Eivion Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 2 hours ago, Zakk_Sabbath said: You're not wrong whatsoever, but for me, all that stuff is rehabbable - the real kiss of death for him was the Megapowers 'tribute' gimmick with Curtis Axel. It's cute once or twice, but never, ever, ever works long term, and is a surefire sign creative legitimately, truly has nothing for you. Even if it's someone who is entertaining in their own right -- for example, I recall a few incredibly painful weeks in '99(ish) where Stevie Richards was inexplicably working dressed in Dude Love's gear; in the end, it just made me wanna watch Dude Love (or Savage, in Sandow's case). The team made sense, but in general tribute gimmicks aren't really the type of thing that can last long term in a major promotion. At some point both of them needed to show something of themselves to succeed beyond that and never did. I always kind of hated that team because I saw it as the kiss of death that it was even back then. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimbra Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 I thought of another moment made by the crowd: Muta unmasking Liger and the Kishin Liger reveal. There's the great progression of the crowd going from booing Muta, to silence, to the very Japanese "oooooOOOOOO" as people figure out what's going on, to the pop when me mists Muta. Great shit. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordlow Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 (edited) Every time I see this ad on the train, I think of Kazarian and smile. Edited March 16 by Gordlow 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuerrillaMonsoon Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 9 hours ago, L_W_P said: Great list but want to highlight this one and ask the board - Is "It's my yard now." the greatest 'words for impact' promo of all time? There's all time great promos, but the weight of 4 words was incredible. I was at that show, and fucking hell, it was legit. Like, it maintained that level during the ad break. It was nuts. Also - the Hardys return in the multi man tag match at Mania. Wow. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakk_Sabbath Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 5 hours ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said: was at that show, and fucking hell, it was legit. Like, it maintained that level during the ad break. It was nuts. I remember watching that and thinking, fuck it, go all in and have Roman come out in the whole Taker gimmick the following week. Just nuclear. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 Kofi Kingston needs ankle surgery. Get well soon. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 WWE question: Am I crazy in thinking that nearly everyone on the main roster right now is at least very good? The one guy who actively isn’t is Top Dolla, but he is really green and should still be in NXT. Dom deserves all his rave reviews for his character work. But in his recent matches - he hit all his spots clean, he has a really killer frog splash and he has really good heel timing. He won’t have any traditional five star matches but he will Even people who make me snooze like Karrion Kross can have really good matches. It’s just the character and presentation aren’t for me. But an example of how he’s good: They botched a fireball thing against Drew and had to improvise and covered it really well. You don’t do that without being skilled. Maybe Omos? But he’s used in limited doses and just does a snarling mean giant thing, and that’s fine. Maybe Carmella? She’s more shtick and not put in lengthy matches. Even when she’s in a match against someone she’s usually at least passable. I am really hard pressed to think of anyone who just flat out sucks. Dexter Lumis is fine. Austin Theory has had some good matches. Dolph and The Miz are stale but good gatekeepers. (And The Miz isn’t even stale.) Bray’s current gimmick even lost me (the biggest Wyatt’s mark) but if you’re the leader of a stable who had one of the handful of best wrestling matches of the century and a bunch of other bangers you know how to work. Just he needs an editor real bad. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 1 hour ago, Greggulator said: Am I crazy in thinking that nearly everyone on the main roster right now is at least very good? 90-95% of the roster is solid at worst, and I would say most of that number is actively good. Like maybe she just isn't your cup of tea, but Carmella is generally solid-good and easily in the middle of the women's roster in terms of talent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HumanChessgame Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Not that I have any desire to see him back in the ring, but what is Randy Orton's status? I seem to recall he had a serious injury to rehab but he's been gone almost a year now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Log Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 I may go as far as to say there's no one actively bad in-ring in any televised wrestling these days. WWE, AEW, Impact, ROH, MLW, on and on down the list have very talented rosters. I guess maybe that dude with the neck tattoos that teams with Swerve might be the exception. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 What's the deal with Fred Yehi? I thought he was poised to break out at one point, but now it doesn't seem like he works much. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Hero Morganti Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Honestly, thinking on it. Most of even the worst folks actively working on S/A/B tier promotions are mostly just green. There are very few vets working who are sub replacement level these days 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Today is the 29th anniversary of a bunch of wrestlers and their promoter going to an ice cream based fast food drive in. