Night 2 > Night 1, so far

Okay I was expecting like Rusev at best.

This is awesome

Night 2 is banger after banger.

SirChris posted...

Night 2 is banger after banger.

Facts. Not a bad match so far. Even the last one, albeit as quick as it was, was worth watching for the surprise factor.

First disappointing match of the night.

Trash finish to what was otherwise a good match.

My ratings tonight

Iyo vs Rhea vs Bianca - ****1/2
McIntyre vs Priest - ***1/2
Bron vs Dom vs Penta vs Balor - ****
Orton vs Hendry - *1/2
Styles vs Paul - **
Lyra/Becky vs Liv/Raquel - **
Cody vs Cena - **1/2

Best 3 matches overall were Women's Triple Threat, Men's Triple Threat, and IC Title, not necessarily in that order.

Rock not showing up after all this is a baffling creative choice

Update to my WM main event tierings

Elite
Austin vs Rock (17)
Angle vs Lesnar (19)
Benoit vs HHH vs HBK (20)
Edge vs Undertaker (24)
HBK vs Undertaker (26)
Bryan vs Batista vs Orton (30)
Rhodes vs Reigns (40)

Great
HBK vs Bret (12)
Austin vs HBK (14)
Batista vs HHH (21)
Cena vs HHH (22)
Cena vs HBK (23)
Reigns vs Edge vs Bryan (37)
Owens/Zayn vs Usos (39)
Rhodes vs Reigns (39)
Reigns vs Punk vs Rollins (41)

Good
Savage vs Dibiase (4)
Hogan vs Savage (5)
Hogan vs Warrior (6)
Bret vs Yokozuna (10)
Austin vs Rock (15)
HHH vs Jericho (18)
Cena vs Rock (28)
Reigns vs Lesnar vs Rollins (31)
Becky vs Charlotte vs Ronda (35)
Taker vs Styles (36)
McIntyre vs Lesnar (36)
Bianca vs Sasha (37)
Austin vs Owens (38)

Meh
Hogan/Mr. T vs Piper/Orndorff (1)
Hogan vs Andre (3 - Match is total ass, but the impact influences the rating here)
LT vs Bigelow (11)
HHH vs Rock vs Big Show vs Foley (16)
HHH vs Orton (25)
Cena vs Rock (29)
HHH vs Reigns (32)
Reigns vs Lesnar (38)
Rhodes vs Cena (41)

Bad
Hogan vs Bundy (2)
Hogan vs Slaughter (7)
Hogan vs Sid (8)
Taker vs Sid (13)
Cena vs Miz (27)
Reigns vs Taker (33)
Reigns vs Lesnar (34)

Fucking Atrocious
Hogan vs Yokozuna (9)

FFDragon posted...

Rock not showing up after all this is a baffling creative choice

But we got Travis Scott!

And the final update for now, the "titles" we've mostly followed for years

WWE's "The Man": John Cena
Flair's Final Singles match "The Man": Jey Uso
AEW's "The Man": Jon Moxley
"The Man" Women's edition: Iyo Sky
Custody of Dominik Mysterio: John Cena

Along with Cena standing alone at 17 world titles, he's also the first person to win 5 different styles of WWE Championship belts

FFDragon posted...

Rock not showing up after all this is a baffling creative choice

I highly doubt Rock not showing up was up to creative

Las Vegas should never get anything again. Heinous crowd through both nights.

The booking for Cody/Cena was ALMOST genius, with Cody getting the superman booking we all suffered through Cena getting over the course of a decade. Then the 4 minute Travis Scott entrance happened and it was just a mess. Belt to the dome is a horrible way for Cena to get 17 but eh I guess that was the only result they could really do.

The match wasn't fantastic but I think it could have really gone somewhere with the finish had it escalated properly. Instead Travis Scott appeared, got a full entrance, and sucked all the momentum out of it

Cena dismisses all post Wrestlemania interview questions as click bait and ends the segment with: "Tune into Monday Night Raw to see how I ruin wrestling"

So now, the horizon as we see it...

Raw champions
Jey Uso
Iyo Sky
Dominik Mysterio
Lyra Valkyria
The New Day

Smackdown champions
John Cena
Tiffany Stratton
Jacob Fatu
Chelsea Green
Street Profits

Can travel across all brands: Lyra Valkyria and Becky Lynch

Surely now the Judgment Day has to dissolve. It's been a good run and the 3 OG members aren't even in it anymore (one in AEW at that). Have Dom, Liv, and Raquel do their own thing, Finn becomes angry solo heel that possibly pursues Jey, and Carlito becomes lower midcard forever.

