WWE Payback

[KawadaSmile]

I don't think anyone could've elevated Braun as much as Roman did, quite frankly. Put him over clean today, was willing to take probably the biggest beatdown ever on TV, and now Strowman is #3 on RAW, number 2 if we don't count Brock.

[Loss]

Stay classy, WWE Universe. I realize this would be a relatively new idea for a wrestling fans, but I don't know -- it would be hard for me to boo someone with such abandon if I knew his brother, who was also a wrestler, died earlier in the week.

 

Edited for a correction: Two weeks ago, but the point stands.

[SmartMark15]

How huge would that main event have been in 80s WWF. People would have been weeping for Reigns then.

[NotJayTabb]

Stay classy, WWE Universe. I realize this would be a relatively new idea for a wrestling fans, but I don't know -- it would be hard for me to boo someone with such abandon if I knew his brother, who was also a wrestler, died earlier in the week.

 

Edited for a correction: Two weeks ago, but the point stands.

Yeah, I found I'd forgotten about Rosey until the fans were chanting "You deserve it" after the injury angle, which triggered my memory and felt a bit off to me. The guy has come back shortly after the death of his brother to cleanly and comprehensively put over Braun in a v good match - I'd maybe have wanted to give him a break for once.

 

Big fan of Roman refusing to be put on a stretcher, fully aware that last time he was on one, Braun came along and threw him over. And thus it was that he was able to evade the Braun assault this time - Roman slamming the ambulance door on Braun in utter desperation to fend him off was great.

[hammerva]

Stay classy, WWE Universe. I realize this would be a relatively new idea for a wrestling fans, but I don't know -- it would be hard for me to boo someone with such abandon if I knew his brother, who was also a wrestler, died earlier in the week.

 

Edited for a correction: Two weeks ago, but the point stands.

 

i haven't watched the last couple weeks of RAW and Smackdown except for pieces but have they mentioned that Rosey passed recently? Plus how many of the people that boo Reigns now even know about the relationship.

 

Just booing for the same reason they are chanting 'CM Punk' and 'Cena Sucks'. Everyone else is doing it.

[stro]

Braun/Roman was excellent. Fans not buying into Roman as the best main event face since Bret Hart is absolutely baffling at this point.

[fakeplastictrees]

Stay classy, WWE Universe. I realize this would be a relatively new idea for a wrestling fans, but I don't know -- it would be hard for me to boo someone with such abandon if I knew his brother, who was also a wrestler, died earlier in the week.

 

Edited for a correction: Two weeks ago, but the point stands.

 

I don't think this is fair. I do not watch WWE religiously, but I had no idea Rosey and Roman were brothers until I scrolled down in this thread and did a quick google search. In this case, Knowledge is power, and WWE didn't (or at least I didn't hear/see it) hammer home the fact that Rosey and Roman were blood, etc. etc. Again, I may be 100% missing something, but this isn't a Bret/Owen thing or a Benoit/Guerrero thing as far as established on-air relationships are concerned.Its weird how this type of thing plays out on TV because crowd reaction depends on the performer's status, the information provided by the commentators and company overall, position on the card, and some other non-tangible factors.

[Matt D]

There's a 15 year age difference between them, right? That threw me. I had no idea they were brothers until this thread either. I mean, I probably knew that at some point, but I could also list all the Kings of England from William the Conqueror on and I can't do that anymore either.

[NintendoLogic]

The F4W board appears to have completely turned on Seth Rollins. I checked the Payback thread over there, and there's a ton of posts saying in essence that he's a spot machine with no interest in selling or psychology. Apparently, having his injured leg worked over for an eternity at Wrestlemania and then showing up on Raw the next night with no apparent ill effects was the last straw.

[stro]

I've been saying that since he was Tyler Black. Compare his selling at WM and even last night (which was better than WM, but still the story is his leg is fucked and he was still doing triple dives and frog splashes before and after leg work) to Roman's last night, who sold from his entrance to after the match and never used his bad arm once in the match for anything.

