At 6/21/16 05:10 PM, PsychoGoldfish wrote:
If it turns out it's a prescribed steroid or something, and he hasn't been actually abusing them (as may suspended stars have claimed in the past), they may end up having to update their drug policy now that it's their new favorite guy being affected.

When will the results be released? Can't wait to see what drugs he has been taking.

If it's a legit suspension though, I could see his big push finally being completely dropped until he proves he's not a potential Jeff Hardy. That sure would be a shame...

Could anybody really sink as low as Jeff Hardy? That guy has drugs for breakfast.

At 6/21/16 05:20 PM, DoctorStrongbad wrote:

At 6/21/16 05:10 PM, PsychoGoldfish wrote:
If it turns out it's a prescribed steroid or something, and he hasn't been actually abusing them (as may suspended stars have claimed in the past), they may end up having to update their drug policy now that it's their new favorite guy being affected.

When will the results be released? Can't wait to see what drugs he has been taking.

Have they ever really released what people tested for?

He 'owns up' to it on Twitter so couldn't be anything too crazy. Given his push and workload I would bet he was borrowing pain killers to deal with and hide problems so he wouldn't get sidelined. Love or hate the character, the man has definitely been under a ton of pressure.

If it's a legit suspension though, I could see his big push finally being completely dropped until he proves he's not a potential Jeff Hardy. That sure would be a shame...

Could anybody really sink as low as Jeff Hardy? That guy has drugs for breakfast.

At 6/21/16 05:41 PM, PsychoGoldfish wrote: Have they ever really released what people tested for?

The truth has come out before from unofficial sources.

He 'owns up' to it on Twitter so couldn't be anything too crazy. Given his push and workload I would bet he was borrowing pain killers to deal with and hide problems so he wouldn't get sidelined. Love or hate the character, the man has definitely been under a ton of pressure.

It was probably pain killers. Now all the Reigns haters can call him " Pill head " or some other drug related insults.

It was probably pain killers. Now all the Reigns haters can call him " Pill head " or some other drug related insults.

I don't like Reigns, but he gets way too much hate than he deserves (a bit like Cena)

At 6/22/16 03:48 PM, thomasbrace wrote:

It was probably pain killers. Now all the Reigns haters can call him " Pill head " or some other drug related insults.

I don't like Reigns, but he gets way too much hate than he deserves (a bit like Cena)

I feel bad for the guy. He did everything that was asked of him, and initially the fans didn't dislike HIM as much as the idea that WWE was forcing him into the top spot over guys that could probably carry the company a lot better. I didn't like his inorganic rise more than I dislike him as a performer.

Props where they are do, he's been really super consist ant as far as good matches, and he's finally growing into a legit character. Had he done all this organically he may have actually become 'the guy' by now.

At 6/22/16 03:48 PM, thomasbrace wrote:

It was probably pain killers. Now all the Reigns haters can call him " Pill head " or some other drug related insults.

I don't like Reigns, but he gets way too much hate than he deserves (a bit like Cena)

I disagree. Reigns is only there because he is related to The Rock. I am not the biggest fan of Dean Ambrose, but at least made it to the WWE without being related to anybody famous.

It is the same thing with the Usos, being part of The Rock's bloodline. I will say Roman is better than the terrible Usos.

At 6/22/16 05:32 PM, DoctorStrongbad wrote:

At 6/22/16 03:48 PM, thomasbrace wrote:

It was probably pain killers. Now all the Reigns haters can call him " Pill head " or some other drug related insults.

I don't like Reigns, but he gets way too much hate than he deserves (a bit like Cena)

I disagree. Reigns is only there because he is related to The Rock. I am not the biggest fan of Dean Ambrose, but at least made it to the WWE without being related to anybody famous.

It is the same thing with the Usos, being part of The Rock's bloodline. I will say Roman is better than the terrible Usos.

Generational stars have always had an advantage. They grew up with WWE and have an understanding of the business most new blood has to learn over YEARS. AJ Styles talked a bit about how long that took for him in his interview with Austin.

When Roman came in, before his inorganic push, the fans loved the guy. And it doesn't matter that you, personally, dislike the Usos, they always get a huge pop and sell a lot of merchandise. As does Roman, in spite all the boos.

The biggest impact the Rock has had is that he was the first guy in that family to get Samoans a fair chance to be more than stereotypes. With Roman and the Usos escaping the traditional Samoan roles, the door has been blown open for other ethnicities. Apollo Crews won't have to fit any black stereotypes. Nakamura will be treated as a top athlete, not some Japanese characture.

