Professional Wrestling

I'm disappointed in you Russev.

You never waste candy. This why you'll never be anything more than a brute.

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I really don't know who Alexa Bliss is. The one imitating Mildred Burke? The one who Amber O'Neal got in "trouble" over on Twitter?

What I do know is that WWE fan trends can be weird. I don't put much stock in "diva dirt", though ringbelles has been dead for so long I can't think of where else I might have read it. But the point is someone had typed up a piece about the fans who drool over __'s ass never getting behind Naomi Knight, with the biggest ass lbs for lbs on the roster.

As for those released wrestlers you mentioned, I think one of them is Tennile Tayla, so if she decides to keep up with pro wrestling, I have a few ideas where she'll turn up. I wouldn't mind seeing the Prime Time Players face off with some baby face tag teams but have no desire to see Daren Young as ROH World or Television Champion, so I'm hopping that if it does come to that it will be more like James Gibson where he gets his ass kicked first rather than a rapid push to the main event(or that such a push happens in some promotion I don't keep up with. By all means let Young win all the Secret Base or Sakura Project belts).

The other one's the lady who used ACH's theme, I believe. I guess if Tenille keeps wrestling they'll be a place for her as Tayla's opponent...yeah, I think the bigger news in pro wrestling is that another promotion has finally put its trust in World Tiger. And maybe it's because I haven't actively been following her but I was surprised to see it was Oz Academy, rather than something like LLPW-X. Oz Academy does showcase a fair amount of blood and guts, so I guess that's not the least obvious outcome. I'm sure they know what they're doing and am glad to see young talent isn't totally going to waste, but it's a little surreal. Yasukawa hasn't had a match in nearly two years and basically never expanded beyond STARDOM nor really peaked as a pro wrestler. YOSHIKO really did win that match.

Alexa Bliss is the short one who looks like a cheerleader/Harley Quinn. Her being white and blonde probably helps in some fans eyes.

Naomi (no surname anymore) probably is overlooked because she's black, realistically. At least minority women aren't instantly heels.

"Emma"'s real name is Tenille Dashwood. She's the one who tweeted a broken heart emoji in response to the news.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

She'll always be Tenille Tayla to me, or at least until she starts using a new gimmick I actually like. All I can remember about Emma is that she had a silly dance and switched out a rather distinct bridging Indian deathlock for a muta lock. Muta's a legend, but it seems like everyone does the muta lock now. When it's Rob Van Dam's go to submission hold on Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Wrestling it needs to got the way of the abdominal stretch and the shoulder claw, as far as I'm concerned. I remember lamenting when MsChif did it, but in hindsight, at least her variation was visually different from all the others.

And since I'm griping, there seems to be a disturbing lack of watchable Octagoncito matches on youtube. I know not to expect my opinions to be held universally but it seems as if no one on that site agrees with me on which matches of his were worth looking at...well, this one is okay, once you get past the usual Triple A shenanigans.

I always love seeing eighties hair long after the 80s.

edited 1st Nov '17 8:33:05 PM by IndirectActiveTransport

One spot that I genuinely dislike in Pro Wrestling whenever I witness it is the 10 Count Punches in the corner.

We've all seen this if you follow wrestling even at a minimalist level; the babyface manages to trap the heel in the corner, and after climbing to the middle rope and giving a taunt, haplessly rains down ten punches rhythmically as the crowd imitates their time in kindergarten by counting the punches given.

I can understand that it's a Pavlov's Dog scenario (It generates crowd involvement no matter who's doing it), AND how the move has been performed since the emergence of the entertainment platform, but that's no excuse to how it's hokey.

Say it's alright, have a good time, 'cause it's alright, woah, it's alright.

I like it when the referee actually decides to count to five and the baby face delivers ten punches before he gets there. But to me, it's about who does it and when. Punching is technically illegal in pro wrestling, not that anyone gets disqualified for it anymore, so I can really only buy it when the baby face has been provoked, or is just the type to not care(in other words, I don't care that it's hokey, but I do care about psychology, to an extent).

That's one my favorite spots in matches. Granted I started watching wrestling in the late 80s and early 90s which was when stuff like that was the norm, so my love of it is mostly out of nostalgia. On the heel side back then every heel's go to move was grabbing the ropes during an abdominal stretch. Eventually some refs got wise to it and started kicking the rope while the heel was holding it. I also miss how back then whenever somebody would get an atomic drop they'd jump around holding their butt. That was always hilarious.

"If everybody is thinking alike, somebody isn't thinking"- George S. Patton

I just finished Takeover War Games.

...that final match. 0_0

Good god. War Games is a hell of a match.

