Wrestling (WWE, etc.)

[talonmalon333]

Oh yeah, I've never cared for the look of the main WWE belt. I also wish that they just stuck with the World Heavyweight Championship belt design.

Truth be told, though, I always liked the look of the belt that they had before they changed to the "Spinner" design (which I have, and always will, utterly detest).

Is this the belt you liked?

Spoiler

[close]

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, of course I loved Stone Cold's custom belt, but I was talking about the one immediately before the Spinner belt debuted.

[talonmalon333]

I think all of these belts are better than the current IC belt. The white straps on that really make it look cheaper, which doesn't help considering how much that title has been devalued as it is.



Also, I know what you mean when you talk about how Vince is all about big guys. Some of the worst WWE wrestlers ever were just giants who could barely do anything. Big Show is an obvious example, but it honestly goes even farther than him. That makes it kind of ironic considering that Andre the Giant, the classic WWE giant, was apparently a great worker according to people who worked with him, such as Bret Hart.

[talonmalon333]

There was another paperview last night. Frankly, it was kind of just a glorified house show at Madison Square Garden, but they wanted to sell it as if it were a paperview. The main event was a match for the US belt between Seth and Cena. Naturally, because it was a glorified house show, and because of Super Cena, you wouldn't expect Seth to beat him. But I have to say, because these two have such good in-ring chemistry, and because Seth Rollins is simply a great wrestler, the match went so well and I was led to suspend my disbelief. Plus, if rumors are to be believed, Cena is planning on taking November off, which means there's a chance he'll pass on the belt before then.

Also, Chris Jericho actually had another match, just a few weeks since his last one at Night of Champions! He faced NXT alumni, and curent IC champ, Kevin Owens for the belt, which would have been Jericho's tenth IC reign. Obviously, there was no chance he would win, but they both gave a great match, the best of the night alongside the main event.

Despite not being the main event, the match they advertised the most was Lesnar versus Big Show, as kind of a throwback to their very first match at Madison Square Garden. WWE really tried to push this match as if it were a big deal, to the point that Paul Heyman gave high compliments to Big Show's power... Frankly, it didn't work, simply because there's no way to get hyped for a Big Show feud, and there's no way anyone's willing to pretend that Big Show had a chance at winning. They tried to make the first part of their match look like Big Show was too big for him, but I wasn't buying it. After that, Lesnar proceeded to destroy him. After Lesnar and Heyman left the arena, they really tried to get a pop for Big Show by having him walk out to his entrance theme, but the audience just wasn't having it.

I know Big Show can't wrestler and is irrelevant, but I honestly feel bad for him for the way the audience react to him. The "Please retire!" chants are downright mean spirited, and I know Big Show has actually gotten kind of upset about them in the past.

[talonmalon333]

So, for these next few days, it's going to be all about wrestling. Tonight, I'll be seeing SmackDown in Philadelphia with a bunch of friends, which I am super pumped about right now. There is so much I'm looking forward to. I've got my WWE shirt ready, and we've all made up some fun signs. I'm hoping to see a lot of my favorites, such as Seth and Dolph Ziggler. I seriously hope that the tag team champs, The New Day, appear. Seriously, I'm not sure if anyone here is familiar with them, but The New Day is arguably the most entertaining thing in WWE right now, and it's not just because they are great wrestlers. They are utterly hilarious, and because of this, WWE now allows them absolute and total freedom with their dialogue, which has allowed them to be wonderful. In fact, WWE literally allowed them to make a 17 minute video backstage of them just talking on camera, which was then put up on the official WWE YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3njPLuqeJiw. They are currently feuding with the classic tag team The Dudly Boyz, and it's been so much fun with a theme that is simply comedic gold: "Save the tables".

It would also be cool to see demon Kane, even though his current feud with Seth is honestly horrible, which is a shame. The only cool part are the times when Kane appears in his masked demon form, but we have to put up with corporate Kane and a terrible "IS KANE REALLY THE GIANT MASKED DEMON WHO KEEPS ATTACKING SETH?" storyline. But enough about the negatives...

