PRO wrestling thread

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MrCrowesGarden
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Re: PRO wrestling thread

Post by MrCrowesGarden »

The most recent, newly-produced docuseries they had is "WWE: Evil" which was a little rocky, but more good than bad. Some of the episodes (Randy Orton and Sasha Banks immediately come to mind) were better than others (Ric Flair and Stephanie McMahon were the worst IMO)

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MrCrowesGarden
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Re: PRO wrestling thread

Post by MrCrowesGarden »

We’re an hour into Summerslam and I am geeked
[SHOW]
Bayley is my ride or die, so the fact that she’s back and leading a stable with Dakota Kai and Io Shirai is badass. HHH clearly gives a [expletive] about women’s wrestling.

Also, Logan Paul is pretty good at wrestling. Like, not just good for a celebrity, but good good.

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Re: PRO wrestling thread

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The HHH effect is already quite pronounced:
[SHOW]
The women are getting significantly more time and cohesive storylines. Bayley's control faction was the thread that continued throughout on Raw. I think it's cool that HHH let her get the faction she wanted that was turned down by Vince. As I've heard, he rejected a stable with Bayley/Dakota/Io and proposed one with Lacey Evans and Raquel Rodriguez, which really isn't surprising for Vince.

Also, was absolutely not expecting Karrion Kross to come back on Smackdown. I'm not a fan of him as a wrestler or a person, but he does immediately deepen a roster that suddenly became very thin. And, they got it right this time by using his NXT presentation with Scarlett instead of the bondage suit and losing in two minutes to Jeff Hardy. I think you can also insert him into the UK match next month if you're looking for a way to put the belt on Drew without weakening Roman's presentation

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Re: PRO wrestling thread

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Also, there was this kinda weird situation over the weekend.
I don't know if I'm really blaming anyone involved here, but I would hope the guy got the chance to get his money refunded because I wouldn't feel like this would meet my expectations if it was me. I know why this happened: there are some super-skeevy pics of guys doing prom poses with female wrestlers, and you can tell they're extremely uncomfortable, but that doesn't sound like what this guy wanted at all. This is a bad photograph, and it's unfair.

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Re: PRO wrestling thread

Post by MrCrowesGarden »

Heh, Trips brought back another NXT release last night too!

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thrill
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Re: PRO wrestling thread

Post by thrill »

I watched the Cena 20 year ep of RAW because it was available on regular peacock and it was god awful. I'll check back in when Hunter has more momentum going and see if I like the product at all. There's something about the WWE visual style that does nothing for me. I think their creative under Vince was stale as hell.

That said, when you watch WWE you are reminded that they do have some absolutely phenomenal workers in-ring. Which obviously makes sense given that they pay the most and offer the most fame.

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Re: PRO wrestling thread

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Last night's match with Iyo Sky & Dakota Kai vs. Dana Brooke & Tamina lasted about 10 minutes. For comparison's sake, the entire Queen's Crown Tournament (the female equivalent to King of the Ring) was 18 minutes. One match on Raw got 54% of the time allotted to a multi-week tournament that culminated with a PPV match.

If Vince & Co. were still running things, I expect that match would've lasted roughly 3 minutes with some 24/7 title shenanigans in the middle of it. It also would've had Bayley on commentary unnecessarily, and the finish would've been in doubt even though Iyo/Dakota should win the tournament that this match was a part of and Dana/Tamina are jobbers.

These aren't hard changes being implemented, but they've made the product so much better in a short amount of time. First and most importantly, longer matches. You have more wrestlers than ever who are capable of putting on great matches, so let them do that. Correspondingly, shorter promos that aren't nearly as stilted in the writing. No more shoehorning awkward language about the "WWE Universe" wondering whether a "superstar" would make it out of the "local medical facility" in time for the next "premium live event." To be fair, some of this was starting to change with Cody Rhodes, but only really with him. Hearing Michael Cole say "fans" instead of "WWE Universe" at Summerslam was such a relief.

Other big changes: making secondary titles feel important again. Ciampa vs. Bobby Lashley for the US Title was an excellent showing. The past two weeks, WWE has shown a vignette highlighting the history of the US Title. It seems like a championship worth chasing again, and they're trying to get back there with the Intercontinental Title (quick aside: that was my favorite title as I got older and started to appreciate wrestling more because it usually went to the technically-skilled guys instead of the super-muscly dudes. Now, it hasn't been defended at a PPV since Wrestlemania of last year. That really saddens me.) Winning matches actually feels important. AEW's ranking system has sometimes painted themselves into a corner, but for the most part, how often you win and who you win against should matter, even in kayfabe. Maybe we'll even see wrestlers who win a bunch of matches fight for the title! And, no running the same match week after week after week. It felt like there was some version of Kofi Kingston and/or Xavier Woods versus Sheamus and/or Ridge Holland and/or Butch on Smackdown for two months straight that went absolutely nowhere. It feels like The New Day might still be heading down this road with the Viking Raiders, but I'm hopeful it goes somewhere or ends soon.

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Re: PRO wrestling thread

Post by MrCrowesGarden »

Specifically for @thrill
[SHOW]
Also, Vince's impropriety payments are now up to close to $20 million.

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MrCrowesGarden
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Re: PRO wrestling thread

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LOL of course

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thrill
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Re: PRO wrestling thread

Post by thrill »

Damn trump really cleaned up for that cabinet position. Took the carnies for all he could.

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