[Loss]

I admit it would have been a big departure from how fans typically behave. I admit that maybe I'm asking too much. I admit that maybe most fans would not have known. But it got a decent amount of coverage, even on the newz stealing sites that most fans check, and it was mentioned in most places that he was the brother of Roman Reigns. There were some especially charming "Why couldn't it have been your brother instead?" tweets that even got traction. I don't know, it probably is asking too much. But it still just didn't feel right. It was just yet another reminder of how we don't see wrestlers as real people -- even a lot of the people who know they are real people. Not a judgment so much as an observation.

[stro]

Also WWE actually had a written statement from Roman about it on Raw, which they managed to somehow (awkwardly and kind of grossly) tie into hype for Payback. Before that I don't think they'd ever mentioned the two being related more than once or twice in the very early days of the Shield. Probably for pretty obvious reasons since Rosey was a comedy character for most of his WWE run.

 

But I really doubt many people in that crowd even remembered. Rosey was such a small blip on the WWE radar. Shit, I had forgotten about him dying until you mentioned it.

[Al]

I frequently lose track of who are brothers, which are Afa's, which are Sika's, etc.

[Coffey]

Really liked the show. Well, the Bray Wyatt/Randy Orton shit was straight Wrestlecrap (but even that, I popped for the Mahal run-in) but the rest of the card was at least fun.

 

Was surprised Bliss won the Women's title but I'm not against it. I feel Bayley has been a lot worse on the main roster than she was in NXT & she can't talk for shit. Bliss, since being called-up, has excelled. Especially as far as character work & talking goes.

 

Preshow tag was nothing, really, but I think the goal was to get the crowd going with the Enzo sing-a-long entrance more than anything. Balor on MizTV was good.

 

Aries/Neville was pretty good. Tag match was pretty good. Jericho/Owens I didn't really like. Felt like they were moving in slow motion, especially the first half of the match. Also felt like it went a little too long. Seth/Joe underachieved IMO. It was forgettable.

 

Braun Strowman/Roman Reigns was awesome. Both of those dudes are money. Also Corey Graves has turned into quite the good color commentator.

 

Good show.

[Coffey]

The F4W board appears to have completely turned on Seth Rollins. I checked the Payback thread over there, and there's a ton of posts saying in essence that he's a spot machine with no interest in selling or psychology. Apparently, having his injured leg worked over for an eternity at Wrestlemania and then showing up on Raw the next night with no apparent ill effects was the last straw.

 

Still better than Kevin Owens.

[SteveJRogers]

I frequently lose track of who are brothers, which are Afa's, which are Sika's, etc.

AFAIK, Samoa Joe is the only Samoan WWE worker not to be related back to the Wild Samoan family.

[NintendoLogic]

The Rock isn't an actual member of the Anoa'i family. He's presented as one because Peter Maivia and Afa and Sika's father were blood brothers, but that's not how biology works.

 

EDIT: By "he," I meant Peter Maivia.

[C.S.]

Great editorial on Cageside Seats: The Roman rage has gone too far

 

The fans were downright embarrassing last night.

 

 

The Rock isn't an actual member of the Anoa'i family. He's presented as one because he and Afa and Sika's father were blood brothers, but that's not how biology works.

 

The Rock says: IT DOESN'T MATTER how biology works!!!

[goc]

The F4W board appears to have completely turned on Seth Rollins. I checked the Payback thread over there, and there's a ton of posts saying in essence that he's a spot machine with no interest in selling or psychology. Apparently, having his injured leg worked over for an eternity at Wrestlemania and then showing up on Raw the next night with no apparent ill effects was the last straw.

To me it's not just the disconnect between the moves he does and the story of "Seth's knee is fucked" that make him so bad. It HOW he sells. Look at when he's in holds last night and trying to get to the ropes and doing the screaming and wild movements. That's how a heel sells trying to get to the ropes to break a hold. All of his facial expressions while selling make you want to see him get beat up more. He has heel promos, heel mannerisms & heel selling but has a babyface's moveset. He's not good.

 

On twitter I said same thing stro said here, having two injured babyface selling body parts matches so close together involving Seth and Roman just completely destroyed any argument that Seth is a better choice as top babyface than Roman is. Roman was 10x better at selling his injury in his match with Braun than Seth was in his match with Samoa Joe.

