Professional Wrestling

So AJ, Naomi, Usos, Andrade, Miz, NXT's War Raiders (now relabelled "Viking Experiance") are all RAW exclusives

Anyone have a hot take on the Sasha Banks situation? It seems to be eclipsing any and all interest in the shake-up so far

I don't blame her.

And note that I like the Iconics. They crack me up.

But yeah, Sasha (and Bailey) got screwed.

One Strip! One Strip!

I, and she, like the Iiconics.

I don't blame Sasha for being frustrated at all with general booking and some of the treatment. She, Bayley, Asuka, and Naomi all (more than many others on the womens and tag rosters) have experienced really stupidly undercut booking, especially given how much they put in over the years of dedication.

I think Sasha wanted to believe she could show her talent, put in great work, succeed and have fun, but booking is really putting a handicap on the success and fun of it.

Sasha and Naomi especially have seen a lack of faith from the company. Yes, Sasha is a 6 time champion (5 singles, 1 tag) and Naomi is a 2 time champ and inaugural (should've been called Joanie Laurer) Women's Battle Royale winner, but Sasha is now 1-6 in defenses, and both of them have been falling down the card or having their accomplishments forgotten, despite consistent quality work and respect from most of the roster - Ronda even considered Sasha to be the True Final Boss of the women's division. ^note Re: consistent quality, Naomi and the Usos were actually the most consistent parts of Smackdown Live alongside the Miz when he's on it, not "the house that AJ Styles built", and all 5 were traded to Raw As of this writing, they have yet to do something as small as move her to Smackdown, which she has been asking for for years.

They put in work, and keep having to job out to often the latest blonde of the day, who often hasn't shown as much rationale for being at the top of the card. ^note And I'm also going to side with Sasha on Alexa in particular - she adds nothing unique to the roster, and has to be carried through every match and segment, even her own This is not meant to knock Charlotte's hard work, or (non-blonde) Becky, who also had issues with the booking but got supported by the fans for it.

But another thing frustrating the situation is that Sasha, and WWE women in general, don't get nearly as much support as their male counterparts. Male indie darlings so often "deserve better" than WWE despite doing much less. And some wrestling fans still deride Sasha as being injurious or botch prone. Who has she ever actually hurt? Only Paige comes to mind, but Paige herself says Sasha was never to blame for that, and is still apologetic. Hell, when this very story broke, some people were quick to assume it was relationship troubles and called for her to get a divorce, because some people are too entitled to believe Sasha would marry a non-main roster talent they don't see as attractive - people have been dumping on their relationship for years.

On top of all that, Sasha's mentor and friend Amazing Red is retiring.

So from what I can tell, she has become unhappy or disillusioned due to things outside her control, and no amount of talent and work can change that. And some "fans" won't even give the same response they'd give some others who have been in her shoes. Those are fair frustrations.

How that frustration is expressed is on her, though. And we don't actually know the backstage details. It could be better or worse than we believe.

Or hell, it could all be a work playing off of real life drama and reputation before she gets traded to a push on Smackdown. Becky did challenge Sasha, and Sasha could be a needed heel, and we haven't gotten many Sasha/Becky horsewoman matches.

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on Apr 16th 2019 at 3:09:43 AM

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

{slow clap}

I don't want to read in a meaning to that. Care to explain the slow clap?

Also, another hot take: the shakeup is badly executed, and always has been. No one has ever figured out how it works, even less so now with people going between rosters at will and no clear managerial roles even between the Mc Mahons.

Ah, gotcha.

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on Apr 16th 2019 at 6:23:31 AM

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

In short, I agree with what you said, although I knew of none of it before.

Kairi Sane has her way to Smackdown and been partnered with Asuka.

...considering how they treated Asuka, that's not good.

I literally joked she'd be Asuka's partner, entirely because she was also Japanese, and WWE played to my stereotype, thereby disappointing me further.

Ok, I didn't so much joke as throw her out as a guess, but the reason I stated it is true.

One Strip! One Strip!

Asuka and Kairi are mates, from their Stardom days. It would make less sense if they didn't tag together, now that women tag teams are a thing.

Creed of the Happy Pessimist:Always expect the worst. Then, when it happens, it was only what you expected. All else is a happy surprise.

I'm more concerned that Bayley got notably booed. Presumably a proxy boo of Sasha?

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

Oh, they knew each other?

I didn't know that.

One Strip! One Strip!

Feel free to correct me, but I think calling Kairi Hojo and The World Famous Kana "mates" is a stretch, STARDOM mates in particular, because they definitely weren't there.

