ZWrestleTalk's WWE Writer Dom Bouchard writes about his excitement for the future feuds within the new era of WWE. There's no doubt that this time around the WWE is serious about changing the product they've been presenting for years. The night after WrestleMania was the start of what can be considered the era where wrestling changes it's dynamic and look.
No more lumbering Big Show or Kane or Mark Henry! More emphasis on athleticism and talent. Let's make no mistake about it, it is not perfect yet and it never will be. What I would consider perfect would not necessarily be what you would consider perfect. So let's settle for considering ourselves lucky that they are finally giving a chance to formidable performers like Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Kevin Owens, AJ Styles, Kofi Kingston, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns to shine in the spotlight. The return of John Cena will definitely be beneficial to whoever ends up feuding with him. Seth Rollins will try to reclaim what is his world title ,and an upcoming feud with Reigns or Cena will be fantastic. Orton will also help elevate guys like Apollo Crews and Neville. Bray Wyatt should be able to take on the beast Brock Lesnar in what could potentially be the feud of the year. Imagine turning him and Heyman loose. Big Cass and Enzo are a breath of fresh air and the tag team division never looked so strong with the addition of Gallows and Anderson, The Vaudevillains, Primo and Epico, Golden Truth and , the team of Breeze and Fandango.There may be more guys being let go, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Finn Balor and Samoa Joe being called up. Rusev is on the verge of being a main event heel… again. The roster is absolutely loaded with great talent and the challenge will be to keep everyone relevant. Guys like Corbin, Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler, Alberto Del Rio are in danger of getting lost in the shuffle.The only way to avoid it is to maximize every opportunity presented to them . It is about time that working hard is what will get you over. Send me @Domghosthunter or @TripleZ_87 some feedback on Twitter.
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ZWrestleTalk's Dom Bouchard gives his rosters for the WWE Brand Split. SmackDownFeatured Championships: World Heavyweight Championship, United States Championship, and Divas Championship.This would be my roster for Smackdown and also I will put down who I think should be champion! All the Divas Kevin Owens (World Champ) Kalisto Sin Cara Titus O'Neil (U.S champ) Cody Rhodes Big Show Kane Dolph Ziggler Cesaro Randy Orton Wade Barrett Alberto Del Rio Zack Ryder Damien Sandow Jack Swagger Eric Rowan Luke Harper Samoa Joe AJ Styles *Editors Note from Triple Z: Dom's roster for Smackdown gives us a unique look for the blue brand. The show has older names like Big Show, Kane, and Randy Orton. It also has talented individual like Cesaro, Samoa Joe, and AJ Styles. Kevin Owens would be the perfect man to lead Smackdown. The show definitely seems more mid-card with talents like Cody Rhodes, Dolph Ziggler, and Alberto Del Rio. It's funny Eric Rowan and Luke Harper will compete on Smackdown without their master Bray Wyatt. Then Smackdown includes jobbers: Damien Sandow (Really isn't a jobber…), Jack Swagger, and Zack Ryder. Plus the Divas being on just one show could be interesting twist. Monday Night RAWFeatured Championships: WWE Championship, Intercontinental Championship, Tag Team Championships.The Dudley Boyz
The Ascension Enzo and Cass The Vaudevillains Golden Truth The New Day (Tag Team Champs) The Usos Primo and Epico Roman Reigns Dean Ambrose (WWE Champ) Seth Rollins Brock Lesnar John Cena Bray Wyatt Braun Strowman Sheamus Rusev Finn Balor (IC Champ) Doc Gallows Karl Anderson Chris Jericho Heath Slater Curtis Axel Bo Dallas Adam Rose Tyler Breeze Ryback The Miz *Editor's Note from Triple Z: As the primetime brand and the longest episodic show in Television history. RAW has to have the better brand. Dom delivers a solid roster which would mean a significant amount of new faces. The WWE would have a Tag Team renaissance if Dom's roster happened. I mean come on Enzo and Big Cass, The Vaudvillains, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows, The Dudley Boyz, and then we got Tag Teams who will be basically recycled and pushed!!! The Ascension and Primo and Epico are both talent duos that would make the Tag Team division more exciting. Plus Golden Truth wouldn't be bad either. Finn Balor would be a great IC Champ and Dean Ambrose as champion would make RAW, a anything could happen scenario. Follow @domghosthunter @ZWrestleTalk @TripleZ_87 Todays ZWrestleTalk's Dom Bouchard plays pretend and gives his ideas on how he would book WrestleMania 32!!!! Here is my WrestleMania 32 card. If I was the main booker of the WWE.
