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Half Year Awards


tiger_rick

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For best match, I’d put a shout in for Moustache Mountain vs Grizzled Young Veterans from Takeover Blackpool. They borrowed the “open the show with a hot tag match” formula from NXT and had the best match NXT UK’s had to date.

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On ‎7‎/‎3‎/‎2019 at 8:59 AM, Grecian said:
On ‎7‎/‎3‎/‎2019 at 12:44 PM, DCW said:

Worst wrestler: Corbin- The man is poison. 2001 X-Pac Uncle Kracker theme levels of fuck off heat. The fact that he retired Angle makes me sad.

Worst wrestler: Shane McMahon. Not because he's been the worst, but at the age of 49, a part-time, non-wrestler should not be enjoying the push he's currently receiving.

I think we have a two way tie here.

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ANTI CLIMAX OF THE YEAR

Any other year and the ROH/New Japan G1 Supercard would have this sewn up. When it was originally announced and tickets sold out in 16 minutes I was so excited for this show. The Elite announcing they wouldn't appear put a dampener on it, but still. New Japan and ROH running Madison Square Garden! Over Wrestlemania weekend! This was going to be awesome! And then ROH absolutely shat the bed and stunk the joint out. They legitimately couldn't have done worse. Fucking Enzo Amore doing a wanky worked shoot that led to nothing, The Beautiful People showing up and then Bully Ray having the longest, shittiest street fight of all time. You could genuinely sense the embarrassment oozing out of all the New Japan guys for being associated with this bollocks. I hadn't properly watched ROH in years and on their biggest stage possible they made sure I wouldn't be watching again any time soon. New Japan badly need to fuck them off. I thought it was quite telling last night that New Japan announced some dates in Philadelphia but never once uttered the words, "ROH." Hopefully that's a sign of things being over. I want Okada in AEW so bad.

This wasn't like any other year though and that's why ROH's disastrous showing at G1 Supercard pales in comparison to what a mess Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey became. I'll never ever get over how much they managed to fuck that up. Someone could write a book on it. In terms of being handed something on a plate and then managing to screw it up so badly, this may have been the worst of all time. They had it in their grasp. All the pieces had perfectly slotted into place. Becky became the hottest thing in the sport at exactly the same time as Ronda Rousey was having arguably the greatest rookie year of anyone in history. The perfect Wrestlemania Main Event. This was it.

Fucking hell. Watch that back. Listen to the crowd. Check out the delivery of both of them. That was the fucking business. One of those pure pro-wrestling moments where everything clicks and we're off to the races. Inject it into my veins.

And then it was all downhill from there. First there was that weird injured leg storyline that didn't really go anywhere. One minute she wasn't cleared to compete and the angle looked to be that she'd go against the doctors orders, but then the next week she was just cleared after all. Despite this though, they still had her limping around like a gimp for weeks on end. Then they had her browbeaten by Steph and Hunter, ordered to apologise, which she actually fucking did. Jesus Christ. Then she got suspended and Charlotte was thrown in to dilute and clutter everything. Way to book your babyfaces. Make them apologise and then fuck them over and replace anyway. Chump central. Then Becky's return wasn't because she was raising hell or that the roster went on strike or anything logical like that, it was simply because Stephanie decreed it. Of course. Then Becky won her Title shot back by default after Ronda caused the DQ, which Becky shrugged and smiled at like a ponce. And then to top it all off, the Wrestlemania match itself consisting almost entirely of awkward, average-looking three-way stunt work that was played out to silence. The only time anyone seemed to give any type of shit was that split second where Ronda and Becky went face to face and people remembered what could've been. And then, almost fittingly, we got the botched finish. At that point though, it's exactly what they deserved. Like fate had handed them everything they ever needed and then when they still managed to fuck it up fate stepped in again to punish them. This was tailor made for Ronda Rousey to submit to Becky, setting her up as the top star. That they instead decided to script a flash pin out of nowhere says it all. They completely lost their way here and never really understood what they had in the first place.

I think that's what winds me up the most about that shitty three-way Wrestlemania Main Event. Not only what it could've been, but also how little it achieved. It's not the same thing, and I'm in no way suggesting she would've reached similar heights, but this was Stone Cold beating HBK at Wrestlemania with Tyson raising his hand. It scripted itself. Becky beats Ronda by submission one-on-one and rides that wave of momentum into the stratosphere. Instead, we got a goof who fluked a victory but still had to act like she'd accomplished something special. So Ronda goes home, potentially forever, without ever putting someone over properly or giving someone the rub. Plus, where the fuck is Charlotte now? For as much as they insisted on putting her in that match in favour of the natural one-on-one encounter, it's not even as if they capitalised on any type of momentum. Charlotte quickly vanished and hasn't been on TV in months. Even when she eventually does return, likely with an even weirder looking face, so much time will have passed that she'll be back to square one and won't have achieved anything for even being in the match or angle to begin with.

I clocked in the Raw thread the other day that there's now this attempt at revisionist history with people trying to argue Becky never had it and the state she's in now was always going to be the case after she got, "exposed." Bollocks. Get fucked. She was a fucking superstar in January. There's a reason everyone was voting for her as wrestler of the year and it's because she'd managed to break out of the pack and click in that visceral way very few do. Before Becky, when was the last person to click like that? Honestly, it was probably John Cena. And that she did it in this current climate is nothing short of a miracle.

