The Smackers Thread

[DavidB6937]

Just now, kieranjennings said:

As there's 8 weeks to go - couldn't this just be chapter 1 in a story that sees it becoming Rhodes/Rock/Roman in a Triple Threat? I imagine with Rock then doing the honours so Rhodes becomes champ but Reigns can later come back to say he was never actually beaten. 

There's just such a long time to go and I reckon a lot of it could be to build further groundswell support for Cody. 

Hunter, is that you?

[Devon Malcolm]

29 minutes ago, kieranjennings said:

As there's 8 weeks to go - couldn't this just be chapter 1 in a story that sees it becoming Rhodes/Rock/Roman in a Triple Threat? I imagine with Rock then doing the honours so Rhodes becomes champ but Reigns can later come back to say he was never actually beaten. 

Do you, in all honesty and sincerity, really think that The Rock is going to eat a pin from Cody Rhodes?

Smackdown's made us all lose our minds. Next someone will say that Nick Aldis is going to book himself in a fourway with the three of them.

[d-d-d-dAz]

7 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

 

Smackdown's made us all lose our minds. Next someone will say that Nick Aldis is going to book himself in a fourway with the three of them.

I'm in.

[air_raid]

Just to add a little extra context to Rock's looming in-ring return after 8 years without an actual (official) match and 11 since a real one, just fancied reflection of the time since Mania 29 in terms of matches teased, confirmed and later cancelled, and all the times that the two parties (Rock and WWE) have tried to do the business for a Mania. It's hardly surprising that if Dwayne knows he's good to go, that he's pushed hard to be a factor in the ring for this one, when you digest this ;

As everyone knows, the original plan for WrestleMania XXX was Rock vs Brock, but that got backburnered when Rock suffered an injury wrestling Cena at 29 - Rocky confirmed as much in a tweet later in 2013 that he, Brock and Vince were in agreement on the match, but that maybe it would happen at 31. It obviously didn't, as Rocky allegedly was still tentative about risking some of his filming schedule by chancing injury with another wrestling match... prompting my wild insistence that he'd never wrestle again (whoops). Though he did, of course, get involved in a memorable angle with Ronda Rousey, his old mate Triple H and Stephanie. At 32, of course, they secured his services to back Cena up and do a short "match" with Erick Rowan. Shortly after the event, Bray himself posted on one of his social accounts that it would be cool to wrestle Rock at Mania 33, but by the time it rolled around Rocky couldn't wrestle anyone because he was filming Ballers. Year after, Rocky says they reached out to him to finally pay off the tease from 31 and do Rock & Ronda vs HHH & Steph at Mania 34, but he had to turn it down because his publicity duties for Rampage were taking him to Shanghai at the time. Meltzer has said that one of the (many) ideas for the Mania 35 main event thrown around was Reigns vs Rock, even so far as Rock winning the Rumble, but when Roman had his leukaemia diagnosis they had to abandon that. More than once in 2019 Randy Orton sent Rock tweets proposing a match between them at Mania 36 but Rocky diplomatically declined and apparently the company didn't reach out to Rock at all for what ended up the empty arena Mania. Allegedly they pitched Rock vs Roman again for Mania 37 but Covid scuppered it because depending on who you believe, Rock didn't want to return in the ThunderDome if they weren't going to perform in front of fans, or Vince didn't know how many fans they were going to be allowed in and wanted Rock to return in front of a full stadium. They then pitched Reigns vs Rock to Rock for Mania 38 but he turned it down because he wanted to do it 39 in LA instead of in Texas (wonder why not Texas...). Which brings us to last year and 39, where Rock confirms that he was down to wrestle Roman but had to cancel on them several months out because he knew he wasn't going to be in "ring shape" in time.

8 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Smackdown's made us all lose our minds. Next someone will say that Nick Aldis is going to book himself in a fourway with the three of them.

I'd let him, if he makes good on his tease and brings Steve Blackman back.

