You are pretty close actually, it does pain me deep inside when my girl loses, but if you need to turn heel, hitting a poor defeated defenseless Bayley is certainly the way to do it. From a personal investment (re: my love for Bayley) standpoint I hate it. From a storyline standpoint I liked it (although I did meet/talk to Becky before the house show I went to and she was quite nice)
I thought of you Knowed Out (omg…I literally just now realized your username is a play off “no doubt” ha…) during the Enzo/Cass segment because you did indeed call it. I hope that they DON’T kill that team because they are both Gold together, and I can’t imagine they’d be very good apart.
I thought it was so so stupid for Itami to come out and do what he did. It didn’t even establish anything! Ascension squashed some jobbers (two more guys I saw at the house show albeit apart) then beat up one guy. Who’s supposed to look impressive here? The dominant team being nobodies? who then beat up one guy? The one guy who stupidly ran in to get his ass kicked? It’s like they had him run out so that we didn’t forget they were feuding. Itami shoudl have either cost the boys a victory, or The Ascension should have beating a REAL team (Enzo/Cass, Vaudevillians) to establish dominance again.
I can’t imagine they’re doign a face turn for Breeze. I think it just LOOKS that way because STAY HYPED was being a creepy stalker, and Breeze is pretty over with the fans. I mean, Breeze hurt the guy…what’s more heel than that? (other than attacking my future wife Bayley)
Lastly, I’m gonna cuz Neville a little slack on his moveset and I think it’s far from stale. Why everyone thinks he’s stale right now is because he plays to his competition, and a failing Titus O’Neal isn’t that. Remember how good the triple threat was with Tyson and Zayn? Once the Zayn rivalry hits, I think we’ll be more impressed with his high-flying antics since the falls that lead up to them will look more organic.
Whew this was long…I still have a whole day to go today. I’ll be back later this afternoon to do my HIAC picks (That will be SO much more accurate than others on this thread hehe)
Kinda hard for Riley to be egotistical when like on the last PPV they were making jokes at his expense about how he has never held gold. (“I’ve held the Intercontinental Belt, how about you?” “Yes, I’ve held the IC title too. How about you, Alex? No? lol”) If he was a repeat champion of some level, I might take his egotism seriously, but he’s not.
Was last night’s episode the first time they’ve had Byron Saxton as ring announcer? Because he’s good. Howard Finkel good. Considering that Justin Roberts isn’t with the company anymore, I can see him getting fast-tracked to announcing for the main roster if he’s capable of delivering on a consistent basis like he did on this episode.
Me Vs. Smapti! Head-to-head! TO THE DEATH! (or just for bragging rites) Cena/Orton In Hell In A Cell: I agree with my rival here for basically the same reasons. I think there is going to be a split in The Authority, and both Rollins and RKO are going to split off and face each other. Leaving the Authority as Trips, Steph, Kane, Nikki, and someone new they’ll adopt who I can only hope and pray is Reigns. Cena wins to send him Brrrrrrrrrock’s way and RKO goes on to face Rollins. Also gonna say Rollins interferes in this.
Ambrose/Rollins in Hell in a Cell: This is gonna be a barnburner. Ambrose wins, RKO and maybe even the whole Authority interfere and really all hell is gonna break loose. Someone is jumping from the top of the cell. Count it.
Sheamus/Miz for the US title: This is gonna be a good match because of one Damien Mizdow. Look for Mizdow to get in the match in some form or fashion, pin Sheamus, and win the title for himself/Miz. Then he’s gonna wanna keep it, and we have a new Rivalry.
Cesaro/Ziggler for the IC title: This is going to be a fun match that has a pretty dumb gimmick. This is a two-out-of-three falls match. Which means it’s a someone gets a pin, the other gets a pin, and then the match actually starts. The only way I can maybe see this NOT happening is if they stick this in the middle of the card for time. Need less time? Boom two in a row. Need more time? Use all three. Unfortunately for Zigs/IWC, I think he loses
Big Show/Rusev: A winner for Rusev (bru ha-ha). I don’t know when he’s going to lose, but I think it won’t be for a while although…DISSENTING OPINION ALERT…I think it should be soon. His gimmick is getting stale to me because he’s doing the same thing every week and his motivation is lacking now. Lose it to Show? Doubt it (although I wouldn’t hate it) I don’t know who he would lose it to though at this rate it’s probably gonna be Reigns
Bella vs. Bella: Obvious winner is Nikki because there is no way that Brie is in her character to be mean enough to have this “sister-is-my-bitch” thing. I think this will be a clean finish and will have oh so many repercussions (re: total divas BS)
Cosmic Weirdos vs Usos: Really…I just don’t care. I love Goldy, and Stardust is fun, but I miss “The Brotherhood” honestly and I don’t like the guys as heels. The Usos are fine for who they are, and I know that this is really match due to lack of anyone else. But I want to know why? Why kill Rybaxel? (who actually looked good for a bit) Why kill the Wyatts? So for sake of storyline I saw the Brothers win and retain.
Paige vs Aj: I don’t care about this one really either because right now this feud is Cena/Orton with boobs. These girls are feuding a lot, they keep trading the belts, this match won’t be the end of their feud so I’m not putting much credence in the end. I say AJ wins because she’s a bit more over now. I’ll chalk this up to another lack of talent. They have two divas divisions now that they have the “Total Divas” division and the “Champions” division, and apparently want to keep them separate.
That is a possibility I had not considered. The idea of Sandow stealing the pin and proclaiming himself the new US Champion is both absolutely hilarious and completely in character for him, and it would definitely make for an interesting feud if he and Miz continued dressing the same and using the same moves.
