Official Wrasslin' Thread (renamed to reflect the discussion)
Sami and Damien are very different from each other, especially considering that Damien has never really gotten over on his own. It's arguable whether he's even over now, even with JD. Sami has always had a sustained groundswell of support from the crowds and has consistently cut good promos. Damien has not. They are totally different in this regard.
I agree they're different. What I'm saying is both have their issues carrying a title run. Booking may have some effect, but I'm not so sure it's that big a part.
I also disagree with the booking. It's been very pedestrian. So far, the Cody era has been reduced to him being duped—first by Logan in not including the U.S. Title in the match, and now by AJ during the faux retirement. This is not a great look for the new face of the company.
The Logan thing wasn't really a dupe as much as they wanted a matchup without Logan giving up the belt and Cody didn't really care about the US belt anyway. He wanted the match.
The AJ thing was obviously a callback to the Mark Henry/John Cena thing. It didn't hit quite the same, but I still enjoyed it.
Cody is doing fine. I don't really have too much of an issue with either of those. To each his own I suppose.
Additionally, Bayley has been mostly an afterthought, and it appears she's about to lose the title in short order to Nia.
The issue with Bayley is she got punted from her own faction. It was fun, and she ended up getting the belt, but there wasn't really anywhere for her to go after that. I dont mind Nia getting the title tho. Shes been killing it lately.
The Liv/Dom angle feels like something they pulled out of an Attitude Era throwaway script.
The Liv/Dom thing is hilarious. I love it. And it is clearly setting the stage for Mami to make a woman scorned return. The question is whether she directs her vengeance at Liv...Dom...both...or even JD? Lot of options with that.
Also, sometimes things in an individual show might not make sense in the short term but big picture, we can see what the goal was.
I do think some things get recycled, and in wrestling, a lot of things get recycled, that's just human nature.