The Smackers Thread

[gmoney]

5 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Who do you think you are, Kier Starmer?

 

[Supremo]

Reason #326 why I’ve got so much time for LA Knight. This entire feud, he’s flatly refused to ever use the dumb phrase, “Universal Title.” Every single time, he’s spoke about beating Roman for the WWE Title. My boy. No fucking about.

Roman vs. Knight is one of those times where I wish I wasn’t smart to the business. Imagine not knowing or being able to second-guess the direction. I’d be completely on the hook for this match. I’d think this was Roman’s final boss. Yuuuueah!

Could’ve done without both Roman and Cena doing the same, “battle-style,” burial of their opponents though. Roman calling Knight a redneck version of his cousin and Cena calling Solo a Bargain Basement Taz rip-off. I hate that stuff. The worst WWE trope. Never achieved anything. The Rock’s most damming legacy. 

Pretty Deadly steal the show again. Yes boy.

[air_raid]

3 hours ago, Supremo said:

This entire feud, he’s flatly refused to ever use the dumb phrase, “Universal Title.” Every single time, he’s spoke about beating Roman for the WWE Title.

I think this is a factor ; 

On 10/27/2023 at 7:21 PM, air_raid said:

The Universal title may as well no longer exist, they’re never separating those titles now.

The WWE title has always signified “THE champ.” The Universal title was the “other one.” Now, the other one is whatever they call Seths. It would be daft to act like there are three titles between two champions on two shows.

[Supremo]

Everyone else still says, “Universal Champion.”  I notice to an unhealthy level because I hate the name. My heart breaks every time Heyman or Aldis still say it. LA’s specifically not playing that game. Biggest match of his life, this is his WWE title match. A man of taste. A man of prestige.

[d-d-d-dAz]

4 hours ago, Supremo said:

Could’ve done without both Roman and Cena doing the same, “battle-style,” burial of their opponents though. Roman calling Knight a redneck version of his cousin and Cena calling Solo a Bargain Basement Taz rip-off. I hate that stuff. The worst WWE trope. Never achieved anything. The Rock’s most damming legacy. 

It’s terrible for the obvious reason that it defeats the point of wrestling, obviously, by not putting over your opponent as a threat to sell the match. But I think the reason I really hate it is they’re almost always completely feud and business exposing, as they focus on things you just wouldn’t in a real fight or ahead of a real fight.

”your character is rubbish”

”you’re not good on the microphone”

“You’re not entertaining”

You what lads?

I’ve just been shared a clip of Roman saying “what I do is cinema” and I want to throw my phone out of the window, but I’ll watch the full segment in case there’s context.

I hate it all. I hate it even more when it finds its way outside the WWE. MJF is a devil for it.

[LaGoosh]

4 hours ago, Supremo said:

The Rock’s most damming legacy. 

I think it's more of a Cena thing than a Rock thing. Rock would bury people by calling them assholes or whatever but everything was always in character on both sides, Cena will just straight up shoot eviscerate people as performers and make them look pathetic, weak and completely terrible at their jobs.

Cena is almost too good on the microphone. No one has the ability to better him or catch him out. Anything anyone says he'll smirk, brush it off and then destroy them. Then in the inevitable match he eithers wins or loses but shrugs the loss off with a smile and a "dang, ah well" and moves on like nothing ever happened and the loss means nothing. The guy has rarely given away anything to his opponents. All time politicking, props to him.

Edited November 4, 2023 by LaGoosh

[Supremo]

Cena’s been relatively selfless during this last run. He’s done wonders getting LA Knight over by association.

He’s not exactly subtle on who his favourites are though. If he works with someone he doesn’t rate, he leaves them looking like absolute whoppers. I saw the other day he was still slagging off Austin Theory! It’s been months and he still won’t let up on the guy! Not that I blame him. Theory’s rubbish. That funny skit he did where Kevin Owens knocked both him and Grayson out with one punch will probably end up being the highlight of his entire career.

Quality.

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

Then in the inevitable match he eithers wins or loses but shrugs the loss off with a smile and a "dang, ah well" and moves on like nothing ever happened and the loss means nothing.

Unless the loss was to someone like Rock or Lesnar where he has on occasion acted devastated by it. Both of whom, of course, didn’t need it.

[Keith Houchen]

Ha! That’s as funny as that pizza fella getting booted in the face that time!

[d-d-d-dAz]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

I think it's more of a Cena thing than a Rock thing. Rock would bury people by calling them assholes or whatever but everything was always in character on both sides, Cena will just straight up shoot eviscerate people as performers and make them look pathetic, weak and completely terrible at their jobs.

Cena is almost too good on the microphone. No one has the ability to better him or catch him out. Anything anyone says he'll smirk, brush it off and then destroy them. Then in the inevitable match he eithers wins or loses but shrugs the loss off with a smile and a "dang, ah well" and moves on like nothing ever happened and the loss means nothing. The guy has rarely given away anything to his opponents. All time politicking, props to him.

