Mr Butternut Squash

Calm down, its just a troll. Surely.

That tag team title match was a load of fun. Hopefully the Brits will keep together on the main roster and give the tag division some momentum again.

Will be interesting to see what they do with Langston next week now that he's a heel. I'm loving NXT at the moment.

The Suzuki match is tremendous. Character wise I love the dynamic between them two and Suzuki's a great scary psycho fucker. The entire King of Pro Wrestling event was class and is on youtube if you get on with it.

Ryback didn't need to win it. Cena winning was a logical move to organically set up Rock-Cena II, but Ryback could have been handled a lot better and still look strong without winning.

Yeah, I think they really dropped the ball with Ryback in the Rumble, he didn't stand out in any way. He should have at least had a moment where he cleared the ring out completely and stood in the middle doing his "feed me more" shit, waiting for the next entrant.

Anyway, I doubt the likes of Cena, Swagger, Henry, Sheamus, Cesaro, Byran, Ziggler, Brodus etc. aren't handy.

Doesn't matter if they are handy. They dont give off the vibe that they are. Cena and Henry (and Sheamus to an extent) do, and they do business. There's a lad off here expecting a retweet of a picture he drew of the companies biggest heel. He ain't doing that shit, and nor should he (no offensive to the poster obviously). They should be presenting themselves as stars, not bowing down to the demands of retweets and putting belts they won on Smackdown on the wall. When I grew up I knew fuck all about the Ultimate Warrior. I used to think "Hulk Hogan wears cut off blazers when he goes to weddings". I never imagined Randy Savage walked about in real life without a weightlifting belt. Look at Brock Lesnar. When he walks out people go "fucking heel". People believe in him. If you don't build an infrastructure around you babyfaces and heels and make them look strong and if the wrestlers themselves dont present themselves in public like they are above the fans themselves. People are desperate to believe in characters. The idea that people watch wrestling and don't want to believe and invest in the storylines and characters is ridiculous. I never watch wrestling unless I believe in the guy I am watching it for. If you replaced Brock and Cena last year with Swagger and The Miz, would it be the same? Would it fuck. Because I believed in the story.

This is all true. It's funny to see the younger guys clumsily react to the rise of social media. Creating an 'aura' still doesn't have to be about size/creds though, it's about making people believe/live through your character, like you say. The smaller guys just have to rely a bit more on their imagination.

I think a lot of it is that a lot of people want to see massive and mean hardnuts. That's why Mark Henry drove Smackdown ratings, IMHO, and why people turned off their TVs when CM Punk came on as a face.

That may be true in part but I think you're underestimating the power of strong booking. If Henry was booked like every other heel, cowardly and getting cheap victories at every turn then I doubt he would have pushed ratings so much. The bigger problem for Punk is that he's simply too unlikeable to be a successful babyface.

Mr Average wants his wrestlers big, colourful and believable. When you see a wrestler you should be thinking "That cool motherfucker would eat me alive". You don't get that aura from half as many people these days, and I'd say that it's to the detriment of the company. Really, who'd you want to see? Zack Ryder continuing to be the most massive nerd ever, or Scott Steiner killing shit?

Ryder's a jobber and Ryback's killing shit.

I missed their whole run, but from the odd clips I've seen Truth was gold as a heel. In fact, fuck the Miz off and put him in team with Maddox and then see the MONEY.

Yeah, the guys in the business today are a different breed for sure, and I'm all for seeing the back of the days of nutters dying in their mid 40s. I just really don't see what difference it makes in a wider/business sense though. Anyway, I doubt the likes of Cena, Swagger, Henry, Sheamus, Cesaro, Byran, Ziggler, Brodus etc. aren't handy.

Does every discussion on here revert back to "wrestlers these days eh? What a bunch of poofs"?

Was he responsible for that R truth gash as well then? Thought that was his own doing.

I'm almost starting to feel sorry for the bloke.

Quite impressed with McGillicutty in his match this week. How longs he been decent? He really needs a makeover though.

Regal's "Betty Swollox was my first" line was the highlight of the mostly dull Great Brits vs Ohno/Kruger match. I've only seen Oliver Grey a couple of times but he seems bland as fuck. Kruger is a funny bastard but I kind of wish they'd go further on wacky with his gimmick.

