CavemanLynn

It'd make more sense if he got his arse handed to him by everyone when hes just regular Finn, and has to go to some 'dark place' and get 'possessed' by some demon spirit thing to turn into a killing machine. But even that would only work for a few shows. It also relies on him being a half decent actor, and he apparently can't be himself convincingly, let alone a character.

Surely there are enough muscle bound lunks in developmental to throw together a Bullet Club style presentation for Balor. The "little strung-out rock star wrestler protected by an entourage of heavies" has far more legs than his Predalien shtick.

Down the line, Reigns vs Bryan is going to be a money match. Face vs face, Yes Movement vs Roman Empire, and Reigns is going to need solid opponents who can make look like a beast. I worry that a Lesnar match would be Reigns selling for ages, and he's a guy that still hasn't mastered face fire outside of his big finish. Bryan could make him in a more even all-action match, absorbing shitloads of Reigns punishment but always being a smart move away from stopping him. Experience vs relative newbie.

Plus I kinda want to see Reigns Superman-punch Bryan out of a Buzaiku knee.

I'd say it was only the joke character that gave Al the mileage he got. He was a strong hand and rarely had a bad match, but it's good that he can admit he wasn't good enough to be a huge star. Not everyone is cut out to be a main eventer. He entertained, but never really connected. When he was being mental in hardcore matches and bopping Head about, he was the most over he was ever going to get. Pretty much died on his arse once he started doing that blah Snowman shtick.

The whip always looks duff when the whipper sends the opponent off then stands where he is while the opponent bounces off the ropes (perfectly on his side despite supposedly being "out of control") and runs ten feet back to him just to get hit. Much better when the whipper follows the guy for a few steps as if trying to catch him off guard.

Like most things like this, it's not what you do but how you do it.

Cesaro was boss in those training vignettes ages ago in the run-up to Mania - it was like he was Ivan Drago if he was trained at Cobra Kai, the smug intellectual who trained like a methodical animal. If they showed more of that instead of relying on awkward 'live' backstage segments with no sense of pacing, he'd be much bigger than he is. Everyone looks shit, ignoring the camera and pausing for a crowd reaction they're told is there but isn't.

And Cesaro's sleeper-to-cradle-move Minoru Suzuki homage was awesome.

Those are proper bloody wrestling toys. You're meant to be able to scrounge your tuck shop money together and grab a couple of groovy figures, like those packs of mini Transformers. None of this 3D-scanned 8inch tall £12 monstrocities. The Slam City and Rumblers figures are the best of today's lot by a country mile.

They should've gone with Rhys Ifans. Weathered and worn but roguish with a checkered past, and having a bit of an Indian summer with his career Stateside.

The Ascension are ten times better since they ditched the slow motion goth entrance and gimmick and turned full on Rammstein. The camerawork on the entrance, just like a lot of the entrances on NXT, is excellent, and they've benefitted from brave booking, where the tag titles and long list of squashes has got them over with the NXT crowd, even if it was ironically at first. I'd drop Total Elimination in favour of a bigger impact move (their timing on it is off more often than not), but they're a solid team.

Decent show all round this week. The Vaudevillains are ace, obviously - love Gotch's constant squatting and the double tumbling finish is neat. Breeze vs Kalisto was a great slow starter and showed they clearly have someone in the wings who can step up to the Rey Mysterio spot in the future. Mojo Rawley still comes off as a chump.

Also top commentary throughout. Regal's gags about Gotch's circus family were funny, and highlighting Breeze's MITB approach to his title shot in keeping with his meticulous preening was inspired. I'm seeing Tyson Kidd having one more crack at Neville, losing again but turning full heel, battering Adrian, then Breeze cashing in his title shot for the win.

Has it been considered that Sting could be introduced as a kind of ally to Taker? Brock vs Taker could be brutal, but Taker should hold onto the streak. After the match and obligatory poses in front of the streak score on the Tron, it could be cool having Lesnar begin beating down Taker with Heyman yelling about losing the battle but winning the war, but then lights out and Sting appears, chasing Lesnar and Heyman off with a bat. Then post match staredown with Taker, lights out, but when they come back on, both have disappeared.

That would give them months to a year to work a slow burn angle and reintroduce a version of Crow Sting.

