Muppets on RAW

[Johnny Sorrow]

So, the Muppets on RAW was fucking awesome.

[Tim Evans]

So, the Muppets on RAW was fucking awesome.

Yes it was and fuck Todd Martin for hating on it. Beaker/Sheamus acting like relatives ruled.

[Strummer]

I have no problem with Todd having problems with the booking (Cena shouldn't have won, Punk getting a title shot by putting a guy in a submission move) but that man has zero sense of humor. What a fuddy duddy!!

[sek69]

I can't wait to see how Bryan justifies his pre-hatred of the show from last week. I'm sure his logic will be more tortured than a private room in Gitmo.

 

Also even though it was probably part of his ongoing burial, John Morrison getting sexually propositioned by Miss Piggy was hilarious.

[sek69]

From the Inside MMA TV report that was just posted on the site:

 

***This week, Inside MMA is WAY better than the Muppets, it’s Don Frye dressed up like Magnum PI and a Terry Funk mention, all coming to you live from the haunted Lemp Brewery in the home of the World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals it’s a special Halloween edition of Inside MMA!

The groupthink over there really is amazing sometimes. Since Bryan already pre-ranted on the idea of the Muppets being on RAW I bet you not one person writing for them will say they enjoyed the show.

[Loss]

I don't want to say I didn't like it, but it was difficult for me to enjoy. Wrestling is the most fun for me when they pretend it's the most serious. But ... anyone who enjoyed this but doesn't buy Rey or other smaller guys on top because of credibility issues is a major, first class hypocrite.

[Log]

I just wonder how many kids in attendance at Raw had their Muppet kayfabe ruined last night. They had to have seen the puppeteers coming out and getting behind the barriers with the severed torsos of their favorite characters. Very sad.

[Loss]

Ok, I'll just come out and say it without worrying about appearing joyless. I didn't hate the idea, but I really, really hated it in execution. When I saw Jack Swagger threatening to make a ham sandwich out of Miss Piggy, I realized that wrestling has fallen off the deep end and that there's no return. There's no reason to believe anything Swagger (or anyone in WWE, really) says in the future, since they made it abundantly, overtly clear tonight how fake wrestling is. I know kayfabe has been dead for a long time, but this is probably the worst violation of it that I have ever seen.

 

That doesn't make me joyless. It means that I like the Muppets and I like wrestling, but I have no reason to see them together. There are many interests I'm sure all of us have that wouldn't be a good fit in the same environment. This happened to be one of them.

[Matt D]

I think on some level it would have bugged me more (as opposed to "not at all," which is how much it bugged me), if WWE booking has been good lately.

 

For instance, if the follow up to the CM Punk speech or Punk winning the title at MITB was the muppets show, that would have been one thing.

 

I'll fully admit that my tastes are very, very far away from "real sports feel!" right now. When I joked over at the DVDVR board that I would like Ascension to use the glowing ball of power from their promo as a FX energy weapon in a match, I was only half joking.

[Loss]

Absolutely. If people enjoyed it, that's great. I don't want to try to challenge that or take it away from anyone. Just pointing out my thoughts watching it. And yes, it would have been far worse in a setting where wrestling is presented in a more traditional way.

[ohtani's jacket]

I just watched a bit of it on youtube. It was okay but the 2011 Muppets are to the 80s Muppets what 2011 WWE is to the 80s territories. Nevertheless, how is this any different from the usual backstage vignettes? They've been doing comedy in these things for years now and they've always made a mockery of kayfabe. I get where you're coming from, but the WWE is so far gone now down the entertainment route that I don't see why anyone would bat an eyelid at this sort of thing.

[Matt D]

I also sort of think that things can be argued away logically, so long as you go from the viewpoint that wrestling is real but the muppets are just puppets.

 

It would be one thing if Santino suddenly got magical powers from the potion, but he just used it as mist. The wrestlers understand showmanship as part of what they do. They know the muppet puppeteers will get them ratings, which means more money for them, so they play along on some level (the sheamus/Morrison stuff), in skits the wrestlers(kayfabe) worked out with the puppeteers. And Vickie's character is just so delusional that she forgot she was arguing with a puppet and lost herself to the moment. I think this is easier to explain away than Robocop or Chucky.