Tomorrow night, NXT is having it's next PPV, NXT TakeOver: Respect. I'm sure it will be wonderful as NXT PPVs are, completely unsurprisingly, always far better than the main WWE ones. Plus, TakeOver: Respect is going to have what might end up being the greatest wrestling thing ever when Sasha Banks gets her rematch against NXT women's champ Bayley in what will be the first time in WWE history that the women headline an event, the first Iron Man/Woman match in NXT history, and the first Iron Woman match in wrestling history. I know I posted some rants about it here when the match happened back during the summer, and I'm honestly still not over it. It's been years since a title win has meant as much as that one did, in all of WWE.

[talonmalon333]

SmackDown was absolutely wonderful! Seriously a blast from start to finish.

First of all, as for our seats, we actually got a box. And we seriously got some nice treatment. It was a view overlooking the ring with 9-12 seats (I forget exactly). Behind that we had what was essentially a full blown room and dinner (the dinner wasn't exactly amazing, but it was good typical barbecue stuff and was as good as we paid for). Just great service all around. Of course, nothing can beat front row seats directly by the ring, but this was great for what it was. We had fun signs and legitimately made ourselves known to the rest of the crowd.

And the show itself was great. I saw a lot of my favorites. The most prominent in the show were IC champ Kevin Owens, and tag team champs The New Day which, as I established yesterday, what one of the things I was most looking forward to. Some of my favorites there, aside from those guys included Dolph Ziggler, Rusev, Randy Orton, Paige, Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Natalya Hart. Some other stars that it was also awesome to see live were Stardust, Barrett, Roman Reigns, and R-Truth. There were a few more that weren't there that I would have loved to see, including my boy Seth Rollins who surprisingly wasn't there, and John Cena also would have been cool to see. But, I'm not complaining. It was just great. Watching WWE on television simply doesn't measure up to being there.

And one of the best parts? WWE is coming back to Philly with Raw in December! And it's the day after a PPV! How cool is that? You can bet we'll be on tickets for that!

Tonight is the NXT PPV that I was looking forward to so much. Unfortunately, I won't be watching it until Friday, but I can try to be patient.

[talonmalon333]

In NXT TakeOver: Respect, a heel brought a small child to tears. Need me to explain more why NXT is so much better than the show it spun off of, WWE?

The PPV was wonderful. As I said, NXT always brings great PPVs, and this was no different. As I made clear, the most important part, and the main event, was the women's title match. The first Iron Woman match in wrestling history, the first Iron Man/Woman match in NXT history, and the first time in WWE history that the women headlined. They did not disappoint at all. For thirty minutes, so much happened. It was almost overwhelming when, as soon as the match started, the crowd exploded into cheers such as "This is awesome!" and "You deserve it!" and "Women's wrestling!", all the while champ Bayley and challenger Sasha Banks pacing, staring each other down, and seeming overwhelmed by it all. And, in the end, when Baylet beat her foe, the whole roster came out, and Triple H and Willian Regal gave flowers to the two women. It's clear that they recognize how much this means to the fans, far more than anything else in WWE right now. And with this event, history was made.

Spoiler

[close]

Such a great time to be a wrestling fan. No matter how impossible this story will be to top, I'm really looking forward to seeing where Bayley's champion reign takes her next.

[talonmalon333]

I have to be honest and say, WWE is currently at a really low point.

The storytelling is just bad in so many ways. And there are many reasons for that, such as Seth Rollins' champ reign spinning its wheels with him main eventing with Kane of all people, and also the fact that the "Women's Revolution" has been a complete and utter flop. But there's one storyline in particular I'd like to talk about, one that is amazingly bad and is by far the worst feud of the year. Get comfy.

First, let me quickly back peddle. Months ago, there was an unstoppable wrestler named Rusev, known as a Russian hero, a ruthless monster who hated America, was undefeated, and cared nothing for the well being of his opponents. More ruthless than him was his manager Lana, a no nonsense Russian woman who basically commanded Rusev and talked for him as one of the better talkers in WWE. Together, they plowed through and Rusev became the US champion, which was a great insult from a man who hated this country. Last WrestleMania, however, Cena faced Rusev, won his belt, and gave Rusev his first loss. Cena and Rusev had a few more title matches after that, but Rusev kept failing. He started blaming Lana for his loses and began treating her badly. Meanwhile, Lana was growing in popularity and the fans loved her, a fact which Rusev hated. While their romantic relationship was initially more subtle, WWE was now playing it up. Eventually, after his third loss to Cena, Rusev broke up with her and Lana turned babyface.

