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February Wrasslin' |OT| WrassleGAF. In 2016.

S

Sir_Crocodile

Member
So...is it just me or does it feel like they may be booking Ambrose vs HHH at mania?

Ambrose was the last guy in the rumble, Ambrose had the big talkie segment with Brock...it'd also open up new possibilities - reigns turning heel at mania and stopping ambrose from beating trips.

Or will Vince stay the course and have the main event everyone expected two months ago? It just makes no sense to me. It's going to be Wrestlemania 22 all over again with the fans cheering HHH. And Reigns can't survive it like Cena did back then, because Cena was already made. It's just going to end up damaging Reigns more, surely?
 
T

TarpitCarnivore

Member
Gurrry said:
Raw last night was... ok. Not a great show, but it kept my attention for the most part. Again, I think the quality of Raw's have been much higher over the past couple of months. A far departure from where we were when we were dealing with the Ziggler/Lana/Rusev shitty story line.

Also, I think ive come to the realization that im not really a Dean Ambrose guy. Its not that I dont like him as a performer... although I think his promos are pretty bad for the most part.

I think the reason I dont like him as much as everyone else is his character. Im just over his gimmick and I dont really look at him as the "wild and crazy guy" that they keep pushing him as.

I also have the same feelings for the entire Wyatt family. I hate their long ass fucking intro, I hate Eric Rowan and Harper (yeah i know gaf, you will hate me for saying it). I just think they are boring. I have zero "fear" when they are out there, even though they are supposed to be this scary team of guys. Its just not working for me.
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Ambrose I agree with. It's starting to feel like Steve Blackman 2.0. Wyatts I think still have a tone of potential but the WWE is not letting them go full on creepy and dark. Their promos and whole experience should be like Taker in the New Generation era.
 
R

Raw64life

Member
miserable said:
is Angle done with TNA?
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Yes, fortunately. He's taking a break from wrestling for a year and then he doesn't know what he's going to do. He should probably retire, but despite what he's said about WWE, I bet he'd badly want to end his career there. WWE seems him as too big of a health risk though.
 
M

miserable

Member
Raw64life said:
Yes, fortunately. He's taking a break from wrestling for a year and then he doesn't know what he's going to do. He should probably retire, but despite what he's said about WWE, I bet he'd badly want to end his career there. WWE seems him as too big of a health risk though.
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he should have one last match at Wrestlemania
vs Cena
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Sir_Crocodile said:
So...is it just me or does it feel like they may be booking Ambrose vs HHH at mania?

Ambrose was the last guy in the rumble, Ambrose had the big talkie segment with Brock...it'd also open up new possibilities - reigns turning heel at mania and stopping ambrose from beating trips.

Or will Vince stay the course and have the main event everyone expected two months ago? It just makes no sense to me. It's going to be Wrestlemania 22 all over again with the fans cheering HHH. And Reigns can't survive it like Cena did back then, because Cena was already made. It's just going to end up damaging Reigns more, surely?
Click to expand...
That's because that is what is happening. There's no reason to even put Ambrose in the Fastlane main event unless they want Reigns to get booed even more, not to mention the last two shows have revolved far less around Reigns than they were pre-Rumble.

But from what I read, Ambrose being last in the Rumble was a fallback audible in case Reigns was heavily booed (which obviously he was). I would be pretty sure a Triple Threat was happening if not for the fact that there's no kayfabe reason for a match like that to be booked and it takes the wind out of the Rollins-Reigns-Ambrose headliner they're clearly saving up.
 
C

Cagey

Banned
The smark crowd strongly dislikes Roman Reigns so they'll mercilessly boo him in prominent roles.

That same crowd loves Dean Ambrose and they'll cheer him wildly in prominent roles, but he's been terrible for well over a year now.

Not sure what the WWE is supposed to do here. Trudge ahead against a strong resistance or acquiesce to a vocal segment of fans again, but this time it's not to someone performing at a high level (Bryan, Rollins).
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
I've been saying for a while that Dean's crazy and unstable gimmick doesn't work at all as a face. He seems charismatic enough that I think he might salvage it as a heel. Trying to be crazy and unstable but still a white meat good guy comes across corny.
 
B

Bronx-Man

Banned
I'm pretty sure they're going full speed ahead with Reigns at this point. It's obvious they hate the boos that he gets, but I can't think of anyone to replace him at this point.
 
R

RBH

Member
We now have a new airport picture for future reference!



