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Wrestling In The Time Of COVID-19: the new thread

Started by sevendaughters, April 06, 2020, 09:29:30 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

sevendaughters

We're at the upper limit in the other thread.

Whoever asked does My Dad Is A Heel Wrestler have subtitles? Yes.

Here's 11 minutes of great promos from a feud that never got a chance to be blown off between the Midnight Express and the Four Horsemen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrDXqNbqfVY

kitsofan34


peanutbutter

Totally missed mania night two, what's worth revisiting?

Quote from: kitsofan34 on April 06, 2020, 10:15:08 AM
Thread title's not as catchy as the last one.


up_the_hampipe

Didn't see all of night 2. Very interested to watch the Firefly Funhouse match later, looks fun but Bryan Alvarez has been slagging it off quite a lot on Twitter, so I'm not sure what to expect. No surprise that a Randy Orton match didn't live up to the hype.

Ja'moke

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on April 06, 2020, 12:39:53 PM
Didn't see all of night 2. Very interested to watch the Firefly Funhouse match later, looks fun but Bryan Alvarez has been slagging it off quite a lot on Twitter, so I'm not sure what to expect. No surprise that a Randy Orton match didn't live up to the hype.

Bryan's just mad because it wasn't a "match" as advertised. But it was fucking ace. One of the most creative things WWE has ever done, and, as weird as it sounds, was actually quite artful in the way it deconstructed the rise of WWE and the character of John Cena.

Timothy

It was absolutely fantastic. Think you're gonna enjoy it Hampipe.

Spode

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on April 06, 2020, 12:39:53 PM
Didn't see all of night 2. Very interested to watch the Firefly Funhouse match later, looks fun but Bryan Alvarez has been slagging it off quite a lot on Twitter, so I'm not sure what to expect. No surprise that a Randy Orton match didn't live up to the hype.

As much as I like him, I think Alvarez has completely missed the point with it. He'll double down on it as well because everyone is telling him he's wrong. I genuinely can't see how he cannot like the funhouse thing but think the boneyard match was brilliant.

Deanjam

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on April 06, 2020, 12:39:53 PM
Didn't see all of night 2. Very interested to watch the Firefly Funhouse match later, looks fun but Bryan Alvarez has been slagging it off quite a lot on Twitter, so I'm not sure what to expect.

Think of it as a piece of theatre, rather than a match. I liked it, but can understand anyone who didn't.

Deanjam

Quote from: sevendaughters on April 06, 2020, 09:29:30 AM
Whoever asked does My Dad Is A Heel Wrestler have subtitles? Yes.

That was me. Thanks, I'll give it a watch.

gmoney

Quote from: Ja'moke on April 06, 2020, 12:44:10 PM
Bryan's just mad because it wasn't a "match" as advertised. But it was fucking ace. One of the most creative things WWE has ever done, and, as weird as it sounds, was actually quite artful in the way it deconstructed the rise of WWE and the character of John Cena.

I thought it was so, so bad. I honestly appreciated the effort and will do something different, but in the context of wrestling, this was nothing. It was like a videogame cutscene without the level afterwards. I can't stand Bray Wyatt anyway, but this was a load of guff.

Watched both nights now and a real mixed bag. All the proper matches were hurt by the lack of crowd but a few, the ladder match, the NXT womens title match were decent enough to cope. The Orton/Edge effort was dire, slow and boring with to much heavy breathing. Brock/McIntyre was the same old Lesnar rubbish but with less atmosphere. Wonder how Drew felt, a massive career moment laid flat by circumstance.

The highlights were the obvious ones, the two filmed 'matches' with, for me, the Fiend/Cena one working best as it took more advantage of the opportunites granted to it and did stuff you can't see in a usual match whereas Styles/Undertaker was useful just to cover Undertakers deficiencies and add a few one liners. Neither were great but they were done well enough not to be completely embarassing which in wrestling is a win.

They should have used the fact it was taped in more matches (more crazy bumps etc) and cut 25 minutes off Edge and Orton.

gmoney

How long did Edge/Orton go? In days, preferably.

Quote from: gmoney on April 06, 2020, 05:29:22 PM
How long did Edge/Orton go? In days, preferably.

35ish minutes. Most of that was somone being slammed into something and both men falling down and breathing heavily whilst a man with a silly haircut counted slowly to ten

Spode

Mind boggling that they went ahead with that Orton stipulation in those circumstances. Last man standing matches are grim at the best of times.

I might try and rewatch the NXT title match later with the sound down. Had to skip it first time round with all the screaming.

Overall, I couldn't really stick with anything from either night that was over about ten minutes. There was very little they could have done to get a good show out of those circumstances. Other than just postpone it and have everybody desperate to buy it in September or something

up_the_hampipe

Loved the Firefly Funhouse. Very creative, funny, entertaining, in some ways powerful and most importantly not a Bray Wyatt wrestling match. Seems like it could be Cena's swansong? I know it wasn't even a match, but it looked as though he was limited on doing many bumps and whatnot, probably due to his film career. It told a great story, which was always his strength, perhaps one of the best ever at it, so an appropriate way to go out.