Here's where things really crumble. In order to make Rusev jealous, Lana began a fling with face Dolph Ziggler, and they were all silly together and having fun. Rusev basically was driven mad by jealousy, and was obsessing with Lana and trying to pull her back. He started talking and acting in ways to insult her, but was clearly still madly in love with her and trying to get her back. A female wrestle named Summer Rae then entered the story, wanting to catch Rusev on the rebound (this is seriously the story WWE wanted to tell). Rusev and Summer then became a pair. Rusev, still obsessed with Lana, had Summer dress and look exactly like Lana. Then, over the stretch of months, Ziggler and Lana feuded with Rusev and Summer. But, as the feud went on, we started to see hints that suggested maybe, just maybe, Ziggler and Summer were having an affair with each other. Eventually, Summer actually proposed to Rusev, and he promised that he would say "yes" after he becomes a champion again.

Does that not sound like a bad high school drama? But there were other factors that made it even worse, as if that's possible.

1. Three of the four characters in the feud, for one reason or another, had to take breaks from WWE. Early in the feud, Rusev got injured in a match and had to take time away from wrestling. Shortly after that, Ziggler had to take time off to be in a movie. Then, just a few weeks later, Lana got inured while she was training to be in her first wrestling match (which we can easily imagine was going to be against Summer). This has caused an already terrible storyline to be dragged out far more than necessary. Lana is still injured, and we don't know when she'll be back.

2. I'm not going to waste too much time talking about this, but WWE has an abysmal reality television show titled Total Divas, which follows some of the characters in their "personal lives". However, it's supposed to be canon to WWE. In it, Ziggler is currently in a storyline with female wrestler Nikki Bella, John Cena's girlfriend, and he claims to have personal feelings for her. And yes, like I said, this is canon. According to it, Ziggler is having a fling with Lana while also being in love with Nikki Bella... Also, just to be clear, I don't watch this show. I just know certain things that happen in it. I ain't lowering myself.

3. Outside of their characters, Rusev and Lana are an actual couple and have been for years. This has always been kept out of kayfabe. However, just recently, Rusev actually proposed to Lana, and they are now engaged. This huge fact could not be hidden from WWE.

So now, in our storyline about Ziggler and Lana feuding with Rusev and Summer, we also have the fact that Ziggler has feelings for Nikki Bella, and Rusev is engaged to Lana. It's like a train wreck that got caught up in a massive car crash in the middle of a tornado. So many outside factors ruining something that seemed like it couldn't possibly be ruined anymore.

So now we come to the present. Just last night, on Raw, they addressed the engagement. Rusev fought another wrestler and lost, and then Summer told him that she found out about the engagement, slapped him, and then left him... And that's what WWE went with. That's how they wrote the whole thing off. They are just going with the angle that Rusev suddenly got engaged to the women who left him and had been fighting with him for nearly half the year. Seriously, after we saw this, my friends and I literally laughed out loud at the screen. I genuinely believe that any one of us regular fans could have written a better explanation than the one that WWE's "professional" writers spat out.

The only good thing that comes out of this is that it reunites Rusev and Lana, and that it'll hopefully bring an end to this, but this whole thing was an abomination on so many unheard of levels. WWE created a storyline that overwhelmingly bogged down four incredibly talented people and sapped any enjoyment we could potentially gain from them, in the process ruining one of the best current villain teams and causing one of the best faces to flounder even worse in mid card limbo. And then, that story came crashing down by outside happenings, some of which they themselves are responsible for, and instead of making sense of it, they waved the whole thing off and left us with killer plotholes. Nothing about this storyline makes sense.

Off camera, Lana did recently say a few things to try to explain her relationship with Rusev. And she certainly did a far better job than WWE, but she alone couldn't make sense of everything. Vince apparently wanted to make Lana into a big star and the face of the women's division. When you think about this, combined with the fact that he separated her from Rusev to accomplish that, it makes me realizes that Vince was probably trying to separate Lana and Rusev in real life. This would explain a few things, and if it's true, it's absolutely sickening.

