Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted April 9 Paid Members Share Posted April 9 (edited) 1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said: Honestly thought it couldn't get any better and then I read Scorchy isn't watching anymore? Best few days ever! Oh no I was just going to try and have an early night. But I read this and as you’re like my metaphorical pile, I’ve had to change my view, swallow my disgust at the focus of the enablers running things and popped Raw on. I’ll give my thoughts tomorrow buttercup. Spoiler I even got to run forward HHH. Bonus!  Edited April 9 by Hannibal Scorch I knew I shouldn’t have unmuted him ffs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted April 9 Paid Members Share Posted April 9 (edited) 10 hours ago, The Gaffer said: And I realised with a genuine pang of pity for the guy that my fixed image of Cole for all those years involved no movement because he wasn't permitted any. Hunched shoulders, focussed voice, taking a constant bollocking on the cans. He was like one of those greyscale, plugged-into-the-system slave people you see depicted for dramatic effect on conspiracy videos. JBL to the right delivering the big "We hate our audience" lines. King to the left doing his passionless face thing. Fucking hell, we're talking about millionaires here who could have easily quit if they actually really hated it so much. It's not like their families were being held at gunpoint. Don't have too much pity for poor little ol' Michael Cole. Edited April 9 by LaGoosh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Gaffer Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 10 minutes ago, LaGoosh said: Fucking hell, we're talking about millionaires here who could have easily quit if they actually really hated it so much. It's not like their families were being held at gunpoint. Don't have too much pity for poor little ol' Michael Cole. He's a lifer at a place where he's probably surrounded by a hundred people a week he considers family and loves it. You go on suffering sometimes. In fact, I hope Samantha Irvin is the one to narrate The Passion of the Cole on Peacock next month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted April 9 Paid Members Share Posted April 9 (edited) That was a real Use Your Illusion of a Wrestlemania - if the best bits of both nights could have been filed down to a one night show, it would be up there as one of the best they've done. It was a show that highlighted that there's really nobody better at this style of big, glossy stadium wrestling, but also reinforced my feelings that it's a genre of wrestling that really isn't for me, and that is only worth watching once or twice a year, nothing about it made me think "oh, I should watch this more often/I should watch RAW tomorrow and see what happens next". That's kind of the problem with building everything around "finishing the story", though, it's not exactly a hook to tune in tomorrow! Best matches were Gunther vs. Sami and Iyo vs. Bayley, and the main event was a complete clusterfuck but it needed to be one. Again, the thing they do is not for me, but it's hard to argue that they're the absolute best at doing that thing, especially now they're no longer governed by a barely concealed contempt for their own audience. Only criticisms of that main event for me are that Seth Rollins looked like a complete idiot - somehow, despite entering the weekend as World Champion, he managed to be an afterthought in three separate matches - and it wouldn't have hurt to let him get one shot in at somebody before getting murked, and that they shouldn't have had John Cena hit his finish on Roman Reigns and just focused on Solo; that's the difference between the babyface having back-up to even the odds and the babyface needing help to win the match. But it's on a weekend where the babyface team in a tag match, with a hundred other people at ringside, still needed outside interference from two massive NFL fuckers to win a match and that was treated as something to celebrate, where babyfaces routinely cheated more than heels, and where The Rock and Roman Reigns had to win a match to grant them a stipulation where they could do whatever they liked, despite establishing within that same match that they could already do whatever they liked because The Rock is on the board. Make it make sense. Â I could have done without all the self-congratulatory patting of the back, all the "Triple H era" and "Yay, Paul Levesque" from the Hall of Fame and throughout Wrestlemania weekend. Aside from being self-indulgent, trotting out Trips, Stephanie, Nick Khan and Bruce Prichard on TV in the current climate runs the risk of aging incredibly badly depending on how all things panned out. Even all the "it's a New Era" stuff aside from that context reminded me of them launching the "New Generation" youth movement ad campaign during King Of The Ring 1994, a show headlined by Roddy Piper vs. Jerry Lawler. It's one for the "Age in US wrestling" thread, but it's a hell of a New Generation when the first night ends with a 50 year old whose first Wrestlemania was 26 years ago pinning the heir apparent top babyface and future champion, when the new tag team champions are 52 and 43 and have both been with the company almost twenty years, along with a night two blood feud for two forty-somethings, Rey Mysterio and Bobby Lashley getting big wins, the parade of old-timers in the main event, and the young up-and-coming future prospect getting their first World Championship win at 41. New Era! Edited April 9 by BomberPat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted April 9 Paid Members Share Posted April 9 I’ve watched the main event back about five times now. It’s absolutely perfect in its ridiculousness. The ultimate crescendo. They nailed it. I do worry though. In the same way this was WWE: Endgame, you wonder if it’s going to end up like the MCU, where there’s no way to follow it and everything pales in comparison. Once you’ve done everything with everyone, where can you really go? For all the talk of this being the new era, it might end up being the Disney Plus Era, where everything peters off. That might have been their Mania X-Seven. Another similarity with the MCU post-Endgame; they’re one report away from having their own version of Johnathan Majors as Kang, where they place all their eggs in one basket and then it blows up in their face. Hunter, Nick Khan, Bruce Pritchard and now Stephanie McMahon. None of these people need to be on TV, so it feels like a huge, unnecessary risk to parade them about given the storm that could be coming. Get on this though. Never has a man been more Fed-bound. Probably counting the days left on his contract. The only thing I can ever imagine getting him this happy in AEW would be if Chris Jericho announced his retirement.