gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Feb 3, 2016 13:48:05 GMT -5
Situation like Tyler Breeze's make me feel like there is basically zero co-operation between NXT and the main roster. I'm not expecting gigantic meetings or giant auditions for Vince every week but you would think the creative team would be aware of what people on NXT/developmental have done so then they can come up with a reason to call them up instead of "We need a body right now, oh cool here's a guy who can help Superstars". If it's about who is down there, have Vince say "Hey, find me some bigger dudes". You're making a loss from developmental right now, the profit should be coming from the call ups and it just isn't. To me that's the weirdest thing about NXT, 90% of its roster are the kind of guys Vince wouldn't see as top stars based on their look alone and a lot of them have gimmicks he wouldn't understand and would misappropriate, yet if he's planning on sticking around for even the next five years then they're what he's working with going forward. Vince McMahon won't give a shit what Finn Balor did in Japan, or Sami Zayn did in ROH, he'll look past 'the short guy and the doughy guy,' see 6'8 Braun Strowman and say 'WOW, bring him to Raw next week!' The guys who reach the top in NXT and the guys who reach the top on the main roster could be a very different group.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Feb 1, 2016 19:10:12 GMT -5
I listened to the podcast this morning. She did a good job selling that it was her idea. There was a WWE handler you could hear at the beginning and end of the interview too. I take every current WWE talent's comments on their time in WWE with a pinch of salt until they leave, and even afterwards they're usually keeping a lid on a lot of things in the name of staying classy/not burning any bridges for a return.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Feb 1, 2016 19:05:36 GMT -5
Seth is having a different beer to Dean and Roman. Writing already on the wall.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Feb 1, 2016 16:30:31 GMT -5
If the Shield had never happened, what the hell would wrestling fanfiction/fanart consist of? Literally 95% of it seems to involve one or more of Rollins, Reigns and Ambrose. Would we be having an equivalent thread for Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper?
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 31, 2016 23:51:15 GMT -5
Vince has never truly adapted to the era of 'smarter' wrestling audiences. When he was first making his name, it was very easy to brainwash fans into thinking the way he did because they questioned so little. He still thinks that if he throws enough kayfabe achievements at a guy, fans will see him as 'the best' because he succeeds where others fail. Instead, people just get pissed off that the guy is getting pushed harder than their favourites and resent him. I'd say whether Roman stays at the top depends on how badly it damages profits and ratings to keep pushing him, and of course how much longer it's Vince at the helm. I'd hope the 'there can only be one main guy, and that guy will be the one I like best regardless of what the fans think' philosophy will go when he does.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 31, 2016 8:03:42 GMT -5
Aren't the Florida shows dirt cheap and in much smaller venues? I'd be thrilled to watch Asuka vs Emma in a 200-capacity venue, plus they got Blake and Murphy, Bull Dempsey, Rich Swann and a load of the women who've been on TV. If NXT is gonna tour regularly, and have a much bigger roster as a result, the Florida shows are gonna be pretty short on star power. How else are the rookies gonna learn how to perform in front of crowds? Or the indy/international hires learn how to do it 'WWE style' before they go in front of the cameras? Plus the Florida fans get to be smug in seeing these people before the rest of the world and knowing who the hot prospects are.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 31, 2016 7:57:51 GMT -5
Dean knows the temperature Roman likes his water at. I don't even know if any of my friends drink water. Of course, the true answer is not listed: Chad Gable and Jason Jordan. I honestly think the NXT writers, and maybe even the performers themselves, envisage Gable and Jordan as a romantic couple when putting their promos together.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 31, 2016 7:54:47 GMT -5
I do wonder how much of an authority a guy who's only close friend in WWE was Rey Mysterio and a guy who wrote for them nearly a decade ago really are on the backstage happenings of WWE circa 2016. They just come across as shit-stirrers and people who still wish the business was like it was in the 90s. If a WWE talent caused a scene at an airport, wouldn't there be fans who witnessed it, maybe even videos of it?
