Greggulator
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Posts posted by Greggulator
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NCAA Softball tournament started this weekend. Was too busy to post an alert ahead of time. NCAA Softball is a blast. Crowds are really fun for whoever hosts the regional.
It’s a little bit like women’s hoops from 10 years ago or so where there is not as much parity. The top teams (Oklahoma is looking to four-peat, Texas is the top seed, the rest of the top 10 are usually SEC and Big 12 and PAC-12) ads so much better than the rest of the field. It softball, like baseball, has enough random chaos that it evens out a little bit.
The darling of the tournament this year are Southland Conference champs Southeastern Louisiana, who are making their first appearance in school history. They’re a team built on getting on base and then stealing bases. Their coach calls set pieces like a basketball time out play. They best Clemson yesterday to get to the winner’s bracket. Then they gave national power Alabama FITS. 1-0 Tide in the sixth (they only play 7 innings) runners on first and third. They did the play where the runner in first goes to steal second but intentionally falls between the bases. Alabama flubbed how to handle it, so the tying run scored and somehow the girl who fell also ended up safe st second. Lions lost it in extra innings but that game was a thriller.
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Nia and Jade came off like an actual fight between high school girls. They just threw each other around pretty rough, followed by some good jawing with security in between. Nia’s taunting with 50 people between then was spot on in how an antagonistic bully instigates in the cafeteria after the adults separated everyone.
Nia has gotten so good at her role since she came back. She’s not going to give us any ***** matches. But she gets more heel heat than anyone else not named Dom. She’s also become really solid at being an in-ring heel monster with good timing and making sure she is in the right position.
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Nia Jax rules. Her saying “Your mom sucks!!!” right in Jade’s daughter’s face is one of the best heel moments in memory. We all love heels because we wish we could say things like that but adhere to a moral code that makes us act like normal people. Nia does not care. That was a great post-match brawl, too.
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Corbin/Carmelo is my sleeper match for Smackdown.
My bet is that LA Knight wins the whole thing. I think his character needs a big win just to keep him right on the radar of potential champions. Maybe he could dethrone Logan Paul, but I get why they want to keep the belt on Logan for as long as possible. (Plus, Logan Paul rules.) -
When the hell is Rey/Kofi? That's, like, a dream match I never knew I wanted.
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Correction: That match actually felt like a tribute band version of Midnights/Fantastics from the first Clash of Champions. It was not nearly as good as that match, but that’s possibly a Top 10 US Tag match and Top 10 opening match. No shame in not being at that level because it was still a really great hate-filled brawl but with a lot of ECW plunder.
Also: Are people really hating on that crowd? Man, that was so much fun to watch. The first PPV after WrestleMania is usually something really forgettable. This was really memorable because of the atmosphere. I bet the performers had an absolute blast in front of that crowd. You could tell Randy was just shocked at the massive theme song singalong.
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I am finally watching this now. Man, this opening tag match is a platonic ideal of an opening match. This is how you star a show in front of a crowd this scorching hot. Hot brawl with two legends (KO has hit that level), general chaos, rule change so it’s a brawl, and just beat the hell out each other with plunder and tables until the shock ending. Just keep it simple and wild. This feels like ECW Arena circa 1996 and I mean that as the biggest of compliments.
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Hot damn that was some quality professional wrestling tonight. I did not that we’d get anything better over the next few weeks than Ricochet/Ilya. Great way to bring Ilya onto the main roster and awesome showing from Ric. But then here comes Sheamus/Gunther giving us an all-time great Raw match. Those two are just a perfect pairing for each other. Neither man cares about their health at all and we are better off for it. Iyo/Natalya was also real good. Sami with a quick banger promo, too.
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I follow zero Japanese wrestling except in bits and drabs. The one thing I know about Guerillas of Destiny is that their entrances are so fucking cool and they have an absolute menacing presence. The one brother that took out Jimmy Uso looks like an absolute unhinged maniac in the best way possible. I don’t need those dudes to have five star matches. I need them to look like lunatics that, along with Solo and I am guessing Jacob Fatu, no one can control. I did not see the match from the PPV yet but they are hitting the uncontrollable psychos stuff pretty well.
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I really liked the presentation of everything tonight with the look at draft rooms, the NXT celebration, etc. The show was a lot of fun, if nothing else. That is a good thing.
But one thing that jumps out at me is how incredibly lame Karrion Kross is. I know I am not breaking anything here. Dude is somehow even cornier than he was in previous incarnations. I like AOP a lot as bruising henchmen screaming madness but this stable is lame.
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3 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:
Apparently, Twitter is abuzz about the Nick Khan part of this article.
