WWE Extreme Rules 2016

[GOTNW]

I think after seeing nothing is gonna move the needle they've decided to sacrifice this year to rebuild and I've enjoyed the product a lot more after Wrestlemania as a result of that. They're really not doing anything wrong right now in my book.

[WingedEagle]

 

It may be stupid, but its the company's job to work with the audience and ideally manipulate them. No different than at any other point.

And they have by changing his presentation since WrestleMania. What else are they supposed to do? Just fire a guy who is a top merchandise seller and gets the loudest reactions on every show, regardless of if it's the reaction they "want" him to get? I wouldn't change course with him either. Keep presenting him as a tweener the way they are now.

 

 

Totally agree. My point is simply that if he moves numbers, its irrelevant what the crowd chants or whether they cheer or boo him.

[Migs]

 

It may be stupid, but its the company's job to work with the audience and ideally manipulate them. No different than at any other point.

And they have by changing his presentation since WrestleMania. What else are they supposed to do? Just fire a guy who is a top merchandise seller and gets the loudest reactions on every show, regardless of if it's the reaction they "want" him to get? I wouldn't change course with him either. Keep presenting him as a tweener the way they are now.

 

I'm not sure how you could look at them pairing him against smark darlings like AJ & Rollins as anything BUT manipulating the crowd.

 

 

Oh, playing him as a tweener against smark favorites is absolutely the right way to go. If they just let Reigns act like a person and react to these guys in a natural way, they're going to get enjoyable main events, they're going to get those other guys over, and they won't have to give up the Reigns merch sales by hard turning him.

 

I think a good analogue for Reigns as a worker is 1988-1989 Sting. Good power guy, big moves that pop the crowd, can work smartly and have a great match if he has a good opponent but I wouldn't want to watch them against a stiff. Of course, I think smartly they've gotten past the stage where they'd program him with stiffs. They're not doing Reigns v. Strowman. Reigns v. Rollins is going to be really good.

[Mad Dog]

You can't wrestle is the 2016 version of chanting you suck at a wrestler. I see it as just taunting the guy like fans have been doing forever. It's no different than chanting you suck at a heel World Champion.

[victory]

I only saw the main event last night as I got home too late. I'll check the rest out later this week.

 

Really enjoyed AJ and Roman. These guys for some reason have great chemistry. I think it was Loss who said AJ might be Roman's career rival and it certainly is looking like that. Just so good together. I really hope they meet up again down the road soon. Roman has really improved over the last year ring wise to me as well. His mannerisms and facials were not that good last year and you could really see he was not ready for his spot. Now he's got all that down pat and his improvement is fun too watch.

[JAC]

The worst camera thing is every replay that starts in slow motion and then on the impact speeds way the fuck up.

Does anyone not hate that? The sad thing is, much of what they show in the crappy Kevin Dunn version of instant would look good in proper slow motion. If it doesn't look good in slow motion, don't show it.

 

Compare this with the great slow motion highlights that were shown at the end of All Japan's commercial tapes in the 1990's. Those were the ultimate "mic drop": our stuff's so good, it looks brutal--not phoney!--even in ultra-slow motion. Too bad WWE production can't extend the same courtesy to their talent.

[SteveJRogers]

You can't wrestle is the 2016 version of chanting you suck at a wrestler. I see it as just taunting the guy like fans have been doing forever. It's no different than chanting you suck at a heel World Champion.

No, "You suck" is meant as playing along with a very good heel character. "You can't wrestle" is doing what you think you are supposed to do based on forums and article comment section trolls telling you that the target of the chants can't do shit in the ring.

[goc]

 

You can't wrestle is the 2016 version of chanting you suck at a wrestler. I see it as just taunting the guy like fans have been doing forever. It's no different than chanting you suck at a heel World Champion.

No, "You suck" is meant as playing along with a very good heel character. "You can't wrestle" is doing what you think you are supposed to do based on forums and article comment section trolls telling you that the target of the chants can't do shit in the ring.

 

Yea the "You Can't Wrestle" chant is based off an opinion of many people who populate the awful places of wrestling fandom like wrestlingforum/Wreddit/411mania comment sections. It's not "playing along" it's a "We're super smart and going to let you know it!" chant. Which is funny because of how fucking stupid it is that they would chant that at anyone but Chris Jericho last night.

[Strummer]

Maybe I'm wrong here but I just think there is a certain segment of the fan base that will never forgive the company for what happened at the 2014/2015 royal rumbles and they are going to boo any pushed top babyface no matter what. They're really mad at Vince McMahon not Roman. If Daniel Bryan won the 2014 Rumble none of this probably would have happened. Fans would accepted Reigns if they had been satiated by a Bryan push on top the year before

[Loss]

If they were smart, they'd take it out on Vince or HHH when they are on camera instead of Reigns. That they aren't shows that at least to a certain degree, they are being worked by someone somewhere.

[C.S.]

Most wrestling fans aren't smart.

[Strummer]

If they were smart, they'd take it out on Vince or HHH when they are on camera instead of Reigns. That they aren't shows that at least to a certain degree, they are being worked by someone somewhere.

My only guess is taking it out on Vince and Hunter could be dismissed as "well they are playing heels so that might be the desired reaction" Messing with the next top potential babyface seemed more effective I guess

[raul]

they definitely are not smart since they don't understand their best protest would be to stop buying tickets to the shows.

