We'll see the difference between as pretend tough guy (Punk) and a hard-ass who did time (Dom)

It would actually be pretty hilarious if all of Punk's opponents took shots at him that made the Hangman comments that set him off seem like a love letter. 

KawadaSmile the PWO Grand Master!

 

25 minutes ago, Coffey said:

KawadaSmile the PWO Grand Master!

 

I find it wonderful that I found this community in, like, 2016 or so. Time flies when you are interacting with people with similar interests, bubba!

(Also I was high on Roman since day 1)

Miz vs GOONTA is an all time rivalry. Just two true natties who are perfect in their craft and are #1 and #2 top IC champs.

This match is fucking INSANE.

I like Kaiser and Vinci, I hope they get built up as non-goons.

Julius Creed. Insane.

Creed brothers have potential, but they still come across as pretty green to me. Hope they work a bunch of house shows and get their reps in.

Seth is such the perfect WWE-brained foil for Punk. I still can't see him being able to do the level of promo he did on Matt Riddle without Punk getting butthurt over it.

They kind of painted themselves in a corner with Drew. It seems like the plan is to do Seth vs Punk for the belt but Drew losing would make him a giant geek at this point.

6 hours ago, sek69 said:

Seth is such the perfect WWE-brained foil for Punk. I still can't see him being able to do the level of promo he did on Matt Riddle without Punk getting butthurt over it.

Seth already directly referenced Punk's issues with Cabana in an interview, so it doesn't seem like anything's off the table. On the other hand, the crowd mostly reacted with confused silence when Punk alluded to Brawl Out on Smackdown, so they run the risk of going over the audience's heads if they get too inside.

11 hours ago, Embrodak said:

Creed brothers have potential, but they still come across as pretty green to me. Hope they work a bunch of house shows and get their reps in.

They feel like two huge pitbulls. Like, the way too excited types who just do whatever despite being hulking beasts. It feels really wild that matches don't fall apart as they seem to be going through them based on vibes.

3 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

They feel like two huge pitbulls. Like, the way too excited types who just do whatever despite being hulking beasts. It feels really wild that matches don't fall apart as they seem to be going through them based on vibes.

I more just meant the basics. They’ve got some good double teams, power moves, but things like strikes, selling, etc they still have a fair bit of learning to do.

I don't like The Miz. I don't think he's very good in the ring and beyond stale as a character that belongs on MTV reunion shows. But that was an absolutely outstanding match and far and away the company's best TV outing of the year.

With those glasses, Dion Lennox looks like El Hijo de Humpty Hump

“Tavion Heights” is as WWE a name as I’ve ever heard, but he seems reasonably talented.

I have no issue with injury angles, they're as old as wrestling itself, but doing one with a guy who's legit hurt people like Ridge is kinda gross.

lol Blair Davenport just announced she got engaged to Riley Osborne (the new Chase U guy who just started a storyline with Thea Hail crushing on him).  happy for them but I can hear the Jim Cornette types raging over this blatant break of kayfabe

NXT is a place where people go to hook up, get engaged, get jacked, get tan, and yet fucking Brian Pillman Jr. shows up looking like current day Chris Jericho. 

8 hours ago, sek69 said:

I have no issue with injury angles, they're as old as wrestling itself, but doing one with a guy who's legit hurt people like Ridge is kinda gross.

I wouldn’t mind it if it was Ridge building himself up as a heel and being like, “Yeah, I broke his neck, and I’ll break yours, too!” Doing it with him being weepy and sullen in the corner and the announcers not saying anything is just cheesy and melodramatic.

13 hours ago, sek69 said:

I have no issue with injury angles, they're as old as wrestling itself, but doing one with a guy who's legit hurt people like Ridge is kinda gross.

In don't know anything about the Ridge thing but using real injuries to boost programs is as old as wrestling as well. Hansen-Bruno, Khan-André, ... Hell, Ox Baker was a made man because Ray Gunkel died after a match with Baker.

The less you know about the Ridge thing the better.

I totally agree - an angry, unrepentant bully who wants to injure people is a classic heel gimmick. A perfectly fine monster for a babyface to beat and for audiences to want to see get beat.

An accident-prone klutz who *mistakenly* injures people and then cries about in the corner of the ring as his opponent is taken out on a stretcher is not that. It's like some hybrid of post-stumble Shockmaster (god I love that his theme was someone misplaying "Day Tripper"), Evad Sullivan, and Lennie from Of Mice and Men. 

There's just no way I can figure anyone, let alone Ridge Holland (seems like a nice enough guy, but c'mon, he's about as special as sand on a beach), making such a terrible gimmick work. Played for comedy? Icky because dude did legitimately nearly paralyze Big E. Play it as him eventually "giving in" to his "curse" similar to Ken Shamrock's "snapping" gimmick? Fine...except now you've burdened him with having to play a nutjob who feels remorse and wants sympathy one minute and then goes berserk the next. My Snitsky Sense is tingling! 

I'm as big a mark as anyone for cornball gimmicks, but their place is not in the main event and the talents that can pull them off are few and far between. 



 

Mr. Backlund was the best version of that gimmick. The ultimate goody two shoes babyface finally snapping and chicken winging everyone to death was ahead of its time.

I'm sure the idea is to start out with Ridge being remorseful to build to him snapping and becoming a guy who injures people and doesn't care like with Billy Kidman a couple of decades ago. SSPing Paul London while he was tied down on a stretcher is by far the coolest thing Kidman has ever done with the possible exception of landing Torrie Wilson. Even so, doing it with a guy who was getting death threats over injuring Big E is pretty gross.