BRM Reviews the 12/4/2018 Smackdown

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 12/4/2018 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Dec 4th, '18, 20:54

WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH CONTRACT SIGNING- not good
It’s a TLC Match, so they’ve got all of the ladders and chairs and tables set up everywhere around the ring. Because otherwise we won’t understand that they get to hit each other with the tables and ladders and chairs. I have no problem with hanging the belt form the hoist for this, but stacking up tables and chairs all around the ring does nothing but look stupid and block people’s views of the ring from the seats they paid their hard-earned money for.
Becky got to speak first and cut an awesome promo, but she also kind of said everything that you really can say going into a match like this, so there wasn’t anything really left for the other two. That’s not Becky’s fault; it’s WWE’s for booking this segment as opposed to just letting each woman cut her own promo during separate segments throughout the show.
Becky claimed that Charlotte didn’t earn this title shot. I mean... if Paige had a directive out to injure Ronda Rousey then Charlotte certainly did her best (it’s not her fault Ronda apparently has mutant healing powers and had no problem wrestling one day after getting her neck Pillmanizered), so I can see that “earning” her a title shot… but if that is the case then it makes Charlotte, Becky, and Paige all heels for having an “I don’t care if you win, I just want you to injure your opponent” mentality heading into Survivor Series. And either way, Charlotte’s smugness about her assault of Ronda comes off completely heelish. And if this isn’t the case, then it’s even worse because Charlotte is being smug while also completely ignoring the fact that she didn’t do anything to earn this title shot.
Charlotte talked about how she “destroyed Ronda with one Kendo stick.” Um… did that Pillmanizer get ret-conned out of existence or something? Because that’s the only explanation that seems to make any sense. It did really happen, right? Other people saw it, too, so it wasn’t just me hallucinating?
They yelled at each other until Asuka interrupted to point out that Becky has beaten Charlotte but has never beaten her. Asuka says she could have beaten Ronda, and vows to win the title at TLC. Charlotte reminds us that she beat Asuka at Mania, to which Asuka responds that Charlotte got lucky. Becky says that neither of them can beat Ronda, and neither of them will beat her. Becky then signs the contract and walks off, so Charlotte tries to continue her bantering with Asuka, but Paige mercifully shuts her up and tells her to just sign the contract.
Both women sign the contract, then Asuka challenges Charlotte to a match tonight, and just when I thought we were going to get to see an excellent match tonight, Mandy & Sonya showed up meaning we’re going to get a much worse match than Asuka vs. Charlotte. Mandy again accuses Paige of favoritism (she’s not totally wrong), then flat out says “Charlotte: you LOST at Survivor Series,” which I popped for because Charlotte seems to not understand this fact and apparently needs it explained to her.
Sonya then claims that Asuka won last week’s battle royale due to a fluke, which she vowed would not happen again. Mandy then asked Paige “what happens if they don’t make it to TLC,” and she had the same kind of voice-crack that Charlotte uses when she is trying to insinuate that she knows the hypothetical she is posing will come true through nefarious means. I laughed my ass off at that. Paige books Asuka & Charlotte vs. Mandy & Sonya, and Byron Saxton wonders “how are Asuka and Charlotte going to coexist?” so I guess that the issues between Mandy and Sonya from a few weeks ago have also been retconned out of existence.
Anyway, after a commercial break, we come back to see…

SHANE MCMAHON F*CKING AROUND ON HIS PHONE- Because it’s not like we just saw Paige order a referee to come out so that a match could start, right?

SHANE MCMAHON & THE MIZ BACKSTAGE- Miz is still being a delusional idiot by thinking that Shane is his tag team partner, because why should we let Miz retain any sort of credibility. It’s not like we’ve spent most of this year building him up as a semi-credible and occasionally dangerous heel, right?
Anyway, it’s finally time for…

MANDY ROSE & SONYA DEVILLE vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR & ASUKA- 4/10
They wrestled for a bit until Becky came out to watch. Then it was commercial time. One commercial featured Mila Kunis telling me to drink Jim Beam. Excellent idea, Mila! Maybe the smell of whiskey on my breath will be able to overpower the terrible “fresh paint” smell in my family room.
They wrestled more. They set up a spot where Charlotte kicked Asuka and we were supposed to think it was probably an accident because Mandy had been on the apron a few seconds before, but there was no f*cking way Charlotte didn’t see who she was kicking, and she didn’t look upset about it afterwards, either. This led to Charlotte and Sonya doing a PAINFULLY slow O’Connor Roll and reversal spot so that they could be in position for Asuka for kick Charlotte in the head on purpose and allow Sonya to pin Charlotte. So is Sonya getting added to the TLC Match now?