Preshow Andre the Giant Battle Royal It would feature these guys. Braun Strowman, Primo, Epico ,Big Show,Kane,Ryback,Darren Young,Curtis Axel,Heath Slater,Damien Sandow,Road Dogg,Stardust,Goldust,R truth,Jack Swagger,Mark Henry,RVD, Ladder match for US Title Kalisto (champ) vs Sin Cara vs Neville vs Tyler Breeze vs Bo Dallas vs Rusev Winner: Kalisto Divas Title Triple Threat Charlotte (champ) vs Sasha Banks vs Becky Lynch Winner: Sasha Banks Tag team Title match The New Day (champs) vs Usos vs Dudleys vs Enzo and Cass Winners: The New Day Gauntlet Match Undertaker vs Luke Harper vs Eric Rowan vs Bray Wyatt Winner: Bray Wyatt IC TITLE MATCH: IRON MAN 30 Minutes Kevin Owens (champ) vs Dolph Ziggler Winner: Owens 3 to 2 AJ Styles vs Chris Jericho vs The Miz Winner: A J Styles Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns Winner: Roman with heel turn with Paul Heyman helping him The Rock Promo WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match Triple H (champ) vs Dean Ambrose Winner: Dean Ambrose with help from Stone Cold, after Vince tries to interferes. This would send the crowd home happy! Do you like Dom's card for WrestleMania 32? Do you like how he booked the show? Tell us in the comments! Follow @ZWrestleTalk Follow @domghosthunter In todays ZWrestleTalk Exclusive, I will recap the interview ZWrestleTalk's own Dom Bouchard had with one half of the Nasty Boys, Jerry Sags. Highlights from Part 1Dom Bouchard has been a long time friend of Jerry Sags. They recently have reconnected and for the first time in 20 years they will have a discussion. Dom: Do you have any memories of Curt Hennig? Jerry Sags: He was a great mentor to me. Curt was young in the business at the time, but he took his time and helped us with the business. He was teaching us the old school ways of things. Curt really was a fantastic mentor and helped us with our development. Dom: That's awesome! Thats what you hear through the years. You always hear about how Curt Hennig was just a simple guy. He was ahead of his time and was fantastic in the ring. Curt Hennig was a tremendous talent and the best seller of all time. Jerry: He made sure we were brought up right. He also protected and helped out the younger guys. He made sure we were familiar with everybody. Dom: It must of been a tremendous honor to have the WWF Tag Team Titles at such a young age. The roster back then was way older then it is now. Jerry: By the time we got there.. We had six years…We had to pay our dues. Back then though they wouldn't stay at the same place as long. There were so many different territories to choose from. The business has changed. Dom: That's right you had a great return to WCW after your WWE run. Jerry: (laughing) Well we didn't voluntary leave…Vince McMahon said "GET OUT!!!" Jerry: Jerry Jarrett gave us a break after seeing us in Memphis, we started doing these crazy street fights. Vince McMahon wouldn't let us do that kind of stuff. Dom: Really??? No Jerry: Yeah, the only thing that got passed was doing a sneak attack, then we went back to WCW, they let us had the reigns and we had street fights with Cactus and Kevin Sullivan. It blew the roof off. Dom: Those matches were amazing! Jerry: We didn't call that Hardcore. Later on that would develop into the ECW guys and that bullish*t, where they would bring out a whole dumpster full of crap and they would just hit each other with stuff. We didn't do it like that, we used object in intricate parts of the match we still had a psychology but we used it in a regular type of match. Dom: You guys were the first Tag Team to insult the fans and wrestlers. Just imagine if you were there (WWE-WWF) during the Attitude Era. That would of been incredible! You were the first wrestlers to instill that "Attitude" it's great when you think about it! Jerry: We had to pull back on some things. We would take our time getting to the ring. There was one time that we took 20 minutes of doing crap before we even touched the other wrestlers. Dom: It's good. Like lets say your in the ring with the Steiner brothers. If you make them look good that means you made yourself look good. It's giving back. I remember the first time I saw you guys wrestle was in your first run with WCW and you were facing the Steiner brothers. I was very impressive you had great matches and they looked stiff as hell. Listen to the full Part One with Jerry Sags below! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8geN-mVo7E **************************************************************************************************** Part IIDom: WOW! That part one 45 minutes felt like 5 minutes, I have never had a podcast where I didn't have to talk this much. I want to acknowledge the website that I have been able to contribute a quite of few articles lately, zwrestletalk.weebly.com, the owner of the website Zach had a couple of questions for you. First question was Do you still watch Wrestling today? Jerry: Not like I use too. I sorta watch the other night. I caught RAW and something caught my eye. Let me think of it… I should watch it more but I just don't watch it as much. I don't watch like I use too. You know what I mean? Dom: Totally understand, Zach also asked you the question "What was the darkest point of your career?" Jerry: What effected my career the most was when WCW was really changing and we didn't like it. It was a great place. It wasn't because of Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. Eric Bischoff wanted to make WCW another WWE. He didn't want wrestling he wanted character. A long story short. I got into a shove fight with Scott Hall during a match and that was the fall. It was a low point. Dom: I know and I remember that match. Was it totally the end of your WCW career at that point? Jerry: After Scott hit me in the ring. Something happened in another match. We were still under contract but we were left out of the picture until they let us go. Dom: Looking back and I always wanted to ask you. You won the Tag Team titles at WrestleMania. Not a lot of people can say that? You had a WrestleMania moment walk me through that day? Did you know you were going to beat the Hart Foundation. Jerry: No, It was wild. We spent time at the Hart house. Stu also took us into the Dungeon. We also wrestled Koko and Owen. Listen to the rest of Part Two below! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd5QdsQHiPk Part IIIHighlights from Part Three include Jerry Sags talks about a road experience with Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka and his relationship with Kerry Von Erich! Dom talks about how he was the driver for the old WWF wrestlers when they were in Montreal and even partied with them.
