Lol. Paige is not remotely talented in the slightest. She's able to get through a match, and everything else is the Dolph Ziggler "overrated effect", whereby over-selling is replaced with hottness.
Honestly speaking, Natalya, Gail Kim and Beth Phoenix are probably the only three truly talented women to EVER wrestle in the WWE/WWF. Some have been semi-capable in the ring like lita/trish/james/victoria/AJ/Kharma, but those three are really the only ones. Wrestling is just not a sport designed for a women's body, and the fact that WWE asks them to be twigs and wrestle like 4 year olds doesn't help the fact.
I do see you leaving off Bull Nakano and Alundra Blayze off that list, because they were pretty capable in the ring though more in the semi-capable category. I mean the rest yes are capable of carrying a match, as they (except for Trish) intended to be wrestlers from the start. WWE just hires models now and thinks teaching them to “wrestle” will pass. Paige I can say is above the talentless ones easily, and no I’m not overrating this because she’s kind of attractive, she’s not really even my cup of tea for female beauty but not saying she isn’t would be bs’ing. It remains to really be seen where Paige stacks up in talent and match quality, though if you go back and look at the “match” against AJ, either AJ missed the cue on taking her finisher or Paige didn’t hit her hard enough on the upswing, so either one of the capable divas messed up just a small rookie mistake from a talentless girl right? But, hey I doubt AJ’s going to be sticking around long if Punk doesn’t return, she doesn’t have to. She’s been diva’s champ, as far as I can tell by the ring they do look to be engaged, and well it’s not the first time they hot-shotted a title to someone. I can see this being done if AJ isn’t going to be around next year or even 6 months from now. Have her lose to the rookie, then go on to lose the next few times as well, and then she can quietly leave if that’s what her plans entail. All I know is I’m happier Paige is the Divas champion over anyone that’s the cast of total divas except probably Natalya or Naomi (I guess), but I can see why they don’t put it on Natalya at this point.
I...just don't even know how to respond to this. Week after week after week of HHH/Kane constantly getting knocked out by Big Show/Bryan/Punk/shield etc. is not dominant. The only time they showed a FLASH of actual authority was when HHH fired Cody, but that was it.
So, using your power as Special Ref to get the title on the guy you want to be the face of the company, multiple beatdowns of the guy that everyone wants to see for several months usually standing tall over him to end shows, with him barely getting a big moment in despite all his underdog momentum staying, verbally abusing the big show (though they forgot the iron clad contract), and having him stand around at the risk of his job and getting beat up by their enforcers (the shield), and having Kane cost Bryan his shot at elimination chamber all the while having Kane + others beat up the shield a few weeks ago, as well as basically set up for them being faces by calling them expendable, all basically hiding behind numbers, cowardly attacks, and nefarious wins which is what is used to keep Heels strong? Especially, for the hero to rise up and give them their comeuppance once it’s all over? I mean Daniel Bryan’s won the title, beat HHH, defeated both Orton and Batista in one night, and they’ve lost their enforcers in the Shield. It’s time for new players to enter the game since it seems they are intent on keeping the Bryan story going for now (I’m hearing rumors and hopes of a War games-esq type of match, which I hope so). I mean if you go back and look at these last 8 months, until recently they were just beating up on Daniel Bryan week in and week out. I won’t disagree that the inclusion of Batista in the WWE, the side Wyatt story for DB, and Big Show’s inclusion made the story weaker than it should, but it’s still opened up possibilities down the line now for what we have. They presented themselves as a dominate force destroying Daniel Bryan most weeks, used the threat of the same treatment to keep others from helping him (Dolph and Show were subjected to this), had Kane or the Shield beat multiple people down for their own gain or make a showing of Bryan, and used their power as a shield for Randy Orton to remain champion. That’s kind of dominant as done by heels.
I think you have it reversed. Face/Heel turns are the most exciting part of a plot twist, and usually its the following weeks that coast off that momentum. Instead we a completely lackluster face turn against Kane(who again has done nothing but get his *** handed to him) with no momentum.
Well, it’s been 3-4 weeks of no direction at all except building tension for that momentum to finally burst. They haven’t shown us anything at all, except building up that they aren’t going to be helping the authority anymore which got cemented last night. Characters take time to build, and that’s what they are doing if anything. I honestly didn’t mind the beat downs and stuff, but was hoping they gave the guys more mic time as they did it. I’m annoyed at that, for the lack of progression. Honestly though, we might not even have faces or heels anymore as no one really gives a crud about face or heel alignments and chant and boo whatever works for them even if their tactics work better or are the opposite of what’s being cheered. All they’ve given us are bits of promo time with Kane or Stephanie or Hunter so far, which isn’t like it’s a 5 minute promo explaining any actions, intents, and just showing bits of personality if there are any to the 3. As well, Kane getting his *** handed to him was kind of the point to help build up the tension?
