Jiji Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 The Reigns backlash didn't start until everyone's hero Daniel Bryan came back, then suddenly Reigns was shit and didn't deserve Bryan's spot. The Reigns backlash pretty much started right away with the Orton feud, when his matches were bad and his promos stunk on ice. I think during this time, people expected them to change the plans and it was slightly shocking that they stuck with a guy struggling through his promos and being a bore with shit selling (don't have to be a good wrestler to be a good seller,) during his single matches. I was taken aback by the positivity coming out of this show on here. I watched at a friend's place and we thought it was awful from beginning to end. Goldust cut a fantastic promo, saying something along the lines he's going to beat Cody so bad he'll never want to put on the paint again. Then he goes out there and does the opposite. He was timid and there was no intensity in what he was doing. They went for the hamfisted, over-the-top "acting" match similar to what Cena and Wyatt did last year. The crowd wasn't buying any of it and the one jackoff yelling a slow "boooooo....riiiiiiiiing" that echoed throughout the arena was unfortunately accurate. The finishing stretch to Bryan/Reigns was fine but the majority of the match wasn't very good. Cena/Rusev wasn't bad but I had higher expectations. Halfway through the show, it became pretty darn clear that everything we're seeing was a set-up to WM or the next few weeks of Raw and it's pretty hard to get emotionally invested in matches when that's the case. It also sounded like there were more Bryan fans in the audience than Roman fans during the match. We were both caught off guard by that because Memphis is pretty traditional in its wrestling taste. And, yeah, I remember Orton having a really hot stretch of matches ranging from solid to great in that time frame Cristobal mentioned. The Cesaro match wasn't as good as Cesaro's match with Cena but it was still really good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Ha, now I definitely remember Craig being desperate to get Roman's dick in his life. This is a crass way of saying "Oh, wait, only a few people didn't like Reigns last year." Just gonna note I was one of those: If you're voting as a referendum on Cena's character, or on the Shield's general awesomeness, then I can see a vote for Reigns. If you're voting based on who was a better wrestler over the course of the last year, then that's Cena, and you should feel bad about yourself if you voted Reigns. It's hard to make a real apples-to-apples comparison because all of Cena's best work is in singles matches, and all of Reigns' best work has been in tags, (with the arguable exception of the Royal Rumble). I don't think Reigns should be PENALIZED for this, per se, but I do think Reigns is still just a touch green, and that his singles matches expose this, especially against non-elite competition e.g. Bray Wyatt. I did like the Reigns/Punk match quite a lot, but I feel like Punk was the one who made that great, while Roman just held up his end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 March Madness is the best. LET'S GO CRAZY. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimo Necro Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Rusev Cena was pretty great, Cena has to go far in March Madness this year. We all love him now right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Orton's world title run in 2013/2014 was full of fucking great tv matches and disappointing ppv main events. It was bizarre as hell. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Rusev Cena was pretty great, Cena has to go far in March Madness this year. We all love him now right? Depends if you're of the OMGZ CENA WILL NEVER TAP AND BURIES EVERYONE!!! or "A heel who survived Cena's finishers a few different times event cheated to beat the American hero" school of thought. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Rusev Cena was pretty great, Cena has to go far in March Madness this year. We all love him now right? Most on here have been pro Cena for a while now. I think it's pretty easy to disconnect John Cena the character from John Cena the in-ring performer. I feel like having Cena beat Rusev at the one show of the year where things actually matter is a massive mistake but I think it'll be a better match than last night's and could steal the show (not saying much with the forecasted lineup). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Rusev Cena was pretty great, Cena has to go far in March Madness this year. We all love him now right? I'd still vote him over Reigns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyJ Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Gregg, you left me out from the revisionist machine. I'm page 1, post 7 right around a bunch of other people you cited. "I like Reigns...a lot. However, I have no idea how to weigh the fact he wrestles in tags 98% of the time. The one time I can recall him being left to his own devices was that match in Green Bay against Bray where they were both exposed as not being ready for prime time. He's not ready." Whether or not Reigns was connecting a year ago is irrelevant to today's discussion. He's not connecting now. Nobody is saying he blows. People just don't want him in the spot he's in right now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Gregg, you left me out from the revisionist machine. I'm page 1, post 7 right around a bunch of other people you cited. "I like Reigns...a lot. However, I have no idea how to weigh the fact he wrestles in tags 98% of the time. The one time I can recall him being left to his own devices was that match in Green Bay against Bray where they were both exposed as not being ready for prime time. He's not ready." Whether or not Reigns was connecting a year ago is irrelevant to today's discussion. He's not connecting now. Nobody is saying he blows. People just don't want him in the spot he's in right now. Oh, I get why people have a problem with him now (but disagree with it). I just want to correct people who are trying to revise the general thoughts most people had of him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 One year ago in the run up to Elimination Chamber. Orton vs Cena. Orton vs Bryan. Orton vs Cesaro. Orton vs Sheamus. Orton vs Christian. All of them pretty much amazing.Yeah, um, no.Well, that argument settles me. Go back and read the threads, if you've forgotten. