El-P Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 1 hour ago, DMJ said: If they don't unify the titles, I"m not sure what the point of the switch was. I'm not against the idea, but I still think the timing is dumb. Yeah. Does that mean Charlotte does the job, and then titles vs titles at the next PPV ? That's kinda dumb indeed, Mania should be the end, not a vehicule for the next thing. Reminds me of the switching of IC/hardcore titles before Mania 15... "Hey, they don't expect THAT". Poor Asuka. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peachchaos Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 I have no problem with the title change. It was dead weight in Asuka's hands. If anything, this elevates the title from being bottom tier to main event status and creates another newsworthy moment in that build. Whether they unify the belts or not, this was a smart move. And they always leave a little in the tank for post-Mania. The event has never really functioned as the season finale we all book as in our heads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirEdger Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 Unification is the only explanation that makes sense. Otherwise, you just fucked an entire division and the message Vince sent is that no one on that roster is worthy of being the champ on that brand, including Asuka, who definitely got the biggest slap in the face last night with that decision. WWE is walking a very fine line here. They're doing everything to feed Becky's narrative in her promos about Charlotte but I see more and more real resentment towards Charlotte online. If she gets the Cena/Roman treatment, it could get very ugly in a hurry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peachchaos Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 This elevates Charlotte, the title, and the division. None of this was going anywhere with Asuka. She could have held the title for 2,804 days and it never would have gotten over since she just doesn't fit in that role of perennial champion. Now Asuka can play Kofi if the fans are up to it and maybe get some actual support down the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirEdger Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 Personally, I don't have a problem with Charlotte winning the title. It's the timing that is suspicious. They could've pulled this off at Fastlane instead rather than having Becky fight her way back in the match against Charlotte and you would've accomplished the same result. But I still believe that this could backfire on WWE in the future if they keep doing this with Charlotte. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Migs Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 Charlotte can't get the Roman treatment because she's not a babyface. If people are resentful of her online... that's a good thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirEdger Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 There's a difference between hating someone because they're good at what they do (like The Miz) and hating someone because you feel like they're being given everything at the expense of others, even if that worker legit deserve that spot. Right now, Charlotte belongs in that first category, no question about it. But to many I read about online, she starts to fall in that 2nd category. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 Charlotte didn't need the belt at all. It just bumps Asuka off Mania. It's stupid and needless and yet another way to over-contrive a whole storyline that has been nothing but the shadow of what it should have been at this point. Really, it should have been Becky vs Rhonda and that's it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blehschmidt Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 The Uso's forfeit may have been the most intelligent piece of booking they have done in the whole build up to Wrestlemania this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirEdger Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 Yeah, the Gauntlet was a nothingburger until The Bar got eliminated and put Big E through the table. Then, The Usos came out and put the finishing touch before the climax of Big E flipping the announce table over Rowan to have him counted out. I say that the last 15 minutes of the Gauntlet was creatively brilliant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse Ewiak Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 6 hours ago, DMJ said: If they don't unify the titles, I"m not sure what the point of the switch was. I'm not against the idea, but I still think the timing is dumb. So, Wrestlemania can end with all 4 of the Horse Women (Bayley, Sasha, Becky, Charlotte) holding up a title. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirEdger Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 About last night's title change, Meltzer said that the reason why Vince put the title on Charlotte is two-fold: 1) what Becky said in her promo was true; Vince felt like Charlotte was like the 3rd wheel in the match and wanted to give her momentum and 2) he didn't want to book Asuka in the "17th or 18th match on the Wrestlemania card against someone no one cared about." So I can only assume that Asuka will now be part of the women's battle royal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peachchaos Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 22 minutes ago, SirEdger said: women's battle royal. We're still not 100% this is even going down this year. I love Asuka but she has no business having a singles match on this card. Crowd would have been dead no matter her opponent and it would have majorly devalued the belt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 Jojo just announced on instagram that she is pregnant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMJ Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 1 hour ago, Jesse Ewiak said: So, Wrestlemania can end with all 4 of the Horse Women (Bayley, Sasha, Becky, Charlotte) holding up a title. - In this scenario, Becky wins the Raw Women's Title in a hard-fought match and thenBayley and Sasha show up to celebrate with her. Understandable. But then Charlotte then joins them for a final posedown in a pseudo-face turn show of respect? Or would it be more like a "Curtain Call" moment where Charlotte being a heel is just ignored "for the moment"? Either way, yuck. - The argument that Asuka was "doing nothing" with the title is ridiculous. The entire SmackDown Women's Division has been on a hamster wheel for 3 months now by design. Could they have built up a legit challenger for Asuka in that time? Easily. They didn't. Instead, they devoted much of the time allotted to the women - on Elimination Chamber and at Fastlane and on the TV leading to those events- to the Raw Women's Championship scene and the Women's Tag Titles. Asuka, her title, and the rest of the division was left out of the mix. And to whoever said that Asuka could go undefeated for the next 5 months and nobody would care - well, wrestling history would probably disagree with that. Winning streaks tend to work well (Goldberg, Ryback, Asuka in NXT, hell, fucking Bryan Clarke had one going that got over in WCW when nothing was getting over in WCW). If Asuka had been kicking ass, consistently and in dominating fashion, for the past 3 months and the WWE had been simultaneously building up a fresh heel challenger (Lacey Evans? Rhea