Duke

As someone who hasn't seen any TV since SummerSlam... have they touched upon Orton kicking Vince in the face / DDT-ing Stephanie and licking her face / having a massive brawl with HHH that wrecked half of his house? Not picking holes particularly, just curious.

On top of what butch said, HHH basically said he really doesn't like Orton but he's the best for business. Which is great, it plays into why he's hyper sensitive about it all

I think we'll see a much less muscled Rock next time he appears. In the run up to Wrestlemania 29 wasn't he filming Pain and Gain where he plays a bodybuilder?

 

Now that role is done he won't need to be so huge.

And Hercules. I think we still will though. He wants to be gigantic to be an action star.

They did that subtle "Brock lingering at the poster of the rock" thing when he invaded wwe, and as Ian says he was meant to do an angle the night after mania. That said, meltz has suggested they might do Brock taker, assuming sting doesn't come in.

Cena vs HHH and Orton vs a royal rumble winning Bryan could work to be fair, just after Bryan's rematch have Maddox say "I'll never give you a shot" and then he wins the rumble to earn that one more shot. You could fit on a feud with a HHH hired gun too (shield are obvious, but ryback or whoever would work too). Cena loses to Orton at the rumble, finds a way to go after HHH.

This, of course, is ignoring that meltz said they want Cena and Orton.

Or just ignore it as a GayTat

I can't see how they plan on doing anything other than Cena vs Orton for Mania if this carries on the way it does.

Which is a shame, because Bryan's story should surely end with him winning the rumble and then winning the title for propers at mania.

Yeah, honestly I thought it worked too. It made punk come across as a guy who is furious enough to fight damn near anyone and didn't care who. I doubt he was actually that bothered by one guy booing him, but he figured on the "if this were real" stakes his character would, right now, be properly fed and be prepared to just have a go.

Meltzer has suggested that the "B+" comment has come from when he called HHH a "solid B+" in 1998. Dunno if he's being a bit too self important there, but quite funny nonetheless

Ryback has basically turned into O'Doyle from Billy Madison now.

 

I think the Bryan vs. Triple H's corporation feud is a good idea in theory. But I reckon Triple H will probably ruin it. He's not as good an onscreen character as Vince and I'd be surprised if he allows himself to be beaten up and humiliated every other week like Vince did with Austin. Also Stephanie McMahon needs to get the fuck off TV now and forever.

He won't. He'll build it and build it and eventually face Bryan in a match where he'll probably tap in the centre of the ring.

I'm guessing everyone must have at least one FB friend who decides to post an extremely unfunny joke as their status update on what seems like a daily basis.

And if you're thinking "no, I don't", it's you.

I think hallicks and I are saying the same thing, really. Yes, if this was real, Cena should say all of what he said and then some, but all that does is make Bryan look a berk for having a problem with him. Bryan needs the help, so that promo was counter productive because all it did was make Bryan look a nob. Because of what he said, but also because of Cena. Bryan seemed to be set up as a straw man for the booing fans for Cena to actually get to tell them to shut up without actually doing it. It didn't help us get behind Bryan.

They could have stayed off that topic, they could have had Cena carry on the generic wwe universe stuff, which wouldn't have made his point quite as well, but would have made it a less one sided thing.

Or maybe they figured Bryan was more popular than Cena and they wanted to split the crowd more. Seems unlikely though

I'm with Duke.

 

Bryan's part in this narrative requires a level of humility, and something the wider audience can empathise with. Not being a complete pretentious, smug, nasty prick.

 

At least up until last week, I thought the desired response would be to have the whole world leaking at the nipples to see him win the title. Based on last night, I'm not sure they give the flimsiest toss anymore. I think they take the support of the fappers for granted, regardless of what they do, and aren't as sure Bryan can attract the casuals so they've bottled it, and are now focusing on the superfluous shit to try and hook the normals.

But, and I think this is where we differ, Cena didn't help by going all guns blazing on the subject. It's a two face feud, and Cena just explained, in his particular brand of delivery, that Bryan's a prick and he's actually the good one. It was like a burial of the entire debate

That's the point though, isn't it? They're trying to get Bryan to sell the pay-per-view to the worst kind of wrestling fan, and Cena and Triple H to sell it to everyone else. I really like the conflict they've set up between Bryan and Cena, and I think Triple H's involvement just muddies the waters. They could've kept that idea of Bryan not being on Cena's level and "I AM WORKRATE AND LOVE MUSAWA, MY MOVESET IS BIGGER THAN YOURS" vs "FOR OVER FIFTY YEARS, THE REVOLUTIONARY FORCE IN SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT" thing as the story all along without the McMahon stuff, for my own enjoyment at least. I don't think there's a conspiracy to downplay Bryan, they're just (rightly or wrongly) using this as the platform for the big Triple H-Vince thing that's becoming the main story on Raw. I do think it's dangerous that Bryan as emerging main-event babyface was basically doing the same sort of smug, inside-wanky shit as 2011 CM Punk, which turned off loads of normals. As thrilling as their verbal battle was, I don't think it did Bryan any favours with anyone who doesn't already own "Best of Bryan Danielson" DVDs.

