The Smackers Thread

[Guest]

Picture yourself as a 9 year old and imagine where Sami would go on your list for Christmas list for merch. We might all be enjoying wrestling later than most are meant to in life, but a small ginger guy who’s spent the year acting timid and afraid of the undefeatable champion just isn’t a credible guy. I keep asking on here what’s next after he beats Roman, your guys who deserve big wins and era defining moments should have that. As a said above he has been a failure as a face before, what gives the confidence that without Roman as the Uber heel he has anything to lead the company?

I see above about Kofimania, it’s a mania moment than a who’s the next guy for them. They need a next Man to lead the company with Roman on the way out, a 2 year reign shouldn’t be wasted for one good night then a short insignificant reign follows it. If that’s the case it’s a waste of the 2 years and all the defeated opponents before it. 

[Supremo]

Remembering what I was like as a nine year old, there aren’t many wrestlers I’d have related to more than Sami. Nervous and scared of the bullies, trying to fit in. I’d have been hugely inspired to watch him find himself, overcome his problems and win it all. As a Dad now, there isn’t much in pro-wrestling I’d rather show my children, either.

I don’t know for certain, but I doubt my son will care how many T-shirts Sami has sold, or what the landscape will look like for WWE television once the top heel takes his first clean loss in two years.

Edited January 8, 2023 by Supremo

[Fatty Facesitter]

Fans when Sami wins the gold, they buy a ton of his merchandise, then he gets injured and it's all forgotten afterwards. 

"Should we have spent so heavily in the past? Probably not. But we lived the dream."

[Jesse]

Personally, I'm 35 years old and I don't make any more money if WWE's figure business starts selling better so those arguments don't do much to sway me against the idea of him winning. He's on the run of his life, cracking me up every week, and I want him to see his worth and knock the bastard off the top shelf so I can lose my shit at 5am when I should be getting a good night's rest instead of working.

I find Bacon's point about the real story being in the heartbreak compelling, but I think that suffers just as much from "What then?" as a scenario where he wins it for a short time. What do you do then? Sami shuffles off into tags with Kevin Owens and we lose all transition of that emotion as Cody Rhodes sets the slate clean?

I think either way, the real guy to be using this short-term boost for is Solo Sikoa. He's the business, and if you're determined to have Sami lose here maybe the play is to have him involved in the finish and give him the Batista Evolution run. He can spin off into a feud with Sami, while Roman buggers around with Cody or whomever, and eventually pay off with a Solo turn on Roman at the Rumble next year to set up your WM main event for 2024.

[SuperBacon]

9 minutes ago, Jesse said:

I find Bacon's point about the real story being in the heartbreak compelling

A lot of it has to do with my nature as a person, and the football team I support. I never get what I want, so I prepare for the disappointment

[Supremo]

The similarities between the Bloodline saga and Daniel Bryan’s run up to Wrestlemania 30 start and stop with fans-fall-in-love-with-guy-with-a-beard. Beyond that? This stuff with Sami is infinitely superior in every single way.

At this point in the Daniel Bryan storyline, he was dressed as a bin man, slumming it with the Wyatts, with a match with Sheamus pencilled in for Wrestlemania. It was an incoherent mess. Batista was set to be about the third or fourth surrogate as they did everything in their power to go against what their paying audience wanted. It’s easy to think of the whole thing as a massive success in the end, but that was in spite of about 80% of it. They only went with Bryan in the end because they had no other choice.

By contrast, this stuff with Sami has been a fantastically told story from the very beginning. Logical, coherent, interesting story beats, great character development. Proper weekly TV.

I hate to quote him now that he’s a tragic grifter, but what’s the thing Jim Cornette says to those lads having a dark match in Beyond the Mat? “You’re telling them the story, they’re not telling you the story.” That’s exactly what’s made this Bloodline stuff so enthralling. After decades of it being the other way round, with a company completely out of touch with its audience, WWE have told a story that has clicked and connected exactly how they intended, with fans accepting and reacting to characters how they’re supposed to. More fool Hunter if he fumbles it at the final hurdle. It’ll be the final call on the Vince bingo card if he can’t land the best thing he’s ever done.

[Fatty Facesitter]

Not only has the story been fantastically told, but young Samuel has earned the right to be involved to the degree that he has. As Paul Heyman put it in a recent press conference (mostly in-character but with dashes of OOC), he's the equivalent of a supporting character brought in for a guest spot that performed such magic with the role that they had no choice but to keep welcoming him back to the fold. And he continues to exceed expectations each and every time. It's a wonderful bolt of lightning they've struck with this. Ride it out. 

[FUM]

When did wrestling become a place where the business aspect is judged BEFORE you become the guy? It’s almost always been the case that someone gets over enough to deserve the shot and it’s then you see if they can do business too. If they can’t, they lose the strap and it goes back to someone who has proven they can do business until such time as another person gets over enough.

Often that big moment and title win elevates the person to be able to do the business as well.

Anyway, fuck the business. It’s doing record numbers financially. This is all pre-determined - entertain us.

