2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

I was thinking that too. I'm assuming they gimmicked that window, unlike WCW.

Kane's leg looked like it caught fire for a second or two. Luckily, the fire guys got it out quickly.

 

Anybody watching the postgame show on the Network? They're doing these little press conference segments with the wrestlers at an interview table like you'd see at a normal sporting event. They're kind of cool, incredibly awkward, high on the unintentional comedy charts and, I suspect, somewhere around the fifth circle of sports writer hell.
Bray Wyatt (with Rowan and a mask-clad Harper behind him) questioned his interviewer's path through life and then flipped the table and left. Bryan cut his session short to go get iced down.

 

I can only suspend my disbelief so much. The press conferences are not a way to go. I can't even stand the experts panel for the pre- or post-shows. It's going for kayfabe on a network that featured a documentary on Bryan's WrestleMania week and shows him openly talking about wrestling two matches as a sure thing completely out of character.

 

So, Extreme Rules thoughts:

- The opener, it seemed like the broadcast crew was really confused with RVD pinned Swagger; clearly, they knew Cesaro was supposed to be going over, and it wasn’t until after the pin that it was made clear that it was an elimination triple threat. Once they got rid of Swagger, it was a good match between RVD and Cesaro with some nice trash can spots, but it really showed how little they needed Swagger in that match. It’s amazing how much he’s fallen off in the past few years; at least The Miz is still starring in direct-to-DVD flicks.

- Tough to see Rusev sticking on the main roster for more than a year or two. That drop kick spot was really impressive, but otherwise, nothing he did really stood out to me. Plus, that first toss of Xavier Woods outside of the ring looked downright dangerous, and his camel clutch finisher on R-Truth didn’t really look all that effective. I hope he’s studying tapes of Vladamir Koslov so he knows what not to do. And Snitsky. And Big Daddy V. And Tensai. And the Great Khali. And Zeus. And dozens of other “monsters of the week!” that have just gotten fed to Cena / Hogan / Babyface Heel of the Moment.

That being said, that Lana is a keeper. She doesn’t seem to have any in-ring training, according to Wikipedia, but with that look and that accent, she could be a better version of the female heel antagonist that Oksana sometimes tried to play.

- Renee Young, oh la and LA. The only problem with her is that she’s so short, you can’t always see her face, amongst other attractive features. It also made that Evolution promo somewhat… rape-y feeling to me. And, err… Does Batista have a nose stud? When did this happen? Am I seeing things?

- Big E seems like he has a tiny bit more personality than Lashley, but the division is so much deeper now. It’s not a great sign that they pushed him pretty hard for a couple months, and he pretty much made no mark at all between his ring work or on the mic. Meanwhile, Barrett wasn’t even wrestling, and suddenly he’s a Jericho-style “jerk fans like” that gets the IC belt in a couple matches. It’ll be interesting to see who he gets to feud with; him vs. Cesaro could be interesting, in a sort of grey vs. grey feud.

- Evolution just knows how to work as a heel unit together, and it was pretty awesome. There were obviously a ton of great moments in this match. I loved when they were going near the exit and you could hear a kid screaming, “Fight him Dean!” The only thing I don’t really like is Reigns’ weird Warrior twitch / Hulk up move in the corner. Seems like a poor imitation of both.

- The Cena vs. Wyatt (family) match was confusing at points... Well, kind of throughout. Cena wasn’t willing to jump from near the top of the cage on the guy below him? I feel like that’s a semi-common spot nowadays, even if the other guy is holding a chair. And them using the kid at the end just kind of creeped me out in the wrong way.

- Paige took a pretty nasty bump against the railing from Tamina; looked impressive. For what was essentially a “rest” match on the card, it was a good little match. Also, Paige is really, really good looking.

- Kane vs. Daniel Bryan essentially turned into a gimmick match, but it was a fun one. I never thought DB was going to lose, but it was as entertaining as it could be without any real suspense. (It sounds like I’m damning it with faint praise, but I don’t mean to be.) Like Baron said, I’m assuming the WWE was actually smart enough to gimmick everything involved, but most of that still had to hurt like hell.

Re: the post and pre-match panels, I agree with Bradley. I find them kind of jarring in the PPVs, and while you sometimes get some unintentional comedy, I’m otherwise uninterested. It seems like a weird half-measure to me – Either go back to the 80s / 90s style kayfabe interviews with the winners and losers, or pay Jim Ross or Meltzer or Bryan Alvarez or Dave Shoemaker or someone else to host the panel and treat it legit.

 

Who is worse at Hulking Up? Reigns or Bryan? Discuss.

 

After watching a couple more of the "press conferences" last night, they actually started to grow on me as an effective way to cut promos. The Shield's was really well-done, and the Heyman-Cesaro was a good heel moment. Hell, I think it's the first time I've ever heard Cesaro cut a promo.
I can see how it makes it hard to suspend disbelief, though.

 

Reigns, because he does it for longer. He looks like he's having a seizure.

 

Rusev gets done with Woods and Truth, then his next match is with Kofi?
Why is he only beating up black guys?

 

He also beat up Ryder, so he also beats orange guys.

 

Interesting note: Remember that kid who met Cena at the cage door last night singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."? Turns out his dad is the former co-host of "The Bobby Heenan Show." (He's sitting on the couch next to The Brain in this clip):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEwNN7WXqck

 

That whole car scene was absolutely terrible.

Or, here's a thought: someone's trying to beat up your wife. You are in a car, and your enemy has just fallen off the roof. Why not just finish him off by backing the car over the prone body a couple of times?

 

Whichever Bella that was, I felt bad for her having to keep doing those terrible screams.