WWE: Unreal Discussion

[tiger_rick]

4 minutes ago, Supremo said:

You could feel it in the moment last Summer, but that trailer all but confirms my suspicion that loads of stuff that now happens on WWE television isn't to be effective or enjoyed on a surface level, and only exists as a backdrop for threads on Unreal.

The knots they tied themselves in to create the Seth injury angle. Ron Killings shaving his head and going SUPER SERIOUS for about two weeks before immediately returning to the original character. That weird, “shoot promo,” AJ Styles cut during the Raw ad break. John Cena waking up like Ebenezer Scrooge on the go-home episode of Smackdown. “Can I just shock you? I don’t want to ruin wrestling. Despite the last six months of storyline.”

Complete bollocks that’s incredibly unsatisfying as a weekly viewer, but hey, at least it gives Jabba The Heyman some material to explain why they’re actually really clever.

Clearest example yet of how much they’ve lost their heads up their own arse. Making their core product demonstrably worse to improve the supplemental material. The company that, “makes movies,” has decided it’s worth making a significantly worse film if it allows them to have a bigger wank on the DVD extras.

Imagine if that trailer was for a show about the dangers and the sacrifices talked about by Chelsea, Iyo and Penta? Would be great. I'd watch that.

[Supremo]

That’s the true failure of these trailers.

It’s a show that should be right up my street, and there are wrestlers I’d love to get to know behind the characters and storyline. For example, I’d love to hear Rey Mysterio and Dirty Dom talk about their angle and how Dom has completely figured it out and became such a star. I’d be fascinated to hear Sami Zayn talk us through the Bloodline Saga.

But it doesn’t look like you get any of that. It reeks of smug, go-away heat. All the worst people telling you how great they are. Fucking Seth Rollins talking about how he creates his, “magic.” “Magic”!

”For my next trick, I’ll make the flagship TV show absolute dog shit for months on end.”

Edited January 7 by Supremo

[Daaaaaad!]

My social media feeds are blocked up with clips from this, and all I can say to it is fuuuuuuuuuck all of this.

It’s the pro wrestling equivalent of that South Park episode where the guys are sniffing their own farts and loving it. The Seth “injury” is being spoken about in hushed tones as if it’s some grand heist, a scheme they pulled on the whole world. It was called from day one! More to the point, if you’re so proud of your ability to work everyone in “real life”, what does that say about your actual angles?

I anticipate a clip of Triple H next week saying “the thing about guys in black hoodies is, you don’t know who they are until they take them off. That’s what I noticed”.

Hideous. 

[The Gaffer]

I agree with the general derision directed at this product, but do feel it's worth making one annoying devil's advocate point: 

The target audience for this documentary is likely people who didn't call Seth's injury angle on day one, and who will happily chow down on this as being a part real, part contrived bit of trivial entertainment. In kayfabe terms, it's basically a Derren Brown special.

For that reason it doesn't really fail or succeed either at breaking the fourth wall - which is where I find it bizarre to start approaching it from - because at the end of the day it's just another layer of bollocks and the intended audience will probably just view it as such with minimal fuss. 

Oh it could have been so much better an expose and it could be so much cooler to just not bother pulling the curtain back, but the criticisms do seem aimed squarely at something which is neither. 

It's a fake show about a fake show, which is exactly what Raw and Smackdown have been for years. 

[SuperBacon]

Correct Gaffer. No one on this forum for instance is the target audience. I think I said earlier in the thread, a mate of mine who used to watch some wrestling was intrigued by this and enjoyed it.

He just finds it interesting to see the curtain pulled back a bit.

[Supremo]

I really should find the time to watch it because the clips are fascinating in terms of how they’re desperate to be perceived, against what we’re actually looking at.

The latest clip I saw was of Road Dogg suggesting Chelsea Green should win the US Title back and then Hunter shouting him down because she’s already worked all the babyfaces she could defend it against. In response, the Road Doggy Dogg quietly eats his shit and bows down to the King.

Oh, I dunno, Hunter. Maybe you could have write some new storylines and tweak some characters, allowing Champions to work with people more than once. I bet you didn’t complain every time you went back to feuding with Mick Foley, saving your dwindling career over and over again.

[TildeGuy~!]

Finished it this evening, Triple H clearly hates R-Truth.

Plus the 2+ hours of them focusing on the Rollins injury being a work and them being proud of it working even though everyone on the internet knew it was within a couple of weeks of it happening was annoying to watch.

Chelsea still comes off as annoying like she did in the first season.

Iyo’s great in the short amount of time she had and Lyra is so likeable.

[Chili]

9 minutes ago, TildeGuy~! said:

Finished it this evening, Triple H clearly hates R-Truth.

