Random thoughts thread v2 *NO NEWS ITEMS*

[JohnnyChimpo]

The Rock's gimmick being an eyebrow never hurt him.

Thats very true, and a fair point.

[King Pitcos]

There's been a rumour circulating that Punk will face Axel for the IC Title at Night Of Champions

I really hope not. On Smackdown, they were advertising that match for Raw this week. WWE should have more sense than to try to promote $45 events by having the same match be on three weeks earlier for free. It's one thing to do it with Del Rio vs Christian, nobody was buying SummerSlam for that. Punk's matches can sell pay-per-views, theoretically, so it's senseless to throw them away a few weeks earlier. Surely it'll be him vs Axel and Heyman in a handicap match at Night of Champions. Load of shit if it's just Punk vs Axel twice.

 

and his legion of devotees have really got the arse about it. It's quite fun.

Silver lining, though.

[Arch Stanton]

I share Chimpo's concerns about the beard and the hair and have done for ages. He grew it out long during the Team Hell No run, which was heavy on comedy segments and sillyness. I thought it was actually a clever move on his part to look the idiot while he played the idiot, then when he was ready to return to a more serious character he could easily tidy himself up to make that visual distinction and be taken seriously again. When you look back to early 2012 his look then was so much better than it is now, it's ridiculous. Having said all that, I had no idea that he would catch fire the way he has done and now, for better or worse, the beard has become a big part of the character. It no doubt helps to play into this idea that he's a misfit underdog in a world where the corporates want their champions to look like Greek gods (Orton). I just want him to take a few inches off it, tidy it up and wash his greasy looking hair.

[Statto]

Regardless of how they do it, Punk is looking like going into NoC with some kind of deal with Axel anyway, so those who feel he should be main eventing every month will still be pissed off. If he doesn't go in with Axel, there's nothing else for him to do, really.

 

I haven't seen it made totally clear if they're going with "every match is a title match", or just "every title will be on the line, plus some other stuff", but even if it's the latter, which I expect, you've got:

 

Orton vs. Bryan

Del Rio vs. Van Dam

Shield vs. Show/Henry

Ambrose vs. someone (Christian maybe? They never had their singles title match, IIRC?)

AJ vs. someone (triple-threat vs. Kaitlyn & Layla? Or Natalya on the back of Total Divas' success?)

Axel vs. someone (if not Punk, who?)

 

Which, even in the somewhat depleted ranks in terms of real top end star names given Cena's injury, Lesnar's being saved for the big ones etc, still leaves a few biggish names who made the SummerSlam card out in the cold - Ziggler, Kane, Wyatt, Rhodes, Sandow etc.

 

FWIW, given the thinning at the top of the card, I'd give Bryan a second, maybe a third match on the NoC card. Have the Regime make him run a gauntlet (not literally, as I wouldn't stipulate he had to win the other matches to face Orton, just to tire him out) through Sandow & Ziggler, for example, before facing Orton.

 

Done right, Bryan could come out looking like a superman in the eyes of both side of the smart/mark divide, as a guy who can have 3 competitive/3.5 snowflake-plus matches, lasting maybe an hour total, whilst a) giving him an excuse for not picking the title straight back up from Orton, and b) extending the feud by suggesting (proving?) that Orton only has the measure of him when he's already knackered, as at SummerSlam.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I share Chimpo's concerns about the beard and the hair and have done for ages. He grew it out long during the Team Hell No run, which was heavy on comedy segments and sillyness. I thought it was actually a clever move on his part to look the idiot while he played the idiot, then when he was ready to return to a more serious character he could easily tidy himself up to make that visual distinction and be taken seriously again. When you look back to early 2012 his look then was so much better than it is now, it's ridiculous. Having said all that, I had no idea that he would catch fire the way he has done and now, for better or worse, the beard has become a big part of the character. It no doubt helps to play into this idea that he's a misfit underdog in a world where the corporates want their champions to look like Greek gods (Orton). I just want him to take a few inches off it, tidy it up and wash his greasy looking hair.

 

Whilst he's in this current angle he has to leave it be. Any sort of touching up his look would seem like a form of corporate compromise, which would undermine his entire purpose.

 

*edit* isn't Christian still involved with ADR? Surely a triple threat seems more likely right now?

