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SDL is Antifa - 8/7/2020


Dolfan in NYC

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Retribution is so STUPID

I actually kind of liked it, maybe because i saw it live without Twitter or DVDVR prejudicing me against it?! It's basically an NWO/Nexus tribute act, but I'll take it over the stale-ass booking we've had the last few months.  I like the anti-WWE spraypaint logo.  The most amazing, most fun way to take this angle is have it be a disgruntled group of younger wrestlers who are rebelling against WWE.  I think with a lot of the anti-Vince/anti-WWE sentiment, it would be an ideal time to put Vince and the office as the enemies again.  A group of wrestlers who have been maligned or de-pushed (Ricochet, Cedric, Aleister, Vikings, Shayna, Naomi,) because of Vince's capricious ways rising up to change the way WWE is run could be really compelling TV.  The problem with this is how to run it with them being right and without WWE being the heels. 

What I would do -which, granted, no one cares about -is (fantasy booking alert)

I'd run an angle with ECW being restarted and run it on Youtube or some such, not the Network and have these guys rebelling against the WWE machine.  I'd put a WWE logo up on there and whoever your mouthpiece is say "The first thing we do is get rid of that" and throughout the shows the WWE logo stays up with a red-slash through it.  You could run it ECW-style with swearing and the like, but call it ECW 2.0 and say some internet-pandering shit like "in 2020, Extreme isn't about tables, strippers and chairs, it's about WRESTLING" and push it as the anti-WWE (long matches, superstars pushed off of skill rather than look, no R-Truth etc.).  Give it a couple months, see what the viewership is like and if it's good, continue on (You could even do run-ins where Retribution tries to convert wrestlers like Cesaro or Nakamura or AJ Styles of of SD and RAW to also plug your other show). I think it would be a merchandise cash-cow, simple ECW 2.0 shirts, and shirts with the Anti-WWE logo would probably sell like crazy. And if it's a little weak, book some real Vince folks (Charlotte, Sheamus etc.) as a group that WWE puts together to take down the new ECW and have them on their to see if it drives up the viewers. If it's just basically Velocity 2.0, you can it after a few months.  No loss.  If it works, you can use it to reprogram wrestlers, try out new gimmicks, freshen up guys with new feuds.

The problem is I can't foresee any way that this angle takes place without Retribution being the heels.  Like when WCW ran the New Bloods vs Millionaire's Club, the bulk of the audience was much more into the old guys than the new guys, so they pushed New Blood as heels with their "old guys are holding us down" mantra came across as false and it meant that the young guys you were trying to get pushed, end up looking like whiners and not real stars.  And I can't imagine Vince and WWE selling themselves as the bad guys in this dispute, so instead it becomes an angle of a group of young guys whining because they aren't getting enough attention, and you'll need the old WWE guys to put down the uprising.

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On 8/8/2020 at 2:36 PM, Craig H said:

That Nexus debut was still one of the wildest things I think I've ever seen in WWE. Just that shot of the one dude with the MMA background standing at ringside with the mask on before they all attacked is haunting as hell.

And WWE and John Cena killed them dead within weeks. It makes me wonder what would have happened if Cena listened to Edge and, I forget the other person, and just put Barrett over. Cena instantly regretted not doing so and even he knew it killed the whole thing. Then again, it's still up to Vince for what would happen next.

Although, if Cena did put Barrett over and the Nexus was kept strong, we likely never get Punk leading the Nexus, or the pipebomb promo, or MitB 2011, or the 2 week long Summer of Punk. It's always fun to look back and see what one little change would do.

Didn't Edge and Jericho just say that the finish to the match was stupid(Cena got DDT'd on concrete and then kicked out of Justin Gabriel's 450, IIRC)? I don't recall either of them saying he should've put them over at SummerSlam.

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3 hours ago, APO said:

Didn't Edge and Jericho just say that the finish to the match was stupid(Cena got DDT'd on concrete and then kicked out of Justin Gabriel's 450, IIRC)? I don't recall either of them saying he should've put them over at SummerSlam.

They may not have, but Cena has since said that he regretted the end result and in retrospect it should have been different.

Edited by The Green Meanie
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Everything in wrestling is just so weird to watch right now. The Retribution stuff is goofy but wrestling is always goofy.

I never bought into the "Cena did not put The Nexus over." Team WWE won the first battle. The end of that match was stupid. But Team WWE winning was perfectly fine. That match itself was also really good except for the ending. Daniel Bryan made his big return after he was let go for those few weeks and made a huge splash. They made the future Ryback look like a total beast. Jericho and Edge were great conniving, selfish bastards. I think with a better ending, it would have been a MOTY since it had so many great interwoven stories. And Team WWE should have won since The Nexus were all rookie goobers.

But the second part of the angle after that match -- John Cena was literally Wade Barrett's slave. No other babyface character in WWE history would go to those lengths to put over an angle. Wade tossed water in his face. Cena complied when Wade ordered him to leave a battle royale. ETC. All sorts of other people would say "I"m not doing that, it's going to kill my heat forever." John went fully into it. 

Obviously John wasn't going to be fired from the WWE. But he really did a lot of work to keep that story arc going. 

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14 hours ago, The Green Meanie said:

They may not have, but Cena has since said that he regretted the end result and in retrospect it should have been different.

Whether they should've gone over or not is irrelevant to what I was talking about. 

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Pretty sure all of Retribution are women. This is like Vince just saw Spring Breakers cause Prichard mentioned Double J was in a movie.

"This is great, pal.  Put some girls in masks and let them wreck shit."

"People will think it's a political thing like Antifa."

"Auntie who?"

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7 hours ago, BEN! said:

Pretty sure all of Retribution are women. This is like Vince just saw Spring Breakers cause Prichard mentioned Double J was in a movie.

"This is great, pal.  Put some girls in masks and let them wreck shit."

"People will think it's a political thing like Antifa."

"Auntie who?"

That seems much more likely than Vince doing an Antifa angle.  

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