[goc]

they definitely are not smart since they don't understand their best protest would be to stop buying tickets to the shows.

Especially when you consider how mad they get when you suggest that to them or that they should stop subscribing to The Network.

[jcmmnx]

Roman was awesome in the main event, and AJ has been the best main roster worker in WWE this year. That was about as well worked as that kind of match can be.

 

People keep blaming the 2015 Rumble and Daniel Bryan for Roman's push as a face not working. How about giving a guy in his first ppv singles match a win over a 10 time world champ coming off a long title reign? How about giving a guy the record number of eliminations at Survivor Series and the Rumble? How about giving him lame promo material while his ex partner out pops him as a singles star. How about jumping the gun his world title push by a year when it should've been Roman/Rusev and Cena/Lesnar(in their first match since SummerSlam) at Mania 31? How about skipping winning a secondary title on his way to the main event? How about presenting him too much like the guy they just saw on top for a decade when Roman's skill set isn't suited for that? Blaming the mean old fans for rejecting bad booking just doesn't cut it with me.

 

They made this push so obvious and so forced it was bound to end up like this. It's too bad because Roman should be a massively over babyface wrecking fools and getting cheered doing it. The bottom line is his push was mishandled, and that's no fault of the audience that loved him as an ass kicking wrecking machine in the Shield not a smiley joke telling selling for 90% of the match for the Miz singles guy.

[SteveJRogers]

If they were smart, they'd take it out on Vince or HHH when they are on camera instead of Reigns. That they aren't shows that at least to a certain degree, they are being worked by someone somewhere.

Of course Vince has warped into George Steinbrenner circa 1996-end of his life. Someone who still shows the qualities and actions that made his despicable, but beloved and untouchable by the fanbase due to product on the field (Attitude Era, mainstream cred, etc). And Triple H is untouchable because he is the NXT figurehead. Trips would have to turn heel on NXT to get back any genuine crowd heel heat.

[ElHijodeGorgeousGeorge]

 

If they were smart, they'd take it out on Vince or HHH when they are on camera instead of Reigns. That they aren't shows that at least to a certain degree, they are being worked by someone somewhere.

Of course Vince has warped into George Steinbrenner circa 1996-end of his life. Someone who still shows the qualities and actions that made his despicable, but beloved and untouchable by the fanbase due to product on the field (Attitude Era, mainstream cred, etc). And Triple H is untouchable because he is the NXT figurehead. Trips would have to turn heel on NXT to get back any genuine crowd heel heat.

 

My friend and I have been joking that Vince is hitting the "self-destruct" button on any chance of WWE becoming huge again because he's old and realizes sooner than later he'll be gone and doesn't want the company to thrive after him. I think while that's obviously an exaggeration, if you look at creative it may be true. Lately they've been fantastic but as most of us that have been around a decent amount of time know, that can change in a second.

[Russellmania]

I'd say Styles should feud with Cena when Cena comes back, but Cena will win his first match back and Styles should probably be programmed in something next that he can win.

with Rusev as US champ a great way to bait the fans would be to have Cena return to challenge Rusev for the title. All the "you can't wrestle" types will eat it up thinking Super Cena is here to ruin another Rusev push. Then swerve everyone by having AJ and The Club cost Cena the match to start a Cena/AJ feud. You could easily have AJ win the first match or two without taking much shine of Cena.

[Loss]

You could, yeah, but I don't expect John Cena to come back and lose his first two or three matches. The tricky thing to navigate right now is that to varying degrees, Zayn, Cesaro, Owens and Styles all need to come out on the winning ends of feuds sometime soon.

[Mad Dog]

That's going to be a major issue because they're probably going to continually put those guys together.

[GOTNW]

You could, yeah, but I don't expect John Cena to come back and lose his first two or three matches. The tricky thing to navigate right now is that to varying degrees, Zayn, Cesaro, Owens and Styles all need to come out on the winning ends of feuds sometime soon.

Zayn's character doesn't need wins.

Cesaro doesn't deserve wins at this point, there's no money in him.

Owens has survived 50-50 booking, he's fine.

They have a sizeable investment in AJ apparently so I think they'll force themselves to handle him at least solidly.

[Matt D]

AJ "needs" the entry humbling. Especially since he bypassed NXT and Vince never made him. The Jericho loss doesn't count.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Apparently Vince loves him some AJ.

[Matt D]

He always did have a soft spot for hillbillies.

[fakeplastictrees]

Styles/Reigns for the second PPV in a row had the MOTN in my book and this match has definitely earned a spot in The Best of WWE 2016 comp that I am sure someone will make in the near future. The rest of the show kept me entertained aside from The Asylum match which had me just questioning everyone and everything involved. The gimmick wasn't bad, it was mainly the two wrestlers involved within the gimmick. The Usos and The Club is a match I do not care about whenever it happens, but I always love to see as I know all four guys will try their best to get over and put on a show. The Usos have been pretty lukewarm for a while and this Reigns association is doing them no favors. Having Reigns run the "The Guy" gimmick is all fine and well. It works for him, but being "The Team" will get the Usos coming out to crickets and in a position where WWE will need to take a drastic measure to keep them fresh in some way.

 

New Day was fun and its good to see Xavier establish some credibility. I have always been a fan of him and laughed when TNA released him as I knew it would only be a matter of time before WWE scooped him up. Now look at him. A good match all around. I have the same feelings on The U.S. title match as it told a good story and everything was setup nicely to build off of each other.