Wrestling: The Baron Corbin Era

[hummingofevil]

Isn't the irony of that just that that Seth's run only continued the ratings fall at a similar rate to what was happening before under Brock? I like Brock as a champion as and he is one, if not the only one, who carries himself as being bigger than Vince's booking. Even Undertaker looks like he willing to do owt for the cash. And I too like his matches.

[Moribunderast]

G1 has been very good thus far but Night 3 was fairly sensational. Fale and Archer had a surprisingly decent match. And then Ospreay/Sanada, Okada/Sabre, Ibushi/Evil and KENTA/Tanahashi all freakin' ruled. Nothing completely blow-away amazing yet in the tournament but already nearly 10 ****+ matches if you're of the star-ratey persuasion.

Ospreay apparently in a lot of neck pain and is being monitored as to whether he can continue in the tournament. Knowing his depression issues (which he discussed in an interview with Meltzer - and has discussed publicly before) and how much he was looking forward to the tournament, I hope he can continue. That being said, his long-term health is obviously FAR more important and I can't imagine a harder schedule than what he's put himself through. Best of Super Juniors, followed by that insane match with Robbie Eagles in Melbourne, followed by a G1... that's a huge toll.

Have to add, Toru Yano is lovely. He reminds me of Korean actor Kang Ho Song from his more comedic roles. Just a great wacky comic timing. Him getting furious as Naito took forever to disrobe pre-match entertained me greatly.

[Golden E. Pump]

As shit as Lacey Evans is in ring, I like the character and she has a good look. I may just really fancy her though.

[hummingofevil]

As shit as Lacey Evans is in ring, I like the character and she has a good look. I may just really fancy her though.

It really is the absolute definition of how shit WWE is. I tend not to watch NXT so much but was watching weekly during her run and really WANTED her to do well. How difficult is it to fuck up a backstory like hers with classic film star looks and then to come up with some fucking weird gimmick (it was about a year ago where one of them them in Bryan, Vinny and Granny asked if her gimmick was "actress" -which proper made me laugh). You have all that talent and her first feud is against Becky who as good as she is is no great worker and certainly can't carry an average one.
It seems like intentional sabotage.

Catching up on G1. It's just the best. Making me question whether I really need AEW in my life. Current favs is NJPW, Lucha AAA, US indie stuff like GZW and then AEW. Oh actually Joshi gifs. Joshi gifs is my fav wrestling. Speaking of which I think Sareee is signed for the next MYC and if they give her a run she will be awesome. There are some hard fucking hitters in Joshi at the moment.

[hummingofevil]

That's me up to date with the G1. Obviously Ishii White was the best match in today's lot by a mile. Loved that again and that's Ishii and Jay White leading my own best-matches of the night title with 2 each.
So many good matches to choose from but I think the one I loved most so far was Ishii Cobb. Raw, AEW or bed. What a choice?

[Mobius]

Yes I absolutely loved that Ishii / Switchblade match last night. Probably my favourite of the tournament so far. Jay White is fucking fantastic little shitheel and Ishii is an incredible seller.

Taichi / Naito was a lot of fun too. People seem to really hate Taichi but I kinda like his gimmick! And his entrance music rules so...

Next matches look really great as well.

A BLOCK -- Thursday, July 18 -- Tokyo -- Korakuen Hall
Kazuchika Okada vs. Bad Luck Fale
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay
KENTA vs. Lance Archer
EVIL vs. SANADA

The G1 really is brilliant isn't it? Every single night just has a fucking solid card.

[Mobius]

Summerslam Card update

Brock Lesnar Vs Seth Rollins
Becky Lynch Vs Natalya

You guys hyped?

[Deanjam]

Summerslam Card update

Brock Lesnar Vs Seth Rollins
Becky Lynch Vs Natalya

You guys hyped?

[hummingofevil]

Yes I absolutely loved that Ishii / Switchblade match last night. Probably my favourite of the tournament so far. Jay White is fucking fantastic little shitheel and Ishii is an incredible seller.

Taichi / Naito was a lot of fun too. People seem to really hate Taichi but I kinda like his gimmick! And his entrance music rules so...

Next matches look really great as well.

