Paid Members tiger_rick Posted February 24, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 24, 2020 27 minutes ago, Chris B said: My favourite explanation for Orange Cassidy has just been "He's a wrestler that doesn't want to be a wrestler". So that's why he moves as quick as Kevin Nash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted February 24, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 24, 2020 (edited) 42 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said: All this talk about the casual fan not understanding x, y and z does my head in. The casual fan isn't fucking braindead, and they don't care about the intricacies of each character. Nor do they watch wrestling, applaud the workrate and marvel at how smooth and crisp the action is. The over analysis of wrestling these days is baffling, the people who do it so desperately want it to be something it's not. Edited February 24, 2020 by Egg Shen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted February 24, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 24, 2020 7 minutes ago, Egg Shen said: The over analysis of wrestling these days is baffling, the people who do it so desperately want it to be something it's not. Is it? As if going from thinking something is good to analysing why it's good is somehow unique? Journalism on every non-news topic in the world is built on that premise. It's not unique. What is "these days" btw? Because we've both been on here for the better part of 20 years and it was analysed far deeper when we signed up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted February 24, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 24, 2020 I think its just trying to find meaning when there isnt any, like in the case of Orange Cassidy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 It’s pretty easy to watch a guy half arsing his job and doing well. We all work with someone like that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UK Kat Von D Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 We can analyse it because we are wrestling nerds, assuming general public are doing the same is the baffling bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted February 24, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 24, 2020 (edited) 28 minutes ago, Egg Shen said: I think its just trying to find meaning when there isnt any, like in the case of Orange Cassidy. Wrestling is taken way too seriously by some, I agree. Just go on Twitter and/or Facebook and there are thousands of sad acts who have no shame in their fandom arguing back against people, trying to claim that wrestling isn't fake. I get it, wrestling is silly old carny shit that's literally two people in their underpants pretending to hurt each other. Its really not worth getting worked up over. That said, my throwaway point is that AEW has a tendency to be a bit lazy when it comes to introducing characters. I'm not saying its a cardinal sin or takes away from most people's enjoyment of the show, just that AEW sometimes forgets they're are on such a big platform. Its got WWE level coverage but an ROH level mindset with some things. This isn't Impact or MLW which is on a tiny network where you generally have to be a hardcore fan to bother watching, this is a much bigger deal on a channel that's watched by hundreds of thousands of actual real people. For all of WWE's faults, over all those years I was an avid viewer I can't recall a single character not being given a proper introduction/explanation, usually following weeks of vignettes. Doing something similar isn't being WWE lite, its just common sense. Edited February 24, 2020 by garynysmon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CavemanLynn Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 Orange Cassidy ambles up at half speed, with his hands in his pockets, in aviators and ripped denim, looking effortlessly cartoon cool with emphasis on the effortless. He then wrestles with the same too-casual attitude and either lands a no-hands tope or top rope dive or gets his head kicked in. It's pretty clear what his game is. Much more so than Best Friends, who don't even have a matching look, and whose one gimmick, a hug, they've done with others who aren't their supposed Best Friends. Bizarrely it's the workraters who need more explanation character wise on screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chris B Posted February 24, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 24, 2020 Man, I'm not sure how to explain this complicated 'best friends' gimmick. Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UK Kat Von D Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 They went into depth to explain the complexities of the Best Friends gimmick in the first few minutes of this video Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Butternut Squash Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 Can we at least agree that ‘Booping’ Kris Statlander’s gimmick is irredeemable horseshit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted February 24, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 24, 2020 2 hours ago, Mr Butternut Squash said: Can we at least agree that ‘Booping’ Kris Statlander’s gimmick is irredeemable horseshit JR definitely agrees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chris B Posted February 25, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 25, 2020 (edited) There are people on AEW I don't have much time for, but I'm liking Statlander. The booping thing gets a reaction, and the bit where she booped the title was nicely done. I'm not going to pretend I entirely get the gimmick, but I enjoy her schtick. EDIT: Thought this was the general thread, so putting the other part of this there. Edited February 25, 2020 by Chris B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted February 25, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 25, 2020 Of every single character in modern pro-wrestling the last one that needs an introductory explanation is Orange Cassidy. You get the act the moment you see him. That’s what makes it so good. I didn’t immediately love him when I saw him on an Indy show because someone fleshed him out on commentary or did a sit-down interview with him. It was because this slow, lazy, daft tit was genuinely hilarious to watch. And he was cool as fuck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted February 25, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 25, 2020 This whole debate about the nature of characters that need explaining and the ones that don't is pretty much the essence of what the wrestling gimmick is for: it's about establishing who the wrestler is and what their motivations are. Gimmicks like OC's are designed to tell you who he is the moment he shows up and does anything, because when effectively starting out with a group of fans who haven't had years of TV to show them the progression of the character and the nuances to their personality, a simplistic, easy-to-demonstrate gimmick like that is necessary. Where companies and individual wrestlers slip up, especially indies or new start-ups, is that they try to do the evolved gimmicks straight away - usually because they've seen Triple H or The Rock or Randy Orton or whomever, thought "he's so cool", and thought they'd like to be just like the big guns. It doesn't work - Triple H's character wouldn't be what it is without years of development. His snob gimmick didn't last, but it was simple and effective, in that it was enough to get him established with the audience and put him in a position to move on to DX, thus evolving further. From everything I've read on here, it sounds like that's exactly what the problem's been with Omega - they've presented him to an American audience who for the most part don't know who he is; the only thing they've had is that the commentators and a small section of the fans have been saying he's the best wrestler in the world, but he's failed at that one thing. Also, one of the oddest things I've noted: of all the wrestlers on the AEW roster, Chris Jericho has the least reason to have a simplistic, easy-to-understand gimmick, and is probably the most suitable to have an evolved character, because pretty much everyone knows who he is from years of him being on the world's biggest wrestling TV shows. And yet he has a gimmick that's incredibly easy to understand for anyone who's never seen him before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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