It could be a big nothing, but it won't stop the full on Brian Windhorst meme inspired "...Now why is that?" feeling going around that will cause rampant speculation.
Yeah, it could be a lot of different things. I don’t know if it is a sign of an axe about to drop because “WWE president sells stock before he gets his name tied up in an indictment connected to Vince McMahon” is an absolutely awful look for Endeavor and etc. It opens up the company to all kinds of possible litigation and liability. I would think people as sharp and media savvy as the Endeavor people would be on top of that from the get go. Endeavor’s bread and butter is its talent agency and one thing agents know how to do is to bury the bodies, so to speak.
NK can’t just go on Robinhood and sell his shares of TKO. Since he’s a company insider, he has to disclose his stock shares to the federal government through the SEC (which is how it ended up in this article.) To so that means you have to file all kinds of paperwork and it’s a lengthy process. And that kind of stuff always triggers some kind of review from a company’s general counsel or the like who are going to want to know why someone wants to sell their shares, and they would absolutely asking about what Nick had heard about his name connected to Vince’s lawsuit, and they likely would already know the answer because the WWE is itself a legal entity in the lawsuit, which means TKO and Endeavor are, too.(Also, without looking to see what specific SEC filing it is, it also reads like Vince and NK now have permission to sell their shares, but it almost always happens.)
The other scenarios:
One thing that people worry about when an executive sells shares is that the executive knows something about the company’s future business and is getting out before the stock tanks. Being able to prove that level of trade on inside information is really difficult, but it always raises a lot of questions. (Or itself will trigger prices falling since investors will see that news and think something is up and will sell.)
Or an executive could be in the process of landing a bigger job somewhere else. Or the exec could be feeling the fire if there was a shakeup on the board or he/she ended up with a new boss and they were not hitting it off or something like that. So why not sell now and get paid and then take off a few months later.
But my main hunch: NK is selling almost 250,000 shares at almost $100 a share. The guy is turning his shares into about $25 million in cold hard cash.
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Just look at how Mercedes and Willow are standing with regards to each other during all of this. They are barely facing each other at times. Like side-by-side or Willow’s back is almost fully to Mercedes. This is just so sloppy looking.
Or the staging of this is also ass. Jack goes and steps in the camera lens a few times. Britt Baker broke out because she had a knack for organically knowing where the camera is during her matches and doing things like winks or trash talk at it. This feels like Jack is trying to do that, but it’s so forced and bad during an in-ring segment. They really need to ask something like “Why is this character sticking his face into the camera and speaking with emphasis right this second?”
I know it sounds very nit-picky of me. It is. But not thinking about this stuff really limits how good the product can be.. It’s a television show of a simulated live athletic contest and they forget that.
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I love Willow but I thought her segment with Mercedes looked weak because of her. Willow was angled to try and look at the camera a lot, as opposed to looking at Sasha who was directly angled at her.
In live theater, actors always “cheat” and tilt themselves like that so the live audience can hear better. It felt like they were trying to do that at times last night. You don’t need to do that when something is mic’d up. It just looked off. Like, the sneakiest and most conniving women’s wrestler ever who is coming for your title who you injured in a match is right there, you should be staring her down to try and not worried about anything else.
Maybe the venue’s camera set up was weird or they were trying to do something a bit different since the WWE has been getting raves for their new direction. It just looked off at times — like with Jack deciding to turn and look directly in the camera for no real reason at times.
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The final angle was at least interesting.
Heels With Authority angles are definitely played. But The Young Bucks have been hitting it out of the park with their EVP act. Okada looks like a million bucks as their ringer. I’m willing to run with that since they’ve been so great.
But man, there was just so much bad blocking and set-up in the final segment.
First, why is Jack Perry asking Tony Khan to come out to reinstate him? It felt like TK should be the one out first as the authority figure determining the fate of Jack Perry in his hands. TK looked like such a total goof during the segment, just smiling wide and accepting this without hesitation. It just made me ask why some villainous heels haven’t attacked TK already since he was ripe for the picking. Or why any of the babyfaces would feel so loyal as to run to his side when he was just such an obvious patsy?
But the main part was so much of the staging was amateur hour — Jack Perry deciding to talk to the in-ring camera for no real reason a few times beyond Jack probably thinking it’s a cool thing to do as opposed to responding authentically to your scene partner. That’s just amateur hour stuff.
But I don’t hate it as much as I traditionally would hate a shoot-y style angle like this.
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Becky winning is to build Liv up as the next challenger as Liv fully turns heel. They have been building up to Liv via the Revenge Tour already, and Liv was already moving into a tweener status by sneak attacking Rhea. They also just teased something brewing with Liv and Dom, which makes it possible for Liv to steal Rhea’s boytoy or to worm her way into the Judgment Day or what have you.
