boytoy

 

I did. To me it reads as Sheamus will clatter his opponent with a chair, so I am asking what opponent and clarify what the poster means.

 

Why would Sheamus want to win the tournament? As in what does he lose if he doesn't win it? Think about it.

 

His match with Cesaro really annoyed me on Raw. Just get yerself eliminated fella and keep fresh for your cash in.

 

 

Christ, only 2,863,000 people watched the 3rd hour of Raw last night. Ooof.

Not really a surprise. What incentive was there for people to watch the last hour? The Wyatts are not going to draw people in or make them keep watching to the end, and no one really expected Undertaker (or Kane) to turn up. The tournament brackets had no matches that were going to get people excited or want to make them keep watching to the end either.

 

 

Why did nobody expect Undertaker and/or Kane to turn up? Given it's promoted as the biggest storyline going into Survivor Series, them making an appearance is always on the cards.

 

And it was a taped show so it was hardly a shocking surprise.

The difference in reaction Roman Reigns got in Liverpool at the house show, to what he got an hour away in Manchester for TV was startling. Definitely something to what Meltzer is always reporting about his house show pop.

 

You're never changing that by putting him in 15 minute segments with Big Show, mind.

I think it is largely in the booking. When he first came out the reaction wasn't too bad but then have him stand next to Triple H without saying a word for ages and then wrestling big show just made him look like a geek for 30 minutes. Personally I would like to see him freshen up his act a bit as all the shield stuff is a bit stale and isn't as cool with just one guy. A proper entrance, better ring gear and maybe a new theme would help for me. I think they have the right guy, they just haven't put the pieces in the right order yet.

First time going to a RAW taping and enjoyed it much more live than watching it at home. Undertaker/Kane turning up was obviously a highlight although I agree with Rick – how does this sell the match now at Survivors?

There were some very strange booking decisions on this show. Like, why is Sheamus either a) in the tournament and b) why would he be trying to progress? It makes no logical sense for him to do anything other than weaken the tournament participants by interfering, attacking them backstage etc. as much as possible to increase his chances of a successful cash in. Hell, they could even tie this in to where Sheamus costs someone their spot in the tournament and then they prevent him successfully cashing in at the end of the night to start a fresh feud. Ambrose would be perfect for this if his bezzy mate Roman was the one to win the belt.

As for the comment above about Roman/H’s – I really liked where Triple H was going with this and I thought he did a good job putting Reigns over – Triple H talking uninterrupted for so long while Reigns stood there like a tool totally killed it for me as I imagine it did with a lot of the rest of the crowd. Then they booked him in a match against Big Show in a match nobody cared about. To me that is a really strange approach to getting the guy over.

Anyone else ever noticed the weird thing Finn Balor does with his eyebrows when cutting a promo? 

He kind of raises them up really high whilst talking for no obvious reason and then relaxes them when he stops. Really distracting.

Update: IT'S JEFF & KAREN JARRETT!!

Fair play to PCW for pulling that out the hat at such short notice. Haven't been since 'I want to break three' so really looking forward to this.

Interesting how perceptions of that video differ. I thought he kind of came off as being like this is cool rather than being over-awed. He still put over Mania as a big deal but I didn’t think he looked like he hadn’t been there before – at the end of the day WWE are never going to allow anyone to compare any show as comparable to Mania as in their world Mania dwarfs everything else.

I also appreciated that he sold the elimination as disappointing and I thought the other guys backstage interacting with him made him seem like he belonged rather than patronising. In one video he was put over by Hogan, HHH, Stephanie, the current WWE champion in Rollins and last year’s headliner in Bryan and they highlighted he was the originator of one of the most over moves in America in the last ten years. Not too shabby.

This tournament has done wonders for Hideo Itami. Two high-profile, standout matches in a row. Now, I know Breeze and Balor are no slouches, but Itami has more than held up his end. I really thought he was heading the way of the original Sin Cara, but he's developed nicely, in the ring, in his presentation (love the vest), and has shown tremendous improvements in his promos, or more specifically, his ability to speak English. Really nice to see developmental working on a wrestler before our eyes.

He still needs to settle on a finisher, as he has used a few but nothing has stuck yet. I am hoping they stop with the GTS tease soon and he starts using it full time.

I'd rather have a smark crowd than a bored silent one

This. Plus the NXT crowd know their role in the show and don't try to hijack it. They boo the heels and cheer the faces and are extremely supportive in helping wrestlers get their gimmick over.

Great episode this week. Two quality matches in the tournament semi finals and built the main event at NXT Rivals well.

I think Itami's fine as a character for now, there's nothing confusing about his presentation because there's nothing too out of the ordinary with it. He's a workrate guy from Japan. It's not particularly exciting, but NXT has form for it. It's along the same lines as Adrian Neville.

 

Balor is a workrate guy with a dodgy entrance that doesn't make any sense, outside of the "it's mind games lol" vagueness that the commentators use. And there's no connection between the entrance and the character (or lack of). As best I can tell, his entrance is basically meant to intimidate opponents with a combination of the Undertaker's scary stuff and early Goldust's might-get-an-erection-when-you-scoop-slam-him campness... But once Finn's in the ring, none of that comes into play and he's just doing moves.

Hopefully he figures it out and works on his character as he does have huge potential. The quality of NXT is for the most part so high that sometimes it is easy to forgot that it is developmental! Triple H mentioned something about Balor's entrance and him not having to think about things like camera placement etc when he was in Japan so it could be as simple as practicing in order to get used to things like that. Better now than later on I suppose.

His entrance would be better if there was a reason for it but so far he hasn't really done anything to establish a character or backstory other than Finn Balor is really good at wrestling which is a bit underwhelming considering we already have Itami and Neville doing pretty much the same thing.

I want to know why he uses the paint and wacky mannerisms...he has done nothing to establish this yet. Itami could also use more work on his character - Owens debuted after them, has only had a couple of matches and already has more character than both put together.

Not a fan of the decision to put Show over Reigns but I think they have done a good job with Reigns since the Rumble. They are going back to what worked with him and he came off well in the locker room conversation with Bryan and in his run in. The opening bit was poo but really...who ever comes out of them looking good? Still wish they would change up his ring gear and entrance.

Match with Bryan will be fine as long as they do what they should have done at the Rumble – set Bryan up with something else for WM and take the heat off Reigns. Would be good for him to work with someone who can go to get a bit more experience before WM. They can always do Bryan/Reigns to death later on with a different dynamic if the match is decent.

Agree that John Cena is the worst friend ever though. Not sure why this hasn't been acknowledged in storyline terms that much.