The Smackers Thread

[d-d-d-dAz]

50 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Roman, Jimmy, Jey and Sami vs. Jacob, Solo, Tama and Tanga seems fine for me. No need for Cody to be involved, seems way too late to introduce Talla or Longa Tonga, and I can’t foresee any situation where a Five-on-Five-War Games would be preferable to a Four-on-Four. All that matters is we get THE LADS back.

Keep it simple. Keep it tight. Lest we forget, as I’m sure Michael Cole will remind us at least a dozen times on the night, “THE MATCH DOESN’T START UNTIL ALL PARTICIPANTS ENTER! THIS BIT DOESN’T MATTER! GO MAKE A BREW!”

If I had a house or a million pounds, I'd bet it on Cody being involved. He'll be the one who smoothes over the relationship between Roman and Jey/Sami.

Plus, they'll need him in the ring at the end of War Games when Uncle Dwayne pops by to say hello.

[Mr Butternut Squash]

1 hour ago, Slapnut said:

I haven’t watched the WWE weeklies in god knows how long but I was awake quite late last night so I stuck this on to fall asleep to. I fell asleep at the end of the opening match but I have a few observations from what I saw. Apologies in advance but this won’t be positive.

It’s just fucking shit. All of it. I don’t think there was a single thing I enjoyed in that first 20 minutes or so.

For starters, the opening music. Now I’m not saying I want some heavy rock or something similar to what it was when I was growing up, but anything is better than this. I get it, it’s modern, it’s hip, but it doesn’t fit wrestling whatsoever.

The opening video was shit too. WWE are so good at video packages and the like, so why can’t they come up with something more original than FLASHING LIGHTS, HERE’S A WRESTLER POSING, AND ANOTHER ONE DOING THE SAME POSE, OH LOOK HERE’S LOGAN PAUL (almost switched off at the sight of that cunt btw). It’s so so so dull.

As for the show itself (what I saw at least), has anything really changed from the Vince days? It’s so sickeningly choreographed. Everybody’s entrance is always exactly the same, always hitting their mark, always unnaturally posing for the hard cam at the exact same time. I noticed it during the actual match too, Solo in particular was just always mugging for the hard cam. I get it, I know why the hard cam is there and I know it’s beneficial to work to that cam, but it’s so overbearing and so unnatural.

Cody Rhodes. I get it. I can see why he’s the man, and I completely agree that he should be. He’s everything they want and he’s absolutely smashing it from what I’ve seen. But I still think he’s boring as fuck.

I fell asleep probably just before Roman came out but I caught some clips on Twitter and he’s still great, but imagine how good he could be if he didn’t always move at a snail’s pace.

Yeah, not for me, sorry lads! Glad some people are enjoying it though.

FWIW I enjoyed the show but agree their production quirks can be annoying. Although you didn't mention the worst thing (Def Rebel aside). The ring announcing. Fucking dreadful. I don't know how it got so bad so quickly but I can't bear it, especially during championship matches. 

But yeah, good show. Cage match was surprising great despite some scary moments. I don't know how much was Cody selling or him being genuinely rattled, but great work from him and Solo's best outing yet.

 

Edited Saturday at 01:48 PM by Mr Butternut Squash

[DavidB6937]

2 hours ago, Slapnut said:

As for the show itself (what I saw at least), has anything really changed from the Vince days?

It's a far more positive and enjoyable experience. The booking is on the whole better. The filming and production is definitely better.

Did they change it all massively? Absolutely not. But it didn't need to be overhauled completely. It was never going to be changed to the point where it's unrecognisable.

It's still WWE and it's still offering their brand of wrestling. And for many people that's what they want and enjoy.

[Hannibal Scorch]

50 minutes ago, Mr Butternut Squash said:

The ring announcing. Fucking dreadful. I don't know how it got so bad so quickly but I can't bear it, especially during championship matches. 

 

What’s weirder is the woman who now does Smackdown seems to be a clone of Samantha Irvin which makes you why the bothered to get someone similar but worse when she’s right there. Been nicer if they had someone completely different in style at least.

[Slapnut]

1 hour ago, Mr Butternut Squash said:

FWIW I enjoyed the show but agree their production quirks can be annoying. Although you didn't mention the worst thing (Def Rebel aside). The ring announcing. Fucking dreadful. I don't know how it got so bad so quickly but I can't bear it, especially during championship matches. 

I did actually intend to mention how jarring it was when I noticed the announcer wasn’t Samantha Irvin but instead an AI version.

56 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

It's a far more positive and enjoyable experience. The booking is on the whole better. The filming and production is definitely better.

Did they change it all massively? Absolutely not. But it didn't need to be overhauled completely. It was never going to be changed to the point where it's unrecognisable.

It's still WWE and it's still offering their brand of wrestling. And for many people that's what they want and enjoy.

I’m not sure I’m seeing any major production differences to be honest. Granted, there aren’t camera cuts every 2 seconds, but the only other differences appear to be fairly minor. You still have those weird backstage segments where somebody storms into an office at the exact moment a camera starts running, and then everybody is facing forward for some reason.