Then you need each guy to have feuds with other also-rans/midcarders (Bo Dallas, Big E etc.) and they go to each other’s respective feuds because they think it’s THEIR feud.
I dunno, I don’t see Ambrose winning just yet. Shenanigans will happen somehow. It’s like someone said in one of those WWE Network shows I was watching about some of the 80’s and 90’s stuff. You wait until everyone is demanding that the face win, then you wait some more. That way it really means something when it finally happens. That’s pretty much what they did with DBD, even when it went way too long and pissed everyone off.
We get Survivor Series next, then TLC. I see that feud continuing through those events.
Daniel Bryan wasn’t genius booking by WWE, they legitimately thought that he couldn’t carry the torch and it was really only after Punk left that they realized they had nothing there and had to do something.
Here’s an interesting take on DB that I personally realized a couple weeks ago. DB has been gone from TV for a while, and I really just do not miss him. I loved him at the time and was rooting for him, but I don’t see that much of a gap now that he’s gone.
Punk on the other hand? I miss him. I had berry berry little time with Punk before he quit, but I think that he really is needed now and that the Authority/Vince was right with DB. He wasn’t fit enough to carry the load
It wasn’t even that, so much as it was that their attempting to put Batista over as a face completely and utterly failed. He was supposed to be the returning hero who won the Royal Rumble and took the belt back from Orton and the Authority, but the crowd utterly refused to accept him after he basically waltzed in and got handed the victory over Punk and Reigns (and Bryan who didn’t even appear in the match), and his acting like a total douchebag to the crowd after the cameras went dead and on social media afterward didn’t help.
With Punk gone, and Batista flailing to the point that Alberto Del Rio got the biggest pop of his career for giving him a chairshot at Elimination Chamber, they had no choice but to go with Plan C.
His wrestling career only lasted 5 minutes, so he doesn’t have that kind of cred anyway. I’m thinking he’s got the looks and the personality to pull off being an arrogant and annoying know-it-all commentator, kind of like Maggle Cole when he was a heel announcer, but less whiny.
I think he and Matt Bloom would be perfect foils for each other. Bloom would crack one of his corny jokes, and Riley would tell him “Oh my god, shut up you stupid fat disgusting pig!” But, I’m just an armchair booker.
Ok, watched Smackdown for the first time in a while. Never get to see much of RAW because I game that night. First shot at a review;
Ambrose cut a good promo, and I like the Dean Ambrose/Anarchy symbol. Don’t need to change it as he switches between face and heel. Rollins was ok. Standard “it was all ME!!!” promo telling the story of the villain who pretended to be a brother to get what he wanted before stabbing the hero in the back. They are actually telling a story, so I give WWE credit for that, I just wish the mid-card had more stories.
While the original plan with Damien Mizdow was probably to help Miz gain heel heat, as JBL said, Mizdow is overshadowing Miz and getting over with the audience. If this isn’t leading to a Sandow face turn and feud with Miz, then Vince is senile.
Ok, the Bo Dallas promo with the Dust brothers worked for me.
And I missed AJ’s face turn somewhere. Decent enough match with AJ selling until the sudden face victory finish.
I like the Bray Wyatt clip. He really does benefit from being away and the tweak to his character. Always an awesome character, but feuding with Cena and Jericho did him no favors and the promos were getting monotonous. They damn well better put him on the winning side of a couple of feuds in a row leading to some kind of gold. Imagine him holding the IC or US title for upwards of a year, defeating all comers with mind games and trickery. It would mean something when someone took it away from him, and those belts need that. You can’t do that with a year long Kofi Kingston or even Shaemus run. I think you could do it with Bray. Oh hell, give him both belts if you intend to unify them (maybe a couple of months apart), and let him hold them separately until the face finally takes them away, when you go to the single belt.
Big Show soldier promo. Ugh. I like Show, but this story is crap and that went on too long. I switched over to X-Men: First Class.
Wait, roughly a minute into the match and that generic announcer guy is saying Ziggler can’t put Cesaro away? WTF? Dumber in hindsight when the match was given 10 minutes. Anyway, it was a good match and I’m glad both guys are wrestling for gold, even if there isn’t a lot of story to it.
All those awesome female wrestlers and we get the Divas. Natty, Charlotte, Paige, Emma, Baylee, AJ… Ok, I guess we did get the AJ/Paige story earlier tonight, but any other company could build an entire division on those six women and never look back.
Bo Dallas gets his fourth win over Mark Henry. Pretty good of him to be putting Bo over. Wish I could trust it was leading somewhere.
Two out of three falls for Cesaro-Ziggler at the PPV. Only if they give that enough time.
Rollins promo was ok for what it was, but way too slow paced. Unexpected Ambrose was expected. You know, if they just let Ambrose be Ambrose and not try to make him be Piper or Austin, he can end up as iconic as those two. But any way, Holy Fuck are they putting over Ambrose, and that is a good thing.
Great news! Paige is joining Total Divas. So is Alicia Fox! Isn’t that great?
You’ve got to cut Neville some slack on this one–man was wrestling Titus O’Neill. I know great wrestlers can often get good matches out of shite opposition, but I don’t think you can hold it against a guy when he can’t. Anyway, that feud’s blown off (I hope) and we’re moving on.
Argh, that was painful to watch. Just because Big Show appeared in a couple other shows and a straight-to-DVD doesn’t mean he should be allowed to act.
I liked most of it, but hated the ending. Beyond his creepy videos, I don’t care for that character. All I care about is matches, and none of his have impressed me.
The Main Event reminded me of the first HIAC. The fall from the side, the monster ruining the finish, etc.
