WWE TV 10/29 - 11/4 warning: actual political rant inside

[KawadaSmile]

Hey fellas? How is it going? Heard tons of wonderful things about Evolution, to the point where it was lauded as one of the best PPVs of the year.

• Nikki and Ronda aren't done. How far can they take that rivalry?
• Becky's the man. What's next for her after beating Charlotte conclusively? 
• God bless the 4 MMA Horsewomen.
• How will Seth deal with Dean's mental breakdown? Can they be both tag champs and rivals?

 

But anyways, I'm using this space to rant a lil' bit about the current Brazilian political situation, and how that ties in to my enjoyment of wrestling.

So, yesterday we had our presidential election. As some of you may know, the far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro won.

Despite making horrible, horrible claims such as "I would rather have my son die in a car crash than him being gay", or "I wouldn't rape you because you are ugly" to a fellow congresswoman, and addressing african-braziliahe got 55% of the valid votes. But why is that?

We had a militar dictatorship for 21 years. Thousands of people were persecuted, tortured, killed, and what happened to our indigenous people was flat-out genocide. Our economy in that period not only led to a huge inflation, but also it worsened the living standards for many, many people. Still, many people "miss" that era and think it should come back - to the surprise of absolutely no one, one of Bolso's heroes is one of the torturers, to the point where he praised him and the act of torture itself IN CONGRESS.

Brazil never really dealt with those skeletons. Under the excuse of a "communist dictatorship" and with the strong support of the US government, we went through hell. The torturers, killers, rapists and dictators of that era never went to court. They left on their own volition, and it still took 4 more years until we could have a direct election.

Not only the candidate who's "pro family, pro life, anti-corruption" and whose campaing slogan is pretty much a translation of "Brazil Uber Alles" won, but he's got an actual general as his VP, and all the corrupt politicians on his side.

People in Brazil actually think like him. Act like him. His discourse enables people to commit the most horrendous hate crimes, and they are very happy to oblige. 

Many people, some of them very close and dear to me, decided to vote for him as a way to "vote for change", despite him representing everything that is old. It

 

And what does all of this have to do with pro wrestling?

Well, as I've mentioned elsewhere, pro-wrestling was one of the few ways I could get my mind out of the gutter, be it in regards to my personal life, and also in regards to bad news (my sports team lost, my favorite musician died, someone close lost a relative). In this case, my mind is going to be in the gutter for at least 4 more years (assuming the psycopath vice president doesn't decide to "auto coup", as he himself said), to the point where I just couldn't even bring myself to watch Evolution, which I was looking forward.

Thus, more than ever I actually need this sort of enjoyment in life. With my favorite wrestler battling leukemia, my will to keep on watching wrestling took a massive, massive hit. But in this case, it is more of a necessity. More than resisting an absolutely authoritarian government, I will still need something to distract me.

Would also like to thank the good people here. Discussion is always enjoyable, specially on live threads, and I usually get some good laughs out of it. Some of you also have reached out to me to comment about the election results, and once again I say thank you.

 

That's all folks. Lotsa love.

[Jimmy Redman]

Without wanting to ignore the real life situation you find yourself in, and Godspeed to you over there my dude. But my one contribution to offer about all that is that I know you said you missed it, and I know I'm me, but if you want wrestling to take your mind away, watch Evolution. 100% watch it. It was a great show, but more than that it was a fun, enjoyable, positive, escapist show and one sure to put a smile on your face more than almost anything else I can think of.

[El-P]

Totally forgot it was yesterday. I was just discussing this with a friend this morning. Man, I certainly feel for you and send you my thoughts and wish you courage during those dark days.

[Badlittlekitten]

Sorry to hear that @KawadaSmile . Hope you keep watching and posting, always good to hear a more positive take on things. I echo what Jimmy Redman said, evolution was a fun easy watch.

[C.S.]

I'm sorry to hear about what's happening in Brazil, @KawadaSmile.  Seems the whole world is going to hell in a handbasket. :\ 

[CYF]

Lmao at them wanting Serena. Just be glad you got Ronda

[joeg]

How are absolute trash like Lince Dorado and Lio Rush both on Raw... smh

[Badlittlekitten]

Eh what? Rush is great I’m his role. Lashley Is a thousand times more watchable now

[fakeplastictrees]

What's happening in Brasil is sad, but not shocking. Unfortunately misinformation, fear, and extremism is the law of the land and people find it sexy for some reason.

