Matt D Posted May 21, 2015 Report Share Posted May 21, 2015 The use of the term "character work", that has seemingly spread like crazy lately. The idea that legit headbutts = good work. I'm with El-P on the headbutt thing but his dislike of "character work" is one of my pet peeves today. I get this, actually. The term doesn't bother me, but matches that are like this definitely do. The Cena-Bray Wyatt WM30 and HHH-Undertaker WM28 matches come to mind as the most glaring examples. Too much acting and bad attempts at Shakespeare, not enough wrestling (and I don't mean "action" by "wrestling" necessarily). I wanted to give some praise to Emma for her character work specifically last night and Jerome had me self-conscious about it. There's a big difference between Shawn Michaels crying and Emma putting her hand over her heart as the crowd with a little sigh as the crowd is chanting that she's evil and then later on forcing Bayley into a hug to mock her. Or Cavernario, who might be the best guy in the world at portraying his character right now. He's able to integrate the caveman wildness into varied things like lucha matwork, crowd interaction, and outright comedy in a really natural, effective way that shows that he's always "on." And never just going through the motions or hitting his shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted May 21, 2015 Report Share Posted May 21, 2015 "Comic book villain" Cody Rhodes with that stupid plastic mask. I think it's the worst WWE gimmick ever. Mostly because all the other "worst" gimmicks didn't go on so long and have so many shitty promos. At this point, Stardust is even worse. He's even more of a comic book villain with the Mr. Sinister entrance attire, and now that his brother's gone the whole thing is completely pointless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingSavage Posted May 21, 2015 Report Share Posted May 21, 2015 Absolutely agreed. Stardust is the dogshit worse. I'd rather crawl & crab-walk on hands and knees through a dozen dirty dumpster fires than watch Stardust try to "act" his way through another segment or interview. Christ. At least with plastic-mask Cody, you got some good matches out of the ordeal. The Street Fight with Randy was pretty great, the earlier matches with Mysterio, etc. Plus the idea of having generic henchmen at ringside as "bag boys" was a nice touch, supervillainy or not. That's just pro 'rasslin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted May 21, 2015 Report Share Posted May 21, 2015 Absolutely agreed. Stardust is the dogshit worse. I'd rather crawl & crab-walk on hands and knees through a dozen dirty dumpster fires than watch Stardust try to "act" his way through another segment or interview. Christ. At least with plastic-mask Cody, you got some good matches out of the ordeal. The Street Fight with Randy was pretty great, the earlier matches with Mysterio, etc. Plus the idea of having generic henchmen at ringside as "bag boys" was a nice touch, supervillainy or not. That's just pro 'rasslin. Actually I forgot the bag boys and handing out the bags to the crowd. That was the best part of the gimmick, especially Booker T getting more and more pissed about being handed bags. That's the only part of the gimmick I liked and had totally forgotten it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 21, 2015 Report Share Posted May 21, 2015 WWE announcing (no, I don't mean in general, although it works too ) : "For the title !", "For the championship !", "For the victory !" when there's a pinfall attempt = this is not the end of the match. This is so stupid and annoying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artDDP Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 Everyone saying "this business" when cutting promos. Just say "this sport". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 Simultaneous hot tags in WWE tag matches. My least favorite thing in wrestling. Hell, my least favorite thing period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Redman Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 It peeves me when a match seems to go "slam a guy - pick him up by the head - suplex him - pick him up - piledrive him - pick him up - etc." Like the inherent laziness and waste of energy in dropping a guy just to pick him up again. There are a million ways to transition better than that, and it comes off like a guy just running through a list of moves he wrote down earlier. I notice it more during 90s juniors matches than any other time, and it just takes me way out of a match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RocketCrypt Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 People have mentioned various Michael Cole related pet peeves, but I just find his voice in general irritating. Even if he's making a pertinent point his voice just ruins it for me. He's also terrible at conveying emotion and feigning excitement. It's why I like Rich Brennan on NXT. He basically IS Michael Cole (I believe Cole produces him) but has a much more tolerable voice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJRogers Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 It peeves me when a match seems to go "slam a guy - pick him up by the head - suplex him - pick him up - piledrive him - pick him up - etc." Like the inherent laziness and waste of energy in dropping a guy just to pick him up again. There are a million ways to transition better than that, and it comes off like a guy just running through a list of moves he wrote down earlier. I notice it more during 90s juniors matches than any other time, and it just takes me way out of a match. IDK, it might seem believable that a lug headed stiff (be it their actual selves or gimmick) would be that lazy and unimaginative when it comes to "dishing out more punishment". I suppose you didn't get a kick out of Brock Lesnar's Suplex City huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Redman Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 It peeves me when a match seems to go "slam a guy - pick