Clash at the Castle 2024 comes to Glasgow

[Snitsky's back acne]

I wonder if there was an issue with the ropes as there seemed to be a few rope based botches on the show. 

[Snitsky's back acne]

*Double post wanker. Sorry* 

Edited June 16 by Snitsky's back acne

[Version1.0]

13 minutes ago, Weezenal said:

Priest catching the rope and dangling should be used on the THEN NOW FOREVER video. 

Someone finally matched Test at WrestleMania x-Seven.

[Donald J Trump]

There were a lot of CM Punk fans there last night and hundreds of CM Punk shirts. There are so few genuine superstars on the books that someone of his status appearing unannounced was always going to get a positive reaction from many, even if he is the arch nemesis of the hometown hero. There were people around me on the brink of collapse, such was the enthusiasm and vigor with which they rooted for a McIntyre victory. Once the result was in and Punk was doing his victory lap, many of those same individuals held their replica titles aloft with satisfied, childlike glee on their faces. Some were worse for wear as they slurred their way through CM Punk chants. Like the three gentlemen rubbing themselves against Punk at the end, they were basking in the glow of some world class trolling from Punk. If you've paid that much money for a ticket, you're well within your rights to find some way to leave the event with a spring in your step, and though whilst a minority not everyone left the arena dissatisfied. The only mild degree of contempt was towards the mischievous schoolboys who chanted CM Punk whilst scanning the faces around them to see if anybody gave a shit. I don't think anybody did give a shit, but any form of egregious attention seeking is always going to curl the toes. 

I really enjoyed the show, and it was a great weekend all things considered. You can quibble about the quality of the card but as a live show for a Scots audience it was great. The two biggest titles in Wrestling were on the line and both were entertaining. We got an IC match that has been building since before Wrestlemania and we got two women's title matches featuring Scottish performers, and one of them featured a home title change. Crucially, the fact that the event was in Scotland ran through the show like a stick of Blackpool Rock. Whilst the crowd was amazing in Lyon, you could have held that show anywhere, but in this instance the location was central to the show. For a small nation of 5 Million people to feature so prominently in an international event like that is pretty cool, and I think it was a success. 

I've seen some commentary where there's been an inability to understand why some were cheesed off at the conclusion of the show. That was the entire point wasn't it? Its easy to sneer at people who've become emotionally invested to the point where they genuinely care about the outcome but it shouldn't be difficult to understand. Between winning the titles during covid, having his win shat on at Wrestlemania and missing out at the last Clash of the Castle, Drew having his big moment isn't exactly overdue. Having a Scotsman winning the title in Scotland is beyond the wildest dreams of Scottish Wrestling fans, and given another opportunity is far from likely many were obviously going to be disappointed that it hasn't happened, especially having spent the weekend being whipped into a frenzy. Speaking to a lot of people who were at the event, the sense I got was that it was a bit of an abrupt, bum note on which to end a fairly upbeat, positive weekend. I don't see any way you can avoid that though. That crowd would have shat on any pat on the bum at the end and nobody wants a repeat of American Pie, so whilst dismantling the ring to chants of bullshit wasn't the ideal finale to an enjoyable night there wasnt really any viable alternative. 

The fact is, this thing with Punk is among the best stuff they've done in years and it doesn't need a title. When you've got the likes of Priest trying to get a foothold on the next rung and Gunther on the brink of greatness, there's no sense wasting the gold on something that's already good. The quote about Alexander weeping when he had no worlds left to conquer comes to mind as well. If Drew ever does have his moment, a packed stadium in the UK is as good a place to do it as any. 

Edited June 16 by Donald J Trump
Error

[Mr_Danger]

4 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

This all sounds suspiciously like ratings/tickets/revenue type talk. Stop it. 

Take it to the stadiums with a stand made out of Gruyère thread!.

[NeverYield]

Well all I've got to say is Priest is lucky he never broke his ankle on those ropes 

And Drew made that look as smooth as he could with the botch, 👌.

[TibBo]

Is that a move he does a lot? Seems pretty awkward trying to springboard off the middle then get your foot over the top rope?

[DavidB6937]

7 minutes ago, TibBo said:

Is that a move he does a lot? Seems pretty awkward trying to springboard off the middle then get your foot over the top rope?

