I dunno, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t complain about finding glitter in my bed days later…
I would not be at all surprised if Vince totally does not get Bayley at all and has no idea what to do with her to the point of destroying her character with inconsistent promos and behavior. Not like there isn’t huge (repeated) precedence for that kind of thing.
This was a pretty good episode of Lucha Underground all-around.
The four-way fight at the beginning did a great job of building up Cage as a Ryback-ish superheavyweight. As I mentioned before, he briefly wrestled in NXT years ago (and in fact he’s a former tag team champion with Justin Gabriel) and has appeared in TNA as recently as last June, but is mainly known in the west coast indy circuit. His opponents, Aerostar, Argenis, and Angelico, are all veteran AAA midcarders. Angelico (the white guy from South Africa who wrestled without a mask) is the only one of them to have held a title, but they all did a great job both against each other and putting Cage over, and I hope we see more of them. His appearance at the end of the show, attacking and powerbombing Puma after his win, was almost note-for-note identical to the finish of last night’s NXT show with Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, which is interesting since the NXT show was filmed in December and this LU show was filmed all the way back in October. One almost wonders if WWE had a plant in the audience at this show and copied the finish with the intent to air it on the same night.
The promo segment with Chavo and Blue Demon Jr. was short and to the point, and WWE could learn something from how tightly it was produced - a segment like that on Raw would run 25 minutes, with a commercial break in the middle, and end on a DQ. I got a chuckle from how they pixelated Blue Demon giving Chavo the bird after they had allowed the “HOLY SHIT!” chant from the crowd to go uncensored.
One thing I noticed in this episode is that there are definitely some production upgrades here as opposed to in the previous episodes. There are camera angles we haven’t seen before (like the shot down the entry stairs looking towards the ring), and there is now an actual entry ramp that some of the wrestlers are using. This was used to good effect in the Cuerno/Drago match, where Cuerno, the heel, entered down the ramp, and Drago, the babyface, came in through the bleachers, with the crowd. It almost harkens back to the territorial days before kayfabe was public knowledge, when the heels and faces would have separate locker rooms and enter from opposite sides of the arena. Fenix diving off Dario Cueto’s office into the table with Cuerno on it was an absolutely insane move, and I can’t even guess as to who that move legitimately hurt more.
The main event was a great face vs. face showdown, and the finish and again I can’t help but wonder whether WWE planned it to air their own face vs. face world title match on the same night as this one. Could the Wednesday Night Wars be a new boom era for wrestling? As mediocre as main roster WWE programming has been lately, this really is a good time to be a wrestling fan when on one night you have two nationally-televised promotions putting on tightly-produced, ring-action-centric shows.
Full Sail U probably provides interns for NXT production, so that may be why the camera seemed a bit off. They probably develop the entrance videos as well. I wish I had that kind of arrangement when I went to animation classes.
And we just cracked 1000 posts in this thread. MAGGLE!
God you’re telling me! I went to a TCOM school (best in the midwest!) and we could help ESPN sometimes, but that’s about it…nothing nearly as stable as a show every week.
1000 posts woo hoo! This is the most successful thread I’ve ever started!
As hot as Bayley is, she would instantly be 1000x hotter if she did a heel turn. Start dressing in black, put some evil-ish makeup on? Sha-wing!
Oh, I forgot to say: I’m officially seeing my first RAW!! My girlfriend got tickets for the go-home show before the new “Fast Lane” PPV that will be in Orlando in mid-February. I don’t want to make you guys jealous, but we’re going to a wrestling show as our Valentine’s date. She got the tickets and hotel, I got her a Dean Ambrose shirt and dinner. I’m excited
That sounds like a nice romantic evening, T-Cups. Too bad Great Khali is gone. You could have wound up on his kiss cam.
Be sure to bring an obnoxious-looking sign so we can identify you in the audience.
