General WWE Discussion: Roman Weeps, Taker Retires, MNK/SAM/RDM LFP

[Anoat]

After rewatching, Sheamus looked pretty chippy out there. Pretty sure he potato'ed Christian a couple times and definitely did so against RVD, but with RVD I think he was returning the favor from a few kicks and a botched spot.

EDIT: THE ULLLLLLTIMATE WARRRRRRRIOOOOOOOOOR IS BACK OMG

[Tyrath]

Too bad he's a pre-order bonus. I've had so many wrestling games in the past I can't imagine getting any new ones for full price. I usually check them out when the price drops quite a bit.

[Vagrant]

He looks like old school surfer Sting with that haircut.

[Makwa]

I'm happy enough with the results from MITB.
Cena/Henry was predictable as shit, and I still hate how crappy Cena's STF is.
Hopefully Miz can uh, go away now.
The WWE All Star MITB was great, the ending was... The LAST thing I wanted to have happen. I even wanted Sheamus to get it over Orton just because Sheamus is having that "OY FELLA YA BET YER ARSE I CANT BE BEAT LETS AVE A POINT AN A FOIGHT AT THE PUB" thing going on, and having Super Sheamus vs Super Cena would've been nifty enough. I agree though this is probably done to set up an Orton heel turn, just like Sandow winning will more than likely set up a Cody Rhodes face turn.
Just imagine Orton getting the belt from Cena then going into a feud with D-Bry for the title.
Or worse.
Imagine D-Bry going over Cena at Summerslam, celebrating a hard-fought victory over an explosive crowd of "YES YES YES," and this plays:

[Kalmado]

Any news RVD will be doing RAW at least semi frequently? He was doing TNA at least every other week.

[Vagrant]

He's supposed to have a schedule a lot like Jericho's last I heard. So he'll probably show up more than Brock without being on the road full time.

[Melena]

I read that he was added to the south african tour that is about to hit, so yea. We should see him a decent amount.

[Anoat]

Reddit spoiler dude has made it onto Deadspin, wonder how long he's got left in the tank. http://deadspin.com/a-redditor-has-b...nths-787445495

A Redditor Has Been Leaking WWE Outcomes For Months

In February on r/SquaredCircle, Reddit's pro wrestling forum, one poster kicked off a "prediction series," asking users to pick who they expected to win at that week's Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event. The winner was a user named "Dolphins1925," who posted just minutes before the start of the event, and nailed the results of every single match. It was the first sign that WWE had sprung a leak.

"I will win this guaranteed," Dolphins1925 wrote as he made his picks. "I know all the winners."

That sort of confidence in itself isn't unusual; neither is someone scoring 100 percent on his predictions. Pro wrestling is fairly predictable. Pay attention to who's being pushed and who's being buried, combine that with dirtsheet rumors on what storylines are coming down the pipe, and you can get a pretty good sense of what's going to happen at any given event.

No, what's weird about Dolphins1925's perfect slate is that he made his picks for the next pay-per-view, and the next, all the way down to last night's Money in the Bank event, and he's been completely right, every single time. He's 38 for 38 in predicting the results of matches. He's not just some fan guessing. He knows WWE's plans.

He claims he doesn't work for WWE himself, but has a source who does. He claims he's revealing the results in order to embarrass the company, so it'll realize how leaky its ship is. "I am hoping that spreading the word will get WWE's attention," he wrote. "I am hoping that it will put a stop to spoilers from being leaked."

The Reddit community didn't realize what they had at first. After he went 5-for-5 in the Elimination Chamber, including predicting the winner of a six-man match, one user told him "Your predictions were very... sharp."

They caught on next month. No longer content to leave his picks in the replies to the "prediction series," he made his own post. These weren't guesses. These were, in his words, "spoilers."

