Read on for my thoughts on yesterday's Superstars and Smackdown.
Superstars:
Not a bad match at all between Truth and McGillicutty. I continue to paint McGillicutty as someone to watch out for in the future. Talented guy. I'd like to see him team with someone and get another shot at the main roster.
Ryder vs. JTG accomplished pretty much nothing, since neither guy's likely going to be doing anything in the near future (I'd have Ryder on the short list to be SMS GM, but that's me). JTG hasn't won a televised match since last May. He won a dark match before the TLC PPV in his hometown of Brooklyn, however. At any rate, you can't get much further down the totem pole than where he is right now.
Smackdown:
Rhodes Scholars had a solid promo as always. Which means they'll probably lose, as always.
Impressive match, but Rhodes Scholars continue to stagnate. When Taker, HHH, Lesnar, Rock, and Jericho all disappear again, WWE's going to need guys like Rhodes and Sandow to help carry the company. They're defined as midcarders when they should look like they could be future champions.
Pretty cool segment involving The Shield. They're ready, brother. It's really not that hard to build and protect new stars.
WWE reviewing Lesnar vs. HHH instead of talking about The Shield vs. Orton and Sheamus continues the destructive spiral that the part-timers are much more important than the current guys.
I liked the segment with Orton, Sheamus, Show, and Ryback other than it being kind of a swerve to pick Ryback. I know I harp on this ALL THE TIME, but here's why this was a good segment: They didn't make fun of Rollins' hair or talk about The Shield being rookies or say they were ripping off Nexus or make fun of the police outfits. They put over the match as something serious.
Nice Divas match. Basic storytelling. Tamina looked like a serious powerhouse, and everyone showed off their solid training. Aksana looked better there than she has in a while.
I really liked the backstage Divas segment. Straight-up heel tactics by Brie and Nikki. I'm not crazy about them dissing Brodus and Tensai but overall things went well.
OH SHI-. I was all ready to complain that Kane beat Ziggler clean. Yeah, it was kind of a fluke win but Ziggler can say that he beat a future sure-fire Hall of Famer.
Ziggler and Big E as tag champs? I'd be down with that (though they've got a limited time frame for Ziggler to cash in). I don't know whose call it was for Big E to look strong by taking Kane out but I'm glad they went that route. Time to build some new powerhouses.
Not crazy about the Colter/Swagger parody videos. Triple H isn't going to make fun of Brock Lesnar. He's treating him as a serious threat. It would stand to reason that a seriously-built fight will sell better than one built around jokes.
Good segment with Swagger, Colter, and Jericho. I think the Swagger/Colter act has some serious legs. Maybe after we get through with Cena vs. Rock and Del Rio vs. Swagger we go to Cena vs. Swagger and Del Rio vs. Ziggler. Swagger could challenge Cena's segment as the "All-American" "Boy Scout" character that he's painted as.
The Fandango stuff's really getting ridiculous, though at least we don't have to see Khali wrestle. HOPEFULLY Fandango really wows when he does get in the ring. I don't expect an overnight success, but I think he could grow on the audience if he's given a chance to grow.
Again, Cena vs. Rock is treated as more important than a lot of other stuff. That match pretty much sells itself. Spend more TV time on the other matches.
The Shield looked good there. WrestleMania could be a slobberknocker.
I like that they followed up on the attack by The Shield.
Solid segment with Ryback, The Shield, and Mark Henry. I just don't think they needed 3 WSS to get the point across that Henry kicked his ass. Maybe we do end up with Ryback vs. Henry. If WWE goes that route, Ryback should absolutely go over. Maybe not at Mania, but when the feud's over we should be talking about how impressive the young phenom is, not the 41-year-old who could be near the end of his career. Henry's an awesome force, but they need to be building for the future.
Thank goodness! Swagger looked like a solid threat, defeating someone who's had a ton of big moments (title wins, PPV matches) in his career. The torch was somewhat "passed" there. Follow-up is going to be key, though. WWE needs to keep up Swagger's momentum in the weeks to come. He should look like he could be World Champion.
More wrestling coming up.
Man, can you finally shed any light on what is going on with Hell No? I would postulate that with Mania being only a few weeks away and with them being cohesive now that they will probably remain a team in the meantime.
ReplyDeleteMy theory on what would have happened (and this is me being a little biased) is that I'm assuming WWE changed their minds on a possible feud right after PTP won that match on Smackdown versus them. I'm not sure what caused the decision, and we've both mentioned before a feud would make sense with them milking all they can from this teaming, but what are your thoughts on it?
Bryan and Kane are both a bit too talented to be in a very inconsistent tag team division. Adding to that, I think we've all gotten all of the possible mileage we can out of this teaming. They were good, but how much more can Creative do with them that hasn't been done before?
