Pro Wrasslin' Thread: I don't know what I just saw

[nachobro]

goddamn and only 47

[nachobro]

How was Raw? Strowman bring the fun? I heard he threw Kalisto in the trash

https://streamable.com/ob9s9

[FunSlower]

How was Raw? Strowman bring the fun? I heard he threw Kalisto in the trash

https://streamable.com/ob9s9

This is absolutely wonderful, and I like Kalisto. But goddamn, POWER

[Stro]

You think SD has the great roster


And then you see AJ is going after the US Championship, Nakamura just comes out to do his entrance, and Rowan/Mojo/Ziggler/Jinder are in a match for a WWE Championship shot. 



EDIT: Omg Jinder Mahal becomes number one contender via Bollywood Boyz interference 

[Human Snorenado]

A Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton feud makes PERFECT sense. It's what the people want.

[Stro]

Hyping Nakamura's in ring debut before the show, during the show, and then having no appearance from Nakamura seems...weird.

[Stro]

You know what, fuck it, put the title on Jinder. Why not? It worked out for JBL outta nowhere in 2004. Randy has been 100% half assing it since his last injury so what's the worst that can happen? Can it really get worse than Orton vs Bray?

I'm trying to get through the 45th anniversary NJ show and man, it's basically a Road To... show even with the title changes. It's always been weird to me that NJ doesn't get more shit for 70% of any given card being clear filler where everyone involved is half assing it. It's been that way for a long, long, long time. Well over a decade.

[Take My Breh Away]

People got werked over thinking Balor had a concussion because Jinder threw a perfect forearm that sounded godly and now he's getting a Main Event push. Mostly because he's a solid hand, gets heat and he looks amazing

Can't hinder the Jinder

[bork]

Can it really get worse than Orton vs Bray?

...

A Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton feud makes PERFECT sense. It's what the people want.

 

[FunSlower]

You know what, fuck it, put the title on Jinder. Why not? It worked out for JBL outta nowhere in 2004. Randy has been 100% half assing it since his last injury so what's the worst that can happen? Can it really get worse than Orton vs Bray?

I'm trying to get through the 45th anniversary NJ show and man, it's basically a Road To... show even with the title changes. It's always been weird to me that NJ doesn't get more shit for 70% of any given card being clear filler where everyone involved is half assing it. It's been that way for a long, long, long time. Well over a decade.

Yknow, good for Jinder. I saw his Talking Smack promo from the previous week where he said he's on fire, nobody can out-train him or out-diet him, he's in the best shape of his life.

And now he's headlining a PPV. Good for you Jinder.

[nachobro]

I'm okay with Jinder getting his time to shine. Good for him.

Funny enough I decided to watch some of the 2012 NXT episodes they have up after Smackdown and there was a match between Jinder and Jason Jordan (with hair!). After the match Jinder basically gave the exact same promo he gave last night.

[FunSlower]

NXT from 2012 is crazy rough in spots. I saw Seth Rollins' debut on there, his gimmick was that he loved hardcore music. lmao.

[nachobro]

Yeah its incredibly rough but it's still an enjoyable watch overall, unlike the weird game show NXT that came before it.

[FunSlower]

There's a lot of absolutely awful gold from the "reality" era of NXT. Titus...and the S2 ending

[nachobro]

Yeah I've seen clips on YouTube and I figure that's the better way to watch it rather than suffering through the whole back catalog. I think it is all on Hulu somewhere though.

What I wanna know is when WWECW is going to make it to the Network. IIRC that was when I was just watching Smackdown on TV and PPVs in bars cause I didn't have cable.

[FunSlower]

I've been pretty thrilled to see so much Prime Time Wrestling from the 80s make it up there. Apparently you can watch the entire arc and year between Mania 2 and 3 to beyond, and witness the whole build for Mania 3. Not that it's a superb build outside of Hoggin/Andore Jr. I mean, we all remember Steamboat/Macho but like to ignore how much George Steele was involved.

[bork]

You know what, fuck it, put the title on Jinder. Why not? It worked out for JBL outta nowhere in 2004. Randy has been 100% half assing it since his last injury so what's the worst that can happen? Can it really get worse than Orton vs Bray?

