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Go2Sleep

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Posts posted by Go2Sleep

  1.  

    I'm really not sure how TNA survived on that $10 a week model. 

     

    They didn't. That's why they sold to the Carter family... there was something about a guy in the office who's job it was to report on PPV buys, and he kept lying and telling them they were selling a lot more than they were, so they thought they were making a profit instead of a huge loss... which somehow kept them alive longer than it should have. But weekly PPV was a doomed concept that failed completely.

     

    That sounds very... TNA-ish.

  2. What's the consensus on JBL's title run in hindisight? I hated it at the time as he was lower midcard and spinning his wheels with the whole APA reunion thing then got this jesus push out of nowhere when (IMO) he should've never been higher than US title (a title made for the character).

     

    But going over some of his matches he really brought his A-game when he stepped up and didn't drop the ball once. The Cabinet were a lame stable but it is what it is.

     

    JBL is the wrestler I've probably done the biggest 180 on over the course of my wrestling life. I never thought anything of him as I was growing up and his title run fell super flat for me at the time, especially with Eddie not getting much of a run before hand. I think it was after he came back to the ring after his first stint announcing that I started to like him.

     

    Looking back, he was pretty much always good or at least had visible talent. Yeah, he had some super lame gimmicks in the mid 90s, but he was a poor man's Stan Hansen in the ring and usually good for a fired-up promo. He actually had some fun matches with the pre-DX Outlaws and Kai En Tai even before he settled into the Acolytes. That wasn't even a good gimmick for him, but the chemistry with Faarooq was so good, it kept him afloat for years. The title run was jarring due to how fast his gimmick changed and how fast he won the belt, but his match quality went way up as he got to work longer singles matches with high-end wrestlers. Even though he adopted some cowardly heel tactics, his matches were still mostly high-impact brawling. The length of his reign combined with his mostly cheap wins made him the ideal guy for Cena to crush and launch his main event run. Then he spent the rest of his career as the perfect upper midcard heel with his perfected character and polished in-ring skills.

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  3. I worry that Owens/Ambrose at the Rumble as an LMS means that Owens won't be in the Rumble. As a consequence, Sami/Owens in the Rumble might not be a thing... ? :(

     

    I wouldn't bet against Owens being in the Rumble. I assume he'll lose to Ambrose since it appears he's headed for bigger things than the IC belt one way or another, and coming back to the Rumble is a good way to keep him strong after a loss. All he has to do is enter in the 20s and eliminate a couple guys while the announcers talk about how tough he is. I'd say they'd be stupid to not do some Zayn/Owens (and possibly other NXT involvement) in Orlando of all places with a typically smart crowd, but they've missed easier opportunities.

  4. Ciampa/Burch was surprisingly good. I love Ciampa's strikes bringing out the stiffness in everyone. That elevated flatliner was kind of silly, but his submission finisher was pretty smooth.

     

    The Ascension have to be prime candidates for the post-Mania cuts, right?

     

    The "wrestler goes out under the bottom rope and resurfaces at the very end of a battle royal" spot needs to go away forever.

  5. My conspiracy theory is that Vince deep down believes he was the draw in Austin vs. Vince or perhaps that his creative genius was the draw and that the angle could've succeeded with any two people as long as he was overseeing it. That's why the heel authority figure has been a staple of WWE booking regardless of how uninteresting or unfitting the face counterpart is at the time.

     

    /half-joking

  6. Kalisto/ADR was pretty good. I'd definitely like to see Kalisto amount to something, but he fits the profile of a guy WWE would forget about within weeks of a big win.

    I knew I was being too generous with "weeks."

     

    Also it's very impressive that WWE was able to make a team that feels more jobberific than the Social Outcasts.

  7. I can't imagine Charlotte vs. Nikki at Mania, since that would necessitate Nikki being a face. That's Sasha's spot if she's healthy.

     

    I have to admit the Rumble does interest me this year. Hopefully the Brock stuff is a red herring and an inspired mystery man will win it all, but Brock's presence alone adds a lot of intrigue.

     

    Kalisto/ADR was pretty good. I'd definitely like to see Kalisto amount to something, but he fits the profile of a guy WWE would forget about within weeks of a big win.

