2016 Pro Wrestling Thread

Flip it around. Nia helps Charlotte win the title. Sasha gets her rematch, and Nia interferes again and costs her the rematch. Then those two have a feud.

Meanwhile. Bayley gets the best of Charlotte's protege (is that even still a thing?), then goes after Charlotte for the title.

 

Tom Billington, who wrestled as the Dynamite Kid as one half of the British Bulldogs isn't doing very well. He's been in a wheelchair for years, and recently suffered a stroke. His wife started a Gofundme page to raise money for medical expenses and also to let him travel home to England from Canada.

Ailing ex-wrestler 'Dynamite Kid' desperate to return home

He was an incredible wrestler, and, from many other people's accounts, a horrible human being who used to take advantage of wrestlers in the ring and supposedly once pointed a gun at his first wife. The story of how Jacques Rougeau sucker-punched him in the locker room with a roll of coins after a dispute over a prank is well-known. Still, it's kinda sad to see how poorly he's doing.

 

I don't care about Hell in a Cell.

Three matches is too much, especially when none of them have escalated to the point in which I believe the feuds need to be resolved there. It's so gimmicky now, I just don't care. Mick Foley can scream all he wants about his damn cell match from 20 years ago, but that was 20 years ago. The cell these days just means it's October.

The women haven't escalated the story or anything else to the level of needing the cell. They barely throw each other into the padded barricades during matches. There are never chair shots. There hasn't been a ladder match. There hasn't been an Extreme Rules match. There hasn't been a tables match. They've never had blood at all. But, we've got to run this Women's Revolution thing into the ground with the subtlety of a fucking moose trampling through a Bed Bath & Beyond. Plus, I'm sick of Foley doing the same promo every time. He did the same stuff when Rollins and Ambrose did a cell match two years ago.

I don't care about Rusev and Reigns. I still don't know how Reigns is the face. He's the one portraying the dick behavior.

Rollins vs. Owens for the title. A few years ago the smarks would have salivated for this kind of thing, now the lame story has been meh. It's so tepid. So tepid. For one, Jericho being involved makes things too light-hearted. The List is hilarious, but he needs to do it in a program of his own. If you take away the "you know that one is going to turn on the other" shit, then what is left to the Rollins-Owens story? A title no one seems to take that seriously yet. Owens might as well still be holding the IC title. The story is doing nothing to elevate the new title, and the title is too new to elevate the feud. It's a problem.

I know, I know, Balor getting injured threw out months of plans and feuds, etc., but it's been a few months. Surely, something better than this should have shaken out.

I don't care about New Day. Where are those Club guys? Buried within six months without Styles, huh? Who knew. The cruiserweights barely register on the show. It's already not making the Hulu cut, unless I missed it. In either case, that's bad.

Is Bayley still a thing?

The idiocy of trying to get Lesnar's home crowd to turn on him was something even Heyman couldn't save with a promo. That was brutal to watch.

And the announcing. Ugh. Anytime it should feel like something big is supposed to be happening on my screen, some kind of action in or out of the ring, I can't get over the forced, strained yelling of the announcers, who are trying so hard to make something sound outrageous that it's actually disingenuous.

Meanwhile, I love watching SmackDown. Things just make more sense over there.

I thought I would hate the stuff with Ellsworth, but they've managed to use an enchancement talent to further the story between Ambrose and Styles. It's actually very entertaining. Combined with Ellsworth's appearance at the end of Talking Smack, I wonder what Ambrose's play is? Is this a heel turn in the making? Does Dean snap and beat up the plucky little indie guy? If so, who comes out for the save to start a new feud? Where does AJ go with the title? Who steps up to challenge? Hopefully, not Cena. The last few weeks/months without Cena in the title picture have been so refreshing. If he comes back, throw him together with someone else.

The Orton/Wyatt story is taking turns that have kept me from tuning out. I would like for Harper to do more. I think he's underrated as a semi-big man.

Becky/Alexa is a strong feud for the women's title, and I think the overall SmackDown women's roster looks a little better than Raw, which has Sasha and Charlotte and almost no one else highlighted. At least Carmella and Niki Bella get decent time to continue their story at a nice clip every week.

Also, it seems like SmackDown is carrying the load for promoting the elimination matches at Survivor Series, since it doesn't have the marquee match (Goldberg vs Lesnar). But, are there at least world title matches to go with the other four (marquee, men, women, tag teams)? Seems like it might be a short card, and surely it wouldn't be a show with 80 percent tag elimination matches?

I think to fully appreciate SmackDown, you have to watch Talking Smack. I like to watch the performers come on screen in character and improv a little in a talk show setting. I think it helps them in ways that running through another scripted ring promo can't.

Overall, SmackDown is a better show.

 

Could happen that way. They haven't done anything with Nia except for the Alicia Fox thing so they need to elevate her. need to play her as THAT monster that she can be. An extended title run would be good but I feel she almost needs a mouthpiece to help her along.

MEANWHILE, in NXT land.

Bobby Roode continues to be GLORIOUS. He needs a better finisher though.

Sanity has promise with Eric Young leading the way.

The Revival is great for NXT but they'd be a tough sell on the main roster.

Asuka vs. Mickie James at NXT Takeover should be great.

And Samoa Joe and Nakamura are having a feud of the year type interaction that most certainly would merit a HITC.

 

When legends collide ...

 

OK, that main event ending didn't make much sense. I'm thinking the table was supposed to break both at the end, and in the corner spot out of the ring when Charlotte semi-went through it.

Plus, nothing like sending the hometown crowd home unhappy.

 

Thought the match was really really good if not great. little too much time on the false start, and the ending was abrupt. but they were great in the middle, used the cell well and lived up to the hype.

 

Meltzer also pointed out in his initial review that it wouldn't make sense for Charlotte to be awarded the title if Sasha couldn't go because the match hadn't started yet.

But then I remembered they had a contract signing the last Raw before, so, in a storyline sense, they could say that since Sasha signed the contract, she was obligated to defend the title or forfeit it. So, that little part of the beginning of the match did actually make sense.

There also was a semi-screwup in the agents' part with the neck brace. They caught part of the TV cord in it, and we're about to lift Sasha up on the stretcher with the TV cord in the neck brace.

Also thought there was nearly a horrible fuck-up where Sasha was right underneath the cage as it was being lowered. If the guy lowering it forgets to stop it, yeesh.

 

Flashbacks to Rollins almost getting a steel cage spike to the back.

 

Speaking of near mutilation, that flip by Perkins where he drove his own head into the apron was sickening.

 

We've had the Three Faces of Foley. Now, we've got the Three Faces of Charles Wright, thanks to New Day.

 

That was pretty funny, seeing them in costume.

And yes, that Perkins move could have turned out much worse than it did.