Wrestling thoughts that probably don't deserve

[Guest savagerulz]

Some Impact! Thoughts:

 

The good:

 

A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels segment- When speaking, they still sound far from completely coherent and natural-sounding, but this was miles ahead of any other promo I've ever seen from either of them.

 

Jay Lethal actually pulled off some nice spots, instead of being completely squashed with no offense. Here's a TNA jobber that I find more entertaining than most WWF midcarders.

 

Homicide's bulldog off the top rope, although the rest of the match was shit.

 

Eric Young's facial expressions and delivery of his lines. He may be nothing in the ring, but I like his goofy runt persona, and he plays it well.

 

Alex Shelley being involved in a "main event level" angle.

 

The bad:

 

The stupidity of the aforementioned main event level angle.

 

Alex Shelley not being in his team's match.

 

Team 3D getting saddled with the two shittiest members of Team Canada (I was semi-excited when Team Canada was announced as their opponents, because I thought it would be cool to see how they work with Petey Williams).

 

The ugly:

 

The new Austin Aries ring garb. Yikes.

[Strummer]

According to Meltzer on WOL, originally all the wrestlers in the back were told not to mention Eddy on air or allude to him in any manner out of respect. However, Vince kept hearing the Eddy chants from the crowd and just couldn't help himself and decided to use Eddy's name in storylines to get heat.

[Guest Dangerous A]

There was an interesting point on the Bryan and Vinny show (ducks rotten fruit from Loss about how WWE, with all their mention of Eddie in their shows and how they have 2 guys who are basically walking tributes to Eddie have turned Eddie Guerrero into the most over performer on both shows even though he's dead.

 

Not saying I totally agree with it, but it's not a dead point.

[Guest Some Guy]

There was an interesting point on the Bryan and Vinny show (ducks rotten fruit from Loss about how WWE, with all their mention of Eddie in their shows and how they have 2 guys who are basically walking tributes to Eddie have turned Eddie Guerrero into the most over performer on both shows even though he's dead.

 

Not saying I totally agree with it, but it's not a dead point.

If WWE was not doing these angles based around Eddy would the fans have alreay forgotten about him for the most part?

[kjh]

There was an interesting point on the Bryan and Vinny show (ducks rotten fruit from Loss about how WWE, with all their mention of Eddie in their shows and how they have 2 guys who are basically walking tributes to Eddie have turned Eddie Guerrero into the most over performer on both shows even though he's dead.

It's the converse of Page's cheesy WWE catchphrase: "That's not a good thing, it's a bad thing". New Japan rode the wave of sympathy and nostalgia after Shinya Hashimoto died for as much as it was worth, putting over aging veteran Masahiro Chono over the seemingly undefeatable Kazuyuki Fujita in the G1 Climax tournament final last year, and it gave them a huge feel good pop on the night, but meant nothing for long term business and they remain a dying promotion. This is even worse, as any good feeling WWE could have gotten by pushing Rey Mysterio harder in the wake of Eddie's death is extinguished by the crass angles they have used to try and get Randy Orton over.

 

Talking about promotions falling far from grace I found this news story in Dave Meltzer's update sad considering how sell outs for Raw and Smackdown used to be the norm:

 

"WWE had about 6,000 paid as of a few days ago going into tongiht's Raw at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta. The company was ecstatic about that figure. The only tickets left are $22 in the upper level. Many top sections were planned to be tarped off, but they may be opened now for walk-up business. The lower level was sold out, although there was some papering. Weather is very cold and rainy, which could hurt walk-up. According to sources at the arena, very heavy Latin concentration among the ticket buyers, and traditionally that means there may be a good walk-up."

[Loss]

I'm sure if you asked Vince, he'd say that this storyline is a tribute to Eddy Guerrero and is not a disgrace in any way. Sadly, he'd probably believe it.

[Guest bravesfan]

The WWE hasn't done great business in Atlanta since WCW folded. The last "big bang" was the January 2001 show at the Georgia Dome, which looked incredible on television.

[Strummer]

from the LAW:

 

*Saturday night at the "Blood, Sweat and Ears" show in Sudbury, Chris Kanyon announced to the audience that he felt he was let go by the WWE because he was gay and he didn't want to hide it any longer and claimed to be the only openly gay wrestler.

[Guest Crucifixio Jones]

There's a joke in there about Kanyon's lisp but I won't even bother to make it.

[sek69]

I wonder if the WWE was making an inside joke by teaming the person the smarks hate the most (Cena) with the person they love the most (Maria).

[Guest TheShawshankRudotion]

Or someone that's sympathetic (Maria) with someone who has issues with getting over with a section of the audience (Cena).

[Strummer]

Trish's date on RAW was played by Ray Gordy. He's hit the roids bigtime

 

Edit: it also could have been Cliff Compton from OVW or just a model

[Resident Evil]

"If you don't believe in yourself; if you don't really believe in your heart wether(whatever?) you or anyone else says; if you don't believe you're the best than you're already beat."

 

Quote by Bret Hart. Just felt like sharing one of my favourite quotes of all time. Comes off better in real life than it does in print.

