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Post by Bubble Lead on Mar 18, 2010 14:22:13 GMT -5
Kofi will be a midcarder until they decide to give him some character traits worthy of a main event star. Randy Orton: Methodical, cold, maims with no thought for the future, unable to form alliances. He's "The Viper" (the guy actually slithered on the ground a few times). Batista: Arrogant, self-absorbed, greedy, confident to a fault sometimes. John Cena: Sticks to his guns, resilient, integrity coming out of his eyeballs. Too loyal to doing what's right and gets screwed over for it. HHH: This a tough one because sometimes he's THE GAME and sometimes he's just HHH - member of DX. When he's "the Game" though he's probably billed as the most long-term thinking wrestler. The "cerebral assasin" who plans out things way in advance. Right now they've just got Kofi Kingston: He wrestles. But he's still new and has time to develop. Not everyone can become a 3D character in the span of a couple years like Punk did. Actually Kofi's character is pretty much the same as Cena's. He's never backed down from Orton has he? And even though he never beat Orton he wasn't afraid to try to make a save against Batista. And even though that failed he still wanted a match against Batista. To add to this, I dont see how Kofi has any less character than Sheamus, or even Rey Mysterio. Sheamus: Big mean heel that beats up people because he wants to, other than that no real character or motivation. Kofi: Smallish friendly guy that doesn't back down from challenges and can pick up a win at any moment with explosive finisher and offense. This isn't exactly an era of 3D characters in WWE.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Mar 18, 2010 14:09:52 GMT -5
Yeah Kofi coulda been big but then he lost three straight times to the Ortron and made the whole feud look like he got lucky That's the thing that gets me when people say 'Oh, he wasn't over in that 3 way No 1 contenders match on Raw'. Of course he wasn't, Orton beat him clean as a whistle on two occasions before then. People weren't suddenly going to buy him as a sudden contender for the WWE title when he didn't beat a former Champion. I just believe they had the oppertunity and didn't go through with it. In a business where 99% of it is relied on fan interaction and how they spend their money, Wrestling has this weird tendancy on not going through with what the fans want at the time. I never understood that. Most of wrestlings success stories dont stem from long, well planned storylines or careful pushes, but simply kowing what the fans want and providing it. I mean, lets say random midcarder keeps getting pops and crowd support even though he isnt an integral part of the show. He is then put into a throwaway match with the champ, or a little mini angle like Shelton or Kofi. He gets a fluke win, the crowd is popping big for him and he seems to be gaining momentum. Why not run with that? Even if you had no long term plans for the feud as a booker, or didn't think of the guy as ready for the main event or fit for it at all. Why just squash him until the crowd gives up? Even if you push someone as a result of crowd reaction and their heat wanes, you can still push them down the card again anyway.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Mar 18, 2010 13:56:06 GMT -5
Kinda funny, Kofi was supposed to be the next big thing, but it turns out he is just the next Shelton Benjamin. He even had the whole "get some wins over a main eventer and look to break out, only to be squashed back into midcard" mini feud with Orton that Shelton had with HHH.
Keep in mind, I do not blame Kofi for it anymore than I blame Swagger, MVP, or Shelton for not being able to break out. They all have the tools to do so, but all suffer from the typical WWE yo-yo booking that every young guy gets.
You cant get behind someone if you know WWE isn't behind them. I didn't even get excited about this Kofi stuff because I knew that the best thing to come out of it would be the moment in MSG where he put Orton through a table and got a huge pop.
After that it was only a matter of time before he got squashed and forgotten about just like every other midcarder or young guy the crowd tries to get excited for.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Mar 18, 2010 12:52:13 GMT -5
Its a war in the sense that Poland's attempts to fend of Germany was a war. Guess who's Poland? ROH? TNA is more like France, if anything.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Mar 18, 2010 12:42:34 GMT -5
Legacy is just another example of why I dont bother watching WWE anymore, along with a lot of other people.
WWE often does this. They build and build and build and it all leads up to nothing. Everything resets itself a week later or leads to nothing. All the little moments, segments and time invested into this stable over the past year and a half have done nothing for Cody and Ted.
I certainly couldn't take them any more seriously at this point than I could when they were tag team champions jobbing to Batista and Cena. They looked like ineffective clowns then and they still do to this day. Kinda hard to get behind two guys who never do anything right despite always having the advantage.
See: Edgeheads, Bashams, any other generic flunky tag team in a stable. It may give them something to do, but if all they are doing is holding down a guy for the champ to beat up, taking finishers and pinfalls in the champs place to keep a faces heat, and getting a dubious win every now and then they arent going to get over or seem credible.
