Paid Members Supremo Posted June 9, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 9, 2023 (edited) The MCU has a lot to answer for. Somewhere along the way it became normal to critically read every aspect of popular culture. A trailer couldn’t just exist to make you excited for the upcoming movie. Every single thing had to be symbolism, a callback, a cameo or a fucking Easter egg. I’m all for finding meaning and subtext in the things you love, but I draw the line at Seth Rollins’ character. A cynical, vacuous, Pavlovian excercise. When all else fails because you’re a boring bastard with no inherent charisma or charm, just wham on some daft clothes, do a daft dance, do a daft cackle and give them a catchy song to sing. He’s nothing more than that tragic student in the common room, wearing whacky T-shirts in substitute of a proper personality. I’m mad, me. The chasm between what Seth became compared to Roman and Mox gets wider by the day. They definitely have a separate group chat without him in it. Edited June 9, 2023 by Supremo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted June 9, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 9, 2023 16 minutes ago, Merzbow said: Spot on, there just has to be "lore" behind every little thing right now. It's bullshit, isn't it? 20 years ago you'd be happy if a rematch had a spot where a wrestler learned from the previous match and had a counter or didn't duplicate his mistake. As Roddy Piper (ironically) said, "tell me a story in the ring, not on the mic." 10 years ago, I was delighted when CM Punk crafted promos explaining that he went after Randy Orton because he'd never forgotten Orton costing him Big Gold back in 2008 - even though the writing staff had. Now we're in the era where telling us the story by actually telling us the story isn't enough - we have to hide everything so that we, the viewer, have to explain everything to each other. Easter Eggs have become the whole fucking chocolate factory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chris B Posted June 9, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 9, 2023 1 hour ago, Jesse said: I think there's an impulse to see something get a lot of praise and want to find that same thing in the thing you specifically love. So I think some of this comes from the big threads for like Hangman/Omega That *was* a banger of a thread. *whistles innocently while walking away* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lion_of_the_Midlands Posted June 9, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 9, 2023 1 hour ago, Supremo said: He’s nothing more than that tragic student in the common room, wearing whacky T-shirts in substitute of a proper personality. I’m mad, me. I'm Seth Freakin Rollins. That's who he is. A right Colin Hunt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted June 9, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 9, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, air_raid said: we're in the era where telling us the story by actually telling us the story isn't enough - we have to hide everything so that we, the viewer, have to explain everything to each other. Easter Eggs have become the whole fucking chocolate factory The Easter Eggs are usually just used to distract from the fact that the story is weak as piss. Why tell a good fresh new story with character motivated twists and emotion when you can just throw out a shiny Easter Egg or two to make the audience feel smug and special. Edited June 9, 2023 by LaGoosh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted June 9, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 9, 2023 29 minutes ago, LaGoosh said: The Easter Eggs are usually just used to distract from the fact that the story is weak as piss. Why tell a good fresh new story with character motivated twists and emotion when you can just throw out a shiny Easter Egg or two to make the audience feel smug and special. Probably cop a lot of hate for this, but I hated Punk vs Allin stealing whole sequences beat by beat from Bret vs Kid for this exact reason. I want to appreciate a wrestling match for its own value, not to turn around to another humanoid and squalk “I see what they did there! Do you??” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted June 9, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 9, 2023 9 hours ago, FUM said: Why was it not fine just to be a Joker rip-off? All wrestling characters are rip-offs and that’s part of the fun. Especially as I'm fairly sure Rollins himself has said he's basically doing "the Joker having a midlife crisis". Which is why I didn't even make it beyond that thread suggesting that was the DUMBEST possible interpretation of Seth's masterwork. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted June 9, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 9, 2023 9 hours ago, Supremo said: The MCU has a lot to answer for. Somewhere along the way it became normal to critically read every aspect of popular culture. A trailer couldn’t just exist to make you excited for the upcoming movie. Every single thing had to be symbolism, a callback, a cameo or a fucking Easter egg. I think "critically read" is giving them too much credit, there's no critical eye whatsoever. It's what I always call the "Ready Player One"-ification of pop culture, where everything is just dangling keys in front of the viewer's eyes, distracting from the lack of any original ideas by constantly going for the dopamine hit of, "it's the bloke you know, from the thing you like". It's the same thing fueling people with no creative thought to think that AI can replace human writers and artists, because they can't conceive of a story that isn't ultimately a playground "who would win between these two characters" argument. Wrestling has always, and should always, borrow from pop culture, but it doesn't have to be as blatant as "I'm doing this character from this movie", you pick and choose from all over the place. Mike Quackenbush turned out to be a wrong'un, and had some pretty bad ideas, but one thing he always said about character work was that if you're not unique, people are going to compare you to everyone else doing the same gimmick, and not just in wrestling - if you're trying to do The Joker, are you doing it better than Joaquin Phoenix? Or Heath Ledger, Jack Nicholson, Cesar Romero or Mark Hamill? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Alan Grant Posted June 9, 2023 Share Posted June 9, 2023 Sadly, Rollins is doing Jared Leto Joker. Might as well get “freakin’ damaged” tattooed on his forehead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LCJ Posted June 9, 2023 Share Posted June 9, 2023 10 hours ago, air_raid said: Probably cop a lot of hate for this, but I hated Punk vs Allin stealing whole sequences beat by beat from Bret vs Kid for this exact reason. I want to appreciate a wrestling match for its own value, not to turn around to another humanoid and squalk “I see what they did there! Do you??” Completely agree. Think Danielson and Punk mimicked a recent UFC fight at the time during one of their WWE matches around a decade ago. Seems self-indulgent to do that kind of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snitsky's back acne Posted June 10, 2023 Share Posted June 10, 2023 10 hours ago, LCJ said: . Seems self-indulgent to do that kind of thing. Modern wrestlers? Self indulgent? Never! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted June 10, 2023 Share Posted June 10, 2023 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted June 10, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 10, 2023 With Warner buying BT it puts the UK in the interesting position of having WWE on TNT from next month. I wonder whether this change will have a y bearings when the deal ends, and when AEW's TV deal with ITV ends as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LCJ Posted June 11, 2023 Share Posted June 11, 2023 I think with TV rights, AEW and WWE will always sell to the highest bidder. It’s whichever TV company wants them the most. No matter who that maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted June 11, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 11, 2023 I just wonder whether Warner/Turner/BT would try and put a bid in for AEW given they've managed to sell out Wembley and I presume they're doing decent numbers on the telly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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