Minor PPVs that don't deserve a thread *Spoilers*

[FUM]

I’m not even a huge LA Knight fan but this seems to be another case of “not being the plan so let’s ignore it” lately. Been hearing him super over since the week before Mania and yet he’s in a filler feud with Rick Boogs.

[TildeGuy~!]

He’s been rumoured to win this years MITB for like the last 6 months and I never understood why as his basically done nothing of note on TV since his debut.

[TheScarlettChad]

That ending gave me chills.

[AndyUK]

That ended up being a great show. Definitely not a minor PPV that doesn't deserve a thread after that ending! 

 I think as a story the Bloodline stuff is probably the best I've seen happen in real time in 23 years of watching this stuff. I can't even thing that comes close that they've not stumbled upon by accident.   

Also actually thought Cody v Brock was the best Lesnar match in years. Pure brilliant wrestling silliness that had me a couple of times with the false finishes.

Looking forward to Rollins and Asuka's title runs and seeing what they do with Trish and Zoey Stark too.

 

[Supremo]

Fuck yes Jimmy Uso! The hero all along! Brilliant, brilliant ending. It’s still not on the level of Royal Rumble or Montreal, but it’s pretty fucking close. This was phenomenal. I’m fully back on the Bloodline hook. That visual of Roman selling his world falling apart on the outside, whilst Sami stands tall with the belts? Beautiful. Inject it straight into my veins. Eat shit, Roman!

I wonder if they’ll do a three-way Tag Title match, with Sami and Kevin vs. The Usos vs. Roman and Solo. Like a victory lap of the six lads who saved this entire company.

The Elite reunited. Bloodline cooking again. CM Punk causing tonnes of trouble backstage and he’s not even properly back yet. Balance has been restored to the pro-wrestling industry.

We've got to talk about Seth Rollins though. Equal parts the most obvious winner of the new belt, yet still a really crap choice. He's rubbish. There's no-one in this business that I, "get," less. I genuinely have no idea why anyone rates him. Athletically he can give you a good match, but beyond that, he's the worst. What the fuck even is his character in 2023? Is he a heel or a babyface? What is it about him that makes you care one way or another?

He's this weird amalgamation of about fifteen different characters, none of which were ever fleshed out or explored. He doesn't evolve or go anywhere new or exciting. They just add more shit on top of more shit. He's the Architect, the Kingslayer, the Beastslayer, the Monday Night Messiah, the Visionary and Seth Freakin' Rollins. Fuck knows what any of that means or how you differentiate between them. He wrestles exactly like he did in the Shield, yet now wears silly clothes, does a silly dance, cackles a lot and has shit highlights in his hair. Same for his entrance music; it's still the crap metalcore, but now with added (inexplicable) shouts of, "burn it down!" with an added chorus filled with, "oooooh ooooooh oooooh"s.

Just a messy, unidentifiable character in every single way. Shit endlessly thrown at a wall. He's Trigger's broom in Only Fools and Horses.

Edited May 28, 2023 by Supremo

[DavidB6937]

I think we see the two ends of the wrestling spectrum with Reigns and Rollins.

You've got the WWE guy. Looks the part. Works the WWE main event style perfectly. Doesn't overdo the moves. And has been involved in one of the most nuanced storylines in the company's history.

Then you've got the Indy guy who's all about the moves who can put on great spectacles and always manages to get the crowd going. But in a completely different way. There's no real substance there if you dig deeper.

To call Seth rubbish would be wrong through. He does what he does very well. You can see why he's not been THE guy - because there's always been a better option and once he needs to carry something deeper it's not really there with him - but as the anti-Roman he's a pretty perfect choice really.

Between the two you've arguably got all bases covered there.

But yeah obviously if you had to choose you'd go Roman and the Bloodline any day. Their ability to keep delivering these moments between so many different performers is incredible. Everyone plays their part. I keep thinking back to so many different moments. Even Roman and the ref just made me smile like an idiot.

[Wideload90]

@Supremoarticulating my thoughts on Rollins perfectly.  Don't get it and think he's a poor choice for champ. 

Can watch roman getting super superkicked on loop however. 

[air_raid]

Happy birthday, Nattie!

