The "I've just watched ..." thread

[Jazzy G]

The Horsemen (Flair, Roma & Arn) Vs The Hollywood Blonds & Barry Windham https://youtu.be/3RS46MjU8hw

 

My favourite tag team, my favourite commentary team (I was raised on Tony & Jesse), a pair of the all time greats, Windham at one of the high points of his career and Paul Roma trying desperately to get a rub from them. Entertaining match. Does great to keep the feuds running and build more heat for the PPV in a couple of weeks' time.

[Jackpot]

Eddie Guerrero's ECW debut for the TV Title against 2 Cold Scorpio.

 

The match came about because Scorpio beat Eddie's brother, Hector, a few weeks beforehand. They made Eddie out to be a huge star throughout the match and the crowd was very much behind him, when they weren't chanting "fuck Sabu". 

 

Very technical bout, very enjoyable match and Eddie's victory leads into the famed feud with Dean Malenko.

[Phil Austin]

_{Watched two things at lunch today: Scott Norton v the Giant, which is a fun big man v big man, heel v heel match.}

 

_{Then I watched Kendo Kashin v Pandita. This is a whole event, which lasted under an hour, and had super high ticket prices! It consists of Kashin trying to fight a man in a panda suit, accompanied by FMW wrestlers. Every time he tries to get near, he is beaten up by the FMW crew. Then he gets hold of the panda, pulls the head off, and it is Atsushi Onita, who mists him and piledrives him through a table!}

_{After that, Onita is challenged by IGF wrestlers Kazayuki Fujita and Hideki Suzuki.}

 

_{It's...different. Not sure why people paid such big money for this though!}

Edited November 3, 2016 by Phil Austin

[Guest]

Sounds like a boss battle in a video game!

[Phil Austin]

It's essentially like this, except Kashin looks like he is about to beat him, just to fail. Why the guys in the front row would pay the equivalent of £777 pounds (or more perhaps if I have got the yen amount wrong!) to watch that is beyond me-it's just a 30 minute set up angle for an upcoming feud!

[Merzbow]

It's Onita aint it, he has a weird cult like following.

[Supremo]

I spent the morning binging loads of Sami Zayn in NXT. His title win, his feud with Kevin Owens, and what is still my match of the year, against Nakamura. I know it's not new to say this, but fucking hell they've wasted him on the main roster. He should be such a big deal right now, but instead he's a complete chump, with zero momentum, being fed to Strowman.

 

I genuinely wonder if there's any point even getting excited about Nakamura, Roode or Samoa Joe ever making it to the main roster. I've little to no faith left that they can transition guys from NXT properly. In retrospect, for all the talk of guys needing to learn the style and get acclimated, the most successful main roster arrival of the past few years has been AJ Styles, who leapfrogged the system entirely.

[Wrasslin]

Frustrates me massively. Every time he's on camera doing anything he generally knocks it out of the park.

After he loses to Strowman he needs something strong. I would like to see him underdogging against a Heel Reigns but that's not gonna happen

[King Pitcos]

I spent the morning binging loads of Sami Zayn in NXT. His title win, his feud with Kevin Owens, and what is still my match of the year, against Nakamura. I know it's not new to say this, but fucking hell they've wasted him on the main roster. He should be such a big deal right now, but instead he's a complete chump, with zero momentum, being fed to Strowman.

 

I genuinely wonder if there's any point even getting excited about Nakamura, Roode or Samoa Joe ever making it to the main roster. I've little to no faith left that they can transition guys from NXT properly. In retrospect, for all the talk of guys needing to learn the style and get acclimated, the most successful main roster arrival of the past few years has been AJ Styles, who leapfrogged the system entirely.

 

They're not entirely comparable as performers, though. Sami Zayn is very reliant on the underdog from the underground thing, and that doesn't translate to rocking up and winning the belt in six months. He's got enough Internet points that he wouldn't get the "SHOVED DOWN OUR THROATS" complaints if he was champion already, but he could definitely do with a year or two struggling to get dem chanting for him when a man with muscles and star power wins the 2018 Rumble. You can't build Sami as a babyface underdog if he's champ immediately. Losing to Braun Strowman and Chris Jericho and co at the moment does more for him, being the kind of wrestler he is in the current landscape. He could probably do with a comedy tag team with Big Show for a bit in between. The trouble will be that even reaching that point, how they'd then book him once he has the belt. Even in NXT, they never seemed to know what to do with (or have any plans to run with) Sami as champion.

 

AJ Styles benefitted massively from the heel turn. He wouldn't have anywhere near the run he's having now if he was still the plucky redneck from the Jericho feud.

[Supremo]

I don't feel as if Sami's current losses and overall portrayal are doing anything for him, on a surface, normal-fan level or a "this is wrestling! Push the cruisers!" mong-fan level either. He's not coming cross as an underdog who you eventually want to see succeed. He's a loser who nobody cares about, and I think more and more losses aren't going to turn things around. There's no storyline of him being an underdog, or being on some quest of eventually overcoming the odds, he's just a chump.

 

He's Zack Ryder.

Edited November 5, 2016 by Supremo

[Wrasslin]

Just a thought is there any mileage in him upsetting

Strowman?

 

Just getting absolutely dominated but then sneaking a win

Edited November 5, 2016 by Wrasslin

[Jazzy G]

I think just running Strowman close will be enough. It's a shame he's become just one of the guys, but he can make his opponents look a million dollars. Yes, he could do to stick a little run together and maybe have the US title or suchlike for a few months. He could probably get more eyes on the cruiserweight division as well if they really needed to try and make it look like a big deal. Have Kendrick call out some of the guys on the main roster saying they think they're above the cruiserweight title but he knows otherwise, then send some guys after him. Sticking Sin Hunico with the cruiserweights just screams "creative has nothing for you".

[King Pitcos]

I don't feel as if Sami's current losses and overall portrayal are doing anything for him, on a surface, normal-fan level or a "this is wrestling! Push the cruisers!" mong-fan level either. He's not coming cross as an underdog who you eventually want to see succeed. He's a loser who nobody cares about, and I think more and more losses aren't going to turn things around. There's no storyline of him being an underdog, or being on some quest of eventually overcoming the odds,

There wasn't that for Daniel Bryan either, until there was. And the years before then contributed to it. They fucked up with Sami when they didn't follow up on him beating Owens with anything, but it isn't like there were loads of options there given the shitty half-rosters. He's done Owens, done Jericho, there aren't that many options near the top. Sami losing a feud to Braun Strowman is better for his struggling underdog character than him winning one against Jinder Mahal, I think. Personally I'd love to see him have a series with Rusev.

[Jackpot]

One of the biggest issues with Sami's underdog gimmick is he doesn't look like an underdog and he isn't going against the establishment, only to be knocked down time and time again.

 

He's billed at 6"1, which is taller than both Jericho and Owens who are both six nothing. He's currently feuding with the fella who wants real competition, Sami Zayn is filling the void for real competition whereas somebody like James Ellsworth on SmackDown filled the void of underdog against AJ Styles.

[Porkchopcash]

He has something about him does Zayn, but i can imagine Vince thinks he's just a gingernut in a Harrington with shite music so leave him as he is.