The Smackers Thread

[The King of Old School]

9 minutes ago, Duke said:

This sentence should be unacceptable, but is probably exactly how they're thinking about it.

Yep. 

You can only say what you see, and these pair are definitely being made out to be the weak links in all of this. Only ever get the upper hand on anyone when Solo or Fatu is in there.

Cody, Roman, Randy, KO can all take out these two, two on one every time without breaking a sweat.

We're one step away from one of those facing these two in handicap matches and winning comfortably.

A right pair of berks.

Edited September 22, 2024 by The King of Old School

[Chili]

4 minutes ago, The King of Old School said:

Yep. 

You can only say what you see, and these pair are definitely being made out to be the weak links in all of this. Only ever get the upper hand on anyone when Solo or Fatu is in there.

Cody, Roman, Randy, KO can all take out these two, two on one every time without breaking a sweat.

We're one step away from one of those facing these two in handicap matches and winning comfortably.

A right pair of berks.

I'm getting Manu and Sim Snuka vibes from reading this.

Edited September 22, 2024 by Chili

[The King of Old School]

13 minutes ago, Chili said:

I'm getting Manu and Sim Snuka vibes from reading this.

Ha yes, great comparison.

[Arch Stanton]

I watched all of SmackDown, saw the Roman/Cody segment and, aside from thinking the closing line was crap, didn't really give the presentation of the thing a second thought. Some people thinking about this stuff way too deep. Especially those that aren't even WWE fans and stopped watching after WresleMania.

[air_raid]

But was it as “outside of the box” as when Kane and Shane went for dinner, I ask you?

[LaGoosh]

Truly one of the worst segments ever. But I bet they thought they were making something as good as the diner scene from Heat.

Electrocuted testicles, old women being piledrived, being thrown into giant dumpsters full of fire and coming out entirely unscathed, ambulance bumps, stage dives, romantic dinners. Absolutely insane feud.

[tiger_rick]

On 9/21/2024 at 7:34 AM, DavidB6937 said:

Thoughts? I imagine its a love it or hate it style promo. Does make both guys feel massively big time though just like at Mania time. Far more than anyone else.

 

I don't love it or hate it (apart from the horrific final minute). There's a really good idea in there and it has some merit, but it's just massively overproduced - which aside from the stuff I won't mention, is still their biggest flaw whenever I see anything.

The idea of the opening, the song, establishing shots, the cars arriving - that's pretty good. Establishing what Atlanta means to both of them, chopping in some clips, there's nothing wrong there. The setting was cool and added a big time feel. Some of the other dialogue is OK. Particularly pushing where Roman is at and why they'd team together, some of that was good. I like that they've tried something and it'll appeal to who they want it to. 

I want to feel like this is part of the pro-wrestling show these guys are on. That's how their entire product could appeal to me more. I want to feel that it's a Roman and Cody summit, in a cool place, shot on a single camera by a person who actually exists and works to capture Roman's monologue, then Cody's rebuttal and then steps back to capture them talking face to face. I'm fine with some light editing, like inserting the clips, but I want to feel like the rest of it is part of the real-life "sporting" event they present. I don't want the "score". I don't want the horrible forced drama at the end. I want these two massive stars to lay it all on the line, agree to come together and make sure everyone knows it's not over between them through their outstanding pro-wrestling promo ability, not some media studies final project acting and direction.

Slightly related, there was a really good post recently, might have been @Slapnut about the flaws with what WWE actually present. I agreed with a lot of it. I don't see a lot of it, but I did watch a full episode of Smackers when I was in the US earlier this year and some stuff on social media and it all has the horrible over-production that they haven't got close to fixing. I honestly thought, or maybe just hoped, that the thing Triple H would resolve was to turn it back into show that felt like a live wrestling event being filmed for TV and not like a TV show about wrestling. Until they do that, and have Michael Cole put out to pasture, I don't think it'll ever be something I sit and watch and enjoy. Just on a purely surface level.

Edited September 23, 2024 by tiger_rick

[DavidB6937]

Two years! Madness. Still makes me smile massively. What a time.

 

 

[Supremo]

2 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

Two years! Madness. Still makes me smile massively. What a time.

