6 minutes ago, Alucard said:

Compared to fucking cedric and ricochet though... Got damn.

I'd say Cedric has shown more physical charisma despite the fact they haven't let him talk on Raw than Drew has in his entire main roster run, and that's with him being completely overpushed.

He's someone who looks the part and isn't a BAD worker, but he will absolutely never have "it".

10 minutes ago, Alucard said:

Compared to fucking cedric and ricochet though... Got damn.

 Amen.

Ricochet isn't amazing on the mic by any means, but he has a natural charisma.

Cedric is rough all around in the personality dept., but as @tallmike so astutely observed, he has physical charisma (which is what I was thinking too but wouldn't have been able to put into words). 

I don't think Drew is unsalvageable, but he sounds like a fucking robot. Maybe scripted promos are to blame? I don't know. Or maybe he'd be even worse without them? Was he this bad on the mic in TNA?

Ricochet comes off as a guy who's good on promos, but bad at reading WWE scripts and sounding human. Cedric was pretty good doing it on 205, not sure why they don't let him speak much on the main roster. 

4 hours ago, Strummer said:

God damn Bryan is fantastic.  He's near tears! He hates liars!

 

He is fantastic, but the video Roman showed was so grainy it could have been that dude who looked like Rowan from last week for all we know.

6 hours ago, C.S. said:

Randy Orton is a perverted creep... Who's booking this shit?

That's actually a throwback to an 1984 promo from Roddy Piper when he was feuding with Jimmy Snuka. They adapted it to today's reality but tonight's promo was essentially the gist of what happened between Piper & Snuka.

6 hours ago, C.S. said:

 

EDIT: Sorry, accidentally double posted it.

22 minutes ago, SirEdger said:

That's actually a throwback to an 1984 promo from Roddy Piper when he was feuding with Jimmy Snuka. They adapted it to today's reality but tonight's promo was essentially the gist of what happened between Piper & Snuka.

Have to admit – that is pretty awesome.

Only problem is – Randy Orton is no Roddy Piper.

11 hours ago, tallmike said:

 

Well it was fun while it lasted...

All of that work right down the toilet. 

Not if The Fiend wins the title, which he will IMO. 

This is arguably much worse for Braun, who will get another start-stop push either way. 

Win or loss, it is bad. The Fiend shouldn't be going after titles like a regular wrestler. And it is just way too soon if they want to go that direction at all.

As a character he is best as an incoming threat, not as the champion with people gunning for the belt. The only way this works is if they think outside the box and have contenders look to each other after he wins, "You know, I think YOU were the #1 contender..."

17 minutes ago, Slasher said:

Win or loss, it is bad. The Fiend shouldn't be going after titles like a regular wrestler. And it is just way too soon if they want to go that direction at all.

As a character he is best as an incoming threat, not as the champion with people gunning for the belt. The only way this works is if they think outside the box and have contenders look to each other after he wins, "You know, I think YOU were the #1 contender..."

Or....hear me out.....what if instead of thinking outside the box, he just traded meaningless wins and losses with Seth Rollins for a few months. That'd work too... Right?

Performance Fighting!

Card subject to change.

Maybe Wyatt has learned that his promos and character need some form of solid, explicitly stated motivation and cause this time around...

10 hours ago, C.S. said:

Randy Orton is no Roddy Piper.

Yeah... Orton is better all around.

The only thing Orton was better at than Piper was shitting in Divas bags

9 minutes ago, Ricky Jackson said:

The only thing Orton was better than Piper at was shitting in Diva's bags

And sexually harassing the writing staff. 

It would be great if instead of "The Fiend" coming out, Bray Wyatt just came out in his "children's TV host" clothing. Like, as if Bray Wyatt and The Fiend were 2 split personalities, and The Fiend refused to "come out" for this match. And then Braun Strowman could just beat Wyatt bloody around the cage for like 5 minutes before pinning him. The idea being that the "Bray Wyatt" persona is just a defenseless children's entertainer now. They get bonus points if they hire a young child actor to sit in the audience somewhere and the camera can just cut to him crying his eyes out every time Wyatt gets thrown into the sides of the cage.

