Professional Wrestling

Sigh... this PPV was reflective of WWE as a whole:

Good concepts, hard workers, and decent wrestling by American standards... marred by the occasional idiotic booking decision that brings down the whole product.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

I was pretty fine with Money in the Bank.

The Ellsworth thing... was clever.

She got it first. No rule saying someone else can't climb up and hand it to someone in the match. I guess I'm weird that way.

One Strip! One Strip!

I'd be fine if this wasn't the first one and if this was a tv match. From now on, the first ever woman's money in the bank would have ended with a man cheating to help the winner, would Edge's winning at Wrestlemania 21 been improved by having Lita or Mick Foley interfere for him at the last second? I think it wouldn't completely destroy it, but it would remove at least a whole star in my view.

She desperately needed the heel heat.

My various fanfics.

There are plenty of ways to get true heel heat, especially over time, without tainting for all time the first ever Women's Money In The Bank Match.

What if, during Sasha vs. Charlotte iron woman match, Ric Flair came out and hit Sasha with a steel chair? Heelish, yes, but an absolute disservice to the work of everyone involved.

Hell, look at it just in the context of MITB 2017 alone: James Ellsworth has apparently done more for women's wrestling than Chyna. James Ellsworth has done something neither Trish, Lita, Sable, or any woman has EVER done: climbed a ladder to retrieve the briefcase.

edited 19th Jun '17 9:16:12 PM by wanderlustwarrior

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

You say that, but Ric interfered several times during Charlotte's reign.

I also love that they almost explicitly signed Bennett to take a dig at Cody.

My various fanfics.

I know he did, but when did he directly decide a match that was supposed to be momentous for all of women's wrestling in WWE?

I mean shit, Ellsworth was the first person to pull down the Women's MITB briefcase. Not Asuka or Ember Moon, not Bayley or Becky Lynch, not Paige or Mickie James...

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

Which makes you mad, right?

It's okay to admit you got worked.

My various fanfics.

Difference between X-Pac heat and Heel Heat. Or if you prefer since X-Pac heat refers to technical skill, difference between not watching again and hating a character. Now I'd rather not see Elseworth anywhere near of any of those woman's storylines but I'm not gonna see elseworth or Camella as a fearsome heel or boo them.

Good heel heat makes you hate the character, I just don't like the writing staff right now. Stuff like this is why I don't think I'll watch again until it's fixed.

Edited by Wildcard on Aug 25th 2023 at 3:20:05 PM

Exactly. Big difference between "I like to root against this person" and "this is evidence of bad product/writing".
Hell, I usually respect a good heel who's good at their job. This isn't that.

I recently watched Karl Anderson vs Shinsuke Nakamura online (NJPW 2012). Good match. Bullet Club members are wasted in WWE.

edited 19th Jun '17 11:09:31 PM by wanderlustwarrior

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

Ellsworth was never meant to be imposing, though. He's Jimmy Hart. He's Col. Parker. He's Jim Cornette. He's a weasely little piece of shit who sneakily helped his client/girlfriend/whatever get her way. Think of all the times Bobby Heenan or JJ Dillon or literally any heel manager in the history of wrestling helped their charge succeed. How is this different?

If you're mad that Ellsworth ruined something important and historic, that's the idea, to have Carmella and Ellsworth celebrate and lord over a victory that they don't deserve.

If Carmella had just won outright, you'd still have people complaining that Carmella, a nobody, won a match that has Becky Lynch and Charlotte in it.

If you're worried about highlight packages or future clips or whatever, they'll just show Carmella on the ground, holding the briefcase in the HBK pose.

edited 19th Jun '17 11:13:20 PM by SonOfSharknado

My various fanfics.

This is different because it is actually turning people off to watching WWE women's wrestling anymore. Many people went from having the Women's MITB go from being the most interesting match on the card for them before the event to "now I just don't care to watch WWE women if this is the standard".

Heel heat makes you excited to see comeuppance. This pretty much isn't making anyone excited at all.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

To flip it around, basically imagine if Mae Young had managed to interfere and knock The Rock out in a Wrestlemania match with Steve Austin. Sure the rest of the match was awesome, and sure Austin did all the softening up. Yeah, your gonna hate both Young and Austin now, but are you gonna wanna watch Mae Young as a partner to heel Austin after being promised a great main event and getting a performer portrayed as a jobber deliver the killing blow?

That is basically my secondary problem with my match. The first is hurting the ending of a supposedly historic ending just for a twist.Feel like I've been hyped up for a PPV match and it didn't deliver, now it never will. I don't want to watch Elseworth get hurt now, I just don't wanna watch. If I paid money for that I wouldn't do it again.

edited 19th Jun '17 11:26:30 PM by Wildcard

Remember the House of Horrors? Or Bayley was too afraid to use the kendo stick in the mask she asked for? That didn't help anyone get any more over or build any more heat, that just made people look stupid.

It's that, but multiplied to the extent that it makes the entire history of WWE women's wrestling look a bit more like a joke, at the time that they're trying to push it as legitimate.

Remember when Ellsworth interfered in the Ambrose/Styles TLC match, and Daniel Bryan said that the integrity of the title defenses was the one big thing they had that the Universal title on RAW didn't?

It's that, but multiplied to the entire gender, and not just a petty brand rivalry distinction.

Many people are not worked into having a stronger opinion about the women's division or a desire to watch where they're going, we're just less interested in the match. At best, Smackdown will have to use Tuesday's show to bail itself out of an unnecessarily stupid direction it made for itself.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

So if I'm reading right, they struck Camella's match so they could kick it down to next week's SD? Wow, terrible. They literally just did this for a good TV Main event, the least they could do is have it on another PPV and make it not open the show. If I paid for the PPV I'd not pay for the next one.

Not watching was a good choice.

I'd almost forgotten that this gif was a thing that happened. And needs to happen again.

profightdb.com has wrestler win/loss records. Cena's is ridiculous. Bray's is just sad.

edited 24th Jun '17 8:28:38 AM by wanderlustwarrior

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

Heels lose on house shows.

My various fanfics.

Looking back on this match, I find it hilarious both of these guys would be heavyweights in today's WWE. I have no issue with that, mind you, it's just strange when CMLL used to have the most realistic weight classes.

I'd be perfectly fine with a Diamante Azul heavyweight title run right now in fact, but Corolone it is. Maybe Azul can come to ROH and take the TV Title or something?

Well, they booked the Money In the Bank match for last night's Smackdown, and sure enough, Carmella ended up winning that one anyway. Makes one wonder what the point of all this was.

On the bright side, Carmella should get some credit for milking this entire situation for all the heat it's worth.

edited 28th Jun '17 2:06:37 PM by Nettacki

Speaking of heat, how about that attempted murder over losing a match?

Improving as an author, one video at a time.

And then he gets a #1 Contender's match!

My various fanfics.

Doesn't matter if you're an attempted murderer. If you look traditionally attractive enough, people will cheer you and you'll get whatever you want.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

Wait... are we talking politics, movie actors, sports stars, or wrestling?

All of the above. That's why I was being intentionally vague.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

WWE's Paige is engaged to GFW/TNA/Impact's Alberto El Patron (formerly WWE's Alberto Del Rio)... but following an incident at a Texas airport with muddled narratives, Paige's brothers (both wrestlers of the Knight wrestling family in the UK) are taking to Facebook to accuse Alberto of being a domestic abuser.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy