10 years after John Cena wins a title at the Staples Center to end a long reign in anti-climactic fashion, we get John Cena losing a title at the Staples Center to end a long reign in anti-climactic fashion. Then, now, forever.
Since they're really pushing the "25 Years Of Taker" thing for Survivor Series next month, I really hope we have Undertaker getting the band back together for a Taker/Dibiase/Valentine/Honky Tonk vs. the Wyatts match.
George Michael weighed his options. Maeby had chastised him for not taking risks, and what would be a bigger risk than perpetuating a lie about software just to ignite the passions of a woman? Of course it would be a lie, and since Maeby wouldn't know it was a lie, he wouldn't appear to be taking a risk. Perhaps the bigger risk was to tell his father he was lying, that he came up with it because he wanted his father to leave so he could enjoy what remained of his senior year. After all, he wondered, wouldn't that be the course of action taken by an overtly sexual man, a man who owns a pair of matador pants? He had not responded now for 41 seconds according to his unfailing internal clock, and it was time to come clean.
This is morbid, but it seems incredible surprising that all of the members of UT's original team are there.
Alberto showing up in the opener kind of distracted me for the rest of the show, but it seemed okay. If you missed the show, go back and watch the pre-show trios match, it was pretty fun.
madre de dios, Alberto fucking Del Rio, what a nightmare. Cena vs Del Rio, even better. it sucked in October 2011, it sucked in October 2013, here we are again. Cena's returning for Christmas, so maybe Alberto will run over Santa Claus aka St Nicholas again. armbars for Ziggler, armbars for Cesaro, armbars for everyone. the timeline has reset to a life where the Punk and Bryan phenomena never happened. ADR and Sheamus are fulfilling their destinyyyyyy.
I like Undertaker leading a Survivor Series team of cranky ol bitches even if his presumptive partner Kane didn't give a F when the Wyatts stole him. kind of puts a damper on the Survivor Series Team Name Game though. The Wyatts vs. The Earps. The New Bray vs. Under's Dawgs. The Strowman Armament vs. Bearer's Bad News.
What an enjoyable show. Glad to see ADR back and doing well. Roman and Bray were good, glad that ended cleanly. Loved New Day, especially with the exemplary use of the trombone multiple times. Send out your unicorn love! What was up with that weird double-team botch from the Dudleys though? Nikki brought her hoss boots and actually impressed me. Rollins - Kane: Ouch. Clunker of the night, hope Kane is ok, and glad to see Rollins get a clean win as he should. KO is great as usual.
I have to admit, I thought the main event was going to suck. They proved me wrong by really beating the hell out of each other and making the cell/no-dq a great equalizer for UT to stay in the match. Loved the finish mirroring UT's build to the match, and his finger shake 'you got me' after the match. REALLY loved the Wyatts coming out full force to carry him off to close out the show.
"As you may have read in Robert Parker's Wine Newsletter, 'Donaghy Estates tastes like the urine of Satan, after a hefty portion of asparagus.'" Jack Donaghy, 30 Rock
Originally posted by JustinShapirokind of puts a damper on the Survivor Series Team Name Game though. The Wyatts vs. The Earps. The New Bray vs. Under's Dawgs. The Strowman Armament vs. Bearer's Bad News.
Obviously, we'll need a dedicated thread for this so I can put in the time and the work, but right now I go with a team of Undertaker/Kane/Ambrose/Reigns as "The Devil's Favorite Dean-Men."
Well, so much for PG. And good. I was hoping Taker would win, but Lesnar is such a beast right now, it makes sense for him to go over. Curious about the Wyatt Family with Taker. I like Alberto. I don't love him. It is weird that Zeb is his pitch man though.
Yet, the big question is who does Rollins face next? Cena will probably be gone soon. Kane could have a re-match, but with Survivor Series around the corner and the Bray/Taker thing, he might join that. Reigns is probably the answer or they do Brock again and let him destroy him.
