• Changing RCF's index page, please click on "Forums" to access the forums.

WWE/NXT/AEW/NJPW Thread

Do Not Sell My Personal Information
I also would enjoy a real Owens run

But it's starts with him losing Jericho and taking guys out like back in NXT. No more games and jokes. NXT Kevin Owens would've gave freaking Goldberg a powerbomb for looking at him funny

RAW Owens runs and makes jokes


Vince trying his hardest to neuter this man

A heel NXT Owens could be as popular a heel as HHH was back in the day. HHH used to be taking guys out
 
Well, Owens/Jericho wouldn't necessarily have to main event. They've kind of changed the "main event 'Mania" stipulation of winning the Rumble to just getting a title shot. They could have Styles/Whoever main event, or Lesnar/Goldberg (would prefer not to have two part-timers main event, but this is Vince), or Taker/Cena if Taker's career is on the line.

If I were booking things, given the way everything is set up right now, I'd have Jericho win the Rumble, put over Owens at 'Mania, and then slow build to Owens dropping the title to Balor at Summerslam. Assuming they want to put the title back on Balor, I think it makes sense to do so at a major event, and Owens and Balor have proven in NXT to be capable of some pretty good matches. Now, if Balor is ready for the Rumble you could have him win instead and have Owens and Jericho blow off their feud at the PPV before 'Mania, but I don't think he will be ready yet. Ideally, you'd have Owens come out of 'Mania with a new style and start having him win matches legitimately leading up to his feud with Balor.

Of course, this is Vince we're talking about, so Reigns will probably walk into 'Mania with both titles and get booed out of the building again, and then when Balor comes back they'll stupidly turn him heel and try to play him as the bad guy in the Reigns feud like they did with Styles, and it will work even worse.

You're great to talk wwe with, you think along the same lines I do.. But I think most wrestling fans do these days..

Here's some things I'm looking at heading into the rumble.
1. Braun Stroman deserves a title push, won't get one.
This is a guy Vince probably wants to push, but will do too late. Especially with the way they've been promoting him heading into the rumble. Hard to say there's five other wrestlers who should be favored over him, but that generally doesn't end well this time of year. I'd love to see Braun fight in a match that actually means something, but seems like the kind who benefits more from stipulation matches. Let's face it, 1 on 1 there may only be one guy on the roster who has any business beating this guy in a ring.
2. Speaking of that guy, Brock Lesnar has zero shot of winning the rumble. Possibly the dumbest part of this years rumble is that nobody thinks this guys winning. With Golberg signed to additional 3 PPVs you can all but pencil in either he eliminates Goldberg or vice versa, which essentially has them meet up at WM. Goldberg and Lesnar are no threat in this years rumble.
3. Rollins will be eliminated by/with the aide from HHH. Same thing goes for Rolins and HHH. These guys are on a crash course for WM and if HHH is in the rumble, the focus will be on Rollins. Seth is not a great face and I prefer him as a heel, so the sooner this feud ends the better. I doubt HHH finds his way into the RR since that would be two surprise entries in a row, so outside interference is most likely.
4. Jericho is my favorite. Owens Jericho WM is likely and the rumble may build a solid storyline for the pair. Side note: only way Reigns loses to KO is from help from Jericho (lolreignswins). I got a feeling that shark cage may be empty before the match ends.
5. Kurt Angle will make a comeback at the royal rumble. Just wanna hear the you suck chants.
6. If bailors in, bailor wins. Not a fan of Finn, but if he makes his return I don't see how he loses. He is the online betting favorite last I checked.
 
You're great to talk wwe with, you think along the same lines I do.. But I think most wrestling fans do these days..

Here's some things I'm looking at heading into the rumble.
1. Braun Stroman deserves a title push, won't get one.
This is a guy Vince probably wants to push, but will do too late. Especially with the way they've been promoting him heading into the rumble. Hard to say there's five other wrestlers who should be favored over him, but that generally doesn't end well this time of year. I'd love to see Braun fight in a match that actually means something, but seems like the kind who benefits more from stipulation matches. Let's face it, 1 on 1 there may only be one guy on the roster who has any business beating this guy in a ring.
2. Speaking of that guy, Brock Lesnar has zero shot of winning the rumble. Possibly the dumbest part of this years rumble is that nobody thinks this guys winning. With Golberg signed to additional 3 PPVs you can all but pencil in either he eliminates Goldberg or vice versa, which essentially has them meet up at WM. Goldberg and Lesnar are no threat in this years rumble.
3. Rollins will be eliminated by/with the aide from HHH. Same thing goes for Rolins and HHH. These guys are on a crash course for WM and if HHH is in the rumble, the focus will be on Rollins. Seth is not a great face and I prefer him as a heel, so the sooner this feud ends the better. I doubt HHH finds his way into the RR since that would be two surprise entries in a row, so outside interference is most likely.
4. Jericho is my favorite. Owens Jericho WM is likely and the rumble may build a solid storyline for the pair. Side note: only way Reigns loses to KO is from help from Jericho (lolreignswins). I got a feeling that shark cage may be empty before the match ends.
5. Kurt Angle will make a comeback at the royal rumble. Just wanna hear the you suck chants.
6. If bailors in, bailor wins. Not a fan of Finn, but if he makes his return I don't see how he loses. He is the online betting favorite last I checked.

