MAY 2019 WRESTLING TALK

[OSJ]

They could have 48 hrs of programming a week and would still manage to screw it up by too much McMahon family screen time, pushing the likes of Baron Corbin, turning top-tier NXT talent into JAG (Just Another Guy/Gal), pushing the marginally talented to the moon and in short serving up the same steaming platter of shit that they have been for the last twenty years. 

As long as VKM and Kevin Dunn are running things, I despair of any real change. They have the deepest roster in terms of sheer talent in the history of wrestling and absolutely no clue what to do with it. Firing all the writers and actually focussing on wrestling might be a novel idea.

[John from Cincinnati]

6 minutes ago, Eivion said:

That is the funny thing. They actually aren't dedicating a huge amount of time to Reigns (at least for now), Lacey, or Lars. All three get about the right amount of time. 

Yeah, but the narrative. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

3 minutes ago, Eivion said:

That is the funny thing. They actually aren't dedicating a huge amount of time to Reigns (at least for now), Lacey, or Lars. All three get about the right amount of time. On the flip-side you have a guy like Corbin who is easily getting a sixth of Raw semi-regularly. Or it at least feels that way. I like Corbin, but that shit needs to stop. 

But there are only so many segments per week.  Lacey Evans is getting a segment a week for her promos/altercations.   Lars Sullivan is getting a segment a week to come out and attack people.  Roman Reigns is still getting a segment and a commercial break leading into the end of his segment/match per week to go along with the whole "fresh new" authority figure, Shane.  

In order to get more tag matches or make room for another women's segment or make room for a couple more of the midcard guys to get on TV,  you would have to cut down on that other stuff that really nobody seems to care for. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

2 minutes ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

Yeah, but the narrative. 

RAW did under 2 million viewers last week.  I don't need to skew anything,  the numbers speak for themselves.  Nobody cares. 

[OSJ]

They completely dropped the ball on Lars, eliminating the one thing that made him interesting in NXT. Out of the ring, you had a bright, soft-spoken individual who seemed a perfect gentleman until he got in the ring whereupon he became a snarling monster. Soon as the match was over, he reverted to polite, well-spoken, intelligent Lars. Made for an interesting character that was at least different than Monster Hell V. ad nauseum. Of course, leave it to WWE writers to be completely at sea when asked to do nuanced characters.

[OSJ]

3 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

RAW did under 2 million viewers last week.  I don't need to skew anything,  the numbers speak for themselves.  Nobody cares. 

Well, they are beating Ace of Cakes in the ratings, so I suppose that's something...

[John from Cincinnati]

2 minutes ago, OSJ said:

 Out of the ring, you had a bright, soft-spoken individual who seemed a perfect gentleman until he got in the ring whereupon he became a snarling monster. Soon as the match was over, he reverted to polite, well-spoken, intelligent Lars.

What ever happened to taking a guy's real personality and dialing it up to 11? 

[OSJ]

Just now, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

What ever happened to taking a guy's real personality and dialing it up to 11? 

Who's to say that wasn't his real personality?

[Eivion]

2 minutes ago, OSJ said:

They completely dropped the ball on Lars, eliminating the one thing that made him interesting in NXT. Out of the ring, you had a bright, soft-spoken individual who seemed a perfect gentleman until he got in the ring whereupon he became a snarling monster. Soon as the match was over, he reverted to polite, well-spoken, intelligent Lars. Made for an interesting character that was at least different than Monster Hell V. ad nauseum. Of course, leave it to WWE writers to be completely at sea when asked to do nuanced characters.

Huh? Lars was well spoken, but he certainly wasn't polite or a gentleman outside of his initial bsing with Regal about his tag partners. He wasn't some super nuanced character. He was just ripping through people on his way to the top. They just haven't given him mic yet.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

2 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

What exactly came out of the 'reboot' they did?  

- Ryder and Hawkins won the tag titles 

- Mustafa Ali was pushed,  injured and then positioned in the midcard 

- NXT talents were brought up,  some were pushed like Lacey Evans and Lars Sullivan,  others did nothing. 

- Black and Ricochet were brought up.  They tagged for a while and won some matches.  Then split,  then Ricochet jobbed to 'Ravishing' Robert Roode

- They listened to the fans "new stars,  fresh match ups" in the way of Kofi and Becky but then put Becky in a feud with Lacey and yet another feud with Charlotte. 

- McMahons all over TV.  Vince as a heel authority figure again.  Shane as a heel authority figure appearing on both shows.

 

[Eivion]

14 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

But there are only so many segments per week.  Lacey Evans is getting a segment a week for her promos/altercations.   Lars Sullivan is getting a segment a week to come out and attack people.  Roman Reigns is still getting a segment and a commercial break leading into the end of his segment/match per week to go along with the whole "fresh new" authority figure, Shane.  

In order to get more tag matches or make room for another women's segment or make room for a couple more of the midcard guys to get on TV,  you would have to cut down on that other stuff that really nobody seems to care for. 

And none of the stuff you mentioned are necessarily things people don't care for. Lacey and Lars are new projects who are getting exactly the type of time and pushes they should. Its more a case of WWE needing to give less time to people we already know like Corbin who gets double/triple time instead of just the one segment and/or match (neither of which need to be long).

Edited May 6, 2019 by Eivion

[OSJ]

1 minute ago, Eivion said:

Huh? Lars was well spoken, but he certainly wasn't polite or a gentleman outside of his initial bsing with Regal about his tag partners. He wasn't some super nuanced character. He was just ripping through people on his way to the top. They just haven't given him mic yet.