Right behind Jon Stewart is a guy with a sign asking “why call 911 when you can call 619?” The answer to that question, of course, is that chokeslams are WAAAAAAAAY cooler than Rey’s wacky complicated kick.

XAVIER WOODS (w/The New Day) vs. Jey Uso (w/Jimmy Uso) vs. CESARO (w/Sheamus)- 6/10
Big E. & Kofi are back doing their commentary gimmick, and they felt the need to show us them doing so, picture-in-picture. The match was… fine. Jey pinned Cesaro after a superkick, but it doesn’t actually matter because this is just a time-filler in this program.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS RUSEV & LANA- not good
This “RUSEV DAY!” goofball crap is back, and his delivery wasn’t anywhere near his usual angry Rusev promo level.

MIZTV WIT SPECIAL GUEST DANIEL BRYAN- GREAT!
Truth & Carmella interrupted Miz during his attempted intro by coming out and declaring a dance break, then leaving. It’d be nice to see Miz get his revenge on them one day for their childish bullsh*t, but apparently they are babyfaces. Somehow.
This was a good segment, with both guys managing to come off as totally unlikable. Bryan did so by ignoring the fact that Miz was speaking the truth, while Miz was heelish for celebrating his heelish ideals. It was basically Charlotte’s comments from earlier, except that they weren’t being treated like babyfaces for doing heelish things. The one thing I didn’t like was Bryan’s environmental tirade. Miz’s line was a set-up for Bryan to make comments on Miz, so Bryan then turning it on the fans instead about an unrelated topic felt very unnatural. Also, there are 2018 wrestling fans; if you bury them for destroying the environment, they’re just going to cheer by the end because you’re talking about climate change and totally forget that you are blaming them for it.
They said stuff and then Bryan said no one could do anything about him being champion. Cue AJ Styles. AJ charged down to the ring, so Bryan through Miz into AJ. AJ took Miz out and chased Bryan as Bryan tried to flee into the crowd but AJ caught up to him. Bryan got back into the ring and AJ followed but Miz went after AJ. AJ blocked Miz’s punches and landed some of his own. Bryan to attack AJ from behind but AJ fought him off, too, before Miz snuck up behind him and hit him with the Skull-Crushing Finale.

RANDY ORTON PROMO- a good promo to build up a match I just can’t bring myself to care about. Said match is YET ANOTHER…

RANDY ORTON vs. JEFF HARDY- 5.75/10
Uch. Again? Do we have to?
They had a match that was going along okay for a bit. Jeff was about to put Orton through an announcers’ table with a Swanton when Samoa Joe intruded on the signal to the TitanTron with himself broadcasting live from a bar and playing bartender, allowing Orton to capitalize and RKO the distracted Jeff for the pin. Shouldn’t Joe be at the arena tonight, wrestling? If I’m Shane and/or Paige, Joe is getting fined, and the person who runs the TitanTron is getting fined. If someone is intruding on your signal, shut it down so it doesn’t ruin the match! It’s either that or the guy put it up on purpose, in which case he should also be fired.
Meanwhile, Tom Phillips is telling us that Samoa Joe is a horrible person for making comments about Jeff’s substance abuse problems (by which I only mean alcohol, as opposed to Jeff’s more… illegal habits). Meanwhile, Charlotte gets a free pass for trying to END RONDA ROUSEY’S CAREER AND MAYBE EVEN HER LIFE VIA PILLMANIZER TO THE NECK.
Samoa Joe then gave us a public service announcement telling us not to drink too much, and didn’t even mention Jeff Hardy once. Am I supposed to be upset with Joe about this? Actually, I’m quite grateful for Joe’s lecture, as I am currently on glass number three of Mila Kunis’ excellent suggestion.

