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I have zero problem with the overproduction or campyness or Kane-ness of the segment.

 

My problem is more like that it made no fucking sense.

 

During the thing Randy goes "...and it never was" and reveals that he was playing the long game. He didn't have a change of heart, he was playing Bray all along. So what was his cunning plan again?

 

- Join Wyatt Family

- Win Bray the tag team titles

- Win Rumble for yourself and then when your target wins the title, immediately give up your guaranteed title shot against him

- Burn down his lair, desecrate someone's grave

- ???

- Profit

 

Randy's plan was so insidious that now it has come to fruition, he leaves Bray wallowing away with the World Title on top of the world, while Randy exults with no title shot and no claim to fight Bray at Wrestlemania. But he got to blow shit up I guess. And Bray will have to wipe his tears tonight with the soft leather of his World Heavyweight Championship that as of this moment he doesn't have to defend against Orton because HE GAVE HIS SHOT AWAY.

 

I mean, I know that next week they'll come up with some bullshit to put Randy back in the match, but that doesn't make it any better. Logically speaking Randy is a fuckwit.

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I know it's a bit out of the box, but I could actually see a Rusev babyface turn working. He has a certain charm about him. Maybe he and Seth should flip spots on the card.

 

Said it way back when they first started teasing a Rusev and Lana split during the Cena program, but yeah. There's some serious bank to be made in a Liz/Randy style relationship with Rusev and Lana. As fun as it was to watch Rusev grow a bit through the breakup, I always thought there was major money in switching them both babyface.

 

It's so easy. It could be done overnight. Rusev packs a certain spark and charm. Just have a more menacing heel physically threaten Lana, let Rusev come to her rescue, and boom. Off to the races.

 

As far as SmackDown goes - the Orton and Bray thing dove off a cliff for me. I can enjoy a lot of stuff for sheer camp and cheese factor alone, but - for various reasons - this just wasn't one of those things. If ya dug it, cool deal. Just nothing I'm invested in seeing.

 

Miz came out with the killshots, too. That whole segment was FIYAH. Miz is a top flight heel, so I don't think the complaints that this program is "beneath" Cena hold any actual weight. I also like how Miz could actively rehab his own previous main event run through these interactions with Cena. If they were ever going to give him another go at that level, then THIS is one of the best possible routes to get there.

 

And I *did* pop for the opening backstage deal. AJ was firing off insults about Luke Harper, without knowing the big hillbilly was standing right behind him. Shane and Bryan are all giddy with glee & can barely contain themselves, and *then* we get Bryan's reaction to one of AJ's insults - "HAHA. That's it. Keep 'em coming... I love your accent, by the way."

 

Couldn't help but crack up at that.

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I have zero problem with the overproduction or campyness or Kane-ness of the segment.

 

My problem is more like that it made no fucking sense.

 

During the thing Randy goes "...and it never was" and reveals that he was playing the long game. He didn't have a change of heart, he was playing Bray all along. So what was his cunning plan again?

 

- Join Wyatt Family

- Win Bray the tag team titles

- Win Rumble for yourself and then when your target wins the title, immediately give up your guaranteed title shot against him

- Burn down his lair, desecrate someone's grave

- ???

- Profit

 

Randy's plan was so insidious that now it has come to fruition, he leaves Bray wallowing away with the World Title on top of the world, while Randy exults with no title shot and no claim to fight Bray at Wrestlemania. But he got to blow shit up I guess. And Bray will have to wipe his tears tonight with the soft leather of his World Heavyweight Championship that as of this moment he doesn't have to defend against Orton because HE GAVE HIS SHOT AWAY.

 

I mean, I know that next week they'll come up with some bullshit to put Randy back in the match, but that doesn't make it any better. Logically speaking Randy is a fuckwit.

He gained Bray's confidence while also destroying the Wyatt Family by having Bray turn against Luke Harper, used their help to win the Rumble, turned down the title match to fully ingratiate himself with Bray which led to Bray giving him the "keys to the kingdom" and then used those keys to destroy the base of Bray's stupid dumb ass "powers" that will hopefully end that goofy shit forever. He's still going to get the Mania title match because he won the Rumble which has more import than a promo saying you're giving up the match.