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Man, I had to go back and see if I voted for Reigns or Cena. I so thoroughly enjoyed the Shield tags but at the same time understood Roman's position in them (not that it was insignificant, rather he wasn't doing the heavy lifting and was the most replaceable cog). I think the only thing that made it so close was Cena's time on the shelf. Cena had the Bryan SummerSlam match, the Cesaro Raw match, the great Sandow cash-in, ADR matches, and some other stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting. And, yeah, I voted Cena. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 I gave Reigns some props in that MM thread, but noted that I wasn't sure about Reigns's ability to put on a good main-event-level 1v1 match. Well, we have proof that he can do it against D-Bry, but so can Bray Wyatt, so that proves nothing in the end. I have a question because I think the similarities in their cases is somewhat alike: Is 2015-era Roman Reigns better than late-1994 Diesel right now? People will take that as spite toward Reigns, but it genuinely isn't. I just watched all of '94/'95 RAW and PPVs, and Nash was better with doing meaningful stuff in the middle of matches and with transitioning back from heel control to his finishing run. He was also a better traditional face promo at that point than Reigns is now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Uh, didn't people only vote for Reigns last year because of the Shield matches he was in? I thought that was the general opinion going around last year? That doesn't even really matter - opinions change. He might have been awesome at one point (probably because he was around two veterans of the indies), but right now he's a sinking ship because he has to be carried to a watchable match. Put him in there with someone like Bray (and I love him) and the match is horrible. Reigns/Cena? Reigns/Bryan? Clearly someone is calling the shots, and Reigns is just carrying his end like a good, green worker should. I know Punk isn't a liked guy 'round these parts, to some anyway, but... "Make Roman look good." That's all I really have to say about this. Left to his own devices and without a ring general, he's pretty bad and paint by numbers. Take away the awesome Shield trios matches from last year's March Madness, and replace them with the singles matches he's had this go around, and he wouldn't make it as far as he did. At all. There's a reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivpvideos Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Reigns is pretty damn decent at what he does but not exactly main event of Wrestlemania yet. It should be him against Rusev with him ending the undefeated streak and getting the title while being groomed for the top spot while Daniel Bryan goes and tries to win the title he never lost against the unstoppable machine. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Let the record reflect that I wrote the following during last year's March Madness: The worst guy in the Shield, who has spent the overwhelming majority of the voting period being protected and hidden in multi-man matches, is in a dogfight with Cena? Fuck this company. To this day, I am astounded that so many people were unable to see what was right in front of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Reigns is pretty damn decent at what he does but not exactly main event of Wrestlemania yet. It should be him against Rusev with him ending the undefeated streak and getting the title while being groomed for the top spot while Daniel Bryan goes and tries to win the title he never lost against the unstoppable machine. Yeah, exactly. Decent. The next face of WWE, and the future Heavyweight champion, shouldn't have to be handed matches with superior workers to hide his flaws. This isn't ECW. If he's going to be all of those things, you would think they'd make sure the champ would be someone who could have a good match with anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Also, in defense of myself, I wasn't "super-high" on Reigns. This is just polite praise of admittedly fun work: What I saw of La Sombra made him seem like a good wrestler! However, Reigns has been in about eight or ten great trios matches plus that awesome Rumble performance, so I'm going with him. - Smelly McUgly I also said this in the Reigns/Cesaro thread: I like Reigns quite a bit, but him making it this far somehow is pretty much bullshit, I think. I guess I feel that last way about Reigns in real life regarding his positioning for WM. Whoever said Bryan/Lesnar and Reigns/Rusev was the right combination of matches was absolutely correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 It appears I spent most of that thread expressing my hated for Sandow. I stand by it, even though this Mizdow gimmick has been great. Until he wrestles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 I don't think I saw comment of this, apologies if somebody mentioned it previously, but for as bad as Bad News looked on his return, he was absolutely shredded last night. Has his physique ever been that defined? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRGoldman Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Match Madness should be like the purge. No one should be able to reference what you did or didn't say after it's over. I can't fucking wait for next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Match Madness should be like the purge. No one should be able to reference what you did or didn't say after it's over. Absolutely not. The opposite. Every argument you've ever made should be stored in an easily searchable database so that it can be referenced and queried. Obviously a position can change, but you'll have to justify it. The honest folk with internal consistency will slowly rise to the top, while the trolls and contrarians will at last be outed and shunned like the vermin they are. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Isn't there a big difference between liking what a guy does in six mans and even a couple singles matches once in a while and thinking he is ready to be the face of the company?? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Ask the people who voted him over the face of the company last year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w. josh Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Isn't there a big difference between liking what a guy does in six mans and even a couple singles matches once in a while and thinking he is ready to be the face of the company?? Not when there are strawmen to knock down! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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