Nothing in NXT 2.0 is going to translate to a Raw or Smackdown audience. The Performance Center bubble is going to make everyone look over.
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March Wrasslin |OT| Wrestling Has More Than One Royal Family
- Thread starter asmith906
- Start date
The only audience that matters is a senile old man, and how you're being booked in NXT 2.0 is probably a decent indicator of how you'd be booked on the main roster. Unlike HHH NXT performers, who would be diluted down into a single misguided essence of what got them over in NXT.
I mean, yes, audience reaction is going to be a different factor when so many of these NXT 2.0 gimmicks are cheesy territories/early 90s throwbacks.
I mean, yes, audience reaction is going to be a different factor when so many of these NXT 2.0 gimmicks are cheesy territories/early 90s throwbacks.
Imho Joe Gacy and bald Brock are a great gimmick that could be translated well in the main roster...he is like delusional Bray Wyatt, can cut a promo, his in ring style is very safe although not flashy and the monster bodyguard works in his context. The rest Imho are NXT bubble, save LA Knight that seems like a WWE regular midcarder thrown in NXT because no one know what to do with him
What's more important is that it marks the official end of #5Years. Now, there's a write-up waiting to happen.
I mean she's been doing it a lot longer than Dominick, its a well known fact that one of Io Shirai's favorite wrestlers in Rey Mysterio Jr.
The post-mortem on that is that Anth0ny was right about literally everything else, but gravely underestimated just how stupid TV execs are and how easily they could get worked by WWE despite everything wrong with them. If it wasn't for that one small fact, WWE would most certainly be in critical condition if not dead by now.
I can't believe it's just about #5Years already, none of us saw the TV execs are money marks swerve coming.
It annoys me that they could have made like 3 months of TV in any 80's promotion with this kind of dispute instead of waste it in a judge tv show
Steve Austin big return to wrestling is literlly an spongebob episode plot
It's easy for me to say this is the least exciting mania since I started watching over two decades ago, when I'm only really following things via reports and tweets/gifs and thus have no real investment, nor a balanced viewpoint on actually watching an episode of raw
But
It's absolutely the least exciting mania build I've ever known, will that translate to one of the worst manias? tough to say, I think it might be one of the most quality whiplash inducing events of all time though, the state of this card and its overabundance of part timers and celebrities
Still for funsies, let's take a look at the card
(edit from future Owl: I didn't realise how much there was here, oh god, but I've committed now)
Lynch vs Belair: A half year late apology for a booking screwup that should never have happened in the first place , but we gotta have MOMENTS am I right?
In an alternative dimension, this is a real money match, unfortunately we're in the one where summerslam managed to take the wind out of both participants sails, even now Belair doesn't strike me as fully reheated and despite Lynch's best efforts, her heel turn seems 2001 Austin esque because I'm sure people wanted to cheer for her, especially after a prolonged absence
PS: oh god, what CGI big time Becks monstrosity is gonna be projected onto the screen at mania?
The Mysterios vs Miz and Logan Paul: Oh bugger off
(side note: it's gonna sting when Logan Paul looks more comfortable in there than Dom)
Drew Mcintyre vs Happy Corbin: I could go on a whole tirade about this, but not for the reasons you might think.
To try and keep a short version, McIntyre went from unsung pandemic era hero as a fighting face champ to an understandable drop down the card, and that's fine y'know, sometimes you gotta mix things up to keep the main event picture fresh *laughs in eternal Roman*
But instead, from my admittedly fractured knowledge, he seems to just go around now doing horrible histories promos and pretending like he's about to decapitate you with a claymore on live TV and it's so damn stupid, I thought the Kane see no evil hook was bad but at least that was only used for like 3 weeks.
Meanwhile Sad Corbin was the absolute booking triumph of WWE's 2021, I'm not joking, the man owned that gimmick, he made the doomed to be awful losing streak storyline somehow work for him. Perhaps in part because Corbin while not bad, is just inherently unlikeable and thus his increasingly comical state and full commitment to it was dare I say it, entertaining.
