THE WINTER 2023 WRESTLING THREAD (feat. WK17! The Great Muta Retires! The Royal Rumble! AEW Revolution! & More!)

Naito is now a free agent apparently. Working with Noah and New Japan per-appearance from now on. Could go to either American show for a couple dates at the drop of a hat now.

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Think Big Banta Baron doing the people’s elbow on house shows is a bit suspicious if The Rock isn’t arsed but we’ll see

Cody wins the rumble, turns out the rules only entitle him to challenge for a single belt. Simple.

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Love it when Heyman gets a run at a speech. Always good fun.

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Watching RAW IS XXX now. Very disappointed that the undertaker didn’t use Rollin’.

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Naito vs OC when?

standard American tour for the lad
#30 in the rumble, dynamite ladder match with orange cassidy, jaunt with vikingo in mexico, then back for a death match with gage in gcw

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Reigns vs Cody and Sami on both nights of WM, loses both and disappears for a while and Bloodline implodes. After WM Sami v heel Owens, Cody vs…heel Drew. Jacob Fatu brought in to pair with Sikoa vs The USOs

Jeff Jarrett involved somehow

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Mark Briscoe announced for Dynamite against Jay Lethal, that’s going to be so emotional.

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On what would have been his brother’s birthday no less. This is going to absolutely fucking wreck me.

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Apparently they’ve also been given the all clear for a proper tribute on Wednesday’s show

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Guess they realised stoppping AEW doing a tribute in the timeslot just before Dana White’s Slapfight was somehow bad publicity. You’d have to be a real PR guru to see that one coming tbf.

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They’ve got to give him the ROH title if he keeps wrestling imho

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Shame it’s scumbag Lethal though.

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More I think about it the more weird I feel about Cody getting a main event slot at Mania this year. He’s had one feud since his return and obviously been off tv since like May or whatever. I think there’s a brilliant story to be told about him getting “the big one” but it just feels a bit too soon, I’d rather they build it to the point where people are absolutely screaming for it rather than just expecting it’s gonna happen. I feel there’s so much he can do before getting the belt - like feuds with Finn Balor, Edge, AJ, Kevin Owens, even a bit of spooky bollocks with Bray Wyatt. Next Mania would make more sense to me. I hope by next year Orton is fit enough to return and we can get that feud which obviously just writes itself.

Sami Zayn on the other hand needs to go against Reigns at Mania. I actually don’t care if he loses but make me believe he can win. The next few months have him run through all the bloodline and then have a rematch at Summerslam where he does win the belt. He’s the closest thing WWE has seen to this completely over babyface since Daniel Bryan, he might not be the guy they want to be that but it’s the guy the audience has chosen and you have to run with it. He’s great in the ring and has shown he can do so much in terms of his character these last few years.

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You’re probably right on Cody at least there, but pretty sure they want to prove to the AEW locker room that they’re not going to leave you to wallow in the midcard if you jump ship. If he doesn’t get a title match at Mania it’ll only be because he’s got something just as big like Steve Austin instead imo.

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Yeah sure you’re right, despite what I said Cody absolutely deserves a big WM match, like the “show stealer” classic of the card, 30 mins of false finishes, big spots etc. I think Cody v Edge could be that match and is certainly mania worthy.

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I know what you mean, if he hadn’t been injured and had built to it throughout the year, it’d be a lot better, but to go straight back to it at the rumble feels a bit much.

Maybe they won’t, and him announcing for the rumble ahead of time is a sign of that, I think they’ll use elimination chamber to build something up too

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Cody vs Edge will probably make Edge v Orton feel like a two minute throwaway match

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Exactly where my mind went too, no thank you. I assume him vs Rollins needs to be concluded anyway

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