Remember Evolution? There was an example of guys being put over while being in a stable and protecting the champ. Both Orton and Batista did their own thing while being flunkies for HHH at the same time. Sure, they took finishers and pinfalls for him, but they also got involved in title hunts, won titles and kept them independently of HHH, and generally looked like credible threats.
Thats good booking. Ted and Cody being Ortons Virgils for almost two years wasn't ever going to be a good way to get them over.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Mar 18, 2010 12:25:40 GMT -5
I worry about the big show the most because of seeing shows about people with gigantism and how young they die and how much of a toll that disease takes on people. If I remember right, Big Show had surgery to stop the growing. So his heart isn't in danger like Andre's was. The last time I was concerned for a wrestler in the course of a match was Edge vs. Ric Flair TLC on RAW. I could not believe they let him do that, let alone that Ric Flair wasn't taken out on a stretcher. But I'm going to say Bret Hart. The fact that they haven't been able to even slap the guy and now he's going into a match scares me. It's going to have to be completely one sided. Yeah, Show is fine as far as that issue goes. He had surgery when he was fairly young to prevent what happened to Andre. This surgery wasn't available to Andre when he needed it.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Mar 10, 2010 14:01:13 GMT -5
The best thing about Van Dam is he is one of the most over guys in pro wrestling right now.
His sporadic returns in WWE the past few years, he got as loud or louder reactions than any of their top stars.
He turned Sting heel just by getting a beating from him in the ring. Thats how over he is.
HUGE pickup for TNA. Like Hardy, he has detractors but in the end any of his negatives are outweighed by the many huge benefits he brings to the show.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Mar 4, 2010 16:19:27 GMT -5
All the new guys on NXT suck except for Danielson & Barrett. Also, Michael Tarver is ok because at least he has some type of gimmick and has a Bad News Brown look to him. The rest suck, Otunga reminds me of Lashley like someone else here said. He has no charisma whatsoever, and is only going to get by because of who he's married to. I pretty much feel the same way. Tarver, Danielson and Barrett are the only guys who have sparked my interest. All the other guys just seem like they are playing pro wrestler.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Mar 4, 2010 16:12:15 GMT -5
I do not see him winning, just because he flat out sucks in the ring. He seems extremely limited, but lacks the intimidating look of a guy like Kozlov or Jackson.
This guy doesn't have charisma either, at least, not the kind that translates well into pro wrestling. I cant compare him to the Rock or anything like that. It doesn't help that he looks lost in the ring. A guy like Daniel Bryan has more CHARISMA in his ring mannerisms and movements, which at the end of the day is more important. Just look at Jeff Hardy.
He has Armando Syndrome. Comfortable on the mic and has promo charisma, but in ring does nothing to catch your interest.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Mar 2, 2010 14:06:10 GMT -5
One thing TNA does much better is make their titles feel a lot more important.
There have been 8 different title reigns by 4 different guys since the title began. Compare that to the same timeframe in WWE where there have been like 20 title reigns.
At least in TNA when a guy wins a title, you can be assured his reign will mean something. I didn't care about Sheamus winning the title because I knew they wouldn't go anywhere with it or give him a chance to shine and within a month or two we would be back to either John Cena, Batista, Orton or HHH holding it and fighting some combination of the other three.
If say, Matt Morgan wins the belt I will be excited and pay attention because I know TNA will actually focus on him, give him a good reign and not cut his legs out from under him.
Sure, more guys win titles in WWE. WWE HAS more titles. Even their WWE Title is extremely devalued at this point.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Mar 1, 2010 16:13:05 GMT -5
I am going to go with the Invasion debacle.
I mean, you had an entire audience of WCW fans who were left out to sea. If WWF had brought in all the big names, gave them equal treatment and put together what the fans wanted, they could have brought in that WCW audience and kept them.
Instead, Vince pisses it all away due to ego, makes WCW look like a joke and alienates their entire audience. I cant think of any modern wrestling event that had such a far reaching negative impact beyond the AOL/Time Warner merger. The difference is the merger was a business, not a wrestling decision. Its not Bischoff or any other WCW officials fault that AOL bought out Time Warner.
However, what happened during the invasion was a clear case of hubris causing McMahon to make a series of bonehead moves which amounted to one big failure.
Stuff like WCW looking foolish because they alienated Flair leading to a short WWF run, or such and such crappy wrestler holding a title for awhile because he was friends with a higher up seem rather paltry in scope compared to invasion and the resulting impact.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Mar 1, 2010 6:05:47 GMT -5
Why do people always confuse charisma and mic skills? They're not the same thing. Because to the average WWE fan, charisma = guy saying cool stuff. I mean, lets all just overlook important factors like facial expressions, how a guy carries himself in the ring, etc. In fact, lets just drop all the little details in favor of catchphrases. These guys all need something that gets yelled out before their theme song starts. Thats how you et over! Works everytime. If Jeff Hardy or Sheamus can be WWE Champion, why not Morrison? Hes better than both of them.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Feb 28, 2010 17:09:27 GMT -5
Helms has been boring and pointless for at least half a decade at this point. I would rather not see him, but I dont think I really have a choice in this case. I feel his appearance is inevitable.