See, the Happy Corbin idea made sense as a rebound, but only as a month long thing before maybe just going back to being Corbin arse Corbin
But WWE, they love to make Corbin's incredibly naff collection of gimmicks run for like a year longer than they should, see constable, king and now happy.
Errr, anyway, this reeks of a Teddy Long era smackdown exclusive PPV filler match , except at mania.
The Usos vs Nakamura and Rick Boogs: wait, Boogs is ERIC BUGENHAGEN? I didn't find this out until last week and damn, the shortened name change strikes again.
Not much to say about this to be fair, who knew that Nak's coasting career would lead to a jumble of odd tag team runs?
Charlotte Flair vs Ronda Rousey: It's funny, I keep forgetting this is a thing when on paper it's arguably the other main event.
The money match was always Lynch vs Rousey, but everyone was (n't) asking "where's Charlotte?"
And somehow we still don't get the money match now, and instead got more Charlotte.
For what it's worth, this might end up being the best match of the event, assuming Ronda can still go, she takes to the graps like a duck to water, a duck with some piss poor viewpoints mind you that make rooting for her kinda impossible.
Women's Tag Team Clusterfuck: makeshift teams, get everyone on the card, the only saving grace is it can't possibly be as bad as last year giving Tamina two matches across both nights.
Two questions remain
How Anime will Zelina's attire be this time?
When's Bayley?
Sami Zayn vs Johnny Knoxville: Oh bugger off part 2, except with a side of Sami really giving this storyline his all here, so there's that?
Also I'm still salty that Knoxville corpsed on Umaga all those years ago, no respect for the business!
Pat McAfee vs Austin Theory: Oh Bugg- actually McAfee is involved enough in WWE that this one doesn't ring as desperate as the other celeb spots, shit I think going by his NXT matches, I'd rather watch him than Theory who I just don't like for reasons I can't quantify.
Let's be honest, they should've made this vs Vince like the rumours, it would've been awful but hilarious, just melty face McMahon asking McAfee to open him up legit on the grandest stage or something equally as insane.
In any case, is anyone out there like "woah McAfee at MANIA? I'm definitely buying now!"
RKBRO vs Alpha Academy vs Street Profits: I'm not mad, but some variant of this has been the Raw main event scene for the past 6 months right? arguable sleeper match potential if they give it more than 8 minutes, which they wont because it's a tag match at mania that doesn't involve ladders (or does it?)
I can't believe that...
a) they didn't hastily break up Riddle and Orton yet
b) Gable has somehow continued to fight against fate and has now made his way to mania, give the man his due
c) they didn't inexplicably break up the street profits for that solo Ford run (RIP Dawkins when the time comes)
Edge vs AJ Styles: *FRESH MATCH ALERT*
even as someone who is fairly indifferent to both men while respecting their body of work, this is the first match here that strikes me as being what mania is (supposed to be) about, and thus I need not say anything more, while it's not both men in their prime, I should expect a crisp 4 stars.
Apparently an Omos open challenge: Either Omos goes down in a "shocking loss" in ten seconds, or Omos squashes someone in 10 seconds, either way this has minus 5 stars written all over it.
The Kevin Owens show: While there's a sick, primal urge to see one more match from Austin instead of leaving things rightfully alone with his WM19 finale, ultimately not shitting on that by having Austin punch kick through Owens in an extended squash here is an act of appreciated restraint. Instead you might get a funny promo segment, that turns into punch kick squash anyway?
Owens got geeked hard huh
Seth Rollins vs MYSTERY OPPONENT?!: You know it's bad when one of the most intriguing aspects of the entire event is the return of the divisive Cody Rhodes, a sort of morbid curiosity to see how quickly WWE make him regret his life choices that led him back here.
Anticipating a gaudy as fuck entrance for the Rhodester here, and I'm secretly all for it, I want it to be vomit inducing cringe with AMERICA FUCK YEAH vibes.
Or maybe it's not Cody, and it's actually Rollins vs Bayley, heck yeah
Lesnar vs Reigns Thrice in a lifetime: Let's get the two actually good things out of the way here first...
