Greggulator
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Posts posted by Greggulator
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Man, what a great Raw. Punk and Rollins are far from my guys but I loved that cage match. The beginning of that match was golden with those guys just laying in punches and hard chops. Ir really felt like primal hatred at the start of the match before it built into WWE main event-style with two HOF-level guys just throwing big bombs back and forth. The end was great production. The crowd pop showed someone was coming (and we knew who it would be) but then Roman dragging Seth out to pummel him was gold. Great reference at the end with Roman smugly laughing as he saw Heyman rush to the aid of Punk while we got reminded about the favor. Great way to kick off that feud.
Iyo might have stolen the entire show tonight. Rhea and Bianca would outshine 98% of the entire roster (both genders) and Iyo responding from their palm faces with slaps got the Garden crowd fully on her side.Actually, I lied. Chad Gable stole the show tonight.
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3 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:
The more I think about this, the less sympathetic I am. Rhea's whole personality is being a brash trash talker who can back it up in the ring. She took her eye off the ball... why? Because she was looking ahead. That's no one's fault but hers. Would having someone by your side stop you from getting into a shoving match with the next person in line when the VERY dangerous current challenger is in the ring? Not a bit.
She chose to go it alone. She chose to overlook her current enemy. She chose to trash talk and not concentrate on finishing the work at hand ...And it bit her in the ass.
That's the problem with arrogant babyfaces. When they get beat, they go looking for sympathy. Why should they get it? She's not a scared vulnerable girl putting up a facade, she's Rhea BLOODY Ripley. This whole promo seems out of character.
This is why I loved the promo. You absolutely can see it that way.
I don’t remember a promo where an uber confident babyface like Rhea reacted to losing clean. Usually that doesn’t happen since a heel is a heel. In kayfabe, it must suck to lose against a heel but if you’re losing to the numbers game or having someone turn on you, what can you do? And if you were the villain at some point doing the same thing to people, I think you just have to accept what happens and find a way to overcome the odds.
But this was the rare babyface losing to a babyface match without any interference. How do you handle that? Rhea’s response to that might not play to her brashness… but I like that she’s not just shrugging it off. She’s shook and has to find her footing and she has to do so while dealing with being isolated and alone without her ride-or-die who is now on Smackdown while also having to see her ex and Liv running around together.
I really love Rhea’s performance with this. It’s kind of Bloodline stuff where she actually has a little bit of depth and subtlety— I love her nervously biting her finger at the end. I mean, it’s not Oscar worthy or not, but it absolutely looks like she’s worked a lot on the acting side of wrestling.
I also like that Bianca is going through something similar. She’s also a badass confident shit talker. She won EC but had to see her two best friends go at it in front of her first while she couldn’t do anything about it.
Meanwhile, Iyo has Dakota and while her crew is injured, there was no division.
This is going to be a really interesting three way feud. Really interesting set up.
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1 hour ago, Iron Moose said:
At risk of reading too deeply into the text, Iyo breaking out the Damage Control signatures is a great way to remind us that she has friends and Rhea's on her own now. The closest parallels I can imagine for Rhea now would be something from Priest, and then beyond that she'd have to dip into Liv-Dom-Raquel or Becky-Charlotte territory.
Actually, it looks like they’re going that route with the story. Rhea kills it in this — really does a great job showing her vulnerability. We’re lucky to have her in wrestling because she has some chops.
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I think everyone who stayed in WWE when they could have left for AEW is in really great shape. Drew may not be headlining WM, but he’s headlined a bunch of other stuff this year. Damian Priest won the World Title at WM last year in a cash-in. Jey Uso and Gunther might be closing out Night One.
Sami and KO both potentially could have left AEW back when AEW was scorching hot. They stayed obviously and had huge roles in The Bloodline saga, were involved in arguably the greatest angle and storyline ever, with Sami headlining a PPV in his hometown and the two of them winning Night One of WM against The Usos.
I think everyone else on the WWE roster knows that there are going be be people who show up and take a big spot. But I don’t think anyone at all cares if it’s Cena. They know there’s a shelf life.
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I was watching with some friends last night. My wife hates wrestling but she watched it with us for a while.
1) She LOVES Big E. Really wants Big E. to get his own travel show. He really is a natural for something like Main Event Meals.That was pretty much the only thing she liked. The rest of it wasn't for her and she looked at whatever on her phone.
That closing out segment was incredible. It's so awesome and crazy to me that after all these years, they'll always wind twists and turns that I never saw coming. Cena's devilish look to The Rock while Rock told him to execute him was an all-time great moment. I also love the internal logic you can see behind all of this. The Rock's been scheming this whole time to get back at Cody despite them having some kind of loose friendship (that started when Rock gave Cody some kind of trinket last year.) He did the whole "I want your soul" thing knowing it sounded ridiculous and Cody was going to think it through before turning him down. He hedged his bet that Cena was going to win the EC and got in Cena's ear a while ago about getting that no good Cody Rhodes. And, if Cena didn't win, Rock might have had a Plan B or they'd get him another week on Raw.
An all-time great angle. Surprised we didn't get a garbage tossing firestorm like when Hogan turned. I was all for a Cena Goodbye Tour with just a bunch of feel-good stuff. I really was hoping he'd turn heel at the final moment just so we could see this. I wasn't expecting him to go heel right away, but man I'm here for it.-
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15 minutes ago, Gorman said:
I know the implication is that Naomi was the one who attacked Jade, but it is possible that Jade was just mad about Naomi replacing her as Bianca's championship partner, and someone else attacked Jade?
That's what I'm hoping for. Liv sold it when Jade came back like she was about to face impending death. I think it's a lot more interesting if Jade's coming in that way rather than it was this plot by Naomi all along. Also, Bianca did a hell of a job on the post-show stuff last night selling the mixture of emotions she was having after winning the match but then seeing Jade/Naomi at the start.
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KO/Sami is my favorite garbage match of all-time. Pure hatred and intention and chaos and an absolute psychodrama. The ending with Owens going back to the apron powerbomb to take Sami out like he did when he first broke Sami’s heart back in NXT was an epic callback. Not a wasted moment. Sami is the best at selling — loved his arm twitch thing to show a possible stinger. KO is the best at using his eyes (his only competition is Eddie) to show the type of person he is and has become. Dear god did I love that match.
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The Sami sit down promo was so friggin’ good. Really great job in explaining why this time’s different and (most importantly) making it sound so dangerous that I have to go out of my way to watch.
God damn that main event was something special. I like how different it was from a lot of the usual tag formula — the champs jumping the heels at the start, Dom not being at ringside but sneaking down at the right moment, insane double teams and impeccably timed kick-outs. That end was also a chef’s kiss in heel chespshot victories.
Everyone played their role so well. Liv since her heel turn has turned into such a great little shit stirrer always looking for shortcuts.
But man Naomi has just put things together the past year or so. Naomi has been around so long that she was in the Funkadactyls and was out there for AJ Lee’s Pipe Bomb. She didn’t come through NXT or any kind of development system worth anything. She’s always been a freak athlete but I always thought she needed her hand held for someone to get her from move to move — stuff that you actually learn by being treated like an actual wrestler and not to be the eye candy for a future Fox News grifter. But Naomi pretty clearly has always wanted to be good at wrestling and has worked really hard to the point where she was the babyface in the ring during the final section of one of the best tag matches in a really long time. Damn that match ruled.
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I being reported that the inquiry into Vince is being dropped. Helps when your wife is a lackey to the president.
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Ricky absolutely eviscerated MJF on the mic that time they had a feud. Not a lot of people can say that. Imagine if he had the Adam Cole mastermind spot. His line last night about the pretty face and expensive fragrance was pretty killer. I love Ricky and he’s got a ton of upside.
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If this is somehow KO’s swan song (is this going around somewhere?) then where does he rank as best ever in the WWE? I think he’s the Phil Hartman of the WWE. He’s probably the best utility player of the century. He can get anything over. He’s a great face and a great heel. He can main event any PPV or have an entertaining goofball angle to chew up the midcard. He can be in singles and tags. He’s one of the best promos. Wrestling is going to miss KO when he hangs it up.
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Sami/Punk was incredible. What a TV main event from two of the best to ever do it. I was absolutely rooting for Sami. There were so many great moments in this that really showed why they are both so good. I prefer Sami’s subtleties to build sympathy like his “knocked out falling forward” sell in the corner over Punk’s preening to the WrestleMania sign and trash talk, but Punk being bombastic works. The KO run-in at the end shocked me. It felt likely they were going to do something for WM but wasn’t expecting the build to start so soon. KO/Sami having a WM match is going to be one of those matches that you know is going to steal the show and somehow surpass what you thought it could be. Wondering if we’ll get a HITC or something.
Iyo/Liv was also excellent. Babyface Iyo is so much fun and she knows how to keep the crowd into stuff in a very 1980s way. Liv has become elite at being a conniving piece of shit heel and being in the right place for whoever she’s in the ring against.
Jey was absolutely the right choice to win the Rumble. He’s as hot as any wrestler has been since Danielson. He’s really does deserve it because he got over so much by being a great character actor and connecting in that fashion. Who cares if he hasn’t had a five star singles match? The crowd loves him.
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Jey Uso was enslaved and beat into becoming Roman’s flunky. That is almost always a career ender. But he’s so talented and found a way to connect so organically that he’s going to get a title match at WM and is the most over guy on the roster right now and has been for 18 months probably. What a story.
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The Rumble is always the most fun night of the year. Both were so well paced. The woman’s Rumble had so many good moments and little pushes of people like Lash Legend or Stephanie Caquer or Chelsea being the best or Roxanna going on such a huge run. I’m the biggest Charlotte mark here. If you’re not pushing the athletic freak daughter of the most beloved wrestler and GOAT to try and surpass her father then you’re doing wrestling wrong. Charlotte has had so many awesome matches, too. Either one of her matches against Rhea or Tiffany are going to rule.
I loved the tag match and wish it was in front of a hot Smackdown crowd in like Greensboro. The end to the first fall was fantastic. I loved that it was a duplicitous set play. Fun match.
That ladder match was fucked up in a great way. Kevin Owens is the Phil Hartmann of the WWE. He does everything. The final bump was utterly insane.
That was a great men’s Rumble. It was paced so well. I love the beginning was a lot of awesome workers to put on a show like the scorching hot Penta and Rey and Carmelo and etc. The middle had some awesome moments like Joe Hendry and Bron messing dudes up and everything to do with Jacob Fatu. I loved the ending segment where it was all Hall of Fame guys (I was debating who the least was — Finn or AJ Styles) and popped when Dm came out and got to frog splash Cena.
Have they ever had a surprise winner like this? Jey Uso has been arguably the most over guy on the roster since he turned on Roman. All-time hot entrance. Good for him to break out like this. It’s a testament to the genius of Roman Reigns and The Bloodline saga to get Jey to this point.
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22 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:
This is in my neighborhood, which is pretty far from Center City. Hilarious that this happened at The Bayou. It’s a crappy frat kid bar with a notoriously bad brunch. A+ location scouting.
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Absolutely wishing the Eagles trolled Washington into another leaping offsides penalty for the ref to give the Birds a touchdown by discretion. It would have easily been a Top 5 all-time sports moment for me and the gates of hell that is Philly would have opened.
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Nia Jax is so friggin’ good. She’s such a great bully and has become so good at little things to get heat (side eye glances to the crowd, etc.) and does a really great job of looking surprised and overwhelmed when her opponent is fighting back. She and Bayley have had great work together even going all the way back to NXT.
KO being a manipulative bastard playing on Sami’s good side was perfect. I loved Sami saying “How do you want to do this?” in terms of then about to throw fists. But instead KO figured out exactly how to pull on Sami’s strings. I’m always down for Sami and KO to do battle or work together.
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KO and Sami are second-tier Mt. Rushmore guys. Legendary, HOF talent at that level behind Cena/Austin/Rock/Bret/etc. KO is the Phil Hartman of WWE. He’s the best utility guy. He can do any role at any spot on the show and it’s going to be great. As said before — Sami post-Bloodline has become probably the best sympathetic babyface since Ricky Morton. That’s not an exaggeration. (It also shows to go how great The Bloodline stuff has been.)
Drew since the Punk feud has been amazing, and I never dug him too much before that. He found his voice. Rhea is also so high on the list. Same with Chelsea Green, Jacob Fatu (duh), Liv and Shinsuke in his current form.
Kofi and X are getting Southern heel heat. They had so many little things in that segment I loved — Kofi’s mom in the middle seat, X saying “we have you people the 10 best years of your lives.” They’re going to get trash thrown at them if and when they beat the War Raiders.
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Loved last night’s show. Bron/Kaiser was really smart work. It leaned into what both are super at. Kaiser is so good at knowing how to play his shtick to the back of the arena — leans into being a total douche. Slowing things down and working on a limb with some good dickhead cheap shots made Bron’s explosiveness pop even more. Bron is so good as a babyface who has to overcome something. Great stuff.
Triple threat woman’s match was fun. Loved KC getting her shine in the match. Zoey winning and advancing is solid — she’s been such a solid worker.
Main event was exactly what I wanted. It really got the War Raiders over in a big way — not sure they connected with the audience despite those guys having great work. Judgment Day are such good pricks. Story beat was predictable with Priest getting his revenge but I loved the camera framing of it to make it a surprise when it happened.
Fun show. Good angles. New Day getting ousted from the locker room is such a good touch.
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Wrestling Degrassi means I have to carve out time for NXT. That rules.
Speaking of ruling: Smackdown tonight was absolute fire. Tiffany won in front of the hometown. Bianca and Piper Niven had a banger with an awesome ending. The KO/Cole Carpool Karaoke segment was so fun and weird and the end with KO saying “Get out of my rental car!” before doing the window bit was aces. Cody/Gable was predictably very good.
But major tip of the cap to DIY stealing the titles via a long con. You can see how they put the plan in place a few weeks back. “Hey, you know MCMG watched when we had our issues back in NXT. I used to complain about you all the time to Alex. They trust me. Let’s tease animosity to get them to put their guard down. We’ll lure them into a match, will tease a breakup, and then use the distraction and become champs!”
I always love that sort of scheming you can see happening without actually needing to see it happen.
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The devastation of The New Day overshadowed that really fun Gunther/Dom sprint. I loved that Dom wrestled face-ish (using a bunch of topes and counters.) That was a great test run for when Dom eventually goes face. He can be the heir apparent to his real father and lie, cheat and steal. Gunther is so great at being dominant and also making his opponents look terrific. I can absolutely get behind these guys getting 20 minutes or Dom having the briefcase.
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The New Day segment was a masterpiece. We knew our heart was going to get broken. But we didn't know how. They somehow figured out that the most devastating way to do so was by having Kofi and X act like total dicks to Big E. No violence needed. Just two dudes who felt slighted and unleashing their anger on the injured, vulnerable E. (The same day that article dropped just to add to E's vulnerability.) That was cruelty at its peak. It really felt like when your best friend from middle school starts sitting with the cool kids freshman year and tells you that you have to go sit elsewhere. Or when your college girlfriend tells you "we need to talk" and it turns out that she and your roommate are now an item. A+ and something I never want to see again.
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I was at the Raw all those years ago where they officially broke the streak for longest tag run. It was so great and fun to see in person. They barely even were getting started with their run, which is wild to think about.
I think one of the real turning points for the WWE creatively came during the pre-Sami Bloodline days. The USOs had the belts and were eyeing up breaking the New Day’s streak. So, the New Day stepped up to take a final stand to keep their record. Those four can throw out a four-star match with each other in their sleep. But when you put in stakes that go beyond the usual and it touches in on the world building the WWE has done over the decades? That is really awesome. It’s one of my favorite WWE TV matches ever.
Another peak moment of storytelling was when The Usos forfeited in the gauntlet match against X And E with Kofi’s spot on the line. Absolutely fantastic moment during Kofimania.
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How are we all prepping for a possible New Day breakup at their 10th Anniversary? Man — what a great piece of long-term storytelling they’ve had with the tensions between the group, even when they had to audible when Odyssey Jones got cut.
I think this really shows the magic of The New Day. They were pretty much lower mid-card tag filler the past year but at anytime they needed someone heated up they could have a banger like Kofi or Woods vs. Gunther. Or even the tag matches — they had a lot of really good TV matches against dudes like The War Raiders.
They have been absolutely invaluable the past decade. Things like “quality 15 minute tag matches” are really important on a 3-hour show. Three hours is a lot of time to fill, and having people who can do quick, entertaining promos and segments and a good match after are absolutely invaluable to keeping a show together while other characters and stories get highlighted.
Kofi and Woods and E being able to being fully committed to that type of work while also being main event level talent really shows their talent more than anything else. And that’s even considering Kofimania, which is high on the list of most beloved wrestling storylines ever told.
They’re also really important in terms of representation. I listened to their podcast during all the George Floyd stuff and it hit me more than anything else during the era about the fears Black Americans have when interacting with law enforcement. It made me also confront my own listening skills and priviledge since I live in Philly and have black friends but never truly appreciated what a difficult situation it is until I heard three goofball wrestlers talking about an issue that I knew was important but never felt it until Kofi was talking about jogging in a hoodie being a potentially fatal act for him.
X’s Up Up Down Down stuff isn’t for me (I haven’t played a video game in decades) but that stuff also feels like a great way to build culture in the locker rooms. They talked about this in a recent YouTube thing the three of them did. It let out everyone’s nerdy stuff. Wrestlers aren’t bodybuilding lunkheads anymore. They’re really athletic nerds, which I like a lot more.
I am bracing for a breakup that may actually lead to tears tomorrow night. But The New Day have been something really special for a decade, and I hope we get a decade more.
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WWE TV - 3/10 - 3/16/2025 - That's That Jimmy Uce-presso
in WWE PROGRAMMING
Posted
“I hope you get relegated to ‘Challenger Pro League Belgium’ where you belong!”