What is your take on Swagger and his legal troubles now? Would you think with the match already being made, WWE may not want to renegade on the match right before the event or would you think they don't want to act on it until further progressions coalesce? Would you think it could cost Swagger the decision of the match?
I forgot to mention...I was at the Live Event on Saturday and Titus O'Neil had possibly the most hellaceous "you can't wrestle" chant going throughout his whole match with R-Truth. I actually felt kind of bad for him. Though he doesn't need to be a technical guru in the ring, the fans definitely aren't buying into him being just a power guy with a small amount of moves. It says a lot when the fans think he lacks in the ring even as a power guy. Hopefully he can improve, but then again, he is 36.
ReplyDeleteI'm fairly certain that WWE has no idea what they're doing these days if it doesn't involve the guys who are already above the "glass ceiling". Is Rhodes Scholars a team? Is Dolph Ziggler a threat (can he beat credible stars)? Are Cesaro and Barrett people to push or is it ok if they lose clean? Note that they had Cesaro get some countout losses to Ryback and Sheamus and now he's losing clean. Barrett beat Orton and won the IC Title and then lost to Bo Dallas. It's really frustrating to follow WWE right now because things are so haphazard.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, it looks like their most recent plan is Hell No vs. Ziggler and Big E for the titles, then maybe they go back to Kane vs. Bryan. But as much as they change their minds that could get thrown out the window, too. It's no shock that the "lifespan" of a WWE writer often isn't long. Most other shows have things planned out a while in advance, with characters established and plot lines figured out. WWE features a lot of re-writes and plan changes.
As for Swagger, I think if they were going to pull him from the match or punish him, they would have done so by now. Instead, he just went over Chris Jericho. I expect him to work Mania, but I'd be surprised if he won the title (even if he didn't have the DWI) since Ziggler has the briefcase and they only have until July for him to use it. Though, as always, they could change their minds on THAT and have him lose either the briefcase or the title match. It's entirely possible that THEY don't know what they're going to do at this point.
I'm guessing that was the "smart" crowd trying to get themselves over, like the people who chant that at Cena. Obviously Titus isn't Punk or Bryan in the ring, but "wrestling" doesn't necessarily mean "wrestling the way the 'smarter' fans want you to wrestle". If this was Season 2 of NXT, I'd agree with them because he was messing up basic stuff and clearly fairly lost in the ring. But in 2013? He knows what he's doing and is able to tell a story in the ring. Not a masterpiece, but a passable story. You never hear "you can't wrestle" chants being thrown at the guys who do 15 minutes of pure spots but in some ways those guys are worse wrestlers than Titus because there's no story being told beyond "check out my cool moves". The idea of having a "good match" instead of telling a story is fairly new. I don't remember who first said it, but I think of the quote "I liked the business better when the workers were in the ring and the marks were in the front row". Titus' job is not to appease the hyper-critical older fan who's seen everything. It's to get the crowd to hate him and get them behind the "good guys" he's in the ring against. If fans want to see a stunt show or car crash instead of a story being told in the ring, there are plenty of outlets for that kind of wrestling.
And of course a wrestler can improve at 36, and perhaps even have their best work ahead of them. Ask DDP.
It's good that you are also taking notice on some of the odd decisions going on. The way I see it is there's two types of fans: the ones who are just there to see entertainment after a long day of work/class and the ones who really are into storylines that want to see logical storylines. To me, having Bo Dallas pin a force like Wade Barrett to never be seen again makes absolutely no sense. Having Daniel Bryan and Kane seemingly inevitably feud then pull back and have them align again really makes that second group of fans I mentioned seem a bit irked.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have much of a problem with guys like Cesaro, Sandow, or Rhodes get a push. I understand Cesaro and Sandow are relatively new, but they've proven so much already (Cesaro, especially) and have a lot more good going for them than bad.
I feel kind of bad for those who have experienced being devalued or lost their push, because there's been A LOT of the same matches going on, too. How many times are we going to see Barrett vs Orton, Ziggler vs Sheamus, Cesaro vs Ryback, etc..? I don't have any issues with most of those guys being featured so much, but that tells you something when WWE can't switch it up every now and then. It's a bit frustrating.
Anyway, sorry for that rant. Switching gears a bit here, what are your thoughts on the adjudication and process of how feuds are being set up for 'Mania? I think the Taker/Punk storyline could be a bit better, but it was aided a bit by Bearer's passing to get heat on Punk. I like the Cena/Rock feud more from a storyline aspect moreso than last year.
