The Smackers Thread

[DavidB6937]

That ring announcer was alright.

 

[Supremo]

Forget CM Punk’s favour. The biggest mystery in WWE right now is what Roman was on during Friday’s promo. It was like a completely different person from the boring, mumbling babyface he’s mostly been since returning. Engaged, witty, charismatic, smug as fuck. Didn’t seem to give a shit about time queues, either. You could sense everyone in the back panicking, chucking the closing credits up, whilst Roman’s having the time of life chewing the scenery and singing along with the fans. It was amazing. Where has this guy been for the last six months?!

Considering the rumours swirling of The Rock making an appearance on the European Tour, this was the biggest hint yet. The of amount life and energy in Roman here, he definitely did a few pints of Ket before coming out. Monday should be bonkers if Rock gets a round in.

[The King of Old School]

On 3/30/2025 at 7:53 AM, d-d-d-dAz said:

Out of interest, why?

I'm not being snarky or anything, just genuinely interested as I can't see anything bad in it. I actually find it quite moving, with how well performed it was.

It was one mate telling another that his lifelong dream was coming true (I suspect that's true in the kayfabe sense for his character, and at a personal level), and them both being really happy about it.

I don't really know what's cringe about it. 

I get the argument that he's a hypocrite more, given his past comments, but I don't know that feeling joy is particularly cringe.

You know what I don't really know.

I just didn't like it at all.

I just don't like all that kind of stuff in front of the audience, waiting for the cheers. Then the shite "you deserve it" nonsense.

Anything like that, I think is much better suited to being behind the scenes, the company films everything anyway so we would have probably seen the reaction one day.

[d-d-d-dAz]

11 minutes ago, The King of Old School said:

You know what I don't really know.

I just didn't like it at all.

I just don't like all that kind of stuff in front of the audience, waiting for the cheers. Then the shite "you deserve it" nonsense.

Anything like that, I think is much better suited to being behind the scenes, the company films everything anyway so we would have probably seen the reaction one day.

Fair enough.

I think I've always enjoyed seeing the lines crack between personal and professional, and seeing wrestlers moved by something.

I'd file this alongside something like Edge crying before the TLC match in Canada or Bianca crying in the ring before facing Sasha in the main event of Wrestlemania (it was a Saturday though, so this thread would have you believe it doesn't count and she's a loser).

I think they leant into it a bit more, as it was delivered through a promo, but I think seeing this stupid shite we watch actually mean something to the wrestlers at times is quite nice.

 

[LaGoosh]

I watched the Punk/Heyman segment and it didn't sit right with me at all.

- a key part of the Punk character has always been that he scraped, clawed and fought his way to the top against the odds and did it his way. Him being just granted a Mania main event and being so thankful for it he starts crying felt like a betrayal of the character for me.

- a Mania main event should be something that is earned! Either by winning the Rumble, Elimination Chamber, putting your career on the line etc. etc. If Punk is so desperate for the accolade then he should fucking earn it!

- the importance of main eventing a Wrestlemania for the sake of it above all else. This promotion is obsessed with worshipping itself and it's own iconography. It's not the showcase of the immortals, it's now the wrestlers grovelling to the success of the company itself. It's ticking a box on the career list. It's being filmed backstage after the match having a cry and giving Triple H a hug and thanking him for the honour. 

- if winning the Royal Rumble doesn't guarantee you a Wrestlemania main event title then the Royal Rumble is pointless.

- what does the winner of this match get? What are the stakes here? Winning a main event of Wrestlemania should be for something.

I could go on but I won't. As for the segment as an individual bit of telly I thought Roman Reigns was very good in it.

[d-d-d-dAz]

10 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

if winning the Royal Rumble doesn't guarantee you a Wrestlemania main event title then the Royal Rumble is pointless.

I'll leave the rest as I just think we'll disagree in the same way I've disagreed with others, and that's a waste of everyone's time but on this; is your argument then that Jey/Gunther should main event one night and Tiffy/Charlotte the other?

I've never really thought of the Rumbles in that way, I've always just assumed they're for a title shot at Mania and - in the fluid way they do - they'll call it a main event anyway.

It doesn't particularly bother me that the Rumble winner doesn't go on last, as I think if they stuck to that every year it'd trap them in very similar booking patterns year in and year out. I do however agree completely that they should put something on the line in this match, one way or another.

Whilst I think the segment built up the 'why' the wrestlers would want the match, I still think they need to flesh out the 'why' the company agreed to put it on last besides 'big names aren't they?'. I think they still need to give it some tangible stakes.

[LaGoosh]

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

is your argument then that Jey/Gunther should main event one night and Tiffy/Charlotte the other?

9 times out of 10 yes the Mania main event should be the winner of the Royal Rumble vs the World Champion. If the Rumble winner and reigning Champion aren't big enough stars to be credible Mania main eventers then that's a pretty serious booking fuck up, I'd say.

[TheScarlettChad]

Its why Cena should've won The Rumble. Come out at EC like he did, and did the heel turn. Jey would have secured it in the chamber. Job done.