Hulk Hogan, for as big as he was, did very little to open such doors. He only got HIS push because he gave Vince a boner. That was a guy that really couldn't wrestle much during HIS inorganic push. But you love him because he was 'the guy' when you were introduced to the product. Roman and Cena are that guy for the kids that will be buying tickets when we're all in nursing homes.

At 6/21/16 05:50 PM, DoctorStrongbad wrote: The truth has come out before from unofficial sources.

So do lies because sites want their clicks and sometimes they talk to disreuptable guys who spread stories because their jealous or trying to screw somebody to get to the top.

It was probably pain killers. Now all the Reigns haters can call him " Pill head " or some other drug related insults.

I dislike this speculation. Because this could be as simple as he took some kind of over the counter supplement and he failed to read the label correctly and didn't realize a banned substance was in there. It's happened more then a few times in the past. I also believe marijuana has gone from being a fine to being a suspendable offense. I think this is a case where WWE needs to change the policy insofar as if a talent is suspended for a failed test, they should announce the nature of the failure (either illicit drugs or a banned substance which may be found in something legal) or they should encourage and allow the talent themselves to disclose the failure. Because the problem with the way they do it know is cases like this, everybody assumes it's some illicit drug and now yeah, he probably comes back and gets drug chants because "smart fans" are fucking idiots and assholes that have decided because they don't like a guy that isn't really marketed at them, then they must be right.

Smackdown was okay, still counting down until it becomes live and changes from Thursday to Tuesday. Rollins beat Sami Z. which was to be expected. The New Day beat the Vaude Villains. When Are the Vaude Villians going to get a push? They have an awesome gimmick, have mic skills, and can wrestle.

Still no Steph or Chris Jericho. Maybe they are working on an alliance?

Only one interesting thing happened all night. When Bray Wyatt gave a prerecorded speech, one Xavier Woods seemed really into it. This is the second time this has happened. Will he leave the New Day to join the Wyatts? That would be a cool story line.

At 6/24/16 12:14 AM, DoctorStrongbad wrote: When Are the Vaude Villians going to get a push? They have an awesome gimmick, have mic skills, and can wrestle.

They will get a push when Cass and Enzo win the titles and part ways in favor of their singles push.

At 6/24/16 03:46 AM, Ganon-Dorf wrote:

At 6/24/16 12:14 AM, DoctorStrongbad wrote: When Are the Vaude Villians going to get a push? They have an awesome gimmick, have mic skills, and can wrestle.

They will get a push when Cass and Enzo win the titles and part ways in favor of their singles push.

Enzo makes a better manager than a wrestler. Cass is okay, but has little mic skills.

Its kinda weird to realize the only Reason Ambrose got the title Is because Roman Reigns got suspended..

At 6/24/16 11:55 AM, Valentini wrote: Its kinda weird to realize the only Reason Ambrose got the title Is because Roman Reigns got suspended..

That is what happens when Reigns is found out to be a pill popping junkie. He must of been sad over all the boos he gets from the crowd.

At 6/26/16 04:02 PM, EKM wrote: It's sort of a blessing in disguise though. It made for some genuinely entertaining direction. It'd be great if some kind of feud between all three former Shield members happened.

Until Roman can stop popping pills, it will be Seth and Dean feuding.

RAW was okay this week. They talked about Reign's twitter apology, and teased changing the triple threat match for the title. Enzo and Cass buried two unknown wrestles in less than 30 seconds. It was really lame. Xavier Woods is still hinting at being brainwashed by the Wyatt Family. Looks like AJ and Cena will have a PPV match.

They will not do anything interesting until the brand split on July 19th.

At 6/29/16 08:23 PM, DomoMekko wrote: For the draft they need to bring back the world heavyweight championship and make it smackdown's world title while the WWE title can be Raw's world title

Don't worry, they will have two different championships. Just like they did last time there was a brand split.

At 6/30/16 01:48 PM, EKM wrote: I think it's stupid. Chris Jericho unifies the WWE and WCW titles. Randy Orton unifies the WWE and World titles. How many times are they going to repeat the splitting? It's becoming a joke.

Modern WWE is all about giving out the belts as often as possible. That is why Ric Flair had them 16 times, and John Cena had them 15 times. It gets silly when they invent new belts.

At 6/30/16 02:25 PM, EKM wrote: I'm not even talking about that. I'm talking about the splitting of the world titles. It wasn't that long when Randy Orton unified them. Now they're split again. That's what's silly.

They have to split them for the brand split to work, they reunite them when it is over. Each different show needs a belt. It is all just a gimmick.

At 6/30/16 02:59 PM, EKM wrote: It doesn't have to be that way again though. I think it'd be better if only the Champions were the ones that accessed both shows.

I agree with you, but they want to make each show different, that way they can compete. Makes it easier for PPVs.