A lot of people get shit on in wrestling. Some for their off the field attitude. Some due to their inability to wrestle and some, because they are so good at their gimmick its hard to separate the two. Nikki Bella is none of these. She is just awful. She is awful in the ring, out of the ring and all around. The fact she got in any offense is head shaking. There are ten more qualified and better women who deserve to get the women's division back to the glory it had in the early 2000s. Instead we get this shit. Hopefully, this is the end of this Diva Revolution that has done nothing, but to protect her dumb ass. Charlotte/Sasha needs to happen like back in August.
Originally posted by lotjx She is awful in the ring, out of the ring and all around. The fact she got in any offense is head shaking.
1) It's great you know her personally outside of the ring and can say she's an awful person. Oh wait, you don't know who she is outside of a manufactured reality TV show with heavy editing and what you see on Total Divas.
2) Did we watch the same match? I thought the match was really good! It's not as good as the NXT women's matches, but I thought it was one of the best WWE women's matches of the year so far.
Anyway, I liked the show. Wyatt/Reigns was really good, and as mentioned I liked Charlotte/Nikki. The New Day is The New Day, so they were excellent.
I think the Bellas have definitely improved and Nikki had a pretty good match with Charlotte. She was especially taking some bumps she doesn't always take. I certainly wouldn't revolve the women's division around them but they are good enough in the ring and too important a brand to just be off television like some people want. I'd be all for Charlotte having great matches with Paige, Sasha, Natalya, etc. While the Bellas have a secondary feud with somebody else. I could maybe take a few months of a break from them though if Nikki wants to join Cena on break.
Alberto Del Rio was surprising to me, but not in the "I really want to see this" type of way. I don't really like or dislike him, I'm just kind of indifferent. If this is the pay off for the US Title open challenge then that is pretty disappointing because I don't think this really does much for Del Rio.
My biggest problem with Hell in the Cell matches is that now that it's an annual PPV and the match happens so frequently there just isn't much creativity left. But Wyatt sticking the chair and kendo sticks into the holes in the cage and Lesnar ripping up the ring were something different so kudos to them for adding something different.
Originally posted by lotjxA lot of people get shit on in wrestling. Some for their off the field attitude. Some due to their inability to wrestle and some, because they are so good at their gimmick its hard to separate the two. Nikki Bella is none of these. She is just awful. She is awful in the ring, out of the ring and all around. The fact she got in any offense is head shaking. There are ten more qualified and better women who deserve to get the women's division back to the glory it had in the early 2000s. Instead we get this shit. Hopefully, this is the end of this Diva Revolution that has done nothing, but to protect her dumb ass. Charlotte/Sasha needs to happen like back in August.
Shouldn't be a shock that you're completely wrong, but you're completely wrong. Nikki Bella is probably the most improved wrestler and character on the entire roster. She carried that entire match, to the point where, as tired as I've been of the Bellas being the center of everything, I was rooting for her to win. Her offense was crisp and brutal. Charlotte, on the other hand, looked lost. As good as she was in NXT, none of that has carried over to the main roster. They've changed up her offense to be all Ric Flair-esque, when she was so much better NOT emulating her daddy.
The Del Rio return is odd for a few reasons. I'll try to sum this up succinctly.
I think the re-hire and basically the squash of John for the US belt was an attempt to regain the Latino/Hispanic demographic and also possibly distance WWE from Trump (a well-documented friend of Vince's) and his recent disparaging comments about Mexicans. Let me explain.
ADR was fired due to an altercation with another WWE employee who made alleged racist comments about Del Rio. Them firing a Superstar to avoid legal troubles and a media storm seems to be WWE's M.O. these days. I say this because of the recent ways the company has decided to handle Hogan and Snuka. Yes Hogan is a racist, but rather than suspend him and have him go on every media site he can to apologize about views he shared WWE fires and tries to scrub the most recognized faces in wrestling from the companies HOF and refuses to acknowledge his existence.