Wednesdays are now the greatest day in all of wrasslin–the only question is whether to watch NXT or Lucha Underground “live”. (Cageside has an NXT live thread, so I choose it. YMMV.) If they moved RoH to Wednesdays on my local station I could just have a whole big personal three hour supershow a la Raw. So far as a Wednesday Night War goes–if we were talking about Vince, I would say that I doubt he’s even aware Lucha Underground exists; he barely knows TNA exists, and it’s the official #2 promotion (both in size/success, and in the way Johnny Mundo wound up the ahem #2 competitor in Aztec warfare). Since we’re talking NXT, it is, at least, not outside of the realm of possibilty. I don’t know that WWE had signed its new contract w/ NBCU when LU taped, but spoilers are all out there because taping, so it’d only need to’ve been set up by the last taping. I don’t know if HHH would make it personal the way Vince did, though–I think he might actually reach out and develop a relationship w/ LU.
I don’t share the opinion on Balor’s finisher–having some dude jump on your chest with both feet from the top rope looks suitably devestating, and unlike most high spots, you can easily recover if the opponent rolls out of the way. Makes it all that much more effective. I was also quite happy with the match in general–Tyson [del]Katt[/del] cut a promo on Balor last week, which gave us enough justification for the match this week, and the match itself was strong. They were both working pretty stiff, as I recall–as SCSA likes to put it, you couldn’t see any light in between them. Balor proved himself as a solo performer (like we had any doubt?). Did what it needed to do. Not every match needs to be part of a feud; sometimes they can just establish a character.
I should probably recuse myself from commenting on Corbin/Dempsey, because I want the man-baby to never be on my TV again, and whenever Baron Corbin shows up, my eyes turn into little hearts, anime style. Seriously, that man can be the end of my days any time he wants. Whatever. Hopefully Bull gets sent off to redevelopment limbo where they find something different for him. I remain a little bit worried about Corbin, as we still haven’t seen much of what he can (or can’t) do, but… dammit, the world gets all distorted when you’re trying to see out of heart-shaped eyes.
The ladies tag match was fine, hopefully setting up $a$ha Bank$ for a successful title attempt. Much though I love Charlotte, and little that I want to see her demoted to Raw/SD, I’m not sure there’s much for her to do in NXT.
Main event was great, because of course it was. I don’t have a lot of specific memories here, because of that rat fink backstabbing jerkface Kevin Owens. The man is getting what sounds like legit heel heat from Full Sail. Full Sail! The smarkiest bunch of smarks to’ve ever smarked out! It’s fantastic.
Lucha Underground. What is there to say? Everything about this damn show is fantastic. Except maybe CAGE’s promo skills. Since we still have managers in Lucha Underground, I wouldn’t mind it at all if he got one. Or, as suggested over in the comments to Brandon Stroud’s review, give him a cyborg gimmick. Or make him the modern Songbird from Bioshock Infinite; show [del]Dario Cueto[/del] El Mariachi Loco playing C-A-G-E to him before luchas.
Also, gotta say–as between NXT and Lucha Underground, I think LU is the stronger candidate for a move to two hours. There are a lot of balls in the air, and I want to see all of them touched on every show. NXT doesn’t have the depth in the TV roster yet, I think.
The new SD had some interesting developments here and there, but was largely the same. No more Tom Phillips, and now Byron Saxton is doing heelish commentary while Jerry Lawler is doing color, with double his usual allotment of corny jokes.
DB looked a little slower on the uptake than usual in the opening match with Kane, but then made up for it in the six-man. I’ve always liked his running scream into a corner drop kick, and his alliance with Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns works.
While I admire Seth’s in-ring talent, I can’t help but think he’s going to suffer a Drew McIntyre-type fall from grace soon. Even though he’s being set up as the odds-on favorite over Cena and Brrrrrrock at RR because the Authority is stacking the deck in his favor, there’s also the prevailing rumor that Roman Reigns will be headlining against Brrrrrock at WM. Although Rollins showed good heel strategy by threatening to take out Paul Heyman prior to RR, Brrrrrock is still half again his size and has a neck as big as Seth’s waist. Vince would surely want a bigger name to defend the belt at WM.
