• 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.

August Wrasslin' |OT| starring Bryan Danielson & John Cena in a worked reality show

S

strobogo

Banned
There are only so many ways you can have a 10 minute matches 7 times in a row, you know? It's not like they were getting more and more time for each match, or there was an injury playing into things. They were basically just the same match with a different finish. They were already super familiar with each other since they previously had probably 10 matches over the course of the year, so the normal story of "guys get more familiar with each other as the series goes on, being able to reverse and reverse reversals" was out from the start.
 
N

Nocturnowl

Member
Cagey said:
Fantasy booking blows because it makes reality a perpetual letdown.
Click to expand...

Don't worry, I can help.

Fantasy Booking time!

Cena beats Bryan clean at Summerslam with the commentary claiming that he outwrestled Bryan, Orton then comes out to cash in on a fight weary Cena but then walks straight into an STFU and taps like a chump.
Guest Ref HHH raises Cena's twice victorious hand with a jolly grin, suddenly he kicks Cena in the gut and prepares a Pedigree, but Cena counters it, since the move is near the ropes this is also one of those pedigree counters where Trips puts his arms on the ropes before the actual counter telegraphing that he will be sailing straight over it, oh and when he does go over he lands on Vince McMahon.
Cena stands tall screaming that he'll NEVER GIVE UP!

See fantasy booking can also be completely awful.
 
S

somedevil

Member
Raw Viewership for 8/12:

The Great Khali & Natalya vs. Big E Langston & A.J. Lee segment grew about 140,000 viewers. The segment with Vince McMahon in the ring with Brad Maddox and then HHH coming out to set him up as the referee for the SummerSlam title match grew about 560,000 viewers to a 3.2 quarter. Alberto Del Rio vs. Kofi Kingston lost about 300,000 viewers. Then the Usos vs. Jack Swagger & Antonio Cesaro lost about 140,000 viewers. So the huge second hour gains were really all for the McMahon/Maddox segment carrying the hour as opposed to the entire hour. The Miz TV segment with John Cena and Daniel Bryan gained about 560,000 viewers as well, doing a 3.3. But it lost roughly the same 560,000 viewers when Fandango and R-Truth did their dance off. The Battle Royal did well, gaining about 400,000 viewers and then the C.M. Punk, Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar and Curtis Axel segment gained more than 400,000 viewers as well, basically normal overrun, ending at a 3.5.
Click to expand...

Basically the big gains were the usual plus the Battle Royal did well. Unsurprising that everyone that turned on Raw for the Cena vs Bryan promo battle turned off the tv when the dance off happened.
 
R

RBH

Member
Interview with former WWE writer Dan Madigan:


On his biggest disappointment when in WWE: "I really wanted to create a high octane Cruiserweight division and build it around Ultimo Dragon, and bring in guys he'd worked with in Mexico and Japan like Super Crazy, Juventud, Psychosis. I realized writing my book, that there's a huge latino community in the US and I wanted to bring a strong lucha libre style to the WWE to bridge the cultural gap. But it didn't happen. That's one of the first big fights I had with Vince.

The concept of the masked wrestler is lost on the WWE, they don't really understand it, they don't appreciate it, unlike Mexico where that's the focal point. I think in America, it's a whole different ballgame, the psychology is different. I lost that fight a couple of times in the room. At one point, we lost Ultimo he went back to Japan, and we just had Rey, Vince goes, 'We have one masked wrestler in the ring, any more of them on the roster and it'll confuse the fans.' I said to him, 'Vince, there's 10,000 wrestlers in Mexico in masks, no-one's confused.' I looked around the room and I wasn't gonna win that fight. That was the biggest disappointment, that they wouldn't let lucha libre be a featured style on the show."


On Alberto Del Rio's decision as opposed to other Mexican stars: "He took the mask off which was a smart move, a very smart move. If you're gonna come up from Mexico with a famous gimmick, take the mask off, find a different gimmick don't lose the reputation, that's the awful thing. It's like Ultimo Dragon, he never got the push he deserved because they never knew what to do with him. At one point a few years ago, WWE wanted him to come back but wanted him to take his mask off. It seems like people don't get how important the mask is in Mexico, it's like the essence of the wrestler. Mistico, I think Sin Cara now, he made a big splash, now they don't know what to do with him. Think of merchandising with a masked wrestler, it could be huge. But they don't understand the lucha libre mentality."
Click to expand...
 