Either way, Liv’s in the Chad Gable spot where we’re understanding her motivations and seeing the seeds planted. We’re a Becky Lynch making a cocksure remark to Liv away from the heel turn fully happening and Liv willing to do anything to show she is no longer second place.
Heel champion Liv timing out with a returning Rhea writes itself. (Yes, I did listen to Busted Radio but it is a pretty easy path to see unfolding.)
They could have gotten to the championship with Liv winning the battle royale. But Liv becoming an underhanded sneak to overcome Becky (the ace of the WWE’s women’s division) gives Liv a story and if/when they pull the trigger she now has more equity as a character to cast doubt about Rhea being able to get her own revenge. And if Dom ends up as Liv’s manservant or something along those lines? That is a really strong storyline.
I think Liv does need the underhanded conniving role to really pull off being a champion. She really has an organic connection with the audience and clearly works hard. I think she’s pretty good at knowing how to tell a story. Her brawling recently looks really good. But her size and being a step down in athleticism from Becky or Rhea limits her as a face in having a quality PPV match. But if she’s a cunning heel? I can easily see her pulling that off.
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Sorry for the piecemeal recap. But man, Bayley/Naomi were tearing the house down until Tiffy Time showed up to run the proceedings. Best Naomi has ever looked. They need to run that back and let them have 15-20 minutes. Bayley is the absolute best. Naomi has always had really great athleticism and flashy moves and reacts well when taking damage. She’s just not-so-good at connecting all of that together, so a lot of her matches look disjointed. Bayley thought is at the very elite level of knowing how to tell a story in the ring. It’s in a way a perfect pairing. Naomi has all the ingredients, and Bayley is the Master Chef.
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Solo taking over The Bloodline absolutely ruled. I loved how he upgraded into the “gang kid going to senior prom” suit. Tonga looks like an absolute psychopath. I love all of his mannerisms. Him dragging a bloodied KO for more was absolutely nuts. All in on this.
Damage CTRL and Bianca/Jade in dueling skyboxes was really good. Dakota Kai does not get enough love for being such an obnoxious piece of shit. The tag match for the first to get to A Town Down Under was very 1997 WCW Nitro lucha car crash, a style that I often times prefer.
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Can you imagine having ot so good that the biggest issue in your life is a transgender child’s athletic career?
One of the big winners of this whole fake outrage is Riley Gaines, who swam for Kentucky and against the trans woman from UPenn who was the first person these creeps decided was a huge problem to society. She is on the speaking circuit and does stuff with Turning Point USA. Nice to get paid for your outrage instead of having a real job.
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The Chris Adams episode is DARK. An extensive interview with the dude who shot him (Boo Ray.) A ton of wild interviews with Lady Blossom (the former Mrs. Steve Austin) and Iceman King Parsons, too.
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1 hour ago, EVA said:
One key thing that’s probably getting overlooked with the way the weekly TV is being shot is that it’s a lot easier to do interesting and/or complex shot setups when the showrunner isn’t constantly rewriting the show up until showtime (and sometimes while the show is in progress). Past a certain threshold, all you can do is static setups and use a lot of editing (and other tricks) to cover up for the lack of dynamic shots because you just don’t have time. Knowing what you’re shooting with ample production time helps talented people use their talents!
YES. You can also really see them writing not just on a week-to-week basis and even beyond just knowing what's happening next week, too. They've been really good at putting people in the right places for a few weeks out, and then they can get to the specifics of what they actually want to do when it comes down to it. (Gable, Liv and now Bronson Reed and the impending Finn/Priest showdown/etc.) The show is so organized right now. But it also feels completely loose, too. Even though it's probably more rehearsed than ever before and still pretty tightly scripted.
Another great part about having the stories unfold where you see motivations -- it makes the things you need for actual surprises to actually pop, like Tonga's debut on Smackdown.
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Gable was a great doofus heel in his early days of NXT when they were starting up American Alpha. He’s been a heel on the big roster, too, and good. The Academy were fun borderline delusional heels until they built Gable up for the awesome Gunther saga that led to the awesome Sami stuff. Also: You put Gable in the Twin Cities against Sami, you can get the inverse from last night in terms of reaction.
What a great storyline. They did such an awesome job weaving all of this together — Gable wanting a shot at Gunther, Sami showing doubt in the stands touching on his Roman match (and subtly building up in the audience’s mind to last night by mentioning Montreal), the Gauntlet Match where Sami won (and a pro-Gable backlash) and then the past few weeks.
