The Smackers Thread

[Supremo]

On 6/28/2025 at 10:13 AM, Supremo said:

Jacob Fatu as a babyface is the best thing happening in WWE right now. Most nailed on success they have. Even in their current form, I don’t know how they miss with this.

Life finds a way. Took them less than a week. Turns out, all they had to do was turn him into a 2D caricature, endlessly spamming catchphrases. I give it three weeks maximum before Hunter has him wearing a backwards baseball cap. Yadadamean, fellow kids?

This week’s episode peaked when I began watching it On Demand on Netflix and I clocked the run time of one hour and twenty minutes. You absolute beauty!

An unremarkable episode overall.

Terrifying opening promo. Is Randy Orton going to turn heel and cost Cody the Title at Summerslam? Are we really going to press toward with this cursed Cena Title Reign?!

The, “Saved by the Bell,” and, “Mean Girls,” comparisons are accurate, but not only because of the bad acting. It’s the way in which the shows are still framed and formatted around the GMs being the show’s Headteachers, with the wrestlers portrayed as stupid, unruly children. The top stars are mostly immune to it, but everyone else has to be constantly portrayed as childish idiots, with Pearce and Aldis rolling their eyes and breaking up their silly squabbling. Worse still, at least there was a Coming of Age element where Zack Morris and Lindsay Lohan would eventually grow and learn by the end of their escapades. No such luck on Raw or Smackdown. They just rinse and repeat until the end of time.

The Smackdown Tag Division is built around this very idea, but it’s the women who get it the worst. It completely cuts the legs off everyone and does massive damage to portraying them as larger than life stars. It’s why matches as great as that Triple Threat between Iyo, Bianca and Rhea or the Smackdown TLC match don’t have anywhere near the impact they should have. The scripting around them completely undoes all their hard work. And then they wonder why they can’t sell tickets for Evolution.

Most noteworthy thing about the Main Event was how rubbish it looked with every single participant wearing the same style of gear, all dressed in black with red trim. Maybe I’ve been watching too much New Generation stuff recently, which is why it stood out more, but fucking hell. Give me some colour! Even worse was when the SoloBabes ran in and they were wearing black as well! Look at the state of this. I’m begging someone to wear an Away Kit!

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, Supremo said:

Terrifying opening promo. Is Randy Orton going to turn heel and cost Cody the Title at Summerslam? Are we really going to press toward with this cursed Cena Title Reign?!

They’ve not done Cena/Reigns yet, which makes me think they probably are.

I could see them do Cena/Reigns as his final match, with everyone theorising that this will somehow lead to Reigns/Rock at Wrestlemania, given the never-referenced connection between the two.

Instead, Reigns will win, Rollins will cash in, and we’ll get Rollins/Reigns/Punk at Wrestlemania again, this time for the WWE title.

[DavidB6937]

2 hours ago, Supremo said:

This week’s episode peaked when I began watching it On Demand on Netflix and I clocked the run time of one hour and twenty minutes. You absolute beauty!

 

Interestingly the last two things I watched on Netflix the morning after, they seemed to have edited it a lot faster than before. It wasn't the shitty 'live' version which they usually have on there for a while. Not sure why but it was definitely a nicer experience.

[tiger_rick]

3 hours ago, Supremo said:

Most noteworthy thing about the Main Event was how rubbish it looked with every single participant wearing the same style of gear, all dressed in black with red trim. Maybe I’ve been watching too much New Generation stuff recently, which is why it stood out more, but fucking hell. Give me some colour! Even worse was when the SoloBabes ran in and they were wearing black as well! Look at the state of this. I’m begging someone to wear an Away Kit!

DId ths change for a while? For years the complaint about everyone wearing black would crop up on here pretty often but I feel like it went away for quite a while. Did things change or is it just another of those things that people were OK with when the shows were "good" but is now the stuff you think about because watching isn't fun?

[LaGoosh]

I will say the two full episodes of Raw and Smackdown I've watched in the past year it was incredibly noticeable how so many of the performers were wearing black tshirts. 

[Supremo]

On 7/7/2025 at 9:09 AM, tiger_rick said:

DId ths change for a while? For years the complaint about everyone wearing black would crop up on here pretty often but I feel like it went away for quite a while. Did things change or is it just another of those things that people were OK with when the shows were "good" but is now the stuff you think about because watching isn't fun?

