Go2Sleep
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Posts posted by Go2Sleep
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They were absolutely right to push Bryan when they did (and they should've done it sooner) given that he was the most over guy and best worker on the roster for quite a while there. The initial wave of injuries was just bad luck, though blame can be spread for the delayed surgeries and coming back too soon.
Punk is a little more debateable since there was some indication that he'd leave to pursue other interests at some point. That said, there was definitely money to be made with him following the pipebomb/MITB angle, and WWE completely pissed that one down their leg and couldn't get the ball rolling again until it was too late.
The big thing to me, though, is that regardless of what happened or happens with Punk and Bryan, they did some serious groundwork for the next generation. I doubt NXT is where it's at now without those two bridging the gap between talent-rich yet unrefined 2000 NA indy scene and WWE. Maybe it's Cesaro, maybe Zayn, maybe Owens, but someone's gonna have great opportunity to be the man down the road now that the "indy stigma" has pretty much been erased.
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Sasha on Team BAD is like Anthony Davis on the Pelicans. The team may be surprisingly fun with cast-offs and re-treads filling some roles, but they're both destined to be all-time greats and clearly deserve more.
Girl's gonna push 'em all out the way.
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Can Tucker and Drew replace Brennan and Saxton?
"No, a mechanical koala!
"Mega Wedgie Drop!"
"More like Cry Dillinger!"
But the part where Graves asked if they watched Rocko's Modern Life and they were like "No, you're old!" was
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Jesus, Baron's promo was one of the worst this year. The content was fine, but he emphasized the wrong word in like every sentence and the cadence sounded like some cheap GPS. This is a rare time in WWE where the writing for the character is perfect, but the guy they picked for the role isn't delivering.
Also on the rough mic night front, Sasha's guest commentary wasn't so hot either. She couldn't decide whether she wanted to be a hot shit celebrity or respectful hard-working champion. Not that she was getting any help from the other announcers, Brennan and Saxton ignored her for long stretches and Graves was trying to be JBL and doing the least convincing "We totally hang out all the time" routine ever with her. I'd believe Dolph and Lana were a real couple before I believed Corey parties with Sasha and Jay Z.
On the positive side, there was Marcus Louis shielding his face from Balor's spotlights, Tye Dillinger getting an over gimmick out of nowhere, Alexa Bliss being awesome, and a good Becky/Bayley match.
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If they want Reigns/Lesnar 2 next year, Roman should win the belt at Survivor Series and Brock should win the Rumble. Also, they need to dispose of Sheamus at some point so that there's a guarantee of no Mania 31 repeat.
I'm not convinced at all that it's a given Brock is losing at Summer Slam either. He's on a new deal and should be protected way more than Taker. Taker's entrance and presence will always pop the crowd and get attention. He doesn't need a win here to stay over, and Brock's holding the biggest "rub card" in the company right now. Spending that on a guy who probably has less than 5 matches left in his career would be horrible even by "WWE blown opportunity" standards.
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Is this SD or an NXT tribute show?
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I know a dude who, upon seeing Kevin Owens for the first time at Elimination Chamber, said it was cool to see someone "who looked like him" making it in WWE. He immediately bought an Owens shirt and later made a pic of KO's tron his facebook banner pic.
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Cold Tag
The moment towards the end of a Japanese tag match where a vet/high ranked guy tags in a rookie/low ranked guy and the crowd groans because the finish is imminent and it's obvious who's going over. Like when Kobashi tagged in Go Shiosaki when freakin' Sasaki or Tenryu were still in the ring.
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Who is the lamest wrestler to have awesome theme music, besides Virgil?
Alex Riley
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We are all old. These lists are written by "millenials" who don't know shit about The Bulldogs,Tully & Arn or Demolition. They look at these teams the same way we'd look at Frank & Emil Dusek.
When I was young, I'd tout the WWF stars of the 80s and tell my elders that Sammartino wasn't shit. Now we're the old guys and kids are telling us Dynamite Kid wasn't shit. And so it goes.
Yep. If it makes you feel better, in 20 years some kid not even born yet will be like "Daniel Bryan? Pffft..." and they will experience the same emotion Bazzil is now.
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Did some re-watches today to update my list.
