Slasher

Well if taking bad bumps constitutes awesomeness then I guess professional wrestling has passed me by. I like smart wrestling. I like simple wrestling. I don't like two years and counting of supernova over Daniel Bryan not being able to wrestle because of all the bad bumps like this adding up. I don't like one of my two favorite wrestlers ever snapping and killing his family then himself and it's revealed he had the brain of a man double his age and diseased. But guess that's okay because they assume the risks of being wrestlers. Attitude like Bill is why I'm gradually becoming no longer a fan. I don't ever want to be so jaded that I don't give a fuck about people and only want to see the ooh ahh spots.

What's wrong with people? Awesomeness? She could have easily broken her neck there.

The hell? Aside from the first Hunter match, he's won every match with it. I think what he meant was he usually has to hit 2 or 3 or more F5s in the course of most of his matches before one finishes them off. But if thats not what he meant then *shrugs*

Not that it couldn't happen, but in 5 years all of these guys will be nearly 40 if not already. I think they should infuse some youth in the mix just to ensure that they have some people going when those guys decide to hang it up.

Sounds like the writers did a good job then...that is literally how they were told to write/book the girls under Vince/Dunn.

I think Charlotte has a lot of tools to succeed but I feel like there is something missing that I can't put a finger on...and I feel like whatever it is could be fatal to her if she doesn't fix it. I mean fatal as in never being able to break out on her own and have a good long career.

You can transition to Sasha in the long run but it wouldn't be smart to immediately junk the Bellas now for these wrestlers. For one thing, we don't know if Charlotte and Becky has staying power (Becky probably does but not sure about Charlotte) and Sasha will need "big name" opponents in her first year on the main roster. This is going to sound shitty but like it or not, if Cena is really involved with how Nikki is booked, you can't piss him off for the sake of a few women's wrestlers. Who is more valuable right now and for the next 10 years- John Cena or Sasha Banks? WWE is still a men-dominated company. There is a way to build around Sasha without making Nikki worthless.

One thing I would absolutely have to do if I have to keep her heel is making Sasha the Ric Flair of the division. She gets her stable. She gets the top feuds in the division. She gets the belt as much as the situation warrants it. To be the woman, you have to beat the woman.

Cash them checks To be more accurate, it means "cut the check". It was brought to pop culture lexicon by former basketball player Rasheed Wallace who said it as a member of the Boston Celtics and he just didn't care anymore.

Brock no longer has an extensive moveset. I think he only does up to like 10 moves nowadays. And that is a generous estimate.

Wasn't the fans chanting for Sasha in the match segment? It comes across as Paige being upset that no one is as over as Sasha is. We have seen countless times where people chant for Stone Cold, Rocky, Cena, Daniel Bryan etc in matches they weren't part of. It seems to me the excitement for the divas has kinda pared down to excitement for Sasha and not much else. The Bellas aren't doing it. Paige, Charlotte and Becky (as decent as they may be) aren't doing it. Naomi and Tamina sure as hell aren't doing it. That leaves only one. If that isn't what Paige is referring to then nevermind.

It's Lesnar. He will make a ton of money whether he wrestles Bo Dallas or the Four Horsemen as an unit. It is up to the company to make sure they make that money back, so yes Undertaker is more attractive a prospect than Cesaro. But that has nothing to do with Lesnar.

Ergo, we see American heels depicted much more often as despicable worthless people with no humanity or redeeming qualities. But since wrestling is wrestling and it often treats subtlety as its mortal enemy, this too often gets translated into "the heels must be inferior athletes who can't win a fair fight without cheating, and shitty people whom nobody would ever want to cheer". Which of course is ridiculously one-dimensional and intellectually lazy. Mick Foley had a great rant about the shallowness of that in his first book, when he got to Memphis and was forced to play a cringing stooging cheating chickenshit, despite that not fitting his character or his style even the tiniest little bit. That's hardly true nowadays. Heels are people that fans today are more likely to get behind quickly because they exhibit traits that are more "normal" to the typical viewer. Babyfaces comes across as too artificial and idealized that people kind of resent. The most popular babyfaces now are guys who got popular as heels and carried those traits over as a babyface. I only think of a few guys that are consistently popular as babyfaces and it is usually because they are superworkers with strong undertones (Rey for example). Heels are us. Babyfaces are comic book superheroes. Only kids go for that shit nowadays...and women if they look good.

Lesnar respects Undertaker as much or more than probably any other wrestler so I doubt he sees it that way. I don't mean to say Lesnar would think too little of the Undertaker to work with him. I meant that it really does nothing for his career at this point to be wrestling Taker. I am sure plenty of wrestlers respects the icon that Hulk Hogan is, but at this point, how many of them would want to actually wrestle the guy? There's no rub left to be gained from it. But Lesnar is in CTC mode so I know he doesn't care.

I know Lesnar is in complete CTC mode but someone should tell him it is okay to turn down matches. He can't possibly think working with a 50 year old dude is a good thing, can he? Then again it is a shame he is such a beast that it looks funny when he is in the ring with someone like Seth Rollins and it looks like Lesnar could eat him for a midday snack. I can't think of more than 5 guys that Lesnar could reasonably work with. And 3 of those 5 guys are guys he already had matches with. About the Rollins thing, I am pretty sure he is turning babyface soon...by Survivor Series at latest. There just isn't anything left for him right now other than an extended program with Cena. Probably coinciding with a heel turn by one of the other ex-Shield members.