 

Overall I thought this was a very good PPV. House of Horrors was fucking awful and I didn't care for Seth/Samoa Joe but everything else met or exceeded my expectations. Bayley/Alexa especially was much better than I thought it would be and I really REALLY loved the Cesaro/Sheamus heel turn and thought the tag title match itself was damn good.

[sek69]

Great editorial on Cageside Seats: The Roman rage has gone too far

 

The fans were downright embarrassing last night.

 

 

 

The Rock isn't an actual member of the Anoa'i family. He's presented as one because he and Afa and Sika's father were blood brothers, but that's not how biology works.

The Rock says: IT DOESN'T MATTER how biology works!!!

I dunno, it seems kind of a cop-out to be mad at the fans instead of the company that has been ramming the guy down their throats as the New Cena for years. Fair or not people don't want to see him in the position the company does, yet it's somehow the fans' fault when they push back since this company has a near sociopathic obsession with deliberately not following the lead their audience creates for them.

[El-P]

I dunno, it seems kind of a cop-out to be mad at the fans instead of the company that has been ramming the guy down their throats as the New Cena for years. Fair or not people don't want to see him in the position the company does, yet it's somehow the fans' fault when they push back since this company has a near sociopathic obsession with deliberately not following the lead their audience creates for them.

 

This.

 

Crying about "those idiots WWE fans" and "indy darlings" and "Meltz and his NJ fetish" is the new MOVEZ !! annoying niche meme today. Boring and repetitive as fuck by this point.

 

I may wanna watch that Reigns vs Strauman stuff, the women and tag match (no, not Enzo & Cass, the other one). House of Horrors sounds "so bad it's good", then again, with Orton & Wyatt involved it's probably so bad it's awful, so I'll probably pass. I do love the fact that Indian guy is getting a push, only for heck of me (and other people) saying so on the board.

[Microstatistics]

 

I dunno, it seems kind of a cop-out to be mad at the fans instead of the company that has been ramming the guy down their throats as the New Cena for years. Fair or not people don't want to see him in the position the company does, yet it's somehow the fans' fault when they push back since this company has a near sociopathic obsession with deliberately not following the lead their audience creates for them.

 

This.

 

Crying about "those idiots WWE fans" and "indy darlings" and "Meltz and his NJ fetish" is the new MOVEZ !! annoying niche meme today. Boring and repetitive as fuck by this point.

 

 

 

While I would agree with this in certain cases, I think in Roman's case it is justified mainly because he has proven himself to be a very good reliable and consistent worker, one of, if not the best in the company since 2015. It's the fans dogmatic refusal to reject him at all costs just based on his initial push and not on his talent, selling, matches etc. is the reason that point keeping getting brought up.

[stro]

 

I dunno, it seems kind of a cop-out to be mad at the fans instead of the company that has been ramming the guy down their throats as the New Cena for years. Fair or not people don't want to see him in the position the company does, yet it's somehow the fans' fault when they push back since this company has a near sociopathic obsession with deliberately not following the lead their audience creates for them.

 

This.

 

Crying about "those idiots WWE fans" and "indy darlings" and "Meltz and his NJ fetish" is the new MOVEZ !! annoying niche meme today. Boring and repetitive as fuck by this point.

 

I may wanna watch that Reigns vs Strauman stuff, the women and tag match (no, not Enzo & Cass, the other one). House of Horrors sounds "so bad it's good", then again, with Orton & Wyatt involved it's probably so bad it's awful, so I'll probably pass. I do love the fact that Indian guy is getting a push, only for heck of me (and other people) saying so on the board.

 

 

House Of Horrors was definitely so bad it's very very bad. I mean, if you liked the graveyard matches in WCW, give it a shot. Otherwise I'd avoid it.

[Coffey]

I don't know if I can think of another wrestler that has lost more big matches than Bray Wyatt. He did win the Elimination Chamber and title there but then he immediately lost it to Orton and then just lost the Orton rematch.

 

Has he ever won a feud?

[Strummer]

He won the Bryan feud in 2013/2014