Well no ****, that's my point. There is NOTHING to play out. We've seen the same stale shield and authority for how many months now? Now their top story is those two feuding with each other in the most predictable story imaginable?
Paul Heyman said it best during an interview. His goal with ECW was to make you feel like if you missed even one show, you missed something and will be lost the next week. That doesn't happen on smackdown/Main Event/NXT/superstars, so you can bet I'm irate when the show that's usually the best show of the year introduced nothing captivating whatsoever.
Technically, any and all storylines are now stale, predictable, overdone. Anything and everything we’ve seen over the last 10-15 years, is a rehash! Wooo! As well, Paul is right, because back then if you missed one show, you actually would have missed something. They didn’t do replays (replaying a show) weekly as far as I can remember, they didn’t have DVR to record it if you were busy or missed an episode due to work or anything else. There was no internet use at the time to catch any clips, moments, or must see tv as it was presented! There also was no twitter, facebook, or worldwide way of keeping in touch with your favorite guys/gals. In an age where we spoil ourselves to the point of having to be up to date and immediately know or see everything it’s not hard to catch up on something we miss. WWE knows this, so why spoil or even go that extra mile they would have in the early 90s that Paul Heyman did? The other reason he was right and it worked, is that people were putting their opponents through tables, jumping off ladders, or lighting stuff on fire or using the most random weapons, girls showing their skin, or Bubba Dudley was inciting riots! I know, I watched that stuff with my brother, the reason we didn’t want to miss it was because of the “HOLY S***” moments, and not the stories or characters. WWE is trying to tell a story with their guys, Paul Heyman’s ECW was crash TV with barbaric weapons, trying to tell a bloodshed story, that was got over with people for the arcane nature and less of the story honestly being told. Not to say his stories were bad, but it was just how much you could trump the last thing you did! We don’t get that mystique anymore, and honestly it’s probably not possible. They just shut the book on the attitude era, basically completely.
We've seen the same stale shield and authority for how many months now? Now their top story is those two feuding with each other in the most predictable story imaginable?
Damn man, you would not have been a fan like the rest of America during the 80s and early 90s. Heck, guys had the same characters for years, and storylines drug out for years with minimal matches between the guys actually feuding. Honesty, I guess we’re spoiled again by the global entertainment system and weekly television with multiple shows.
Think, they just hit the reset button on talent and what’s next. They closed the book on the attitude era fully (ok 90%) with Kane, the NAO, Big Show and Undertaker losing. Randy Orton and Batista lost, and the storyline with John Cena winning (I feel Bray could have won, but this defeat isn’t going to hamper him) from the ruthless aggression period had starring moments with new stars. They need work with getting the Usos right, but they got Cesaro done right as well as Daniel Bryan. Bray Wyatt if you think this loss is the end of him, hell he wasn’t even trying to win last night. He was winning over the storyline, which is still going. He wanted Cena to show that he’s not a champion or hero, but really a monster, and he portrayed that attempt the whole match. On paper yes it’s a loss, but for anyone that followed or watched it, hell man it doesn’t matter at the moment.
That “usual” best show with nothing captivating, brought us new debuts to look forward to, placed the shield officially on Daniel Bryan’s side, setting up who knows what. $5 if they go coporate ministry and incorporate the Wyatt/Cena feud into the authority angle as well (calling it). Last year’s show didn’t even have anything beyond Shield/Taker and Ziggler’s cash in. I guess Henry/Cena, but the story a few months later did better for it. The point I’m making is that, we just had a long damn storyline come to a peak, an 8 month one at that. We can look to the potential future that some people wanted with debuts last year. And, honestly what was a good quality show entertainment-wise, though overall nothing too great wrestling-wise, have basically built some actual guys for the next 3-5 years as did Mania. All I know is, it feels good to be a wrestling/WWE fan at this point because at the end of the day they did both Wrestlemania and this show right (at least up to 80% of the stories).
Also...wow just saw something about Warrior dying. I honestly, am at a loss for words. Never liked him as a wrestler or anything, but to say I never marked out or went high octane to his entrance theme as a kid would be a lie. Just for how much of a superstar they pushed him as. I honestly thought he looked blown up or fatigued the last 3 days, but figured that was just a by-product of old age + drugs back in the day. I really hope it wasn't a contributing factor to his death. I'm honestly glad that I at least got to see him back on WWE tv once before he passed, and that he and vince were able to bury an old hatchet for him to be inducted to the HOF. Like him or not, he did deserve to be there at least.
