d-d-d-dAz

Unless everything we know is a lie and Jack Perry comes out on top, I don't know how they can possibly benefit from any of this.

Everyone needs to grow up.

TK also needs to be careful. Yes, WWE personalities have taken their shots over the last week, but they've picked their timing a lot more discerningly. He's using his actual TV shows on this rubbish. WWE might just be as bad, but they're not letting it affect their programming.

Keep it fun, TK. Keep it fun.

1 minute ago, Harry Wiseau said:

Was that daft belt already being made before the "pivot" happened? Is that what he'd have come out with on Monday after beating Roman?  

Incredible shout. I reckon that could be bang on.

Flares and a toy belt? For fuck sake.

Rhea Ripley and Becky was slow to get going but had a decent final stretch. Ripley is an absolute superstar and, if she's not going on last, it was the right decision to have her on first. Live bands are always crap.

Flares and a toy belt? For fuck sake.

I enjoyed the ladder match for what it was. Lots of fun stuff going on, and some decent bumps. The ref trying to get Priest's attention by hooking his ankle as he climbed a ladder was a choice.

Flares and a toy belt? For fuck sake.

Didnt really pay attention to the tag match and didnt know who the run-ins were.

Flares and a toy belt? For fuck sake.

Jey/Jimmy was one of the worst things I've ever sat through. Horrible. Hope they enjoyed filming the pre-match vignette together, given it's a blood feud. 

Flares and a toy belt? For fuck sake.

Gunther/Sami was superb. Sami's entire entrance was spectacularly put together, and the match was a brilliant vehicle for the big babyface win. Everything was expertly done, and the fact they've made this feel like such a big moment for Sami despite him having already been an IC Champion before is a testament to both the booking and the people involved.

I loved the main event (eventually)... that should be the name for Roman's style, the Main Eventually. But yeah, let's talk entrances.

Cody? Absolutely fine. Clearly got more in the barrel for tonight, but plenty of pomp and pageantry.

Seth? He was dressed like a clicker from The Last of Us but people were into it and it was fine.

Roman? Textbook. Plus, he looked in incredible shape.

The Rock? Flares and a toy belt? For fuck sake.

Honestly, I'll spend the rest of my life telling me that Roman politicked to have The Rock come out like that. A flowery waistcoat, flares and a toy belt? It looked like something out of a 2K video game where someone gave The Rock the outfit of Fandango. Absolute aura killer. 

The match itself was a slow start but heated up nicely, and I like that they gave context to the match going off the rails and the ref not calling for a DQ.

It built brilliantly throughout and the end stretch was great. The Rock held up well, too.

My other main takeaways from the main event were;

The fact that the pre-match promo video started from the kickoff show should put paid to the idea that The Rock had this planned from January, or that this was anything but a panicked last minute pivot.

Even slightly split crowd's are a bit frustrating, as it sort of sounds like no one likes anything. They lost themselves in the match by the end and stopped making the conscious 'smart' decision to boo the faces, which is good, but there were times when it felt like we were on the cusp of the bad old days.

Bring on Night 2.

Flares and a toy belt? For fuck sake.

We definitely shouldn't equate sacking people to being a 'real boss'.

Lots of petulant inheritance babies have had to sack lots of people because their vanity vehicles are pissing money.

As long as men with big wallets and suits with trainers have been allowed to buy sports teams, that's been a thing.

3 minutes ago, no user name said:

I corrected it in a later post though where I said that I had heard these things and that they werent necearily what I thought I haven't seen many of his matches 

I reckon not seeing it is probably why you've struggled to see it, then.

On a wider point, trying to attach objective criteria to what 'good' is in wrestling is nuts. It's just a stupid bit of theatre that occasionally makes you feel something and often doesn't, and what that is mostly unique to the individual - and when enough individuals agree on something being good, that thing is over and we can all have a lovely time.

You can tell me all day why Mark Henry isn't any good, but I'm still going to smile, leave and watch the salmon jacket promo on YouTube.

2 minutes ago, no user name said:

I think I've worded my original post a bit wrong. I meant I've heard he's not the best wrestler or the best talker.  I don't really know much about him. That was why I didn't  know why he was being pushed so hard 

I did it for @The Gaffer

3 minutes ago, no user name said:

Well it's largely subjective. There are many things that make a match great 

 

Tell that to the fella that brought up 'in ring skill' in the first place.

On Roman, specifically, the idea he can't talk is absurd.

Prior to him being little brothered by The Rock's overwhelming starpower, he was doing some of the best acting work the WWE has ever seen.

His promos carried a leval of menace very few main event stars have got near to. He wasn't wild eyed, or screaming, he was the supremely confident mob boss who could have you taken out with a nod of his head or a click of his fingers. His mannerisms were subtle and perfect. Everything was on point.

Acknowledge him (after you've finished acknowledging Adele).

2 minutes ago, no user name said:

Well just did a quick Google search and Brittany has sold 150 million records adele has sold around 120 million. It doesn't matter anyway the point is there are better singers than Brittany spears who haven't sold as many records.

Better singing is subjective. You'll go mad trying to work out who the 'best' people are and how to get them on top.

It's not how wrestling works. @air_raid is bang on... it's a form of mystical alchemy, and some people make you feel something even if on the surface they don't have the wrestling ability of Bret Hart or the promo ability of The Rock.

That's all wrestling is, trying to make people forget that it's a show and make you feel something.

Speaking of which...

Heyman had the front two rows feeling all sorts of things. Could spend all day looking at the invidiual reactions.

Just now, Merzbow said:

Adele is the only woman to have three songs in the top ten at the same time, also 21 definitely sold more than any Britney album so..

