dexstar Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Tag team match was earlier before they went on live, according to Cole on commentary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cpst Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 I'm still not really down with the party store rasta wig aspect of this entrance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dexstar Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 I dig Balor's entrance mostly but the best descriptor I can come up with is "Mad Max Strip Club" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cpst Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 This ref sure counts fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted July 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Owens vs. Balor for the NXT title - What the hell was Owens doing. Balor hits a nice forearm.. he no sells it. He grabs the ropes, Balor misses a dropkick, he sells it. Get your shit together man. - OK, Owens dishing put punishment and playing to the crowd is awesome. - I really liked Balor trying to fight back, tries to jump on the apron and Owens just punches him to the floor. Sweet. - Owens is such a fucking troll… Running the ropes to lock on the headlock. Love it! - “Not impressed? I don’t care. I hate this country and everybody in it” - KO doing his John Cena Tribute was pretty great. Right now, Balor is getting in enough hope spots to keep it interesting. - I don’t think Vince is running the announcers booth because they are doing a good job calling the action - Balor’s comeback is pretty great with the Pele kick, the big dive outside, the Curtain Call. Owens coming back with the German and rolling senton to the package drop is all good! This match is getting hot! - After Balor hit the Slingblade, LOVED Owens hanging on to his leg for dear life when Balor went up top. - Man, I thought the double stomp was the finish. They got me. - Christ, that flip senton was sick! - These nearfalls are pretty great. I thought the brainbuster was the finish!! - I like that Balor didn’t kick out of the powerbomb but evaded it completely. - By far, my favorite Balor match ever. Great Match!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted July 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Tag team match was earlier before they went on live, according to Cole on commentary. Bummer. I was looking forward to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted July 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 FUCK YEAH.... FUJINAMI!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dexstar Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Tag team match was earlier before they went on live, according to Cole on commentary. Bummer. I was looking forward to it. I might have misheard but it doesn't look like it. Maybe they'll do the full card when they show it later? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Well I assume that Owens losing the NXT title is a perfect set up for Owens winning the US title at Battleground or whatever the show is called. I mean that is the only reason to justify him beating Finn today if he wasn't beating Cena Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted July 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Oh shit... Balor giving Bullet Club Too Sweets to the crowd!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cpst Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Kane, a main event in any arena. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted July 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Bummed there is going to be no Cesaro either Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dexstar Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Cole talking about "so many great Japanese superstars in WWE" and then citing Toru Tanaka and Mr Fuji before a long pause and dropping in Antonio Inoki was pretty great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 John Cena in the corner is pretty funny watching Dolph get the crap beat out of him for 10 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted July 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Cena & Ziggler vs. Kane & Barrett - This is a case where guys should watch the matches before them. Jericho grounded Neville with the headlock. Cool. Owens hooked Balor in the headlock to be a dick. Cool. Barrett using the headlock for heat… overkill for one 2 hour card. Mix in an armbar - Early on, solid but unspectacular. I did like Barrett;s kick to Cena’s ribs from the corner though - I like the structure of the tag but the heels should be hooking in bear hugs and Boston Crabs, not headlock and chinlocks. - Big example of what can make an ok match great. Kane gets tagged in while Barrett has Ziggler stretched with his arm bar and foot on the face. Kane halfass kicks him when he could have nailed a knee drop or leg drop to the arm or face of Ziggler. - Solid face in peril section by Ziggler with some nice hope spots. - Fuck.. again Kane gets tagged in with the lazy kick punch takeover. Fuck Kane. Again, the structure is fine but the offense by the heels isn’t nasty or dynamic enough to make this great. - I would have preferred a longer finishing stretch but Kane & Barrett are jobbers anyway so I can live with it. - OK match that could have been great with better heels and a bit shorter. In a way, this was hurt by placement. Cena is a main event player but the main event should have been Owens vs. Balor. Overall: Great 2 hour show. It just highlights how easy RAW would be to watch at 2 hours and how they can deliver a great 2 hour wrestling show. Easy thumbs up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Enthusiast Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 I am a little behind, but it is funny that you mentioned the powerbomb, Will. I kept thinking "well, they can't go home yet - Balor hasn't even kicked out of the powerbomb yet." That match and the opener were both really good matches. Of course Brock was fun as always. I hope a lot of people tune in for this and they start showing more house shows and the like on the Network, at least when they run major markets on Saturday nights and have the TV crew nearby. It honestly made me say "I should go to a house show" about halfway through the show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pol Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 The camera work and announcing on this show was leagues ahead of their usual fare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingSavage Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 But if they start airing more & more house shows on the Network, won't they just gradually be inclined to start presenting the house shows like TV? And that'd kind of ruin the experience.Can't speak for everyone, but I've gone to more live events than Raws, SmackDowns, PPVs, or Manias in my lifetime. And I've always enjoyed the looser atmosphere. The guys still get to do a little shtick on the mic, the intermissions are kept lively - even got to see my nephew get in the ring & dance with Dusty Rhodes & Teddy Long a couple of years ago - and stuff of that nature surely wouldn't fly on a TV-driven "special" for the Network. Rather than the things I've seen at live events... like Santino trying to out-gross the Boogeyman, or Morrison & Punk doing a rival football uniforms thing on SuperBowl weekend... we'd probably just get more typical Authority segments filled with Kane, Seth Rollins, and