Obviously the solution is more John Cena.
Remember when the last hour of the show had its own name (“The War Zone”)?
The last hour of RAW will be renamed “WWE Attitude” - in part so that if the last hour’s ratings tank, they won’t count against Raw’s ratings as “Attitude is a separate show for ratings purposes”.
Welp, sometimes WWE strings themselves out, like they’re doing this week. Maybe it’s because the end of the year ratings will sag anyway, and the last one or two RAWs this year will be “best of.” Sometimes Vince just has to splooge every once in a while, like when he kept having his family feud on week after week, and then let cooler heads prevail when he runs out of ideas.
I think Vince likes to be challenged, and he likes to see his heirs challenged. He also remembers his position as top dog, and wants to remind everybody who signs their checks every once in a while. He’ll hire competitors and adversaries to show he’s the one who ultimately wins. Bret Hart, Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, many others, were thought to have burned their bridges with Vince, but they kissed and made up with him later. I’m sure in a few years we’re going to see CM Punk back chanting Nine Ninety-Nine on the mike.
Well that’s one of those things. WWE consumes so much of it’s “Independent Contractors” lives that for the most part, none of them know how to do anything else. When their time is up, wtf do they do with themselves? All they know is being on the move, hotel to hotel, performing in front of crowds*. I think this is why you see so many of them become agents, or come back in other capacities. It’s probably also a matter of having no idea how to manage their money and become independent while they’re earning those paychecks.
Phil Brooks seems to have a few ideas on what he can do with his life, and he certainly knows that he has enough money to not have to pimp himself out for another WWE paycheck. I won’t say he’ll never go back, but it is unlikely to be a Ric Flair/Tony Atlas situation (broke and blew it all) or going back because it’s the only thing he knows how to do.
- See Chris Jericho and Fozzy. Same thing.
I don’t know if I was just in a good mood the last couple of days, but I’ve been digging the Smackdown and the Tribute to the Troops thing. So I sat and wondered why, and I realized the common thread…they’re both only 2 hours.
I also noticed that yesterdays show actually focused on wrestling (what a concept for a wrestling show) AND the only promos/pipebombs that were given were when the wrestlers were actually face-to-face with each other and none of this damn “I’m gonna come out by myself and/or on video and say a 10 minute monologue”.
This is how to actually make a show interesting. Wonder if it’ll ever happen again
Smackdown is often like that–nothing actually happens, and they waste a bit of time recapping Raw (and anything good that happens will often be done over on Raw), but they tend to have more actual matches than talky bits. It gets a bit of a bad rap because a) nothing happens and b) it’s taped, but it’s not entirely deserved.
Well, since Knowed Out hasn’t commented on it yet, here’s my thoughts on last night’s episode of Lucha Underground;
This was a really well-booked episode all around - it carried a single plot thread from beginning to end, the matches were well-booked. I loved seeing Mascarita Segrada make a fool out of Big Ryck in the first ten-man match, and I was seriously rooting for him to win it, but alas. Nobody wrestled tonight who we haven’t already seen, but pretty much everyone got at least a little time to shine.
I’m definitely looking forward to “Aztec Warfare”, which, by its description, is basically the Boyle Heights equivalent of the Royal Rumble. I unfortunately already know who’s going to win (thanks for putting a spoiler right in the intro paragraph of the LU article, Wikipedia), but the match itself looks to be interesting - especially seeing how, as eluded to in the post-show sketch, the championship belt is in fact an paranormal object of great and terrifying power linked directly to the Aztec gods via their dark priest, Dario Cueto. Memo to Vince and company - this is how you make a championship look like a big deal to have.
This episode is the last we’ll see for a few weeks - El Rey isn’t running new episodes the next two weeks due to the holiday. I believe there’s going to be a marathon of every episode to date on either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, so for anyone out there who has El Rey and hasn’t seen the show yet, this might be a good time to set your DVRs.
TWC kept crapping out on me last night, so I didn’t see much of it. Just enough to know who won each match. I’ll catch the repeat Saturday morning. I only partially got the details behind Cuerto’s Aztec Warfare thing. Thanks for the recap, Smap.
Gold from each of the seven Aztec tribes. 
Whereas WWE made a big deal about having them special made by Orange County Choppers, whose time in the sun is past.
NXT, post ®Evolution
Much to T-Cups’ chagrin, Bayley jobs to Becky Lynch, who now draws her hair-spinning power on hate instead of fan love. The audience didn’t even chant “Bayley’s gonna hug you” during the match. Maybe the bookers are experimenting with Bayley going through a dark phase, but if she loses too much, nobody’s going to care about her any more.
