WWE TV 09/21 - 09/27 Liverpool and Bayern are just gonna dominate European football, aren't they?

[sek69]

I suppose there's contracts in place with Full Sail that keep them taping there, but yes all that crew in a small enclosed location + questionable social distancing practices (in fucking Florida to boot) means this will keep happening.

WWE looking to run in outdoor locations when the THUNDERDOME deal is up might be the best way to go (other than, y'know, actually not running).

[KawadaSmile]

4 hours ago, C.S. said:

What a sloppy shop.

NXT should have been moved to the Thunderdome (Amway in Orlando) when Raw and Smackdown were. 

Based on what the reports said, it's more like the wrestlers are being morons who don't use masks than anything 

[Blehschmidt]

7 hours ago, sek69 said:

Also why is Liv sporting those bedazzled teardrops under her eyes? Did she murder someone in a Claire's?

I legit laughed out loud at work over this. Well Played.

[KawadaSmile]

 

god retribution is so dumb i love it

[FMKK]

2 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

Based on what the reports said, it's more like the wrestlers are being morons who don't use masks than anything 

Reports seem to suggest that it was spread by a coach. I bet it's definitely not the Doad Rogg Bessie Lames.

[NintendoLogic]

I saw clips of the Retribution crap and the Rollins/Mysterio crap. You know what, I'm tapping out. I've way past the point of being a serious WWE fan, but I don't even think I can follow casually anymore. There's no reason for you guys to subject yourselves to this week after week when there's literally decades worth of actual good wrestling to watch.

[FMKK]

Lol I ain't watching this shit man. I follow via social media to laugh at their booking but I haven't watched a WWE match since Wrestlemania. Honestly, it's so bad it even puts me off watching older stuff from the promotion. 

[rovert]

A typically reliable source

 

[Migs]

12 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

Slapjack, T-Bar and Mace.

Holy fuck those are some bad names.

Ready for a feud with DOA in 1997. 

[KawadaSmile]

1 hour ago, Migs said:

Ready for a feud with DOA in 1997. 

Ready to get pummeled by the Combatribes

[DMJ]

I think the idea now is to be purposefully bad?

Which isn't the first time the WWE has done this. I think there is a legitimate feeling - from Bruce Prichard and others - that when a gimmick sucks or flops immediately, rather than fix it or make it better, the company should lean into the terribleness and embrace it as "wrestlecrap." At the very least, it makes for good fodder on their Network review/"best of" shows highlighting their own shitty angles/gimmicks. (For example, the Gobbeldy Gooker or how Mark Henry dating Mae Young was "all in good fun" when, actually, it was kinda mean-spirited hazing designed to make Henry a joke because he sucked in the 90s.)

The problem is that the beauty of B-movies (like "Troll 2," "The Room," or "Never Too You Young To Die") and true wrestlecrap (like The Shockmaster's debut or Hogan's visit to the Dungeon of Doom) is that they were made in earnest. These filmmakers, writers, and wrestlers actually believed that what they were doing was great. 

And there's also a difference between purposefully bad and "tongue in cheek." What R-Truth does is tongue-in-cheek. Its purposefully silly. It is meant to make you laugh because it is, at times, lampooning the seriousness of wrestling. It is in on its own joke. 

But designing the Retribution outfits to be so lame? The scripted promo they gave Mia Yim to perform under what appeared to be a mask 2 sizes too small? Giving all the Retribution members awful new names? If the Retribution angle is supposed to be "tongue-in-cheek" and we're supposed to see them as a gang of klutzes and losers (like we are with Tozawa and his ninjas), then I guess they accomplished that...? 

But I get the feeling that, initially, we were meant to see this as a meaningful new stable with some credibility - like the Shield or Nexus. They were actively terrorizing RAW and SD, not out there looking like The Keystone Cops or the 3 Stooges. But after this week? They're going to play this all for laughs.


And I hate to say it, but that's another thing the WWE might want to notice about what AEW has done. The Dark Order had a TON of critics when it debuted. People said it was too over-the-top and corny. They said it seemed like a crew of jobbers that were getting pushed too hard. As a gimmick, it was getting dunked on pretty hard last year around this time. But AEW kept with it, fine-tuned it, but never really abandoned it. I'm not saying The Dark Order is some great stable or that it should be a "top of the card" act, but AEW could've turned it into a comedy group after 3 weeks and they didn't. They trusted that their vision could work, even in the face of harsh critcisms.

I doubt Retribution will even last 3 more weeks and, if it does, it will be 100% played for laughs by then.

[Blehschmidt]

I just feel bad for Mia Yim. She's been around for so long and worked so hard to get there, and is hands down one of the nicest people in the business I've had the pleasure to meet....and she gets saddled with this. 

Never met Mercedes, but everything else applies for her as well. 

Dijak will recover based on size, Maddin is young enough to rebound, and Shane Thorne was never going anywhere as a singles anyway. I just really hope this wasn't those two ladies only shot.

[Ricky Jackson]

I don't watch the shows but have been following the development of this angle here, so I have a few questions. So what is the story supposed to be? That they are completely new wrestlers, like an old school gimmick change, a la IRS or Repo Man? Or are they just their old characters in new identities? I'm supposing the former because they didn't "have contracts" until last night. Or is this just typical WWE who gives a fuck if it makes sense storytelling?

