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Go2Sleep

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  1. Those are all pretty basic character models that have been around forever. If you take any given year, you can probably find guys occupying those roles, or ones that are similar. In the last 10-15 years or so, several guys have been each role (also don't forget another common one, the monster). Opportunist/Sleazebag: Rollins, Punk, Edge, JBL, HHH (early) Superman: Cena, HHH (later), Lesnar, Rock, Austin Supernatural: Wyatt, Kane, Taker, Boogeyman Unstable: Ambrose, Jeff Hardy, Orton, Flair, Foley Technical: Bryan, Michaels, Mysterio, Angle, Guerrero, Benoit Monster: Lesnar, Show, Henry, Kane, Umaga, Khali It's not just WWE either, you could probably pick any year out of the hat for any promotion and fill in the blanks, like let's say 1995 WCW Opportunist/Sleazebag: Flair, DDP Superman: Hogan, Sting Supernatural: Sullivan and friends Unstable: Savage, Pillman Technical: Anderson, Guerrero Monster: Vader, Giant
  2. As soon as they started doing big stadium shows every year, so 17 probably, but it's been gradual (20 and 22 were smaller venues, but after 23, there was no looking back). Hogan/Rock at 18 was shocking at the time, but would be 100% expected today. They started giving it a real "wrestling Mecca" feel with all the attractions like Axxess, HOF, etc in the mid 2000s and made it more than just another ppv like it was before. The casual fans got priced out and only the most dedicated fans make the pilgrimage. Then you add in the natural backlash toward Cena leading to lots of attention for the fans, the rise of the indies, and it just snowballed from there giving the most hardcore fans more and more reasons to buy up tickets. And hey, if you're spending a couple thousand already for a decent vacation, what's another $100 for Raw tickets? The post-Mania Raw being a must see event really took off 4 years ago with the start of the "yes movement." Once you acknowledge the fans, it's all over. They know how to get attention (and fame to some degree, honestly) and they'll keep chasing that rush. Although regardless of what anyone may think of this year's crowd, or the trend in general, WM weekend is super fucking fun, and I highly recommend going some time.
  3. I could see both sides of the argument for NXT going monthly. Pros: - More live show experience for the entire crew (production side especially) - Fewer matches at each taping, leading to more lively crowds - More travel opportunities Cons: - Weekly pacing thrown off with more rushed matches and angles - Increased likelihood of non-finishes on big shows - Diminished importance of the weekly show Also, I'm late to the party, but the NXT house show in San Jose was off the chain. They should really shoot to do a live special WM weekend next year, and if this show was any indication, it could even be a 3-hour one. Some notes: Itami/Breeze had one of their best matches, and the pop for the G2S was insane. Itami should absolutely use it full time. They experimented with Bull as a face and Jason Jordan as a heel. Jordan surprisingly won clean. Bayley got a good hometown pop, despite much of the audience not being local. Dana Brooke looked passable, could be real good with more experience. For now, her pre-match gymnastics move is her most impressive in-ring quality. Solomon Crowe did a 180 from his tv debut match and looked a lot more like Sami Callahan against Kalisto. He changed his hair and used the stretch muffler as a finish. Kinda worked as a tweener. They also experimented with Baron Corbin as a heel against Rhino. Corbin looked fairly comfortable in the role and the match was solid. Corbin won, but Rhino got to pop the crowd with a gore afterward. Enzo/Cass vs. Vaudevillains vs. Blake/Murphy was the worst match of the night, but the crowd was super into the Enzo/Cass entrance. Charlotte and Sasha had their usual good match. Zayn and Owens had an unexpectedly heated dueling promo segment. It's a huge testament to NXT that they could have show this great without either of these two wrestling. Balor and Neville got the main event spot. It was a toned-down version of their #1 contender's match, solid but not special. Balor was all painted up and got the win.
  4. Sheamus was the Indy-est looking wrestler I saw all weekend, and I went to Shimmer and WWN. Lesnar tearing shit up ruled, but it came across even better on tv. Someone get the freeze frame of Cole's face coming down from the F5. Best crowd chant was during commercial when Lilian was giving the presale code to Raw in San Jose for when they come back in August, and about 3/4 of the arena was chanting "We don't live here." Cena/Ambrose was forgettable, but it was neat to see Cena work a full match as a WWE-style heel. His best heat spot I believe was during a commercial, where he bailed from a standoff and went to hug a little kid decked out in Cena gear in the front row. The silver lining to the divas match was a small CM Punk chant getting drowned out with boos, and followed with a loud AJ Lee chant. The main event was just cruel booking to everyone involved. There's no way they didn't expect that reaction for that uninspired match.
