Paid Members unfitfinlay Posted February 4, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 4, 2022 That Brandi segment was awful on so many levels. The worst being that it was structured to make DAN LAMBERT a babyface, even though he’s (a) a heel in the World Title program and (b) a total dickhead. It’s just so weird to have Brandi heeling it up and then the babyface spot is Lambert calling her a stripper. That sort of shit shouldn’t be getting cheered in 2022 but they put it in a spot where it was going to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted February 4, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 4, 2022 Brandi is Cody with even less self-awareness, and minus the talent, history, or audience goodwill to justify her position. The absolute worst example of thinking that "there's no such thing as heels or faces any more!" means that you're playing a rich, nuanced character, rather than shitty inconsistent booking that means she's a face in one segment and a heel in the next. I can't think of a single match, angle or moment in AEW that has been improved by her presence, and there are plenty that were made actively worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Factotum Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 I know Twitter and social media in general is never good to gauge the general feeling towards someone, but every time I have searched on a Brandi segment I have never seen anyone defend her. Absolutely everyone thinks she's shit, even the ones who blindly defend Mr Bland Cody Rhodes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 Even in that promo where he's meant to be the face he openly says he's some right-wing fox news type, I know the Khan's sucked off Trump but still.. that's the look you're going for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 16 minutes ago, Merzbow said: Even in that promo where he's meant to be the face he openly says he's some right-wing fox news type, I know the Khan's sucked off Trump but still.. that's the look you're going for? Is he meant to be the face? I don’t think he is, but at the same time there’s no way that Brndi is with the way that she’s been acting. It’s a complete mess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted February 4, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 4, 2022 I'm pretty sure that was deliberate, in some sort of attempt to portray that we're not dealing with "good guy" vs "bad guy" here, but two "nuanced" human beings who happen to have beef with one another. For all that is actually realistic, I just don't think it tends to work all that well in (relatively simplistic) fictional narratives, particularly in pro wrestling where a portion of your observers are there in person and you want them to vocally react positively or negatively (and the reactions of those observers can significantly effect the reactions of your television observers). It particularly doesn't work well in pro wrestling where the rest of the same show is actually doing traditional good guy vs bad guy stuff for the most part, and especially where one of the featured players in your highly nuanced storyline is an outward bad guy in another one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted February 4, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 4, 2022 Fair play to Jim Ross. Normally it does my head in the way he grumpily picks apart stuff on the show itself and has no poker face for things he doesn’t like. However, that Brandi segment was such a confusing mess that it completely deserved Jim laughing his arse off at the babyface pop Lambert got. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 Am I right that Brandi got the hometown deliberately wrong and did heel it up. Ugh when done wrong or by anyone with no nuance, the tweener thing doesn't work. Delusional Hollywood would be fine, could have turned him. They had something when Arn pulled out the glock. You could have nicely found a way to split the acts there. Nah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chris B Posted February 4, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 4, 2022 I reckon the booking is based on their reality show first and the wrestling show second. There'll be a whole bit about how the audience are beginning to turn on her, and how they're working with Dan Lambert, with her really feeling the pressure, etc. It'll be all about the 'shocking one-liners' etc, and it'll be edited so it comes across better than it did. In terms of reality show content, we have Cody burning his back, we have the Lambert stuff, and we'll have crossovers with celebrities. The problem is that it isn't well done - it shouldn't be difficult to also make this work in the show, but it's really annoying. I wonder if they're avoiding complex storylines so the reality show can represent it simply. But yeah, we're not seeing a storyline. We're seeing a highlights package for a separate show. (That said, I'm beginning to enjoy Dan Lambert in a vaguely Bobby Heenan way. Him as the cowardly mouthy one, I could get behind - If he stopped with the edgelord stuff, I could actually get on board). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 13 minutes ago, Chili said: Am I right that Brandi got the hometown deliberately wrong and did heel it up. Thinking about it, I wouldn't be surprised if that was ad-libbed because she was getting booed so heavily before saying it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted February 4, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 4, 2022 4 minutes ago, Chris B said: I reckon the booking is based on their reality show first and the wrestling show second. There'll be a whole bit about how the audience are beginning to turn on her, and how they're working with Dan Lambert, with her really feeling the pressure, etc. It'll be all about the 'shocking one-liners' etc, and it'll be edited so it comes across better than it did. I think this is absolutely right. Cody and Brandi aren't booked for their part in AEW, they're booked to support their outside commitments, and the broader project of presenting them as a celebrity "It Couple". The AEW brand will likely benefit from that, in terms of building important business and media partnerships outside of the wrestling bubble, but that shouldn't mean that it's automatically the clunkiest, most ill-fitting bit of the whole show. I like Dan Lambert, to a point. I'm always distracted by how little he breathes during his promos, so it makes it really obvious that he's scripted something and wants to rattle it all off as quickly as possible before he forgets his lines. But more than that, the booking of him and his team has just been weird. When they did the big street fight tag match, they made barely any mention when hyping it up that he had two UFC Heavyweight Champions on his team, they were just a non-factor in a Jericho/Lambert issue. It's far more satisfying to see the loudmouth manager get his comeuppance when you establish the credentials of the heavies that he's hiding behind and that the babyfaces have to do away with to get to him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinc Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 Lambert's pretty great in my eyes, don't understand the criticisms. More managers, more stables, more heat is all fine by me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The King Of Swing Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 Lambert is great in small doses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted February 4, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 4, 2022 Just by being placed opposite Cody/Brandi Lambert is unwittingly pushed into the babyface role because of how hated they are. If people really wanted to send them a message they wouldn't make any noise at all and let it play out to crickets. Let's see them nuance their way out of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 Lambert I very much love with ATT. I don't care if he says horrible things to be honest. He sounds and looks like a shit bag, so as long as he gets his face punched it's grand. Be a big edgelord, I hate when all wrestling has to be chinstrokey, Dan Lambert should be a smart arse troll. Dunno why he's in the Archer angle. I'm guessing it's because Archer isn't a talky bloke and Jake isn't doing the tops. It's a bit Jimmy Hart in Memphis where he'd appear in multiple segments. Doesn't really jive as well for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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