anarchistxx

The 'nationalistic fervour' generated by competitive sport has nothing to do with the booking of Rusev - just because an international athletics event is occuring the press and media don't suddenly start spouting offensive, outdated stereotypes about entire nations of people. Not in 99% of countries anyway. The USA is probably one of the most patrotic/nationalistic/culturally insular countries in the world, so perhaps it happens there. Not even sure why this argument blew up. My only points were that Rusev was overrated as a worker, reductive as a character, fairly backwards and xenophobic in terms of presentation, not as over as people think he is (since the gimmick relies on cheap heat) and with a limited future without further character developement. People responded saying they believe he is a fantastic worker who is incredibly over. Nobody is going to be converted either way, which renders any further discussion pointless. Especially when people start to justify the archaic, casually racist attitudes in modern WWE and say they should get a free pass because the wrestling industry is notoriously sleazy and backwards.

Here is what he typed: every two years we have this massive international dickwaving contest were basically EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD treats the other as a hostile enemy You are correct - he left 'single' out.

Why should anyone get banned? I called 'Steenelized' a moron because he posted a moronic, ridiculous statement that every single country in the world wants to wave a military dick around and find a hostile enemy to bomb every couple of months as a justification for this storyline. Which proves he is either crazy or has zero knowledge of any country outside of the United States. Might have been misguided calling Dylan a WWE mark - was just going on evidence of a decade of watching him board where he regularly goes to bat for WWE workers and matches, especially in the last few years. When people start defending a character like Rusev along the lines of 'Well, WWE has always been backwards and racist so they can present as much dated, casually xenophobic television as they want' there is zero point in it continuing anyway.

There is a difference between repeating a six second catchphrase and literally running the same segment, match and promo for three months straight. Another unintentionally hilarious comment. Is it? You are a WWE mark and always have been. So lets celebrate all the racism and hate foreigners too, via the medium of prime time television! Jesus, what kind of argument is this? The growing prevalence of racism doesn't justify the presentation of such xenophobic attitudes on television - if anything it is a reason not to air this kind of gimmick, because it shows how backwards your industry and fanbase is.

You never struck me as an anarchist Dylan - if anything you regularly go to bat for the most mainstream, safe, non-anarchic promotion in wrestling.

Yes, Switzerland, Ghana, Finland, Djibouti, Fifi, Timor, Singapore, Latvia and Iceland are regularly waving their dicks around looking for a hostile enemy to attack... By writing something so ridiculous you essentially prove that people like yourself i.e. small minded, ignorant morons with zero knowledge of the world outside of America are exactly what this gimmick is aimed at. No surprise you enjoy it and don't consider it to be either stereotypical, xenophobic or outdated. Yeah, because Mohammed Hassan and Ludvig Borga drew far more money than Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar...

It doesn't really make sense in the context of the storyline though - Brock already has a rematch clause for the strap. Suppose the incentive for Money In The Bank is that he could cash in whenever he wanted.

Because the evil, foreign, America hating heel is an outdated, stereotypical, xenophobic caricature that has been dispensed with in every other form of media? It isn't any more relevant because the USA is on tense terms with Russia - the Mohammad Hassan character was still offensive even though the 'War On Terror' was in progress. It isn't as if they have made any attempt to frame Rusev in the context of current political events - they merely use the patronizing, straightforward, dumbed down conception of Evil Russian vs Gallant American as a magnet for cheap heat to capitalize on the attitude of fear of Putin and his government.

And we should just embrace and accept this? They are presenting a character in a reductionist, xenophobic, stereotypical way on a program that is by their own admission intended for children. We shouldn't give them a free pass because they have always been culturally backwards and have a history of offensive, stereotypical caricatures. Mills & Boon still sell millions of books based around stereotypical simplistic caricatures and predictable plot lines. It doesn't mean we shouldn't expect more from our literature, or criticize the dross they release even though it sells to a certain demographic. Everyone jobs to Undertaker. He beat John Cena a couple of times. He beat Dean Ambrose clean on multiple occasions when he was arguable the hottest face on the roster. His only major losses have come to veteran established talent, and on both occasions he got his win back. That is called being protected, especially in modern WWE when almost everyone jobs on television several times a year. That the feuds were lackluster is irrelevant - they were not written as such, they were written to be engaging and exciting. Quality of writing is not relevant when discussing whether someone has been protected or not. He is clearly booked as a monster heel. Every feud he has is with a face. The fact he gets cheers is down to his aura, presence and the divisiveness of his opponents. There is no argument for Brock having booked as anything other than a heel. His manager is presented as the most odious, hated heel on the roster. Point was, hardcore WWE fans tend to be pretty changeable.

