Craig H Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 I was just thinking the same thing. Get Dempsey into a suit and have him be a Mr. Hughes type character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fresh Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 The girl was secretly collecting some DNA from Tyler Breeze (either his hair or saliva) because she's Marcus Louis' henchwoman. Louis is making a clone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goodear Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Then Tyler Breeze can finally compete for the tag team titles! This came up in a promo once... When he had to team with CJ Parker... William Regal was there maybe? I'm the worst. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 I also agree with Gregg. The reason that so many fans (males, you could tell by the depth of the voices) cheer Owens is because "using my fists to feed my family" is a stereotypical masculine fantasy. Of course the dudes in the crowd will cheer for a guy who risks his body in violent confrontations to feed, clothe, and house his wife and kids. Owens being more of a sneering dick about that would really help. Him telling the men in the crowd not to live through him because they don't have the balls to get punched in the face, and besides, none of those basement-dwellers even have wives would go a long way in cutting off some of the cheers from the guys. Just watched this again, and the two ladies with their hands covering their faces and the dude in the GAP cap with his hands to his head both were amazing reaction shots to Zayn getting murdered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Yep. The ladies' horror at the ass kicking was fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick B. Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Then Tyler Breeze can finally compete for the tag team titles! This came up in a promo once... When he had to team with CJ Parker... William Regal was there maybe? I'm the worst. Pepperidge Farm remembers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyJ Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 I also agree with Gregg. The reason that so many fans (males, you could tell by the depth of the voices) cheer Owens is because "using my fists to feed my family" is a stereotypical masculine fantasy. Of course the dudes in the crowd will cheer for a guy who risks his body in violent confrontations to feed, clothe, and house his wife and kids. Owens being more of a sneering dick about that would really help. Him telling the men in the crowd not to live through him because they don't have the balls to get punched in the face, and besides, none of those basement-dwellers even have wives would go a long way in cutting off some of the cheers from the guys. Just watched this again, and the two ladies with their hands covering their faces and the dude in the GAP cap with his hands to his head both were amazing reaction shots to Zayn getting murdered. I disagree. The reason the fans cheer Owens is because, "holy crap, Kevin Steen is in Nxt!!" It's exciting to see one of your guys get his shot. If they were cheering for a different reason then why would they be chanting "Kill Owens Kill." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCM Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 I don't think they want Owens shitting on the fans buying his merch, and putting money in their pockets. I like that his character just does what he does he's not trying to manipulate a certain reaction from the crowd he's just doing his thing. It's the most organic character in WWE right now there's nothing fake about him, and that's how they should keep it. Balor will be over huge when he challenges Owens, and then Zayn will be red hot when he gets his rematch. So what if 20% of the crowd cheers Owens it's better than making his character do forced cliché heel work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technico Support Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Look Owens/Zayn is gonna get talked about,but can we talk about how smartly that 4 way was put together, because that was one of my favorite 4 ways ever. It seems that every time there's an intricate women's match, Drake is the referee and you can tell he plays a big part in helping direct/cue the wrestlers up. I wonder if Drake is working closely with the gals and Del Rey to help set up the matches. Good call! I noticed Drake refs a lot of the women's matches but never really considered the reason. The PWG fan in me wishes Drake had gotten a NXT run as a wrestler at least for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 I disagree with both JohnnyJ and JCM, respectfully of course. Re: JohnnyJ: I think there might be an element of that on a small level, but as smart as these fans are, they still get sucked into the characters. See how they got sucked in to Zayn getting knocked out and badly hurt last night as an example. I am convinced that MOST of their cheering is because of how KO is presented to specifically appeal to them. I don't think they want Owens shitting on the fans buying his merch, and putting money in their pockets. I like that his character just does what he does he's not trying to manipulate a certain reaction from the crowd he's just doing his thing. It's the most organic character in WWE right now there's nothing fake about him, and that's how they should keep it. Balor will be over huge when he challenges Owens, and then Zayn will be red hot when he gets his rematch. So what if 20% of the crowd cheers Owens it's better than making his character do forced cliché heel work. Well, here's the problem. Heels can't be really shitty people anymore because it might mess with merch money. I wouldn't call being an unlikable dick "forced cliche heel work" either. If that's the case, then working the feud as "valiant babyface is brutalized by shifty, villainous heel" doesn't work since half the crowd is rooting for the heel, thus fucking up the whole dynamic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 Speaking of Drake WWE.com just posted a story on him 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCM Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Owens isn't being presented as an unlikeable dick he's being presented as a guy that will do anything to make a better life for his family even if it means stepping on his best friends neck. He has unlikeable qualities, but he also has qualities that are admirable like most real people. I see no need to change his character to "villainous heel" when his current one feels so real and fresh. Sami saying their relationship changed when Owens got married and had kids kind of makes Sami sound like a dick. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Owens isn't being presented as an unlikeable dick he's being presented as a guy that will do anything to make a better life for his family even if it means stepping on his best friends neck. He has unlikeable qualities, but he also has qualities that are admirable like most real people. I see no need to change his character to "villainous heel" when his current one feels so real and fresh. Sami saying their relationship changed when Owens got married and had kids kind of makes Sami sound like a dick. Sami pointing out that their relationship changed when Owens got married sounds like every relationship between friends ever. I have no idea how it makes Sami sound like a dick in any way. Owens being presented as that guy means that they can't run this feud where you have to have all the sympathy on the babyface, or it comes off poorly in some ways as Matt D pointed out. I like Owens, actually, because everything he does goes back to providing for his family. That makes him a face. An anti-hero, sure, but a face. So running essentially a face vs. face feud with a story that needs someone to be a clear HEEL to make it work is a poor idea. I can accept that Owens is a face, but they should present him like one on commentary/in video packages, then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCM Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 IMO he's not a face or heel he's just a hard working guy trying to support his family. He can be booed against Sami and cheered against Bull. His character doesn't fit the normal pro wrestling mold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Yeah. There's no need to overthink wrestling. "Good guy vs. bad guy" is sort of the time-tested formula. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCM Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Didn't Vince say not long ago they were going for more shades of grey characters? That's basically what's going on now with Lesnar and Reigns. Owens seems like the best character of the bunch to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rehabilitated Rick Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Owens destroyed his best friend during the apex of his professional career leaving him sat at home for two weeks recovering in a whirlwind of betrayal and deceit. That makes him a heel, depending on your moral stance, you don't do that. That's what makes him a heel, he doesn't really wrestle like a heel, but Brock doesn't either. The story of him wrestling for a better life for his family should be manipulated in the further weeks, have him glorify the lifestyle that's been handed to him, tweak the character or essentially, the only real heelish thing he's done is attack his best friend with a hidden agenda, which in the wrestling world can be forgiven in an instant. This is the ''reality era'' after all, the laws of what constitutes a heel or a face have changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goodear Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Remind me never to stand between some of you and a sandwich your kid wants. Owens is not a face guys. Shit. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Remind me never to stand between some of you and a sandwich your kid wants. Owens is not a face guys. Shit. This is a poor analogy, in my humble opinion. Me powerbombing you to get to a sandwich my kid wants in real life =/= Owens trying to climb the ladder as quickly as possible to make a better life for his family in a profession where turning on one another just to get a title shot is the norm and "Every (wo)man for himself" is a motto parroted by PBP men and color commentators across a variety of match types and in a variety of situations." WWE has always been presented as a socially Darwinistic program where the ubermensch is typically pushed as the biggest face in the company. With that perspective, yeah, Owens is a face in the constructs of this program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Kevin Owens is a heel who powerbombed his supposed best friend into the corner of the ring after the biggest win in his career. He then powerbombed him to the point he could no longer get up last night. There are no shades of grey here. There are more in the ending of the 4-way with Charlotte hugging Sasha Banks while she was desperately trying not to cry before shoving her away into character again. In conclusion, Charlotte and Sasha are awesome. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyJ Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 It's hard not to get emotionally drawn in when you see Sasha and Charlotte both getting teary eyed. You saw the same thing in Owens eyes when he won. Maybe it's because the nxt crew is hungry. Maybe it's because they are young. You rarely see that level of emotion on the main roster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Yeah, put me in the "There is probably something wrong with you if you see Owens as a face" camp. The NXT authority figure, who has often described himself as a villain, cut a promo where he said he felt like the worst father in the world after Owens attacked Zayn. And I know we're used to announcers in WWE being idiots, but they were selling that beating at the end of the match with "Are you still saying this isn't personal?" He was still attacking Zayn when trainers were trying to attend to him. There is no way, shape, or form, even in wrestling, where Owens' character as it stands today is a face. I think a distinction some people are missing is that people can still like a heel. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StretchMediatedHypertrophy Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Speaking of Drake WWE.com just posted a story on him It's great that they've let wwe.com off the leash as it were - California’s Pro Wrestling Guerrilla — a proving ground for the hottest unsigned talent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCM Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Owens did nothing heelish at the end of that match he just whipped Zayn's ass and finished him when the opportunity presented itself. The guy calls himself a prize fighter, and the match ended in an MMA like tko. He did all those powerbombs because Zayn was kicking out of the first few. Why would Owens stand back and let the trainers check on Zayn when the match wasn't over, and Sami could have a chance to recover? Imagine if one of those trainers had a Z-pak Zayn would made a comeback for sure. Owens obviously isn't meant to be a face, but in this day and age it's easy to see why some fans like him. We've all wanted more complex characters that are more in line with modern day tv shows so here you go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Austin Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Owens isn't being presented as an unlikeable dick he's being presented as a guy that will do anything to make a better life for his family even if it means stepping on his best friends neck. He has unlikeable qualities, but he also has qualities that are admirable like most real people. I see no need to change his character to "villainous heel" when his current one feels so real and fresh. Sami saying their relationship changed when Owens got married and had kids kind of makes Sami sound like a dick. Honestly it reminds me of that Classic Stan Hansen promo where he says he's not in a big ego boost, he's got a fat wife and nine kids and he has to feed them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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