Go2Sleep
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Posts posted by Go2Sleep
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Pretty dull show overall, mostly because there was too much pro-heel booking which is guaranteed to kill any crowd. The matches were mostly fine, but I'm wondering what kind of reactions they were expecting with that show layout, which seemed really poor. A long dueling heel promo to open a ppv? Putting the Shield matches back to back when no one buys the challengers at all right before the main? They couldn't have saved Ryback attacking Punk until tomorrow to break up the monotony of heel wins? The only complete face victory on the show was Miz over Fandango for god sake. Bryan/Orton was a solid match but even the ending felt a bit flat due to the crowd being taken out of it all night and the fact that everybody knows the ref fast counting for no discernible reason will lead to the title being held up if not outright handed back to Orton.
I understand that big-picture wise, this show was in a bad spot. You can't have AJ or The Shield lose their belts under any circumstances right now, and as much as I hate everything about Curtis Axel, there's no good reason to take his belt either. That gives you a minimum of 4 heel wins when the show's gimmick is every title being defended, so bad timing there. The other problem is that it's the first of 3 ppvs in 7 weeks, so there has to be a lot of rematch-oriented booking for the main event angles, which means more heel wins/cheap finishes at the top. The only place they could've made a positive difference was letting Punk beat Heyman, then going after him again on Raw where Ryback can get in and start that angle. They could've let Show kill someone too I guess. The rest of the matches were booked like they had to be, but it didn't make for a compelling show at all. The ppv calendar, the NoC gimmick, and the current angles really just couldn't have lined up any worse.
I get why it had to be this way, but it was still probably the worst ppv of the year.
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For some reason, this match always gets overlooked in the Edge/Matt feud. The cage match was more epic for sure, but for me, this is the match that really sums up the feud. Just raw brutality from both guys and oozes that gritty, realistic vibe the whole program was going for. The momentum-change spot is suitably nasty, and Edge's strikes never looked better.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x24q4r_edge-vs-matt-hardy-wwe-summerslam_sport?search_algo=2
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Sandow feels like the most worthless MITB winner ever. I think it's a combination of him not really being main event material to begin with and the fact that everyone knows the drill by now where he'll job for months, get a heatless title win, then the writers scratch their heads and ask each other why he isn't getting over before they pull the plug on him a couple months later.
If the brand split is over, this should be the last year of two MITB cases.
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Couldn't disagree more. Seth and Bryan just play off against each other really really well. What are you expecting from Ambrose? Top rope shit? He has a decent heel moveset that works with his gimmick. And what makes Seth's offense so great? The dude can bump, but he is awful on the mic.Anyway, on a related note and it's been said a hundred times before: it's fucking insane that "our" guys like Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose are main-eventing episodes of Raw.PS: The break out star will be Roman Reigns by the way. That glorious hair.
Ambrose's strikes are horrible and he doesn't have any good signature spots outside of his finisher. Having watched some of his FCW work, I know he's capabale of more, but he hasn't shown much in his WWE run. Seth's offense is great because he can hit all of his moves quickly and accurately all within the flow of the match. His form is great on everything and even when he's doing complex sequences, it never looks like he's slowing down to set anything up.And I could see Reigns having a Batista-esque career path where he breaks out way down the line, but the first step will be sniffing the singles match rotation for the Shield. I think he's had one singles match on Raw with Orton, and it sucked.
So you're saying Dean Ambrose is basically Mr. Kennedy/Anderson with better selling?
That's a very good comparison. Lots of potential, but it'll take more work than people assume for him to be a star.
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AJ on commentary was basically Daniel Bryan the last 3 weeks in the ring. Eventually she got drowned out by the good ol' boys network (due to numbers not quality work), but she got some quality shots in first and came away looking way better. "Watch the product" was the best and funniest insider comment on a show with HHH/Steph and Edge working the 2003 Wrestlecrap message board gimmick in full force.
