The Gaffer
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Posts posted by The Gaffer
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I hope Knoxville fucking with Sami being an annual thing never ends:
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I've never liked Cena's style. I think there came a point where the backlash against him got so wearisome that I went along with the whole contrary "Yeah, he's actually the bollocks" line instead - and I do appreciate what a massive draw he was, what he meant to kids, and what a weird fecker he is nowadays - but upon reflection yeah, never for me.
He's had a few great main event matches but his offence looked fucking crap and the years of wild oscillations between Party Cena and hoo-rah Aggro Cena are like an entire lost generation to me. WWE at its absolute most turgid and autopilot when they were pre-pipebomb, pre-Danielson, pre-NXT-as-super-indie. I'll never watch that stuff back.
I understand why he didn't do it in 2012 but he's five years younger than Rock. I wonder if there's a WrestleMania in him where he leans into the dark side. This was on the John Cena Experience DVD and was apparently recorded for the heel turn that never happened:
Imagine him marching down the big massive walkway to this. I don't think it'll happen though. They turned Hogan on it but they'll never turn Cena. He's too weird.
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I didn't mind the opening promo to be honest. Of the million ways it could have gone wrong, it ended up being a very above board rallying cry for a promotion that - despite the decent booking this year - still has the perception of needing one right now. I saw it aimed more at negativity in general, and Copeland's friendly "You're missing the point" line when people started booing the mention of the WWE and main point that AEW's made the entire industry a better, more competitive place were right on the money.
Good show, all in all. Psycho Swerve is indeed where it's at. Blurting out "I love this shit" through a face full of his own blood like someone doped out of it on cough syrup whilst Joe betrayed a teeny look of actual fear was awesome.
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Yeah if anyone wants to...watch more wrestling...this week then the Roman doc's essentially his share of the WrestleMania: Bell build. One of those fantastic 70% reality, 30% work things that lets you spend enough time with the guy to the point you don't take the next time you see him do his thing for granted. I'm excited to see his every move on Sunday after watching that.
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1 hour ago, Loki said:
I hate to bring this up but… Does anyone else think Roman doesn’t look that well at the moment?
I kind of get that vibe, but if I'm mistaken then it's because of the increased presence of Hoodie Reigns.
Wrestlers should be banned from wearing the fucking things. At least the big stars, when doing stuff in the ring. Orton looked crap in one. Punk looks crap in one, and he's hardly ICO PRO material.
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2 hours ago, SuperBacon said:
100% this. I like Punk, I pretty much always have, and I really enjoy listening to him speak as I find him funny (and I fancy him)
But I still think he's a bit of a nob who acts like a nob, and definitely don't think he's justified in choking someone, even if it was just a little bit. He's a mentalist most of the time.
And for me there is one other crucial piece of information and that's that when it comes down to it, I really don't care what any of these massive man-childs say or do, as I don't know them and it doesn't affect my life, so they can all say or do what they want. Does anyone actually get genuinely annoyed or offended when Punk has a pop at the Bucks or vice versa? If so, why?
Even when they were beefing in the same company, it didn't particularly affect me as I don't really watch that company much, but I understand that for some, Punk did sully their viewing of AEW as it bought a lot of drama and meant some of their favourites weren't on TV for a bit (is that right?)
All of that's not me being "too good for wrestling" by the way, at all as I'm not, but this is all just a bit of fun for me. I'd like them to throw stupid jabs at each other forever if it entertains me.
They're a bunch of fannies. All of them.
Yeah this is spot on.
This stuff's great. Some fans forever want the business to go back to Michaels doing coke promos on Raw in 97 levels of drama and then pretend to not like it when it happens.
I suppose those those people working themselves into an offended reaction pumps back into the whole atmosphere of the thing though so I shouldn't complain about it too much.
Wrestling's weird. -
15 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:
I thought that was pretty obvious. Because you were using the point about not wanting a big house.
I was referencing people (some of them in this thread) suggesting it was strange of Punk to bring up houses when it's not really AEW's modus operandi. I still have no idea why you replied with a "Yeah but you know WWE didn't have great ticket sales before either, right?" counterpoint to that but whatever.
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10 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:
Raw was filmed in some tiny venues in the early days. Pre-pandemic they were half filling 15,000 arenas at best. The talk of how great WWE are on a weekly basis is a new phenomenon mainly born from the tribal discourse on social media. That’s not a knock at the success.
It may not be, but it sounds like one.
I think down here on the ground floor most of us would attribute the talk of how great WWE are on a weekly basis to the fact that the product itself has improved. I'm not sure what bringing up their past ticket sales have to do with anything either.
