Hello and welcome to a new TurnbucklePost Blog! Thanks for reading!
As Michael Corleone once famously quipped "Every time I think I'm out they pull me back in!"
It wasn't just one thing but a well-timed group of things that have renewed the interest of this old rasslin' fanboy. The biggest pulls for me have been the continued dominance of Brock Lesnar, the continued successes of NXT, the rise of Kevin Owens, the rise of real women's wrestling, & many other positive movements.
We are fresh off a 3 day explosion of the WWE in Brooklyn, NY. Takeover, SummerSlam, & the post SS Raw all delivered to varying degrees of success. The fact that a "developmental league" like NXT sold out the very same arena the big SS show was in the following night speaks to the strength of the brand & its cultivation of a hardcore audience.
I'm not going to go bell-to-bell with reviews but I will hit on some of the awesomeness.
First: Bayley defeating Sasha Banks in the co-main event of TakeOver was one of those rare moments in the predetermined world of rasslin that generated some very real emotion from the performers in the ring, the people in the arena, & the viewers at home. These women put on a wrestling clinic & the tears in Bayley's eyes at the end as she clasped hands with her NXT cohorts in a curtain call homage were extremely moving.
Second: I love the simplicity of Kevin Owens heel character. He is the villain that is the hero of his own narrative. Every evil thing he does can be justified in his mind because he is "doing it for his family". I would hope he will pare down his move set a bit because after a while the audience becomes desensitized to the big spots & loses interest. Less is more KO less is more.
Third: The New Day are absolutely hilarious. They remind me of the "five second pose" incarnation of Edge & Christian.
Fourth: Crossfit Jesus was the MVP of SS for the absolute show he put on with John Cena. I was meh to the screwball ending, but Seth Rollins absolutely went balls out & left nothing out to entertain the fans. Rollins upcoming face turn will be Legend...Dary
Fifth & Final: Brock & Taker had their best match in a long while only for it to fall victim to screwy booking of the finish. I really hated that the ME of SS ended with a tie. What is this Soccer?!
Until next time.
Spandex & baby oil for all
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Friday, April 3, 2015
Wrestlemania 31 review and beyond
Hello and welcome to another edition of the WrestleBlog!
I'm as surprised to be writing this as you probably are to be reading it. WM 31 got my fires reignited a bit for the future of the company. That paired with my extreme love of NXT has turned my tide so to speak.
Onto the review....
IC Ladder Match
This was one of those crazy spot fests that would be hard to review as a whole. It would be like trying to review a SNL sketch vs. the entire movie that would be a normal match. I will say it was rather enjoyable like many of the MitB matches. Ambrose took some especially nasty bumps and falls. The powerbomb through the ringside ladder was especially brutal looking at home. The finish with Daniel Bryan hoisting gold was the bookend to a year of extreme highs and lows for him. I would've liked to see him in the ME, but it looks like they know that he will elevate the IC title to the level we have seen in the past.
Randy Orton d. Seth Rollins
This was a solid one-on-one throw down. While past mania's have put Orton in a bad position with opponents like Kane, HHH, or Batista/Bryan this was a solid meshing of styles and abilities that made for a rather entertaining match. The sheer athleticism of the finishing sequence was AMAZING with Orton reversing a curb stomp to hurl Rollins high into the air and then delivering the RKO. At first Orton going over did not make much sense to me, but as you will see Rollins had bigger fish to fry by night's end.
Triple H d. Sting
That is no typo. The Game defeated the Stinger in what may be his only WWE match ever. The match itself wasn't bad considering Sting's age and limitations. It was really quite cool to see the DX/NWO showdown, HBK-Sting altercation, and the novelty of Sting at Mania. I think some Flair intervention would've been appropriate, but I digress. At the end of the day it was extremely overbooked, but none of that would've bothered me if Sting had got the victory.
AJ Lee & Paige d. The Bella Twins
Knowing now that AJ Lee literally just came back for a Mania paycheck it makes it even more humorous that WWE Divas Champion Nikki Bella did the honors on this one. It wasn't a terrible match by any means but I think unfortunately the resulting AJ Lee retirement may have made #givedivasachance DOA. A lot of the problem that Vince has with going all the way with divas is that they have left him in the past. I could rattle off a plethora of names here, but I'm sure there are already others floating around in your head so I'll let you make your own. Point being it was a good match with some good tag psychology, and it was better than we've come to expect from the divas on any show not called NXT.
