supremebve

I hear what you're saying, but I think you are in the minority here. Ronda Rousey is someone who people would generally hate, but somehow is very well liked. She is in the same lane as Steve Austin or Ric Flair. Their personalities are essentially heel, but everyone kind of loves them despite it all. I think a big part of her appeal is that she is a very attractive woman who puts on a dress and goes to award shows, but is all business and a stone cold killer when she gets in the cage. Her scowl and attitude in the ring contrasted with the smile and evening gowns outside is something we've never really seen before.

MMA is probably the only sport where you can be dominant to the point where you look absolutely unbeatable, while having such a huge gaping hole in their game. She had no idea how to use basic footwork to close the distance on a fighter who moved away from her. Everyone she's ever fought tried to match her aggressiveness and got steamrolled. Holm's gameplan of moving as far away from her as possible, and let Ronda chase her was brilliant. Ronda doesn't move her head, keeps her chin up, and had no idea how to move in a direction other than straight forward. Back to the heel subject, her corner was basically the heel manager who is just hanging on to the coattails of their meal ticket. When they went back to her corner and all they had to say was, "You're doing great champ, all she has is that left hand," I knew it was over. She clearly had no answers for what Holm was doing in the first round, and her corner didn't help her at all. They've already said there was going to be a rematch, but I don't know if her current team of yes men will have anything to offer her in terms of strategy. She's the last woman you'd ever want to do to fight in a phone booth, but she looked useless at distance. Her team is going to actually have to do some work, and I don't know if that is something they actually signed up for.

Does Mike Rotundo count as successful? I don't know if I've ever watched a good Mike Rotundo match. He worked a style that even at his best, couldn't ever ascend to a point that could be considered better than average. He isn't someone I would say was a bad worker, but he damn sure didn't ever do anything that I would describe as interesting.

Bill Simmons' first HBO documentary... ANDRE THE GIANT.

Those hype videos is probably what they do the best as a company. You can watch a PPV, and understand every angle from their television based on the hype videos. That is the exact wrong way to use them. Those videos are fine, but if they spent 10% of that energy getting their characters over, we'd probably be more invested in the product. How much of Raw is just replays from the previous week, or even the previous segment. We don't need constant recaps on every show. Put stuff like that on the pre-show and reward the people who watch every the TV every week. Give us a reason to tune in, because we think we're going to miss out on something if we don't. I think my biggest problem with the product these days is that absolutely nothing feels special. I didn't watch last night because of this, and didn't see the Survivor Series match. I'm pissed I missed it. More stuff like that would make me actually put it higher on my DVR queue so I don't miss out.

I think the counter to that is that the most death finishers bring with them a great a deal of risk for the man delivering the move, so it's usually only something you'd want to bring out in moments of desperation and real need. Plus, in the case of something like Cena's super AA, it's not a move he could expect to deliver in the opening moments of a match. He really need to get his opponent worn down enough where he can get him up top and set up the move, because it takes time. And if the guy is any position to fight out of it, Cena himself is in a vulnerable position. I think that's one area where having somebody like Neville using the Red Arrow all the time, even in sub 3-minute matches, is deterimental to the product as a whole. They book it because it's his signature move and they fear the fans would be cheated if they didn't see it, but the way he himself preps for delivery with a great deal of visible trepidation puts the move over as risky and dangerous. He knows if the opponent moves he's more or lessed doomed. So having him hit it mere minutes into a match is counter-productive, because no opponent should be THAT dazed that they'd just lay there and take that move at that point. At least not with the offensive arsenal that Neville has at his disposal up to that point. Yeah that is exactly what I was thinking. The psychology behind the death finishers would stem from a sense of all or nothing. It is a Hail Mary pass, you don't throw it unless you have no other choice.

I feel pretty strongly that if the show (feuds, stories, etc.) were booked well then people would have no problem with getting multi-man matches regularly on TV. Think about how molten hot the crowd was for that 5-on-5 match on RAW back when the Radicalz first came over from WCW. Or how hot the Shield/Wyatts and Shield/Evolution feuds were. Or hell any of the Shield 6-mans when they were still heels. I'm not saying do a 6-man main even on RAW every week, but if people care about the participants and the feuds contained within the match then they won't complain about the matches themselves. Those examples are exactly why they don't need one every week. Those matches felt like something special, but nothing feels special when it happens every week. It is kind of like, you remember the first time you kiss a girl, but you don't remember the 43rd time you kiss a girl. It just isn't the same thing. Wrestling should be trying to make you feel like you're seeing things for the first time not the 43rd time.