Yeah, I'm not the biggest Balor fan either, as he's never had a match that wowed me in the WWE/NXT (and I've seen all of his televised matches on both). I haven't really seen much of his Prince Devitt work, so I can't comment on that, but suffice it to say I'm also of the opinion that he's nothing special. Just a decent worker with a great entrance. Meanwhile, I can cite numerous matches from guys like Owens and Zayn and Styles that were incredible from their time in the WWE (and in NXT for Owens and Zayn).

Still, he's not terrible either, and it was refreshing to see him get pushed over Reigns and Rollins right away. They need to do that more often and debut guys like fucking stars if they warrant it. Owens almost got that treatment, but ultimately Vince balked at having him go over Cena. Had he done that, he probably could have held the main title a year earlier than he ended up winning it.

Personally, I think they should start treating anyone who held the NXT Title as important enough to be a main event player on the main roster and push them appropriately right from their debut and book them accordingly. It worked wonderfully with Balor, and would have worked with Owens too had they had the guts to let him beat Cena in their rubber match. His first win over Cena was still one of the most shocking match outcomes I can remember. I honestly didn't think that would happen, especially clean.

My guess for Lesnar/Owens is that Lesnar finally returns the favor and beats the shit out of Goldberg, possibly before the third entrant gets into the Rumble. Either that or they eliminate each other early on. Let's be real here...they are entering at one and two and neither guy has the cardio for an hour-plus long Rumble. I doubt either of them lasts more than ten minutes, and I suspect both might be gone before number three (Jericho?) arrives.

I disagree about Strowman, though. I don't think he's ready for a Universal Title shot. Not yet. He's doing the best work of his career with Zayn right now and I expect that to continue, possibly with Zayn giving him his first loss at Wrestlemania, which could propel Zayn into the main event scene where he belongs and maybe send Strowman on to a US Title run. Regardless, I think it would be a bad idea to push him as Universal Title contender this soon. It would almost be repeating the same mistakes they've made with Reigns after the Shield broke up. They pushed him too soon before he was ready and the fans turned on him. Strowman is a heel, which would help things, but I still think it would be better to bring up guy like him slowly and allow him to earn the respect of the fans in the ring.

I do kind of hope Triple H enters the Rumble, though. It would make a certain amount of sense given that he won it last year. Maybe have Rollins eliminate him, which gives Triple H enough of a black eye to want to get his revenge in an actual match. Make it a street fight and then let Rollins go over by beating Triple H's ass at 'Mania.
 
I thought it was a really good match, but that seems to be exaggerating quite a bit. The first half of the match wasn't great and the overall match was about ten minutes longer than it really needed to be, especially since it didn't really pick up until about midway through.

Do you frequently watch NJPW? The story told in the match was fucking breathtaking, and it was easily the best match in the last 40 years.
 
Do you frequently watch NJPW? The story told in the match was fucking breathtaking, and it was easily the best match in the last 40 years.

The best match in forty years just seems like insane hyperbole. I didn't even think it was the best match on the card, as I thought the Naito match took that honor.
 
I found myself thinking the same about Finn after the Summerslam match. His moveset is as limited as Roman Reigns and the IWC foesmt jump down his throat. But just like Roman Reigns he works that limited moveset and puts on consistently great matches. So at the end of the day Finn may not do many diffeeent moves but he's a good storyteller in the ring
 
I don't think you have a Raw roster guy win the Rumble. I think it will be a smackdown guy

If they let Ambrose keep the Us title. Id love to see Corbin feud. perhaps Ambrose gets eliminated by Corbin or vice versa in the rumble. Ambrose going after Corbin while Corbin has his sights on the big prize would be great.
I also don't think you need Balor to win the rumble to get him a title match. if Ambrose will even be in the royal rumble match

but what do you do with Reigns if he loses to Owens.
 
Kenny Omega is the best wrestler on the planet.

That is all.
 
I don't think you have a Raw roster guy win the Rumble. I think it will be a smackdown guy

If they let Ambrose keep the Us title. Id love to see Corbin feud. perhaps Ambrose gets eliminated by Corbin or vice versa in the rumble. Ambrose going after Corbin while Corbin has his sights on the big prize would be great.
I also don't think you need Balor to win the rumble to get him a title match. if Ambrose will even be in the royal rumble match

but what do you do with Reigns if he loses to Owens.
If Reigns somehow magically losses to Owens I guaruntee Wwe will stretch the feud out until Wrestlemania and by some magic way Roman will get a title shot against WHOEVER is champ


But what they should do is get the Us Tirle it's own fued and honestly Strowman VS Roman is already set up. That fued would instantly give the US Title buzz again.


