Board 8 > All Purpose Wrestling Topic 512: Finishing the Story

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm going to mute the TV until the crowd stops fucking singing. The match is great, but it is distracting.

Bayley finished the story

Best match of the night, brought down by half the match being Philly being stupid.

Okay, that was the new best match of the night. No gimmicks, just a great 1 on 1. Crowd was hot for Bayley and it adds to the match.

And I enjoy the serenading. It reminds me of soccer matches. Plus it's kind of unique for WWE!

Alright, it's all been leading to this...

Main Event of Night One
Gunther/Sami
Bayley/Io
US Title Triple Threat

Let's see if this ends up the madness I expect it to be, cause there have been some stiff match competition.

There goes Cody stealing HHH's Terminator helmet again

Here we fucking go

hey i heard they managed to not fuck it up

cheers to the wwe watchers. congrats on the story finishing

I was sold on all of the hilarious overbooking except Taker, which didn't fit the theme of "people the bloodline fucked over" at all

Other than that it absolutely ruled

Roman's run as The Man ends at 1232 days.

Cody also has the custody of Dominik Mysterio with the win

I don't want to harp on about it too much but that really showed how fanservice can be a good thing and also how it can be a hollow thing

Like HHH vs. Sting, that was bad fanservice. Like I guess I was still entertained by the clusterfuck, but for all of a few minutes. There was nothing to really appreciate beyond the initial dopamine hit of nostalgia. That story was about Sting as a vigilante fighting HHH's corrupt leadership, not digging up WWE vs. WCW or DX vs. NWO 15 years later. They crowbarred that in because it was WM and people would pop for those guys showing up/the two different theme songs, but it was hollow and stupid

Tonight, we saw an example of what I would say is bad fanservice with Taker's appearance, because it didn't serve the story whatsoever and is really the only hair in that soup. He hasn't been fucked by the bloodline, lost to Reigns at WM 7 years ago... yeah I don't buy his "vengeance" here unless you play fast and loose with him being the "conscience of wwe" coming back to put an end to Reigns' nonsense. Even then, it still just feels a bit off - since everyone else involved was far more relevant to the Bloodline. That said, if Austin was the plan that wouldn't have been any better. You get the visual of Austin and Rock facing off, and yeah cool we get to see Rock oversell the stunner again, but every other interference in the match made storyline sense - all the faces had been fucked over by the Bloodline, including the ones that came in after the match was over (Punk being there in the post-match was also a bit silly and off-theme, but not really a big deal). And then there was just...Taker. Or what should have been Austin. Sure? It just felt like one thing too many. Brock actually makes more sense in that spot (but was not an option), and even HHH.

Meanwhile, Rollins appearing in his Shield gear and psyching out Roman was the good kind of fanservice that served the story. The long-term storytelling of Roman taking his eye off the ball because Rollins was there in Shield gear was perfect, but you also get the cool pop of the music and that nostalgic dopamine hit of the music etc.

Undertaker = CGI Nic Cage in the Flash
Rollins in the Shield gear psyching Roman out = Walt and Jesse's scenes in Better Call Saul

I loved everything about that. Even the one that didn't make sense storyline wise, it was so fucking cool to see him lol

Wolfpac

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/29ce6879.jpg
Glad both triple h and triple h came out to celebrate

UltimaterializerX posted...

Bad isn't a strong enough word.

On what planet would the NWO ever help Sting?

I could have maybe forgiven that one if X-Pac helped both factions for ultimate ridiculousness but we couldn't even get that.

I haven't followed wrestling in years so wouldn't get the overbookedness of the match but hearing you all talk about it makes me want to watch it.

the overbooking made sense and required fairly minimal knowledge, especially in recent years. won't spoil it but it's a rare case of overbooking was the correct way to book it, especially considering there was a real match beneath it. it's well worth a watch.

I mean we're using the word overbooking but given the story it just felt like...booking

Like they had a match the night before to basically say "yes, this match will have a ton of interference", and then almost everybody that interfered made complete sense

also yes there was a very well-worked 20m match in there before things went crazy, though I guess it was slightly flat because everyone was just waiting for the run-ins

Also there was a ton of little things, my favorite of which was Cody's attempts to hit multiple Cross Rhodes

Solo stopped him after 2 last year, Rock stopped him after 2 last night, then tonight he hit 1 and got kicked by Jimmy, then 2, looked around waiting to be hit and still got hit by Solo in the one place he couldn't look (directly behind), then finally got all 3

That also means he hit like 7 Cross Rhodes in total because I think there was one before(?) the run-ins, but like, that's how you do finisher spam right

Amazing match to end a great evening, and a great stretch all together

looking forward, some serious money matches are on the table

punk/drew
cody/rock
punk/seth
roman/seth
cody/punk

and then some others which would be fantastic too

rock/seth (anything with the rock will be money, but these two didnt seem to fully click and doesnt have quite the ceiling that the ones above do)
gunther/really anyone in the ME scene
rhea and Becky/giulia, although this is a little more out in the future
jade/bianca
cody/Roman I imagine/hope will have a rematch at some point, but the big story there has been told
brock is potentially lurking as well
damian/Finn would be cool but would be a level below things. But who knows what they could do with it, wwe has earned my faith lately

things will (and should) cool down for a bit to start building good narratives again, but a future with a lot of potential for sure

It's-a-good-a-show!

