Television The Professional Grappling Thread

Punk vs Rollins was a massive disappointment. All the buildup for it and the match itself was a mess.

One thing I did like is no constant ad breaks - finally! Also Hogan getting booed to the rafters was music to my ears.
 
Mystry said:
Anyone else find the dead air weird? Rollins entrance seemed to last an age too.
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Yeah I thought the Seth/Punk match might have been rushed because they were way over any planned time, but then Seth spent about 20 fecking minutes walking to the ring so that makes no sense.

Also annoyed me that they had 3 pretty good long running feuds and then basically wasted them on the netflix raw. All felt very anti climatic when the actual feuds/stories almost seemed second fiddle to all the "look how great we are/look we can pay celebrities to be at our shows" crap.

Even the Hogan thing. I enjoyed it but why was he even there?
 
Didn't feel like a typical episode. Enjoyed it enough but felt like it was pleasing different groups rather than an episode of raw.

Felt like an episode where a lot of different fingers were in the pie. Obviously triple H, tko, WWE higher ups (bruce Pritchard was conveniently back this week) and netflix. Hopefully back to normal next week.
 
Hopefully that was a one off because it was first on Netflix.

But yeah it wasn’t great.

It was an episode that had me thinking ‘WWE are such sellouts” .
like I get the product is as popular as it’s been in many years but still….

- the black boxing style ring mat with all the sponsors.
- the constant ringside celebrities and celebs in general
- Saudi and their fecking dead crowds hosting a rumble
- astronomical ticket prices (that they keep basically bragging about)

It’s all becoming a bit cringe.

The only bit I really enjoyed last night was Hogan being booed out of the building. LA understood the assignment.
I hope they bring him out every week to be booed like that, the insufferable wankstain.
 
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I echo the thoughts of others. The show didn’t deliver.

I think Triple H is a great booker in certain aspects. He’s very much in the slow, incremental development storyteller mould which probably is best for business - easier for casuals/kids to follow, better for merchandising, burns through roster less quickly etc.

I’m more of an Attitude Era/early 2000s fan where it seemed that there were swerves every week, there weren’t endless Balor/Priest matches and things moved super quickly. I understand why that style is flawed but sometimes modern WWE can feel like it’s plodding along.

Even the pacing of the actual show. So much filler and long ass entrances. Taking time can build emotional resonance but it’s just heavily overdone.

Bloodline stuff has been gold at times but I’m glad to (hopefully) see the back of it now. Same as Liv/Rhea. I like them both but enough’s enough.

There were surprise appearances but they didn’t really develop anything. Looks like The Rock is out of WM41. I get that they felt they should deliver a sense of closure so that people don’t pine for him this year if he definitely can’t make it. No point teasing what they can’t fulfill.

I liked Cena’s promo but disappointed not to see someone like Gunther come out.

Punk/Rollins was a disappointment but it felt that the previously hot crowd were depleted by that point. I wasn’t expecting a classic as neither man has wrestled much in recent months. They did a decent job but it seemed they lacked some chemistry.

Looks like Punk praised Rollins and said something like ‘I love you’ when he pinned him. Maybe I’m imagining that. I wouldn’t be surprised if the heat was a total work from the get go.

I do agree that Rollins was possibly injured. He kept shaking his hand as though struggling with nerve damage or something. The commentators didn’t really acknowledge it which makes me wonder if it wasn’t meant to happen. Would be gutting if he missed another Mania.

Looks like the rumoured Reigns/Punk and Rhodes/Cena matches will happen at Mania.

So yeah, WWE is good. Way better than the last few years under Vince. It’s just far from unmissable. I’m not advocating a Russo return but we need some swerves bro!
 
Better, but doesn't make up for the cringe of "Finally the Rock has come back...to Netflix", "Thank you Netflix I love you" etc.
 
noodlehair said:
Better, but doesn't make up for the cringe of "Finally the Rock has come back...to Netflix", "Thank you Netflix I love you" etc.
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How are fans supposed to pop for that shit? "Here's Ted Sarandos, for the third time tonight!" Yay?

And the "Highest grossing arena gate in WWE history" boasts all night. All that means is you fecking rinsed people on ticket prices.
 
Shane88 said:
How are fans supposed to pop for that shit? "Here's Ted Sarandos, for the third time tonight!" Yay?

And the "Highest grossing arena gate in WWE history" boasts all night. All that means is you fecking rinsed people on ticket prices.
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Yeah they do that a lot but it was borderline aggressive this ime...I mean they literally announced the attendance at the same time so its meaningless other than to mock your own fans.
 
I hope they drop loads of stupid Netflix references

"CM Punk you've got no hope of beating me but I've seen Stranger Things"

"Hey Liv, how about some Netflix and Chill"

"You keep kissing his ass just like Daniel does to Mr. Miyagi"

That sort of thing
 
There was basically no difference between hhh, rock, Cena (give or take the rumble chat) and hogan’s promos. Assume next week it’ll be back to regular raw stuff, and we can all move on from what was a distinctly average show.

Smackdown on Netflix now too as well as whatever network has it in USA? Sure someone said something about smack down on tbs or whatever
 
Stevondo8 said:
There was basically no difference between hhh, rock, Cena (give or take the rumble chat) and hogan’s promos. Assume next week it’ll be back to regular raw stuff, and we can all move on from what was a distinctly average show.

