Daaaaaad! Posted September 21 Share Posted September 21 (edited) Regarding the Georgia Tech “cinema” promo: I was accepting until the very end, when my eyes did the biggest roll in their biological history. Any measly crumb of subtlety got smashed with a hammer when Roman delivered his last line. Which usually I would have no problem with, but here it just felt forced. Edited September 21 by Daaaaaad! new page = needs context Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted September 21 Paid Members Share Posted September 21 (edited) 42 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said: I imagine its a love it or hate it style promo I definitely hate it. At what point with this type of stuff does it stop actually being wrestling? And if this really is "cinema" then at what point do you start to assess it critically to the same standard as actual cinema? Because by cinema/TV drama standards it's cheesy and hokey rubbish. EDIT: to clarify I'm referring to that style of promo rather than the specific content of this particular promo (which I also hated but I won't get into that). Edited September 21 by LaGoosh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The King of Old School Posted September 21 Share Posted September 21 (edited) Yeah that Roman/Cody thing was horrible. Just do a similar promo in the ring, nobody cares about Romans football career etc. The new Bloodline are rubbish Fatu apart of course, I just expect them to lose all the time. What was with the ending to the 6 man though? When has a DQ for breaking up a pin ever been a thing in a 6 man?! Also why is Montez Ford still pissing about in a tag team? Edited September 21 by The King of Old School Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lion_of_the_Midlands Posted September 21 Paid Members Share Posted September 21 (edited) This genuinely isn't a dig at anyone but I do find it amusing that the same people who don't think that promo was wrestling are also the ones who think that really stabbing someone in the face with a hyperdermic needle is. When you take wrestling outside its natural environment of the arena then it is always going to look hokey it just depends on the degree. That last night was a little hokey, not Sting and Davey Boy fighting Vader and Sid on a beach hokey but hokey just the same. It definitely wasn't cinema, it was straight to DVD at best. 32 minutes ago, The King of Old School said: nobody cares about Romans football career etc. Do you not understand how big college football is? College football is never not important no matter what anyone does with the rest of their lives. Edited September 21 by Lion_of_the_Midlands WAR EAGLE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedTwoster Posted September 21 Share Posted September 21 I didn’t mind it so much, but it was effectively a standard wrestling promo in a real life setting - which in turn made it feel fake. If they’d simply told them to have a conversation in character without scripting it, that might have worked better. That said, fair play to them for trying something different. I’m all for breaking conventions in wrestling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Duke Posted September 21 Paid Members Share Posted September 21 (edited) My initial reaction to the Roman/Cody thing is that it's a profound misunderstanding of pro wrestling as a medium, the fourth wall is different, you suspend your disbelief in a different way and the audience interacts differently. It's not the same as succession or whatever the hell Paul's been binging lately. That being said, I think it's unlikely that I understand wrestling as a medium as well as HHH, so I could be wrong on that. What's for absolute certain is that if you're going to do things like that you need some better writers. Hoo boy, nothing exposes how crap wrestling writing is like trying to do serious drama. Aside from "you're in my way in life" as the crescendo line (I know writers that use subtext, and they're all cowards), the cadence was all wrong, it was still written as if they were expecting a live crowd to react, the body language was bizarre, and you can't have Roman talk about somewhere being his city and then 30 seconds later say "I'm a man without a country", because now the promo is about something completely contradictory. Also, it was a classic example of the "your turn, my turn" dialogue that no human would ever say extemporaneously. I often think the difference between an ok and a really good promo is sounding like an actual human. The best juxtaposition of that I can think of is Derby and Mox last week. Derby had his monologue, Mox just spoke to the dude and was miles more engaging and believable because of it. This is why Eddie Kingston is so good. These two were sub-high school. All it needed was John Cena to appear in the rafters and say "fine speech". Really dreadful Edit: forgot to mention how much of a divot Cody looked with his belt slung over his shoulder in an empty football stadium. Hilariously bad. Edited September 21 by Duke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted September 21 Paid Members Share Posted September 21 (edited) 6 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said: This genuinely isn't a dig at anyone but I do find it amusing that the same people who don't think that promo was wrestling are also the ones who think that really stabbing someone in the face with a hyperdermic needle is. Those two things are not comparable at all. Edited September 21 by LaGoosh typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-d-d-dAz Posted September 21 Share Posted September 21 I didn't personally love it necessarily, but I'm not having 'just put them in the ring' as the reason. One of the worst parts about WWE's fallow years was how little texture there was, everything was the same and it all happened in the same place. In the defence of this, I guess it looked and felt big budget and big time, and like Cody/Roman were the biggest deals in the world so on that level it worked. I'm just a big idiot and can't get past the idea they probably wouldn't turn up to an empty stadium with a full camera crew ready to shoot a movie quality vignette. I'd much prefer the same thing, but filmed a little more shonkily to give it a more 'real' feeling. Like if they'd pitched it as Roman had spoken to his old friends, arranged access to the stadium, invited Cody and then had someone film it on their phone in case anything went down, I could get there with that premise. I just don't like that the 'THIS IS CINEMA' Twitter cliche has become a production guiding principle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted September 21 Paid Members Share Posted September 21 11 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said: Do you not understand how big college football is? College football is never not important no matter what anyone does with the rest of their lives. Never a truer word spoken here. However... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Posted September 21 Share Posted September 21 (edited) I gave that a watch because of some online chatter and yeah, basically if people were saying Paul Heyman should have got an Emmy for his 'acting' a few months ago, they'll wanna give these two an Oscar because remember wrestling is just as acceptable as proper online telly now (please accept us). It wasn't zombies being legitimate in a Miz match bad or does Jack Perry live and travel in apocalyptic partridge family minibus logic scratching, but yeah, I'd love to know who had the idea behind this. Terrible acting, I know Cody is extremely good at what he does, but when you take your mind out of it and just look at him and the way he speaks, he's an odd duck. Edit: I think the reason stuff like Hangman Page burning a gaff down and this being different and not compared in a 'tribal fan wanker' aspect would be that the character build-up and format for that segment have been well plotted and had 'some' minor bending wrestling logic which you can have. This felt like two lads with a drone delivering a short film for their course assignment Edited September 21 by Chili Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Duke Posted September 21 Paid Members Share Posted September 21 9 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said: I'm just a big idiot and can't get past the idea they probably wouldn't turn up to an empty stadium with a full camera crew ready to shoot a movie quality vignette. I'd much prefer the same thing, but filmed a little more shonkily to give it a more 'real' feeling. Like if they'd pitched it as Roman had spoken to his old friends, arranged access to the stadium, invited Cody and then had someone film it on their phone in case anything went down, I could get there with that premise. I think they wanted to feel like a mob style parley session and they could've pulled that off with better set up. Dialogue would've always let them down though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lion_of_the_Midlands Posted September 21 Paid Members Share Posted September 21 5 minutes ago, LaGoosh said: Thowe two things are not comparable at all. We are not going to agree Gooshy but they absolutely are. Both of them are outside the traditional norms of what would be classified as "Pro Wrestling" Both of them massively divide opinion and the mega fans of both are defending them to the death. It amused me that's all. I would also say that another way they are comparable is that I'm not really a fan of either, I don't hate either, they are just not for me. That promo was like something out of a film that Jason Statham and Tom Hardy were doing for Netflix just for the money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Posted September 21 Share Posted September 21 @Lion_of_the_Midlands yeah that last bit is spot on, except they'll have thought they've delivered something truly genre defining and CINEMA (please accept wrestling) whereas as actual pro banking the cheques knows it's for a straight to video release. If they'd have suddenly fought off a load of putties or something like in power rangers then I'd say it was the best thing ever like a hypocrite mind you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lion_of_the_Midlands Posted September 21 Paid Members Share Posted September 21 2 minutes ago, Chili said: @Lion_of_the_Midlands yeah that last bit is spot on, except they'll have thought they've delivered something truly genre defining and CINEMA (please accept wrestling) whereas as actual pro banking the cheques knows it's for a straight to video release. If they'd have suddenly fought off a load of putties or something like in power rangers then I'd say it was the best thing ever like a hypocrite mind you. I've told you before Chili that if you want wrestling and Power Rangers you need to invent a time machine and take it back to mid 90s british wrestling shows. I for one can think of no better use for a time machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted September 21 Paid Members Share Posted September 21 26 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said: We are not going to agree Gooshy but they absolutely are. Both of them are outside the traditional norms of what would be classified as "Pro Wrestling" The syringe spot whether you like it or not is essentially the same as every other thumbtack, barbed wire, fireball, spike or even table and kendo stick spot from all of pro wrestling history. It's just an escalation of that type of spot. Disgusting or not it still clearly fits within the established context and logic that has been there throughout all of wrestling history. You don't have to like it but it's as much a part of pro wrestling as every hardcore spot that has ever happened. I don't think "cinematic" promos with music scores and invisible cameras fit at all with the well established context and logic of what wrestling has always been. They are not comparable. But maybe that's fine. Maybe wrestling should be more experimental. My own personal tastes are that all entertainment should have a consistent logic, presentation and rules to the world it's created so as long as it makes sense I'm all for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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