TheChrisSamsa

QUOTE (iWin4Ron @ Jan 2, 2018 -> 11:49 PM) Gotta say, I love the way Smackdown has booked the US Title this month. It's normally booked like s***, but having Dolph win it only to vacant it into a tournament is a great move for Dolph's character, it has been great so far for the US title, and I love that it will be finalized at the Royal Rumble. I hope they pick a good winner *cough* king Roode! *cough*. I like that they have built New day vs. Rusev/English also around this tournament. Shows good consistent booking there. Also liking SD's tag division and AJ vs. Owens/Zayn with Bryan being a tweaner. I agree with everything you said, except the Owens/Zayn/Bryan stuff, but I’m not a fan of authority figures being lead storylines. I don’t really get how Zayn/Owens went from begging for their jobs to a weirdly booked shot at the title at a major PPV. If that storyline doesn’t end with Daniel Bryan getting back in the ring, it will have been a waste of time.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 4, 2018 -> 07:32 PM) Only watched Jericho vs Omega so far but it was pretty great. Jericho is so good at ring psychology. He’s probably now in my top 5 all time. I randomly woke up at 3:30 that night and turned on WrestleKingdom. Jericho absolutely killed it in that match. The whole card really delivered a great set of performances. I wasn’t all that familiar with NJPW, and even without 7 minute video packages for each match (*cough* WWE *cough*) I was able to pick up on what the storyline was. It was really interesting to recognize the differences in presentation.

I'd love to see Finn Balor win the rumble and, instead of challenging Lesnar for the Universal, challenge his old pal AJ for the WWE title. This would clear Lesnar for Roman and get Finn out of being buried by the big guys on Raw. Not gonna happen, but a boy can dream. I think a Smackdown wrestler will win the Rumble and then Reigns will win his number 1 contender status at Elimination Chamber. Smackdown Tag division is awesome. Plenty of ways they can go with that. Raw Tag division is really weak. I'm really tired of seeing The Bar v. Rollins I think we'll see Paige in the Raw women's championship match somehow Smackdown women have a lot of storylines. Charlotte can go toe to toe with anyone. I think Samoa Joe carries the IC to Mania, not sure who he'll actually go against, but Cena would be great. Matt v. Bray can fill the pre show. Gotta get Braun in there somewhere, but I couldn't tell you where. Not sure what happens with KO/Sami/Shane/Daniel Bryan. They've been main eventing Smackdown lately, so it's hard to say where they'll all be by Mania.

QUOTE (iWin4Ron @ Dec 29, 2017 -> 12:20 PM) Yeah -- I am OK with Cena too. I love his current role on the roster and he seems to embrace building up the roster. His matches with AJ were fantastic and he seems to put on a good match given the right opponent style. His character work and charisma is obviously phenomenal. ...Which is why it peeves me so much that it's like going to be something like Batista vs. Cena or Taker vs. Cena. Cena vs. Samoa Joe anyone? In a highly dramatic feud starting at or before the rumble? That'd be awesome for Joe and a good fresh feud for Cena. Do that! Have Joe take the IC title off Reigns prior and make it for the IC title! Dooooo it. That's pretty much the only logical opponent I have for Cena. I'd be way into a Cena v. Joe feud. They have to get the IC off of Roman so he can go after the Universal title (hopefully not via a Royal Rumble win) and his feud with Joe is great so far. Joe could play the "hard worker, night-in-night-out, started from the bottom now I'm here" champ and call out Cena as the "part timer, silver spoon, etc." Cena's motivation for the IC title would be to become a Grand Slam champion. They could put on a great show at Wrestlemania.

QUOTE (iWin4Ron @ Dec 28, 2017 -> 04:30 PM) I've taking some time off of WWE but with Wrestlemania season approaching the rumors are starting to come in. One rumor that I just came across is that John Cena will be having a HUGE match at WM. Bigger than a AJ Styles world title match. They speculated this meant one of Undertaker, Batista, Goldberg, or Hulk Hogan, with the likely candidate being the Undertaker. Why is the Undertaker treated as a huge match? He lost twice at WM now. He can NOT wrestle any more. This s*** bothers me. He should be retired. I hear Batista might want to come back full time, but Cena vs. Batista has been done to death. Not interested. Hogan is practically dead. Ok, not, but you get my point. Goldberg is unfortunately the best of the 4 in terms of ability, but meh, can't see it happening. I don’t really know how they build any of those matches into something *HUGE*. I don’t think AJ is the right opponent for Cena because they had such a great trilogy already, but a legends match doesn’t get me excited either. I’m honestly a fan of Cena and I think he turns up his in-ring ability for big shows, so I want him to have a good match for Mania. There aren’t a lot of options because of the way the titles lay out most of the other matches, so I’m interested in how this will play out.

