August 2023 Wrestling Discussion

[Mister TV]

6 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

#1: A test to the "Anybody who comes out of a box is instantly over" claim

#2:

We will adopt your baby

Just because I just saw an 11 year old win an Orlando house (which his family flipped quickly). In Your House baby.

No other era of tv hosts/presenters are worse than those in the mid-90's, just plain corny filled with cafe latte and one key bump of coke energy.

[Just Dave]

Idk if it’s been discussed elsewhere, but in light of Lacey Evans’ departure from wwe, I feel like it’s worth noting that in the 2020’s the powers that be in wwe couldn’t get a gorgeous, surgically enhanced, tall, athletic Marine veteran with a fantastic gimmick over with a professional wrestling audience. Not pulling the trigger on her at that Stomping Grounds ple was as big a mistake as they’ve made in the last decade.

[Elsalvajeloco]

39 minutes ago, Mister TV said:

No other era of tv hosts/presenters are worse than those in the mid-90's, just plain corny filled with cafe latte and one key bump of coke energy.

I dunno if it's a commitment or having conviction thing, but the WWF loved Pettengill and hated the fair majority of the rest of the people they brought in to occupy on screen roles including Wiand. However, it seems like all of them were expected to have this fake enthusiasm. That goes from Stan Lane to Hayes coming in as Dok Hendrix. Vince clearly wanted pitchmen, which is why for a little while they had their t-shirt guy do hard sales directly on Raw. I guessing because Pettengill was a NY radio guy and was willing to do anything to appease Vince (see the Slammys) that he stayed around for a bit. Outside of like Kevin Kelly who had been involved with wrestling in Florida, I cannot recall WWF making a big concerted push to get people in those roles who had a strong connection with business already. I mean Boni Blackstone and Tammy Sytch when she took over the news segments for little while are probably the only other examples, and they didn't last long. 

[Log]

25 minutes ago, just drew said:

Idk if it’s been discussed elsewhere, but in light of Lacey Evans’ departure from wwe, I feel like it’s worth noting that in the 2020’s the powers that be in wwe couldn’t get a gorgeous, surgically enhanced, tall, athletic Marine veteran with a fantastic gimmick over with a professional wrestling audience. Not pulling the trigger on her at that Stomping Grounds ple was as big a mistake as they’ve made in the last decade.

Evans was never very good. I think that's the main issue.

[JLowe]

On 8/14/2023 at 7:18 PM, twiztor said:

what is the shittiest looking move of all time. and i mean on a consistent scale, not a one-off botch or something. 

i'm watching early 2000s wrestling and there are SO MANY BAD SHINING WIZARDS.

Currently, the sling blade and a battle between Penta and Britt Baker as to whose looks worse.

[The Natural]

Just now, JLowe said:

Currently, the sling blade and a battle between Penta and Britt Baker as to whose looks worse.

Penta and to use a quote by the late, great Bobby Heenan in the 1992 Royal Rumble match:

"I'm going to have to apologise, I'm not going to be my usual objective self."

[The Natural]

26 minutes ago, Log said:

Evans was never very good. I think that's the main issue.

This.

[JLowe]

This probably goes all the way back to RSPW days but didn’t someone (thinking Benoit) make Ice Train cry with hard chops?

[The Natural]

Really cool video of King Tonga working out.

[The Comedian]

43 minutes ago, JLowe said:

Currently, the sling blade and a battle between Penta and Britt Baker as to whose looks worse.

Penta

Now who does a worse punch flurry, Shane McMahon or Ronda Rousey?

[The Natural]

6 minutes ago, The Comedian said:

Penta

Now who does a worse punch flurry, Shane McMahon or Ronda Rousey?

Head movement!

[Just Dave]

1 hour ago, Log said:

Evans was never very good. I think that's the main issue.

She wasn’t great. I certainly don’t think she’s any worse than say a Liv Morgan was when she got called up. Wwe’s habit of calling up certain women well before they’re ready is baffling to me.

[Log]

2 minutes ago, just drew said:

She wasn’t great. I certainly don’t think she’s any worse than say a Liv Morgan was when she got called up. Wwe’s habit of calling up certain women well before they’re ready is baffling to me.

I get what you're saying. On paper, Evans was everything they look for. She's just a great example of someone who doesn't have "it".

[Godfrey]

Just now, just drew said:

She wasn’t great. I certainly don’t think she’s any worse than say a Liv Morgan was when she got called up. Wwe’s habit of calling up certain women well before they’re ready is baffling to me.

It's definitely a Vince call. And sometimes it pays off, Alexa Bliss rose to the occasion and totally outpaced the tag team she was managing (Buddy and someone?)

[Cobra Commander]

5 hours ago, Matt D said:

Good for her.

Gonna have to watch the movie to find out if the killers were Bimbot Zombies or people that killed Bimbot Zombies

There are a few random Twitter people I found that mentioned having crushes on Stephanie Wiand during her WWF time. Which feels like a very specific type of taste, like people who would find Paula Poundsrone hot.