Spontaneity Secondary finishers. I know a lot of people hate the constant kickouts, but they could be used better. Have a move that you finish the occasional TV match with, so going into a big match it is a credible pinfall. Orton's rope hung DDT should get a pinfall from time to time. Roman Reigns should finish his matches with either the Superman Punch or the Spear. Him using them in combination just makes them look weaker as individual moves. When a big match comes along and his opponent kicks out of one, he could finish him with the other. Death finishers. You know how sometimes Cena hits the AA from the top rope? No one should ever kick out of that. Same with Rollins' Phoenix Splash or if Owens ever hits a Package Piledriver. Every NXT call up should get an introductory video feature. We only get them for a few people, but shouldn't they treat every new person like they're special? Why not help everyone get over? More matches for the sake of matches. OK, so we've seen Orton vs. Sheamus 184,984,984,651,651,899 times, because they wrestle on every show. Why isn't Sheamus having a 5-10 minute showcase match against R-Truth or Damien Sandow? Those guys are good enough workers, over enough with the fans, and aren't doing shit else. Use them to break up the monotony at the top of the card. People are always talking about how they need squash matches, but there are at least 15 people on the roster who should be jobbers to the stars. Those matches should be competitive, but there purely to make the guys at the top of the card look strong. Seriously, why are you paying people who are never on television?

I think the biggest problem with wrestling these days is that it is missing that sense of unpredictability. Every show feels like the one before it, and if you skip a week, month, year, you don't feel like you have missed anything. So here are the things I never need to see again... Opening interviews. This shit is played out like Kwame and those fucking polka dots. The same match on consecutive shows. If you book a match on Raw, you can't have it on Smackdown. If you book it for Smackdown, you can't have it on the next Raw. You can't have a match on Raw or Smackdown and then book it on the PPV without some sort of legitimate reason. Randy Orton wrestling Sheamus. When was the last time these two felt like an interesting pairing to anyone who didn't work for the WWE? Champions losing clean in non title matches. If you can't tell a story with your champion that doesn't involve him losing to someone you'd never make champion, odds are you need a new champion. Treating any wrestler like a joke. I don't care if it is Heath Slater, the job of the commentators is to make him seem credible. We can decide he's a joke, but why is he on the roster if he's not a credible wrestler. Any promo over 5 minutes. I want everyone to think about their favorite promo ever, and then I want you to think whether or not it was over 5 minutes long. I'm willing to bet it's not. PPVs with more than one ladder, cage, Hell in the Cell, or Elimination Chamber. These things should be special, but they aren't. Having one a year to end a blood feud is special, having two on the same show feels like a cop out. Moves that can only be hit in convoluted ways. Orton's rope hang DDT is cool if he hits it when he has the opportunity, but is stupid when his opponent does something he'd never do otherwise to end up in that position when he knows that is one of his signature moves. If he hit that move once every 5-10 matches it would mean more, and it should end a TV match every once in a while to keep it strong. The product is stale, because we know everything that is coming every single week.

I also find it very hard to understand lucha, as a style it just doesn't seem to connect with me. Unlike you I'm a big fan of high flyers, the 90s New Japan Jr. division is right up there with the 90s All Japan heavyweight division in my view. I think my biggest problem with the style is that everything seems to lack impact. I think the key to good wrestling is selling, but in the lucha I've watched selling seems to take a back seat to offense. They other thing that stops me from connecting with lucha matches is the lack of emphasis on transitions. I'll be watching a match and one of the workers will be taking a beating and the next thing I know he is on offense. I'll have to rewind it to see what happened that turned the tide of the match, and sometimes it was nothing. After taking a beating for a while the other guy just hit a move and took over. Of all the wrestling I've watched over the years, lucha is the only style that I can't seem to understand. There are a few lucha matches I really like, but they are few and far between. I'm going to continue watching lucha from time to time, because I love wrestling, but I really have a hard time trying to connect with the matches.

Yeah, and definitely do not go on any of those wrestling talk shows to work it out. Going to The Barbershop or on Piper's Pit to work out your strained tag team relationship is like going on Maury Povich with that one girl, you met at that one bar, that one night. NOTHING GOOD CAN HAPPEN.

