Random thoughts thread v2 *NO NEWS ITEMS*

[Mr Butternut Squash]

I didn't make any point about big men, but yeah I like Harper too. He's certainly someone that's capable of slowing down and drawing in some heat when the time calls for it.

[Pinc]

Have you seen them going around New York on one in mid 98. HHH does an awful Indian accent and asks a chap wearing a turban "if I pull the end of it will it start your motor", or something similarly dreadful.

. What a dreadful tit he seems.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Dont agree on Harper. He's been around since 2001. You'd think he'd have mastered the craft by now. But there's just something about his work that doesn't do it for me, when he isn't in there with someone who's great. But I may be just being hard on him because Rowan is abysmal and Wyatt isn't half as ready as anyone thought he'd be. Harper's job is to carry Rowan and Bray in the ring. And there's just no way he's ready for it. To use a rotten analogy, Harper should be the Batista of the Wyatts. Where he has enough potential to be put around people to learn from and find himself. But Rowan and Bray are desperate to improve themselves. At least Harper has something about him in the ring. Harper can have good matches with good people. Rowan on the other hand is just fucked. This fucking bloke is such a useless bastard.

Edited November 23, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[The Dart]

This year much of it seems to be thrown together with little rhyme or reason.

 

If you are talking about the elimination match, then...not really.

 

The Shield have feuded with the Usos and Rhodes/Goldust for months, and were responsible for Mysterio missing 9 months of action. The Real Americans are feuding with Rhodes & Goldust sort of, and are the current challengers. And the Total Divas vs. Normal Divas feud's been slowly brewing as much as Divas storylines do for months now too.

[Dirty Eddie]

Too few guys bring any kind of

[thegamehhh]

I really hate that Sandow is now just coming out in a T-shirt. His character should never wear a T-shirt and his robe set him apart from almost everyone. A silly change.

 

I totally agree with this

[Ladiesman345]

Austin has also mentioned (quite a few times) that he likes the ring to be the only thing lit. The crowd should be dark and all of your attention should automatically be on the ring. Which is fair point in my view. The crowd has a dreadful red tinge on them nowadays and definitely takes away from the atmosphere. Wrestling should go back to being a bit more gritty, and a little less "hollywood". IT'S SO BLOODY BRIGHT!

[Teedy Kay]

I found Austin chatting to Hall about his son interesting, even though Cody could walk into the Performance Centre after a singular phone call, Scott wants to keep him away from it so he can truly work his craft on independents and Japan, maybe Europe. Austin seemed so pleased that was the route he was going to take.

[CavemanLynn]

Dont agree on Harper. He's been around since 2001. You'd think he'd have mastered the craft by now. But there's just something about his work that doesn't do it for me, when he isn't in there with someone who's great. But I may be just being hard on him because Rowan is abysmal and Wyatt isn't half as ready as anyone thought he'd be. Harper's job is to carry Rowan and Bray in the ring. And there's just no way he's ready for it. To use a rotten analogy, Harper should be the Batista of the Wyatts. Where he has enough potential to be put around people to learn from and find himself. But Rowan and Bray are desperate to improve themselves. At least Harper has something about him in the ring. Harper can have good matches with good people. Rowan on the other hand is just fucked. This fucking bloke is such a useless bastard.

 

I don't know what Harper is supposed to learn and implement from anybody. His character is basically a tree that throws lariat. He's not supposed to be a trained professional wrestler, just a lumbering brute who gets put in the ring. That's why I like him. He does bare bones basic shit. No flash that might make people pop. It's up to his opponents to add the flash. He's the obstacle. I've not seen a bad Harper match that wasn't down to his opponent being unsympathetic. I think Harper is great at his job, and the moment people here start thinking he can have 'great matches' is when he'll fall back into the shuffle. He wouldn't still get ring time if a higher-up didn't think he was good - they have NXT for that.

[LaGoosh]

I've enjoyed every Harper match I've seen. I think he's great.

[Fatty Facesitter]

Austin's right in many cases, though I think he needs to accept a couple of things.

 

-- He believes the quality of matches has gone down, when actually over the last few years or so the in-ring action has measurably improved, especially in 2013. I agree that certain guys need to express their own individuality more, but by and large the actual matches are much better crafted and much more enjoyable to watch.

 

-- I know he dislikes the Hollywood aspect, but I think it's an absolute necessity. They don't always get it right in creative, but it's something you should absolutely strive for if you want to try and rub shoulders with the Hollywood types. It's what makes WWE the WWE and not some bog-standard promotion running out of a tiny building. It's about glitz, glamour and doing stuff with a flourish and a polish which lets you know "this is proper wrestling" and this is where the big boys play (no pun intended).

