Extreme Rules IX

[Victator]

13 minutes ago, Wyld Samurai said:

The Ringmaster had no heat, no personality, and no direction. Austin was barely treading water. His biggest feud was with Savio f'n Vega. 

Yeah but they were putting him with Shawn and Bret on house shows. I could have seen him getting an IC run. Him finding a better gimmick doesn't mean the old one was bad. We never got to see much of it. 

I think Dibiase getting demoted from top manager with Cornette coming in full time hurt Austin more than the gimmick.

[MORELOCK]

25 minutes ago, Victator said:

That is why she should not be put in that position.

She shouldn't be in the position to cut a promo? That might work for some people, but Bayley's character is not "silent badass."

[Victator]

2 minutes ago, MORELOCK said:

She shouldn't be in the position to cut a promo? That might work for some people, but Bayley's character is not "silent badass."

You keep them to a minimum. Just very quick promos that get over her character. Really nobody on the roster should be allowed to talk more than five minutes. 

[Cristobal]

Miz. Maybe KO.

[MORELOCK]

While the writing is shitty and none of the scripted promos are all that great, Bayley's are noticeably worse than nearly everyone on the main roster that's put in a similar position. To position her as some kind of can't-miss prospect ignores that major shortcoming. 

[Victator]

The character is limited too. She needs to find a way to express anger and fire. She is dangerously close to becoming Girl Eugene. 

[sabremike]

People are missing the point: if you told me to book a babyface in a manner which would completely kill them you honestly couldn't do a better job than they did with Bayley. You can nitpick her flaws but the fact is that with the horrible booking she didn't stand a chance.

[Sky Blue Sam]

It still baffles me how bad the Raw women's division is, when all the workers there have at least one thing they do well (ok, maybe not Dana), whilst Smackdown manages to have a fun competitive division despite the fact all the heels are dreadful. The fact one brand is using Carmella more effectively than the other is using an improving monster like Nia or a talented veteran like Mickie (who would actually be a great person to feud with Nia to help her development)...

[Nice Guy Eddie]

1 hour ago, Victator said:

Three of these expressions are the same. Or is this a Zoolander deal?

Bayley sold the cane shots after hitting it.  Hell I think she sold it more than Alexa did. 

I felt like Mugatu last night.

[Victator]

29 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I felt like Mugatu last night.

That's me down to the throwing star. 

[Charlie M.]

42 minutes ago, Sky Blue Sam said:

It still baffles me how bad the Raw women's division is, when all the workers there have at least one thing they do well (ok, maybe not Dana), whilst Smackdown manages to have a fun competitive division despite the fact all the heels are dreadful. The fact one brand is using Carmella more effectively than the other is using an improving monster like Nia or a talented veteran like Mickie (who would actually be a great person to feud with Nia to help her development)...

It's just a different mentality. People blamed it all on Charlotte but it's just the RAW writing team that seems to forget about anyone who isn't involved in a PPV feud. It's like they don't exist.

[Victator]

14 minutes ago, Charlie M. said:

It's just a different mentality. People blamed it all on Charlotte but it's just the RAW writing team that seems to forget about anyone who isn't involved in a PPV feud. It's like they don't exist.

In hindsight, Charlotte deserves credit for holding it together. Alexa really puts it in perspective. 

I don't really have a problem with her. Some of it is just poking fun. She has potential but she is two years from reaching it. Her, Dana and Nia should be in NXT getting beat up by Asuka.

[Niners Fan in CT]

6 hours ago, Dewar said:

I am assuming this "Bayley hesitated to use the cane" stuff is leading somewhere. I don't hate it as much as everyone here does, or as much as some moron on my Facebook, who was very unhappy and way too willing to spread slut-shaming rumors about Alexa Bliss as the reason she is getting a push.

Yeah everyone knows if you want to succeed in this business then you better go out with Murphy!

[Niners Fan in CT]

6 hours ago, Phantom Lord said:

I am convinced someone in that company is sabotaging Bayley.

I don't think that's the case just because they did have her win the title and she did retain at WrestleMania.  I just think they are THAT bad when it comes to booking, they have no idea where to go with her and Alexa is the new "it" girl.  Having Bayley succeed so much out of the gate was probably a big mistake. They needed to push her as an underdog and have her take a while to find herself on the main roster.  It's like a kid getting called up from AAA and struggling the first couple months or the first season.  It's an adjustment period. If they had done that then they could have booked her in the same way she was booked in NXT just on a bigger stage.  

[thee Reverend Axl Future]

3 hours ago, OSJ said:

R. Lionel Fanthorpe wrote somewhere on the order of sixty-five sf novels that made sense (sort of), doesn't mean that they were any good.

This is my favorite arcane obscure reference on this board in a long while. It's apt. APT!

One or two folks in this Bayley scuffle are confusing the terms "over" (popular and emotionally connected with the audience, can be independent of direct intent on the part of the promotion) and "pushed" (presented and booked a a top worker by the promotion).

Silly me, I came for to read about people's opinions of the show and now get to read people argue. Oh interWeb I love you so, fool me once shame on you, fool me 42,117 times shame on me, I can't give you up...

My lack of emotional investment in most of the roster, feuds, booking and ALL of the social media and backstage nonsense probably lets me sit back and enjoy the good parts of the PPVs (the last couple of non-NXT ones have been rough, tho') especially since my financial investment in them is only the Network fee. However, when I come on here, and this is the only rassling related board I read, often it seems the posters who profess complete detachment from the brand due to it's incompetence/evilness/inferiority are the ones making the most impassioned arguments.