[d-d-d-dAz]

13 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

9 times out of 10 yes the Mania main event should be the winner of the Royal Rumble vs the World Champion. If the Rumble winner and reigning Champion aren't big enough stars to be credible Mania main eventers then that's a pretty serious booking fuck up, I'd say.

But they have two world titles, across both the men's and women's divisions.

The idea that the winners of each should face the champion in the main event always, means they can never use the Rumble to elevate someone, and it always has to be used on someone who's already there; a Cena or Punk or whoever.

I don't know about that, I quite like them being able to have a surprise Rumble winner up their sleeve.

[DavidB6937]

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

I don't know about that, I quite like them being able to have a surprise Rumble winner up their sleeve.

That's why I enjoyed the Jey thing this year. It adds an element of surprise to the Rumble which makes it more interesting I think.

[d-d-d-dAz]

2 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

That's why I enjoyed the Jey thing this year. It adds an element of surprise to the Rumble which makes it more interesting I think.

Agreed.

That said, the booking of Jey and Gunther since has been atrocious. There was a way of doing this that didn't involve them scratting about with the lower card wallies.

[tiger_rick]

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

But they have two world titles, across both the men's and women's divisions.

I think that harms your argument, to be honest, Daz. There are four World Titles and Two Royal Rumbles and they didn't come up with any combination that was worth main eventing WrestleMania. That definitely takes something away from the appeal of the Royal Rumble.

There are plenty of years where you could give them a pass for that, given there's often a dearth of credible challengers, but this was surely one of the widest fields they've had in forever? 

3 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

That's why I enjoyed the Jey thing this year. It adds an element of surprise to the Rumble which makes it more interesting I think.

It's an element of surprise, yes, but it's the sort of surprise you've then got to book around and hope you can. Like turning John Cena heel for a shock and having nothing to back it up. Last week, the argument was that predictability isn't necessarily a bad thing. Well, the traverse is that unpredictability isn't always a good thing either. 

To appear to have faith in Jey Uso to win the Rumble, to announce him in a title match and then to not headline with that over a pretty meaningless Triple Threat match is telling of what they think of him. Which comes back to them never really having faith in him to start with.

tbf, it's also not a complete surprise. I read and heard a hundred "Jey is opening WrestleMania" points made the week after the Rumble. But the consensus seemed to be that this was a great thing, showing faith in the guy that's got over and was telling of the HHH era. It couldn't feel more Vince, in truth.

[d-d-d-dAz]

Just now, tiger_rick said:

I think that harms your argument, to be honest, Daz. There are four World Titles and Two Royal Rumbles and they didn't come up with any combination that was worth main eventing WrestleMania. That definitely takes something away from the appeal of the Royal Rumble.

I sort of take the point, but I think it just speaks to a broader reality that they've got a lot going on so the old traditions of 'you win this one match and you go and headline that one show for the one world title' are a little bit dated.

I think in general, it doesn't matter. It's their fiction to create.

The bigger issue is, Jey's been an out of breath waste of space, booked in a feud against a Champion they really haven't got behind and been surrounded by genuine curtain jerkers. I don't think the semantics of what winning the Rumble gets you really matters, what matters is they went with Jey and then utterly fucked it.

 

[tiger_rick]

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

I think in general, it doesn't matter. It's their fiction to create.

The bigger issue is, Jey's been an out of breath waste of space, booked in a feud against a Champion they really haven't got behind and been surrounded by genuine curtain jerkers. I don't think the semantics of what winning the Rumble gets you really matters, what matters is they went with Jey and then utterly fucked it.

Can those things both be true? That it doesn't matter, the Rumble winner is a loser and almost everyone on here thinks the build to Mania is subpar. Surely, they're connected?

I think Cena should have won the Rumble. You could still have done the turn too, so you don't lose a moment of history. Uso could have won the Chamber as that's normally secondary and so is Gunther's title. I know you lose that momentary element of surprise at the Rumble but that's a small price to pay for a coherent story that protects one of your greatest ever gimmicks. IMO anyway.   

[LaGoosh]

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

But they have two world titles, across both the men's and women's divisions.

The idea that the winners of each should face the champion in the main event always, means they can never use the Rumble to elevate someone, and it always has to be used on someone who's already there; a Cena or Punk or whoever.

I don't know about that, I quite like them being able to have a surprise Rumble winner up their sleeve.

- well yeah you can easily argue that having two World titles has always been stupid.

- why would it mean that? A Rumble win has been used lots of times in the past to elevate someone to a main event position. Usually it was a clear signal to the audience that the winner was on to big things and worth getting behind. If someone wins the Rumble then it results in a midcard runners up World title match that no one cares about then it's all a waste. Just another WWE What a Moment! which is ultimately hollow on closer inspection.

- Jey Uso was a surprise winner, the fans loved it and now they don't give a fuck. That's WWE's fault. It's their responsibility to continue and build that momentum. If they're not even going to bother then why do it in the first place.