him up by the head - suplex him - pick him up - piledrive him - pick him up - etc." Like the inherent laziness and waste of energy in dropping a guy just to pick him up again. There are a million ways to transition better than that, and it comes off like a guy just running through a list of moves he wrote down earlier. I notice it more during 90s juniors matches than any other time, and it just takes me way out of a match. IDK, it might seem believable that a lug headed stiff (be it their actual selves or gimmick) would be that lazy and unimaginative when it comes to "dishing out more punishment". I suppose you didn't get a kick out of Brock Lesnar's Suplex City huh? It might be believable for a lug headed stiff, fair point. But firstly, that still doesn't mean it;s any good to watch, and secondly, I'm not thinking of lug headed stiffs. I just watched Liger vs Sano 1/90, for example, and Sano spends like ten minutes picking Liger up just to put him back down. I feel this way all the time watching juniors matches. I loved Suplex City. That was the opposite of what I'm talking about, really. Brock's suplexes are massive bombs, and they are usually given time to breathe as the receiver sells the shit out of it and Brock laughs maniacally. And even when he does rattle them off fairly quickly, it's still Brock on a murderous rampage, and not a guy mechanically performing spots in a rote and robotic fashion. There's a major difference between what I'm talking about and something like Brock's suplexes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 I never saw the "put him down, pick him up" stuff as annoying, I figure (in a kayfabe sense) the guy on offense knows one move isn't going to put the guy away so he picks them up to deliver more punishment. I'll grant it's not the most creative way to do it, but it makes sense in a "if this was real" way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Redman Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 I don't mind the logic behind it per se. I just think it's unimaginative and not fun to watch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingSavage Posted May 24, 2015 Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 I like Brennan, especially with his small time stuff for Booker's ROW out in my neck of the woods - but he really started to sound a lot like Cole on that Unstoppable show. There was a "For the championship!" or "For the win!" to accompany every other pin attempt. He does bring a little more energy & excitement at times, coming across as a genuine fan that's stoked to be there. But yeah. It's early. Time will tell if he's just going to be groomed to be Cole 2.0 or whatever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bierschwale Posted May 24, 2015 Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 Simultaneous hot tags in WWE tag matches. My least favorite thing in wrestling. Hell, my least favorite thing period. Came to post just that. I'm pretty convinced that the dueling hot tags only exist so they can get the "panoramic" shots from the face corner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted June 9, 2015 Report Share Posted June 9, 2015 The use of the expression "Great match theory". At this point it would need a hashtag, that's how annoying it's become. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted June 9, 2015 Report Share Posted June 9, 2015 Seconded Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregor Posted June 9, 2015 Report Share Posted June 9, 2015 You forgot to capitalize the M and the T. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted June 9, 2015 Report Share Posted June 9, 2015 Steven is a great guy but I'm not letting him near my actual kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted June 9, 2015 Report Share Posted June 9, 2015 The use of the expression "Great match theory". At this point it would need a hashtag, that's how annoying it's become. One could say that Great Match Theory at this point is Self Indulgent Epic Criticism by hardcore wrestling fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 A wrestler who "deserves" a World Title run. Reading stupid shit over on WF.com about how Kane "deserves" another run with the WWE Title because he's been there a long time and suffered a lot of bad booking and thus "deserves" one more title run before he retires. The only person who "deserves" the title is the guy who can make the most money with it/draw the most interest. You could argue that isn't Rollins but it's definitely not Kane. Where do you stop with the "deserves it" line of thinking? Basically "The World Title as an employee service award" line of thinking irritates the shit out of me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 The championship has definitely become a lifetime achievement award at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 The championship has definitely become a lifetime achievement award at times. If Lawler couldn't get one at Elimination Chamber 2011 against The Miz then no one should. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 Agreed. It's one of the symptoms of the titles not meaning anything anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingSavage Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 Lawler was in prime position to have a huge, memorable moment that year. What the hell did they do to end up so far off the rails with that one? The buildup was mostly great. The emotion & drama was heartfelt and real. It's one of those times they just had to get out of their own way & let the story write itself. The right outcome was staring them straight in the face, and they went another way with it entirely. Somehow then there's suddenly Austin and Jack Swagger attached to it, a DQ finish goes down at Mania, JR pops in, there's straps and an athlete's feet angle or some shit... I don't know. Just insane how badly they wrecked & ruined it all in a matter of weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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