The Smackers Thread

[DavidB6937]

19 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

A show with nothing but fatal four ways? 

Eurgh. Lazy.

What has happened to the company that was doing logical, compelling television just 2 years ago? Is that the shortest 'boom period' in wrestling history? How can things have dropped off do badly?

If they are so myopic to think 'well people are still paying for this stuff' is going to sustain them they're wrong. It won't last forever. WWF went from running a huge dome in Indianapolis for Wrestlemania 8 to the carpark of Caesars Palace for Wrestlemania 9. Crashes can happen a lot quicker than many in WWE would probably like to think. I hope it doesn't but, God, they are making it difficult to defend.  

 

I mean they were all pretty logical and they're building up to the PLE. There's many things that you can criticise about the product lately but I'm not sure you can call them lazy for focusing on KOTR. It's not exactly illogical is it? 

Plus comparing this to the "compelling" television is like comparing apples and oranges. 

I've mostly switched off but I don't see them running KOTR in the way they're doing it is such a massive indicator that things have fallen off. A load of other stuff? Yeah absolutely. 

[Snitsky's back acne]

3 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

I mean they were all pretty logical and they're building up to the PLE. There's many things that you can criticise about the product lately but I'm not sure you can call them lazy for focusing on KOTR. It's not exactly illogical is it? 

Plus comparing this to the "compelling" television is like comparing apples and oranges. 

I've mostly switched off but I don't see them running KOTR in the way they're doing it is such a massive indicator that things have fallen off. A load of other stuff? Yeah absolutely. 

We shall obviously agree to disagree but to me it's a massive indicator of 'we have three hours to fill, this match with four people will kill twenty minutes'. Plus, it's obvious who is there to take the loss. It's lazy.

I don't blame them per se, they have an absolute fuckload of hours to fill, but unless there is a strong build multiple person matches have always been a miss for me.

Maybe it's the over reliance on them that puts me off. Shawn Michaels is notorious for it in NXT. I think one recent NXT PLE had nothing but multiple person matches that had been built to by a slew of other multiple person matches on TV. I'm sure Shawn even got asked about it at a press conference or something.

Not my thing, dawg. 

Edited June 14, 2025 by Snitsky's back acne

[air_raid]

7 hours ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

WWF went from running a huge dome in Indianapolis for Wrestlemania 8 to the carpark of Caesars Palace for Wrestlemania 9. Crashes can happen a lot quicker than many in WWE would probably like to think.

I don’t know how many people reading this need to have it explained why this is virtually impossible to compare to the modern business model, but … today the main revenue streams come from sponsors and networks, agreed and contracted far in advance, plus untold levels of foreign investment, with them banking far much more per event due to fewer events increasing demand in every market and thus people paying vastly higher ticket prices, bolstered further by bigger and bigger venues being used for even minor PLEs and that by this year they’ve increased the impact on takings from WrestleMania and SummerSlam gradually from two big ticket sellers to six - 2 per main roster PLE and 1 NXT gig per weekend. Plus if we’re going to get into Mania attendances, we’ve gone beyond the point by a number of decades now that you can rely on Mania selling most available tickets nearly a year in advance because “it’s Mania” regardless of how bad the TV gets. The machine may slow down if things get bad enough and viewing figures/impressions drop significantly, but we can’t compare it to the days where the biggest factor in company financial security, was the ability of the roster to sell tickets in 60-90 towns a month.

[Snitsky's back acne]

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

I don’t know how many people reading this need to have it explained why this is virtually impossible to compare to the modern business model, but … today the main revenue streams come from sponsors and networks, agreed and contracted far in advance, plus untold levels of foreign investment, with them banking far much more per event due to fewer events increasing demand in every market and thus people paying vastly higher ticket prices, bolstered further by bigger and bigger venues being used for even minor PLEs and that by this year they’ve increased the impact on takings from WrestleMania and SummerSlam gradually from two big ticket sellers to six - 2 per main roster PLE and 1 NXT gig per weekend. Plus if we’re going to get into Mania attendances, we’ve gone beyond the point by a number of decades now that you can rely on Mania selling most available tickets nearly a year in advance because “it’s Mania” regardless of how bad the TV gets. The machine may slow down if things get bad enough and viewing figures/impressions drop significantly, but we can’t compare it to the days where the biggest factor in company financial security, was the ability of the roster to sell tickets in 60-90 towns a month.

