sek69 Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Afa putting a hit on the McMahons would be money. Afa (or maybe Sika would make more sense story wise) as a Samoan Don Corleone would be tremendous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Redman Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 So remember the debate when people were wondering when the first Styles Clash should occur in the WWE At the Smackdown tapings, AJ Styles beat Curtis Axel with the Styles Clash For fuck sakes Maybe they wanted it done on a taped show first to assuage any fears about the move? Or maybe it just so happens that there was no cause for AJ to hit a Styles Clash yet - between the Rumble being crowded, and the first Jericho match ending on a roll up, and we're all reading too much into it. Nobody watches Smackdown anyway, so the first one on Raw will still be a good moment I assume. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slasher Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Of course they have showed that they are not interested in putting the belt on Reigns and would go out of their way to try to prevent it but they have to maintain at least the tiniest semblance of being professional. Honestly though, you can ask that question about just about anyone they've had problems with. Like- why did they keep putting CM Punk in title matches throughout his career when it is obvious they didn't want him in that spot to begin with AND that he has proven to not being a "team player" at all. This is a guy that briefly feuded with a BABYFACE WWE boss Triple H. What about Daniel Bryan? They made it clear he wasn't the guy the company wanted headlining Summerslam with Cena and even going as far to having a plan in place if he happened to win. What did they do? Put him in main events for like 3 or 4 events in a row, then letting him have the opportunity to compete for the title at Wrestlemania. Batista vs Orton was the match they wanted and they didn't have to honor the stipulation if they didn't care about professionalism. Even Austin- Vince hated him so much he was featured in main events for like 3 years with plenty of title matches. They did all that because that was what was expected of a professional management who has to build good faith with the audiences. If they were always holding people down we'd be talking about Starrcade 2015 now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Redman Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 I think in this case, there's just a level of laziness there where they don't really explain why they have to be nice to Roman even when they're being mean to him, and so it comes off as haphazard, at best. Austin was a megastar and it was explained by Vince that he needed to keep him around to make money. Vince just didn't want him as the champ. Even during the Bryan feud, it was explained that the McMahons didn't think he looked like someone who could be the face of the company, but saw he was popular and tried to keep him around as a midcarder to make them money, only he kept winning and screwing things up. For Roman, it has never been satisfactorily explained a. why they are SO against the idea of Roman as the champion or face of the company (other than a vague, "The Authority are heels so they need a heel champ") or b. why Roman is apparently such a big star that they need to keep giving him title shots even though they are SO against the idea of Roman as champ. He's the prototype of the kind of face that the McMahons want, but he's a babyface and the Authority are heels so we have to pretend like he's some sort of rebellious underdog fighting the machine (this was the same problem with attempts to put Cena vs authority). They're trying to manufacture a rebel, and people can see through that. He's also been rejected by large sections of the audience, and isn't the kind of universally over/money maker that would force the McMahons' hand to push him against their will. They're trying to pretend he's a big draw, and of course you have to do that, but again, people will see through that unless there's at least a kernel of truth to it all. Austin WAS that over, so it made sense. Bryan WAS that over, so it made sense. Roman gets booed and crowds seem to want anyone else, so it makes no sense why the Authority have to keep pushing him. He could go away and the crowds wouldn't care. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slasher Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 I can't disagree with you on that. I just have an inexplicable habit of trying to rationalize WWE logic. LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dexstar Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 It's not exactly a killer angle, but they did somewhat explain this. HHH tried to give Roman the title basically after the Rollins injury, and Reigns turned it down because he wanted to earn it. So, wounded pride I suppose. Then Vince got involved because of the beatdown on HHH. The fact it's a personal vendetta and not a business concern then makes the continued employment make less sense logically though. I think we're supposed to assume Stephanie is blinded by rage and wants to see him hurt, Vince is senile, and HHH sees a personal opportunity + wants revenge for being beat up. It's just so deep and complicated they couldn't possibly explain that in the 5 hours of TV every week though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcmmnx Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Anyway you try to explain it it's still a shitty program to be headlining your weekly tv product with heading into a Mania. They could turn Bray Wyatt face on Raw next week, and the fans would be red hot for a Wyatt's v Authority/ Bray vs HHH storyline. Roman isn't over enough to justify this push. He doesn't have the charisma to be a WWE baby face ace. He's not Hogan, Austin, Rock, or Cena and he