  8. Do people who think Dean's stuff hasn't aged well feel the same way about Rey? I think both of their work from the mid to late 90s has aged fine. For Dean, a lot of his movez were working a body part in an interesting way or crazy pinning combos (fitting that Bryan liked him so much) so his matches usually had some story and focus on trying to win. Plus he was good at being subtly cocky as a heel and fired up as a face so he usually had a good character touch in his matches as well. Rey would be more likely to suffer from everyone copying his style, but in addition to his size and natural babyface aura giving all his matches an easy story to build around, he still did moves back then that you don't see people doing today (or at least not as well).

     

    Also, it should be mentioned that the overkill style in the mid-late 90s was different than what you see in WWE today. It still benefited from the idea that guys could have multiple finishers and matches could end on other big non-fisher moves, as well as the idea that a match didn't have to be long to be good. It was fast-paced and had a lot of nearfalls, but very little if any time-padding and finisher kickouts (unless you're talking about AJPW) that make the style a drag today.

  9. To my recollection, the Roman backlash really began after that totally paint by numbers, rather dull match against Orton at SummerSlam.

     

    I don't remember the Roman backlash truly hitting to a noticable degree until the Rumble.

     

    You're both right. It was starting not long after the Shield breakup when he was getting shoehorned into the multiman title matches while Rollins and Ambrose were put on the back burner (only temporarily in Rollins' case). Then he was hurt from September-December 2014 which allowed the heat to die down, otherwise he probably would've been in Dolph's spot at Survivor Series. The horribly-booked Rumble is what pushed everything over the edge, and is the main reason it's been an uphill struggle to book him ever since.

  10. What? Vince has been acting on their behalf for the last two weeks, and Steph's been all over tv too. I'll give you that HHH hasn't been seen since TLC, but he was instrumental in the Sheamus cash-in as well as the genesis of the anti-Roman angle, and both he and Steph were always around when Rollins had the strap with their motivational speeches and whatnot. Even DoO Kane has only been gone since HIAC, and HHH/Steph were both in the middle of that feud too.

  11. I suppose they could fast track the Balor Club or something like that, bring up Zayn, maybe bring up Samoa Joe.  That doesn't do anything for the main event but it fills out the card.

     

    This was gonna be my unrealistic suggestion. Balor, Corbin, and AJ/Joe as the tag team. Have them show up and take all the titles and beat up HHH. Get the authority off tv and still have a top heel stable. I know the League of Nations is right there, but let's face it, that never had a chance as a top act. Just have the Balor club demolish them while they're at it, and maybe we could finally get a face run for Rusev.

  12. I think they finally figured Joe's theme out, but for a couple months after his debut, he was a good candidate for best wrestler with the shittiest music. I guess currently, Cesaro would have that honor? In the other direction, I like Sheamus' theme, but I never want to see anything he does after he comes out. And Jack Swagger's theme definitely should've gone to Cesaro too.

     

    Gangrel and Riley are both good shouts for all time. Dennis Knight got the benefit of Taker's cool-ass Ministry theme for a bit. Mongo got the benefit of the 96/97 Horsemen music. Stevie Ray leeched off the Harlem Heat and original NWO themes. 98 Marc Mero and pre-Evolution Batista deserve mention too.

     

    Good wrestlers that got stuck with bad themes? I guess depending on you feel about ironically enjoying bad music, Regal's "man's man" theme and the Steiners WCW theme should be mentioned. Finlay getting the happy Hornswoggle music was pretty bad too. The X-Factor theme was so bad, it's still a huge gap from X-Pac and Albert (maybe not Justin Credible tho). Rey should've had better WCW music than the recycled Zodiac theme, and certainly better than what he had in the Filthy Animals days.

  13. Technically Perro didn't die in the ring

     

    Neither did Owen for that matter, but I don't think that's the spirit of the question. Misawa probably did literally die in the ring even if he wasn't pronounced dead right away. His neck injury was one that causes death pretty quickly, if not instantly from what I recall.

  14. Leaving Owen aside for obvious reasons, what would be the highest-profile in-ring death so far?

     

    Why would you leave Owen out for this question? He's the one people still talk about to this day. Once people put together that I live in Kansas City and like wrestling, I never fail to get asked if I was at that show (I wasn't thankfully).

     

    I guess Perro Jr is a distant second since his death got a little bit of coverage in the US thanks to Mysterio being associated with it.

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