WWE TV March 20 - 26

[...TG]

Pretty darn good match there with Usos and American Alpha.

[Strummer]

man that tag title match on SD was absolutely fantastic

[The Thread Killer]

I wonder if Mauro Ranallo's Bi-Polar Disorder is acting up. Or maybe WWE figured out that he's terrible.

[hammerva]

Miz & Maryse doing their version of Total Bellas

[stro]

It's really interesting how much the shine has faded on AA since getting called up. To me, they peaked at Takeover Dallas and after that went full blown video game psychology every match, but it sure sounded like a very sizable portion of the crowd at wherever they're at didn't like them at all, and another solid chunk didn't care about them either way.

[Grimmas]

It's really interesting how much the shine has faded on AA since getting called up. To me, they peaked at Takeover Dallas and after that went full blown video game psychology every match, but it sure sounded like a very sizable portion of the crowd at wherever they're at didn't like them at all, and another solid chunk didn't care about them either way.

They were booked pretty shitty since they were called up.

 

They appeared and we were told they were awesome, but there was nothing organic. It was just you should like these guys, but were never shown why. They should had had more vignettes to get to know them more, then some squahses to build them up. Instead they were right in the title picture from the beginning.

[KawadaSmile]

They had the squashes alright, but they had absolute zero character development.

 

Contrast them with the Usos - while always a very solid hand in the ring, crowds couldn't give a fuck about them since who knows when. Come the brand split, they have a heel turn and most importantly, time to develop their character and truly shine. Some of their promos in the past few weeks have show how above AA they are in that department.

 

AA are very good in the ring, but they sure as fuck aren't as over as Heath Slater, for instance.

[hammerva]

The whole Smackdown tag division has been booked pretty terribly. It is hard to get them over when the only time they are booked is on a Smackdown show and then it is usually a gauntlet or 4 way match. They can't even get a pre show match at the Royal Rumble. It wouldn't surprise me if they defend the title on the first match of the Wrestlemania Pre show

 

Shane vs AJ is going to be an interesting fight and a fight it might be given how Shane is a mixture of awful worked punches and potato shots. I thought the suplex on the cover of the announcer's desk was an injury waiting to happen but on the replay it was okay

[goc]

The problem with American Alpha is that as characters they are just bland. There's no real reason to like them outside of "these guys are good in the ring" which is not going to get you that far in WWE. Even on Talking Smack they just come off as boring.

 

They also aren't on TV enough to ever really gain any traction as the tag division on SD only exists like once every 3 weeks. Smackdown has done a great job of keeping everyone in their women's division involved, usually running 2 if not 3 women's feuds at a time but that's come at the expense of time for the tag division.

 

Personally I'd just scrap the weekly Dolph Ziggler segment by having Mojo Rawley fucking destroy him 2 or 3 squash matches in a row and then shave his head and then put him in a dumpster and then set it on fire and then shoot that flaming dumpster off into the sun but for some stupid fucking reason they keep putting Dolph on TV every week.

[stro]

I feel like AA really settled into their formula before they even left NXT and they're trying to do this weird mix of RNR + Steiners regardless of opponents, all while SD portrays them as these top level talents even though even when they were called up it felt like they were way high in the draft and they've done nothing of note since. I don't even blame it on bad main roster writing, because they fell off hard to me as soon as they won the NXT titles and stopped having anything that felt like an organic match.

[SirEdger]

He survived that Doomsday Device on a hotel bed.

 

He also survived a Hart Attack from a bar top. And this was the same night than the Doomsday Device I believe.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Was at the show last night at Mohegan Sun. Wicked fun! Smackdown is so damn good now. It helped that I won the price of my ticket back with one spin of the Roulette Wheel right before the show. If I didn't have good luck, I'd have no luck at all.

 

USOS vs American Alpha was bitchin! Easy ****1/4they killed it. Love AA as the Neo-Steiners just tossing muthafuckas around. It was so cool watching GRONK lose his mind for those nearfalls. That false hot tag sequence ruled! One of the best I have ever seen!

 

Miz & Maryse HOLY SHIT was that funny! Miz as Robo-Cena was great that is a much fresher take on Cena. Cena feels like a WWE programmed Robot. So I love it. Maryse was next level awesome. Her doing Nikki & Brie was great! The DDP Yoga gag was ridiculously funny!

 

Only disappointment was that they shortchanged the women which is my favorite part of show.

 

Loved the standard HOLY SHIT SHane elbow to close out the show!

 

So much fun! Smackdown is on a roll!

[stro]

HALL PASS, UCE!

 

HALL.

 

PASS.

 

 

Lmao.

[KawadaSmile]

People complaining that Tyler Breeze, someone who had the same role as Tye Dillinger in NXT - a jobber - is getting buried in the main roster sure is something else.

[goc]

Yea I had a good laugh about some people on twitter going on about "he's gone from wrestling Jushin Liger to getting beat up by Nikki Bella!!! Buried!!!" when the whole reason Tyler Breeze got the Liger match was because they didn't care if he lost to someone who would never be coming back.

[sek69]

Maryse was unbelievably great in those skits. Her selling the fake marriage proposals got funnier and funnier every time.

