mrbananagrabber
King Koopa
Paul Heyman's unofficial joke writer
Posts: 11,883
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Post by mrbananagrabber on Jan 26, 2013 8:28:30 GMT -5
I don't watch TNA, but I do keep up to date with it (for some reason), and I read all the comments on this board about it. One promising angle (that seems to have gone to shit) is the Aces and 8's storyline.
One interesting thing of note is the fact that a lot of people are writing off the group as jobbers and nobodies. Why should we take them seriously?
But then, when you think about it, two of the biggest groups in WWE in the last five years have been the Nexus, a group of rookies who we had previously seen taking part in challenges, like selling programs and doing assault courses. But we all bought into the idea that they were now, for some reason, a major threat.
And ditto the Shield. These guys didn't even HAVE TV time (for 99% of the audience), and they were acknowledged as NXT guys. So, again, three rookies who, yeah, we all buy as main event level big time threats.
So what's the difference here? Why are Aces and 8's a bunch of jobbers but the Nexus and the Shield were/are to be feared?
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OzzyMandez
Mephisto
Layla's Legion Representin'
Posts: 671
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Post by OzzyMandez on Jan 26, 2013 8:36:31 GMT -5
Because the Nexus and the Shield weren't built around being former wrestlers from "the other guys". The entire shock factor around DOC's first appearance was that he was 'the guy who with CM Punk'. Ditto with Mike Knox, but replace CM Punk with a beard. Otherwise these guys didn't achieve anything huge in WWE and thus people tag the stigma of 'he is a released guy' onto them from the get go.
The Nexus and Shield were/are fresh faces that 'mainstream' audiences don't really know. Aces and Eights are not.
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DavidArquette
Don Corleone
The actor formerly known as avanteproject
Posts: 1,542
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Post by DavidArquette on Jan 26, 2013 8:41:23 GMT -5
The Shield and Nexus are different because even though they're new talents and nobody knows who they are, they're made to look like a threat straight away. Aces and 8's have made an impact but are slowly being revealed as guys who are past it, guys who never really made it and guys that nobody cares about.
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Post by Jedi-El of Tomorrow on Jan 26, 2013 8:50:26 GMT -5
Nexus and The Shield were/are made to look like threats. Nexus ran roughshod over WWE for months, Wade even beat Cena. Shield has left Rock, Ryback, Miz, Kane, D-Bry, Orton, and Sheamus laying.
Meanwhile Aces & Eights have gotten their asses kicked multiple times. Hell, when Mike Knox was unmasked Sting came down to help Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe, and proceeded to kick the shit out of the entire group. The next week Sting beat Knox clean as a sheet.
We also know nothing behind Aces & Eights motivation. What do they want? Nexus was about the bigger picture (never found out what that was) and getting Wade to the top. The Shield is against injustice. Aces & Eights wants, I don't know, discount tickets to Universal Studios.
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mrbananagrabber
King Koopa
Paul Heyman's unofficial joke writer
Posts: 11,883
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Post by mrbananagrabber on Jan 26, 2013 8:54:44 GMT -5
Aces & Eights wants, I don't know, discount tickets to Universal Studios. Hey, that's a fight worth fighting. |
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Post by PTBartman on Jan 26, 2013 9:03:19 GMT -5
Aces & Eights wants, I don't know, discount tickets to Universal Studios. Hey, that's a fight worth fighting. Regular tickets? Or those tickets that let you go right to the head. |
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Post by Metalheadbanger Man on Jan 26, 2013 9:09:09 GMT -5
At least Shield and A & 8's are united in their disdain for Tommy Dreamer.
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mrbananagrabber
King Koopa
Paul Heyman's unofficial joke writer
Posts: 11,883
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Post by mrbananagrabber on Jan 26, 2013 9:14:04 GMT -5
NO-ONE likes Tommy Dreamer.