Hojo was one of STARDOM's special attractions and foreign ambassadors who was in the running for STARDOM's ace slot after the whole Yoshiko Yasukawa incident. Yasukawa had never beaten Hojo(and Hojo was one of the few baby faces they'd cheer against Yasukawa). But in the end she lost out to Io Shirai. But it wasn't a bitter loss, as Shirai, Hojo and Mayu Iwatani became a super Power Trio of baby faces for STARDOM. (see, this is kind of where my issue with fans complaining about AWE taking things. WWE wrecked that. And fine, maybe it was time for someone else to get the spotlight but by that we meant a month or six to see who else can draw, not disappear indefinitely. I could go on, but I won't)

Kana was a freelancer best known for promoting her own shows after she pissed off half the Joshi Puro gate keepers. While she had been making her way back into regular appearances for established promotions, STARDOM wasn't really one of the. JWP certainly, REINA definitely, she even played a prominent roll in WAVE, but STARDOM, Kana was just another well known but passing through wrestler.

Hojo's main STARDOM partners outside of Shirai and Iwatani were company founder Nanae Takahashi(until she left over the Yoshiko-Yasukawa incident), Chelsea(Diamond, not the Canadian one signed with WWE with Mia Yim, no relation to Kaitlyn Diemond, who joined Yasukawa's stable), Koguma, Kaori Yoneyama, Yuhi, Konami, Hiromi Mimura and Natsumi Showzuki. Even Yoko Bito has a stronger association with STARDOM and Hojo in particular than Kana.

And since WWE did sign Shirai, that seems like an obvious choice in partner for Hojo.

Then again, I could be missing something. Am I?(Edit:It turned out I was, I forgot how many times Hojo had been Artist Of STARDOM)

Edited by IndirectActiveTransport on Apr 17th 2019 at 7:24:13 AM

I wasn't really talking about their in-ring connections. They're not besties and rivals like Kairi and Io, but they certainly know each other and get along. There's also a reason I didn't use the word 'friends', though they might be.

Certainly Io would have been a top choice to pair with Kairi, but she only just arrived in NXT, and probably even Vince cares enough to not gut the brand completely.

Edited by Daremo on Apr 16th 2019 at 9:36:03 AM

Creed of the Happy Pessimist:Always expect the worst. Then, when it happens, it was only what you expected. All else is a happy surprise.

The Big Dawg Is Blue, Bayley is blue, Balor is blue. Dab-ba-dee

I know this is pro wrestling, so there's always somebody, but I don't know of anyone who doesn't get along with Hojo. As in outside of the ring, off camera, when there's no angle to work. I'm confident anyone who worked STARDOM would be a good partner for her by that reasoning. I'll concede I don't know who is on what brand...I've never even committed the BJ sides to memory. I don't have an informed opinion where logistics are concerned.

Also, even if they were put together for being Japanese that's still a sign of progress, for that company. In between the release of "Alundra Blayze" and their Chinese signing spree, WWE had avoided having two Asian women of any nationality or ethnicity on the same show at once. I don't know how they ever came to that but I suppose it's good they're committed to correcting it. Since they're also atoning for burying the women's tag titles I guess it makes sense for a Japanese team to win them.

Alundra Blayze is Asian? And what burial of the Tag Titles?

---

Back on Sasha briefly, I did see a comment raise a fair point. It basically compares Sasha to Ziggler, in that they both consistently voice frustration but don't outright decide to quit. Which was annoying, but again, there is a double standard there. Ziggler got a big Title vs Career story out of one incident, and got to abandon the US title in the ring for another, before finally getting a huge pay raise in his latest contract, to effectively do nothing.

And also apparently Sasha and Bayley were told at the last minute not only were they dropping the titles, they were being split up as a team altogether. In fact, several teams got split with zero fanfare during the shakeup. But now Sasha, who has vocally for years wanted to be on Smackdown, is the only Horsewoman not on Smackdown.

Imagine any other job with personnel management this bizarre.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

I was wanting to find video footage or accurate history of the Michinoku Drivers 1 and 2, and I stumbled upon the WWE match between the innovators of each move.

