southofheavy

My biggest takeaway from the Reigns/Rusev thing is that the audience is STARVED for the new guys being pushed to the top. The same thing happened with The Shield vs. The Wyatts.

Nah. Dallas Winston.

It needs the next Hogan/Rock/Austin. It also needs a viable 2nd national promotion as competition, though I don't think that's possible without there being another boom. I agree with BillThompson that the boom is going to happen organically. It isn't anything that can be forced. WWE is in a stable period, but they could be doing a whole hell of a lot better if they'd get out of their own way. Stop scripting promos, and if someone can't hang on the mic, put 'em with someone who can. If someone's getting over, get out of their way and facilitate it. Shitcan the Hollywood writers. Wrestling needs to be booked by people that get wrestling. The presentation needs to be drastically overhauled. Give King, Cole, and JBL the boot. I know they've got Vince in their ears every step of the way, and maybe that's the problem, but as it stands, they're unbearable and they get in the way of the matches and wrestlers. A big thing for me is the music. If there's one thing that really shows how out of touch WWE is, it's their tunes. They're blasting Nickelback and that shit is for basic moms and dads wearing khaki shorts with their shirts tucked in. The Smackdown theme gets stuck in my head far too often and makes me want to put my head through a wall. The only good songs the company has used in the last few years are "Cult of Personality," which came out in the late 80s, and The Wyatts' theme. A good point was brought up in the Current WWE thread about the women's division. They're leaving money on the table by not presenting it in a serious manner. The announce team checks out when Paige is on the screen. If they're gonna treat it like an excuse for a piss break, the audience is gonna follow suit. Also, Cruiserweight division. They've got enough guys in the company that can haul ass in the ring to make it work, and there are plenty of dudes in the indies/Japan/Mexico to keep it fresh.

At some point could be two years from now. Reigns hasn't shown that he's capable of an epic singles match yet. He could very well be carried to one, but Batista ain't the guy that's gonna get that done. Plus, I don't think anyone gives enough of a shit about Batista to even waste time trying to build something. Throw the match out there and use it to build Reigns up now.

I don't think wrestling or anyone involved in it should even be worried about it. There are a metric ton of improvements that can be made to what's currently going on which could lead to expanding the audience. Pretty much all of them have already been laid out in this thread. That said, the mainstream is never going to fully embrace wrestling, and that's totally okay. It can exist on its own. It could be existing far better, but it doesn't necessarily need to move into a higher tax bracket to make it so. Embrace what brought ya to the dance.

Is resenting his deal really a thing? Like, people feel that way?

For me, CM Punk vs Steve Austin, just for the promos alone. Ain't happening. As far as the current roster goes, Bryan vs Lesnar has to happen, and it'll rule when it does. I'd like to see a sustained program between The Shield and The Wyatts ending in a blowoff that isn't a wrestling match so much as it is an insane brawl with some blood. A Cena heel turn is a dream match in itself. Ain't gonna happen, but it needs to.

^ This. It looks to me like Ambrose is just waiting to cut loose. Reigns and Rollins have really been the breakthrough guys in this group, but this fued, along with the stuff with Wyatt's, have given Ambrose something to work with in a big way. That dude needs feuds and people to hate and flip out on.

Jake Roberts just destroyed me. It was exactly what I expected and even more. It was brutally honest and beautiful. That speech IS professional wrestling, warts and all.

What a pro wrestler owes you = jack shit. He's made his money. He's in very bad physical shape. There isn't much left for him to do. Another feud with HHH? Didn't work so hot the first time. I say park a garbage truck full of cash in Austin's driveway for a match vs. Punk at WM 31, then let Punk ride off into the sunset. If he never wrestles another match, good for him. Leaving on his own terms and with enough loot and viable outside interests to never return is far, far better than most wrestlers can claim. The product is not suffering in his absence, either.

For some godawful reason, they edited out Heyman's awesome Stone Cold impression from the Austin DVD. :/

I wasn't able to watch this live because I was at work, so I didn't have any problems watching it. Replay is working just fine. I just finished the Cesaro/Zayn match, and I thought it was awesome. I think I enjoyed the 2/3 falls match more, but I'll just lay out the stuff I like about this match while it's fresh in mind. 1. The European Uppercut counter to the DDT through the bottom rope was cool. 2. Sami Zayn's sell of the Giant Swing is a straight up work of art. 3. That one-count off the pop-up uppercut was totally okay by me, because Cesaro didn't catch him flush. 4. That Koji Clutch into the Stretch Muffler reversal was fucking awesome. Even though Zayn caught a whupping in this match, I still thought that he might pull it off. There's room for another match. And the way Zayn gets the win? Turnbuckle Brainbuster. I dug the match a whole lot, but it's below the Shield/Wyatt's six man for me. Seconding the commentary being absolutely lights out during this match. I'ma just put it out there: Between the Shield, Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, the Uso's, the Golddust fountain of youth run, and the Network, I haven't been this stoked on wrasslin' since I was a youngin'.

