nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 26, 2021 14:39:52 GMT -5
Just watching the theme from this week. Seriously I’d be amused if someone to edited it with a blank screen that says RELEASED every time a released talent pops in the opening music. I think a lot of it comes down to, their going back to touring and Kahn said “you have a show after smackdown and 3/4 of the fans leave during this taping?” Seems like a waste. Also AEW having a new Friday at 10pm Show they probably just said screw it. It's not taped after Smackdown. It is taped before NXT at the CWC. Yes they lost originals Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari, & The Bollywood Boyz, as well as August Grey. But they have a lot of guys, including some that has yet to wrestle on 205 Live like Carmelo Hayes & Trey Baxter. They can bring Drake Maverick back to the show since he's not doing anything now that Killian Dain is gone. So, stop with the idea of them pulling the plug on the show. People have been wanting it to end for years. It is the best half hour of wrestling every week. And just because WWE doesn't care about it and some of you don't either, there are fans that support the show and the amazing wrestlers on it. It can't end. The best half hour of wrestling every week isn't even reaching the top ten on the WWE Network. Yes, there are some really great talents there; _but_ there needs to be more than that to justify continuing it in the face of an executive who seems to be calling all the shots right now without any regard for the talent. The Cruiserweights - all of them that are left - might be better served challenging Kushida on NXT then stuck in a vacuum on a largely-unwatched show.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 25, 2021 22:13:02 GMT -5
It should be Joey Marella - he was a part of some of the biggest moments of Wrestlemania history. Besides, he was WWE throughout his entire career. L'il Naitch was not (though he would be a great choice for second referee, along with Jimmy Korderas.)
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 25, 2021 21:59:58 GMT -5
I can't see it continue, really. Maybe it'll be replaced by another magazine-style show featuring matches from all three brands, packaged for international audiences or as filler for Saturday mornings.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 25, 2021 10:15:32 GMT -5
Given the changes in US policy towards Saudi Arabia, it is likely that any future events in Saudi Arabia will be a) much smaller in scale and b) not necessarily tied to the Saudi goverment. MBS might be the crown prince; but for now the King is in charge, and it will be with the King that the US government will do its dealings.
I don't see how the current arrangement between WWE and the Saudi government can continue as usual after all that's gone down.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 23, 2021 22:40:22 GMT -5
Nope. WWE has no reason to keep in a pissing contest with one of its hottest up-and-coming stars when it can simply give him a new name and tell him "take it or stay home."
I think he's got long-haul COVID-19 which can last months and may even cause permanent issues. They can't legally release him so long as he's ill, until at least the contract period ends; and probably won't release him if he recovers fully enough to get back in the ring.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 23, 2021 14:03:50 GMT -5
It didn't work because they didn't even try. Emma had the ball dropped with her in an unbelievable way. They did a _full_ year of vignettes announcing Emmalina's impending arrival. As time passed and she _didn't_ make her debut for...reasons, the vignettes were less a hype job and more of an annoyance over a character that seemed out of touch with the evolving women's roster. By the time she did make it on TV with the new persona, everyone including Vince was sick of the whole thing. That's why it didn't work.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 22, 2021 7:47:55 GMT -5
He's always been ready for the main roster. The problem is that the main roster has been the drizzling shits pretty much ever since he moved back to NXT (IMHO.)
This return, regardless of which roster, is WWE's one last shot at making him look like the star he absolutely was in New Japan and almost certainly would be anywhere in North America - hell, at making him the star he absolutely was during his first main-roster run.
And, no, the angsty Prinxe gimmick won't cut it. He was over af as a whitemeat babyface - someone elsewhere described him as Mr. Rogers in a bloodstained sweater - and was drawing on Sendak's _Where the Wild Things Are_ vibes as the Demon King, which explains a great deal his appeal to young kids. If they want to put an edge on him on his return, make the Demon King far darker and less morally justified if necessary.
And, if they want to _try_ to make the Demon a more regular aspect of his character, there's a simple answer that won't require him to spend five hours on the airbrush table - a bodysuit. However, it's been established that he's not meant to draw on the Demon's energy on the regular.
The rumours have gone either way about where he'd end up - I'd suggest he has unfinished business on Raw (putting Bray Wyatt away for good) before he's put in line for another title shot. He's already beaten Lashley, but has never worn the WWE title.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 19, 2021 23:00:58 GMT -5
Well, that's one rule broken: the one about never giving away for free that from which you can make money.
