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SDL is Otis in the Bank - 5/15/2020


Dolfan in NYC

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Naomi losing to Dana again saddens me.

the segment with Charlotte, Bayley, & Sasha was solid. Definitely feels like they are having Sasha break away soon from Bayley. Its nothing new, but ti has been better built than it was in the past.

Bryan/Gulak was pretty damn good.

I continue to dig Sonya in her current role.

Tucker being killed off by the Oregon Trail Dysentery was something. I'm not quite sure what, but something. Loved Morrison being sensible and actually getting the hell out of the dodge when the Braun train was on the loose.

Edited by Eivion
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I actually fairly enjoyed this show.

-Miz/Morrison are obnoxious enough to feud with what are basically the top two guys in Braun and Otis (Never did I think I'd be thinking of Otis as one of the top two guys on the 'A' Show). The segment was fine, except what was up with the one guy randomly replacing the chair in the ring when the segment was almost over so conspicuously that Miz and Morrison started making fun of him?!

-I missed most of Corbin-Elias.  I do not regret that.

-The Charlotte-Sasha-Bayley segment wasn't bad.  But, I know Charlotte's deal is no-selling every loss she incurs (I think it's one of the weaknesses of her character, I think.  The writers seems to be going for a Ric Flair superiority vibe, but seldom do wrestlers coming out of a match with Charlotte getting any sort of rub, because her character either sloughs off the win as no big deal while she treats every loss as a fluke.) but her rationale for why she lost to Bayley last year was so freaking weird.  I actually think with Becky out, Sasha could easily move into her slot,  but she's on the wrong show (Though they appear to be dumping those rules) and I'm not sure there's an appetite to push someone so vocal in the past in her displeasure with the company.  I don't have any problem with the idea of the wildcard rule, but I hate when there's not really any point to it.  AJ Styles coming to SD for the IC title tournament makes sense; Charlotte coming to SD to wrestle Bayley makes sense.  But Charlotte coming to SD to deliver a random promo makes no sense.  If she had come out and said she'd already defeated one brand's champ and now she was here to challenge another, then storyline-wise, it makes sense.  But just being here to chat makes no sense.

-Bryan-Gulak was super good.  Between this and the Riddle-Thatcher match on NXT this week, WWE should just change their style to grappling and striking while there are no crowds and when they come back, crowds will be so excited to be back watching wrestling, they won't have time to get bored and lament that the style has been slowed down.  That one dragon screw by Daniel Bryan was NUTS.  Bryan saying he wants to defend the IC title every week sounds like it could be really good, so I'm sure Elias will end up winning it.

-Main event was fine.  I almost think the outcome of the Otis-Mandy-Dolph thing is Mandy talking Otis into giving her the briefcase, then leaving him for Ziggler.  But I hope that's not it.  I'm curious what the crowds will be like for Otis.  I think they're going to be nuclear hot for him.  I hope they don't have him cash in until after there are crowds back.

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Sasha turning on Bayley is long overdue (hopefully Dr Shelby and Kurt Angle leave them alone this time ?) and their segment with Charlotte (playing up their history and also leaning heavily into smark criticisms with her reasons why Fox wanted to bring her to SD) was a fun way to get that story finally moving; 

 

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2 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Yup, I'm convinced Otis is going to get tricked out of the briefcase or guilted by a returning Tucker into using it for a tag title shot.  

Granted they may be clickbait or kayfabe articles, but everything I've seen says that Otis has already publicly said he's going to cash in for the tag team titles.

1 hour ago, Eivion said:

I continue to dig Sonya in her current role.

So maybe I missed this part of the story, but a) Why exactly is Sonya doing this to Mandy? and b) Why exactly does Dolph care and/or why is helping Sonya? It's not like they have a romantic angle with each other. Is this another case of them thinking all women have to be catty with each other?

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1 hour ago, The Green Meanie said:

Granted they may be clickbait or kayfabe articles, but everything I've seen says that Otis has already publicly said he's going to cash in for the tag team titles.