I was at Raw last night. Jordan is full heel and people still love Seth... it’s going to be an interesting dynamic, but it pretty clearly lays a path to Dean turning on Seth. Overall, the show was a really great production and the crowd was hot. I think they gave Chicago a good episode.

QUOTE (Brian @ Nov 28, 2017 -> 10:09 AM) Not sure if it has been mentioned, but also ditch the matches that go 3 segments. That takes up time to develop undercard feuds as well and makes the PPV matches less special. These are my least favorite matches, no matter the competitors.

QUOTE (iWin4Ron @ Nov 27, 2017 -> 04:18 PM) I don't see how you could possibly make all the divisions credible with all the of the titles you would have in your fantasy WWE. They can't do it now because they have no time to develop the natural build up for titles. How would you have distinctions between WWE / Universal / Inter / US? I see that you wrote it there, but meh -- I don't think it's possible with that many titles. These days, we had a perfect example of WWE messing this up: Roman Reigns is the IC champion. This is your face of the company and you give him the IC title? Why? He should be fighting for the big title. Well, they gave him this to keep him occupied as their main title is gone for a while (part time lesnar). But nice to see a good post here other than me. I hear you on Roman, but I think him having the IC is good for business. They're backtracking on having two terribly disengaging top-level champions for the past 6+ months. Brock and Jinder were really an awful combination of champions. Putting the IC on Roman will give the rest of the Raw roster something to attack for and obviously putting the WWE title on AJ is an effort to return that belt to the prestige that it should have. I just don't know how they get the IC off of Roman before his inevitable Universal title run before Mania. The Attitude Era had 7 active titles (WWF, IC, European, Hardcore, Light Heavyweight, Women's, Tag). Some of the titles were more active than others but they seemed to make it work. I'd have to revisit some of the content, but I feel like they all had a lane that they lived in. The eras aren't totally comparable, but they have similar amounts of TV time. It's the Universal title that makes the separation of divisions so foggy.

QUOTE (iWin4Ron @ Nov 25, 2017 -> 03:25 PM) Yeah -- The WWE Marketing procedures is the most sickening element of the product. The pre-shows, the commentary, the PPV names, the 'network package', the video packages, the flash backs are just awful. Makes one feel like a 6 year old watching the show. It's a problem I've been pondering for years now... how to develop the secondary feuds to make the divisions relevant... Right now it feels like hot potato with the title belts. My opinion would be to merge US + IC title into one and have it be cross brand to develop guys better and make it more credible. I'd also give the women a show of their own (maybe replace 205 live, but give them 2 hours a week). Then you have the two main titles which are usually credible to some degree, or at least, they have enough show time to make them credible. You have mid card tag titles (merged) and mid card IC title. Then they can focus on building up the divisions. They’ve worked too hard to establish the women as a focal point to move them exclusively to their own show. If the brand split isn’t a hardline (as we’ve seen, it’s not... dual branded PPVs, Cena, AJ crossing brands, etc.) having the titles split between the brands is part of the problem. If they unify the tag and women’s titles, those divisions have a lot more entertaining possibilities. One show can be homebase for a champion, and the other show can develop secondary stories that don’t necessarily revolve around the titles. Some of the greatest storylines in WWE history had nothing to do with a title. Eventually, all things circle up to championships, but they need to develop better secondary stories that turn into title runs if they get over. To keep things interesting and competitive with the women, they could introduce a women’s tag team title as their mid card option. They wouldn’t have to change much, but here’s how I’d use titles in my fantasy WWE: WWE World Championship - main event only championship / constantly front of mind / keep it on a full timer Universal Champion - high level champion / not always a focal point / good for up and comers or part timers Intercontinental Champion - supplemental championship to the Universal / established, credible, defended often / can be used as a main event title for weekly shows US Championship - true mid card championship / never elevated / good stepping stone to IC or World Championship Cruiserweight Champion - Obvious weight class distinction, but I’d like to see some of these guys cross over into US Title or IC contention. Women’s Championship Tag Team Championship Women’s Tag Team Championship

QUOTE (2005thxfrthmmrs @ Nov 22, 2017 -> 03:52 PM) I definitely do not watch NXT enough, outside of Riot and Liv, I haven’t seen much of the other girls. Checking Mandy Rose’s model pics, her body is just redonk! And yea I think Women’s rumble makes much more sense given the time of the year. It’s just that they now have 20 women on the main roster. Not sure how they plan to allocate enough air time to each woman so they could stay relevant after the Rumble. I've noticed them trying to establish secondary feuds for the women. I think we'll see women taking on a bigger role on each show as the roster grows.

