WWE NXT War Games 2019 - MENGO

[The Thread Killer]

1 hour ago, Slasher said:

Messiah of the backbreaker makes some sense to me. Its like saying he is bringing the backbreaker back into style, or that he is the leader of everyone who ever wanted to see backbreakers. Is it lame? Yeah but there's some purpose to it. Archer of infamy, though? Nah got nothing there.

@Slasher you're the man and you're one of my favorite posters here at PWO...but in this particular case I believe you're wrong brother.

As I have ranted about previously, Messiah has two literal definitions:

1) "The prophesied king and deliverer of the Jews" which does not apply here, unless Roderick Strong is planning on delivering the Jews through the use of the backbreaker?

or...

2) "A professed or accepted leader of some hope or cause" which would imply that the backbreaker is a "hope or cause?" 

It doesn't work.  As I've bitched about previously, there is no earthly reason that they can't call him "The Master of the Backbreaker."  Otherwise it's a stupid nickname and it makes no sense.  And it's mildly sacrilegious, to boot.

[peachchaos]

yeah "Messiah of the Backbreaker" is just ignorant misuse of the word, almost anything else would be better

"Cerebral Assassin" doesn't make any logical sense either. "The Beast Incarnate" is probably my favorite. "Lunatic Fringe" is still the worst.

[The Thread Killer]

3 minutes ago, peachchaos said:

Even though it's over on Twitter and seemingly everywhere, I can't help but feel the anti-Mauro crowd, that all of ya'll are a very very vocal minority. He's the best commentator in 20 years. Respected throughout the industry. Out there essentially going for broke with his own Monsoon-isms. You can choose to cringe at basically anything today. Which is fitting since wrestling is ALL suspension of disbelief to begin with. His enthusiasm shines too bright sometimes, but you can tell it's a sincere appreciation of the product. And he gets it all over. 

But sure, by all means support the movement to bully someone off Twitter and out of your life just because you personally don't dig what they're doing even if they're great at it. Really wish I could opt out of this cancel culture existence. 

His enthusiasm isn't the problem, dude. I could almost handle the screaming and shouting and jumping out of his seat.  I can almost deal with that, although it's fucking annoying.  His enthusiasm I can at least appreciate and understand. The problem is that much of the time he seems more concerned with shoe-horning his stupid pop culture references and allegories into the match than he is with actually you know...calling the match.  It's never natural when he does that, it always sounds incredibly forced and corny. Whether he means to do this or not, he sounds like he trying to get himself over as some sort of character, not be the play-by-play guy.  Secondly, he's unprofessional.  He doesn't let his fellow announcers talk, he is constantly cutting them off and interrupting them and there is literally no excuse for that.

I know there are plenty of people who like the guy, and that's fine.  But even his biggest defenders would have to admit that he interrupts Nigel and Beth all the time, and like I said there is no excuse for that shit.  Secondly, for those that don't like him he actually detracts from the show.  I've lost count of the times I've read about people either not watching NXT or having to mute the volume because they don't want to listen to Mauro Ranallo bellowing nonsense at the top of his lungs.  He doesn't add to the product, for a lot of people he actually takes away from the enjoyment of the product.  That isn't made up or imagined.  I can't stand Josh Mathews as an example, but I've never let him get to me so much that I have to turn the volume down.  But I habitually turn the volume extra low when I watch NXT because I literally can't stand listening to Mauro Ranallo's nonsense.

I've never tweeted something negative to the guy, and I personally could care less if he uses Twitter or not.  But if he didn't call NXT anymore I wouldn't shed a tear and I honestly think it would make the product considerably better, and I'm not going to feel guilty or apologize for that either.

[peachchaos]

7 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

His enthusiasm isn't the problem, dude. I could almost handle the screaming and shouting and jumping out of his seat.  I can almost deal with that, although it's fucking annoying.  His enthusiasm I can at least appreciate and understand. The problem is that much of the time he seems more concerned with shoe-horning his stupid pop culture references and allegories into the match than he is with actually you know...calling the match.  It's never natural when he does that, it always sounds incredibly forced and corny. Whether he means to do this or not, he sounds like he trying to get himself over as some sort of character, not be the play-by-play guy.  Secondly, he's unprofessional.  He doesn't let his fellow announcers talk, he is constantly cutting them off and interrupting them and there is literally no excuse for that.