[sek69]

Or someone that's sympathetic (Maria) with someone who has issues with getting over with a section of the audience (Cena).

I thought that, but then the show also featured an Announcer Shoot Mode Moment with Big Momma which came after the Smackdown Rebound showing them using Eddie's corpse to put over Randy Orton. That made me lean towards the "FU to the smarks" feeling since using Maria to help Cena would be a rare smart booking move in a company that seems to be making bad moves by the bushel.

 

Speaking of the new happy couple, anyone else half-expect a CM Punk run in when Cena was making out with Maria?

[Loss]

From the Torch:

 

Triple H believes that John Cena lost the crowd's support due to Kurt Angle's failure to portray an effective heel.

 

One excuse WWE officials are using to explain his souring rapport with male WWE fans, however, is that the wrestler is simply too good looking. Those buying into this logic feel that male fans are threatened by the wrestler's looks.

 

WWE used the same excuse when fans turned on Shawn Michaels much earlier in his career.

Yeah, those male fans sure hated The Rock, didn't they? This is funny. It's probably part of the reason, but it's still funny that they're attributing everything to this.

[Mad Dog]

I love how they can't even begin to question maybe if it was the writing at fault.

 

It's easy to understand why fans turned on him. He was bland. The writers took everything that got him over away from him and then put him in boring angles on Raw. I could tune in from August till January at 11 every week and see the same exact angle play out with Cena and the villian of the week. This is completely the fault of the bookers.

[Guest savagerulz]

WWE used the same excuse when fans turned on Shawn Michaels much earlier in his career.

Considering he's one of the biggest stars of our generation now... MAYBE there was something to it?

 

God I hate the Torch.

[Guest savagerulz]

Wrestlings biggest plot holes

 

Wrestling being a live weekly show always has to move on. This can cause some story lines to become unfinished due to, wrestler Inury, storyline plans, fan reaction, etc. Some of the biggest wrestling plot holes are;

 

    * Who lifted the brief case at King of the Ring 1999

    * Booker T's "I still remember" note

    * WCWs White Hummer hit and run

    * Rock shaking Hulk Hogans hand at WMX8 after Hogan tried to kill rock 3 weeks prior

    * Who beat up the NWO members in the parking lot.

 

I came across this on Wikipedia, and was wondering what the "I remember" and "beat up NWO members" situations are referring to. These are the only ones that I don't recognize.

[sek69]

I think the "I still remember" notes were supposed to lead to something with Goldust but he got let go before anything came of them.

[Loss]

The NWO parking lot thing is weird and I have no idea what it's referring to. The white hummer angle in WCW WAS resolved on the first Bischoff/Russo Nitro. The Booker T "I still remember" storyline was in late 2003 and everyone thought it would be a Goldust feud, but he was released. I'm surprised they didn't mention GTV or DDP's benefactor.

[Guest savagerulz]

So what the hell happened to Christian? He was on fire when he came in, and not just because his jump was such a huge surprise and because he's younger and more talented than any of the other WWE cast-offs they've gotten. I was thinking maybe it's because he wrote his initial promos and now he's reading lines? How else can one explain why he started off making clever, logical, entertaining promos, and now he just says variations on "I WILL be the champion" over and over again? It's like his promo skills went from the level of Mick Foley to the level of Batista in just a few months. From original and smart, to cliche and boring.

[Guest Dangerous A]

I think it's because he is playing face and he's not that familiar with doing money promos in a top babyface role. As a heel, his promos would probrably be back to WWE level.

[Strummer]

I was just watching the 1990 Royal Rumble and the show is probably more important from a historical perspective than most people think. It was a sign that the intitial 80s "Rock and Wrestling" boom was coming to an end. The crowd was completely dead the entire night and only awoke when Hogan (and to a lesser extent Warrior) came out. The midcarders hardly got any reaction at all from the Miami crowd. The entire roster had been sacrificed to get Hogan over and now Hogan was pretty much the only wrestler that was significantly over. You knew the boom was close to being over because people were now only coming to the shows to see Hogan and not to see the entire WWF formula like in the 80s. Hogan's job to Warrior a few months later was a final nail in the coffin.

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

Their roster was looking more barren at that point, too. The crowds of the time were becoming less lively, but look at what they were being fed. How much heat do you expect from matches like Bushwhackers/Rougeaus, Genius/Beefcake, Garvin/Valentine, etc?

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

From the Torch:

 

Triple H believes that John Cena lost the crowd's support due to Kurt Angle's failure to portray an effective heel.

 

One excuse WWE officials are using to explain his souring rapport with male WWE fans, however, is that the wrestler is simply too good looking. Those buying into this logic feel that male fans are threatened by the wrestler's looks.

 

WWE used the same excuse when fans turned on Shawn Michaels much earlier in his career.

Yeah, those male fans sure hated The Rock, didn't they? This is funny. It's probably part of the reason, but it's still funny that they're attributing everything to this.

My only hang-up about an attractive male wrestler is that it usually creates legions of fans who love him based soley on his appearance. I know someone who adores Randy Orton. Not because he's a good wrestler, but because, ya know, he's hot.