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The Ichi
Patti Mayonnaise
AGGRESSIVE Executive Janitor of the Third Floor Manager's Bathroom
Posts: 37,650 
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Post by The Ichi on Jan 26, 2013 9:19:45 GMT -5
Don't try to find logic with the haters. Just accept that they hate everything TNA does, only cause they aren't the ones with book. Remember almost everyone who posts here thinks they could be the greatest booker who ever lived. Or the Aces and 8s is just a garbage stable/storyline. Let's go with that. |
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Banecat
Don Corleone
Speak of the devil and he shall appear
Posts: 1,455
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Post by Banecat on Jan 26, 2013 9:43:13 GMT -5
Don't try to find logic with the haters. Just accept that they hate everything TNA does, only cause they aren't the ones with book. Remember almost everyone who posts here thinks they could be the greatest booker who ever lived. Or the Aces and 8s is just a garbage stable/storyline. Let's go with that. If they only gave the book to you they'd be making billions... |
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Post by ________ has left the building on Jan 26, 2013 9:48:01 GMT -5
Or the Aces and 8s is just a garbage stable/storyline. Let's go with that. If they only gave the book to you they'd be making billions... Way to be condescending to someone who disagrees with you. Good show. |
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Post by EoE: Well There's Your Problem on Jan 26, 2013 9:54:51 GMT -5
For one, we knew The Nexus's motivations even before they formed the group just by watching NXT, so it was like "No wonder they're pissed off". The Shield got a promo not long after to put over their crusade against injustice, even if it was a bit vague.
Aces and Eights only seem to be doing these things because it's on their way home from the clubhouse. In trying to get away from the obvious, yet logical (the banished Eric Bischoff and/or Jeff Jarrett being the mastermind), it's become an exercise in padding out.
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The Ichi
Patti Mayonnaise
AGGRESSIVE Executive Janitor of the Third Floor Manager's Bathroom
Posts: 37,650
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Post by The Ichi on Jan 26, 2013 10:08:37 GMT -5
Yeah, the only thing Nexus didn't deliver on was the "bigger picture", and that's still dissapointing, but we still had one hell of a fun ride until John Cena took them out himself. We knew from the start what they were here to do and it was great drama, made better by them having a genuinely entertaining leader.
The Aces and 8s have been around since...last June? They've been around for over half a year, that's longer than the run the Nexus had (unless we count the New Nexus, but let's...not) and all we know about them is that Devon f***ing Dudley and Taz were involved from the start. TNA have padded out a storyline for over 6 months and given us nothing. They're going to need one HELL of a reveal to make this worth 6 months of filler.
I don't hate TNA, infact they're much better overall than they were in 2011 and 2010 - at least I can get through a show now - but this storyline is terrible. As in "give it the gooker and erase it from history" terrible. I can't think of why anyone would want to defend it, I really can't.
"You couldn't do better so stfu" is one of the weakest online arguments to use, by the way.
