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Twin Magic needs to die in a fire.  Brie looks like Brie.  Nikki looks like Jennifer Lopez's thick in all the best places younger sister.  And while the match was fine, there was zero heat.  I didn't care that Paige lost or that the Bellas cheated.  Maybe I'll just watch NXT more often and order some DVDs because the Divas division is more of a joke now than it was before Giva Divas a Chance.

 

Why drag Adam Rose into your promo, Cena?  Unless they've got something planned, that made no sense.  Rose should ask to be released just for that.  Way to kick a guy at the bottom of the pecking order.

 

The more I look at it, the more I like the Authority/Reigns promo.  It showed how Rollins really is just a spoiled brat who can be needled into making bad choices his 'parents' have to clean up.  He really sold his tantrum and further irritating HHH. It also showed that for a supposed hothead caveman, Reigns understands Rollins' psychological hangups really well.  Rollins was the baby brother in the Shield, the one chomping at the bit to prove he could be his own person.  So while he got to the top of the WWE mountain first, he had his surrogate father/mother/uncle pulling and pushing his little wagon up that mountain.  Deep down, that bothers him.  Reigns knows this, and picks at that scab, and thus getting the desired results before HHH and Steph can step in.

 

But there's an underlying tone, too.  As HHH pointed out, Ambrose isn't stupid.  He's more than capable of speaking for himself.  But Reigns comes out as his buddy/advocate.  Seems like a cool thing for a friend to do, as Ambrose can get worked up in situations like that.  Ambrose knows this. So Reigns helps Ambrose use his leverage in getting a rematch.  The WWE Universe loves Dean Ambrose.  Well, Roman Reigns is his best friend and Roman is out there helping his buddy.  So Reigns' naysayers will love him for loving Ambrose.

 

But Reigns must have known the Authority was going to throw some mean curveballs his way--three matches in one night, in this case.  Yeah, no one was exactly worried about Reigns losing to Barrett, Henry, and Wyatt, but it was more about the effect than the opponents.  Plus, Reigns sold Barrett's eye rake during the Henry match and beat Wyatt in a fluke due to Kane's interference.  No harm done there. And the crowd went along with it pretty well, considering the time it took to do everything.

 

So while Reigns seemingly went through the ringer for his friend, he's set up a great situation for himself.  He can compete for MITB with no worries of Ambrose stealing his thunder.  If Ambrose beats Rollins, great.  If Rollins wins, that's also great.  They can take Reigns in either direction now, face or heel.  Using him as the conduit provides the most possible angles.

 

If Ambrose were to win and Reigns were to congratulate him in-ring, only to cash in right after what is sure to be a tough match against Rollins--instant nuclear heat, if they want that for Reigns right now.

 

And of course, there's a certain beast incarnate stalking the shadows and willing to devour whoever happens to cross his sight first.

 

The ingredients are there to cook a great meal.  We'll see if it'll get done.

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I'm surprised not a single person has complained that Bray Wyatt lost a match to a Roman Reigns, who already had two matches on the same show.

Even DVDVR seems to have given up on Wyatt.

 

Just reunite the Wyatt family already.

 

It was a fluke of a win, though.  Kane was trying to distract Reigns, but it backfired.  It's not like Reigns plowed over Wyatt.  I would have preferred someone else be used in that spot, but it doesn't take away from Wyatt's credibility.  No more than anything else over the past several months, really.

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For the life of me I can't figure out why they had Roman out there getting his ass handed to him for 80% of the match by a guy who's been jobbing to R-Truth every week. Do they really think Roman is going to work as an underdog baby face better than an ass kicking one? Cena pulls it off because it fits the never give up gimmick of fighting the odds, but it just doesn't make sense that a guy who kicked out of 3 F5's, and has never lost a clean one on one match is selling the whole match against mid carders.

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That doesn't bother me much. That's WWE wrestling, guy get up for big matches and put their all into it but Wrestlemania requires a superhuman effort. It's why in the age of the Streak, Taker was surviving everything thrown at him in a Mania match but the next PPV he would get beat up easily.

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I don't remember many cases of Taker getting beat up easily. Reigns has been on the main roster for 2 1/2 years and has been pinned less than 5 times with no clean losses in singles matches. A guy that gets pinned 5 times per week shouldn't be giving him problems. He doesn't have the skill set that Cena has to be working from underneath against nobodies, and not look worse for it.