I know there are plenty of people who like the guy, and that's fine.  But even his biggest defenders would have to admit that he interrupts Nigel and Beth all the time, and like I said there is no excuse for that shit.  Secondly, for those that don't like him he actually detracts from the show.  I've lost count of the times I've read about people either not watching NXT or having to mute the volume because they don't want to listen to Mauro Ranallo bellowing nonsense at the top of his lungs.  He doesn't add to the product, for a lot of people he actually takes away from the enjoyment of the product.  That isn't made up or imagined.  I can't stand Josh Mathews as an example, but I've never let him get to me so much that I have to turn the volume down.  But I habitually turn the volume extra low when I watch NXT because I literally can't stand listening to Mauro Ranallo's nonsense.

I've never tweeted something negative to the guy, and I personally could care less if he uses Twitter or not.  But if he didn't call NXT anymore I wouldn't shed a tear and I honestly think it would make the product considerably better, and I'm not going to feel guilty or apologize for that either.

Those are all things that his producers would change if they felt they needed to be changed, no?

I see a lot of those complaints too, and again, it's just a very vocal minority. Ratings are good, people are into the product and Mauro is the voice of it.

[NintendoLogic]

I know firsthand how crippling depression can be, and I wish Mauro all the best in his personal life. But if your mental state is such that you can't deal with trolls on social media, you're probably better off not being a public figure. Of course, it doesn't help when you have coworkers doing shit like this:

Corey Graves ripping anyone's announcing, particularly on the grounds of not letting other members of the broadcast team get a word in edgewise, is truly the pot calling the kettle black.

[DMJ]

I think blatantly attacking the guy on Twitter is unnecessary keyboard warrior shit. 

But criticizing him, like any other performer on the show, is fair game to me - especially on a forum or when people write thoughtful reviews of the show. I don't mind him as much as others here, but defending him by saying, "Well, he's got to be good because he also calls fights for HBO" or "If he was so bad, don't you think the producers (Cole?) would tell him to tone it down"? Those things are all true, but it doesn't mean I have to think he's good. Its the old "Nickelback sold a billion records" thing...

I don't use Twitter, but I imagine there are lots of really ugly, nasty tweets that go beyond just criticism. Hell, I saw a post on Facebook that showed a picture of Brock Lesnar's daughter and the comments were just appalling. I don't think anyone is defending those sorts of comments. Nobody wants to see Mauro Ranallo go through a mental health breakdown, but hey, he also has the option (I think) of "silencing" (or whatever the word is) the people who do tweet him with negativity.

And, yeah, as for Corey Graves, he's a fuckboi who let a little bit of praise go to his head and thinks he's a genius.

[FMKK]

56 minutes ago, peachchaos said:

Even though it's over on Twitter and seemingly everywhere, I can't help but feel the anti-Mauro crowd, that all of ya'll are a very very vocal minority. He's the best commentator in 20 years. Respected throughout the industry. Out there essentially going for broke with his own Monsoon-isms. You can choose to cringe at basically anything today. Which is fitting since wrestling is ALL suspension of disbelief to begin with. His enthusiasm shines too bright sometimes, but you can tell it's a sincere appreciation of the product. And he gets it all over. 

But sure, by all means support the movement to bully someone off Twitter and out of your life just because you personally don't dig what they're doing even if they're great at it. Really wish I could opt out of this cancel culture existence.  

The NWA Anarchy WarGames is amazing, of course.

I don't know how us not liking a wrestling commentator and lightly joking about his cringy lines on a fringe message board is bullying and cancel culture but go off

[The Thread Killer]

35 minutes ago, peachchaos said:

Those are all things that his producers would change if they felt they needed to be changed, no?

I see a lot of those complaints too, and again, it's just a very vocal minority. Ratings are good, people are into the product and Mauro is the voice of it.

WWE is a company that considers Micheal Fucking Cole "The Voice of WWE."  Clearly, their bar when it comes to the quality of the announcing is really not all that high.  They don't want good announcers, they want mindless corporate yesbots who will happily spout inane WWE approved euphemisms and approved catch phrases on cue while Vince instructs them in their headset.  Or in WWE-speak, they want to ensure the WWE Universe hears the best action about their favorite Sports Entertainers.  I love NXT, but I don't think you can attribute their success and ratings to Mauro Ranallo.  I'd be more likely to think they've succeeded despite him, not because of him.

