Raw 12-8-14 - Slammys 2014

[caley]

Whenever I think of Philly fans, I think of the WCW PPV (I wanna say Slamboree but I'm just guessing here) where the fans started chanting "We want blood" and Bobby Heenan said something along the lines of "It's Philadelphia, they do that all the time.  This morning I asked for salt and pepper at the diner and the waitress said "We want blood"."

[evilwaldo]

The greatest Philly wrestling moment is when they cheered the Freebirds and booed the Dynamic Dudes at Halloween Havoc 1989.

[Doubting El Dandy]

 

evilwaldo, on 09 Dec 2014 - 4:22 PM, said:evilwaldo, on 09 Dec 2014 - 4:22 PM, said:

 

Dank, on 09 Dec 2014 - 4:17 PM, said:Dank, on 09 Dec 2014 - 4:17 PM, said:

I get the whole NXT has to job to the main roster argument, but not when the entire fucking point was "look at this incredible performer who you can see defend her title on Thursday's NXT special and oops she's pinned in 2 minutes oh well".

 

Yeah the time limit thing and the fact it was Natty bugged me.

 

More that it was Natty because you have this great wrestling family feud to play off of.

 

When Charlotte comes up you can have her build momentum by moving through the roster from the bottom up until she runs into Natty and use the family history to build a generational feud.

 

I would have used a lesser performer (not Natty, Bellas, Paige, AJ), given them 5 minutes, and have Charlotte lose so that you establish that while she is the NXT champ she is at the bottom of the Divas roster.  While Charlotte got her offense into the match, the short time made it feel like a squash.

 

Paige was a top tier diva from the start and Charlotte is more physically imposing and more athletic than Paige. This is the same as having Neville job to Fandango to build up his match with Zayn. Nobody is going to order the Network to see a scrub who lost on Raw in two minutes.

 

Why not have Sasha come out and distract Charlotte causing her to lose, and have a brawl after the match with Charlotte standing tall? Because WWE sucks at booking that's why.

 

SO MUCH THIS! 

I mean obviously this isn't going to make or break the company but holy shit is it an obvious example of poor booking. 

What a promotion tactic!

"Come see this babyface loser defend her title on the network....I mean if you want.....cause she just lost to the girl she beat for the belt in the first place in under 3 minutes.....oh and that girl isn't even wrestling on the NXT show so I guess what we are saying is....we don't really care if you watch this show or not in fact we aren't even sure why we booked this match".

[Cole Miner]

Whenever I think of Philly fans, I think of the WCW PPV (I wanna say Slamboree but I'm just guessing here) where the fans started chanting "We want blood" and Bobby Heenan said something along the lines of "It's Philadelphia, they do that all the time.  This morning I asked for salt and pepper at the diner and the waitress said "We want blood"."

Yeah it was Slamboree 94. I was at that show and had the VHS tape later. I think it was the Bunkhouse Buck vs Dustin Rhodes match where those chants were pretty heavy. Best guess for when he would have said it.  That was a good show. Bunch of fun brawls.

[Hollywood Cibernetico]

Shane Douglas couldn't even get an ECW chant started at a Raw held in Philly some time ago- I doubt there will be much kickback unless Reigns eliminates Wyatt, Ambrose, Cesaro, Daniel Bryan, Mizdow, and Ziggler. If WWE wants to de-rail Reigns, WWE would book it so Reigns eliminates all of them.

[nate]

You guys know Kross died, right?

Or Kriss?

[Nice Guy Eddie]

Yeah, Chris "Mac Daddy" Kelly died of an OD in 2013.

[NintendoLogic]

According to the latest Observer, the Superstar of the Year voting was legitimate. So it doesn't look like there's a massive anti-Reigns backlash on the horizon. Still, he should probably stay away from jorts and skinny jeans just to be on the safe side.

[Matt D]

There is obviously a crossover between the new Total Divas fans and Reigns voters.

(The Bella's split the divas vote for AJ)

[Tromatagon]

was the best Twitter one legit? I totally voted for Ryback

[clintthecrippler]

I also wouldn't be surprised if Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose split the "Internet favorite" vote resulting in the more general populace fans and women being just enough to propel Reigns to the top.

[bink_winkleman]

LOL at how stupid and horny everyone here assumes women watching wrestling are.

[Overly Critical Man]

LOL at how stupid and horny everyone here assumes women watching wrestling are.

That's the it factor grabbing the brass rings of all those baby gurls.

