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

[Mr.Showtime]

How odd is this Dolph stuff by the way, I wish he would just sod off with his epilepsy inducing tights and stupid face. I was listening to a podcast a while ago (can't recall who) and they were saying Dolph does not get the business, and I honestly don't think he does. He literally has wrestled the same way now for about 9 years, whether heel or face, no matter the gimmick, no matter the situation. He wrestles this way on PPV, he wrestles this way on TV in a 3 minute nothing match, he just wrestles, in his shit over the top way, nothing EVER changes, not his demeanor, his body language. Nothing. He still comes out even last week hot on the heels of a turn and is stood on the ramp doing that hip gyration and flicking his wet hair at the camera shouting his usual bollocks like "OH YEAH YOU KNOW IT'S ME". Yeah, piss off Dolph.

I agree with some of this, but (and I know this probably wasn't intentional or thought through) when Ziggler came out the week after his heel turn doing exactly the same stuff I was quite pleased. Why, the week after someone batters someone you wouldn't expect, should that person have completely new or slowed down theme music, a new entrance, totally different personality & ring gear, and stop doing all the quirky things he used to? (Neville being a fine recent example.) I'm sure some here & elsewhere have moaned about that in the past. In Ziggler's head he's just tipped over the edge of frustration and started to use weapons to take it out on people. I know it's TV and these things need to be shoved down your throat but it seemed more "realistic" to me and a massive change from normal to just be carrying on with his usual schtick. As crap as it is. I have no doubt as soon as they figure out what they're doing with him (or maybe leave it to Mania) he'll get some new music and attire etc.

[DavidB6937]

While I agree most of the time it's a bit stupid, I'd say the change in Neville was logical. He wanted to stop and slow down and change. It was a deliberate character move.

[WeeAl]

I had neither low nor high expectations for that show, yet I generally enjoy most episodes of Smackdown more than I enjoyed Elimination Chamber.

 

Three women's matches just shows how little depth there is. That's fair enough as they have been giving the girls stories so the matches all had a purpose. But I still didn't want to watch any of them. I seen the last two minutes of the Alexa/Naomi match and thought it was terrible, and I don't think I missed much with the other women's bouts.

 

The tag team turmoil was fast paced and actually had me thinking the fucking Ascension were going to win. If there was a reasonable heel team in that spot then I guess Alpha would have lost. This might have worked better with The Uso's and The Ascension in reversed roles, that way the Ascension (who are shit, no doubt about it) could have looked a bit less shit than usual, and then The Uso's could have won the belts, creating two teams for Alpha to battle against going forward. Fun enough little match for what it was.

 

Orton v Harper was great and I really hope this is the start of something more prominent for Harper. He's a great hand and could really be something for the company. Look at Corbin's push as what they could be doing with Harper.

 

I didn't like the main event. It was fine but it annoyed me more than I found myself enjoying it. For a start I have as little interest in Bray Wyatt as I do in Dolph Ziggler, Rich Swann, The New Day and Dean Ambrose. He's been about for ages, has done nothing since the Daniel Bryan stuff and is likely to be about for 10 more years doing the same thing. I don't know if this is on him, or creative, but he bores me. Despite that, him and Randy is the logical place to go for Mania, and having the title involved makes it feel a bit more important. Unfortunately that means Cena and AJ are getting put into the background a little over the next while.

 

The new Chamber is terrible looking. It's too shiny and attractive looking, rather than menacing and dangerous. I'd prefer the more dangerous cage, with teased bumps on the steel and maybe only one bump getting taken, than 200 bumps while the commentators pretend it's as dangerous as it always was.

 

The camera work was poor, missing Cena's fall off the cage and Ambrose's elbow shortly after and I thought Cena's elimination came out of nowhere and actually hurt him I think.

 

The booking of Miz and Corbin was very good though and AJ looked great in the match, as always.

 

The less said about the Ziggler handicap match the better.

 

That probably reads so negative for a show that delivered more or less everything that was expected of it, I just found myself enjoying the Rumble and awful lot more, as well as probably looking forward to Fastlane and WrestleMania, so this show felt like the least important of all the shows in this period.

 

Thumbs up to Harper, Orton, AJ, Cena and the booking and execution of Miz and Corbin's contributions. It keeps the wheels turning on the road to 'Mania.

[Pinc]

Personally can't wait for the Rebecchi Wyatt Family to collide for the Universal Title at Mania. It's been building for years.

 

Vs.

Edited February 14, 2017 by Pinc

[SuperBacon]

Who's corner would Tad be in though?

[King Pitcos]

Naomi's always been pretty sloppy and nowhere near as good as the commentary teams always want to say she is. She's been a future women's champion for god knows how long. All because she's a bit athletic. Well that's great but she's a shit wrestler. I don't think she's improved nearly enough for the amount of time she's been around and all that natural talent she apparently has.

She's had six years work out of just being able to jump a bit higher than the other divas. Her whole career is her being "athletic" but almost always about 10-20% less athletic than is necessary to do the move she's trying to do. She's absolute shit. Still, it mixes up the division a little. And in all fairness, her entrance is a nice change, and I like her music. Edited February 14, 2017 by King Pitcos

[Guest]

She's never had a great match but I'd hardly call her absolute shit.

Those kicks she does now are rotten though

[thevestofdeanambrose]

I would imagine brays entrance at Wrestlemania is going to be something special this year as champion! Can't wait for that!

[Arch Stanton]

More likely he'll be on in the first half of the show, maybe even opening match of the main card and his entrance will be made during the blazing sunshine.

[Guest]

Who's corner would Tad be in though?

Tad-on-a-Pole match.

[Love-Wilcox]

I kind of feel sorry for Kalisto and Apollo, yeah they're bland as hell but this booking has just been horrendous. I wouldn't wish this shit storyline on even my most hated wrestler. Creative has totally lost the plot on this one. 

[Philjax]

Honestly I thought Apollo was going to develop a mean streak, turn on Kalisto and create a team with Dolph so they could challenge Alpha down the line. That didn't happen.

 

Anything to keep Dolph away from the belts.

[Guest]

I still think they should have kept the Lawler angle going, Lawler comes to support Crews in a singles match with Ziggles, but turns on Crews and offers his managerial services to revitalise Ziggler's career because he sees a bit himself in him/because villains gonna villain.

What they've done instead is just crap.

[Guest]

The Lawler incident should've at least been followed up with something. The heat at the end, yelling after Ziggler, was a rare thing these days. Very disappointing that the next time I heard Jerry speak about him (on Rumble commentary) it was basically just, "Yeah... I can't deny Dolph's talent. Wow, look at that dropkick!"

[The Dart]

Just me that think the Fastlane lineup looks tremendous?