Anyhoo, as long as I’m speculating, let’s try this for a topic: How are Ziggler, Ryback and Rowan going to be included in Royal Rumble?
I’m thinking that since WWE usually has to call in old veterans like Hacksaw Jim Duggan and JBL to make the 30 count, the three firees will discreetly take their place. When the buzzer goes off, Hacksaw’s music will play, but it will actually be Rowan coming out with the 2x4 and the American flag. Instead of Ric Flair, it’ll be Dolph, and instead of Road Warrior Animal, it’ll be Ryback. Something like that. What say the rest of ye?
Anyone catch that Smackdown last night?
Best RAW in ages!
Started off with DB vs. Kane that predictably ended with the Authority ruining the party, then having DB fight back, run away, get pursued and who comes out of the back to help? None other than Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. Because of this HHH announces a 6 man tag later on in the night. Very nice.
Had a really good promo piece from Haymen (or Hayman? I never know) and Rollins that involved Rollins “cashing in” his MITB (then not…apparently) and Haymen…man…PH eventually said some double-talk about him having power and being on Rollins’ side or whatever.
An Uso/Mizzuz match where Miz actually used Mizdow as a stunt double to win! Although honestly the dancing Hawaiian kid probably stole that show. Oh wait, this was a mixed tag cuz Cameron and Naomi were there. They’ve done this a couple times, it’s been pretty neat.
A divas match between a Bella and Nattie. Nattie won, good for her.
The final match was a good one. DA took a lot of the bumps and it ended with a DB win! Then Trips ominously said "ok you won this time, but next week right here on Smackdown you’re gonna have to do it again. Beat Kane, good. Lose to Kane…and you’re not allowed in the Royal Rumble (bum bum buuuuuuummmm)
I’m glad to see them making Smackdown relevant again. I was not watching when Smackdown and RAW were two different brands. Can anyone tell me how that went? I think it would be a good idea for them to break the two up again, but would that mean if, say, Ambrose was on Smackdown, that I would literally never see him on RAW? or did they sometimes co-mingle? They are telling this DB storyline (a huge deal) solely on Smackdown right now, which compells me to watch every <Ryback>THURSDAY!</Ryback> whereas before I would watch Smackdown if I happened to be bored with the Playstation/Girlfriend was out with friends.
ETA, Responding to KnowedOut: I agree that DB looked a bit off, but that’s to be expected. GF was saying how fat he looked (she said it like 5 times). As for the Rumble, GF also said that she almost wishes they wouldn’t announce who is in it and make it a complete surprise. Because Goldy/Stardust and the Usos can say all they want that they’re gonna win, but they’re not and I don’t actually care. Having it be a total surprise makes it much more fun. Your Rumble idea sounds interesting, but I can’t see it happening. I would have to think on it a bit to see who is going to round out the 30 and how those guys will be included
T-Cups: They tried splitting the rosters for a while, then they kept making “trades” and switching wrestlers over. The old WCW world title was the Smackdown title, and the old WWF belt became the RAW belt. They split up tag teams like the Dudley boys and tried to develop them as singles stars, but it usually didn’t work. Eventually, the moneymakers like Cena and whoever would appear on both shows, and the concept of split rosters slowly dissolved away.
Paul Heyman said in Steve Austin’s podcast that they really were competing against each other internally, but they also spied on each other and caused a lot of internal strife.
If NXT keeps getting better and more popular like it has been, that may as well be the new brand split for this generation.
Speaking of NXT, it was announced at last night’s tapings that Takeover 4: The Wrath of Kevin will be happening even sooner than we thought; it’s been scheduled for February 11th, just under four weeks from now. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens is the only match that I’d say is a lock so far. I’ve avoided reading any other spoilers other than that there was apparently a title change at last night’s tapings - I don’t know which one and I’m not going to peek, but I’m going to guess that Charlotte finally laid down for Sasha and we’re going to see Sasha vs. Bayley at Takeover.