The case of Snuka possibly killing his girlfriend re-opened and before he is even booked WWE disavows his existence and scrubs him from the HOF too in an attempt to distance themselves and avoid negative publicity. Why would the distancing from a racist and a possible murder have to do with protecting WWE from a shitstorm and the re-hiring of ADR? Vince is covering his ass while winning over a demographic.
Vince and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are documented buddies. Trump even got involved in a Wrestlemania angle. I'm sure there have been at least a few times where two very powerful men have talked politics and Trumps views on Mexicans probably blurted out. I think Vince either agreed or more likely put up with it and continued to associate with him despite his disparaging views. Vince knew Trump was a bigoted asshole for years, just like he knew Hogan was a bigoted asshole for years, just like he defended Snuka when the cops came for him originally.
because they have lost that demo since Sin Cara has been a failure, Mysterio was released, and ADR was released and Lucha Underground is grabbing it. It's interesting that ADR was re-hired to not only be championed by Zeb who was his biggest detractors with a very Trump-like xenophobic gimmick specifically targeting a Mexican Superstar. Cena basically loses the US Title very easily compared to the several other past challengers he's had since becoming US Champ in a very short match. No one's beat him that easily since Brock.
I think Vince's white guilt was showing and he saw an opportunity to win back the Hispanic demographic, distance himself from and avoid backlash for associating with Trump all these years, and right a bad decision he should of never made in the first place by re-hiring Alberto Del Rio. This is just Vince hoping to, much like Trump's former sponsors and his old reality show, separate themselves from a racist clown while taking advantage of a hot button topic in political media due to said racist clown(Hispanic Immigration). Which is fine I may be one of the few people that genuinely enjoy watching 'Berto. I just wish it wasn't so opaque and politically motivated. The rest of HIAC was fine. The one Bella didn't suck.
The old adage "You are the company you keep comes to mind" when I think of VKM. Expect Hogan back in the WWE within a year.
(edited by CruelAngel777 on 26.10.15 0941) Cole: "Yeah, thanks to Kane. You should buy Kane a Rolex watch for what he did for you." Rollins: "Oh don't be silly, Kane doesn't wear watches."
Okay, this is nitpicking, but I'm going to nitpick. We're in an era where we are taught there are cameras backstage doing documentaries for the Network. YouTube videos go up shortly after matches with backstage interviews after matches. Are we also supposed to believe that Renee Young/Tom Phillips decided to NOT try to interview Brock or Taker, thereby missing any details at all of what happened after Taker was carried backstage? Did they throw him in a truck? Sit him in catering?
The actual Taker/Brock match was fun. Bad producing when the doctor being tossed didn't make it on camera, or even show up in a replay. Angry JBL at the end was annoying, and it is hard to believe Wyatt is going to be effective when he loses every big match, including one earlier in the night, and lost decisively to Taker a year ago or so.
I've always been "eh" on Alberto, and that doesn't change now. I like Zeb, so there's that at least. I wish the title rub would have gone to someone who needed more of it, but hey.
New. Day. Rocks. I am amazed and overjoyed that they have gotten over calling themselves unicorns AND have fans doing unicorn horns with their fingers. Match was fine, we've seen enough New Day vs Dudleys now, right?
The womens match wasn't bad. It was no Sasha-Bayley, but it was good for what it was. It is time to get Sasha in this title picture, though, and I'm afraid we are going for a month or two of Paige instead now.
Originally posted by CruelAngel777The Del Rio return is odd for a few reasons. I'll try to sum this up succinctly.
I think the re-hire and basically the squash of John for the US belt was an attempt to regain the Latino/Hispanic demographic and also possibly distance WWE from Trump (a well-documented friend of Vince's) and his recent disparaging comments about Mexicans. Let me explain.
ADR was fired due to an altercation with another WWE employee who made alleged racist comments about Del Rio. Them firing a Superstar to avoid legal troubles and a media storm seems to be WWE's M.O. these days. I say this because of the recent ways the company has decided to handle Hogan and Snuka. Yes Hogan is a racist, but rather than suspend him and have him go on every media site he can to apologize about views he shared WWE fires and tries to scrub the most recognized faces in wrestling from the companies HOF and refuses to acknowledge his existence.