 

Reigns laying around selling for jabronies 10 minutes a match isn't making anyone money. He should be destroying guys to set up a clash of the titans rematch with Brock.

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Titus has been really good the past two nights.

I thought Reigns was wonderful in the through line. The psychology outlined before was great. But all three of those matches were good in different ways. Reigns/Bray was really good, I thought. They tagged the f out of each other.

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At some point, I need a four-way with Titus, Cesaro, Big E and Rusev just throwing each other into oblivion.

 

I thought both the Barrett and Wyatt matches were good.  The Barrett match was pretty stiff and Reigns still has good timing with Wyatt.  The Henry match was kind of blah, but nothing awful.

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Getting worked up over Cena telling a kid to keep fighting? Never change, DVDR.

 

Yes because everyone is SO worked up over that aspect of it.  If you're going to make wise comments maybe you could address something that was actually said here. All has been said is that it is not a great idea for Cena to be blending real life situations with sick kids into his promos to help garner babyface reactions. He's done it before.

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It's what you specifically pointed out and even brought up the Make-A-Wish stuff strawman to try and hammer your point home like it mattered.

 

Show me where I said "Cena shouldn't tell that kid to keep fighting!" That's what you said.

 

What I said is he shouldn't use these real life situations in his story line promos. It's distasteful.  What part of that are you not getting. If he brought the kid into the ring separately away from the story line I would have loved it. I loved everything to do with Connor.

 

But using something like that as a way to garner support against heels. No, I think that's distasteful.

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The Cena promo, and Cena himself, is a mixed bag.  The kid's year was probably made by that moment.  The kid deserved that moment of happiness.  But the problem lies in Cena being so blantantly public about it.  The problem is that, on some level, Cena sees himself in the Make-a-Wish children.  Cena may have struggles in life, but they're not comparable to being deathly ill. And why promote his charitable works so loudly?  I'm all for letting people know how they can get involved in good works.  But something about Cena's part--on this specific stage--felt overly staged.

 

I don't doubt Cena's sincerity with Make-a-Wish.  I think he's a decent guy and means well.  But he also plays the company man role. It becomes hard to decipher what's true life and what's corporate.  What he shouldn't do is use his time with sick children and military personnel as a shield to deflect a personal argument.  Because what he's doing is making sure you can't deliver a comeback without looking like a total dick, seemingly going against something that you wouldn't possibly oppose.

 

John Cena wins.  No LOL.

 

The psychology of Owens' promo is spectacular.  He traveled around the world to pursue his dream and provide what he feels is a good life for his family.  But in doing so, he lost bonding time with his son and now the boy sees another man as his hero.  Owens won the battle, but is losing the war--literally in his own home.  He doesn't blame his son.  He doesn't even really blame Cena.  He blames himself for not being there, even if he had a good reason for not being there. He wants to be his son's hero. All Kevin Owens wants is his hard work appreciated. That cut deep.

 

Cena is a multi-millionaire driving a dozen sports cars, living in a luxury home, and in a long-term relationship with a hot fitness model.  His life is charmed, and has been for a long time.  He has worked hard and deserves his riches.  But he shouldn't get to tell the guy who just clawed his way to the big show what he is and isn't on a personal level. 

 

According to Cena, it's Owens' own fault for being a whiner who finds negativity in almost everything.  He's largely right.  But when a man has already questioned his own sense of fatherhood--something that you know nothing about--find another means to get your point across.

 

And forget Owens for a minute: what about bringing up Adam Rose--who actually raises a seriously ill child?

 

That's some mean shit to throw at someone who can't risk coming back at you.

 

In his own way, last night was another moment of Cena reminding us what professional wrestling is all about--an escape from our normal lives, to yell and cheer and go WTF to characters on our TV.  We shouldn't take it seriously--not when we've got children battling cancer. 

 

But, damn.  He goes about reminding us of that in the most cringeworthy way possible.