John Cena d. Rusev w/ Lana
I have vocally and prominently defended John Cena in the past; however, I have to say his act is starting to get old with me as well. I think he did a great justice to the business by taking an absolute wrecking at the hands of Brock Lesnar at Summerslam, but he has undercut that good with his actions in the months since the SS beat down. With Goldberg (and THE STREAK) as an outlier I think undefeated streaks in wrestling are horseshit. Nonetheless Rusev was riding a nice never-been-pinned streak coming into this tilt with Cena. It was a solid match overall with Cena even pulling out a springboard Stunner, but the result was never in question. This makes two years in a row where Cena could've done the right thing for the business and got his win back at ER one month later. Undercutting the credibility of what-could-be mega heels Wyatt and Rusev hurts the ability for any other faces to make money with them.
The Undertaker d. Bray Wyatt
This was a pretty entertaining match! I really enjoyed what I saw of the buildup with Bray carrying the entire load by himself, and to Taker's credit he looked a helluva lot better this go round than at WMXXX. A lot of great psychology at play in this one with Bray trying to take the mantle as the new face of fear and Taker just being his normal bad ass paranormal self. I was hoping to see Bray go over as the streak doesn't matter anymore, but it appears as if WWE is setting Taker up for his last ride at WM 32 in Dallas, Texas.
Seth Rollins d. Roman Reigns & Brock Lesnar
This was probably my favorite match of the night. I really liked both guys going in, but I wasn't sure if they could piece together a good match. I was very happy that my skepticism was wrong, because they told a really compelling story in the ring with Lesnar delivering an absolute beating and Reigns taking it with a sadomasochistic smile like he was Tyler Durden in "Fight Club". Then after the big babyface rally we get another F-5 from Lesnar which queued Rollins to come down to cash in. Two curb stomps later he walks out WWE World Heavyweight Champion. I absolutely loved the swerve in this match as it's something we haven't got at Mania in awhile in the main event at least. The last I could think of was SCSA teaming with Mr. McMahon at the conclusion of WM 17.
The Rock-Rousey-TripleNippleH segment could've been about 10 mins shorter, but it was a nice little Mania moment as well.
As a whole show I enjoyed this Mania more than WM XXX. I won't give it a score, but I will say that it gets a thumbs up in my book. To tell how good it really is we will have to see how WWE follows it up. Does Rollins continue the sad lineage of heel champions that become absolute chickenshit cowards as soon as they get the strap? Can Lesnar go on a sustained face run while only working 4 events a year? Do the divas get a chance? I think there was a great deal of good done with this show, but I think WWE still has a long way to go to improving their product.
I'm as surprised to be writing this as you probably are to be reading it. WM 31 got my fires reignited a bit for the future of the company. That paired with my extreme love of NXT has turned my tide so to speak.
Onto the review....
IC Ladder Match
This was one of those crazy spot fests that would be hard to review as a whole. It would be like trying to review a SNL sketch vs. the entire movie that would be a normal match. I will say it was rather enjoyable like many of the MitB matches. Ambrose took some especially nasty bumps and falls. The powerbomb through the ringside ladder was especially brutal looking at home. The finish with Daniel Bryan hoisting gold was the bookend to a year of extreme highs and lows for him. I would've liked to see him in the ME, but it looks like they know that he will elevate the IC title to the level we have seen in the past.
Randy Orton d. Seth Rollins
This was a solid one-on-one throw down. While past mania's have put Orton in a bad position with opponents like Kane, HHH, or Batista/Bryan this was a solid meshing of styles and abilities that made for a rather entertaining match. The sheer athleticism of the finishing sequence was AMAZING with Orton reversing a curb stomp to hurl Rollins high into the air and then delivering the RKO. At first Orton going over did not make much sense to me, but as you will see Rollins had bigger fish to fry by night's end.
Triple H d. Sting
That is no typo. The Game defeated the Stinger in what may be his only WWE match ever. The match itself wasn't bad considering Sting's age and limitations. It was really quite cool to see the DX/NWO showdown, HBK-Sting altercation, and the novelty of Sting at Mania. I think some Flair intervention would've been appropriate, but I digress. At the end of the day it was extremely overbooked, but none of that would've bothered me if Sting had got the victory.
AJ Lee & Paige d. The Bella Twins
Knowing now that AJ Lee literally just came back for a Mania paycheck it makes it even more humorous that WWE Divas Champion Nikki Bella did the honors on this one. It wasn't a terrible match by any means but I think unfortunately the resulting AJ Lee retirement may have made #givedivasachance DOA. A lot of the problem that Vince has with going all the way with divas is that they have left him in the past. I could rattle off a plethora of names here, but I'm sure there are already others floating around in your head so I'll let you make your own. Point being it was a good match with some good tag psychology, and it was better than we've come to expect from the divas on any show not called NXT.