[Slasher]

He showed up to confront Roman Reigns. Braun tried to fuck with him so he had to deal with him & that caused him to turn his back on Reigns. Leaving the ring would have made him look far worse than registering that "aw shit I fucked up" before turning around.

See this is the problem with what they are doing with Braun within the Reigns/Taker storyline. People said Braun exited the ring last week out of respect for Taker and nodding his head in acknowledgement. Someone said that Braun is all cool with Taker destroying their shared enemy. So if that's the case, why have Braun try to attack Taker? When the lights turned on it was obvious he was focused on Reigns by standing in his way and facing him directly. Why the change of heart for Braun in just one week? No I think it proves that Braun slinked out of the ring out of fear last week and tried to take advantage of the inattention to attack him like a coward.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Maryse was unbelievably great in those skits. Her selling the fake marriage proposals got funnier and funnier every time.

Amen!

[goc]

 

He showed up to confront Roman Reigns. Braun tried to fuck with him so he had to deal with him & that caused him to turn his back on Reigns. Leaving the ring would have made him look far worse than registering that "aw shit I fucked up" before turning around.

See this is the problem with what they are doing with Braun within the Reigns/Taker storyline. People said Braun exited the ring last week out of respect for Taker and nodding his head in acknowledgement. Someone said that Braun is all cool with Taker destroying their shared enemy. So if that's the case, why have Braun try to attack Taker? When the lights turned on it was obvious he was focused on Reigns by standing in his way and facing him directly. Why the change of heart for Braun in just one week? No I think it proves that Braun slinked out of the ring out of fear last week and tried to take advantage of the inattention to attack him like a coward.

 

You're right Braun is ruined forever. Should probably ask for his release before he's forced to dress up like Nikki Bella.

[Slasher]

 

 

 

He showed up to confront Roman Reigns. Braun tried to fuck with him so he had to deal with him & that caused him to turn his back on Reigns. Leaving the ring would have made him look far worse than registering that "aw shit I fucked up" before turning around.

See this is the problem with what they are doing with Braun within the Reigns/Taker storyline. People said Braun exited the ring last week out of respect for Taker and nodding his head in acknowledgement. Someone said that Braun is all cool with Taker destroying their shared enemy. So if that's the case, why have Braun try to attack Taker? When the lights turned on it was obvious he was focused on Reigns by standing in his way and facing him directly. Why the change of heart for Braun in just one week? No I think it proves that Braun slinked out of the ring out of fear last week and tried to take advantage of the inattention to attack him like a coward.

You're right Braun is ruined forever. Should probably ask for his release before he's forced to dress up like Nikki Bella.

Not at all what I said or implied but sure, go for it. Luckily for him, monster heels are the easiest thing to restore...well unless you're the Big Show.

[TonyPulis'Cap]

People complaining that Tyler Breeze, someone who had the same role as Tye Dillinger in NXT - a jobber - is getting buried in the main roster sure is something else.

 

In some people's eyes, anyone who loses a match is instantly being 'buried'.

 

Wrestling has always needed people that are good in their roles, can make people look good but whose job is to lose more than they win. Only one person can be world champion (well, I guess with the brand split two people can...) and for some people to be pushed you need to have others who are there to put them over. I've always liked Breeze - he's solid, rather than spectacularly good, but created a fun character that got over in NXT, and that stayed over despite the fact that as has been pointed out he'd always lose in title matches and to bigger names. I find the tag team with him and Fandango a bit of a guilty pleasure. Maybe he could be allowed to look a little more competitive in some of his matches but he's basically in the perfect spot for him.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

I think a lot of the time there's this perception that in NXT, these guys and girls have more of a creative outlet, and can express themselves more, whereas on the main roster you're very much put in a box of 'this is who you are and this is your position', and there's really little opportunity to fight out of that. That's probably where a lot of the talk about people being buried comes from, rather than in the traditional sense of people doing jobs. Although I should say, and maybe it's because this and DVDVR are the only wrestling boards I read, that really the only time I hear about people being buried is when someone is pushing back against the idea that someone is being buried. I'm way, way more likely to read 'I can't believe people idiots think this guy is being buried' that 'this guy is being buried'.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

I wish in general people would stop arguing points made on other boards on this board.

[WingedEagle]

Caught up on Raw & Smackdown today. From a pure in ring perspective I thought Raw was a very solid show with Joe/Sami and Bayley/Jax were a pair of solid TV matches that advanced storylines and had a ton of action with almost zero downtime or fluff. I may not love a women's four-way at Mania, but cannot argue with how they put Jax over here. Joe also continues to be booked strongly even without any apparent role at Mania.

 

Meanwhile Smackdown delivered on the angles and storylines with a show that flew by. I wasn't as high on the tag title change as others but it was nonetheless a fun tag around the AJ/Shane and Miz/Cena programs that are the focus of television.

[WingedEagle]

This is what happens when I catch up on things with no sleep after flying overnight. Roman/Braun was another solid outing from them. Until the chinlock and finish. Didn't mind the latter too much, but it somehow felt even more inorganic than usual for this type of angle, and the chinlock really brought down what was building to a nice TV main event.