I'm trying to get through the 45th anniversary NJ show and man, it's basically a Road To... show even with the title changes. It's always been weird to me that NJ doesn't get more shit for 70% of any given card being clear filler where everyone involved is half assing it. It's been that way for a long, long, long time. Well over a decade.

Yknow, good for Jinder. I saw his Talking Smack promo from the previous week where he said he's on fire, nobody can out-train him or out-diet him, he's in the best shape of his life.

And now he's headlining a PPV. Good for you Jinder.

It's because WWE is trying to expand in India. 

I still don't believe that he's not taking some kind of performance enhancing drug.  Dude just looks too juiced.

Also, why did they ditch the name "The Bollywood Boyz" for that tag team and just go with the incredibly-generic "Singh Brothers?" 

[Stro]

You know what, fuck it, put the title on Jinder. Why not? It worked out for JBL outta nowhere in 2004. Randy has been 100% half assing it since his last injury so what's the worst that can happen? Can it really get worse than Orton vs Bray?

I'm trying to get through the 45th anniversary NJ show and man, it's basically a Road To... show even with the title changes. It's always been weird to me that NJ doesn't get more shit for 70% of any given card being clear filler where everyone involved is half assing it. It's been that way for a long, long, long time. Well over a decade.

Yknow, good for Jinder. I saw his Talking Smack promo from the previous week where he said he's on fire, nobody can out-train him or out-diet him, he's in the best shape of his life.

And now he's headlining a PPV. Good for you Jinder.

It's because WWE is trying to expand in India. 

I still don't believe that he's not taking some kind of performance enhancing drug.  Dude just looks too juiced.

Also, why did they ditch the name "The Bollywood Boyz" for that tag team and just go with the incredibly-generic "Singh Brothers?" 

Who cares what the reason is? It's an interesting development regardless of the reasoning. I assume Bollywood Boyz got dropped because it's hard to have them be taken seriously with that name while they dance and talk about butter chicken beat downs. I could have SWORN one of them showed up on Impact in the last few months though.

I listened to Alvarez trying to hinder Jinder. What a tool. Basically running with the PROTECT DA BIZ shit in 2017 because a jobber was even in a match to get a title shot, while completely ignoring the other 5 guys in the match had no business being in it either. Weird how he singled out the one brown guy in the match 

Complain about Jinder Mahal being in a multi man number one contender match because he's a jobber, yet be cool with Mojo, Ziggler, and Rowan being in it.    Remember how just the week before on SD, Sami Zayn lost a number one contender match for the SECONDARY championship? He definitely deserved to be in the match, brehs.

[bork]

Who cares what the reason is? It's an interesting development regardless of the reasoning.

Jinder is to me right now.  Need to see him do more than act like pissed-off roid-guy with the tired "maharajah" gimmick.  I suspect that if their forray into an Indian expansion doesn't work out...it's buh-bye Jinder push.

I assume Bollywood Boyz got dropped because it's hard to have them be taken seriously with that name while they dance and talk about butter chicken beat downs. I could have SWORN one of them showed up on Impact in the last few months though.

I had to look up what they did in NXT.  Not what I expected.    I was thinking they were a couple of Indian gangstas with that name.  I still like it way more than "The Singh Brothers."  I don't see what the name change would have to do with a gimmick change, either- Jinder is using the same name and he was part of 3MB before.

But nah, they've been in NXT since last summer although they were part of Global Force Wrestling in 2015.

I listened to Alvarez trying to hinder Jinder. What a tool. Basically running with the PROTECT DA BIZ shit in 2017 because a jobber was even in a match to get a title shot, while completely ignoring the other 5 guys in the match had no business being in it either. Weird how he singled out the one brown guy in the match 

Complain about Jinder Mahal being in a multi man number one contender match because he's a jobber, yet be cool with Mojo, Ziggler, and Rowan being in it.    Remember how just the week before on SD, Sami Zayn lost a number one contender match for the SECONDARY championship? He definitely deserved to be in the match, brehs.

Mojo is the absolute worst of the bunch. 

[Stro]

I mean, I don't think Jinder is that good either, but I'm more interested in an outta nowhere rocket push for such a random dude than I am KO turning into a meaner Fabulous Rougeau or Miz getting all of his hard work killed by getting paired up with Ambrose...again.