[El-P]

I don't give a flying fuck about Mauro's Twitter drama. To me Mauro is a god fucking awful announcer and he's actively preventing me from enjoying anything he's calling. That's about it. 

[Coffey]

For me, it still goes back to the fact that the job of Mauro is supposed to be to get the talent over & he doesn't do that. He gets himself over. Usually to the detriment of everyone else. Which is why we're currently talking about his jobber ass in the thread about the Wargames PPV.

As much as I'm not a fan of current Jim Ross or Michael Cole (ever) I would still take both of them over Mauro.

Also the elephant in the room: I feel like Mauro uses his mental issues as a get out of jail free card whenever he fucks up.

[El-P]

3 minutes ago, Coffey said:

Also the elephant in the room: I feel like Mauro uses his mental issues as a get out of jail free card whenever he fucks up.

This. I actually typed something about how I was sick of the "mental health" card being played when people like Cass for instance act like complete assholes, then I felt it was opening a can of worms.

For the record, I have delt with depression, I have had (severe) mental breakdowns and I have been close with people with issues, so I know what the fuck I'm talking about in terms of let's not put everything on the back of our own mental issues to always find ourselves excuses or play victims. Not saying Mauro is doing that, but I see a lot of "mental health" card being thrown often, much more often that it should. And that's all I'm going to say about that particular point, because PWO.

[El-P]

2 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

I don't recall him being particularly obnoxious in the women's wargame. Sure, it's still Mauro, but the match was so good his commentary didn't wander into forced pop culture references.

Ok, I'm gonna give it a chance.

Cage barely begins to lower.

"Like Chuck T. said, Welcome to the Terrord..."

AAAAAAAAA SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY !!!! THE MATCH HAS NOT EVEN BEGUN !!! SHUT HIM UP FOR FUCK'S SAKE !!!!!

 

[KawadaSmile]

Hang in there, brother. I had the exact same feeling - his first damn line was a reference - , but the match was a JOY.

[The Thread Killer]

30 minutes ago, Coffey said:

Also the elephant in the room: I feel like Mauro uses his mental issues as a get out of jail free card whenever he fucks up.

 

27 minutes ago, El-P said:

This. I actually typed something about how I was sick of the "mental health" card being played when people like Cass for instance act like complete assholes, then I felt it was opening a can of worms.

I don't think you guys are wrong.  Remember we got into this when discussing Mauro Ranallo a couple of months ago in this thread.

Firstly, there have been unsubstantiated allegations that Mauro Ranallo is a bit of an asshole, and that has nothing to do with his mental health.  Hell, Dave Meltzer alluded to that fact when he covered the whole Mauro/JBL debacle, and Meltzer and Mauro are friends.

Secondly, as I ranted about in the thread linked above, Mauro Ranallo has gone on record and is quite proud of the fact he doesn't follow the traditional, prescribed treatment for his mental illness, so I have a hard time feeling a lot of sympathy for him.

Let's face it, any time you get me and @El-P to agree on something, as we do about Mauro...then we MUST be right, because the statistical odds of us having the same opinion about something are infinitesimal.

[El-P]

19 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

Let's face it, any time you get me and @El-P to agree on something, as we do about Mauro...then we MUST be right, because the statistical odds of us having the same opinion about something are infinitesimal.

Ah ah, that's a good point.

25 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

Hang in there, brother. I had the exact same feeling - his first damn line was a reference - , but the match was a JOY.

Yeah, it is a great match, but it also demonstrates how much context matters to me at this point. I can see it's a great match, those women are just terrific talents, but since I'm not connected to the context and it is a context I actually actively don't care about (for different reasons), I never really got into it. I honestly have more fun watching a random Madison Rayne match on IMPACT, simply because I enjoy and am familiar with the context. And my main criticisms would be all about the context : 

_Mauro Ranallo is annoying as fuck, so it detracts from the match as he's hammering on my head all the time.

_The Dakota Kai stuff was great at first, then went for too long and meanwhile what is happening in the ring ? This is typical WWE production.

_WWE style match : cage match, hate feud (from what I gather) : no blood and tons of garbage can shots, table and chairs. And more of no blood.

So whatever criticism I would have only refers to the context : context of announcing, context of production. The workers I have nothing but love for them although I'm not familiar with a few of them. Bianca BelAir is still awesome. Basically, I hope I'll get to see them in another context, I just don't care about that one. Which is not to say I don't think this was a great match. 