[Blehschmidt]

(camera cut) They (camera cut) are (camera cut) Retribution! (camera cut) (camera cut) (camera cut) (camera cut) #WWEUniverse #Slapjack #T-Bar #Mace #ClashoftheChampions #MondayNightRaw #RawUnderground #TrendingWorldWide #CameraCut

What's not too understand?

 

23 minutes ago, Ricky Jackson said:

 typical WWE who gives a fuck if it makes sense storytelling

That sounds about right.

[TheDuke]

I'm still holding out hope that they are, in fact, Tozawa's ninjas after all.

[C.S.]

7 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

Based on what the reports said, it's more like the wrestlers are being morons who don't use masks than anything 

And while that can happen in the Thunderdome too, more space and stricter protocols would probably help. 

[rovert]

1 hour ago, Blehschmidt said:

I just feel bad for Mia Yim. She's been around for so long and worked so hard to get there, and is hands down one of the nicest people in the business I've had the pleasure to meet....and she gets saddled with this. 

Never met Mercedes, but everything else applies for her as well. 

Dijak will recover based on size, Maddin is young enough to rebound, and Shane Thorne was never going anywhere as a singles anyway. I just really hope this wasn't those two ladies only shot.

The masks, costumes and names might protect some of them from long term damage. But Vince isn't great on repackaging wrestlers or course-correcting things. Typically he takes the failure of a character out the wrestler, never uses them again as he now resents them or just eventually releases them.

The Keith Lee situation stinks too. In his current attire, he just looks like an out of shape dude instead of the complete unit of a man that he is.

[KawadaSmile]

2 hours ago, DMJ said:

I think the idea now is to be purposefully bad?.

What strikes me is that yesterday we witnessed three shades of silly shit.

• The 24/7 champion segment is, as usual, lighthearted, goofy, and overall fun. R-Truth is just so damn likeable.
• The Rey/Seth feud has shades of a telenovela and I was laughing my ass off during most of it, yet it is halfway between a parody and something played straight. It's like they are too shy to go out and go full Usurpadora. I mean, it has its charm, but they have to commit to it.
• Retribution is just bad. They're supposed to be taken seriously but they just look goofy as shit AND ONE OF THEM IS CALLED SLAPJACK. It ends up being laughable when the intent is obviously the opposite.

[sek69]

If they go full Telenovela with Rey/Seth, they need to bring in that lady who slaps the shit out of everyone to teach them how to work.

[Log]

These guys/gals need to start saying 'no' sometimes.

[sek69]

7 minutes ago, Log said:

These guys/gals need to start saying 'no' sometimes.

Reading Renee's goodbye letter was eye opening on how everyone in that company lives and dies on getting Vince's approval. Like rovert mentioned, Vince will see a gimmick failure as a fault of the performer and not of it being a stupid idea, so no one wants to be the one to fall into disfavor and get sentenced to a life of catering and/or endless Main Event duty.  And those already cast in that lot will do whatever they can to escape it. So the cycle continues.

[DMJ]

Mia Yim has this big, bright smile and comes off as a chill and cool person. She reminds me of Team Extreme-era Lita - tough but easy to relate to. You can call it being a "tomboy" or being a "homegirl" or whatever other dated term, but an angry, bratty anarchist? I don't see it at all. A square peg in a round hole.

We've seen workers excel at being characters that you may not have expected - but its not only rare, it also usually takes a really, really confident and special talent to turn horseshit into gold. Mia YIm is not at that level yet from what I've seen. In fact, I'm not sure a single member of Retribution actually has the personality or charisma to get this shitty gimmick over. And, oddly enough, they actually were kinda sitting on a crew that might've been able to do it (SaNity) just because Eric Young is solid in delivering that over-the-top, obnoxious role. It still would've been a shitty gimmick, but the WWE did themselves no favors by casting it with workers that have 0% chance of making it work. 

[MoS]

 

Both funny and sad that they are finally booking Roman in all the right ways right when the promotion is at its nadir in popularity and basically irredeemable

[sek69]

2 hours ago, DMJ said:

Mia Yim has this big, bright smile and comes off as a chill and cool person. She reminds me of Team Extreme-era Lita - tough but easy to relate to. You can call it being a "tomboy" or being a "homegirl" or whatever other dated term, but an angry, bratty anarchist? I don't see it at all. A square peg in a round hole.

We've seen workers excel at being characters that you may not have expected - but its not only rare, it also usually takes a really, really confident and special talent to turn horseshit into gold. Mia YIm is not at that level yet from what I've seen. In fact, I'm not sure a single member of Retribution actually has the personality or charisma to get this shitty gimmick over. And, oddly enough, they actually were kinda sitting on a crew that might've been able to do it (SaNity) just because Eric Young is solid in delivering that over-the-top, obnoxious role. It still would've been a shitty gimmick, but the WWE did themselves no favors by casting it with workers that have 0% chance of making it work. 

I honestly believe Dio Madden has the charisma to make something like this work in theory,  but I'm not sure any one person alone can make this work unless one of them has secret Rock levels of charisma that haven't been unlocked yet.

[Burgundy LaRue]

If rumors are to be believed, Roman and Heyman have creative control over their story.

He's the one bright spot they have in terms of ratings. Bayley and Sasha do well in their quarter-hour breakdowns, but Roman has helped SD bring back some of their overall numbers.

It's going to be funny to watch Roman become the prom king with the IWC while working as a mafia-influenced sociopath when that's not the intent.