The idea of Jinder being in the match at all really reinforces that "land of opportunity" theme of Smackdown. That coming over to SD means you have a clean slate and a chance to prove yourself. Jinder being in the match and winning it has done more for that idea that basically anything since August.

[bork]

I mean, I don't think Jinder is that good either

The idea of Jinder being in the match at all really reinforces that "land of opportunity" theme of Smackdown. That coming over to SD means you have a clean slate and a chance to prove yourself. Jinder being in the match and winning it has done more for that idea that basically anything since August.

But it doesn't...because he only got the push due to their India expansion plans. 

[Stro]

Dawg, I'm talking about on screen shit. I don't care what the real reasoning is. On SD, the theme they hammer home every week is that it is the land of opportunity and everyone gets to prove themselves. So Jinder getting put in that match at all goes with that theme. And him winning really reinforces it. The same reason why perennial loser Becky Lynch won the title on SD. And Heath Slater got a months long angle and title win.

The backstage/political reasoning for someone's push is not something I give a shit about at all.  In the same way that I don't care in the least about ratings unless I can use them to show why Seth Rollins sucks.

[FunSlower]

I don't care why people are getting pushed (Mojo's Gronk relationship, India, etc) because at least it's doing something new and different and like Stro said, after seeing Jinder get to main event a PPV, or at least have a title shot...who in the midcard at Raw WOULDN'T want to go to SD to try their hand?

[bork]

Sure, OK, we get some jobber-level guys getting pushes.  Yay...?

I'm actually OK with Jinder, but Mojo?  Bleh.  I suspect Jinder will just end up getting fed to Orton anyway. 

[FunSlower]

Something that always gets me in a good way about wrestling is those brief moments where I feel anything can happen. That's what draws me to MMA, and when wrestling does it, and you feel like anyone can win, that's when things get really, really good for me.

Would they go so far to give Jinder the belt? I doubt it. But they can potentially make me believe. It's possible. And that's what I like. Can Sting beat Big Van Vader? I don't know, but he might. I want to believe.

[Stro]

Sure, OK, we get some jobber-level guys getting pushes.  Yay...?

I'm actually OK with Jinder, but Mojo?  Bleh.  I suspect Jinder will just end up getting fed to Orton anyway. 

Well, duh. It's  clearly just a filler program. It probably won't even be a PPV match. Mojo is fine now. He's improved a lot. Not great or anything, but I don't get angry when I see him on my screen anymore. I'd prefer Orton to do the Undisputed Brock era weekly matches against mid card guys than have terrible matches with Bray and disappointing matches with guys like AJ. Orton is like the 5th most important guy on SD. His title run is meaningless already. At least getting him in the ring with fresher guys might be surprising.

[Stro]

I'm not buying that Okada is having this out of this world, one of a kind year. I'd say he's consistently being out performed by Naito in big matches so far this year. WK: Naito/Tanahashi was clearly better than Omega/Okada. New Beginning: Naito/Elgin clearly better than Okada/Suzuki (MICHAEL FUCKING ELGIN FOR FUCKS SAKE). Naito outshined him all year last year as well. I'd argue Shibata was outshining Okada up until the ended his career thing. Tanahashi always was a better performer, Nakamura was weaker structurally but more than made up for it with excitement and charisma. Fuck, I'd say Omega might have been overshadowing Okada in the last year.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I don't buy Okada as the true ace, and I don't think Okada buys it completely yet either.

[bork]

Sure, OK, we get some jobber-level guys getting pushes.  Yay...?

I'm actually OK with Jinder, but Mojo?  Bleh.  I suspect Jinder will just end up getting fed to Orton anyway. 

Well, duh. It's  clearly just a filler program. It probably won't even be a PPV match.

"Come to Smackdown where you'll get a kinda-sorta-push and might be lucky enough to get TV squash for the title!"

Mojo is fine now. He's improved a lot. Not great or anything, but I don't get angry when I see him on my screen anymore.

Don't hate him, but don't like him either.  He's just sort of there.  It says a lot when his push is because he's buddies with a football player.

[FunSlower]

You take what you can get. At least he's getting an opportunity, which is something he wouldn't get on Raw. I find no fault in it, and at least it's a fresh matchup. Remember how neat it was Kofi got to face Lesnar in Japan? It was neat.