5 minutes ago, TheDuke said:

It would be great if instead of "The Fiend" coming out, Bray Wyatt just came out in his "children's TV host" clothing. Like, as if Bray Wyatt and The Fiend were 2 split personalities, and The Fiend refused to "come out" for this match. And then Braun Strowman could just beat Wyatt bloody around the cage for like 5 minutes before pinning him. The idea being that the "Bray Wyatt" persona is just a defenseless children's entertainer now. They get bonus points if they hire a young child actor to sit in the audience somewhere and the camera can just cut to him crying his eyes out every time Wyatt gets thrown into the sides of the cage.

 

All this post did is made me realize this being a setup for a reunited Wyatt Family is.... more plausible then I expected. Rowan just did the thing were he attacked Reigns and potentially Bryan didn’t know about it. Meaning it’s possible Rowan has someone else influencing his actions. Meanwhile, Braun is in this rivalry friendship thing with Rollins. Both former willing active Wyatt members that are getting TV time while heavily involved with storylines with the remaining Shield members. 

 

I don’t want that storyline to happen, but the pieces are in place, and somehow nobody had noticed?

2 minutes ago, El Dragon said:

I don’t want that storyline to happen, but the pieces are in place, and somehow nobody had noticed?

Let's hope the writing team didn't, either!

1 hour ago, KawadaSmile said:

Yeah... Orton is better all around.

Not even close.

I have never cared about a single Randy Orton match in my entire life.

I have never cared about a single Randy Orton promo in my entire life.

Randy may be "technically" more proficient, but that doesn't mean shit. 

Roddy Piper could work...brother!

Repeat after me: Rasslin' means nothing. Rasslin' doesn't draw. Rasslin' doesn't generate interest. Characters do. Stories do. Emotions do.

Piper had all of that in spades. Orton never has and never will. 

I'm not going to say that I've never cared about anything that Randy Orton has ever done because I don't think that's true. I thought he was really entertaining when he was doing the RNN updates. I was interested in his title match against Benoit to see if they would put the world title on him. I liked his hardcore match with Foley where he took the big thumbtack bump. I liked the crazy Orton that hit the DDT on Steph & then kissed her unconscious body while a handcuffed Triple H had to watch on. Legend Killer Orton was fun & he hit the CarKO on Hogan. He's had good matches with Undertaker, Mysterio, Shawn Michaels, Edge, Christian, Cena, etc. He did Evolution, Rated RKO, Legacy. I definitely remember popping when he hit the RKO on Seth during the Authority angle. 

Is he overexposed at this point? Yeah, for sure... but so is 90% of the WWE roster. Orton is like a 15 time World Champion and been prominently featured on TV every week for like twenty years. But let's not act like he's never done anything. 

Honestly, you could make an entire thread on just Orton & have a ton of material. Just like Cena, or Batista, or Edge.

Truth be told, I always found Piper annoying, like Robin Williams at his most coked-up. I'd take Orton/Cena at Summerslam 2007 over Piper's entire career. Regardless, it's pretty ridiculous that Orton's been a top guy for nearly two decades without interruption except for injuries and Wellness suspensions. And it's not like he had a slow ascent to the top. He was an undercard guy for a few months after joining the main roster, got injured, and immediately joined Evolution after returning. I can't think of any other wrestler who had as long a run as a main eventer in one company without ever working anywhere else.

I think Orton's pretty good when motivated, hell he might even be better than Piper if he didn't quarter-ass 3/4ths of his career. To claim he's all around better makes me worry all the issues going on in Brazil have broken poor brother KawadaSmile's brain once and for all. 

Why I could never care about WWE's modern style (speaking about in-ring, promo style, presentation, everything basically) that debuted in the 00's in two words : Randy Orton. I mean, I've called him the Black Hole for a reason.