I think that's somewhat accurate. There's definitely "casual" vs. "hardcore" fans. I'd add a third group to your list: the fans like us who really follow a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff. We might be more frustrated than most!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt here: It almost certainly wasn't their original intention to have Dallas disappear after beating Barrett. I think the fact that they had him debut at one of the "Big 4" PPVs means that they had high hopes for him. It could be that they're so busy pushing Mania that they decided to hold off on him for now. If this was, say, October, I think there's a chance that we'd be seeing him more. Though, it's not like they couldn't put him on Superstars or SMS (unless for some reason they think he's so good/important he should only be on the major shows.)
My guess with Hell No is that they didn't know what they were going to do with Dolph at Mania when they had them start having issues, and now they've figured out where to use Dolph and Big E (Maybe they weren't sure if Big E was ready for the ring?)
It wouldn't shock me if they just put those matches you mentioned on there because they were running out of time to put the show together and just said "let's have them face off again. We know they can put on the type of match we're looking for." WCW (in?)famously did this with (I'm thinking) Billy Kidman vs. Juventud Guerrera, with them facing off on TV a LOT since Management knew they could put on a good match and kill some time while they figured out what they were doing with the rest of the show.
The build for this year's Mania, except for HHH vs. Brock, hasn't been that great for me due to the Taker situation. They didn't know if we were going to get Rock vs. Cena or Rock vs. Cena vs. Punk until Taker worked those live events and it was determined that he could still "go" at a top level. If they knew they were doing Punk vs. Taker back in, say, January, I think the build would have been better. Obviously Taker's a legend and it's great that he's a part of the show, but he really left WWE in a tough situation there.
All in all, I think the company's in a concerning place with all the changed plans and relying on part-time guys!
Putting aside my criticisms for Ziggler, I think his situation relating to how he's been booked has been the most confusing of any storyline (which says A LOT). I honestly have no clue what the future holds for the guy and have no idea what the logic for his bookings have been lately. A tag team title match makes sense, but everyone is taking notice of the "elephant in the room", which is that he has been booked fairly shabbily and that the clock keeps ticking on his MITB briefcase.
ReplyDeleteI've had a bit mixed feelings regarding how the matches at Mania have been booked. As a fan, it's WWE's job to get my hyped and motivated enough and to entice us to buy into it. I think the matches are good and logical enough, but some of the storylines haven't been as good.
I'd like to see Taker's Mania storylines switched up from the typical "I want to beat the streak" and actually have a personal beef that builds the feud. Who better than Punk to do that? It just seems a little repetitive every year. I mean, I know beating the streak is a huge accomplishment, but I just wish the match's premise had a more logical, planned, and personal subplot associated with it. I think Bearer's death has helped exploit that heat to Punk, but that was basically a lucky happenstance for that angle when Bearer died. If he hadn't passed, I think the angle wouldn't have lived up to its billing.
Rock vs Cena hasn't been bad, but I think it's missing something. I like that Cena has built it up as him wanting redemption, but it just feels like it's not as hyped as last year's match. Part of it is Rock not being on television in two weeks, but hopefully they can entice me a bit more in the upcoming weeks to be more energized about the match.
By the way, I saw on Twitter that there was a match between The Usos and PTP on Main Event this week. I didn't even have to watch the segment to know how things were going to play out. It shows 1) How the tag division is devaluing and 2) How WWE hasn't switched up tag matches and even singles matches much at all lately. Your logic that WWE has more time spent on Mania and doesn't really put as much stock and time into tag matches unless it's for the titles is resonating more and more. This is especially after each time a team who gets little television time defeats a team who is on television way more often.
The only explanations I've heard for why he's not favored by Management is that he's considered kind of cocky and beats to the tune of his own drum as far as not going 100% by the script. I get the feeling that Vince is a control freak and wants every little thing to go a specific way. And boy does he hate to be "wrong" or challenged, even if it's on something minor. Look at what it took for Punk to get to be a top guy. He pretty much had Vince by the balls. The only reason that WWF changed during the '90s was that WCW was beating them.
ReplyDeleteI respect the hell out of Undertaker and I'm sure his match will draw, but it's getting really old seeing him do pretty much the same thing every year. I kind of hope he hangs it up next year (though I suspect they could keep milking the streak beyond then).
Punk/Taker could have been pretty epic if given the proper time to be built. Instead it just feels thrown together at the last minute (which is kind of the case since Taker left them hanging for so long).
There's no way it was going to be as hyped as last year's match. Part of the problem is that they didn't know if Punk was going to be part of the match or not. If Taker didn't have such a solid reputation, I'd be pretty pissed at him for the whole deal. I don't know the ins and outs of the situation, but on the surface it feels kind of unprofessional to wait until so late to return.
The returns of Taker, Brock, HHH, Rock, and Jericho means that everyone else goes down a peg in the priorities list. Tag teams, Divas, everyone.
