d-d-d-dAz Posted December 21, 2017 Author Share Posted December 21, 2017 3 minutes ago, big7thletter said: It's still pissing me off that no matter how much i love Brock, the booking is dreadful for him by the writers, because he's had that title for 8 months and has probably only defended it like 4 times. He doesn't defend it at every PPV. He doesn't appear regularly to remind the audience (younger crowd) of WHAT the wrestlers are all actually fighting for. It's just a case of he has the title and they're waiting for Wrestlemania for him to lose it and then we probably won't see him until Summerslam. It's really getting shitty now. Â Â You think it's a writing decision that Brock is sitting at home? That's potty. If they had him at their disposal, they'd use him. He's not there every week because he doesn't have to be and, crucially, doesn't want to be. It's not a creative decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Kaz Hayashi Posted December 21, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted December 21, 2017 11 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said: You think it's a writing decision that Brock is sitting at home? That's potty. If they had him at their disposal, they'd use him. He's not there every week because he doesn't have to be and, crucially, doesn't want to be. It's not a creative decision. Absolutely agree. However, when they do have access to him why is he not recording lots more sound bytes/vids that can be cleaverly spliced on the tron each week? He doesn’t have to be there live for his dominating presence to be felt. Heyman could at the very least be present more than he is, even holding the belt on behalf of his client, with a couple of body guards. There could be a bit more of a focus on the fact that he’s the one with the belt, not just Heyman saying his name. They have done this in fairness, maybe not quite enough in some people’s eyes though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted December 21, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted December 21, 2017 I think they reckon it's best to just let it lie when he's not there rather than constantly reminding people. I can't think of any other reason why they wouldn't keep his presence alive with taped interviews, video packages and showing some of his classic matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Kaz Hayashi Posted December 21, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted December 21, 2017 Absolutely, I suppose it’s strange because we’re not used to it.  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Your Fight Site Posted December 21, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted December 21, 2017 I’m still trying to work out what Stephanie was wearing. Leather jacket dress? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Cod Eye Posted December 21, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted December 21, 2017 I personally like that the title is only in focus every few months. It reminds me of the days of 4/5 PPV's when the you only saw Hogan/Warrior(or later)Bret on the big events and it just felt like a special event... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted December 21, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted December 21, 2017 13 hours ago, Love-Wilcox said: He has (IMO) given Bobby Roode his best match in WWE, Aleister Blacks best match up until that point Yeah, Black vs. Itami was an absolute belter - would be one of my favourite matches of the year in almost any other year! While "indie lads kicking each other" is done to death in NXT, that was a lesson in how to do it brilliantly. Itami's been unlucky timing-wise in WWE, not just with injuries, but with what happened while he was out injured. They brought him in with a world of hype behind him (they had sodding Hogan on hand for his signing!), and tried to put him over as the biggest star in Japanese wrestling - but then, while he was out, they sign Shinsuke Nakamura, who arguably was the biggest star in Japanese wrestling, who also kicks people really hard and uses a running knee as his finish, but has plenty more going for him as well. By the time Itami comes back, what's he got left? They were right to turn him heel, once they eventually got around to it, but everything he was known for they had someone else doing better, or doing as part of a better package. All he really has going for him now is the GTS. Â I'm not sure why, but I don't think we'll see Reigns win the Rumble this year. Having two belts gives them the scope to have the Rumble winner be someone from Smackdown, while Reigns can go on and earn his shot another way, rather than doing Reigns/Lesnar via Rumble win again. Is Elimination Chamber a RAW or Smackdown PPV? If it's RAW, could see Reigns becoming number one contender there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted December 21, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted December 21, 2017 I’ve not sat and counted, but I’m pretty sure 2017 has been Brock’s most active year since he came back from the UFC. It feels like he’s been featured on TV and wrestled on PPVs considerably more this year than ever before. If I was to criticise Brock, and how he’s used, the amount of time he’s on TV would be the last thing I’d bring up. The real problem with Brock is two-fold. Firstly, he’s a lazy bastard. The AJ match completely exposed him as having two very different gears, one when he’s motivated and one when he isn’t. For the longest time before that AJ match he’d been phoning it in and doing the same boring ten minute suplex exhibition. Worst of all though is how enamoured they are with the plan of Brock vs. Roman at Wrestlemania, so much so that they’ve missed the boat twice on potential stars by not pulling the trigger on Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman respectively. After years and years of them pushing people like Roman and Seth and it not clicking whatsoever, they had two guys in Joe and Braun who were generating great reactions from the crowd and building genuine momentum. Both times they should’ve taken the belt off Lesnar in order to capitalise on the buzz they’d stumbled upon, but both times they chose to stick to the