John Cena d. Rusev w/ Lana
I have vocally and prominently defended John Cena in the past; however, I have to say his act is starting to get old with me as well. I think he did a great justice to the business by taking an absolute wrecking at the hands of Brock Lesnar at Summerslam, but he has undercut that good with his actions in the months since the SS beat down. With Goldberg (and THE STREAK) as an outlier I think undefeated streaks in wrestling are horseshit. Nonetheless Rusev was riding a nice never-been-pinned streak coming into this tilt with Cena. It was a solid match overall with Cena even pulling out a springboard Stunner, but the result was never in question. This makes two years in a row where Cena could've done the right thing for the business and got his win back at ER one month later. Undercutting the credibility of what-could-be mega heels Wyatt and Rusev hurts the ability for any other faces to make money with them.
The Undertaker d. Bray Wyatt
This was a pretty entertaining match! I really enjoyed what I saw of the buildup with Bray carrying the entire load by himself, and to Taker's credit he looked a helluva lot better this go round than at WMXXX. A lot of great psychology at play in this one with Bray trying to take the mantle as the new face of fear and Taker just being his normal bad ass paranormal self. I was hoping to see Bray go over as the streak doesn't matter anymore, but it appears as if WWE is setting Taker up for his last ride at WM 32 in Dallas, Texas.
Seth Rollins d. Roman Reigns & Brock Lesnar
This was probably my favorite match of the night. I really liked both guys going in, but I wasn't sure if they could piece together a good match. I was very happy that my skepticism was wrong, because they told a really compelling story in the ring with Lesnar delivering an absolute beating and Reigns taking it with a sadomasochistic smile like he was Tyler Durden in "Fight Club". Then after the big babyface rally we get another F-5 from Lesnar which queued Rollins to come down to cash in. Two curb stomps later he walks out WWE World Heavyweight Champion. I absolutely loved the swerve in this match as it's something we haven't got at Mania in awhile in the main event at least. The last I could think of was SCSA teaming with Mr. McMahon at the conclusion of WM 17.
The Rock-Rousey-TripleNippleH segment could've been about 10 mins shorter, but it was a nice little Mania moment as well.
As a whole show I enjoyed this Mania more than WM XXX. I won't give it a score, but I will say that it gets a thumbs up in my book. To tell how good it really is we will have to see how WWE follows it up. Does Rollins continue the sad lineage of heel champions that become absolute chickenshit cowards as soon as they get the strap? Can Lesnar go on a sustained face run while only working 4 events a year? Do the divas get a chance? I think there was a great deal of good done with this show, but I think WWE still has a long way to go to improving their product.
Saturday, January 17, 2015
This is not going to be fun for me to write....
I think I will be taking an extended hiatus from Rasslin' again after this year's Mania. I've watched it off & on again since Mania 25, which in and of itself was the first WWE product I had watched in over 6 years if I'm being honest.
It's not due to Super-Cena or my favorite Punk-er leaving to try different things. I can't take anymore how blatantly out of touch Vince is with what people want to see, and the history of this product.
I'll address the second part first. In it's heyday (mainly the attitude era widely regarded as the most profitable time in the business) WWE was more about SPORTS entertainment than sports ENTERTAINMENT. Yeah it was a bunch of guys in speedos pretending to fight one another, but it was presented as a traditional sport with match ups that were made because they were "earned", hype videos were produced, and the matches themselves were presented as being important. That is what hooked me, and it has been a model of success for Dana White at the UFC. Now, VKM has returned to over-the-top circus acts with very little in the way of in-ring work. Good technicians are labeled as "boring", or pushed and then blamed for the company's success even when they didn't get the full creative effort behind them.
A lot of "the fall of WCW" was blamed on talent having guaranteed contracts and that marginalized the creative efforts of Eric Bischoff, Ed Ferrara, Vince Russo, and others. If we are looking at the "fall of WWE"; however, with no guaranteed contracts and creative control the shows are still being hastily rebooked at the last minute because despite having a room full of writers for each show Vince still feels that they are not getting the job done. In 30 years of business it's hard to believe that the man has never learned that sometimes you have to be accountable for your faults when failures occur. It's much too easy for Vince to write it off as "an apathetic crowd" or "a talent not getting over the gimmick" and so on. Instead of looking at what worked in the past to help provide a template for the future.
