DECEMBER 2020 WRESTLING TALK.

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

She has been SD champion, but the di

5 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

 I'm not sure about her ceiling but she's already been SD! champion so that wouldn't be a new accomplishment.

The Smackdown Woman's Title is now really obviously the Main Title; I think that's they key thing. Also she main-evented Smackdown, which I'm not sure ever happened before.

Asuka is essentially a transitional champion, despite a relatively long reign.

[LoneWolf&Subs]

Smackdown still does good numbers on Fox. So they have a chance to get something there. USA is the one to worry about. The main demo rating has slipped in such a way that I wouldn’t be surprised if it does NXT’s usual numbers eventually. It’s like the audience is treating RAW as an afterthought, like they do NXT. But it still pulls in USA’s best ratings, for now. So this might be what saves them.

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

NXT on Wednesdays hasn't exactly been helpful. I'm not a big fan of everything they do, but it's a lot better than RAW even in terms of Sports Entertainment e.g. The Way, McAfee. And it's NOT THREE FUCKING HOURS.

[Spontaneous]

I imagine the lack of fans will be blamed for it as well. Almost been an entire year without a live audience. If AEW continues to beat them in key demos WWE will probably just hot shot something to pop a rating.

[Ramo2653]

The only thing left to hot shot is another Charlotte title change, right? Does she come back and challenge Auska right away? Actually that's probably what they'll do.

[The Natural]

[Curt McGirt]

Watch something REAL stupid to happen like Michaels coming out of retirement and then we'll all be throwing things at our TVs

[Niners Fan in CT]

45 minutes ago, RunningFromAmerica said:

She has been SD champion, but the di

The Smackdown Woman's Title is now really obviously the Main Title; I think that's they key thing. Also she main-evented Smackdown, which I'm not sure ever happened before.

Asuka is essentially a transitional champion, despite a relatively long reign.

I haven't been watching much of RAW but from the rumor mill I am expecting 

Charlotte comes back soon,  they team up and then rekindle their feud? Asuka/Charlotte for Mania again?

On the Smackdown side it's tougher it could be another multi women match something like Bayley vs. Sasha vs. Carmella vs. Bianca

But what I'd really like is a straight up singles match between Bianca and Sasha. 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Niners Fan in CT

[BEN!]

On 12/13/2020 at 11:11 PM, twiztor said:

speaking of Kinnikuman, a couple years ago i found the first episode (and only the first ep) dubbed into English. now that i'm looking for it again, i'm striking out. anybody run across it recently?

https://www.thewatchcartoononline.tv/anime/muscleman-english-subbed

Fan-subs of the first 86 episodes.  I always wondered how Mattel would've edited it to get it to make sense to an American audience cause the main toy-line villain doesn't show up for quite a while.  Also, cause it's weird as shit and maybe not all that appropriate for children in the 80s.

The sequel series Ultimate Muscle was officially dubbed into English.  The voice work and dialogue is awful though.

[Niners Fan in CT]

5 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Watch something REAL stupid to happen like Michaels Hunter coming out of retirement and then we'll all be throwing things at our TVs

Fixed that for ya. 

[Sublime]

Why not both and have a DX dominate the show again, it'll be even more funny as 50 year olds pal.

[The Green Meanie]

15 minutes ago, BEN! said:

https://www.thewatchcartoononline.tv/anime/muscleman-english-subbed

I was real excited upon seeing this link, but they don't allow AdBlock users, so no thanks.

[AxB]

Anyone good enough at Photoshop to make a version of the No Country for Old Men poster, only it says Some Wrestling for Old Men and has RAW wrestlers instead of the movie cast?

[Spontaneous]

I got it, I got it. HHH NXT champion. DX can feud with Undisputed Era for months with Undisputed Era losing every match. They pin a random third team in a triple threat match to finally defeat D-X.

[Curt McGirt]

This of course all takes place on Raw, not NXT. And Adam Cole moves to the main roster to feud with Randy Orton after DX.

[Ziggy]

Just go home from work and I saw on Twitter that Raw had its lowest ratings Monday and people were celebrating and people speak Doom and gloom upon the company. Obviously it isn't a good thing for them to be drawing such low viewers but they are still having record revenue in their history its not like in the mid 90s when they were at risk of going out of business. They do finally have a legitimate competitor in the market in AEW but its not like they have been a direct cause of the TV ratings decline of the 2 flagship shows. I don't like to see that the ratings declined so low but the company does themselves no favors. The business itself is at a downtime  right now anyway plus the pandemic doesn't help. Honestly though I havent sensed any urgency my Vince and company to really turn things around anyway for years. Its like all they do is either shuffle their roster or make a rule for guys to work both shows. Say what you will about NXT and their ratings but atleast you get the sense that they are actually trying, actually making an effort to have something appealing to their audience 

[matt925]

5 minutes ago, Ziggy said:

Just go home from work and I saw on Twitter that Raw had its lowest ratings Monday and people were celebrating and people speak Doom and gloom upon the company. Obviously it isn't a good thing for them to be drawing such low viewers but they are still having record revenue in their history its not like in the mid 90s when they were at risk of going out of business. They do finally have a legitimate competitor in the market in AEW but its not like they have been a direct cause of the TV ratings decline of the 2 flagship shows. I don't like to see that the ratings declined so low but the company does themselves no favors. The business itself is at a downtime  right now anyway plus the pandemic doesn't help. Honestly though I havent sensed any urgency my Vince and company to really turn things around anyway for years. Its like all they do is either shuffle their roster or make a rule for guys to work both shows. Say what you will about NXT and their ratings but atleast you get the sense that they are actually trying, actually making an effort to have something appealing to their audience 

I don’t think any real wrestling fans are truly celebrating, it’s more of the same type of trolls that shit on everything aew does. I just don’t see Vince ever making a change. Remember like 2-3 years ago Stephanie and Vince did a promo straight up saying creative would change? And that was a theme in a number of straight quarterly calls, we are overhauling creative. Honestly Vince won’t change direction until it was officially too late (not that it would get that far, and what a disaster for the industry that would be). 

[The Natural]

 

[Phantom Lord]

I'm certainly not celebrating RAW's continued free fall in the ratings. We know it's not the fault of the talent. They can only do and work with what they are given. I can't blame the writers because as we know Vince has a habit of taking the show and making them redo it on a literal hours notice. So for all we know they have been coming up with good stuff, but since it's not what Vince wants (and no one has the guts to tell him he's wrong) we are stuck with what we have now.

There really has to be some sort of corporate bylaw somewhere in the WWE that would allow for Vince to be forced to retire or something. At this rate he's gonna be around another 20 years like Sumner Redstone.

[Ziggy]

27 minutes ago, matt925 said:

I don’t think any real wrestling fans are truly celebrating, it’s more of the same type of trolls that shit on everything aew does. I just don’t see Vince ever making a change. Remember like 2-3 years ago Stephanie and Vince did a promo straight up saying creative would change? And that was a theme in a number of straight quarterly calls, we are overhauling creative. Honestly Vince won’t change direction until it was officially too late (not that it would get that far, and what a disaster for the industry that would be). 

Smackdown was been really good overall lately. I hope they don't do something to where the change the roster. Raw has a ton of great talent but Vince doesn't want to them

[Custos]

31 minutes ago, matt925 said:

I don’t think any real wrestling fans are truly celebrating, it’s more of the same type of trolls that shit on everything aew does. I just don’t see Vince ever making a change. Remember like 2-3 years ago Stephanie and Vince did a promo straight up saying creative would change? And that was a theme in a number of straight quarterly calls, we are overhauling creative. Honestly Vince won’t change direction until it was officially too late (not that it would get that far, and what a disaster for the industry that would be). 

Yeah that was Vince’s carny arrogance on full display, selling the perception of change to investors who don’t know better, papering over it. Just like Heyman and Bischoff coming in. And Raw Underground. And Retribution. And the Thunderdome. And the global NXT expansion. And ‘you are The Authority’. And the draft. And Tyson Fury/Cain Velasquez. And the NXT fresh meat into the Raw grinder. I love some of the WWE talent and the occasional show. I cannot stand its leadership, strategy, and what has been evidenced of its culture.

I think the fervour around the historic low numbers is also those living in naive optimism of a mythical ‘tipping point’ that lights a fire under Vince, ignite innovation etc but to your point it’ll never happen or happen way too late

[matt925]

13 minutes ago, Ziggy said:

Smackdown was been really good overall lately. I hope they don't do something to where the change the roster. Raw has a ton of great talent but Vince doesn't want to them

So much talent. I’m sure it’s not easy from watching certain mishaps aew has made, but it can’t be that hard with the talent man. The fans clearly want to like it. 

[Shartnado]

5 hours ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

Not good for the current RAW roster who we’ll get the share of the blame.

And by "share of" do you mean "every last shred of"?

[Burgundy LaRue]

44 minutes ago, Ziggy said:

Smackdown was been really good overall lately. I hope they don't do something to where the change the roster. Raw has a ton of great talent but Vince doesn't want to them

I was about to say--Smackdown is a good show. Even an off-night is usually a B- episode. Not everything works, but there's a flow to what's happening. 

RAW isn't inherently bad, IMO. But it lacks direction in a major way. Take Orton vs The Fiend. Orton is committing arson, again. We should be screaming for him to lose their upcoming match. But while he may be see as such internally, what about The Fiend makes him a face? He's got Alexa in a Stockholm Syndrome mind warp. He doesn't help any of the other faces. He's a sociopath using a children's show motif to cover up his abusive side. I don't hate The Fiend, mind you. But he doesn't make sense as a good guy.

Then we have Drew McIntyre, supposed warrior babyface who stands for all that's good. But his best friend Sheamus gets throttled with a chair by AJ Styles with McIntyre nowhere to be seen. So if he turns against Drew, what makes Sheamus the bad guy in that scenario? Or if they have Keith Lee turn--I wouldn't feel bad for Drew, because he kept interrupting Keith's matches with Orton with Keith losing in DQs not of his own fault.

The woman's tag story has had better build on RAW Talk and social media than on TV. Shayna and Nia criticize Lana for thinking that her finally putting in work to be better should be applauded, when everyone else in the women's division has been doing for years. (Put aside whatever you think of Nia; in context, it works.) Meanwhile, Lana cuts an awesome babyface promo where she admits she's not as good as her opponents, but she's put in the training and has to see what she can really do. She comes across 100% as a genuine, self-aware heroine with Nia/Shayna as jerks in how they bully Lana instead of letting her succeed or fail on her own. None of this has been on RAW. We get the women's tag champs being frothing madwomen for seemingly no reason with Lana as a clueless dope.

I'm getting wordy with all this. But RAW would be fine if they'd followed logical points. Whether it's predictable isn't that big of a deal for me. As long as it makes sense with wrestlers acting accordingly to their current story arc.

[Niners Fan in CT]

I'd start paying more attention to RAW if they gave The Hurt Business legitimate feuds and let them go on a run.  They do too much 50/50 bullshit and reading these results it sounds like that's still the case.  Also, why is Retribution still a thing?  They are a straight up lower card heel stable? That's not gonna work.