Television Tho Prop Grops Throps

That’s odd booking, only payoff I can see is Rock beats Roman, hands his first defence to Cody and puts Cody over to finish the story.

All they’ve done so far is made Cody and Seth look like chumps. They could have booked Cody/Rock and then the winner takes on Roman or even split it between night one and night two, Rock/Roman on night one and then Cody vs the winner on night two.
 
It’s a very strange booking decision, but it’s the fecking Rock vs Roman. You can’t turn that down.
Rock vs Roman vs Cody triple threat made a lot of sense to me

Could have had Cody resentful that Rock gets opportunities he has to work for. So a 3 way rivalry. And it would protect the Rock if he puffs out or gets an injury

Maybe that was the plan before Punks injury?
 
Rock vs Roman vs Cody triple threat made a lot of sense to me

Could have had Cody resentful that Rock gets opportunities he has to work for. So a 3 way rivalry. And it would protect the Rock if he puffs out or gets an injury

Maybe that was the plan before Punks injury?

That would be an option but Roman/Rock has to be a 1 v 1 and it is massive. I think they chose the worst way to get there though. Lots of different options to deliver that and keep Cody in the mix whilst not making the other main title look like crap.
 
Not even a fan of Cody but he has been absolutely stiffed by Hhh.

The best way to have your cake and eat it is Rock v Roman night 1, and have Roman cheat to beat Rock and kayfabe savage him after the match leading to a rematch next year (if they decide to go that route). Cody wins night 2 clean and moves on.

Seth can wrestle Drew where Punk has a run in and Priest gets involved with a cash in.
 
From looking like an all timer card literally a few weeks ago to needing the women to save the show again like they did at the Rumble, absolutely not interested in watching The Rock wrestle and Roman retain
 
I like the moves they've made for Mania - they got dealt with a bum hand with Punk getting injured and they've adjusted to the biggest two matches they can now make.
 
I feel for cody but I feel this will make cody's win look even more better and satisfying. Rock roman match may not be that good but the story should be top notch.
 
Tbf as much as there are complaints, the crowd reaction and views and similar metrics is what WWE will care about

Even the number of dislikes on the YouTube video, for them it counts as a view
 
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I like the matches, I don’t like how they got there.

Yeah but they obviously couldn't plan for Punks injury so they've had to pivot quickly.

Does it make sense for what Cody's been saying for the last year? No. Does it make sense for right now? Absolutely.
 
Yeah but they obviously couldn't plan for Punks injury so they've had to pivot quickly.

Does it make sense for what Cody's been saying for the last year? No. Does it make sense for right now? Absolutely.

Pivoting is fine, Roman burying Seth and the title was not needed.
 
Pivoting is fine, Roman burying Seth and the title was not needed.
To be fair that was gold. Seth should fire some shots as well. It is fine.

I do agree though the way they have reached at rock roman was a bit off. If they were anyways going to come to this conclusion then why even have cody appear on SD.

But eitherway I am happy roman rock is happening. Cody will get his moment in the future.
 
To be fair that was gold. Seth should fire some shots as well. It is fine.

I do agree though the way they have reached at rock roman was a bit off. If they were anyways going to come to this conclusion then why even have cody appear on SD.

But eitherway I am happy roman rock is happening. Cody will get his moment in the future.

That’s the problem, it was too good and accurate. I don’t think you can really counter it and have the same impact.
 
It’s a very strange booking decision, but it’s the fecking Rock vs Roman. You can’t turn that down.
Maybe not, but it all feels a really overreaction to one guy’s injury, who wasn’t even a factor before Survivor Series, and a panic move to shift attention from the McMahon/Lesnar affair.

A triple threat would have made sense if The Rock was suddenly insisting on his availability, but you have already committed to Cody. Just run back the entire WM20 main event storyline: Reigns is HHH as the dominant heel champion, Cody is Benoit the hot babyface whose time it is, and The Rock is Michaels who plays the tweener role inserting himself where he hasn’t truly earned it, because he feels he has unfinished business.

You can then have the singles match between The Rock and Reigns at Summerslam, a big stadium show, in Saudi Arabia for silly money, or even at Mania next year.