XIII_Rocks posted...

The match wasn't fantastic but I think it could have really gone somewhere with the finish had it escalated properly. Instead Travis Scott appeared, got a full entrance, and sucked all the momentum out of it

Yeah that was my biggest issue. He took forever to get to the ring and the match is supposed to just pause for several minutes. So then it looks awkward as hell when Cody couldn't be put away in the match but then goes down to a low blow and belt shot after like what was probably 7-8 minutes of not getting hit.

Also where the fuck was The Rock after the match build up?

IWC stuff but people were saying Cena was supposed to turn at Mania. Rock was showing up for EC though, so he (Rock) wanted to do it there.

Given how the Mania match went, having Cena turn at Mania (using the belt, etc.) would have made a while lot more fucking sense!

People are defending this as "Cena promised to give you nothing and ruin wrestling as we see fit"

Sounds like a lame excuse to have a mediocre main event.

So the defense is "it was supposed to be bad and you aren't supposed to enjoy watching it or want to keep watching it."

Sounds like some pretty terrible writing/booking then. That's basically the opposite of what you are supposed to do when making an entertainment product.

The Raw After Wrestlemania
- Cena kicks off Raw by exposing the fans for the frauds that they are for how they treated Cody over the weekend and promises that after 27 more appearances (not matches), he's taking the WWE Undisputed title home forever. Orton sneaks in and hits the RKO out of nowhere to end the segment.
- Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez defeated Becky Lynch and Lyra Valkyria to become 4-time Women's Tag Team Champions! After the match, Becky attacked Lyra with multiple Manhandle Slams
- New Day vs Alpha Academy doesn't start as RUSEV makes his first WWE appearance in 5 years, destroying the Alpha Academy in the process
- Iyo Sky celebrates her big win and declares herself the best of the best. NXT Women's Champion Stephanie Vaquer interrupts to congratulate and challenge Iyo. Iyo accepts and Adam Pearce makes it official!
- Iyo Sky defeated Stephanie Vaquer by DQ after Roxanne Perez interfered. Giulia joins Perez in beating down both competitors until Rhea Ripley scares them off.
- Jey Uso celebrates his WHC win with Sami Zayn and Jimmy Uso.
- Logan Paul says a win is a win and he'll continue to be the center point of the WWE
- AJ Styles continue to refuse Karrion Kross' pleads to revert to evil
- Gunther berates the fans before attacking Michael Cole. Pat McAfee breaks it up and eats a sleeper hold for his troubles
- Michael Cole gets the hero's ovation by the crowd when he returns to the announce table with Joe Tessatore
- Dominik Mysterio defeated Penta to retain the Intercontinental championship after interference from JD McDonagh. The Judgment Day celebrate, although Finn Balor feels slightly bothered by it
- Final segment: Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman immediately get interrupted by CM Punk, who proceeds to brawl with Rollins. When Punk tries to put his hands on Heyman, Rollins takes advantage with a curb stomp. Heyman declares Seth Rollins the new number 1 top star in the business before Roman Reigns cuts them off. Reigns spears Rollins and hits a superman punch on Heyman. An attempt to spear Heyman gets cut off by a Bron Breakker spear out of nowhere to Reigns. Bron spears Punk, then spears Reigns through the barricade. Rollins curb stomps both men and celebrates with Heyman and Breakker to end Raw.

POTENTIAL matches for Backlash
- Cena vs Orton (makes sense, it's in Orton's hometown)
- Rollins/Breakker vs Roman/Punk

Seanchan posted...

IWC stuff but people were saying Cena was supposed to turn at Mania. Rock was showing up for EC though, so he (Rock) wanted to do it there.

Given how the Mania match went, having Cena turn at Mania (using the belt, etc.) would have made a while lot more fucking sense!

this would make everything make a whole lot more sense there.

also i'm quite happy that Iyo won at WM and is getting treated well. Iyo vs Vaquer was also like 15m long so they got tons of time before the DQ had to hit.

So much for people who thought Brekker was about to turn face.

I wonder if they just team up Black with Kross once he makes his return.