[The King of Old School]

 

The dynamic in how the characters have switched in this Bloodline story has been superb.

What's next?  Roman vs Jimmy at MITB? Or are we getting Roman/Solo vs The Usos?

 

[Fatty Facesitter]

Overall - Brilliant show. A couple of blemishes, but otherwise lots to love about it. 

👍 KO/Sami vs Roman/Sami - Absolutely masterful booking and utterly gripping throughout. The match itself delivered in spades, but the character work and the overall arc continue to defy predictions of the angle becoming stale and it’s yet another chapter in an absolutely incredible story. KO/Sami winning finally gives them a huge - and massively deserved - W over Roman (even if he didn’t take the fall) and it probably culminates that struggle for them both. Roman of course keeps his singles titles and they can ride that out until Wrestlemania with Cody. The Usos and the conflict that’s brought now will make for continued must-see television heading into the summer. A word on Roman in general - not only has he elevated himself to a completely different stratosphere, but he’s breathed new life into Paul Heyman’s career, elevated KO, Sami, both Usos and now Solo as well. He is the rising tide floating all the ships and what he’s doing is truly exceptional. Just absolutely bloody wonderful. 

👍 Brock Lesnar vs Cody Rhodes - If you’re going to have Cody lose, this I think is the only way you can accomplish it without making him look like a mug. He didn’t get pinned and he didn’t tap - he just passed out from the pain after battling through an injury that was originally inflicted by an unprovoked backstage assault. And even then, he still battled and refused to give the big bully an easy ride. Match itself was a ripper - that’s two for two now between them in terms of quality output. I’d be up for a rubber match and I think that’s what we’ll get based on this result. Long-term, this doesn’t affect my predication that Cody will go to be the one that dethrones Roman at Wrestlemania 40. 

👍 Seth Rollins vs AJ Styles - Good start to proceedings on the night. They mesh really well together and told a great story throughout. Lots of debate about Rollins and his character, but to me, from the moment the title was announced, Seth was the only choice to be the inaugural champion. I actually welcome what they’ve done with his character as it’s a very similar arc and trajectory to someone like The Rock from the attitude era - Rock was such an arse and a cocky dickhead, but he became so popular that he slowly transitioned into a babyface role. But crucially, he changed very little - and as a result he became even more popular and loved as a result. The same has happened to Seth - he’s become so popular in this incarnation of his character that he’s transitioned into the babyface role, but crucially they’ve kept the same aesthetic and persona, and look at the reactions he gets as a result. He almost transcends the face/heel divide because you could quite convincingly put him against either faces or heels and the audience will buy it either way. That’s why he’s the perfect choice for champion. What’s more, he can work with anyone - big guys, small guys, celebrities etc and he can have an absolutely great match with any of them. I’d go as far to argue that he’s the only choice for the inaugural reign with the new strap. Quick word on AJ - I thought it was one of his best singles bouts I can recall for a long time. 

👍 Evil Trish vs Becky Lynch - Seen some criticism of this one online, but I really enjoyed it. They ticked the first box right out of the gate - if you’re going to promote a match as being deeply personal, that needs to be reflected in the performance, and they really went for each other from the word go and maintained that throughout. Trish in particular has taken some criticism, but she was able to keep up with the pace throughout and barring one or two executions that could have been tidier, I thought she was great. The Zoey Stark insertion was a great idea - a great spot for her rubbing shoulders with these two. Far better than I expected it to be. 

👍 Gunther vs Mustafa Ali - Great performance from both. Ali’s best WWE match to date, and there was more of the signature vicious physicality from Gunther. They did a great job of building up the potential upset, even if in the back of your mind it was hard to suspend the disbelief completely. 

👎 Bianca Belair vs Asuka - Surprising conclusion. Match itself I thought didn’t reach the level of their Wrestlemania outing and it felt quite flat. Finish itself was fine and the result did feel like a bit of a shock - I’m guessing this is a plan to move Asuka and the title back across to Raw and perhaps in the coming month the Smackdown title will wind up switching back to it’s actual show as well. It didn’t quite have the epic feel that I think it needed to justify the title change - nothing against Asuka, and perhaps it wasn’t helped by the flat crowd. But it’s an interesting new direction at least and this reign with evil Asuka has some potential. 

