**World Soxtalk Championship Wrestling Thread VI**

[iWiN4PreP]

Yes, I came on here to post that as well..

 

One of the worst PPV's ever by WWE. That's not an exaggeration. I can't understand how this same company put on one of the best PPV's ever in NXT Takeover during WM weekend and puts on this glorified house-show/TV show of a PPV in backlash.

 

Everyone who put that PPV together deserves to be fired. There did exist some tangible problems being that WM/GRR/Backlash occurred so quickly, but there was NO substance in GRR or Backlash. They spent 4.5 hours on it and gave the viewers NO new information. If you didn't watch it (Backlash) you'd still have the same canon information as everyone who did watch it. 

They spent some 20 minutes on an Elias promo that was a complete waste, but it was entertaining. There could have been a match/segment that highlighted the wrestlers involved there. 

Nia may be one of the worst of all time wrestlers in WWE, male or female. She is AWFUL. The botches, the amazingly cringe-worthy promos. Tonight KILLED her as a babyface. The fans will turn on her from here on out due to that pathetic promo. 

They had Carmella beat Charlotte clean, the same Charlotte that they had beat Asuka's undefeated streak. Unbelievably puzzling when they could of easily had her cheat or use the Iconics to win the match and move both wrestlers away from each other and protect charlotte while keeping Carmella as champion.

They had a worse then TV show Tag match with KO/Zayn.

They made a dream feud between AJ Styles and Nakamura go from being a dream fight to lackluster and boring (WM match) to a feud centered around low-blows, and now have completely killed it with the count out finish in a no-dq match (the actual match was getting very good, but killed by the outcome). 

They Reigns/Joe match was one of the worst matches of the year and the finishing of the match (Reigns come back 1 spear, 3 count) was an insult to the viewer.

The only thing that was good was the simply amazing match between Miz and Rollins, but that was hurt by the predictability of the outcome. 

 

My question is, how can this be the best booking WWE has? How can they do co-branded PPVs and waste so much of our time? They have a roster FULL of talented wrestlers and this is the very best we get? Why is this? Hire me WWE, I will put your talented roster to use. 

[Buehrle>Wood]

Yeah it was a very bad show. Probably hurt that they just had a ppv last week.

 

It's becoming clear that Seth needs to become the face of Raw sooner rather than later.

 

Also that Elias segment was so good.

[GGajewski18]

8 hours ago, iWiN4PreP said:

Yes, I came on here to post that as well..

 

One of the worst PPV's ever by WWE. That's not an exaggeration. I can't understand how this same company put on one of the best PPV's ever in NXT Takeover during WM weekend and puts on this glorified house-show/TV show of a PPV in backlash.

 

Everyone who put that PPV together deserves to be fired. There did exist some tangible problems being that WM/GRR/Backlash occurred so quickly, but there was NO substance in GRR or Backlash. They spent 4.5 hours on it and gave the viewers NO new information. If you didn't watch it (Backlash) you'd still have the same canon information as everyone who did watch it. 

They spent some 20 minutes on an Elias promo that was a complete waste, but it was entertaining. There could have been a match/segment that highlighted the wrestlers involved there. 

Nia may be one of the worst of all time wrestlers in WWE, male or female. She is AWFUL. The botches, the amazingly cringe-worthy promos. Tonight KILLED her as a babyface. The fans will turn on her from here on out due to that pathetic promo. 

They had Carmella beat Charlotte clean, the same Charlotte that they had beat Asuka's undefeated streak. Unbelievably puzzling when they could of easily had her cheat or use the Iconics to win the match and move both wrestlers away from each other and protect charlotte while keeping Carmella as champion.

They had a worse then TV show Tag match with KO/Zayn.

They made a dream feud between AJ Styles and Nakamura go from being a dream fight to lackluster and boring (WM match) to a feud centered around low-blows, and now have completely killed it with the count out finish in a no-dq match (the actual match was getting very good, but killed by the outcome). 

They Reigns/Joe match was one of the worst matches of the year and the finishing of the match (Reigns come back 1 spear, 3 count) was an insult to the viewer.

The only thing that was good was the simply amazing match between Miz and Rollins, but that was hurt by the predictability of the outcome. 

 

My question is, how can this be the best booking WWE has? How can they do co-branded PPVs and waste so much of our time? They have a roster FULL of talented wrestlers and this is the very best we get? Why is this? Hire me WWE, I will put your talented roster to use. 

Not to mention with Nia that apparently she hurt Alexa Bliss as she now has a shoulder injury.  I'm with you, Nia is awful and I've never been a fan.

The tag match with Owens and Zayn was just pointless and dumb the way it happened.  I'm surprised more people didn't boo because it was an extremely boring match.