But yeah, if I didn't know better I'd honestly wonder if someone was sabotaging Becky backstage. Since the night after Royal Rumble everything they've done has killed her character and momentum dead. It's truly tagic to see her still trying to do the Twitter schtick now. It works when you're on fire, in a dynamite feud and having some of the best women's matches of all time. Not so much when you and your dickhead boyfriend are having bad matches with Lacey Evans and Baron Corbin and acting like a pair of unlikable, smug twats with no self awareness.

Edited by Supremo
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It’s easy to forget that Becky was the best thing in the company for several months last year, by miles. Never has their slapdash booking and aversion to long term story telling cut somebody down so fast.

Thinking about it, it was the move to Raw that knocked her off the rails. During the build you could just picture all those tales of Vince ripping up the script at 6pm, with everything looking like it was put together last minute and turning out into a jumbled mess.

I tell you what though, it was putting her in a competitive ten minute match with bottom of the beer barrel Alicia Fox - mere weeks from beating Ronda fucking Rousey - that her booking went from being mind bogglingly stupid to looking like outright sabotage.

There's still a lot ingrained sexism in WWE as well. I was listening to a podcast the other morning and a female guest spelled it out in a way that blew my mind when I realised. Literally every women in the company is defined by relationships.

Who could forget all that time Ronda spent hugging and learning with a forty-year-old wearing cat ears, or when she was chasing after Sasha like an idiot, begging to still be her friend. Lynch's character was always going to struggle. It shouldn't be a surprise how quickly into her title reign she's become 'Seth Rollins girlfriend'. That's why the initial Becky/Ronda standoff was so cool. It was just two women at the top of the game that wanted to kick arse and see who was the best.

The Ambrose podcasts and them fucking Becky up is why I am back on the New Japan train and crossing my fingers for AEW. I’m just dying for a big league wrestling promotion that has the tools to take advantage of its talent. 

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I dunno. Maybe it was unnecessary. Her and Becky have even incorporated it into storylines both on air and on Twitter though. The plastic surgery does make her look weird. Maybe it was a dickhead thing to say. Is a woman getting plastic surgery on her face off limits in a cosmetic business? 

Edited by Supremo
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11 hours ago, Supremo said:

Is a woman getting plastic surgery on her face off limits in a cosmetic business?

Off limits? Probably not. Although didn't some div get some grief in another thread for asking why she hadn't put on makeup in a photo or something? 

Your post was excellent, I'm not sure you really needed to go down that road to be honest, but that's just me.

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8 minutes ago, Supremo said:

I figure it’s no different to when everyone rightly noted that Batista looked like a shrivelled bollock when he came back with his own weird face for Wrestlemania 30.

In an ideal world that would be the case, but the difference in how both men and women have been treated over the years when it comes to appearance has to play a part to an extent. For example, Batista looking like a "shrivelled bollock" would never really play a part in him being hired for an on-screen role or not. He's Batista, as long as he looks like he could "still go" he's always going to have a place available to him.

But, the physical appearance of a woman plays a huge fucking part in whether or not the primarily male decision-makers deem her worthy of putting on television.

As I said, it's not "off-limits" by any stretch, but it only really served to throw a bit of a dampener on what was a decent post. I think the point could have been made without going down that route.

Edited by David
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When it comes to Becky I think either me or everyone else lives in Bizarro World. I don't get it whatsoever.

Anything I watched when she was meant to be setting the business on fire was rubbish. Her whole act, promos, embarrassing patter on twitter just came off as so forced and contrived to me. That whole "Ronnie" thing in particular was so cringey.

Very glad WWE's ratings and house show business are both collapsing under Becky and Seths reign of smug energy.

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It makes me sad when people say one thing they held against Becky was how everyone got overexcited and started fantasy booking her as Stone Cold, winning both Royal Rumbles and beating Brock clean or whatever.

I just can’t begrudge fans getting excited and caught up in something, even if it’s to daft levels. That’s why we’re all the fans in the first place, isn’t it?

Especially these days, when we’ve had the longest stretch of average, nothing-happening TV. Literally years of everything falling by the wayside so that they can focus on trying to get Roman over, it’s no surprise that when something else clicks fans go a little overboard.

It’s the same with AEW. Sure, some fans are ridiculous in what they expect and want the company to be, but it’s hard to be too annoyed with them. Ultimately, I’d much rather things were making a splash and creating a buzz than not. Even if something wasn’t for me, I can’t imagine viewing fans having something to be excited about as a bad thing.

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48 minutes ago, Ironic Indie Lad said:

When it comes to Becky I think either me or everyone else lives in Bizarro World. I don't get it whatsoever.

Anything I watched when she was meant to be setting the business on fire was rubbish. Her whole act, promos, embarrassing patter on twitter just came off as so forced and contrived to me. That whole "Ronnie" thing in particular was so cringey.

Very glad WWE's ratings and house show business are both collapsing under Becky and Seths reign of smug energy.

I think the over-excitement over her admittedly average schtick had more to do with the fact that WWE, by and large, is the drizzling shits these days. 

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