Genuinely think this was the turning point for the entire company. A real moment in time. After decades of utter shit, a sudden jolt of, “fucking hell, do they actually know what they’re doing?” The stars aligning and they’ve never looked back.

I fully expect endless callbacks when Roman is the one trying to bring Sami back into the fold. He better have a T-shirt ready. It’s gonna cost ya!

Having now seen this show in full, the Cody/Roman thing was fine. Completely over the top and up their own arse, but that’s exactly what you’d expect with these two characters. It should be a dick-measuring contest. You can completely imagine them trying to top the other when organising the meet-up. Roman rocking up with seven cars. Amazing.

I loved it. The two absolute biggest stars alive, out-Peacocking the other. Home run stuff. Pure electricity. There’s literally billions of dollars available to them with any and all combination of these two and The Rock. You could plot out the next three Wrestlemania main events, at least.

Ironically, considering all the chatter about Cody and Roman going full Lucha Underground, it was Kevin Owens who was the star of this show, and yet I’d hardly seen anyone talking about him. He was excellent here. There isn’t a more perfect person for them to cut to after Roman and Cody went to such ridiculous lengths. As the one character who always seems aware that he’s trapped in the most ridiculous TV show, I would’ve loved him to have just laughed and muttered, “wankers.” Would’ve been pitch perfect.

But yeah, I take everything back that I’ve recently been saying about KO. Chatting shit about how he’s done everything and needs to jump to AEW. Nonsense. On this show alone he showed glimpses of a really interesting character development, teasing attacking Cody in what would be extremely justified anger. Kevin spent years fighting against The Bloodline, saving Cody, taking endless bullets for him, and now Cody teams up with Roman as and when it suits him? What a prick. Knock his head off, Kev! Also, ignore anyone who ever says Kevin doesn’t have any dream matches left in WWE because Kevin Owens vs. Jacob Fatu one-on-one is now up there as an absolute wet dream. Battle of the Chubby Nutters! Give them twenty minutes on pay per view. It’ll win Match of the Year!

Edited September 23, 2024 by Supremo

[The King of Old School]

Enjoyed the ladder match.

Criminal that in late 2024 though that Montez Ford is still pissing about in a tag team though.

Edited October 5, 2024 by The King of Old School

[Hannibal Scorch]

6 minutes ago, The King of Old School said:

Enjoyed the ladder match.

Criminal that in late 2024 though that Montez Ford is still pissing about in a tag team though.

Why? Where do you think he fits in as a singles wrestler? Now, do I think the Street Profits have been booked pretty poorly? Absolutely, but the tag division is pretty crap and has been for a long time. But for as good as a wrestler as he is (and I think Dawkins is pretty great as well), what are you doing with Ford if he goes solo? Where do you slot him in?

[Snitsky's back acne]

My only 'concern' with Owens turning on Cody is where does that leave Orton? Cody and Orton have the history and is (arguably) the bigger money match. If Owens turns you don't want Orton doing it too. If too many people turn on the babyface too often it makes the babyface look like a schmuck. 

[DavidB6937]

Yeah I'd argue the bigger crime is wasting SP as a tag team which isn't that surprising as they rarely book the tag division consistently well.

Either guy would need a lot of warming up to stand a chance at singles success and not just disappear in the pack somewhere.

Edited October 5, 2024 by DavidB6937

[Hannibal Scorch]

14 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Yeah I'd argue the bigger crime is wasting SP as a tag team which isn't that surprising as they rarely book the tag division consistently well.

Either guy would need a lot of warming up to stand a chance at singles success and not just disappear in the pack somewhere.

Too often the take when a tag team isn’t doing much is why don’t they split them up? When most of the time the issue is the tag division booking as a whole. 

[The King of Old School]

29 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Why? Where do you think he fits in as a singles wrestler? Now, do I think the Street Profits have been booked pretty poorly? Absolutely, but the tag division is pretty crap and has been for a long time. But for as good as a wrestler as he is (and I think Dawkins is pretty great as well), what are you doing with Ford if he goes solo? Where do you slot him in?

Think they might have missed the boat.

About 18 months ago thought he might be on the verge of something, put in a great performance in the EC and thought after Mania that year he was going to break out and be the one to end Theory's US title run.

He has obvious charisma, ridiculous in the ring, movie star looks.

Has everything you would think they would want in a singles star.