Some notes:

• I see they use a mispronunciation of "Sasuke" notorious among fans of Naruto.
• I also found out TAKA's surname is out of respect to The Great Sasuke, who previously wrestled under and named his promotion after that name, and who was TAKA's mentor.
• Lawler... sucks.
  • And with all due to the dead, "Brian Christopher"'s voice was grating, too. I think it was intentional. I liked him in Too Cool, but probably because I didn't have to hear him speak as much.
• Vince, on the other hand, was actually a pretty good commentator. And fired his own shot at kayfabe by exposing their relationship.
• So. Much. Bigotry. This promotion, and the 90s, are really embarrassing.
• Botch or no, that move at 2:46 could be great. I guess it'd be a one-legged spinning springboard suicide back elbow? In the comments on that video, I wondered what it'd be called if done on purpose. I thought the move could be a beautiful intentional back elbow, and then realized that would actually make a fun move name. Or "BIBE" for short.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

"Alundra Blayze" is Italian. I was referring to Bull Nakano and all the other wrestlers from Zenjo like "Bertha Faye"(also not Japanese), Aja Kong, Caparita Asari, Kyoko Inoue, etc that WWF brought in during Nakano's title feud with Blayze. When WWF released them all and retired the women's title belt, that was the end of more than one Asian woman on a WWF/E show until WWE suddenly decided it wanted Chinese people in the 2010s. The Chinese wrestlers seem to be mostly gone, as I've seen all the ones I know on back on the indies and such, but if WWE's sticking course with treating Asian people in general better, that's good.

As for the tag team titles. WWF got the Women's and Women's Tag Team titles from the NWA via The Fabulous Moolah. Moolah played locker room politics to get WWF brass pissed off at The Glamour Girls Judy Martin and Leilani Kai, "fumbling" communications between them and Jumping Bomb Angels Noriyo Tateno and Itsuki Yamazaki. An unauthorized title change looked like Martin and Kai had went into business for themselves and The Glamour Girls were not only stripped of the belts but the belts were retired. WWE decided to dig them back out in an effort to show it is serious about treating women better.

Japanese champions make sense in the way Chris Benoit making Shawn Michaels submit to a sharp shooterTrish Stratus making Lita submit to a sharp shooter makes sense. An "apology" to the Canadian fans for screwing Bret, an "apology" to the Japanese for screwing The Angels, who unlike Bret were purely oblivious victims denied a fair run. Keep in mind WWF was only four or five years into its evil empire phase; that kind of thing was still fairly shocking. Plus there was no GAEA, there wasn't even JWP; the Angels could only find another foreign company to work for(which in the late 1980s would be some small time territory unless they were lucky enough to get a spot in LLI/UWA) or get lost in the shuffle, as Zenjo had already moved on. Things worked out well for Zenjo. It had another baby face team in The Crush Gals, who carried the tag team division before the Angels were given a chance and continued to carry it after they left. Historically speaking it was probably for the better Moolah soured Vince Jr's ambitions to gut the Japanese circuit the way he did The US and Canada's too. Without the benefit of hindsight, however, it looked like The Angels should have passed WWF up and stayed in the WWWA Tag division.

All that locker room and non WWF stuff likely doesn't matter to WWE anyway. Only that fans who liked The Crush Gals saw them and the women's tag team division get arbitrarily dropped after the Glamour Girls allegedly regained them. Now, thirty or so years later, a more progressive, benevolent, socially conscious WWE is making things right, for women and minorities...well Mickie James typed on twitter that WWE was bringing back the women's tag team division. That questioning fans didn't know their wrestling history. Now I'm admittedly no pro wrestling historian, and it wasn't directed at me, but really. The message was public. What was I supposed to take away from it?

Edited by IndirectActiveTransport on Apr 17th 2019 at 12:03:33 PM

If Dustin Rhodes is going to have One Last Ride, it's fitting that it's with his brother Cody.

I did see a comment online suggest that it would've been nice to see him have a match against Velveteen Dream beforehand.

WWE makes a big show of spotlight endings, moments, and retirements, but considering all his service, they really mismanaged his last several years, and it's not a surprise that his last feuds failed to get over with fans.
But I guess WWE really need their "earlier on this episode" recaps and Triple H's 5 minute entrances and longest matches on the card.
Poor time management and uneven treatment.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

...what have they done to Bray Wyatt? 0_o

...why...why did they do this?

One Strip! One Strip!

I just read a synopsis and thought "there's no way this isn't stupid." It's probably worse than I thought. I imagine it's this, but bad.

It looks like Wrestlemania really was a good time to close the book/chapter on WWE. Execution on pretty much everything seems to be even worse now.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

No need to imagine.

Edited by Daremo on Apr 23rd 2019 at 2:06:34 AM

Creed of the Happy Pessimist:Always expect the worst. Then, when it happens, it was only what you expected. All else is a happy surprise.

Looks like kind of a Waylon Mercy (the whole faux-friendliness) meets evil Doink (kid friendly thing gone evil) for a new generation to me. He even named the vulture after Waylon Mercy.

Edited by J79 on Apr 23rd 2019 at 5:29:55 AM

Actually... this has potential.

I hope Matt helped on this idea. It even keeps with Bray being reincarnated and the two splitting.

But still... "yowie/yaoi wowie"?

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

I like it. It's got that air of something between subtle and blatant menace in it.