So Vince has fed KO to JC. Yet another promising run ended before it started.
…and I couldn’t be happier.
I’m so over KO’s annoying ass fans thinking he’s gods gift to wrestling when he is no more impressive than Wyatt or anyone else who’s just “good enough”
You know, even knowing it would happen, I still though the Undertaker appearance was so awesome and I loved every second of it
I despise Cena but I have to agree that it is not Owens’ time quite yet. Owens’ five star matches will guarantee, I hope, that he is near the top of the card for some time to come. Cena (whether we like it or not and I do not) is still a WWE top dog.
Cena has been putting on excellent matches on Raw. I predict Owens will at some point take the belt from him. But give him time. Everyone wanted to write off Wyatt after losses to Cena, but Wyatt is still around. Rusev has time to recover from the Cena/Lana debacle…just give it time. Cesaro is also nearing that very high level.
In the meantime, Cena keeps the title. When he finally loses, it will really mean something.
R Troof vs King Barrett – much to my chagrin, Barrett gets to keep the chintzy king attire and JBL gets to continue to make comparisons to Richard the Lion Hearted and other royalty he can name-drop.
RKOrton vs Sheamarse – About what you’d expect from these two. Nothing new except for Sheamus’s nose ring. “Are you entertained” is about the lamest taunt possible.
New-hoo Day-hee vs PTP – Fun match. Xavier Woods is a great mouth flapper and gets in some pretty funny quips. On Swerved, Renee Young set him up for a prank as they were playing cooking show. She said “I figure you and me can start with some…” and he corrected her with “you and I.” Big E wrestles like Gumby. He just looks like a clay glob animated through stop-motion. Darren Young and Kofi are really talented, but it’s hidden in their gimmicks. I’d like to see a singles match betwixt them with minimal goofiness.
Bray Wyatt vs Roman Reigns – Good ol’ fashioned slugfest, and my heart rejoiced to see Luke Harper reunite with Bray. When Erick Rowan finally recovers, the trifecta of terror will be complete once more. In the meantime, I expect we’ll see 2/3rds of the Wyatts vs 2/3rds of the Shield and Harper job to Reigns, but there should be a rematch at SS.
Divas Triple Threat – Interesting how Sasha and Charlotte pretty much schooled everyone when Brie kept slinking out of the picture. The old guard Divas look like grade school ballerinas in comparison. Charlotte can bend herself enough to sit on her own head to sell Sasha’s Bank Statement.
KO vs CENAWINSLOL – Awesome match. Cena’s gotten better from this program with Owens. Cesaro and Rusev’s involvement with the US title chase is also a good thing. Owens is the AntiCena. He’s also the AntiZayn, the AntiFinn, the AntiCole, and so on.
Seth vs Brrrrrrock – While it was nice to see Seth oversell the suplexes and crack Brock’s invincible facade with his architecture, the UT run-in came too soon. UT does seem to have gained some muscle mass, but that eyeliner just completely ruined the effect for me. At least the eventual showdown with Brrrrock at SS means both guys will perform more than once a year.
Better PPV than I expected. Looking forward to the rejuvenated Divas initiative, the continuing US title scramble, and the reunified Wyatts. No Neville, Ambrose, Cesaro or Rusev this time, but it’s good to have such talent in reserve.
Battleground made it clear that wrestling moves have no effect. Use your own finishing move, use your opponents finishing move, it doesn’t matter, you can only win when the allocated time runs out or someone interferes in the match. Nor does a win make any difference, you don’t climb the ladder by winning matches, you just jump to the top rung by attacking the champion, and then you lose and move to jobber status. Low grade performance art without a premise. Get off my lawn.
While I really enjoyed the Cena-Owens match, you are right about the finishers. I can understand, especially with good color announcing (which we often don’t get), why a finisher against a championship contender might not work early in the match. But late in the match, finishers should finish.
Also, Owens should not have tapped. He should have passed out, if he wasn’t going to win. Or go old school…Flair would work the leg at different parts of a match to prepare for the Figure 4, and the announcers would sell it. Do the same for the STF. Describe how he’s likely already injured the body part(s) being stretched and that’s why he’s tapping. Personally, I don’t think Owens has all that much charisma, but after 40 years of watching the same feed-the-babyface pattern, followed by Vince/HHH/Dunn complaining about no one reaching for the brass ring…well, it’s tiring. Let Owens win and boom, Summerslam title rematch. You’ve got a month of matches with him, Cesario, Rusev, and maybe a couple others. Have him avoid Cena…no physical contact until Summerslam.
