Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

[formx]

Khali..."a giant Indian paedophile"

Probably still a better story/angle than what the WWE comes up with nowadays.
I'd watch it just to find out how they will run with it.

Have a father/mother and son/daughter tandem planted among the audience near the ramp or the ring. Khali will stop near the pair and stare at the kid for about 10 seconds before the start of every match.
When the match is over Khali will come up to the planted tandem and stare at the kid for 10 seconds again then knock down the parent and carry the crying kid away as they disappear up to the ramp and to the backstage.

Just imagine the instant heat from the crowd and the media attention it will get. It's perfect for Khali as he doesn't need to use speak in anyway. I have no idea about the current WWE to figure out who will be the face character opposite Khali.

A plot twist can be made eventually as the abducted kids were actually turned by Khali into his army of child soldiers! To go to war against Pakistan! A new political storyline!

John Cena. It's always John Cena. Cena will bury the fuck out of Khali and the storyline will abruptly end after 2 weeks, resulting in Khali's WWE release days later.

[Andrew]

I find I'm having a different reaction to the AJ vs Kaitlyn and Dolph Ziggler angles than is probably intended by the booking. For example, Kaitlyn came out and cut a promo dressed as AJ a few weeks back where she flat out accused AJ of sleeping with half the people at ringside and more folks in the back, in a fairly vicious manner. Likewise, Ziggler's promo on the most recent episode of Smackdown was pretty cold and nasty.

It's getting the reaction that WWE is going for, with "You're a psycho!" chants directed at AJ and they're presenting her as being unstable and dangerous and all that. Still, to me it kind of comes off as Ziggler and Kaitlyn bullying and attacking someone who is mentally ill and deeply troubled, thanks in no small part to things that other characters have done to her during previous angles, which makes the face and heel alignments seem reversed.

[[Q]]

yeah it's funny because that's basically what AJ had been doing to Kaitlyn but since Kaitlyn's a face, typical wrestling logic would be that's she's better than that... that she wouldn't stoop to AJ's level. btw, are Kaitlyn & Dolph (kayfabe) going now?

[Andrew]

Not as yet, it remains to be seen whether they'll end up throwing them together like that. At the moment, they just both happen to have had a huge falling out with AJ and are having some fun at her expense while feuding with her. It wouldn't be a complete shock if they did explore that, though.

[koberulz]

It'd be a complete shock if they didn't.

Perth opened with Ryder vs Slater vs Cesaro for a US title shot later in the night, which made no sense because they'd announced Bryan vs Ambrose, but whatever. Went pretty much the same as the IC title match in Melbourne, with Slater the one continually unable to get in the ring and actually wrestle. When he finally did get in, he was subjected to a Big Swing from Cesaro that lasted a good minute. Ryder went over, obviously (they could have at least had two faces in it), pinning Slater after Cesaro's Neutraliser, because booking people weakly and giving them title shots is just what WWE does these days (see: Bank, Money in The).

Then Aksana vs Natalya, which copped a ton of shit from the crowd. Not even entertaining shit, just 'stop trying to wrestle and take your clothes off' type stuff.

They followed that match up with Khali vs Jinder, because they have no idea how to pace a show. Khali's honestly not that impressive. He looked bigger than he does on TV, sure, but...eh. Though I guess most people haven't spent as much time as I have standing right next to seven-footers.

Then the US title match. Shield got their entrance through the crowd. Ambrose won clean, then came back so he could eat Ryder's finisher for no reason, because it's a house show and we want people to be happy, dammit.

Then Justin Roberts got in the ring, announced that 'the action never stops', so download the app, plugged merch, then announced a fifteen-minute interval. Odd choice of opening line.

Back from the interval, Miz vs Axel in either a Perth Street Fight or a 2/3 Falls match. Predictably, they picked a Perth street fight. They brawled all the way up the ramp to the stage, resulting in everyone who'd paid for floor seats near the ring being unable to see a damn thing. Literally, nothing. From the back row on the floor you can at least see what's going on in the ring, because it's elevated. The floor isn't. Obviously. Someone near me pointed out that if this was really a Perth Street Fight, someone would've been glassed by now.

They eventually made their way back in the ring, someone yelled out that Axel was better in Nexus, then re-thought when queried by the person next to him and announced that he was shit then, too. Then Axel botched, of all things, his finisher. Lost his grip on the neckbreaker halfway through, so Miz had to just fall over for no reason. Someone yelled out 'If you start a swinging neckbreaker, you finish a swinging neckbreaker', then when Axel rolled out of the ring in search of weapons, 'get back in the ring and finish your swinging neckbreaker!' Miz, for his part, hit Axel with the mic and it was completely inaudible. Axel went over clean, successfully hitting the neckbreaker on a chair.

There's no way Axel ever goes anywhere in this business. He lacks any ability whatsoever and nobody gives a shit about anything he does. Heyman was more over than Axel was and Heyman wasn't even there. Also worth noting that Miz was calling the match, which is usually the heel's job.

