Wrestlemania Backlash was last night

[FUM]

I mean I understand the zombies overshadowed everything but the nonsense about the rest of the card outside Reigns/Cesaro is just that, nonsense.

I'm not invested in most of the characters but the actual wrestling on show was between decent and very good for every other match outside Priest/Miz.

Lashley/Drew/Braun was actually as fun a match as I can remember from the Raw brand in a long time.

[CL Punk]

8 hours ago, JNLister said:

Peacock have a paid a billion dollars to broadcast an extended commercial for a Netflix movie.

An extended commercial for a Netflix movie where they couldn't even get one of the stars that used to be a wrestler.

[Daaaaaad!]

No, although he did have something to say about it in, as usual, top Batista fashion:

 

 

[air_raid]

6 hours ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

Hell look at AEW

 

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by air_raid

[air_raid]

18 hours ago, Perry said:

Anyone that stayed up to watch this shite need to have a word with themselves.

Next time I'll show any interest will be when SummerSlam is on the horizon.

You need to have a word with yourself too.

[BomberPat]

9 hours ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

It was goofy harmless shit to promote a movie, we all grew up on the company having gimmicks such as a voodoo priest, a binman, a guy with a baseball painted on his face, an undead casket builder got a 30 year run out of something that would have been shit on today. Hell look at AEW who have a guy playing a dinosaur, a female who thinks she's an alien and another who looks like something from a horror film

woman*

 

I love the suggestion that "a binman" is somehow equally ridiculous as this shit. Yes, it's dumb shit to promote a movie, but it's dumb shit at the expense of anyone getting over, and makes everyone involved look stupid. We've had twenty-plus years of WWE saying "look how stupid WCW were, they had Robocop and Chucky interacting with their wrestlers" and now they're doing the exact same thing. We've gone from the wrestlers in this match being in a really well-received match at Wrestlemania with a mainstream celebrity to being booked as a joke in favour of crowbarring in some cross-media synergy that makes them look shit, just no attempt to capitalise on any momentum whatsoever.

If they'd spent time building it up, and actually introduced the concept of zombies into WWE? It would probably still be shit, but it would make some kind of sense. Instead, we have one match on one show where zombies exist, and then they will likely never be mentioned again. I wouldn't be surprised if, if they ever get mentioned again, it will be to laugh about it at all as a bad idea. In storytelling terms, it's ridiculous. They established that zombies exist, then went well, "anyway, on with the show, here's Bianca Belair vs. Bayley". Hang on, is no one else concerned about all the fucking zombies? Why are we just carrying on with a wrestling show as normal? Can you imagine if Emmerdale introduced zombies into one storyline, but no one else ever acknowledged them and they just carried on as normal? It's like when a sitcom has a Christmas special that establishes Santa Claus is real, or a UFO sighting episode that ends with a real UFO flying around - suddenly you have to accept that this seemingly down-to-earth series that you thought existed in the real world actually has all this supernatural shit going on, that raises a million questions, but somehow it's just never addressed again, they just go about their business. 

And worse than all of that, it was shit too.

[Devon Malcolm]

10 hours ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

It was goofy harmless shit to promote a movie, we all grew up on the company having gimmicks such as a voodoo priest, a binman, a guy with a baseball painted on his face, an undead casket builder got a 30 year run out of something that would have been shit on today. Hell look at AEW who have a guy playing a dinosaur, a female who thinks she's an alien and another who looks like something from a horror film

[LaGoosh]

10 hours ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

Hell look at AEW who have a guy playing a dinosaur, a female who thinks she's an alien and another who looks like something from a horror film

Not the same. Luchasaurus is a comedy gimmick and it's really good. Kris Statlander thinks she's an alien because she's a fucking weirdo, she's not actually an alien and no one else thinks she's an alien. Abadon looks like something from a horror film but isn't actually something from a horror film. These are all fun gimmicks that do not break the internal logic and rules of reality of the television show they appear on. That's why they work and the massive difference between them and this bullshit.

[Chili]

8 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

A UFO sighting episode that ends with a real UFO flying around - suddenly you have to accept that this seemingly down-to-earth series that you thought existed in the real world actually has all this supernatural shit going on, that raises a million questions, but somehow it's just never addressed again, they just go about their business. 

And worse than all of that, it was shit too.

I love that we can now compare WWE chasms of inner world logic to shit Dynasty knock-off, The Colbys. Magnificent. 

[mim731]

Was this dumber than the weird tentacle monster thing that happened with The Street Profits and the ninjas last year? Not sure, but both are definitely filed under stupid shit that WWE will likely quickly gloss over and pretend never happened. I suppose that is a big benefit to being the gatekeeper of the history of the industry, you control the narrative in the future. 

In all honesty, I suspect WWE might have decided to cram this in before fans return, for a nice tidy profit, knowing that an audience would shit on it. 

[CavemanLynn]

I know I'm viewing this match completely out of context, and being lazy right now, but what was the build to the match? Had zombies turned up beforehand, or was it just announced as such?

It sounds like WWE bookers have reduced their talent to keywords that they tap into a search for whatever angle they have lined up, but they stuck on Miz with "movie" or Priest with "gothic" instead of R-Truth for "goofy." You've even got the Fiend hanging round who you could finally finish off with a charred zombie match. From the outside it looks like the booking team either don't know or don't care about who or what their talents' characters and styles are.

AEW did a tie-in with Godzilla vs Kong, that was basically "here's some massive blokes smashing into each other, and one's a big lizard", and even that had an angle the week before to build it that didn't require special effects or Bear Country to put on gorilla suits in case we didn't get it.

[JNLister]

People still reviewing the Miz-Priest match as if that was the product and they are the customer.

It's 2021. You, the person watching the match, are the product. The movie promoters are the customer.

[CavemanLynn]

18 minutes ago, JNLister said:

People still reviewing the Miz-Priest match as if that was the product and they are the customer.

It's 2021. You, the person watching the match, are the product. The movie promoters are the customer.

Miz-Priest for Army of the Dead was Go Compare. Jungle Express vs Bear Country for Godzilla vs Kong was Compare the Market.

[Chili]

34 minutes ago, JNLister said:

People still reviewing the Miz-Priest match as if that was the product and they are the customer.

It's 2021. You, the person watching the match, are the product. The movie promoters are the customer.

As @CavemanLynn said though, wrestling in 2021 can promote something without it making them look really daft. 

[tiger_rick]

The more I think of it, a zombie battle royal where all of the zombies are either ex-WWE talent or zombified versions of former superstars could have been a good laugh for 10 mins. They could even have advertised that ahead of time for a bit of intrigue. Self-contained fun that takes nothing away from anyone.