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Exactly right.  On one side you have Owens who was out there making a lot of points.. maybe some valid..  some not and WWE and John Cena himself say "you have the right to cheer for whoever you want"  but then Cena cuts his promo intertwining his work with Make-A-Wish and it removes that ability to cheer for who you want. You're not going to cheer against a guy who is working with Make-A-Wish kids, right?  But Cena's work is all we hear. 

 

I've been around wrestling long enough to see exactly what WWE is doing. They knew what kind of reaction they were going to get and there's no way for anyone who opposes Cena and what he represents to respond without looking like an asshole.  That's why it's distasteful.

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Well, yeah. You are supposed to agree with Cena. He's the babyface. He laid out a very sound argument for why he's the good guy in the situation. Everything he wears isn't a slogan. It's how he lives his life. And I thought he did a really great job pointing that out via the sick kid. It was a "real" moment tucked into a promo.

The whole feud is now based around cynicism and earnestness. Kevin Owens and people who see things his way are cynics. They think Cena's a corporate puppet and a phony. Cena and his fans believe him to be a true role model and hero.

Using KO's kid in this is great. Why does he worship Cena and not his dad? KO says it's because he had to work his way up to put food on the table while Cena was marketed a hero. But it absolutely cannot be the same reason why KO's kid wore Sami's shirt. KO's a bad person who hurts friends and takes cheap shots and manipulates and cowardly flees situations where he doesn't have the odds in his favor.

 

Maybe his son sees him for what he truly is? And he hasn't grown up to feel burnt by the world yet.

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John Cena the man and/or creative/Vince are using real life situations to gain support for John Cena the character. I don't agree with those tactics. I get the story line and I love it so far but I would rather they not use the make-a-wish kids to get this point across.

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They've been doing it for years, lest we forget the little Hulksters and Hulkamaniacs.  Little Stingers and Warriors, etc.  Bret Hart always gave his sunglasses to little kids.  Maybe it's cheap in this day and age, but it's hardly anything new.

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At the end of the day, to me, the fact that a kid who's beating cancer got to be the focal point of a John Cena promo. I can't havea problem with that. I cannot find it in my heart to be cynical about that...

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They've been doing it for years, lest we forget the little Hulksters and Hulkamaniacs.  Little Stingers and Warrios, etc.  Bret Hart always gave his sunglasses to little kids.  Maybe it's cheap in this day and age, but it's hardly anything new.

 

We didn't know anything about them beyond they wore a Hulk Hogan t-shirt and cheered for him.  How does that relate to what's being discussed here?  Cena's promo was a half-shoot. 

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At the end of the day, to me, the fact that a kid who's beating cancer got to be the focal point of a John Cena promo. I can't havea problem with that. I cannot find it in my heart to be cynical about that...

 

No one is arguing whether the child deserved that moment.  That was fine.  It's what surrounding the situation that gives some of us pause.

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  What he shouldn't do is use his time with sick children and military personnel as a shield to deflect a personal argument.  Because what he's doing is making sure you can't deliver a comeback without looking like a total dick, seemingly going against something that you wouldn't possibly oppose.

 

Of course you can deliver a comeback - that he's using those kids and military men and women in a totally phony way, that because he spends pointing out how great a guy he is and everything he does, we should all question whether he does those things honestly or because he loves the plaudits from people. In fact, the reaction that this promo is getting from some people here illustrates that they see Cena as the dick here anyway, so someone pointing that out would be someone they could support. 

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  What he shouldn't do is use his time with sick children and military personnel as a shield to deflect a personal argument.  Because what he's doing is making sure you can't deliver a comeback without looking like a total dick, seemingly going against something that you wouldn't possibly oppose.

 

Of course you can deliver a comeback - that he's using those kids and military men and women in a totally phony way, that because he spends pointing out how great a guy he is and everything he does, we should all question whether he does those things honestly or because he loves the plaudits from people. In fact, the reaction that this promo is getting from some people here illustrates that they see Cena as the dick here anyway, so someone pointing that out would be someone they could support. 

 

 

The problem with that is you can easily tread into forever heat with that argument.  As in, go away/we hate you forever. It's a mindfield, and Cena knows that.  He leads the promo to a place where probably less than five people associated with WWE could counterpoint it quickly without going off the deep end.

 

I can't speak for anyone else. but I don't go into automatic "Cena is a jerk" mode.  But this particular promo hit some sour notes for me.

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