A BLOCK -- Thursday, July 18 -- Tokyo -- Korakuen Hall
Kazuchika Okada vs. Bad Luck Fale
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay
KENTA vs. Lance Archer
EVIL vs. SANADA

The G1 really is brilliant isn't it? Every single night just has a fucking solid card.

Agreed. Been trying to watch the tags too as they can be a load of fun. The Suzuki piling up the barriers on Fredricks whilst ZSJ and then Archer decided to go and have a chat with the commentary team had me giggling. ZSJ just makes me laugh anyway Taunting Tanahashi with "Watch this, dickhead!" as he applied some kind of hold is never not funny.

Was RAW any good? Anyone? Anyone?

[Timothy]

Havent watched RAW in months. Only read some results and discussions. Few questions:

What happened with Becky Lynch? She was super over after Mania but now people seem a bit bored with her. She was also features quite a lot in Botchamania.

Where is Bray?

Why are Cesaro and Aleister feuding? Wasnt Cesaro on RAW and Black on SD?

What did Seth do to have people prefer Brock as champ?
Very surreal considering people hated him aS champ and wanted Seth to win before Mania.

[Mobius]

Aye ZSJ is a very funny man. Love his promos, love his in-ring shitstirring. A man of good taste by all accounts. Does a lovely European Uppercut with those lanky arms as well.

RAW was really bad IMO.

Bray finally 'debuted' and just did a Sister Abigail on Finn after the lights went out. Except he was wearing his scary mask. Presumably he won't wrestle in it though, looks a bit bulky.

Awful women's fourway match which Natalya won and is now facing Becky at Summerslam (despite doing literally nothing on telly for..months?) - Alexa Bliss is currently crying on Twitter/Instagram because the crowd shit all over the match.

Battle Royale for Brock's Summerslam contender. Some interesting people involved like Cesaro, Big E, Sami Zayn, Rey Mysterio. Seth won, so we get Brock Seth.

Some more Mike/Maria cucky pregnancy shit.

Dolph Ziggler / Miz segment, in 2019.

R-Truth wins 24/7 belt. Again.

Edit - Just hit post at the same time as Timothy. In answer to your questions

Becky - Buzz has worn off a little. Being paired with Seth and forced to reference their real life relationship about 10 times a show is just awful. She's also just not THAT incredible, and the female Stone Cold thingy could only go so far. To be fair she's been in the ring with Lacey Evans who is truly terrible. I really don't see how a Natalya feud will help.

Bray - just came back today, for about half a second, to attack Finn. They stopped playing the Firefly Funhouse promos for a few weeks.

Cesaro / Black - brand split is dead. Wild Card, bitches! Black sat in a room for literally 6 weeks going 'nobody will come and fight me' (why you sat backstage thicko?) then Cesaro goes 'i will fight you' so they did a fight. Feud is over already, Black got his first PPV win.

Seth's just boring. He won his belt by repeatedly kicking Brock in the bollocks, and then just went on to have an underwhelming reign. When you're the underdog putting on 60 minute iron-man matches that's cool, but as champ he's just been so dull. Stuck with Becky, constantly doing promos against Baron Corbin and Lacey... it's just not good.

[hummingofevil]

Havent watched RAW in months. Only read some results and discussions. Few questions:

What happened with Becky Lynch? She was super over after Mania but now people seem a bit bored with her. She was also features quite a lot in Botchamania.

Where is Bray?

Why are Cesaro and Aleister feuding? Wasnt Cesaro on RAW and Black on SD?

What did Seth do to have people prefer Brock as champ?
Very surreal considering people hated him aS champ and wanted Seth to win before Mania.

I'm not watching thoroughly but for what I gather the issue with Becky is that she has been in a feud with Lacey Evans so there is absolutely no heat and in ring stuff ranges from okay to average having lost both Charlotte and Ronda as foils. Then they put her and Seth together on screen and they just come across as a really smug pair who have lost any charm they had individually.

[sevendaughters]

having to focus on the real world for a bit but made time for Jay White v Ishii and you should too.

[Deanjam]

Apparently Finn is taking time off after he loses to Wyatt at Summerfest. Hopefully returns as a heel with the Club.

The Alexa stuff is remarkably childish and entitled.

[up_the_hampipe]

Bray's debut is very cool. Interested to see how his cheerful Firefly Funhouse character figures into this, if at all.

