boytoy

They'll thow the kitchen sink at that match no doubt. Rock, Austin, Vince could all be getting involved in that one. Will be like some kind of mad WWF 2000 tribute act.

Hopefully Triple H will somehow get even more dastardly at those shows to make he reaction even more surreal. Trips must secretly be loving his last big baby face run, bet he doesn't want Vince to change a thing!

We get it,

Am assuming "Because TNA..." but how come no-one thought to hook the Stinger up with a seat?

 

Even the IC Title change is "meh" at this point.

 

The positive to that change is that it gets the midcard belt off Ambrose. Which means they're eliminating in our minds a reason why he won't be winning at Fast Lane and challenging for the big one at Mania. At least, that's the false hope I developed when I heard this morning he'd lost it. They even protected him by having someone else lose it for him. Ooooh, I'm stupid for hoping, I really am.

 

The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.

Was impressed by Carmella, thought they told a really good story in that match. One thing I have noticed with the womens matches is because they are laid out a bit simpler they tend to focus on the in-ring storytelling more than men's matches across WWE now which tend to be more about getting all your shit in irregardless of time. They could certainly do with simplifying the TV matches more and focus on the basics I think and leave the MOVEZ for the bigger occasions.

I know it's already been mentioned, but seriously...how fat was that guy in the front row?

Apollo Crews is still a work in progress. They pushed him as an indy darling coming in with international pedigree but hes still in the early stages of his career and hadn't quite made that level yet.

 

He's still improving and playing catch up. Hell be fine.

This. I think most people forget that NXT is a developmental show. The best thing about NXT is watching people improve and everyone on that roster has areas in which they can improve.

Titus O’Neill is the Apollo Crews of the main roster. Likeable, great look, huge potential but they just haven’t really bothered to give anyone any reason to care other than ‘nice bloke’.

Nice to see Ambrose get an opportunity to show that he didn’t care how much of a beating he took – fits his gimmick. Kind of made Reigns look a bit like a pussy again though. Also – these two have the weirdest friendship…it’s only a couple of weeks since Reigns sat and watched Ambrose get eliminated from the Rumble by Triple H (who he supposedly hates).

Zayn is very natural on the mic and unlike most wrestlers he can act a bit too, again mad when you think he spent so long under a mask. It is very hard in this day and age to pull off the classic pure babyface but Sami does this better than anyone else in wrestling at the moment. I do hope he isn't NXT for too much longer because I think there is a place for him on the main roster and I believe he could not just fill the spot left by Daniel Bryan but significantly upgrade it.

 

Darts springs to mind straight away for chants at PDC events. It's gone stale now as no new ones have been created during actual play. It's always the Yaya and stand up if you love the darts bore! One song I can't make out. It sounds like the crowd are saying "boring boring Neville" If so, that sums Gary to a tee!

There's definitely been a shift in that direction at the "bigger" BritWres shows (PCW, PROGRESS, RevPro, ICW) towards more of the traditional, fun British/European sports atmosphere over the past few years, and away from the old "US sports" style chanting that was just copied from what we saw on TV. In fact, it's been organic with those British promotions helping to create a British wrestling 'identity' instead of, again, just being a copy of US TV products. 

 

The issue with the third hour is they seem to stretch a potentially solid 5/10 minute segment to an overcooked 15 minutes or so (or a potentially rubbish 5 to an unbearable 15), or add another filler match with no emotional interest from their viewers.

 Yes they have loads of 6 or 7 out of 10 guys, middle of the range, everything is so wishy washy, they need 3 or 4 guys that are stand out, superstars amongst a sea of mediocrity.

And that remaining 3/10 in almost all cases is mic work (bar Ambrose and Owens who will not/cannot improve their look). The worst thing for the future is that it isn't like there are loads of guys out there who can come in and improve things either.

You look on NXT and the pool is very thin at the moment. Enzo is entertaining but is way too small, Zayn is a better actor than most wrestlers which helps, but other than that there is nobody. Crews and Balor both have brilliant looks but neither have shown that they can cut a promo to save their life… Corbin has the charisma of a sponge and has that Randy Orton ‘everyone knows he is a heel in real life’ thing going on. I can’t think of anyone out there on the indies either.

Their only solution is to work with what they have and try to find out why the talent are finding it so difficult and make the necessary changes.

Good to see that last weeks terrible rating has forced them into action.

Also, things are pretty dire in WWE land when Kofi Kingston’s being used as key talent in advertisement materials for the biggest show of the year!

Isn't this precisely the root of the WWE problem? All of the new day deserve to be on that poster given that they are the most over act in the company right now and the current tag champs.

The look on her face is always really dull, like there's nothing going on in her head.

Maybe that's the way I like 'em. Alexa has been better since her heel turn but still find her nose weird. Still would mind as I am about as fussy as cm punk. Not sure about bayley and the aussie with the go go gadget legs though.

What a great show! A few thoughts:

It was nice to watch a show and know who the heels were and have babyfaces who weren’t dicks. I don’t think the crowd had really taken to Joe’s turn until after he blindsided Finn which left no further doubts.

