Go2Sleep
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Posts posted by Go2Sleep
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Coincidentally, I re-watched Unforgiven 2002 on the network yesterday. Fairly good show, all things considered. Jericho/Flair, Edge/Eddie, and Benoit/Angle are all good matches if you're interested...
... BUT, where I was going with that thought was the angle surrounding Stephanie McMahon and Eric Bischoff. This was coming off the heels of the Billy/Chuck "wedding." There was a match between Billy/Chuck and 3MW where the stipulations were if Billy and Chuck won, Bischoff had to kiss Steph's ass, and if 3MW won, Steph had to perform HLA. Of course, 3MW won, and the resulting segments and commentary was truly as embarrassing as any WWE has ever done. It ended with Eric bringing out the "fattest, ugliest lesbo [he] could find" which was Rikishi in drag who turned on him and gave him the stinkface much to Steph's delight. It was insane to me that a national company could perform something like this with some absolutely astonishing (in a bad way) lines from Lawler and Bischoff and not get raked over the coals as recently as 14 years ago. Of course that's when every state was scrambling to put marriage laws on ballots during national elections, so maybe not.
I guess if someone wanted to troll WWE, they could tweet that video to WWE, Steph, and GLAAD.
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I'm not sure either match captivated me as much as Kendrick/Mendoza, but those were definitely some quality wrestling matches.
Tajiri/Metalik had kind of that ECW-workrate vibe with the inspired mat-wrestling to go along with the high spots, and Alexander/Ibushi was nice strong-style match. I was amazed how much they pulled the crowd in by the end. This definitely felt like a high-stakes tournament throughout, and I can't imagine what we're in for if each round ramps up the intensity by the same amount.
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The intro to the Aries/Regal segment with Aries blabbering about his non-GMO diet to a bored-looking Regal was more great subtle heeling by AA. I hope he gets a big push after the post-Brooklyn clean-out.
I'm not sure it's a good idea to pair Roode with Almas, unless the plan is to turn Roode face. No one cares about Almas as a face, and Roode's theme and catchphrase were already super over within a couple hours. It's gonna take more than cheap heat promos to keep the crowds from falling in love with him.
If you've ever wondered what *IT* is, it's whatever Nakamura has that allowed him to literally honk a badass heel's nose during a "pull apart" to hype a main event feud and get a 100% babyface reaction. Could you imagine the shitstorm that would ensue if Roman Reigns did that? That's on par with The Rock being able to get people to chant "popcorn fart."
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Lol at the idea of a "morals clause" for a pro wrestling hall of fame.
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7 hours ago, Wyld Samurai said:
One name you don't hear as often as you think you would is Bret.
This reminds me of a discussion a couple weeks back about why more of today's women cite Lita as an influence than Trish.
Bret's biggest problem in terms of being relate-able was he was always presented as being too perfect during his peak. Shawn was (a) way more charismatic and (b) presented as a rebel who did things his own way and still succeeded. Both things are way more relate-able to your average teen/young adult.
It would be interesting to compile a list of wrestler influences, and see how many people actually cite the hyper-perfect babyfaces like Hogan, Bret, or Cena vs. their flawed/challenged contemporaries who an insecure youngster might see as a more attainable goal.
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1 hour ago, SolidGoldBomb said:
How great has Jericho been lately? He's developed like 5 new funny things just this year for his heel persona.
He really has turned it up since that silly Ambrose feud ended. His gimmick where he blatantly lies about something then acts shocked when he gets called out is hilarious.
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3 hours ago, Sammo~! said:
Hopefully they also keep Sasha away from Enzo, because talented female wrestler reduced to arm candy is also attitude era bullshit that needs to stay in the 90s with homophobia.
Definitely agree with this. It was bad enough last week to have their strongest woman being "saved" by their weakest man. Between the last two weeks of Enzo/Sasha and Lana repeatedly saying "Rusev is the only man who can have me" for heel heat, WWE is exposing they still have no one who is remotely in touch with writing female characters.
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1 hour ago, Ultimo Necro said:
What is the dumbest thing somebody has been fired for in WWE over the years?