Then again, it's not like Vince McMahon was ever a good human being.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Such a great time to be a wrestling fan.

I have to be honest and say, WWE is currently at a really low point.

What we need is a WCW style competitor that offers enough freshness that will force WWE to react. The Attitude era never would have happened without the NWO. I'm not saying the same thing is needed here (No, it really, really, isn't) but something that is the opposite of what WWE currently offers and isn't similar in any way.

[talonmalon333]

You know there are alternatives beyond the boring mainstream show, right? Like, even within the post you quoted?

NXT is the "developmental territory", but ironically it's so much better than the main show. I attribute that to the fact that Triple H runs it instead of Vince McMahon, so it's not running on dated storylines and out of touch directions. The storylines are generally simple and easy to follow and are good guys versus bad guys, facing off for the gold. None of the convoluted nonsense, bad gimmicks, and pointless swerves seen on the main show. Plus, the wrestling in it is far less limited and doesn't followed the watered down formula that all matches on WWE do, which I think has to do with the fact that it's not available on public television and thus doesn't have to appease the mainstream, casual crowd. And because an episode of NXT is only one hour (as opposed to WWE Raw's three hour runtime, or WWE SmackDown's two hour runtime), all the fat is cut. No pointless promos or overly long matches. Plus, as I've ranted on enough in the past, the women are actually treated like wrestlers in it, and not just as bathroom breaks or eye candy, and having frequently stolen the show on it. I've actually heard that many of the wrestlers in the main roster, both men and women, get annoyed with how much better NXT is than their programs, and that some would rather be in the "developmental territory" with its lesser financial opportunities, but greater possibilities for story and wrestling.

There are other examples, but the biggest rival WWE currently has was brandished by itself.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I was being half-serious. 

Larger than life titans battling each other for the belt. No high school drama, no convoluted twists, no pointless gimmicks. That's always been the appeal to me. I don't keep up with wrestling much anymore, because of all the extra stuff that has weighed it down so much over the years. Sometimes you just want to see matches like this without all the soap opera.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

What we need is a WCW style competitor that offers enough freshness that will force WWE to react. The Attitude era never would have happened without the NWO. I'm not saying the same thing is needed here (No, it really, really, isn't) but something that is the opposite of what WWE currently offers and isn't similar in any way.

The real problem with WWE is that Vince McMahon is WAY past his prime as a businessman, promoter, and executive for making big story decisions. Yet...he's still running the show from behind the scenes, and his massive ego leads him to believe that he always knows best what people want, rather than just listening to criticisms and giving people what they actually want.

To be fair, though, this seems to be a pattern with any major wrestling promotion that goes on for too long. Back when it was WWF, they were getting stale in the early-to-mid 90's, relying on older, established faces, boring/predictable story-lines, and giving very few if any opportunities to newer talented wrestlers to step up and take center stage. This frustrated said wrestlers and prompted them to switch over to WCW, which gave them as much attention as their main stars. Then viewers started tuning more into that show, prompting most of WWF's big stars to abandon ship as well. Now WCW was king of the wrestling world, holding a monopoly of both fresh and old talent. This forced WWF to start experimenting with new things, most importantly giving much younger wtestlers the spotlight, leading into the iconic Attitude Era.

As time went on, guess what happened? WCW became the big corporate giant that had an over-abundance of stars and started playing it too safe by relying on them and shunning younger, up and coming professionals. This caused them to defect to WWF (and ECW, who were business partners with WWF at the time), and not long after, viewers were switching over to see if Stone Cold would defeat the Rock for the WWF Championship Title, while ignoring the "nail-biting" match between Hulk Hogan and Jay Leno, or seeing David Arquette become the World Heavyweight Champion (I WISH that I was joking, here).

Do you notice a pattern? When any one organization gets too big for their own good, they either get too full of themselves or downright stupid, and ultimately cause their own downfall, by pissing off the two biggest sources of their success in the first place: their wrestlers and their fans. In this case, WWF and WCW were both ultimately guilty of doing this, but WWF is still around (as WWE), because they got lucky, and haven't had any major competition since, because Vince let his success go to his head.

[talonmalon333]

I was being half-serious. 

