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Post by "Trickster Dogg" James Jesse on Feb 13, 2024 12:17:03 GMT -5
Given how this news cycle has felt then add Roman's reign on top of it?
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Fade
Patti Mayonnaise
Posts: 38,435
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Post by Fade on Feb 13, 2024 12:19:24 GMT -5
Given how this news cycle has felt then add Roman's reign on top of it? Being a WWE fan is the most tumultuous, disgruntled relationship. With the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
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Post by welshpenguin on Feb 13, 2024 12:38:39 GMT -5
Never mind about Mania, I can’t see the word pivot without thinking of Ross from Friends & THAT sofa scene 🤣
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A Little Doo Doo
Ozymandius
An unconventional man with unconventional methods.
Posts: 69,909
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Post by A Little Doo Doo on Feb 13, 2024 12:40:55 GMT -5
Complete pivot, they just changed course way quicker than we're used to.
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Post by Slingshot Suplay on Feb 13, 2024 12:43:08 GMT -5
I can't wait for the interviews the wwe talking heads will give saying it was the plan all along....
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Post by HIM on Feb 13, 2024 12:51:26 GMT -5
Pivot and I don't care. They did it in a few days to give us a great story compared to being stubborn and pushing through like the Vince Era.
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Post by Goldash #BLM on Feb 13, 2024 12:57:12 GMT -5
It's a definite pivot. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, a report aired on the E! Network saying that "Dwayne Johnson is returning to Wrestlemania to face Roman Reigns". Perhaps the information they received was outdated or someone misinterpreted.
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nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,763
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Post by nisidhe on Feb 13, 2024 13:37:39 GMT -5
Nah, this was absolutely a pivot. They underestimated how quickly fans would connect the dots between the Rock joining the board, the lawsuit against Vince rearing its head, and the push to get Dwayne Johnson shoehorned into the main event at Wrestlemania. After all the company news, the simplest and most satisfying road to Wrestlemania was for Cody to have won the Rumble, then challenge and beat Roman for the title. Anything else was going to complicate the creative direction while foment discontent among the hardcore fans. The straw that would have broken the camel's back was for WWE to pull away the football once again.
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Post by darbus alan on Feb 13, 2024 13:42:48 GMT -5
The pivotiest pivot. At least they didn't do any Vince-esque gaslighting while staying the course with the original plan.
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Post by The Heartbreak TWERK on Feb 13, 2024 13:59:20 GMT -5
It was too sloppy to have not been a pivot.
WWE's attempts to work the fans are always done within the arena (Nexus Attack, Pipebomb). They never do any of that 'Okay but this stuff is really really real' out in the open where someone outside the bubble might point out how dumb they are.
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Woo
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 5,317
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Post by Woo on Feb 13, 2024 15:28:48 GMT -5
"But not at WrestleMania"
Cody Rhodes will challenge Roman Reigns at WrestleMania.
An obvious pivot.
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krozor
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,422
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Post by krozor on Feb 13, 2024 15:43:03 GMT -5
Another argument against work: who would possibly intentionally book it so that the guy coming in with a 1,300 day title reign is the least important person in the match? (Maybe second least important if Seth somehow ends up in it.) They pivoted to booking a really great, exciting Cody vs. Rock match, which still may not be what we're getting at Wrestlemania because they punted on the Cody/Roman finish.
I'm in the camp of liking what it turned into better than what it was probably going to be, too, but there's no way I'm giving them credit for getting here because they backed into it yet again.
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Post by Denny Zen is Cooking™ on Feb 13, 2024 15:56:13 GMT -5
The storyline that has played out on television makes no logical sense at all, and Cody as a character looks like an indecisive asshole at best, and a complete goof at worst. Fortunately, he's so charismatic and likable as a babyface right now that he was able to salvage the angle and make it work, but there is absolutely no way that Cody standing aside for the Rock and then being like "haha tricked ya!" a week later was the intended story from the beginning.
And, if it actually was designed to "work" the crowd, then it's Russo levels of overbooking, so it's honestly better for WWE for it to be a quick pivot.
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Post by Savage Gambino on Feb 13, 2024 16:06:49 GMT -5
I remember Cody's face when he handed his WrestleMania main event to The Rock, and there are a Academy Award winners who couldn't convey pain and anger mixed with a little self-loathing that clearly. It was as if I could hear Rocky in MY ear saying "I owe you one" through a shit-eating grin.
