Feast your eyes upon this:
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Feast your eyes upon this:
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Nothing could possibly go wrong with that set up.
I watched the entirety of RAW because my friend who had similarly awful plans to me told me they were opening it during the show. It was genuinely the least fun I've had in some time.
RAW is an absolute cesspit right now.
Apparently Brother Love is getting booted from RAW and Shane will be the executive producer soon so it's bound to get much better.
I've barely watched any wrestling in the last few weeks. The booking week-to-week of NXT is falling off as well so hopefully Takeover delivers. Smackdown has sounded better but you've still got shit like this nonsense they're doing with Gable, pushing Jeff Hardy as if anybody gives a fuck and calling up Matt Riddle to talk about his frostbitten toes.
Jesus wept.
One man appears to be next to himself. EDIT: Wait. It's happening to others. There's like 8 different people on that wall. Fiddling attendances even behind closed doors.
There's another picture with one woman about 9 times in a row.
It was a rehearsal so they probably didn't have the numbers.
It was also a clusterfuck apparently.
Yikes.
Loved that ladder match.
McAfee is either a natural or he's worked so fucking hard for that. Easily the best celebrity match I've seen and a legit quality match.
Scarlett in a full body catsuit
The match itself, in particular the finish, was crap though.
Last edited by Sir Andy Mahowry; 23-08-2020 at 01:25 AM.
Perfectly booked monster heel.
Kross has a separated shoulder.
Thought that was the case last night as his right shoulder just didn't look right and he could barely lift it. Perhaps that is why they went for a finish that felt rushed and flat.
Also, this:
This:
And this:
Were seriously great from McAfee. You can tell the guy trained hard and wanted it, easily the best celebrity performance in a ring.
He's no Snooki.
The greatest transitional champion ever, Sasha Banks.
5 RAW title wins, 0 title defences.
You can’t be a transitional champion from one person straight back to the same person, so she’s even shit at that.
Jesus, I've just seen that ALL her titles have been that way.
Keith Lee to RAW then
I did mark out for Roman's return. Firstly I didn't expect it and secondly it means the fiend will get buried.
I haven't watched any of it, so I can't comment on her match quality, but the booking of Asuka sounds like total bilge. She loses (clean?) to Bayley, gets the shit beaten out of her afterwards, then an hour or so later she's able to beat Sasha. Way to shit on Sasha, the title, and make the new champion look completely inferior to the champion on the other brand....
Anyone with half a brain cell does those matches the other way around.
Also I'm seeing people just going with the "Reigns has returned as a heel" idea but I dunno if that's wishful thinking.
WWE frequently book babyfaces to behave like wrong'uns and he was doing that to the Fiend, a heel, and Boatman who's been more heelish as the feud has gone on so who even knows.
Didn't seem much of a heel, particularly with his new T-shirt and teeth. I think they'll just have him be less smiley and sufferin' succotash and all that bollocks
I mean he once tried to do a murder on Strowman and that didn't turn him heel so I don't see why gobbing off while thwacking him with a chair would.
Yea plus remember braun was like throwing small blonde women around so he's on the heel side of things.
Rumor has it ROMAN will be getting a title shot at Payback (which is ... somehow... this Sunday) which would be pretty hilarious if he won but I would love to see him lose and then let THE FIEND fuck up his mental and actually make his character interesting.
Also, Roman looked like he aged 10 years since I'd seen him last. Lookin' like Edge w really dark hair in the face for me.
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the Sasha Bayley shit was so fucking stupid and I truly hope Sasha fucks off from WWE so soon.
Also I don't know how you all feel about him but JESUS CHRIST Drew McIntyre is so fuckin boring.
They really had Randy go thru all these people, Edge... Christian... Big Show ... Ric Flair... just so the guy whose entire bit is now
"Yea, I also had second chances, but I was less of a dick about them than you, Randy *BAGPIPES*"
can go over again in the boringest fucking way oh my GOD fuck off already.
Edit: They really teased both finishers for this idiot to win on some roll up bullshit for the nerdy beta announcer boy to go "NEVER SAW IT COMING!"
the whole "HAHA WE USED THE TAGLINE" shit was so obnoxious in general but THAT? Fuck off already.
They only have one type of promo for people to use on Keith Orton at this point which is "Yeah but you're a right dickhead, mate."
Although this feud is the first one I remember that's referenced that time he shat in somebody's bag.