The Punk/Taker match does seen very thrown together. I mean, having one of the premiere matches progress just four weeks before WrestleMania is a bit rushed. On top of that, my beef of it is also that if it wasn't for Paul Bearer's death, what would the rivalry be about? I know Punk wants to beat the streak, but like I mentioned, 1) That's nothing new that his other 20 opponents haven't said or had the mind frame of and 2) Hype is often built on personal animosity.
ReplyDeleteI'm also a bit flustered to see Jericho face a possible tumble down the WWE ladder. I know WWE may not have as much faith in him staying with the company, but he's too talented (even at 42) in the ring and on the mic to be denied even the Intercontinental Title. I have a feeling if this Fandango feud progresses, he may be on the wrong side of the decision at 'Mania.
It's kind of an Evan Bourne flashback all over again with Jericho. As a fan, I was absolutely livid to see him lose multiple times to Evan Bourne. I like Johnny Curtis more than Bourne, but Jericho is way too talented to be dropping decisions to them.
I mentioned this before, but after noting you posted about it, I would also like to see JTG's record since Cryme Tyme disbanded. The only reason I'd see any sort of brighter pastures ahead for JTG is that he's still below 30 and hasn't been released after like seven years with the WWE. I would venture to say his win percentage over the past four years or so is somewhere around .050 (one win every 20 matches!!) or maybe even lower! I'm not saying he's "upper card" material, but it is a shame to see him losing so often to be a big afterthought.
Sorry for the late response. For some reason, I didn't get a notification that there was a new comment!
ReplyDeleteI agree that Punk/Taker is nowhere near as good of a build as past years' chances to end the streak. WWE knows they can just play that same story over and over and get business from it.
Jericho is a key proponent of the "wins and losses don't matter" camp. It's all in how things are followed-up upon. He knows he can come back and still have the fans eating out of his hands and still be seen as credible because of all the years he's put into the business. Plus there's the whole "elevating new stars" thing. If Jericho makes quick work of up-and-comers then goes away from WWE for a while, it leaves them with acts who aren't seen as as important as the guy who left. That's the last thing WWE wants.
Honestly at this point JTG might be just about too far gone to save. I'd definitely be focusing on other acts given how much it would take to rehabilitate his image. If you want to calculate his win percentage, this site lists a lot of his matches. The only match I know that's not on there is the win over Otunga before TLC. http://www.cagematch.de/?id=2&nr=2717&page=4
I don't have anything "against" JTG. I just think there are other acts worth focusing on.
Yeah, it's understandable. Half of the time it takes about two or three attempts to post something on here. It's probably that way on every blog, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm a little biased being a Jericho fan. It's very selfless and respectful of him to be open to taking a loss to help another wrestler shine. I guess my beef with that is that Jericho has done so much for the company. He's one of the last of a dying breed in that he's tossed aside the "big guy" bias the WWE has to become a very decorated champion. Aside from that, he's shown a lot in the intangible department. With all of that, it's a shame as a fan for him to be booked for less talented guys who may not have much of a future, like Evan Bourne, get the better of him. Especially with his Wellness strikes!
I remember you mentioning that Cage Match site before, and I've been meaning to check it out in more detail. I would venture to say JTG's best bet to move away from being virtually the main jobber in the company is teaming with someone with how fickle WWE is with its tag teams. I know Hawkins and Reks were really spinning their wheels as singles competitors on Superstars until they at least had a few wins on NXT and Superstars.
By the way, are you still aiming to post your Mania predictions via post?
I wish I knew what the problem was with posting.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong: I'm a HUGE Jericho fan and have been since day one of his WWF run. At a time when some guys (especially guys his age) do the same stale shtick for years and half-ass their way through matches, I really respect him for staying fresh and innovative and still delivering high-quality matches.
And I'm with you on him losing to Bourne due to the Wellness strikes. Other than that, sometimes you don't know who will be a future superstar and it's good for some guys to work with veterans to step up their game. I definitely don't think EVERY younger guy should beat EVERY veteran or anything (and, as always, it's more than wins and losses that matter).
I might suggest running Cagematch in Google Chrome or in some other way having it translated from the original German. I was able to figure things out eventually, though. Cagematch is great for looking up match histories of wrestlers, going into further detail than some other sites.
Ultimately I think it's Management's call if he gets to team with someone, though he could certainly suggest it. One thing about the NXT brand in Season 5 (like ECW before it) is that whoever was writing it was open to ideas. Probably because the higher-ups clearly didn't care too much about it, they could experiment.
Ask me next week when the card is finalized and I'll give you a rundown. The posts I do before a PPV are fantasy booking, i.e. what I'd like to see them do from a business perspective, instead of what I think WILL happen.