Maria would be a good pickup to have her be a backstage interviewer or something. Her wrestling talents are worthless, but for eye candy, interviewing, and publicity she would be a good pickup for TNA. I mean, I like Val and Traci, but they offer less than Maria does at this point.
Burchill is a must have if you ask me. He could easily be a main eventer. I think TNA picking him up and giving him a slowish build ala Pope would work quite well.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Feb 28, 2010 16:24:24 GMT -5
As a human being, I never really saw a reason to respect him.
As a performer, I still have respect for him. I see no reason to be upset with him for not really retiring. Hes a pro wrestler. I dont care if he was a little shady with the WWE either. Its not like they haven't been guilty of anything uncouth.
Plus, our last image of Flair in WWE wasn't walking into the sunset anyway. It was being punted in the head by Randy Orton.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Feb 28, 2010 15:44:30 GMT -5
If we are going by the principle that Storms opinions are invalidated by his career path and his wrestling knowledge questioned because he wasn't a big draw, shouldn't TNA be putting on groundbreaking PPVs and feuds? Why arent the ratings be in the 6s right now?
I mean, Hulk Hogan is in charge. The guy knows more about great booking than anyone because he made lots of money!
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Post by Bubble Lead on Feb 20, 2010 15:27:34 GMT -5
I never expected him to really retire anyway.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Feb 20, 2010 13:18:38 GMT -5
Its no wonder I dont bother watching WWE anymore, when this is the mentality they have. "Sure, he may be really good at executing wrestling moves inside a wrestling ring, but does that make him a good wrestler?" So... They should have done WWE Champion Lance Storm? Or forget Austin and Jericho, have him and Dean Malenko fight to unify the WWF and WCW titles? Wrestling ability is not everything, and the indies are not the same as the WWE. Did I say any of those things should have happened? Anyway, Storm had more personality and character than your WWE Champion Sheamus currently does.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Feb 20, 2010 12:59:31 GMT -5
My error with the Rock vid. I was thinking it was his promo on the anniversary show. I stand corrected. I assumed what it was too soon. However when it comes to them being carbon copies, I don't neccesarily mean in ring work. I have not seen one Morrison promo that made me go...wow this guy is going places. He is stiff, seems nervous and awkward on the mic. I love what he can do in the ring...but that's not everything. Rock was not the greatest "wrestler" but that did not matter because he was entetaining. The Dirt Sheet argument doesn't hold up either because you had Miz their for support. On his own, he looks absolutely lost when a mic is anywhere near his face. I am not justifying Matt Hardy deserving a push. I would say he is a solid mid carder and a solid performer but to say Version 1.0 died out because of Matt is ridiculous. They never did anything else with the character or give it nearly enough exposure. Hardy at that time was doing very well and I thought cut far better promos than anything JoMo has ever done on his own. Nowadays we have guys shoved down our throat who have nothing going for them. Version 1.0 had a great gimmick and they just never followed up on it. I haven't watched in quite awhile but Morrison gave a GREAT promo during the build up to his match with Miz at Bragging Rights. If nothing else, that proves he can execute on the mic. You act like Morrison is terrible on the mic while all Matt Hardy needs is a good gimmick and he will suddenly be an entertaining promo. Matt was given a real life hot angle and couldn't cut a good promo. The best he could come up with is that he hopes his opponent dies in a car accident. What? We also all saw how entertaining and great as a heel Matt was during the Hardy vs. Hardy angle.
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Post by Bubble Lead on Feb 20, 2010 12:49:29 GMT -5
"Just because this guy wrestled all around the the world and went up against some of the best wrestlers in the world, doesn't make him a star. Also, just because this guy can run circle around me when it comes to wrestling doesn't make him a star" lmao. Its no wonder I dont bother watching WWE anymore, when this is the mentality they have. "Sure, he may be really good at executing wrestling moves inside a wrestling ring, but does that make him a good wrestler?"
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Post by Bubble Lead on Feb 17, 2010 14:09:53 GMT -5
If he could talk on the mic, he would be going somewhere.
Imagine what someone like Mick Foley, Steve Austin, or Ric Flair could have done on the mic with the real life situation Matt went through in 2005? Compare that with what Matt did with it. That is why those guys were all main eventers and Matt hasn't came close.
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