Professional Wrestling: Smark I

[lmanion]

10 minutes ago, The BlackBear said:

No it was actually pretty good I thought. But the ending was terrible. Nakumura/Styles didn't impress, I don't care for Braun and a child squashing the Bar, and the Main event was appalling. But most of the matches before that were good, and the Intercontinetal, SD Women's, and Mixed Tag were great.

Thats the point though i quite liked both haha

[The Mother of The Others]

13 hours ago, lmanion said:

Strowman is just bloody hilarious and dumb and its about the best thing happening atm.

That was the perfect way to go.   Now they need to legitimize him as the 'solo tag champions' for real and let him do the full bit.  Have him do entertaining things with the extra belt, then ultimately smelt it together with his and wear the gangly fused mess.   [permission granted to use this idea from an online source, WWE.]

The Asuka thing had been rendering her matches pointless to watch , so this will make things more interesting now unless they start her on a new streak.  ....Where Carmella at?

 

[The BlackBear]

1 minute ago, The Mother of The Others said:

That was the perfect way to go.   Now they need to legitimize him as the 'solo tag champions' for real and let him do the full bit.  Have him do entertaining things with the extra belt, then ultimately smelt it together with his and wear the gangly fused mess.   [permission granted to use this idea from an online source, WWE.]

Well he has just relinquished them so that ain't happening.

Paige just retired. Heartbreaking.

I'll watch the rest tomorrow.

[briantw]

1 hour ago, The BlackBear said:

No it was actually pretty good I thought. But the ending was terrible. Nakumura/Styles didn't impress, I don't care for Braun and a child squashing the Bar, and the Main event was appalling. But most of the matches before that were good, and the Intercontinetal, SD Women's, and Mixed Tag were great.

So what you're saying is the first two hours were quite good and the rest was mostly a horrendous pile of shit?  If so, I agree.

[KingintheNorth4]

Name dropping TNA on WWE tv. There's a first time for everything.

[lmanion]

I think I was most disappointed with AJ vs Nak never seemed to have any pace. Im most suprised with the Ronda/Kurt vs HHH/Steph being as good as it was and the entrance was great. Loved Seths entrance along with Alexa Bliss and bringing Taker back they did some pretty good work on the entrances as usual for wrestlemania.

They have to do something with Rusev besides Bryan I think he is the most 'over' guy in wwe right now. Elias is probably being underused a bit atm but where do you put him in a match on that card really apart from making the IC a 4 way.

Watched NXT for the first time over the weekend and yeah the main programs need to take note of what is happening there. What a great show they put on.

[briantw]

That pop Gargano gets when he kicks out of Ciampa's finisher in the main event of Takeover is the sound Vince has been wishing Roman could get for four fucking years now.

[The BlackBear]

12 hours ago, lmanion said:

Watched NXT for the first time over the weekend and yeah the main programs need to take note of what is happening there. What a great show they put on.

The weekly show is really worth watching. As is 205 live. Far more enjoyable than the Main Roster stuff.

13 hours ago, briantw said:

So what you're saying is the first two hours were quite good and the rest was mostly a horrendous pile of shit?  If so, I agree.

I'm not sure the exact time but I'd say it was about a 60/40% split. The show just lost it's momentum.

 

13 hours ago, KingintheNorth4 said:

Name dropping TNA on WWE tv. There's a first time for everything.

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

HBO’s Andre the Giant documentary airs tonight at 10 ET time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!      

[The BlackBear]

Meltzer stars are in:

Takeover got two five star matches!

 

[lessthanluke]

Melzer is an idiot but can't argue too much with those ratings. Feel like both main roster title matches are rated too highly though

[briantw]

5 hours ago, lessthanluke said:

Melzer is an idiot but can't argue too much with those ratings. Feel like both main roster title matches are rated too highly though

Yeah, no way that Styles/Nakamura deserves a 3.75, and Reigns/Lesnar is a two star match for the crowd shitting all over it alone.  Crowd reaction matters.  The fans can make a good match great and a bad match worse, and in the case of Reigns/Lesnar, it was more the latter than the former.  At least with Nakamura/Styles, though, I think they were deliberately being held back so they didn't overshadow Roman, and I think their rematch will be a lot better and will have a more clear face/heel distinction.  

I don't personally think the NA Title match was a five star match, but I can't really argue with someone feeling that way either.  I'd go 4.5, which is close enough.  I just can't give it the same rating as Gargano/Ciampa because that match was a fucking masterpiece.  Easily one of the greatest matches I've ever seen, and due to the story I think it's an easier re-watch than, say, a similarly rated match like Nakamura/Zayn that was awesome and had the same hot crowd, but told no real story.

[The BlackBear]

Bruno Sammartino has died at the age of 82. Well before my time, but in his day he was the wrestler.