Muhammad Hassan getting fired for performing a segment he almost assuredly had no hand in writing or airing.
And the Daniel Bryan tie-choke.
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22 hours ago, piranesi said:
It was also a really predictable booking pattern. When was the last time it wasn't won by a cowardly heel who then proceeded to lose a bunch of matches while cutting mildly funny promos?
Probably Booker, though he only broke the pattern because he won matches by cheating instead of losing outright.
Brock was the best because they didn't even do any crown shit with him that I can remember. He just won easily, then kept on destroying people.
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The Hardys vs. E/C cage match from Unforgiven 2000 is really really good you guys.
It incorporates a lot of classic southern tag and blood feud features into the "TLC extreme" style. They put a great twist on the FiP/hot tag trope where Jeff gets isolated outside the cage while Matt is double teamed inside. The match is built around Jeff struggling to get back in the cage and they pay it off when he finally uses a ladder to get the top and hits a big dive. The Hardys and Lita all get significant measures of retribution against E/C who had tormented them for months for a feel-good title win. There is a great sense of urgency throughout the match, and every setup gets a cool payoff. The match has hate, blood, big spots, a good pace, and a coherent story that makes everything about the Hardys' win mean something. A forgotten classic from the TLC era for sure.
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During the JBL/Booker T interview, they spent a decent amount of time discussing the Hogan tapes, which I didn't think much of because Booker had a relevant story (that didn't paint Hogan in a flattering light). Then during the previews for the upcoming episode, one clip featured Bruno talking about how he was never impressed with Hogan, and another showed JBL asking Jimmy Hart if he thought Hogan was racist.
While I don't feel bad for the old Hulkster who clearly brought this on himself, one of the worst things about these WWE-sanctioned interviews is the absurd level of apologism for the company and its management and the constant re-assertion that they would never do anything that's culturally insensitive. It's a fair question to ask Booker what he thought about the Hogan tapes, but why not ask him about that Survivor Series 05 segment where Vince dropped the N-bomb in front of him and Sharmell? I'd bet that's still on the network and available for 9.99 even. To me, it looks like they're just using a facade of racial awareness to bash one guy specifically.
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Looks like JBL interview series has some interesting guests coming up. Bruno, Stan Hansen, Jimmy Hart, Sting.
It also looks like WWE is going through another "bury Hulk Hogan" cycle.
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Cena didn't get the main belt until the end of his SD run, but he was on that path for most of 2004. I don't know if JBL gets a 10 month reign if there wasn't such an obvious guy to make with a big win at Mania. SD would've been scrambling hard for a decent face without Cena. Not sure if Rey could've made a move then or not, but without an obvious future superstar, they might have been more inclined to try something different. I assume Brock not sticking around is a given in this scenario, otherwise he's the ace forever.
Agree that Batista would've been a bigger focus too, even though he was injured as much as anyone during that time frame. He would almost certainly stay the face of Raw instead of flipping shows with Cena in 05.
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1 hour ago, Eivion said:
Cena being around affected neither guy much as they were mostly on separate shows with Rey losing his spot more due to injuries. Taker and Shawn already had large roles when Cena was around. Angle would have been tossed just same as he was before. Joe didn't want to go to WWE at the time. And Nigel's health was what kept him from joining. Honestly, I think the only thing you might be right on is Punk getting a faster push.
Cena, Eddie, and Rey were on SD together for nearly 3 years. Cena only went to Raw about 6 months before Eddie died. Without Cena around, Rey would've likely been in the main event scene a lot sooner, as they would've been struggling for younger high-end babyfaces. Taker and Shawn had big roles, sure, but without Cena, they'd have been even bigger, specifically having more and longer title runs. Shawn only held a main belt for one month in 2002 for the entirety of his second run. Maybe Angle still does himself in, but I can't imagine he isn't better protected in a hypothetical Cena-less world. Don't know about Joe, he didn't seem happy with TNA, so that's why I threw his name in. Like I said, I don't think they would've considered him anyway. Nigel's health rejection came a lot later if I remember right, like 2009-ish. If they wanted (and again I don't think they would have), they could've gotten him before he was completely wrecked.