[Infinit]

55 minutes ago, The Natural said:

Really cool video of King Tonga working out.

That's from Montreal. At the same time, they featured Samu and Alofa The Polynesian Prince (Fatu). Crazy to see how big those island boys got and how their families have contributed to the business.

[twiztor]

24 minutes ago, just drew said:

WWE’s habit of calling up certain women well before they’re ready is baffling to me.

their line of thinking is that women wrestlers have shorter windows of success. and by "success" i mean "peak hotness"

and @JLowe good call on the slingblade. Britt's looks sloppy and ineffective, but Penta's just looks like shit all around. follow up question: best Sling Blade? 

[The Natural]

7 minutes ago, twiztor said:

their line of thinking is that women wrestlers have shorter windows of success. and by "success" i mean "peak hotness"

and @JLowe good call on the slingblade. Britt's looks sloppy and ineffective, but Penta's just looks like shit all around. follow up question: best Sling Blade? 

Agree on the first point.

Hiroshi Tanahashi but I love Tana. After his, Finn Balor.

Edited August 17, 2023 by The Natural

[Godfrey]

7 minutes ago, twiztor said:

their line of thinking is that women wrestlers have shorter windows of success. and by "success" i mean "peak hotness"

and @JLowe good call on the slingblade. Britt's looks sloppy and ineffective, but Penta's just looks like shit all around. follow up question: best Sling Blade? 

I always felt Finn Balor hit it best. Spun around the opponent and seemed to hang in the air for a sec so it looked like a real inverted bulldog

[Just Dave]

37 minutes ago, Godfrey said:

It's definitely a Vince call. And sometimes it pays off, Alexa Bliss rose to the occasion and totally outpaced the tag team she was managing (Buddy and someone?)

For every Alexa, there’s at least one Dana Brooke. Dana’s a decent comedy worker when they let her do that, though. Poor girl.

[odessasteps]

I had to look to see what Show Dana is on and I learned she is 15 time 24/7  champion.

[Just Dave]

I thought she really shone brightly in that Pandemic MITB. There’s a use for her. There’s just no interest in finding it, seemingly.

[EVA]

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

I had to look to see what Show Dana is on and I learned she is 15 time 24/7  champion.

I mean, the fact that she’s been on the main roster for EIGHT YEARS, surviving umpteen roster cuts in the process, despite being abjectly terrible is a stunning achievement in and of itself.

[Eivion]

Lacey was not good when she debuted on the main roster, but she also was one of those who was in NXT for a while and had nothing really to do there with the other more talented women around. The big issue with Lacey is they gave her way too big a push when she moved up because she was a fresh face that hadn't been murdered by the Horsewomen or Rousey yet. Lacey was just nowhere near good enough at the time for it. She did get better and become seemingly decent-solid, but they kept giving start and stop pushes where she would disappear for while. That isn't even going into the weird heel change they did after getting Lacey over with vids of her talking about her real life past. 

 

Dana has never been good. She worked as henchwoman and was ok at comedy, but she has never really built any momentum beyond that or gotten over on the main roster. Her 24/7 run never got the same level of interest that Truth's and Drake Maverick's did. She is in NXT again right now and its weird to watch. She is supposed to be a face, but most of the crowd outside 2-4 people don't really want to see her. I suppose they at least aren't actively booing her like they did when she wrestled Cora Jade the first time. They booed her even after an arguably well done injury angle.

2 hours ago, Godfrey said:

It's definitely a Vince call. And sometimes it pays off, Alexa Bliss rose to the occasion and totally outpaced the tag team she was managing (Buddy and someone?)

Bliss outpaced Buddy and Cutler/Maclin as a character but never in the ring. I also question how successful Bliss really was as she really didn't get good reactions regularly until the past few years after she achieved decent in the ring. 

2 hours ago, just drew said:

Wwe’s habit of calling up certain women well before they’re ready is baffling to me.

Its more of a Vince call than anything else. Guessing he wanted fresh bodies during those periods more than anything else. The women's roster has typically been too small for something life the Draft so they needed more faces just for variety and to put over the bigger names. When you look back only that first crew of too soon (Alexa, Nia, Cermalla) got sustained pushes. Mandy, Sonya, Dana, the IIconics, etc. all fell off once it was realized they weren't even decent in the ring yet. 

Edited August 17, 2023 by Eivion

[Zakk_Sabbath]

45 minutes ago, Eivion said:

Its more of a Vince call than anything else. Guessing he wanted fresh bodies during those periods more than anything else.

Oh, I'll bet he did! (Low hanging fruit).

I think it's an issue with the NXT assembly line mentality, to be honest with you. This is going back a while now, but when Tay Conti started getting the hang of things during the beginning of her AEW tenure, I remember having a lot of convos here about that being a bit of an indictment on the NXT system - my gut is that similar would be in play here.