That was a clear pivot, and you will never convince me otherwise.
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Jonathan Michaels
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
The Archduke of Levity
Here since TNA was still kinda okay
Posts: 18,522
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Post by Jonathan Michaels on Feb 13, 2024 16:10:09 GMT -5
I do wonder how quickly they were able to get that teaser made because it would, to an untrained observer, indicate there was some kind of plan.
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Post by Friday Night SmackOwn on Feb 13, 2024 16:20:44 GMT -5
I do wonder how quickly they were able to get that teaser made because it would, to an untrained observer, indicate there was some kind of plan. The shots with Seth/Cody/Rock/Roman were most certainly shot last week.
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Post by Final Countdown Jones on Feb 13, 2024 16:43:22 GMT -5
Said it somewhere in the Cody thread but if you believe this was the plan all along, you genuinely think less of WWE's creative team than people who hate the company and laugh at its misfortunes. To think that story put out with such garbled beats and nonsense pacing was their master stroke is to say the entire creative brain trust of this billion dollar company is collectively just an impatient 14 year old fanfiction writer with no plan for their multi-chapter story making shit up as they go, hastily throwing an abrupt, dramatic idea out as a cliffhanger that derails all current plotlines, only to get resolved off-screen before the next chapter because they didn't actually know how to follow up on that cliff hanger when they got to writing the chapter next week. This shit would get a failing grade if it was the actual plan. As a pivot? Okay sure they had to move fast to literally save Wrestlemania. But to believe it was real all along is f***in' nasty, even the haters aren't that mean.
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Post by "Trickster Dogg" James Jesse on Feb 13, 2024 16:52:41 GMT -5
I remember Cody's face when he handed his WrestleMania main event to The Rock, and there are a Academy Award winners who couldn't convey pain and anger mixed with a little self-loathing that clearly. It was as if I could hear Rocky in MY ear saying "I owe you one" through a shit-eating grin. That was a clear pivot, and you will never convince me otherwise. What's so frustrating is that none of what happened between February 2nd and February 8th had to happen. Especially the "not at Wrestlemania" part. Here's my pitch to rework everything: Cody comes out on SmackDown on February 2nd, says he's got some backup to even up the odds while Cody formally announces his interest in challenging Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania 40. Rock comes out, does the exact same stare-down to end the show. WWE does the Vegas press conference on February 8th basically the same way it happened. Cody hits the line about family being ashamed, Rock hits Cody in the face for the disrespect. Oh, now there's intrigue! First, the Rock was on Cody's side, but now he's on Roman's side? And that all drama carries you into No Way Out in Australia and then onto Wrestlemania 40. It would be like a better, subtler version of Mike Tyson being with D-Generation-X at Wrestlemania 14. My pitch could have had the best of both worlds, and everybody makes out big because of it. but WWE had to WWE the angle before un-WWE-ing it. The angle and the fans' response to it are in a much better position now than the time between February 2nd and 8th. But what a primrose path we had to walk to get there. Will it matter in the end? Probably not as much as we might think in this very moment, but it certainly ruined the festivities and still hangs as a worst-case scenario "what could have been" option.
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Squirrel Master
Hank Scorpio
"Then the Squirrel Master came out of left field and told me I'm his bitch!"
Posts: 6,688
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Post by Squirrel Master on Feb 13, 2024 18:43:47 GMT -5
Certainly was a pivot as the decision makers at the highests levels within the company suddenly realized that if The Rock gassed on the grandest stage of them it would be undeniable, and no one would be able to save the day. Everyone involved would look very bad indeed, and WWE would be massacred in the media in the days to follow. So they scrambled to put in place an alternate plan to keep The Rock looking strong and key to the story no matter what goes down, and it provides Cody his moment to shine by putting and end to a historic title reign. Cody Rhodes winning the title is the only way WM ends, and he's in no danger of his gas tank going empty when the brightest lights are shining on him.
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The Kevstaaa
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Heck of a wrestler, great technician, and a jam up guy.
Posts: 18,466
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Post by The Kevstaaa on Feb 13, 2024 18:45:20 GMT -5
"Just not at WrestleMania."
This was 100% a pivot.
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