[TheKitttenGuard]

From ESPN:

Quote

Sammartino was the then-World Wide Wrestling Federation's longest-reigning world champion, holding the title for nearly eight consecutive years. He began his record title reign after beating Buddy Rogers at Madison Square Garden on May 17, 1963.

He would not relinquish the belt until a loss to Ivan Koloff on Jan. 18, 1971.

Those title reigns are indicative of Sammartino's place as the centerpiece of Vincent J. McMahon's WWWF, which later became the WWF and then the WWE.

"The Italian Superman" headlined more than 180 sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden, and he had memorable rivalries against the likes of Superstar Billy Graham, Killer Kowalski, Gorilla Monsoon and George "The Animal" Steele, among many others.

http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/23230798/wwe-hall-famer-bruno-sammartino-dies-age-82

[DMC]

Sammartino is still a huge deal in Pittsburgh.  Glad he buried the hatchet with WWE before he died.

[briantw]

3 hours ago, dmc515 said:

Sammartino is still a huge deal in Pittsburgh.  Glad he buried the hatchet with WWE before he died.

Most guys do.  Vince is an asshole and notoriously easy to burn bridges with, but ultimately WWE is smart enough to realize that bringing back past stars is in their best interests.  I believe Triple H (ironically enough given all the bridges he burned with fellow wrestlers during his main event time) has done a lot of work mending fractured relationships and bringing guys back into the WWE fold.

[DMC]

4 minutes ago, briantw said:

I believe Triple H (ironically enough given all the bridges he burned with fellow wrestlers during his main event time) has done a lot of work mending fractured relationships and bringing guys back into the WWE fold.

Yeah Trips has been great at mending fences.  Who woulda thought?

[briantw]

2 minutes ago, dmc515 said:

Yeah Trips has been great at mending fences.  Who woulda thought?

Probably the same amount of people that thought he'd go on to manage some of the best wrestling shows in WWE history and bring in a good chunk of the top indie stars in wrestling and actually push them like stars.  Zero.  

But it's become abundantly clear in recent years that, for all his faults as a performer (and it's hard to fault him for looking out for himself in those days, as it was a very cut throat business when he was in his prime), he's a fan of wrestling.  Unlike Vince, he seems to understand that, in wrestling, everything needs to build to a climactic final match.  All the sports entertainment segments exist to promote the eventual blow-off match, and if the blow-off doesn't deliver, the feud has failed no matter how good the build.  

Vince seems to see things from the opposite perspective, in that match quality seems meaningless to him.  He also clearly doesn't understand that you need to keep guys who are feuding apart from each other in the ring as much as possible, because WWE has a major habit of running feuds into the ground by constantly having the guys feuding facing off on Raw/Smackdown, which kills interest in their eventual PPV matches.  It's just a lazy style of booking, and probably partially the fault of the ungodly amount of programming WWE has to create every week.  I still think they do a really piss-poor job of utilizing their entire roster, though.  They have so many mid and lower card guys who just never have anything to do, but rather than trying to build them up so that they can be sent out every week on Raw and Smackdown to put on compelling, competitive matches (which would eat up some of the long run times), they just continue to be worthless jobbers.  

I just don't understand why guys like Bo Dallas are even kept on the payroll when they're utilized no better than local guys brought in to be squashed.  

[DMC]

12 minutes ago, briantw said:

I still think they do a really piss-poor job of utilizing their entire roster, though.  They have so many mid and lower card guys who just never have anything to do, but rather than trying to build them up so that they can be sent out every week on Raw and Smackdown to put on compelling, competitive matches (which would eat up some of the long run times), they just continue to be worthless jobbers.  

I just don't understand why guys like Bo Dallas are even kept on the payroll when they're utilized no better than local guys brought in to be squashed.  

This is always most apparent this time of year with returns/call ups/and "superstar shakeups."  In the past 10 days we've had debut/return/promotions of Lashley, Joe, Hardy, Big Cass, McIntyre, Almas, AoP, Sanity, and No Way Jose.  That infusion - and the "shakeup" - should make any fan excited when looking at the talent on both rosters.  They have more than enough talent to put on excellent wrestling and keep feuds fresh in spite of all the programming.  But, yeah, that's just not how Vince does business.

[briantw]

So Pentagon Jr. is the fucking Impact Champion now.  What a time to be alive.  This is the first time I've been interested in Impact since, well, ever.  I had mostly stopped watching wrestling during their primary period of relevance (the mid to late 2000's), and I got back into wrestling four or five years ago when they were firmly in the "we're a joke" territory.  Nice to see them rebounding and getting their shit together. 

I love the partnership with Lucha Underground.  That was a brilliant move for Impact, as it brought in a bunch of guys the fans pop for like Pentagon, Cage, Johnny Mundo, Phoenix, and more.  It also ups their work rate potential significantly, as most of the LU guys are fantastic in the ring.  And it got me to actually want to watch their product, something I had zero interest in a couple of months ago. 

The promo where Pentagon calls Tommaso Ciampa a bald piece of shit is one of my favs.