My biggest takeaway of the night was that they started the show with NO PROMO! They went right into the action instead.
Plus the matches were LONG. It’s almost as if RAM is inching closer to Smackdown’s “wrestling first” mantra.
I’m surprised by Foley’s ability to cut promos. I literally never saw him do anything back in the day, so he might have always had this ability. But he never impressed me during his cameo appearances. Good on him being better on the mic than I gave him credit.
It’s still early on in it’s life…but has the brand split made both products more innovative?
I have my theories, but I’ll throw it out there for now and see what responses I get
I dunno, the Cesaro-Shaemus ending to the ‘Best of 7’ and transitioning into the ‘Odd Couple’ tag team is some of the worst crap of old. Sure, you remember the ones that worked, like Team Hell No, but for every one of those, there are a half dozen quietly thrown in the dumpster and never mentioned again.
And it is a small thing, but I can’t get past talking of ‘Gold’ when all the titles are now Silver.
White gold 
I would say SD is doing a little better than RAM.
RAM: Cruiserweights enter Prime Time, but bump midcarders like Darren Young and Titus O’Neil off the show, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. New Day’s only real competition is Gallows & Anderson. The remaining tag teams are so anemic, the Shamus and Cesaro union is formed. Women’s division still going strong. Unforeseen disasters like Finn’s injury shake things up and make Seth Rollins top face and KO a great heel champion, but Sami Zayn becomes the Dolph Ziggler of RAM. Jericho is relevant again. Reigns and Rusev are there to enhance the A-listers.
SD: Heath Slater would have remained a nobody if not for the brand split. Now he’s the top draw. Rhyno managed to latch on to his heat and enjoy a career resurgence. Better tag team situation than RAM, but not by much. Maybe if Luke Harper returns to SD, the Wyatts can bump it up a notch, but rumor has it he’s going to RAM. Women’s division is looking pretty good with Carmella, Alexa Bliss and Naomi stepping up. Nikki and Natalya are a steady foundation, and everybody loves Becky, despite how much she’s used like a doormat. Ambrose, Styles and Cena are keeping the main event picture interesting, with Orton waiting in the wings after Bray Wyatt becomes one of the voices in his head. Miz really stepped up, and his feud with Zig just took a really interesting turn. I loved the way he reacted when Dolph offered to put his career on the line for another shot at the belt. Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly…
As far as the authority figures go, Foley and Bryan keep things interesting because of their own vulnerabilities. Foley’s established his career on taking tremendous amounts of abuse and bouncing back. Hence, none of the talent are intimidated by him, and Stephanie twists his nuts, but maybe he can regain his edge somehow. Bryan keeps things jolly on SD, but Shane may as well not be there. Bryan also can’t really intimidate the talent because of his weakened condition, and all Shane’s going to do is dance in his sneakers.
I don’t know about that, but Talking Smack is incredible. I’m pretty much a workrate-only mark, and I fast-forward through virtually all promos, but I love Talking Smack!
Hee hee the Ealy brothers debut on NXT just to get a Samoa Joe beatdown? “The beatings will continue until morale improves!”
It will be interesting to see if Tye Dillinger can latch on to the lightning in a bottle that is Bobby Roode. They’ll have a breakup and feud after this no doubt, but that means good things for Tye.
Hey STC, have you seen Dan Matha in action yet? Is he the one with the really big hands who does claw holds? I love claw holds.
I didn’t catch NXT yesterday cuz Ms. Cups was visiting a friend for dinner, which means the TV is open for me to play video games for 3 hours and I’m not missing that opportunity!
Was he on the show? I can tell you that I haven’t seen him in person under that name, but I might have seen him before with his name changed. If he was on the show, let me know who he was and I’ll look for him tomorrow.
Oh, btw, tomorrow we’re going to see a house show. I’ll report on any breaking news/super interesting things.
Lastly, Bound for Glory is this Sunday and I think Ms. Cups and I are going to camp outside of Universal early and will try to get in.
Check out his “Cane Dewey” promo from ECW.
Yeah, I’m definitely interested in that one. I wonder if they’ll go with the pre-packaged Perfectly Glorious or latch onto the crowd created Glorious 10. 
I sincerely hope that they go far in the tournament and get some good moments. But as far as I’m concerned, this is Gargano and Chiampa’s year! 
Does this mean they announced the tag-teams for the dusty tournament this year?
A couple of them.
Keep an eye on news reports. As of right now, it appears TNA does not have the money to actually put on Bound for Glory or the next set of TV tapings.