never will be. You can't got out there and bore the fans on the mic, enter through the crowd to tepid reactions, and wrestle to silence half the time, and be viewed as a top guy. I have friends that are AE casual fans, and they talk about seeing Reigns enter through the crowd to no reaction. People watching at home don't view him as a star. I get more talk about Rollins and Owens being good from those fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russellmania Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Anyway you try to explain it it's still a shitty program to be headlining your weekly tv product with heading into a Mania. They could turn Bray Wyatt face on Raw next week, and the fans would be red hot for a Wyatt's v Authority/ Bray vs HHH storyline. Roman isn't over enough to justify this push. He doesn't have the charisma to be a WWE baby face ace. He's not Hogan, Austin, Rock, or Cena and he never will be. You can't got out there and bore the fans on the mic, enter through the crowd to tepid reactions, and wrestle to silence half the time, and be viewed as a top guy. I have friends that are AE casual fans, and they talk about seeing Reigns enter through the crowd to no reaction. People watching at home don't view him as a star. I get more talk about Rollins and Owens being good from those fans. yeah these are really good points. They'd probably be way better off from a crowd reaction/heat standpoint if they turned Bray and went with Bray/HHH and Brock/Reigns at mania instead of the other way around. The Bray/HHH standoff at the Rumble got a great reaction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dexstar Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Anyway you try to explain it it's still a shitty program to be headlining your weekly tv product with heading into a Mania. They could turn Bray Wyatt face on Raw next week, and the fans would be red hot for a Wyatt's v Authority/ Bray vs HHH storyline. Roman isn't over enough to justify this push. He doesn't have the charisma to be a WWE baby face ace. He's not Hogan, Austin, Rock, or Cena and he never will be. You can't got out there and bore the fans on the mic, enter through the crowd to tepid reactions, and wrestle to silence half the time, and be viewed as a top guy. I have friends that are AE casual fans, and they talk about seeing Reigns enter through the crowd to no reaction. People watching at home don't view him as a star. I get more talk about Rollins and Owens being good from those fans. Not defending it either way, just pointing out they do have some sort of reasoning, shitty as one may find it to be, behind the angle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimmas Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 I watched Raw for the first time since I stopped doing "This Week in Wrestling" podcast and man, I forgot how bad it was. You have the authority controlling everything. Every match you have Michael Cole going on about how everybody wants to impress the authority. Can't wrestling be about a bully getting there comeuppance, and the quest to be the best? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Can't wrestling be about a bully getting there comeuppance, and the quest to be the best? Wrestling can be. WWE doesn't do wrestling though, they do sports entertainment! Those are not professional wrestlers, those are Superstars and Divas! We aren't even fans, we're a part of the WWE Universe!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Lacelle Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Vince makes movies, his dad did rasslin' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 It's not exactly a killer angle, but they did somewhat explain this. HHH tried to give Roman the title basically after the Rollins injury, and Reigns turned it down because he wanted to earn it. So, wounded pride I suppose. Then Vince got involved because of the beatdown on HHH. The fact it's a personal vendetta and not a business concern then makes the continued employment make less sense logically though. I think we're supposed to assume Stephanie is blinded by rage and wants to see him hurt, Vince is senile, and HHH sees a personal opportunity + wants revenge for being beat up. It's just so deep and complicated they couldn't possibly explain that in the 5 hours of TV every week though. See, this is why it's bad that WWE has shitty announcers on their flagship show. Viewers are just supposed to assume things that may or may not be part of the story they are trying to tell because no one is explaining to the audience what the hell's going on. No one expects JBL and Cole to suddenly become Gordon Solie or JR, but it would take almost zero effort to mention what dextar said in his post and suddenly the main storyline of the company makes more sense. Maybe people even start getting behind Roman because the boss is out for revenge. Instead we got "TRIPPA ATCH IS THA BEST MAGGLE". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Sasha has Becky in a painful hold. JBL sells the intensity of it by saying "You have orange hair there, you have pink hair, it's like the friggin' muppets out there." Fuck you, JBL. Fuck you. It was a neck crank dude. Commentators have gone off on tangents during chin locks and head locks. It wasn't that egregious is all I'm getting at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Man Jericho is terrible. AJ wining his debut with a roll up? AJ vs Neville would've been a better way to debut him on Raw.Clearly this is meant to be the first chapter in a feud between them, so AJ isn't going to finish him off with a Styles Clash Totally agree with Mr. Jackson. It was a hot 90s style workrate TV match where wrestlers took risks and those did not always pan out. Yea there were clunky moments in the first point but they seemed on point in second half. I appreciated that was not move and then no transition the opponent hits