Beg to differ. Whenever he was being interviewed, he was polite as all get out to the interviewer, even excusing himself to rush the ring and thump on No Way Jose, (which you must admit is actually rather commendable, No Way Jose should be thumped upon early and often). 

[John from Cincinnati]

The notion that the screen time being given to Roman or Lacey or Lars is part of the ratings problem could not be farther from the mark. The problem goes so much deeper than what talents are being featured. They need to blow up the stale, sterile format their shows have followed for years and find a difference maker or two in terms of star power. The show could be all Seth and Becky and AJ Styles and whoever we're pretending isn't a "pet project" this week, and the ratings would still be in the toilet with this stale format. They could change things up and do more tag matches or whatever, and the ratings would still be in the toilet. The damage is so systemic and baked into the brand at this point. 

But Roman and Lacey and Lars being featured is the problem. 

[Phantom Lord]

18 minutes ago, OSJ said:

As long as VKM and Kevin Dunn are running things, I despair of any real change. They have the deepest roster in terms of sheer talent in the history of wrestling and absolutely no clue what to do with it. Firing all the writers and actually focussing on wrestling might be a novel idea.

Vince and his yes men are the problem and always will be. I feel for the writers because they could come up with an angle that will be something on par with stuff from Breaking Bad. But Vince will look at it and tear up the script and tell them to come up with something before showtime later in the night. And thus there is the problem.

[John from Cincinnati]

6 minutes ago, OSJ said:

Who's to say that wasn't his real personality?

You caught me. I'm making some assumptions about the personality of someone who makes casually racist troll posts on the Bodybuilding.com forums.  

[Eivion]

1 minute ago, OSJ said:

Beg to differ. Whenever he was being interviewed, he was polite as all get out to the interviewer, even excusing himself to rush the ring and thump on No Way Jose, (which you must admit is actually rather commendable, No Way Jose should be thumped upon early and often). 

That was nice. Still nothing super nuanced that made him really stand out. Lars has always been a semi-typical monster. its just that he is a decent talker.

[OSJ]

1 minute ago, Phantom Lord said:

Vince and his yes men are the problem and always will be. I feel for the writers because they could come up with an angle that will be something on par with stuff from Breaking Bad. But Vince will look at it and tear up the script and tell them to come up with something before showtime later in the night. And thus there is the problem.

"Hey pal, I hear this meth stuff will make you shit your pants! Have Walter White, Jesse and Tuco all shit their britches while driving around! It's gold, I tell ya! HAHAHAHA!"

[OSJ]

2 minutes ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

You caught me. I'm making some assumptions about the personality of someone who makes casually racist troll posts on the Bodybuilding.com forums.  

Didn't know about that. Tell me more.

[John from Cincinnati]

3 minutes ago, OSJ said:

Didn't know about that. Tell me more.

I'll see if I can get you some screenshots. Give me a few minutes. 

31 minutes ago, nofuture said:

So Fightful.com is reporting that Raw's lead writer  Ryan Callahan has been fired.

Nothing to do with ratings, or so says the story.

Also, is SRS always this shitty a writer? Holy fuck. The first sentence in his "exclusive" about a dude getting canned is to make a crack about the Superstar Shakeup? No wonder people think wrestling fans have fuck all between their ears. 

Just hot garbage. Wrestling "journalism" at its finest. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

15 minutes ago, Eivion said:

And none of the stuff you mentioned are necessarily things people don't care for. Lacey and Lars are new projects who are getting exactly the type of time and pushes they should. Its more a case of WWE needing to give less time to people we already know like Corbin who gets double/triple time instead of just the one segment and/or match (neither of which need to be long).

All I'm seeing is silence from the live audiences.  I've seen loud reactions for Black and Ricochet,  I haven't seen anything but "Ugh.." anytime Lars Sullivan appears. 

[Dolfan in NYC]

I hate that Randall K. Orton is good at Twitter.  

 

 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

Very weird and very specific, but I read Orton's tweet in the voice of Joe Namath pitching that Medicare Helpline for some reason.

 

[John from Cincinnati]

24 minutes ago, OSJ said:

Didn't know about that. Tell me more.

Someone found a couple old accounts, including this pic to identify him:

 

Lots of overly racist stuff too.

Spoilered for size. 

Spoiler

Other departures from what we would consider acceptable behaviour in polite society include bragging about banging Ronda Rousey years ago (make of that what you will), and referring to something with Stephanie McMahon as "fap vid." Also some casual homophobia. 

Edited May 6, 2019 by West Newbury Bad Boy

[OSJ]

13 minutes ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

Someone found a couple old accounts, including this pic to identify him:

 

Lots of overly racist stuff too.

Spoilered for size. 

  Hide contents

Other departures from what we would consider acceptable behaviour in polite society include bragging about banging Ronda Rousey years ago (make of that what you will), and referring to something with Stephanie McMahon as "fap vid." Also some casual homophobia. 

Disgusting. Fucking meathead should never be allowed near a keyboard. How is it he still has a job with a publicly-traded company? You can't be saying shit like that without well-deserved repercussions. 

[John from Cincinnati]

2 minutes ago, OSJ said:

Disgusting. Fucking meathead should never be allowed near a keyboard. How is it he still has a job with a publicly-traded company? You can't be saying shit like that without well-deserved repercussions. 

This broke in November of last year, shortly after they started airing vignettes for his main roster debut. IIRC, they didn't stop airing them after this blew up. So it seems they didn't care enough to do anything about it and nobody with any clout took them to task over it.

Gross situation all around.