I'm very comfortable with my top 5 as is. Forgot how good Bryan/Reigns was. It looks so much better 6 months down the line when you can forget what a shitty hand they were dealt at the time. No one wanted to see Bryan lose his spot, but the match told the story perfectly. The top 2 are as hard-hitting and action-packed as you want, Brock is pretty easily WOTY in WWE for me. No one has presence like him. Every match, every segment he's been in feel like they're on another level. Owens/Zayn seems like the forgotten great match of the year. Perfect character clash and Zayn's bumping was ridiculous. If you like matches where the heel looks strong, this has to be among your faves this year. Sasha/Becky is a respect match second only to Zayn/Cesaro in recent memory with an impact in wrestling beyond MOTY lists.
There was some shuffling and adding outside of the top 5, though. The first Owens/Balor tv match is a really underrated fighting spirit match. It was the biggest mover for sure. I also realized I short-changed the NXT women by not including the 4-way from Rival on my list. Upon re-watch, that was very well put together, and had great torch-passing finish. Definitely belongs on any MOTY list this year. I added Ambrose/Show for the good pacing and creative finish. Neville/Rollins from Raw moved into the top 10 immediately, on first watch it's easily the best "open challenge" match this year, but I will need to re-visit Cesaro/Cena 2 and the Cesaro/Owens/Rusev 3-way when they hit the network.
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Echoing Rollins/Neville being insanely good. Neville busted out some cool shit. Rollins used his balance and agility for bumping purposes, which made Neville's moves look even better. The finishing run was really strong without any real finisher kickouts. It had a "real sports feel" where the likable underdog almost pulled off a big win over the obnoxious dynasty team, but a terrible ref call and a bad bounce at the end cost them. Like if that match was a football game, the gameday thread would be littered with "fuck these refs," "fix is in," and "*insert team* is such overrated garbage" shit posts. Two weeks in a row that Raw has produced a MOTYC. Only thing missing was not using this prime opportunity to have Rollins ditch the terrible forced pedigree and debut some sort of knee-to-the-face finisher.
The tag division might be the most underrated thing in WWE right now. Every week is just really solid output. That dive sequence was really well done. PTPs come across as real champs in the ring and on the mic.
Submission Sorority is an ok name, I'm just glad they came up with something that doesn't start with "Team." Also debuting that team name and giving them two submission wins was such sensible and good booking, I was a bit surprised to see it, although everything with the women thus far has been on point. I think WWE is missing the boat by not using the name "Bella Club."
Owens/Cesaro promo was good too. Cesaro looked like a boss, a nice contrast to Owens DILLIGAF backyarder look. It was also the best he's sounded on the mic in WWE. His smirk when he ad-libbed that rib on Owens getting stuck in his chair was nice.
Kind of an odd choice for the main, but that's the kind of match that needs to close the show more to get different guys that exposure. I liked Sheamus' uncomfortable laugh when he was included in the Wyatts' promo.
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And the world's most dangerous (and unrealistic) giant swing.
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WCW's New Blood Rising. Garbage from start to finish.
How did the "improvised finish" match play out live? It was stupid and confusing with the announcers trying to explain it.
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Please tell me someone else here played the Virtua Figher games as much as me and immediately thought "Jeffry" when that Valenzuela Jr guy showed up.
His finish should be a kick to the gut followed by a Powerbomb
Been a while since someone's used a seated senton too.
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Please tell me someone else here played the Virtua Figher games as much as me and immediately thought "Jeffry" when that Valenzuela Jr guy showed up.
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No women's match?
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I love Sasha and think she should be pushed heavily, but there are still times when you can see her missing a beat in the ring. Not many mind you, but she's just not as smooth and polished as Becky whose gimmick is mostly "good wrestler." I think it's also fair to say that Sasha not just got out of Charlotte's shadow, but actually turned the tables on Charlotte largely on the back of Becky Lynch.
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There is no way Paige is worse than Summer Rae. No way. Anyway, here's my 2015 NXT women power rankings.
1. Becky Lynch - She's got the most experience by far, and it shows. No one's better at putting a match togehter and keeping it together.
2. Sasha Banks - Definitely her breakout year. She's got all the pieces, and is already super good without having all of them in place yet.
3. Charlotte - She's boom or bust, but definitely more boom over the past year or so which keeps her average output high.
4. Emma - Very steady, and seems to be better as a heel. Definitely on the right track after not working out the first time on the main shows.
5. Bayley - Somewhat overrated, but can still have good matches with good opponents. Also has her character down pat.
6. Alexa Bliss - Shown flashes in the ring, and appears to be solidifying her character as a heel. Blake and Murphy are a drain on her, though.
7. Blue Pants - The designated jobber is an important and underappreciated role, and she does it well. Probably shouldn't do more than that.
