The Wrestling Thread: WWE WrestleMania 31 [NSFW]

[Mafro]

Free Bryan & Vinny Show today

It's the return of the FREE edition of the mighty Bryan & Vinny Show~! And what a treat we have for you, a massive 94 MINUTE EPISODE! Why is it so long? God only knows. But we'll cover the worst Raw in years, compare and contract it to the other worst Raw people keep bringing up from August 09 with Jeremy Piven and Dr. Ken, talk Smackdown this week, read shout-outs, plus talk this week's best show ever, WORLD CLASS WRESTLING FROM 1994 WITH ANDRE THE GIANT. Hot damn this show ruled. Best of all, this GIANT 90-PLUS MINUTE SHOW is completely FREE, so please post the link or file elsewhere and help spread the word about wrestlingobserver.com! And if you like what you hear, consider signing up for a subscription as Vinny and I do two to three shows per week in addition to the other 15-20 brand new shows, plus members have full access to our thousands of hours of audio and hundreds of new and archived Wrestling Observer and Figure Four Newsletters. It's a steal, so sign up and join the fun! Only at wrestlingobserver.com.

http://media001.f4wonline.com/free/101211bvshow.mp3

[Chocolate Jim]

SWEEEEEEEET!

[KK]

Kevin Nash will reportedly finish filming the movie he is working on towards the end of this week. Nash is expected to return to WWE TV in some capacity before the year is over. Nash also recently got some tattoo work done on his arm.

Just when you think it couldn't get any worse...you're reminded Nash & Punk haven't had their match yet.

[Cosmo]

Free Bryan & Vinny Show today

It's the return of the FREE edition of the mighty Bryan & Vinny Show~! And what a treat we have for you, a massive 94 MINUTE EPISODE! Why is it so long? God only knows. But we'll cover the worst Raw in years, compare and contract it to the other worst Raw people keep bringing up from August 09 with Jeremy Piven and Dr. Ken, talk Smackdown this week, read shout-outs, plus talk this week's best show ever, WORLD CLASS WRESTLING FROM 1994 WITH ANDRE THE GIANT. Hot damn this show ruled. Best of all, this GIANT 90-PLUS MINUTE SHOW is completely FREE, so please post the link or file elsewhere and help spread the word about wrestlingobserver.com! And if you like what you hear, consider signing up for a subscription as Vinny and I do two to three shows per week in addition to the other 15-20 brand new shows, plus members have full access to our thousands of hours of audio and hundreds of new and archived Wrestling Observer and Figure Four Newsletters. It's a steal, so sign up and join the fun! Only at wrestlingobserver.com.

http://media001.f4wonline.com/free/101211bvshow.mp3

Listening now. Interesting to hear that Rhodes doesn't do the voice and bag gooseberry fool at house shows.

I bet you can hear these two recording this show from outside.

[1cmanny1]

I watched RAW. The start was bloody funny. But then it got bad, aka back to it's normal self.

[Mafro]

I bet you can hear these two recording this show from outside.

Bryan Alvarez's wife was complaining about them speaking loudly/shouting too much when they were recording a few weeks ago, she could hear them before she walked in the house

[Slimgrady]

I thaught they could only use Brock in the game if he was presented as "WWE Brock" and not "UFC Brock"?He didnt have that big tattoo on his torso when he was in WWE so its clearly a representation of present day Brock.

[KK]

A lot of the wrestling websites seem to be unawares Triple H is still the Chief Operating Officer, & hasn't actually been fired. I don't really blame them, as this angle has been confusing enough, & Vince McMahon's line was rather flippant.

Vince McMahon, mysteriously back in power as Chairman of the promotion, to Triple H: "Even though I was over-ruled, I thought it was my duty to come here and personally tell you, on behalf of the board of directors, your services of running Monday Night RAW, are no longer required. Now I know this isn't going to break your heart, I get that. You didn't ask for the job to begin with. And you're not going to run Monday Night RAW, I'm not going to run Monday Night RAW, no member of the McMahon family is going to run Monday Night RAW. Even though they appreciate that and obviously your skills as COO and want to continue with that, the board is looking for a General Manager who is independent of all of this, someone who is unbiased, they are looking for a permanent General Manager who's ethics and morals are beyond reproach, but until they find that individual they've named an Interim General Manager. I don't like this decision any more than you're going to like it. The Interim General Manager for Monday Night RAW is the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations, John Laurinaitis."

Thankfully WWE.com & wiki are there to the rescue:

WWE COO Triple H was relieved of his RAW duties.

he was relieved from his duty as General Manager of Raw by Vince McMahon and replaced by John Laurinaitis on an interim basis however he remains COO.

[Pontius Pilate]

Doesn't that mean that Hunter can still just over rule everything Ace does?

[KK]

I always thought according to WWF lore, that would be the Commissioner. Though we haven't seen the Commissioner in years.