Regarding Okada, I don't knowwwww. I mean, comparing him to other people really doesn't let his work stand on its own but I'm not sure if that's a wrestling thing that's valid to draw comparisons to, or if it's completely unfair to someone's work to compare it to his or her contemporaries.

[Stro]

You take what you can get. At least he's getting an opportunity, which is something he wouldn't get on Raw. I find no fault in it, and at least it's a fresh matchup. Remember how neat it was Kofi got to face Lesnar in Japan? It was neat.

Regarding Okada, I don't knowwwww. I mean, comparing him to other people really doesn't let his work stand on its own but I'm not sure if that's a wrestling thing that's valid to draw comparisons to, or if it's completely unfair to someone's work to compare it to his or her contemporaries.

You have to compare people in wrestling. When Meltzer is saying he's having the best year of anyone since Flair in 1989 (of course, Flair wasn't even the best dude in 1989), how can you not overlook that there's another guy in the same company being better than him in big matches? I'd argue that outside of being outshined in NJPW, AJ is outdoing him in WWE as well. Granted, WWE and NJPW are completely different when it comes to schedules, but what AJ is doing on a week to week basis with guys clearly nowhere as good as him is more impressive to me than what Okada does once a month or every other month.

AJ being able to have multiple genuinely good matches with James Ellsworth is more impressive to me than Okada having a stunt show with Omega or a snoozefest with Suzuki.

[FunSlower]

Does that actually make Okada any worse? Or just contextually?

[Stro]

I just disagree that he's having some once in a life time year so far. At the same events last year, he had better matches than he's had at them this year.

[Momo]

[FunSlower]

WWE's brick and mortar stores in the middle east are interesting ideas. An idea that would never work out here. B&M are about to die.

[bork]

Kallisto looked like a little kid cosplaying as Rey Mysterio out there tonight. 

[Stro]

Why the fuck are Seth and Balor teaming AGAIN. Are we pretending that Seth didn't injure him and brag about it? Also lol at the complete lack of reaction to the Kingslayer (which I assume is what the Rainmaker knee will  be called because of course). So clear they have no idea what to do with Joe or Balor.

[FunSlower]

Balor vs the Club could have been a little big deal instead of no deal.

So, a couple takeaways. Bray vs Orton is non-title. For hopefully some reason!
Kalisto has nice new ring gear, and my goodness thank god he won after last week's trash.
Jericho has nothing

[bork]

Another awful Raw with shitty build-up towards the PPV this weekend.  I can understand Roman not being there, but that doesn't excuse the rest of the show.  They should not have kept the guys on separate brands who are facing each other.  It makes for crappy build-up.  Have Bray appear on SD to fuck with Orton.  Have Kevin Owens do a run-in on Raw.  Do SOMETHING.

Charlotte vs. Bailey wasn't doing much for me and them swapping Alexa Bliss in to literally continue to do the same thing is just boring.

Kalisto has nice new ring gear,

It's kind of ugly.  The close-ups on the mask made me think he was "Lil' Kane." 

[fistfulofmetal]

It's funny that they address Ambrose and Jericho teaming but not Rollings and Balor. They REALLY don't want us to hear Balor talk. He's just the cool guy with the leather jacket.

People are going to be booing the shit out of him in a year IMO.

[archie4208]

I can basically ignore WWE outside of YouTube clips until SummerSlam. 

[FunSlower]

It's funny that they address Ambrose and Jericho teaming but not Rollings and Balor. They REALLY don't want us to hear Balor talk. He's just the cool guy with the leather jacket.

People are going to be booing the shit out of him in a year IMO.

I don't wanna hear him speak either. Neville's speech coach had his or her work cut out for them but he's come a long way about being easier to understand for your typical American watching, which is good. He used to be borderline impossible to understand. He takes his time and speaks slowly, but I like it.

Balor isn't a speech prodigy like Neville.

To the other point, hopefully people will be booing the shit out of Balor, because he is absolute Cunt-Tier levels of heel. It's pretty amazing. He even got shoot under my skin a few times, that's how good he is.

[bork]

I can basically ignore WWE outside of YouTube clips until SummerSlam. 

Maybe it's time for me to finally do this.