Its nothing new for him. Usually works well enough.

[TibBo]

Looks decent! From the botch I couldn’t work out how it was going to propel him over the top.

[Donald J Trump]

I think there was an issue with at least one of the ropes. You don't really see it on TV due to the angle, but during Styles entrance when he bumps into the ropes for his pose, there was a noticeable degree of give on the top rope from where I was sitting. He then tugged the rope and approached the referee with a gesture that indicated there was an issue. The referee himself then checked the rope. Its a minor detail you ordinarily wouldn't pay much heed to but there were a couple of issues that could have been caused by the ring rather than errors from the performers. The top rope wasn't a factor in Priests mishap. His foot slipped off the second rope but he was already past the point of no return by then. Its fortunate that nobody was seriously injured, even in a show that won't be remembered for over the top stunts. 

[air_raid]

Ah, the ropes. But for dodgy ropes would the Rockers’ tag title win be in the books, but the ref didn’t listen. As always, the answer is ; should have listened to Bret.

[BomberPat]

I think this clip, and people raving about it, really sums up why WWE just isn't for me.

The quote tweets are full of "this is cinema!" and praising how great the production is, how amazing the camerawork is now that Kevin Dunn's gone. But it's the height of what has bugged me about WWE for years - they don't present wrestling as a live event that they're filming, they present it as a TV show that happens to be filmed live.

This whole thing only makes sense if you accept that the camera is the only possible point-of-view. Compare that to my favourite thing in AEW; big chaotic multi-man brawls all over the building, where it feels like there's a dozen things happening at once and the camera crew are scrambling to catch as much of it as they can, whereas in WWE, if it's not on camera it doesn't exist. CM Punk runs into the ring, is directly in Michael Cole's line of sight, yet he has to pretend that he doesn't know it's him until the camera cut. It's not on camera, so it doesn't count.

[The Dart]

You can clearly see Michael Cole is directly looking at his moniter, so he is seeing what we are seeing.

[BomberPat]

20 minutes ago, The Dart said:

You can clearly see Michael Cole is directly looking at his moniter, so he is seeing what we are seeing.

A couple of seconds before that he's stood up looking directly at the ring, then has to sit down so that he doesn't see what happens.

The point of commentary is that you call what's on the monitor, because that's what the audience at home sees, but I still want to believe that the commentary team being sat at ringside gives them some kind of expert/privileged position to call what we can't see, otherwise they may as well be doing it on Zoom from their home office. An oddly dressed referee that Michael Cole has never seen before slides into the ring, and neither he or Corey Graves think to glance upwards for a second, or wonder "hang on, who's this?". 

It's not so much about the nitpicking about where Michael Cole is or isn't looking in the moment, though, it's the entire ethos that goes into framing the shot that way, and cutting to an absurd wide shot when Punk runs down the ramp to try and hide that it's him. It's treating it as a TV production and not a live event, and that obviously works fine for them and makes them millions of dollars, but it underpins almost everything about WWE's product that leaves me feeling cold. 

And I think a lot of people just internalised the criticism that Kevin Dunn's production was bad because it relied too heavily on constant camera cuts, rather than that being one of many things he did badly. So now whenever the production choices are anything else, it's celebrated as some revolutionary bit of camerawork, and not something that TV wrestling has been doing since the '80s. Lots of cuts bad, so fewer cuts good, and that's the extent of the analysis people are prepared to give it. Production was so bad for so long that the bar is set absurdly low for what gets called "cinema".

[Supremo]

The criticism is completely valid. Whilst I enjoyed the framing as a TV viewer, I do think that's why it didn't get the big reaction or the huge heat people expected.

To everyone in that crowd, it's just CM Punk running out in a stripey T-shirt. The drama of the reveal isn't there. I can't imagine there was a single person in that arena who didn't already recognise it as Punk as he ran down the aisle. Especially when everyone was already expecting him to get involved somehow. Remember in Friends, when Joey had to, "step into the map," to navigate around London? This is an example of when the WWE commentators have to, "step into the TV," for the internal logic of the show to work. It completely falls apart if they act as if they're actually there in the moment, as living human beings.

The whole thing makes your head fall off the more you think about it. What was Punk's plan if the ref bump doesn't happen? Fly to Glasgow and just hope the opportunity to cosplay presents itself?