The case of Snuka possibly killing his girlfriend re-opened and before he is even booked WWE disavows his existence and scrubs him from the HOF too in an attempt to distance themselves and avoid negative publicity. Why would the distancing from a racist and a possible murder have to do with protecting WWE from a shitstorm and the re-hiring of ADR? Vince is covering his ass while winning over a demographic.
Vince and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are documented buddies. Trump even got involved in a Wrestlemania angle. I'm sure there have been at least a few times where two very powerful men have talked politics and Trumps views on Mexicans probably blurted out. I think Vince either agreed or more likely put up with it and continued to associate with him despite his disparaging views. Vince knew Trump was a bigoted asshole for years, just like he knew Hogan was a bigoted asshole for years, just like he defended Snuka when the cops came for him originally.
because they have lost that demo since Sin Cara has been a failure, Mysterio was released, and ADR was released and Lucha Underground is grabbing it. It's interesting that ADR was re-hired to not only be championed by Zeb who was his biggest detractors with a very Trump-like xenophobic gimmick specifically targeting a Mexican Superstar. Cena basically loses the US Title very easily compared to the several other past challengers he's had since becoming US Champ in a very short match. No one's beat him that easily since Brock.
I think Vince's white guilt was showing and he saw an opportunity to win back the Hispanic demographic, distance himself from and avoid backlash for associating with Trump all these years, and right a bad decision he should of never made in the first place by re-hiring Alberto Del Rio. This is just Vince hoping to, much like Trump's former sponsors and his old reality show, separate themselves from a racist clown while taking advantage of a hot button topic in political media due to said racist clown(Hispanic Immigration). Which is fine I may be one of the few people that genuinely enjoy watching 'Berto. I just wish it wasn't so opaque and politically motivated. The rest of HIAC was fine. The one Bella didn't suck.
The old adage "You are the company you keep comes to mind" when I think of VKM. Expect Hogan back in the WWE within a year.
(edited by CruelAngel777 on 26.10.15 0941)
So, they are targeting an audience that they've probably been losing slowly since the aforementioned performers either moved on or didn't work out, and you chalk this up to Vince wanting to distance himself from Trump?
Do yourself a favor and go back and look at the early 1970s WWWF and see how many superstars they had that were pushed simply because they hit a target demographic. (and some of them had in ring skills)
Bruno? Pedro Morales? Fuji? Albano? Dominic DeNucci? Killer Kowalski? Chief Jay Strongbow? Ivan Koloff?
None of those are screaming "wonder bread white boy".
Marketing to demographics is smart business. Regardless of the other issues going on backstage.
THAT BEING SAID, What a terrible card overall. Bray losing to Roman was the right call, but the match sucked a lot. The Divas match was boring, although the Figure 4/Bridge is great. New Day vs Dudleys? Why isn't this feud better? Why aren't the matches better? ADR beating Cena? We knew he was leaving, this has "transitional champion" written all over it. Seth Rollins vs Kane? Has there been a World Title match at a PPV that people cared about less?
And the final match ends.......... after a low blow? Ok, the F5 followed, but seriously? A world of punishment between the two and a twig-n-berries shot sets up the finish? And, can somebody explain how Hogan has ripped 5.8 million shirts off, and you never hear the fabric rip, but Brock rips up the canvas and it's louder than the announcers?
Originally posted by andy1278The actual Taker/Brock match was fun. Bad producing when the doctor being tossed didn't make it on camera, or even show up in a replay.
On the Observer radio show, it sounded like that was an actual doctor out there to actually close the cut, and Brock dealt with that as Brock will do. Not a planned spot. And as such, I can see why WWE wouldn't want to call attention to it, but I figure if life gives you doctor shit, you should make doctor salad.