Worst case scenario is they set up Roman VS Goldberg at Wrestlemania. Don't get me wrong I wanna see that match if possible and would love it. But Wrestlemania should be for getting full timers over. I don't want anymore old guys VS new guys that need to get over. If it's a Shawn Michaels VS GOLDBERG match then I'm cool.
 
If Reigns somehow magically losses to Owens I guaruntee Wwe will stretch the feud out until Wrestlemania and by some magic way Roman will get a title shot against WHOEVER is champ

But what they should do is get the Us Tirle it's own fued and honestly Strowman VS Roman is already set up. That fued would instantly give the US Title buzz again.

Worst case scenario is they set up Roman VS Goldberg at Wrestlemania. Don't get me wrong I wanna see that match if possible and would love it. But Wrestlemania should be for getting full timers over. I don't want anymore old guys VS new guys that need to get over. If it's a Shawn Michaels VS GOLDBERG match then I'm cool.

My personal guess right now is that they'll use this handicap US title match tonight to get the belt off of Reigns while still making him look strong and then have him take the belt from Owens at the Rumble. Then Owens and Jericho can feud heading up to 'Mania and Owens can take the US title off of him while Jericho goes back on tour with his band. They could have Owens win it tonight, and then have Jericho turn on him when he refuses to give Jericho a shot at one of the titles or something.

I don't think they should do this, but I think that's what they will do. The real shame in all of this is how weak the US title looks now. A little over a year ago that belt actually meant something, but right now Reigns never defends it on PPV, carries it around like it's a piece of shit they're forcing him to bring with him to the ring, and just generally doesn't seem to give a crap about it.
 
My personal guess right now is that they'll use this handicap US title match tonight to get the belt off of Reigns while still making him look strong and then have him take the belt from Owens at the Rumble. Then Owens and Jericho can feud heading up to 'Mania and Owens can take the US title off of him while Jericho goes back on tour with his band. They could have Owens win it tonight, and then have Jericho turn on him when he refuses to give Jericho a shot at one of the titles or something.

I don't think they should do this, but I think that's what they will do. The real shame in all of this is how weak the US title looks now. A little over a year ago that belt actually meant something, but right now Reigns never defends it on PPV, carries it around like it's a piece of shit they're forcing him to bring with him to the ring, and just generally doesn't seem to give a crap about it.
Its sad how they booked themselves into a corner. Roman must lose the belt if they want to avoid double champs. But the way they have both belts involved there's no way to do this correctly. So now we have to sit through a shitty illogical handicap match for a belt.

Are you telling me there was no way to build to a 4 way or a 3 way match? No WWE just didn't want to put Roman in a situation where he's in a match and losses clean before his title shot. They've booked Roman how they SHOULD be booking every champion.
 
Its sad how they booked themselves into a corner. Roman must lose the belt if they want to avoid double champs. But the way they have both belts involved there's no way to do this correctly. So now we have to sit through a shitty illogical handicap match for a belt.

Are you telling me there was no way to build to a 4 way or a 3 way match? No WWE just didn't want to put Roman in a situation where he's in a match and losses clean before his title shot. They've booked Roman how they SHOULD be booking every champion.

The sad thing is that they are basically just replaying the shitty storyline from when Rollins was champ, only this time it's Owens in that role. Jericho is his version of those security goons, and Reigns is playing Cena. I just don't know if the outcome will be the same, since I have my doubts that Vince will want Owens defending the top title at 'Mania. Then again, he's let Owens go this long as champ, so who knows?

The only thing separating this Owens run from what Rollins did is that Owens and Jericho are just much more entertaining guys on the mic, so they can go out there and make bad segments work (like that one when Jericho got locked in the cage...that would have bombed with Rollins and Reigns) by just being themselves.
 
Man, I'm so glad Rusev gets a chance to talk now. I used to hate his character but even just watching him on up up down down is amazing.

He's actually a really funny guy, and I think he'd be a great face because he's got charisma and is generally likable. The problem is that Vince has him typecast as an evil foreign heel, and there's usually a ceiling on how high guys like that can rise in the WWE because Vince doesn't like having them go over Americans for top titles.

At the very least, they need to quit pretending he's an evil foreigner (he lives in Nashville). For that matter, they really need to quit pretending that Lana is Russian. Her fake accent is awful and the fans love her. And they absolutely need to quit sending Rusev out there whenever they need someone to take a beating from a legend. He has the potential to be a top guy, but he's booked like an absolute chump.

I loathe the Jinder Mahal pairing because it shows that Vince learned nothing from the League of Nations debacle.
 

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Video

Episode 3-12: "Max Strus Juice"

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Spotify

Episode 3:11: "Clipping Bucks."
Top