PTBN Reaction Show: Battleground 2015

[Loss]

Will is joined by Dylan Hales (Wrestling Culture), Kris Zellner (Exile on Badstreet), Phil Schneider (Segunda Caida), Johnny Sorrow (Titans of Wrestling) and Johnny P (Barbed Wire City) to break down all of the action. Is there a political hit on Roman Reigns? Can the NXT women perform on the big stage? Will Kevin Owens ever win another match? Finally... Undertaker. Don't miss this episode.

http://placetobenation.com/ptbn-reaction-show-battleground-2015/

[KrisZ]

Loaded show here folks......one of the best ones ever.

[The Chief]

Predicting some entertaining reactions to Undertaker.

[JerryvonKramer]

Can't agree with stuff on that Bryan vs Reigns being an old school brawl. It felt far more video gamey than that to me.

 

Also totally agree with Dylan on the reigns "rebuild".

[bradhindsight]

Probably the angriest and most disgusted you'll ever hear Kris be!

 

I could relate to Johnny P, I also figured to be in the minority of liking the Reigns match outside some segments, but then everyone seemed to dig it (especially Phil).

 

Good entry into the reaction series boys.

[hammerva]

Johnny Sorrow hating the main event and Taker run in might be the shocking thing in PTBN history.

 

by the way I am sure that the "fuck" counter was over 100 from one person alone

[bradhindsight]

Yeah Will was shattering records - had like three in his opening bit before they even started.

[goodhelmet]

I have no idea what you are talking about. We just had a nice friendly chat about the PPV last night. There wasn't any "Hot fire" or anything.

[Stiva]

Oh my god, Will's Taker rant Absolutely nothing to disagree with though, especially the part about "picking that old fucker up, dropping him with an F5 and taking his World Title"

 

Great show.

[jcmmnx]

Cena/Owens 3 might have mattered more if Cena hadn't done two exact matches with Cesaro on Raw. I don't agree at all that Cena was "dragged down to Owens' level" Cena has been having these style of matches since he won the US title. He can't go a single match without a finisher kickout and near fall spamming. Owens had far better character work and storytelling in his matches in NXT than anything Cena has done this year.

[KrisZ]

Probably the angriest and most disgusted you'll ever hear Kris be!

 

I could relate to Johnny P, I also figured to be in the minority of liking the Reigns match outside some segments, but then everyone seemed to dig it (especially Phil).

 

Good entry into the reaction series boys.

 

Well I didn't call Vince a communist like I did earlier this year on one of these shows but yeah I was disgusted last night

[goodhelmet]

 

Probably the angriest and most disgusted you'll ever hear Kris be!

 

I could relate to Johnny P, I also figured to be in the minority of liking the Reigns match outside some segments, but then everyone seemed to dig it (especially Phil).

 

Good entry into the reaction series boys.

 

Well I didn't call Vince a communist like I did earlier this year on one of these shows but yeah I was disgusted last night

 

 

yep... you were spitting some lukewarm fire!!!

[goc]

How are you going to get the listeners without any HOT TAKES?

[ZThomas]

I'll wait till i go back to work tomorrow to listen this is the main reason i watch the WWE PPVs. Im watching a few matches from Dominion just to listen to that reaction show.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Wow, full house. Looking forward to listening.

[JAC]

That was a fun show. I actually like Cena v. Owens better than most of the panelists did--I though they worked a more deliberate pace than in their previous two encounters. There was too much finisher spamming, though. I wish they could have toned it down in each of the encounters--have Owens avoid the AA in the first match, have Cena avoid the pop-up powerbomb in the second, and have Owens kick out of a single AA in the final match. I agree that Cena can't put everyone over--it would lose its effect. But eventually, if they ever want to make a guy, they'll need to give someone that all-important victory over Cena in a feud. Owens felt like a breath of fresh air; I wish it had been him.

 

I'm surprised than nobody seemed too bothered by the layout of Reigns v. Wyatt. It's was an okay match, but completely the WRONG match for the build-up. Wyatt stalked Reign's daughter. How the hell does the match start with a collar-and-elbow tie-up? Reigns should have jumped Wyatt the instant he got in the ring and beaten him to a bloody pulp. Don't book for a bloodbath and deliver a conventional match. If the threaten a guy's child, he's gonna try to kill you, not defeat you. This layout problem is not on the wrestlers themselves--blame the bookers and the agents-- but five seconds in, I was saying "they're wrestling the wrong match". I think that hurts, even if the match--in isolation--was otherwise decent.

 

I didn't despise the ending to the main event, but that's mainly because I didn't care about it. Seth Rollins makes me want to turn the channel (at least, that's how I feel based on the way he's been booked). And I didn't love the Lesnar "suplex city" routine at WrestleMania, so I was dreading a rehash of it here. But even though I wasn't bothered, it's tough to see how this makes sense. I guess they think they can get one more payday out of Undertaker before they ship him off to the glue factory.

