The roster is not weak. Batista is weak, yes, but he was only brought back because of his role in Guardians of the Galaxy (the company hopes a "movie star" will help in their upcoming contract negotiations with NBC/Universal).

I'm with you in that I'm not crazy about the WWE house style regarding faces & heels. Seems like they want heels to be cowards and faces to be unbeatable. For the most part. HHH is making some of that go away. HHH is making better a lot of what Vince had hard-ons for.

The real problem with the face/heel dynamic in WWE is that faces don't often have fully formed characters. People cheer the heels because they are their own people. You know who they are and what they stand for. WWE faces over the last five years have intentionally been made nondescript: a more-or-less blank canvas to appeal VERY broadly. Therefore, Cena is vaguely urban Superman. Sheamus is Irish-fighter-guy. Rey Mysterio/Kofi Kingston = jump dudes. Even CM Punk, in WWE babyface style, is Mr. Rebel and nothing more; whereas his heel characters have been true, round characters.

TL;DR? WWE's idea that faces need to be flat characters to appeal to the broadest possible demographics is what's causing heels to get cheered so much.

They missed Danielson last night.

And that Cena promo on the Wyatts was one of the worst he's done.

It's everything that people do [and should] hate Cena for. Terrible stuff.

They do shit like that for the 6 year olds in the audience and wonder why everybody teenage and above hates him.

He's also one of the most heelish 'babyfaces' in history. I've never understood why they refuse to just outright turn him. It won't hurt his merch sales a bit and he can keep visiting make-a-wish kids. I mean, it's not like he hasn't been an asshole on TV for the last decade anyway.

It's typical Cena...he tries to bury anything that gets over and is hot.

He's the biggest asshole in the WWE and has been for quite some time. He's the new political Hogan.

I read a theory somewhere that maybe Cena's shitty comedy schtick was all part of the writing. This program is based upon Bray getting in his head and messing him all up. During this promo, he forced Cena to revert back to his old crappy joking ways because he knew he couldn't properly debate the mastermind. If you notice, Bray completely no-sold Cena's promo and just went on about his business instead of getting flustered.

It could also be that Cena just sucks on the mic and the writers are unoriginal hacks when it comes to writing Cena's stuff.

I've never heard anything about Cena being political in the back, other than that he's a company guy who will do everything they ask him to do. I would agree that what he did last night was just as scripted as everything else he does. He's not a shooter. He's not going to just randomly bury anybody on his own. We're not in anything close to that kind of an era anymore. Everything that they all do is carefully scripted for them, and very, very few people have the freedom to even go off script at all, much less walk out there with a mic and no direction in the middle of a feud with a rising talent.

People who get buried these days are being buried by the office, not the workers.

(And in no way are the wyatts being buried right now)

Small sidetrack: How many of you have been buried in some way in the past? Describe the circumstances behind your burial, whether at work, in your personal life, or in some other capacity.

I don't think anybody's ever buried me but me. I am a master at self-burial, as most of you who've been here a decade or more will know.

Second only to the Bell Ringer gif for greatest ever.

LMAO what a bunch of crap

I, for one, am convinced by this argument.

Did Cena not pose with you at one of you House shows or refuse to give you his autograph when you were younger?

It's pretty apparent that you have an abnormal dislike for him...

Only person that Cena buried was Alex Riley.

Cena single handedly ruined Wade Barrett's career and all of Nexus when he buried them. Bray Wyatt was even in Nexus and he had to go hide for 3 years after that.

Yep. Jericho and Edge talk about it on Jericho's podcast.

He also ruined Damian Sandow last year when he tried to cash in the MITB and Cena beat him with ONE arm. Sandow has been on like a 1-49 losing streak since. Only win against Sin Cara lol. With his gimmick even being tweaked/repackaged. Talk about a bury.

Wade Barrett single handedly buried Wade Barrett....and continues to do it. As a showperson and wrestler, he pretty much is worthless.

Not sure why WWE keeps him around. He is boring....

Barrett is one of like 6 guys on the whole roster that has mic skills and some sort of in ring skills. There aren't many guys that can talk and wrestle in the WWE. It's either one or the other.

Who can currently cut a promo in the WWE? Without a manager.

Barrett
Sandow
Triple H
The Shield
Bray Wyatt

Can you think of anyone else that is good on the microphone? The two top faces Cena and Bryan can't cut a ****ing good promo to save their lives. Never could, never will. They are over but they can't talk themselves out of a paper bag. That is exactly why Reaper had the post earlier saying the Faces are stale with no character. it's because they can't ****ing talk.

Como is half a reerun, I wouldn't worry too much. It's actually better if his logic isn't on your side.

The heels are cheered because they do a damn good job with their roles and over time the fans gain a great appreciation for it. Plus, everyone loves a good anti-hero. Bray Wyatt is obviously helped by the fact that a large percentage of fans will cheer anyone against Cena. At this point, Cena would face a divided crowd if he wrestled Hitler.