I was actually entertained by the Joe/Reigns match for the first two minutes, but everyone knew what was coming.  Amazes me that Reigns gets dominated entire match and pulls off one spear and wins.  How is the creative team this clueless?  Just awful writing.

Despite the predictability of the outcome, the match between Rollins and Miz was amazing.  Rollins is back and the future of this business again.

Also, how the hell does Finn Balor not have a match here?  

[iWiN4PreP]

2 hours ago, GGajewski18 said:

Also, how the hell does Finn Balor not have a match here?

To me, that is the most puzzling thing regarding the entire PPV. They wasted hours on things like replays/segments/drawn out matches, but had a ton of quality wrestlers held off the event.  The event actually went around 30 minutes over the normal PPV time... it's insane! The entire PPV it felt like they were trying to kill as much time as possible, but then it goes over 30 minutes and quality wrestlers are sitting on the sidelines.

 

As good as the Elias segment was, it was there to get high quality performers onto the show... but what did it really accomplish for any of them? I guess it furthered the feud between Roode and Elias, but otherwise it didn't do much of anything. Instead, they could of had a match involving Roode vs. Elias, even though they give that type of match away on Raw TV now (a whole other problem)  and a Rusev match.

Ah well. 

[TheChrisSamsa]

Smackdown isn't perfect by any means, but there's some really good wrestling happening on that show right now. We didn't even have AJ or Shinsuke wrestle on TV tonight and we got two really strong 20+ min matches in Miz v. Jeff Hardy and Rusev v. Daniel Bryan. Two hours is so much easier to digest than three. 

[Buehrle>Wood]

Miz with 2 four star matches in 3 days 

Edited May 9, 2018 by Buehrle>Wood

[iWiN4PreP]

Miz is truly spectacular. 

Also, while Backlash and Raw sucked, Smackdown was pretty darn good. Not sure I like Bryan losing clean, but at least it was to Rusev!

 

The woman's divisions on both shows are absolute jokes right now. Don't know what Vince/creative has against them.

 

[GGajewski18]

Charlotte Flair is out indefinitely.  She ruptured a breast implant

[iWiN4PreP]

13 hours ago, GGajewski18 said:

Charlotte Flair is out indefinitely.  She ruptured a breast implant

I wonder when that happened..

 

If it happened before Backlash it makes me understand a bit of why they booked their match that way, but due to the length of their match at Backlash it leads me to believe it happened after Backlash. 

[TheChrisSamsa]

Got my tickets for NXT Takeover Chicago.. Still on the fence about going to MITB.

[TheChrisSamsa]

11 minutes ago, iWiN4PreP said:

I wonder when that happened..

 

If it happened before Backlash it makes me understand a bit of why they booked their match that way, but due to the length of their match at Backlash it leads me to believe it happened after Backlash. 

Odd that they booked her to be in the Money In The Bank ladder match if she's out for a while. They must have confidence that she'll be back by then.

[iWiN4PreP]

Steve Austin gave some advice to these three wrestlers, and I agree with all of his analysis. Note, I like all three of these wrestlers.

 

WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin has provided some advice to some of the biggest stars in the WWE right now through the power of his podcast. Here is what he had to say:

Seth Rollins:

“Sometimes he relies on high spot type sequences for his comeback. Sometimes I want to see him use a few more right hands or a little bit just straight up offense rather than high spots. I’m not telling him to be A.J. [Styles]; but, sometimes as that baby face, you’ve got to use good old fashioned knuckles or feet or just strikes, stomps, whatever it takes. If you can keep working his way around it, more power to him; but, sometimes when you are using those high spots as comebacks, it’s like I really want to see Miz have his ass handed to him a little bit more.” 

Braun Strowman:

“He can work. I’ve been a fan for a couple of years now; but, you’ve got to be careful with what you do with Braun Strowman….dude, you’re Alpha. If you don’t get out there and work and act like Alpha every time you get into the ring, you play Beta or second to anybody, you’re going to start losing your mystique or power. I think Braun’s gotta be careful about that and I don’t want to see Braun Strowman do anything funny….with respect to booking Braun, they’re calling him Monster Among Men, Come Get These Hands and all this other stuff. He’s a little like Stone Cold and a lot like Braun Strowman. I don’t need to see a 6’8″ 330 pound guy make me laugh, make me smile, bring any warmth to my body – I want to see him go out there and destroy and crush people because he’s capable of doing it and because his desire for the gold belt is so great that’s what drives him…he’s been a competitor his whole life…Braun Strowman, as well as he’s done over the last few years still has a ways to go and he’s not bullet proof. If you start puffing that kid up, you’re gonna diminish him.”