 

In general, the very biggest problem with 2011 WWE is that they never mention money.

[Loss]

I just watched a bit of it on youtube. It was okay but the 2011 Muppets are to the 80s Muppets what 2011 WWE is to the 80s territories. Nevertheless, how is this any different from the usual backstage vignettes? They've been doing comedy in these things for years now and they've always made a mockery of kayfabe. I get where you're coming from, but the WWE is so far gone now down the entertainment route that I don't see why anyone would bat an eyelid at this sort of thing.

The biggest difference is that backstage vignettes involve people. How do you suspend your disbelief enough to think Vickie Guerrero thinks Miss Piggy is a real person and takes the time to argue with her? I just can't. I wish I could, but I just can't.

 

That said, Vickie and Piggy arguing was pretty funny.

[Victator]

I took it as a promotional skit like the NFL would do on the Fox halftime show.

[jdw]

the 2011 Muppets are to the 80s Muppets what 2011 WWE is to the 80s territories.

Exactly.

 

I've been scratching my head over people looking forward to 2011 Muppets in the same way that Flair Fan looked forward to Flair going to TNA because "he could still go". I too loved the Muppets. Back when they were at their peak.

 

I'll grant that the Top Chef spot was quite good. But look at who they brought on. It wasn't the Muppet Show muppets. It was Elmo and Cookie Monster carrying things, and the Chefs and Padma 100% selling for and enjoying them. Different beast.

 

The Muppet Show muppets? It's like watching 60+ year old Flair get tossed off the top or take the back drop these days.

 

Then add WWE Creative... yeah, that worked. :/

 

John, thinking it's like looking foward to the Original Cast of SNL doing SNL this season...

[Matt D]

the 2011 Muppets are to the 80s Muppets what 2011 WWE is to the 80s territories.

Exactly.

 

I've been scratching my head over people looking forward to 2011 Muppets in the same way that Flair Fan looked forward to Flair going to TNA because "he could still go". I too loved the Muppets. Back when they were at their peak.

 

I'll grant that the Top Chef spot was quite good. But look at who they brought on. It wasn't the Muppet Show muppets. It was Elmo and Cookie Monster carrying things, and the Chefs and Padma 100% selling for and enjoying them. Different beast.

 

The Muppet Show muppets? It's like watching 60+ year old Flair get tossed off the top or take the back drop these days.

 

Then add WWE Creative... yeah, that worked. :/

 

John, thinking it's like looking foward to the Original Cast of SNL doing SNL this season...

 

I think mostly everyone I know who's a muppet fan is looking forward to the new movie with its Back to Basics approach and the amount of love from the creative team. That said, I think at best, it's going to play out like really good Muppet fan-fiction, but that's still potentially enjoyable. (Because really, in 2011, almost EVERYTHING in every medium is fan fiction).

[Bix]

Also, the Muppet Studios YouTube vids have generally been excellent.

[El-P]

I don't get how WWE Superstars interacting with the Muppets is much more of a kayfaybe/suspension of disbelief killer than Slick going into the Deepest, Darkest Africa to get Akeem. Or say, The Undertaker's soul floating above the ring at Royal Rumble. Or every invisible camera backstage skits you have to suffer through since 2000. Doesn't mean it's necessarily good, as all the example above are pretty stupid, but it's not anything ground breaking either.

Now, I haven't watched the show, and don't really intend too, but I hear what John and Dan say about Muppets 2011 vs Muppets 80's.

