WWE TV Megathread

[DMJ]

6 hours ago, Embrodak said:

Hard to imagine a less exciting return than AJ Lee. Hey remember the gangly scrawny girl who botched all the time? She’s back, and she’s going to be beating up probably the most important women’s wrestler of the last decade.

I'm far from an AJ Lee or CM Punk stan, but the full segment of her return has like 4.5+ million views on YouTube. Meanwhile, various return vids of Nikki Bella maxed out around 700k. Within 2 days, AJ Lee's return also surpassed Brock Lesnar's (which happened a month ago) in terms of views.

It might not interest you, but "hard to imagine a less exciting return" is just bad hyperbole. 

To be honest, I think the real appeal here and the reason this story has resonated is because the Rollins/Punk feud has been a big deal for over a year (even if many of us are sick of it here), CM Punk remains super over with the WWE audience, and Becky Lynch has done a great job as a heel and the audience wants to see her get her comeuppance. It's just classic pro-wrestling. As Jim Ross used to put it, there are alot of "personal issues" being played out in a "wrestling drama" and, though we've seen it a hundred times, its not really super common for the WWE to do a major mixed tag storylines that is treated seriously as a top-of-the-card attraction (I mean, didn't the last one involve Snooki?). 

[El-P]

1 hour ago, DMJ said:

 Within 2 days, AJ Lee's return also surpassed Brock Lesnar's (which happened a month ago) in terms of views.

And that's exactly the angle that isn't talked about and should. They brought her back and will gaslight people about how important she was was "women's wrestling" (she was to some extent in WWE for a short while, but as predicted the general discourse is already overrating how important she was) and "women's rights" in WWE while at the very same time, putting back on TV the guy who took part in sex-trafficking an employee with the boss. And THIS is the important part, actually. The rest is irrelevant sports-entertainment shit. AJ Lee coming back is basically whitewashing Lesnar's return (not that it even needed to be considering how the WWE audience hasn't cared at all about a sex predator being on TV in a major role again, but in term of public discourse, it serves its purpose in drowning whatever could be told about Lesnar, that has already be told anyway).

(I would add that she and Punk deserves each other, but that would be a personal shot. Then again, actions speaks louder than words, or tweets. She agreed to come back at the same time sex-trafficker #3 did. Hell of a message in term of speaking out for women, pun absolutely intended)

[WingedEagle]

52 minutes ago, El-P said:

(I would add that she and Punk deserves each other, but that would be a personal shot. Then again, actions speaks louder than words, or tweets. She agreed to come back at the same time sex-trafficker #3 did. Hell of a message in term of speaking out for women, pun absolutely intended)

You're missing the point. They'll be able to do great work and raise awareness about these vital issues thanks to all of those TKO greenbacks.

[El-P]

13 minutes ago, WingedEagle said:

You're missing the point. They'll be able to do great work and raise awareness about these vital issues thanks to all of those TKO greenbacks.

WWE continues to influence the world !

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

10 hours ago, sek69 said:

She was the one who started the #GiveDivasAChance movement back in the day and was an inspiration to a lot of the new generation of women wrestlers since AJ was really the first one to speak up and demand WWE start taking them seriously. She wasn't the best in ring talent of all time but there was a period where she was the Main Character and that struck a chord with a lot of folks. 

Wasn't it actually the Bellas who started givedivasachance? AJ just cut a bunch of shoot promos shitting on the other women for not having the indie cred she had (which is what, basically zero?)

[El-P]

1 hour ago, Yo-Yo's Roomie said:

Wasn't it actually the Bellas who started givedivasachance? 

It came from the viewers. It trended on Twitter after a 30 seconds match (imagine that, in 2015) between the Bellas and Emma & Paige on February 23. Mind you, at this point Paige & Emma already had their "patient zero" match in NXT a while ago. And of course TNA had ran legit women's wrestling for years now, but that's another story.  Two days later AJ Lee basically made a tweet complaining about how women were not paid enough considering how much ratings they would drew (inspired by Patricia Arquette's speech at the Oscars the same year apparently). One months and a half later, she was retiring and was gone, and pretty much erased from history because of the CM Punk issue. So yeah, I'm sure plenty of current women wrestler were inspired by her character at the time which was cool and different from your run-of-the-mill diva, but still, there's a heavy dose of gaslighting going on.

Funny how depending of the moment, the "Women Revolution" (and really now...) started with Paige vs Emma in NXT, oh no wait it was the Four Horsewomen, oh no wait Mercedes is not here anymore so it actually was AJ Lee...

EDIT : even funnier when you look back at the source 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DORp4vbjmo1/

One day, some serious study of the toxic sewer that was 2000's/2010's WWE really should be done.

 

[Embrodak]

10 hours ago, DMJ said:

I'm far from an AJ Lee or CM Punk stan, but the full segment of her return has like 4.5+ million views on YouTube. Meanwhile, various return vids of Nikki Bella maxed out around 700k. Within 2 days, AJ Lee's return also surpassed Brock Lesnar's (which happened a month ago) in terms of views.

It might not interest you, but "hard to imagine a less exciting return" is just bad hyperbole. 

To be honest, I think the real appeal here and the reason this story has resonated is because the Rollins/Punk feud has been a big deal for over a year (even if many of us are sick of it here), CM Punk remains super over with the WWE audience, and Becky Lynch has done a great job as a heel and the audience wants to see her get her comeuppance. It's just classic pro-wrestling. As Jim Ross used to put it, there are alot of "personal issues" being played out in a "wrestling drama" and, though we've seen it a hundred times, its not really super common for the WWE to do a major mixed tag storylines that is treated seriously as a top-of-the-card attraction (I mean, didn't the last one involve Snooki?). 

I didn’t say it couldn’t be a hot storyline, I was just saying it doesn’t interest me very much. Even if you think WWE women’s wrestling is graded on a curve, Becky Lynch is still a formidable talent and was, for a short time, perhaps *the* hottest attraction in wrestling, something I’m not sure any other woman has a realistic claim to. AJ Lee is significantly smaller than her and never had remotely her credibility as a star or in-ring talent, and I don’t at all buy that Becky would be intimidated by her.

[strobogo]

It is a bit strange to me that both Punk and AJ have returned to WWE considering the circumstances of why they both left in the first place. I suppose time and money heals all wounds.

[Embrodak]

8 minutes ago, strobogo said:

It is a bit strange to me that both Punk and AJ have returned to WWE considering the circumstances of why they both left in the first place. I suppose time and money heals all wounds.

I think they probably blame Vince and his coterie for the problems.

[sek69]

If you recall, AJ was actually around a bit after Punk left. I've always suspected her retirement was less about injury and more about WWE becoming an awkward relationship once Punk went nuclear on the company. 

[strobogo]

I was thinking more they made her mental health issues into her gimmick to make fun of her as a crazy chick, and ended up going off her meds to look thinner on TV because of what the office wanted her to wear every week.