Any WWE fans in the audience? (Part 1)

The Game Room
2942

I have the WWE network and consider it worthwhile for NXT alone. Yes, the girls are main event level talent, and they’re not bogged down by silly Diva storylines. When I first saw NXT, I thought these people were all Daniel Bryans. NXT is like a high-production Indie show.

May as well watch the main roster PPVs while you’re at it. There’s a few gems amidst the mediocrity. Swerved is a fun show. I’ve watched a few PPVs from past WWE eras, and there’s not nearly as much action as today. The fake punches are much more evident. It is interesting to watch predecessors like Cowboy Bob Orton and see the moves he passed down to son Randy. The ECW PPVs are definitely the inspiration for today’s more hard-core shows.

2943

I’ll take the Pepsi challenge with Nicole Matthews over Sasha Banks. Hell, having seen plenty of her work outside of WWE, I’d still take Rebecca Knox/Becky Lynch first, in terms of ring work. But, Sasha Banks is damned good! She may be the most charismatic Diva since Trish Stratus.

2944

Now that right there is genius, and sounds like a fine use of an evening. :slight_smile:

2945

Remember how i didnt know why they wanted us there so early? Still dont as we are literally still just sitting outside. Thank the lord they sell snacks for a buck…

2946

:wink:

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Even more amusing–not only did this make the championship match largely irrelevant, it made the #1 contender’s match irrelevant as well, as it appears they are going to cut all those pre-taped matches into some sort of massive championship tournament.

I mean I’d kind of feel bad for the people who paid for the PPV, except that it’s only a couple thousand people, and quite frankly if you’re buying a TNA PPV at this point, it’s your own damn fault…

2948

Holy Shit. That was one helluva match. Bagels is SO over. And he made Baron Corbin look good at the end. Jordan is pretty fucking awesome too.

2949

Asuka’s gonna kill you…

2950

Was hoping for a Venom entrance from Balor. Is he still doing that?

2951

#ironwoman. One of the best matches I’ve ever seen, period.

2952

Fun night last night!

The dark match was Sawyer vs Bull. Only real interesting thing there was that Bull has new music that doesn’t say “Bull!” anymore. So no more “dundundundudn BULL! (fit!)”

The crowd was pretty into all the matches save for the Breeze/Apollo match. It didn’t help those guys that they followed the gem-of-a-match that was Corbin/Rhyno and JJ/Bagels. The crowd was basically dead for that but, then again, the match was pointless. Plus, I just feel nothing for Tyler Breeze. I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t get behind him, nor can I hate him.

Ironwoman match was good, but not as good as Brooklyn. Ms. Cups and I were debating whether Sasha’s spot with Izzy was a work or a shoot. Given the reaction of her parents (begging her not to cry and her dad mouthing ‘holy shit’ a couple times) I’m thinking it was shoot. Honestly that was the best portion of the night for us because Izzy is getting a bit out of control. Her family gets their own seats, their own door to walk into the arena, she literally has an entourage that has “Izzymania” shirts, she was pulled away to do an interview from someone who I’m assuming is local media. It’s about time the girl got some reality.

Also, in all honesty, the twitter is all atwitter (lol…) over the women’s match, but from a pure volume/chanting/all-in aspect the crowd was way more into the Bagels match. The ending when it was a couple finishers and Rhyno’s gores…that was the loudest portion of the night by far, even beating Bayley’s win. I still say that JJ/Bagels should have won it because Finn/Joe don’t deserve the win, but the sting will be a little less if the Corbin/Rhyno combo is a legit tag-team now. Which would be cool because they look good together.

Tapings for the next couple weeks are tonight, but we didn’t spring for those tickets…so now we can be as surprised with storylines as you are again =)

2953

NXT: Makeover kicked ass among ass among ass.

Wilder & Dawson were channeling Tully Blanchard and Arne Anderson big time and used a lot of their same techniques. I’ve always liked the concept of an established tag team being better than two individual big stars teamed together. While neither “established” team won, they still showed that NXT’s tag team division is serious shit.

This card was so good, none of the matches sucked. There were no soap opera angles, no time wasted on promos, and nobody needed to be “carried.” Every participant worked their asses off.

Bayley is so fucking adorable. I don’t know if it’s because of the way she lines her eyebrows, but she just makes you feel sympathetic for her when she’s in trouble. At the beginning when Sasha knocked her back to the corner and gave her a smug stare, Bayley looked worried, like she didn’t realize she was in for a real fight.

There’s a difference between NXT booking and the main roster in that there’s hardly those boring periods where the hapless face does nothing but get beat on for 15 minutes. Both participants get in equal amounts of offense. They both look good. The heel doesn’t have to be carried for 90% of the match, Vince.

Asuka looked dynamite. I like the sweet-yet-sadistic smiles. Dana Brooke has actually grown on me. She’s shown she can take some licks and contort her body like she’s being pretzled. I also think it’s funny to imagine her talking like one of those entitled bimbos on reality TV during the match. “Omigod, does this Japanese girl smell like fish or anythinnnnng? They eat a lot of sushi over therrrrre.” OK, maybe that’s just me.

Cody’s promo was truly poetic. He knocked it out of the park.

The only thing that bothered me was the way that Dusty was portrayed as a major WWF star. He only stayed for about a year in WWF as I recall, then returned to NWA, where he resumed travelling among all its territories and booking their shows. He didn’t wear polka dotted trunks outside of WWF either. He was a major part in the development of NXT of course, but he contributed much more to the history of NWA and WCW. Vince just didn’t seem to get Dusty’s “working man” gimmick.

Likewise, the team of Arne Anderson and Tully Blanchard weren’t in WWF that long, and Vince tried to make them more flashy than their blue-collar personalities and labeled them “The Brainbusters.” No. Just no. They were the core contingent of the Four Horsemen and not show ponies.

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I think Vince needs to be convinced of one thing: “Bayley is the female John Cena”. If he sees her this way and can somehow be persuaded not to try to make her completely invincible (as he likes his top male star to be - see also Hogan and Austin), then he’s got a major star who will sell a lot of tickets and merchandise. He also needs to understand that those five women are THE stars of the division, not his plastic bimbo models. (cough Eva Marie cough)

I see nothing but upside for JJ Bagels. Both those guys were stars last night and showed they have IT. I see a long main roster tag team run followed by singles careers for both of them!

Not entirely happy they went with Finn/Joe for the winners of the tourney, but I understand that they were the only remaining Face team and they wanted that feel good moment at the end. I’m hoping that Corbin/Rhino is a long term team too, and I think it’d be good for Corbin not just to learn and be protected in that relationship, but since that match with JJ Bagels was so good, and actually made Corbin look good, I’m hoping for a good long feud between those two teams.

2955

Who were the two other ladies who came out with Dustin and Cody?

I figure the oldest one was Dustys (current? most recent?) wife. The other two were daughters of his? So Goldy and Cody’s sisters? or were they grandkids?

2956

The two rather attractive women on the left were said to be Dusty’s daughters. On the right I think was Dusty’s wife and Cody’s wife Eden.

2957

Just finished watching the replay. Not as schwifty as Brooklyn overall, but this was a great show. The women definitely dominated on this show. Asuka dresses like Ultimate Warrior, wrestles like Ultima Dragon, and throws punches like Terry Funk (and as great as Sasha/Bayley was, they could both learn a thing or two from Asuka’s strikes.)

Much feels both in the Dusty finale and in the main event finale, with Sasha going out on her back and Trips/Steph/everyone else congratulating both performers. The selling in the ironman match was amazing - you really felt at the end like both of them had given everything they had. I don’t know to what degree WWE is working things with Izzy and her family at this point (they don’t just keep getting those hot seats by coincidence, after all), but shame on Sasha either way.

2958

Apparently, at tonight’s tapings they’re going to be doing a #1 contender battle royale for the episode which will air next week, the winner of which will presumably face Finn at Takeover 8: The Sports Entertainer Who Shagged Me.

I’m still calling Joe as being the likely winner, though I do not intend on looking to find out who wins until after the episode has actually aired.

2959

Sasha apparently went over after the show and presented her own bundle of flowers to Izzy. The part during the match was a work, son.

2960

Sasha and Owens are the best heels in WWE right now.

I don’t know whether WWE is trying to cultivate the next generation of “super fan,” but I’ll take Izzy over that douche who wears the same t-shirt, or the fucking clown, a hundred times out of a hundred.

2961

I actually came in here to mention this. I forgot to say it last night, although I still don’t think it was a work. From what I can gather Izzy’s dad is pretty nice, so if I run into him at the house show next week I’ll ask him.

Are these NXT fans?