The Smackers Thread

[King Pitcos]

Imagine them cutting from a Roman Reigns speech on the importance of social distancing to Cesaro and Daniel Bryan sweating on each other in the performance center. I feel like that would stop 0 moans and create a lot more.

[UK Kat Von D]

Imagine them cutting from a “don’t try this at home” bit to Cesaro and Daniel Bryan battering each other in the performance centre. 
All they would have to do is quickly mention all the extra precautions they are taking to ensure performers are safe. Which they should be doing anyway 

Edited April 20, 2020 by UK Kat Von D

[King Pitcos]

15 minutes ago, UK Kat Von D said:

Imagine them cutting from a “don’t try this at home” bit to Cesaro and Daniel Bryan battering each other in the performance centre. 

Cesaro and Daniel Bryan are not trained professionals at not getting Covid, so doesn’t really apply ?

Edited April 20, 2020 by King Pitcos

[DavidB6937]

4 hours ago, King Pitcos said:

Cesaro and Daniel Bryan are not trained professionals at not getting Covid, so doesn’t really apply ?

You can't get it if you're wrestling ?

[tiger_rick]

While I wouldn't have Roman creating infomercials on Coronavirus at all, you'd have to be thick as fuck to not see the difference between a high risk guy who has had cancer twice and the rest of the roster of fit young athletes. It's not like that distinction is being made every day by everyone.

[UK Kat Von D]

6 hours ago, King Pitcos said:

Cesaro and Daniel Bryan are not trained professionals at not getting Covid, so doesn’t really apply ?

How the fuck do you know that? They might be

[King Pitcos]

3 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

While I wouldn't have Roman creating infomercials on Coronavirus at all, you'd have to be thick as fuck to not see the difference between a high risk guy who has had cancer twice and the rest of the roster of fit young athletes. It's not like that distinction is being made every day by everyone.

So what would you have him doing? You’ve got Roman Reigns at home and he’s just downloaded Zoom so he can contribute to Smackdown. He’s not gonna be wrestling, he’s not gonna be giving a timeline on a return because he’s not injured, and he’s not gonna be talking about Coronavirus on air because that’s the policy. So what has creative got for him?

[The Cutting Edge]

His Instagram would be enough to keep track of him if people are interested, he's doing lots of workout clips etc, looks in great shape (needs to ditch swat gear upon return) 

Gonna be a lot of missing faces over never few months, at least product could be fresh upon its proper return 

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, King Pitcos said:

So what would you have him doing? You’ve got Roman Reigns at home and he’s just downloaded Zoom so he can contribute to Smackdown. He’s not gonna be wrestling, he’s not gonna be giving a timeline on a return because he’s not injured, and he’s not gonna be talking about Coronavirus on air because that’s the policy. So what has creative got for him?

I don't know that I'd have him doing much. I'd have had him explain the connotations for him of Coronavirus one time to explain the Mania main event. Then I'd pretty much just keep him in people's minds by sharing his social stuff and showing his old matches along with everyone elses. Like they do when someone big goes off to do a movie.

Why not just be honest? If you feel still running shows is the right thing to do then front up and don't pretend he's vanished for the portion of the audience who don't live through social media.

[King Pitcos]

20 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

I don't know that I'd have him doing much. I'd have had him explain the connotations for him of Coronavirus one time to explain the Mania main event. Then I'd pretty much just keep him in people's minds by sharing his social stuff and showing his old matches along with everyone elses. Like they do when someone big goes off to do a movie.

Why not just be honest? If you feel still running shows is the right thing to do then front up and don't pretend he's vanished for the portion of the audience who don't live through social media.

As has been pointed out, they seldom explain away absences anymore, but even if they did routinely do that under normal circumstances, these are not normal circumstances. They’re clearly not using the virus in storylines or talking about it directly on the shows - so doing what you’ve suggested was never on the cards unless that policy changes. They’re also not really filling the shows with old matches much now.

They are still sharing Roman’s social media that doesn’t reference the virus. His Tweet about Fink was shown on Friday’s SmackDown.

Edited April 20, 2020 by King Pitcos

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, King Pitcos said:

As has been pointed out, they seldom explain away absences anymore

When was the last time their #1 guy disappeared without explanation? Didn't happen when it was Cena. Hasn't happened when it's been Reigns. Didn't happen when it was Rock or Austin or Bret or Shawn or Hogan.

[Guest]

If they draw attention to it, they draw attention to how needlessly reckless them making guys Travel to the tapings is. Best to ignore it than draw the company more heat 

[King Pitcos]

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

When was the last time their #1 guy disappeared without explanation?

After the first Saudi show, when Brock disappeared until SummerSlam. And a bunch of other times with Brock. Multiple times with Cena since about 2013 or so. Austin after WrestleMania X8. Bret Hart after WrestleMania 12. Hogan after WrestleMania 9 (although that was early Raw, so there wasn’t as much expectation of being there every week).

But more importantly: When was the last time their #1 guy couldn’t wrestle because of a global pandemic? And have you thought of an example of how it could be explained away that avoids both a) going against the no-Covid-mention policy, and b) wouldn’t be met with rants of “THAT’S A FAKE REASON FFS JUST SAY CORONAVIRUS”?

Someone in the thread mentioned being annoyed when they were a kid and Sid Justice disappeared without an explanation. And yet here they are almost 30 years later moaning about wrestling on the Internet, having missed zero shows since then, so that serves as an example of how much that kind of thing puts kids off watching.

We’re properly through the looking class when the smark complaint of the week is that there’s not enough focus on Roman Reigns on WWE TV.

[The Dart]

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

When was the last time their #1 guy disappeared without explanation? Didn't happen when it was Cena.

When Cena lost the US title to Del Rio he then just disappeared for about 4 months.  No explanation, no angle to write him off.  He just vanished.

[Supremo]

Super surprising to see Daniel Bryan won on Smackdown, qualifying for Money in the Bank. I wonder if they’ve already filmed the Money in the Bank match and this will be his last appearance until then, allowing him time to go home for a while?

I can’t fathom him appearing weekly and doing the usual all-participants—stand-on-some-ladders promos when his wife has publicly spoke about not wanting him to work. She’s pregnant and he’s got asthma and an autoimmune disease. He’d be bonkers to fly back and forth for the foreseeable future.