Wrestling Thread 4: The Ruethless Aggression Era • Page 533

Yeah, this is also the completely unsurprising story of "I'd rather see NXT do it first". Despite having a potentially worse crowd, if anyone can pull off the story, it's them.

 

Braun seems like he's actually a pretty good guy off the screen

 

The Nia thing is entirely on the commentary, for me. The "eating a bunch of finishers" thing is very easily spun into "it took the best offense from 3 top stars to eliminate Nia" in the hands of someone even remotely competent.

 

Goddamn this doc is making me miss Roman even more

 

They didn’t really expand on why Brock was mad and why he threw the belt soooo

 

WWE storytelling in a nutshell.

 

Honestly, that feels like "here's your Seth angle".

 

If Seth beats bork, he's like the strongest ever because he would be 2-0 against the guy that's beaten everyone easily for like three years straight

 

I'm kind of with @clucky. I don't see how you could have a problem with anything that happened in the ring. It doesn't even really hurt Nia's character because it wasn't even the division she competes in, and she looked so much stronger against the women. Nia also has a history of doing some scummy, dumb shit throughout her time with the company, so I'm not feeling sorry for her. If you want to slam them for King & JBL, that's kind of a different issue. Those guys should just never be anywhere near a headset for match, for many, many reasons.

 

Seth vs Bork doesn't really excite me. I'd rather Finn win at EC. They do Demon Finn vs Brock and Seth vs Daniel Bryan.

 

disappointed that Poppy wasn't in the women's rumble

 

I was with @clucky but then I saw how other people on twitter/reddit were reacting to it and now I get where others are coming from. *I* don't have a problem with anything in the ring. Heck i enjoyed the stuff in the ring. I thought it told a good story that fit Nia's character. But my takeaway was "Nia was tough enough that she took out Truth and put herself in the men's rumble and showed she can hang with the boys. Taking out Truth was a bit of a dick move, and I hate her for eliminating Ali, but she did a great job selling all that offense I still gotta respect that she went out there and I think its really cool WWE is doing actual intergender stuff".

Then you go look on the internet and a lot of people's takeaway was "LOL LOOK AT NIA GETTING BEATEN UP" and I realize that maybe the WWE universe wasn't actually ready for a spot like that.

 

Some post Rumble thoughts:

- I really loved the simplicity of the staging, primarily because you had the fans right above it. Thought it made things feel more intimate, even though they were in a giant baseball stadium.
- Totally right call to have Becky lose against Asuka. Becky's obviously has Ronda in her sights, and you don't need another champion hijacking an entire division like you have with Brock. Love that they had Asuka win to with somewhat of a super submission/finisher with that inverted Asuka Lock/Cattle Mutilation move. Also, just a really good match all around.
- Tag match was more fun than I was expecting. Shane looked like he was going to have a heart attack about 4 minutes in, which I guess makes that SSP even more impressive. He hit that CLEAN. Looked so good.
- Really enjoyed Sasha vs Ronda. When they give Sasha the time and a story to tell, she always adds so many great little nuances that just intensify the moment. Loved her doing the join manipulation, biting Ronda's hand, kicking the hand during the Bank Statement, ripping off part of her gear following the armbar. You could definitely tell that Sasha was leading the way throughout the match and talking to Ronda A LOT, but I really loved the submission transitions they were doing in the mat, and Ronda sold really well for Sasha.
- Part of me was hoping when Sasha went back up to Ronda on the entrance ramp and held up the 4 Horsewomen sign that Becky was going to jump her from behind.
- First half to 3/4s of the women's Rumble was a bit of a slog, which is pretty typical for all Rumble matches, I think. Some cool little moments. Felt like Ember hanging on from being eliminated by her toes on the bottom rope was under-appreciated and a really awesome spot I had never seen before. IIconics were hilarious. Thought the stuff was Zelina and Hornswoggle was pretty funny. Didn't know Naomi had hops like that. LOVED seeing Rhea in the match. She's a star @oldjersey was a bit confused why @cristen and I were marking out so hard, but I think he was won over pretty quickly by her. Bummed I didn't get to see Victoria and her tatu entrance music (apparently that one dude with the sign right behind the staging felt the same way). Once it got down to the final 5-6, things got soooooo good. Loved the general pace of everything, and obviously Becky coming in and winning was what I was hoping for. I actually love the way that Charlotte sort of very slowly hit the ground with her lower body at the very end. Made you think for a couple seconds she may be able to save herself. Again, another Rumble moment I don't remember really seeing before. Great camera work to really zoom in on that moment, too. Especially getting the first couple rows of fans in the shot.
- AJ/DBry was a snooze, which is maybe the biggest surprise of the night? Was so amped for this match, but it suffered from going on right after Becky's moment (which should have closed the show, no questions asked) and they didn't do anything to win the crowd back. Way too much ground work. Felt like any old match you could see (and have seen) on SmackDown.
- I love the idea of Rowan being a character who is just really susceptible to cult leaders. First Bray, now Bryan.
- Wasn't expecting Finn to win, but I dig the story they told with Brock getting hurt in that manner. What I absolutely hate, though, is the post-match stuff. I'm fine with Finn getting caught in one quick moment from a guy like Brock, but Brock beating him down afterward really diminished the entire story they told all match long. I think I know what they were doing: Brock is so frustrated that Finn took him to the limit, he wanted to really give it to him afterward, which is supposed to put Finn over in a way. But all it really did was make Finn look like a geek, imo. Should have had Brock catch Finn and then really struggle to get to the back, selling the internal injuries and whatnot.
- Men's rumble was paced slightly better throughout, but more or less the same as the women's. Kind of clunky, not super exciting. Pretty much your typical Rumble match. Not bad, nothing amazing. I do like Seth winning, but still struggling to understand how Becky reigning supreme at the end isn't how you close out this show. Also, Jeff Jarrett is lame as hell. Regarding Nia, I thought it was cool to see her enter herself in the match, but strip aside kayfabe and there's something slightly icky about Vince and creative having a female get her comeuppance from a bunch of men while a crowd made up primarily of men cheer for it. It's not the worst thing WWE has ever done, but there's also something a bit off on the logic of that decision. She sold that RKO pretty solidly, though. Her standing toe to toe with Randy really makes you realize how much bigger Nia is than pretty much everyone else in the women's division.

 

That's the least surprising thing I've ever read on the internet

 

He 100% would have been in Raven's flock.

 

And an Oddity member, for sure!

 

Some post rumble thoughts:

- I can't believe I drew motherfucking No Way fucking Jose

 

My favorite part of the night is easily Rhea coming out.
She’s gonna be such a star. Her precence is insane

 

Yeah Rhea was so damn electric

 

I thought Brock attacking Finn was so that Brock would have more heat in a match against Braun. I thought for sure Braun was winning and they were going to try to give him the Roman booking and I thought the crowd wouldn’t care about either. I was wrong

 

Last thought for the night: NXT UK got more love in the rumble than 205 Live. Ali doesn’t count anymore. Poor guys

 

I haven't been keeping up with 205 live. Is Cedric hurt? Does seem a little odd he wasn't in the title match or the rumble.

EC3 remains the biggest WTF exclusion though. Lars I get because who knows what's really going on with him. Otis I get, because while it would be fun they had enough other people they weren't using any tag guys (outside of the new day). But EC3... rumble feels like it would've been the perfect way to get the mainstream WWE universe more familiar with him.

 

Billie is the best.