QUOTE (Brian @ Nov 22, 2017 -> 09:53 AM) Women's Rumble would be awesome and yeah about Liv. But she's pretty and I'm a sucker for girls out of my league. Noice. Punk returns to WWE at the site of his greatest accomplishment!? On the anniversary of his greatest accomplishment..

QUOTE (iWin4Ron @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 07:12 PM) I'm with everyone here. 1) They screwed up by having Shinsake not win at a main PPV. He will likely win at HIAC and who cares... This was a moment that *should* have been special, but once again, WWE does not give a f***. 2) Women's division is absolutely awful. Charlotte needs a lengthy run as they revamp everything there. Everything they did was so promising only for it to fail. Loved when Charlotte came over from the draft and had her turn face and had the villian squad, but they butchered it by having 6-woman matches all the damn time. 3) Shane/KO is perfectly fine and operating well. Bravo 4) Jinder is awful, why is he still here as champ, it's an insult. 5) Should of had a better road for Bobby Roode, but yeh, hoping the Dolph/Roode stuff goes well. SD should have the championship centered around Styles/KO/Naku/Roode. I mean, that is f***ing awesome! But no.. they have Jinder/Rusev/Orton junk. 6) Tag team between New Day/Usos have produced good matched, but good God how long has it gone on with no other credible team present. It's breathtakingly stupid how these guys can't book a tag team division properly. Can add the botched Money In The Bank run for Baron Corbin and how much he sucks?

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 03:54 PM) I'm guessing Bobby is actually being held off tv until he eventually ends Dolph's schtick, makes too much sense. I'm still enjoying the Dolph stuff so whatever. I legit turned off the tv when Jinder came on so can't comment on that segment. And I'm sure Charlotte is about to get a long run. Hopefully that division gets iconic soon. A.) I'm so glad I found this thread. I forgot that I could talk wrestling with other Soxtalkers. B.) I keep waiting for the Bobby Roode / Dolph thing to heat up because I think they'll put up some really strong matches.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Sep 9, 2017 -> 08:27 PM) Love our "kids" tonight. Yolmer, T.A., Nicky and Yoan. "Put it 'em on the board, YES!!!!" We are living in the future!

QUOTE (hi8is @ Aug 24, 2017 -> 08:52 PM) Any indication as to why? Shin splints

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Aug 10, 2017 -> 08:06 AM) Looks like i'm in the minority of people that thinks this is just dumb Just a marketing gimmick to drum up money for the league It's a marketing gimmick to promote and drum up support for Little League Baseball. It's probably more related to the reduced number of kids playing baseball than a need for cash.

This shouldn't move me to tears, but I'm pretty close. Glad to continue lurking!

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 09:56 PM) Nothing will match the Nomar thread though. Back then it was just crazy speculation and alleged insiders on message boards. The Torii Hunter speculation was top notch too.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 3, 2017 -> 07:46 PM) The all-star game this season does not determine homefield advantage in the WS. I am happy about this. The All-Star game is an exhibition game in which everybody should play if possible and it definitely should take on a festive atmosphere. It was stupid to make the game "matter" by danging as something as important as homefield advantage as the prize to the winner. The way to make the guys play hard and care more is to offer $500,000 per player on the winning team and $50,000 to each player on the losing team. That IMO would be better. But at least now the game is back to being a meaningless exhibition game, which it should be IMO. Do you agree? I agree. I think $500k is a little rich, but the $20k to players on the winning team seems like a reasonable deal.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 2, 2017 -> 06:42 PM) Anyone else make it or just him? Just him as far as I can tell.

Via ESPN selection show: Avi has been added to the All Star team as a reserve.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jun 6, 2017 -> 11:08 PM) Jake Peavy, too (#TakeJake) Peavy didn't win the final vote, but he was added to the all star team as a substitute in 2012.

The White Sox haven't had a position player start an All Star game since Frank Thomas in 1996.

So.. Are we doing this thing or what? 76,000 votes is not insurmountable. Pods, AJ, Konerko, and Chris Sale were all voted in by a groundswell of White Sox fan support..

QUOTE (maxjusttyped @ May 30, 2017 -> 08:13 PM) Incredible AB from Abreu there. That was high level baseball between him and Sale. Really a joy to watch from both sides.