Edited August 25, 2013 by d-d-d-dAz

[King Pitcos]

Ziggler will either be wrestling Ambrose for the US, or there'll be a multi-man World title match. You'd think they'd have more sense than rewarding Natalya for her big fuck-up the other week, but she'll be the one who gets the Divas title match.

[Arch Stanton]

isn't Christian still involved with ADR? Surely a triple threat seems more likely right now?

Surely he's done with Christian now? Del Rio beat him clean twice this week.

 

Ziggler will either be wrestling Ambrose for the US, or there'll be a multi-man World title match. You'd think they'd have more sense than rewarding Natalya for her big fuck-up the other week, but she'll be the one who gets the Divas title match.

What was her big fuck-up?

[d-d-d-dAz]

Releasing a sharpshooter before AJ had tapped out, making everyone involved look daft. Then to make it better, smug as shit she walked up to the poor ref (who the announcers were forced to bury, making every idiot and their dog think he'd actually made a mistake) and expected him to raise her hand.

 

Awful.

[ShortOrderCook]

If it's simply a case of Punk being so far above IC title level to be challenging for it and to not win it if he does face Axel, they could simply do an angle where he costs Axel the title in the run up to NOC to piss of Heyman and then have a handi-cap match at the PPV or something. They could transfer the IC title to the Rhodes vs Sandow feud or Miz vs Fandango.

[gadge]

I was going to dig up a Superstars thread, but a search only reveals threads from 2011 and 2012, and I'm not bumping something from back then, so I may as well post here.

 

Fans of good wrestling matches for the sake of good wrestling matches should seek out Christian vs Big E Langston which opens the show this week, and tells a fun story of the experienced veteran vs the younger powerhouse, although the commentary refers to Christian as a "savvy veteran" about eight times, which gets annoying. I wonder if Big E got any grief for the match backstage, as he does a spot on the outside where he has Christian in a firemans carry position and dumps him face first on the steps, which assuming it was taped before Raw, was a big spot in the later CM Punk vs Curtis Axel brawl (GTS on the steps, init).

 

There's also a JTG sighting (!) against Kofi Kingston.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Releasing a sharpshooter before AJ had tapped out, making everyone involved look daft. Then to make it better, smug as shit she walked up to the poor ref (who the announcers were forced to bury, making every idiot and their dog think he'd actually made a mistake) and expected him to raise her hand.

 

Awful.

The referee was blamed for the fuck up by management. Natalya received no blame. Natalya and AJ made a mini fuck up and the referee stupidly stopped the match. There's a fuck up in every Diva match. Nobody cares. Stopping a match when all they had to do was re-do the spot falls on the referees head. He got nervous and called for the bell.

Edited August 25, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[ShortOrderCook]

That's not how it went is it? He didn't call for the bell otherwise they could have kind of covered it and he'd have just raised Natalyas hand surely? It's that he didn't that made it more off, I thought. I might be remembering it wrong though.

[aaron]

That's not how it went is it? He didn't call for the bell otherwise they could have kind of covered it and he'd have just raised Natalyas hand surely? It's that he didn't that made it more off, I thought. I might be remembering it wrong though.

 

Nope, you are remembering it correctly.

 

Natalya was stupid in dropping the sharpshooter before a bell rang. You gotta play to the whistle.

Edited August 25, 2013 by aaron

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I've got the match completely mixed up with something that happened on TNA, for some reason

 

But Natalya still never got blamed over it. Neither did AJ, weirdly, even though she was at fault as well. And the referee got blamed for it. You need a strong referee when in there with the women, because anything can happen. He wasn't vocal at all. In fairness to Natalya, when she walked over to him to raise the hand, he stood there looking like he'd shit himself. Time stood still. He should have been talking and explaining to let the fans know why the match suddenly stopped in its tracks. He should have kept it moving, but he never. The fact he was getting buried on commentary must tell you what was being said about him in the head set. I feel sorry for the road agent as well. I remember Sgt Slaughter getting hammered for the Jackie Gayda and Trish Stratus debacle. Standards are so low when it comes to the divas, nobody blames them.

Edited August 25, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[King Pitcos]

Yeah, he didn't call for the bell or stop the match. You'd think that one of the key elements of using the sharpshooter as a finisher would be knowing when your opponent submits. No wonder they don't like the stupid fucker winning.