[Johnny P]

I can respect all those opinions, because they're all well thought out. Appreciate it, JAC. I hear you on the start of Wyatt/Reigns. I'll be honest - I don't think I was even in the room for the begining of the match, and when I did walk in the next minute or two were seeing the screen with moving images, but 3 to 4 people talking to me at the same time. Slowly, that faded because one by one everyone got sucked into the actual match.

 

I like the idea for Cena/Owens (the finisher ideas to quell Finisher spamming), and I hope I didn't come across as hating it. Still felt like a big time moment, but the volume was somewhat turned down. 3 in a row, plus many RAW/Smackdown interactions will do that to a feud from a company with an insane amount of TV, internet, and its own Network exposure, plus all the hype videos and replays. Still, it was big, its just the finish that really got to me. When a guy does get to go over Cena (Punk, Bryan) the company still wants to kill the guy. Starting to think the way to "make" Reigns might be to just say fuck it and program him with Cena, since that's a guy they won't fight putting over and letting it be. Might help with fan reactions too.

 

Final thought: I guess they think they can get one more payday out of Undertaker before they ship him off to the glue factory. - JAC

 

Me: They'll be trying to squeeze a pop and a dollar out of fans using Taker in 5 years, believe me. I've been hearing he's winding down, or it might be best if he starts making people, as talking points since 2001, and periodically every 18 months since then, until I'd say by 2008 or maybe 2009 it got a lot more common/louder. Thanks a ton for the feedback and thoughts.

[Matt D]

Re: Sasha. To me the biggest thing is this: unlike Emma and Paige and even Summer Rae, who were distilled or watered down or in the case of Paige, inverted completely, Sasha really felt like Sasha out there.

On a show that Parv was bitching about the character work being a mugging for the camera after a move was hit (whether valid or not) she showed so much personality, whether through body language, jawing, or her distinct actions (mocking Charlotte repeatedly, playing up the alliance with Brie at the beginning, the desperate way she ducked out of the way of the spear).

Maybe that's because Del Ray is an agent now or because Vince was more familiar with her character or maybe it's because she's a couple of years older than Paige was when she was called up but it stood out and boded well.

[Jimmy Redman]

I said this in my review, but like the fact that halfway through Jerry Lawler let out a really heartfelt "This Sasha Banks sure has an attitude doesn't she??" said SO much to me. King doesn't prepare at all, doesn't watch NXT, nobody tells him what to say. He just watches what's in front of him and spews out whatever's in his head. I'd put money on him never seeing Sasha Banks do anything in his life before she debuted on Raw, and here like five minutes into her first match, she was working her character so perfectly that even King totally got it straight away.

[SomethingSavage]

I said this in my review, but like the fact that halfway through Jerry Lawler let out a really heartfelt "This Sasha Banks sure has an attitude doesn't she??" said SO much to me. King doesn't prepare at all, doesn't watch NXT, nobody tells him what to say. He just watches what's in front of him and spews out whatever's in his head. I'd put money on him never seeing Sasha Banks do anything in his life before she debuted on Raw, and here like five minutes into her first match, she was working her character so perfectly that even King totally got it straight away.

 

Absolutely agree.

 

I think we heard some inklings of that from King in the last month or two with Kevin Owens also. Lawler is far from my favorite announcer these days, but there's still something to be said about those moments when he shows enthusiasm and excitement over something. Comes across as more authentic & genuine than a lot of the usual noise.

[Parties]

Don't mean to derail this (awesome show BTW!), but as much a question for the guys on the show as anything: it was said here by Dylan (and I think others agreed) that Brock has not been a draw, and has in fact been a waste of money. Has a contract so steep it's actually offensive to your roster, has not improved ratings (they've in fact gone down), arguably hasn't helped the Network, doesn't work house shows, etc. He gets people talking on Facebook, but has that in his case translated into revenue? Which got me thinking: aside from Cena, is there anyone else who's been a true draw in American wrestling in the last 10-12 years? (There's undoubtedly been a thread for this, but I could not find it in searching.)

• I would think Rey, but I don't know if his draw was the same post-2006 title win once he started really getting plagued with injuries.
• You could argue the Hardys, given their popularity and ability to draw abnormally large crowds to indies. Plus Jeff being the only TNA star who's been over for years.
• Batista gets credit at times, but I don't know how much he moved the needle show-to-show.
• "Battle of the Billionaires" is always talked about as the money match of recent years, so maybe Vince?

I'm sure there are people here who will pick Bryan and Punk, but I'd say Punk turned off casual fans and seemed to do weak business with everyone but Ryback, while the Bryan thing was huge but is sometimes dismissed as "just a meme" given that he allegedly didn't help buyrates/merch/ratings at all.

[Matt D]

Mark Henry, 2009.

[Jimmy Redman]

2008 and/or 2011, you mean, but you're there.

[moazzam23]

Bryan was as big of a ratings and buyrates draw as anybody else in 2013-14. Summerslam 2013 and WM30 did really good numbers, and his Raw segments were often the highest rated during this time period. It's just unfortunate that he got injured early in his WWE champion run.

[JerryvonKramer]

Will needs to see Taker as being like Crusher or Dick the Bruiser in AWA in 1983 or something like that. People are going to stooge to get those old fucks over. Brock was just doing his job there.