LISTEN HERE! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kRkU1HHFiQ Follow @domghosthunter Follow @ZWrestleTalk Follow @TripleZ_87 ZWrestleTalk's Dom Bouchard reviews WWE TLC The New Day VS The Uso's VS The Lucha DragonsHot start to a fantastic nonstop 25 minute action packed contest. The Usos were their usual, high energized selfs and fun to watch. New Day were well amazing, but the stars of this match were The Lucha Dragons .Sin Cara delivered a few incredible moves but the Salida del Sol by Kalisto from the top of the ladder on Jey Uso was the move of the year. An instant classic to be viewed over and over through the years. Wow, Kofi hits Kalisto with a chair and then climbs to pick up the belts. A + (Match of the year candidate) Ryback VS RusevA hard hitting match with two very solid brawler! Ryback is getting better but it was a tough spot to be in. Trying to follow up the tag match was an impossible mission. They did the best they could even though the crowd was not into it. Rusev needed the win more than Ryback. Having Ryback passing out protected him. C Alberto Del Rio VS Jack SwaggerHard hitting and solid match. Swagger is a truly unappreciated wrestler and performer, he can be counted on to deliver solid old school wrestling. Decisive win for Del Rio. C+ Wyatt Family VS ECW OriginalsThe ECW originals tried their best. From an old ECW fan like me it was a guilty pleasure but for newer fans it was 4 older guys trying to keep up with 4 hungry guys with a chip on their shoulders. The Wyatt's should be the most feared entity in the WWE. Braun showed great aggression but he is still green as grass. Rowan is extremely talented and it was good to see him able to perform a few cool spots before being eliminated early. Luke Harper is phenomenal.Both Dudleys can still go. Bray looked like a beast. The way Luke Harper eliminated Dreamer was real cool. A good way to make the Wyatts look dominant. B- Charlotte VS PaigeSolid action with two talented wrestlers .Charlotte is really gifted and Paige can go too, so this was as expected a solid match. Both worked like heels, Chatlotte retains the title B - Sheamus VS Roman ReignsA very good solid hard hitting match with two stiff and hard working superstars. Crowd chanting for Cena early was so disrespectful. Roman looked upset, real solid action. Sheamus is awesome at selling moves. He is so under underappreciated. Roman was extremely aggressive, the white noise through the table was real cool.The Samoan drop through the table outside the ring was vicious.The League of Nations interfering was predictable yet if they want Roman to win at the Rumble, it was the way to go. Great match... bad ending…. B+ because of creative Aftermath: Roman Reigns goes Insane!Simply amazing. I could feel the anger out of every pore of Roman. Instant Classic. A+ In his third column for ZWrestleTalk, Dom Bouchard examines seven underutilized stars in WWE that could have a bigger role. 7.Darren YoungI think Mr. No Days Off is truly capable of achieving upper mid card success. Darren is a very quiet unassuming man and the company would be wise to capitalize on his connection with the audience. He is very solid in the ring too, Young could have great matches against guys like Kevin Owens, Wade Barrett and Neville. Darren Young is also a inspiration and a role model for many people. 6. Stardust (Cody Rhodes)Here's what i think could be a truly entertaining storyline! Cody could start wrestling as Cody again one week, and then interfere in another match as Cody all the while pretending he is not Stardust. He could pull double duty in the Royal Rumble as both characters. The crowd would love it and he is good enough to pull it off,he is a tremendous performer,mixing both solid mat wrestling and high flying. Remember the moonsault off the top of the cage? Main event potential for Cody. If anyone could pull off a double duty gimmick it would definitely be Cody Rhodes. 5. Damien SandowThis guy can pull off anything. Damien Sandow is an ok performer in the ring and he can have a solid ten minute match against anyone. He would be great as solid upper mid card face. People would be real happy to see him come back in the Royal Rumble. Sometimes, it's better to leave a guy in the bench for a while than having him being jobbed out every week while creative has nothing for him. 4. Primo and EpicoBoth are tremendous wrestlers and could very well be a solid mid card tag team. Please no El Torito though. 3. CesaroFuture WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Mark my words! The Swiss Superman is simply the best all around wrestler in the company. People adore him, five star matches could include Seth Rollins,Roman Reigns,Dean Ambrose and Sheamus. This guy can't do anything wrong. 