a move. Here there were misses and that had consequences. It was a babyface veteran vs babyface newcomer match with Styles needing prove himself. He got himself a tidy win but nothing definitive because this is going to be their workrate feud. A great way to start the feud not perfect but a great way and something that was traditional and smart. In my personal opinion this type of booking should be celebrated not complained about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Redman Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Yeah, it had "first match of a long Jericho feud" written all over it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slasher Posted January 28, 2016 Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 Man, I can just imagine how unglued the crowd would get if Vince and Triple H was gloating about their plan to maintain an iron fist over everyone only for the lights to turn off and the Wyatts' music hitting and revealing all four surrounding the ring for an epic beatdown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dexstar Posted January 28, 2016 Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 It's not exactly a killer angle, but they did somewhat explain this. HHH tried to give Roman the title basically after the Rollins injury, and Reigns turned it down because he wanted to earn it. So, wounded pride I suppose. Then Vince got involved because of the beatdown on HHH. The fact it's a personal vendetta and not a business concern then makes the continued employment make less sense logically though. I think we're supposed to assume Stephanie is blinded by rage and wants to see him hurt, Vince is senile, and HHH sees a personal opportunity + wants revenge for being beat up. It's just so deep and complicated they couldn't possibly explain that in the 5 hours of TV every week though. See, this is why it's bad that WWE has shitty announcers on their flagship show. Viewers are just supposed to assume things that may or may not be part of the story they are trying to tell because no one is explaining to the audience what the hell's going on. No one expects JBL and Cole to suddenly become Gordon Solie or JR, but it would take almost zero effort to mention what dextar said in his post and suddenly the main storyline of the company makes more sense. Maybe people even start getting behind Roman because the boss is out for revenge. Instead we got "TRIPPA ATCH IS THA BEST MAGGLE". 100% agree. I constantly find, during the periods where I'll watch every minute of Raw for a month or two, that usually the shit on TV does make some sort of sense, but you have to almost write it down to see it. Hell, usually it's actually not that bad but the fact they don't ever, ever, ever go into detail or do the supporting work to flesh it out makes it bad. It's like they film the rough outline every week. I know most people hated the Rollins-Kane feud, but when they broke it down it into soundbites and clips for the hype package, there was an actual angle and everything there. But they never laid it out on TV so it was just a meandering mess. For those who didn't see it: https://youtu.be/dJJjhZCV14E?t=27s I get it that you may not be super into Kane in 2015 or Rollins in general, but that feud, laid out in that manner, is pretty inoffensive I think, even kinda interesting. Unfortunately it took place over approximately 18 months, none of these promos were ever directly linked to each other, and all these events just kinda happened with everyone vaguely pretending they kinda remembered what happened the week before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 28, 2016 Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 The Rollins-Kane feud was the best thing Kane was involved in since about 1999 or so, Smiling Corporate Kane was great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dexstar Posted January 28, 2016 Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 The Rollins-Kane feud was the best thing Kane was involved in since about 1999 or so, Smiling Corporate Kane was great. Heck yeah, I enjoyed a lot of it but it doesn't have the greatest rep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcmmnx Posted January 28, 2016 Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 I get that Jericho called the match on Raw on the fly, and things can get clucky when doing that. However that doesn't excuse his Sid at War Games 1991 level of business exposing spot calling. They had to shut the sound off at one point. He was facing the hard cam calling spots without even trying to cover his mouth it was amateur hour. That was a big part of the reason I called him horrible in that match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted January 29, 2016 Report Share Posted January 29, 2016 So Sheamus has a mild tendinitis injury (which Lana did not cause) and someone else might be down too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmare007 Posted January 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2016 CenaRollinsOrtonSheamusStingBryanCesaroKiddBarrettItamiSin CaraNikki Bella Holy shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted January 29, 2016 Report Share Posted January 29, 2016 Something is broken. That isn't just a case of bad luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 29, 2016 Report Share Posted January 29, 2016 Sting was due to thinking a 55+ year old guy should take a buckle bomb, Kidd was from a freak accident on a move that was done a million times before without incident, Bryan was from Sheamus being a stiff piece of shit, Barrett's is a mystery, and Nikki is convinced hers is from the move she uses. So I think it's a combination of bad luck combined with an obvious problem with their training program with all the rest of the guys having shoulder tears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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