It is strange how mainstream wrestling has developed, to the point where having great matches is the catalyst to popularity, rather than the traditional booking tools of wins and strong booking. A detailed thesis could be written on the impact ROH has had on modern western wrestling. Not only have they produced and developed a huge amount of stars who have dominated the top of the card in WWE, their metrics of becoming popular via incredible matches and an ambiguity pf traditional face and heel structures have been adopted on mass by the majority of live crowds. Obviously there have been other contributing factors, the ubiquity and speed of the internet turning everyone into a 'smart' fan and the trend towards smaller performers in the wake of all the premature deaths and mandatory drug testing. In retrospect, has ROH been as influential as ECW in terms of showcasing talent and influencing the style of mainstream wrestling? A few years ago that would have been a laughable question, not any more.

Strange, because the biggest boom for the industry was when the television was volatile, unpredictable, with a sense that anything can happen and you better not tune out. Churning out repetitive squash matches followed by Anti-America promos every single week isn't exactly a ratings grabber. If an evil, stereotypical, foreign bad guy appeared in a film wanting to destroy the American way of life it would be seen as formulaic, regressive and xenophobic. These gimmicks have been out of date and out of step with society for over a decade. It really isn't. You made an erroneous argument that no heels are protected in modern WWE - I gave you an example of three heels who have lost two or three times between them in the last twelve months. Three heels kept extremely strong, when every one of the top faces has done multiple jobs in that time. And everyone gets a reaction against Cena. Meaning we can't really ascertain whether the reaction is down to Rusev or not. I don't hate Rusev as a worker - he is decent, and has been part of several good matches. Just think the character is antiquated and can't last, and he isn't anywhere near the super worker the WWE marks on this board tout him to be. Nobody would hear a bad word against Bray Wyatt when I criticized him last year for the rambling promos and overrated matches, now everyone can't stand him.

Don't think Roman Reigns needs massively rebuilding. He is coming off the best two matches of his career, and looked like a tough, cool badass at Wrestlemania until the horrible finish. He is always going to get mixed reactions, but as long as he is getting reaction it doesn't matter. Daniel Bryan is about unique as a modern babyface who gets universally cheered. Reigns still has a huge role to play in the next few years at the top of the card.

Roman Reigns needs a big singles match, or he risks just rolling down the roster and becoming another guy. Is there any chance they might have Randy Orton win the title and open up fresh matches for him with Brock Lesnar and Rusev? Otherwise what can they do with him.

This is in the upper tier of crazy things I've seen posted on this board. If you don't like the gimmick or his working style I get it, but this is a guy that had an insanely over feud with Jack Swagger. At a point where entire shows were dying huge deaths with nothing getting heat, Rusev was consistently getting reactions. He was the most over heel on the roster last year by a wide margin, unless you count Brock who wasn't really a heel, or Steph who isn't really a wrestler. Zeb Colter built the Rusev/Jack Swagger feud, and it flagged massively towards the end in terms of reaction. Without Zeb as the patriotic mouthpiece whipping up the crowd his other feuds received just the average response you might expect from an Anti-American heel. Plenty of 'USA' chants, very little real engagement. Sure, he was over - the point is that it is nearly all cheap heat.

Whether I like the gimmick or not is irrelevant. 99% of people would agree that the evil foreign heel gimmick is at best dated and regressive, at worst xenophobic and cheap. The fact it makes for boring television makes it even worse. Well, no. His television segments are repetitive, whether you enjoy them or not. He did practically the same thing every week for months after debut. You can't just worm your way out of every criticism by saying 'that just comes down to you not enjoying his gimmick/those promos/those matches'. Otherwise there would be no discussion at all. My criticism was that the promos and squash matches were repetitive. The more appropriate response would be to provide evidence of variety. Again, a worthless response. I think Rusev is overrated as an in ring worker. It isn't a counter argument for you to say "you don't like his matches because you think he is a poor worker". Talk about stating the obvious. Go to bat for him, argue that he is a good worker. Because currently your argument boils down to: You don't like his gimmick, ring work, promos and booking but I do. Not much more. They have had a year to come up with interesting motivations and personality for this character, and it still boils down to evil foreign heel who stands against the American way of life. Can't agree with this. Can't remember a match of his that was molten., where the crowd really cared about the result one way or another. Rusev has just gone unbeaten for a whole fucking year - how much more shine can you get? The whole point of the evil foreign heel is that they are ultimately conquered by the patriotic, crusading top face. To quote myself: A heel who can't survive a semi-clean loss to the top face in the company isn't serving his purpose You can count on one hand the number of jobs Brock Lesnar, Rusev and Bray Wyatt have done in the last year. That is three heels who have been protected more than any face on the roster. Really don't get this 'sustained crowd push' for Rusev argument. It is the construction in the mind of people who are marks for him. Everyone gets a reaction against John Cena. He wasn't getting crazy crowd responses against Mark Henry and Big Show.