[peachchaos]

1 hour ago, FMKK said:

I don't know how us not liking a wrestling commentator and lightly joking about his cringy lines on a fringe message board is bullying and cancel culture but go off

It all feeds the same hate machine basically. This anti Mauro movement won’t stop til he’s out of a job, which would only happen if he gets himself pulled into a Cornette situation. Highly unlikely. He’s the voice of NXT for life. Get over it.

I watch NXT every week and know nothing about his mental health issues. I just assume everyone has them at this point. There’s no “clear and obvious treatment” for this, so not sure where that kind of judgement comes from tbh. Every day is a struggle for most people on some level. Deleting Twitter seems like a healthy option, especially if there’s nothing but hateful trolls coming at you.

[The Thread Killer]

3 minutes ago, peachchaos said:

I watch NXT every week and know nothing about his mental health issues. I just assume everyone has them at this point. There’s no “clear and obvious treatment” for this, so not sure where that kind of judgement comes from tbh.

Knowledge of Mauro Ranallo's mental health issues are out there, because he put them out there. You do know he's bi-polar, and had a documentary made about him and his struggles with bi-polar disorder, right?  And there absolutely is a clear and obvious treatment for bi-polar disorder...and cannabis use isn't it.

[FMKK]

3 minutes ago, peachchaos said:

It all feeds the same hate machine basically. This anti Mauro movement won’t stop til he’s out of a job, which would only happen if he gets himself pulled into a Cornette situation. Highly unlikely. He’s the voice of NXT for life. Get over it.

I watch NXT every week and know nothing about his mental health issues. I just assume everyone has them at this point. There’s no “clear and obvious treatment” for this, so not sure where that kind of judgement comes from tbh. Every day is a struggle for most people on some level. Deleting Twitter seems like a healthy option, especially if there’s nothing but hateful trolls coming at you.

So what's the story here? When I'm talking shit about wrestling on this board do I have to pretend that I like his commentary when the topic comes up? 

[El-P]

1 minute ago, FMKK said:

So what's the story here? When I'm talking shit about wrestling on this board do I have to pretend that I like his commentary when the topic comes up? 

Yes. Don't be hateful. Plus, the guy has got mental issues. So there. Your criticisms of Mauro just got cancelled.

[The Thread Killer]

Just now, El-P said:

Yes. Don't be hateful. Plus, the guy has got mental issues. So there. Your criticisms of Mauro just got cancelled.

Now let's find out where @FMKK works, and get him fired from his job for not liking Mauro.

[peachchaos]

3 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

Knowledge of Mauro Ranallo's mental health issues are out there, because he put them out there. You do know he's bi-polar, and had a documentary made about him and his struggles with bi-polar disorder, right?  And there absolutely is a clear and obvious treatment for bi-polar disorder...and cannabis use isn't it.

Nope, didn't know any of that. Those treatments aren't nearly as successful as you're suggesting and the research is still out there on marijuana. 

[peachchaos]

8 minutes ago, FMKK said:

So what's the story here? When I'm talking shit about wrestling on this board do I have to pretend that I like his commentary when the topic comes up? 

To me, the anti Mauro crowd is just Cornette complaining about AEW ad nauseam. We get it! 

[FMKK]

1 minute ago, peachchaos said:

To me, the anti Mauro crowd is just Cornette complaining about AEW ad nauseam. We get it! 

Cornette complaining about AEW ad nauseam is easily avoidable if you just don't listen to his podcasts. Similarly, it should be easy to avoid or live with other people not liking a commentator that you think is good, especially if that group is as small as you say. 

[peachchaos]

2 minutes ago, FMKK said:

Cornette complaining about AEW ad nauseam is easily avoidable if you just don't listen to his podcasts. Similarly, it should be easy to avoid or live with other people not liking a commentator that you think is good, especially if that group is as small as you say. 

If the internet weren't a gigantic trashcan of negativity I might feel differently. 

[FMKK]

8 minutes ago, peachchaos said:

If the internet weren't a gigantic trashcan of negativity I might feel differently. 

Would me pretending to like Mauro's commentary help in any way? I understand stuff like Twitter is mentally wearing and stuff - I've experienced that feeling too - but honestly the best thing to do is just check out of it for a while instead of getting annoyed at people on here for having honest opinions about a wrestling commentator. It's not like we're on there screaming at the guy.