anarchistxx

WWE spends far too much time chasing hashtags.

An awful match is every possible sense. Slow, plodding, depressing, unnecessary.

Fuck me this is appalling. Depressing to watch.

Plodding, basic, heatless and short is what this match will probably be. Taker with a tombstone after about ten minutes. If they were smart they would do a Harper/Rowan run in and reform the family, Bray was at least slightly more tolerable with those guys. More workrate six man tags and less neverending rambling promos.

His match with Steve Austin at Summerslam might be my favorite of all time. Mostly Austin being a vicious, nasty, paranoid heel with some of the best punches in WWE history, and then bumping all over the place for suplexes outside the ring and getting more and more desperate and livid as the match went on...but Angle was still excellent as the fired up, passionate babyface bleeding a gusher and carrying the fight against a lowlife, cheating bastard. One of the only matches where a screwy finish was the perfect was for it to end.

Jesus that was terrible. To think they bumped so many good workers off the card for endless ads and that insufferably long segment.

It didn't have to be a self conscious epic. It just felt off - started abrubptly, ended abruptly. Thought it could have been paced differently, the build could have been better, the finish should have been more definitive. The ending should have felt a lot bigger and cathartic. None of that means t should have resorted to endless finishing trading and overkill.

Finish was poor again. Should have been far more emphatic given what was at stake, even if the right man won. The match itself was just sort of there, thought they would pull out more stops. Not even a step above what they did last month. The Sting/HHH match ended really suddenly and underwhelmingly also.

In that respect a loss could prove counterproductive. They aren't having Roman Reigns go over Brock Lesnar and then drop the belt to Rusev in the next couple of months, so he loses his heat anyway jobbing to the champion if they go that direction. This was they can rebuild him for Summerslam. Really don't think he is their hottest act either, or anywhere close. Wishful thinking from smarks who dig his act. How much of his heat is purely down to the Anti-America bullshit?

John Cena should not lose this match. The entire point of them having the first match last month was to give Rusev a big, meaningful win to minimise the damage from this loss, or they might as well have saved their first bout until Wrestlemania. No way the patriotic, crusading babyface loses at the biggest show of the year, nor should he.

Solid match from the divas. Everything was pretty crisp and impactful until it fell apart in the middle and they looked lost, just about saved it on the stretch. Other than that, Sting/HHH was a wonderful clusterfuck, sort of match that gives you a big smile live even if it will be objectively terrible on a rewatch. I'll never see it again, so fine with it for what it was, despite the underwhelming finish, Orton/Rollins was your usual solid, competent, underwhelming match Randy tends to churn out halfway down the card at every Wrestlemania. Incredible that they relegate the battle royal and the tag titles to the pre show and find time for half an hour or more of adverts, video packages and shithouse music performances.

I actually think Reigns/Lesnar will be perfectly solid. Obviously it can't be predicted how the crowd will react and/or try to derail it...if they play it straight then it will be a respectable match. Neither are terrible and both have been involved in very good matches. Can't be much worse from an in ring perspective than Rock/Cena II. They might put Sting/HHH on last anyway.

And on topic, I said in the Current WWE thread that they are ridiculously stupid for letting his run just peter out. A heel decimating and retiring pure babyface and ultimate underdog Rey Mysterio at Wrestlemania would give them a huge rub - it was tailer made for Seth Rollins to end Rey's career, especially since he has nothing else on at the show. Rey gets the big send off from the fans that way.

The Dominic feud was gold, made for some brilliantly absurd/humorous segments and I will always take outlandish, ridiculous WWE storylines over the repetitive dull dross they have been serving up in the last few years. If nothing else it gave a reason for a spectacular feud to continue right through the summer and gave us a lot more material. Plus Eddie Guerrero was brilliant and charismatic enough to carry it off. For years I have been advocating that WWE develops their storylines in a less linear, predictable way, and becomes a soap as much as a wrestling show. The ratings that angle drew is proof that the audience wants to get invested in an emotional, real angle that has elements of real life. Nothing ever feels at stake in most matches the company runs. They would be far better served using the endless television time to start scripting some proper storylines which turn the workers into more rounded characters. What do you know about Titus O'Neill or Damien Sandow or Jack Swagger? Isn't it better that these guys are presented as actual people with actual lives and hopes and dreams that go beyond the ring. If you think of a WWE feud today at the top of the card it consists of nothing more than the two workers exchanging beat downs every week, handicap matches to 'get sympathy' for the face, corny overly scripted promos that end up saying nothing etc. Give them something real to fight about, a relationship, a custody battle, a weird obsession, a neurotic crutch, an affair, an attack in a bar, a pay dispute. The angles I remember best are the little ones like Dean Malenko spying on Lita, Austin storming round Pillman's house after old friends fell out dramatically, Raven converting Sandman's son to the dark arts, Jimmy Jacobs going goth and his obsession with Lacey. WWE has shown consistently they can't so subtlety or humor or write to any vaguely competent level, so knowing that I would much rather the show ends with Paul Bearer getting encased in concrete than another screwjob finish or The Authority putting in a beat down on the faces.