Same with Enzo Amore. What is with this guy? He’s electric on the mike, gets the crowd pumped up, then loses in the most stupid and pointless way possible. He’s distracted because he wants to impress Carmella, then gets taken out by a standing clothesline? It’s like he’s not even trying. What is it, lack of network time? Giving Ascension back some heat before they have their swan song with Finn & Hideo and make the move to prime time? I’ve seen Enzo’s demo. He benches more than he weighs and can vertical jump over his height. The guy’s not a pussy, but he looks like a complete dud in the ring. Is VKM booking him?
The Bull Dempsey vs Baron Corbin feud is moving from simmer to just below the boiling point. It reminds me of the fat kid who wants to prove he’s tough, but he doesn’t dare pick fights with any of the jocks, so he goes after the rebel loner. I just hope it doesn’t lead to a 15-second match where Bull charges Baron and gets taken out by End of Days, even though that would be hilarious. It should be like the match between Owens and Neville: ugly with no clear winner.
I actually heard a small “Bayley’s gonna hug you” chant, but it was small and short-lived. Other than my love for her I am starting to get worried that she’s going to lose so often that she’ll get stale. I’m hoping they have some kind of retribution storyline ahead of her. Unless she’s going to turn heel-by-snapping (which isn’t turning on another face, but going apeshit on an enemy) she’s in trouble.
I think Enzo and Cass are being booked like the comedy duo they are. Funny stuff outside of the ring, nothing inside of it. Seriously though, who loses to a standing freaking clothesline? Even if it’s from konn/viktor it’s still just a damn clothesline. I can’t remember who here said that Karmela is gonna be their Yoko, but it’s almost turning into that. All that being said, I’m going to go with the thought of they wanted to give Ascension some good mojo going into their soon-to-be call-up, and beating a fan-favorite team gives them some heat to do it
Hey speaking of Becky Lynch…what’s up with the music change? It’s not even headbang worthy!!
I like the Baron/Bull buildup. I think NXT is taking their time with these guys, letting them build up their own squashes and stuff, and then eventually pit them together with no-calls, all leading up to a winner-take-all match at Takeover 4: The MisTAKEN Love
Neville taking on Owens as a revenge match worked well in my mind. The match itself was pretty OK too. I didn’t totally hate the double countout finish because it let both of them be strong without having to go over the other.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Charlotte loses next week. Not guaranteeing it’s gonna happen, but don’t be surprised if it does.
I think long term that Enzo is mid-card GOLD. The big mouth heel you can’t wait to see get his come-upance, who is constantly protected by his larger friend. For last night, however, I can see that they needed a victory for The Ascension over someone other than jobbers. Just who else was going to fill that spot?
And after TA leaves, what does the tag team bench look like? You have Lucha Dragons, Vaudvillains and Enzo/Cass. Hopefully they’ll get more of a chance to shine.
The real question is who the tag teams are on the main programs. Los Matadores are a joke team that would need a lot of rebuilding to move beyond Comedy Jobbers. The Dust Bros. The Ascension. The Usos. Maybe Cesaro/Kidd if they keep them together. And I think I’m missing a team in there somewhere, but that gives us 4-6 teams, which is about all there is room for. They can call up Lucha Dragons for the marketing/Rey replacement, but into an already crowded field. That means that Enzo/Cass and the Vaudvillains aren’t being called up anytime soon.
Oh, and I think the Young Bucks made the right call in turning down WWE. I don’t think WWE would really benefit them. They’d be seen as too small and too generic to get any kind of push, especially in the middle of all the teams I named above.
Duh, Miz/Mizdow.
OK, to keep this thread from getting pushed to page 2, and since nothing really interesting is going on at the end of the year, I’m going to ask the rest of you what were some of your favorite wrestling moments, whether it was on TV, a live show you attended, or maybe even participated in?
Mine goes back to sometime in the 80’s, back before the NWA was bought out by WCW. This was a Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling show me and some friends saw in the famed Dorton Arena in Raleigh NC. This was the time when the Rock’n’Roll Express, the Midnight Express, the Road Warriors, Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA and Nikita Koloff were the top draws.
A pair of undercard matches really impressed upon me at the time at how good the performers, including the referees, were at improvising and making the crowd pop without any planning beforehand.
The first match was Black Bart, with manager Skandar Akbar. I forget who the opponent was. At one point, Bart bailed out of the ring as heels are wont to do. Sitting at ringside was this corpulent black girl with a huge afro. She stood up and started yelling at Bart. He said something back at her, and she started getting all sister in his face, afro bouncing everywhere. Bart recoiled and acted like he was scared of her. The referee came over and raised her hand in victory.