[clintthecrippler]

LOL at how stupid and horny everyone here assumes women watching wrestling are.

 

When you listen to the crowd reactions that Roman Reigns receives, a lot of it is the same women in the crowd that cheer for John Cena while all the men in the crowd chant "Cena Sucks."

 

Didn't mean that comment to come off as demeaning or a generalization. But no one can deny that part of what is driving the Roman Reigns hype machine in WWE's eyes is his popularity with female fans.

 

Hell, I'm not entirely unsure that WWE doesn't already see a backlash from hardcore fans coming and are positioning Roman Reigns to step into John Cena's "wrestling hero to women and children/bane of male Internet fans" shoes for the future.

[Jiji]

Hell, I'm not entirely unsure that WWE doesn't already see a backlash from hardcore fans coming and are positioning Roman Reigns to step into John Cena's "wrestling hero to women and children/bane of male Internet fans" shoes for the future.

I get your point and agree with you that's very likely what they're thinking but that doesn't particularly seem to be playing out well in terms of business for them.

[Brysynner]

Hell, I'm not entirely unsure that WWE doesn't already see a backlash from hardcore fans coming and are positioning Roman Reigns to step into John Cena's "wrestling hero to women and children/bane of male Internet fans" shoes for the future.

 

 

That's a profitable role, I'd take it

[Dog]

LOL at how stupid and horny everyone here assumes women watching wrestling are.

 

Why should they be any different than the men?

[Big Fresh]

Shane Douglas couldn't even get an ECW chant started at a Raw held in Philly some time ago-

Holy shit, I forgot about that sad display.

[bink_winkleman]

Ha, I wasn't trying to target anyone in particular with the women comment.

 

The big difference between Cena and Reigns is that Cena actually earned it.  He went out and snatched the brass ring spotlight from the chosen one, Randy Orton.  Then he also had great mic skills and was an outstanding worker.  He also built his following organically. Okay, so maybe this isn't "big difference" so much as "complete difference." 

 

I don't think the WWE is or ever has been capable of making big stars from a blank slate, especially not when they try and do it so quickly. 

[nate]

I thought the "chosen one" was Drew McIntyre.

Or Jeff Jarrett.

[The Nature Boy]

To be fair to Randy Orton's run, Triple H kind of cut it off after a month. I honestly never understood WHY they booked Orton's first reign they did. He should've been a heel kicking out Triple H and taking over Evolution. 

[Overly Critical Man]

To be fair to Randy Orton's run, Triple H kind of cut it off after a month. I honestly never understood WHY they booked Orton's first reign they did. He should've been a heel kicking out Triple H and taking over Evolution.

And he was basically forced into becoming a face because the big bad heel faction kicked his ass. Not because he had suddenly had a change of heart or anything. The fans aren't just going to magically start cheering some guy who's been an asshole for years because his other asshole buddies ditched him.

[bink_winkleman]

No, at the time, HHH assumed Evolution were heels that everyone hated because they were jealous of them and wanted to be them.  So the "thumbs down" thing gave the crowd an opportunity to cheer Orton, who they surely secretly loved in their heart of hearts anyways but now had a reason to cheer.

 

It didn't work because Evolution weren't those kinds of heels.  And I don't buy that HHH every undermined anything Orton did at the time.  Randy couldn't have been handed more.  Shit, they put his dad in the Hall of Fame just to get over his bloodline.  Orton's turn was a way to quit pretending that anything else on the show but Evolution mattered.  The whole thing was a HHH wank-fest, in the sense that it was he and his buds crushing the rest of the roster and setting up a really obvious, terrible "THEY CAN ONLY BE DESTROYED FROM WITHIN!" angle.

 

Goddamnit, I'm getting jittery 2003 internet smark flashbacks just thinking about how shitty it was.

[CastleVania Rey]

Why does everyone ignore Ambrose's legions of female fans here?

 

Anyway, as far as the voting being legitimate goes, there's this if nobody's seen it yet:

 

http://www.ringsidenews.com/wwe-news/proof-that-the-slammy-awards-were-rigged/

 

Unless you think it's photoshopped, or something.

 

It suggests the combined votes of Bryan and Reigns > the combined votes of Ambrose and Cena, which is certainly an interesting side thought to this.

[nate]

It could be an early morning comprehension fail on my part, but I can't help thinking the writer of that article got some names wrong? Ex. Bryan isn't anywhere near Reigns ...