1. Switching the face/heel dynamics is actually somewhat interesting for this matchup, especially for Lesnar
2. Considering their previous mania storylines consisted of segments like the belt tug of war, that sports entertainment forklift segment from the other day immediately elevates this build over the low bars prior, shit I can't even remember anything about the second mania match build up.
And now the bad things
1. This matchup is both incredibly tired and somehow makes Cena/Orton seem like the Rock/Austin it always pretended to be
2. Both main titles attached to the match because fuck the rest of your roster, building stars and actually giving the match an earned "big fight feel", force it instead
3. Modern Lesnar is only enjoyable if he's murking dudes in multi man matches, so this is surely just gonna be more suplexes and finisher spam, whoopee
4. Inevitable barricade spot
5. Inevitable Lesnar has a vulnerable dick spot
And the end result of all this? Reigns has beaten everyone (or Lesnar absconds with both belts and everyone fights for the IC and US titles until summerslam)
Except...Cody Rhodes, sailing out on the Raw After Mania, goading Reigns into defending Raw's title, and thus we find out how they managed to trick Cody into coming back.
that took entirely too long, so yeah, I'll be charitable and say there's half of a decent by WWE standards card in there, combined with half a somehow awful even by WWE standards card in there.
I also need to look at the roster and see if more than a dozen people are still there from five years ago. #MassExodus.
It'll be interesting to see what happens with Smackdown at the end of the current deal, as WWE has failed in a big way to deliver the ratings Fox wanted for the deal to be a success, which was a 3.0. That's never going to happen unless something outlandishly unexpected happens with wrestling's popularity.
I didn't know about some of those filler matches. A sad state of affairs. I do side with the idea of there being a great one-night show here...
This card is 50/50. Sure it can be good, but knowing WWE, their booking has been dogshit lately. In terms of the main event, no new stars are being pushed. Remember Austin Theory? He's midcard now, pal!
OP
OP
I have no doubt that most of the matches will deliver but the build up outside of a few have been extremely lacking.
Brock vs Roman - Both have been protected and are doing arguably the best work of their careers. I actually have no idea how this will play out.
Charlotte vs Ronda - Ronda's shine has kind of worn off even though I genuinely enjoy her matches. Charlotte vs Ronda was a really good feud the first time around but this just feels like a placeholder until we get Becky vs Ronda.
Bianca vs Becky - I'm kind of ready for this feud to be over. Heel Becky is far better than face Becky but the crowd still seems a bit split on her. She hasn't really done anything to make herself extremely hated so people aren't foaming at the mouth to see Bianca finally defeat her.
Miz and Logan Paul vs Mysterios - negative interest in this match
Edge vs AJ Styles - My most anticipated match on the card. The build up has been extremely rushed but I'm enjoying the story. Should probably continue after Wrestlemania.
Women's Tag Team Match - Can we for the love of god give Sasha a win at mania
Drew McIntyre vs Happy Corbin - HOW MANY TIMES DO WE NEED THIS MATCH VINCE
Pat McAfee vs Austin Theory - mild interest only because Pat McAfee has charisma out the ass
Sami Zayn vs Johnny Knoxville - Sami is doing great work. Looking forward to whatever crazy shit they do.
Stone Cold vs Kevin Owens - Only interested to see how physical Stone Cold gets
Boogs & Nakamura vs USO's - literally who cares
RKBro vs Street Profits - We're going to have a heel turn in this match and I'm interested to see if it Street Profits or Randy Orton
Finn Balor vs Damian Priest - Already seen it but it should be a good match.
Omos vs ???? - Meh
Of course the true Main Event of Wrestlemania will be Seth Rollins coming out to hold the show hostage and then the savior of WWE makes his triumphant return
This has to be the weirdest build just because one guy left the competition and Seth has no one to feud against. Will Cody really be cheered when enters the arena? Is the WWE Universe that dumb?
I missed a match? The ultimate thrill ride never ends.