CaNODFcUYAEpETL.jpg


https://twitter.com/enuhito_eng/status/694484591537582080?lang=en
 
A

avengers23

Banned
Gary Hart on Sting:
Sting backed down because he had no balls. He was a total and complete fraud. He was nothing other than a puppet for Dusty Rhodes, and it took people like Al Perez and me to make him look great - because he couldn’t look great on his best day.

Then, lo and behold, Al got programmed with Sting. I never met a more selfish guy in wrestling than Sting...He had no respect for anything or anyone, and was worse than Lord Athol Layton. He thought he was entitled to treat people like dirt because Dusty Rhodes picked him up, taught him how to paint his face, showed him a few high spots, and pushed him a mile high...He was a complete prima donna, and didn’t have the balls to fight his own fights. He would rather go squeal to the office, instead.
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I never took Sting seriously, though. He was rude to fans, and had an ego the size of the world. One of his “things” was to walk through the airport and imitate and make fun of retarded people - and he was a fan favorite! It was embarrassing. I don’t know how he is now. I hear that he’s a changed man, and I hope he is.
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C

Caderfix

Member
Cagey said:
The smark crowd strongly dislikes Roman Reigns so they'll mercilessly boo him in prominent roles.

That same crowd loves Dean Ambrose and they'll cheer him wildly in prominent roles, but he's been terrible for well over a year now.

Not sure what the WWE is supposed to do here. Trudge ahead against a strong resistance or acquiesce to a vocal segment of fans again, but this time it's not to someone performing at a high level (Bryan, Rollins).
Click to expand...

Dean is over with both marks and smarks.

Even though Dean matches are always the same and, frankly, kind of boring, he can cut a promo and has some personality, which is more than I can say about Roman. I'm not a fan of either of them, but if I had to choose one to be the champion, it'd be Dean.
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Cagey said:
The smark crowd strongly dislikes Roman Reigns so they'll mercilessly boo him in prominent roles.

That same crowd loves Dean Ambrose and they'll cheer him wildly in prominent roles, but he's been terrible for well over a year now.

Not sure what the WWE is supposed to do here. Trudge ahead against a strong resistance or acquiesce to a vocal segment of fans again, but this time it's not to someone performing at a high level (Bryan, Rollins).
Click to expand...

This is one of those things where I don't think you're going to get a lot of agreement even on GAF. Ambrose is not the best wrestler and he is a good not great promo, but I think he's well liked here and I think its stretching it to say he isn't either over enough or ready to main event WrestleMania.

My wife even commented yesterday that there's no way that Roman could have ever come off well in the opening segment the way Ambrose did. The Lunatic Fringe branding is mostly just branding at this point: Ambrose is actually just a straight-forward babyface character. It's pretty hard to do anything particularly crazy while still being super friendly happy guy that loves his buddy Roman and whatever.
 
C

Cagey

Banned
Angry Grimace said:
This is one of those things where I don't think you're going to get a lot of agreement even on GAF. Ambrose is not the best wrestler and he is a good not great promo, but I think he's well liked here and I think its stretching it to say he isn't either over enough or ready to main event WrestleMania.
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But I didn't say either of those. I did say he's been terrible for awhile now.

He's so clearly over with the loudest segment of the crowd, which was my point: does the company roll with the guy they want to back despite smark resistance, or do they switch to who the smarks cheer for the loudest... except this time, unlike Bryan and Seth, that guy kind of sucks.
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Cagey said:
But I didn't say either of those. I did say he's been terrible for awhile now.

He's so clearly over with the loudest segment of the crowd, which was my point: does the company roll with the guy they want to back despite smark resistance, or do they switch to who the smarks cheer for the loudest... except this time, that guy kind of sucks.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying you said that at all. I just don't think you're going to get a lot of agreement that he's terrible. He has a type of charisma that Roman just doesn't and to the extent he "sucks" he sucks a lot less than Roman does and they were perfectly fine going with him.

I don't know that Ambrose being elevated isn't or wasn't the plan anyways. They have exactly 1 guy who main events things like WrestleMania right now on the regular roster, and the injury list has all of the other guys, a couple of whom are aging out of that role.
 
C

Cagey

Banned
Angry Grimace said:
I'm not saying you said that at all. I just don't think you're going to get a lot of agreement that he's terrible. He has a type of charisma that Roman just doesn't and to the extent he "sucks" he sucks a lot less than Roman does and they were perfectly fine going with him.

