The Smackers Thread

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Things can always get worse. If you look between the two blue tanks on the right hand side of the screen as Pat McAfee enters the building I'm pretty sure Aleister Black is stood between them watching. 

[Lorne Malvo]

7 hours ago, Ralphy said:

I read he (JR) is training like a madman in prep

Bah gawd!

[Merzbow]

Make the tag match for the title, TKO have a chance to do something very funny.

[Supremo]

“I have a sneaky suspicion that money from the TKO merch account goes right into the bank account titled “I’m sorry, Saudi Arabia.”

Although never properly explained on WWE TV, this is a reference to a six year old Tweet sent by CM Punk to The Miz, describing him working shows in Saudi Arabia as him, “sucking a blood money covered cock.” A Tweet that some now consider embarrassing and ironic because CM Punk went on to go against everything he once stood for, returning to WWE and gleefully working as many Saudi shows as they allow him to.

“You’ve always been an ELITE runaway artist, huh, Stardust?”

Although never properly explained on WWE TV, this is a reference to Cody Rhodes leaving WWE in 2016, forming a friendship with the wrestlers Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and Hangman Adam Page, becoming the faction known as, “The Elite,” which eventually helped form the rival promotion known as, “All Elite Wrestling,” in 2019.

Absolutely fucking exhausting.

As one of the tiny minority who gets each and every one of these shitty insider digs, I cannot convey how little it does for me. It adds nothing and I’m a big enough loser to understand what they’re going on about. What the fuck is this supposed to achieve with a normal fan? Do they never get tired of the abject silent this nonsense always, always receives?! They should put a, “Dave Meltzer explains…” feature on the Red Button for the 98% of folks who haven’t got a fucking clue what they’re talking about. Like VH1 Pop-Up Video to help explain all the bullshit. VH1 Pop-Up Powerbomb Video.

That’s my biggest takeaway. If you can view him objectively and not get distracted by how often he re-adjusts his sunglasses (I think I counted twenty three times), Pat McAfee is actually a solid performer. Considering what a whopper he seems in real life, with the most punchable face on the planet, but with mostly good delivery, he should make for an excellent heel. The problem is him being shoe-horned into a storyline that didn’t need him, at the worst possible time, to spout the most nonsensical, counter-productive, insider-obsessed bollocks.

The heel offering 25% off tickets. The manager of the WWE Title challenger at Wrestlemania slagging off the second night of your two-night event and imploring people not to spend money on it. Two weeks before Wrestlemania and the WWE Champion is arguing with a celebrity on whether the usage of the terms, “IWC,” and, “mark,” are derogatory or not. What the fuck are we doing.

Whole thing was a hilarious mess. Considering the reports that were coming out about them listening to how badly last week was received, with plans to re-work it, somehow this is what we ended up with. It didn’t feel like they pivoted or changed course at all!

Ari Emanuel’s FaceTime to Triple H yesterday afternoon.

It always felt funny that AEW had a pay per view booked the week before Wrestlemania. I assumed they’d try and troll WWE by putting on an absolute ripper, similar to last year when they put on the best Dynamite of the year the week of Wrestlemania. Turns out they don’t need to. WWE is burying themselves enough for two companies right now!

An absolute *adjusts sunglasses* bag of shit *adjusts sunglasses* like when X-Pac used to shit in people’s bags *adjusts sunglasses* Remember that? *adjusts sunglasses* Remember?

Edited April 11 by Supremo

[JNLister]

Pat McAfee is the equivalent of somebody who played a few seasons for Spurs and once lost a cup final, but only came on to take goal kicks. He may well be famous but that says more about Americans.

[Kamran]

Have to admit, this bit made me laugh.

Cody: You're under strict orders, who are you taking orders from?

 

I'm surprised they TV debuted Royce Keyes so close to WrestleMania, you would have expected them to focus on everyone with matches at Mania. It feels weird seeing him in a WWE ring but I did really like the video they put up on YouTube:

 

 

[Chili]

8 minutes ago, Kamran said:

I'm surprised they TV debuted Royce Keyes so close to WrestleMania, you would have expected them to focus on everyone with matches at Mania. It feels weird seeing him in a WWE ring but I did really like the video they put up on YouTube:

 

 

Andre Battle Royal next week so giving him the win would make sense. 

[Fog Dude]

3 hours ago, JNLister said:

Pat McAfee is the equivalent of somebody who played a few seasons for Spurs and once lost a cup final, but only came on to take goal kicks. He may well be famous but that says more about Americans.

It says a lot about America that there's no real equivalent because association football doesn't work like that.

Edited April 11 by Fog Dude
Jeff Kenna

[Supremo]

Pat only announcing 25% off Saturday Night tickets makes me assume they’ll script a similar or even bigger discount announcement on Monday.

Raw opening with CM Punk announcing 50% off Sunday Night tickets, to spite Pat.

They close the show with Roman’s big moment. His character gets to desperately shift some tickets, one-up Punk and ultimately drop the perfect shitty insider line that 99% of people don’t even understand.

“Buy one! Get one free! Extravaganza!”

[SuperBacon]

1 hour ago, Fog Dude said:

It says a lot about America that there's no real equivalent but association football doesn't work like that.

[Fog Dude]

26 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

I think you know the answer to that already.

Considering Lister is obsessed with the USA and once thought Darlington were called "Darlington Town" it wasn't an unfair assumption to think that the lack of rolling substitutions in soccer needed to be explained.

[Statto]

13 hours ago, JNLister said:

Pat McAfee is the equivalent of somebody who played a few seasons for Spurs and once lost a cup final, but only came on to take goal kicks. He may well be famous but that says more about Americans.

From a purely sporting perspective, yeah (although to give him his credit, he was pretty damn good at what he did relative to the competition) but a much better comp would be someone like Micah Richards. Perhaps not a major name as a player, but who has become a fairly significant media name (in part through playing the clown a bit).

McAfee's value these days is in the fact he has a 3hr daily platform on EPSN that attracts getting on for 500k viewers/listeners, well above the fact he ever kicked a prolate spheroid. (Although of course the latter gave him the social media platform that led to the former)

[WrestlingForFun]

19 minutes ago, Statto said:

From a purely sporting perspective, yeah (although to give him his credit, he was pretty damn good at what he did relative to the competition) but a much better comp would be someone like Micah Richards. Perhaps not a major name as a player, but who has become a fairly significant media name (in part through playing the clown a bit).

McAfee's value these days is in the fact he has a 3hr daily platform on EPSN that attracts getting on for 500k viewers/listeners, well above the fact he ever kicked a prolate spheroid. (Although of course the latter gave him the social media platform that led to the former)

How dare you compare that punting moron to our dear Big Meeks!

[Egg Shen]

35 minutes ago, Statto said:

well above the fact he ever kicked a prolate spheroid. 

[The King of Old School]

That last segment with Cody and Punk.

Good grief.

What a pair of losers.