Noah Southworth Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 (edited) The Horsewomen vs. Horseman match is five months away. Given that they’re already training for it now, I have no doubt at all that by the time the match happens, Duke, Rousey and Shafir will have practiced their spots enough that they won’t look terrible doing them. Baszler will work the bulk of the match and the other three will tag in to do their heavily practiced spots, putting them in the ring just long enough to not make the fans feel cheated, and then they’ll tag right back out to Baszler. The match will be fine. Edited November 1, 2017 by Noah Southworth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoUseforaUsername Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 Am I the only person who has no interest in this? As someone with a casual interest in MMA, Ronda Rousey is the only one of them I've ever heard of, and all the hype surrounding her was completely exposed in her last two fights. Her mystique is gone, surely? And she has minus charisma. It just smacks of people using the name value of "The Four Horsemen" with no tangible meaning behind it to cross over to WWE and get an easy payday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The King of Old School Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 I think that's fair. The money is in a one on one Rousey match, either with a Charlotte/Natalya etc or maybe even with Stephanie McMahon. Nobody want's to see the other ones, can't imagine many people knowing who they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted November 1, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted November 1, 2017 Said it before, but I just don't see the others being involved. There's no upside in WWE paying them a presumably sizeable fee to appear, on top of however much they're paying Rousey, when they won't draw a single penny. Ronda Rousey is the draw, not her mates. I suspect the match will end up being Ronda/Stephanie, with an outside chance of Ronda/Charlotte if they go down the "Four Horsewomen" route. If it's going to be a Wrestlemania main event (as in most promoted match, not necessarily the match to close the show), I can see them giving the nod to Stephanie because they'll consider it a bigger match, and her a bigger name, than Charlotte, plus they had the existing interaction from last time Rousey showed up. And at least Stephanie can afford to put Ronda over strong without it hurting the full-time women's division. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah Southworth Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 The upside to using Ronda’s friends is that it means that WWE get two big matches out of Ronda that have maximum benefit to them in terms of publicity and interest. They get the big Wrestlemania moment of Ronda Rousey making her WWE debut, which is going to get them tons of publicity and stories all over the entertainment media. And when they want to make Summerslam really big, they get the lure of Rousey’s first ever singles match, presumably against Stephanie McMahon, which is going to get just as much publicity because it is Ronda’s first one-on-one match, and for WWE, it means Stephanie only has to share the spotlight with one person, Rousey, and thus she gets a bigger ‘rub’ as a result. The eight-woman tag also gives WWE the chance to hide Rousey’s lack of experience, thus not exposing her and devaluing her as an asset. And by holding off on that singles match, it gives Rousey more time to train and prepare, and I think it’s best for all involved that Rousey gets as much time to train for that singles match as she can. I daresay that Stephanie could use that extra time as well. There’s no telling what she’s been able to do in terms of training for a potential singles match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Kaz Hayashi Posted November 1, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted November 1, 2017 Some really good points there @Noah Southworth. Regarding a potential match with Steph, providing it’s 1-1 you’d assume it would be a squash though, possibly with Steph getting the best of all of the verbal confrontation leading up to it? Maybe even an angle where she gets a group of WWE Women to give her a kicking a couple of weeks before. That leads to the 1-1 with Steph, and she gives her a beating, maybe until the group interfere or something, but she overcomes the odds? Just riffing there like, but I’d enjoy seeing her in a team and in a 1-1 with Steph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted November 1, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted November 1, 2017 That's always going to be the quandary; how do you make a match with Ronda look legitimate? Anyone going the distance with Rousey isn't going to make the crowd think "these wrestling women are tough, they can hang with Ronda Rousey!", they're going to think, "this is obviously fake, Ronda would have destroyed her by now". I think the solution is to gimmick the match up - not necessarily run-ins, though that could work, but No DQ, weapons, all sorts of shenanigans to justify her opponent being able to get heat on her. And Stephanie would be a better choice for that position than Charlotte, for me, because she's not hurt by looking like she needs to do all that stuff to win. The other thing is that I would have Ronda grab the armbar in the opening few seconds, but Stephanie immediately make it to the ropes - make it clear that this is the same Ronda Rousey you remember, that she could end it in an instant, but there are different rules here, and she's outside of her comfort zone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Kaz Hayashi Posted November 1, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted November 1, 2017 That could work, maybe even have Steph add new stipulations each week, not allowed to use the arm bar, make sure the ref is commanded to warn Rousey for any slight infringement, maybe even a special guest ref. Yeah, a gimmick is perfect for tat match Pat, it needs to seem like the odds are in favour of ‘steph’ due to the rules just to balance it out. Bit like Austin vs Vince, arm tied behind the back and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah Southworth Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 15 minutes ago, BomberPat said: That's always going to be the quandary; how do you make a match with Ronda look legitimate? Anyone going the distance with Rousey isn't going to make the crowd think "these wrestling women are tough, they can hang with Ronda Rousey!", they're going to think, "this is obviously fake, Ronda would have destroyed her by now". I think the solution is to gimmick the match up - not necessarily run-ins, though that could work, but No DQ, weapons, all sorts of shenanigans to justify her opponent being able to get heat on her. And Stephanie would be a better choice for that position than Charlotte, for me, because she's not hurt by looking like she needs to do all that stuff to win. The other thing is that I would have Ronda grab the armbar in the opening few seconds, but Stephanie immediately make it to the ropes - make it clear that this is the same Ronda Rousey you remember, that she could end it in an instant, but there are different rules here, and she's outside of her comfort zone. If you want the match to look legitimate, the last thing you do is gimmick it up. That's the one thing guaranteed to take people out of the moment and have it hammered into their heads that it's just another 'fake' pro wrestling match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted November 1, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted November 1, 2017 There's legitimate and there's legitimate - everyone's going to know it's a worked match, but it can be more Big Show/Floyd Mayweather than Roddy Piper/Mr T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah Southworth Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 A Ronda Rousey singles match would work a lot better in Japan because the best way to handle a Rousey singles match is to not work it like a traditional pro wrestling match. If they have Rousey go out there and try to work like a pro wrestler for any length of time in a singles match, and you know they’ll want the match to have time, then the thing has a high chance of falling apart, no matter how much they’ve practiced. A Ronda Rousey singles match has to look like no other match on the card, and I think the way to go is make Ronda Rousey into like a female version of Minoru Suzuki and have her do a bunch of non-cooperation spots, make it seem like Rousey is all “I’m not doing any of that fake stuff”; give the impression that what you’re seeing is not just another part of the show, but is something completely different. Of course, you can’t do something like that if Rousey is facing Stephanie McMahon, and I don’t WWE putting anyone else in that spot opposite Rousey. It’s just not how they work when it comes to using the big outside names. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted November 1, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted November 1, 2017 I agree that it needs to look like something entirely different to anything else on the card, and that it would be easier to play as a straight match in Japan where MMA and pro-wrestling have a much more intertwined history, but I'm not a big fan of any variation on the theme of "I'm not doing any of that fake stuff" - anything in wrestling that says, "this bit, this bit, is real, trust us" is an insult to the fans' intelligence, and just saying, "everything else you watched tonight? That was fake, forget about that, but this matters". Not a fan. That's why I think Big Show/Floyd Mayweather should be the model for a Ronda Rousey match - enough spots to make it clear you're watching someone who can handle themselves, enough smoke and mirrors to hide the fact that Ronda is being led through it by a more experienced performer. And, again, the key for me is something like Rousey getting the armbar in early, but Stephanie (or whoever she's facing) scrabbling to the ropes - making it clear that, if this were UFC rules, Rousey would have wiped the floor with her, but she's out of her element. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted November 3, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted November 3, 2017 Next time we have a "worst looks" thread, don't forget Baz's hot pants, vest and yellow gardening gloves look from June 1999. Oh my. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BigJag Posted November 3, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted November 3, 2017 On 01/11/2017 at 7:25 AM, WyattSheepMask said: Halloween Havoc 95 - the monster truck battle between Giant and Hogan where Giant goes off over the side of the building only to appear 20 minutes later without so much as a scratch on him, and that's before you even get to THE YETAYYY! Much like King of the Ring 95, it's like a badge of honour to say you've watched it That's exactly what I wanted to watch. I'll have to find time to put that on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted November 3, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted November 3, 2017 How the hell did Jimmy Valiant ever managed to get booked as a babyface? Everything about him is just wrong. I wouldn't let him babysit, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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