In the next match, Akbar returned with another wrestler, the Green Scorpion or somebody. Basically a big dude in a green mask. His opponent was Jimmy the Boogie Woogie Man Valiant. Valiant was a fan favorite, the type who could lose every match and still be over. He had a ZZ Top type beard, and came out dancing and high-fiving the audience, bouncing that beard. When he approached where the black girl from the previous match was sitting, Akbar put his riding crop in the way. He seemed to be talking to Valiant in character, probably telling him “You stay away from her. She’s the girl who gave me so much trouble the last match.” Valiant embraced her passionately and planted a big smooch on her lips. She looked ready to pass out.
This was back before cell phones, and the heels used dressing rooms at the opposite end of the arena from the faces. There wasn’t any time for them to collaborate between matches. I don’t think the girl was a plant, as she remained there the entire time. Wrestlers just have a knack for finding audience members to stimulate and make part of the show.
Well, I gotta say that Finn Balor’s entrance to Takeover was my favorite moment for this last year. While I have occasionally watched parts of a PPV for a second time on the network, I’ve watched this match three times so far and the entrance alone another three times.
I’ve got a buddy who watches WWE and has the network, but never watches NXT. I keep telling him how he needs to watch it, because he’s really missing out.
Mine is pretty simple: It was seeing the NXT house show with my girlfriend back in October.
For those who don’t remember the opening post 11(!!!) pages ago, I am into wrestling right now because Total Divas slowly got her interested. She started watching TD, then watched RAW and Smackdown to see the characters she saw on TV, then became a regular. I watched it again cuz I used to watch wrestling and it was a fun thing to have in common. Now, more than anything else, it’s “our thing”.
As hard as it is to simul-watch when we are multiple states apart (both then and now) it was a lot of fun and meant a lot to me that we could be together and watch a show. We were together, watching OUR thing. And as much as people at work/my parents will chide me for watching wrestling…it’s the thing we do together. It really meant a lot that we could do that.
Plus we got to see some cool people: Baron Corbin, Big Cass, Charlotte, Becky Lynch, The Legionarres, Ascension, and my girl Bayley (I gave her a high-five! I touched Bayley!..Alexa Bliss too).
Oh dear. Does this mean you have to watch Total Divas? I am so sorry.
Anyway, my top moment was the SD taping I went to back in June. This was the Smackdown immediately following the chairshot heard round the world, so Triple H was there w/ his new boy, Seth “Traitorface” Rollins. I’d splurged for a great seat, so I was practically in touching distance of him when he came to the ring. Someone shouted “YOU SUCK TRIPLE H!!!” at him and he actually turned and gave him that wonderful little Triple H smile/smirk. Just a great moment.
And then the dark match at the end of the show, with Ambrose and Reigns (plus Show, who’d gotten up on the face side of the bed that morning) against the Wyatt family! Five of my favorite guys in the ring at once, tearing up the place (and there was Big Show too because reasons)! Just a great night.
I’m quite possibly heading to a house show this weekend. They’re advertising… let’s see.
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[li]Hulk Hogan!!![/li][li]Roman Reigns[/li][li]Dean Ambrose!![/li][li]Bray Wyatt![/li][li]Cesaro!![/li][li]Rusev![/li][li]Gold[/li][li]andStardust![/li][/ul]
I’m not a big Hogan mark, and find his present day antics tiresome–but he’s a legend, and it’ll be pretty awesome to get to see him live and in person. Plus Cesaro and Ambrose! And it’s not unusual for some NXT guys to work house shows (da BOSS is apparently doing some ATM), so I can cross my fingers for that, too.
So, first, off…we are on page 18! I didn’t give us all enough credit!
Second off: I rather enjoyed Total Divas for a season and a half. The first and most of the second season was great because it was literally just an introspective into the lives of the divas. It gave a fun little insight into the business too, and Jey Uso, Cena, and DB are really very funny guys and stole the show a lot.
Then during season 3 E! woke up and said “Wait! This is a reality show! We need to make shit up, inject fake drama, and make it not real!” Then it got soooooooo stupid/fake/staged and neither me nor her watch it.
There were two tipping points for me. The first was what I call “domestic violence lol” with Tyson Kidd abusing his wife Nattie. DV isn’t funny and they shouldn’t be showing it (and I think they stopped in recent months)
The second was when Nikki turned heel they made it so she was a bitch on the show too. I don’t want them to pretend the sisters are mad at each other, I want to see the meeting between the bellas and steph where they pitch the heel turn and see how it REALLY happened.
Also we expect a full report on your house show