Orton/Goldust was good, but I'm not sure it's even Orton's second best match in the last three weeks. Outside of crowd heat, I'm not sure how it was better than his match with Christian, or even his match with RVD on SD. Maybe I'm overreacting to that really awful super-slow "drop to the knees and punch" spot where Orton's head was up the whole time staring right at Dustin. The crossroads spot was great, though. Perfect nearfall, there.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves Booker T's current gimmick. I hope he expands his range and starts offering unsolicited advice to midcarders as well. It's probably too much effort since the payoff would just be someone finally saying "Why are you still here?" months later, but I'd love it.
And finally, something that no one has really talked about yet, it's becoming more and more obvious that Seth Rollins is the future star out of the Shield. The fact that a Daniel Bryan main event match has only gotten 3 or 4 mentions in 15 pages isn't a good sign for Ambrose. He's kind of in a shitty spot where his biggest strengths are heel promos, heel mannerisms, and selling, while his biggest weakness is being interesting on offense. Having watched some of his FCW work, I know he can do better, but he's really underachieving these days. A 10+ minute match against Daniel Bryan is the time to step up, and he just looked really flat out there, especially compared to the last few times Rollins got a similar opportunity.
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Orton vs. HHH (last man standing, No Mercy 07): I don't think these two have had a good match together before or since, but this match was pretty much perfect. I don't know if it was the horrible setup or the fact that no one has ever really liked face HHH, but it never seemed this match got its just due.
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I'll probably watch this week for the latest Bryan/Rollins match. Orton standing over Bryan every week is approaching "running joke" territory, but I don't know why they'd change it up on SD. I figure they'll do that on Raw in Toronto.
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Anyone have a screencap of that tweet that was total gibberish during the Orton/Cody match? Not sure how that one got selected.
AJ storyline is probably being shot for Total Divas 2 more than it is for Raw. If the current season is any indication, they're probably going to make this whole thing look like a shoot on Total Divas. Hence shouting over the "pipe bomb" promo last week, the more shooty looking beatdown this week with one girl holding AJ's legs while the other two stomp her and no wrestling moves, and finally Nattie's look of remorse as she's heading back up the ramp.
The only thing I wanna say about Bryan is I'm not 100% convinced he's losing at NOC. I agree a clusterfuck ending with Orton retaining is the most likely answer, but I could see some faces taking some gold to give them leverage against Evolution Inc. Cody and Ziggler winning the tag straps as the Matadores would be perfect (great idea whoever started that one), and Bryan could get the WWE title off Orton as his big comeback moment. With at least those three holding major titles, they can hold them hostage and threaten to walk out, which gives everyone else some courage to fight back against HHH. Then you have the grounds for a more even stable war that can go back and forth ad infinitum.
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I wonder if there's enough overlap in viewership to get a "Brie Mode" chant going during the next Bellas match.
I also enjoy Cena fucking around in all his scenes. It's the reality tv equivalent of Shawn Michaels having to do a job against his will.
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Can't let the thread get too far without this classic:
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People liked Kaval's rap? Huh.
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He may have gotten a new name and Heyman as a mouthpiece, he'll always be the NXT Season 2 runner-up to me.
Of course, NXT 2 was notorious for its bad promos, so let's just get some more of those out of the way.
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Also, Christian referencing the McMahon/Helmsley regime was so unlike usual WWE protocol. They barely acknowledge things that happened six months ago, so for Christian to logically reference something that's 13 years old is pretty interesting.
I thought it was a nice call back to a similar situation in WWE history but I also remember Edge and Christian being members of the McMahon/Helmsley Regime, or Factgime as they would refer to it, or at least they where in favor with HHH and Steph. I mean they were there playing triple H's theme on kazoos.
They were after they turned heel around April/May 2000, but right after HHH and Steph got together, the Hardys and E/C were on their weekly bullying list with The Rock, Foley, Kane, and Show for some reason.
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Well, he looks grizzled. And last night during his promo he talked about being a survivor of the Attitude era and the McMahon/ Helmsley regime. And the commentators always talk about him being a vet.
How does he play that character? How is it reinforced in promos and on commentary?Christian's character is "wily grizzled veteran". I have no idea why people can't see that.
That and all his matches are based around him not being the quickest or the strongest, but still being able to outsmart most of his opponents and counter a lot of their signature spots. Lately, most of his wins have been with timely roll-ups.