Really enjoyed the Big E/Ascension guy stand-off. 5 count babyface Langston is missed.

The interactions between the unacknowledged Rotunda brothers were sweet. If Bray Wyatt doesn't make it to the proper roster, full gimmick intact, it'd be a bit of a travesty really. The guy's magnetic.

Really? It seems to be getting worse. The Taz reveal was cool but there was no thought put into it, they just wanted to pop next weeks rating. And the week after they . . . . put him back on commentary. And he's possibly worse then he was before.

This weeks show . .

Terrific news. As an irregular viewer a larger arena and an organic crowd will be enough to draw me back in. This along with the dropping of PPVs are good moves and I hope they do well out of it. Maybe these will be things that can lead to them carving out their own identity and overcoming their WWE/WCW/ECW inferiority complex. Dropping the Aces And 8's shite will be the next major step towards goodness.

That's great news. Hopefully he comes to the main roster soon, he'd be great for Smackdown. Am I right in saying that WWE aren't to keen on him cos his size?

Does anyone know the status of Wyatt? Is he still injured or are they happy to continue with him in a non-wrestler role? I like the Family gimmick but I enjoyed Wyatt more on his own, cutting promos on the way to the ring before squashing fuckers in seconds. It'll be interesting to see what they do with him if they call him up, I doubt the WWE think the Universe have the the smarts to get a relatively complex gimmick like that.

Some promising guys on the roster and the thing I like about it is that the WWE jobbers that turn up on it usually get beaten, establishing the guys credibility.

Despite his size I still think Cory Graves could be major player in the future. He's the most distinctive looking guy to come along in years, he's like the dodgy fuck leering at you from the back of the night bus. He's someone you can relate to the real world, which is what they need at the moment. Plus the chicks will go gooey for him.

Good to see Neville doing well although it's a shame he'll likely be lost in the shuffle of the undercard when he comes up. It'd be great to see a flashy high flyer get a solid mid card role.

More people still watch WWE, just by other means (Internet) plus it has better marketing/promotion/brand value and all that. TNA are really shit at that stuff . Plus TNA is a terrible name for a wrestling promotion - is it true that Russo came up with that name cos of its implied edginess (tits and asses)?

TNA is on free tv. WWE isn't.

Oh right i see. Cheers.

Does anybody know when/if the 'special' taped TNA PPVs are airing over here? I'm avoiding the threads cos spoilers.

Are WWE babyfaces still considered good role models? They act like bigger dickheads than the heels a lot of the time, just look at Sheamus kicking 3mbs heads in after losing last week for example.

What happens these days in regard to the Rumble undercard guys getting involved in the Rumble itself? Sheamus/Orton/Ryback vs Shield seems like the sensible way to go but I know the first team are (don't know bout Ryback) all involved in the rumble. Do they still do blokes appearing for both? I don't know what they'll do with the Shield otherwise, putting them in the Rumble seems like a bad idea.

Anybody that usually skips Main Event would do well to tune in this week just to see

TNA Genesis

New to thread, sorry if been done

Man is the man

Unwise idol

Alpha bitchez

On the subject of announcers treating you like you're stupid, the very worst thing at the moment is Lawler/Coles forced giggling cos YOU'RE SPOSE TO LAUGH NOW. I can tune it out during May young giving birth or whatever but in a key segment with your biggest star returning it really can just fuck off Jerry you simple memphis manchild. We know you have an inferiority complex but you're not a sitcom yet so drop the canned laughter.

I'm watching Saturday Morning Slam atm (don't ask) which has Sandow/Orton. It's hard to get into cos they keep cutting away from the action during important bits to show Booker sipping some water at the commentary desk. I know there's some weird restrictions as to what they can show in the morning regarding certain moves SO WHY DO THEM IN THE FUCKING FIRST PLACE.

Bit frustrating to watch this.

Holy shit Sandow just gone did a moonsalt. Turn that boy face already. Or later if you want.

Mega Edit;

Speaking of shit nobody watches, here's Big E's debut Flair like promo on main event (ignore the bullshit video title);

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKWIPik-OHY

The Davy Boy/Lance Archer match at WK7 was surprisingly good, especially the early parts with them dominating. I still think they're both terrible at drawing heat though. Don't want them back in WWE especially if Shelton's returning.

New Japan spoilers