General Wrestling Discussion

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Overall WrestlePalooza was pretty meh. For how much hype it had, to the point where some dirtsheets were claiming TKO were looking at it to be a potential event on the level of WrestleMania or Summerslam, and with it being the the first event of the ESPN partnership, it felt like nothing more than a throwaway B-level show.
Only things I liked were Vaquer winning and Lesnar squashing Cena. The mixed tag was way too long and pandering, complete with Punk pulling off his best iDubbbz cos play with a literal "AJ's husband" shirt. Plus the ridiculousness of the women doing moves and being a danger to men over a foot taller and 100 pounds more than them. I know I'm supposed to suspend my disbelief, but there's a limit here.
Cody vs Drew felt like a stop gap for a stipulation match later down the line, and 10 years ago would've been a TV Main Event to build to the PPV Main Event.
And The Usos vs The Vision felt like every Vision tag match we've been getting on free TV for weeks now. I guess WWE really thought that just throwing Brock and Lee's returns were enough and didn't bother to, yknow actually book an interesting card.
 
Whatisgoingon said:
I mean, a big part of that is Tony Kahn himself. Allegedly, after setting up the whole EVPs gone rogue thing with the Bucks which included them putting him in a neckbrace, he nixed it and dropped it with no explanation because he didn't want people thinking he wasn't in control of booking. Even Vince, for as big an ego he had, wasn't stupid enough to nix storylines where he was the butt of the joke or temporarily lost power on screen.
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Has there ever been an instance of on screen heel authority figures regularly competing in matches? I don't mean like Vince occasionally sacking up to fight Austin, I mean like being active wrestler on the roster while playing the evil boss gimmick. You can do one or the other, you can't do both.
 
Magic Sun Daddy said:
I mean like being active wrestler on the roster while playing the evil boss gimmick. You can do one or the other, you can't do both.
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I want to say Hogan did this in TNA but it's been a hot minute. Imo being the evil Boss kinda requires you to not to wrestle frequently until the storyline hits the point where you get the comeuppance after the face has gone through your army of goons.
 
Brock vs Cena was the best kind of finisher spam match. I'm pretty sure Brock is gonna be joining The Vision at least for Wargames. Seeing him throw people around never gets old.

Usos vs Brons was pretty mid. Even with a special guest ref it didn't feel very special, though having the Brons win was the right call.

Iyo vs Steph was probably MOTN. Steph's finisher is insane and she's definitely over enough for the world title.

Punk and Lee vs Seth and Becky was too long imo but it was fine overall. AJ Lee is about at the same level she was when she left, for what it's worth. Unlike most wrestling fans I don't look forward to men beating women so I don't really care that Punk didn't GTS Becky. Becky losing is good enough for me.

Cody vs Drew makes me glad internet marks exist so they can complain nonstop yet keep watching anyway. The tears for Drew have been delicious. In any case the match was pretty standard. There's clearly gonna be another match between them down the line since Drew got "screwed" twice by the ref. Definitely a safe showcase match of the WWE Champion to new viewers.
 
Thoughts on Wrestlepalooza:

- Brock vs Cena: Didn't mind that it was a squash. I think the ending was too dragged out. Had Brock hit the F5s in quick succession instead of wandering around between each one it would have been better. Heyman introducing Brock was cool.

- Brons vs Usos: Solid but nothing too special. Felt like a Raw main event. LA Knight being the special guest ref didn't amount to much other than him allowing weapons and tables. Could have been a few minutes shorter. Jey busted himself open with a chair. Brons finally get a meaningful win. Meh.

- Vaquer vs IYO: Best match of the night by far. No other match came close. I thought IYO winning made more sense just because she's involved in more stories, but Vaquer winning was good because it made a new star. Now Triple H just needs to actually have Vaquer doing stuff on Raw instead of keeping her in the freezer.

- AJ/Punk vs Becky/Seth: AJ hasn't wrestled in a decade so keeping that mind I thought she was okay. The match went about as expected, but fuck me it went way too long. Had it been 20 minutes instead of 30, that would have been much better. AJ vs Becky for the IC title is pretty much guaranteed now.

- Cody vs Drew: It was a standard filler defense for Cody. Not too sure why it was the main event. Maybe they figured they'd have some new people watching and wanted something straightforward to main event. I'm tired of the spot where the ref get between the wrestlers to prevent something bad from happening. It's to set up a rematch with a stipulation between them because Drew has a legitimate complaint now, but it's still dumb.

Overall, a decent show that didn't live up to the hype.
 
BlueArmedDevil said:
I want to say Hogan did this in TNA but it's been a hot minute. Imo being the evil Boss kinda requires you to not to wrestle frequently until the storyline hits the point where you get the comeuppance after the face has gone through your army of goons.
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Exactly. It's basically an extension of the psychology behind heel managers. It was cathartic to see someone put their hands on Vince because they usually had to go through hell to get there. It's not as exciting if you're a regular combatant on the roster and regularly get laid out by finishers.
 