Then the on-again-off-again Tag Title match between Hell No and The Shield. They yelled at each other before the start of the match, and one of them said something that made Reigns crack up, which cracked Rollins up, which made their attempts to look intimidating rather unimpressive. Hell No won after Ambrose ran in with a chair to Kane. They went for the triple power bomb, but Bryan cleaned house, including his dive to the floor, followed by each of them chokeslamming a remaining Shield member. Bryan asked if his chokeslam was better than Kane's, the crowd thought not, Bryan thought he was misunderstood. Kane was quietly getting pissed. Bryan still couldn't get a 'yes' to his question, so decided he'd just have to demonstrate. Tried to chokeslam Kane, which failed miserably. Kane went for one of his own, then they hugged, because apparently we still can't get rid of that gimmick.

Then Cena vs Ryback, for the belt, in a tables match, which seemed to go the exact same as Melbourne. Ryback got on the stick pre-match, said everyone kept chanting a certain name at him, and after the show he was going to take 'a Goldberg' on 'this dump'. One guy in the corner tried to get a Goldberg chant going, resulting in Ryback demanding the mic, getting right up in his face and chanting back 'Ryback', which was pretty awesome.

Being there live makes you appreciate the directors/cameramen even more; so many of the shots clearly missed it was just ridiculous. It's something you only rarely see on TV.

[Andrew]

Sounds about as disappointing as the Melbourne show.

[koberulz]

It wasn't as good as what they'd put on TV, and there were the usual couple of dud matches, but it being there in person--particularly as close as I was--made it worth it. It was certainly better than the other two I've attended. Shield/Hell No was, as usual, clearly match of the night. Ambrose is awesome; he was into the match and yelling out various bits of advice/strategy the whole way through. Which is something you don't really notice on TV/from further back.

Got some pretty terrible photos, since I was just using my phone, but this turned out brilliantly:

[Andrew]

That is a cool shot. I'm thinking I'll have to head down to Sydney next time they tour here. I'd like to catch it live at least once.

Speaking of watching wrestling live, when I went down to Sydney for the Supanova convention in June, the AWF had a ring set up in the middle of everything and were running three shows a day. It wasn't bad, some decent work, funny heel shtick and it didn't cost any extra to watch. Got a few photos.

[koberulz]

Stumbled across this today. WTF?

[JaoSming]

I can 1 up that

TNA "Impact!" results for April 30, 2009
http://www.wwe.com/inside/industrynews/10085110

TNA Knockout no longer with the company
http://www.wwe.com/inside/industrynews/10087264

Live events for Friday, May 15, 2009
"A TNA live event will take place at the Florence Civic Center in Florence, S.C."
http://www.wwe.com/inside/industrynews/10213172


iirc, pwinsider covered this recently in a mailbag, it was from when wwe.com was trying to replace dirtsheet sites.

[koberulz]

...by stealing their news, and mentioning them by name? I can see no holes in that logic whatsoever.

[JaoSming]

it was before Hogan, before they were any threat at all...totally unlike right now amiright

[koberulz]

I was referring to the dirtsheets, not TNA.

Meanwhile, Orton was attacked during a house show in South Africa by a fan who just so happens to be a wrestler and just so happened to hit him with a wrestling-style low blow, while security just so happened to be...taking a nap, or something. On the other hand, it is a house show, so...

phpBB [video]

[Andrew]

Yeah, that "replacing the dirtsheets" idea was a strange one that ultimately didn't go very far.

Apparently the stuff with Orton is not part of any planned angle. Some local guy trying to make a name for himself, I guess.

[formx]

I've decided to watch TNA for the first time since 08 or 09. Don't remember. But the Sabin vs Manik match was pretty good.

[koberulz]

Random conspiracy theory: the CM Punk: Best in the World documentary is a work.

Or am I the only one to whom it makes no sense that a guy who was continually buried in the midcard was pushed into the title picture and given a title shot that would have taken place after the expiration of a contract he'd been avoiding re-signing for two years, and given indications he would not be re-signing at all? If it were TNA, I'd buy it, because that sort of thing happens constantly over there, but in WWE?



Had the opportunity to watch the Angle-Joe Lockdown 2008 match the other day, too, and holy shit was it awesome. I find a lot of older matches hard to get into, because you know the result going in and it's all relatively meaningless, but I was into that from bell to bell. The presentation was superb, the commentary was fantastic and actually made it out to be a big deal and talked about technique, strategy, etc. instead of it being one guy beats the other guy because he could kick out of more stuff--the bit about Angle stuffing his punches is something you just don't ever hear in wrestling commentary. I was concerned, at the start, about Frank Trigg on commentary, but he made that match (and Joe). Even Aries-Danielson at Testing the Limit, with CM Punk on commentary providing all sorts of insight into both men's strategies and the reason their moves were effective, didn't go as far as Lockdown 2008 did. I knew the winner going in--even if I didn't, Joe promising to retire if he lost pretty much gave it away--but I was into every single thing that happened in that ring, in a way I'm not even for matches I don't know the result of, because it was treated like a big deal and like what happened in the ring mattered.

Why on earth did that only happen once? All wrestling should be like that, dammit.