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Okay what the hell did Davey Richards do this time that he is getting removed from everything including his own wrestling school 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supremebve Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 1 hour ago, Eivion said: Carmella is generally solid-good and easily in the middle of the women's roster in terms of talent. Carmella is near the bottom as far as talent goes, but that says more about the greatness of the women's roster than it does anything negative about Carmella. She's legitimately great at the character, but when you have to compete with Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, Charlotte, Asuka, and Becky Lynch, being a great character still only gets you so far. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimbra Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 12 minutes ago, hammerva said: Okay what the hell did Davey Richards do this time that he is getting removed from everything including his own wrestling school Is an abusive cokehead, based on a custody filing from his ex-wife. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarheel Moneghetti Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 3 hours ago, HumanChessgame said: Not that I have any desire to see him back in the ring, but what is Randy Orton's status? I seem to recall he had a serious injury to rehab but he's been gone almost a year now. He had back surgery. Last I heard, Meltzer was saying there’s no time table for his return and the company isn’t sure he will return. That was a couple months ago (January, I think). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LF2 Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 1 hour ago, supremebve said: Carmella is near the bottom as far as talent goes, but that says more about the greatness of the women's roster than it does anything negative about Carmella. She's legitimately great at the character, but when you have to compete with Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, Charlotte, Asuka, and Becky Lynch, being a great character still only gets you so far. Can we swap out Charlotte for Bayley? Considering one has had really good-great matches in the past year with Bianca and Becky while the other is partaking in boring matches with Ronda, Sonya Deville, and Shotzi? I can’t think of a more overrated woman (in WWE) than Charlotte. I’d much rather watch Carmella at this point. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supremebve Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 7 minutes ago, LF2 said: Can we swap out Charlotte for Bayley? Considering one has had really good-great matches in the past year with Bianca and Becky while the other is partaking in boring matches with Ronda, Sonya Deville, and Shotzi? I can’t think of a more overrated woman (in WWE) than Charlotte. I’d much rather watch Carmella at this point. Bayley, Io Shirai, Dakota, Shayna Baszler...I could keep going but I don't have all day. The division is full of great talent, no need to remove anybody. If there is someone you don't like very much, pick someone else they have someone in pretty much every flavor. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphman 3000 Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Ricky Reyes has announced his retirement 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggy Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 6 hours ago, Greggulator said: WWE question: Am I crazy in thinking that nearly everyone on the main roster right now is at least very good? The one guy who actively isn’t is Top Dolla, but he is really green and should still be in NXT. Dom deserves all his rave reviews for his character work. But in his recent matches - he hit all his spots clean, he has a really killer frog splash and he has really good heel timing. He won’t have any traditional five star matches but he will I listen to clips of Konnan and Discos podcasts on YouTube while I'm at work and they both talk about how they give him advice on even alot of the subtle things. I don't watch Raw but they talk about some things he's doing that even alot of the top experienced wrestlers aren't doing. You can tell Konnan has been giving advice on his character work too. I wish he got to spend time in NXT first even though he doesn't seem to be as athletically gifted as his dad but him mastering positioning and timing can make up for that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 On 3/14/2023 at 5:26 PM, Niners Fan in CT said: Watched Bash at the Beach '96 again while we're here wondering whether it's gonna snow or not. It's really amazing how the closing segment all came together with the crowd organically becoming more and more pissed where now everyone is throwing trash.. There's no way WCW could have thought that it would have worked out THAT well with the crowd participation. What are some other moments you can remember where the crowd takes a cool moment and elevates it to legendary status? Rock/Foley/Too Cool/Rikishi vs HHH/X-Pac/Saturn/Benoit/Malenko. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuerrillaMonsoon Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 I'll throw up a topic for debate. Best matches of guys who had a clearly established formula they did most nights that broke that mould. Bret, Flair, later Shawn, Cena, Hogan, the Bucks, suplex city Lesnar..? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuerrillaMonsoon Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 First two that come to mind are Taker's matches with Foley and Vader at Survivor Series and the Rumble after Bearer turns heel on him. They did a great job of redefining the zombie character as this puppet without strings discovering what his capabilities are on his own. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 I think Flair and Bret both have lots of matches that deviated from what you'd say would be their formula. The Young Bucks vs. Hangman/Omega comes to mind for them. That was very much more of a traditional tag and layout where the drama of the story took precedence. For John Cena I assume you mean the 2005-ish era Cena. He had a really great 2007 against a variety of opponents but none better than Umaga and their Last Man Standing match at Royal Rumble was a classic monster heel performance that made Cena desperate and go to places where you wouldn't normally see a top babyface go. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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