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 30, 2016 6:38:53 GMT -5
They have no competition, and the NXT pay isn't good enough that everyone will desert the indies if they know that WWE are just stockpiling talent and they'll never get on TV, or they'll sign in the hope of being one of the few that make it, get bored when WWE does nothing with them, ask to leave and return to whence they came. WWE controlling all of wrestling and having every top wrestler in the world under their umbrella is a financial and logistical impossibility at this point in time. It also seems jarring while Vince is still on top and would still rather push homegrown hosses as top guys.
But it is crazy how only five years ago they were pretending they had nothing to do with the other wrestling that goes on in the world, because they're A. sports-entertainment and B. bigger than everyone else and therefore all that matters. If you'd told fans in 2011 when Bryan and Kaval for going through the wringer that WWE would be signing people who have become stars in ROH, TNA and New Japan and treating them like royalty rather than jobbing them out for their first few months to remind them they're 'just another rookie' and what they did in the bush leagues doesn't matter, they wouldn't have believed you. It actually makes the indies seem more prestigious and makes them more visible to the casual fan, so far I'd say NXT has only benefited smaller companies.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 29, 2016 2:35:13 GMT -5
I think it's more the fear that WWE will do something big with her, stoked up by the fact she's a stalwart of Total Divas, has the same agent as The Rock and has walked red carpets with Dwayne, and is on the poster for the next PPV while technically being a developmental talent. So far she's not done all that much (although wrestling singles matches on the main roster and challenging for the most prestigious women's belt in the company while still struggling with the basic elements of wrestling isn't something most people get to do,) but the fear (backed up up by dirt sheet reports) that she will means it goes beyond casual dislike into torches and pitchforks territory. I don't agree with it, but that's why.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 28, 2016 2:31:35 GMT -5
They didn't see him as 'the guy,' but he was a big enough star that people would buy him having a chance in these matches. Regarding him leaving, I think the fact that physically he was in an awful state and (at least according to his account) WWE were constantly playing down his issues and forcing him to work through it all made his decision all the more easy. If he had a clean bill of health and felt he was being looked after, he might have stuck around to see what happened.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 28, 2016 2:28:29 GMT -5
Although 2002 - 2004 had a lot of good female talent on the roster (Such as Trish, Lita, Victoria, Molly Holly, Gail Kim, Jacqueline, Ivory), I prefer how things are now. Back then I was a kid and seeing women being put in bra and panties matches, pillow fights and bikini contests was awful. Made me uncomfortable a lot. That era also had Molly Holly being called a "fat virgin" because she didn't want to be like the other divas, Torrie Wilson being forced to spend a night with a redneck who was obsessed with doing her (who had a girlfriend!). Then the Diva Search happened... Today's women's division has some big problems. Lack of time for matches, every diva being booked as crazy and changing alignments each week, Total Divas and of course... Kevin Dunn. At least what we have now with NXT and the current Sasha/Charlotte/Becky story is pretty good. It's nowhere near as awful as the Attitude Era shit, but I feel like Total Divas is Dunn and co's outlet for all their 'women parading around in underwear talking about their sex lives and getting into catfights over men' fantasies. Long may Sasha, Charlotte and Becky be spared from it.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 28, 2016 2:21:38 GMT -5
Lana was popular because audiences liked being antagonised by her. WWE didn't understand that. They assumed she was only popular because of her looks, and while that is true to some extent, people (especially men) liked her because she was a prim and proper prude. A sex bomb below an icy surface. Once she started catfighting with Summer Rae, that persona was ruined. By the time they dressed her as a Wham backing dancer from 1987 wearing denim, she was done. What they should have done is keep her as a heel, but expand her management duties to include other foreign wrestlers, to create an international stable of super athletes. I'd have had her managing Rusev, Cesaro and Adam Rose (who could keep the name but move back to his Leo Kruger persona), extolling the superiority of Russia, Switzerland and South Africa over America. Undoubtedly it ruined her character, but her catfighting with Summer was very over with the live crowd. If she hadn't got injured and allegedly caught da nukleer heatz for her engagement going public, they probably would have pressed ahead with their plan because, even if Lana's babyface 'character' wasn't particularly over, two hot girls catfighting still gets a pretty big pop from most audiences.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 25, 2016 19:04:10 GMT -5