Would honestly prefer if they just put the IC belt on Smackdown and treat it like a world title. Build up some prestige around it.

It really depends on just how far they plan on taking the split. If they are SERIOUSLY trying to have Raw and Smackdown compete with each other, both shows need a distinct 'top guy' that only crosses brands during the 4 major PPVs.

Lets say, for example, that RAW's top 4 guys are Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton. And let's say Roman is the champ.

Over on smackdown, the top 4 guys are maybe John Cena, AJ Styles, Sammy Zayne and Kevin Owens.

If SmackDown doesn't have a separate champ, You have to see Roman twice as often, rather than see SmackDown's top 4 guys being the main event. And if Cena ends up as the champ, the same thing happens to RAW.

If the rosters, writing and championships are TRULY split, you'd still have Roman highlighted on RAW and Cena (probably) highlighted on Smackdown, but the other 3 guys in each top 4 would also be getting more exposure on their respective shows. It basically doubles the number of top slots that talent can move into.

Having 1 champion would probably actually generate a lot of anger from the fans long term too. If the champ can go on both shows, but he's feuding with a RAW guy, it kind of makes anything that happens on SmackDown's top card not really matter.

If they are splitting the writers up by show as well, things can get really interesting. Right now the writers just play it safe, basically doing shit they already know Vince likes and taking few real risks. But if Vince goes into a RAW writers meeting and yells at them because SmackDown had higher ratings, those guys are going to be forced to try new things to keep the boss happy. Smackdown, from day 1, has a chance to become the A show and the writers will be acutely aware of that. I think they will be ready to take some risks immediately.

The only thing I think they are doing wrong is giving each brand their own PPV every month. On one hand, it could end up selling more Network subscriptions since you would be getting 2x the PPVs for $9.99/mo, but on the other hand, that's another 3+ hours a month of WWE product we'd have to get through. I think it could cause people to quit watching BOTH brands and only watch the one they prefer. And people not willing to get the Network are definitely not buying 2 $60 PPVs a month.

At 6/30/16 06:19 PM, PsychoGoldfish wrote: It really depends on just how far they plan on taking the split. If they are SERIOUSLY trying to have Raw and Smackdown compete with each other, both shows need a distinct 'top guy' that only crosses brands during the 4 major PPVs.

I've heard the idea is two distinct shows that have no crossover. Even at the 4 majors, you would NOT be getting inter-brand match ups. So I guess the idea here by splitting the world title again is to add more value to those shows. But to me though they need to create some sort of controversy that has someone going over to SD! (because I can't see the WWE champion not being on RAW) and claiming to be the real champion, or this doesn't work. If you just pull a new world title out of thin air because "well, the other show needs one" then you've already killed the idea that the champions are equal to each other.

If SmackDown doesn't have a separate champ, You have to see Roman twice as often, rather than see SmackDown's top 4 guys being the main event. And if Cena ends up as the champ, the same thing happens to RAW.

I honestly hope they never make Cena champion again, they've over relied on him like WCW did with Flair (that's the real reason both of them have an insane amount of title runs). I don't see a traveling champion as a bad thing, the NWA did it for years, and other promotions recognized a top champion that you had to pay to see. It also would have given them a chance to shine the IC and US belts up again and make them the only title matches one could see on TV, and would serve to make them more desirable as guys would want to be champion, but not always be able to get a crack at the world champ because of how busy his schedule is. It also would have cemented that guy as THE top man in the entire company, the face, the franchise, etc.

If the rosters, writing and championships are TRULY split, you'd still have Roman highlighted on RAW and Cena (probably) highlighted on Smackdown, but the other 3 guys in each top 4 would also be getting more exposure on their respective shows. It basically doubles the number of top slots that talent can move into.

I suppose that makes sense, provided that both belts are treated as the most desirable thing someone can compete for.

Having 1 champion would probably actually generate a lot of anger from the fans long term too. If the champ can go on both shows, but he's feuding with a RAW guy, it kind of makes anything that happens on SmackDown's top card not really matter.

Disagree, because with two PPV type events a month (and there will be) except for the big 4 shows, you'd actually have the champ having two top contenders, two big matches a month, making both he and his championship that much more valuable. The only time this could become a problem would be in months where you'd only have 1 show (August, November, January, March/April). Then it could be more tricky since I can't see them creating a situation where the champ would wrestle twice so as to give both a raw and a smackdown guy a big match at those shows.

If they are splitting the writers up by show as well, things can get really interesting. Right now the writers just play it safe, basically doing shit they already know Vince likes and taking few real risks. But if Vince goes into a RAW writers meeting and yells at them because SmackDown had higher ratings, those guys are going to be forced to try new things to keep the boss happy. Smackdown, from day 1, has a chance to become the A show and the writers will be acutely aware of that. I think they will be ready to take some risks immediately.