Good job I wasn't comparing the two then. 

[air_raid]

15 hours ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

Good job I wasn't comparing the two then. 

Reads like you’re warning of future crashes based on one from a bygone era. Reads like comparison.

Mania VIII was a dead cat bounce anyway. Gates were already waning when the show came round (later to fall off a cliff completely when Hogan left) and huge numbers of people that went were those that wanted to go to VII but were too scared because of fear of terrorism. The product could have taken a huge nose dive the six months prior, the tickets were already sold. Bret persuading Vince to move SummerSlam from DC to Wembley speaks volumes for how domestic business was already in the shitter.

 

[Snitsky's back acne]

5 hours ago, air_raid said:

Reads like you’re warning of future crashes based on one from a bygone era. Reads like comparison.

 

Cool. It wasn't.

 

[Supremo]

It is curious that WWE don’t catch anywhere near the flack AEW did when they became tournament-heavy during their creative downturn.

I swear a week hasn’t gone by in 2025 without WWE TV featuring some type of qualifier. Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, Money in the Back and now King of the Ring. The only difference has been them switching it from singles matches, to Triple Threats, to Four Ways. I wonder if they’ll do Five Way Qualifiers for The Summerfest (brought to you by Dettol).

This was funny. The graphics they released for each match featured a crown above the eventual winner’s head.

Probably just a coincidence, but another nice reminder of THE DARK TIMES. Remember that one year when the day of the Draft they released a list of wrestlers in the pool and it ended up being the internal list, with each name listed in the exact order they were selected on the show itself? Good times.

This was the other funny thing about the Four Ways. Randy Orton being Randy Orton, doing Randy Orton things. Would have loved to see them putting the match together backstage. “Right lads, I’ll probably do one daft comedy sell, just lie around on the floor for ten minutes, and then once you lot have taken all the bumps I’ll jump in at the end to get the win with an RKO. Pleasure doing business with you.”

However, I won’t complain too much about the Four Ways. I think they helped both Raw and Smackdown this week. It was a solid collection of action-packed matches, with a nice, balanced sprinkle of top stars. Everything felt tighter and more focussed. Did Nick Aldis have to book a single impromptu match? Lad’s gonna start worrying about redundancies!

Slim Jim Tables continue to look cheap and shit.

Do you know who fucking rules? Ron Killings. All the respect in the world to Ron. Destined to be Blue Meanie after JBL smashed him up or Matt Hardy after Edge shagged Lita. A gritted-teeth re-hire. History dictates that wrestlers bite their hand off and immediately come crawling back, grabbing whatever crumbs they offer. Not Big Ron. I’m only coming back if you completely re-brand me, using my real name, pushing me seriously, letting me have Minoru Suzuki‘s hairstyle. Hell yeah. Good for him. More wrestlers need this level of bollocks. Even if he only lasts a few months before they quietly phase him out, it couldn’t be more perfect to set him up for a run elsewhere. He’s increased his stock tenfold. Infinitely better than losing clean to JC Mateo in a nothing match, as was originally planned.

Speaking of JC Mateo, this has got to be a World Record speed run to becoming Just a Guy. The state of him here. Looks like a cardboard cut out. Is there anything more tragic than this being what’s left of The Bloodline? Like latter-day Sugababes. Let it go, lads. It’s done. Let Solo go become the comedy babyface he’s destined to be. Man’s hilarious. He’s tailor made for it and R-Tuth switching it up has now left that door wide open.

With the CM Punk stuff, one of the saddest elements is that this should have been one of the biggest and best things of the year. The one trick up their sleeve. The banker. Break glass in case of emergency.

Stick this on Summerslam or Survivor Series, where Punk’s head hasn’t completely fallen off due to all the criticism, and all the ingredients are there. Punk and Cena always had amazing chemistry, both in the ring and on the mic. Punk, at Elimination Chamber, remains the only one who’s dragged anything decent out of Cena in this run so far. And it is an amazing idea to have them feud one more time, with Cena as the company-destroying heel and Punk as the company-saving babyface.