[Supremo]

Another thing that seems annoyingly specific to this medium. When someone creatively shits the bed they can go all mysterious and pretend to be so much cleverer than everyone. You all only dislike it because you don’t understand the 4D chess we’re playing.

Get in the sea, Brian. You and Steve Roids have dropped an almighty bollock. You’ve misread the room, leaving you looking like a tit. Similar to CM Punk coming back and thinking shoot references are going to get big reactions. In both instances, these stars from the past have come back without any understanding of the current fan base. It’s a different generation of earnest, loyal fans, who just want to support their favourites and see them succeed. Some old prick from the past showing you he has goosebumps isn’t going to cut it when he’s substituting in for someone they’ve followed and loved for two years straight.

Reports are that the reaction is being monitored and changes may happen. I’m starting to think some type of pivot might come. Fucked if I can think of anything that can retcon this mess though. Everyone’s come out of it terribly. At a guess, they could do both Rock vs. Roman and Cody vs. Seth on Night 1, with the winners unifying the belts on Night 2,  but do you know what would have better than that? Not totally ballsing everything up in the first place.

[d-d-d-dAz]

23 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Another thing that seems annoyingly specific to this medium. When someone creatively shits the bed they can go all mysterious and pretend to be so much cleverer than everyone. You all only dislike it because you don’t understand the 4D chess we’re playing.

Get in the sea, Brian. You and Steve Roids have dropped an almighty bollock. You’ve misread the room, leaving you looking like a tit. Similar to CM Punk coming back and thinking shoot references are going to get big reactions. In both instances, these stars from the past have come back without any understanding of the current fan base. It’s a different generation of earnest, loyal fans, who just want to support their favourites and see them succeed. Some old prick from the past showing you he has goosebumps isn’t going to cut it when he’s substituting in for someone they’ve followed and loved for two years straight.

Reports are that the reaction is being monitored and changes may happen. I’m starting to think some type of pivot might come. Fucked if I can think of anything that can retcon this mess though. Everyone’s come out of it terribly. At a guess, they could do both Rock vs. Roman and Cody vs. Seth on Night 1, with the winners unifying the belts on Night 2,  but do you know what would have better than that? Not totally ballsing everything up in the first place.

Honestly, at this point, The Rock having to lose in the semi-final of the Retcon Cup on night 1 of a four night buy-one-get-one-free extravaganza would have me wearing my Cody bedspread like a cape, running down the street clicking my heels like Dick Van Dyke and laughing like a loon.

I think the best thing for Cody and Seth though is just to plough ahead and try and make the Dickhead Invitational work. There's a slight lane for Cody, where he can say 'I've spent all this time obsessing over surpassing my daddy's achievements, but I've realised that first I need to match them.. and if that belt represents the big gold bastard of Flair, Funk and Dusty... then I want that!'

Let Dwayne, Brian and Roman stew in their own mess.

Edited February 5 by d-d-d-dAz

[DavidB6937]

It is a weird and desperate flex that they're fixating on that crowd reaction.

Of COURSE they were fucking pumped. It was The Rock! I'd probably pop too at that moment.

But that's all - in the moment. The online reaction is far more focused on the wider picture and the story etc which is the more important thing.

[d-d-d-dAz]

1 minute ago, DavidB6937 said:

It is a weird and desperate flex that they're fixating on that crowd reaction.

Of COURSE they were fucking pumped. It was The Rock! I'd probably pop too at that moment.

But that's all - in the moment. The online reaction is far more focused on the wider picture and the story etc which is the more important thing.

People who regret the affair still had a stiffy at the time, as the old saying goes.

Probably.

[kieranjennings]

1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Do you, in all honesty and sincerity, really think that The Rock is going to eat a pin from Cody Rhodes?

Smackdown's made us all lose our minds. Next someone will say that Nick Aldis is going to book himself in a fourway with the three of them.

No idea - Rhodes could get the pin on Reigns in that scenario and claim later it's only because did x,y or z and still giving him some protection. There's just a long way to go to get to the event so it's a case of see what happens next.