  5. Added: Lesnar/Reigns (f. Seth Rollins) (Mania) - New #1 Rollins/Orton (Mania) Owens/Balor (NXT 3/25)
  6. I couldn't for the life of me imagine saying 31 was better than 30, but it was worlds better than 27-29 so it definitely stands out in recent years. Rollins/Orton is getting slept on. I know Orton's stock is really low, the angle was boring, and the result of the main event made it virtually insignificant, but in a vacuum, this match was really good. It's pretty much the ideal result of the "3-hour Raw formula" that's become the norm over the last several years. Great pace, nice counters, very little down time, and minimal overkill. Though it may be an indictment of modern WWE that only one finisher kickout for each guy is considered toned down, but I digress. When Orton's motivated and paired with a top worker, it's hard to go wrong. The camera angle for Rollins' first dive was probably the best angle in the history of suicide dives and the finish is video package material forever. Reigns/Lesnar was pretty amazing. Brock just knows how to bring it, and Roman was perfect as the overmatched tough guy. Even though that Rock promo dragged, it worked to this match's benefit because it was limited to just the essentials. Too much more time and either the beating becomes tedious and Roman's comeback looks silly, Roman gets more offense and undermines the story, or Rollins' cash-in drags out and he looks like a dope who got lucky instead of a genius cashing in at exactly the right time. There was zero fat on this one and it was Kobashi/Hansen stiff. The cash-in worked to solve the conundrum of keeping everyone strong, and it was completely in line with Rollins' character. I don't know how anyone could say it was a bad finish, except for people's brains defaulting to "run-in = bad."
  7. "Hey Road Dogg, we're gonna need you to stop doing that thing in your intro, that's not the reaction we want..." "Hey Rock, we're scrapping your promo time, you're getting the wrong kind of heat..." "Hey Austin, we want you to cut down the 3:16 stuff, the fans are catching on..." You'd think they'd learn after 20 years that fans will chant along with any catchphrase. If they don't want that reaction don't give heels catchphrases, pretty simple.
  8. I'm not sure how likely these are, but potential results that could shake things up: - Rollins pinning Lesnar - Rusev beating Cena clean Oh, and Truth winning the IC...
  9. 13 years later, WWE has finally achieved the reaction they wanted for the brand split.
  10. I don't see a Shield reunion working right now. They're gonna have to do a ridiculous juggling act to keep Brock, Roman, and Rollins strong over the next few months as is, and the Shield reforming would only make that tougher with the latter two having to settle into some leader/follower dynamic. Plus Ambrose would be such a third wheel at this point. Rollins forming a "New Shield" with two different guys would be a better play if you wanna go that route, but even then only one of Brock or Roman can really chase down Rollins while the other gets left behind. I'll say this, for once, the writing team is actually in a pretty tough situation with no easy answers. I've been trying to come up with ways to keep all three guys strong through July (the expiration date on MITB) and I'm stumped.
  11. These matches must have both gone last at the tapings, because that crowd was dead. The majority of Bliss/Sasha and the first half of Balor/Owens could have been empty-arena matches and you wouldn't have noticed. Both matches deserved a lot better. It's too bad they came up with that San Jose show so late, because a 5000 seat arena filled with Mania-weekend die-hards would've made a perfect live special venue for both of these matches plus the tag titles and Itami/Breeze 2/3 falls. I don't know if 6 matches is a big enough sample size, but I'm gonna throw it out there any way. Kevin Owens is the best wrestler in WWE right now.
  12. He'll definitely compete for it again, and there's a decent chance he'll win it. I see him following the same booking path as Eddie. On the Mania/post-Mania front, what happens to Seth Rollins? The MITB case loses a lot of value if the champ is only tv a handful of times per year, both in kayfabe and real life, and they're running out of time to address this issue. I'm not really seeing a good scenario for him or the credibility of MITB if Lesnar retains.
  13. There's still time to audible Rusev going over Cena, then having Reigns go after the US title and being the first to pin Rusev, which is what he should've been doing at Mania anyway.