[SPOILERS] WrestleMania RESULTS inside this thread. 100% accurate. Do NOT click until after watching if you don't want WM to be spoiled. [SPOILERS]

They were, of course, 100 percent accurate. In addition to the eight matches that aired, Dolphins1925 correctly predicted a dark match that was held before the show, and one that was scheduled but bumped until the following night's Raw.

He went 8 of 8 on his Extreme Rules picks, but not without some controversy. He had said John Cena would win and retain the WWE Championship against Ryback. Technically, the match ended in a no-contest, but Cena retained the belt.

In explaining his pick for that match, and clarifying that he doesn't know exactly how any given match is going to go down, Dolphins1925 wrote something of a manifesto, explaining why he's doing what he's doing.

I would like to clarify once again that I DO NOT work for WWE. I am not a WWE Superstar, I am not with; the lighting crew, the camera crew, the sound technicians, the stagehands, the prop guys, the merchandise sellers, nor the popcorn vendor in the 15th Row, “Congratulations, Louie!”

I am just a WWE fan like everyone else, and I am getting my information from a source who has VERY credible inside information regarding the outcomes (win/losses) of the matches themselves. Given that this information is out there, we both feel that I should continue to share this information until it garners the attention of WWE. Vince and upper management are not taking reasonable measures to prevent this information from being leaked. These people whom are leaking this information are profiting off it at the expense of the WWE, the fans, and the integrity of the product. It is for these reasons that I am hoping to put an end to WWE insiders leaking PPV outcomes.

Also, I feel that WWE owes the fans. They need to be more protective of the actual results as a fellow Redditor had stated in the thread. It is hurting the integrity of the product, and I should not have access to this information.

Despite his noble intentions, Dolphins1925's project hadn't yet come to success; we're told that WWE creative didn't know he existed before today.

He soldiered on, nailing seven of seven match results at the recent Payback event. But it was last night's Money in the Bank that would prove to be one of his toughest tests. There was one match with six competitors, and another with seven. The field was wide open, stymieing handicappers. A few minutes before showtime, Dolphins1925 revealed his picks. In each of the mass ladder matches, his winners were neither expected nor popular. (It's fun to see r/SquaredCircle flip its shit when he tells them Randy Orton is going to win a title shot.)

He went eight for eight. I watched rapt as each pick came in, culminating in Randy Orton scaling the ladder to grab the dangling briefcase.

It's impossible to gather more information on Dolphins1925, who created his Reddit account in February and hasn't used it for anything but WWE spoilers. He has not replied to a message sent through the site, but I have no reason to believe he's anything other than what he says he is: a fan tired of WWE's failure of secrecy.

So what does it matter, beyond the embarrassment to WWE? Betting, for one. As I explored a few years ago, gambling on pro wrestling is a growing phenomenon, though maximum bets are capped low, specifically because of situations like this. The uncertainty surrounding the secrecy of WWE's plans extends even to those setting the lines. Adam Young, then the head oddsmaker at Bodog, told us

"It's always more tricky when it's not statistically based. The lines are iffy, you can't do a ton of research before making your wagers. but it's a lot of fun, and that's the purpose of it."

Curiously, the odds for Money in the Bank had all of the eventual winners installed as the favorites, leading Reddit users to speculate if bookmakers have access to the same information Dolphins1925 does.

It should surprise no one that WWE isn't Fort Knox, because it has never pretended to be. Writers have long put out information to build "organic" buzz for upcoming storylines, as well as leaked proposed angles that they hate, to be killed in utero by public opinion. Every factual leak is counteracted by three false ones, rendering most spoilers utterly worthless.

What is rare is for someone to have 100 percent correct information, and to have it for so long. For decades, WWE has done a fantastic job of keeping quiet the results of what's essentially a scripted show. It has done so by keeping the circle of people who know the outcomes small—the writers know, as do some of the technical crew; not even the wrestlers themselves know the plans for an entire card—and only sharing that information at the last possible moment. It's likely why Dolphins1925 posts his spoilers just a few minutes before showtime.