So now we have the original Avengers crew, plus Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Vision, plus likely others from the interim films, versus Ultron

It's a stop motion animation show. Kinda like a PG Celebrity Death match featuring WWE guys having "real jobs" because an evil masked villain called The Finisher fires them all, but ending up twatting each other in slapstick fights. The link above is Santino vs Kane. It looks like it could become the greatest thing ever, and I'll definitely be getting any tie-in video games!

Her "gimmick" is not strictly speaking a gimmick at all - she's just a wrestler with a 'quirky' bubbly personality. The dance and marching are just things she does. They give her a short-term hook and should get her over. You might as well say Hulk Hogan's gimmick was being a Real American when it clearly wasn't - his gimmick was Hulk Hogan.

Reading this thread, I feel like a dad whose kids just told him they love Jimi Hendrix. Proud but ever so slightly smug. I'm an NXT hipster douchebag (as well as regular douchebag).

JBL's "THIS IS FUN TO WATCH!" might be the worst recurring commentary call in the history of wrestling. Pointless, inane and irritating.

So the consensus is that all the Shield guys should go to trunks, knee pads and boots? Then everyone can complain that everyone looks the same.

Ambrose would look best in bare basics. His best-up denim jacket in NXT made him look like he'd rolled in off the street, and for a guy that looks like he does, I think showing he's not a ripped Adonis would actually complement his nutso persona.

Reigns needs to look like he's wearing armour without Conaning up. Add some metal to his wrist pads and do a similar look for his boots with Batista-style boot guards. No explosive sparkly pyro though. Horsemen-style music, Edge-style dry ice. Simple. Anything bigger would diminish his aura. (For the record, I hate pyro. Every fxxxer's got fxxxing pyro.)

Rollins I couldn't give a toss about.

Capaldi looks excellent. Good to see a classy look, rather than the "hipster maths teacher" look we've had with Tennant and Smith.

The best thing Punk ever did was have that feud against Stone Cold on WWE All Stars that he didn't actually do.

I really don't blame DC for trying to rush their movies out, the bubble isn't going to burst fully but marvel are oversaturating the market a bit and DC really deserve a piece of that pie before it goes cold. I prefer DC comics and characters to marvel ones but marvel have been so much better at making and marketing their movies it's insane, people are more excited for an Ant man film than a film with Batman Superman and Wonder Woman in it, it's crazy. All this marvel phase 1,2 and 3 shit has worked perfectly for them but it's too late for DC to do the same thing, a standalone Aquaman film in 2016 isn't a guaranteed hit. Batman is the ace up their sleeve, everyone loves him, I loved Man of Steel but not everyone did, however it was popular enough (just) to build the franchise around, sticking Batman in the next one was the best idea I think, Wonder Woman too was a step too far though probably, it feels like it needs a bit of a chance to breathe. Also Marvel kill it with their casting and DC sadly get slated for every casting choice they make, I think Ben Affleck will be a great Batman but it's not been a popular decision. I hope delaying the Batman/Superman/man of steel 2/Justice League film really gives them a chance to have some more time to polish it and have something great ready for 2016. With the competition from Marvel studios and people making Xmen and spider-man films the last thing DC needed was to rush something out with a half finished script & a bunch of half arsed ideas.

I've mentioned this before, about Marvel being light years ahead of DC in terms of multimedia.

It's down to three things, I think. Fan service, for a start. I know that's a dirty phrase in some circles, as there's sometimes a sense of pandering to fanboys, but Marvel have managed that without alienating casual cinema-goers. Kevin Feige either is or has done a great job marketing himself as a fanboy, and his hand at the tiller has given the Marvel movies a focus that DC don't seem to have. Rather than reinventing a character or creating a whole new mythology, they've cherry-picked from existing stories with minor tweaks for the big screen.

Secondly, there's the excellent casting and choice of directors, always just below the high-cost A-list but big enough to look big on a marquee. Iron Man arguably was the movie that truly marked RDJ's career renaissance, and even that traded on his existing public persona. And the employment of nerd-god Joss Whedon is a real boon, and another sign of fan service - the nerds wanted Whedon, and they got him. The selection of off-kilter talent also means that Marvel side-step the dissection that DC's higher-profile selections receive, thus minimising negative press from the off and keeping the focus on the franchises themselves. The perception becomes that Marvel has stars come to it, while DC has to seek them out.