Next week we’re getting a tag team rap battle, as well as CHARLOTTE VS. ASUKA!

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS DANIEL BRYAN- great!
Also, props to Kayla for looking scared after Bryan was done talking. Whether she was scared because his demeanor is a frightening in its stoicism or she was worried that Bryan will do something to AJ is irrelevant. It works either way.

THE MIZ vs. AJ STYLES- 6.75/10
Bryan came out to do commentary for this match. He was not good at all. He did exactly what I hate about guest commentators, which was spend the time “being his character” rather than calling and responding the match like his character. Graves and Byron were guilty of constantly egging him on, though, so they deserve my fury as well.
AJ and Miz had a pretty good match, with AJ overcoming both Bryan’s meddling and Miz’s work on his head to get the win. Bryan attacked AJ after the match and worked over his leg before stomping his head in. When he stopped stomping AJ’s face in, he took a wonderfully douchy victory lap before going back and doing it again. This was a strong angle to close the show on, and it succeeded in getting Bryan booed heavily. Wait… no… it’s not done. Bryan cut another promo on the fans, then worked over AJ’s leg again before we went off the air.

This was a pretty boring episode of Smackdown other than the AJ/Bryan/Miz stuff. Next week’s sow should be pretty good, though. (Yes, I know that Asuka vs. Charlotte will wind up with some sort of f*ck finish, but can’t I please pretend it won’t until it happens?)
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Re: BRM Reviews the 12/4/2018 Smackdown

Post by NWK2000 » Dec 5th, '18, 08:39

Big Red Machine wrote: Dec 4th, '18, 20:54 The one thing I didn’t like was Bryan’s environmental tirade. Miz’s line was a set-up for Bryan to make comments on Miz, so Bryan then turning it on the fans instead about an unrelated topic felt very unnatural. Also, there are 2018 wrestling fans; if you bury them for destroying the environment, they’re just going to cheer by the end because you’re talking about climate change and totally forget that you are blaming them for it.
I kind of understand the thought process though. What makes this a heel move is that it was completely unsolicited. Completely unsolicited political diatribe, no matter where you align, are something everyone can understand as obnoxious heel behavior. Unfortunately it's something that's entirely too high concept for wrestling fans so I agree that they will cheer. But what I liked about it was the delivery. It felt so real. I feel like Brie Bella has been treated to that exact rant delivered in that exact same tone by Dragon MANY times at the Danielson family table. The context might be bad, but every promo he's delivered since the turn are things that you can surmise he's actually mad about in real life.and his justification for his ring action coincides with the same bitter, angry, warped logic.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 12/4/2018 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Dec 5th, '18, 09:09

NWK2000 wrote: Dec 5th, '18, 08:39
Big Red Machine wrote: Dec 4th, '18, 20:54 The one thing I didn’t like was Bryan’s environmental tirade. Miz’s line was a set-up for Bryan to make comments on Miz, so Bryan then turning it on the fans instead about an unrelated topic felt very unnatural. Also, there are 2018 wrestling fans; if you bury them for destroying the environment, they’re just going to cheer by the end because you’re talking about climate change and totally forget that you are blaming them for it.
I kind of understand the thought process though. What makes this a heel move is that it was completely unsolicited. Completely unsolicited political diatribe, no matter where you align, are something everyone can understand as obnoxious heel behavior. Unfortunately it's something that's entirely too high concept for wrestling fans so I agree that they will cheer. But what I liked about it was the delivery.
It's not an issue of it being too high-concept. It's an issue of wrestling fans' current... obsessive need to react exactly to the moment, without any intelligent thought put to what came before it in the sentence or what will come next. It's the same reason why they all fall for/play along with Cody's time-wasting bullsh*t, or cheer The Drifter every week until he gets to the part where he buries their city... and then cheer him again once he stops. Most fans won't boo an unsolicited political diatribe that agrees with their own views (left or right)- though that's not necessarily an issue isolated to wrestling fans.