O

Ozone

Member
Bootaaay said:
Haha, wow, Cesaro screaming "ZAYNNNNNNNN!!!!" like some knock-off Bond villain at the end of NXT was great. Really enjoying their feud. The 6-man tag match main event was good too, well worth a watch.

ibv9e5BFHArM6C.gif
Click to expand...
Outside the Cesaro/Zayn and AJ/Bayley stuff, my favorite thing this week on NXT is Xavier Woods being billed from Angel Grove.
 
S

strobogo

Banned
Or, even more likely, since Vince was a North East promoter for many years, as was his family, he wasn't exposed to that style of wrestling and had no taste for it. Much like he never really give big pushes to guys who worked the Southern/NWA style. Vince has always had a particular in ring style that he preferred. Expecting him to change after 30 years wasn't going to happen.
 
P

Perspicacity

Banned
Featuring masked wrestlers on your show is just a license to print money, doesn't matter if you like the style or not Vince. Good business is good business.
 
L

Lazy Man's Wallpaper

Member
I can remember Meltzer saying that for relatively little money Vince could basically buy lucha in Mexico by signing all the biggest names and touring them through Mexico and the southwestern US, but he doesn't get it and doesn't care. Which in my mind isn't a bad thing.

Anyone ever catch Super Astros? I think I saw it once on my dad's satellite dish. WWF was trying anything and everything back then, weren't they?
 
J

Jitters

Member
How much merch does Sin Cara sell? I don't remember hearing about any of the lucha guys being money makers in WCW either.

Mysterio is the only one I can think of that moves merchandise and is actually a draw.
 
L

Lazy Man's Wallpaper

Member
WCW lucha guys were portrayed as curtain jerkers and jokes, which caused problems when they tried to go back to AAA and be headliners after being portrayed as jobbers for the last year. Commentary would just make fun of them as their matches got over huge in front of the live crowds. WCW did them wrong, man, aside from the paychecks.
 
K

KissVibes

Banned
Shannon Moore is godddamn dumb to latch on to this but having tattoos is still an issue getting hired most places. There's a stigma around a persons character that has them, which is unfortunate.
 
A

Aiii

So not worth it
WWE Superstar Dolph Ziggler will be appearing in the upcoming Max Landis film, “Me Him Her” – described as a comedy about “sexual identity with three friends exploring love, lust and… sword combat.” The film will also star Landis, Haley Joel Osment, Dustin Milligan, and Emily Meade.

In a statement issued earlier this week, Max Landis said, “It’s completely different than anything I’ve ever written. You usually find me writing what I like to think of as intelligent summer action and genre films. This is deeply personal, and at its most basic level, a generational story about relationships and identity.”

Producers Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub added, “Max’s boundless imagination has dreamt up a fantastical world in which real people confront very real emotional issues in a very moving story that is hysterically funny to boot. We are very excited to bring the full Max Landis experience to film lovers everywhere.”

BRrkplMCQAAPupZ-1.jpg

BRr1lruCUAE1oSu.jpg
Click to expand...

What happened to Haley Joel Osment?
 
S

somedevil

Member
Some News:

WWE has attempted to keep this quiet, but Cena will be undergoing surgery shortly on his left elbow. The surgery may be as early as next week, although we were just told it would shortly after SummerSlam. Cena’s left elbow is swollen like he had a something nearly the size of a baseball implanted in it, and that isn’t good. It got so bad that Cena was pulled out of all in-ring, pulled from the only weekend house show in Oakland, where he was scheduled to main event, as well as pulled from wrestling on Raw, where he was also advertised in the main event.

Like the last time, it depends on what they find when they open him up how extensive the surgery will be and how long he’ll be out of action. Even had he not needed surgery, it feels like the right time for him to lose the title. They could swerve and have him retain, and have Randy Orton cash it in on Raw the next day or the next week, but more than likely the change should be part of a big angle on Sunday. Because there is no way of knowing how long Cena will be out of action, which figures to mean getting the title off him is a decision that has to be made, whether it would have been the original decision or not.

But to their benefit given the timing, Bryan has tremendous momentum as a face, and it is the time to give him the title if he’s going to stay face. And if he’s going to go heel, it’s also the time for him to get the title.