Loved the return of Enzo and Cass and didn’t expect it at all. I liked Enzo wearing all black and it was a great touch to show that they had serious beef with Dash and Dawson.

The main event was just like those gloriously overbooked attitude-era matches that they don’t do enough of anymore. Eva Marie’s ring gear

Dana Brooke is improving but I would still prefer to see Emma v Asuka. Emma looked badass in their segment.

Elias Samson’s voice sounds like Leonard Cohen – interested in this gimmick now and I can’t wait for the return of Sami Zayn. Maybe Joe wins the belt to setup a Joe v Sami feud?

To cut the creative team some slack it must be difficult to work with a group where only one or two are capable of cutting a decent promo. I would suggest that the biggest problem isn’t the long matches but that the roster is just not very good at making you want to see those matches.

Guys on the roster capable of talking up a match are Cena and Heyman than after that there is zip. Triple H is a terrible promo, Wyatt doesn’t get to the point, Ryback shoehorns catchphrases into places they don’t belong, they don’t dare give Neville a mic, Ambrose has presence but that’s about it and Reigns and Rollins are the two worst culprits for exposition. You could maybe make a case for Xavier Woods and Kevin Owens at a push but the latter did his best work so far in his feuds with Cena and Zayn.

The worst thing is that NXT is making this problem worse by selling itself on its ability to perpetually present fresh match ups which means that people like Finn Balor (who could be big money on the main roster from merch along) are just stagnating in this area and are not required to improve. I think Sami Zayn does a great job but short of that I am not sure if there is anyone else in NXT who you can really point to as being a potential game changer in this department.

Seeing Rusev out there at the beginning just made me think how this angle would actually be interesting if Rusev was Champ in Sheamus's place. He deserves it more that's for sure.

Imagine if Rusev had maintained that awesome momentum he had when he was riding into Mania on that Tank looking mega boss and hadn’t had all those losses to Cena and a shitty feud with Dolph Ziggler. He could have been a major threat in that tournament. How was that only 7 months ago??

Dean Ambrose, the supposed lunatic, who watched his best mate get screwed over last night was in a meaningless tag match in the third hour. He wasn't pissed, he didn't have Roman's back, he had nothing to say. What the fuck is that? Does anyone ever sit down and put themselves in character and ask "What would these guys do?"

 

Dean Ambrose is fucking ace.

Thanks for saving me from wasting a couple of hours watching this show tonight. I think you have hit the nail on the head with that line. 

Shows how effective Eva Marie's promo was on this week's show.

 

She only said two lines, one of which was "I'm facing you for the Title next week" and some people on here didn't notice!

To be fair that might just be because I am stupid.

They are doing that match at Full Sail...tonight

Wow, quite surprised by that.

Wonder if it'll be a multiwoman match at Takeover. I can't see them doing Bayley vs. Asuka just yet.

 

Bayley vs. Nia Jax and Asuka vs. Eva Marie maybe.

I would assume Bayley vs Eva Marie and Dana Brooke vs Asuka if they do two women's matches. Probably a good idea not to do he first match at full sail!

I don't like her mumsy smiles during her matches. Just looks completely at odds with her move set.

Also why does she get up to pin her opponents after her leg drop? Just grab the damn leg, would look a lot better!

It’s such a shame because since the ‘Diva’s revolution’ Paige vs Charlotte is the first PPV match that you can look at and think has a shot at being something special. To back that up they even get a main event segment and then they do that? There are about a 100 different ways of selling this match that are better than to talk about the death of a guy that has never been on WWE TV and is unknown to about 80% of the audience.

Why not just have them both say that they are the one who will be the new gold standard in the division and that they are both prepared to do whatever it takes to put on a show at Survivor Series unlike any women’s match anyone has seen before in a WWE ring. Or promote it as figure eight vs PTO similar to the old Crossface/Ankle Lock/Walls of Jericho IC feuds which would have been a unique way to build a women’s match in a more legitimate fashion, especially considering the UFC event which happened the past weekend.

They have all the tools in the world on that roster but they keep putting square pegs in round holes.

Nikki Bella could be done by the looks of things. That hideous spot involving her and Charlotte has fucked her neck up bad by all accounts. If she goes under the knife its a career ender.

Not surprised she got really hurt - that spot looked hideous and the rest of the match wasn't much better.

Smackdown August 8th 2002

 

 

Couple more observations vs. modern day. The first one isn't mine, someone on here mentioned it a while ago but there are so many heel tactics on display compared to modern shows. Almost every heel has a manager or an enforcer which leads to loads of distraction and intereference and in general there is just so much more dirty work. That really helps with the crowd heat.

I agree with this - it is no wonder why heels get cheered because they don't behave like heels and without good antagonists the faces can't get over either. Never mind bringing back kayfabe, perhaps we should have less grey areas first?

Are these old Smackdown's on the network? Tempted to watch some of these.

**Edited for multiple posts.