It is a shame it fizzled out, especially since Rey is such a popular character and one of the only pure babyfaces they have left - imagine the rub if a heel retired him or forced him out of the company at Wrestlemania. Could have been a fantastic spot for Seth Rollins and they would have had a great match. Even a swansong against Daniel Bryan would have given them both something to do and guaranteed a show stealer. Seth Rollins retiring Rey Mysterio and cashing in Money In The Bank in the same night would have made him a star.

Roman Reigns is leaving Wrestlemania with the strap, there is no doubt about that. History tells us the face always wins the big title match. Lesnar is someone they don't trust ans can't rely on due to his limited dates, financial demands and name value elsewhere. He has the exact look they want, has a year of build as a major face, has been positioned as the new ace. It would take a major change of direction to not have him win. I wouldn't rule out a heel turn down the line if his run bombs though, and they have a lot of ready made faces to challenge, as oppose to no interesting heels other than a Lesnar rematch or HHH coming out of retirement.

There must be huge resentment in the back towards Lesnar, especially if they perceive he isn't drawing well and making them more money through a trickle down effect. One of the biggest complaints workers have about WWE is the endless, tiring traveling and you have them laying on a private jet for Brock straight to his front door.

This man gets it. I was racking my brains earlier trying to think of any examples in Puro. Ebessan?

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1gabp_rikishi-confesses-to-running-down-a_sport This seems to be the full thing for anyone who wants a humorous trip down memory lane.

Have a soft spot for this classic. Became iconic for all the wrong reasons, but still makes me smile, the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Love it when he starts rambling about Samoans being held down and meandering about former champions and the crowd are just bemused by the whole thing. His heel run went nowhere of course, which is a shame because he looked the part with the gowns and Hawaiian shirts, it did at least lead to another classic promo with The Rock ripping the fuck out of various opponents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf82jgYWJH8

Pretty sure he made plenty of money - he sure as hell didn't draw a dime for the company. His run on top was a commercial flop. This isn't a thread about mediocre workers making a lot of cash because the company force fed them into the main event, this is a thread about strange, random gimmicks that somehow got over and took on a life of their own. The JBL gimmick itself was just a Million Dollar Man rehash.

It is heartening to see the 'Give Divas A Chance' thing happening. I've been saying for a year or two now that the division is really strong and doesn't deserve the awful booking and ridiculous time constraints they have on it. It is arguable that Brie Bella v Stephanie was the best feud they have ran this decade, and if they payoff was better it would have been. They should have gone all out and had Brie vs Nicki blowoff in Hell In The Cell, might have popped a decent rating for the novelty value, would have been a huge show of faith and a fitting end for a feud that deserved it, instead of petering it out in a few short, unmemorable matches that weren't booked around a hate blood feud at all. Not as if they had anything else major at Hell In The Cell, it should have gone on last. Have Daniel Bryan and someone else in the respective corners if they want to give it more gravitas.

If WWE booking was remotely consistent or forward thinking they could have easily positioned Titus O'Neill, Sheamus, Bad News Barrett and Bray Wyatt as challengers for Roman Reigns to defend the strap through to the summer. As it stands, we can fully expect programs with Kane, Big Show and Seth Rollins that stretch on and on and on with repeat match after repeat match and the usual litany of authority beatdowns, handicap matches and 'funny, laid back' RR promos on Raw every week. Hard to disagree that the booking has hit an all time low - they have no idea what their audience wants and how to deliver it. Even HHH admits having to book three hours is horrible.

Really hoping the Prime Time Players get a decent run this time. They have the potential to be the centerpiece of the tag division, two solid workers, both have a decent amount of presence and charisma, they have a good look, can work heel or face. Titus is perfect either as the hot tag or the bully heel, Darren Young can play the fiery underdog face or the conniving cowardly heel hiding behind his partner. On a more cynical level it makes sense for the WWE as a public company who masquerades as being progressive to push a gay athlete.

Really? His run on top was a critical and commercial disaster. If it wasn't for Eddie Guerrero it would be remembered as the worst title reign in company history. And who says everything in wrestling needs to be judged by subjective reviews and box office? Some of my favourite CD's are probably from artists you've never heard of playing in coffee shops. What a strange analogy. JBL wasn't an unheard of authentic troubadour playing a coffee shop and suddenly getting his big break. He was someone who had continuously failed to get over as a singles worker and was being pushed to the moon by no popular demand, with a gimmick that got over by being tasteless and riding off the heat of Guerrero and subjected us to endless, tedious feuds with Undertaker, Booker-T and Big Show that led to some of the most unmemorable title matches in company history. He got slightly more respect from fans later on but still doesn't fit this thread at all - he wasn't a random novelty gimmick that suddenly got over, he was shoved down the fans throats. Don't buy this at all - objective success is making something out of nothing, whereas JBL was pushed to the main event straight away regardless of performance and getting over. He didn't take what was supposed to be a lower card comedy gimmick and get the crowd behind him enough that they were forced to run with it. To carry on the music analogy, he was a pop star hand picked by the record label and given the best Max Martin songs to work with to guarantee chart success. Not Bauer making a random novelty trap song and suddenly finding it at #1 and a cult classic without any promotion or aim to hit the charts. Now I'd rather listen to Arianda Grande singing Mike Will tunes than have to hear 'Harlem Shake' again, just like I'd rather watch JBL than Gillberg....still doesn't fit the thread.