[RedRooster]

2 hours ago, Supremo said:

Remembering what I was like as a nine year old, there aren’t many wrestlers I’d have related to more than Sami. Nervous and scared of the bullies, trying to fit in. I’d have been hugely inspired to watch him find himself, overcome his problems and win it all. As a Dad now, there isn’t much in pro-wrestling I’d rather show my children, either.

 I think this is a really underrated point. The idea that kids would gravitate more towards muscle-bound Hogan-types is incredibly dated. If you look outside of the wrestling bubble, kids' entertainment is all about relatability - the idea that the hero is like the child, and therefore that child could be just like that hero one day. While I look at wrestling from a storyline perspective, the idea that Sami Zayn could not only stand toe-to-toe with Roman Reigns, but defeat him, is incredibly marketable if you play it right. 

And then, some time in the future, there's definitely money in Roman Reigns coming to Sami's aid and teaming with him one more time. There's your muscle-bound babyface, if you're looking for one. 

[LaGoosh]

2 hours ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

Not only has the story been fantastically told, but young Samuel

Sorry to be pedantic but Sami is an Arabic name and not actually short for Samuel.

I haven't watched any of this Sami/Roman storyline but it sounds great and up my alley, is there a playlist or compilation of the major story beats anywhere? I don't know where to start.

Edited January 8, 2023 by LaGoosh

[Hannibal Scorch]

8 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Sorry to be pedantic but Sami is an Arabic name and not actually short for Samuel.

What’s Rami short for if anything? Just curious.

Considering who have been made champions over the years, Sami getting a title run wouldn’t be worse than someone like Jinder or JBL. Sometimes it’s good to give the people want they want rather than what they want you to want. But it’s the WWE where it’s often the opposite they serve instead.

Edited January 8, 2023 by Hannibal Scorch

[Keith Houchen]

2 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

What’s Rami short for if anything

He’s six foot one, that’s not short!

[Nick James]

It does make me chuckle how Heyman calls Sami 'Shmuley' whenever they interact. 

I think Reigns deserves some serious credit alongside Sami in the whole storyline. His whole calm, quiet promos have meant that the impact of him shouting at Sami all the better that you know Sami is in shit when he starts shouting and getting angry. Just like when he got rattled a few months ago and went from pretty much whispering to shouting angrily at the camera. 

All of those years of blue contact lenses, 'Suffering succotash' and trying to get the Catchphrases over, when 'The Tribal Chief' was there all along. 

[BomberPat]

1 hour ago, RedRooster said:

 I think this is a really underrated point. The idea that kids would gravitate more towards muscle-bound Hogan-types is incredibly dated. If you look outside of the wrestling bubble, kids' entertainment is all about relatability - the idea that the hero is like the child, and therefore that child could be just like that hero one day.

Yeah, there's a couple of things going on here - one is the assumption that "will kids buy the action figure" is even factoring in to top-level decision-making, given that the average age of a WWE viewer is reportedly somewhere around 50-54, and more generously probably somewhere around 30+. Obviously marketing to kids is a big part of what WWE do, but it's not their bread and butter any more. A quick look at WWE's shop website will show you T-shirts, replica belts, hoodies, pin badges, hats, and "home decor and office supplies" all before you get to kids' stuff and toys. And that's before even acknowledging that kids likely aren't even the main market for WWE toys any more, either - it's adult fans and collectors.  This time last year, Stone Cold Steve Austin was WWE's biggest merch seller, with the nWo, Ultimate Warrior and Eddie Guerrero all in the top ten - and I doubt it's nine year olds driving that. It's also probably more likely that what would prevent Sami Zayn being World Champion is that he's not able to work Saudi Arabia shows.

More importantly, the "wrestlers have to look like Hulk Hogan" point is, as you say, extremely dated. It's a bit of received wisdom that doesn't really hold up, and was only ever really true for a comparatively narrow period of history, and one that aligned with a broader cultural trend towards exaggerated bodybuilder physiques in the mainstream; Hogan's prime years coincide with Schwarzenegger's prime as an action movie star, with shows like He-Man, and that look generally being on trend. That's not the case any more. 

The fact is, there's no magic ingredient to getting over or being a star in wrestling, because if there was, we'd never have these conversations, and every promotion would be booking people with said magic ingredient all the time. For everyone who fit the Hogan bill, there a hundred cast-offs who had the size, the physique, the look, everything that's apparently essential to being a star, and never amounted to anything, or burned out in short order - so when there's more failed experiments than successes, surely you can put to bed the idea that quantity X is necessary to becoming a star in wrestling? Likewise, there have been more top draws and legendary names that are exceptions to the rule than there are that fit it to a tee. 

Not to mention that Sami Zayn beating Roman Reigns for a feel-good story doesn't mean that he's then automatically being presented as the new Hogan, Rock or Austin anyway. We can root for him to be given the title because it makes sense in terms of the story being told without also thinking that he's the right man to carry the entire company for the foreseeable future. 

[Tsurutagun]

Guess Sami won't be winning the title anytime soon then