And, quite frankly, it hits the wrong note. Wrestling- as with all entertainment- is escapism. Watching wrestling is one of the few activities left to me where I don't have to think about American politics all the time (which is partially my own fault for majoring in it, but still, I want the escape). Bringing politics into wrestling just makes me want to watch the wrestling show less.
Also... it's one of those things that I think is going to cause trouble. The same way that the media/large chunks of fans/others didn't understand that the idea of the Piggy James angle was for the mean heels to body-shame Mickie and Mickie to overcome their taunting and say "f*ck you. I don't need to look like you. I'm beautiful just the way I am" and then kick their asses, people are going to be idiots about this and create this narrative that WWE now wants us to boo climate change (and the McMahons being Republicans in general and friendly with Trump in particular isn't going to help this), when the real idea is a combination of what you said about it being unsolicited, and the idea that eco-friendly fans should get upset at Bryan for lumping them in with polluters.
NWK2000 wrote: Dec 5th, '18, 08:39 It felt so real. I feel like Brie Bella has been treated to that exact rant delivered in that exact same tone by Dragon MANY times at the Danielson family table. The context might be bad, but every promo he's delivered since the turn are things that you can surmise he's actually mad about in real life.and his justification for his ring action coincides with the same bitter, angry, warped logic.
Really? I don't think he meant the things he said in that first promo about fans forgetting about him. The support has always been there, loud and clear.

Again, I also really didn't like it because it felt like they had the opportunity to take it in an interesting direction with Bryan and Miz- one that wouldn't make their story feel so... unfinished. But instead we got a political rant.

(Also, I'm honestly a little worried that Vince will use this to turn Bryan into his 21st century, eco-friendly version of Duke "The Dumpster" Droese.)
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Re: BRM Reviews the 12/4/2018 Smackdown

Post by NWK2000 » Dec 5th, '18, 11:11

Big Red Machine wrote: Dec 5th, '18, 09:09 =
And, quite frankly, it hits the wrong note. Wrestling- as with all entertainment- is escapism. Watching wrestling is one of the few activities left to me where I don't have to think about American politics all the time (which is partially my own fault for majoring in it, but still, I want the escape). Bringing politics into wrestling just makes me want to watch the wrestling show less.

I think this speaks to a larger societal issue of having the opportunity to remove one's self from the 24/7 information/perpetual outrage cycle and not doing it, but that's a completely different topic so I'll leave it here.
Also... it's one of those things that I think is going to cause trouble. The same way that the media/large chunks of fans/others didn't understand that the idea of the Piggy James angle was for the mean heels to body-shame Mickie and Mickie to overcome their taunting and say "f*ck you. I don't need to look like you. I'm beautiful just the way I am" and then kick their asses, people are going to be idiots about this and create this narrative that WWE now wants us to boo climate change (and the McMahons being Republicans in general and friendly with Trump in particular isn't going to help this), when the real idea is a combination of what you said about it being unsolicited, and the idea that eco-friendly fans should get upset at Bryan for lumping them in with polluters.
That's what I mean. Certain wrestling angles that require even the slightest bit of dissection and character analysis are too high concept for not only wrestling fans, but the general public. And that's (censored) terrifying to type out as a guy who wanted to make a living as a writer.
(Also, I'm honestly a little worried that Vince will use this to turn Bryan into his 21st century, eco-friendly version of Duke "The Dumpster" Droese.)
A. This kind of hyperbole is annoying to me "Wrestling is bad so every character is going to be taken to it's most cartoonish, illogical extreme, and I'm basing this off of one comment a character made". . And while I understand there's a lot of evidence to point to, Joe, Bryan and a few others have managed to circumvent WWE's dumb stuff and make it work. Let's allow the story to play out, and from there determine whether it's initial starting point was a success or failure
B. Considering that "angry hippie" is the what the average American thinks a "vegan" is, it might not be a terrible idea to add that as a dimension to his character. Should that be ALL of his character? No. But I think that would be an interesting dimension to it.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 12/4/2018 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Dec 5th, '18, 11:14

I made a post in the BRM SKIPS RAW topic about how I feel really that "this new Daniel Bryan" , is A LOT for this WWE creative to deal with and handle, and I'm really not confident that these dumbasses will be able to pull it off.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 12/4/2018 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Dec 5th, '18, 11:18

