Question: If AW never made "that joke"....

[lodirulz]

Would The Prime Time Players have gotten their tag team title reign that we want them to have today?

I'll admit, nowadays AW is nothing, but during his short run, I LOVED him as a manager. He pushed the envelope, obviously with his departure a little too far for WWE, but he played the cool heel very well, and could get under the skin of the casual fan.

Say he never mentioned Kobe Bryant and he continued being alongside the PTP for a few more months: Do you think they would have gotten the two giant pennies eventually over that period of time?

[Kevin Hamilton]

They're so much better without him that it's ridiculous. I don't think his prattling on during the match woulda made any difference one way or the other.

[Deleted]

He would have just been fired for something else, the dude is an idiot.

[Deleted]

He was just a loud distraction that brought nothing to the table. They're better off w/o AW.

[BigBadZ]

He would have been unstoppable

[wisdomwizard]

He was fine when he was being their hype man, but he didn't need to talk over the matches. I think next year the PTPs will finally get a Tag Team Title run.

[Bub (BLM)]

I think like others have said that they're better off without him. However, a good manager not talking over matches would still benefit them. What's the Million Dollar Man up to?

[wallabylikeyou]

God did I find him annoying. I know he was a heel but he was distracting from their matches I feel. They have enough personality, especially Titus, do get on without a manager.

[thelonewolf527]

YO MOMMA!

[Deleted]

It's crazy to think that he essentially got a live mic and no script. Hardly anyone in WWE has that priviledge, and AW was one of those people, so they must have thought at least somewhat highly of him.

I can't say I miss him, but I did think he was good in his role.

[Deleted]

AW & the joke mention on the day Kobe returns from injury... Coincidence?
It's a c-o-n-spiracy.

[Deleted]

From what I remember his release didn't have anything to do with the Kobe joke at all.

[metylerca]

With or without him, PTP don't get crowds reacting, aren't particularly that great, and Titus clearly shines as the star of the team.

They're Smackdown over.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Dec 8, 2013 19:20:29 GMT -5 metylerca said:

With or without him, PTP don't get crowds reacting, aren't particularly that great, and Titus clearly shines as the star of the team.

They're Smackdown over.

Yes, Titus is the star of the team, but Darren is good in his own right. And to say PTPs aren't over when half the crowd is doing their dance during their entrance? Are you serious bro?

[metylerca]

Dec 8, 2013 19:30:05 GMT -5 CATCH_US IS the Conversation said:

Dec 8, 2013 19:20:29 GMT -5 metylerca said:

With or without him, PTP don't get crowds reacting, aren't particularly that great, and Titus clearly shines as the star of the team.

They're Smackdown over.

Yes, Titus is the star of the team, but Darren is good in his own right. And to say PTPs aren't over when half the crowd is doing their dance during their entrance? Are you serious bro?

Half? Do you mean the handful of people camera side that cameras zoom in on?

By that token, Fandango is three times as over. Daniel Bryan is 46 times more over.

They're WWE style guys. Normally I don't try to come off smarky, but nothing about them stands out anymore than the entire roster of guys that punch, kick, headlock, hot tag and hit their finish in front of the hard camera. They're spectacularly unspectacular. Usos pop crowds with high flying. Rhodes and Shield have fantastic wrestling. Real Americans have wrestling and a cool manager, plus the big swing. What do PTP have? A dance? Crowds go nearly Divas levels of apathetic during their match until the hot tag. I'm not even kidding, go listen to their crowd reactions.

They had their mini face push and having seen this live, nobody cared. Six groups of dudes opposite hard cam trying to get on camera does not equal over. Crowd sweetening on the taped show to give them Hulk Hogan 1987 reactions also doesn't mean over.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Dec 8, 2013 19:50:33 GMT -5 metylerca said:

Dec 8, 2013 19:30:05 GMT -5 CATCH_US IS the Conversation said:

Yes, Titus is the star of the team, but Darren is good in his own right. And to say PTPs aren't over when half the crowd is doing their dance during their entrance? Are you serious bro?

Half? Do you mean the handful of people camera side that cameras zoom in on?

By that token, Fandango is three times as over. Daniel Bryan is 46 times more over.

They're WWE style guys. Normally I don't try to come off smarky, but nothing about them stands out anymore than the entire roster of guys that punch, kick, headlock, hot tag and hit their finish in front of the hard camera. They're spectacularly unspectacular. Usos pop crowds with high flying. Rhodes and Shield have fantastic wrestling. Real Americans have wrestling and a cool manager, plus the big swing. What do PTP have? A dance? Crowds go nearly Divas levels of apathetic during their match until the hot tag. I'm not even kidding, go listen to their crowd reactions.

They had their mini face push and having seen this live, nobody cared. Six groups of dudes opposite hard cam trying to get on camera does not equal over. Crowd sweetening on the taped show to give them Hulk Hogan 1987 reactions also doesn't mean over.