Oh, and we have a new women's champ in Ember Moon, and a new NXT champ in Almas.

edited 18th Nov '17 7:33:49 PM by HandsomeRob

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I wasn't interested in anything tonight... because I forgot about the women's match. I saw the result on accident, I'm very happy and wish I remembered to catch it live, and I'm going to watch it now. I just finished watching most of Velveteen Dream vs Alistair Black. I like Dream. It was a good match, and they made Say My Name a good story.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

Oh right. I'd forgotten about that one (how? How do you even do that Rob!?).

That was another good match. Needless to say, NXT once again proves that WWE should be the developmental show instead, because they are the real A show, with Smackdown and Raw tied for second by default.

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So Survivor Series is off to a good start.

The Shield vs the New Day was pretty good, and Team Smackdown quickly learned that not one of them was ready for Asuka.

Raw's up 2-0 so far. Wondering how this will go.

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I would've been perfect on predictions, but I was optimistic about the 3-man, and cynical on the women's title.

Main event - Hunter gonna Hunter, as usual.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

Pretty much.

And now Stephanie's gonna give some bullshit about Kurt botching things.

I want him to Angle slam the entire Mc Mahon family to be honest. Kurt did his job, and Hunter kept botching things.

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Honestly, I like Shane, and think he'd do a good job. I've had issues with Hunter's take on things for a long time. Stephanie... if she could just not be so predictable with the emasculation promos.

edited 20th Nov '17 8:21:40 AM by wanderlustwarrior

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

Well, Hunter did give us NXT, and that's pretty spectacular.

Hell, I feel like, while Survivor Series wasn't bad, Takeover War Games was actually better.

We have to give Hunter that much, especially since the current Roster is filled to the brim with NXT stars right now.

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Nope.

That's the thing, Hunter gets credit for NXT, when the biggest NXT successes are all people who had 10-year careers in other promotions. The only NXT original in the main event was Strowman, and he's Vince's pet project. Nakamura, Roode, Balor, Neville, Joe, Rollins, Sami, Kevin? All from New Japan, TNA, and ROH. Big E cites the rest of New Day more for his career success than he does anything from NXT (and was close to being fired until he and Woods convinced Kofi to join it).

Then there's the women's division. Becky Lynch? Trained by Balor. Charlotte? Trained by the rest of the Horsewomen, as she herself credits. Sasha and Bayley? Hard work in the indies. Paige? Family had its own company, and she and her mother worked in SHIMMER to make sure she made it. Asuka and Kairi Sane? Japanese promotions.

Then there's people like Bray Wyatt, Bo Dallas, and the other people who were multi-generational wrestling talent. Or Ambrose, who came up from CZW.

If Kenny Omega or Tetsuya Naito or Jay Lethal work in NXT for 2019, and then debut in the main roster in 2020, does he get credit for them, too?

He just convinces established people to work with WWE for a bit. William Regal and Brian Kendrick seem to do most of the actual work of adapting people to the WWE style, and somehow Hunter gets all the credit. If anything goes wrong? Vince's fault, in the eyes of fans.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

...

Huh. Ok, fuck Hunter then.

I thought he was doing something with NXT at least, but it seems he's just riding that train rather than helping to lay the tracks. Unless someone has a counterargument, I need to find a bus to throw him under.

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Compare pretty much any traditional sport:

His actual job title is Chief Operating Officer (COO). As part of that title, he has occasional good ideas, and serves as recruiter. But amongst the fans he pretty much gets credit as General Manager and/or Head Coach, and he doesn't take the blame a COO would, and he sees himself as franchise player in addition to everything else.

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But for something definitely "fuck Hunter", the whole Booker T thing.

edited 20th Nov '17 3:35:47 PM by wanderlustwarrior

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

I'm not a Triple H fan, and was a not fan for some time. I don't even watch WWE anymore and still cringe when I read/hear the "solution" to WWE is Triple H taking over. I'm tickled by the NXT buzz. Oh, now they're great? I'll even acknowledge some probably did need and get fine tuning(and by some I mean Mercedes KV and El Generico) but for the most part yeah, most of them were good wrestlers but it was like pulling teeth getting people to watch them(and let me make clear Generico was good at what he did, it's just what he did didn't match his "generic luchador" gimmick)

So, now with all of that out of the way, Triple H does deserve some credit in regards to NXT for, 1)reemphasizing wrestling and successfully losing the stigma of that silly contest show, 2)keeping it going at least as long as WWE's version of FCW without severely pissing off anyone necessary to keep it a feasible venture.