Rollins is hurt. You can do Gunther vs Rollins if he’s properly gonna be ready, or just have make a more routine defence against someone else, as there are likely other matches competing to main event night one anyway.
 
That’s the problem, it was too good and accurate. I don’t think you can really counter it and have the same impact.
Well the fact that cody himself said that he wants that title made it quitw obvious that seth's title is secondary. The only way it would have had much relevance for mania is punk winning it. Unfortunately that's screwed now.

I feel once roman loses it there will be some normalcy. Till then roman's title > anything else
 
There has been a general negative reaction across the board to the news. That won’t have gone unnoticed.
As long as live crowd doesn't start booing them , nothing else matters. Rock is a smart man, he will know how to control the live crowd. If not bring back Hollywood heel rock for one night only just to diss the IWC.
 
There has been a general negative reaction across the board to the news. That won’t have gone unnoticed.
News sites and forums and X don't matter. If fans hijack shows chanting for Cody like they did for dBryan then that's another matter
 
The timing of the Punk injury is a real shame. Punk vs Rollins and Cody vs Reigns would've worked well as the two title matches for Wrestlemania. I appreciate The Rock is a draw but throwing him into the mix now just feels completely pointless. Reigns should be dropping the title at Wrestlemania but the whole build feels pointless if it ends up being to someone who doesn't need it. That match should've been saved until after Reigns had dropped the title.

It would've been better if they left the Smackdown title picture as it was supposed to be and used Rollins' title to promote and establish the talent who will still be there for the next few years. A triple threat with McIntyre plus one more could've been a viable way to do it.
 
I’m sure they wanted Punk v Rollins and Cody v Reigns I imagine. I like the Rock but I find this a bit silly. You have someone win the Royal Rumble and looks like they can win the title at Mania then we have the Rock thrown in. They could have also had Drew v Seth for the other main event which would have been brilliant. I have no idea what is happening now.

Also what is the point of elimination chamber now? Hopefully they have a plan for all of this but I can’t see it at the moment.

This summarises it:


Yeah gotta feel for Cody. It wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t so blatant the title Rollins is holding doesn’t have enough prestige due to this obsession with Roman reigns holding two belts for 45 years so much so that they couldn’t even take one off him to at least advance stories elsewhere. He then shits on it during his promo on smackdown. I get why they’ve gone for rock reigns but unless the rock wins (which he won’t) it’s all going to feel like a big pile of wank.

I think the pans were origionally Punk vs Rollins and Cody vs Roman. Injuries happened and Rock was able to finalise a return so Cody got shifted to take Punks place. Talk that it will be Drew vs Cody vs Rollins as the winner of Elimination Chamber will be added to the match too.

Everyone talking about the Rock and not enough about Bayley, she was the highlight of the show. We all knew it was coming, but it played out well. Now, does she go back to the friendly hugger face Bayley, or does she stay as she is only as a face?
Yeah bayleys promo was great. I wasn’t that into the idea previously as I think damage control had gotten a bit meh but that deffo jazzed it up a bit.
 
Usually it's adversity or a authority figure stepping in the way of the main event for a big babyface and that draws sympathy from the fans.

This time Cody is just stepping aside, like a bitch. Fans won't push for him again.
 
Usually it's adversity or a authority figure stepping in the way of the main event for a big babyface and that draws sympathy from the fans.

This time Cody is just stepping aside, like a bitch. Fans won't push for him again.
Yes that was a weird move. Hence I felt they could have totally avoided cody confronting roman yesterday at all.
 
That would be an option but Roman/Rock has to be a 1 v 1 and it is massive. I think they chose the worst way to get there though. Lots of different options to deliver that and keep Cody in the mix whilst not making the other main title look like crap.
That is a fair point tbh. And yes, agree they got there a bad way. I feel like I could have booked it better
 
Given how close to tears Cody looked at times throughout the show, you gotta think there's mega potential he was only told prior to SD going on air.

Whole situation is such a mess. Like a seriously hysterical mess. Like so insanely short sighted too, if you look at the bigger picture as a year WM40 to WM41.... they've absolutely sacrificed WM41 true potential to try and force it here, but as I've said, if Rock feels this is only window, then so be it.... but couldn't he have known that a week ago... and pop a few guys over the top rope. Cody was clearly told he was getting Roman at the Rumble, he emphatically made it clear both at the end and in the press conference.
 
