WWE 2025: Welcome to the Streaming Era

[Epic for Springs]

Typhoon is Cody's uncle so there's a connection. Also, that Dark Side of the Ring episode really showcased what an awesome guy John Tenta was so he deserves his time in the spotlight almost 20 years after his passing.

 

[alfdogg]

Put the Allied Powers in and make Lex the first two-time in one year inductee

 

[Tino Standard]

Meltz seems to implying that Mania plans have changed again which is why Cena did not mention the Rock in his promo on Monday.

That would seem to add up based on what they’ve done since. The Cena promo from yesterday feels like it’s from a completely different story from where they were at the Elimination Chamber.

The longer this goes on, the more it feels like they had an idea to start from but no clue where to go with it. Having Cena for a limited amount of dates and the Rock for even less hasn’t helped.

 

[Epic for Springs]

Maybe dictating the main event scene around Dwayne's schedule isn't the best thing for the company.

 

[BUTT]

My uneducated guess is that Rock's separate creative team only works when he's there and he told HHH to not have Cena and Cody talk about him until he figures out how he fits into the whole thing. I'm sure Dwayne will be involved at Mania but nobody, even him, knows how at this point.

 

[Tino Standard]

Rock: “Cody, I want your soul so that I can mold you into being the face of our organization as our corporate champion now and into the future.”

Cena: “When I win my 17th championship, I’m taking the title with me into retirement so nobody can lay claim to it ever again!”

THESE MOTIVATIONS ARE IN DIRECT CONTRADICTION WITH ONE ANOTHER.

 

[Brocklock]

It sounds like they might do another all women's Evolution event in the Summer.

 

[Hawk 34]

WWE has hired Mike Shunock to be the new ring announcer for Smackdown.

He previously served as announcer for Top Rank Boxing and the in stadium announcer for the Las Vegas Raiders.

 

[Brocklock]

It sounds like they might do another all women's Evolution event in the Summer.

Confirmed by SRS and is gonna be in July.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

It sounds like they might do another all women's Evolution event in the Summer.

Streets is saying that this is preemptive damage control because the women are going to get short shrift at Mania.

 

[strummer]

At the Smackdown tapings today it was announced that the submission match between Bret and Austin from WM 13 will be inducted into the HOF. So I guess they are inducting matches now.

So Austin will be at Mania.

 

[Tino Standard]

The Austin-Hart match is being labeled as an “Iconic Moment” for its induction, which tells me they will be inducting things besides just matches. Considering pro wrasslin’ is as much about the things that happen outside of the matches themselves, I don’t mind that.

 

[Valeyard]

DX gonna drive a tank into the 2026 HOF.

 

[Hawk 34]

Rey Fenix debuts next week on Smackdown.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

A Hall of Fame that inducts matches/moments is so fucking gimmicky, but they were running out of actual people to put in so whatever.

 

[Valeyard]

The legend "problematic and/or is too dead to play ball" wing ruined everything potentially special and officially made it a joke HOF. It always was, sure, but that's was the last flush.

 

[Epic for Springs]

Punk/Rollins/Reigns is main eventing night 1 of WM. Cody/Cena headlines night 2.

Punk finally got his dying wish.

 

[strummer]

HOF tickets were moving slow so that's probably why they added Bret/Austin.

 

[Epic for Springs]

I read some discourse online pointing out that this is pacing to be the least attended Mania in over a decade. Hard to call something that draws 50K fans on each of two nights a disappointment but those soaring ticket prices certainly don't help.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

They still have a ton of tickets out for the actual mania nights which is something that hasn't happened in forever.

 

[Tino Standard]

Can’t say I’m shocked by that. Ticket prices are obscene. I wonder how long they hold out before lowering them to get the rest moved.

 

[909]

Because it's Vegas they will probably have to give them away. That might be tough because foreigners are refusing to visit this country any longer.

 

[Tino Standard]

100% agree re: international fans not wanting to come here. I wouldn’t be surprised if having the show on Easter weekend is having an effect as well.

 

[Gert]

I think Easter does play a slight factor, but yeah the ticket prices are insane. I bet they would rather give away the tickets than drop the prices because people will notice that trend for stadium shows. But we were probably near this tipping point anyway.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Punk/Rollins/Reigns is main eventing night 1 of WM. Cody/Cena headlines night 2.

Punk finally got his dying wish.

This seems very consistent with the "Why WWE is having another Evolution PLE" theory.

 

[909]

I saw the Malakai Black video and it really stirred something up in me.

Right now I feel obligated to point out that WWE is doing the same thing that made AEW suck for a little bit. Bringing in older guys who were let go by the other company wasn't the answer for AEW and it damn sure won't be the answer for WWE.

When I see that WWE brought in Andrade, is bringing in Black and is going to bring Miro in too (you could also say previously Ethan Page and Ricky Starks), I'm like uhhhhhhhhhh didn't anyone learn anything here. Two years ago WWE would have brought in Kevin Knight and AEW would have brought in the old guy and regretted it severely. People want to watch new talent, they don't want to watch someone who got pushed the last time Trump was in office.

It's tough too because when you bring in guys like Black and Miro, they want to take take take they don't want to give anything to anyone or put anyone over.

 

[Epic for Springs]

I haven't listened to it yet so I'm not gonna jump the gun here but people who have listened to the Punk/Stephanie podcast say it was a total bootlick job by Punk. He apparently acknowledged that him walking out in 2014 was his fault and all the other awful details were glossed over.

I know a lot of AEW fans called him a sellout for returning to WWE and hated him even more when he did Ariel's show last year but I was never one of those people. However, I may have to be if the details of the podcast are true. I guess he had to make nice to finally get his WM main event.

 

[Hawk 34]

The same day that show with Stephanie dropped he also posted a trans lives matters post so he’s doing the right balancing act here of appeasing the higher ups by saying it was his fault he left and being the company man but also promoting beliefs he knows the company doesn’t support (unions, trans rights and Palestine). At some point, the balance will tip completely one or another way and that’ll be interesting.

As for 909s post, this will probably keep happening with both companies. There’s gonna be a middle earth situation with talent in both companies who aren’t happy and will leave for the other and the tides will shift from company to company. Eventually it’ll be AEW who wants WWE names again because that’s just nature of the business.

Despite both companies thriving in many ways, there’s still too many people and not enough spots to put them in.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

Did anyone watch Raw? I heard Cena had his best heel promo yet. I haven’t watched anything other than clips but I liked what I saw.

 

[Hawk 34]

Did anyone watch Raw? I heard Cena had his best heel promo yet. I haven’t watched anything other than clips but I liked what I saw.

Like all wrestling nowadays, it’s better digested on twitter clips.

It was a good promo, the content was still too much of the inside baseball style promo with Cena talking about how he “doesn’t bury talent, i am the talent” and the pointed line that got the most attention “I build empires for billionaires and you just steal money from their kids”.

They did finally give more of a contextual reason why Cena aligned with Dwayne. Didn’t say it was a good reason but they did acknowledge the elephant in the room finally.

They finally heated up Gunther and Jey by having Gunther bleed Jimmy in a pretty gross way for WWE.

A big issue for HHH booking is that everything aside from those two programs is building to multi person matches.

Having the hot euro crowds has salvaged what has been a very lackluster and confusing Mania build but four weeks of the euro crowds constantly making themselves the focus of the show really addresses the issue that all of wrestling deals with is the crowds make themselves the story of the show instead and it hurts the product ultimately.