 

Anyway, I'm watching those "World of Hurt" episodes, and it's actually a decent little show, chockfull of TV reality bullshit and really heavy shoe editing, but with a nice wrestling content (much better on that respect than Tough Enough). But I can't get over the irony of Lance Storm of all people teaching these guys to

1/ show agression

2/ show a strong personality

3/ cut a promo. That was the funniest part, have Lance all of a sudden cut the blandest heel promo ever complete with the lame Calgary, dramatic pause, Alberta Canada bit, as a way to show these guys how to "turn it on". Lance probably doesn't realize that people used to stare at Dawn Marie's boobs when he used to do that in ECW, and at Major Gunn's ass in WCW. Can't wait to see him teach them about throwing a dropkick in the corner...

Gotta agree with Alvarez about the French Stallion, this guy is damn funny and shows more personality than 90% of the current WWE roster. Too small to ever get signed though, but he would for TNA of ROH I guess.

[Loss]

Yeah to all of that, but THE MUPPETS ARE NOT PEOPLE. That is the issue.

[sek69]

My whole point is it was essentially guaranteed no one writing on WO.com would admit to liking the Muppets on RAW once Bryan more or less pre-emptively bullied anyone who would dare think otherwise.

 

This might fit better in the "wacky things by WO.com staff" thread, but it's funny how one of the things Bryan rages on pretty much all the time is how it's bullshit that WWE does the anti-bullying stuff when Vince is a huge bully himself. Yet he's famous for losing his shit and personally attacking anyone who disagrees with him nearly as much as Vince does. Not on the same level, it's not like he writes skits where people on the board get stuff pulled out of their asses or anything, but I'm pretty sure he still has his attempt to embarrass rovert as his signature there.

[Dylan Waco]

Loved the show. Thought the whole thing was amusing. I actually know multiple people who NEVER watch wrestling who watched the show for the Muppets. Talking to a dozen people during or after the show the consensus was that the Muppets segments were extremely entertaining.

[Cox]

I guess I've seen enough stuff with real-life human beings interacting with the Muppets over the years that it didn't stand out to me as particularly strange at all. I mean, when they had guests on the Muppet Show, they had humans and Muppets interacting all the time. I don't see WWE and the Muppets operating in two separate worlds that it seemed jarring to me. I mean, if the Muppets found their way into ECW or Mid South and the wrestlers treated them as "real," I'd find that bizarre, but not within the world (or "universe," I guess) that WWE has established themselves in the year 2011. YMMV, I guess.

[Coffey]

the 2011 Muppets are to the 80s Muppets what 2011 WWE is to the 80s territories.

I actually prefer The Muppets of today to the Muppets of yesteryear. I've never liked Miss Piggy or Fozzy or Gonzo, but I fuckin' love Pepe the Shrimp & Renthro the Bear. Which is pretty much the exact opposite of WWE where I hate them now & loved them in the 80's. So I guess this doesn't apply to me. Of course the Muppets I really wanted to see weren't on the show (the two previously mentioned and the Swedish Chef) but Statler & Waldorf were, so I was happy.

 

Major Gunn's ass in WCW

Coincidentally, I just heard the other day that Tylene Buck is a camwhore now. I wonder if she gets trolled by wrestling fans still? So if there's someone out there that wants to pay-per-minute to watch her past her prime stick a dildo up her ass, there ya go.

[Bix]

I thought it was a pretty bad show aside from the Muppet segments and Ziggler-Ryder. The non-"WHAT?" Statler & Waldorf segments were kinda disappointing, though, in part because the current voices are startlingly different from the old ones, which is a little weird given how seamless the transitions have been for other characters when the Muppeteer voicing them died (Jim Henson & Richard Hunt) or left (Frank Oz among others). Plus, we didn't get any "DOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!!"s from them.

[KrisZ]

I still love the same people that complain about WWE every week yet still watch or my personal favorite the people that DON"T watch WWE and complain about it every chance they get. There is an answer for you people.

 

DON"T FUCKING WATCH THEIR TELEVISION.

 

It might make your miserable life a little better but I doubt it.

 

Now I watch WWE because I want to be entertained which I get mostly every RAW or PPVs which is all I watch. Is every show good...nope but there is always something redeeming in my eyes so I keep watching. As long as WWE makes money they are going to do what they want to do and you have a choice in watching it.