And thirdly, it's the speed of production. Marvel now are a finely tuned machine, and even when a film is in early production, they still manage to put something worthwhile together at the Cons. Compare the announcement of Age of Ultron with Batman vs Superman/ JLA. A well-produced but simple short promo featuring a character monologue, mysterious transition, and excellent reveal of the villain. That's without a finalised script or single reel being shot. Then DC start well with an excerpt from one the best comic book stories, but then tell everyone that that's not what the film actually is, that nothing is actually confirmed, and then end with a bloated title screen. It was a wet fart in comparison.

Natalya has always been a bit bland, a workhorse like her other half, dependable with a bit of flash or decent hook (in her case, the family name) but never a standout star. But these last few weeks, she's been a godsend to the NXT Divas. Every match she's had, she's helped make them look like stars. The finish vs Emma was my favourite to any match in a long time. I was enjoying the match, then because I like Emma, I thought I'd let what looked like a slightly screwed small package pass, but then the transition into the Emma Lock totally took me by surprise. It showed the character of Emma as goofy and awkward but talented and tenacious. Great stuff. Sadly, I can imagine Emma's gimmick getting overhauled if she goes to the main roster and going into overkill, and we'll have another Muffy Mower on our hands, but still, I can hope!

Fun sing off between Big Cass and Aiden English. Amazingly for a guy who you'd think was the newest to wrestling, working with Enzo seems to have worked wonders for Cass (I refuse to call him Colin Cassady, yawn). In fact, I worry Cass might even outgrow Enzo and their fun double act will end. A solid segment though, and a step towards getting the Full Sail crowd to properly boo The Artiste.

I don't get Rusev. It's not his weird sumo leather nappy. It's his hair. And I don't know why they insist on calling his camel clutch The Accolade. It's meaningless.

I'll echo somebody's sentiments in another thread about Mason Ryan - he doesn't get it. I think he actually suffers from being too athletic. He's 300lbs solid muscle. He should be a fucking wall. But he comes into the ring skipping about from foot to foot that makes him look lighter than he is and kills the effect his look should have. Selling for Breeze's punches like they were bombs as well, Jesus. Somebody get him or his match agent a clue.

That's the point. People noticed this the day he debuted.

That NXT/TNA comparison is spot on. It really has helped drive nails into Impact's coffin. It's the kind of format UK promoters should be trying to recreate in getting UK wrestling on TV.

Regal/Cesaro was a corker. The perfect blend of World of Sport and sports entertainment. The crowd were rapt. If a crowd are chanting the whole time, they're entertaining themselves. Full Sail were totally into this one, and the atmosphere was electric. Regal has nothing but corkers. I rate this one above Ohno but below Ambrose. There was so much going on in terms of character that any number of angles could spiral off from it. That's great booking.

NXT is show of the year bar none.

Prometheus works if you view everything as a metaphor. That is NOT praise.

Rounding the year off on a high. Another quality show this week.

A stonking opening tag, with more excellent work from Zayn and Kidd and more glorious glaring from Cesaro. And it'll be a real shame if Kruger does go with that Russell Brand gimmick, if only because his music is probably my favourite theme in all WWE at the mo. It's nice to know Johnston still has the Hardcore Holly guitar sound on tap. Didn't Husky Harris have a Slipknot gimmick as Axel Mulligan for about a fortnight before Bray Wyatt was born? Hopefully the Adam Rose thing is just a brain fart on someone's part, because he has a cricket-inspired finish and a beard.

The American Pitbulls were solid. I have no issues with the Billington name, but John Cahill is just wallpaper. Richards seemed a bit shaken after his neck nearly got broken slipping off Rick Victor, but they both got a couple of decent signatures in and did the job well.

Main event was a decent lumberjack, with a good angle thrown in. Most of the lumberjacks looked proper deer in headlights though.

Also, Enzo on wheels!

And, as if that wasn't enough, looks like they're giving us Cesaro vs Regal for Christmas. Top banana.

If this was a full-on animated movie, I'd be all over it.

Yeah, and you never know, they might! They've got the Scooby Doo and Flintstones films coming up, and the Slam City cartoon starts next month -- the wrestlers have other jobs in that. CM Punk sells ice creams.

 

 

I think it's a cartoon anyway, but it might be a comic as well. They're definitely putting different stuff out there.

 

I wish the WWE films were take-offs on the wrestler gimmicks, actually. Let John Cena be John Cena as he walks away from explosions and dodges bullets.

All of this wins.

Heck, give us a Power Stone style bash em up in that WWE Rumblerz look and this jaded 30 year old might actually start buying their shit again.