PTPs obviously aren't the best in ring workers, but they, and a lot of other "WWE Guys" have charisma and promo skills. They were pretty damn entertaining on the old NXT and during their initial push. And even at their most "irrelevant" they are always doing some segment for one of the web shows or for the app.

And for what it's worth, I didn't even like their face turn. I whined like a bitch about it because I felt it wasn't fair to the longer term faces. But if fans weren't into the PTPs, then those "six groups of dudes" trying to get themselves over would just do it via other means, such as doing someone else's taunt.

[metylerca]

Dec 8, 2013 19:59:32 GMT -5 CATCH_US IS the Conversation said:

Dec 8, 2013 19:50:33 GMT -5 metylerca said:

Half? Do you mean the handful of people camera side that cameras zoom in on?

By that token, Fandango is three times as over. Daniel Bryan is 46 times more over.

They're WWE style guys. Normally I don't try to come off smarky, but nothing about them stands out anymore than the entire roster of guys that punch, kick, headlock, hot tag and hit their finish in front of the hard camera. They're spectacularly unspectacular. Usos pop crowds with high flying. Rhodes and Shield have fantastic wrestling. Real Americans have wrestling and a cool manager, plus the big swing. What do PTP have? A dance? Crowds go nearly Divas levels of apathetic during their match until the hot tag. I'm not even kidding, go listen to their crowd reactions.

They had their mini face push and having seen this live, nobody cared. Six groups of dudes opposite hard cam trying to get on camera does not equal over. Crowd sweetening on the taped show to give them Hulk Hogan 1987 reactions also doesn't mean over.

PTPs obviously aren't the best in ring workers, but they, and a lot of other "WWE Guys" have charisma and promo skills. They were pretty damn entertaining on the old NXT and during their initial push. And even at their most "irrelevant" they are always doing some segment for one of the web shows or for the app.

And for what it's worth, I didn't even like their face turn. I whined like a bitch about it because I felt it wasn't fair to the longer term faces. But if fans weren't into the PTPs, then those "six groups of dudes" trying to get themselves over would just do it via other means, such as doing someone else's taunt.

I didn't imply they were trying to get themselves over. I just state it as I see it. PTPs came out and groups of people would comically do their dance whilst looking up at the jumbo tron hoping the camera caught them acting goofy. It happens with a lot of characters. Nothing to be ashamed of, but at the same time it's not worth gauging their entire popularity on either.

If they were over, fans would go bananas when they come out, they'd be into their matches, and they'd clamor for them post-match and during the show. Like Punk. Like Bryan. Like Cena and sometimes Orton. Shield. "We the People". Etc… but they aren't. Doesn't mean they should be fired or something, but it makes it both puzzling and comical that people on the board would call for the megapush to a WrestleMania title win when live reactions (what WWE would have you believing they base their booking off of) are lukewarm at best. If they were that charismatic, people would care when they lost, which is something they do very often actually. But they don't. Granted, they've never been given a reason to care outside of "Hey Darren is gay, now he fights out of headlocks and does back body drops, cheer him!"

I even remember them repeating the Sweet Brown "Ain't nobody got time for that" on the RAW before this year's Rumble, in the main event segment where everybody came out to their music to proclaim they would win the match… and they entered to the reaction of crickets and vendors yelling "Popcorn!"

I legit felt bad for Titus during the Michael Strahan segment because the Miz dragged him down, and that showed. Plus that stupid bowing after the segment just made him, the football star and Miz look like geeks.

[KobashiChop]

If he hadnt made the rape joke, then the WWE would have continued to live under the impression that Titus O'Neil needed someone to talk for him.

[Heartbreaker]

If he didn't go off on Twitter like an idiot, he probably would still be around.

[Reflecto]

Dec 8, 2013 20:19:50 GMT -5 metylerca said:

If they were over, fans would go bananas when they come out, they'd be into their matches, and they'd clamor for them post-match and during the show. Like Punk. Like Bryan. Like Cena and sometimes Orton. Shield. "We the People". Etc… but they aren't. Doesn't mean they should be fired or something, but it makes it both puzzling and comical that people on the board would call for the megapush to a WrestleMania title win when live reactions (what WWE would have you believing they base their booking off of) are lukewarm at best. If they were that charismatic, people would care when they lost, which is something they do very often actually. But they don't. Granted, they've never been given a reason to care outside of "Hey Darren is gay, now he fights out of headlocks and does back body drops, cheer him!"

But the example given here is a good reason for why the face turn and push does sort of work- are the PTPers incredibly over? Not really. They're about as over as the Usos- right now, they're basically a wash (and considering the Usos got pushed far harder, that's a pro to the PTPers and a con to the Usos. Are the Real Americans getting more crowd reaction? Yes, probably.

Having said that, though- is it better to push a kind-of, sort-of Smackdown over PTPers as babyfaces that makes the WWE look progressive over a super-mega-over Real Americans that would make the WWE look as bad as the critics stereotype the fans as? Absolutely.