tim

I know you're not arguing in favor of WWE's philosophy here but this post just made me really realize how tortured their logic is. Cena is out, so two guys who weren't in the main event over the preceding months get put on center stage. Ratings fall because of no Cena, more of the blame is placed on the untested guy rather than the tested-and-prove-not-draw guy. One half of the guys who didn't boost ratings, but still has untested potential, is moved out of the main event right as Cena is coming back so there is no way to see if Bryan on top has an actual negative effect on ratings (maybe even a positive effect! MAYBE ratings would have decreased MORE if Cena was gone and Bryan wasn't on top) or if it's completely neutral and the only meaningful variable is if Cena's around. It's like taking your medicine the day after you've gotten better naturally and trying to decide whether the medicine works or not.

They posed in the ring with their belts.

The whole final segment being that bad is truly inexcusable. Anyone on this forum could book a better product. Well that's not really making an extreme statement; almost anyone on most wrestling forums could probably book a better product.

Wow that was bad.

I don't even know what they're doing with this angle, and not in a good way.

The beginning of the Wyatts matched bored me pretty thoroughly but once we got to the segment with Bryan v. Harper everything was pretty good. The Bryan/Harper stuff was really good and I could see that match being great. Pretty hot stuff after that though not really exceptional. Harper's selling of the GTS was good.

Thought the opening stretch was pretty dull but once it got going it was pretty fun WWE workrate style stuff. Basically an inferior version of their last PPV match though.

Nice to see Big Mark, even if this return was predictable. Funny to think these are actually the two best talkers in WWE excepting maybe Zeb.

Big Charles Robinson becoming a power player in the byzantine world of authority politics.

That divas match was reasonably amusing when it was just elimination after elimination but it was insufferably boring once it got down to 4 v 4. Awful ending too.

Haha that's not even what 'rhetorical question' means whoever you are.

Big E/Axel something of a surprise in being a perfectly enjoyable short undercard match. Some fun well worked exchanges and Axel seemed to be working hard.

I thought that match was really disappointing actually. Still good, but not nearly up to how it looked on paper. Reigns big comeback killing everyone with spears was awesome though and his last one on Rey looked great.

Triple H is trying to get cheers again as arch authority super heel.

The roll up trading in the beginning of Miz/Kofi was so bad that I switched over to the tab I'm writing an essay in and didn't may attention at all.

I'm also intrigued by the idea of the Boston crowd shitting on the Orton/Show match. I mean, I like Show and I'm opening to this being a good match but I'm pretty annoyed by the recent booking so I'm all for WWE having to eat some shit tonight.

Thwarted comeback sounds appropriate and 'catchy' enough.

It will probably be a decent show, but it is a bad looking card from the perspective of trying to give a shit about one of their supposed four big shows. Does WWE even consider it one of their 4 big shows? Either way, the Survivor Series tag match should be fantastic, ADR/Cena should at least be good and Orton/Show could turn out being a decent match even if no one in the world cares about it.

Nothing really beats a good choke when done well. Gritty and violent. Cloverleaf is up there too, just looks cool.

Really, you think miniscule? I imagine at least 40% knows about the bathtub story no? To be fair I have about 0 idea what the "general population" knows in terms of general knowledge like that.

I think this is to some degree the case. At the same time I'm sometimes at a loss in really understanding what Tanahashi fans mean by "structure" and how they ascribe some kind of highly positive quality to Tanahashi just for working the general "epic match" blueprint that has been around for ages. It's actually something that really struck me back when I started watching Tanahashi matches in 2009, especially his much lauded match v. Nakamura that year. It struck me as something I'd be impressed with if I were unfamiliar with main event style puroresu (which isn't meant to take a condescending tone or anything); it had the opening mat work into a longer but low key body of the match and then jumped off into the hot homestretch. But, I mean, a lot of matches do that. A lot of good matches do that, a lot of okay matches do that and a lot of boring matches do that. What matters is how those segments are worked, not that they're there. A lot of these super pimped New Japan matches feel to me like shells of epic main event style matches. They have that broad structure but they don't do anything interesting with it; the opening matwork isn't good, the middle move trading/control segments are just there and not worked in an interesting way and the home stretch is pretty by the numbers. I don't see what great quality there is in a guy working the basic structure of an epic main event if he can't do the "stuff" that makes it interesting. I guess some people can like "epic main event match" for the sake of it but I've seen it, and to me for something to be great it has to do something interesting.

The commentary almost sounds like a youtube video with dudes providing their own running commentary on RAW or something, it's pretty mind boggling. Isn't Vince notoriously uptight about what the commentary is like?

I think this is exactly wrong. WWE is trying to, ironically enough considering the 1980's push to do the opposite, position itself alongside sports programming. What makes sports so valuable is that it isn't as likely to be DVR'ed. It is consumed live and in real time. WWE is the same way and is working to encourage that with their strong push towards social media integration during the shows. The last thing Vince and the WWE wants is to be DVR'ed or to let anyone think, even for a minute, about DVR'ing their show. Live and social is what makes them valuable. Is this working really? I guess maybe it could. People watch sports live because the whole point is they care what happens so much that they want to see it in real time. Sure a good game would be nice but they have their team and they want to know how it ends up. Wouldn't booking a product that makes people care about what happens go further in making people tune in live? Or is that just impossible to do.

how exactly does wwe expect us to feel about these vickie segments

A bit silly but I'm not complaining. Hope it gets time. After that first segment I just don't know wtf Trips and Steph are supposed to be right now.