Nobody Soup

The boneyard match was rubbish, it couldn't decide if it was a cinematic fight scene or a wrestling match. I think it kinda thought it was the former actually, and if it was rated alongside all the fight scenes in cinema history it would be considered laughably bad.

The firefly funhouse thing however, I'm not sure if I really liked it but I can imagine it will be still being rewatched 20 years from now (unless we're all dead by 2021), it was so different it will take me a while to decide about it, but that in itself is impressive. Also have to say that cena is a great sport for coming back for a one off show and doing something so weird, especially when it cut close to the bone about his career. He absolutely did not have to agree to that.

Rest was the usual mix of good and bad. Very odd but wouldn't have been considered a terrible show in front of an audience imo.


Was the NWO reference an in-joke? I didn't get how it tied in to either Bray or Cena. Everything else was gold.

kitsofan34

I think it was tied to his refusal to turn heel, along with his Hogan esque stature as a super babyface.

Ja'moke

Quote from: confettiinmyhair on April 07, 2020, 07:47:24 AM
Was the NWO reference an in-joke? I didn't get how it tied in to either Bray or Cena. Everything else was gold.

It was basically Bray changing history, showing what would have happened had Cena actually swung that chair and turned heel. Hollywood Cena in NWO was the perfect way to represent that as I guess Hulk Hogan is the closest analog to Cena and his heel turn was shocking.

Anyway, WWE is still pushing on, taping more episodes of Raw/SD/NXT on Friday. I'm not sure how they're getting away with it.

Moribunderast

Quote from: Ja'moke on April 07, 2020, 11:41:19 AM
It was basically Bray changing history, showing what would have happened had Cena actually swung that chair and turned heel. Hollywood Cena in NWO was the perfect way to represent that as I guess Hulk Hogan is the closest analog to Cena and his heel turn was shocking.

Anyway, WWE is still pushing on, taping more episodes of Raw/SD/NXT on Friday. I'm not sure how they're getting away with it.

WWE and AEW absolutely should not be taping anymore and probably shouldn't have been for weeks now. That being said, they lose in the irresponsible stakes because Dana White is apparently going to hold UFC shows on a FIGHT ISLAND and also on Native American land where the government and commissions can't stop him. Vince is going to need to up his game to out-crazy THAT.

peanutbutter

AEW definitely should just hold off, I feel like AEW's audience will return after this if only because I know I will.

WWE's audience of habitual old people and unenthused crowds might be a bit more of a wild card.




Did anyone ever ask Shawn Michaels why the fuck he started using the crossface in 2008?

cliggg

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on April 06, 2020, 12:39:53 PM
No surprise that a Randy Orton match didn't live up to the hype.
I'm surprised there was hype for a Randy Orton match.

sevendaughters

every goddam year Orton gets some push and stops phoning it in and people say "definite HOF guy, why have people been sleeping on Orton all this time" and then he does the big match and it sucks worse than the last one.

Ja'moke

Quote from: peanutbutter on April 07, 2020, 12:58:00 PM
AEW definitely should just hold off, I feel like AEW's audience will return after this if only because I know I will.

WWE's audience of habitual old people and unenthused crowds might be a bit more of a wild card.


WWE's old audience is the most loyal of all. Those folks will watch unless covid19 itself kills them.

AEW taped 4-6 weeks of TV last week, so they're covered until mid-May. Whether they do more tapings after that remains to be seen. They also taped a few matches a couple weeks back with the California guys (who haven't been able to travel for the tapings) at the Buck's house - that ring set up in their tennis court. They aired a couple of those on this week's BTE.

hummingofevil

I too am surprised how much Alvarez and others missed the point with the Firefly Funhouse. It very much as a "match" in the broader sense of the word. Cena comes out for his opening and then The Fiend traps him in his Funhouse world by messing with his mind. The Field then uses his special powers/hyponosis to send Cena back through time messing with his head and when he is stupified he hits the Sister Abigail and pins him. Its not more complicated than that surely?

Gurke and Hare

AEW Dark is a bit perfunctory this week, but worth watching for Jimmy Havoc on commentary, making Tony uncomfortable by talking about Kip Sabian walking round their shared flat in his underwear.

Moribunderast

Dark Side Of The Ring is a bit annoying this week for falling back on the tedious Russo vs. Cornette shit. Seeing Droz was a bit confronting at first but he actually doesn't look too bad for a 50-year-old dude in a wheelchair.

Old Thrashbarg

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on April 08, 2020, 11:24:30 AM
AEW Dark is a bit perfunctory this week, but worth watching for Jimmy Havoc on commentary, making Tony uncomfortable by talking about Kip Sabian walking round their shared flat in his underwear.

I don't really know what to make of Jimmy Havoc. Instinctively, he seems good in the ring and he can talk. He seems a bit too nice, though, to be the nasty, sadistic heel he presumably is based on his style and actions. But then is that part of the character, being slightly disarming, making him more menacing? Or is he just not a good enough actor to hide his genuine pleasantness?

I don't know anything about him prior to AEW, so maybe I'm just completely misreading his character.