As people pointed out elsewhere: Was there some disingenuousness with Gable wanting Sami to win because he thought Sami an easier target?
But, best of all, Gable didn’t do a poor sportsmanship turn right after he lost. He snapped when he saw Sami hugging his wife, because he remembered the heartbreak of losing to Gunther as his family watched. He literally snatched the moment away from Sami by pulling him from his wife into a German Suplex right in front of her. So nasty.
We all saw it coming, but understanding and seeing Gable get to this breaking point over the months is a great story. He gave into his jealousy, and we know why. That is why it is so effective and villainous.
Another great moment of genius between Sami and Gable last night was how they got to the awesome visual at the ending. It is so organic. Gable rams Sami headfirst while they are both on the apron and Sami falls so naturally between the turnbuckles for Gable to to hit the ankle lock, which could have looked so convoluted in the hands of people who aren’t two of the most gifted storytellers in wrestling.
Also: I think it’s really likely Rhea’s arm was messed up somewhere else and they pulled the trigger on the Liv attack last week to put the heat on Morgan, since she’s been heelish in the few weeks before WM (with a pretty great segment against Becky) knowing Rhea was having surgery.
I rewatched the Liv attacking Rhea spot from last week and while it looks snug, there doesn’t look like anything so nasty it would mess up Rhea’s slinged arm. Plus, that was also their bit of tracking shot wizardry last week (Rhea and Dom do a Sorkin walk-and-talk to set up him versus Andrade before the attack) and then Dom reappears and tells the camera to get out of here, and it goes to an extended crowd shot. It’s so well blocked that they had to have rehearsed it a bunch of times and probably kept it pretty safe for Rhea.
Man, I just can’t get over the type of stuff we are talking about now with the WWE’s production. It’s been a bunch of really fun small changes (the quick backstage interviews, a lot more pre-taped stuff like Sami in the crowd or the KCs partying) but now it’s so remarkably different.
I think they are smart enough to just do one tracking segment a show (at most) because you want those for special moments and since they’re really hard to pull off live, you really need your most talented people to do those because you need to hit certain marks and timing. (Jey has to get to Sami pretty quickly and literally shoves a fan to make it happen, then Sami has to get to the right section to walk down to and they have to time all that with the music cue.)
I am such a fanboy for production stuff. I was a TV Production major in college. I had absolutely no interest in doing that professionally but I always liked seeing how it was put together.
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1 minute ago, Dolfan in NYC said:
While the trope of an outside attack will probably never die, I'd like to point out what an incredibly pleasant surprise it was for Jey to find Sami outside. I was 100% convinced he was going to walk out to a thumb to the throat and a Tama Tonga beatdown.
And as Gregg put it, there's definitely a few boys and girls in the crowd that will love this thing forever. Hell, I fully expect 10-15 years from now hearing some new wrestler say how they were there when Sami came through the crowd.
Triple H Forever!
Yeah, I was bracing for Jey to get got, too! It was such an awesome touch for Jey to be the one to get us to Sami considering the importance they have both had to each others careers and to the Sami/Roman match in particular. It even had that little element of surprise that comes from these new staging techniques they are using and we don’t know how they’re going to be used yet. The last shot of the camera looking up at Chad Gable doing the ankle lock on the top rope was just some really good Film Making 101 and the usage of a subjective camera angle to make Gable look even stronger.
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Everything from when Jey handed the baton off to the credits running with Chad wrecking Sami’s ankle in front of his wife was as perfect as professional wrestling gets. The aforementioned entrance to a banger of a match to Gable snapping. You really don’t get moments like that too often.
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WWE TV - 6/17 - 6/23/2024 - Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money in the Bank)
in WWE PROGRAMMING
Posted
Gable has been awesome. He has had more screen time than pretty much everyone since WrestleMania. The story has a lot of depth and has helped get Otis and Maxine and Tozawa very over. Sooner or later it’s going to end with Gable with The Creeds and Ivy Nile and it’s going to be awesome. Well-paced getting there for SummerSlam or etc. I can easily see Gable stealing the match next week and ending up with the briefcase at the PPV while aligned with the new Team Angle.
All of the Bron/Sheamus/Kaiser/Sami stuff was great. Bron vs. Sami is going to be awesome. Bron is a PPV banger away from being the next big thing and who better to guide him to a MOTYC than Sami?
The Wyatt’s stuff was awesome. It reminded me a lot of The Nexus debut from way back when. It took place around the same time to set up a giant SummerSlam angle. It was some awesome just seeing a cult like massacre without seeing what happened. They laid out everyone without care. I am the biggest Bray Wyatt and Wyatt Family mark here and this was so cool.