I don’t really have a good eye for what is good booking vs bad booking, but on that front things to me don’t seem particularly different to the Vince days either. The weird period in about 2020-2021 where zombies were interrupting matches and Rey Mysterio was having his eye gouged out? Yeah, it’s miles better now, but that was proper bottom of the barrel stuff during the bonkers Thunderdome era. But if we’re looking at the last 10 years or so, I genuinely don’t see much difference.

I think they can quite easily keep hold of the “WWE style” and production whilst making things feel more natural. Do they really need to play to the hard cam so much outside of promos? Can they really not think of any better ways to do backstage segments than this:

 

Why don’t any of their wrestlers ever know they are on camera? Why do they move and do their finisher towards the hard camera rather than wherever they are at the time? It’s all so so jarring. I don’t think an effort to make everything feel more natural would put people off or alter their brand of wrestling in any real way.

[DavidB6937]

If it's not what you like then it's not what you like. And as you said you've not been watching. I don't think tuning in to a random episode of Smackdown is suddenly going to change your mind.

[SwayWays]

I've always wondered when they stayed they were going into more reality based programming why they never had more people caught on cctv, or someone cutting a promo and being interrupted by someone and then continue or conversation or a camera backstage catching someone in a group in the distance talking, and the sound inexplicably still picks them up rather than reigns is in a private dressing room trying his hardest not to look at the camera, is joined by Paul heyman and then they have a "private" conversation. 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

13 minutes ago, Slapnut said:

Why do they move and do their finisher towards the hard camera rather than wherever they are at the time? It’s all so so jarring.

Because primarily its a TV show not a wrestling show. The question you are asking is essentially "Why do all the actors say their lines to camera?" Even if you say its reality TV then of course they face the camera, programmes like Big Brother or I'm A Celebrity use tons of cameras to capture the bits that they want. Even if you wanted to say its scripted reality like TOWIE or Made In Chelsea they get the scripted bits they want on camera, it's all set up. I don't know how you'd expect them to shoot it differently to be honest. Even in sports they put a camera in place to catch the best action. Is your argument that you shouldn't have the best view to see what's going on?

[RedTwoster]

4 hours ago, Slapnut said:

As for the show itself (what I saw at least), has anything really changed from the Vince days?

I’d also add, to @DavidB6937’s brilliant summary, that there’s a sense of thought behind the storytelling, and as far as I can think, they’re yet to just ‘drop’ a storyline thread for no reason, as was commonplace in the McMahon era - that means it’s much easier to invest in what’s going on. There’s also rarely any content you’d feel embarrassed to watch in front of a non-wrestling fan; again, something that was commonplace in the Vince era.

I probably prefer the wrestling in AEW personally, but I think WWE has the storytelling side of things nailed in a way that caters to my personal tastes. But on the whole, I find both companies very enjoyable. Between what WWE, AEW and TNA are offering, I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed being a wrestling fan more. Long may it continue.

[Hannibal Scorch]

Speaking of storylines @RedTwoster is there a reason why Andrade was in a best of 5 series? I saw a couple of them, they obviously work well together but why are they having a series? 

[RedTwoster]

6 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Speaking of storylines @RedTwoster is there a reason why Andrade was in a best of 5 series? I saw a couple of them, they obviously work well together but why are they having a series? 

I said it a couple of weeks ago, and I still feel the same - their ‘feud’ is ridiculously boring to me. I’ve no idea how or why it started, although I’m sure there would have been something that happened on screen that I’ve forgotten about. In spite of me, on the whole, preferring the storytelling in WWE right now, it’s probably more accurate for me to say I prefer the storytelling on Raw. While I do enjoy the Bloodline stuff on Smackdown, I think the show is suffering from its paper-thin roster. Hopefully they’ll address that in the near future with a few trades or call-ups.

[DavidB6937]

I doubt it was ever intended as a long feud

They work well together. The matches have been well received. Both guys needed something to sink their teeth into and they seem to bring the best out in each other. So they've had a rivalry to best each other and get a shot at the US title. It's not really a complicated storyline. Just two guys trying to one up each other really.

[Hannibal Scorch]

Just now, DavidB6937 said:

I doubt it was ever intended as a long feud

They work well together. The matches have been well received. Both guys needed something to sink their teeth into and they seem to bring the best out in each other. So they've had a rivalry to best each other and get a shot at the US title. It's not really a complicated storyline. Just two guys trying to one up each other really.

Well if it’s for a title shot fair play, there’s a reason. Bucks and the Lucha Brothers had one for the tag titles, so as long as there is a reason, it makes sense.

[DavidB6937]

1 minute ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Well if it’s for a title shot fair play, there’s a reason. Bucks and the Lucha Brothers had one for the tag titles, so as long as there is a reason, it makes sense.

It's a very thin attempt at disguising multiple rematches but I guess it's more than they've done in the past sometimes.

[The King of Old School]

Cody is definitely in war games isn't he.

Was hoping for a Bloodline OG vs Bloodline Wolfpac, with Cody vs Orton for the belt.