Whatisgoingon said:
For as much as I disliked Steph on screen, former staff backstage have had nothing but good things to say about her, to the point some basically say she was the only good person in management. I also believe Michael Cole 100% when he says he probably wouldn't be here without her, she was somewhat famously known in the dirtsheets to be the only McMahon to actually go to bat for people.
Her hands aren't entirely clean though, the whole concept of having writers instead of a booking team was allegedly her idea. But she certainly deserves the HOF more than people like the fucking Bella Twins.
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She hired and fired Patrice O'Neal 4 or 5 times when she was head booker for SmackDown.

One time she called him and told him he had his job back without realizing she hadn't actually told him he'd been fired in the first place, the entire process had just happened in her head. She's every bit the schizo control freak that Vince was.
 
"A Double" Austin Ares is All Elite!
What a get by Tony!
The Bastard Austin Ares.webp
 
Shoresy said:
AJ Lee cannot throw a working punch or a slap to save her fucking life. I've never cringed harder at women's wrestling.

Edit: and she fucked up that kickout after Becky hit her with the rock bottom.
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The 'best' women's wrestler, etc, etc. This is more or less how I fucking remembered her.
Shoresy said:
The "you still got it" chants made me laugh after seeing her throw those godawful slaps.
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Shoresy said:
It's like she's trying to be Crazy AJ Lee from 10 years ago, but the best she can do is to arch her back weirdly, make stupid faces and constantly play with her fucking hair.
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Yeah, that's pretty much her moveset. So yes, she's 'still got it.'

RasterTatth said:
View attachment 7944053
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The best 'pure striker' in the business giving Steph a taste of those soupbones.
 
Non Incestual CK3 Player said:
I have a soft spot for David Flair. Of course he never shouldve been champion or anything, but I always found him to be a "so bad he's good" wrestler.
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David Flair was a decent sports entertainment guy for what it's worth. And if Dominic could turn into a great wrestler, David probably could at least turned into a decent special attraction wrestler ala Sandman where his insane nepo baby gimmick could have been a midcard staple in a sort of proto Sam Shaw sort of way.

Franz Joseph said:
I would make the arrangement that it was his feud with Kane that set the wheels in motion. That feud went on way longer than it had any right to, it lasted from fall 99 to WM 2000, I remember being checked out of it as it went on.
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No, the issue with Xpac and why people hated him, was that he refused to fucking change/reinvent himself after DX ran it's course. At the very least he should have cut his hair short and gone clean shaven for a bit and try and find something new to do. Hell, he could have fronted right to censor or done the devil's advocate gimmick that was wasted on Sean O'Haire complete with Waltman using his transformation from 1-2-3 Kid to Syxx/Xpac to mine material about good and fulfilling it is to do bad.
 
My biggest issue with WWE right now is Michael Cole getting worse. People are gonna read that statement and laugh, but when Vince got out of his ear, he genuinely was tolerable. However he’s started just not paying attention.

Punk had Seth in a sharpshooter and AJ had Becky in the Black Widow. Becky was face to face with punk despite being in the move and poked him in the eye. Michael was baffled “Seth somehow got out of it” “I think Seth raked the eyes” Michael. You’re watching. At the angle they’re at Seth would need to break the laws of the universe to reach Punk. However that simple mistake is not the bad part. Michael is the boss he is the boss of all commentary in WWE. This has been a thing for years so when he says something, the other commentators go with it. So after he says this Wade is now explaining how Seth is crafty. I’m now listening to an entire commentary booth pretend Seth has magical stretching limbs when Becky was right in front of Punk.

He’s somehow regressing in ability. Look at the match between John Cena and Sami Zayn. Cole called every single tribute Cena did incorrectly.
 
Cole has always been shit and has been propped up by his co-commentators for his entire career.

WWE keeps him around because the one thing he is very good at is getting their chosen buzzwords, promos and nicknames in. The dude reads the prep sheet and drums that stuff into the TV audience.

I don't know if he was a radio guy at any stage but he has a very similar skill set.
 
trent said:
Cole has always been shit and has been propped up by his co-commentators for his entire career.

WWE keeps him around because the one thing he is very good at is getting their chosen buzzwords, promos and nicknames in. The dude reads the prep sheet and drums that stuff into the TV audience.

I don't know if he was a radio guy at any stage but he has a very similar skill set.
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He was unironically a reporter. Like a real one, he was a feet on the ground reporter for fucking Waco. I have no idea how he got mixed up in pro wrestling, but he's earned enough respect from taking Vince's shit with a smile for decades that, bar a random budget cut, he's untouchable. But yes he does suck and has sucked for the majority of his time in the business. But they don't care about him calling moves correctly, because like you said, he plugs the sponsors on time.
 
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