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Extreme Rules 2020 really was a horror show *spoilers*...


iMPACt!

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Or Angle comes out of retirement to put one of his three on the line.

(Edit: Unless Vince really did throw it out the window.)

Edited by Uncle Zeb
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After reading through this thread I feel like I may be the only person in the world that's enjoyed this event. Saying that I'm currently watching it and am still yet to watch Bray/Braun. It's been a real mix of hokey shite which I've enjoyed and good matches. It feels almost like it's been booked to tick a lot of boxes but reaction wise it's not done the trick. 

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I'm interested in how the short-film stuff worked as a concet with Wyatt/Cena, but not Wyatt/Strowman. With the caveat that I've not watched anything outside of occasional clips on Reddit for a couple of years, I reckon a lot of it is about Cena being such an established character with history, whereas Strowman... isn't. 

Cena's story appeared to use elements of his character but also his real life, so there was plenty to go into and it ended up being an unexpectedly deep character study. With Braun, they're having to reach to his crush on Alexa Bliss, and just things his character has been involved in. So there's no real depth there, yet they're trying to do something with all the hallmarks of the in-depth character study for a character that doesn't really have any more depth than 'get these hands'.

For those that have been watching more regularly, does that seem fair? Or was it just that it was more hokey altogether?

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The main difference between the two ideas that I can see is that Cena and Bray had history together, their whole run up to Mania 30, what Bray winning would have done for his career, the 'Cena buries everyone!' accusations... as it was, he lost and that started being when Bray started becoming known for losing all the big matches. I think I'm right in saying that's when the creepy cult leader started doing all the supernatural stuff, with the kid singing to Cena and all that and it's easy to point at this particular run as the moment Bray jumped the shark, and within three years, we've got maggots on the ring canvas. I still thank various deities that match between Balor's Demon and 'Sister Abigail' never actually happened.

Whereas with Strowman, he just appeared as a member of the Family and then left in the Draft when he got put on Raw and Bray was on Smackdown. There was no big split - teased or actual - so for the Swamp match, they tried to create all this tension and history between the two that simply wasn't there. 

I've been thinking about this for a couple of days and this may be the wrong thread, but it occurs to me that Bray is the wrestling version of Stephen King. They both come up with some pretty cool concepts, when Bray introduces a new character, it's awesome (see: Fiend, cult leader, Firefly Funhouse) but then he's got no idea how to carry them on. I've read a lot of Stephen King books and quite a few times there's a sense he has no idea how to finish the story so he shrugs and writes in aliens or a supernatural entity. It's like that with Bray, the Fiend was amazing when he faced Finn Balor, then jumped off a cliff vs Rollins; the cult leader was amazing in his rocking chair then went to pieces vs Cena... the best, most intriguing character he has for me is the kids TV host, purely because he's hardly ever seen actually wrestling.

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The Wyatt-King comparison is an interesting one as I've heard before that unlike the vast majority of writers, King tends to write chronologically - which is to say he sits down and starts writing a story at the beginning, not necessarily knowing how he wants it to end, and the end (whatever it turns out to be) is the last thing he writes.

Seems like that's how most characters in WWE get written too. Plans change, pal.

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The Cena thing worked for a lot of people because (1) it's Cena, and he can pretty much carry anything and (2) he's quite a rarity these days so it was nice to see him do something. Plus it really did reward long term viewers.

Strowman.. well, no one has that relationship with him. You can't compare him to one of the GOATs. So it was always going to be a bit shit.

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