Taker is looking his age out there. Cheap finish to a poorly booked match. Everyone booking needs to go back and watch Flair matches to see the semi-cowardly champion, who everyone thinks is out of his depth, done right.
Frankly, other than Owens/Cena, this would have been a good episode of Raw.
To me, the finishers are devastating when the situation calls for it. You can have matches where one guy hits his finisher more than 2 times and the opponent still fights on. However, there are other times where some one can interrupt a promo and do a finisher on a guy and they’ll be laid out for the entire next commercial break.
It all just depends on the situation. I kind of enjoy the fact that the matches will go on longer with both opponents hitting finishers and neither one winning with it. Thats the way it should be nowadays. Years ago, it was all well and good for performers to do their finisher once and get the pin, but viewers in this generation want more and we are now getting more.
When was the last time that Undertaker made an appearance outside of the WM bubble?
The kicking out of finishers is nothing new, so let’s not pretend this is ruining wrestling.
Steamboat-Savage featured 19-22 false finishes, depending on who is counting, and it’s considered potentially the greatest match of all time.
So “this generation” (assuming you are the spokesman for this generation) wants finishers that mean nothing…except when they are supposed to mean something. So if Orton RKOs Sheamus after a promo, it’s OK for it to knock Sheamus out, but when he does it after beating each other up for 15 minutes, it’s OK to kick out, get back up, and keep fighting.
Not that pro-wrestling has ever been known for it’s consistency, but I get “that generation” (whomever that may be) liked a little more.
ETA: False finishes are not kicking out of finishing moves.
Well, ok, I admit, my wording wasn’t proper, as I am not trying to speak for “this generation”. Me, personally though - I like the finisher kick outs. It doesn’t “mean nothing” to me. It means that the opponent in so invested in the match and determined to battle through, that it will take more than 1 or 2 finishers to beat them. It makes for more drama. I don’t like the matches where they come in, do a few moves and hit a finisher and win. That’s a squash match and should not be done for 2 opponents who are equally matched in ability as well as popularity on both babyface and heel spectrums.
Just my opinion.
Just so I would be accurate (and because it is a GREAT match that put the main event to shame), I rewatched this match. Savage’s finisher was the Flying Elbow Drop, Steamboat had the Flying Cross-Body. Savage hit the FED once, right after a ref bump. Steamboat remained down after that through the shenanigans with the timekeeper’s bell and The Animal, and won shortly after Savage picked him back up with a small package, which worked because Jesse Ventura sold that Savage might have hit his head on the bell when The Animal knocked him off the top rope. Neither escaped the other’s finishing move, and the announcers helped sell the finish.
The greatest result of the Monday Night Wars was the end to wrestling shows of nothing but squash matches, where the jobber who puts up a fight was “the main event”.
The finisher kickouts etc are practically RoH trademarks. They’re to emphasize that these performers are “the best in the world ever” and seldom fall to mere mortals. Besides, why shouldn’t anybody kick out of the AA? It’s just a sideways bodyslam.
Don’t start putting words and ideas in other people’s heads and mouths so you can attack them. Doesn’t make you look superior.
I’m not superior. I’m just an old(ish) dude who’s enjoyed professional wrestling for over 4 decades, and for the most part, thinks much of the evolution has been very positive but can still be improved.
And I’ll be sure not to…because I didn’t. By the way, the “this generation” was replying to this remark, not anything you said (which the poster understood). The ETA was because your post appeared in between starting the reply and posting it.
I always wondered the same about the Pedigree, the Stone Cold Stunner, and quite a number of other finishers.
Who was the (Tough Enough?) guy who basically got fired because Austin didn’t feel that he sold the stunner long enough?
I’m going to ask again because I think it got lost in the fold…
When was the last time Taker was at a PPV that wasn’t a mania? When was the last time he was on RAW outside of the WM bubble?
Ok, here we are, RAW.
Taker coming back after Lesnar leaves the champ without an opponent. I’m going to call it as Kevin Owens. Either that or Owens goes after the IC title and we see what he can do with Ryback.
They might go with Kane, as that will give Rollins a clean victory. I hope UT isn’t turning into Hogan. Hogan never forgave Warrior for not giving him back the pinfall (or so the story goes).
T-Cups, UT definitely did not promote the last 2 WM on Raw, so it’s at least 3 years since he’s been on non-PPV TV. (Hope you don’t mind that I dropped the Sir)