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Post by The Rick Jericho on Mar 15, 2023 18:32:02 GMT -5
Man, the first ever Andre battle royal was treated as such a big deal. Cesaro got a new fresh paint of coat. He looked destined to be a future main eventer and world champion. Aligned with Paul Heyman. Things were looking so high for the Swiss Suplex Machine.....
And then nothing......
That first match was so special, it's such a damn shame it's been treated like a joke since.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2023 18:41:57 GMT -5
Remember when MOJO won it that one year and the only thing that happened was I got super pissed at the time and someone made "the Mojo, the" a joke.
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Post by Gerard Gerard on Mar 15, 2023 18:55:25 GMT -5
I was here when we all collectively realized that this was really just a vehicle to get Paul Heyman on TV every week to talk about the end of the streak. The ending was a wet fart too, with the amicable separation and Cesaro not even getting a Brock match out of it.
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Hypnosis
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Post by Hypnosis on Mar 15, 2023 18:59:57 GMT -5
Never let Hulk Hogan endorse you. Just ask Abyss how that turned out.
Back to Cesaro: He should have just turned face after winning the battle royal, instead of going from one heel manager to another, who only cared about Lesnar anyway.
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Spiderf 4
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Post by Spiderf 4 on Mar 15, 2023 19:04:06 GMT -5
Never let Hulk Hogan endorse you. Just ask Abyss how that turned out. Or Tugboat. Or TJ Perkins. Or even Chris Sabin! |
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tirtefaa
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Post by tirtefaa on Mar 15, 2023 19:30:14 GMT -5
The next night they destroyed the trophy..so of course it was just a thing that had no legs.
See, what else do you actually get from winning the match?
Nothing.
The Royal Rumble gets you a title match at Mania, and at one time it was the guaranteed main event
This felt more like KOTR, when they have nothing for you, so they figure they can revamp your character with something they can talk about. It's no different than Cesaro just claiming he beat up 30 guys at a 711...,I mean, why not? Why waste the time with an actual match?
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tafkaga
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Post by tafkaga on Mar 16, 2023 8:28:14 GMT -5
I don't think the winner needed to necessarily get anything tangible from winning, but winning should have been indicative of a push or something to tell the audience that it was a big deal. Davey Boy got a pretty good amount of mileage out of his battle royal victory at the Royal Albert Hall.
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Post by Vice honcho room temperature on Mar 16, 2023 8:32:10 GMT -5
It was a shame Big Show couldn't have won his dad's battle royal for the first time. Imagine the tears in his eyes and saying this is for you dad. Wipping away the memory of him riding Andre the Giant's casket 6 years after he died.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Mar 16, 2023 8:46:33 GMT -5
"Your thing is the Swing, so be sure to never do that. Wait, why are you not as over anymore...  ??" God, if Heyman had even one iota of creative input on that, he's a complete doofus. |
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coleslaw
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Post by coleslaw on Mar 16, 2023 10:45:05 GMT -5
I think Heyman running a stable of Brock/Cesaro/Axel could've worked. Eventually turn Cesaro and have him beat Brock. I think they fumbled Cesaro pretty hard on more than one occasion
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repomark
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Post by repomark on Mar 16, 2023 11:21:54 GMT -5
It felt like such a big deal when he won and that this was finally his step up to the main event. I was even excited when they paired him with Heyman the next night.
Brock v Cesaro should have been the end game, and logically everything they had done to that point was setting it up for WM31. Then for some reason they changed their minds and went nowhere with him.
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Post by A Platypus Rave is Correct on Mar 16, 2023 11:36:42 GMT -5
"Your thing is the Swing, so be sure to never do that. Wait, why are you not as over anymore... ??" God, if Heyman had even one iota of creative input on that, he's a complete doofus. Ok we added tornado sirens to your intro grave you merch like the old king of the ring logo declaring you the king of swing and it's the one thing Heyman bothered mentioning when he stopped talking about Brock... So stop doing it. Also people pop for your feats of strength stop that too. |
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Post by Feargus McReddit on Mar 16, 2023 11:38:53 GMT -5
It was a great moment, absolutely. One of my favorite moments on a night full of pretty great moments.
