• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

April Wrasslin' |OT| 2017 Season Premiere

Anth0ny

Member
I wonder if so many wrestling fans being so generally bitter and cynical comes from the fact that it's half a sport half a fictional TV show... Sports fans are fickle and love to shit on their own team when they aren't doing well (problem with wrestling becomes that doing well is highly subjective whereas in other sports it's basically statistics) but can't stop/ won't stop watching their team, going to the games etc... Add in the general why the fuck did they write it like that that TV shows get and you get a recipe for Bitter fans.

I think there's also something to be said about people getting defensive about what they perceive as "their childhood". You see it with Nintendo games, you see it with Star Wars, and you see it with wrestling, just to name a few. While many see the new product, realize it's not for them, and move on... others feel the need to stick around, because maybe, just MAYBE, they'll make something great again and make you feel the same way you felt all those years ago as a child, either playing Nintendo games, or watching a Star Wars movie, or watching fake athletics.
 
I think there's also something to be said about people getting defensive about what they perceive as "their childhood". You see it with Nintendo games, you see it with Star Wars, and you see it with wrestling, just to name a few. While many see the new product, realize it's not for them, and move on... others feel the need to stick around, because maybe, just MAYBE, they'll make something great again and make you feel the same way you felt all those years ago as a child, either playing Nintendo games, or watching a Star Wars movie, or watching fake athletics.


That's really apt too.


I wonder how much it's the audience growing up thinking the Attitude era was the norm rather than the exception
 

Toki767

Member
Does Angle wear contacts or something?

Ever since HOF he's looked like he's had a starry look in his eyes. Like he's not all there.
 
Amazing crowd for the most part, got pretty much all the chants I expected only thing missing if the crowd going full Rocky Maivia hate in chanting for him to die but it got damn close and they kept it up with Vince came out and Paul E too, not that it'll mean anything but for one night it was great. After that I was waiting for the "fuck that owl" and they didn't disappoint.

I only skipped a little and not like half or more of the show like usual. Still think I'm dropping Raw after this though regardless of the "superstar shake up" because it'll probably be downhill from here but maybe I'll give in to the gimmick Raw. Oh, right I have the network again until May 1st... Fuck.


That was a nice send off for Bill but then oh god... The spin on Raw Talk here for Romaine. Will Bayley freeze up? Let's find out!


That boy ain't right.

C8ihprdUAAAgG5_.jpg

lol
 
Goldberg/Lesnar was a much bigger match than Owens/Jericho. Bigger stars and in kayfabe 2 of the most dominant wrestlers ever. Why wouldn't that be the title match? Kevin Owens was gifted the title by triple h and was booked like a weakling anyways. The fact that he got distracted makes him lucky, Lesnar on the other hand just lost clean.

Goldberg has had 3 matches in total. The two Lesnar ones were great. The Owens one was lame. Is having two short matches that big of a deal when that was sort of Goldberg's thing? The Owens one was lame mostly because distraction finishes are horrible. The problem is that Owens can't last longer than Lesnar but at the same time you don't want him squashed clean because he'd already been booked like a clown as champion.

Most importantly, Goldberg has cut amazing promos and comes off as a genuine Babyface unlike pretty much the whole company (this is a huge problem for WWE). He was even able to turn the audience tonight. What other true babyfaces are in the company that are over? Naomi and Cena? A certain type of fan hates them too... Overall, Goldberg's return was better than it had any right to be and most of his segments and matches have been great. He was a bad promo before this comeback but now it's his best asset. I really don't see the problem other than "my guy lost but I'm not a mark, I swear :("

Btw why are they rejecting part timers by going to Wm and raw?
 
I just listened to the new Pallbearer. Maybe not Sorrow and Extinction but it is a fucking classic nonetheless. Has washed some of the bad tastes away.
 
Goldberg's farewell promo was freaking great... Completely won folks over (though I imagine it probably helped that they realized he was saying goodbye).

But almost stuff and even a nice tribute to WCW in there with the repeated mentions that this wasn't part of the show and that he isn't talking of any damn script ;)

But yeah great stuff.
 

broz0rs

Member
I got the impression the smarks hated Goldberg because they thought he couldn't wrestle.

That's the first time I've seen where a booed babyface was able to turn around a smarky crowd like that. I hope that wasn't the end for Goldberg.
 
Oh right, The Revival on Raw to a great pop and I really, really, really hope they let them do their thing though could change already next week if they wanna sell this thing though I think it's pretty obvious American Alpha is going to move to Raw because there's no way they're not going to have Kurt on Raw and not them.