Rhipley? Maybe a big signee from the indies?), it would've worked just fine. - That being said, I don't think any WrestleMania needs 13 matches. I'm not advocating that Asuka deserves to be on the card at this point. The WWE hasn't booked her to be relevant, so she's not relevant enough to be featured. As others have pointed it, it is probably for the best that she's left off the show entirely at this point to protect some of her mystique. ...but I (and others) have made the same point about Reigns and McIntyre. Their forgettable, filler match in the middle of the show will do neither of them any favors. And the crowd will likely be dead for them after Reigns' entrance. I'd also cut the 205 Live "empty arena" title match. There'll be more eyes looking at the merch on sale than watching their match and they deserve better. - And, lastly, maybe I'm old fashioned and still believe that you can sell matches and events with carny bullshit, but if you're going to unify the titles, that's the kind of "special event" you can tack onto an otherwise cold match and make it a little warmer. Its a "hook." Asuka beat Lynch at January's Rumble. Lynch will likely win the Raw title at Mania next Sunday. Now they fight again with both titles on the line. Its a "hook" that they threw away for no reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 They wrote themselves into a corner with Asuka. Had nothing for her for months, and like people said, her title match was going to be met with silence because they just didn't built anything that warranted a reaction. People like her, and for good reason. However, caring about a match can be a whole different issue. That said, having Champion vs Champion vs Royal Rumble Winner is the best decision. Unifying the titles would be good, and it would make it more possible for Asuka to rebuild and regain traction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Microstatistics Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 3 hours ago, El-P said: Charlotte didn't need the belt at all. It just bumps Asuka off Mania. It's stupid and needless and yet another way to over-contrive a whole storyline that has been nothing but the shadow of what it should have been at this point. Really, it should have been Becky vs Rhonda and that's it. This is the absolute key. They shoehorned Charlotte into the match and then realized (surprise surprise), she was a third wheel. Then they screwed over an already neglected Asuka to "rectify" it. Not sure why people are jumping through hoops or going back to that nonsensical and untrue "Asuka has no heat" argument to justify this decision, when they created this problem for themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse Ewiak Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 7 minutes ago, Microstatistics said: This is the absolute key. They shoehorned Charlotte into the match and then realized (surprise surprise), she was a third wheel. Then they screwed over an already neglected Asuka to "rectify" it. Not sure why people are jumping through hoops or going back to that nonsensical and untrue "Asuka has no heat" argument to justify this decision, when they created this problem for themselves. They weren't going to have the 1st Women's Main Event in WM History not involve the person that both Triple H & Vince is most behind. Whether that's a good decision or not is left to the beholder, but you have two choices - Becky vs Ronda in the 2nd or 3rd match from the top or the 3-Way headlining. Also, yes, @DMJ, they're totally going to break kayfabe because that's what happens at the end of every big Women's match in WWE, since the first big NXT matches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 I just hope that if they do have a Curtain Call-like moment, people don't speculate on a Horsewomen vs Horsewomen feud. Shafir and Duke are still very fucking rough, even if Shayna and Ronda are true savants. It's too early for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Microstatistics Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 Also, Angle might be the worst "way past his prime" wrestler I've ever seen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 3 hours ago, Jesse Ewiak said: So, Wrestlemania can end with all 4 of the Horse Women (Bayley, Sasha, Becky, Charlotte) holding up a title. They totally want to reenact the one they did in NXT, only with everyone holding a belt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 Funny how I was ridiculed endlessly on this forum for suggesting that Asuka really isn't that over, really doesn't draw any money, and really doesn't matter all that much - and now all of that has been proven true and is being echoed by others here, finally. For all we know, she may not even be on the WrestleMania card at this point, and it doesn't affect the show one bit. Yes, you can blame bad booking and bad handling on that just as much as anything else, but that's hardly an issue exclusive to Asuka. Going with Charlotte over Asuka last year, last night, and in the future was, is, and always will be the right decision to make. With all of that said, can Asuka be used a lot better than she is? Sure. Even I can admit that much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 13 minutes ago, C.S. said: Funny how I was ridiculed endlessly on this forum for suggesting that Asuka really isn't that over, really doesn't draw any money, and really doesn't matter all that much - and now all of that has been proven true and is being echoed by others here, finally. Uh... proven how ? She wasn't given anything to do after winning the belt, now she's taken off the show so Charlotte can parade with a title in a main event she shouldn't be involved with in the first place. Asuka is off the show, yet you'll get people no one really wants to see like Baron Corbin, the Ilconics, Nia Jaxx & Tamina and so on... It's just stupid booking. Asuka is being totally wasted, like many others, that's pretty much the only thing this last minute decision "proves". As far as her being off the show not changing anything, it's pretty much the case for everyone not named Ronda Rousey (and Becky Lynch to some extent). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingSavage Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 The "lol jk" curtain call stuff is just the dirt fucking worst. Normally that's the sort of thing that would do irreparable damage to a character like Becky's, but I'm not so sure anyone cares about that stuff anymore. Everything is just done to be a moment and to get people tweeting about it or whateverthefuck. There's no real reason to adhere to logic or continuity anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingSavage Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 Asuka's booking has been atrocious, too. I mean, sure. She's ice cold. But your blame is misdirected, because her performances have remained on point. Asuka was given nothing to do before she won the belt. Then she came out of nowhere one month to win the belt & tap out Becky cleanly. She's been given literally NOTHING to do ever since. How exactly would you expect her to have any buzz or momentum with that sort of shitty booking? It's bizarre, scatterbrained bullshit. All their ideas are in a constant state of disarray. Mania season is no better than the rest of the calendar year for them, really. A lot of fans just seem to decide to pretend it is - that's all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.