I dont think Balor is supposed to be a guy you "relate" to...unless you also believe yourself to be a demon and paint yourself accordingly. Balor is supposed to be a form of the Hulk Hogan superhero. No one related to Hogan but everyone (I know but bear with me here) loved him because he was larger than life. Thats the role Balor has got now for NXT. He is the hipster's Hogan. Plus he is probably marketable to kids as well.

Oh is that all? Wow that's so easy to do. It isn't like he has a million concussions and therefore they would be at risk of hin suffering more injuries. Nope not at all. Snark aside, the fans would overinvest in his blood feud and expect that to be a stepping stone before bringing him back in main events. Blood feuds have to end at some point...then what? Put him in yet another blood feud and do so until he retires? I think this is actually a great out for them. They look "good" for showing care for a guy with an extensive injury history-especially after the Punk stuff happened all the while getting the opportunity to not worry about walking on eggshells around him in terms of booking. I wouldn't be surprised if they thought they could cool him down for two years or more then brought him back in as a part tjmer and not worry about people overanalyzing his push.

About Stephen Amell, I am actually a big fan of his show Arrow, so I was definitely down for him doing something at Summerslam and I did walk away disappointed with the match. I do have to wonder if they were better off just having it be Neville vs Stardust with Amell and Barrett in their corners or maybe even Amell vs Stardust straight up provided he put in a good amount of time in rehearsal and training for the match. The tag team thing made it all look awkward. If they could trust Lawrence Taylor and Floyd Mayweather to do it on their own, they should have trusted Amell as well.

I don't think it is too late for Cena to give someone a rub for beating him for the US title. Something is going to go down where Rollins isn't a double champion and the belt probably goes back to Cena in that scenario. It isn't like if Sami Zayn captured the US title from John Cena the fans would go, "Big deal, Rollins beat him for it too..." but that said, I don't know if I have faith in them to do something solid with the idea. If this is really the end of Cena the touring US champ, it was a heckuva run.

I have seen many cases of people being down on matches because of them wrestling a match that the story wasn't built on or told. Heavy mat wrestling sequences to start a match built on blood feud/hatred for example. Context totally matters. Even in cases where the participants chose to build the match with "Yo we are gonna put on a hell of a show for these people and I will beat you" there was an inherent story in it. Obviously not always done well but still.

I go the opposite way. I've accepted that the Authority is forever going to exist on WWE TV. I would like to see them address the issue of Stephanie being the clear successor despite having an older brother who was also part of the business at one point and was probably the original plan for successor. Have him show up to challenge the Authority's...uhh well...authority with his chosen people. It could work and could potentially give the WWE fans more of an opportunity to see the heels get beaten at their own game sometimes. Stephanie isn't going to be able to get Shane booked as an ineffective rival no matter how hard she tries.

No. It wasn't. I explain why here along with my review of the show. But in short, I couldn't disagree more. I just read your review. I still don't see where Sasha hugging it out with her enemies is smart or part of any storyline that has actually been presented on TV. It does if you consider NXT as it's own separate TV. As far as I know there wasn't one mention of the divas elimination match tonight. In the world of NXT, Team BAD doesn't exist except the Naomi and Tamina was in the stands. I assume it was mentioned that she was supporting Sasha but I don't know if it was ever said If that is true they have been pretty inconsistent about it. I have seen instances where people go up or down and carried elements of their storylines to the other show. I don't think, for example, that they would have had Zayn wrestle Cena the week after (or was it before?) Owens did his angle with Cena if it wasn't Zayn that Owens took the belt from. I've seen Rusev come down to NXT and play up the stuff he was doing on WWE tv to some effect. Then again, it is true that some guys gets called up from NXT and the main roster announcers acted like they never have seen the guy befpre. So yeah, very inconsistent. Plus how many people went to Takeover and are planning to go to Summerslam as well? Probably quite a bunch. It would be awkward for them to see Sasha do that and then be expected to react to her the next day as her Raw persona beating on some of the girls they just saw her hug the night before. It is just yet another glaring example of the philosophical shift in booking from sports oriented contests to performance pieces by artists.

Charlotte and Sasha are natural heels and I think Becky could reasonably play one. Of course Paige could be the psychotic one. They don't have to be presented a real babyfaces. They can be heels doing heel stuff to the heel bitches like Tamina and Naomi or the Bellas or Alicia Fox or Summer or whoever else. Bayley doesn't need to be called up into the group yet. Have the Horsewomen establish their presence more and fully then see where they are by the time Bayley is ready to drop the title and join the group and adjust the necessary face/heel dynamic of the group if needed. Paige could be the odd one out especially if they book her to be unstable and too independent minded to co-exist with the others in the group.

That is why Sasha's team should take her out before or early in the match. This girl was celebrating with two of their SS opponents. Who's to say she wouldn't have the killer instinct to beat them when time came to do it? They could nearly run an accelerated in timeline version of the Daniel Bryan thing where he debuted on the main roster as a heel, got fired and was discarded by his teammates only for him to return for the big tag match at Summerslam on the good guys' side. That would play into the big thing they have planned tomorrow which is the full implementation of their 4 Horsewomen idea.

I think it would be better if it was the other way around. Their chemistry is undeniable and to really put over that they are the future you probably should have Tamina and Naomi turn on Sasha to begin with and eliminate her from the match only to have her come back in the end and help PCB win. Paige can be argued as part of the whole thing as she was one of the first good women wrestlers in NXT before getting called up.