This match is expected to end up as the kickoff of the WrestleMania angle with the McMahons. HHH being added as referee is not because they think Bryan doesn’t have enough star power and they need HHH there. Quite the opposite. HHH is there because this is a high profile title match, the biggest since WrestleMania, and the right spot for the angle to kick off the McMahon family.

As noted here many times, the original McMahon family storyline was that at SummerSlam, they would become united, and then after, it’s HHH that goes heel, leading to a match where the ownership of the company is at stake. There is also a long time for that direction to change. But based on television, it does appear the ultimate long-term program is the McMahon family’s battle for power.

HHH going heel as referee would be the swerve that could happen. You are led to believe Vince is going to try and screw Cena or Bryan, and Bryan more than Cena, and HHH as referee will save the day and the right guy will win.
Click to expand...

Basically at the end of that match a major angle is going to go down. Somebody is going heel but the guess is who?

Also, the reason the shield have heat:

The Wyatts are HHH’s major project right now. In a sense, they’re being groomed for The Shield’s spot. We’ll see, but there is a lot of talk of The Shield being moved down, since they hurt Undertaker and Orton
Click to expand...
 
S

Striker

Member
It would be unsettling to see Ambrose become just-another-wrestler, and get no mic time. He's already close to that since they've done little with Shield for many months, and took an awful long time to establish a number one contender for his title.
 
F

funkystudent

Member
I think its safe to say Ortan is walking out as champ on Sunday.

If HHH turns to help him is the real question. I hope it happens. It should have happened during the Punk story years ago.
 
I

Ithil

Member
I think the honest best thing to do is, no swerve, Bryan beats Cena clean and wins the title, and HHH stops any cash-in.
 
L

Lazy Man's Wallpaper

Member
Has the audience really turned over enough in the last several years that a "McMahon Family Power Struggle" angle seems fresh to most viewers? It's easy to get into an Internet echo chamber where virtually everyone's been watching since the '90s, so I don't really know.
 
S

somedevil

Member
Ithil said:
I think the honest best thing to do is, no swerve, Bryan beats Cena clean and wins the title, and HHH stops any cash-in.
Click to expand...

The best case scenario is Bryan beats Cena Clean and Randy Orton cashes in and Bryan beats him too.

Most likely to happen is Bryan beat Cena and then Orton cashes in and beats him and becomes a heel or Triple H turns heel and helps Orton win.

The weird possibility Bryan wins and then Triple H turns on Orton and Bryan and Triple H form a new heel group.
 
S

Spirit of Jazz

Banned
Ithil said:
I think the honest best thing to do is, no swerve, Bryan beats Cena clean and wins the title, and HHH stops any cash-in.
Click to expand...

I think I'd prefer that Bryan wins clean, HHH acts like he's going to save him from Orton but then turns and delivers a pedigree. I'm really tired of HHH getting in the way of their top upcoming faces defending themselves, making them dependant on them makes them look weaker than their predecessors. "I'm happy our hero Mr. H stepped up to Vince, someone had to!" Said Bryan on Monday, when Austin or the Rock would have took Maddox out the equation themselves and got into Vince's face about how he couldn't screw them over which would have got an insane crowd reaction as well as would have set up Vince backing an Orton cash-in.

I think with HHH being in the match they need to do something big with him or else it's not worth it, him being there just to babysit the top-card faces is shitty. Of course I'd much rather him not be there at all but you've got to work with the cards you've been dealt.

Lazy Man's Wallpaper said:
Has the audience really turned over enough in the last several years that a "McMahon Family Power Struggle" angle seems fresh to most viewers? It's easy to get into an Internet echo chamber where virtually everyone's been watching since the '90s, so I don't really know.
Click to expand...

I think it would be fine if they did something interesting with it. I really wouldn't mind a big roster wide faction war with Trips leading new guard heels against Vince and his old guard faces, the ground-works already been set up for something like that with SHIELD and the Wyatt's both having a huge intimidating presence as soon as they came up while quite a few of the old heels like Henry and Show are turning face.
 
D

darkside31337

Tomodachi wa Mahou
They're not going to heel turn Bryan.

Bryan beating Cena clean and then HHH burying him right after raising his arm with the title and Orton cashing in is totally possible though.
 