Lashley! Lashley! Lashley! Lio Rush chanting Lashley's name, while the crowd remains absolute stone faced, is the best. More of that please. Lashley has all the tools, but the booking has been shit since day one. The man served in the U.S. Army, has a legit 15-2 MMA record, and has an amazing physique. So of course they give him "comedy" and obstacle courses. I am not sure how hard it is to book Lashley as a full time Lesnar while Lesnar is booked like a part time Lesnar. If Lesnar decided to get rid of the "Suplex City" nonsense for just one night, the Mania showdown between Lesnar and Lashley would be amazing.

A bald Shawn Michaels wearing a DX shirt and superkicking people just doesn't look or feel right.

[Badlittlekitten]

Seriously? Lashley is a big guy with little presence and a not-tough -looking-at-all fairly creepy baby face. A mega push would go down more like Vladmir Kozlov than Lesnar. He’s booking early on was definitely shit but they’ve corrected the course. The lashley chant can be annoying and you can imagine Vince screaming in Rush’s ear but the closing beatdown got over pretty huge. Lio is Jimmy Hart and it’s gonna be great when somebody finally gets a hold of him.

[SirEdger]

The Lucha House Party appearance seemed random but I guess they might be looking at starting the Cruiserweights in other settings than 205 Live...

[Tenese Sarwieh]

I feel for you Kawada, feed on people's fears and insecurities and they put hateful extremists in office. Like mentioned above do check out Evolution. It really was a fun show with two great matches.

8 hours ago, SirEdger said:

The Lucha House Party appearance seemed random but I guess they might be looking at starting the Cruiserweights in other settings than 205 Live...

Hope not, I really love the cruiserweights in their own separate world where they don't have to deal with the Raw foolishness. 

[KawadaSmile]

Thanks for the messages of support, everyone. It feels grim, and it really is, but resistance is a daily act and we'll have 4 years (I hope so) to do that. It's a long way. Still, electing someone who makes Trump look moderate is INSANE

 

Watched a little bit of RAW last night, specially the last hour. Tamina/Nia could actually be a killer tag team, and while Tamina ain't exactly what I'd call good, maybe in a tag team formula against great babyfaces like Sasha and Bayley, it could be great.

Also, how can anyone buy Dolph Ziggler? He cuts this promo about how he's the best in the world and then struggles against non-factor Apollo Crews. I get that he's a heel and he's supposed to be full of himself, but at least acknowledging that he comes off as a goober would do wonders. Can't wait for Drew to ditch his bum ass.

 

Are you guys hyped for BoD vs DX? It can be a good nostalgia trip, but if anything, it makes me value the current tag teams more. The Usos and New Day are two of the Top 3 and the Bar is at least top 10. DX and BoD ain't it.

As for the LHP, I'm actually happy they got a chance to shine. I want some Metallik singles action or at least a nice trios spotfest down the road. They can be a good act to get people going.

[Jmare007]

Appearently everyone was like me and didn't see AJ vs Bryan had their match on SD. Only was able to see the last 5 minutes after a commercial break and what I sa saw was fucking awesome, the last sequence was insane.

[...TG]

I don't know why they had that Bryan-AJ match on Smackdown, but goddamn it was awesome so I'm not going to worry about it too much. How about that finishing sequence? 

[sek69]

It was on Smackdown because Bryan turned down going to Saudi Arabia. 

[sek69]

Something just occured to me......does WWE think having Becky call herself "The Man" is going to generate the heel reaction they badly want for her? I could see them being so far up their own asses that they would think having a woman refer to herself that way in the Age of Female Empowerment in Sports Solely Created By Stephanie McMahon would make fans boo because they're all about WOMEN POWER. 

[Jimmy Redman]

I think you've thought about it way more than the company has. I'm pretty sure it's just Becky spouting whatever cocky shit she can.

[Badlittlekitten]

Yes, it came from Becky herself, even Charlotte used it for a bit shit talk at evolution. Its a pretty cool line for a shirt. 