So maybe I missed this part of the story, but a) Why exactly is Sonya doing this to Mandy? and b) Why exactly does Dolph care and/or why is helping Sonya? It's not like they have a romantic angle with each other. Is this another case of them thinking all women have to be catty with each other?

Sonya is jealous of Mandy, said that over their partnership she did all the work while Mandy got all the attention.  Dolph, believe it or not, is helping Sonya to embarrass Mandy so that she will dump Otis and come back to him.  Sonya's motivation has been well-explained a couple times by some pretty solid promos by Sonya.  Dolph's is...sketchy and a thrown off line at the end of one of Sonya's promos.  But they DID actually explain it, as shoddy as some of it is.

What I want to know is how Drew Gulak qualified for an IC Title tournament when (per cagematch) he's only won THREE matches in the last 8 months of his WWE tenure (One over Nakamura from March 21st, in a team with Bryan over Cesaro/Nakamura from March 20th and then all the way back on September 15th in a three-way with Umberto and Lince Dorado?!

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2 hours ago, caley said:

-The Charlotte-Sasha-Bayley segment wasn't bad.  But, I know Charlotte's deal is no-selling every loss she incurs (I think it's one of the weaknesses of her character, I think.  The writers seems to be going for a Ric Flair superiority vibe, but seldom do wrestlers coming out of a match with Charlotte getting any sort of rub, because her character either sloughs off the win as no big deal while she treats every loss as a fluke.) but her rationale for why she lost to Bayley last year was so freaking weird.

The thing is Bayley did not beat Charlotte legitimately either time she won the belt last year so Charlotte actually has a point. That said, whoever wrote that promo definitely did not spell this out well.

1 hour ago, The Green Meanie said:

So maybe I missed this part of the story, but a) Why exactly is Sonya doing this to Mandy? and b) Why exactly does Dolph care and/or why is helping Sonya? It's not like they have a romantic angle with each other. Is this another case of them thinking all women have to be catty with each other?

Sonya wants to destroy Mandy because Mandy kind of threw away their friendship a little too easily by ghosting her for weeks after Sonya fucked up by trying to hook Mandy up with Dolph. Sonya looked at the sacrifices she made for Mandy and realized just how much she wasted being Mandy's BFF the past few years. Sonya has completely lost her shit now and basically wants to torture Mandy for what she feels was a betrayal and disrespect of the friendship she offered Mandy over the years. Dolph a sleazebag hoping to pick up whatever is left after Sonya breaks Mandy down.

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14 minutes ago, caley said:

Sonya is jealous of Mandy, said that over their partnership she did all the work while Mandy got all the attention.  Dolph, believe it or not, is helping Sonya to embarrass Mandy so that she will dump Otis and come back to him.  Sonya's motivation has been well-explained a couple times by some pretty solid promos by Sonya.  Dolph's is...sketchy and a thrown off line at the end of one of Sonya's promos.  But they DID actually explain it, as shoddy as some of it is.

Okay, I do admit I missed a couple of episodes where this may have occurred, so cheers for explaining that. For Dolph, I guess they're going with the old trope of women like men that treat them badly?

12 minutes ago, Eivion said:

Sonya wants to destroy Mandy because Mandy kind of threw away their friendship a little too easily by ghosting her for weeks after Sonya fucked up by trying to hook Mandy up with Dolph.  Sonya looked at the sacrifices she made for Mandy and realized just how much she wasted being Mandy's BFF the past few years. Sonya has completely lost her shit now and basically wants to torture Mandy for what she feels was a betrayal and disrespect of the friendship she offered Mandy over the years. Dolph a sleazebag hoping to pick up whatever is left after Sonya breaks Mandy down.

This explanation is slightly confusing, but I've also been told by my wife that I may not understand the story since I'm not the jealous type. The part I have trouble getting is what motivation would Sonya have to make Mandy go with Dolph?

I'll chime in this - when the angle first started, I actually thought the angle was going to be that Sonya set this all up because she was jealous of the attention Mandy was giving Otis, because Sonya wanted Mandy for herself. To be fair, they had been teasing that slant for a while, and Mandy does kinda look like Sonya's real-life girlfriend. Did anyone else think something similar to this?

