JohnnyJ

Thought the whole card felt a little off. It was out of sync with the major storyline leading up to the ppv. We just sat through a whole month of programming where the entire roster had to just stand and watch as HHH laid down the law. The faces on the roster were routinely beat down for simply questioning HHH's authority. But this vibe did not exist at night of champions. There was no outside interference. No fear. Some of the matches (Miz v. Fandango, Kofi v. Axel, ADR v. RVD) felt like they were taking place in a different federation. It reminded me of the WCW days when you'd have three-quarters of the mid-carders and main-eventers in the WCW v. NWO storyline and two random wrestlers facing off outside of the main storyline as if it wasn't happening.

Great show. I've enjoyed how the past two weeks of Smackdown have felt like an extension of Raw. It fleshes out the main angle and gives the impression that a lot of time is passing between Raws. Impressed by how overnight they turned Ziggler and Rhodes into the no. 2 and no. 3 babyfaces on the roster. Sandow during the opening was hysterical. Cesaros finish on one of the Usos looked like death. Can't complain whenever they run Bryan-Rollins. However, it seems like they've run the match a lot and Rollins usually takes the pin. Was thinking maybe we'd get a Bryan-Reigns match.

I really wanted to like Raw but this did not make me want to tune in next week or order the pay per view. There is no hook to the angle. I have no interest in seeing what dastardly act HHH is going to do next. And the heels have stomped out hope. When Ziggler comes out, you know he is about to get destroyed. When Bryan comes out, you know he is going to be humiliated. After what we've seen, what reason is their to think that Bryan wont just be beat down by the Shield prior to his match at Night of Champions. It wasn’t just coincidental that the crowd died during the beatdown at the end of Raw. The beatdown was inevitable so there was nothing to care about. The fact that no member of the roster will get involved in this makes the whole roster look pathetic. Where is Punk in this angle? Punks whole gimmick is that he is anti-authority. His character is one who would get fired over principle. Unfortunately for Bryan, Punk lives in a vacuum with Heyman and Curtis Axel and is seemingly unaware that any of this is happening. That’s what I tell myself to explain why Punk is not involved and why he is the only wrestler not required to show up on the stage during the main event.

Even post- awesome truth rtruth was getting a good amount of mic time as a whacky face. Then Bourne went down as they were relaunching the tag division (yet again). Kofi needed a partner and I don't want to speculate as to why rtruth was chosen by creative. However, once they started teaming truths personality disappeared overnight and he eventually ended up practically off tv altogether.

Simmons also pointed out that one of the things Hart had over Hennig was the whole Hart family thing. If only Mr. Perfect came from a long lineage of wrestlers...

I saw that too and rolled my eyes. The Masked Man comes off like a writer who has a casual knowledge of wrestling and somehow ended up writing about it. It was probably the only thing he ever wrote which elicited any kind of response so he stuck with it. He is constantly trying to overarticulate and overcompensate because of it. He'll put together three paragraphs of utter nonsense, throwing in some big words, and talking about themes which are 65% in his imagination. Then to show that he is knowledgeable about this stuff he'll start dropping Ox Baker and Bo Dallas references. It's a shame too because the Masked Man's spot on Grantland is probably the premier wrestling writing slot in terms of readership. Simmons could've put someone great there. In that same article, he describes Punk as exhibiting.

Think you nailed it on the head. Can we also add that Orton has a thing for wearing black t-shirts. You can only market so many black t-shirts with a snake on it. On the other hand, you could put Cena in hot pink, turquoise, powder blue, etc. The t-shirt marketing possibilities are essentially endless.

Every attitude era holdover may be mentioned as a vet but it is not the center of their persona. Christian is a guy who doesn't look the way he used to. He used to be a fairly jacked long haired pretty boy. Now, he looks old. He looks scrawny. He looks like he's barely holding on and his next match might be his last. His motivations (one last chance at the top) and his persona are pretty simple, consistent and more complete and fleshed out than most of the roster.

I haven't been paying much attention to his entrance pops but the crowds are consistently into all of his matches. That's more than what can be said about most wrestlers. And I wouldn't take too much stock in who some of these crowds pop for. Last night half the Phoenix crowd popped pretty hard for Orton when he first came out and the cameras had to pan away and turn down the volume.

On one hand I'm not crazy about the booking. Bryan is coming off like a fool. All of the faces are coming off as cowards. On the other hand, the angle actually has some buzz and I'm very interested to see where this goes. So I guess it's working. The whole thing feels very similar to the summer of punk. After Nash took out Punk at Summerslam 11 there were weeks of pointless back and forth over whether HHH was behind it. The logical step and all signs pointed to HHH turning heel but they never pulled the trigger. The HHH-Bryan angle is the reset. They are doing pretty much the same exact angle cept HHH turned heel on day one.

Swagger is someone who needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. The fans have been conditioned for years that he is not important and that his moveset is not impactful. Hell, his winning percentage over the last few years is probably similar to Zigglers but at least Ziggler was losing to the top of the card. The WWE has now tried twice to turn Swagger overnight into a serious threat. (first with the mitb win and second with the real American persona). He needs a slow hall of pain style build.

It seems to me that in order to make your point you created a straw man who was anti-team hell no. When the team was put together bryan was already well on his way to earning the rep as being someone who could work with anything handed to him and it was comedy gold from day one.

The sad thing about HHH is that you can honestly tell that he means well. And he may be an excellent talent scout. And he may be a champion of workers we want to see pushed. However, whenever you hear him talk, he comes off as delusional regarding his place in history and his current ability as a draw. He also can't help himself but bury a fellow worker (Foley) and crap on the skills of Indy workers. Every single thing HHH has touched since the summer of punk has turned to crap moments after his involvement. And since the guy and his family run the entire company, he can't blame bad booking or creative. He may try to paint a picture that he wants to be in a non-wrestling role and Vince pushed his hand to face Lesnar at mania but does anyone honestly believe that for a second? HHHs involvement with Lesnar was a 6-month blackhole which by the time mania came around got little to no reaction. It took Punk and Heyman 5 minutes to turn Lesnar back into money. I also found it amusing that his shots at Foley about not being realistic involved him plotting out his match against his non-wrestler brother in law and his 60+ year old father in law. It has always bothered me when non-wrestlers are even allowed to get a single move or punch in against a pro. It's not realistic. And HHH can crap on the skill set of indy talent all he wants, it's not a coincidence and it's not because of wwe developmental that two of the biggest indy names of the last ten years are at the very top of the card.

My favorite Ted Jr. memory is when he got the face push on smackdown and kept the auto-tuned spoiled rich kid theme for way too long.