Larger than life titans battling each other for the belt. No high school drama, no convoluted twists, no pointless gimmicks. That's always been the appeal to me. I don't keep up with wrestling much anymore, because of all the extra stuff that has weighed it down so much over the years. Sometimes you just want to see matches like this without all the soap opera.

I do think a well built up feud makes it all the better to get invested, thus making it all the better when you get an incredible match. However, as the saying goes "Keep it simple, stupid". Unfortunately, WWE has taken the "simple," out of that saying and has thus changed it "Keep it stupid". Recently in a WWE event, there was a title for title batch between the World Heavyweight Champion and the United States Champion. They had a great match, but you want to know how it ended? Jon Stewart came out and hit one of them with the chair, letting the other take the pin. Seriously, Jon Stewart. They've also come close to ruining my favorite current wrestler by turning him into a heel who, despite playing the role fantastically on his own, is burdened by terrible booking that denies him from ever winning matches without outside help. Heels cheating has always been a thing, but there's a limit to how far it can be pushed, and you know it's bad when it's no longer possible for people to buy the heel beating anyone literally without cheating.

Recently, NXT had a phenomenal feud, one of the best in years. You want to know what it was? A simple underdog story. The babyface was incredibly likable and had spent so much of their career coming close the belt, but always came up short. The heel was an arrogant big shot and was the champion. Babyface works their way up to a title shot, the two have some promos, and the result is absolute gold. And they were women, another contrast to WWE, with Vince giving off creepy old man vibes through his presentation of the women. I've spent the last few months praising that feud in this thread, and it's not just me. If you ask anyone, they'll tell you that it was a fantastic and honestly an emotional feud, featuring the two absolute best matches of 2015, in the entire WWE franchise.

The real problem with WWE is that Vince McMahon is WAY past his prime as a businessman, promoter, and executive for making big story decisions. Yet...he's still running the show from behind the scenes, and his massive ego leads him to believe that he always knows best what people want, rather than just listening to criticisms and giving people what they actually want.

To be fair, though, this seems to be a pattern with any major wrestling promotion that goes on for too long. Back when it was WWF, they were getting stale in the early-to-mid 90's, relying on older, established faces, boring/predictable story-lines, and giving very few if any opportunities to newer talented wrestlers to step up and take center stage.

And the same thing is happening again. Lately, we've been getting so many recycled feuds. And honestly, I think Vince hates when a wrestler gets over by the fans, instead of by him. Look at Daniel Bryan. Notice how he rarely ever got the push the fans wanted him to give? Instead, he gave us Roman Reigns, and the fans hated it. Vince also apparently doesn't like when a wrestler comes to WWE from the independent circuit, which doesn't make sense.

There's another wrestler that the fans currently adore, but is hovering in mid card purgatory because Vince things he doesn't have "it". Clearly, the fans disagree.

Unfortunately, because ratings for Raw are at an all time low currently, Vince has decided that the way to remedy that is to take back a more hands on role with Raw. Yeah Vince, like that'll work...

I look forward to seeing some big NXT names make their debut at the Royal Rumble in 2016, but I'm afraid Vince will bury them with relics like Big Show and Kane.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Oh, I remember WCW by the end. It was really depressing, actually. Considering they helped give a real shot in the arm to the industry, what they were like at the end was a real sick joke. And I'm not even talking about the real sick jokes like the poorly contrived JR parody, but how bad everything was. By the time the cruiserweights jumped out of the WCW boat I was done. I still remember the Monday Night RAW where The Radicalz invaded "from WCW" into the middle of a match. That was pretty much the end of WCW right there.

Let's also never forget Chris Jericho. A tremendous WCW presence that was COMPLETELY wasted in WCW. He jumped ship, and what happened? It's just amazing how short-sighted some of these people can be.

WWE lost me about the time they lost all their competition. As it was shown pre-Attitude, they are very likely to start playing it safe and sticking with what works. Hence the desire to relive the Attitude era with worse writing and less talent instead of shooting for something better.

[talonmalon333]

And can we talk about the cover for the new WWE game?



Look, I love Stone Cold, but seeing him there represents one of WWE's big problems. Relying on old stars and not having faith in their current men. That should absolutely be someone like Seth Rollins on that cover, or even Roman Reigns.