You watch Lashley in TNA and he's likely to hit more power moves per-match than any one 'big guy' wrestler in WWE. They're too fucking afraid of powerbombs and suplexes.
The face of the company now makes women give up the dream of being a mother and makes her sign something that says She has to leave his house in 24 hours if he wants her to.
I saw Rikishi last year and I was in constant fear of his knees or ankles exploding, dude had such trouble getting in the ring (as the promotion doesn't have ring steps).
Yeah a lot the "power" guys in WWE these days don't really come off as being all that strong. Be it the Ryback or Reigns types or just not letting guys who are strong do moves to display their actual power.
Here's how I would do Mania: Have Bryan beat Reigns at Fastlane due to interference from Rollins. This leads to Lesnar/Bryan for the title and Reigns/Rollins for the briefcase. Reigns wins the briefcase after a bullshit finish while Bryan takes Leanar to the limit and narrowly wins the title. Mania ends with a refreshed Reigns cashing in on a severely injured Bryan, reinforcing the narrative that Reigns basically had everything handed to him while Bryan had to work his as off to get where he is. Book Reigns as an arrogant heel for the rest of the year until the fans start cheer him. Bryan and Rollins would both remain in the title picture after Mania.
Sometimes I feel bad for shitting on Akebono because he really does try, and he's a lot better than when he was in HUSTLE or AJPW originally. This might be of too high praise, but he really does remind me of Andre a lot. He's kind of got an opposite problem of Andre though. He constantly improves as a wrestler but his health hurts him so there's only so much improvement he can make where as Andre just went downhill due to his body hurting him so badly. And from reading interviews, Akebono does wrestling because he loves it not because he needs the money.
But it's so noticeable when 48 year old Ultimo Dragon is tagged into this match(with his 65 year old Tenryu partner and 45 year old completely beaten up Akebono partner.) and when Ultimo gets in the ring, you can tell Atsushi Aoki is like 'oh thank god I can wrestle now' because the match pace multiplies by three.
I loved his theme! I talked with him about it when he did those DGUSA shows. He said he had it made for him and was glad I played it just because I liked it (it was during intermission).
I don't know, I feel like I miss the parts where 'people booed the shit out of Naito' aside from some rumors from some random Japanese smark fans that 'that's totally what happened'
And does anyone really care about a 'Okada redmeption' storyline? Why is this so important? It's like Darth Vader in Star Wars prequels, does anyone REALLY want this? Why Okada? Why not someone else? Okada's already over, but since he's Gedo's pet project, he needs to be MORE over. Got to make Okada look stronk.
Okada's 'redemption' reminds me of Cena's 'worst year ever' in the sense that no one's going to buy it because it's clear as day to everyone that you're just doing it to book him even stronger. Not to make him more endearing. This is the storyline Goto should have, not fucking Okada Okada Okada Okada Okada.
In Cena's supposed "worst year ever", he:
- Beat Brock Lesnar in his first match back
- Ousted Johnny Ace from power
- Won MITB
- Main evented 10 out of 12 PPVs
- Won the Royal Rumble
- Made out with AJ
- Won Superstar of the Year
They basically didn't do any of the "worst year" or "redemption" story, then post-Rumble they suddenly wanted the ending and climax of the story anyway, even though they'd done none of the buildup. So suddenly it was his worst year ever and he was desperate for redemption he didn't give a shit about before the Rumble.
I would expect they'll actually do the "worst year" story for Okada, by contrast.
5. Kidd/Cesaro (they're a tag-team, it counts)
4. Ambrose
3. Brock Lesnar
2. Rusev
1. Seth Rollins
I kind of struggled to come up with five stand-out names to be honest.
Realistically only Rusev and Rollins were easy. Brock is a part-timer which made it hard to pick him, but it's hard to deny that when he does do stuff, it's absolutely outstanding. Ambrose should really get some better material, realistically he should've been the one to get Reign's push. Kidd and Cesaro have been a great team so far, I really enjoy watching them go.
Bryan hasn't done anything interesting since he came back and honestly, his look makes it very, very hard to take anything he does seriously. Yes, I've become that guy, he looks like a bum and its hard to not see him as one. I imagine he comes out there, does what he's told and then goes backstage to put on his hemp suit and bowler hat and just smokes some synthetic weed with Kofi (because he used to pretend to be Bob Marley, you see) and discusses how the government is injecting them with tracking devices disguised as measles-vaccination and the man is holding him down from the Mania main event... Seriously Bryan, go see a barber.
Other than that, I barely pay attention to the main roster, I watch the PPV's
And even then, I skipped all the mid- and undercard stuff for the past three months
. I watch Raw when I hear it doesn't suck, but normally skip around so much I end up with maybe seeing 30 minutes worth of show. I am probably missing out on some good mid- or undercard stuff.
Tangentially related, but now that I've actually followed people's suggestions of not just bitching about WWE, but actually checking out other options, god I really wish Cesaro would go to NJPW. He'd be able to pull out all the suplexes and power bombs he wanted and I think he could be a star there. I'm having fun watching Brass Ring Club do their thing, but Cesaro's such a wasted talent.
