I swear I’ve never wished for somebody to be injured before. It feels wrong. I’m about to make an exception. Who’s his next opponent?
And I hate that orange f***** and his connections to pro wrestling so much. It feels almost irrational.
LA Knight, I think.
Safe worker. Damn it.
To me, he had X-Pac heat before. Yeah, he could do moves, but that was it. I disliked the person behind the wrestler before he became a wrestler, and that was never going to change.
Now it’s active antipathy. He’s become yet another in an ever growing list that I wouldn’t even pee on, were he on fire, unless I had been drinking kerosene cocktails all night.
I can’t deny he seems to have a knack for the business in certain ways. And he’s very athletic. But he’s just so contemptible as a human being that it’s difficult not to simply dislike him. And not in a “heel” sort of way.
Bo Wyatt (which is what I’m calling him from now on because “Uncle Howdy” is a stupid name) and his minions made their debut tonight, closing out Raw by laying out Hunter, Adam Pearce, William Regal, and about half the Raw roster backstage after the main event, then declaring “We’re here” and blowing out his lantern.
I’m cautiously optimistic that with Vince gone, they won’t fuck this up.
I couldn’t tell who the backstage victims were except for Chad Gable. I do think Nikki Cross found her groove in the Wyatt Sicks. I’m glad to see Rowan back, and I assume the other two are Joe Gacy and Dexter Loomis. I hope the goddamned puppets are mothballed and creative leaves out the silliness.
I’m with @Smapti - cautiously optimistic. For me, it doesn’t mean they have to always win, though they should start out with a winning streak. I just want consistency and story logic, which VKM failed to do with Bray (or 99% of the things he did for the last 2+ decades).
And I didn’t mind the puppets, but not everything appeals to everybody.
Was enjoying an old episode (1979 - I probably watched when it first aired) of Georgia Championship Wrestling. Featured on the show were the not-yet-immortal Sterling Golden and, hailing from “Great Hills, Montana”, the not-yet-hitman Bret Hart. Golden (aka Hulk Hogan) won over a jobber with a bear hug, and Hart had a surprising time-limit draw with Buzz Sawyer. These old shows make me appreciate modern production values. And while I fully understand how TV money has changed the business model, I miss being able to build wrestlers and feuds with jobber matches, watching wrestlers climb the ladder of jobber.
i remember GCW when "wildfire"Tommy Rich was champ for a week … then spent forever saying he was going to get it back
Shane McMahon wants to open the Forbidden Door.
I have a bad feeling about this.
I just saw some of the reporting about this for the first time. Maybe I’m being overly cynical but my first thought was, “is he recruiting?”
I know at one point Shane left WWE officially, and has shown some desire to be successful away from the McMahon name. He’s had official roles in UFC in the past for example. But with Vince gone and Stephanie back, and the general upward trend of WWE right now, I have a hard time taking this story at face value.
IIRC, Vince fired him after the 2022 Royal Rumble because he tried to go into business for himself and make himself the star of the match. His only appearance since was at Wrestlemania last year, where he tore his quad fifteen seconds into his match with the Miz and Snoop Dogg called an audible and took over for him.
Again IIRC, back in the '90s when UFC was new Shane wanted Vince to buy them, but Vince wasn’t interested. They’re under the same corporate umbrella now anyway, but one can only imagine how different MMA would be today if that had happened.
Chad Gable’s not dead! And he’s been put back in next Monday’s triple threat match!
Well, Jacob Fatu has joined the New Bloodline.
I think WWE is making a mistake introducing all these new guys so rapidly.
Gotta have people for Roman to feud with after he returns at Summerslam and costs Solo his match against Cody.
I miss the way those old shows worked. Storylines were set up by the booker on a show by show basis and the wrestlers knew how to work each match. Production values are much better, and the average level of talent much greater too, can’t deny that. But now we have wrestlers who don’t know what to do if things go wrong in the script. The writers are calling the match ahead of time so we see guys throwing themselves through the ropes when they haven’t been hit or just standing around waiting until the ref with gets instructions through their earpiece. Except for the old pros, perhaps Randy Orton the last one left in the WWE, wrestlers have no idea how to put on an entertaining match on their own.
I’d say Cody Rhodes definitely has that down. So do Cena, Sheamus, and GUNTHER, and probably a few guys like Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins who largely came up in ROH.
Outside WWE, Bryan Danielson and Moxley definitely have that factor, and so do most of the New Japan guys.
Sheamus and Moxley yes. At least Moxley knew how when he came to the WWE, that was so long ago I’m not sure he can still do it. Maybe Cody, but it’s not something he’s had to much in his career. Other guys may be able to work there way past one botched move but they no way could call or carry a match on their own.
I’m sure I told this story before, so bear with me.
I think the best example of improvisation in wrestling I saw was many moons ago at a Mid-Atlantic event in Raleigh NC at the Dorton Arena. It’s shaped like a big Pringle’s chip. The faces arrived at one end while the heels arrived at the other. There’s service tunnels that connect the locker rooms under the stands, and they run the entire length of the arena, about 70 yards. This was before cell phones, and I think it’s highly unlikely they had gofers running back and forth passing notes.
Black Bart was managed by Skandar Akbar, and in his match he bailed out of the ring when his opponent got the better of him. He landed in front of a fat black girl with a massive afro at ringside. She yelled at him, and he told her to shut up. She then unloaded on him, every bit the pissed-off black chick raising holy hell. He kayfaybed fear of her and slinked back like a vaudeville coward. The referee came over and raised her hand in victory.
In the next match, Skandar Akbar brought out the Green Scorpion to take on Jimmy “The Boogie Woogie Man” Valiant. Valiant always lost, but he was pure entertainment gold. He’d come out dancing to “Boy from New York City” with his ZZ Top beard flopping up and down. When he came to ringside, Akbar confronted him and pointed his riding crop at the black girl. I imagine he was saying something like “You stay away from her. That’s the woman who gave me so much trouble in the last match.” Valiant took her in his arms and gave her a big ol’ smooch.
I did a little acting in college, and there’s times when shit goes wrong and you have to improv to get things back on track. It’s something that can’t really be taught, but if you work in the situation long enough, you develop an instinct for fixing fuckups.