👎 Rhea Ripley vs Natalya - A dominant squash which made Ripley look like an absolute killer, but I’m not sure what anyone really gained from this. Ripley beating Natalya just isn’t a huge rub. We already know she’s a dominant champion, so this isn’t telling us anything we don’t already know. It didn’t make sense in a PPV/PLE context either - it would have been better served as a TV squash to build up to something grander on a big show. 

[OzExile]

6 hours ago, Supremo said:

Fuck yes Jimmy Uso! The hero all along! Brilliant, brilliant ending. It’s still not on the level of Royal Rumble or Montreal, but it’s pretty fucking close. This was phenomenal. I’m fully back on the Bloodline hook. That visual of Roman selling his world falling apart on the outside, whilst Sami stands tall with the belts? Beautiful. Inject it straight into my veins. Eat shit, Roman!

I wonder if they’ll do a three-way Tag Title match, with Sami and Kevin vs. The Usos vs. Roman and Solo. Like a victory lap of the six lads who saved this entire company.

The Elite reunited. Bloodline cooking again. CM Punk causing tonnes of trouble backstage and he’s not even properly back yet. Balance has been restored to the pro-wrestling industry.

We've got to talk about Seth Rollins though. Equal parts the most obvious winner of the new belt, yet still a really crap choice. He's rubbish. There's no-one in this business that I, "get," less. I genuinely have no idea why anyone rates him. Athletically he can give you a good match, but beyond that, he's the worst. What the fuck even is his character in 2023? Is he a heel or a babyface? What is it about him that makes you care one way or another?

He's this weird amalgamation of about fifteen different characters, none of which were ever fleshed out or explored. He doesn't evolve or go anywhere new or exciting. They just add more shit on top of more shit. He's the Architect, the Kingslayer, the Beastslayer, the Monday Night Messiah, the Visionary and Seth Freakin' Rollins. Fuck knows what any of that means or how you differentiate between them. He wrestles exactly like he did in the Shield, yet now wears silly clothes, does a silly dance, cackles a lot and has shit highlights in his hair. Same for his entrance music; it's still the crap metalcore, but now with added (inexplicable) shouts of, "burn it down!" with an added chorus filled with, "oooooh ooooooh oooooh"s.

Just a messy, unidentifiable character in every single way. Shit endlessly thrown at a wall. He's Trigger's broom in Only Fools and Horses.

Pretty much sums up my feelings on Seth. Every time I warm up to something he's doing, he goes completely the opposite way and I'm left feeling confused. 

Surely some better candidates than him for the inaugural reign. Would have loved to see them put it on Damien Priest. 

[The King of Old School]

I know Cody is the plan but i just think there could be some mileage in Sami winning the rumble and revisiting Sami/Roman, only this time Roman is all alone after the bloodline has all abandoned him.

Sami winning the belt at Mania 40 after all there history would be such a fantastic moment.

[gmoney]

Agree completely with Supes about Rollins. He feels like a 12 year olds idea of a wrestling character. No sense of direction or grounding at all, just an idiot who laughs and wears ridiculous stuff. 

Fun show, great Cody match, great main event. I look forward to everyone complaining that they know exactly the direction all the storylines are going in, then ending up being completely wrong and enjoying it. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

At various points in The Bloodline story, each member has shown they’re amongst the very best workers in the history of pro-wrestling.

Last night was Jimmy’s turn (again).

That moment of primal catharsis after the super kick where he just screamed and clenched every muscle like his whole body had been plugged into the mains? The best thing I’ve seen in ages. That never happens in wrestling. People are either triumphant, or defeated. They’re never just fucking ALIVE. You could feel the adrenaline in his veins because he’d transferred it through the screen.

Utterly, utterly brilliant and goosebump inspiring.

Edited May 28, 2023 by d-d-d-dAz

[Mr_Danger]

Rollins is just a good Dolph Ziggler to me. Which is to say he ticks all the boxes but just doesn’t connect yet I appreciate his graft enough and unlike Dolph he can get my interest bell to bell but like Dolph never holds it afterwards. Saying that when I tapped back in for a bit last year he was a lot better than the last time I was watching which was his bad guy laugh phase.