I agree with the rest of it. They started hot out of the gates and in many ways it set unrealistic expectations. I personally think 4,000 - 5,000 for your weekly TV is perfectly fine for the number two promotion. They'd definitely love to do bigger houses and they'd be mad if they didn't want to. But it probably needs to be more of a focus for them, a focus which is probably watered down by having a decent line of credit and what at times feels like a very "We just do great matches for the people who know their shit already" ethos.
Consequentially Brian Danielson's probably going to have to come under fire for some of that sooner or later. I know he's not the boss, but he has a huge hand in the booking by virtually all accounts and the perceived downturn has been under his tenure. Brian Danielson's become just another guy on the roster - quite happily - under his own watch.
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On 3/31/2024 at 12:19 PM, Pork Pie said:
The mixed doubles last night was not a great standard with eight frames taking over five hours to play. But sometimes I don't mind terrible snooker as I still quite enjoyed it.
Today is the final day of mixed doubles, tomorrow the Tour Championship starts and then it's almost time for the World Championship. Some big names are having to play the qualifiers. Neil Robertson, Stuart Bingham and Jack Lisowski need to qualify.
Really looking forward to the worlds this year.
I've not watched any snooker this season so I'm coming in blind. The golden ball thing gave me that classic sports washing disenfranchisement buzz and as good as it was, the exposure and furore around O'Sullivan's movie ("Did you know he's not just moody but also proper deep?") kind of burned me out on him for the first time.
Any particular bullet points heading into it this year? I'm thinking people expected to do well, people you'd expect to do well who are having a shite season. It's always the time of year for the house that Fatty Facesitter built to become UKFF's grandest stage of them all.
I'll probably go for Ronnie. It'll be history, won't it.
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On the drawing houses comment, the aberration of making your all time most profitable year in your (checks notes) second year in operation aside - when you have an enormous amount of goodwill and less overheads than you'll ever have, when people are happy to coast at home watching you coast in an empty arena - AEW should be concerned about making houses.
If that's some weird old school view then I must be really out of touch too, because the counterargument that they're a TV company seems like a bit of a free pass to me. Not only is your house a major part of your television presentation, it's also...I don't know. I kinda want my major wrestling organisations to strive to have big houses. Even if the business has changed yadda yadda. It's an odd thing people are picking up on, of all the things Punk said in that interview.
Anyway, I thought he came off well for the most part. I'm definitely in the camp that's willing to throw in on his side of the story within reason, but I think at this stage his current tenure in the WWE will be the true "Are my the arsehole?" litmus test for him because regardless of what you make of the whole situation, there's a sort of reading of it now that he's attempted to justify in public that cancels out that initial "It's not WWE! I've returned to wrestling!" honeymoon period.
I won't go into the reasoning because it basically skirts complete conjecture on two company's corporate cultures but a good way of looking at it is that it actually makes sense that he's back in WWE now whereas when he first came back it felt almost like a hollow satire from a decision making point of view.
People hinted at this back at the Survivor Series and they had the right idea, I think. Punk's narcissism and ego probably need him to be Da Locker Room Leader in the biggest game in town. And they also need to be reined in slightly by a more corporate entity. With all that on the table, Vince gone and him seemingly being on good terms with Triple H, really the way should be clear for him to have a nice final run into semi - retirement.
I know WWE's never that straightforward but the conditions are optimal on their part now. It'll reflect really well on his legacy and how he handled his exit from AEW if things go well for him from here. If not...well..."Are my the arsehole" and we'll get another 147 (happy maximum break page!) decent pages out of this yet.
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Can't say I feel the Reigns in the shade thing as much as some others. He got a massive pop last night. He's never going to be able to match Rock on the mic but he doesn't need to. His neverending purple patch has come courtesy of being protected by a faction, having Heyman speak on his behalf, and just holding onto the belt a long ass time. So long as all those are in place, Roman's the business. He's the weird kind of star where WWE kayfabing that he's the greatest ever sort of works even if you don't fully believe it, because it's just a part of his character now.
I still maintain that on the night all that matters is Cody beating Roman for the WWE title. Not beating Rock. Not for Rock's weightlifting belt. On the night the moment's going to be Cody lifting the title because he's beat the guy that's had the title for ages.
Then yeah, you go on and do Rock/Cody. It's totally fine having another massive match lined up that you can't do yet because you have to do this other massive match first.
Perks of being hot.
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The new Peacock documentary, Becoming Immortal, is well worth tracking down. Be prepared to be a mess for a lot of it though.
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I think she's potentiated the Northside Dub accent about as far as it can possibly go there. YAHVE GOT A TARRRRGET ON YER ARM!
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Punker setting himself up to be the first big trend of WrestleMania week for a show he's not wrestling on. You love to see it. Add to the mental, Phil!
