wjones

Yet another solid show overall, but that Brandi/Lambert segment was rough. I like the idea of tweener Cody & Brandi in theory, but so far pitting them against the Top Team crew is only serving to elicit tweener reactions to Lambert. After sitting through multiple commercials for the awkwardly-titled "Go-Big Show," I began to wonder, is it possible TNT/TBS executives are pressuring TK to keep pushing Cody as a face? I'm no longer a WON subscriber, so I'm wondering whether Dave has reported anything along those lines. It's more than a little awkward that the networks are trying to promote a new series featuring Cody during a wrestling show whose fans are actively rejecting him, and I can't imagine TV executives are thrilled with that kind of ambiguity. I understand (and share) the impulse to blame Cody for his own awkward booking, but there has to be more to this story than Cody's stubbornness, right? In any case, unless they're building to a Scorpio Sky face turn and title win, I'm struggling to understand the direction here. I should add that I agree with everyone who said that AEW's 2021 has been the best year of wrestling TV in decades. Their shows have been a joy to watch - after suffering through years of WWE Stockholm Syndrome, it's been a delight to see wrestling booked logically and in service to its fans. Really, it's the fact that TK's booking otherwise has been so logical - and so attuned to the audience - that makes Cody's segments so jarring by comparison.

Archive.org has it preserved: https://web.archive.org/web/20200622200911/http://placetobenation.com/countdown-top-500-matches-of-the-90s-50-1/

I didn't mean to suggest that Vince knows anything about Smashing Pumpkins, just that he probably became aware of Billy when NWA Power started. I don't know how the idea of a rich rock star reviving the NWA name would've struck Vince, but I imagine people would've been joking about it. I don't think Vince would have made the connection himself, just that someone at NXT might've thought it was a rib Vince would appreciate. Anyway, I realize it's a silly idea, but once it occurred to me, I couldn't unsee it. The idea that it amuses Vince and/or the writers could explain why Corbin has been pushed to the point of toxic overexposure at the same time as his character has been humiliated again and again. But I guess I'm looking for logic in Vince's sadism here, and that's probably a mistake.

This, exactly. Somehow, her persona has come to represent an ouroboros of everything that's wrong with modern WWE, to an extent that even eclipses Brock and Roman. For a company hellbent on keeping "superstars" smaller than the brand itself, they sure have a way of spawning toxic egos.

This is a random thought - very much a comment that doesn't warrant a thread - but it's been bugging me for a couple years now, and I'm curious if it's occurred to anyone else. Is it possible that Baron Corbin's entire main roster stint has been Vince riffing on the similarity of his name (and bald pate) to Billy Corgan? I swear, for a few years now, to my mind it's been the only plausible explanation for why Vince was so enchanted with the idea of him as a top heel. I know Corbin has size and the kind of look Vince goes for, and he's relatively solid in terms of modern WWE promos. He also has that Prince Albert-esque inoffensive competence in the ring, which was likely the best case scenario for an untrained hoss in Hunter & Shawn's vanity promotion. But can't you just picture Bruce trying to explain to Vince how the Smashing Pumpkins frontman bought the NWA name and was pursuing an old school revival thing, and Vince's only response was, "I thought we had that kid signed to NXT?!" And then, once clued into the deeper resemblance there, Vince found it so funny that it informed every booking decision he made regarding Corbin going forward? Honestly, I've been convinced of this for at least two years now, and I'm really just hoping some of you see this, too. The primary pleasure I take from WWE these days is concerned with the broader McMahon family metanarrative, which as always reads like trailer park Shakespeare. Back to the broader point, though. Am I crazy, or would Vince dedicate hours of programming - and the fate of a potential star who, unique among the NXTers, has traditional main roster height - to petty in-jokes with Brucie mocking their bigtime rockstar money mark "rival?" Does that sound like Vince, or what?

As a longtime lurker who reveres this board and the posters who make it so enriching, I really didn't intend to break my multiyear silence only to immediately start lobbing incendiary "takes," but... Here's Charlotte's problem: she has all the physical gifts in the world, but anytime the real life physics of a pro wrestling match result in a different outcome from what she's picturing in her head, her inability to adapt on the fly sends everything towards weirdness in a hurry. Honestly, it seems like the problem is that she's so vain that the idea that she needs to meet her opponent halfway strikes her as preposterous - so preposterous that sometimes she feels the need to teach her opponent a lesson. It's one thing when the opponent in question is Nia Jax, but it's quite another when she's endangering Kairi Sane's life and career. At this rate, Charlotte's on track to have incidents like this with every woman on the roster, and as Nick Khan culls that roster further and further, familiarity will only breed greater contempt. I've wondered whether erstwhile boyfriend Andrade suffers from the exact same problem, but I won't venture to guess what his deal is. To some extent they remind me of Paige and ADR, but I really don't think drugs are the problem here; it's just pure ego and immaturity. What Charlotte reminds me of most is a selfish actor whose utter lack of empathy for her fellow cast members makes every scene she's in feel leaden and self-indulgent. I don't know if there are any "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" fans on this board, but I thought the most recent episode, "The Gang Replaces Dee With a Monkey," spoke to Charlotte's issues well. Failed actress Dee realizes that her acting coach was ripping her off with fees when he knew she was hopeless, so she decides to start her own acting school to get in on the grift herself. Her advice to her students reveals why she never got callbacks from auditions: it's along the lines of "the other actors are your competition, so don't react to anything they say, and recite your own lines as loudly and deliberately as possible so that everyone is forced to pay attention to you." Does that not sound a bit like latter day Charlotte's approach to wrestling? She's turned into Michaels in '97/'98 except worse. At least a Soma-popping shithead is too passive to actually hurt anyone; Charlotte's purely high on her own self-regard, which makes her considerably more dangerous. Well, there's that. So again, hello, everyone - I promise I don't intend to brandish the flamethrower like this all the time. I look forward to more upbeat conversations with you all in the future!