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The "Sasha Banks is losing her smile" thread


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7 hours ago, piranesi said:

Maybe Alexa has that thing where recognizing faces is hard. I have that and it suuuuuuucks.

I once saw my chiropractor on line at Starbucks and he said hi and I was like "Hey,...um...[trying to think of something to ask that doesn't give away that I can't remember this face] how's the family?"

Him [3 years divorced]: I'm sure they're somewhere. See you around. [stalks off without getting his coffee]

A few months later, me sitting in his waiting room remembering all this and finally putting it together and sneaking out the office never to be seen there again.

 

 

<psychologysplaining>

That's actually not all that uncommon.  There's this thing called contextual memory.  Unless it's someone extremely important to you - family, friends, significant other - your brain only holds so much, so it saves itself from self-destruction by compartmentalizing certain things.  And we place people in the areas where we see them most.

I have over 100 clients, and once they get in my office, I can remember everything about their life story for probably years.  The other day, I saw one of them at the grocery store and I spent several minutes going, "I know that's probably one of my clients, but WHICH ONE?!??!"  If only that dude carried a facsimile of my office wall behind him everywhere he went, I'd probably have remembered him sooner.  It's kinda related to that amazement kids have when they see their teacher in the grocery store.

</psychologysplaining>

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Thread has gone down a path so.. I'm out.  @SorceressKnight I don't think she has heat with The IIconics.  She posted congrats to them right after the match.  It's about creative.  If you heard something else fine but I don't want to be a part of this thread when it gets locked.  No offense to anyone I don't think we should be posting gossip sites.  

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So many thoughts... let's see if I can kind of weave them together

I would put my usual reminder here that "Not everything on social media is a shoot" but that seems to always be ignored so I will say it this way "A lot of truth is said in jest"

A lot of wrestlers - both WWE and not WWE - having decided to be "truth tellers" on social media recently because of how much success it brought Becky Lynch (and how much "Smart" wrestling fans eat it up.) Lana and Naomi on the WWE side and David Starr on the indie side are all doing the more "serious" route version of this right now. EC3 and Tyler Breeze are the ones doing more light hearted versions of it. (There are plenty more examples). You also have the people who work themselves into a shoot over it (Ronda)

SIDE TANGENT #1 - Remember how everyone lost their shit when the Young Bucks and New Day kept teasing having a match or when Bray Wyatt tweeted to Matt Hardy when Hardy was doing the Broken Gimmick in TNA. These are not new and usually "pop the (internet) crowd"

I am sure what Sasha said on Talking RAW about Alexa Bliss was truthful or based on the truth. But that also doesn't instantly translate to SASHA HATES ALEXA SHE SAID SO RIGHT HERE!!! You have to look know further than the Miz/Daniel Bryan stuff which has been grounded in reality for like a decade yet the two have been able to use that professionally to their benefit. Miz has openly talked about the night of his Talking Smack promo where he quickly ran it by Bryan to give him a heads up that he wasn't sure what he was going to say but Bryan might not like it and Bryan not only understood but gave Miz some things to say. (There was a much more recent example of this but my shit memory is forgetting what it was - maybe something around Roman Reigns???)

SIDE TANGENT #2 - I am greatly amused by the someone is "not a big enough fan of wrestling" or "they are too much a fan". So Alexa isn't a big enough fan to have success yet Patrick Clark (the now Velveteen Dream) was legit cut from Tough Enough because he knew too much about wrestling. Oh and the fact that the WWE doesn't want writers who know too much about wrestling because then you are just a mark. It just as fucking bad as people arguing over who is or isn't a "true fan" of a sports team (BTW - picking one fucking team in a sport. Stupid I root for 8 teams bullshit)

Anyway - the only people bigger marks than wrestling fans are wrestlers themselves

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13 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Oh and the fact that the WWE doesn't want writers who know too much about wrestling because then you are just a mark.

Is that still a thing? I thought I heard they had moved past that.

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Guest Edwin

Based on all the rumors floating around, if true -- Sasha is a Pepsi tattoo, an AOW podcast and a UFC fight away from being the female CM Punk.

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Lots of great points here, but after reading the blurb from Meltzer I think it's best she just say "Fuck it" and leave.  AEW may be a good fit though it depends on her attitude towards what they're trying to do.  ROH would be a nice backup because they sure as shit could use more women for their roster.  But if she was promised something then at the last minute told something else without a plan for afterwards then she has every right to want to quit.  Her social media game could use some work but aside from that if it was me I would be pretty pissed.

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8 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

And by the way,  to post on this board you HAVE to know who Matt Hardy is and you damn sure better have watched his WWE ECW run and all his matches on Superstars. 

Fuck that, I say to post on this board you had to have read multiple 2,000-word OMEGA (Carolina, not Kenny) reviews on this site during the green board days.

But seriously, if Sasha wants out and WWE is willing to grant it, now is the time to try and do something somewhere else. Or even try to do something that isn't wrestling at all.

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Alexa gave an interview (Lillian Garcia pod) about her time in developmental and explained that she was more or less an outcast. She didn't know how to wrestle and the women weren't especially helpful in guiding her along. It must be a very strange dynamic nowadays.

I look at it like this. There is only so much room at the top and you have arguably 10 different wrestlers who would be the center of the division in an earlier generation. The office is going to pick their favorites and unless you randomly catch fire your spot is going to be your spot. The real issue to me is with the overflow of female talent and the distance between your top players and everyone else. 

What makes Sasha unique compared to other disgruntled wrestlers is no matter what they do with her, she remains more over than her push.  If they made her the center of the Smackdown women's division tomorrow, the fans would eat it up.  So while she may be a mark for herself, if the fans are too, what's the problem?

 

 

 

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17 minutes ago, JohnnyJ said:

Alexa gave an interview (Lillian Garcia pod) about her time in developmental and explained that she was more or less an outcast. She didn't know how to wrestle and the women weren't especially helpful in guiding her along. It must be a very strange dynamic nowadays.

I look at it like this. There is only so much room at the top and you have arguably 10 different wrestlers who would be the center of the division in an earlier generation. The office is going to pick their favorites and unless you randomly catch fire your spot is going to be your spot. The real issue to me is with the overflow of female talent and the distance between your top players and everyone else. 

What makes Sasha unique compared to other disgruntled wrestlers is no matter what they do with her, she remains more over than her push.  If they made her the center of the Smackdown women's division tomorrow, the fans would eat it up.  So while she may be a mark for herself, if the fans are too, what's the problem?

 

 

 

 

She talked about Charlotte Flair and Shaul Guerrero helping her even when other (unnamed) wrestlers wouldn’t accept her: 

 

Coming into NXT, Charlotte took me under her wing immediately and saw you know, how I wasn't being accepted because of my background, they just saw me as another fitness model coming in and I had never done fitness modeling and it irked me so bad anytime anyone would call me a fitness model, you know what I mean? These girls were so good and they already knew, you know the fundamentals, they knew the psychology, they knew everything that I had just come into this, you know what I mean? And one of the people that helped me a lot through that too was Shaul Guerrero. I became really close with Shaul in NXT and she always had my back for everything and she would help me as much as she could, Charlotte helped me as much as she could and they became my really good friends from that. It was super helpful because you know I had been in a locker room with girls my entire life, but when you go somewhere that you're not used to, it's kind of like a little bit of a culture shock."[\quote]
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11 hours ago, supremebve said:

The IIconics are a fun act, but they are going to be the exact same act with or without the belts.

 


Video reminds me of early New Day, is miles ahead of literally anything I've seen Sasha and Bayley do since being called up, and yes, could only have taken place with IIconics as champions. Which segments over the past couple of months did Bayley and Sasha need the titles for? The bad promos or the bad matches?

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2 hours ago, nate said:

<psychologysplaining>

That's actually not all that uncommon.  There's this thing called contextual memory.  Unless it's someone extremely important to you - family, friends, significant other - your brain only holds so much, so it saves itself from self-destruction by compartmentalizing certain things.  And we place people in the areas where we see them most.

I have over 100 clients, and once they get in my office, I can remember everything about their life story for probably years.  The other day, I saw one of them at the grocery store and I spent several minutes going, "I know that's probably one of my clients, but WHICH ONE?!??!"  If only that dude carried a facsimile of my office wall behind him everywhere he went, I'd probably have remembered him sooner.  It's kinda related to that amazement kids have when they see their teacher in the grocery store.