Of course this all just a fun thought experiment. No one really knows what things would look like, but I just can't imagine all the guys that were close to the top wouldn't have had bigger roles if the company ace from that time frame wasn't there. Someone would have to fill the void.
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20 hours ago, DTTW said:
Interesting thought I heard from Bryan and Dave today: Without Cena what would the WWE have done? Their other choices have all failed and the accidental success stories all fizzled for various reasons.
They would've started bending over for Brock a lot sooner.
I think Orton and Edge would've followed roughly the same career path. Eddie and Rey would've gotten more time at the top. Taker and Shawn would've had more expanded roles. Angle would've been a top guy who likely would've gotten more concessions from Vince to stay. If the situation was really dire in 2007, they might have started pushing Punk faster.
It would've been pretty rough late in the 2000s because the reliance on attitude guys would've been even stronger, and WWE as a company was still stuck in the "homegrown or pay your dues here" mindset. In theory, they could've poached guys like AJ, Joe, Nigel, etc and put them in top spots and been fine, but that wasn't their practice until after Bryan blew up.
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Bobby Roode has one quality heel theme, that's for sure.
Asuka stole the show for me, though. That was an elite squash.
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Gargano/Ciampa was a fun strong-style sprint. Not nearly as good as Kendrick/Mendoza but the clear #2 as far as first round matches go for me.
I cracked up when Bryan said "That touched my heart" during the post match hug.
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Seth as Roger and Finn as Doug might not be too far off the mark. Demon = Quailman
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2 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:
ALL TITLES DEFENDED~. Still no KO, Zayn, Cesaro, Jericho, Wyatts, Realest Guys, or American Alpha, though. Even with SS being 4 hours this year, 8 matches announced or planned. It's getting crowded.
JeriKO vs. Enzo/Cass will make the main show. I suspect Cesaro/Sheamus will be on the pre-show at least. I'd also bet on a SD 6-woman tag on the pre-show.
Bray and Sami are the big question marks. If Bray isn't shoehorned into the WWE title match, I wouldn't be too surprised if they just did a random inter-promotional multiman tag with those two leading the way.
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I just figured the Vaudevillains were in the doghouse for injuring Enzo/the backstage fight with Gotch and Sin Cara.
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4 hours ago, (BP) said:
I won't pretend to know what this means, but I have a bad feeling about it regardless.
Really bad hair extensions.
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The most underrated part about Seth Rollins as a heel is that he laughs at his own jokes, which are usually bad to begin with.
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I kinda hated the opening segment. I loved the idea of giving Charlotte and Sasha the opening promo spot, and I didn't even mind when Jericho came out, because I figured he's a guy that would actually try to put them over. Unfortunately, Sasha just had to stand there and take it from Jericho, then have Enzo "save" her by coming out to make sexual advances. The total lack of chemistry between Enzo and Sasha made it all the more cringe-worthy. Then you put her in the path of the Owens-guest-commentary tornado to top it off... Not exactly the most empowering segment.
I will say I love the idea of an Owens/Jericho team tangling with Enzo and Cass on the mic, but there's about a million better ways they could've gotten there.
The rest of the show was solid. I particularly liked that they covered for Cesaro by saying his low draft selection was due to his injury history (although they did take a guy coming off a major knee injury #1). The Nia and Braun squash tours are great. They're keeping it simple with Rollins and Finn. The Brock/Orton segment was perfect. And even though it should've been done at WM 31, Roman going after the US title against Rusev is the best move for his career.
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41 minutes ago, RIPPA said:
Add Jinder Mahal to the random dudes the WWE is bringing back
I'll be the one to ask: Fucking why?
Minus the "air sitar" line from a 3MB promo, he was boring and shitty at everything he did.
[NXT] AUGUST 2016 DISCUSSION THREAD
in WWE PROGRAMMING
Posted
Everyone going to Brooklyn better have Bobby Roode's theme memorized for an epic singalong.