A new era has been ushered in.

Yes, I felt a tad emotional. Be fucking robotic if you didn't.

And Brandi was looking mhmmm! Yes. I would. Verily.

Expected nothing less than classic E overbooking.

I see this as an act of contrition. They took away on Saturday so they could give on Sunday. Last year it was the other way round.

One tradition still rings true on every 10th Wrestlemania...

Wrestlemania X ended with Bret Hart winning the WWF title from Yokozuna, laying down the foundation for the New Generation and being the torch bearer for the new era

Wrestlemania XX ended with Chris Benoit winning the WHC from HHH and sending WWE in a different direction (for awhile, at least)

Wrestlemania XXX ended with Daniel Bryan overcoming insurmountable odds, beating 75% of Evolution en route to his 4th world title and his biggest moment to date.

Wrestlemania XL ended with Cody Rhodes finishing the story, ending a 1316 day long reign and solidifying Cody as the new face of the Levesque era

Rock got Dom level heat tonight but also set up him vs. Cody somewhere down the line

https://twitter.com/MeelzTV/status/1777179734520057973

Awww

NXT has been pretty great. It's the Trick factor. Can't wait for the cage match that will more than likely end the beef with Melo and the upcoming "If I Lose, I'm Gone" thing with Dragonov.

For real. They are building some genuine stars down there. This product is going to be so strong for years to come

Showing that footage last night was a wildly stupid choice, good lord

It was....kinda just what Punk's side of the story was exactly, right? Not that Punk's side of the story is particularly GOOD, but from the outside casual perspective it feels like "yeah, and?"

i like that they showed it because now everyone can stop speculating about it and we can all move on with our lives

I mean, all it did was re-confirm the Mox promo - fragile mind, fragile ego, fragile body.

Also that he was almost certainly looking for a way out after the first incident.

ivysnow posted...

now everyone can stop speculating about it and we can all move on with our lives

I don't know where you got this optimism from but I would like some

punk fans see it as him being a backstage badass, people who don't like him see it as him being an asshole, and everyone in the middle can't see it as a thing to care about. what a dumb video.

Yeah for the people who super like aew, nothing would change how they felt. For the people who really dislike it, nothing would change how they felt. As someone who is in the middle (I really want to like it but it just has a hard time landing for me a lot), it left me with a pretty ick feeling. Had the energy of an ex posting stupid stuff on social after a breakup. And just wasnt necessary in the slightest

The footage is whatever, if they're using it to bring back "The Scapegoat" okay sure.

What was really bad was the Ospreay promo

I like will, hes one of those people that if he does something then I trust it, but then I saw that he did not want to do that promo. Yeah.

iiaattgg posted...

I like will, hes one of those people that if he does something then I trust it, but then I saw that he did not want to do that promo. Yeah.

I saw that report and Im not sure what to make of it, mainly because Tony lets midcarders like Miro and Malakai Black say no to losing. Unless Will was just uncertain about refusing that promo material

i don't believe that ospreay didn't want to do that promo because i think if he didn't, it wouldn't have happened

i also liked it because it's insanely lame that triple h can take shithead potshots like that and catch no flak for it. he's not the mature guy he tries to present himself as and he never has been

i also don't think there was any real point to releasing the all in video. it was kind of funny but it doesn't do much one way or another.

Just makes Khan look like a (bigger) knob.

ivysnow posted...

i don't believe that ospreay didn't want to do that promo because i think if he didn't, it wouldn't have happened

Ftr, SRS is reporting Ospreay came in to work on the promo before the show and was excited to do it.

And he is the guy who usually has the best info for AEW.

Hardcore_Adult posted...

Just makes Khan look like a (bigger) knob.

yeah, just a wildly questionable decision at best. So many of the promotions wounds are self inflicted

is it really a wound though. i don't think it means anything long term, or even short term really. aside from earth's most insane people hollering about it on twitter.

i mean it can't really hurt him more than the rest of the show is, people who watch AEW are used to stupid shit already and people who don't weren't gonna watch it. maybe he'll get a .30 rating this time and go right back to .27 again.

Uh, yeah? Like I said, I find myself wanting to get invested in their product, but I watch last night and walk away feeling like that idea is a mistake. Thats not the feeling you want to instill in people when you are wanting to grow your fan base

the show's been good lately imo. great wrestlers having great matches.

Hoping for Cody vs AJ. I dont dislike knight or have strong feelings about him either way but Im not sure its a good spot to do that match for him or Cody