Balor and Priest should be a fun, brisk six minutes
Wait a sec, where the fuck is sheamus?! The secret MVP of WWE?! Get him and BUTCH in there if you're just gonna throw everyone on the card anyway!
What if Lesnar wears a cup?
What if Reigns wears armour that negates suplex damage?
Balor and Priest should be a fun, brisk six minutes
Wait a sec, where the fuck is sheamus?! The secret MVP of WWE?! Get him and BUTCH in there if you're just gonna throw everyone on the card anyway!
Yes but, what if they swerve the swerve barricade spot this time?
What if Lesnar wears a cup?
What if Reigns wears armour that negates suplex damage?
In theory WWE could paddle 2 nights by making their plethora of titles that they have relevant with good builds, but having working the last 20 years by making everything that is not the heavyweight belt feel irrelevant hinders that
They were cheering for Cody to show up at the last RAW...
The idea of these documentaries about #Heels is pretty good but at least this episode for me can go in the trash (Hogan's racism also makes that easier to do) he is so lost in kayfabe world that I can't believe a word he says about anything. Ric Flair is in that same circle.
Please tell me that Hulk Hogan is going to claim the credit for the NWO
"and I said to Eric, you got to bring in Hall and Nash because those are the missing pieces of this NWO thing I was creating"
Yes. The build is "is Seth going to have any program at Wrestlemania". It's not even about Cody… you can just randomly fling out Undertaker's or Rock's name and it's still the same thing. I want to see the train wreck of a video package before Seth's match at Mania online that day.
What an awful card, have they actually sold out both nights of Everybody Gets a WrestleMania match?
I was going to compare him to David Flair but David got dragged into wrestling and didn't really want to do it unlike Dominic. So which star or promoter's son who just didn't have it do we compare him to?
Erik Watts, Greg Gagne, Wes Brisco, Garrett Bischoff.
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Roman vs Brock round 500 is the least exciting main event possible. I'd love it if the WWE would stop jerking off Brock Lesnar for once but I know that's never gonna happen, he's gonna be cutting promos on every Smackdown AND Raw, but never wrestling ofc, and headlining and probably winning every PPV until the end of time. Maybe he'll lose the championship here and there, but only for like a week at most. It's always the same shit with him, his matches are always the same shit too, I'm over it.
Why would the video package be a train wreck? The one thing I will give wwe over aew are packages. They always to make a build look like it's been going great within a few minutes. Two friends I went with to revolution were lost and confused most of the night from lack of packages for a quick catch up.
yeah, even at Revolution the video packages were tiny or non-existent
Personally I think AEW can be just as good, if not much better than WWE in terms of video packages. The issue is that they don't really use them much as they prefer to not spend much time reminding people of what happened and trust them to remember themselves.
This can be both good and bad and personally I think AEW could use more video packages, especially if you are continuing a feud that has been on the back burner for a while.
Bill Watts son? Think he was in Techno Team 2000 😆.
Edit: I see someone already named him above.
The only second gen, son of a wrestler who has 'it' is Colby Corino.
OP
OP
I feel like their presence isn't too jarring, but then saying they are the men's and women's NXT champions is straight crazy.
Just fuckin say WWE sent it to you, ya mark. The dude is Satin levels of WWE shill.
Anyway here's Bret work punching some boomer.
Just fuckin say WWE sent it to you, ya mark. The dude is Satin levels of WWE shill.
Anyway here's Bret work punching some boomer.
Always happy to see some Bret punches. ❤️
The urge to just gif all the right things from the Wrestling with Shadows documentary on YouTube.
Even though there's clearly some clear editing jobs done for the sake of the narrative, Wrestling with Shadows is the gold standard and arguably better than Beyond the Mat.
Or at least less depressing.
Even though there's clearly some clear editing jobs done for the sake of the narrative, Wrestling with Shadows is the gold standard and arguably better than Beyond the Mat.
Or at least less depressing.
Man, just look at this picture. This dumbass could've been THE hottest thing in wrestling if he just got over his insane markiness and remembered what actually brought him to the dance.
It's just a shame, really.