If your name is Sting never turn your back to anyone, they will all betray you.

In said triple threat match, don't forget your pillow. You are just going to fall to the outside early in the match, and you don't want to rest your head on the floor. You can lay out there all day and let those two dumbasses kick the shit out of each other and then run in and get the easy win.

Never chase a heel around the ring.

I never disliked Nikki. She's no Sasha Banks, but she tries hard and has worked hard to improve. Plus, a great character like others are saying. Brie seemed like the standout at first, so Nikki's ascension is all the more surprising, but good for her. As for Dolph, I like him just fine - I just think he needs to turn desperately. He's a homewrecking man-whore tool who throws around words like "millennial" seemingly unironically. How is that a babyface character? It's possible none of those things are his fault, but his storylines aren't serving his character right now. I never hated Dana Brooke like the rest of the internet seemingly does. She didn't blow me away or anything, but I never minded her. The cool thing about NXT is seeing these guys and gals blossom as characters and/or in the ring in the span of a few short months: Becky Lynch, Blake and Murphy, Baron Corbin, etc. If Charlotte had a giant wart on her face, she'd still in NXT (or not in NXT at all). I really hate that kind of comment, because it's lazy and illogical criticism IMO. Being Flair's daughter means nothing if she sucks, and she doesn't. You said it yourself: "She's better than most of the Divas roster." That alone is enough to warrant her being on the main stage. It doesn't matter if she's not as good as you want her to be or think she should be - that argument is ridiculous, quite frankly. Can she get better? Yes. And she will. Even you acknowledge that her "wrinkles" can be "ironed out," so what's the problem exactly? She's better than most of the Divas roster, but the Divas roster kind of sucks. Charlotte is an OK wrestler who needs to work on a couple fundamental things to come off more naturally on television. That is what NXT is for. Her being Flair's daughter helps her a lot, because it is a ready made gimmick. Her father being a legend is a huge advantage for her, and they've used her father to get her over. I don't have a problem with that, but her in-ring work doesn't feel ready for PPV. The Divas division on the main roster seems to improve at a much slower pace than they do in NXT. If she was still in NXT she'd have the time to dedicate on getting better in the ring. Now her development is going to have to take a back seat to travel, TV, PPV, and whatever the hell else she is required to do. I'm not saying that she isn't talented, she's just put into a position where her warts are going show. She is basically a AAA baseball prospect who everyone expects to be a great pro, but that doesn't mean he ready to be going up against Clayton Kershaw. She's the champion of a division that has a couple people that are 100% ready, she's just not one of them.

A lot of talk about it on DVDVR and Reddit after last night as well. Let's see where you stand on this after another month. Just like when people starting to turn on Dolph, now they're starting to like Nikki. Same way people are starting to like Dana in NXT now. If Charlotte's last name was Jones, she'd still be in NXT. She isn't bad, but she still needs a good bit of polish on her in ring style. She's better than most of the Divas roster, but she still looks like someone trying to be a wrestler than a wrestler. She needs to learn how to look more natural in the ring. The wrinkles look like they can be ironed out, but they are pretty apparent right now.

Ryback needs to stop doing those herky jerky movements between every move. Everything he does looks goofy because of it. I like his kind of dumb, but endearing, meathead gimmick, but his matches are still missing something. His power moves generally look good, he can actually sell when he tries, but he just does so much shit to take me out of his matches.

Pretty sure that was Triple H. I think I saw somewhere that he was outed as a guy who did that stuff with one anecdote that he footed the entire hospital bill for a couple with a severely ailing child. The family went to pay or talk about paying with the hospital telling them it wasn't necessary because Triple H took care of it. This was a stranger family and Triple H didn't think twice of it to do that. I don't know if anyone told you, but we don't say good things about HHH on the internet. Don't let it happen again.

Isn't there evidence of him being their biggest draw for a good part of the Cena era? I don't remember where I heard and/or read it, but his segments were higer rated and his merchandise sold more, despite the WWE actively trying to bury him. Rey is one of the more interesting figures in wrestling, because of how he is basically the one person that couldn't be held down.