Whilst I think you’re right, I think Cena was just emblematic of an era where they were coming to terms with how to handle the internet fans taking over completely and how nothing was private anymore. Plus, the complete run-off of casual fans in that era meant it didn’t feel like anyone was watching the shows innocently, all the debate was about backstage nonsense and even the live crowds weren’t reacting to the ‘kayfabe’ elements of the product, and were going into business for themselves (“you can’t wrestle” chants being the real nadir of that era).

Cena was obviously the poster boy at that time, and like you say he was also so good on the mic his words could be even more devastating. But if you look around that era - Triple H, CM Punk, post-Hollywood Rock, Paul Heyman, Chris Jericho, Edge (especially the Edge and Matt Hardy feud) - they were all fucking at it. And they were all fucking at it as they had no idea how to entertain the new era of super hardcore, hyper invested, internet fans.

Edited November 4, 2023 by d-d-d-dAz

[Loki]

6 hours ago, Supremo said:

Roman vs. Knight is one of those times where I wish I wasn’t smart to the business. Imagine not knowing or being able to second-guess the direction. I’d be completely on the hook for this match. I’d think this was Roman’s final boss. Yuuuueah!

 

We've reached that moment, sadly, that we get to with WWE sporadically where they have heated up a new babyface to the point of explosion, and ALL they have to do is let them win.  The crowd is ready.  LA Knight is ready, I've not seen a more ready superstar in years except Cody.  And they're going to do what they did at WM, which is have the face lose and that'll be it.  Cody Rhodes may, in time, recover but he'll never be quite as red hot as he was at WM.  If they give Knight the win at Crown Jewel then they have themselves a new top face, if he loses then everything he's been saying was bullshit and the crowd will just go mild on him.  We've seen it so many times.

I'm all for long-term booking but you also have to be agile enough to cash in on your successes.  Knight wasn't expected to be THIS over, but he is.  And this isn't a "successful reheat of established star" in the style of Drew, this is a meteroric natural emergence of a huge crowd favourite.  Roman is Roman, a loss won't make him any less of a star, but a Knight win upsets the apple cart in a great way.

If Vince was still in charge I’d be 100% with you that Reigns is winning.  But HHH - this is a big test for him.  He's successfully built a new megastar... now what?

[Hannibal Scorch]

24 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Cena’s been relatively selfless during this last run. He’s done wonders getting LA Knight over by association.

     
 

Here me out. Regardless of my thoughts on LA Knight, I’ve always said how amazingly over he was. To levels I’ve not really seen from someone in his position on the card. I honestly feel Cena’s association with LA Knight was purely to be with the person getting the biggest reactions. Maybe I’ve not noticed it, but I haven’t seen LA Knight get even bigger responses since Cena hitched the wagon, but that’s because of how loud those reactions have been pretty much all year.

It feels more like Cena protecting his reputation with the crowd then being selfless in elevating Knight. And sure, it’s most likely a win/win situation, I just don’t buy the selflessness in this instance. It reminds me of Jericho doing similar in AEW when someone is over and getting involved in the storyline.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I just watched the Cena segment… he gets a pass, this time, for committing to the raspy, Blanche-from-Corrie-with-a-cold voice to put over the spike. Incredible stuff.

I thought LA Knight’s promo was as good as he’s done, if only because the title being on the line has given him a ‘why’.

I don’t know who Donny Brook is, but his wrestling matches are shite.

[Loki]

On 11/4/2023 at 10:04 AM, Loki said:

We've reached that moment, sadly, that we get to with WWE sporadically where they have heated up a new babyface to the point of explosion, and ALL they have to do is let them win.  The crowd is ready.  LA Knight is ready, I've not seen a more ready superstar in years except Cody.  And they're going to do what they did at WM, which is have the face lose and that'll be it.  Cody Rhodes may, in time, recover but he'll never be quite as red hot as he was at WM.  If they give Knight the win at Crown Jewel then they have themselves a new top face, if he loses then everything he's been saying was bullshit and the crowd will just go mild on him.  We've seen it so many times.

I'm all for long-term booking but you also have to be agile enough to cash in on your successes.  Knight wasn't expected to be THIS over, but he is.  And this isn't a "successful reheat of established star" in the style of Drew, this is a meteroric natural emergence of a huge crowd favourite.  Roman is Roman, a loss won't make him any less of a star, but a Knight win upsets the apple cart in a great way.

If Vince was still in charge I’d be 100% with you that Reigns is winning.  But HHH - this is a big test for him.  He's successfully built a new megastar... now what?

The fact not one of us has mentioned Smackdown shows how much momentum was lost through the PPV.  Looks like LA Knight will feud with various members of the Bloodline and get wins over midcarders like Grayson Waller, whilst his merchandise drops from being the top seller (more than Cody even) back into the pack, and Reigns sits at home until Rumble time.

[The King of Old School]

Yeah it was a bit shit.

Both the WWE and the US Title's being on part timers is going to hurt things for the rest of the year, as I don't think either of them will be on Smackdown again until a week or two before the Rumble.

Some good stuff with the Womens division though, I imagine it won't be long before Bayley gets kicked out of that group.