[JRH]

So I wonder which one (Rey, Miz, Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton) will be going to Raw? Orton looks like the most likely candidate, though I could see them sending Jeff or Rey just to give Ziggler something to do while Drew feuds with Braun.

[sek69]

I'm sure I have thought about it more than they have, I did like Becky's line of "I was going to do it without you (the fans) but you decided to come with me". I'm just always afraid the company is going to come up with some stupid shit to force the narrative they want. 

[Jimmy Redman]

Well they definitely are, you can see that by them having her walk out of matches and editing boos into the video packages and Cole trying the old Punk/Bryan "some crazy idiots in the crowd are buying into her bullshit" angle. But in this specific case it's just Becky being Becky. And if anyone on earth thinks that stuff will get her booed they are insane.

But funnily enough, I actually came in here to talk about Charlotte.

She has been tremendous this week.

I feel sorry for Charlotte because she's being forced into this babyface role that nobody is buying and she's trying to work this emotional betrayal angle for the story but it's impossible to garner any sympathy for her so she comes off a bit lame. None of this is her fault.

But honestly, if you ignore the fact that she was the heel in the match, Charlotte was a fantastic babyface in LMS. She played her role perfectly, staring absolute daggers at Becky and showing just how much she has grown to hate her for what she's become and how much she needed to beat her once and for all. She bumped and sold like a motherfucker and absolutely ATE some stupid ass shit. And then did the big Charlotte Up and busted out of the pile and went after Becky on some glorious, righteous babyface revenge shit and she looked fantastic. In that moment, honestly Charlotte has never looked more like a babyface than in that moment.

AND THEN SMACKDOWN.

She turned up to TV and talked to Paige and put a big smile on for the camera because hey this is WWE, and then Paige said the words "Be the captain of the Smackdown women's team at Survivor Series" and CHARLOTTE'S WHOLE FACE DROPPED. Because as soon as Paige said that it INSTANTLY hit Charlotte that she wasn't going to be in the Champ vs. Champ match like she planned. Because she wasn't the champ. Because she lost. Because she couldn't beat Becky. And she was SO invested in this match and SO determined to win and SO devastated that she lost that she can't even bring herself to think about the damn Survivor Series match, when normally she'd jump at that kind of opportunity. She had no plan for after this match. It took Paige repeating Charlotte's own babyface inspirational platitude back to her to try to prod her out of this funk.

I'm just saying Charlotte is the world's worst face but this is more concern for a big loss than pretty much any babyface ever shows in this company and in general her selling and emoting has been pretty fucking stellar throughout this feud and particularly this week so maybe she's not actually the world's worst face after all.

Also I was half asleep but did they really follow up the history making first ever all women's PPV WWE Evolution with a Smackdown with literally no women's matches?

[Alucard]

I'll always support them getting serious about pushing Lashley. Nothing's really clicked thus far but maybe they'll put him over strong in the world Cup. I'll keep waiting for 2016 Impact Lashley to burst out.

Lucha House Party was promoted as their "RAW Debut" making it sound like they were being called up from the developmental 205 live league.

1 hour ago, JRH said:

So I wonder which one (Rey, Miz, Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton) will be going to Raw? Orton looks like the most likely candidate, though I could see them sending Jeff or Rey just to give Ziggler something to do while Drew feuds with Braun.

I was thinking Orton would end up winning it, they all stay and become Team SDL for Survivor Series with Captain ShaneO. Orton's been booked pretty strong since the heel turn while on the RAW side, I think Dean will screw Seth, they never get fully behind Lashley, Kurt as much as I would love it won't win it, and Dolph is Dolph.

58 minutes ago, Jimmy Redman said:

Also I was half asleep but did they really follow up the history making first ever all women's PPV WWE Evolution with a Smackdown with literally no women's matches?

That is correct.

[sek69]

It would make sense for Jeff to be the one to lose and get "fired" in order to finally get the time off he's needed for a while.

 

And yes, Charlotte has been outstanding in her role in the feud despite the terrible miscasting. It's funny... for all the annoying PR and narrative building, having to women get served ass backwards creative and still going 'fuck it, let's get it over and make it work anyway" is more #EqualityGoals than anything.

[SirEdger]

I don't know, it sounds to me that it's gonna look like someone from Smackdown will win the World Cup. I think Orton is winning it