I use "fall of WWE" loosely because the truth is that the company will probably succeed in spite of itself, because it's the only widely accessible game in town.
When I say Vince is out of touch you can see it in the programming. A ready-made destruction machine like Roman Reigns has been reduced to cutting promos about how he is like Superman, or telling fairy tales to the audience. PAC made a name for himself on the indy circuit with his incredible in ring ability and no benefit of the WWE hype machine, yet Vince is set on making him a "mighty mouse" superhero character when he comes up to the main roster. Mighty Mouse? I am pretty sure some of the parents in the audience may only partially get that reference. We keep on going down the line and look at Jon Moxley/Dean Ambrose, who has been booked into oblivion with inane comedy and shenanigans finishes to his main event matches. Tyler Black/Seth Rollins has been handled well so far, but give it time. Sheamus went from a powerhouse heel to a one-note ethnic joke that wasn't funny the first time. Bray Wyatt was absolutely killed by booking, and the powers that be decided that they can rebuild his character by having him beat Ambrose multiple times on free tv and ppv. There are many more, but this was just to make my point.
The booking decisions alone show what kind of chaos reigns in the backstage of the WWE right now. It's not something I can willingly support any longer, and part of me hopes that they fail. This was something that I enjoyed as a kid, but they have stripped away anything enjoyable about it.
Being home with my son meant I had time to kill while he napped on me so I had gotten in the habit of watching the 90-min Raw on HULU, and even that has gotten insufferable.
So after Mania I'm done & this is my last post at this site.
As Edward R. Murrow would say "Good Night and Good Luck"
It's not due to Super-Cena or my favorite Punk-er leaving to try different things. I can't take anymore how blatantly out of touch Vince is with what people want to see, and the history of this product.
I'll address the second part first. In it's heyday (mainly the attitude era widely regarded as the most profitable time in the business) WWE was more about SPORTS entertainment than sports ENTERTAINMENT. Yeah it was a bunch of guys in speedos pretending to fight one another, but it was presented as a traditional sport with match ups that were made because they were "earned", hype videos were produced, and the matches themselves were presented as being important. That is what hooked me, and it has been a model of success for Dana White at the UFC. Now, VKM has returned to over-the-top circus acts with very little in the way of in-ring work. Good technicians are labeled as "boring", or pushed and then blamed for the company's success even when they didn't get the full creative effort behind them.
A lot of "the fall of WCW" was blamed on talent having guaranteed contracts and that marginalized the creative efforts of Eric Bischoff, Ed Ferrara, Vince Russo, and others. If we are looking at the "fall of WWE"; however, with no guaranteed contracts and creative control the shows are still being hastily rebooked at the last minute because despite having a room full of writers for each show Vince still feels that they are not getting the job done. In 30 years of business it's hard to believe that the man has never learned that sometimes you have to be accountable for your faults when failures occur. It's much too easy for Vince to write it off as "an apathetic crowd" or "a talent not getting over the gimmick" and so on. Instead of looking at what worked in the past to help provide a template for the future.
I use "fall of WWE" loosely because the truth is that the company will probably succeed in spite of itself, because it's the only widely accessible game in town.
When I say Vince is out of touch you can see it in the programming. A ready-made destruction machine like Roman Reigns has been reduced to cutting promos about how he is like Superman, or telling fairy tales to the audience. PAC made a name for himself on the indy circuit with his incredible in ring ability and no benefit of the WWE hype machine, yet Vince is set on making him a "mighty mouse" superhero character when he comes up to the main roster. Mighty Mouse? I am pretty sure some of the parents in the audience may only partially get that reference. We keep on going down the line and look at Jon Moxley/Dean Ambrose, who has been booked into oblivion with inane comedy and shenanigans finishes to his main event matches. Tyler Black/Seth Rollins has been handled well so far, but give it time. Sheamus went from a powerhouse heel to a one-note ethnic joke that wasn't funny the first time. Bray Wyatt was absolutely killed by booking, and the powers that be decided that they can rebuild his character by having him beat Ambrose multiple times on free tv and ppv. There are many more, but this was just to make my point.
The booking decisions alone show what kind of chaos reigns in the backstage of the WWE right now. It's not something I can willingly support any longer, and part of me hopes that they fail. This was something that I enjoyed as a kid, but they have stripped away anything enjoyable about it.
Being home with my son meant I had time to kill while he napped on me so I had gotten in the habit of watching the 90-min Raw on HULU, and even that has gotten insufferable.
So after Mania I'm done & this is my last post at this site.
As Edward R. Murrow would say "Good Night and Good Luck"
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