PTBN Reaction Show: WrestleMania 32 and NXT TakeOver: Dallas

[goodhelmet]

http://placetobenation.com/ptbn-reaction-show-wrestlemania-32-and-nxt-takeover-dallas/

 

 

Will and Pete (in Dallas) are joined by Kris Zellner to recap the WWE events of WrestleMania weekend. The guys review NXT TakeOver: Dallas, the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony and completely break down WrestleMania 32 from two vantage points: in-person and watching live at home. Great stuff here across the board.

[JerryvonKramer]

No one else hated that ladder match?

[Grimmas]

No one else hated that ladder match?

It was meaningless car wreck shit that will be forgotten in a day, but it was fun spots.

[Jimmy Redman]

No one else hated that ladder match?

 

You are the only cloud yeller. Ladder clusterfucks are fun!

[JerryvonKramer]

One small thing:

 

On the booking of the finish to the women's match. I no longer think that they think about how things look now but how they'll look in like ten years. I think there's this weird deal where they have the idea of writing history.

 

So what they care about is either the historic image of Jericho weeping like he's just won Wimbledon or Shane off cage OR the historic idea of Charlotte following in Flair's footsteps and having a monster title run. So there's a detachment from what is needed in the booking.

 

I won't be surprised if she holds on to the belt for a whole year.

[KrisZ]

Man a lot of this audio sounded dated after RAW

[Jimmy Redman]

Definitely on Charlotte. That's why she was the choice to win the belt back at the start of the angle. She's going to get a lot of opportunities just because she's El Hija Del Flair.

[Luchaundead]

One small thing:

 

On the booking of the finish to the women's match. I no longer think that they think about how things look now but how they'll look in like ten years. I think there's this weird deal where they have the idea of writing history.

 

So what they care about is either the historic image of Jericho weeping like he's just won Wimbledon or Shane off cage OR the historic idea of Charlotte following in Flair's footsteps and having a monster title run. So there's a detachment from what is needed in the booking.

 

I won't be surprised if she holds on to the belt for a whole year.

 

A big part of that as well is that this will go down was the first WWE Women's Champion.

[Jimmy Redman]

I love how they had Lita - a former Women's Champion - announce that this was the "first ever Women's Championship".

I thought it was just a Lita flub...and then they kept saying it. Minor details are one thing but they had a Women's Championship for literally their entire history save for the last six years. The level of ignoring history there was staggering, even for WWE standards. Like, they were literally showing clips of the Women's Championship while they were saying this.

[JerryvonKramer]

I guess my point is that the script is already written for Charlotte: she's going to have a historic career, and they are taking a ten-fifteen year view.

 

In some ways the booking is Giant Baba-ish and everyone is being too impatient.

[Jimmy Redman]

You can see that in pockets over the years, when they do something like have Randy Orton win the World Title at 24 years of age, because they wanted someone to beat Brock's record so they could use "youngest World Heavyweight Champion in history" as a talking point for a chosen one like Randy forever.

 

But yeah it's gone into hyperdrive, trying to manufacture Wrestlemania Moments ™ basically before they've even happened just to be able to write their own narrative.

[The Man in Blak]

 

No one else hated that ladder match?

 

You are the only cloud yeller. Ladder clusterfucks are fun!

 

 

Even by the usual standards for ladder clusterfucks, I didn't think it was that great, but that cloud totally deserved it!

[Matt D]

I actually think that Vince sees Charlotte, first and foremost, as a hostage to ensure Ric's good behavior.

[Stiva]

I popped for the reveal that Will is selling comps to Sasha Banks

[WingedEagle]

I popped for the reveal that Will is selling comps to Sasha Banks

 

Say what? Haven't had the chance to listen yet, but that is amazing.

[Gus_McCrae]

Is their a delay in this getting posted to the podcast app on an iPhone? I checked earlier this afternoon for the drive home and didn't see it.

[goodhelmet]

I did not sell Sasha Banks a comp.

[bradhindsight]

Show has been out on the P2B feed since 2:30am Gus. Sometimes we double the reaction shows up on the PWO-PTBN feed but plenty there from Kris yesterday, plus all the GWE and Kal stuff, so its just on the regular P2B podcast iTunes.

[goodhelmet]

Man a lot of this audio sounded dated after RAW

 

I disagree. I think they knew the crowd would be the post-Mania crowd so they are going to start their "real" booking next week when things are back to the status quo.

[RCS1988]

Isn't there just a PWO feed as well?

[JerryvonKramer]

The reaction shows haven't been on PWO-PTBN feed for some time now. Not since MSG show 2015.

 

If you look here: http://placetobenation.com/podcasts/

 

PTBN feed shows on left (and Kevin Kelly)

PWO-PTBN shows on right

[pol]

I did not sell Sasha Banks a comp.

 

Hah, it sure sounded like that's what you were saying

[Stiva]

I did not sell Sasha Banks a comp.

Aww, I totally took the "She must have been watching 36 discs of Eddie recently" seriously

[Jimmy Redman]

Sasha would fucking LOVE a 36 disc Eddie comp. Someone hook a girl up.

On Bayley/Asuka, you brought up the amount of offense Bayley got in, and I've seen that noted by quite a few people after the show, but I really like it and think it fits perfectly for a few reasons.

Firstly, it fits with what Bayley's been doing. She's obviously an underdog babyface, but her underdog-ness comes more from her sympathetic, sweet nature than her size or ability levels. In the beginning she was the shy, sweet girl who couldn't really compete in the land of sharks, but she's clearly grown up and isn't that girl anymore. She's risen to the top of NXT, improved tremendously along the way, and since winning the belt she's been working as an ace way more than as an underdog. She's grown into her role.

Furthermore, when Bayley meets a challenge she rises to it. In her big Brooklyn title match, she came out swinging and wailed on Sasha for a long time. When Sasha went after her broken hand, Bayley responded at Respect by stomping the shit out of her in retaliation! When she faced a monster in Nia, she threw her whole arsenal at her. So when faced with the challenge of the ass kicking grappler Asuka, she rises to the challenge and trades holds with her, bangs with her, and basically shows that she's up for it, and that there's a reason why she's the champ. It's consistent with how she's worked big matches so far.

 

Secondly, in a completely different way it also fits perfectly with what Asuka has been doing, and how they treat her at Takeovers specifically. On TV Asuka faces jobber girls and basically works extended squashes with them. Every now and then she'll have a semi big match like vs Dana, and they'll do a little more, but she'll still be dominant. Then when she works at Takeover, she'll work much more even and her opponent (Emma) gets a lot more in. Asuka is booked dominant on TV so that when she gets to the big shows, the fact that she is challenged by her opponent is a big deal. It protects her, and it also REALLY puts over the idea of the Takeovers as big shows, shows where the really special matches happen that you just don't see on TV.

 

I love it on all levels.