Shinsuke Nakamura:

“I wouldn’t do a whole lot with Shinsuke; but, I’d knock off the comedy because I don’t think he needs that to be entertaining. If Renee [Young] asks him a question, if he just sits there and looks at the camera, because he’s not gonna answer the camera – to me after a period of silence, you just fade out and go to the next match. Then you let Michael Cole and those guys pick it up and, ‘Hey man I think this guy is going to talk when he wants to and not talk when he doesn’t want to.’ That way you can get off of him, leave something to talk about, still be entertaining and not put him in a comedic light because as The King of Strong Style, that’s a statement.”

[iWiN4PreP]

 

 

I want to go on a mini-rant about heels and faces on WWE Raw. 

 

There is a topic over at wrestling forum and it discusses how Raw has unlikable babyfaces, and goofball heels that lose all the time and this is very much the truth.

 

-- Faces --
Roman Reigns - "I should be champion, WWE managements are playing backstage politics and they're bullying me"
Braun Strowman - "I beat up everybody and I win all the time"
Seth Rollins - "I'm HHH's second wife and I win all the time"
Finn Balor - "I'm HHH's third wife and I win all the time"
Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt - "We're crazy and we win all the time"
Bobby Lashley - "My big sister bullied me so now I beat up everybody"
Nia Jax - "I'm a victim of bullying so now I beat up everybody"
Kurt Angle - "I'm a good guy now, so I'm gonna bully all the bad guys on the show"
Bobby Roode - "I should be a heel"

-- Heel --
Owens, Zayn, Elias, Mahal, etc. - "We lose, get beat up, and look stupid almost every week"

Fact is, heels should be winning matches most of the time. They should be holding belts most of the time so faces can overcome obstacles and help fans form emotional bonds. But because the faces are winning all the time, the paradoxical effect occurs when the heels become faces because the crowd is tired of seeing the same people win. However, these heels are cheating and insulting crowds at the same time. So the fans are confused. I am confused. We all tune out.

Seriously, who is booking current WWE? Do they watch the WWE network?

 

It's ass-backwards. 

You have a naturally likable character in Sami Zayn being a goofy heel that loses all the time. You have a powerhouse Heel in Owens losing all the time and getting beat up constantly (with a few good beat down moments like when he beat down Vince/Shane/Bryan being exceptions). Elias being the comedy act. 

 

You have a natural heel character playing a baby face in Bobby Roode and the result is a character that's almost as boring as Randy Orton. Does anyone actually like Bobby Lashley? Resuts say everything that is needed to say about Roman Reigns and as Stone Cold alluded to, Braun better watch out with his booking, otherwise he'll quickly go the route of Big Show in 2010's. 

 

It just boggles my mind how something this simple can be consistently hard for WWE writers to deal with! There NEEDS to be tough heels that are dominant for the baby faces to get cheered as they chase for the title. 

 

Brock Lesnar is a decent heel in this regard. He is dominating, but he is hardly there and everybody knows his schtick...  

Edited May 12, 2018 by iWiN4PreP

[fathom]

On what planet are Braun, Rollins and Finn unlikeable?

[iWiN4PreP]

So today was the first time in a while where I refused to watch Raw. 

The reason was because of the announced Nia Jax vs. Rousey match for MITB.

This is the type of booking that isn't just *bad* it is division breaking and there is no win here.

The only thing I can think about is that WWE is trying to make up for Brock not being available, so they decide to put Rousey in a title match to appease the fans. That's absolutely bonkers. Fan's don't just want to see Rousey, they want to see her in a coherent feud/story. 

 

So, Rousey, who hasn't had a singles match in WWE is now being given a title shot against Nia Jax for no reason whatsoever. 

Saying that alone is bad enough, as it is a slap in the face to the division.

But it's not just that. What do they do now? Do they give Rousey the clean win and absolutely destroy their face 'beast' champion Nia? Further, the alure of Rousey quickly dies as she's reached the pinnacle of the division (championship) and doesn't have to ever 'chase' after the title belt alluding to my face vs. heels point made earlier in this thread. 

Do they let Nia defeat Rousey and thus hurting the allure of Rousey being the dominating persona that they've been building up all of 2018? Extremely unlikely.

Most likely, it's a match that ends in a DQ finish or possible a match that Rousey wins and then immediately gets MITB cashed in by someone like Alexa. Both choices are pretty sad. 

 

This is a no-win situation and it's absolutely crushing to the women's division. 

Good job WWE. 

You have a global star in Rousey and randomly decide to put her in a title match against Nia of all people. Un fucking believable indeed. 

Also mentioning this hurts Rousey's character as she 'doesn't want to be handed things,' however is constantly handed things :rolleyes:. 

[TheChrisSamsa]

On 5/14/2018 at 8:57 PM, iWiN4PreP said:

So today was the first time in a while where I refused to watch Raw. 