Originally posted by andy1278Okay, this is nitpicking, but I'm going to nitpick. We're in an era where we are taught there are cameras backstage doing documentaries for the Network. YouTube videos go up shortly after matches with backstage interviews after matches. Are we also supposed to believe that Renee Young/Tom Phillips decided to NOT try to interview Brock or Taker, thereby missing any details at all of what happened after Taker was carried backstage? Did they throw him in a truck? Sit him in catering?
The Wyatts can teleport. Or at least Bray can. That said, if Bray can teleport himself AND four other incredibly beefy dudes at once, that's a pretty significant. That makes him more Gateway/Magick than Nightcrawler, and one of the many journalists who works for WWE should do a Network investigation to try to find out what the upper limits of Bray's teleportation abilities are. Could he teleport a whole arena? I gotta know. Suckas gotta know! (It should be Booker T. This should be his show on The Network, Suckas Gotta Know, where he does wrestling sports science pieces and investigative reports.)
Originally posted by StaggerLeeAnd, can somebody explain how Hogan has ripped 5.8 million shirts off, and you never hear the fabric rip, but Brock rips up the canvas and it's louder than the announcers
At peak power, Hogan was tearing his shirts on a microscopic level. Thousands of tiny cellular explosions going off all over him. None of us could ever hear that.
Originally posted by KJames199On the Observer radio show, it sounded like that was an actual doctor out there to actually close the cut, and Brock dealt with that as Brock will do. Not a planned spot. And as such, I can see why WWE wouldn't want to call attention to it, but I figure if life gives you doctor shit, you should make doctor salad.
Was it Dr. Amann?! Punk/Brock/Del Rio invasion/REVENGE SQUAD angle confirmed!
Obviously, I didn't watch any of this because I've basically hated 90% of Raw for a while now and have checked out of a few episodes, so I voted with my dollars to not support them. So I have no opinion on the matches and should technically be banned from ringside for this thread. That said, I'm of many minds about Del Rio, who I think - when booked with even a tiny bit of motivation - can be and has been a great performer, it's just that he was almost never booked that way in WWE and still probably won't be.
The Most WWE Booking possible for Del Rio, obviously, would be for them to have him hint around about his firing, have HHH come out and have them both scripted so that HHH is able to shoot down any complaints about WWE's clear and present diversity problems (possibly by finally bringing up Pedro Morales, who they basically never bring up otherwise) and then have Del Rio agree and feud with a Diverse WWE Wrestler With Easily Batted Down And Comical Complaints About Being Held Back with Del Rio being scripted to say "You have to EARN a push, like I did!" and winking to the camera.
I understand wanting Del Rio back for a certain demographic but he didn't have to be inserted into that spot. Also, is there no amount of money that would bring Mysterio back for a short run? That certainly would have gotten a bigger pop, right? And a more interesting US Title reign IMO. Is Mysterio even healthy? Did he ever sign on for Season 2 of Lucha Underground?
And why not appease the Puerto Rican fans by making the open challenger be Savio Vega. I mean he is in the upcoming WWE 2K16 game!
Also, one more New Day love note... loved Kofi's namedropping of Tout. I imagine somebody watching Raw from two years ago on the Network would be really confused by this Tout thing they were talking about every five seconds.
Originally posted by StaggerLeeAnd the final match ends.......... after a low blow? Ok, the F5 followed, but seriously? A world of punishment between the two and a twig-n-berries shot sets up the finish?
Honestly, I expected the finish to be 5 consecutive greco-roman nutshots from UT to Brock since that's all he's done since SummerSlam. This was payback for how UT screwed Brock out of the second match.
"As you may have read in Robert Parker's Wine Newsletter, 'Donaghy Estates tastes like the urine of Satan, after a hefty portion of asparagus.'" Jack Donaghy, 30 Rock
World Title-Kurt. Sting's act will sometimes inspired is doing nothing for the title. Kurt can at least have some good matches with it. Tag Team Championship-Mexican American. I love Beer Money, but TNA needs to start building new established tag teams....