 

-- With deviation from scripted promos, I think that's something that has to come gradually. When someone first steps up, of course they'll need things laid out for them. The key is helping them to get settled when, say, they first get called up, and then after some time to get comfortable, then go down the route of just giving them a couple of bullet points and letting them get on with the rest. You can't expect everyone to become a Steve Austin, a Ric Flair or a CM Punk on the stick from day one.

 

-- The other problem that you have today with the promos is that you have to be so careful with what you say in case you offend someone, in the same way EVERY live TV show in a certain time-slot has to be careful because of the Daily Mail-esque easily offended culture. So that plays a big part in how the promos are crafted today. Take the case of Robbie Fowler recently, who made a perfectly innocent comment about a couple of footballers "fighting like girls" on the pitch, and having to do a grovelling on-air apology afterwards because he'd upset a women's rights group or something. It's stuff like that which has everyone on edge when it comes to going off the cuff, not just the WWE.

 

Otherwise, I agree with virtually everything he said on Keller's show.

[Egg Shen]

Dont agree on Harper. He's been around since 2001. You'd think he'd have mastered the craft by now. But there's just something about his work that doesn't do it for me, when he isn't in there with someone who's great. But I may be just being hard on him because Rowan is abysmal and Wyatt isn't half as ready as anyone thought he'd be. Harper's job is to carry Rowan and Bray in the ring. And there's just no way he's ready for it. To use a rotten analogy, Harper should be the Batista of the Wyatts. Where he has enough potential to be put around people to learn from and find himself. But Rowan and Bray are desperate to improve themselves. At least Harper has something about him in the ring. Harper can have good matches with good people. Rowan on the other hand is just fucked. This fucking bloke is such a useless bastard.

 

I don't know what Harper is supposed to learn and implement from anybody. His character is basically a tree that throws lariat. He's not supposed to be a trained professional wrestler, just a lumbering brute who gets put in the ring. That's why I like him. He does bare bones basic shit. No flash that might make people pop. It's up to his opponents to add the flash. He's the obstacle. I've not seen a bad Harper match that wasn't down to his opponent being unsympathetic. I think Harper is great at his job, and the moment people here start thinking he can have 'great matches' is when he'll fall back into the shuffle. He wouldn't still get ring time if a higher-up didn't think he was good - they have NXT for that.

spot on!

[Sphinx]

I agree with Austin and the old timers for the most part. WWE's had a fantastic year in ring and some of the big matches have been superb, but in terms of the week to week product I can see what he means with the "everything is too fast and the workers don't let you breath before the next move" criticism. Too often it looks like two guys walking through rehearsed steps rather than two wrestlers feeling out the crowd and riffing off of them and getting their characters over. Wrestling has always stuck to formulas - so it should - but now you see entire sequences mindlessly rolled out without any thought into what that particular audience or environment or occasion calls for. The post- Mania Raw Orton vs Sheamus match is an extreme example of that. It doesn

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I don't know what Harper is supposed to learn and implement from anybody. His character is basically a tree that throws lariat. He's not supposed to be a trained professional wrestler, just a lumbering brute who gets put in the ring. That's why I like him. He does bare bones basic shit. No flash that might make people pop. It's up to his opponents to add the flash. He's the obstacle. I've not seen a bad Harper match that wasn't down to his opponent being unsympathetic. I think Harper is great at his job, and the moment people here start thinking he can have 'great matches' is when he'll fall back into the shuffle.

When this gimmick dies, he'll die with it if thats all you think he should be bringing to the roster. Mike Knox and Luke Gallows did a better job at what you are saying his role is. Gallows was awesome in the Straight Edge Society. But when it was time to move on, he got sacked. He was younger, looked fitter and had more potential than Harper as well. Mike Knox looked meaner, moved better and was bigger and younger than Rowan or Harper as well. He got the sack as well. If you think in 2013 a wrestler on the WWE roster should be limited to the style Harper does, then I can live with that when he gets the chop because "creative have nothing for him". He's on the roster because his face fits. Not because of what he's doing in the ring. Once the Wyatt gimmick dies, what do you do with someone with his physique and look?

 

He wouldn't still get ring time if a higher-up didn't think he was good - they have NXT for that.

Of course he would. WWE has been built on putting people on TV because of peoples appearance. Do you think Adrian Neville or Sami Zayn need any type of seasoning in developmental?

Edited November 24, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[air_raid]

Too few guys bring any kind of