[Codename 47]

Doesn't that mean that Hunter can still just over rule everything Ace does?

See one thing i don't get is....from what happened on Raw it's just made it sound like HHH was just a glorified General Manager Especially the way he "let Teddy remain in charge of Smackdown". How can an interem GM have more authority than a freakin' C.O.O? How can he be relieved of his Raw duties when he's still the COO? He's in a far higher position that Ace so why can't he just overrule every decision he makes? NOW...if he was actually fired as C.O.O...then i'd have no complaints. Obviously then HHH would have no authority..

[Mockmaster]

Re: Smackdown

I can't believe they had Orton win the 41 man Battle Royale. A unique match that could have been used to elevate someone different into a championship scene, and not necessarily the World one. Orton could have got his inevitable Mark Henry rematch in so many other ways.

[KK]

I also like how they booked & then blew off the Royal Rumble in one, practically un-hyped episode of SmackDown. Winner of RR isn't even getting the main event of Mania this year anyway.

Plus if Cena & Rock turns out to be for the Championship, & Dee Bryan is cashing in at WrestleMania (I can't see this happening, but anyway), what is the point of the Rumble next year?

[captain red dog]

For storylines purposes I fail to see the point of having HHH remain as COO. The whole angle has fallen apart now as Vince is still in charge so in effect is still the boss above HHH and Ace.

[KK]

For storylines purposes I fail to see the point of having HHH remain as COO. The whole angle has fallen apart now as Vince is still in charge

But is he?! Maybe the graphic was wrong? Maybe as a majority shareholder he can still sit in on board meetings but has no power? Maybe he does have undisclosed power? Maybe he's a mysterious "high ranking executive". Who are these board of directors? What has happened to the Anonymous GM? Who is trying to sabotage Triple H's reign? Why have the faces returned when the new GM is worse than the old one that we didn't even know was the GM in the first place? Everything is so vague & haphazard that by the time you attempt to piece everything together, it's completely changed by the following week & a load more questions have arisen. How the strawberry float WWE have managed to outdo TNA in the whole 'Who's in charge' angle I don't know.

The similarities to WCW in 1999 are staggering. It's practically the whole Ric Flair/Roddy Piper/Charles Robinson/J J Dillon/Eric Bischoff scenario on repeat. Ultimately things became so bad in 1999 that come April of 2000 they shut the whole lot down & started again.

[HailToTheKingBaby!]

I guess with Vince, he's still chairman of the board and owns the company but was removed as COO with HHH taking his place?

No idea what the difference between chairman and COO is though.

Maybe it's like when Chris Evans got sacked as a DJ from Virgin Radio even though he owned it at the time..

They should just go back to having two GM's one per show, and a commisioner who is like the GM's bosses (Mick Foley would be great). Have the GM's sort most stuff then the commissioner come out and make some extra matches here and there etc.. would help mix things up a bit. Anything has to be better than the big random mess they have at the moment.

When's Survivor Series? I assume soon they'll drop this storyline almost completely to build up whatever story they're doing to bring Rock into his match there and focus on that.. unless he's just going to turn up on RAW, get beat down by someone then get added into the match as a result but hopefully they'll build it up properly for a few weeks first.

As for sabotaging HHH, it seemed obvious it would be Laurenitis which seems to have played out but again, there doesn't seem to be anything hinting yet that HHH is going to do anything about it.. I also assumed Vince would be in on it, seems odd vince was saying he was against Laurenitis being put in charge too unless that's all part of the "conspiracy"..

[Return_of_the_STAR]

if hhh is still COO then why was johnny ace also showing up on SD. Surely hhh should turn round and say get lost u have no authority here. I'm gonna try not to question this anymore as it makes no sense and will only get worse in the coming months until this permanent (foley) gm takes over

[KK]

The lack of clearly defined roles is a real pain in the arse.

You've got Chairman, the Chief Executive Officer (who used to be Linda McMahon, in real life & on TV), Chief Operating Officer (a new role that I don't believe has ever been uttered on television), General Managers, Head of Talent Relations & Board of Directors (who we never meet, like the equivalent of Columbo's wife).

At the end of RAW, Laurenitis said he needed to meet with the Board of Directors to see if he could book a tag match for Vengeance. So he needed permission for this, but when has the GM ever needed to ask permission before?

[RogueLeader]

They could have a 41-man battle royal with all the authority figures:

Triple H, Vince, Stephanie, John Laryngitis, Teddy Long, Mike Adamle, The Anonymous GM's laptop, Vickie...any more?

[Mockmaster]

They could have a 41-man battle royal with all the authority figures:

Triple H, Vince, Stephanie, John Laryngitis, Teddy Long, Mike Adamle, The Anonymous GM's laptop, Vickie...any more?

All the former celebrity RAW hosts.