The Great Muta isn't in the search engine at all. Keiji Mutoh, on the other hand...yeah. Hashimoto's in there, too.

I rocked the live stream for eons from the early morning into the afternoon. Made it a third of the way through Barely Legal '97 before it refused to work and now Superbrawl 3 is pausing and buffering. This is an improvement from last night, when I couldn't get anything from VOD to play.

I've yet to catch that Dustin mini-feature, but I just saw one on The Shockmaster. AWESOME.

I'm watching right now via PS3. The live stream works without a hitch and looks great. Anything else gets two or three error messages before it works. Also, the search function is a little wonky, but maybe I'm not entering terms correctly. That said, I'm watching the very first Raw and The Steiners are stomping ass on some masked jobbers. There's problems, but this is so worth it.

On the getting laid front, I dated a smoking hot 22 year old last year who blurted out to me, "Yeah, I just started watching Smackdown out of the blue" one day and then IG'd the cover of the Best of Nitro set a couple weeks later. It's not the barrier that you think it is.

I'm on the fence. I have a few friends that are fans, and I've bought PPVs with them, shot the shit with them about it, and had a blast. I have a couple friends especially who put their fandom on front street. One of them was the guitar player in my old band, and after we played a gig once, I noticed he was wearing a Jerichoholic shirt. It makes me just wanna say fuck it and put it on front street. That said, even with those friends, I feel like I come off as having some sort of Rain Man knowledge base just from watching this shit since I was four and creeping boards like this since '98. One of the first times my guitar player and I got together to watch wrasslin', I threw on that Ohtani/Samurai match after watching some RoH and that one ladder match where Joey Mercury got his face blew out, and the reaction amongst the guys was like, "Huh. This is, like, way more realistic." Which is cool, but I kinda showed my hand with that one, nah mean? The reason why I keep it on the DL for the most part is that I got tired of having to defend it. I got tired of the eye rolls. I got tired of seeing other people who were into it get teased. I just decided to keep my mouth shut about it. Thing is, I've noticed that there's a lot more people out there these days that are just up front about it and don't give a shit. People I know are Instagramming pics of themselves at WWE events and pics of wrestlers both old school and new. Just like comic books, DnD, and Magic have become a badge of honor, a "fuck off, this rules" kinda thing, wrestling is approaching that with more people. It's encouraging me to just say screw it and say "Yeah, I watch wrestling. Because it fucking rules, and yeah, I know it's fake. Wanna step outside about it?" For every eye roll, for every dumb comment we've all heard a million times before, there's a Dusty Rhodes promo, a Daniel Bryan match, or a Great Muta moonsault that says "Yeah, but...c'mon. That's undeniable."

What Loss said, too. Forgive me. I'm on beer, sleep deprivation, and Ronnie James Dio.

The reason Bryan doesn't sell tickets or move ratings is that WWE has plateaued. Old names pop numbers because they bring in lapsed fans. WWE is at the level they're going to be at, and there really isn't getting much bigger. Listen to that crowd, because they're there, and they're always gonna be there unless you burn them too many times. The reason why Bryan doesn't sell much merch is that, well, his merch looks like shit. CM Punk's stuff looks like a punk band with good design sense. Roll in that direction, and you might see some results. Bryan isn't going to get to that top spot without developing a "Fuck You" streak. He's gonna have to start playing politics. There was a very recent interview he did with a radio station in Grand Rapids. It was posted either here or on DVDVR. Basically, he laid it out that he's a really laid back guy and just does what he's told and makes the best of it. He's gonna hafta forget all that. He doesn't need the "Being John Cena" spot, but he needs to be at the very top of the card consistently and he needs to be treated as such. You can roll out that he's headlined and been featured on Raw like crazy for the last six months or so, but the fans want the belt on him. The want him to win the Rumble. They want him to smoke someone waaaaay higher up the card than Sheamus, and this is the time to do it. Regardless of his look or his size, he has the ability and the charisma to be at the very top of the company. He's been at the top of every company he's ever worked for, and there's a reason for that. He gets people invested in his matches like no one else on the roster can, and as a by-product, they're invested in him.

Incredible timing. But even if it lead to the dude being kayfabe dead or at least wheelchair bound, that's gotta be the goddamn dumbest thing I've ever seen in wrestling. Even worse than the Davey/Edwards superplex.

JAKE. THE SNAKE. Loved Dean Ambrose not being able to hide that grin. The Reigns vs. Punk match was real good, especially the stretch run. Huge win for Reigns and I think it was played perfectly. First post!