WWE TV 09/23 - 09/29 Necropolitics are in vogue

[DMJ]

On my blog, I had the HIAC match as a 4-out-of-5, which I don't think is too exaggerated a score (I don't do quarter stars - only halves - and the scale only goes to 5). A 4 is basically a "must watch"/"should watch," a match that will likely end up on my Top 10 list of WWE Matches of a given year. 

I'd also add that its really not too hyperbolic to praise Sasha in 2015 as one of the best in the world, male or female. The match against Bayley at Takeover: Brooklyn legitimately had people tearing up (myself included). You can say, "Well, it was because of the build" or "It was because of the atmosphere" or whatever, but how many friggin' matches have actually brought tears to people's eyes? Flair/Vader for some? Shawn/Flair? Maybe Daniel Bryan at WM30*? Its a rarefied air that Sasha and Bayley wrestled in that night. 

And if it was so easy to elicit this genuine emotion from the audience, so reproducable, so manufacturable, the WWE would deliver that sort of match every week, every month, or at least every year. They would have people getting misty-eyed for Seth Rollins overcoming Brock Lesnar. There wouldn't have been a dry eye in the house for Roman Reigns comeback match. Daniel Bryan whupping The Miz's ass a couple SummerSlams ago would've been a huge cathartic moment. But none of those things happened because the elements have to be damn near perfect to elicit that response. That includes the build, the production, the atmosphere - but it also takes two strong performers that the fans are fully invested in. Kofi Kingston's ascent this year is comparable (and I'd put his Elimination Chamber and Mania match against Bryan in that upper echelon of Best Of The Year matches/moments), but before him, it had definitely been awhile since the audience was truly emotionally invested in a character.

That's not to say that making the audience cry is the ultimate goal of a pro-wrestling match. There are obviously lots of matches that didn't make me cry that I'd still call all-timers. But, yeah, when a match hits that note, it can't be denied and its participants absolutely deserve to be considered the best in the world at that moment. (And, yes, that means Bayley was probably a top 5 babyface in that year too.)

 

* I mention Bryan at WM30 because I know some people really love his WM30 matches. Personally, I liked the opener against Triple H but found the main event overwrought and had no emotional response to it, that having Bryan carried out on a stretcher was cloying and unoriginal and made his victory even more inevitable/predictable than it already was. Again, all the elements have to be right to make me actually tear up and feel fully invested in a match's outcome and those misteps diminished it for me.

[Coffey]

15 hours ago, C.S. said:

Molly Holly was the best WWE woman of her era, and it’s not even close, but of course she never got quarter of the credit the wildly overrated Trish did. Always annoyed me.

Same with Jazz & even to a lesser degree, Victoria. They just weren't big-titted blondes, which Vince has always pushed the shit out of.

[El-P]

11 minutes ago, Coffey said:

Same with Jazz & even to a lesser degree, Victoria. They just weren't big-titted blondes, which Vince has always pushed the shit out of.

FWIW, I watched Victoria in TNA when I was doing my whole TNA watch project stuff and she did not look very good at all. Sloppy, limited, you name it. She was badly exposed next to the TNA girls of the time. So the idea that she came off as a real talent in WWE then tells you all you need to know about their women division.

[Coffey]

1 hour ago, El-P said:

FWIW, I watched Victoria in TNA when I was doing my whole TNA watch project stuff and she did not look very good at all. Sloppy, limited, you name it. She was badly exposed next to the TNA girls of the time. So the idea that she came off as a real talent in WWE then tells you all you need to know about their women division.

Aren't her knees completely shot now too? She was wearing those big Steve Austin knee braces even like all the way back in 2005 or something.

[TheDuke]

I liked Ivory when she was in Right To Censor. That was a fun heel group.

[El-P]

1 hour ago, Coffey said:

Aren't her knees completely shot now too? She was wearing those big Steve Austin knee braces even like all the way back in 2005 or something.

She was wearing at least one in TNA as late as 2009, yes.

[The Thread Killer]

4 hours ago, El-P said:

FWIW, I watched Victoria in TNA when I was doing my whole TNA watch project stuff and she did not look very good at all.

Victoria looked GREAT in that one video I saw of her online.

[Mrzfn]

Victoria benefited early on from a good character that she played very well in her early WWE career as well. I do like Victoria but I also think she peaked early in her career, in the 02-03 range.