Plus she's only worked about 10 nights in the last 2 years.

Acknowledge her.

5 minutes ago, no user name said:

And marketable is different from being good. Brittany spears is marketable but there are much better singers than her.

Well, I wouldn't say Britany Spears is that marketable currently. But thats by the by.

But you didn't originally ask if Roman Reigns is good. That's subjective. That's a matter of what you're into.

You asked what the big deal was. The big deal was they spotted someone who had what they identified as being the requisite skills to have people like him.

Britany Spears, whether you like her singing or not is (was?) a big deal because a record label executive decided she had the requisite skills to have people like her. 

Being a big deal isn't subjective. Whether you 'like' them is.

Though, Roman has the same habit that Cena did before him of having lots of matches that people like, then the credit is retrospectively given to the opponent.

Just to be clear, him being marketable means "we can put him in front of people and they'll like what they see and buy what he's selling."

So, yes, I suspect it's that.

This looks like it should be the second picture in a spot the difference competition.

"Stephanie's hat has an ECW logo, Bianca Bel Air is wearing glasses, Triple H's glasses are gone... and Steph isn't wearing a wedding ring."

8 minutes ago, Supremo said:

The maddest thing is that some form of Rey Mysterio vs. Santos Escobar has been penciled in for Mania for about eight months. A proper slow burn. And yet, in the final stretch it’s as if Vince Russo has become script consultant. Whole thing’s a rushed mess.

I do like the idea that they booked the Dragon Lee announcement, the crowd didn't love it and as he headed back through the curtain last week Triple H was just there like 'sorry, mate'.

Heymans induction was as close as we'll ever get to someone saying on WWE programming that Vince was a cunt, everyone hated working for him and the world will actually be a better place when he's dead.

Hope they do a nice tribute to Tozawa tonight after his untimely death at the hands of Ivar.

Cody, Brandi, Heyman and Dustin. Dark black suits and bright white smiles.

The Renaissance Era. 

I'm all in for the heel turn I invented 5 minutes ago. Let's do it.

I want the main event to try something really fucking stupid.

If we're doing chaos, let's go all in.

Let's try something audacious, like a triple turn, where Cody leaves with Heyman as the new baddie extraordinaire; Rock leaves with Solo/Jimmy as a sort of cool, Samoan Nation of Domination and Roman leaves with his hoodie. The goodie in a hoodie.

5 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Probably easier to appreciate the grind when you’re divorced and have no-one to go home to.

I saw Hunter was back talking bollocks about Chapters and The Story Continuing on Raw. Hilarious.

If Cody doesn’t win that belt I won’t even be mad this time. I’ll just marvel at the sheer ineptitude. Surely they wouldn’t do it again? Just edge people until the end of time?

Oh well. Could be worse.

 

"When I see people coming out of trying to make it, and they choose not to pick a job where no matter how hard they work they won't be rewarded. No matter how much they do, no matter how much the fans want it, they just get put back in their place... then I'm like, 'I'm glad I didn't pick you'!"

4 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Why has WrestleMania week just been slights at AEW? Rent free indeed. Also just a reminder the champion has had 9 matches since April 2023 and Big Kev and Scott routinely didn’t want to work at WCW and just took time off. What a chump.

To be fair, 'rent free' suggests it's one sided. I think the better phrase is 'both as bad as each other.'

Wrestling's pettiness is properly tiresome.

29 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

He also said this today:-

What a fucking knob.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13275891/dwayne-rock-johnson-regrets-endorsing-joe-biden-2024-election.html

Nope, sorry, just a false alarm. He's a knob and is trying to court Trump America.

What a shame.

*EDIT* I don't know how much of the below is true, but I do know he could do with saying less on occasion;

https://www.wrestlezone.com/news/1460975-the-rock-i-called-nick-khan-in-january-suggested-pivot-to-cody-rhodes-vs-roman-reigns-rematch

8 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

He also said this today:-

What a fucking knob.

I wonder how much of that is character, though, as he has tried recently to recast his character as authentic/real and the people booing him as being the sort of people who cancel people etc

I don't know why I'm advocating for him, but I'd like to think he's self aware enough to know that's exactly the sort of thing a dickhead would say, rather than him just being an actual dickhead.

Or he's just a fucking knob. One of the two.

This has a million things wrong with it that the nerd in me wants to spout off about... but it's good content!

I'm a big Cena fan, for lots of the reasons covered. That said, one of the fascinating things about the guy who came to embody the WWE, big-time wrestling style, is how utterly unsuited his style actually was for the modern era.

He overcame it with a force of personality, but he never quite shook his 'work the live audience' style that translates quite oddly to the modern TV production style or social or any of that stuff.

His mannerisms, facials... everything were all built for the house, in an era where we were told the house wasn't anywhere near as important, it was all about TV and social media and blah blah blah.

He also never, EVER got on top of his spot calling despite being surrounded by 100 cameras and 1000 microphones in the modern production set-up.

In many ways he was the last of the live house, standard definition, basic production era and incredibly helped shepherd the company into an era he'd stand out like a sore thumb in; multimedia, 4k, blockbuster levels of production.

I love him, but I don't think, if he surfaced now as a rookie, he gets ahead in modern WWE without toning down some of his excesses and learning to shut the fuck up.

I get why, if TK felt he had to have someone say something, it was Edge who did the opening promo. He's one of THE most WWE guys in the world, and he's saying all that good stuff? Well, gee whillickers, it must be true!

But, yeah, just don't. Rise above. It's never once improved a wrestling show when someone has addressed outside concerns that the wrestling show might be shit.

Just crack on.