The Smackers Thread

[TheScarlettChad]

Ted Jr has returned to wrestling. They should have just brought him back. Not like WWE has any shame or moral qualms. 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

1 hour ago, WyattSheepMask said:

It’s no better on the other night either, where the even older CM Punk is headlining. 

It is Punk's first time actually headlining though. 

[SuperBacon]

I do love it when wrestling fans hear a rappers name and get confused by it.

It's just like when Father Ted talks about Scoopy Scoopy Dog Dog and Icey T.

 

[I Bent My Wookie]

2 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

I do love it when wrestling fans hear a rappers name and get confused by it.

It's just like when Father Ted talks about Scoopy Scoopy Dog Dog and Icey T.

 

I've only just found out Jelly Roll is a country musician in fairness. Thought he was another wrapper too. 

[Statto]

He was, then he jumped on the county bandwagon like everyone else lately. 

[LaGoosh]

I watched the Pat McAffe stuff. Other than being absolutely awful and shit like everything modern WWE does (yes, that's right) I found it utterly baffling as a whole. I know this was seemingly forced on them by TKO higher ups but none of it made any logical sense at all. And the fans cheering along and chanting for Randy at the end of it just added to the complete nonsense of the whole thing.

Now they're in a position where the backstage story has superceded the on screen fictional story so it's even more fucked up.

At the end of the day, how hard can it be to book a half decent feud out of Randy vs Cody with their long history? The average fan could probably write it in about 5 minutes. 

Edited April 5 by LaGoosh

[d-d-d-dAz]

38 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

At the end of the day, how hard can it be to book a half decent feud out of Randy vs Cody with their long history? The average fan could probably write it in about 5 minutes. 

I think this is the point, though; they're aren't writing for fans anymore.

This is going to get wanky, so apologies, but about a decade ago The Ehrenberg Bass Institute changed marketing. It started with a series of studies, and resulted in a book called 'How Brands Grow', and it's become a bible for anyone working in most major, quick-buck, commercial industries now. The sort of people who run TKO.

It's not without controversy, and it's seen 'Fan Engagement' become a separate discipline now; but it's essentially the idea that for growing brand value, fans are essentially worthless. They model it on coca cola, who they say built their strategy on never bothering to market to people who drink a can a day, and never bothering to market to people who'd never a drink a can; you grow brands by going after the mainstream middle, the people who don't, or not often, but might with the right cojoling.

And that's what WWE's booking has become under TKO. A wrestling-sceptic marketing company trying to grow the flabby middle; casual sports and entertainment fans... who might, but don't. 

It's probably not a huge surprise that TKO is staffed quite extensively by ex-DAZN people, which is where I had this stuff drilled into me (the CMO when taking the job actually bought everyone in the department a copy of the book).

Ah well, we'll always have the brief window where wrestling seemed okay, and wrestling fans weren't treated as odd little lepers.

Edited April 5 by d-d-d-dAz

[Supremo]

Most depressing element is that I can’t even enjoy Cody storming back out and throwing a tantrum on some type of WCW-in-2000 level because I don’t believe anything anymore.

I automatically assume everything is a double or triple work that exists for them to explain how clever they are on the next season of Unreal. It’s like Inception for how many levels deep they've shat the bed and the product has eaten itself.

Remember when Sami Zayn accidentally got trapped in a Samoan cult? Better times.

[Sabina]

They need to make this show shorter again. 3 hours is way too much torture, lol. Anyway, they managed to make me not care about Randy/Cody...

[Supremo]

I wonder if there’s another dimension out there where Chris Jericho ends up being Randy Orton’s Emperor Palpatine. Can’t have been worse than McAfee. At least Jericho was around during the Attitude Era.

RK-Jerich-O.

[d-d-d-dAz]

That Pat McAfee promo was quite something.

I'm not sure it was the right platform to offer the ticket discount either. It was like being offered a cut price McDonald's by Mad Cow Disease.

'A cheap ticket to see the conclusion to this feud? No, no. You're quite alright thank you.'

[The Gaffer]

Heel in night 2 headliner does a worked shoot on non-wrestling personality heel manager of the night 1 headliner. 

Heel manager of the night 1 headliner responds by doing an angle where ticket prices go on sale. 

I take back what I said last time about Vince secretly writing this. I don't think he'd let something like this air. 

 

Edited April 11 by The Gaffer

[DavidB6937]

And stupidly they've already offered a better discount so you didnt do that great Pat.

[The King of Old School]

The desperation of getting tickets sold for Mania was hilarious.

Anyone else wish Jelly Roll would fuck off?

[d-d-d-dAz]

26 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

Heel in night 2 headliner does a worked shoot on non-wrestling personality heel manager of the night 1 headliner. 

Heel manager of the night 1 headliner responds by doing an angle where ticket prices go on sale. 

I take back what I said last time about Vince secretly writing this. I don't think he'd let something like this air. 

 

Pat McAfee's position seems to be 'the wrestlers you like aren't worth the ticket price, but neither am I... so Punk was right actually, despite me previously saying he wasn't, so please enjoy this discount'..