Loss Posted July 23, 2014 Report Share Posted July 23, 2014 He looks great. The idea of billing him at 500 lbs seems silly at this point. And really, he's the ideal next opponent for Rusev if he's ready to return. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Liska Posted July 23, 2014 Report Share Posted July 23, 2014 He's the Jerry Lawler of big men physically. His endurance is amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 It is consistent with Daniel Bryan saying a few months back that guys like Show and Henry were trying to get leaner and change how they train because they had to if they were going to keep up with the changes in the WWE style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 From the Observer: If you’re wondering why Cesaro has been kept as a heel and has cooled off so much even with Heyman as manager, it’s been somewhat intentional. Obviously, as noted in plans on who was going to be pushed, Cesaro was slated to be on the verge of a major face push late this summer. The decision was made, and this was before Bryan went down, that Reigns would be getting the big focused face push to the top with Cena, Bryan and Sheamus (who has also cooled down greatly because the way they book their secondary champions almost inherently does so) as the key guys. Cesaro is slated for a face push, but no time soon. The idea is “when we need it,” which would likely be after the big push for Reigns has already fully established him and they need the next rising star. Just stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Faulconer Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 I'm surprised to see Ambrose using Nigel's goofy rebound/jawbreaker lariat. I know it wasn't the main reason for his retirement but the constant arm injuries were definitely something that plagued Nigel for the rest of his career. He shouldn't mess his career up just because of one VERY polarizing move. Ambrose said on Colt's podcast that he doesn't like overkill finisher styles of wrestling and that's why he wasn't a great fit for Dragon Gate USA. He sounded like he thought he was "smarter" than other wrestlers who work that style. Destroying your body for the crowd pop after a signature spot doesn't seem all that different as far as wrestling philosophies go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chief Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 From the Observer: If youre wondering why Cesaro has been kept as a heel and has cooled off so much even with Heyman as manager, its been somewhat intentional. Obviously, as noted in plans on who was going to be pushed, Cesaro was slated to be on the verge of a major face push late this summer. The decision was made, and this was before Bryan went down, that Reigns would be getting the big focused face push to the top with Cena, Bryan and Sheamus (who has also cooled down greatly because the way they book their secondary champions almost inherently does so) as the key guys. Cesaro is slated for a face push, but no time soon. The idea is when we need it, which would likely be after the big push for Reigns has already fully established him and they need the next rising star. Just stupid. I'm actually more worried about Reigns. Cesaro is going to be over no matter what, however Reigns is going to risk serious backlash if fans see him as getting pushed at the expense of others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stiva Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 From the Observer: If you’re wondering why Cesaro has been kept as a heel and has cooled off so much even with Heyman as manager, it’s been somewhat intentional. Obviously, as noted in plans on who was going to be pushed, Cesaro was slated to be on the verge of a major face push late this summer. The decision was made, and this was before Bryan went down, that Reigns would be getting the big focused face push to the top with Cena, Bryan and Sheamus (who has also cooled down greatly because the way they book their secondary champions almost inherently does so) as the key guys. Cesaro is slated for a face push, but no time soon. The idea is “when we need it,” which would likely be after the big push for Reigns has already fully established him and they need the next rising star. Just stupid. This company is desperately lucky that everything else surrounding the wrestling part is so competent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 I'm surprised to see Ambrose using Nigel's goofy rebound/jawbreaker lariat. I know it wasn't the main reason for his retirement but the constant arm injuries were definitely something that plagued Nigel for the rest of his career. He shouldn't mess his career up just because of one VERY polarizing move. Ambrose said on Colt's podcast that he doesn't like overkill finisher styles of wrestling and that's why he wasn't a great fit for Dragon Gate USA. He sounded like he thought he was "smarter" than other wrestlers who work that style. Destroying your body for the crowd pop after a signature spot doesn't seem all that different as far as wrestling philosophies go. Ambrose isn't hitting guys anywhere close to as hard as Nigel did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmare007 Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 Yeah, Nigel's problem was hitting people with everything he had and multiple times. Dude was hitting like 3-5 devastating lariats per match almost. Ambrose ain't doing anything close to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 I'm puzzled at WWE's apparent belief there can only be so many pushed guys at a time. Why should they keep guys like Cesaro and Shamus on ice in case shit happens with their established top guys? It would seem the more established stars they have the better it would be for business. I guess that doesn't fit with the "Brand uber alles" philosophy they have to keep guys from getting too successful and leaving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 They think most people need to trade wins due to the amount of TV/exposure. They had figured out a great answer last year too: 6-man matches on every show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 Yeah but they also act like having established top acts is a limited resource. It's not like they'd have to start jobbing out Cena if they decided to push Cesaro. Also the idea that they can beat the US and IC champions non stop and it won't matter to the fans because they have belts to keep them over. The IC belt hasn't meant a thing since Rock and Austin traded it, and the WWE version of the US title has always been a joke. The last time you could argue it had any meaning was during Cena's initial push, and even then that was because he incorporated it into his gimmick with the spinner deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russellmania Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 I think the problem is the way their creative is structured. With only a handful of guys getting serious pushes it seems like they still are barely able to finish the script in time for RAW every week. I just don't think they have the creative bandwidth to give everyone something meaningful to do which is why you get that lazy booking style of just having guys randomly face each other 3 times in a week or whatever. Maybe if they didn't micromanage everything they'd be able to spread the love a little more, but it's not changing anytime soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russellmania Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 btw, anyone heard anything from the WWE Comic Con panel? I know sting made an appearance. Bryan was on the panel...wondering if he gave any updates on his health. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 I'm surprised to see Ambrose using Nigel's goofy rebound/jawbreaker lariat. I know it wasn't the main reason for his retirement but the constant arm injuries were definitely something that plagued Nigel for the rest of his career. He shouldn't mess his career up just because of one VERY polarizing move. Ambrose said on Colt's podcast that he doesn't like overkill finisher styles of wrestling and that's why he wasn't a great fit for Dragon Gate USA. He sounded like he thought he was "smarter" than other wrestlers who work that style. Destroying your body for the crowd pop after a signature spot doesn't seem all that different as far as wrestling philosophies go. Ambrose isn't hitting guys anywhere close to as hard as Nigel did. What Bix said to the nth degree. Nigel felt he had nothing going for himself and feared for his ROH roster spot so he decided to appeal to the ROH mutants by laying in the things hard and essentially intentionally throwing out his shoulder. Dean on the other hand has a lot going for himself in an interesting/quirky way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dexstar Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 I feel like the trading wins stuff would work with just a minor amount of explanation on their part - frame the entire "sport" as you would anything else really. You push the idea they are going to wrestle more than once until someone definitely wins, exactly as pro wrestling feuds normally works, just explicit. "Swagger and Rusev have an issue, whoever wins this series decisively is going to be in prime position for a shot at Sheamus" or something. Like, you educate people to expect dudes are gonna fight 6 or 7 times from the very start. Then it's just one loss when you lose the feud in the context of the storytelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Man in Blak Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 I was surprised to see Rusev show up to challenge Adrian Neville for the NXT Championship last night. It ended up being a mostly one-sided squash for Rusev that ended in a DQ win for Neville when Tyler Breeze interfered, but it still seemed odd to see a guy that's been given such a steady push on the main roster pop up in NXT again. (Also, why would they book and lay out such a damaging match for Neville?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillThompson Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 Hopefully because they're realizing that Neville is hot garbage. Logically though they tape these way in advance, so when they taped last night's I don't think the Rusev push was in full swing yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steenalized Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 As far as the trading wins thing goes, that's a place where I think not having jobbers and pure squashes hurts them. Instead of trading wins, have one guy smoke a jobber or two, whatever local indy guys are around probably, then he at least has done something other than trade wins and losses with a current opponent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 I don't think Neville is bad at all, but I can just see Kevin Dunn savaging him when he gets called up because of his look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Eduardo James Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 The IC belt hasn't meant a thing since Rock and Austin traded itI know! The belt was so prestigious that Austin had no problem with handing it over to the Rock because it wasn't worth his time anymore. It's not a recent problem. Aside from stuff like the initial Jericho/Benoit series and maybe Orton's IC reign, it's struggled with having any semblance of importance for the past 20 years. I normally hate armchair booking, but if they want to make it important, have two people have a hate filled feud over it for a year. Make the belt the object of desire. Give the guys on the undercard some promo time stating that. I don't care about the reason. It makes them more money, the belt means they're higher up on the world title contention list. Anything! It seems like most feuds with a champion these days the idea of being one is secondary. As far as the trading wins thing goes, that's a place where I think not having jobbers and pure squashes hurts them. Instead of trading wins, have one guy smoke a jobber or two, whatever local indy guys are around probably, then he at least has done something other than trade wins and losses with a current opponent. That's one lingering effect of Crash TV: stars must always wrestle stars on the main show. Except now you need guys wrestling on stuff like Main Event. This wasn't a tremendous issue with 11 hours of monthly TV, but with 27 hours a month of TV it obviously wears thin. Would jobbers help? I don't know. The audience is accepting of it when it comes to building new guys, but I'm not sure how'd they react to having more than one on a show these days since you have over 2x the amount of TV to fill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russellmania Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 a big reason belts don't matter any more is all the stupid fucking non-title matches they run on TV. The IC and US champs seem to wrestle in more non-title matches than they do title matches. If the title isn't even important enough to be the centerpiece of the title-holder's matches then what's the point of it? Also since they use non-title matches as a vehicle for the 'challenger' to get an 'upset' win over the champ to then set up the title match it seems like the IC and US champs lose as often as they win, which really makes them seem like paper champions. I'd love to see win/loss stats for secondary champs in WWE over the last 5 years. I bet their win percentage in singles matches as champ (excluding title changes) is below 75%, which is absurd when you consider that by definition a champ should be undefeated until he loses the title. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 Also it doesn't help where they position the title on the card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Man in Blak Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 I actually wouldn't mind a secondary champion dropping a non-title match every once in a while, as long as it: - was played up by the announcing team as a moment of complacency and something that doesn't happen very often - was further used to build a storyline (with promos!) from the champion and the challenger chasing him But that's not what really happens. What happens is that they throw a non-title match on the card, they talk incessantly about Twitter or the main event while they're wrestling, say "Wow, Challenger X has beaten the champion!" once the finish happens, and then we never hear a word about it from anyone, wrestlers or commentators, until the rematch. Though, even if they treated all of their non-title losses in that way, it would still be overkill at this point because they've driven that trope into the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russellmania Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 holy shit, Bryan detained a burglar who had broken into his house: http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/wwe-star-daniel-bryan-stops-burglar-in-phoenix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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