8. Dana Brooke - Still not there in the ring, but she shows glimpses of being a great heel. Should get better with experience.
9. Carmella - Easily the worst of the women with regular tv time. Not much improvement with her character or ring work. Gets booed while paired with Enzo...
Jury's still out on Eva, Jessie, and Cassie. Just not enough material from them yet to make a fair assessment.
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I think she's had good matches with Nattie, Alicia, Naomi, and Nikki.
And at least one with AJ too. I'm sure she would've looked a lot better if she was in NXT all of last year with their fresh talent, focused booking, and fan support, but Paige has been making the most with what she had. I think Paige/Sasha was slightly better than the last Charlotte/Sasha match. Not as good as the Takeover classics, but well above the usual weekly matches. It was a smooth match where both girls got to show a lot without any finisher overkill, and Sasha got the clean win in a match that was booked 50/50 and could've gone either way. It was really sound structurally and in the context of the angle.
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I'm a bit surprised people are down on any aspect of this show. I thought it was easily the best Raw of the year with a couple low-end MOTYC's and no x4 material outside of the recaps.
Nobody has said a word about Ambrose/Show? I know it sounds skippable on paper, but this was really good. Ambrose just constantly moving forward, and Show not budging. Really good character work from both guys and the finish was different and cool. It's like they read my mind about wanting different match structures, and were like "Ok, how about a fading fighting spirit finish built around a count out?" Loved this match.
Paige/Sasha was another top-shelf match, on par with what's been going on in NXT this year. The spots with Paige out-smarting Sasha were well done to the point I was actually a bit surprised Sasha got the clean win. Between the flash win, and Sasha doing most of the talking backstage, I'm glad they seem to be moving her to more of the leader role in her group. I hope Paige doesn't get lost in the shuffle because she's repeatedly shown that she can be great when she gets something to work with.
Lucha Dragons vs. Matadores was fun. Liked Los Matadores working a little more heelish, but still hitting some crisp, flashy offense. Guessing we get a multi-team clusterfuck at Summer Slam. New Day and PTP both still rule, even in limited roles.
The women's tag was fine. Alicia tried to kill herself on a simple back bump, but I liked the effort from her and Nikki. The predictable result of Becky over Alicia was fine, because it's 100% the right move. At least through 2 weeks, the "divas revolution" has been booked pretty well.
Owens/Orton was just ok, but I always like matches where Orton works face but still gets a lot of offense. This was pretty close to 50/50 and I feel like they have a better match in them down the road. One problem here was that Orton dwarfed Owens who's been the big guy in most of his matches thus far, or at least close to the same size in Cena's case. You forget how big Orton is sometimes. I also have no idea why they couldn't let Cesaro get a little shine here. I liked his run-in where he brushed off Sheamus then went straight to Owens, but this probably would've been better with a ref pull apart neutral finish or the faces standing tall.
Cena/Rollins was one of their better matches, and could've been really great if they played up the strategy of Rollins being super high-risk because he has nothing to lose. The finish fit that story arc perfectly. There were still some pretty smooth counter sequences in this match and of course the busted nose added a lot. Cena's STF was tight too. Obviously the WWE champ taking a fall isn't ideal, but they were booked into a corner. That's why I felt they should've played up the loss more as Rollins taking more risks than normal and getting caught. You also need a follow up match where Rollins controls more and outsmarts Cena for the win to set up the title vs. title rubber match. Hopefully they actually build a story here instead of a repeat of the Owens/Cena series.
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Becky's had one truly outstanding match in NXT. That was against Sasha. She hasn't had a chance to follow up on it yet. Before that, she was pretty aimless character wise and didn't do anything really spectacular beyond the Four Way, which everyone else was in.
Actually, Becky had a really good match with Bayley last December I think. It was a short match, but it was really smartly built around Becky going for a leg submission and getting closer and closer until Bayley ran out of counters.
Becky strikes me as easily the most skilled woman on the roster, but hasn't gotten as many opportunities to shine.
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Does doubling down with the ironic racism defense ever actually work when someone gets called out on their racism? Granted, here the person calling Vince out is Certfied Racist Hulk Hogan, so it might not be the same.
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Honestly that segment might be #1 on my "Most Surprised They Actually Aired That" list. I mean a white guy dropping an N-bomb for comedy in 2005... To quote Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, "Here's the pulse, and here's your finger... Far from the pulse and jammed straight up your ass."
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NXT 2015 THREAD
in WWE PROGRAMMING
Posted
Thank you. Can't stress enough that everyone should watch this.
Hopefully they do these once a month or so.