But though wrestling fans were among the early adopters of the internet, there's never been a community that offers the reach, the intimacy, the immediacy, and the anonymity of Reddit. It's possible that once-removed sources like Dolphins1925 always had this information; they just weren't able to share it with the world like he can.

This run is likely to be short-lived, and the upshot minimal. Once WWE realizes what information is out there, it's a matter of time before it changes its secrecy procedures and fires the leaker. But we had a good run, didn't we? At least we had time to prepare ourselves for another Randy Orton push.

[Ziero]

....so the dude has a source inside the WWE and is leaking spoilers because he wants the WWE to stop letting it's spoilers get leaked?

Fire his friend. That would stop the spoilers no? I mean really, it's not like this is the new Harry Potter book where douche bags run around the day of and shout at the top of their lungs to everyone waiting on line(a literal line mind you, in a store) what happens. The only real way to get to these spoilers is to actually, ya know, look for em. But even then, the short term spoilers don't really matter since it's the long term outcomes that really cement whether a story works or not. And even then, it's not about winners and losers, this isn't a real sport, it's a soap opera filled with guys (and gals) beating the snot out of each other. It's more about what happens DURING the match rather then who wins it.

I mean sure, Del Rio's victory was something else at Payback, but the real story isn't THAT he won, but HOW he won. Improve the in ring stuff and the spoilers won't really matter.

Also, MitB was a pretty good show imo. The quality of PPVs has certainly improved. The Cena/Henry match was understandably the worst (Henry should've won) but even then it had it's good moments. With Ryback, they're definitely trying to break away from the whole "Goldberg II" concept and make him a more..."clever"...heel. A monster who acts like a smaller heel using lies and trickery to win? Could be interesting, especially if Vickie is teamed up with him (can't believe I just said that).

And the WHC MitB was FAR more exciting then the WWE champ one. RVD was cool and all, but he seemed to be showing his age and some ring rust. Christian was there just to do a few spots but otherwise was a waste and the Orton win was a complete surprise but I can easily see it leading to a Dbry win for the belt at Summer Slam which then leads to an incredibly epic, history making WWE Championship match between CM Punk and Daniel Bryan (these two need to have a WM main event because it would be the greatest thing ever in the history of things).

[Yugl]

I would like to clarify once again that I DO NOT work for WWE. I am not a WWE Superstar, I am not with; the lighting crew, the camera crew, the sound technicians, the stagehands, the prop guys, the merchandise sellers, nor the popcorn vendor in the 15th Row, “Congratulations, Louie!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...mQXM5Wc#t=472s

At least he quoted the great one?

[Tyrath]

Are they trying to turn Henry face??

[arus2001]

Feels more like they have no direction for Shield, so let's just attack whoever and hope for the best.

[Exoduso]

Ziggy face turn = complete. Check.

[Degenxerate]

Yeah seriously. This Shield went from being in the main event of every PPV for half a year against all main eventers to being in a pre show against the Usos. Although it was a great match I'm sure in the WWE's eyes it didn't really do anything for them. I think they really just don't know what to do with them right now. I read a bunch of rumors a while back they might have a Summerslam match involving the Undertaker but this doesn't seem like a build for that so who knows.

[Exoduso]

R-Truth? "WTF thought he was dead LOL"

[arus2001]

He might be now?

[Tyrath]

Feels more like they have no direction for Shield, so let's just attack whoever and hope for the best.

Eh, it allows them to continue to remain a threat to everyone.

[Exoduso]

I really like this whole Wyatt family thing. Finally something new and fresh.

[Tyrath]

Except for the part where they attack people just like the Shield did lol.

The characters are new and fresh though, yes.

[Makwa]

The only similarities are there's three of them, and they attack faces.(with the exception of the Shield who seems to throw in heels once in a while)
Wyatts don't even have a triple team finisher.
Either way I'm happy no HUSKY HARRIS chants, this has been a pretty awesome crowd tonight. Great RAW so far.