The "wrestler vs sports entertainer" is definitely the feud (again), but the point is they gave bryan's side of the feud no leg to stand on, (partly because there isn't one). He's the underdog, he needs to be at least a little in the right.

D-Bry accused Cena of being in it for the money, and joked about fans hating him. I think it was perfectly logical for Cena to reply with the real reasons he does what he does.

 

Everything Cena said made perfect sense and countered specific objections.

 

I also follow the logic that you need to win titles and stay at the top for years to be classed alongside HBK, Triple H et al. I actually think, more than anything, what made D-Bry look most like a prick was his inferrence that he should be considered in that class based solely on how good he thinks he is.

 

I'm fully Team Cena now.

Perfectly logical, sure, but not necessarily helpful. Bryan isn't on Cena's level, and I thought the angle of Cena looking past him a bit and giving the "kid a break" without actually taking him seriously is good, it's interesting, but Bryan needs the help and while Cena was completely right in everything he said, it didn't build anything.

I dunno, I thought it was really well executed, but for a go home promo I don't think it helped the match

John Cena's the fucking man, isn't he?

 

As well as cutting one of the promos of the year, he even managed to, essentially, call Miz a shitehawk in the process. I didn't think D-Bry held up his end quite as well but those sort of things aren't his speciality.

 

I actually thought the whole segment made D-Bry look a bit of a nasty prick.

yeah it did. Cena kind of stopped building the feud and B-Dazzle and decided to basically call the fans that boo him pricks. He's right, but the whole monologue made Bryan look like a fapper. I actualyl thought Bryan held up his end really well, but thought the segment was designed to make Cena look like superman and Bryan like an IWC wannabe.

I can't decide who Triple H is going to screw in the Cena/Bryan match at SummerSlam.....

whoever wins

I suspect that's the point.

 

No shit Sherlock! I'm guessing there's many people too young to know or just not remember the theme to have known

Oh ok!

Yes. I'd noticed that.

I suspect that's the point.

Andrew, I assume what you're saying about reports saying he's been cleared comes from his Wikipedia page?

Ric Flair is discovering what I would imagine is the hardest bit about being Ric Flair, not being able to be Ric Flair anymore. So he's doing his best to hold on it, the poor basyard

Another problem with crossing over the X-Men and Avengers is that it would be a little tricky storyline wise. If you go down the mutants vs humans route to cross them over you head into full on Civil War story territory, and Tony Stark is pretty much the bad guy in that.

 

And Iron Man is their most popular character so a heel turn for him seems improbable.

Surely you'd do something like the Xmen vs Avengers storyline they did in the comics? Rather than go into civil war territory.

Isn't Xmen still owned by Fox and therefore kind of kept completely separate?

Me too man, he would've been incredible. Unsurprisingly I think Nic Cage could've done it justice at one point too.

 

Even as a kid I thought Nicholson was too old, fat and immobile but I appreciate him a bit more in my old age. Heath Ledger was ok, but way overrated and was ridiculously deified after he kicked the bucket. The Joker lives on and I'd love to see someone else have a crack at it.

it'd be a funny old world if we all thought alike...

Who torrents Raw?! There are streams of it everywhere. Just go to DailyMotion or watchwrestling.net, Loki, you nutter.

 

I think that's probably just a generalisation. He might just be like me and likes watching wrestling on an actual telly as opposed to a laptop screen. Raw's enough of a chore as it is, without watching it on this bastarding thing.

 

This. I know some of you are, but I'm not wedded to my laptop. I watch telly on the telly. TNA is on the telly. Dailymotion isn't. That may change with the new consoles though!

 

You can get Dailymotion on the 360. Not sure about PS3, but it's been on 360 for ages,

it also shows up on youtube as well.

Yeah, not sure what to say about this weeks edition. Chris Sabin? Really? Like, actually really? Does he lose it back at sacrifice?

I was about to launch into some sweltering rhetoric about how it's criminal The Rock isn't on that list (trust me, it'd have been great) but its extremely hard to budge any of the others....

I disagree with that, Duke, I think the BFG Series has given the product a real lift.

 

Of course, if you only tune in periodically, then something like a series and its momentum is lost on you. So you also need the main event feuds to have momentum, and I agree that it's that area that's lacking since the reduction of PPVs.

 

I still think the solution to that is to turn one Impact into a Night Of Champions and build to title defences on those shows; a mini-PPV in between each actual one.

I watch every week. I've previously loved the BFG series, but I'm not bothered about this one. Probably because I don't care about anyone who's in it. Or maybe it's because last time, rather than using it to do something interesting, they gave it to Jeff Hardy and turned Austin Aries heel.

Probably that I don't care about any of them though.