Just a shame they’ve wasted it at the worst time, on the worst show, in the worst taste, incorporating some of the worst have-your-cake-and-eat it scripting of all time.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more dangerous it feels for them to script on television that working Saudi is a bad, hypocritical move. It blows my mind. I don’t know how you square that in your head as anything other than really fucking stupid and incredibly irresponsible.

”Hi Paul, congratulations on another amazing show. You truly are the best. Any word on the reported murder of CM Punk after you irresponsibly made his hypocrisy part of the storyline before flying him over here?”

“All part of the show. Enjoy the show.”

 

 

Edited June 16, 2025 by Supremo

[BomberPat]

JC Mateo is like if they actually went through with putting Yokozuna in the Hart Foundation. He's Lance Von Erich. The point of the Bloodline was that they were genuinely related, that there's some actual reality to that story, even if you allow for some fairly dubious definitions of "related", and the moment they put Jeff Cobb in there - a Filipino bloke from Guam with no history with any branch of the "Bloodline" family - it's become just a gimmick, and a bit of a wrestling throwback where someone's ethnicity is whatever the booker decides it is. It's just a miracle he's not booked as Japanese with the old Orient Express theme. 

[Guest]

I was convinced when they brought Cobb in he was going to interrupt Cody when he returned as a monster sent by the Final Boss to make Cody's life miserable. A reason to explain why Cody isn't chasing Cena for a bit, and a big guy for him to overcome. Instead we have this. 

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, Supremo said:

It is curious that WWE don’t catch anywhere near the flack AEW did when they became tournament-heavy during their creative downturn.

I swear a week hasn’t gone by in 2025 without WWE TV featuring some type of qualifier. Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, Money in the Back and now King of the Ring. The only difference has been them switching it from singles matches, to Triple Threats, to Four Ways. I wonder if they’ll do Five Way Qualifiers for The Summerfest (brought to you by Dettol).

To be fair, there are more than enough other things to give them flack about right now - different mistakes than AEW was making at that time, and arguably more frustrating ones. 

You have the fact they’ve arsed up the Cena heel turn; and, as a result, Cena’s final run. The equivalent for AEW during their slump was Sting’s retirement run, and that’s one thing they definitely didn’t mess up.

You have the fact WWE is going to Saudi Arabia again, and working the morality of that into a story, a fair few meta storylines, boring shows which are hard to watch, and a general lack of direction. Then you have the associations with Trump, and rather callous approach to releasing talent.

Simply put, they’ve managed to hide some of their issues by having much bigger ones. 

[Olly1984]

Naomi with the best retort to the dumb " WHAT" chants!!!. Heel Naomi is great, should have done this when her and Banks walked out.  Naomi and Ricochet are doing there best work and showing more personality than there entire careers as cowardly twats.... Brilliant stuff. 

 

[Hannibal Scorch]

15 hours ago, BomberPat said:

JC Mateo is like if they actually went through with putting Yokozuna in the Hart Foundation. He's Lance Von Erich. The point of the Bloodline was that they were genuinely related, that there's some actual reality to that story, even if you allow for some fairly dubious definitions of "related", and the moment they put Jeff Cobb in there - a Filipino bloke from Guam with no history with any branch of the "Bloodline" family - it's become just a gimmick, and a bit of a wrestling throwback where someone's ethnicity is whatever the booker decides it is. It's just a miracle he's not booked as Japanese with the old Orient Express theme. 

Reminder that Joaquin Wilde is in the LWO despite being American and Filipino dissent.

[OzExile]

Tonga Loa and Tama Tonga killed off the authentic bloodline, didn't they? To be fair, it stopped being a thing a while back.  

[burchybabi]

Looks like SmackDown could be going back to 2 hours from 15th August as USA currently have a new show scheduled to start on this date at 10pm. Looks to be a 10 episode series so not sure whether it will go back up after it’s finished.

[mim731]

Seeing other reports suggesting July 4th now. The sooner the better.