Don't think you can really describe it as 'the norm'. HHH vs Batista and JBL vs John Cena both dragged on for multiple PPVs in 2005. Wrestlemania feuds in particular tended to end in repeat matches. Rematches aren't a bad thing in themselves, it would just be better to run them at alternative PPVs, ala Kurt Angle vs Shawn Michaels - where they are kept busy with other stuff while the main feud is still bubbling underneath. It is also fine in situations like Eddie vs Rey where they introduce something to make the feud more hate filled and bring it up a level aka the custody of Dominic. That would require some long term planning and creativity. At the minute they tend to run so many repetitive segments on television hyping the same feuds.

Build the title match they have made in an interesting way. That means less random beatdowns and meaningless television matches, more actually constructing a storyline and giving some motivation and being creative. Fuck, Chris Jericho and Kane once had a match built around spilled coffee, using the incident to book a couple of weeks angle around mutilated Kane resenting smart mouth, pretty boy Chris Jericho. When was the last time someone put a bounty on someone else? When was the last time they shot on location, a brawl in a hotel or bar or out on the street? Why not have what appears to be a #1 Contender vs Champion situation start respectfully and then evolve into a blood feud with a bar stabbing or an obsession with a girlfriend and a crazy blowoff in a few months time? What happened to the 4 Horseman breaking Dusty's leg and his subsequent road to redemption? Maybe I just want different things out of wrestling than anyone else.

The emergence of 'gimmick' PPVs really devalues the stipulations themselves. Instead of being the necessary blowoff to a violent blood feud they are just arbitrary stipulations added to the match because the show demands it. You would expect them to phase them out now they aren't relying so heavily on traditional PPV buys and the boost in sales from a unique match, apparently not.

WWE divas matches are hard to rate. Often the characters are stronger than the wrestling, and almost always they are horribly constrained by time. Seems crazy that they admit to not having enough ideas to fill three hours of television, and still continue to restrict the womens matches to about three minutes. As such, they are conditioned to work messy, disorganized sprints and that carries on to the main shows when they get a few minutes more.

Not sure where you get that from. The argument is: - His gimmick is corny, archaic and has a short shelf life - His television segments are repetitive and tedious - His overrated as an in ring worker - The character has very little motivation that can connect with the audience other than reductionist nationalistic stuff - It is hard to judge how over he is with the crowd as the gimmick relies on cheap heat - A heel who can't survive a semi-clean loss to the top face in the company isn't serving his purpose Don't really buy this - the heat for his matches isn't exactly molten. Cesaro was getting much bigger reactions for a while last year.

Every year it is just rematches of Wrestlemania with an extra stip. Running the same match at three straight PPVs is symptomatic of the boring, predictable ways they book feuds. They don't have anywhere enough interesting television material to justify such repetitiveness. If they booked non linear, intertwining, intelligent angles they could have a feud run for a few months whilst alternating the PPV matches.

You legit think Lance Storm was as over as Rusev is? Lance Storm was never especially over in any guise, but he got plenty of heat when cutting anti-America promos and waving the Canadian flag around. Insulting the USA is about the cheapest heat you can possibly get in mainstream American wrestling, and really doesn't prove any particular adeptness at playing heel. It is rarely a gimmick with any long term shelf life, because the characters never have interesting, three dimensional motivations. Despite that, they clearly have plans because he didn't even lose clean at Wrestlemania. The complaints are bemusing - in just about every situation in wrestling history the patriotic top face beats the evil foreign heel at the biggest show of the year with decisive authority. Cena barely inched the victory due to outside interference and people still moan. Especially strange on a show where the heel was walking out with the world title, which is essentially unprecedented in WWE history if your name isn't Triple-H.

They got plenty of cheap boos, yes. Don't think the crowd is appreciably louder for Rusev.

Don't think we should put too much stock in Rusev getting over as a heel. Anyone can draw heat running an anti-American gimmick.

An archaic, corny gimmick as evil foreign heel. Did people expect him to have any shelf life? The best he can hope for is the Mark Henry role, credible enough to be thrown to the top if the card when they need a monster heel or to get someone over, but generally floating around in midcard obscurity. Worst case scenario he becomes a comedy character. Can't say I am too concerned either way. The repetitive way he was presented and the endless boring squash matches and outdated, tedious anti-America rubbish turned me off to the point where I always fast forwarded his television segments. On PPV he never struck me as the fantastic worker people argued he was. Crazy people on here arguing he should crush every face on the roster. There was certainly no way he should have beaten John Cena at Wrestlemania, given how the feud was built and the match was presented. He had to lose sometime, and that was the logical, cathartic end. Considering they kept him strong by having him lose through the Lana confusion and not in a clean, conclusive finish you have to think they have some plans with him going forward. Roman Reigns perhaps.