[FunSlower]

If you don't wanna watch WWE it's really easy to give up
If you want to still watch wrestling there's a ton of quality alternatives

[Stro]

I turned off SD after that terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE opening promo with Ziggler and Nakamura where Ziggler compared him to Michael Jackson in the creepy freak probably a pedo way instead of great artist way, rambled about The Simpsons, and then Nak spoke overly exaggerated Japanese to WHAT chants.

But I hear that Jinder was not hindered and Breezango are also number one contenders.

https://twitter.com/WrestlinGifs/status/857042523235209217



Excellent. Jobbers will rule the world.

[archie4208]

The Ziggler/Nakamura promo was horrific.

Congrats, WWE.  I no longer care about Nakamura.  Guess I'll rewatch his WK match with AJ a million times to ease the pain. 

[Stro]

The Ziggler/Nakamura promo was horrific.

Congrats, WWE.  I no longer care about Nakamura.  Guess I'll rewatch his WK match with AJ a million times to ease the pain. 

Why watch that when you could watch Nak vs Ibushi the year before  Legit ass the best match of a generation. All time classic. Both AJ and Nak had better matches with Okada and Tanahashi in 2014-2015. Not to say AJ/Nak wasn't a blast to watch.

[bork]

I turned off SD after that terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE opening promo with Ziggler and Nakamura where Ziggler compared him to Michael Jackson in the creepy freak probably a pedo way instead of great artist way, rambled about The Simpsons, and then Nak spoke overly exaggerated Japanese to WHAT chants.

The Ziggler/Nakamura promo was horrific.

Congrats, WWE.  I no longer care about Nakamura.  Guess I'll rewatch his WK match with AJ a million times to ease the pain. 

I saw that segment and just went .  Could not believe what was going on there.  And then Nakamura cuts a tiny promo in Japanese and calls him a jackass.  Uh...?

Meanwhile, Nakamura has yet to wrestle on live TV since being called up.   

[Take My Breh Away]

They moved Miz to Raw to do another fued with Ambrozzzzzzzzze and are ruining Nakamura with a heatless Dolph instead. 

 

[FunSlower]

lmao @ Jinder off into the sunset with the belt while hanging out of the sunroof. LMAO LMAO LMAO

Also Nakamura vs Ibushi is some good-ass chemistry and you won't find many finer matchups

Dolph is a stinking piece and remains to be so

[nachobro]

caught smackdown, it was great other than lolziggler.

also i guess wyatt/orton is now no longer for the belt? which works out since jinder stole that shit anyway.

[Trent Dole]

So.. bray just never gets a return match cause he went to Raw

[archie4208]

The Ziggler/Nakamura promo was horrific.

Congrats, WWE.  I no longer care about Nakamura.  Guess I'll rewatch his WK match with AJ a million times to ease the pain. 

Why watch that when you could watch Nak vs Ibushi the year before  Legit ass the best match of a generation. All time classic. Both AJ and Nak had better matches with Okada and Tanahashi in 2014-2015. Not to say AJ/Nak wasn't a blast to watch.

I'll be honest I never saw that match before you suggested it.  Thanks for the heads up because it was amazing. 

[FunSlower]

So.. bray just never gets a return match cause he went to Raw

Payback!

[Trent Dole]

So he might fight Jinder then Eh, whatever.

[Human Snorenado]

So.. bray just never gets a return match cause he went to Raw

That's not it at all.

He doesn't get a return match because he's Bray.

[nachobro]

I think they are taking the belt off the match because Bray might win. Yeah I know but if Bray is supposed to fight Finn next he's gonna come in with a little hype, right?

Also...what the fuck at this name



http://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/brock-lesnar-defending-universal-title-wwe-great-balls-fire-234576

[Human Snorenado]

Balls Mahoney is dead, right? Too bad.

[archie4208]

Goodness gracious.

[bork]

WWE today announced the name of its other July pay-per-view.

It is called WWE Great Balls of Fire.

Great. Balls. Of. Fire.

Wrestling has had plenty of clumsy and silly names over the years, from December to Dismember to Insurrextion to Taboo Tuesday to In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies. But this one is so bad it’s good. One: It has the word “balls” in it. Two: It is named after a 1957 Jerry Lee Lewis song. Three: Undoubtedly, the official song of WWE Great Balls of Fire will not be “Great Balls of Fire.”

 

[Stro]

That's clearly a SMW wrestling name for a card. Jim Cornette back on the creative team confirmed.