nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 14, 2021 16:20:35 GMT -5
If anyone who's seen _Downton Abbey_ can attest (more wrestling fans that anyone might be willing to admit), Grimes can very easily be ennobled by the service he renders to what is clearly a buffoon with money.
Watch our mixed-fortune NXT general manager find some actual noble blood in our eager butler and push a Prince-and-the-Pauper narrative.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 14, 2021 7:58:35 GMT -5
We'll see how she does where in-ring quality does still kinda matter. If she's coming in as a valet/manager, then she'll really need to prove her worth with promos that sell her clients rather than herself.
Come to think of it, that's my issue with Scarlett. She's too much of a distraction to really sell the world on Karrion Kross.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 14, 2021 7:54:09 GMT -5
I like others am really curious what they are really trying to save budget on after a RECORD BREAKING PROFIT YEAR. Like the moves and cuts WWE is doing would lead you to believe that they are in financial trouble and need to severely cut back but the numbers that come out about them do not add up to that. The sudden rise of Nick Khan to power and the downright ruthless cutting of the finances leads me to believe something is truly up here. Every other day we're hearing about cuts to some division of them. I have a feeling WWE's Saudi friends have cancelled their deal and WWE want to recoup the lost revenue in cost savings before announcing anything. The Saudi deal, if memory serves, wasn't for nearly as much as the network deals got them; the cancellation of that deal can easily be explained as a shift in Saudi policy now that MBS is not, for now at least, the one in charge. (#46 had announced earlier this year that the US government would be making its top-level communications with the King directly.) Despite this, the cancellation will be seen by some shareholders as a blow to the profit margin. But who's really being impacted by this? The McMahons still own the majority of voting stock. So, at best, any winding down or cancellation of the Saudi deal might be considered bad for PR, an "easily avoidable" thing by simply not mentioning it ever again. The more I think about it, though, the more I think that the McMahons might actually be looking to buy back the common stock and take the company private again. The network deals make public trading less necessary to WWE's cashflow, but the effort needs to be carefully balanced against the demands of the networks to continue providing at least some value for their money. A public announcement of a stock buyback program would likely invite outside interests (STONKS!) to compete for that stock and send prices skyward.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 13, 2021 22:17:45 GMT -5
This match has been really fun. For all the complaints about Kross' in ring work, he's shown he can at least be carried. Oh he definitely can, look at the Finn match too. Finn carried Kross like Bret Hart carried Tom Magee. Kross is going to go over on the main roster like a lead balloon, with or without Scarlett.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 13, 2021 22:11:53 GMT -5
The damage is done. Matt Riddle is a Very Problematic Person for the wrestling fandom. That's not likely to change; the mere fact that the lawsuit was dropped will not help him in the court of public opinion. I can't see him making too many visits for the Make-A-Wish Foundation once this pandemic's over.
IANAL, but it'll take more than a dropped lawsuit to make it all go away.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 12, 2021 18:50:07 GMT -5
If Cena returns, he can beat Lashley for the WWE title; or, at minimum, beat Lashley via DQ or countout Luger-style.
It won't feel like he's beating a youngster because Lashley's been around WWE for some time; it can push a Hurt Business angle forward (maybe MVP starts losing confidence in Lashley, or vice versa); it needn't end with the title changing hands. Finally, if Cena does come back for another run, it will help Raw's flagging ratings numbers _especially_ if he can throw some weight around booking-wise.
Let Roman take on some up-and-comer at Summerslam - let a face win MITB and challenge him with the briefcase.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 12, 2021 18:37:03 GMT -5
Gallows and Anderson appeared to have value only when WWE wanted to tease a Bullet Club reunion.
Once that played out, both with AJ and with Finn, their best WWE work was with Southpaw. Comedic roughneck types can be highly entertaining as satire, but really they lacked the booking as truly dangerous, sadistic, menacing, opportunistic monsters to really put a dent into either the midcard or the tag scene. Perhaps they'll get that chance in Impact _if_ they want to play it that way.
But I think they're done as serious contenders for anything, without that sudden spark of aggression or brillance or both.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 12, 2021 17:09:28 GMT -5
RIP.