K

KissVibes

Banned
I agree with The Miz.

They aren't going to turn him heel. No goddamn way. They'd kill his popularity AND his ability to move merch.
 
S

somedevil

Member
Also in the news Taryn Terrell pulls a Awesome Kong:

Taryn Terrell, 27, is out of action because she’s pregnant. Terrell’s boyfriend is Mark Lewis, a fairly well-known hard rock music producer. As noted last week, she was scheduled to beat Mickie James for the Knockouts title this year at Bound for Glory, although James’ contract expires before that date. It brings up a story from the heyday of women’s wrestling in the 40s and early 50s under Billy Wolfe, the Mildred Burke era, where Wolfe liked to recruit lesbians for the specific reason that if they were trained, you didn’t have to worry about that. Of course people familiar with Wolfe will note that he loved to sleep with at least a few of the women in his troupe, usually younger prettier women.
Click to expand...

Well the Impact diva division is now just Mickie James, Velvet Sky, Gail Kim and ODB with Tessmacher missing in Action.
 
S

strobogo

Banned
I would hope that HHH would get rid of the idea of the weekly GM/evil boss trope all together, not just redo it with him going full Vince for another 20 years. I would love for things to go back to the GM/president/boss show up maybe 4 times a year and only for big announcements or decisions.

I'm SO sick of the big bad boss being there every week and being on the shows just as much as the wrestlers. It's a terrible crutch to fill time and be less creative and they've been doing it for 15 straight years. And because it worked for Vince in 1998, every god damn company decided they have to do it, too. Is there a promotion with TV in the past 10 years that hasn't had an on screen boss character?
 
A

Arrowgigantic

Member
When John Cena comes back they need to put him in a bitter feud with Darren Young so everyone can watch Cena struggle to come up with things to say in promos.
 
S

SoulPlaya

more money than God
Holy shit, HHH is reffing the match? Whenever something big happens, HHH's ego forces him to get involved. He couldn't stay out of Punk's spotlight, and now he's doing it to Bryan.
 
B

British Monsoon

Member
Alternate Match of the Day;

Katsuyori Shibata vs Katsuhiko Nakajima - (BML 04/19/06)

Main event match from the short-lived Big Mouth Loud promotion here, as Katsuyori Shibata (the ace of the promotion) takes on Kensuke Sasaki's star pupil Katsuhiko Nakajima, who is just eighteen years old at this point. As you'd expect, this one has a lot of kicks. Shibata's actually quite restrained, his dropkick is still vicious, but nowhere near as brutal as he usually hits it, and he refrains from punting Nakajima in the face, which was nice of him. However, Nakajima gets a head of steam and starts to piss off Shibata, which is where things get fun. A nice, compact and hard-hitting match between two of the best strikers in the world of wrestling today.

ibZw0YowCjctW.gif


slightconfuse said:
Match of the day-
Super j Cup finals Great sasuke vs Wild Pegasus

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QeADnD2HbuE

What a great back and forth match. Would love to see 94 Pegasus vs 2013 Daniel Bryan.

One of the nice touches are all the rliminaed competitors at ringside to watch. Adds a bit of important to the match
Click to expand...

Awesome, one of the best super jr. matches ever, Pegasus was so amazing in that 94-96 period while Sasuke has always been an amazing talent when he's at his best, as he was here.

Soulplaya said:
Holy shit, HHH is reffing the match? Whenever something big happens, HHH's ego forces him to get involved. He couldn't stay out of Punk's spotlight, and now he's doing it to Bryan.
Click to expand...

It really seems that way, I just hope his part in the angle doesn't kill it dead as it did with Punk.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Do you watch / Have you returned to watching pro wrestling recently?
2
50
3K
violence replied
Korean Netflix Show Review: Mr Plankton *SPOILERS*
12
10K
near replied
  • Locked
Kotaku: Sony's Concord might be the biggest entertainment failure of all time, so why wasn't it news?
2 3 4
183
11K
Syphon Filter replied
SEGA / Atlus announce TGS 2020 Online lineup, schedule
News 2 3
102
13K
TintoConCasera replied
August Wrasslin' |OT| I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU-LY
397 398 399 400 401
20K
879K
SomewhatGroovy replied
Top Bottom