goc Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 What Reigns backlash though? He got the best pop of the night at TLCaS. No! The live crowds hate him! Stop listening to your TV and listen to this board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick B. Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 So, sticking to topics that won't get me in trouble:Had my second indy doubleheader in as many weekends. Went to a show in Alton IL on Friday put on by a new-ish promotion called "Wrestling Invades America"(previously "Wrestling Invades Alton" but then they started running in other towns). It was a mixed bag but I had a good time. Saturday was SICW in East Carondelet with Jim Cornette as guest ref for the main event. Really good crowd with the good guys winning the main...said good guy was the masked "Red River Jack" who may or may not have been Ron Powers. (Powers lost a loser-leaves-town-for-the-rest-of-2014 match to Ricky Cruz.) The tennis racket played a major role in the outcome as both guys used it, but Jack got in his shot last and defeated Cruz as a result.) Last show of the year is on Sunday the 28th, a loaded card for High Risk Wrestling in Belleville. A.C.H. vs. Ricochet, Michael Elgin vs. Uhaa Nation, reDRagon vs. Colony, Chuck Taylor vs. Jigsaw, plus Shane Hollister, Tony Kozina, and several other notable names on the card. The ticket price is a bit lofty compared to the area average, but the show should be tremendous (and I'm not just saying that because I'm one of the video-on-demand commentators.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomAct Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 What Reigns backlash though? He got the best pop of the night at TLCaS. I didn't watch the show. I'm just going based on the reactions I see on Twitter and what I heard at the NXT special. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 A lot of people are, understandably, predicting a backlash, but now it feels like they are seeing one that just isn't there. He keeps getting huge pops and basically no audible booing every time he's shown up recently, and the Cleveland crowd lost their fucking minds for him last night. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick B. Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Wrestling is more accessible than it's ever been...as a result, fan patience is at an all-time low. If one wrestling product doesn't deliver what a wrestling fan wants ASAP, then there are a bunch of other products that could do that and there's no longer any need to restrict oneself to "what's on TV". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nate Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 I'm holding you titheads responsible for the appearance of a monster that showed up in my nightmare last night, who only said one word: "Maggle!" Positively yelled the shit, he would. Presence or absence of a cowboy hat could not be confirmed at press time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolfan in NYC Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 1/25/15, that's when we know if the backlash is actually real... the Royal Rumble in Philly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick B. Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 I'm holding you titheads responsible for the appearance of a monster that showed up in my nightmare last night, who only said one word: "Maggle!" Positively yelled the shit, he would. Presence or absence of a cowboy hat could not be confirmed at press time. Did the monster do any kind of two-step dance as he appeared? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaedmc Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 1/25/15, that's when we know if the backlash is actually real... the Royal Rumble in Philly. Except when they run the next show in a town not filled shitbird wrestling fans his crowd reactions will be back to normal. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomAct Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Depends on if the crowd has a favorite. If they put someone like Ambrose in that shit, I think a town like Philly or NYC would def be upset with a Reigns win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 I can honestly see the WWE rationalizing how deeply the crowd got behind Reigns last year as being pro-Reigns and not just Anti-Batista, so they might think they have nothing to worry about. The hilarious thing is that if Batista and Reigns were to end it this year, I think the crowd would be heavily pro-Batista. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnyLaw Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 1/25/15, that's when we know if the backlash is actually real... the Royal Rumble in Philly. Except when they run the next show in a town not filled shitbird wrestling fans his crowd reactions will be back to normal. It's bizarro world, Maggle!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick B. Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Watch Rowan win the Royal Rumble and then people will be begging for Reigns. BIG RED MANIA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwoy2j Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 I kinda wonder what Vince himself thinks of the "indy superstar" experiment. Vince has historically had the mindset that he didn't need established indy guys. He went out, found guys with the look he wanted (read: Mason Ryan), retrained them from scratch to work the WWE style, and ran with them. Now they're signing established indy names that wouldn't have gotten a first glance 10 years ago, emphasizing ring work, and..... one of their two big success stories got seriously injured before he really got going, and the other quit and went home while he was number two in the company. Vince is probably wondering if he could make any money off Rob Terry. The thing about Bryan and Punk's rapid physical decline is that they both spent the better part of a decade in the indys taking bookings anywhere they could get them, working a lot of guys who were badly or barely trained, and taking absurd bumps (Punk/Hero IWA-MS matches, I'm looking at you). I assume their health care during this period wasn't the greatest. They get to the big time, where they should be working a better class of opponents with access to better physical therapy and a minimal number of really crazy bumps.... and they both break down very quickly. Kinda makes you wonder who can survive that sort of