strobogo

Gotta hit up Bruno vs Baba matches too

SUPERKICK, BITCH

You mean something like this https://youtu.be/eCnXrposMGU

Fans wanted Roman. Roman was the most over guy in The Shield, he was the most over guy when they broke up, and fans were completely into him until Bryan came back. At that point, the decade of training the audience to resent and boo the top face was so engrained that almost nothing could stop that momentum. However, just like with Cena, even at the height of crowds being against him, they'd always pop when he'd get a segment where he just wrecks shop and looks like a bad ass. WWE has been garbage as a company keeping positive momentum for anyone for about 20 years now so. They're really good at getting someone super hot and then seemingly losing all interest in doing shit with them or going the worst direction possible and making people get sick of it.

I wonder what the longest promo segment that actually kept the audience's attention and wasn't miserable by the end. I'm going to have to assume it involves Rock.

Crowd was really dead seeming, even for Bryan vs Nick. I get the logistical reasons for taping Rampage before/after Dynamite, but I can't help but think it'd be a better show if it was done on its own night.

I've seen pre Boogie Woogie Man era and can confirm he was also dogshit then

Every fucking promo is "aw shucks folks, you guys love me? awww well I LOVE YOU TOO I TELL YA WHAT, shucks, no no this is it for me, folks" peppered with local area cheap pops and almost always repeating something multiple times like he thought people didn't hear his hot line so he had to say it again to make sure he gets the pop he wanted. Absolutely brutal. Even worse than the rambling Hogan promos that go absolutely nowhere and do nothing but allow him to stroke his ego for 5 minutes on TV every other week.

Remember how many years people wanted Shane back, and then the huge reaction when he came back, and everyone was absolutely sick of him within 3 months

No, Balor's next feud is with God

Jumbo's 80-84 is better than 85-86 because Riki Choshu matches are bullshit

I'm convinced Piper's WCW run in 1996-1997 is the worst main event run of all time in a major company. Every promo, every match, every angle is just fucking awful.

The mood lighting shit is the WORST. It sucked for Glacier, sucked for Kane, sucked for Sin Cara, sucked for Fiend, sucks for Bliss, sucks for Balor.

I have to go before 1996 not because I necessarily think the wrestling is better or worse than after, but because there's so much fucking terrible programming post 1996 (particularly 1999 on) and so much of it is from one company whereas there's so much shit from so many promotions prior to 1996 and I have built in nostalgia for much of it that just doesn't exist for me in the past 20 years or so.

That on a 1995-1997 Nitro would have been pretty great tbh, maybe not the "pull out the glock" line but extra lol in 2021

Arn Anderson admitting to murder on live television is something

The "indie style" is the default style in every company in the US, UK/Europe, and also a lot of Japan, and lucha is lucha so idk why you'd even bother with current wrestling as it must be really miserable for you to watch, @Coffey

I don't know what the fuck is wrong with me but my god I enjoyed a Fuji vs Angelo Mosca match from late 1984 :titus

Personally I'd much rather that have led to New Day vs Hurt Business six man than Lashley/E in a cage which will almost assuredly also have a fuck finish to do a rematch for Saudimania

Big E did not come out of that match looking good at all. Lashley dominated him and then would have beat him completely clean had Kofi not brawled his way into the ring. Not sure that's a great way to kick off a title reign, especially for a power guy.

Another thing with Cody that makes people roll their eyes is that every match of his has to have some kind of fuckery finish. They can't just end like a normal match. There has to be some bullshit with Arn or a turnbuckle or foreign object or or or. Strong Double J vibes.

The options for what happened in the main event: 1. Act of God. 2. Shoddy craftsmanship from the WWE ring crew. 3. Someone was able to loosen the top turnbuckle. Presumably in this case all would be loosened just in case. This could be a member of The Bloodline, Paul E., someone tipped off in the ring crew, or someone unrelated out to get Balor. 4. The spirt of the Demon adds so much density to Balor's body that it broke the ropes. I would like to believe the answer is 1 or 4.

Cody has had the vibe of undeserving since his initial indie run and getting pushed everywhere as the biggest deal despite having done nothing but be Dusty's kid from WWE, then latching himself to the Bullet Club teat and benefiting from all that without having put in any of the work to build it, booking himself to win the NWA Championship on his own show, then when AEW starts kicks things off with that HHH entrance, gets an entrance theme to his entrance theme, gets his own entrance tunnel, keeps saying he's his own man and doesn't want to live off his father's legacy while AEW uses everything they possibly can from Dusty, all leading to Cody finally using the Rhodes name and then American Dream moniker. Not to mention the very self indulgent promos and all of his stuff being so disconnected in its own pocket universe on the shows. Then the previews for his own reality show make him come off as a man child moron constantly overstepping his boundaries. There's an awful lot to not like about Cody.

Good work for the sake of good work with nothing attached can be awesome in 5-10 minute matches. But doing that for 25 minutes falls flat almost anywhere, imo. Even in front of crowds that are predisposed to good work for the sake of good work. Malenko in general is a good example in general where WCW would just send him out to fill time and he'd go through all the motions of a match with no angle, no stakes, show no personality, and the crowds wouldn't give a shit. But then you have something like Dean vs Ultimo where it starts like that and about halfway through they kick things up a notch and show some emotion and the crowd that previously did not give a fuck at all are rocking all the way to the finish. That Hog Wild match had no stakes, a barest of barebones angle for 2 weeks before the show, and they had them doing 20 minutes of chain wrestling and shit in front of a crowd of bikers that didn't pay to see wrestling.

I caught the show up Becky/Bianca and thought it was a pretty good show match wise. Finishes were weird all night, though. The DQ finish for Becky/Bianca sucked but at least was logical since Sasha never got her match with Bianca and you don't want Becky or Bianca to lose outright which would need even more of a bullshit finish if you want to keep things going to Survivor Series or the Rumble or even WM. Something like the ending of the triple threat being these series of super hot near falls by Jeff Hardy that the crowd buys into completely and then Priest wins with an ugly, slow school boy roll up on Sheamus that he just kind of grabbed and went into like they were out of time. Weird because Priest is both a face and also the largest man in the match, so it seemed weird to have him do the sneaky type finish you'd usually get from either a heel or an outsized face in that situation. And now having watch Reigns vs Balor....lmaaaaaaaaaaaoooooooooooooooooooooo that ending. Divine intervention, Roman truly is the chosen one. The finish with the ropes was fine, the heartbeat and the mega kendo stick were dumber to me than the actual finish. Anyway in ring show was pretty good beyond the finishes. Also pretty weird to have the first fully New Day match in a year and with Big E as champion literally thrown together on the pre show.