If there’s one guy who can’t possibly solve a boredom problem, it’s Orton.
Orton is great in the build up to a match but then the actual match is a snoozefest for 95% (at best) of it.
Randy "Working Hold" Orton just doesn't cut it.
I was just starting to get into the match (I loved that powerbomb punt reversal) and then it ends.
I had to watch Smackdown on Saturday because all the proper wrestling was postponed for netball or cornholing or something and wow what a show that was. A stream of non-sequiturs, odd booking, horrendous camerawork, nauseating lasers, and super distracting screens with smelly wrestling fans with their faces too close to the camera (although props to whoever replaced theirs with 'Fire Velveteen Dream' part way through).
Saving graces: Asuka, Asuka, and Asuka again. Plus that countdown challenge is a nice concept, it just needs a fairer challenge for both competitors to work properly.
I suppose it must be hard to motivate yourself when you've already been in the Best Wrestling Match Ever.
Beat the Clock was done better in 2004 then it was on Smackdown. Both facing the same opponent is ridiculous.
I don't disagree with any of you re: Bor'ton to be fair.
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Show some respect, Disco.
Like I didn't by not even remembering the correct title. For shame.
He's still no Chad2Badd.
I'm more of a Malibu Al guy.
It’s not a high bar but I think Randy is doing the best outside the ring work of his career. His ‘I’m a complete dickhead and I’ve now become self aware of what a dickhead I am.’ Character Is good.
I like the ‘Drew McIntyre doesn’t think Randy’s any good or worthy but as the Champion he has to step up and stop Randy from RKO’ing the entire locker room for kicks’ storyline. It’s just on a bad show.
I actually think Keith Lee might start a feud with Drew.
WWE have made a HUGE thing out of him and Drew training together, champion mentality etc etc. Also, Vince must be a fan.
They booked him to look strong at Survivor Series and the Rumble too.
The only problem is that both are faces and neither of them should be heels at this point in time. Perhaps they'll play out the Orton/Drew thing a bit longer though.
Admittedly, I thought this was a lot more likely had Drew not won last night.
Regardless though, I do think Keith Lee should be the one to break the recent shit streak with the call-ups.
This is just part of the cycle with orton. Every few years he goes full on deranged dickhead and people jack off to it and then he stops bothering, all the while still being dull in the ring.
Looking over it, I really can't get my head around the recent Sasha/Bayley booking. I've already said why the PPV booking was dumb (ok, it wasn't clean... that makes it a bit better I suppose, but still someone in their 2nd match of the night after also being beaten down shouldn't be winning a title, especially if they lost the first one) but add to that Bayley jobbing to Kairi who had one foot out the door and jobbing to Naomi who had just wrestled Sasha and.... I don't even know who is meant to look good amongst all this shit. Charlotte, I guess.
Similar to the Otis/Mandy Rose thing they built up and then left turned. I think they really want to do the turn between Sasha/Bayley in front of an audience.
The rest is just holding pattern stuff.
I broadly agree with all this. The matches are dull but Orton's overall work this year has been great.
Aren't those five years up now? :P
Everybody, and therefore nobody.
When that Twitch stream was put up last week of a bunch of Smackdown broadcasts around the year 2000 you couldn't help but notice that one thing the booking really had going for it is that almost everything was being done in service to something, most of the characters seemed to have an actual purpose.
Basically nobody in WWE is booked in a way that consistently makes them look strong. Champions frequently can't get a win after they've got a belt or only win scrappily, somebody being apparently buried for weeks in end if often a precursor to a random big title shot, people get what seems like a big win one week and then it disappears the next.
I don't hate the general thrust of the Asuka / Bayley / Sasha thing. I totally get your point, but I also see what they were going for but if anything they actually undercooked the ending a little. They should've laid the Banks / Bayley mix-up on a little thicker to give Asuka a more glaring opening to get the Asuka Lock in.
One thing that does surprise me about the booking last night is the number of clean wins. With another PPV just a week away specifically called PAYBACK I was expecting all sorts of horseshit endings.
I obviously hope they don't do the dirty on Lee and there are signs that they do genuinely like him a lot, but on the flipside there's the evidence of basically every other recent NXT callup.
I should add actually that I didn't hate Keith vs. McIntyre last night. I'd have probably knocked 5-7 minutes off it and taken some of Keith's rest-holds out of it.
Obviously keep that SICKENING thumb-to-the-eye spot which appeared to be what cut McIntyre?