People cheer the Shield because they are ****ing awesome. It's been a long time since we have seen a three-man unit that worked perfectly as a team. Plus, two of the guys (Ambrose and Rollins) had long successful Indy careers so they came in very polished. Reigns is just a freak of nature.

Lastly, anyone that thinks Danielson (or Daniel Bryan if you like reeruned copyrighted WWE names) isn't great is just a ****ing idiot. The guy has been great since the very first ROH show and he earned his spot in WWE.

I can't wait until Sammi Zayn (El Generico) gets the call up. He is another guy that the steroid freak loving homos will hate because he isn't all that big, but he is great nonetheless. He is tearing up NXT now so hopefully he gets called up by the summer.

There usually isn't more than 5 or 6 great promo guys in the company at one time in any era. Even the Attitude era, most of the entertainment was from the crazy storylines, not necessarily the promos. They had some great promo guys back then (Austin, Rock, Mankind on occasion, HBK) but there are great promo guys now, like you listed. Bray Wyatt is on another level right now compared to anyone else. Once Ambrose gets more promo time alone, people will see how great he is on the mic.

I thought they did the shield beat down last night the best way they could. Having half the roster beat them doesn't leave them looking weak at all, as opposed to evolution just sauntering out there by themselves and beating them down (that's how you'd start a burial...).

yea but I also never thought in a million years that the 3MB JOB Squad would be part of a main event at a WWE Raw show lol

LMAO so me calling out his bullshit is having an "abnormal dislike" for him.....ok.

I used to like Cena when his character had a bit of bite to it and wasn't so stale, goofy, and forced down our throats and he'd actually put people over and give them a rub...not guys like Orton, Punk, and Bryan who are already made.

He can go in the ring that's for sure...continue to make your dumb little jokes though and make stupid generalizations.

Just for the record...I used to call HHH for the same shit and hated him for the same reasons.

However now I quite like his new character and how he's being used and like a lot of the decisions he's been making with the product.

You really should be blaming Stephanie McMahon. She's been responsible for his character from day 1 and has been running creative for YEARS. All the things you hate about cena...She's responsible for all of it.

You may be the only person I've ever seen say 'he can go' in the ring, too. While good workers can have good matches with him he's much more of a character than a worker himself, with his 5 moves of doom that even he jokes about. But that's a whole other topic.

I think it's really sad in a way that he has been and will forever be the face of a decade of wrestling, with other workers out there more skilled both on the Mic and in the ring. But he was the 'prototype' the McMahon's chose.

This.....Cena is exactly what WWE wants him to be.

I say that because it seems almost every one of your posts seems to be about hating on John Cena. Little else...

We'll have to agree to disagree on Barrett....I find him boring, almost repetitive.

The rest I will agree with you in regards to mic work.

My biggest beef with Triple H is bringing back all his less-talented Degeneration X co-horts like Billy Gunn and Road Dogg, Batista...etc

If he is going to bring back friends....let Shawn Michaels do the mic work.

As for Cena.....kick him to the curb and see what happens to $$'s, you know the thing that really drives WWE. He may be a robot, but he still pulls down numbers that only The Rock and Stone Cold could match. They need a guy like Cena so parents will bring their kids to the show.

If the critics of Cena were given their wish and he was gone, you would love the product. It would look a lot like WCW with declining revenue.

Cena CAN go in the ring. He used to be garbage, but he's been good for a few years now. It is absolutely not a coincidence that many match-of-the-year contenders have Cena in them. He's not being carried out there like he used to have to be.

Anyone who thinks trips still buries people, simply isn't paying attention.

HHH is also the reason many more guys from the Indies are getting shots. It used to be that WWE completely looked down on anyone that wasn't created by WWE or a WCW/ECW retread. In the last several years since Hunter was more involved in talent signings, it has given us Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Sammi Zayne and others.

He is playing his current role perfectly on screen.

I was actually careful not to say he was being carried. He's not a bad worker. But he's not somebody who's going to carry someone else, either.

Hunter is the reason that wrestling is interesting again imo. McMahon was the reason it got so stale and boring, hunter is doing what he can to change things. The more Hunter the better atm.

Hunter views himself as a technical wrestler (which is arguably incorrect), and for that reason i think he is pushing the more technically gifted, in-ring talents such as the indie guys.

I tend to think he still is pretty average. Not horrible, but still average. What he benefits from, is being the main guy. Because of this he consistently faces the top of the card talents, who by no coincidence are normally the best in ring workers. The likes of CM Punk, Bray Wyatt and Daniel Bryan have carried him, leading to great matches. Yet when he goes against the likes of Ryback and Orton, he produces average matches at best.

They need to turn Cena heel and give him a new look. I know why they won't do that (Cena as a face is a cash cow for the 4-12 year old audience) but in the long run it would make for a better story line.