So, yet again WWE got the opposite reaction to what they were going for with their Rumble plan (albeit not to quite the embarrassing extent of the past two years), but as we've seen before, a 'big four' pay-per-view crowd in an established smark city bares little relevance to the general live crowd response to a performer or storyline (especially now they spend more time than ever in the Midwest and Mid-South). Will WWE be able to pull off the illusion that they've actually given people what they wanted or will even the polite, provincial family crowds tell them it sucks? My guess would be we'll get the same largely-positive-but-way-more-muted-than-a-Wrestlemania-main-event-program-should-be reactions we got with Reigns/Lesnar.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 25, 2016 18:55:22 GMT -5
I hate the whole 'but you don't understand how the business works, Reigns has the potential to be a crossover star' argument. Every arena cheers Ambrose, only some arenas cheer Reigns and usually not as loud. Who has crossed over more? Wrestling is never gonna be mainstream again, and if it is it sure as hell isn't going to be through a guy whose character is still horribly vague being rammed down everyone's throats. Anyone who thinks so is just as deluded as Vince is. And the sad thing is, NONE of it is actually Roman's fault, he should 100% be one of the top guys, but he should 0% be THE top guy with so many more popular and more versatile performers available. In a way it's kinda mean booing him all that considered, but how else do you tell the company 'we don't want this?' (presuming there's enough other good stuff for you to keep going to shows of course).
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 25, 2016 18:44:54 GMT -5
I hate it, but not from an 'OMG Tripple H is berrying evrybodie agen!' standpoint, because it's obvious to anyone who's watched more than a few hours of wrestling that the end goal is to put a younger guy over, but that's just it, it's SO predictable. That and the fact that I can't suspend disbelief and buy the powers-that-be trying to keep Roman from the top, and it's not just the fact that we know that IRL that's exactly what they want. If they play up the whole Shield/Evolution thing it might help, but they can't undo the year of throwing the booking pattern and personality of every top star in the past at him before finally settling on 'anti-Authority rebel.' If he'd been this character 18 months ago when he still had his Shield 'edge' to him then maybe, but not now.
At the moment it's hard to understand WHY they didn't want him to be champion and even more so that if they don't want him to be champ so bad, why they don't just bar him from competing for it for the foreseeable future, there's no 'but he makes us money' get-out like there was with Austin. In a way, even Cena's anti-authority moments are more believable since he had the cash cow get-out.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 25, 2016 18:35:12 GMT -5
Trish and Lita are the most over-rated wrestlers in history, taking charisma/influence/popularity out of the equation and going purely off in-ring work. In ring work has never been the be all and end all. Taking character out of wrestling pretty much renders wrestling void. I know, and I'm not saying they weren't great performers, it's just that people seem to have confused Trish and Lita having strong characters and being the faces of positive change for WWE's women with them being up there with the best women wrestlers (in the literal sense) WWE has ever had. They were great, and VERY influential (ask any of today's females who inspired them to become a wrestler and they'll probably name one of those two), but they benefited hugely from their excellent supporting cast of Jazz, Molly, Ivory, Victoria etc, and even then what we see today is on another level in terms of ring work.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 25, 2016 18:24:15 GMT -5
Obviously it's never good to see someone's career and livelihood in the balance and I hope she makes a full recovery, but I'd be lying if I said my enjoyment of the Divas division hasn't increased twentyfold since Nikki took a break and Brie was relegated to jobber to the stars. It's not even the Bellas themselves that are the problem (although they're far from rounded performers), just their flip-flop booking and the fact that everything has to revolve around and be ultimately because of them.
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 25, 2016 18:21:35 GMT -5
Maybe when she took Nikki's title she also inherited her refusal to sell despite playing a cowardly heel
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gr1990
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,485
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Post by gr1990 on Jan 25, 2016 18:19:27 GMT -5
Understatement of the **********ing year. There isn't an arguably about it. Trish and Lita are the most over-rated wrestlers in history, taking charisma/influence/popularity out of the equation and going purely off in-ring work.
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