They should just have Cody appear on raw, then punk tells Cody he's making a mistake (which pisses off Rollins) and Cody contemplates and challenges Reigns in the end (by chamber or something).

But would be funny if rock V reigns feud is two part timers and neither are there to build the match
 
I'm happier with this than a repeat of last year's Wrestelmania. This has been fecked since Cody didn't win the first match.

I'm also not really sure what closure Cody is missing out on? Just because he keeps saying "finish the story"? Sami, Owens, Jay, Randy, even Drew have more of a "story" with Reigns than Cody does? He just lost a match to him the same way everyone else does. They built him to win it last year...they completely ruined last year's Royal Rumble due to how much they built it around him, and then for some dumb reason had him lose at WM. The "story" already went with that imo. I'm not interested in seeing them do it again.

I think this is about the best they could do with Punk's injury tbh. It's harsh on Cody, but its not like he's the world's most unlucky man. He main evented last year, he's still main eventing this year.

When you build one person up above everyone else for so long like they have with Reigns, it always makes everyone else look like they've been shafted or are a chump, and it would make absolutely zero sense to have him hold the title for year after year and then just lose to someone he already beat and has no running rivalry with.
 
Also I'm not sure why anyone is surprised about Cody supposedly being shafted. I'm not even sure he has been anyway but its nothing new.

Drew has been doing the best work IMO for a while now and even set up Punk's return brilliantly, and looks like he'll end up in some sideshow match...not even sure with who since his thing with Sami doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

Sami got shafted into a tag match last year after being the best thing in WWE for about 8 months, so they could shoe horn Cody into the match with Reigns...which was also utterly pointless since he lost.

The year before they shafted the whole roster for a talk show segment/Austin memorial match, and had Sami lose to a jack in the box boxing glove.

WWE don't reward people at Mania, they go with whatever they think will draw in the most attention.

Also, "finishing the story" vs the guy Cody came back to debut against, had his best feud with, and was injured by, actually makes a whole lot more sense than him beating Reigns. They've got a bit to work with there.
 
But Seth/Cody makes little sense, given well Seth's the one begging for it and not from the point of view of a person who continually lay down for Cody, even with a one arm, which by the way, he didn't injure, it was simply lifting weights. Bafflingly it's been totally ignored, when if anything, him wanting to redeem them losses should be the reason he wants to fight him again. Not chumping out his title.

I'm not realistically sure how KO/Austin shafted anyone either, maybe Punk, who always wanted that match, but you know, where was he?

WWE has always shafted people sure.... but there's no way of defending this. Like couldn't The Rock have given them the greenlight a week ago, the production set up an absolutely legendary Rumble moment with Cody pointing at Roman the way he did and absolutely back up his intention to go after Roman in the press conference as if it weren't already known anyway should he have won.... for it to count for nothing 6 days later? Like what the feck. The Rock couldn't show up and do 5 minutes throwing people over the rope to prevent that. I mean, outside of this being some oddball genius work mind you....

It's incredible that this has potentially been done as damage control in the face of Vince and injuries.... only to add to the damage.
 
Storyline or not, Rock will draw more crowds than anyone in current roster. Without Lesnar and Punk now injured, they could do with a bit more star power. And things just line up...Rollins needs an opponent and Rock was available.

Sure backroom stuff with Vince, TKO etc all played a part.

And Bayley looks to have gained weight. Haven't seen the show for some time and the difference with NXT is obvious.
 
Storyline or not, Rock will draw more crowds than anyone in current roster. Without Lesnar and Punk now injured, they could do with a bit more star power. And things just line up...Rollins needs an opponent and Rock was available.

Sure backroom stuff with Vince, TKO etc all played a part.

And Bayley looks to have gained weight. Haven't seen the show for some time and the difference with NXT is obvious.

If they wanted to do that they could have had the Rock be a special referee or something. The negative reaction to the changes have been quite noticeable and how are they meant to build it up with 2 part time guys for the main event?

The best result would have been Cody v Reigns and Drew v Seth. Both of those matches would could have had actual build ups week by week as well.