The Smackers Thread

[Chili]

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

It's interesting to me that when Uncle Hunter took over, the overwhelming feeling was 'phew, it's okay to like wrestling again' and now it feels like no wrestling company has ever mistrusted or disliked wrestling or wrestlers as much as this company right now.

That feeling wasn't made up, you could tell it on the shows... at the time there was a freedom to do wrestling stories, be wrestling characters and talk about wrestling like it wasn't the entertainment equivalent of enjoying a strangle wank in your mum's pajama's.

Yet.. now? I've genuinely lost count of the celebrities currently orbiting this Mania, brought in presumably because TKO think they're more likely to sell tickets. McAfee is this years Travis Scott; Tom Brady is showing up one way or another; Jelly Roll is knocking about; iShowArse is - to be fair - doing a great job selling for L.A. Bean; there was some fella with Trick Williams and his Lemon Pepper Steppers.

That's just Smackdown. There is probably more on Raw.

Madness.

Even Vince didn't hate wrestling this much.

You say that but have a look at the roll call for Wrestlemania 2. 

[TheScarlettChad]

TKO hate wrestling but they love money. I get the impression it's like WCW pre 2001. They tolerate it because it makes money but as soon as it stops, they'll bin it. 

[Daaaaaad!]

I feel like Steve Carell in The Big Short after he speaks to Ryan Gosling. I can’t hate this. It is so transparently terrible that I almost kind of respect it. Would I buy a pay-per-view from it? No.

The cards are completely on the table now. There’s no pretending this is good any more. There’s no sophistry that belies a quality at its core. Here it is, unfiltered, unhidden, open and honest - this is the absolute shit pits.

[The Gaffer]

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

Even Vince didn't hate wrestling this much.

I caught this coming through even during the early purple patch in the current era.

I think with hindsight and context, Vince chaffed with being relegated to being seen as just wrasslin' in the eyes of the wider media, investors etc. If rejection paranoia wasn't an issue, I'm tempted to suggest that the term 'wrestling' wouldn't have been either.

With some of the more outré moments where the curtain was pulled back there was usually a sense - especially around 96/97 - that Vince was suppressing a grimace and going where the money was. He'd get celebrities involved if it could legitimise what they were doing, but there'd also be plenty of WrestleManias in between where they were strong enough to just bet on their own star power and those were often stronger shows in more grounded periods of booking. 

It's crazy mounting a sort of defence that there probably wasn't extents Vince would go to, but at his height it did feel like there was still a conservatism to jealously guarding a family business. That you could dress it up any way you wanted but it was still wrestling. 

WWE's far more capable of sacrificing any identity intrinsically tying itself to wrestling now, if it meant they'd get some clever self-referential brand content from it. The current WWE would probably trial a Raw at the drop of a hat where the commentary team fully break the fourth wall and walk you through the spots being called as they're happening. It's actually mildly surprising that hasn't happened yet. 

 

[Supremo]

Might be time for a new era.

On Raw, we went full 2010s with The Authority stinking up the show. On Smackdown, we had Vince Russo-style company bashing, vanilla midgets and Attitude Era nostalgia.

Next Monday. Let’s keep the time travel going. Let’s go back even further.

Ahmed Johnson return.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

I like Pat, but there is a time and a place for him and its not getting involved in the Universal Title programme. Some mid card comedy would be fine but not in the last match of night 1, which thinking about it is the mid point of Wrestlemania, so perhaps it is the right spot after all. 

[RedTwoster]

The more I think about it, the more I think it’ds the worst angle of the 2020s so far, and probably the worst in general since Claire Lynch. But it was spectacularly bad, to the point I actually enjoyed it - a bit like watching The Room. If it was indeed Ari Emmanuel who imposed this on the company, I’m enormously grateful to him. It made my morning. 

[SuperBacon]

13 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

But it was spectacularly bad, to the point I actually enjoyed it - a bit like watching The Room

Oh, hi marks.

[AshC]

They've made Cody Rhodes, the babyface world champion, look a right wally this week.

[Retro Red]

Interesting that folk are expecting Tom Brady to turn up when the more likely person will be Jelly Roll. 

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

4 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

The Iron Man match comment didn't even make sense. Did it? Or did I miss when they do that.

Think it was referencing the US Title open challenges, since that’s been the best part of the show since Sami first brought it back

[d-d-d-dAz]

2 hours ago, Retro Red said:

Interesting that folk are expecting Tom Brady to turn up when the more likely person will be Jelly Roll. 

Well, in defence of people, it's been highly publicised all week that Brady was in talks to do Mania. I think the assumption was just that he'd work with Logan Paul, for some reason.

I can't imagine they'll use Jelly Roll in the main event story, if only because they've been using Jelly Roll in the mid-card for ages and no one cares.

[JLM]

Great night for Disco Inferno’s Twitter engagement. If that’s what they were going for then I’d have to consider the episode a success. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

3 hours ago, Chili said:

You say that but have a look at the roll call for Wrestlemania 2. 

Is that regarded as the worst Wrestlemania?

[gmoney]

2 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Is that regarded as the worst Wrestlemania?

Not usually. It's not a good one though.