plan~! instead. Fuck the plan. I wouldn’t mind if the eventual idea was to give Roman the belt and turn him into the worlds biggest heel, but you know it’ll never happen. He’ll beat Brock, continuing being a shit babyface that doesn’t connect and nothing will be achieved. We’ve seen it before. We know how this plays out. If nothing else, giving Samoa Joe that win at Great Balls of Fire had potential to go somewhere new and different. The definition of insanity, innit? Keep doing the same thing and expect different results. Vince’s refusal to admit defeat with this Roman thing and go in a different direction couldn’t be described better. It’s insane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted December 21, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted December 21, 2017 Brock is good enough that he can make people look good without losing to them - he still has enough legitimacy that "can hold their own with Brock Lesnar" makes anyone look like a bad-ass. Samoa Joe absolutely should have come out of that Lesnar feud, in defeat, as a made man. They just needed to capitalise on it - and the story of WWE for the past five years or more has been that they've allowed wrestlers to put on star-making performances, and then made no effort to actually make stars out of them. At the beginning of the year Luke Harper was a viable World Title contender, putting on brilliant matches with Randy Orton and there was genuinely talk of sticking him in the Orton/Wyatt match at Wrestlemania - but forget all that, he's back to tagging with Erick Rowan, he's just got a new costume. Plenty of people had "star making" matches with John Cena during his US Title Open Challenge, and then went right back to slumming it in midcard storylines. It's infuriating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ColinBollocks Posted December 21, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted December 21, 2017 (edited) Brock can be hilariously lazy, but I'd hate to imagine Raw currently without him as the champion. Even him turning up for 10 minutes to suplex someone has more appeal than seeing Kevin Owens or Seth Rollins trade wins with a Dean Ambrose or Finn Balor. Plus, the Goldberg feud was so good, I'm fine with him having a few matches off. It's unprofessional, of course, but there is something wonderful about Brock looking across at his opponent and realising he's shite, so won't even sell a fart from him - some may argue more need to have this attitude. If Brock is in there with someone good, like Joe or AJ or Goldberg, he shown he's more than happy to show some arse, but I think he's probably right to be picky with whom he drops the "monster" gimmick for. Edited December 21, 2017 by ColinBollocks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted December 21, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted December 21, 2017 I don't quite buy the notion that Brock always has the same match, or even that he's lazy - while you can tell the difference between a really motivated Lesnar and your everyday Lesnar, I think there's more variety in his matches than anyone else's. He's the only bloke on the roster that has a real feeling of "anything could happen" in his matches - the first "Suplex City" match was absolutely mental for the time, his match with Randy Orton that ended because he just pounded Orton's face in, the quick loss to Goldberg...they use the "all Suplexes" framework as a starting point, but it's rarely the be-all and end-all of his matches, outside of the glorified house show "Network specials" he did a few of. I'd say the biggest missed opportunity from Brock this year was the Royal Rumble - while I loved him just getting beasted by Goldberg the moment he came out, it was an opportunity to let Lesnar mix it up with a wide range of wrestlers and see what happened, and it was a shame that they did just reduce that to a suplex-fest. Giving Lesnar a few "mini-matches" with just two or three blokes in there that you'd never normally see him mix it up with could have been a lot of fun. While they haven't treated him as a big deal since they brought him back, I was really hoping we'd see some interaction between Lesnar and Rhyno. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 6 hours ago, Kaz Hayashi said: Absolutely agree. However, when they do have access to him why is he not recording lots more sound bytes/vids that can be cleaverly spliced on the tron each week? He doesn’t have to be there live for his dominating presence to be felt. Heyman could at the very least be present more than he is, even holding the belt on behalf of his client, with a couple of body guards. There could be a bit more of a focus on the fact that he’s the one with the belt, not just Heyman saying his name. They have done this in fairness, maybe not quite enough in some people’s eyes though. Because they want the focus to be on whatever shite is going on, not on reminding people that the champion isn't there. If they were emphasising Brock every show when he hasn't got a storyline on the go or isn't gonna be back for a couple of months, it'd take away importance from whatever the Shield, Strowman etc are up to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Kaz Hayashi Posted December 21, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted December 21, 2017 That’s fair, suppose it’s just shit that he’s the champion then. I like to see the champion involved in storylines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoUseforaUsername Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 I'm reading the retrospective Raw and Nitro reviews on 411 and apparently Hogan went approximately 6 months without defending his title before defending it against Luger on Nitro in June 97, so it's not without precedent, and of course the business was raging hot back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted December 21, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted December 21, 2017 If Sting, Luger, Savage, Hall, Nash, Hogan, DDP, Giant, Flair, Benoit, Guerrero, Raven and Mysterio in their prime all turn up on Raw next week, then we'll be OK without Brock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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