Paid Members Lenin Posted April 26, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted April 26, 2020 Typical. I'm harmlessly scrolling through my home screen news feed and see a wrestling-related headline from The Sun: "VINCE McMAHON claims Brock Lesnar is the reason for the dramatic fall in WWE Raw's ratings." Turns out the report (if you can even call it that!) states that the viewership has dipped 16% as a result of having a new WWE Champion at a time when they are putting over lots of new talent. No longer having Brock as a draw is cited as the other factor in low viewership numbers. Covid-19 and lockdown he doesn't consider the main reasons. Two things struck me: 1) I should know better than falling for clickbait 2) Any truth to it is disappointing as Drew isn't getting the benefit of live audiences to test his drawing power. Anyway, random ramblings. As you were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BigJag Posted April 26, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted April 26, 2020 3 hours ago, Fox Piss said: Who would people say controlled and got the most out of The Ultimate Warrior through in ring work? Rick Rude and Hogan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Goldberg Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 The chat regarding, does the title make the man got me thinking.....which wrestlers have had a good run when winning the World Heavyweight title for the first time? By and large it seems to be a role the wrestler needs to grow into so first title reigns are often disappointing. Austin seemed to be fine but he was absolutely red hot at the time and had been in the business for many years before winning the big one. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrasslin Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 (edited) I mean not so such a first “reign” as they traded the belt back and forth a few times but The Rock’s first two championship feuds were with Foley and Austin and were both pretty awesome. Hogan obviously but that goes without saying. John Cena probably too. Edited April 26, 2020 by Wrasslin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 Cena and Batista both had first title reigns that solidified them as top tier. The same WrestleMania as well! I don’t think there’s been that same type of build since, where they’ve put a new too babyface on course for the WrestleMania win and a solid reign after. The next year, they had Rey Mysterio, but once he had the belt, he was booked to be a loser who couldn’t hang with heavyweights. There was Bryan in 2014, Reigns in 2016 and Rollins last year, but they were all already former champions when they had their Road to WrestleMania run and payoff. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that 21 was also the last WrestleMania before the Money in the Bank cash-in was the standard way to crown a new champion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cutting Edge Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 Reigns is an odd one, despite being the top guy and the perception is he's overpushed etc, he hasn't had a long dominant title reign like he should've. Hopefully when he comes back and wins universal championship it'll be a long reign, both him and the belt need it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Goldberg Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 Jericho had wins against The Rock and Austin in the same night to become the first ever Undisputed Champion and was treated like a joke. The Rock's first title was short lived but he was an absolute star. He carried himself like he was untouchable. He was presented by the company to look strong, to look the best but he still proved to be ready for it.....hell he looked born for it. Like stated on the previous page he had so much help in title matches , got cheap wins but he was never presented like he didn't belong in the position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted April 26, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted April 26, 2020 Depends on the criteria a bit. Ultimate Warrior, Shawn Michaels and even Diesel all had long title reigns in which they were booked as the top star in the promotion and given the hype. None of them had challengers lined up though and Shawn and Diesel both had weak babyface characters. So business wasn't great. Warrior was already a top guy going into his run but holding the belt did cement HBK and Diesel as top level. Diesel and WCW would do particularly well out of it. Randy Savage is an obvious one. He had a great run for a year before dropping the belt to their top heel at Mania 5. It becomes harder after that aside from the obvious two @King Pitcos mentioned. Lesnar was well on the way before they did that dreadful deal at Survivor Series 2002. The Miz, AJ and Kofi weren't dreadful runs at all but Miz and AJ dropped right back down as soon as they lost and have never meant any more for it. AJ was different because was still awesome but has gradually declined since to the point where he's worthless now. I don't remember Mark Henry's being terrible. Nor particularly good. But he's normally the answer on here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 24 minutes ago, tiger_rick said: Depends on the criteria a bit. Ultimate Warrior, Shawn Michaels and even Diesel all had long title reigns in which they were booked as the top star in the promotion and given the hype. Shawn definitely, but I wouldn’t be so confident saying Diesel got the top star booking. His first big title defence saw his credibility sacrificed at the altar of Bret’s ego, and at WrestleMania, the title match wasn’t the biggest match on the card. Everything after that seemed like Vince was on board with Diesel, but those first two PPV matches against the two best wrestlers in the company didn’t do a lot for him. When he moved onto Sid and Mabel, it was only gonna be downhill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeronimoJacksBeard Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 (edited) 7 hours ago, King Pitcos said: I don’t think it’s a coincidence that 21 was also the last WrestleMania before the Money in the Bank cash-in was the standard way to crown a new champion. Was going to mention this, Rick was talking about how holding the IC title used to be a precursor to bigger and better things for some and that The Rock was the last one that really had that IC title reign that ended up moving you up a level. I'd say it was Orton myself, but since then the MITB concept has effectively replaced or killed off that booking style. And not for the better, really. That's more down to the lack of creativity and lazy, overdone way cash-ins have mostly been handled though. Regarding the original question - Brock, for me. Remember feeling leading into SummerSlam it was all a bit too early. He actually had an IC title match with RVD in the run up to it where i was disappointed at the time he didn't take the belt to have one of those aforementioned IC title runs first. But from SummerSlam it changed everything for me, i've mentioned it before but i think that main event is somewhat over-looked/under appreciated as far as crowning of first time World champions is concerned. Brock absolutely arrived in that moment for me, instantly bought into him as champion and from sometimes looking a bit iffy, he suddenly started having bangers with everyone as well. Edited April 26, 2020 by GeronimoJacksBeard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Bellenda Carlisle Posted April 26, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted April 26, 2020 I've been feeling a bit of Buff Bagwell nostalgia recently (don't ask). I used to love him for some reason and I was gonna watch some of his old stuff but I'm drawing a total blank, does he even have a "best match" or any highlights? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 44 minutes ago, Bellenda Carlisle said: I've been feeling a bit of Buff Bagwell nostalgia recently (don't ask). I used to love him for some reason and I was gonna watch some of his old stuff but I'm drawing a total blank, does he even have a "best match" or any highlights? Vicious & Delicious destroying jobbers is always good fun, I was weirdly really into these two as a team. Buff was charismatic as hell and Norton was a hoss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members CleetusVanDamme Posted April 26, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted April 26, 2020 https://mega.nz/folder/gLYDnIja#gAWVUIcpkm0Vnm1cTbgC9g/folder/tCwz1KCT Download the 26 February Nitro, Bellenda/everyone. For the fabled Miracle six-man tag, Cat/DDP/Booker vs Buff/Lex/Scott Steiner. That as much as I love most involved in it, I still have no idea how it turned out so good. Watch from The Cat vs Rick Steiner on for the context of Cat pulling double duty and putting on an amazing bayface in peril role, then you've got the interference/beatdown/returns that lead-in to the six-man while a great New Orleans crowd gets hotter and hotter. A great half hour of wrestling TV! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 12 hours ago, BigJag said: Rick Rude and Hogan. And Savage, without a doubt. Both matches were good.... the first one was excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Bellenda Carlisle Posted April 26, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted April 26, 2020 5 hours ago, CleetusVanDamme said: https://mega.nz/folder/gLYDnIja#gAWVUIcpkm0Vnm1cTbgC9g/folder/tCwz1KCT Download the 26 February Nitro, Bellenda/everyone. For the fabled Miracle six-man tag, Cat/DDP/Booker vs Buff/Lex/Scott Steiner. That was great, Buff didn't do much but the Cat was on like 60% of the show you joker. I liked it when The Cat said he was going to eat Chris Kanyon's ass and also when Dustin Rhodes said he was going to tap Jeff Jarrett's ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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