Hey, what happened to the pluralism we all signed up for? That statement is much more of a lighthearted dig at someone who has no idea how people can't like Flair than an actual indictment of your opinion. If you don't like him, you don't like him, but the same thing goes for not liking Flair as much as you do. I think Rey is one of the 10 best wrestlers ever, and don't really see any legit arguments against him, but I also think the same thing about Flair. I find everything anyone says that would make either of them anything but top 10 ridiculous, but people are entitled to their opinions.

Not liking Rey Mysterio is at least as ridiculous to not liking Ric Flair. I guess some people just don't see what others do, but I honestly think Rey is as undeniable as anyone ever. What the hell else would you want someone like Rey to do? He is probably the smallest guy in any promotion he's ever wrestled in, so he can't possibly wrestle a "strong style" The only way he could possibly win matches is to be the quicker, faster, more high flying wrestler. The believability comes with him being the best we've ever seen at that style. His entire style is based on him having to use his speed and agility to create momentum to add force to his moves. He can't just stand there and suplex or strike with guys much bigger than him. He has to run, jump, and spin to create enough power to actually harm his opponents. The question of Rey vs. Liger is a terribly hard question. It is kind of like asking who was a better running back between Emmitt Smith and Barry Sanders. You can have your preferences, but they are essentially the two guys you need to know about their particular era in Jr./Cruiserweight wrestling. These two are the two pillars of Jr. wrestling, no one else really comes close when it comes to making Jr. wrestling compelling. I think both of these two will be in my top ten, but I'm still trying to figure out which one I like better. Liger and Rey are basically the two wrestlers the golden age of Cruiserweight wrestling was built around. Liger's run of excellence was longer, but I'm not one who holds injuries against people. Rey has more good to great matches with a wider variety of people, but then again the Jr. division in NJPW was essentially Liger's baby for most of his career. These two are neck and neck, and it will probably take until the very last day to decide which one I like better.

As I once told my friend, I'd be much happier if I didn't keep asking myself why. I am just an overly analytical person, and trying to figure out the "why" is something that kind of drives me as a person. When I can look at something as trivial as a wrestling match and find something unique that sets it apart from everything else is really enjoyable to me. It is probably the single most important reason I watch wrestling. I can watch Raw with my brain turned off, but when I'm watching good to great wrestling, trying to figure out what makes it good is my favorite part.

I'm going to try to say this intelligently, but this is kind of a scatterbrained thought. Can being able to have a match with anyone without really changing your style make you versatile? I was watching a Tenryu match and he sold for his opponent's offense and generally did everything to put his opponent over, but on offense he did all of his Tenryu stuff. It was basically a match that Tenryu gave his opponent to do whatever he wanted. His opponent was on offense maybe 75% of the match, and Tenryu's comebacks were just all of his big spots. He really didn't do anything new, but the match felt fresh based on how he used those few spots. Tenryu isn't someone who would be considered versatile based on his ability to work different types of matches. But, shouldn't he be considered versatile for being able to make his matches feel different despite not really changing his style?

One of the things I do is to watch a match without any analysis first, just to see how I feel about it. When I decide how I feel about it then I rewatch it to try to gain an understanding of what happened in the match to make me feel however it was I felt about it. I find that wrestling's #1 goal is to affect the audience, so I want to watch a match and see how I'm affected. Then I can look at the match and see what exactly they did or didn't do to make me have that reaction.

I don't want to be the guy telling people how to spend their time, but I'd like to listen to one of these series for all of the #1 contenders. We aren't all going to agree on these things, but getting perspective is always helpful. Flair is probably the most interesting subject of this entire process, because he's been THE wrestler for most of our lives. Flair for all his strengths and faults is the wrestler we've been told is the best for the last 30 years. Hulk Hogan was never Ric Flair in the eyes of hardcore fans. Shawn Michaels is probably the most polarizing wrestler among hardcores. Bret Hart was great, but so much of his career is remembered for things outside of the ring. Flair is the guy who we generally only talk about for the greatness of his matches and promos. The best part of the way we look at Flair is that for the most part all of the praise is justified. The worst part is that we can't possibly gauge how much those years of praise has influenced our opinions of him. I'd like to hear a deep in depth discussion about guys like Jumbo, Lawler(haven't seen nearly enough Lawler), Fujinami(I'm just starting to watch his stuff), and the All Japan guys. Is there any plan to do any more of these? I'd love to hear a breakdown of the relevant luchadores and Joshi wrestlers too.