so on. Maybe I'm wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMJ Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 * First, this special really showed just how much WWE can benefit from producing something different than the usual. Different crowd. Different entranceway. Different announcers. Even different camera angles. It was just such a breath of fresh air that I would easily say it added at least a half-point to every match. * I really liked the opener. Probably my favorite Jericho match in years. Again, I'm not sure if that has to do mostly with the presentation, the crowd's involvement, or even the novelty of seeing Jericho after a long absence, but I also thought the pacing of the match and all the counters were great. Jericho seemed to be having fun and, maybe more than any match since the Cena "debut," Neville struck out to me as a guy that could actually last - maybe even in a role not dissimilar to when Jericho, Edge, and Christian were all long-running IC/European championship-level guys. * I'm a Nikki Bella fan but I must admit, she's been losing me these past few outings. This match was kinda like her title reign to me. It started out pretty sloppy, then eased into some respectable work and great effort, and then hit the wall with a real anti-climactic thud. (While she's still champion, I don't see anyone on the current main roster taking the title from her in an interesting way.) * The Lesnar squash was fun, reminiscent of watching Sid take out dudes back in the day. The post-match was the "bonus" for me because, before Big E and Woods came out, I must admit to being a bit disappointed that we didn't see them. * Balor/Owens was great fun and part of that fun was the "Japan-ness" to it. I'll be the first to admit I'm seriously ignorant and unknowledgable of Japanese wrestling beyond what I've read in books or seen bits and peices of - but the streamers and flowers, while probably not special to many on this board, come off as really cool and unique to a US-centric viewer like myself (and probably a majority of WWE fans). Then, you had the match, which continues Owens' streak of quality outings. I wasn't personally invested enough to call this a MOTYC but I'd assume the NXT die-hards and Balor fans enjoyed it more than I did - meaning, to me, it was a B+/A-, but I wouldn't doubt that those more invested in the storyline and Balor's progress wouldn't put it above that. * The "main event" was misplaced and featured two characters (Barrett/Kane) that are so cold, it is impossible to care. I would've loved Cena/Ziggler vs. New Day or Cena/Ziggler vs. Rollins & J&J Security or even Cena/Ziggler vs. Harper and Bray or, really, just about any two other than Kane and Barrett. Overall, a really good 2-hour show and one I'd easily recommend (save the main event) due to the watchability of most of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
...TG Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Loved the show, like everyone else. Main difference for me is that Cole wasn't constantly hyping the angles, and was actually calling the matches. And he's not great at it but at least he wasn't actively bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcmmnx Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Neville/Jericho, Brock/Kofi, and Owens/Balor were all good and worth a watch. The announcing was so much better without Vince around. That was by far the best Balor has looked in a WWE ring. I haven't been sold on him, but he brought the fire for this match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBscout Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 I can see Vince being introduced to Finn Balor backstage and going "FINN! HUCK FINN! YES DAMMIT THAT'S IT" or "PHINNEAS GODWINN!" And Triple H trying his best to move him along to talk to somebody down the hall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parties Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 The camera work and announcing on this show was leagues ahead of their usual fare. Holy hell: this. I agree with everything that was said about the show, but the hard camera was the standout for me. It needs to be constantly noted how bad a director Kevin Dunn is, and how badly produced RAW is by the standards of anyone who ever watches sports. Imagine the flaming pitchforks that would come out if the NBA Finals was filmed as a series of rapid cutaways between closeups of the basketball/closeups of the players faces/bumbling shaky-cam everytime anyone scored a basket. This show was filmed with honestly less production than New Japan. If anything this looked like a present-day Big Japan show. Which was awesome. I've said this before, but Jericho is like Orton in that he's a thousand times better in a live/house showish setting than he is on RAW or a WWE-styled PPV. Everything about his style is hurt by extreme closeups and mic'ed rings, and aided by the opportunity to play off the crowd and work uninterrupted 20 minute matches. That's not even to say he isn't a flawed or even overrated worker - he absolutely is - but he's a strong example of how almost everyone on that roster looks better in a house show setting than they do on RAW. I'm still not sold on Balor and thought he really didn't rise to the occasion. I still dislike his moveset, his weak strikes, the paint, his mannerisms, his little-to-no selling, etc. I liked Owens throwing the flowers and thought he did OK. His beard is terrible and a stip of the Battleground match (which he'll win) should be that if defeated, Cena is allowed to forceably shave him like the ornery pug that he is. Thought Cena and Ziggler worked really well as a tag team. I agree with whoever on this board (maybe Will?) who recently said that every main event worker in WWE should have a de facto tag partner who they team up with on special occasions, even if they're both singles workers 90% of the time. Reigns and Ambrose, Sheamus and Barrett, Orton and His Parole Officer (HHH). Point being I would have no problem if Ziggler became Cena's go-to guy. They even have a kayfabe history together off of the 2014 Survivor Series win. And Dolph makes for a better Kikuchi than say, Zack Ryder (who I would say is more like the Ogawa to Cena's Misawa, or perhaps more accurately the Danny Spivey to Cena's Hansen). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingedEagle Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Balor-Owens was a low-level MOTYC for me and while it feels like the standout match of the week given the production and fact this was a big show, I need to rewatch Cena/Cesaro anyways. Biggest standout was the commentary as I was never clawing at my ears and it actually brought he potato salad and slaw rather than take nearly everything away from the proverbial table. Between Cena/Cesaro, this show and Dragon Gate its been a hell of a week. With Dominion to follow tomorrow. i stayed off of the Twittah Machine (TM Bully Ray) to watch this spoiler free which means I should have no trouble doing the same for Dominion. Looking forward to it. Happy 4th e'ebody. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(BP) Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Based on what I've seen from Balor, once he hits the main roster he'll have good matches with the usual suspects (Cena, Cesaro, Sheamus), but he'll struggle to gel with most of the roster. He seems to be the opitome of a guy who works up to his opponent's level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.