Smackdown on Netflix now too as well as whatever network has it in USA? Sure someone said something about smack down on tbs or whatever
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Its staying on USA network there. I know this because they felt the need to mention it every 5 minutes during the episode before last. So it should be much more business as usual.
 
horsechoker said:
I hope they drop loads of stupid Netflix references

"CM Punk you've got no hope of beating me but I've seen Stranger Things"

"Hey Liv, how about some Netflix and Chill"

"You keep kissing his ass just like Daniel does to Mr. Miyagi"

That sort of thing
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This would be great! :lol:

John Cena "You can't see me! But you can see great movies on Netflix!"

HHH "Time to play the Squid game!"
 
horsechoker said:
I hope they drop loads of stupid Netflix references

"CM Punk you've got no hope of beating me but I've seen Stranger Things"

"Hey Liv, how about some Netflix and Chill"

"You keep kissing his ass just like Daniel does to Mr. Miyagi"

That sort of thing
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Pat dropped Netflix and Raw and monday, which is wild.
 
Watching some of the old stuff back from the AE. Some of the matches were pretty wild.
Chyna v Jeff Jerrett in a Good Housekeeping Match.
 
That was during Jarret's whole angle of beating up and assaulting women every week to "put them in their place".

This is what I mean with the attitude era stuff. That is definitely a million miles from ok now even as "entertainment", but it also wasn't exactly ok back at the time. I don't know if Netflix will want some of the more grimey stuff on their platform. I noticed the Survivor Series where Austin basically murdered HHH on live tv is conveniently missing.
 
noodlehair said:
That was during Jarret's whole angle of beating up and assaulting women every week to "put them in their place".

This is what I mean with the attitude era stuff. That is definitely a million miles from ok now even as "entertainment", but it also wasn't exactly ok back at the time. I don't know if Netflix will want some of the more grimey stuff on their platform. I noticed the Survivor Series where Austin basically murdered HHH on live tv is conveniently missing.
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Is that the one where he lifted HHH's car up and then dropped it off the fork?
 
noodlehair said:
That was during Jarret's whole angle of beating up and assaulting women every week to "put them in their place".

This is what I mean with the attitude era stuff. That is definitely a million miles from ok now even as "entertainment", but it also wasn't exactly ok back at the time. I don't know if Netflix will want some of the more grimey stuff on their platform. I noticed the Survivor Series where Austin basically murdered HHH on live tv is conveniently missing.
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I wonder if there's a portion set aside for them to either chuck an "of its time" type message at the beginning, or to simply censor the shit out of it. That's if they even upload it at all. Realistically, there aren't going to be that many people delving into the back catalogue.
 
Alex99 said:
I wonder if there's a portion set aside for them to either chuck an "of its time" type message at the beginning, or to simply censor the shit out of it. That's if they even upload it at all. Realistically, there aren't going to be that many people delving into the back catalogue.
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Yeah, although they do have some of the old stuff on there with "coming in 2025" by it. So some f it presumably they are just editing/censoring to death before they put it on there. Can't think why else they'd hold it back. Its not like anyone's going to be pining to see WWE Armageddon 1999 so much that they'll cling on to their netflix subscription another 4 months just to watch it.
 
CallyRed said:
Watching some of the old stuff back from the AE. Some of the matches were pretty wild.
Chyna v Jeff Jerrett in a Good Housekeeping Match.
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Did Jeff Jarrett smash a guitar off her head?
Top notch television that.
 
Watched WWE for the first time in a while seeing as it's on Netflix now, and fecking hell, how is this boring Bloodline crap still going on? It seems that 50 per cent of Raw and Smackdown is now devoted to the Rock's extended family, none of whom have anything approaching a distinct personality. Yawn.
 
Eric_the_Red99 said:
Watched WWE for the first time in a while seeing as it's on Netflix now, and fecking hell, how is this boring Bloodline crap still going on? It seems that 50 per cent of Raw and Smackdown is now devoted to the Rock's extended family, none of whom have anything approaching a distinct personality. Yawn.
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Not a drop of personality between them..
Each to their own tbf
 
Eric_the_Red99 said:
Watched WWE for the first time in a while seeing as it's on Netflix now, and fecking hell, how is this boring Bloodline crap still going on? It seems that 50 per cent of Raw and Smackdown is now devoted to the Rock's extended family, none of whom have anything approaching a distinct personality. Yawn.
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It's a serial. You won't get someone's personality from watching one show.

Fatu, Zayn and the Usos have absolutely bags of personality.
 
Got the 2001 Royal Rumble on as background tv...K-Kwik has just come out, except its not K-Kwik, its R-Truth. He doesn't even look any younger!

I had no idea he'd been about that long. He must be in his 50s?

This is my uninteresting pointless post for the day.
 
noodlehair said:
Got the 2001 Royal Rumble on as background tv...K-Kwik has just come out, except its not K-Kwik, its R-Truth. He doesn't even look any younger!

I had no idea he'd been about that long. He must be in his 50s?

This is my uninteresting pointless post for the day.
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When he came through, I was in secondary school... I'm now a working professional with two kids and he's still there looking and acting exactly the same. The Obafemi Martins of wrestling.
 
Dirty Schwein said:
When he came through, I was in secondary school... I'm now a working professional with two kids and he's still there looking and acting exactly the same. The Obafemi Martins of wrestling.
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