DMJ Posted September 4, 2018 Report Share Posted September 4, 2018 Completely concur with the general sentiments here. On paper, this felt like a "can't miss" to me. The talent is there to make this a great show. Nikki/Rousey makes some sense. With their E Network shows, the Bellas are a top priority act so they were going to be featured and having Rousey demolish her also cements her status without "wasting" more viable opponents...but it still sounds kinda like a rib to me. Trish vs. Alexa seems pulled out of thin air and feels nothing like a "passing of the torch" (if that's the intention) because Alexa is a heel and Trish is so beloved. Hogan/Rock this isn't. Sasha couldn't have got this spot? Bayley? Even Charlotte in a one-off makes more sense if you're talking about "No. 1 Diva vs. No. 1 Modern Era" (though, again, this would also likely require WWE to actually listen to their audience and turn Charlotte heel because there's no way she'd be cheered over Stratus). But Bliss? The easy, clear booking here would've been to build towards a Bliss/Nia/Rousey threeway match. Lita vs. Mickie James is a match I don't even know what to think of. Lita was never the greatest worker so putting her in a singles match seems iffy. I'm a Mickie James fan even today, but she's undeniably been presented as a wrestler from the previous era. Reminds me of those matches you'd see at an old WCW Slamboree: Wrestle Reunion show. Again, there are fairly easy solutions here - you could build James to challenge Rousey or maybe play on "Weirdo Mickie" vs. "Weirdo Ember Moon" and you could have Lita tag with Bayley & Sasha vs. the Riot Squad. Becky/Charlotte seems like a lock, so there's that. The Mae Young Finals could be good. I'm crossing my fingers that Baszler (or, if not, Nikki Cross) has her main roster debut here. I think just about anyone could've fantasy-booked this to be a potential WWE Show of the Year with a fair amount of variety in match types and and, instead, we have a show that doesn't look like its going to appeal to anyone, even those of us who are really high on the company's women's division. Also, it seems like it'll be overloaded with 1-on-1 matches that counterproductively limits the amount of talent that gets time in the spotlight. I just don't get it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kadaveri Posted September 5, 2018 Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 What most bothers me is that's they're again just randomly announcing matches rather than building them as if WWE doesn't have 5 hours of TV a week. If you want to do Lita vs. Mickie, how about this. Do a promo battle segment between Alexa and Trish on Raw that leads to Alexa and her buddy Mickie James beating down Trish, only for Lita to run in for the save! I just thought of that right now. Why would you not have matches come out of a storyline that makes people want to see it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted September 5, 2018 Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 The whole show is a handwave designed to distract from the fact the next Saudi show is a few days later, so it's not a surprise there doesn't seem to be any though being put in to the matches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingedEagle Posted September 5, 2018 Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 32 minutes ago, Kadaveri said: What most bothers me is that's they're again just randomly announcing matches rather than building them as if WWE doesn't have 5 hours of TV a week. If you want to do Lita vs. Mickie, how about this. Do a promo battle segment between Alexa and Trish on Raw that leads to Alexa and her buddy Mickie James beating down Trish, only for Lita to run in for the save! I just thought of that right now. Why would you not have matches come out of a storyline that makes people want to see it? To be fair, they're doing the same thing with the Australia show as well. Announce the match online and then cut some promos for it after the fact. No less frustrating there, but it is consistent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted September 5, 2018 Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 12 hours ago, sek69 said: The whole show is a handwave designed to distract from the fact the next Saudi show is a few days later, so it's not a surprise there doesn't seem to be any though being put in to the matches. There is a small part of WWE fandom who are/were really into the Diva era as that was simply the wrestling they grew up with and nostalgia & have already jumped on this but yeah this is a bit of a lame duck. Interested if Lita or WWE mentions her WWE retirement match with Mickie James and what Cyme Tyme did to her in the post-match. I've seen some people on Twitter taking the Evolution match as a make good for the Survivor Series 2006 match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted September 5, 2018 Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 Since the women were the only thing that interested me in my last months/year or so of following WWE, I may lift my ban to watch that particular show. But I will definitely call it Feminist Washing Evolution though. The card looks kinda lame indeed. As much as the oldies were fun in the Rumble, because of the nature of the Rumble itself, having Lita work a match in 2018 sounds horrific (considering she was horrific in her prime to begin with). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted September 6, 2018 Report Share Posted September 6, 2018 "Oldies"? Anyway, looking around online at " hot takes" and opinions on this show reveals an amazing ven diagram of Misogyny and smarky nonsense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted September 6, 2018 Report Share Posted September 6, 2018 3 hours ago, Johnny Sorrow said: "Oldies"? I actually wasn't even thinking in term of people here, but rather "wrestling characters from the previous decade". But I realize it comes off rather odd Typical case of English not being my native language there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted September 6, 2018 Report Share Posted September 6, 2018 9 hours ago, Johnny Sorrow said: "Oldies"? Anyway, looking around online at " hot takes" and opinions on this show reveals an amazing ven diagram of Misogyny and smarky nonsense. So I guess my suggestion of adding a mens tuxedo match is out of line? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted September 7, 2018 Report Share Posted September 7, 2018 El-P will be... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted September 7, 2018 Report Share Posted September 7, 2018 Ah ah ah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirEdger Posted September 11, 2018 Report Share Posted September 11, 2018 Spoiler Don't click if you don't want spoilers but the preliminary leaked script for Evolution looks like this. Obviously, it's highly likely it will change until then but there are some very interesting names and matchups in this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted September 11, 2018 Report Share Posted September 11, 2018 It is fake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirEdger Posted September 11, 2018 Report Share Posted September 11, 2018 Still, it's gonna be interesting to see what the final card will look like compared to this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kadaveri Posted October 4, 2018 Report Share Posted October 4, 2018 Wow, they really haven't built for this show at all have they? Feels like the only thing that's happened the past few weeks is Trish and Sasha hyping a match... that isn't happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted October 4, 2018 Report Share Posted October 4, 2018 The shows that governments are paying them to put on are going to take precedence over the one they're doing for PR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jushin muta liger Posted October 5, 2018 Report Share Posted October 5, 2018 I had tepid excitement when the PPV was announced but I feel validated in being tepid. I will watch show but i have the feeling that only the MYC Finals and NXT Women's Title match will be the only good things on the show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingSavage Posted October 14, 2018 Report Share Posted October 14, 2018 I realize she was a crazy fun bitch heel character in her heyday, but Trish has looked terrible in the buildup to this show. Bliss consistently outshines her, and even Mickie sounds more comfortable on a mic. I know we're not allowed to notice or point out how people look these days, even though - ya know - it's human nature and people will always notice how others look. But Trish looks... Weird. On last week's Raw, she had this dead-eyed plastic doll look throughout the entire segment. If you counted the number of times her expression changed, then you had the night off completely. Because, no matter what was said, she just looked the same. Sable circa 1998 had more range. And it looked like it took every ounce of energy in her frame to lift her arm & point to the crowd from all four sides of the ring. Everything looked so lifeless & lethargic. No energy to her entrance or anything she said. I'm honestly not even trying to exaggerate or anything here. It was almost eerie. Trish looked like a totally different performer. There's no way a fan seeing her for the first time would have any reason to believe she was ever anything comparable to today's women - even though she absolutely was (and even better in some cases, especially as a character). Just bizarre how bad she's come off since returning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted October 14, 2018 Report Share Posted October 14, 2018 Yeah Hate to say it but .Trish has been horrible on the mic in her last few appearances. She was really bad last week. And to be honest she doesn't seem that over. And don't forget when she came back for that mixed tag with Snooki she was pretty bad and wasn't really over. No idea what's happened to her Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingSavage Posted October 14, 2018 Report Share Posted October 14, 2018 To be fair, she's been given some terrible material to work with. I won't gloss over that. Having her only go-to response be that she's a Hall of Famer who's going to deliver a Hall of Fame style beating or whateverthefuck is cringe-inducing and lame. It left her wide open for Alexa to outfox her in every conceivable fashion out there. But yeah. Trish still brought NOTHING to the delivery. She sounded bad. She looked almost ill, and she seemed to have practically zero energy. There wasn't even a hint of her former self in that last segment. Trish has brought all the personality of a potted plant to this buildup so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted October 14, 2018 Report Share Posted October 14, 2018 Wait until Lita shows up. That PPV match has the potential to be godawful, as Lita was always a terrible worker and Trish in her prime was decent at best. If the match is better than this, give crazy credits to Bliss and James (who was already solely responsible for making Trish look a hundred times better than she actually was at that Mania). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted October 16, 2018 Report Share Posted October 16, 2018 This company really can't help themselves sometimes. All of this talk about women's "evolution" and judging from tonight the basis of the Rousey vs Nikki Bella match is Nikki being a whore riding John Cena's jock and having no ability in the ring. And Rousey is the fucking babyface in the match Now the argument will be made "but listen to the crowd reaction they loved it". Yeah the men loved it. Curious how many women in the crowd thought about the segment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted October 16, 2018 Report Share Posted October 16, 2018 I think the women in the crowd would be at this stage have to feign surprise to be shocked about the segment. It is the basis of every Nikki Bella feud of the last several years and the plot point of several seasons of Total Divas and Total Bellas. As Wrestling Observer Radio pointed out this morning this material is in Ronda Rousey's wheelhouse and delivers it with a lot of conviction. Both Nikki and Ronda are limited on the mic in their own separate ways. If I was tasked with what to do with them to hype their match it would be rather hard to come up with something better. It is either this or some really badly acted segment - like the Alexa Bliss & Mickie James and Trish Stratus & Lita segment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted October 16, 2018 Report Share Posted October 16, 2018 this was Ronda's best performance on the mic so far. She had the conviction and the passion here. A bunch of the dialogue was inane sounding but she made it work. Contrast this to the horrid Trish/Lita segment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FMKK Posted October 16, 2018 Report Share Posted October 16, 2018 It worked to heat up the match and I guess it's fine to do as a plot point in a feud but it just seems out of place that every person Nikki feuds with basically calls her a whore when they're doing their phony corporate feminism thing. If they weren't so heavy handed with that stuff, it wouldn't be so grating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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