 

The promo did a fine job of explaining it, he joined them because he couldn't beat them and waited for the right time to fully destroy them. Luke Harper was gone & Bray was completely fooled by Randy and gave him the "keys to the kingdom" aka the keys to and location of that shack.

 

 

 

I know it's a bit out of the box, but I could actually see a Rusev babyface turn working. He has a certain charm about him. Maybe he and Seth should flip spots on the card.

 

Said it way back when they first started teasing a Rusev and Lana split during the Cena program, but yeah. There's some serious bank to be made in a Liz/Randy style relationship with Rusev and Lana. As fun as it was to watch Rusev grow a bit through the breakup, I always thought there was major money in switching them both babyface.

 

It's so easy. It could be done overnight. Rusev packs a certain spark and charm. Just have a more menacing heel physically threaten Lana, let Rusev come to her rescue, and boom. Off to the races.

 

The problem with this idea is that Lana showed the last time they tried to turn her that she is an awful babyface.

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I have zero problem with the overproduction or campyness or Kane-ness of the segment.

 

My problem is more like that it made no fucking sense.

 

During the thing Randy goes "...and it never was" and reveals that he was playing the long game. He didn't have a change of heart, he was playing Bray all along. So what was his cunning plan again?

 

- Join Wyatt Family

- Win Bray the tag team titles

- Win Rumble for yourself and then when your target wins the title, immediately give up your guaranteed title shot against him

- Burn down his lair, desecrate someone's grave

- ???

- Profit

 

Randy's plan was so insidious that now it has come to fruition, he leaves Bray wallowing away with the World Title on top of the world, while Randy exults with no title shot and no claim to fight Bray at Wrestlemania. But he got to blow shit up I guess. And Bray will have to wipe his tears tonight with the soft leather of his World Heavyweight Championship that as of this moment he doesn't have to defend against Orton because HE GAVE HIS SHOT AWAY.

 

I mean, I know that next week they'll come up with some bullshit to put Randy back in the match, but that doesn't make it any better. Logically speaking Randy is a fuckwit.

He gained Bray's confidence while also destroying the Wyatt Family by having Bray turn against Luke Harper, used their help to win the Rumble, turned down the title match to fully ingratiate himself with Bray which led to Bray giving him the "keys to the kingdom" and then used those keys to destroy the base of Bray's stupid dumb ass "powers" that will hopefully end that goofy shit forever. He's still going to get the Mania title match because he won the Rumble which has more import than a promo saying you're giving up the match.

 

The promo did a fine job of explaining it, he joined them because he couldn't beat them and waited for the right time to fully destroy them. Luke Harper was gone & Bray was completely fooled by Randy and gave him the "keys to the kingdom" aka the keys to and location of that shack.

 

 

 

I know it's a bit out of the box, but I could actually see a Rusev babyface turn working. He has a certain charm about him. Maybe he and Seth should flip spots on the card.

 

Said it way back when they first started teasing a Rusev and Lana split during the Cena program, but yeah. There's some serious bank to be made in a Liz/Randy style relationship with Rusev and Lana. As fun as it was to watch Rusev grow a bit through the breakup, I always thought there was major money in switching them both babyface.

 

It's so easy. It could be done overnight. Rusev packs a certain spark and charm. Just have a more menacing heel physically threaten Lana, let Rusev come to her rescue, and boom. Off to the races.

 

The problem with this idea is that Lana showed the last time they tried to turn her that she is an awful babyface.

 

 

I assume this will lead to Orton vs AJ for the final number one contender spot, which will play into AJ/Shane by Shane throwing yet another curveball at him and being the final straw for AJ to snap.