2. Bo DallasI love the kid, I love the gimmick. Bolieve me, if given the chance he could become a great mid card performer. He is pretty good in the ring, extremely entertaining as an annoying guy. Could get under the skin of anyone!!! 1. Wade BarrettBesides being one of most entertaining guy on the microphone and an extremely solid and stiff wrestler and great brawler. Wade STILL has untapped potential as a main event player. Barrett could be the next Money in the Bank winner. Imagine after cashing in, he could deliver an amazing "I am afraid I've got some bad news but I am... the NEW WWE World Heavyweight Champion." Wade is also a great locker room leader. Sky's the limit for him in my opinion. Thanks for reading! Follow @ZWrestleTalk Follow @Domghosthunter Follow @TripleZ_87 on Twitter Did you enjoy Dom's article? Who in your opinion is a bigger underutilized star that wasn't mentioned on this list? Take the poll below brought to you by PinPoll. ZWrestleTalk's Dom Bouchard talks about the hot topic of the State of the WWE. Many people are claiming that WWE is in serious trouble. That the ratings are a sign of people not connecting with the new crop of superstars. I think they should seize this opportunity and look at it as a way to start a new revolution.The wrestling revolution with realistic characters and more edgy story lines. The roster is as deep as it has ever been,look at WWE pay per views from the mid 90s and mid 2000s and you'll see so many terrible matches with absolutely awful characters like Viscera, Rene Dupree ,Aldo Montoya and the list goes on and on. Besides the top names even in the Attitude Era… the roster was still not deep. The difference was everyone mattered, today the wrestlers are so much more athletic yet they can't connect mostly because they are restricted by the writers and creative .Imagine the lunatic fringe Dean Ambrose cutting loose? Look at videos on YouTube when he was in the indies.The guy is golden when cutting crazy promos. Sheamus and Wade Barrett are two great characters.
Look how Sheamus can be engaging when he is acting as himself (as seen on SmackDown) Remember Bad News Barrett? Another guy that should be cutting promos! Same with The Miz, The New Day, Dolph Ziggler and Ryback.I still believe the Miz can be a main event player,same with Ryback and Roman Reigns. Reigns is at his best when action speaks louder than words. Use everyone to the best of their abilities and give the lower card guys some spotlight. Heath Slater is hilarious and a great entertainer, same with Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow and the Dudleys. Use guys like Neville and Kalisto to recreate the kind of excitement Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho brought to WCW Monday Night Nitro. Give Kevin Owens the main event push he deserves and use guys like John Cena and Randy Orton to help build new superstars. The Wyatt Family could be the new dominant faction but in order to becone that faction they need to win consistently. Same with Rusev! As CM Punk said "Most of the time guys get over once they reach the i don't gone a damn point" similar to the New Day did so let's create an environment where everyone will feel free to be innovative and if something doesn't work give them another try so they'll know they don't work with unbearable pressure. You can't be creative when you feel like you're obesity strike away from becoming the new Zack Ryder. Also make sure Dean Ambrose becomes the WWE World Heavyweight Champion soon. Ambrose Asylum could be a gigantic success if they let him go and present him as a loose canon! Brock could still come back and kick ass from time to time but the most important thing is to let go of the past. Let it rest. No more Undertaker after Mania this year. No more Sting,Kurt Angle,Big Show,The Rock and even HHH. It is time to accept this is a new day, A new generation. Let Cesaro and Owens rule this new generation . There's an old saying you can't move forward until you stop looking back. Now is the time to move forward. With no fear at all! #Believeinthefuture Follow @Domghosthunter Follow @ZWrestleTalk Follow @TripleZ_87 on Twitter! ZWrestleTalk's Dom Bouchard grades last night's predictable WWE event Survivor Series Opening ThoughtsLast night, we witnessed the crowning of the new face of the WWE. Did we? Well for two minutes we did! We are all now witnessing the long journey for Roman Reigns to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion. It will be a slow and long journey... For all those who say the storylines are rushed and have no long term plans, well this one does have a long term plan and build up. Now let me begin grading the Survivor Series