SomethingSavage Posted March 7, 2018 Report Share Posted March 7, 2018 I'm not going to die on a hill to defend Del Rio or anything, but I always dug the guy so much more as a baby face. His spirited debut promo with Lucha Underground and the brief program with Big Show both spring to mind immediately. He almost always seems to go back to the heel routine though, and his work feels so phoned in and mundane most of the time in that capacity. I *will* say I've enjoyed short bursts of his heel in-ring stuff - specifically the Kalisto series, the Dolph Payback performance, and those couple of matches with Christian wherein he worked the arm & shoulder socket like a fucking king shark. With all that being said, I really don't see any purpose behind bringing him in again. Of course, that hasn't stopped them before. But yeah. The guy's personality appears to be borderline toxic at this stage, and he really has nobody else to blame (although he's gotten very good at that). Berto basically burned all that goodwill he had upon leaving WWE the first time around. And his last run was almost a total fail. The booking certainly didn't help, but he looked to be phoning it in for about 90% of that run. At a time when they've got Almas ripping it up in NXT, Metalik begging to be showcased on the bigger stage, and Rey Mysterio himself on the verge of signing back up, there's just no good excuse for bringing him back on board. They have a Latino presence on their programming at various levels. And Berto has never been nor will he ever be Eddie Guerrero in terms of moving those numbers. They'd have to rebuild the guy from scratch all over again anyhow. Why not take that TV time and those resources and put them behind a fresh face like Almas anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 7, 2018 Report Share Posted March 7, 2018 He was set up to be an all time great babyface in AAA after all the racial crap happend in WWE, but AAA and Alberto are the two most combustible things in wrestling so of course putting the two together blew up in everyone's faces. Which is why them bringing him back for Triplemania again this year is pretty much a LOLTNA level event waiting to happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FMKK Posted March 7, 2018 Report Share Posted March 7, 2018 The fact that he's gone from being drafted in as a last minute replacement for Rey at a disastrous 5 Star event in Belfast a few days ago (they booked an 8,000 arena and sold barely 500 tickets by the looks of it) to supposedly being in talks with WWE is hilarious to me though. I literally could've gone 15 minutes down the road and got a free ticket to see this guy and I didn't bother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted March 7, 2018 Report Share Posted March 7, 2018 I don't even know why they would want him. He came back last time and he was almost instantly phoning it in and seemed completely miserable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2018 Del Rio is a sad case. He's got a good look, has enough in-ring skill that you can say he is good, used to have a great character.... but somehow he never quite became the star that someone with all those tools could've become. He's basically Randy Orton but with all the negatives turned up to 11. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted March 7, 2018 Report Share Posted March 7, 2018 Well, Randy Orton is a guy who got pushed to the top as a kid, reacted as a kid would do, and is now a totally chill happily married family man. Del Rio is a grown man who loves blow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FMKK Posted March 7, 2018 Report Share Posted March 7, 2018 Genuinely struggling to think of a more abject period for WWE television than this iteration of Smackdown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthedoctor Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 You can tell that Cena is near the end of his WWE run because now he is having a match with Golddust. How ironic that he's still the biggest star of the company. We'll see how the Ronda superpush goes over the next year he I think they'll look to get her to that position They'll have to keep her "special" to accomplish this, and I have zero faith in them doing so. But that's probably the plan. If they close the show with her, which they probaly won't do, that's a clear sign. Meanwhile, no one gives a fuck about Lesnar vs Roman as the main event. Meanwhile, your most over guy in the company that you managed to protect a whole lot, Braun, has nothing planned for Mania. They better end the show with Cena vs Taker, honestly. Although Taker won't be able to do the "I'm retiring" bit that he did last year and that was so perfect this time around. I thought WWE was having Cena bag the belt at Fastlane. Does WWE see Styles/Nakamura as a credible match? I know us fans do but with Vince I wouldnt be suprised if they do this and make it a triple threat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zep81 Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 You can tell that Cena is near the end of his WWE run because now he is having a match with Golddust. How ironic that he's still the biggest star of the company. We'll see how the Ronda superpush goes over the next year he I think they'll look to get her to that position They'll have to keep her "special" to accomplish this, and I have zero faith in them doing so. But that's probably the plan. If they close the show with her, which they probaly won't do, that's a clear sign. Meanwhile, no one gives a fuck about Lesnar vs Roman as the main event. Meanwhile, your most over guy in the company that you managed to protect a whole lot, Braun, has nothing planned for Mania. They better end the show with Cena vs Taker, honestly. Although Taker won't be able to do the "I'm retiring" bit that he did last year and that was so perfect this time around. I thought WWE was having Cena bag the belt at Fastlane. Does WWE see Styles/Nakamura as a credible match? I know us fans do but with Vince I wouldnt be suprised if they do this and make it a triple threat. That would mean Taker missing WM then probably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 the guy that said he had records saying Roman bought steroids from him actually confused him with *Luther* Reigns. story of the year? Even WWE got worked here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 9, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 WHAT A SWERVE just goes to show that a considerably big portion of the fanbase is not as smart as they think imagine trusting a guy named after a cartoon character to smear one of the biggest names in pro wrestling today WITHOUT ANY FUCKING EVIDENCE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 in fairness WWE got worked here as well as they kept Braun out of a match just in case something went down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthedoctor Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 in fairness WWE got worked here as well as they kept Braun out of a match just in case something went down They'll probably add him soon to the IC belt match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FMKK Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 WHAT A SWERVE just goes to show that a considerably big portion of the fanbase is not as smart as they think imagine trusting a guy named after a cartoon character to smear one of the biggest names in pro wrestling today WITHOUT ANY FUCKING EVIDENCE I'm sure for plenty it was simply a case of wanting to believe. If it had been AJ or someone there would be a lot more 'wait for the evidence, if there is any.' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert S Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 just goes to show that a considerably big portion of the fanbase is not as smart as they think More like that Roman Reigns is not such a big mainstream name as they think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 9, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 I'm sure for plenty it was simply a case of wanting to believe. If it had been AJ or someone there would be a lot more 'wait for the evidence, if there is any.' The ammount of irresponsible reporting this thing got was ridiculous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 The guy released a statement saying he is aware Luther and Roman Reigns are two different people, so were we all worked or is it just the Bixes of wrestling twitter jumping all over this to prove they were right all along? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 9, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 The dude is saying he has this big reveal, that evidence will drop soon, and in some cases he said "it will drop tomorrow" NOTHING came of it. If this evidence is so damning, why not just fucking show it? He had MELTZER saying "oh this guy knows something" and now it's revealed in the most hilarious and sad ways that the contract said Reigns, indeed, but it says LUTHOR Reigns. Instead of saying that "the Bixes of the world are jumping up and down", it would be smarter to just admit this shit had NO credibility from the get go and that some of you were fooled, and NOTHING, even assuming that we get a double swerve and Roman is in fact involved, will come out of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 Political hit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 I'm not really rooting for either side here but it seems like a lot of people wanting to prove they were smarter than everyone else along with associates of drug dealers not being the most reputable folks. Seems like a clear Team No One on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthedoctor Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 I'm not really rooting for either side here but it seems like a lot of people wanting to prove they were smarter than everyone else along with associates of drug dealers not being the most reputable folks. Seems like a clear Team No One on this. On some other well known forums they were rooting for Roman to be a associate just so he loses his Main Event slot. The nerve of some people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 Well that's shitty then. Besides, that Bravo guy was saying in an interview that the orders he saw lined up for when Roman got popped for Wellness anyway, so WWE already would have punished him for that and removing him from WM would be unlikely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FMKK Posted March 10, 2018 Report Share Posted March 10, 2018 Well that's shitty then. Besides, that Bravo guy was saying in an interview that the orders he saw lined up for when Roman got popped for Wellness anyway, so WWE already would have punished him for that and removing him from WM would be unlikely. So this guy's big story is that Reigns violated wellness at the exact time that he was suspended for wellness violation. Great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 10, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2018 All this appeased an anti-Roman segment of the fanbase, who are licking their lips at the mere semblance of something that can fuck him over, no matter how utterly ridiculous it seems. Gonna pull a WordPad document out of my crack saying that KO is using them roids but managers to cover it up by not using the gym at all. I've got as much evidence as this Johnny Bravo dude had, so obviously it has to gain as much traction. Like FMKK said, people want to believe this shit. Serious reporters called this story as actually being something legit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slasher Posted March 10, 2018 Report Share Posted March 10, 2018 Not to defend those anti-Reign folks but a few things: 1. This is a pro wrestler receiving a top-top level push, it is hardly unbelievable for someone in that position to take PEDs. Hogan did it, Austin did it, Rock did it, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, etc etc, even Ric Flair tried it. If a report comes out saying Braun got caught, I doubt anyone would immediately question the validity of the report, regardless of how liked he was. 2. You do realize Reigns was caught before and suspended for violating the wellness policy, right? Yeah dude is beyond reproach here. How dare people jump on this! Again, not denying a level of schadenfreude for those people, but it isn't like they are pouncing on some totally unbelievable report like him going to space to rape some female aliens. This is steroids in wrestling. As common to the sport as an irish whip. The surprise is how people think this means any changes to his push in the WWE. I mean, this is Vince and Triple H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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