Now, to come up with a more evocative current talent whose name we can give to the phenomenon of multiple alignment shifts with diminishing returns for each.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 12, 2021 13:21:15 GMT -5
I'm deeply concerned that WWE has poisoned the well and salted the earth with its booking at this point and that not even the threat of the networks pulling their broadcast deals will be enough to stop Vince from booking as he wants to do.
The fact that they are using every.single.possible.trick. except for the one that will recover the ratings and make their product must-see speaks _volumes_ of the inability to get Vince McMahon either to cede control or step aside on creative. I think it would literally require the networks to say, "Vince has to cede control or else we pull the plug," before they'd consider it and, even then, they'll do their damnedest to eat their cake and have it, too.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 8, 2021 17:19:53 GMT -5
The word on it is that it's actually option C, WWE is so damn incompetent that no one thought to change the length of his no compete when he got called up. That's...interesting, to say the least. I wonder how many other callups are still on 30-day non-competes.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 8, 2021 7:51:48 GMT -5
I honestly believe Vince is tired. On the one hand, he's likely still insisting on having the final say on creative; on the other hand, he's tired and absolutely _cannot_ be in charge for the next little while, if ever again. If Nick Khan were to run a couple of focus groups (arguably not his lane, but still), he'd push to get Vince off creative entirely and _try_ to bring in experienced wrestling creatives to run the writing room. Prichard alone ain't cutting it, in my view.
Right now, WWE still has probably the biggest collection of top-tier talent in the business, but that's on the verge of changing very, _very_ considerably within the next five years. The current creative direction only motivates the roster to do as its told to the minimum and to keep collecting the paychecks. For Tommy End to debut last night as Malachi Black on AEW, however, suggests that either the downside he was getting was less than he was offered by Tony Khan to jump right away, or that he feels far more fulfilled with what's being laid out for him than whatever WWE was coming up with.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 7, 2021 15:27:12 GMT -5
Once upon a time, kayfabe was kept so tightly that you did not know _anything_ about a wrestler's private life: you didn't know whether they were married, had kids, what they did when they weren't on the road. The secrets within the wrestling locker room generally stayed there. If you were a wrestler up until the late 1990s (at least), that part of your life was yours and yours alone. You rarely discussed your life outside of wrestling, and then only in passing.
As the lines became blurred between wrestling characters and the people who played them (I believe Dwayne described the Rock as himself dialed up to 11), there came much more interest in not just the wrestlers, but also the guys and women who had lives away from the ring. The subculture that grew out of the indies brought with them the expectation that who they saw in the ring was who they would get after the matches. The community that built up around the indie promotions was one where everyone knew just about everyone else, and knew everyone's business - not necessarily healthy for those who have ended up getting the most attention - for example, the kerfuffle among some female fans when it became clear that Dean Ambrose was dating Renee Young irl. And sometimes, that sense of "knowing" someone can have serious consequences - consider Sonya Deville's stalker woes.
It isn't necessarily healthy for the long-term growth of pro wrestling, either - when too much personal info gets out there about someone, it can impact their ability to draw and make money. And it does interfere with fans' ability to lose themselves in the narrative of the match or the feud. That suspension of disbelief, essential to wrestling's ability to entertain, is not something that can be demanded outright of viewers. There can be, as I've learned, too much light let in on the magic.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 7, 2021 13:52:26 GMT -5
If this is the direction they're going for a possible handover of the title before Kross moves up, it would make the outlook for NXT much, _much_ darker.
It looks as though they intend to sink everything WWE.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 6, 2021 22:58:08 GMT -5
I miss swag in general. Not just the stuff you could get on WWEShop.com or at the merch booth, but little ephemeral shizz like buttons and stickers that you could get in chip bags or postcards or stuff like that.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 6, 2021 18:28:36 GMT -5
Simply put, she was sick of trying to dumb down her style to the rest of the Divas at the time. The only women's wrestler on the roster who was technically better was Nattie and, even then, the overall style during the Divas era was about filling in a piss break.