The reason was because of the announced Nia Jax vs. Rousey match for MITB.

This is the type of booking that isn't just *bad* it is division breaking and there is no win here.

The only thing I can think about is that WWE is trying to make up for Brock not being available, so they decide to put Rousey in a title match to appease the fans. That's absolutely bonkers. Fan's don't just want to see Rousey, they want to see her in a coherent feud/story. 

 

So, Rousey, who hasn't had a singles match in WWE is now being given a title shot against Nia Jax for no reason whatsoever. 

Saying that alone is bad enough, as it is a slap in the face to the division.

But it's not just that. What do they do now? Do they give Rousey the clean win and absolutely destroy their face 'beast' champion Nia? Further, the alure of Rousey quickly dies as she's reached the pinnacle of the division (championship) and doesn't have to ever 'chase' after the title belt alluding to my face vs. heels point made earlier in this thread. 

Do they let Nia defeat Rousey and thus hurting the allure of Rousey being the dominating persona that they've been building up all of 2018? Extremely unlikely.

Most likely, it's a match that ends in a DQ finish or possible a match that Rousey wins and then immediately gets MITB cashed in by someone like Alexa. Both choices are pretty sad. 

 

This is a no-win situation and it's absolutely crushing to the women's division. 

Good job WWE. 

You have a global star in Rousey and randomly decide to put her in a title match against Nia of all people. Un fucking believable indeed. 

Also mentioning this hurts Rousey's character as she 'doesn't want to be handed things,' however is constantly handed things :rolleyes:. 

They're in TV rights negotiations. They need to pop ratings and putting the belt on Rousey, or putting Rousey in a storyline with a higher profile than "Natty's gonna turn on her," is good short term business. 

[Buehrle>Wood]

Raw is reportedly getting 3x their current tv deal. Wow. 

 

And smackdown is getting put up for open bidding. Their business is killing it right now.

[iWiN4PreP]

5 hours ago, ChrisLikesBaseball said:

They're in TV rights negotiations. They need to pop ratings and putting the belt on Rousey, or putting Rousey in a storyline with a higher profile than "Natty's gonna turn on her," is good short term business. 

Well, they one-upped it by random-ass giving Asuka a title match against Carmella too now.

They hate the women's divisions.

 

[Brian]

[Buehrle>Wood]

2 hours ago, Brian said:

Either smackdown just became the A show or else theyre ending the brand split 

[Y2HH]

RAW was brutal. That's about all that's worth saying. I can't believe people get paid to write that shitshow.

[TheChrisSamsa]

On 5/21/2018 at 3:37 PM, Buehrle>Wood said:

Either smackdown just became the A show or else theyre ending the brand split 

I actually think this makes it less likely they'd end the brand split. Smackdown may become the "A" show, but to maintain viewership for both shows, they need to maintain two distinctly different products. 

[iWiN4PreP]

Due to memorial day baseball scheduling I'm checking out Raw tonight (in the background of course).

I'm expecting an absolute shit-show. Raw on Holidays is known to be absolutely horrid as they 'mail' it in due to low viewership. Coupled into this is the fact that Raw has been the worst it's ever been (since the 00's, can't speak for the decline in 1995). 

It starts with the top... Brock Lesnar, the universal champion, not being on the show is just awful. But last weeks Lashley 3-sisters program got universally poor reviews as one of the worst spots in recent memory (only dwarfed by Bayley this is your life).

There's nothing on Raw that is exciting except for seth Rollins right now.

 

Let's see how this show does. Gulp.

[iWiN4PreP]

Predictably, the show starts up with what they do almost always on Raw before PPVs. Have one main competitor come out, talk shit, have the other competitor interrupt.. Oh look GM Kurt schedules a match. A match that we saw just las week.

---> Pro-tip: This is as lazy as it gets booking wise. Nothing interesting is going on here and can be completely skipped over by viewers. 

[iWiN4PreP]

The whole way WWE programs with one man coming out to talk shit, interupted by other competitor, oh look a match. It's so basic and hurts the wrestlers and future booking.

Imagine if, instead of this shit, you had Braun going crazy - killing shit, you had Finn and, I don't know - KO starting a mini feud somehow (something more creative then just a match up), and you had a mystery opponent attack Roode from back stage before a scheduled match. 

I mean, I'm coming up with shit on the fly, within 10 seconds -- that kind of shit would make the MItB match much more interesting then just the traditional WWE boring way. It sets up the future. Now you get a feud between Finn and KO that is seeded from their involvement in this match. The whole night at MITB you wonder if Roode will be there, who was the attacker, etc. And with Braun, the allure is there that he is a real monster.

Edited May 29, 2018 by iWiN4PreP