Lots of reports coming out with updates, often contradictory, on what’s going on with attempts to sell the company. Billy Corgan might buy them, maybe Aroluxe, maybe WWE if neither of the above. Some reports of talent’s flights being cancelled, other reports that they aren’t, so who knows. Also a report that Galloway is injured and may not be there regardless.
So who knows, maybe Bound for Glory will happen, maybe it won’t, or maybe you’ll be there to witness HHH give the lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins a Pedigree.
So, how much worse do audiences need to get before WWE starts doing something about it?TJ Perkins wins the CWC and then gets BOOED because the crowd is butthurt he beat Ibushi. Now, from what I understand, the crowd has been largely uninterested in the Cruiserweights so far on Raw.
And NXT is god damn near unwatchable now. Hostile chants, thinking they have to be a part of every entrance, screaming at wrestlers trying to do promos. It’s getting fucking out of hand.
I’m a part of a wrestling facebook group with a majority of us living down here. It’s funny to see how it went from lamenting that they can’t get tickets to Full Sail tapings because it’s awesome and they want to go to badly, to refusing to go there anymore because the crowds are so terrible.
It’s honestly why Ms. Cups and I never go to taping anymore. I can’t stand the people that are there. They’re always the same ones (skinny black girl with glasses and her crew, bearded guy and his crew) and they just ruin it for everyone. Hell, even Izzy isn’t the worst offender of them anymore. Our saving grace is house shows because they’re much more tame and actually react to the WRESTLING.
I’ve been pretty vocal about how much I hate the crowds for a while now. Not even down here, but at RAM and Smackdown tapings too. I don’t care if you chant or want to express your opinion, but do it in a way that actually conveys your message and not just so you can get attention.
Wrestling is as much a performance art as travelling comedy club circuits or broadway acts. There’s going to be different audiences and cultures, and the performers have to learn to adapt. NXT is going to be full of smarks and cult audiences, whereas RAM and SD road shows are going to have families and kids who react differently. The NXT callups, and by extension the CWs, are largely unknown to the mainstream audiences.
I watched the Dinner For 3 segment which former 4 Horsemen personalities Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, and Arn Anderson. This was back in the days where they didn’t break kayfabe, and audiences were supposed to cheer faces and boo the heels. Nevertheless, they had a fan following of frat boys who dressed like them and appeared at ringside to cheer for them. It’s the Hans Gruber effect; the villain is so cool, he steals the show. So, you’re going to get the iconoclast audience members who defy the common convention, and performers have to figure out how to deal with that.
There was a link to Mick Foley’s infamous Cane Dewey promo upthread. I read in Foley’s book that he had turned heel in ECW, and he had to figure out a way to get the audience to hate him, but these were savvy ECW fans who usually cheered the bad guys. He knew they hated Eric Bischoff, and having just left WCW, Foley made it look like he was a WCW mole, invading ECW for Bischoff’s sake. He’d mock the hardcore style by flossing his missing teeth with the mike cord and yelling “I’m hardcore! I’m hardcore!” He’d feign doing some kind of illegal move but do a boring headlock instead. He’d wear T shirts with Bischoff’s face on them with the words “Forgive them Eric, they know not what they do.” He said the guy who made the “Cane Dewey” sign that inspired the above promo later came up to him and apologized, but Foley just let it roll.
Just remember, to the wrestlers, ANY reaction is better than NO reaction.
NXT ratings are way down too.
Honestly, they seriously need to do something about that crowd, but I don’t know what they can do. The major drawback of having all your tapings be in one small place, I guess.
I dunno, before a show, come out and let them know that they’re too hostile, driving people away and if they don’t shape up, WWE will start banning individuals from the shows for poor behavior? Fuck, do that and have 15 guys ready to walk out and haul out anyone who gets too angry and vocal about being told they’re behaving badly.
How do you know they’re down? If it’s not on TV it can’t be reported or anything…
Although if that’s true, it’s funny to me because I warned everyone this would happen.
You beg and you plead so hard for these people to be called up. Then, once they are, you stop watching NXT because the quality is down and the people aren’t good. What the hell did you expect? You know why your AA baseball team won the world series one year, then didn’t break .500 the next? Because when all the good people are gone, you’re left with the rookies and greenies.
Jamie Noble stabbed twice. Where else? A West Virginia trailer park. :smack:
Went back looking for the NXT ratings thing and can’t find it now. It said they were down 25%.
apropos of nothing: Happy 100th page everyone