schedule and how they'rer doing it. I assume everyone on the roster goes to the doctor Super Cena saw when Jesus stabbed him. Dude was recovered from that in barely a week. He could get Bryan and Edge back on their feet in two days, tops. The fact is- even with the indy superstars declining so rapidly, WWE still has to build around them simply because the fans won't LET them do otherwise. Quite frankly, the IWC has played its card many times- they won't truly accept any new superstar unless they worked Ring of Honor or SHIMMER (maybe they're getting more reasonable now, accepting people like Ambrose, who worked DGUSA, or Luke Harper, who was primarily a CHIKARA guy- but it's still the same form with a different super-indy.) Even when WWE does it right, the fans are dedicated to that- people like Roman Reigns already are getting slight backlash, even BEFORE they get the big push- and people who do this inherently make it clear they hate him either "because I want to hate Reigns BEFORE it's cool to hate him so I'm even cooler and more of a hipster than the cool IWC hipsters!", or "Because he's not Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins getting the Jesus push of the Shield" (and inherently making the unspoken "because he's not Jon Moxley (NOT! Dean Ambrose!) or Tyler Black (NOT! Seth Rollins!) getting the push." The "indy superstar" experiment isn't working- but quite frankly, WWE has no other choice but to do it. Well, they could always use guys who are trained in-house but I see your point. There aren't any territories anymore and there's not a solid #2 major promotion to poach guys from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyJ Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 A huge problem WWE has is it takes forever and a day for wrestlers to get signed, go through developmental and make it to the main roster. By the time wrestlers are approaching the main event they are already in their 30s and have been taking bumps for over a decade. If you look at professional sports, particularly a high impact sport like football, guys are breaking down left and right in their 30s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 They've also turned a couple of times in front of WWE fans eyes. The problem with Bo Dallas coming up was that they couldn't repeat his NXT journey from overpushed babyface to conniving, delusional heel. They started him, day one, as a heel without any of the necessary underpinning. Even Emma had a few tapings of being frustrated at the fans and complaining before they came to love her. The crowd turned Enzo face really quickly and now he's probably going to go heel fairly soon and then what? How do you bring him up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Dave Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 So, found out today my dad has worked with the youngest daughter of Bob Geigel for the last 20+ years. Would've been nice to know that last year, DAD.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyJ Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Unless it's a heavily hyped guy like a Wyatt or a Zayn why not bring them up as a Smackdown exclusive, Let the audience become familiar with them instead of having them crash and burn on Raw. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 If they are serious about trying to get people to watch Smackdown again they need do SOMETHING to make it different. It should have a totally different announce team from Raw. Not sure who they could pair Regal with but that's who I would go with as the color guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nate Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 1/25/15, that's when we know if the backlash is actually real... the Royal Rumble in Philly.Except when they run the next show in a town not filled shitbird wrestling fans his crowd reactions will be back to normal. It's bizarro world, Maggle!!! Nooo, Maggle Monster! Noooooo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick B. Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 I had no idea Larry Matysik also lived in Belleville until a few months ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 They should just replace Smackdown with NXT and let HHH and whomever else run it. I doubt that Vince would stay hands off if it was on network television, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nature Boy Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Random thought but John Cena has had the longest continuous run on top of any babyface in WWWF/WWF/WWE history. Even Bruno bowed out for a couple of years after 9 years. For reference, to match Cena's run, Steve Austin would've still been dropping stunners and drinking beer in 2008. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakk_Sabbath Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 I don't know that the people at NBCU would be happy having paid for SD! and getting NXT, since the perception might be that it's a "minor league" show (even if REvolution smoked anything the main roster has done in a good long while). Smackdown could totally be relevant again if they would run major angles and title changes on it, but it's a taped show, so it is what it is. I joked about an NXT invasion angle in the NXT thread on Thursday after the show, but a lot of people both here and elsewhere seem to think that putting those guys on TV is going to be some sort of magic bullet for the main shows, and unfortunately I don't think that would be the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakk_Sabbath Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Random thought but John Cena has had the longest continuous run on top of any babyface in WWWF/WWF/WWE history. Even Bruno bowed out for a couple of years after 9 years. For reference, to match Cena's run, Steve Austin would've still been dropping stunners and drinking beer in 2008. I was thinking about this last night when Heyman was talking about it on the post-show. Hogan had a longer run but that's only if you count the WCW/NWO years (and possibly the 2002 WWE comeback tour, which is still one of my favorite things ever in wrestling). I have to wonder, if not for the brand split, would Cena have really had as long of a run as he has? Not saying he hasn't had some great matches along the way or he didn't deserve a long run, it's just food for thought Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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