Hey IRM, you're up in the draft.

Yeah, there's a difference between ADR sucking and his character being a bit dull. It's obvious that the man himself has all the talent needed to become a mainstay of the company for a long time, they just need to give him better **** to work with.

I will agree. ADR's in ring work isn't that bad and could keep him around for a while but we've all seen what can happen to someone that was said to have the "it" factor in the ring but never developed a decent gimmick.

I wonder how they got the inspiration for that Sin Cara shirt...

I think ADR as a face would be interesting. Agree he is stale at this point.

I tend to agree his gimmick grew stale. He was great on Smackdown, but then he got drafted to Raw, the wasteland of up and coming talent and it all went wrong. But you already knew that.

Now is the time to retool him. Spin off Ricardo, drop the car entrances, drop the Destiny gimmick for something new and yeah arguably now is a great time to face turn him given the huge changes he is going to be going through. With Brodus Clay returning and the history they have id feud them after Brodus is established as a heel by murdering Evan Bourne a while.

Oh as for being gone in 1 year, hahahaohwow. I still think Sheamus is the best comparison right now, someone who struggled to get over but got that big quick push but got there in the end in part by being face turned but mainly by being drafted to Smackdown, the home of great wrestling ideas. Worst case scenario he is the next Miz, which makes you lower main event struggling to find something to do but occasionally getting a story.

If Edge hadnt been injured, meaning ADR goes over at Wrestlemania, holds the WHC and doesnt get drafted, then right now we are looking at a guy with a very different situation just because of everything around him. And we would be marking pretty damn hard at the prospects of Daniel Bryan facing him at Wrestlemania.

^^^ Re your last paragraph, that probably means no Henry push tho

Perhaps. Or a different Henry push including the possibility where he is moved back to Raw, if drafted to Smackdown in the first place as a replacement for ADR.

I still find it hilarious that Big Show was drafted to Raw but its basically just been entirely forgotten as he is back being a Smackdown wrestler chasing its world title.

Just watching Smackdown now. Generally they are doing a heck of a job. Cody at the start was great, Zeke and Barrett was actually pretty good, too.

DB and Cole was awesome actually. I think Cole is actually doing a pretty good job with the DB thing. I was a little upset with Cole burying Bryan every opportunity he got, but now that they're addressing it, it seems okay. Like it or not, Cole draws enough heat that it will help get Bryan over. Also the look on Cody's face when DB said he tapped out was great.

I like Heath Slater's ringwork and especially his selling more and more. Nice to keep Ryder strong with a pretty dominant victory, too. One thing is for sure, people like Zack Ryder. As much as a lot of us hate that he's being shoved down our throats, the WWE helped get him over huge. He did the ground work himself, and they pushed him over the top.

Lol @ DiBiase/Mahal. I wish Johnny Ace would just come out and say "best of luck in your future endeavours" in the middle of that match.

Adkins sold that chokeslam through the table like a champ. I love Mark Henry's use of "halfway hurt", though. Also, that segment was done really well. Mark Henry is killing it on the mic nowadays, and Henry was the one who did the original suckerpunch opening the door for the beat down by Show. The build between these two is pretty solid, actually. Well done, SD!

I kind of like David Otunga, to be honest. I think his gimmick has solid potential, and he's really not bad in the ring at all. I really thought that Sheamus/Otunga match was decent and told a good story, if a little short.

Holy crap. The DB/Cody match was fantastic. I can't wait until the main event scene is DB vs. Cody for a year straight. These two seem to work so well together and I could watch them forever. Booker is going to be great to get Cody over. People love him, and I'm sure he'd have no problems from putting Rhodes over from what I read.

How come Teddy Long is growing a Nash 'stache?

The dynamic of Randy's time limit is pretty fantastic. It adds a sense of urgency that otherwise wouldn't be there. You could even tell the crowd was getting a little more in to it. More Ziggler/Orton matches in our future, please. That **** was amazing. I even thought they'd let Ziggler win that one or at least run the clock down, but even I was a little pumped about the last second RKO. Interesting. I'm starting to like Randy Orton, again. Barrett and Orton are bringing some amazing stuff out of each other. Also, Ziggler lying dead on the steps was pretty sweet.

I like him also, but he can't take a RR like our man DZ.

Just listened to a Stan Hansen shoot (prob from around 03) and surprisingly enough the only person he said didn't like working with when asked about was Johnny Ace.

a little holiday cheer

I thought the end to Orton vs Ziggler was a missed opportunity. Id have had Orton RKO Ziggler in the dying seconds, but have Vickie hop to the apron at the same time, distract the ref, then he is too late in counting the three so that Ziggler gets to claim he "beat" Orton, Orton gets the 3 count but after the buzzer, the crowd gets to pop for the RKO, Vickie draws mega heat as costs Orton with the mini distract for a second or two, then as Orton walks over to her then they do the run in from Wade who can beat down Orton.

It basically makes zero difference who picks the stipulation and my way achieves everything their way does, but also achieves more with Ziggler getting to claim two back to back "victories" over Orton but in the heel way that he never actually beat Orton in the second and only got the first due to a distraction being the most important.

WWE loves to have bands perform wrestlers themes live at Wrestlemania so hopefully this year they get Living Color to play Punk's theme.

I want Europe, who reformed a few years ago, to play The Final Countdown too.

Seriously you guys, Bryan needs that song imo ldo afaik.

+1 mirrion

rofl @ cutoff JokerSting shirt in the 3rd .gif

Can we find a way to get SCSA to come back just to give Dolph a stunner and see him backflip 10 feet in the air over the ropes out of the ring

Oh yeah, when I first made my debut in this thread I had the unique opinion on saying ADR isn't ready to win the Royal Rumble, he shouldn't go over Edge and he should be an upper mid carder. Of course I got trolled and hated on. I was more upset that CM Punk didn't win the Rumble, but oh well. But it's nice to see you guys have seen the light.

Bryan needs to turn heel/tweener. Like shave his head, grow the beard and in turn into a head kicking, limb snapping submission and striking maniac. Have him show no mercy to anyone. I would start with him burying someone likeable like Santino.

ZOMG

i'll join the "i told you so" camp. it's pretty hilarious that the web was creaming themselves over adr a few months ago.

ADR is still a great performer worthy of being at the top of the card. They have just uber botched this push and stopped developing his character. He has no story, the crowds have little reason to boo him and with Raw being stacked with Cena, Punk doing his best HHH impression and Nash being given time to try and build a fire from the smouldering remains of his career its no surprising a lot of people are growing bored of him right now - which isnt to say you are right that he is bad.

To sum up how badly he has been treated they gave Cena the WWE title for a few weeks to make him seem stronger in the run up to the Survivor Series PPV. That Cena. They needed to make THAT Cena seem strong? So when he could have had a 3 month reign between Punk and his MITB cash in through to Punk reclaiming it with Cena legitimising him, they instead had Cena burying him HARD on the stick and combined it with some less than legit match results and few victories of note.

Even though ADR is currently a heel rocking the armbar stuff I just don't think the American style suits him at all. He has had a bunch of decent to good matches but it seems like something is missing and he could really bring it if they let him tope/plancha the **** out of everyone.

And yeah everything Phill said. It is hard for ADR to develop his character without a lot more help since he can't speak that great and they let Cena bury him + do that weird kayfabe destroying burial thing about how none of the cars are his.