One hundred percent the latter. My favourite segment of this boom period was The Bloodline giving Sami Zayn a new T-shirt and not only is everyone in that ring wearing the same black and red trim, but they’re fighting over a black and red T-shirt too! It’s one of the best segments in the history of the company and genuinely kickstarted the run of success of the last few years.

It’s only once the product goes sour that you start to notice and get annoyed by these shitty little nitpicks. I can feel myself becoming a snarky prick again. Mighty Morphin Power Dickhead.

[HarmonicGenerator]

9 hours ago, Supremo said:

One hundred percent the latter. My favourite segment of this boom period was The Bloodline giving Sami Zayn a new T-shirt and not only is everyone in that ring wearing the same black and red trim, but they’re fighting over a black and red T-shirt too! It’s one of the best segments in the history of the company and genuinely kickstarted the run of success of the last few years.

It’s only once the product goes sour that you start to notice and get annoyed by these shitty little nitpicks. I can feel myself becoming a snarky prick again. Mighty Morphin Power Dickhead.

Says he with the black and red forum avatar!

[Daaaaaad!]

On 7/7/2025 at 6:00 AM, Supremo said:

Life finds a way. Took them less than a week. Turns out, all they had to do was turn him into a 2D caricature, endlessly spamming catchphrases. I give it three weeks maximum before Hunter has him wearing a backwards baseball cap. Yadadamean, fellow kids?

Seems he's found an even worse catchphrase, if his latest rap with Rikishi is anything to go by.

[Supremo]

17 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Says he with the black and red forum avatar!

New Generation Supremo. The revolutionary force in sports entertainment discussion.

[tiger_rick]

11 minutes ago, Supremo said:

New Generation Supremo. The revolutionary force in sports entertainment discussion.

Looks like Supremo 2.0.

[OzExile]

You've got to hand it to LAK. I thought his star was dying but it feels like he's more over than ever. I'd like to see him go over Seth because it solidifies him in the main event scene.  

Meanwhile Solo is probably my favourite character this year. 

Edited July 12, 2025 by OzExile

[The King of Old School]

Who on earth is sitting there in WWE/TKO is thinking these backstage tag team division segments are any good?

Embarrassing, cringe stuff.

Losers the lot of them.

[RedTwoster]

The slump continues for WWE. I really hate coming on here and being so negative about a show I once enjoyed, but they’re arsing it up in such an obvious way.

First of all - the women’s division. The build for Evolution has been so half-hearted, how can the wrestlers possibly succeed? Stratton is terrible on the mic, but you have to at least give her and Trish either the opening or final segment. Instead you prioritise the US title match?? 

Then there’s the issue of the brand split. If you’re going to have one, fine - I like them, I know that not everyone does. But if you’re going to do it, at least acknowledge it when a Raw wrestler turns up on Smackdown or vice versa. They made a big deal about Logan Paul jumping to Raw, so at least acknowledge that a Raw wrestler has turned up on Smackdown; or say that Pearce and Aldis have come up with some kinda deal to loosen the rules somewhat. 

Then there’s Goldberg’s ‘last match’. The build to this has been so half-hearted that I don’t actually believe it is his last match. I think I he’s going to win and go on a run, or lose in dubious circumstances before wrestling his real final match at Summerslam. They’ve barely mentioned that this is the end for Goldberg, and if it isn’t by design and if this really is the end, they’ve seriously arsed this up. Compare it to Sting’s final match in AEW, and how important that moment was made to feel.

They’ve also completely missed out on one of the more powerful things Goldberg could say - he’s spent his career telling people they are next. It would have felt pretty significant for him to tell Gunther that he was last.

The R-Truth stuff is bizarre.he’s gone from having fans chanting ‘we want R-Truth’ to barely earning any reaction at all. It’s been a masterclass in trashing a character.

AEW had a slump which feels like a distant memory. I’ve no doubt that things will pick up for WWE in the future, bad spells always come to an end. That doesn’t change the fact that this is a bad spell though - the worst the company has been since Vince McMahon was ousted. I hope they find their footing soon. 

[DavidB6937]

Sol Ruca was on the show. Nothing else matters. Five stars.

[LaGoosh]

43 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

bad spells always come to an end

I've said this before but worth pointing out that WWE's previous bad spell lasted over ten years. The problem with WWE has always been that the money has always kept rolling in regardless of how bad the shows are generally and the machine is too big for anyone to take responsibility or lead the charge. From their perspective everything is going fine.

Edited July 12, 2025 by LaGoosh