I don't know that Ambrose being elevated isn't or wasn't the plan anyways. They have exactly 1 guy who main events things like WrestleMania right now on the regular roster, and the injury list has all of the other guys, a couple of whom are aging out of that role.
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I don't expect a ton of agreement on Ambrose.

Besides Brock, I don't know that they have any good options that can satisfy the crowd that will be at Wrestlemania and Raw the following night... and then also provide good, entertaining television for weeks/months after. Ambrose checks the first box and that's it, Reigns might not check either.

It's bad.
 
T

TarpitCarnivore

Member
I was watching the 2001 King of the Ring and the 2011 Money in the Bank Monday and it made me realize how many careers have likely been cut short due to needing to do SO many big spots. I think on OSW Review they quoted Christian or Edge saying that while WM X7 TLC was their best and happy for what it did for their careers, they're also sorry because of how high it set the bar and thus resulted in a lot of one upping.
 
S

Smooth Criminal

Member
It's quite funny in a way, Ambrose is more suited to Roman's storyline than the man himself. I can't help but wonder how much better this would have panned out if the roles were reversed from the start.
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Smooth Criminal said:
It's quite funny in a way, Ambrose is more suited to Roman's storyline than the man himself. I can't help but wonder how much better this would have panned out if the roles were reversed from the start.
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There's an open question whether Roman's push has already done what it needed to do.
 
P

Perspicacity

Banned
From a recent Gary Hart interview regarding Meltzer:

These days, Dave has become chummy with a lot of wrestlers, but it wasn’t always so easy for him. One time, Road Warrior Hawk, Steve Williams, and I were standing by the door at the Kaiser Arena in Oakland, California, and someone pointed Dave Meltzer out to us. Hawk hated Dave’s guts, so he walked over and told him to leave. Dave would never admit that, though. Things have changed, and now he spends a lot of time with the very wrestlers who tell him things to write about, so how impartial can he really be?

In any event, it should be known that Dave Meltzer never bothered to check out what his “source” – who clearly had an issue with me - claimed I said to The Great Muta before spewing his garbage in that dirtsheet of his, because not once did Meltzer ever call me to confirm it like a real reporter would have done. And that’s not a slam - it’s the truth. So not only does Dave Meltzer have no journalistic credibility as far as I’m concerned, but he also has zero insight into how I developed The Great Muta, and he clearly isn’t aware of my track record, either.

...

I love wrestling fans. They made me a great living for many years, so I say this with no disrespect, but for some reason, certain fans have become so markified when it comes to Meltzer that he is looked at as the premier wrestling journalist and historian – even though he’s nothing more than a mark trying to crack smart. This self-appointed authority on wrestling has made a very nice living out of just writing what people tell him without doing any corroborating research. Now, if he chooses to handle his “reporting” that way, fine, but the next time you read one of his newsletters, keep his journalistic integrity – or lack thereof – in mind, because, as his lack of follow-up on my story has proven, he clearly hasn’t realized that his “sources” are more than likely working him for their own benefit, and to “get back” at people they don’t like in the industry.
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Couldn't have said it better myself tbh
 
V

Violence Jack

Member
Roman isn't winning two Fastlane #1 contender matches in a row. Ambrose will either drop the title before WM, or he'll take on HHH and pull an Ultimate Warrior by having the IC title and WWE title.

I can also see Roman turning heel at WM by costing Dean the title if HHH & Vince are sick of waiting to find out crowd reactions to Roman.
 
M

Mr. Jimmy

Member
A couple of months ago I didn't like almost anything about Ambrose, but the guy has grown on me and I see him being the top male babyface and Becky the female babyface. Roman is going to get booed out of every arena he enters. Sadly, it's a case as dead as no one giving a fuck about Bray Wyatt.
 
UberTag

UberTag

Member
Cagey said:
But I didn't say either of those. I did say he's been terrible for awhile now.

He's so clearly over with the loudest segment of the crowd, which was my point: does the company roll with the guy they want to back despite smark resistance, or do they switch to who the smarks cheer for the loudest... except this time, unlike Bryan and Seth, that guy kind of sucks.
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Not sure what you're so hesitant about, Cagey.
It's full steam ahead on the Reigns bandwagon.

The reason they're not overexposing it right now is to play up suspense for their silly Fastlane main event with the obvious outcome but to also make the eventual WrestleMania push for Roman feel like a "push" and not merely an extension of the overkill hard sell they were doing up until the Rumble.
 
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