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Yeah, I am surprised by how much this Smackdown turned a corner for mania for me. I was critical of them for taking the belts off their long term champs (assuming that is what happens with Owens, but I could very well be wrong) right before the biggest show and I still think its a mistake, but the way they played this Orton/Bray thing was pretty good. Orton realizing he can't beat the Wyatts strait up and then joining the group to destroy them from the inside was solid. It was even a little different from the Bryan/Wyatts thing where Bryan was just trying to get close to Wyatt to give him a beating once he had him one-on-one. Orton's game was bigger, more calculating. I am not sure they NEEDED the title for this, but the title and the title shot did provide the trigger for Orton to reveal himself, which made sense. Now he has more than he maybe even assumed to gain. He burns the cabin and desecrates the grave to get in Wyatt's head, the mind games he was trying to play when the feuded before but were unsuccessful. Ok, wwe... giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming this was the plan all along, I am pretty into this. Now will they execute at Mania? This is the perfect chance for Wyatt to take another step, go darker and more savage and really push him to be that monster heel they want him to be. I hope he wins at mania in a convincing way. I don't want a squash, but they should highlight that Orton had a plan and it CREATED something new in the wwe universe.

 

 

Predictably, I really liked the Cena/Miz segment. I am not looking forward to the match. I know some people are pumped about it, but it does almost nothing for me. The build though is going to be great. I have yammered on about this before, but this is why Cena can never ever be heel. I believe fans invest more in images of what they think wrestling should be. I know I know.... of course you have kids cheering faces and booing heels. That isn't going away... but to get buzz I think you play a different game now and Cena is the epitome of the Modern WWE Image (for better or worse). The new Kayfabe is that they believe he gets what he wants. He represents an ideal of wrestling. That is why people cared about the Punk and Bryan feuds so much and they produced great matches. They represented a different ideal of wrestling and the match wasn't about heel/face, it was about what we want from wrestling and that is ultimately always a little bit about what we want and value more broadly. Ok... that was a digression, but it is just when I think WWE is at its best. That is what happened here. Even though Miz in some ways is part of that Cena ideal, in that broader image, they further nuanced that here. It wasn't an indie darling vs Cena. It was a smug heel spitting some borderline truths and Cena spitting them back. Who is "good" and "bad" is far less important here even though the lines are so clearly drawn. The lines get blurred because they actually play up the perspectives on what a wrestler should be, even implicitly. It is why the Miz's promo on Bryan was so hot. it is really why he has become one of the best characters on TV. Again, the hype for this match going into mania should be real high and I am looking forward to the build.

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Yeah, I am surprised by how much this Smackdown turned a corner for mania for me. I was critical of them for taking the belts off their long term champs (assuming that is what happens with Owens, but I could very well be wrong) right before the biggest show and I still think its a mistake, but the way they played this Orton/Bray thing was pretty good. Orton realizing he can't beat the Wyatts strait up and then joining the group to destroy them from the inside was solid. It was even a little different from the Bryan/Wyatts thing where Bryan was just trying to get close to Wyatt to give him a beating once he had him one-on-one. Orton's game was bigger, more calculating. I am not sure they NEEDED the title for this, but the title and the title shot did provide the trigger for Orton to reveal himself, which made sense. Now he has more than he maybe even assumed to gain. He burns the cabin and desecrates the grave to get in Wyatt's head, the mind games he was trying to play when the feuded before but were unsuccessful. Ok, wwe... giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming this was the plan all along, I am pretty into this. Now will they execute at Mania? This is the perfect chance for Wyatt to take another step, go darker and more savage and really push him to be that monster heel they want him to be. I hope he wins at mania in a convincing way. I don't want a squash, but they should highlight that Orton had a plan and it CREATED something new in the wwe universe.

 

 

Predictably, I really liked the Cena/Miz segment. I am not looking forward to the match. I know some people are pumped about it, but it does almost nothing for me. The build though is going to be great. I have yammered on about this before, but this is why Cena can never ever be heel. I believe fans invest more in images of what they think wrestling should be. I know I know.... of course you have kids cheering faces and booing heels. That isn't going away... but to get buzz I think you play a different game now and Cena is the epitome of the Modern WWE Image (for better or worse). The new Kayfabe is that they believe he gets what he wants. He represents an ideal of wrestling. That is why people cared about the Punk and Bryan feuds so much and they produced great matches. They represented a different ideal of wrestling and the match wasn't about heel/face, it was about what we want from wrestling and that is ultimately always a little bit about what we want and value more broadly. Ok... that was a digression, but it is just when I think WWE is at its best. That is what happened here. Even though Miz in some ways is part of that Cena ideal, in that broader image, they further nuanced that here. It wasn't an indie darling vs Cena. It was a smug heel spitting some borderline truths and Cena spitting them back. Who is "good" and "bad" is far less important here even though the lines are so clearly drawn. The lines get blurred because they actually play up the perspectives on what a wrestler should be, even implicitly. It is why the Miz's promo on Bryan was so hot. it is really why he has become one of the best characters on TV. Again, the hype for this match going into mania should be real high and I am looking forward to the build.

