WWE: Smackdown Live Part 12: Cena buries more talent

[The Gongshow]

It's weird because Corbin/Ambrose is also lining up to be a match like that. I don't know if they're going for two gimmick matches like that, or maybe one of them turns into a Ladder or TLC match, either for the IC Title or for a Smackdown contract (Styles/McMahon).

Corbin/Ambrose could also be a Last Man Standing match.

I'd be fine with two "hardcore" style matches. It will be interesting to see which feud gets what match type. I feel like both need them. Ambrose/Corbin for storytelling purposes and AJ/Shane so that Shane can just be a spot monkey since he can't compete with Styles in an actual wrestling match.

10-12 minutes of Shane trying to wrestle with AJ would be dumb. It should be a brawl so AJ can wrestle and then they both do a couple spots.

I know that Styles deserves better than Shane at 'mania, especially after inexplicably losing to Jericho last year, but at least its a high profile match and will probably be wildly entertaining.

This. It could be worse I guess.

 

[Shoalzie]

The match itself will probably be alright...I just want a good story to go with the match. AJ slamming his head through a window doesn't do enough for me. I want AJ to make a power move...demand a trade to Raw or have Shane be removed as commish if AJ wins. I hope next week we'll get some actual context to the challenge since we got a 2 second response before the hard out.

 

[Disclose]

shane vs AJ is just a terrible idea, but the match will be sweet compared to Goldberg/Brock, Taker/Reigns and has already a better build than Ambrose/Corbin.... those two are just boring af.

 

[Sacha Baron Corbin]

I know that Styles deserves better than Shane at 'mania, especially after inexplicably losing to Jericho last year, but at least its a high profile match and will probably be wildly entertaining.

Yeah you know both guys are going to do as much crazy **** as they are allowed to do. Hopefully it's not like Shane-Taker which was 30 minutes of building to a spot that everyone knew was coming.

Also if the plan is to turn AJ face down the line, I hope they book the feud in a way where Shane and DB are constantly dicks to AJ and keep screwing him on SD. Styles goes over Shane and turns face after Mania

 

[M.C.G. 31]

I don't know if I should consider it sad that Styles/McMahon will be one of the better matches on the show or just chalk it up to "well, duh... it's AJ, one of the GOATs."

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

Which is more sad?

Shane's last 2 mania opponents have been AJ and Taker

Or

AJ's 2 mania matches have been a filler feud with Jericho before Jericho got hot again and a match against Shane McMahon

Tough call there

 

[M.C.G. 31]

Jericho's hot in every aspect except his in-ring work anyways. It wouldn't have made a difference there.

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

Jericho's hot in every aspect except his in-ring work anyways. It wouldn't have made a difference there.

Iirc this time last year Jericho still had that stigma of being a part timer who just showed up to put people over. Sure, he was still popular, but there certainly wasn't as much interest in his character and storylines as there is now.

 

[BonMorrison]

We all were definitely hating on Jericho this time last year because he was super Dad Jericho at the time.

 

[Virtanen18]

Jericho made me fast forward/change the channel before this latest run.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Iirc this time last year Jericho still had that stigma of being a part timer who just showed up to put people over. Sure, he was still popular, but there certainly wasn't as much interest in his character and storylines as there is now.

That's true, Jericho's work was pretty average before the Styles feud. After that he moved into the Ambrose feud with SIXTY THREE TACKSSSSSSSS and eventually the Owens stuff. It was really the Styles feud that got Jericho on track again.

 

[Sacha Baron Corbin]

That's true, Jericho's work was pretty average before the Styles feud. After that he moved into the Ambrose feud with SIXTY THREE TACKSSSSSSSS and eventually the Owens stuff. It was really the Styles feud that got Jericho on track again.

My favorite spot of the Survivor Series match was him screaming "You still owe me 15,000 dollars" at Ambrose when they were in the ring together

 

[Kimi]

Styles is where Jericho turned heel, which is what gave us the real Jericho back.

 

[GKJ]

People don't even remember that Jericho and Ambrose had a terrible match at Extreme Rules.

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

People don't even remember that Jericho and Ambrose had a terrible match at Extreme Rules.

I do. That was the asylum match, right? That was godawful.

 

[GKJ]

I do? That was the asylum match, right? That was godawful.

It was 27 minutes for one spot, so they didn't learn their lesson from Wrestlemania. At least that lesson.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

That match was legit the worst of the year. Simply awful.

 

[Falco Lombardi]

People don't even remember that Jericho and Ambrose had a terrible match at Extreme Rules.

Oh yes we do. Plenty of people who are sick of Ambrose point to that as one of the reasons why.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Crazy hardcore **** isn't exactly what I want from an AJ match.

Dude is the greatest wrestler around. I want to see him actually wrestle in a 25 minute showcase.

 

[The Gongshow]

Crazy hardcore **** isn't exactly what I want from an AJ match.

Dude is the greatest wrestler around. I want to see him actually wrestle in a 25 minute showcase.

Yeah but its against Shane, who can't wrestle. Hence why is basically has to be a spot fest to be entertaining. AJ can only do so much here. Shane is limited

 

[The Lunatic Fridge]

Jericho's hot in every aspect except his in-ring work anyways. It wouldn't have made a difference there.

He's still better than most of the roster. Including the guy who's supposed to be cena 2.0

People don't even remember that Jericho and Ambrose had a terrible match at Extreme Rules.

That entire idea was awful.
At least jericho did the thumbtack spot and give everyone a crazy surprise.

 

[Paris in Flames]

He's still better than most of the roster. Including the guy who's supposed to be cena 2.0



That entire idea was awful.
At least jericho did the thumbtack spot and give everyone a crazy surprise.

AJ/Reigns was significantly better than AJ/Jericho tbf.

Could just be a style thing though.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

AJ/Reigns was so much better than AJ/Jericho. Reigns always works better with smaller guys, though. It's weird, he either works really well with smaller guys that he can bully (Rollins, Styles, Balor), bigger guys that can bully him (Show) but works poorly with guys that are roughly his size.

As for Jericho, I think he's merely average in the ring these days. Looking at the current roster, I'd say all these guys are better than Jericho in the ring these days: Styles, Alexander, Cesaro, Balor, Gallagher, Cena, Owens, Harper, Neville, Orton, Reigns, Rusev, Zayn, Joe, Sheamus, Rollins.

And that's not including NXT guys.

And you can make a case for the likes of Wyatt (psychologically), Anderson (almost exclusively wrestles tag matches tho), Gable/Jordan, Crews (he can work, he's just bland everywhere else), Ambrose (depends on if he wants to have a good match or phone it in), Lesnar (depends on if he's doing Suplex City stuff or actually working), Kalisto, Kofi (rarely wrestles long-form singles anymore).

Jericho's probably smack dab in the middle of the roster in terms of in-ring work anymore, maybe even a bit on the lower end. It's not a slight on him, he's just getting older and has naturally declined a bit.

 

[Kimi]

It should be noted that being on the low end on ring work in this era of WWE is really no slight at all. The roster is stupidly stacked on talent.

 

[The Lunatic Fridge]

AJ/Reigns was significantly better than AJ/Jericho tbf.

Could just be a style thing though.

AJ carried the **** out of that fued and AINEC. It's not a surprise he's the only one that could make a 4 star match with sleeping superman.

jericho may be past his prime but he didn't need AJ to carry him.