The writing teams will be split, but it'll be key to have Vince actually allow competition. If SD! winds up being the better show then RAW, Vince has to allow that and just demand the RAW team step it up. Last time out if SD! was being perceived as better, Vince would just set up a draft where he raided all their top guys to try and cripple them. He can't really do that this time since USA has both shows and they aren't going to let him rob Peter to pay Paul because they need both Peter and Paul to be solvent for them. So my hope is we'll get a real even split and truly competitive shows. But the best remedy to me for that is for Vince to be less actively involved in the process.

The only thing I think they are doing wrong is giving each brand their own PPV every month. On one hand, it could end up selling more Network subscriptions since you would be getting 2x the PPVs for $9.99/mo, but on the other hand, that's another 3+ hours a month of WWE product we'd have to get through. I think it could cause people to quit watching BOTH brands and only watch the one they prefer. And people not willing to get the Network are definitely not buying 2 $60 PPVs a month.

I don't understand this argument. If watching it is such a chore for you....then just don't watch. From a pure business perspective a brand split now with two major brand only shows a month is a great idea. The Network is a success and continues to expand, and it's been proven that PPV is the big draw. If you don't want to watch all the programming they'll offer, no one is forcing you to, just pick and choose.

Smackdown was in Miami tonight, but still tame. The big match tonight was Dean vs the Miz, champion versus champion. It was much better than I thought it would be. The New Day had a taped segment making fun of the Wyatts, but Xavier is still acting like he will betray them. Another taped segment of Big Show and the special Olympics kids.

I watched the first episode of WCPW.

Jesus Christ, the commentary. It RUINS the show. They've stuck two of their Youtube personalities on it rather than anyone with experience, and they're dire. Almost unwatchable.

Glad I saw their finale show live, because the matches were good, but if the first episode is anything to go by they'll be butchered by these two chucklefucks.

Does anyone collect WWE figs? I just started a small collection myself. Might show them off sometime if there's any interest.

I'm debating if I should get a Kevin Owens fig, dunno which one I want yet. Might get the basic and custom it.

At 7/1/16 04:45 PM, TheMaster wrote: I watched the first episode of WCPW.

Jesus Christ, the commentary. It RUINS the show. They've stuck two of their Youtube personalities on it rather than anyone with experience, and they're dire. Almost unwatchable.

Glad I saw their finale show live, because the matches were good, but if the first episode is anything to go by they'll be butchered by these two chucklefucks.

Haven't finished watching the first episode because of some time constraints but I think they're still trying too find what works for them, Simon can't act for shit but he's trying and the small banter between him and King Ross is tolerable for me. But hey, it's better having those two in commentary and Blampied on screen than the other way around.

This week's RAW was all about Dean Ambrose. They keep shoving him and his championship down our throats. I believe he will lose his belt at the three way match. Would be nice to see Rollins win, but it will probably be boring Reigns. Xavier Woods walked out on the New Day. He does not want to fight the Wyatts in their home turf.

Tonight's RAW was heavy on hype, but low on results. The New Day and Wyatts had a pre-taped match that was suppose to be spooky, but looked silly. You can't take away your comedy and try to make them serious. Preventing your biggest star from doing what they do best is really stupid. Your ratings and content really sink when you do such a foolish thing. Steph and Shane were made commissions, but they still have to pick general managers. More waiting until next week.

At 7/12/16 12:42 AM, DoctorStrongbad wrote: Tonight's RAW was heavy on hype, but low on results. The New Day and Wyatts had a pre-taped match that was suppose to be spooky, but looked silly. You can't take away your comedy and try to make them serious. Preventing your biggest star from doing what they do best is really stupid. Your ratings and content really sink when you do such a foolish thing. Steph and Shane were made commissions, but they still have to pick general managers. More waiting until next week.

That New Day/Wyatts angle felt like a rip-off of TNA's hilarious Final Deletion match from last week.

By the way, its 2016 and the McMahons are STILL in the main event slot on RAW... Its absurd, to say the least.

And tomorrow FINALLY marks the start of the Cruiserweight Classic, and the Balor/Nakamura match on NXT. Should be a great night of wrestling.

At 7/12/16 11:24 PM, pepeatumi wrote: That New Day/Wyatts angle felt like a rip-off of TNA's hilarious Final Deletion match from last week.

It was a bad idea and just looked silly.

By the way, its 2016 and the McMahons are STILL in the main event slot on RAW... Its absurd, to say the least.

I was happy to get a break from Triple H.

Possible GM spoiler for Smackdown.

http://nodq.com/wwe/470342543.shtml