EDIT: Oh right, Braun coming out during the Paul E/Brock segment only to of course back down, crowd didn't miss that cue either. So sick of heels backing down even if Braun started having flashbacks to last year's rumble.
 
So I totally caved on the return of the buy one get one for a 1$ T-shirt sale:

Got:

NWO
NWO Wolfpac
Bray Wyatt I am Fear
Balor Club
The Club (the one with the cool gas maskeque logo)
Bobby Roode's GLorious one
DIY
KO Mania 2
Lesnar's old Eat, Sleep, Conquer, Repeat
and the one I'm most excited for
The DDP Hall of Fame shirt, look at this beauty:


I wanted to get The Revival but that shirt was sold out and they don't have a women's version of that shirt for some reason. Actually I normally buy the men's shirts because women's shirts are always designed to fit tight and I hate tight clothing but I had to get both Balor and KO Mania 2 in a women's size because both were sold out, popular folks there.

I do love these sales though, allows me to stock up and save on S&H
 
So I totally caved on the return of the buy one get one for a 1$ T-shirt sale:

Got:

NWO
NWO Wolfpac
Bray Wyatt I am Fear
Balor Club
The Club (the one with the cool gas maskeque logo)
Bobby Roode's GLorious one
DIY
KO Mania 2
Lesnar's old Eat, Sleep, Conquer, Repeat
and the one I'm most excited for
The DDP Hall of Fame shirt, look at this beauty:



I wanted to get The Revival but that shirt was sold out and they don't have a women's version of that shirt for some reason. Actually I normally buy the men's shirts because women's shirts are always designed to fit tight and I hate tight clothing but I had to get both Balor and Ko Mania 2 in a women's size because both were sold out...
Holy shit can you get me two Goldberg shirts xxl
 
Bayley did really well on Raw Talk.


She's so damn likeable. Like really really likeable

Damn that Savage Elbow should be her actual finisher... Bayley to Belly, the setup.
 
Oh yeah, glad the "superstar shake up" is going to be a trade thing than a draft, I said it awhile ago that it's what they should do instead because I hated yearly drafts.
 
No trace of Broken Hardys on Raw Talk.. super super normal Matt.

Was a reference to Expedition for Gold but delivered very normally

Meltz thinks WWE won't pursue because they don't want to open that can of worms for themselves because that precedent could hurt them in the future
 

jurgen

Member

The fact that we may eventually get The Revival vs. The Hardys is fantastic.

No trace of Broken Hardys on Raw Talk.. super super normal Matt.

Was a reference to Expedition for Gold but delivered very normally

Meltz thinks WWE won't pursue because they don't want to open that can of worms for themselves because that precedent could hurt them in the future

I think we're just going to have to settle for minor references and mannerisms here and there for now. Occassional accent drops, hand movements, facial expressions but no full on #brokenbrilliance yet. WWE won't actively pursue the use of those references but I wouldn't be surprised if they're waiting for the Hardys to resolve it themselves with the legal disputes already ongoing.
 
The Broken dream is dead then.

Welp. Hopefully they do better with the Hardyz then they did with the Dudley Boys.

Well I mean they won the titles on their first night in at Mania... Dudleys didn't even make the card their first Mania back and were jobbing almost from day one... so there's no reason to think they're gonna get treated as badly as the Dudleys were


In two nights the Tag division went from stale too maybe the best thing on Raw.

Hardys will have some solid matches with Sheasaro and other teams like that while Revival and New Day tear the house down and then bam Hardyz vs Revival possibly I'd say at Summerslam
 

jurgen

Member
Well I mean they won the titles on their first night in at Mania... Dudleys didn't even make the card their first Mania back and were jobbing almost from day one... so there's no reason to think they're gonna get treated as badly as the Dudleys were

Dudleys were on the pre-show. That entire run was a downhill slide.
 
Kinda dull looking Korakuen show in an hour or so, nothing but tag matches headlined by the NEVER six-man titles - LIJ vs Taguchi Japan, which is Taguchi, Tanahashi & Ricochet this time around. Also, Chase Owens is back :|
 

Adree

Member
I'm glad Evil Emma is back but jeez she had a shit eating grin on the entire match. Too happy to be back I guess.
 
Well that's a definite skip. The biggest criticism I have for NJPW is just the constant six and eight man tag matches.

Yeah, it really wears thin after a while. It's just the nature of the promotion though, they're never going to give away random singles matches to make these shows more exciting - but that's the thing, it's easy to skip shows like this and you know that anything important that happens (like with Okada and Shibata) will make it into the video package at the next PPV.
 