And then nothing else happened. Anything people have said about it is a lie.
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Post by A Platypus Rave is Correct on Mar 16, 2023 11:38:58 GMT -5
It felt like such a big deal when he won and that this was finally his step up to the main event. I was even excited when they paired him with Heyman the next night. If you go back and check the thread I was sure the scene of him winning doing the we the people thing in front of the Swiss flag the Audience had was going to be used as their big face promo shot for Cesaro. But instead of clearly making him face like the crowd had basically already decided he was. They knew he'd be better standing next to Heyman while he acted like he wasn't there. |
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Post by A Platypus Rave is Correct on Mar 16, 2023 11:42:27 GMT -5
Also it's always been weird to me. Hey we want to honor Andre somehow let's make a battle royale named after him cause he would do those matches alot.
But let's make it absolutely meaningless.
Hell last year's winner barely even appears on the show anymore.
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Post by Feargus McReddit on Mar 16, 2023 11:46:35 GMT -5
Also it's always been weird to me. Hey we want to honor Andre somehow let's make a battle royale named after him cause he would do those matches alot. But let's make it absolutely meaningless. It's just this weird self fufilling prophecy where you set out to make the pre-show battle royale actually mean something and give everyone something to do on the card with extra motivation and stakes, have an absolutely killer first match of it with a winner the crowd adored and then just...not do anything with it afterwards. Like, the only other person to benefit from an Andre win was Baron Corbin and I don't even think that's something they bring up much even though that was his literal main roster debut. And add to that, Shaq made his WWE in-ring debut in one. And then Shaq and Big Show were eliminated seconds in, so they don't even want to do big moments in that thing anymore. Hell, I can't think of an Andre since the first one, besides with Kronk, that they've actually tried to do cool moments with. It just became the match to book everyone else on. |
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Post by A Platypus Rave is Correct on Mar 16, 2023 11:50:01 GMT -5
Also it's always been weird to me. Hey we want to honor Andre somehow let's make a battle royale named after him cause he would do those matches alot. But let's make it absolutely meaningless. It's just this weird self fufilling prophecy where you set out to make the pre-show battle royale actually mean something and give everyone something to do on the card with extra motivation and stakes, have an absolutely killer first match of it with a winner the crowd adored and then just...not do anything with it afterwards. Like, the only other person to benefit from an Andre win was Baron Corbin and I don't even think that's something they bring up much even though that was his literal main roster debut. And add to that, Shaq made his WWE in-ring debut in one. And then Shaq and Big Show were eliminated seconds in, so they don't even want to do big moments in that thing anymore. Hell, I can't think of an Andre since the first one, besides with Kronk, that they've actually tried to do cool moments with. It just became the match to book everyone else on. And the kronk one the loser of the battle royale is the one that got pushed |
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Post by Feargus McReddit on Mar 16, 2023 11:53:15 GMT -5
And the kronk one the loser of the battle royale is the one that got pushed Exactly! It's so f***ing weird, man. It's not the worst bit of booking but even for the standards of messy booking, it's just bizarre. And also, props to Kronk for not only getting a WWE contract out of it after retirement, hosting the PC WrestleMania and then f***ing off the moment Tom Brady needed another ring down the road in Tampa Bay. Just...*chef's kiss*. |
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Post by SneakMan on Mar 16, 2023 12:04:10 GMT -5
"Your thing is the Swing, so be sure to never do that. Wait, why are you not as over anymore... ??" God, if Heyman had even one iota of creative input on that, he's a complete doofus. Like, I could see that working in theory, along the lines of Cactus Jack switching from weapons spots to restholds when he turned heel. It just didn't work at all in practice because Cesaro, all respect to him as a wrestler, was largely defined in WWE as "guy who swings people." Take that away and he didn't have much left character-wise. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2023 12:07:23 GMT -5
Also it's always been weird to me. Hey we want to honor Andre somehow let's make a battle royale named after him cause he would do those matches alot. But let's make it absolutely meaningless. Hell last year's winner barely even appears on the show anymore. Cuz he's a bitch. No, seriously. They made him a bitch when he lost to Kross multiple times. |
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