  14. Is that the same thing as the show at SJSU? I assume Itami wins to get some press in Japan.
  15. I would highly recommend not watching that ladder match.
  16. I will say the main event was probably the best Alex Riley match I've seen. Sure it was a middling Kevin Owens match, but it was exactly what it needed to be. When it comes to playing to the crowd, how about Owens saying "I'll stay here all day" while getting a "Rest Owens Rest" chant during his chinlock? Also, his stumbling stomp to Riley as he was fleeing from Balor shows he has a better understanding of his character than anyone on the roster. Something else that's totally refreshing is the announcers putting his character over 100% the right way. The mildly heelish Corey Graves takes the family stuff at face value, the strong face presence Albert calls total BS with valid examples. I'm pretty sure this is the only reason Rhyno is in NXT. He's the first big guy that stands up to the bully, but still loses to make the bully even stronger. This would actually be a good time to use the "WWE reject" booking and find some midcarder not doing anything to come do a program with Owens. Cesaro would be a great fit... Or [troll]Daniel Bryan[/troll]
  17. Ironically, I'm super thankful for Carlito doing the job at WM 22 against Kane and Show, since the 8 or so people above me had staked their grand prize hopes on Carlito and Masters winning the tag titles. Definitely the only time I ever got excited for a Kane/Show tag match.
  18. I honestly think the best shot at salvaging Roman (or getting him to the level they want more accurately) is an Austin/Bret style match where Roman comes up short, but looks like a tough bastard doing so. The "stand up in the kimura with bloody face, then pass out" spot is absolute money. Rollins cash-in on Lesnar afterwards is optional.
  19. This is the "If you don't like America, go live somewhere else" of wrestling arguments. Oh sure, you wanna come here and take our Cesaro matches and NXT shows, but you don't wanna stand up and salute Roman Reigns... Fuckin' ingrates, go back to TNA!
  20. It is more the implementation. Are they only going to run it on RAW and PPVs? How do people get points? Etc... Etc... Remember when wwe.com did their own weekly fantasy game for a couple years in the mid 2000s? It'll probably be like that. You get $X and pick a team of any number of wrestlers that fits the budget. Pick a new roster each week that gets locked in a couple hours before Raw, week runs Mon-Sun. Get points for appearances, matches, wins, finishers, gimmick matches, main events, foreign object shots, title wins, etc. Each "season" lasted about 3 months and they had weekly prizes for the top 10 weekly scores, and big prizes for the top 10 at the end. The overall winner got 2 front-row ppv tickets with airfare/hotel/limo. That was me for Summer Slam 06, btw (my Chris Jericho "first ever undisputed champion" moment in fantasy competitions).
  21. I know it was tasteless as hell, but I can't pretend I didn't crack the fuck up when he'd have Vincent hand him his drink to take a swig while he had his opponent in a lazy abdominal stretch.
  22. I just realized the IC angle would be 100x better if they were feuding over the hardcore title instead. Ambrose, Harper, and Stardust are natural fits for that division, Barrett's the supposed tough guy straight-man who thinks he can beat all the crazy people, Truth's there because he's a jobber, Bryan voluntarily steps down because it's different and something to prove not because he just doesn't care about the important belt anymore, and Ziggler's there because... I don't know, you can't have a ladder match without the show off or something, who cares? Clusterfuck booking was part of the soul of the hardcore division. The title stealing would make sense because anarchy rules, and you just need one quick segment where HHH says "fuck this shit, you're all in a ladder match at Mania, hope that settles it, I'm out" to tie it all together. The matches would be something different to mix it up on a 3-hour show and the entire division could have some character beyond "we don't want to push these guys even though they're doing the same things as the guys we are pushing." You could really accentuate their insanity and make them stand out while keeping them entirely separate from the main event.
  23. The mid-90s. Not that the two qualities are mutually exclusive, mind you. You can have a good mix of over-the-top and down-to-earth on the same show, and even within the same character.
  24. I'm genuinely excited to spend a few days in San Francisco, for the NXT show Friday, and Raw the night after which always has some cool surprises. I'm sure the atmosphere will be cool at Mania, but the show looks pretty uninspired. I can't say I really care about any match on that card.
  25. Steve Austin should be in that discussion too. Edit: And Taker
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