[Ja'moke]

Becky's heat has worn off somewhat, but she was still the only woman to get a reaction on Raw last night, after the crowd completely shat on that four-way match.

But the answer to all the problems is basically... WWE. The writing/booking is just uninspired and it makes it hard to invest in anyone.

Bryan Alvarez (via Reddit): "This person here pointed out yesterday: I listened to your extreme rules review with Vinny and you asked if you had stepped into a time machine. In October of 2017, this was 2 and a half years ago. Brock Lesnar was the Universal Champion, A.J Styles was the United States Champion, The New Day were the Smackdown Tag Team Champions, Shane McMahon was feuding with Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler was feuding with the Miz. We are exactly where we were 2 and a half years ago after last night's Extreme Rules."

[Deanjam]

That's not quite right. Ziggler was feuding with Bobby Roode in Oct 17. The Miz/Ziggler feud was Oct 16.

[Ja'moke]

That's not quite right. Ziggler was feuding with Bobby Roode in Oct 17. The Miz/Ziggler feud was Oct 16.

Ah, yeah, good point.

I don't get Alexa's complaints about the crowd. It's not like the chants were personal. It was just stuff like "This is awful!" and "Sasha Banks" and "Boring" right? It's not like it was aimed specifically at the women's division. That's just what crowds do when they don't like a match, regardless of who is in the ring. Wasn't it Rollins v Ambrose last year that got shit on?

[Huxleys Babkins]

10 years ago she'd have been doing that match in her knickers and half the crowd would have gone for a piss break.

People have higher expectations of a women's match now. Don't expect them to praise you when you can't meet them.

[Deanjam]

There's a weird mentality amongst some wrestlers than the fans have no right to criticize a match or segment. In every other spectator sport (and that is what wrestling is supposed to pretend to be) fans shit on teams or players if they give a bad performance. It's particularly bad with the women as any criticism is often dismissed as sexism. If anything there's been an over-praising of WWE's women in the recent past. I mean, there are people who will genuinely tell you that Dana Brooks it a good wrestler. The reality is if you want to be treated the same as the guys then you have to expect the same standards.

[boki]

Natty being hastily shoved into a title match is a sure sign that there's no proper plan for the women's division at the moment. It seems to happen every so often and I don't begrudge her it (I'm sure part of it from WWE's side is an attempt to make up for some of the crap she had to endure in years gone past), but if she's always going to be the fallback plan, why not actually build a feud around her?   Also, what's Ember Moon doing these days?  There's someone you can have in a prominent angle for sure.

[Deanjam]

Nattie's getting the match because Summerslam is in Toronto. I guess they figure it will have a good crowd at least. Ember is feuding with Mandy & Sonya on Smackdown because they called her fat or something. I forget to be honest. Asuka & Kairi are currently being wasted on the Iconics. The only other real option would be Charlotte and I'm actually quite glad it's not her as I've seen her versus Becky too many times (although to be fair it's usually a good match).

[up_the_hampipe]

Daniel Bryan is supposedly making a "career-altering" announcement on Smackdown tonight. If he retires again, I will openly weep. Shane McMahon will also be holding a "town hall meeting" where superstars will get to freely air their grievances. It's also Eric Bischoff's first night on the job, so it could be an interesting show.

[Deanjam]

Career-altering doesn't sound like retirement exactly, although I can't imagine what else it could be. Really hope it isn't.

[Ja'moke]

Yeah, it sounds like a story-line thing. At least, that's what I hope.

[mikeyg27]

There's no way it's a retirement, he was talking about this in his post-match online promo. He's just going to say he's going after the title or some shit like that (which I know isn't really 'career-altering' but then The New Daniel Bryan has been prone to melodramatic statements).

[Ja'moke]

My mate's prediction is Bryan is going to 205 Live.

[Deanjam]

My mate's prediction is Bryan is going to 205 Live.

That would be a tremendous waste.

[Ja'moke]

That would be a tremendous waste.

Yeah, for sure. I could see Bryan requesting something like that though. There's probably a lot of guys on that 205 roster he wants to wrestle.

[Golden E. Pump]

He said something along the lines of going to places we've never seen him before.

KFC?