Compare what Gail Kim got to do in WWE vs what she got to do in TNA. Gail Kim's legacy is fine - she's just one of a multitude of talents that WWE squandered because they either didn't know what to do with her or she wasn't meant to be central to the little diorama they were looking to set up.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 6, 2021 18:23:42 GMT -5
WWE won’t do anything that would piss off Rock who is one of the last vestiges of mainstream credibility they have left. If Jimmy Uso facing consequences would piss off Dwayne Johnson and Dwayne'd hold it against WWE? That'd be on a level of John Cena's kowtowing to the CCP _at minimum_.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 6, 2021 12:28:02 GMT -5
No one should be “forced” to handle a lack of personal responsibility. It doesn’t happen. It happens independently or it doesn’t happen at all. You said it yourself: “ in the past we thought "well he's an adult, he'll get this taken care of" and what happened? Nothing.”. Something different needs to occur. He should be released. I don’t understand the gist of much of your argument considering this is a pattern. It continues to happen over and over again. You literally don't see how releasing him, putting him into a depression, giving him less time at work away from coworkers and his wife can give him more time to drink and drive? You can't see how that would be more harmful than the company keeping him on a leash and forcing him to go to rehab and facing his alcoholism? Which is something he has never done the entire time? You don't see the difference between these two?
The difference here is that he needs to go to rehab but in my scenario he's being forced to go to it and in yours he isn't because "he's an adult" and he hasn't done it in any of his adult years. I'm not letting Jimmy Uso decide he needs to go rehab when he can kill anyone anytime he steps on the road, I'm forcing him to because human lives are more important than his own decision making. This goes beyond his own thinking accountability. Sometimes you gotta force people to do what needs to be done.
Forcing any alcoholic into rehab will _not_ help. They have to want sobriety for recovery to succeed. It can't be the responsibility of Jimmy's coworkers, employer, brother or wife to keep him healthy and sober. Putting that on them a) removes from him his autonomy and dignity as an adult, b) shelters him from the consequences of his own actions, something he needs to experience before he can gain insight, and c) potentially foments growing resentment in those people because he's a grown-ass man whose disease is in his grasp alone (that and his Higher Power, for those who speak 12-Step). Maybe being given the choice of rehab or release will be his rock bottom; the prospect of some losses can be enough to scare him more than drinking will. Yes, the speculation of where that bottom is can be frightening af, and seeing it in public spaces is frustrating as hell. But, we didn't cause it; we can't control it; we can't cure it.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 4, 2021 20:52:14 GMT -5
I think David was tbe better worker and, as a heel, would have been more favoured by the board as a long-term champion in due course. However, the business was beginning to shift from an aesthetic standpoint requiring more telegenic types to sell the product. Kevin might have been more over in a high-profile spot like that than David would have been (Kerry even more, but I think he was too young for that kind of position). David was going to be up there, but likely not for long and more likely would have been asked to put over one of his brothers.
While Magnum TA absolutely could work and had a look that would have made him a household name, I'm not sure how far he would have gone or what might have been but for the accident. I think there is a bit of a myth that's been created, in part by the Apter mags, but TA's potential. I think he could have held down the US title at least as long as Tully did. Whether he'd ever get to hold the big belt, I'm not so sure. Perhaps he could have become like Edge and racked up a bunch of singles and tag titles; maybe a cup of coffee with Flair's belt, but not much more. Plus, Magnum TA's gimmick was not going to last much longer than the TV series did (it did for a while), but translating that to a persona that was evocative of the private eye but not close enough to get C&D letters would have largely kept him out of WWF.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 4, 2021 20:19:40 GMT -5
I think it bodes stronger for a sale of the company to a larger media conglomerate who can cut costs on documentary production through its own TV division. It also makes Vince's visit to the PC this week feel more like a farewell tour than a first glimpse at the developmental side. At minimum, Vince coming down to the PC sounds more like seeing things for himself than merely trusting Triple H to its workings - again, not necessarily boding well for the PC if saving money is on the company's mind.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,732
|
Post by nisidhe on Jul 1, 2021 15:40:22 GMT -5
The 24/7 title is good for some cheap comedy which can be a thrill for younger kids - think Benny Hill.
However, the overall treatment of the titles (all of them - ALL OF THEM) has been absolutely atrocious and speaks to how poorly the creative side is treating the product. It's possible disengagement between the writing team and Vince or whoever's in charge; but it's almost certainly a case of someone really making a dog's dinner of the entire enterprise and nobody is communicating.
|
|