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1 hour ago, MVP RULZ said:
Night 2 also suffers just from the fact its Night 2 in a way
In that a big part of Wrestlemania is the build up to it, the excitement of the stage and setup seeing the stadium etc that all adds to the feeling of it being bigger then anything else.
By Night 2 we've of course seen all that already and in some ways suffering from fatigue slightly after watching 4 hours the previous night when you add in stand and deliver and Smackdown as well, people will have watched close to 10 hours of wrestling over the previous 48 hours (maybe more if they've watched some indy shows) even the best of cards for night 2 could be a slog to get through and excited about by that time.
They've even had the same intro package for both nights since they started the format, which I've always found insanely odd for a company as overproduction-happy and package savvy as WWE.
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3 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5GpCQ4rug9/?igsh=MWt6cXFtNzV1amExcg==
Sometimes, when you're wrong, you're wrong. You just have to apologise, set fire to the Cody bedsheets and buy a lot of bull related merchandise.
This is the greatest wrestling social media post of all time.
I wish he didn't use the word 'script' in the caption, but fuck it. Put the belt on the big egg.
This might be best Rock of all time. I don't want to nail my colours to the mast on it - tracksuit pants, Corporate Rock howling "That son of a bitch is going to yell 'I Quit' and I'll be DAMNNNNED if he doesn't!" takes a beating, but this is up there with it.
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Love this vantage point for Cody and Rock's entrances.
After years of things getting gradually bigger and shinier seemingly without end, the Raw stage has actually shrunk down considerably now and they have this great balance between some really good lighting effects and the stars looking fucking megabucks coming out from behind the curtain.
This is just how things look and sound when you're molten hot because of the people on your show, and not just because you've cracked new media streams and markets to do record revenue years to cricket indifference
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Asking Alexandria needles me every time I see it. Worst kind of metalcore, pool party, grab-yer-Vans, honour between bros shite name.
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Man, I can't get over how low energy Mone is.
It's early days I guess but divorced from the rest of the Horsewomen, the I Made It theme and the whole ascendancy feeling of her being a massive face even when she was heel she seems to just be coasting along all indica as that cousin of hers would say.
She's in a business that's full of people right now who are revealing themselves to be really clever, endearing and funny whether it be in small on screen moments or supplementary/social content and last night she picked up the Jim Ross award for unenthused commentary.
Osprey? Not going to lie, the better he looks in AEW - and as someone who has not followed his career until now he looks very, very good - the more it's going to make me salivate over him getting the red carpet treatment where the big boys play. Can't help it. Not a knock on what he might do in AEW, but you can already kind of see the ceiling. Becomes their champ, has bangers with puroresu guys. But the potential of him entangled with Reigns, Rhodes, Drew, Punk and President CyberRock in a few years? randymarshcum.gif
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What everyone else said. Incredible stuff.
It feels almost cruel to the guy at this point, though, but my personal standout was Rollins just pissing insecurity on the mic with Punk.
"You don't care? Well...fine! Good! Because I don't care either! I'm super not bothered by you!"
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I'm probably overthinking it, but viewing that clip from its original angle doesn't she sound extraordinarily close to the camera from ten feet away? They've certainly put a plant in for less, and it makes total sense to do since viral clips are where it's at.
Back and to the left etc.
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Getting into the Tomb Raider remasters after about a year of not playing anything at all. I find myself switching to the potato graphics a lot when I'm stuck. The more simplistic textures and lack of dynamic lighting make hidden switches, health pickups etc way easier to see!
Persevering with the original for now to do it right, but the series starts for me when the Bartoli boys start kicking off in the sequel.
The Cena style
in UK Fan Forum
Posted
That's a really interesting point I hadn't thought about, but you're absolutely right. From about Survivor Series 2003 - WrestleMania XX he was hot with the entire audience. He had what was probably the most ready-jaded, hardcore WWE audience at the time in Madison Square garden cheering him on to win that U.S. title in unison. Then he just farted about with it for the rest of the year when Smackdown as a whole went into the absolute darkest of days.
Cena/Booker T's best of seven (!) felt like something nobody wanted to see and on it went. I imagine one of the respect the biz dickheads backstage thought it'd be a great idea as a way for Cena to prove himself. Then long before Vince booked himself into a match with God, Cena gets stabbed by Jesus leading to a match at Armageddon.
Cena/JBL should be a good sort of culture clash on paper - and the crowds were dying to see JBL lose the belt - but they were already watering down his character by that point and in the eyes of history as dictated by retrospective clips, he completely missed out on his first big title win moment by having a complete nothing of a TV match during one of the early WrestleManias where not having the main event was still seen as being shat on.
There's a fun alternate history in subbing him in for Wrestling Hitler, having him win the 2004 Rumble, and punking it up against Triple H and Michaels whilst he was still hot. Even if Chavo had never gotten weird texts, that fella's run was a total bust anyway.