Part of the reason WWE's FCW is done, with NXT in its place, is that John Laurinaitis was threatened with assault by the people working for American Combat Wrestling and ACW and its parent company were providing much of the material WWE used on it's FCW shows. And part of the reason WWE revived the FCW brand for a farm league is because Laurinaitis pissed off the people running Ohio Valley Wrestling, causing one of them to turn to TNA, and getting much less out of departure's would be replacements. Another is that OVW's sister farm league Deep South had scandals Johnny Ace was linked to.

Triple H may not be doing most of the work, be it in booking, training or scouting NXT talent. But it has developed into a respected wrestling show under his watch and he's so far seemed to avoid self sabotage. If you take those to be low bars, WWE farm leagues generally don't clear the low bars. Ohio Valley was the exception, not the rule, and it had been developing wrestlers for the NWA for years before WWE agreed to pay 30% of its bills in exchange for those wrestlers being sent its way. OVW, their most successful developmental company by "graduate" was still 70% independent. In that context it's possible Triple H might be doing more and screwing up less than his predecessor. And I may not be in any rush to see another show with him on it, but I'm willing to give him that much credit.

As for wrestlers I do like, I'm glad it's working out for Ember Moon. I felt she would have been perfect for the Heart Of SHIMMER that went to Nicole Savoy, anything else would have been long overdue. Not that I'm upset that Savoy is now wearing belts, because that was overdue anyway you look at it, but there were a lot of things Athena left unsettled on the independent circuit. I recall when Santana Garrett had a bunch of things lined up, dropped them all for TNA, and ended up deciding what she gave up was better. Sami Callihan seems to be like that too, which is kind of humorous only because I remember his DG USA promo about how ready he was to get out of indie wrestling. I'd have still rather seen Swann and Gargano as EVOLVE's first tag team champions but I'm glad he's eventually gotten some kind of push too.(Now if it would stop kissing WWE's ass I might find some enthusiasm for EVOLVE again).

And one more thing relating to NXT, one of it's 2016 rejects, Josh Woods, became ROH's top prospect of 2017 back in the spring and isnow part of Survival Of The Fittest. That's another thing that tickles me, ROH's 2016 Top Prospect ending up on NXT the season after Woods earned the title. I'll be really amused if Woods is back in NXT next year (and happy if Rush is back in ROH).

I don't disagree with you. NXT is a good system. I just don't like that internet takes often seem to make the leap from "NXT is good" to "Triple H is great".

You said Woods and for a bit I thought you meant Xavier.

I'm really hoping I get to go to a SHIMMER taping next time I'm in Chicago.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

So, in addition to Paige coming back and brining Sandra...MMA chick who's name I can't remember and some other lady I don't remember with her, Ruby Riot, Liv Morgan and some other chick just appeared on Smackdown.

What's going on here?

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Effective heel work NXT invasion.

The attack on the contender's match was eh. They're left out.

The attack on Alicia was her finally getting comeuppance by heels who are actually good at their job.

The attacks on Smackdown... just sick. Naomi was willing to stand up for herself alone, but they blindsided her. Becky was a good babyface, but they overpowered her. I hope she didn't legitimately break a rib. Natty and Charlotte were at least ready to fight, but again outnumbered.

Maybe it's a Good/Bad/Ugly thing?

I dunno... I like women's wrestling. If Miz is taking a hiatus to film another Marine movie, the women's division's the only thing for me on Raw. But vicious blindside attacks are just uncomfortable to watch.

I guess they got us talking.

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Daniel Bryan no comment? Dafuq?

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

Shayna Baszler? Don't tell me they changed her name too.

Anyway, part of Baszler's gimmick is that she's always trying to recreate the four horsewomen in pro wrestling, and while "training groups" are par the course in mixed martial arts, such gatherings usually mean bad things in pro wrestling, so there you go. Or if you really want more details, she was the "mastermind" behind reDRagon in ROH and the Trifecta in SHIMMER. She tried to play fair in between those two incidents, wrestling various indie promotions to get good enough for her scheduled SHIMMER debut, which was announced before she had even had a pro wrestling match, but she was beaten up by the likes of Cheerleader Melissa and cheated by Nicole Matthews and Oedo~tai at every turn, so she got mean again.

IIRC, not only has the New Day technically lost all of their last 3 televised matches, but Kofi was the one who took all the pins. What's up with that?

Also, I'm waiting for this to get a name. They added it as a signature move at Summerslam and used it at Survivor Series, where I think it was followed up by a diving attack from Kofi.

edited 23rd Nov '17 6:34:39 PM by wanderlustwarrior

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

So what's going on with Enzo these days?

Did he fix his backstage heat problem? I mean, he's the champ again, and he's got his own stable and all. Either he's that valuable that they are letting him do this shit, or he's back in the good graces of the company and his fellow athletes.

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