</psychologysplaining>

That's a relief. I've been assuming it was part of that dark triad psycopathy thing that indicates that I'm possibly a demon. Should I be worried that dogs seem to hate me too?  Based on every movie I've seen that's a bad sign vis-a-vis demonism/sociopathy.

 

(Note: cats dig me, though)

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27 minutes ago, just drew said:

Now there are “Bayley is quitting too” rumors from certain dark corners of the Internet.

Unless the rumors have traction I'll believe it when I see it.  But assuming there's truth to it if Sasha's quitting then I can see Bayley going with her.  They are extremely close friends with apparently the same mindset (Bayley seems to handle social media better though)  So sure, why not?  Plus, it would be to her benefit since she not only can travel with Aaron if they do the same/similar shows but if she were to do AEW she'd be a really great fit for what they're looking to do.

Also, there's the whole contract thing as I'm not sure how much longer they have on it.  And who's to say it'd be an easy out anyway as for all we know WWE could just ice their contracts a la Neville.

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2 minutes ago, MORELOCK said:

 


Video reminds me of early New Day, is miles ahead of literally anything I've seen Sasha and Bayley do since being called up, and yes, could only have taken place with IIconics as champions. Which segments over the past couple of months did Bayley and Sasha need the titles for? The bad promos or the bad matches?

That's kind of the issue...Sasha and Bayley were given the tag team championship and instead of being put into a position to thrive, they were jobbed at the first opportunity for a comedy team.  I like The IIconics, but they could have made a very similar video with their first action figures, a couple of personalized license plates, or anything else.  My point is they can be their same goofy, fun characters without the tag team championships, and it wouldn't affect how the audience sees them.  Bayley and Sasha want to be viewed as serious wrestlers, and from what I understood those titles were made so they can tour from brand to brand.  Matter of fact, Bayley and Sasha had a moment that is 100X better than the above video.  When they showed up on NXT with the tag team titles it felt special.  I'm not sure there are two wrestlers on the entire WWE roster who would be better touring champions than Sasha and Bayley.  They are two characters who everyone buys into, they are good in the ring, and it gives two of the most over women on the roster something to do.  Without those titles, they are just two women on the roster.  With them, they are the touring champions who get to travel from brand to brand putting on fun matches...plus they'd be happy.  The IIconics already have something to do, and they do it just as well with or without the tag team championships. 

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This is all really interesting debate and a lot of good back and forth points. 
 

All that said, if Bayley and Sasha could deliver a promo as good as Becky, Alexa and Charlotte they'd probably be in much better positions. Asuka is worlds better than just about everyone on the roster but not being a native speaker creates a ceiling. 

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5 minutes ago, supremebve said:

Bayley and Sasha want to be viewed as serious wrestlers, and from what I understood those titles were made so they can tour from brand to brand.  Matter of fact, Bayley and Sasha had a moment that is 100X better than the above video.  When they showed up on NXT with the tag team titles it felt special.  I'm not sure there are two wrestlers on the entire WWE roster who would be better touring champions than Sasha and Bayley.  They are two characters who everyone buys into, they are good in the ring, and it gives two of the most over women on the roster something to do.  Without those titles, they are just two women on the roster.  With them, they are the touring champions who get to travel from brand to brand putting on fun matches...plus they'd be happy.

I don't really see what's special about standing in an NXT ring while the full sail crowd chants annoying bullshit at you, especially since it seems to happen every other week now. 

It seems like people are really in love with the touring champions concept, but in order for that concept to even be executed they'd have to start treating the brands as separate again. Vince seems to go back and forth on whether that's going to be a thing. If they are going to keep that as part of the concept, and you absolutely must have a serious-business champion, Paige can bring in the Sky Pirates next week, have them run through the IIconics, and have those two do the tour thing. It would undisputably produce better matches and you'd be rewarding the actual best women's tag team for their hard work. Instead of rewarding an unprofessional diva who's been letting her terrible attitude affect her work for years.

But of course, that's just if you desperately need your women's tag titles to have a PURE SPORTS BUILD. I know we all remember 1998 Chris Jericho desecrating the sacred Cruiserweight title with his inappropriate shenanigans, so we wouldn't want that again. 