I'm so fucking tired of the "Cena's opponent says he sucks, can't wrestle, and plays politics to get everything he gets" and Cena responding by summarily destroying his opponent's gimmick and character, making their career seem like a joke, and then going out of his way to make his own match seem like something he doesn't want to be involved with. That's been almost every Cena feud since Edge, which was a decade ago. Inspired delivery means nothing to me at this point. There's nothing any guy can say to Cena that hasn't been said 25 times at this point, and there are only so many times you can hear Cena outright shit on a dude in a way that usually comes egregiously close to breaking the 4th wall.

 

It's such a tired concept in general. It was tired when AJ did it as well, and AJ/Cena is obviously going to produce a better match than Miz/Maryse vs Cena/Nikki. Cena feels as out of place today as Hogan in 1993 or Rock for any of his appearances between 2004 and 2011ish. Kind of seems like he's moved on, and so has WWE.

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Instead of feuds being about internal company politics and card placement, why can't feuds be about issues manufactured entirely within the WWE universe? I guess when that happens, we get cheesy stuff like Orton-Bray a lot of the time, but yeah, something like Jericho-Owens, where they had no strong real life bromance but one was created and destroyed entirely in storyline, is more what I wish was the norm.

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On paper, yes. But it's kinda fucked when the live crowd kept chanting for Randy as he was setting someone else's property on fire.

Well that shouldn't really be surprising that setting something on fire and doing your wrestling pose in front of it would get cheered. It was a cool visual.

 

The real issue with the angle is that for all the stuff people have written about how Bray's character is so cool, it's fucking vague as shit and has never been fleshed out. Who is Sister Abigail? Why is she important to Bray? Why is it so devastating to him that Randy burned down the shack she was buried in? This is all shit that Bray is going to have to ACTUALLY explain, in clear terms and not couched in vague supernatural mumbo jumbo to take this from a cool moment into a viable feud. So next Tuesday Bray is going to have actually live up to all the (misplaced imo) hype about him being this great pro wrestling promo because he has a lot of shit to explain to make people understand why he's actually the hero in this story.

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Instead of feuds being about internal company politics and card placement, why can't feuds be about issues manufactured entirely within the WWE universe? I guess when that happens, we get cheesy stuff like Orton-Bray a lot of the time, but yeah, something like Jericho-Owens, where they had no strong real life bromance but one was created and destroyed entirely in storyline, is more what I wish was the norm.

That would be ideal. You know, like a normal wrestling company. Ideally, there would be like...one 4th wall pushing storyline every couple of years. Imagine if you tried the NWO angle today in an era where they have a weekly show on their network devoted to being as shooty as you can without going all the way, and then periodical podcasts that are 100% out of character.

 

 

 

On paper, yes. But it's kinda fucked when the live crowd kept chanting for Randy as he was setting someone else's property on fire.

Well that shouldn't really be surprising that setting something on fire and doing your wrestling pose in front of it would get cheered. It was a cool visual.

 

The real issue with the angle is that for all the stuff people have written about how Bray's character is so cool, it's fucking vague as shit and has never been fleshed out. Who is Sister Abigail? Why is she important to Bray? Why is it so devastating to him that Randy burned down the shack she was buried in? This is all shit that Bray is going to have to ACTUALLY explain, in clear terms and not couched in vague supernatural mumbo jumbo to take this from a cool moment into a viable feud. So next Tuesday Bray is going to have actually live up to all the (misplaced imo) hype about him being this great pro wrestling promo because he has a lot of shit to explain to make people understand why he's actually the hero in this story.

 

 

I'm almost 100% positive that after he explains it, you and everyone else will wish he had stuck to vague rambling bullshit.

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That's been the problem with Bray since day one. There's nothing wrong with a wrestling cult leader character and with the right worker you could get a lot of mileage out of that. But they never really go that route. Bray Wyatt is 15 different writers idea of a character written down on napkins and thrown together with nothing to tie it all together.

