2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

Their finisher is fine but they are generic characters with absolutely no mic skills and, as such, simply aren't interesting.
I love their entrance music and loved their NXT look but the addition of the shoulder pads and face paint makes them look like Demolition and Road Warriors had a baby and dropped it on its head.

 

Raw thoughts ...

I'm not impressed by The Ascension. I wasn't too impressed when I saw them in NXT. They don't have the physique to be intimidating. They look like a couple of flabby garbage men or something. And the whole thrash metal face paint industrial thing is so 1998.

I wasn't too surprised that the whole Daniel Bryan announcement was a swerve. After falling for it with Mark Henry, I'm too cynical to fall for it again. Maybe. Okay, not really.

I shouldn't be shocked that The E found a way to get Cena to bring back The Authority without turning him heel. I never bought that as a real direction. I'm convinced of two things in WWE-land: 1. John Cena will never turn heel. 2. (a new one) CM Punk will never come back.

Otherwise, I liked the execution of the segment. It's pretty ballsy for The E has done in the past few years: Seth Rollins threatened to paralyze a man, and scripted or not, he uttered the K word: kill. The two things that seem to be completely taboo (at times even during the Attitude Era) are guns and death. Only twice (that I can recall) in the last 15 years have those concepts been introduced as stories. Pillman's got a gun, and the death of McMahon. One was great, the other was shit. But Rollins' "fuck it, I'll just kill him anyway" was ice cold. I loved it for evolving the character. The guy is definitely top heel.

On a tangent: This is a kayfabe thing, but is there a base line to determine which actions lead to police involvement and criminal charges? It's such a problem with The E because real-world logic dictates that most of the performers would be in prison for felony assault for any kind of non-sanctioned attack either in the ring or behind the scenes. The E opened a can of worms with "Stephanie Goes to Jail" earlier this year. So, Seth Rollins threatens to paralyze and possibly murder a man in front of tens of thousands live, and that's okay. Stephanie bitch slaps Brie and misdemeanor assault is a big fucking deal. I know we all saw Austin arrested more than once in the past, and a lot of that stuff seemed to go away not long after. I dunno, I just don't like when The E throws the law into the mix of a story, because it blows up the logic of anything and everything else for me.

And now, I'd like to present my rules for ...

The Piper's Pit Podcast Drinking Game
- Piper says hearing bagpipes make him want to fight or make love ... take a shot
- Piper references Heidi Fleiss ... take a shot
- Piper talks about "They Live" ... take a shot
- Piper talks about his "All Out of Bubblegum" soda pop ... take a shot, chased by bubblegum soda pop
- Piper plugs Amazon so he can pay for his daughter's college, but only if he mentions she's studying to be a psychiatrist to fix her dad ... take a shot
- Piper mentions he recently played Oscar Wilde in some obscure movie ... take a shot
- Piper mentions Miley Cryus ... take a shot

At this point, there are no more rules because you're fucking dead of alcohol poisoning 20 minutes into one episode.

 

The Fall of Man is a modified version of Total Elimination (used by the Eliminators in ECW). Difference here is that it's a running finisher instead of both standing still. And it is impressive, as Jelly said, if it's done right.

I think they used Mizdow in that match for a few reasons. One, Miz didn't want to "get crushed" and two Sandow has worked with those guys before in NXT and is familiar with their style.

Hope they can somehow save them but it's not looking good right now.

THen again, I didn't think too much of The Usos when they first came up either.

 

The Pillman/gun thing happened in, I think '96 or early '97. A little longer than 15 years. I thought it was a bit hokey at first, but looking back now and comparing it to today's stuff, it was pretty damn nuts, and Pillman pulled it off so well.

There was a clip on Youtube a while back that showed outtakes to the skit. It was pretty funny seeing them receiving instructions, then Pillman's wife screaming and then start laughing at the end of the scene.

There was also one other gun incident I can think of, in which Austin pointed a gun at McMahon's head, pulled the trigger, and a "Bang 3.16" flag came out, with McMahon pretending to pee his pants.

 

From a kayfabe standpoint, I always assumed the wrestlers, when under contract, signed away all rights and privileges. So, therefore, if they got attacked or assaulted or what have you, because of their employment status in the WWE, they could not sue or press charges. I know it sounds ridiculous but I think that's the official kayfabe point of view.
Hence why the Brie Bella thing made sense to me as she "wasn't" a WWE superstar at the time (She quit, remember?) and so she was just a fan.
I know it's a little ridiculous but I guess that's why it's fine for people to get attacked by six others and have their heads bashed into cinder blocks. Otherwise everyone but John Cena would be under arrest.

 

I've seen it on NXT and not been overly impressed. Like I said, it's one that if all three guys hit things right looks good, but there are a lot of moving pieces where it can go wrong. And it's not very original. A lot of tag teams have done some variation of the high-low thing. Their version isn't special enough to make it seem devastating.

But the biggest knock is their physique. Like Bradley said, they look like a couple of garbage men.

 

To each their own. Agree to disagree, and all that jazz.

I like the Ascension and their run through NXT was great. But they botched their debut by, IMHO, not pairing them with someone who already has solid mic skills and can do the talking for them, and with the stupid as shit vignettes and their look. I don't know what was wrong with their look from NXT and why they couldn't just bring that with them, but they didn't need the face paint and new gear.

 

Unless, they're the harbingers of a NXT takeover type gimmick! ... yeah right .. lol

 

I almost wish they did this yet again, although in the past three to five years, we've had The Nexus and The Shield kind of do similar things. I do agree with Jim Ross, who said they should always be booking the new people from NXT to be the next big thing / special.

 

Nexxus would work now because the potential star power is greater than what The E had to work with in 2009.

Who really did anything adter Nexxus? And Bryan doesn't count because he wasn't in the stable for the bulk of the run. Barrett can't seem to catch on long enough without getting hurt. Ryback is grtting a monster push again, but will it lead to anything better, unlike last time? The rest are jobbers or gone.

I think The Shield worked better because it wasn't a bloated stable. Get three guys with a ton if upside, and don't weigh them down. And, of course, don't feed them to SuperCena in less than six months from their debut. Seems like creative learned a lot if lessons between Nexxus and Shield.

 

Bray Wyatt finds your lack of faith in Nexus disturbing.

 

It depends on your definition of "did anything."
Win championships and headline PPVs? No, not many of them did that. But looking at the lineup, I think the only one that genuinely washed out was Michael Tarver.
Heath Slater has found a nice niche as the greatest jobber of this generation (which, by all accounts, he embraces and enjoys). Gabriel, Otunga and Darren Young stuck around a while as mid-carders. Sheffield (Ryback), McGillicutty (Curtis Axel) and Harris (Wyatt) have all been repackaged and found success in some form. Barrett is a solid worker when he's not hurt.
Hell, its members are forming a big chunk of the nucleus of the roster right now. Hard to deny the collective talent. How they were handled is a different matter.