Balor can't even tie Bryan's fucking shoe-laces. It won't be an ⅛ of an ⅛ of an ⅛ of an ⅛ as good as it would have been with Bryan.

Upon further reflection, Bryan is wearing loafers.
5255074.jpg


Zayn would play the Bryan better than Balor, but Zayn's a geek in their eyes.
 

kiguel182

Member
Raw was okay but a weak start to the new "season". I guess that's because of them changing superstars next week. Maybe that should've been done the night after Summerslam or something.

Balor teaming up with Seth was dumb and well, the rest of the show was kinda forgettable.

Roman going to Smackdown was a bummer. I was expecting Nakamura vs Orton to shake things up and Smackdown is the show that I really enjoy. Now it's two main event scenes I don't care about. Sucks.
 

Adree

Member
Roman going to Smackdown was a bummer. I was expecting Nakamura vs Orton to shake things up and Smackdown is the show that I really enjoy. Now it's two main event scenes I don't care about. Sucks.

Da big dawg is never going to the inferior brand blue-lieve that.
 

Recall

Member
Smackdown should be decent from a what matches they will build to next.

So many Titles switches in short period hasn't been the greatest and I'm not even sure if they will do Wyatt v Orton II.
 

Pikma

Banned
We got our Payback lineup leaked via Meltz

Brock will not be defending on the show.
Reigns/Strowman (Strowman will likely get Brock at SummerSlam)
Balor/Owens
Hardy's/Sheamus and Cesaro
Rollins/Joe
 

Toki767

Member
I really dislike the title not being defended at every PPV and not on TV every week.

I think having it around every week weakens it to be honest. UFC titles don't need to be defended on every show. Neither do Boxing titles.

And let's face it, WWE screws up any champion who would be on the show every week.
 
We got our Payback lineup leaked via Meltz

Brock will not be defending on the show.
Reigns/Strowman (Strowman will likely get Brock at SummerSlam)
Balor/Owens
Hardy's/Sheamus and Cesaro
Rollins/Joe

Balor/Owens?

They literally just announced Jericho/Owens II, unless they plan on having Owens just murder Jericho before the event. Was hoping we'd get one more out of it with a decisive annihilation of Jericho to write him off. I mean unless they do that again before the PPV and thus can get that second match at like Summerslam or something when Jericho coes back, because he is expected to come back.
 

rrc1594

Member
I think having it around every week weakens it to be honest. UFC titles don't need to be defended on every show. Neither do Boxing titles.

And let's face it, WWE screws up any champion who would be on the show every week.

I just hope Brock defends it at least once before SS. Raw has 3 shows between then.

Edit- If AJ does go to Raw, they really going to have him out of the title picture for like 5 months?
 
Yeah, it really wears thin after a while. It's just the nature of the promotion though, they're never going to give away random singles matches to make these shows more exciting - but that's the thing, it's easy to skip shows like this and you know that anything important that happens (like with Okada and Shibata) will make it into the video package at the next PPV.
That's true but it gets a little exhausting when there's so many on the main show because they have to fill up time. I end up skipping a lot of them. Destruction last year was just ridiculous, they really overstretched themselves by having three shows.

I'd like to see more actual feuds that don't revolve around titles. Just give some of these guys something to do that aren't endless tag matches.
 
God damn this is funny

https://www.facebook.com/theScore/videos/10156566603527037/

That's true but it gets a little exhausting when there's so many on the main show because they have to fill up time. I end up skipping a lot of them. Destruction last year was just ridiculous, they really overstretched themselves by having three shows.

I'd like to see more actual feuds that don't revolve around titles. Just give some of these guys something to do that aren't endless tag matches.

Problem is feuds outside of titles/stable wars often involve promos and shit and NJPW is not a promo heavy company, probably one of the reasons they have so much international success
 

Forkball

Member
Just realized the two men who walked outta Mania world champs faced each other at Summerslam.

Also I have no idea if Brock is a face or heel. I suppose he transcends everything. Hard to believe he redebuted on the Raw after Mania FIVE years ago. His second run is longer than his first.
 
Yeah I guess you're right. Man those endless tag matches are a drag though...

Yeah but sometimes they can be fun, I just watch it for workrate...

Especially LIJ and Suzuki (just Suzuzki not the -gun lol, though ZSJ made is way for this show so that's a nice star power injection of Suzuki-gun, man that guy must be exhausted, wrestle how many fucking matches Mania weekend and then literally fly to Japan basically a day or less later? All the power to him)
 
Top Bottom