Who the Lucha Dragons could be facing, I have no clue - maybe the Vaudevillians again, or maybe Enzo & Cass for a face vs. face showdown, or maybe they could make a team out of Curtis Axel and Tyson Kidd.
Damn. They’re going to have to build some storylines fast–that’s less than a month.
They have a good amount of storylines going, the only one they dropped the ball on (Especially if the taping is happening this quickly) is Corbin/Bull.
KO/Zayn
Luchas/Vaudevillians
Corbin/Bull
Finn/Tyson
Hideo/(who is this again? I can’t remember)
Becky and Sasha/Charlotte and Nattie/Bayley
Tyler Breeze/The Bald dude from the Legionnaires
Even if a title changes hands beforehand, I think that there is plenty to fill the space. The only one left out was Neville, who could easily be inserted in to the title picture as a triple-threat.
According to the taping reports, it looks like Corbin lost his first match since his repackaging - to Adrian Neville.
Dammit, could we spoiler box spoilers?
Anyway, of the feuds Sirty listed…
I’d like a slower build for Zayn/KO. Then again, this may be the beginning of another year long story like Zayn’s title quest.
It’s not at all clear Lucha/VV isn’t blown off–IIRC, we haven’t revisted it since the rematch.
Corbin/Bull sure as hell looks blown off, and Bull should be heading to redevelopment limbo.
Weren’t you just the one complaining that Finn/[del]Katt[del]Kidd had no story? At present, I don’t see this as an ongoing feud, though they can make it one next week.
I don’t think Hideo is working a program w/ anyone right now? Obviously made one hell of an impact on me if he is.
The ladies’ match is probably about ready to go–expect a Sasha/Charlotte title bout, w/ Sasha going over.
Prince Pretty/The Hunchback of Notre Full Sail will need to be built up pretty quickly to be ready for mid-Feb.
There seems to be an advantage to taping a couple of months worth of episodes in advance, aside from leaks of match outcomes WHICH SHOULD BE ENCLOSED IN SPOILER TAGS, CHIMERA! 
Since there’s no reason to consider real-time current events, it prevents the Vince McMahons from making last-minute changes to capitalize on twitter trends. It promotes long-term thinking instead of spur-of-the-moment revision, and allows the performers more personal time. If needed, they can do retakes to fix mistakes.
The result is a much more tight and energetic show, but a large part of wrestling is putting on live performances without so much planning. Plus, the semi-live shows play to different audiences every episode, whereas the taped shows play for the same savvy studio audiences.
It is, after all, <harp chord> a performance art. <cloak swoop> ACTING! BRILLIANCE!
Nope, my complaint was the Finn’s finisher sucks and needs a cooler one (with a cooler name to boot).
I rather like a Tyson/Finn story. I think they are good high-energy wrestlers who could give a good performance (Especially if they need to kick it up a notch)
The only downside of that would be it would keep Tyson in NXT and not elevate him to the main roster which he deserves
FTFY.
Anyway, Tyson’s been jobbin’ and doing stupid Total Divas related crap on the main roster plenty (though mostly on the C-shows). One of the nice things about NXT’s taping schedule is that it’s easy for guys who have been demoted to the main roster to pop down to Florida, do the tapings, and then get back to doing Looney Toons themed promos and/or jobbing out to R-Truth.
The shatting on them JBL does, it doesn’t even make sense. Their first night on the roster they squashed the guys that had been tag champs at the start of the show.
Though I am amused that they’re now calling the Powers of Pain a legendary team. Road Warriors, yes, Demolition, HELL YES, Powers of Pain, meh.
It has been reported that at tonight’s Lucia Underground tapings…
Alberto Del Rio/El Patron made his debut, for an episode to air early next month.
Called it.
Don’t blame him for taking everything he can while he’s a hot commodity. WWE wrecked him as a face.