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I just read that Ziggler jobbed to Cesaro during the Superstars taping. Jae really has terrible luck when jumping onto bandwagons.
Is there any word on if Ziggler is in the doghouse or something? Even though I've been high on him, I can't really justify him the main event right now, but you'd think he'd still be stable midcarder right now.
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I don't mind the Punk/Heyman feud, but god damn Curtis Axel is the black hole of black holes when it comes to making shit interesting. I mean, that was no Show/ADR duct tape beatdown or anything, but damn if Curtis Axel didn't completely suck the life out of it with his stupid generic moves, his stupid generic look, and his stupid generic trash talk. I dare anyone to name one full-time wrestler on the roster that wouldn't have made that segment more interesting.
Zack Ryder, Sin Cara, Kofi Kingston, David Otunga, Justin Gabriel, Brodus Clay, Darren Young, Khali
Miz is also highly debatable.
Miz is probably the only one that's even close, based on his horrible extended beatdown with Riley on Cena during their I Quit match. All those other guys have at least an ounce of charisma and/or would improve tremendously from being paired with Heyman. Bitter Kofi beating the hell out of his former tag partner would be awesome.
I have noticed that there is not enough love here for Seth Rollins. What the fuck, guys?
I've called Seth Rollins a top 5 WWE guy before. I'm not sure if it's still true, since the top is absolutely loaded right now with Bryan, Cena, Punk, and Del Rio ahead for sure, but it's hardly a slight on Rollins. If you count Lesnar, he easily gets the last spot, but if not it's between Rollins, Cesaro, Sheamus, and Christian.
I've also said he was easily the best Shield guy from day one and his bumping and offense is the main reason their matches are so good. Also no surprise his singles matches have been the best out of all of them. So I have plenty of love for Rollins, and I think he'll end up being the most successful (though maybe not the first pushed) once the Shield breaks up.
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The best part of Raw was Kofi's tweet "Well, if he's just gonna keep leaving his cars around..."
AJ's promo was kinda funny, but I'm not sure what the point of burying Total Divas is.
RVD looked awful in his match with Del Rio. He was whiffing on everything. I know a Ricardo turn at NOC would be super obvious, but if you want to make one of your faces look like a total dope, RVD is guy the do it to.
I don't mind the Punk/Heyman feud, but god damn Curtis Axel is the black hole of black holes when it comes to making shit interesting. I mean, that was no Show/ADR duct tape beatdown or anything, but damn if Curtis Axel didn't completely suck the life out of it with his stupid generic moves, his stupid generic look, and his stupid generic trash talk. I dare anyone to name one full-time wrestler on the roster that wouldn't have made that segment more interesting. Forget the Miz, Axel is easily the most useless guy on the roster.
Christian/Orton was a good match. Just two wily veterans trying to outmaneuver one another, and Orton put in a particularly good transition performance where he still used/tried to use a lot of his face spots, then eventually resorted to some mild cheating to win. The subversion of the "clothesline, clothesline, duck, powerslam" spot could've been executed better, but really nice work from both guys for the most part. The crowd reactions to Orton were perfect, just a faint hit of leftover cheers when he hit his signature spots, but most everyone behind Christian at the end.
Bryan/Rollins was another great match for those two, and I'm glad Rollins got another chance to shine. His bumps on the tope and the avalanche German were sick. Not that Bryan really needs the help, but that's how you put a guy over. The post-match stuff was pretty lame, but I'm not ready to write off Bryan's push or anything. If the writers wanna channel Austin/McMahon, they can have Bryan win the strap at NoC and continue the angle with him on top and "the man" trying to bring him back down.
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That whole episode sucked and everyone was unlikeable or pitiable at best.
I did like Trinity using the "who wins matches" argument irl, or i"rl" as it were.
This episode needed Daniel Bryan, or perhaps Dr. Shelby.
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I remember Jericho doing that spot to Rey at Souled Out 98.