Then again, WWE likely saved itself millions by doing that, by doing something to preserve its deal with Fox. However, this may prove the first incline in a very slippery slope of Fox (and, in turn, NBC/USA Network) demanding more input on the creative side in order to keep the ratings at least on an upward trend. Let's see how far that goes before WWE can or will push back.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 18, 2021 16:28:51 GMT -5
My hot take: Scarlett's involvement as part of Kross's gimmick is holding him back. I'm the opposite. I think Kross is holding Scarlett back. She has the potential to be a Sherri-level vile manager. Having her man/men destroy whoever she points to. Attaching herself to powerful men and making them her meal ticket. She also has a Sunny quality. A beautiful woman that seduces men into doing her bidding. And quickly dispose of them when they are no longer of use to her. I get they're married, and they want to work together. But it's doing neither any favors. The problem I see with Scarlett, though, is that her gimmick's a throwback to Sherri or even Luna Vachon melded with Sable, only without the wrestling chops (I've never seen her in the ring, so correct me if I'm wrong), and without the spark of charisma one saw in Sherri or Luna. It seems almost a caricature drawn from a thirteen-year-old's late-90s fantasy and is just jarring in comparison with Charlotte or even an Eva Marie, alongside the Asukas, Bayleys, Sashas and everyone else who struggled and strove to get the womens' side where it is now. I'm not sure if she will get over with audiences in 2021. I may have suggested in the past that she'd be a shoo-in for the main roster; however, I can't help but think that, with the company really confused from a creative standpoint and with Vince himself not as engaged with the product as he used to be, she may well end up lost in the shuffle on the main roster _if_ they call her and Kross up at all.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 17, 2021 10:49:06 GMT -5
Bret was in the best possible position in WWF at the time to step up to the world title picture, primarily because there were relatively few other options available to Vince.
Too many picks that Vince would have gone with in 1992 were either too built (on the gas or otherwise) to be well-considered in the midst of the steroid trial. Savage vs Flair was winding down, partly if not primarily because of Savage's marital issues (he and Elizabeth would be divorced by the end of the year), and partly because Flair was not moving the needle for WWE to the extent he had in NWA; Shawn Michaels was far too green for the big title, Undertaker was considered a "special attraction"; Jake Roberts in WWE was never world-title material[ Roddy ditto, plus was seen as too old - the pickings were kind of thin on who to place on top, and Vince at the time liked to think of world champs the same way his father did - as potential long-term builders for the company's now questionable future.
Bret in WCW in 1992 would not have benefitted from the timing or from being the best of a thinner field of candidates. The fact that WCW, during the peak of Bret's dominance in WWE, occasionally knocked him as having only reached midcard status there during his earliest run back in the early 80s speaks volumes to how even Bischoff was prepared to limit him, even as WCW lobbied hard and expensively to get Bret to jump to them instead.
Bret instead became a higher-profile wrestler for the highest-profile promotion in the world and managed to help WWE hold down the fort through the scandals and the increasing spendthrifty ways of WCW. For his efforts, he was repeatedly depushed in favour of Vince's flavours of the month and then Montreal.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 17, 2021 1:53:33 GMT -5
Whenever stuff like this pops up, I assume two things: 1. They’re totally guilty. 2. They totally won’t get in trouble. This is the sort of shit for which people do time. Martha Stewart did five months inside for insider trading for making far less on her insider trading than the McMahons are accused of making on theirs.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 16, 2021 20:13:07 GMT -5
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Can't wait for Season 5.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 16, 2021 9:05:22 GMT -5
And for all the cases of that, you can look at how much differently WWE treats mainstream sports and entertainment media toeing their line and reporting the things they want, against the real coverage they get from the wrestling press that doesn't always say the things they want them to say, The moment a mainstream media outlet starts reading Dave or Sean Ross Sapp or even PW Insider and starts getting its info at least partly from those sources, it'll be _mighty_ interesting to see how WWE handles those kinds of reporting.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 16, 2021 8:16:49 GMT -5
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 15, 2021 11:34:11 GMT -5
