Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

The "Sasha Banks is losing her smile" thread


Recommended Posts

"Stay tuned, next on Wendy O. Wendy gets cookin' in the kitchen with Chef Gordon Ramsey!"

Fucj, I just talked myself in to wanting that to be real

James

Edited by J.H.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, piranesi said:

To me the most astounding thing about Sasha's time in WWE is that in all that time WWE didn't manage to script one decent, simple Sasha/Bayley feud.

I mean they had like six feuds but they were all so diluted with ridiculously long teases of a breakup, with "but they're best friends!" with "girls shouldn't fight, you guys are going to team no matter what," and with Bayley's half-assed attempt to go heel(ish).

All they had to do was have them hate each other from NXT and fight and fight and fight until some horrible monster came along to distract them after awhile with other stuff...and then a year later have them remember how much they hate each other and fight and fight and fight. And you would have a nice epic feud for a nice epic comp. tape.

 

I'm sympathetic with the 'Sasha and Bayley just needed a feud' argument, but I think its more complicated and I'm not confident their WWE feud would have been the one people dreamed of based on their NXT work. The thing is while in NXT you can have a great feud on ringwork alone, but a lot of the time in WWE you need mic chemistry as well as ring chemistry. If you look at the Becky/Charlotte feud from last year, one thing that really stands out is how few matches they had for how long they feuded. If you take  it from the original feud from Summerslam to Evolution, they only had four matches spaced across a two and a half month period. No random tag matches or such, they were instead able to do a variety of different segment types (from Becky on The Cutting Edge to promo duels to Charlotte and Becky addressing the Performance Center on the Evolution go-home) because both can be trusted on the mic and work well with each other.

Even with the way post-Survivor Series the feud ended up crossing over with Ronda and stretching to Wrestlemania across both shows, they only had four real matches with each other across that time prior to (TLC, a January SDL match with Carmella, Fastlane and Mania, plus the last few minutes of the Rumble). I don't think WWE could have worked something similar with Bayley/Sasha, and one of the most interesting questions when analysing the last four-to-five years of WWE is why Bayley/Sasha were the half of the 4HW that seemed to have all the momentum and buzz back in 2015 but Charlotte and Becky managed to improve dramatically on the main roster and go all the way to main-eventing Wrestlemania, because I think its multi-faceted and booking alone doesn't explain it. .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, username said:

The one thing I'm lost on is why some were talking up Sasha having a good match with Rousey as some big deal that shows she should be a top star. In ring Rousey has basically been a prodigy and almost all of her matches that have been given time have been rather good, Mania might have been her worst non-squash ppv match and that was a triple threat where she got hurt midway through.

Pretty sure only one person was saying that specifically, he just phrased it as if it was fact and as if others were in agreement. I thought the Sasha match was her worst major match and I can't stand triple threats. 

People are reluctant to give Ronda credit because of the whole "outsider taking a spot from 'real' wrestlers" thing, and also because they take issue with some dumb shit she's said over the years. No one actually believes any kind of narrative that has Sasha carrying Ronda to a good match. I don't really believe any narrative that involves one wrestler carrying another unless there is an injury. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, MORELOCK said:

I don't really believe any narrative that involves one wrestler carrying another unless there is an injury. 

Tom Magee vs Bret Hart. Tom Magee vs anyone else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You guys are freaking me out with all of the Wendy O Williams talk because I have been like "I thought she was dead?" all morning.

Please stop confusing me when I am trying to focus on IAVAs, dudes.

Edited by J.T.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, AxB said:

Tom Magee vs Bret Hart. Tom Magee vs anyone else.

I will reluctantly walk back what I said and agree but 1. You had to reach back 30 years, and 2. Can't name a second Tom Magee match, so that lends weight to my opinion that carry jobs don't seem to happen nearly as often as wrestling fans seem to think. For the most part it seems to be "[Smark favorite] carried [target of smark ire] because 1 is great and 2 sucks" type stuff, people bitching about Jinder Mahal or whoever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are you Lance Storm? Because you're basically using his rate matches not Wrestlers argument.

Or are you just a big fan of Jinder?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another, more recent example of one healthy wrestler carrying another healthy wrestler to a good match?

The Answer is John Cena and the opponent was Great Khali... shit even that match is 12 yeara old. Is there a miracle match within the last 5 years?
Anything in Japan or Mexico?

James
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okada trying to have a match with a retiring Tenryu, working basically the entire thing by the ropes so the latter could hold himself up. It's not remotely good, and Tenryu can't be described as anything close to healthy, but it is--at times literally--an absolute carry job.

I think the Nagata/Barnett dome show main event from 2004 would qualify as a good carry job; but man, that was 2004.

On the topic of this thread: I think Sasha is pretty good, even if her athleticism isn't always equal to her ambition. Generally, I appreciate creativity and character integration over cleanliness of work. But I think it's hard to argue she's been presented poorly or lower on the card than she ought--title defenses aside. (For instance: I don't think Alexa is very good at anything wrestling related, but I understand I'm somewhat in the minority there, and her popularity seems to justify her push.)

Anyway, if the worst thing Sasha ever does is act a little petty, I'm not sure why this comes up so often. Wrestling is full of outright awful people, and virtually everyone thinks too highly of their own abilities.

Back to digressing: I kinda enjoyed Jinder during both the dark match and house show at which I saw him. Not remotely world title level, of course, but he's effectively broad and stoogey, which comes across well in person.

Edited by Beech27
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, AxB said:

Are you Lance Storm? Because you're basically using his rate matches not Wrestlers argument.

Or are you just a big fan of Jinder?


Not at all - some wrestlers are clearly much better than others. It's just that the gulf between "good" and "bad" is exaggerated to ridiculous proportions, based on Meltzer's writing and his workrate star system, which is stupid. It leads to things like an entire summer of people losing their shit over Jinder Mahal getting a title reign as if he's the worst wrestler in the world when he just isn't. He's a decent-enough wrestler who had the misfortune of not being a smark favorite because he didn't work the right indies, do enough flips, or recklessly destroy his body for 15 people doing Strong Style. So no, not a fan, but he is absolutely far better than most people on this board seem to believe, and he wouldn't have made it to WWE if he wasn't. People can roll out the vaguely homophobic Vince gif, but he was there long before he had that body.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎4‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 9:02 AM, Yo-Yo's Roomie said:

I also haven't noticed her 'booboo' face, but enough people bring it up that I accept it's probably a thing.

I'm only halfway through this thread, but someone really should put together some sort of side-by-side video comparison.  Even if it's just cherry-picking the most obvious cases.  I'd like to see it.

  • Like 4
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, MORELOCK said:

Pretty sure only one person was saying that specifically, he just phrased it as if it was fact and as if others were in agreement.

Many others are in agreement you just like writing as if you are some kind of authority on pro wrestling history but it's entertaining enough...  I'll often make a coffee,  grab a scone and  hey let's see what MORELOCK is complaining about today... 

You can say it wasn't a great match, that's your opinion but I can go grab the quotes from the post-match Rumble show right now where many of the members here said it was a great match and the best match on the show.  I can grab quotes from PWO where many posters there said the same thing and yes many of them credited Sasha, the layout was unlike any other Ronda match. That's aside from the usual Meltzer and the like saying it was great and other podcasts like Zellner and Devon saying it was great also.  So yes,  others in agreement. 

Edited by Niners Fan in CT
  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...