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Post by Kitty Shamrocks on Jan 26, 2013 10:11:55 GMT -5
Don't try to find logic with the haters. Just accept that they hate everything TNA does, only cause they aren't the ones with book. Remember almost everyone who posts here thinks they could be the greatest booker who ever lived. Or the Aces and 8s is just a garbage stable/storyline. Let's go with that. I don't think it's a bad storyline as much as it is just a....non-intimidating stable. |
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Lancers
El Dandy
Oh you
Posts: 7,951
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Post by Lancers on Jan 26, 2013 10:37:18 GMT -5
If they only gave the book to you they'd be making billions... Way to be condescending to someone who disagrees with you. Good show. Saint James St. James is Jeremy Borash IRL. He gets a little defensive round these parts. You shoulda seen him when people made fun of the reverse battle royal match. I thought he was gonna straight up kill a guy. |
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Post by Metalheadbanger Man on Jan 26, 2013 10:43:35 GMT -5
Way to be condescending to someone who disagrees with you. Good show. Saint James St. James is Jeremy Borash IRL. He gets a little defensive round these parts. You shoulda seen him when people made fun of the reverse battle royal match. I thought he was gonna straight up kill a guy. The backlash to the electrified cage match almost led to a spree. |
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Lancers
El Dandy
Oh you
Posts: 7,951
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Post by Lancers on Jan 26, 2013 10:49:38 GMT -5
Saint James St. James is Jeremy Borash IRL. He gets a little defensive round these parts. You shoulda seen him when people made fun of the reverse battle royal match. I thought he was gonna straight up kill a guy. The backlash to the electrified cage match almost led to a spree. Were you there when someone said that the Fortune is like the Four Horsemen...if the Four Horsemen had the intimidation factor of a vacuum to a dog? |
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Post by Metalheadbanger Man on Jan 26, 2013 10:57:39 GMT -5
The backlash to the electrified cage match almost led to a spree. Were you there when someone said that the Fortune is like the Four Horsemen...if the Four Horsemen had the intimidation factor of a vacuum to a dog? No, but the "S.E.X. is a poor man's every stable ever" incident still haunts me. |
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Reflecto
Hank Scorpio
The Sorceress' Knight
Posts: 6,847
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Post by Reflecto on Jan 26, 2013 11:00:16 GMT -5
Actually, I think that the filler nature of Aces and Eights has led to some actual good continuity in their storyline... {Spoiler}
...at least given the news from the tapings. If we assume that Devon and Taz were in on the group from the beginning, then that adds two areas for continuity:
1- Taz was involved from the beginning. Taz also happened to be the person who replaced Ric Flair on the GutCheck committee...in which case, Taz therefore made a justifiable case for any GutCheck competitor starting from Taeler Hendrix at three to end up in Aces and 8's.
2- Devon was involved from the beginning. But, at the beginning of the Aces and 8's storyline- he had taken Garett Bischoff under his wing. Garett then went on to be the man to lose to Wes Brisco. It stands to reason, therefore, that Devon took Garett under his wing in order to groom him and get him to join the group- and from there, Garett helped Brisco get in the group.
Say what you will about whether you like Aces and Eights or not, but in recent years, TNA has had impeccable continuity going into their big stable storylines- both Aces and Eights and Immortal had their buildup make perfect sense when the reveal came to play. By contrast, the WWE's continuity with the Nexus/Shield have been relatively poor [The Nexus had a bigger picture that's never heard from again, for one. For another- David Otunga had become the group's Starscream- but when the Corre forms, Otunga stays with Nexus and becomes a happy foot soldier to CM Punk...who, in turn, was not just an NXT Pro for their season- but specifically, one of only two Pros who didn't feel his Rookie [albeit Darren Young being gone from Nexus by the time he came in] was worth being his lackey.] |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2013 11:33:31 GMT -5
Aces and Eights started out very hot. There were violent gang attacks, they would follow their next victims on Twitter, and it was a company-wide storyline where main eventers were questioning each other on who is in fact involved with the group. Unfortunately, starting out red hot was their downfall. The big reveal, at least the first big reveal (they still have to reveal the "higher power"), being Devon was a huge letdown, and it has been nothing but letdowns since. They started out so promising but they shot themselves in the foot by not going big with the first reveal.
Aces and Eights and Nexus actually have one thing in common, and it's not positive. Both groups didn't have an established guy to bring them credibility. No one is going to buy Luke Gallows and Mike Knox beating Kurt Angle, Sting, Samoa Joe, etc, just like having one of the Nexus guys beat Cena was probably going to border on unrealistic. That's the way wrestling works. If you spent months building someone up, and then they beat Cena, that's one thing, but to just have a random group of rookies come in and do it is totally different. In TNA's case, the fact that people remember Gallows and Knox as WWE guys is probably a hinderance. It's not like they look like Matt Morgan and can be pushed hard because of it.
The best way to do an angle like this is nWo style. Get established guys, protect the hell out of them, make them seem like a huge threat, and go from there. Bischoff was smart enough to not be afraid to feed WCW guys to Hall and Nash, but it seems WWE and TNA are, and with good reason (see above).
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