Given that the Bellas are no longer active with WWE, I can see Total Bellas getting the axe. There's a relevance issue at play that can make network execs give renewal a pass. Total Divas, on the other hand, might still be relevant to an extent - but I don't know who is on the show who's still active with WWE - and there's still a question about whether it's relevant at a time when women's wrestling in general is making such a huge comeback that a small contingent can be said to represent all of the craft. Honestly, in a growing environment of streaming services and platform-exclusive series, it's hard to consider reality shows being in demand for much longer.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 14, 2021 17:04:18 GMT -5
They’ve really hit critical mass on heels mostly winning, down to NXT now. And when you’ve got the heel champions in with challengers that you don’t feel have a chance to win, it leads to flat finishes. A weird flex to have fans be miserable because all the bad guys keep winning with little opposition just before a return to live shows, but… okay, I guess Fans have been dissatisfied with the product for years now. WWE used to be a promotion that favoured babyface champions because a) it offered more income via merch and increased ticket sales, b) it made the monster heels seem utter threats to that order and c) it allowed a stacked undercard to flourish in profile because the champion felt "safe". There was also the overarching narrative that the WWF champion represented the possibilities of America - the underdog, the immigrant, coming to Lady Liberty's shores with a few bucks in the pocket and making good their shot - that grossly differed from NWA's Southern-based narrative of class differences and more than echoes of Lost Cause I get that, for many fans of the Attitude Era and after, that was not a normal state of affairs. I get that Triple H has had a hard-on for NWA-style booking that has seeped into WWE's booking as well. I get that heels are very often more entertaining characters and that faces are often treated like chumps. The issue that has plagued WWE for a _very_ long time, however, is that they have pushed the fans through periods of frustration so long and so deep that, on the _very_ rare occasions when some hero blows up the Death Star and comes through with the big win, fans no longer trust WWE to keep that momentum going. Fans are reduced to waiting for the other shoe to drop and then get angry when the heels win or the Authority shows its mug on TV or Lesnar shows up. WWE has made it loud and clear that it has no intention of giving fans the happy endings that are craved, and every assurance that they will continue to frustrate, abuse and test the patience and loyalty of its fans until there are none left.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 14, 2021 11:54:40 GMT -5
We've joked about "It's Creative's fault" for the last ten years or more, but in the past year and change it's absolutely true.
This is what happens when you have a bank of TV writers with neither a history nor real interest in the lexicon of pro wrestling, and no passion for their craft or their contribution to the product. This is what happens when you are writing for an audience of one (Vince) who wants, above all, to place the brand above the characters. When the characters don't matter to Vince, why should they matter to anyone else?
This is also what happens when the talent roster, with very few exceptions, has checked out emotionally from the product and has no real interest in keeping it going.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 14, 2021 11:24:39 GMT -5
My hot take: Scarlett's involvement as part of Kross's gimmick is holding him back.
I used to think that she'd be a shoo-in factor for Kross being called up to the main roster, if only to split them up and to tack her to someone else. However, I don't see her as going much farther than she has. She's a Sable-bot with a Luna Vachon personality program embedded, so the cringe would be strong with her.
Kross with an MMA-type gimmick is a monster run on the main roster on a collision course with Lesnar, then a decent midcard/upper card run from then on out. Kross as this hokey gladiator type barreling through the _entire_ top tier of NXT isn't doing either him or the brand any favours. I don't think it really does Scarlett any favours, either: Lilith characters that might have been popular during the Attitude Era aren't "fashionable" in 2021.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 12, 2021 13:06:35 GMT -5
Dr. Phil has a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of North Texas But he plays a shrink on tv! Hard to take him seriously. Even Britt Baker DMD has more credibility than him. Academically, he's well-qualified as a clinical psychologist, and can certainly write about psychology. However, he let his license to practice as a clinician lapse some years ago, so he is very, _very_ careful not to diagnose guests on his show with any mental disorder, nor does he refer to the DSM in his discussions with guests - because he's _not_ currently licensed as a therapist.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 11, 2021 20:51:40 GMT -5
At this point, it's become obvious that WWE doesn't have a clue about what to do with its acquisitions.
NXT has become, in-ring work aside, a dead end for anybody hoping to get to the main roster. The lack of movement near the top is a serious barrier for anyone coming in with TV hopes. Depending on his role, Joe would either be another gatekeeping veteran or another commentator who can sell the product, but wishes he could do more.
Joe outside WWE can do whatever he wants, including challenge Omega for the AEW title.
|
|