Wrestling Thread 7: FTR Baldhausen • Page 1054

Bray has never been near a top guy, idk what to tell yall. They tried, it didnt happen. He had good feuds with all time hall of famers. Danielson and The Shield. I’m surprised a lot of yall can’t fathom why someone could see this debut not being successful after a decade of Bray being hyped up as the next thing and never getting close to being there.

 

I guess I don’t like spooky promo, average ring workers.

 

I’m HAPPILY gonna stfu about it now

 

Bray isn’t amazing in the ring, but he has slow, methodical style that’s very old school but doesn’t impact or hinder his opponents style. Kinda similar to Roman.

I do think he needs a better finisher, though

 

He was the Universal champion for a good minute he’s absolutely been the top guy

 

His extreme rules return video has 2.6 million views - second most views is 1.7 and that’s the video of all the firefly funhouse characters coming to life

next closest is 1.3 million and that’s shared between the highlight video and edge kicking Dominick in the nuts

you may not like bray but to say he isn’t or can’t be the top guy is wrong

 

I can’t believe we’re doing “is bray interesting” when The Fiend vs. Cena was some of the best product WWE has put out in the last, idk decade?

 

I agree with you but would it have been as effective if it didn’t happen during the pandemic?

 

I…I don’t really care? Idk. Would it have played to a crowd if they presented it exactly as it ended up being? Probably not. But it doesn’t really change anything for
me. It was more captivating than the combined totality of every second of Drew Macintyre’s life lol

 

I may or may not be watching that match now lol

 

Aight here's a good question:

Who's better in ring, The Miz or Bray? I feel like I've always thought of both of them as "as good as they need to be for their gimmicks"

 

and now I also wanna watch Cena vs The Fiend

 

The Miz but yeah, they’re both at their best before the bell rings.

I feel like there was this weird like 4-6 month period where the Miz was six of all the indie love and fired off like 4 or 5 banger matches without losing an inch of his super safe reputation.

 

I like watching Bray matches, but absolutely hate watching Miz matches. My controversial opinion is that Finn matches are more boring than Bray’s.

 

I think I’ve seen one Miz match that I thought was better than Bray vs Daniel Bryan at Royal Rumble 2014, and that Miz match involved Owens Zayn and Cesaro

 

Bray vs Cena’s Last Man Standing in 2014, also good
Obviously Wyatt Family Vs Shield kicked ass

 

Eh, this is still booking. Put him over Cena at WM30, and over Taker at WM31, being the one to break the streak, and after Romans failed push from WM31-WM33, are we even still talking Roman as the top guy? Bray had plenty of momentum and plenty of fan support to get there, he just never got booked there. Like, the fans had to care enough about Wyatt for them to be happy that Daniel broke away in that build to WM30

Pre-Fiend Bray was like a solid B. Honestly, sort of like Sheamus, where they rarely put on a bad match, but the ring work at best can get to like 4* (before Sheamus proved this wrong, of course). His matches with Roman were always good though. In ring, the Fiend was trash. It felt lazier than all the usuall "WWE Monster squashes people" stuff.

I dunno, Bray getting put over as THE HEEL at WM30/31, Roman going over as the top babyface at WM31...feels like they could have been running things for a while. Instead, the booking for both set them back 5 years.

 

Also this rules

 

Probably also a fair argument that a few Bray injuries derailed him, and Roman stayed healthy. Like, that gif, Bray was about to go on a monster face run and it just fizzled

 

My only comment regarding Bray at this time is that while it did seem like he MAY be returning to his old Wyatt character I personally am just under the assumption I guess that there will be more to it. He seems like he’s got a lot of ideas so I can’t see him just going back to what he already created, seems like that would bore him more than anyone else. And now that Trips is running the show I’m sure he has even more opportunity to create a new character to his liking.

And that’s it for my thoughts on him so far because we saw him for like 60 seconds so who knows what the fuck he will be lol

 

Not to mention I’m sure anything Vince rejected I’m sure we’ll see those ideas come to fruition. Let’s sit back and see what happens, it could end up being some of the best stuff we’ve ever seen

 

Wasn’t this also around the time (spring 2016 maybe?) that they briefly teased Bray vs Triple H and the crowd went nuts?

 

Yeah, it was that tortured build to WM32 where everyone got hurt...Bray was supposed to face Brock to at some point in there and couldnt go...and then that WM segment with the Rock was likewise short.

 

That feud really could have been something great.

 

A top Bray moment - I still pop so hard for that