Edited by The Green Meanie
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11 minutes ago, The Green Meanie said:

The part I have trouble getting is what motivation would Sonya have to make Mandy go with Dolph?

That was just the old Otis was beneath Mandy train of thought. Sonya wanted to set her up with Dolph the guy who is supposed to be traditionally handsome and somewhat cool.....I guess. 

13 minutes ago, The Green Meanie said:

I'll chime in this - when the angle first started, I actually thought the angle was going to be that Sonya set this all up because she was jealous of the attention Mandy was giving Otis, because Sonya wanted Mandy for herself. To be fair, they had been teasing that slant for a while, and Mandy does kinda look like Sonya's real-life girlfriend. Did anyone else think something similar to this?

That was what I was afraid would happen. I was so damn happy they avoided it.

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Otis has some Bill Watts Babyface in him with his amateur background and fire. 

Theres a fine line between sympathetic babyface and dumbass. They need to be careful  with ideas like “Sonya suckers him into the briefcase then turns on him”. 

My suggested Otis booking strategy is “what would JYD do?”

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12 hours ago, Eivion said:

Naomi losing to Dana again saddens me.

I’m afraid that this is leading to a Naomi turn which would be all kinds of no. And I say that as someone who enjoyed Team BAD. She just works so well as a Babyface. It’s crazy how she got that huge Rumble reception only to end up where she is now months later. 

I agree on Sonya. She’s been killing it. The potential was always there but it’s great to see it all come together. 

I enjoy heel Bayley dragging Charlotte. 

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8 hours ago, The Green Meanie said:


I'll chime in this - when the angle first started, I actually thought the angle was going to be that Sonya set this all up because she was jealous of the attention Mandy was giving Otis, because Sonya wanted Mandy for herself. To be fair, they had been teasing that slant for a while, and Mandy does kinda look like Sonya's real-life girlfriend. Did anyone else think something similar to this?

Judging from their reactions to the initial Liv/Lana reveal, I think Sonya and Mandy we’re into something like this happening too. I’m glad it didn’t. This plays far better. 

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I believe there were interviews or tweets from Mandy and Sonya after the Liv/Lana reveal that they wanted to go in that direction, but creative wasn't with it. I have a feeling that if they were on Raw, Heyman would have tried to give it a shot.

I think this is a bit better though. SD is really thin on men faces right? You've got Bryan, Gulak, Elias, Otis and Braun? Ali and Gable are available I'm assuming. They're not going to break Kofi and Big E up either. Maybe use the uninjured Uso in singles? That might be fun.

I need to rewatch that Otis/Ciampa match from NXT a few years ago, that was great.

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24 minutes ago, Ramo2653 said:

I believe there were interviews or tweets from Mandy and Sonya after the Liv/Lana reveal that they wanted to go in that direction, but creative wasn't with it. I have a feeling that if they were on Raw, Heyman would have tried to give it a shot.

They mentioned in interviews being fine with going the lesbian relationship route for a while. I want to say the rumors were that they had been turned down for that idea several times so they were not pleased on twitter when Liv/Lana went there. Honestly, they ended up with the better story and setup anyways. I assume the female writer behind the story with Otis and Mandy tried to keep things sensible.

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Never seen the Forgotten Sons before, but Jaxson Ryker is an all-timer WWE name.

I don't think I'd ever be accused of underestimating WWE when it comes to lowest common denominator stuff, but it's QUITE A TIME to debut a right wing militia gimmick on the main roster.

 

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7 hours ago, Ramo2653 said:

I believe there were interviews or tweets from Mandy and Sonya after the Liv/Lana reveal that they wanted to go in that direction, but creative wasn't with it. 

One of the stories on the last season of Total Divas was them pitching it and being given the green light, Sonya being all excited to have what she called the first lesbian storyline in WWE and that it was supposed to start at Mania last year but then it got pulled at the last minute and they never went back to it.

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