card. Pre Show: Traditional Survivor Series Match: Bo Dallas, The Miz, Stardust and The Ascension VS Neville,Dudley Boyz, Titus O'Neil, and GoldustThis was a good fast paced match! Neville being the only one eliminated is a weird decision but nonetheless it was a good match and it made Goldust look strong. Dustin Runeels still is an amazing athlete at 46 years old. Titus is a tremendously underused superstar .He has solid mid card written all over him. Bo Dallas is always entertaining as is Stardust. The Ascension are probably on the verge of asking Triple H "Can we go back to NXT?" Roman Reigns VS Alberto Del Rio (WWE Championship Tournament Semifinals)Again proving all his doubters wrong, Roman Reigns delivered another classic against a guy who seems to be unmotivated since coming back to the WWE. I never liked and Del Rio as a character and I am already tired to see him less than a month into his come back and by the reaction of the crowd I am not alone. Roman was phenomenal and is slowly but surely becoming the best seller in the company,he must watch a lot of Dolph Ziggler matches. The match was very crisp and good back and forth exchanges by two great performers. Spear city and now Roman is in the finals. grade B- Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens (WWE Championship Tournament Semifinal) Another great solid match by my two favorite wrestlers on the roster. Kevin Owens is so good it is almost scary. He is a future world champion for sure and so is Dean Ambrose. Great solid action and near falls. Great way to escape the pop up powerbomb.Chinlockcity was a very cool call by KO. He is the best heel since Ravishing Rick Rude in my opinion. Awesome match that will lead to more gems between these two. Grade A Traditional Survivor Series MatchWithout any storylines it was a throwaway match with ten talented wrestlers. Ryback was made to look strong but somehow the heels looked good from time to time. New day was hilarious as always but the crowd was so absolutely silent it made it hard to get excited for the match.The Usos were amazing as always and New Day was protected by leaving mid match to check on Big E. Grade D+ (not because of the performers) Paige VS CharlotteA good match between two of the most talented wrestlers in the divas division. Hard hitting and good selling by Charlotte . It was on it's way to be an amazing match but it ended too quickly and the tapout made Paige look weak and again is it possible to make the heels look strong? Grade B+ Tyler Breeze VS Dolph ZigglerA good match here with two wrestlers with similar styles. It felt to me as if Dolph was not 100 percent into it. As much as I love Dolph I find it really hard to invest into his matches anymore. It seems to me like he is just going through the motion and even by doing that he still better than 75 percent of the roster. Tyler wins. Wait a heel wins?.My goodness. Grade C Kane and Undertaker VS Bray Wyatt and Luke HarperThis is the case of a way to say thank you Taker without making the Wyatts look too bad and they did it, Bray looked great and so did Luke Harper and the fans got a chance to say thank you Taker.The match was what it was and again it never gets old to see The Undertaker. Taker was able to tombstone Harper with a lot of effort. Thank you Undertaker for 25 awesome years. Grade B Roman Reigns VS Dean Ambrose (WWE Championship Tournament Finals)With another ten minutes this could have been match of the year. They just did not have enough time to add more drama, it was too rushed. I think it was on purpose because this is a future Wrestlemania main event here. So they wanted to leave us wanting more, still both wrestlers worked hard and again Dean and Roman delivered. Roman kicking out of dirty deeds and Dean kicking out of a spear was a great touch and the respect they showed towards each other at the end was great. Then Triple H came to the ring. We all knew something was up and we got our moneys worth. A spear to Triple H then Sheamus cashing in yet having to deliver two brogue kicks made Roman look like the warrior he is and made Sheamus look like the Celtic Warrior that he is. Finally getting the respect he deserves for all his hard work. Great ending that will continue the storyline of Roman having to go through hell before finally winning the world title for good. Grade A Thanks for reading Dom Bouchard's Grading Survivor Series column!
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Triple ZCreator of ZWrestleTalk. This page I give you my thoughts on the current state of the WWE product. I look back at the history of WWE. Sometimes even predict the future. If your lucky you get comedic articles too. Archives
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