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 Disney, MCU and Avengers name checked in the same post. Man, Devon would downvote that so hard if he could Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 11 minutes ago, Supremo said: you wonder if it’s going to end up like the MCU, One subtext from the Rock's post-game on Saturday was that he talked about wanting SOMETHING to do if he came back, rather than the lazy promo and a Rock Bottom that the WWE had been asking of him for the last 15 years.  Once he was convinced there was an interesting program, he was in. I wonder if there's other wrestlers that feel like that - John Cena and Austin particularly, who might be interested in heavier involvement in this Haitch Era.  If the WWE can weave the odd legend into their stories across the year as they've done with The Rock, you can easily sketch out 12-18 months of programming from here on. Plus for the first time in ages I have faith that they're actually going to push their new stars forward.  I know that sounds incompatible with bringing back older wrestlers, but it's not.  You can have Austin & LA Knight v CM Punk and RIcky Starks on a card alongside Cody v Bron Brekker for the title. Speaking of... is it Undisputed WWE Championship, Universal Undisputed Champion or what?  They've called it so many different names this weekend.  They should have dropped the Undisputed bit as soon as the World Heavyweight title was created surely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted April 9 Paid Members Share Posted April 9 (edited) 1 hour ago, Loki said: Speaking of... is it Undisputed WWE Championship, Universal Undisputed Champion or what? Â They've called it so many different names this weekend. Â They should have dropped the Undisputed bit as soon as the World Heavyweight title was created surely. Ah, the old "WWE Champion" vs "World Heavyweight Champion" question rears it's ugly head again. What's better, being champion of the WHOLE COMPANY which does events all over the World, or being champion of the WHOLE WORLD in which the company operates? I remember fondly prior to 2001 taking the piss out of old WCW... "How can you pretend Vader is WCW champ if Ric Flair is the "World Heavyweight Champion" too? It makes no sense." I wouldn't have minded "Undisputed Universal Champion" as the idea anyone wanted to dispute the original Silver Medal belt compared to trying to win THE title is a bit laughable. But since they combined the two titles for all of 12 months... yes, that would make it disputed. Anyway, fuck "Universal" anyway. It was effectively dissolved when Reigns won THE title from Brock and assimilated it. Yes, I'm going to die on this hill - nobody should give a toss about Roman being "near 4 years" with the title that doesn't really exist any more, or got dragged out of a retirement with a new name and hat belt and given to Seth, in very real terms. Reigns was WWE Champion for 2 years, then he lost it to Cody. ENDUT, HOCH HECH Edited April 9 by air_raid Acknowledge Moo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Healys Chutney Spoon Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 20 hours ago, mim731 said: He's Cody's business partner in the training school isn't he? Imagine they're close mates too, so not shocked he was there. Also I think that's Aaron Solo in the back row too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 Excellent response. Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members FLips Posted April 9 Paid Members Share Posted April 9 There’s fan cam footage of Seth struggling to get in the ring during the Cody match and that’s why Roman got the drop on him, because he’s completely knackered. Wish they’d shown it on camera because it really makes sense and stops him looking such a chump. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/yFh3vcR36q  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Weezenal Posted April 9 Paid Members Share Posted April 9 If he was so fucked why did he get dressed up as the Sheild and struggle to get to the ring? Cos he’s a chump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 2 hours ago, FLips said: There’s fan cam footage of Seth struggling to get in the ring during the Cody match and that’s why Roman got the drop on him, because he’s completely knackered. Wish they’d shown it on camera because it really makes sense and stops him looking such a chump. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/yFh3vcR36q  He was helped to the back after the match too, had to be helped out of the ring.  And I think he's out for a few months to heal up so it's only partly kayfabe.  Like him or not, the man's put in a serious shift this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WeeAl Posted April 9 Paid Members Share Posted April 9 On 4/8/2024 at 3:36 PM, Supremo said: Look, lads. You can dislike her if you want, but just know that you’re wrong. Extremely wrong.  Like hell I am. I'll go to the grave knowing she's the most annoying, grating announcer I've ever heard. Dreadful. Her and Pat McAfee. An assault on the inside of my brain. Main event was bonkers fun. Nailed it. The production is a billion times better than when I last watched anything from the company, yet there are still a few things I don't like about it - which tells you how bad it had gotten before. Improve the ring announcer, colour commentator, less of the CGI entrance graphics and figure out a way to blend the sponsors in better. But Jesus, on the whole there have been vast improvements in the watch ability of this stuff. Drew losing the title because he was too busy taunting Punk was good stuff. Drew and Rollins had a good match, got right to the point. They could have achieved the same thing without burying Drew's finish, but hey ho. Still a good time had there. The crowd woke up for night 2 which made a difference. It saved the weekend as I thought night 1 was a bit of a stinker outside of the decent Ripley/Becky match. The main event of night 1 would have done Horlicks out of business. Snoop Dogg as a semi regular third man behind the desk - ask him! The worst he could say is no, but man, that would be a bit of craic.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted April 9 Paid Members Share Posted April 9 5 hours ago, Weezenal said: If he was so fucked why did he get dressed up as the Sheild and struggle to get to the ring? Cos he’s a chump. Because he was attempting to play mind games with Reigns. That was the whole point! And it worked. It fit the story they had been telling for months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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