I think some of that (the WWE going away from their traditional bodybuilder focus) is WWE being forced to run with those more athletic/actual wrestler guys because UFC's growth/expansion in the last decade has been slowly but steadily shrinking their potential talent pool. Guys (like collegiate wrestlers) who in the past may have been focused solely professional wrestling as an athletic career path have an option now (MMA) that didn't exist at nearly the same scale a decade ago that it does now, and some think this may eventually become evident/a problem with regards to the WWE roster.

There's a ton of recent/current WWE stars who would've gone that way, for sure, had it been a realistic path available to them the way it is now when they started out 10-20 years ago.

On the good side, a lot of the guys they get now are guys who are in it because they have a passion for it.

Cena tends to do well in matches where the violence is ratcheted up if he isn't with a guy that can carry the match. He had a feud with Batista a while back that had some great matches when neither guy is a real great worker. The matches just hid the weaknesses of each guy. That was something Paul Heyman was great at when running ECW.

Some sad news:

Kane showing up with his mask. Is this new?

Gotta make Kane look like a monster somehow. That segment ought to do it.

Can't believe how over Barrett is in this match.

Or that they let him win.

I've turned into a huge Daniel Bryan mark.

About time.

Cesaros new theme sucks.

Should've kept The Real Americans theme...

Man aksana needs a new out fit makes her look chubby not sexy at all

It's awesome because my 4 year old is too.

Hey bad guy and draft rumors for kc

Rusev rules

I wish I had any small piece of info to share, but I've got nothing. Partly I haven't bothered for info over the last 2 months. Been just insanely busy.

I hate Cena, but this is just odd.

No bray Wyatt character is awesome. How to make a hated WWE star into a fan favorite have them go against Cena. Seriously if cessaro went against Cena Cessaro would be cheered and Cena booed! I agree time to turn Cena bad they'll never do it but they should.

Only in a Cena match would breaking up a pin be considered a DQ lol...Jesus.

its so illogical, the heels are getting all the cheers, the fans voted for a 3 on 1 handicap against the face thats how much they love the heels. Cena should have every right to be pissed at the fans, but he will just shrug it off and keep preaching positivity to them as they kick it back negatively and he does nothing about it. If they turned him heel it would be the biggest heat magnet and first real good heel they had since 2008 Jericho in the HBK feud.

Oh I agree 100%

It was just a little odd.. haha.

I'm curious as to if those votes are real or not?

The WWE universe is really turning on him vote on a 3-1 match,

They're real but they skew it obviously so the results they want get it.

i think they are Jericho talked about it on his podcast during his last run he was in a vote as one of the options to face CM Punk, earlier in the day at the meeting he said WWEs test run votes predict Randy Orton will win and Jericho called them all stupid and said the fans will pick him, sure enough they did and Jericho said there was a scramble backstage at the last minute to put the match together cause WWE scripted and rehearsed for Punk-Orton and not him winning the vote

he said when the fans voted for him he called some officials ****ing stupid for not listening to him lol

I love Jericho miss him

Is Cena going to turn heel?

Did I phrase that correctly?

So i miss the beginning of raw, turn on USA at 10 after the hour, see john cena talking and then don't care that i missed the beginning of raw.

No

Yes

I love Bray Wyatt. LMAO

Creepy but awesome will Cena finally turn??

Questioned the fans lol he might finally turn

Cena can't turn, his whole marketing is to kids. He's lost the adults through over exposure/fatigue. bray Wyatt does his Role so well the fans appreciate it. And he hustles in the ring with skill. So you get this bizarro thing where the fans cheer for Wyatt.
IRS should be proud of his boy.

"My head hurts. Bad."
LMAO

Bryan is a lucky, lucky man. Bre is smokin hot.

"My head hurts. Bad."
LMAO

Bryan is a lucky, lucky man. Bre is smokin hot.

HHH's desire to bring back his old buddies like RVD makes for some dull action.

hes not a Triple H buddy. RVD is a Heyman buddy, the FIRST Heyman guy actuallly

Lol HHH buried RVD. Don't really think they're friends.

Not in the script, no, but they don't come back without his approval. He's delaying new talent with the old school wrestlers. This last match was watching the Shield carry Randy Orton, HHH and Bootista - none of whom Put any effort into it.

Maybe the WWE needs a better 401k so the old guys don't have to return at 45 to capitalize on a reputation they built in the 90s.

Either way I'll be at the Sprint Center tomorrow night with 3 of my boys. Spending my money on HHH's product and bitching about everything he does. LOL.

What new talent is being delayed? Please be specific.

Seriously. There's been a pretty good influx of talent since HHH took over.

Any idea why Kofi Kingston doesn't get more of a push? He seems super talented in the ring.

Weird chest?

The McMahons are friends with the Sterlings?