It was definitely a planned a spot, and under normal circumstances, I wouldn't even say a particularly dangerous one with two pros like Cena and Bryan doing it. However, Bryan might be slightly crazy for trying it with torn-triceps John Cena... There were a couple other spots where you could tell Cena's strength wasn't anywhere near 100%, and that spot wouldn't be one of my first suggestions when working with someone in that condition.
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Yeah but when the give him his new name of Koby Willis that massive AJ tattoo will look dumb unless he's AJ's new stud.... And no one wants that.
Mco is right, there's really no need for him to go to WWE at this point. But if he did, coming in under the name Koby Willis and having everyone give him shit about his giant AJ tat would be a great first gimmick. If they wanted to give him a serious push later, he can just say he wants to go by his real name, Art Jamison or something.
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I think that top to bottum, the WWE is better now in-ring than it ever has been. That idea got me wondering who the worst non-Diva was in the ring. Maybe Brodus Clay? I hate Miz, but he is at least capable of putting together a decent 10 minute match.
It says a lot there isn't a clear-cut answer to this question. Even though it's early, I would go with Bray Wyatt whose first two singles matches have been pretty bad. The gimmick is nice, but there's nothing to back it up in the ring it looks like. One of the other two Wyatts could easily surpass him soon, but so far, I've only seen their 3-minute slugfest with Tons of Funk which I kind of liked. They don't look like they're good for more than that, though, I'll admit.
Roman Reigns is another possibility, although it's tough to say because they book to his (limited) strengths so well. His one singles match with Orton (who has been very good this year) was a total mess and I don't think they've let him near a singles match since. Being paired with the top-10 Seth Rollins covers up a lot of his deficiencies though.
Other candidates include guys like Brodus and Titus who have shown next to nothing in the ring, but aren't doing matches longer than 5 minutes (usually tags) so they're never in anything too offensive. Then there's the criminally boring crowd like Miz, Fandango, Axel, Primo/Epico, and Kofi who are at least still competent and/or have shown flashes of break-out potential.
I would agree that the front-end is very strong. You've got 9 guys wrestling at an elite level this year (Bryan, Cena, Punk, Del Rio, Cesaro, Christian, Rollins, Orton, Sheamus) which is probably the best since the mid 2000s. I think 2006 was a pretty strong year top-to-bottom if I remember. Cena and Edge were hitting their stride in the main event scene, and you had guys like Finlay, Benoit, Rey, Matt Hardy, and MNM tearing it up in the midcard.
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Is it too early to include "Backstage Bully" Ryback? Skip Sheffield didn't work out, Poor-man's Goldberg Ryback started out ok but quickly wore out when he was over-exposed in the main event. But post-Cena back-of-house employee-harrassing Ryback is fucking hilarious. I look forward to his segments every week, which is something I've never said about Ryback before.
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You know, with HHH, Orton, and Vince likely forming a heel stable of some kind, would it be the worst idea in the world to turn the Shield face by having them save Bryan from a big beatdown? They've been floundering lately and this would be a big boost and it would clear up the heel stable clutter going on with Evolution 2.0 and the Wyatts. It seems like people want to cheer them too, not just based on the chants they get from smart crowds, but their entrance gets a good reaction everywhere. Storyline wise, it totally fits their injustice narrative, and I think the wrestling statute of limitations has expired on them feuding with Team Hell No. Plus I'm trying to think of ways out of this angle that don't involve Bryan and Cena respect-teaming to save WWE or Vince turning face and keeping the focus on him vs. HHH with Bryan and Orton as seconds.
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They really should've just called this episode "Boobs."
I mean there was Tyson/Nattie bullshit too, but I pretty much just watched an hour of WWE divas discussing the practical and moral implications of real and fake breasts while gratuitously groping one another. I need to re-evaluate my life.
The WWE Total Divas Thread
in WWE PROGRAMMING
Posted
I was hoping the surprise guest would be AJ, but Jaret turned out to be pretty good. That was some expert trolling. Oh and if the Usos dropped the Samoan heritage tribute act and used their reality show personas, they'd be top faces in WWE right now.
I look forward to the next series where indy nerd Daniel Bryan has to choose between his hot girlfriend and being a main eventer in WWE.