 

There's vague and mysterious and then theres vague just for the sense of being vague, which is dumb.

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Bray is going to come out of this Orton feud as a face not a monster heel.

likely, and that is why I am very much in wait and see mode. I just think they have laid out the story in a way that provides a real chance to elevate Bray and fan perception of him. They created a question, "we know Bray, but what is Bray like after something like this?"

 

 

 

Yeah, I am surprised by how much this Smackdown turned a corner for mania for me. I was critical of them for taking the belts off their long term champs (assuming that is what happens with Owens, but I could very well be wrong) right before the biggest show and I still think its a mistake, but the way they played this Orton/Bray thing was pretty good. Orton realizing he can't beat the Wyatts strait up and then joining the group to destroy them from the inside was solid. It was even a little different from the Bryan/Wyatts thing where Bryan was just trying to get close to Wyatt to give him a beating once he had him one-on-one. Orton's game was bigger, more calculating. I am not sure they NEEDED the title for this, but the title and the title shot did provide the trigger for Orton to reveal himself, which made sense. Now he has more than he maybe even assumed to gain. He burns the cabin and desecrates the grave to get in Wyatt's head, the mind games he was trying to play when the feuded before but were unsuccessful. Ok, wwe... giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming this was the plan all along, I am pretty into this. Now will they execute at Mania? This is the perfect chance for Wyatt to take another step, go darker and more savage and really push him to be that monster heel they want him to be. I hope he wins at mania in a convincing way. I don't want a squash, but they should highlight that Orton had a plan and it CREATED something new in the wwe universe.

 

 

Predictably, I really liked the Cena/Miz segment. I am not looking forward to the match. I know some people are pumped about it, but it does almost nothing for me. The build though is going to be great. I have yammered on about this before, but this is why Cena can never ever be heel. I believe fans invest more in images of what they think wrestling should be. I know I know.... of course you have kids cheering faces and booing heels. That isn't going away... but to get buzz I think you play a different game now and Cena is the epitome of the Modern WWE Image (for better or worse). The new Kayfabe is that they believe he gets what he wants. He represents an ideal of wrestling. That is why people cared about the Punk and Bryan feuds so much and they produced great matches. They represented a different ideal of wrestling and the match wasn't about heel/face, it was about what we want from wrestling and that is ultimately always a little bit about what we want and value more broadly. Ok... that was a digression, but it is just when I think WWE is at its best. That is what happened here. Even though Miz in some ways is part of that Cena ideal, in that broader image, they further nuanced that here. It wasn't an indie darling vs Cena. It was a smug heel spitting some borderline truths and Cena spitting them back. Who is "good" and "bad" is far less important here even though the lines are so clearly drawn. The lines get blurred because they actually play up the perspectives on what a wrestler should be, even implicitly. It is why the Miz's promo on Bryan was so hot. it is really why he has become one of the best characters on TV. Again, the hype for this match going into mania should be real high and I am looking forward to the build.

I'm so fucking tired of the "Cena's opponent says he sucks, can't wrestle, and plays politics to get everything he gets" and Cena responding by summarily destroying his opponent's gimmick and character, making their career seem like a joke, and then going out of his way to make his own match seem like something he doesn't want to be involved with. That's been almost every Cena feud since Edge, which was a decade ago. Inspired delivery means nothing to me at this point. There's nothing any guy can say to Cena that hasn't been said 25 times at this point, and there are only so many times you can hear Cena outright shit on a dude in a way that usually comes egregiously close to breaking the 4th wall.

 

It's such a tired concept in general. It was tired when AJ did it as well, and AJ/Cena is obviously going to produce a better match than Miz/Maryse vs Cena/Nikki. Cena feels as out of place today as Hogan in 1993 or Rock for any of his appearances between 2004 and 2011ish. Kind of seems like he's moved on, and so has WWE.

