Smackdown Six Era

[NintendoLogic]

There's a lot to parse there, but I don't think anyone's tired of the current WWE output when it comes to televised matches. I am occasionally frustrated due to lack of time and three or four long tag matches that I want to watch a week while I'm watching everything else, but is there any real criticism against the matches right now? I think the most I see is "Well, it's pretty obvious that Cody really isn't as good as Dustin."

You mean besides the fact that all the Shield matches are basically interchangeable?

[Loss]

I don't think the matches have enough heat.

[Mini Bennett]

I don't think the matches have enough heat.

What do you think that stems from, Loss?

[Loss]

That's a big topic. I've gone into it before and am hesitant to go into too much detail here because I don't want to derail this thread from Smackdown Six talk. I think it's a combination of mediocre booking, announcing not explaining the wrestling style enough and the erosion of kayfabe. Still, the end result is what it is. But Punk vs Lawler last year having front row fans sit on their hands while Lawler has the crap beaten out of him made me sad. I've seen recent Rhodes matches where they are able to get the crowd into it, but they never have the people at the beginning, and even then, it's only heated if you lower the bar and judge it by a different set of standards.

[Mini Bennett]

I agree about the booking and commentary. Say what you want about the guy, but I don't think anyone since JR has had much of an understanding of what they should be talking about. Enough has been said about WWEs crummy booking.

[Timbo Slice]

That's true with basically all WWE at this point, though. The heat isn't throughout the match. It's basically them playing for the stretch run. That's how it's been for a while. Only matches that are truly "special" like Cena/Brock or Cena/Punk from MITB 2011 have that heat that lasts the entire match. It's rare that fans are so into a match going in that they're going crazy the entire time. Hell, even the Rhodes/Shield match from Battleground only got big halfway through the match.

[MikeCampbell]

I'm not gonna say that it was "hating" on Smackdown, but I know there was some criticism of it on DVDVR. During whatever article had the Takayama roundtable discussion on it, one of them (I want to credit Dean, but I'm not sure) commented something along the lines of that it was great to see Takayama make his German seem important when there were probably 30 worthless Germans in every Smackdown tag match.

[MikeCampbell]

Found it, thanks to the wayback machine. From DVDVR Issue #139. It's not from Dean, it's actually from TKG:

 

"Again, Takayama makes you believe in his opponents. Takayama fights for and out of German suplexes. It's amusing to see a single German be so meaningful when there must be thirty meaningless Germans in every Smackdown tag."

[Ditch]

To be fair, a WWE low-elevation flat-bump German is totally different from a Takayama high-elevation, high-angle/impact German. The latter is something WWE wouldn't tolerate on a regular basis, and is a credible finisher. Benoit/Angle rolling Germans are mid-range in terms of impact and sold as such.

[Grimmas]

I rewatched the Angle-Benoit Rumble match and those German Suplexes killed me. Talk about overkill.

[Steven]

To be fair, a WWE low-elevation flat-bump German is totally different from a Takayama high-elevation, high-angle/impact German. The latter is something WWE wouldn't tolerate on a regular basis, and is a credible finisher. Benoit/Angle rolling Germans are mid-range in terms of impact and sold as such.

You don't really see a ton of Germans these days and when you do, they're usually done by guys like Bryan or del Rio. When they do it, it's usually the bridged kind. The rolling Germans are far worse. Three or four consecutive bumps on your upper back and head and that's the normal move. Benoit would occasionally go nuts with them and do shit like 9 or 10 in a row.