Scratching my head trying to understand why.

[wandshogun09]

2 minutes ago, Chili said:

Scratching my head trying to understand why.

Triple H? More like Triple K. 

[Supremo]

Long term storytelling.

 

[Merzbow]

Alex Shane was right.

[DavidB6937]

2 hours ago, TildeGuy~! said:

Chelsea still comes off as annoying like she did in the first season.

Surprised that anyone would have this take on her from the show. I've always enjoyed her work and her appearances on this have only made me want to see her succeed more. She's incredibly selfless and really hard working and it's nice to see the company value her. Although she'll clearly have a tough time breaking up the ranks.

[DavidB6937]

Sorry for the double post. Didn't have enough time to formulate other thoughts beyond Chelsea being awesome.

Watched all of S2 yesterday. I think the thing that sticks out the most - and it's not exactly defending them - but quite a few of the clips being shown online, especially the LA Knight MITB one, are being commented on completely out of context. So many "oh god look how upset he is because he's learnt of the ending and isn't happy!" .. well no, that's absolutely not what happened. Granted, they bring this shit on themselves but still, there's enough to be annoyed about without twisting shit.

Knowing more what we were getting because it was S2 helped I think. I didn't find it quite as annoying. They definitely think a lot of themselves and love getting one over the audience but you know what? If I was a writer - whether it was in wrestling or Hollywood or whatever - if I could successfully pull off a twist and get people then I'd be excited too. So I'm not sure I'd be much better than them if I'm honest. Maybe just a little less smug about it.

It's a weird watch because of the balance of all the different things it's trying to be. One thing that really strikes me about Seth Rollins is that he's not nearly as passionate about what he does as a lot of the other people they interview. At least not in the same way. And I get it - some people actually don't like the ones that cry all the bloody time and are super fans themselves but I don't know. There's something really cool about seeing someone likeable achieve their dream. Maybe that's it. Seth just doesn't come across as a particularly likeable guy for whatever reason. I liked the insight into Becky and some of her thought processes and all that but him? I just can't relate to him on any level.

The Truth stuff was what it was. I actually quite liked seeing his relationship with Brian James and what they've both been through together and thought that was kinda sweet. On the other hand you've got HHH who is clearly the biggest bullshitter on the planet. "Oh we never wanted to end up here!" or whatever. Fuck off mate. You only gave a shit once you felt (a) the crowds were being a pain in the ass and (b) you had the opportunity to stick Truth in a black hoodie.

Obviously Brian and everyone had the most memorable moment of the series too - nothing to do with Seth or how clever they are all, but the "who does Chelsea face?" debacle. You can't be spending episode after episode telling everyone how damn smart you are but you can't book your most diverse and dedicated woman going forward? Perhaps your brains aren't as capable as you think lads.

S2 absolutely won't change your mind if you thought S1 was awful. Especially if you're not a Seth and/or Paul Heyman fan. But nice to learn more about Lyra, Becky's return, Naomi, Penta and Iyo amongst others. I think it's worth a watch if you don't get too angry about it.

[BomberPat]

I think the problem with the Rollins story is that it's presenting "getting one over on the fans" as a means to an end in and of itself, rather than as a way of actually telling compelling or logical stories. From what I remember, the reaction to Rollins revealing that he'd faked his injury at the time was, "and what did that achieve?" - didn't he cash in on LA Knight, immediately reveal that he wasn't injured, and then have a fight? It's not like he came out on crutches, pretended he couldn't wrestle, used that as a distraction for his heavies to beat up Knight, and then revealed it was all a ruse, right?

[Supremo]

It speaks to how deep in the bubble they all are that working the boys and convincing the sheets that Seth was legitimately injured was considered paramount. Who the fuck cares?

The boom didn’t happen because anyone believed Sami Zayn was legitimately going around for tea at The Bloodline house. The boom didn’t happen because they managed to convince Dave Meltzer that Roman Reigns was a mob boss for realsies. It happened because they stumbled across a genuinely interesting, engrossing storyline, with detestable baddies gaslighting and bullying a sympathetic goodie. All within the fiction.

There’s a clear, direct correlation between when a booker burns out, runs out of ideas, and then suddenly thinks it’s extremely important to prove how they smart they are by pumping out worked shoots.

I want a full episode in Season 3 of Unreal to explain how something as fresh and funny as Kit Wilson somehow made it past these dullard weirdoes. That thing on this week’s show where the music restarted as he began strutting again was genuinely funny, a rarity in WWE. I refuse to believe any of the usual suspects came up with that themselves. Not a fucking chance Road Dogg, Hayes, Pritchard or Hunter could ever be so funny. It’s not what they do.