I can see it becoming a triple threat as you certainly get more eyes on Cody globally that way. If he's seen as the choice going forward then you are putting him in a more public position than just headlining against Reigns. 

[air_raid]

3 minutes ago, kieranjennings said:

No idea - Rhodes could get the pin on Reigns in that scenario and claim later it's only because did x,y or z and still giving him some protection.

The problem with jiggery fuckery like that with half an eye to the future, especially when dealing with part timers, is that you can end up fucking yourself into a corner. See the finish to Ronda vs Charlotte vs Lynch at Mania 35 with an eye on doing Lynch vs Rousey at Mania 36 to settle it.... whoops. You fucked yourself in the eye with the eyes of the world on the first ever womens Mania main event, and it never got paid off.

43 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

People who regret the affair still had a stiffy at the time, as the old saying goes.

🤣 It was worth Kinky Auntie Undertaker to get there.

[The Gaffer]

Brian Gewritz is still far too under the radar for my liking, in proportion to the baskets of shit he's brought to wrestling over the years. I don't know why but I wasted a free Audible trial on his book about a year ago and it just hammered home his awfulness. "So I pitched to Vince that we should rhyme it with poo and needless to say HE LOVED IT!" Total hack who used wrestling to larp his actual dream of writing terrible SNL skits, who has now lucked into being Pinky to Rock's Brain. If you're seeing, hearing or reading something shite from Rock, it's Gewritz. 

[air_raid]

26 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

"So I pitched to Vince that we should rhyme it with poo and needless to say 

... I had the last laugh."

27 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

If you're seeing, hearing or reading something shite from Rock, it's Gewritz. 

Literally. 💩

[Supremo]

Meltzer on today’s Observer Radio reckons that whilst they might not have wanted The Rock to get the backlash he’s getting, they did want Cody to become a Daniel Bryan-style martyr.

Even if true (I’m not particularly convinced), they’ve absolutely lost their heads. We’re really going back to this shit? I’m so sick of babyfaces being meta martyrs. I’m so sick of the company being the heel and us only being expected to root for guys on the level of, “you-deserve-it-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap.”

The very reason the last few years has been so successful is because they moved away from that completely, relying on proper storytelling, having characters you can invest in based on the struggles and achievements within the fiction itself. I loved Sami Zayn because he was a vulnerable, hilarious scamp, who finally stood up for himself and proved he was a good man at heart. I love Cody Rhodes because he’s a pure, good man fighting against everything possible to achieve the dream of him and his family. I don’t want to only connect with them on some wanky, smark level.

It’s like they learnt nothing from Becky Lynch. People loved her because she became a Conor McGregor-style bad arse who didn’t give a fuck and would smash people both on the microphone and in the ring. And then they turned her into a meta martyr, fighting to get her Main Event back from The Authority, who chose Charlotte instead, and Becky’s stock plummeted. I’d argue she never recovered. That wasn’t the character that got over. It’s a character that got over once, ten years ago, by accident, that just so happened to be portrayed by the best pro-wrestler of all time, who would’ve gotten over regardless.

This crossed my timeline earlier. I almost wish I hadn’t watched it. Look at how perfect it was. The ridiculous gear. The ridiculous shoulder pads. The ridiculous cape. The, “wooooooaaaah,” that you could hear from space. Hugging his daughter. Giving Brodie Junior the belt. That was it. They’d peaked. The fucking man had arrived. Until he hadn’t. Compare this to the absolute mess we have now. It might be the biggest own goal in their entire history.

 

Edited February 5 by Supremo

[air_raid]

QFT. My only quibble with that tweet and the sentiment in general is that I think I've lost track of what the kids mean when they use the word "ratio."

[DavidB6937]

It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Everyone IS behind Cody already! Why would anyone think they need to fuck with that?

I'd get it if they'd dragged this out and they'd lost the crowd a bit and tried to get them back on side but by some miracle they've actually managed to have the fans STILL be behind Cody despite their shit booking at Mania.

So who thought this was a good idea or even needed? Twats.