[Andrew]

If nothing else, there might be some truth to the situation but the deal was still in place well before that PPV took place. I'd still like to know if Daniel Bryan's firing over the tie incident while he was in the Nexus was truly a work or a shoot.

[koberulz]

Given that it was off-air and Barrett merely threw in an aside about him having sympathy and therefore being kicked out, 'shoot' seems the obvious answer. From TV Tropes:

When trying to figure out if something is a Worked Shoot, ask yourself the following questions:
Is the wrestler's microphone on? No.
Are the cameras focusing on him? No.
Has he claimed that this is a shoot, or that "this is not a work"? No.
Is he using "insider" language such as face, heel, mark, smark or booker? N/A
Was his entrance music cued? N/A
Are members of staff nowhere in sight or making no attempt to stop him? N/A
Do his actions make sense in the context of a storyline (e.g. crazy man rebelling against the company or out for revenge)? No.
Is his vocabulary roughly equivalent to his usual, scripted speaking pattern? N/A
Are highlights of his actions shown, mentioned or otherwise recapped by anybody else on the program? No.

There's also the fact that the re-release of WM XV has Bossman's hanging removed, and some choking with a cable removed from the Austin-Rock match. Best of In Your House also removed Diesel choking Bret Hart with a belt from their match (quite blatantly). So there's definitely policy against choking now, for whatever reason, that even goes beyond the PG restrictions (as neither of the aforementioned were rated such), and therefore is unlikely to be waived for TV, particularly when so completely unnecessary and barely referenced.

The only question in my mind (which may have been what you were getting at, come to think of it) is whether it was 'we have to fire you, go take some indy dates and we'll bring you back when things have calmed down' or 'you're fired', followed by 'reaction seems to have cooled, is it worth bringing him back?', between which I'd lean toward the former.

[Andrew]

Yeah, that's more what I was getting at. I also tend to agree with that first scenario you mentioned, though I do wonder whether it was actually a case of "We have to make it look like we've fired you" and then let him work some indy dates to make it look like his contract was legitimately terminated.

[koberulz]

They're a public company; pretty sure anything other than actually firing him would have to be explained as such.

[Andrew]

True. Well, I guess it all worked out in the end. He's over as much as anyone else right now, hopefully WWE doesn't screw it up.

[koberulz]

Why were the Shield DQ'd last week? It's not outside interference if they're part of the match.

Loved the finish to the Hernandez-Roode BFG series match. Roode hit Hernandez behind the ref's back with a beer bottle, leaving shards of glass everywhere. Normally, they'd just get ignored, but the ref, slowly and reluctantly, counted three then proceeded to berate Roode while gesturing toward the glass, raising Roode's hand only after Roode demanded it. He clearly knew what had happened, but didn't see it and therefore couldn't call it. Far better than acting like there's no glass in the ring at all, which is the usual MO.

On the other hand, they then went and fucked it up with the finish to the Styles-Aries match, where stuff happened and Aries won because reasons. I think.

[formx]

Why were the Shield DQ'd last week? It's not outside interference if they're part of the match.

I was watching a Canadian show called Aftermath that talked about the events on Raw, and that DQ was talked about, and former WWE ref Jimmy Korderas actually explained it. I couldn't find a video, but I found a tweet.

https://twitter.com/jimmykorderas/statu ... 8772191232

It's apparently been a rule that has never been explained on TV.

[koberulz]

Well that's...stupid. I do recall JBL getting DQ'd years back, presumably under the same rule, and it wasn't explained then either. The commentators just acted all confused, or justified it based on the ref having yelled at him for interfering before and therefore JBL was told not to do it, did, and was DQ'd. That would've been in 2008 or so (pretty sure it was during is feud with Jericho early that year).

If Sabin wins Thursday, Bully never gets another shot. Gee, I wonder who's going to win that? So, Chris Sabin's title reign lasted three weeks and featured one clean win, in a completely meaningless match against whatever they're calling that guy in the mask these days, and zero successful title defenses. Remind me again why they put the belt on him?

Still waiting for a wrestling company to treat run-ins differently from DQs. Pretty sure TNA was using 'no contest' for that pre-Hogan, but now we're back to WWE-style 'running in and hitting one guy to cost the other guy the match' bullshit.

Speaking of wrestling: how weird was it to hear Vince McMahon, of all people, use the word 'wrestler' on Raw? I like the way Cena's treating this one, too: insisting that he is actually good and has the record to prove it. Much better than pretending he's the underdog, or the leadup to the rematch with The Rock where he was talking about the horrible year he had in which he won most of his matches and main-evented almost every PPV. I like to imagine every time he got to the back Justin Gabriel was there for the sole purpose of slapping him. CM Punk's "you are the New York Yankees" line back in 2011 was one of the better ones from that entire period, but got completely buried amongst the desire for ice cream and ROH getting a mention on WWE TV for what wasn't even the first time.

[Andrew]

Comparatively speaking, 2012 was a "bad" year for Cena. He was 4-5-2 on PPV, lost at Wrestlemania and came up short in every title match, which is notably below the usual Cena standard. Still, I agree it's basically impossible to buy him as an underdog now, unless he's going up against Taker at Wrestlemania perhaps.