 

Sure, they go to the same well too often with Cena and use internal politics as a booking crutch for him, but it keeps working because its Cena's character. He morphed into Mr. WWE and ignoring that would likely feel overly contrived at this point. I don't think you always need to play internal politics for this sort of thing. There are strands and shades of it all over the roster and have been for years. I found the example here compelling because I didn't expect them to go to it with MIz. I didn't actually care about the "you get what you want" stuff, but I thought the "you turned into the Rock" stuff was solid. Regardless of how tired many are here (myself included, though clearly to a lesser extent) of the same internal politics tropes being central, that stuff plays better - I think - with broader audiences and is still a point of investment for a lot of people because they have maintained that image for so long.

 

Plus, when they decide to play up Cena trying to BREAK Flair's record I imagine they will tap into that history a good bit to add another layer to it. I'm sure they know they are going to need to do that sooner rather than later.

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What kills me about Cena's reply promos is that it's the old rule of if you say your opponent is a nobody then who cares if you beat them?

 

Yes, Cena's delivery was very good, but at the end of the day he's calling the Miz a jobber and when he inevitably goes over it just confirms it. Just like he always does, he'll do a promo the next night how he respects the guy he beat but that doesn't erase weeks of build where you constantly tell the fans this guy isn't on my level.

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What kills me about Cena's reply promos is that it's the old rule of if you say your opponent is a nobody then who cares if you beat them?

 

Yes, Cena's delivery was very good, but at the end of the day he's calling the Miz a jobber and when he inevitably goes over it just confirms it. Just like he always does, he'll do a promo the next night how he respects the guy he beat but that doesn't erase weeks of build where you constantly tell the fans this guy isn't on my level.

I agree for the most part and maybe this is me not really being able to put myself in the shoes of other fans, but I don't think in today's wrestling there is really the risk of Cena convincing fans that his opponents are nobodies. Part of the reason it works to a degree is that in the world that Cena represents these guys were nobodies for a long time and for their fans its a jab that stings, even if they don't believe its true. Cena absolutely should give his opponents a little more, but that is precisely why he is a heel to a lot of people. This goes back to my original point that he should never be a face because he already inspires massive fan investment in this other way that is disconnected from the heel/face dynamic.

 

The ultimately problem is that Cena comes out of far too many of these going over in a big big way and the win/loss story aligns with his narrative a little too much, but we live in a goldfish WWE universe. Things are forgotten about fairly quickly, reset, glossed over and the machine keeps moving. That is far more my problem with the WWE, the lack of coherent long term stories. If anything Cena's evolution into Mr. WWE, the unstoppable smiling face with company at his back, is one of the longest stories they have maintained and him returning to those tropes kinda holds his king of the mountain story together over a long period of time. Will they pay it off one day? I doubt it. I do wish they switched it up with him, of course, got more creative with how they execute his stories and feuds, but the WWE universe is fragmented as it is and Cena's Mr. WWE thing keeps working for what they want.

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Well it's also part of the bigger problem of why they have such a problem creating new stars. It's hard do to that when your current top star makes it clear no one else is at his level then wins every feud to confirm it.

 

Like, his throwaway line about the Undertaker was a wink to the inside fans who knew about the early WM plans, but to everyone else they're hearing him say this broken down old guy is more of a worthy opponent than you are. It's devaluing talent for no reason.

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I so want Bryan and Shane to be dicks about it and see Randy and be like "What Wrestlemania match? You gave up your title shot remember? You said you didn't want to fight Bray. I mean, that was two weeks ago...we have a new No. 1 Contender, we've already moved on. Sorry pal. Good luck in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal!"

 

Too bad it will never happen. Shane will make AJ vs Orton, Orton wins through some nonsense, AJ blames Shane and I get to trololol through Wrestlemania again instead of caring.

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Well it's also part of the bigger problem of why they have such a problem creating new stars. It's hard do to that when your current top star makes it clear no one else is at his level then wins every feud to confirm it.

 

Like, his throwaway line about the Undertaker was a wink to the inside fans who knew about the early WM plans, but to everyone else they're hearing him say this broken down old guy is more of a worthy opponent than you are. It's devaluing talent for no reason.

for sure.... they can and should be putting more guys over Cena. They can and should have used him more effectively to make stars. I just don't think him saying people aren't on his level in promos has quite the same detrimental effect it would have in yesteryears because of the current wrestling climate.