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19 minutes ago, MORELOCK said:

I don't really see what's special about standing in an NXT ring while the full sail crowd chants annoying bullshit at you, especially since it seems to happen every other week now. 

It seems like people are really in love with the touring champions concept, but in order for that concept to even be executed they'd have to start treating the brands as separate again. Vince seems to go back and forth on whether that's going to be a thing. If they are going to keep that as part of the concept, and you absolutely must have a serious-business champion, Paige can bring in the Sky Pirates next week, have them run through the IIconics, and have those two do the tour thing. It would undisputably produce better matches and you'd be rewarding the actual best women's tag team for their hard work. Instead of rewarding an unprofessional diva who's been letting her terrible attitude affect her work for years.

But of course, that's just if you desperately need your women's tag titles to have a PURE SPORTS BUILD. I know we all remember 1998 Chris Jericho desecrating the sacred Cruiserweight title with his inappropriate shenanigans, so we wouldn't want that again. 

I honestly think it has less to do with PURE SPORTS BUILD and a lot more to do with asset management.  Seriously, they have way too many women on the roster for the time they have to showcase them.  Love them or hate them, but Sasha and Bayley are two of the best women on the roster, and they've been running on a hamster wheel for a while now.  If they're going to have a women's tag division, why not showcase the two best workers who are constantly complaining about not having enough to do?  At the very least, you could give them time to fail, but they dropped the titles before anyone had any reason to care, not care, love, or hate their run.  I fully understand how upset she is, but she should handle it better.

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8 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Maybe I missed something there, but how was that racist? You had a white woman trying to seduce a Pacific islander who is married to a black woman. I don't recall any comments or actions from Mandy to Naomi and vice versa that could be considered racist.

https://dailyddt.com/2018/12/27/wwe-recognizing-handling-racial-undertones-naomi-vs-mandy-rose/

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41 minutes ago, MORELOCK said:

I don't really see what's special about standing in an NXT ring while the full sail crowd chants annoying bullshit at you, especially since it seems to happen every other week now.

With the caveat that Full Sail can definitely be self-indulgent, this felt like a case of a genuine response to real emotional investment. The women's revolution thing--and the rise of NXT itself--is all bundled up WWE's cloyingly self-conscious myth-making now, but that doesn't mean there was never truth at the core of it, or that Sasha and Bayley weren't important figures in both of those stories. The fans responded as you'd expect, and as you'd hope. It's good when fans like the faces and celebrate their victories.

It's fair to suggest both Sasha and Bayley believe too much in those stories, or are perhaps stuck in them and unwilling to grow as performers (I'd agree with that in certain respects); but it feels willfully disingenuous to miss why certain fans like them and treat them like stars, or to suggest that their doing so is annoyingly performative. 

Edited by Beech27
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3 hours ago, nofuture said:

The "ring rat" allegations go way back to her NXT days.  Supposedly some NXT wrestler anonymously posted it on a gossip site: https://gossip.thedirty.com/gossip/orlando/alexa-bliss-is-a-ring-rat/#post-1936819

Ah the ol' "a girl is a slut because she wouldn't fuck me" chestnut.

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1 hour ago, piranesi said:

That's a relief. I've been assuming it was part of that dark triad psycopathy thing that indicates that I'm possibly a demon. Should I be worried that dogs seem to hate me too?  Based on every movie I've seen that's a bad sign vis-a-vis demonism/sociopathy.

 

(Note: cats dig me, though)

You're a werewolf.  If you growl back at them and they cower, seek wolfbane.

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Don't get me wrong, I don't think Sasha is the miracle worker some make her out to be. Actually, she's really quite sloppy as a face.

I'll give her credit though, she has realized—being close friends with the Revival and all—that those in the machine simply cannot win by boo-boo facing (hi Niners) and tweeting cryptic tropes of disarray. The best option to represent her interests is shoving objects into the gears of the machine. It's the only thing that works. Sasha, whatever you think of her is a huge name and would be a big get for a company of AEW's stature so her leverage and bargaining power is enormous. 

I can't believe the Sasha that was killing it and was perhaps the best heel in wrestling in NXT hasn't had the opportunity to be a fucking heel. Turn her immediately. Heads will turn once the brass in the back realize how good she can actually be.

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