Aries/Neville again stole the show, I even enjoyed Crews/Kalisto (needed mist). Ambrose/Miz told a story in the ring, which I love. Much dropping of the ball by the announcers, e.g.  Jeff Hardy gets back into the cage -giving up the advantage- to save his brother and it is not played up.

I will be the first to admit that the overall booking and the writing really stink on the main roster.

- RAF

[OSJ]

3 hours ago, DreamBroken said:

When I think no selling, I think Bayley popping up to hit the bayley to belly after repeated kendo stick shots last night... or blowing off Sasha stomping her "possibly broken hand" at NXT Brooklyn to simply reverse into her own submission. So I'd imagine any instance of that as a negative could go both ways, and as mentioned knocking her promos while putting Bayley over as so much better is no good.

OMG!!!! Look at her emote! Meryl Streep, move the fuck over!

[DreamBroken]

3 minutes ago, OSJ said:

OMG!!!! Look at her emote! Meryl Streep, move the fuck over!

Simply pointing out that it's more than three. The only reason it was even brought up was because it's something that she is known for and often praised for, otherwise no one would bother hence why we aren't talking about Bayley's facial expressions or anyone else.

[Victator]

I was actually wrong, she only has two according to that collage. Blue Steel and Magnum. 

[TheVileOne]

9 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Here is the extended version of that video

 

Love it.  I know a lot of people forget because he was slumming it in TNA for a bunch of years, but Joe is an epic promo guy.  And I love Joe's promos because he rarely raises his voice.  He just has this really dry, intense manner of speaking for his promos.

[SirSmUgly]

I can only imagine Vince in 1984 having the Iron Sheik beat Hulk Hogan twice in a row, pushing Hogan down the card to trade wins with Greg Valentine for six months, only to be pushed back into the midcard where after another cheap loss to Sheik, he finally wins the title on a random non-MSG house show (which I guess would be the equivalent of a title win on RAW in '84).

Then, he loses it to Roddy Piper three months later in a feud where Piper kills him on the mic before going over with the sleeper. 

Geniuses in 2017 would be like, "Hogan just should have overcome the shitty booking. If you can't eat a midcard feud loss to Greg Valentine, it must have been smoke and mirrors that got you over in the first place."

This is not to say that Hogan = Bayley, but to say that blaming someone for not being protected by the booking is even worse than the typical bad message board argument.

And I should know, as a maker (and connoisseur) of bad arguments on message boards.  

[SirSmUgly]

3 hours ago, DreamBroken said:

When I think no selling, I think Bayley popping up to hit the bayley to belly after repeated kendo stick shots last night... or blowing off Sasha stomping her "possibly broken hand" at NXT Brooklyn to simply reverse into her own submission. So I'd imagine any instance of that as a negative could go both ways, and as mentioned knocking her promos while putting Bayley over as so much better is no good.

I don't see much of this company at all anymore, but Bliss sucked before i stopped watching, and any time that I've seen her, she's still sucked. Just because you posted a bunch of pictures which amount to variations on Bliss's "squeezing one out" face means nothing.

Bayley blows her away at everything not because Bayley is so great, but because Bliss suuuuuuucks. And her Harley Quinn-inspired look just somehow makes Harley Quinn lamer rather than elevating Bliss. 

[jaedmc]

Me and my son like Alexa Bliss. 

#StandUpForBliss

[Niners Fan in CT]

Alexa is quite easily one of the better women (or men for that matter) on the mic because of how comfortable she is when delivering her dialogue.  Carmella is pretty underrated also. It's something that's hard to teach.  So I do understand why they like her, they can trust her to get her character over and not stumble through their shitty writing.  But in-ring she still needs a lot of work. 

[Victator]

12 hours ago, OSJ said:

OMG!!!! Look at her emote! Meryl Streep, move the fuck over!

Y'know that reminds me of this

 

[Marty Sugar]

Making my way through the show:

1. Miz/Ambrose was AWESOME...no pun intended. A very good match and they worked around a "lame" gimmick to perfection. Miz is one of the few guys that can wrestle Ambrose and make me give two shits about Ambrose; and Miz cosplaying Daniel Bryan is amazing stuff. Maryse was amazing on the outside, too.

2. Mixed Tag was kinda clunky but Dar took a great bump off Sasha's flying knees to the floor.

3. Bliss/Bayley was hampered by a bad gimmick, and looks worse BECAUSE Miz/Ambrose made their lame gimmick look so good. I'm not entirely sure why so many people bitched that Bliss used the stick even though she "legally" wasn't allowed to,  because Bayley never really "HAD" the kendo stick: she knocked it down, at best. Regardless, the "legally can use it" line is a stupid addition...simply say "there's a fucking kendo stick, go use the fucking thing," and be done with it.

EDIT.

4. Cage Match: if there are no pinfalls/submissions, why is there a ref in the ring...oh, he's leaving. Cool. But why is the WWE making the rules to gimmick matches so convoluted and confusing? "Both members of a team must have both feet on the floor at the same time." Fun match but the rules ruined the finish: Hardy was out before both Cesaro and Sheamus, and Jeff was ALREADY out, so technically...well, technically I have a headache now. JUST DO THE GIMMICKS RIGHT!