 

Ultimately, I agree, the way they use Cena on the whole has its flaws and my original point about how the WWE being at its best when it gets people in invest differently doesn't always shine brightest through Cena, even though that is where they commit to that kind of story telling the most (for better or worse), for those reasons.

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Beating Cena should still be a special thing, and ideally, the only guys doing it should be those who its clear have something special. Beating Brock means something. Beating Undertaker means something. Beating HHH means something. Cena still means more to the company's bottom line than each of them, so him doing jobs should be rare and special. I have no problem with him becoming even more protected as he gets into his 40s so that he maintains his aura as he gets older. That said, the promos suck and usually undercut the guys he's working with, and they are a problem. Pointing out that life sucks for Miz because despite his beautiful wife, despite that he is no longer the "soft" guy he used to be, despite that he truly did bring prestige back to the Intercontinental title in a way it hasn't had in a long time and despite that in the ring, for the last year, he has backed up every word that has come out of his loud, annoying mouth, as long as John Cena is around he will never be The Man would be way better. Cena puts Miz over by validating Miz's improvement, puts himself over and gives their feud a hell of a lot more importance because both guys are treating it as a clash of worthy somebodies.

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Well it's also part of the bigger problem of why they have such a problem creating new stars. It's hard do to that when your current top star makes it clear no one else is at his level then wins every feud to confirm it.

 

Like, his throwaway line about the Undertaker was a wink to the inside fans who knew about the early WM plans, but to everyone else they're hearing him say this broken down old guy is more of a worthy opponent than you are. It's devaluing talent for no reason.

 

Why do you say that "everyone else hearing him say this" see The Undertaker as just some broken down old guy when that's pretty much just what the smarkiest of smarks would think? He's the fucking Undertaker & he's been the most coveted WrestleMania opponent for years.

 

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I should rephrase, they can and should have put more people over him in meaningful ways perhaps, used him more strategically. I guess it is easy to say they could have helped make more stars along the way - and they probably could have - but I guess when I think about it, they have used him fairly well to add some legitimacy here and there all the while really protecting him long term first and foremost. Like I said Cena's evolution into Mr. WWE is one of the most coherent long term things they have done and it at least in some ways has paid off.

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Well it's also part of the bigger problem of why they have such a problem creating new stars. It's hard do to that when your current top star makes it clear no one else is at his level then wins every feud to confirm it.

 

Like, his throwaway line about the Undertaker was a wink to the inside fans who knew about the early WM plans, but to everyone else they're hearing him say this broken down old guy is more of a worthy opponent than you are. It's devaluing talent for no reason.

 

Why do you say that "everyone else hearing him say this" see The Undertaker as just some broken down old guy when that's pretty much just what the smarkiest of smarks would think? He's the fucking Undertaker & he's been the most coveted WrestleMania opponent for years.

 

 

 

I don't even think it goes that deep. There really isn't a smarks and everyone else anymore, little kids can get spoiled on booking plans on Facebook and WWE Network has tons of 100% out of character programming talking about the most inside of inside shit. It could have been 15 other people Cena mentioned instead of Taker and the same point would come through: This is below me and I'd rather not be working with you if I had my choice. You don't need to be a smark or a mark or whatever in between to understand what he was saying. Which is a bizarre way to build up a WM match.

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Interesting point about The Miz, I feel as if the IC Belt has really become devalued since Miz lost it. I don't think it means much for Dean Ambrose to hold it at this point, and feel like if they don't want to give it to Miz right now, maybe Luke Harper or Dolph Ziggler would be better off with it.

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Well it's also part of the bigger problem of why they have such a problem creating new stars. It's hard do to that when your current top star makes it clear no one else is at his level then wins every feud to confirm it.

 

Like, his throwaway line about the Undertaker was a wink to the inside fans who knew about the early WM plans, but to everyone else they're hearing him say this broken down old guy is more of a worthy opponent than you are. It's devaluing talent for no reason.

Why do you say that "everyone else hearing him say this" see The Undertaker as just some broken down old guy when that's pretty much just what the smarkiest of smarks would think? He's the fucking Undertaker & he's been the most coveted WrestleMania opponent for years.

 

I don't think anyone that saw him at the Rumble would think he's still a coveted opponent at this stage of the game.

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