I made a post in the BRM SKIPS RAW topic about how I feel really that "this new Daniel Bryan" , is A LOT for this WWE creative to deal with and handle, and I'm really not confident that these dumbasses will be able to pull it off.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 12/4/2018 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Dec 5th, '18, 11:30

This Miz and Shane thing is stupid. Senseless comedy that seems to be just bits every week.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 12/4/2018 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Dec 5th, '18, 12:35

NWK2000 wrote: Dec 5th, '18, 11:11
Big Red Machine wrote: Dec 5th, '18, 09:09 =
And, quite frankly, it hits the wrong note. Wrestling- as with all entertainment- is escapism. Watching wrestling is one of the few activities left to me where I don't have to think about American politics all the time (which is partially my own fault for majoring in it, but still, I want the escape). Bringing politics into wrestling just makes me want to watch the wrestling show less.

I think this speaks to a larger societal issue of having the opportunity to remove one's self from the 24/7 information/perpetual outrage cycle and not doing it, but that's a completely different topic so I'll leave it here.
That's a fair criticism, but I think if we crossed out "politics" and replaced it with someone else, it'd be just as valid. Cornette's whole rant against the "miscarriage" and was that it not only sells no tickets, but to the couple trying to use wrestling as an escape to forget that they just had a miscarriage, all you're doing is reminding them of the thing they're trying to get away from. Wrestling isn't like Law and Order, where if you watch Law & Order: SVU, you'd be naive to think that no one will bring up rape. With wrestling you generally know what topics are going to be covered. It'd be problematic in any era, but you're right that this particular era makes it worse than it otherwise would be.
NWK2000 wrote: Dec 5th, '18, 11:11
Big Red Machine wrote: Dec 5th, '18, 09:09 Also... it's one of those things that I think is going to cause trouble. The same way that the media/large chunks of fans/others didn't understand that the idea of the Piggy James angle was for the mean heels to body-shame Mickie and Mickie to overcome their taunting and say "f*ck you. I don't need to look like you. I'm beautiful just the way I am" and then kick their asses, people are going to be idiots about this and create this narrative that WWE now wants us to boo climate change (and the McMahons being Republicans in general and friendly with Trump in particular isn't going to help this), when the real idea is a combination of what you said about it being unsolicited, and the idea that eco-friendly fans should get upset at Bryan for lumping them in with polluters.
That's what I mean. Certain wrestling angles that require even the slightest bit of dissection and character analysis are too high concept for not only wrestling fans, but the general public. And that's (censored) terrifying to type out as a guy who wanted to make a living as a writer.
I think maybe we're using different definitions of the term "high-concept." Here is Wikipedia on the issue:
High-concept is a type of artistic work that can be easily pitched with a succinctly stated premise. It can be contrasted with low-concept, which is more concerned with character development and other subtleties that are not as easily summarized.
I think we're coming at this from opposite directions: What you seem to be saying is that fans are too simplistic to understand/want to understand the character intricacies that such situations call for. What I'm saying is that fans are so eager to ascribe a (usually malicious) coded backstage motive to something when no one backstage ever intended to use the angle to send such a message- that fans are trying to be too "smart" (using perhaps both definitions of the word) rather than shying away from complication.
To your larger point about fans, though, I think that's only one symptom of the larger issue. I think fans have mostly stopped caring about characters altogether. They go more "to be a part of the show" or to "see something newsworthy" than to care who wins and loses. That's why they'll pop for a heel turn; because they are happy they got to see the moment when X turned on Y, or they'll pop for a the heel cheating the babyface out of a title because they got to "see history being made." It's funny how WWE reaps what they sew in that regard, it's it. So much focus on "making history" and not on the actual characters, and now they've got fans that just want to see "history being made" and don't really care about the characters.
NWK2000 wrote: Dec 5th, '18, 11:11
Big Red Machine wrote: Dec 5th, '18, 09:09(Also, I'm honestly a little worried that Vince will use this to turn Bryan into his 21st century, eco-friendly version of Duke "The Dumpster" Droese.)
A. This kind of hyperbole is annoying to me "Wrestling is bad so every character is going to be taken to it's most cartoonish, illogical extreme, and I'm basing this off of one comment a character made". . And while I understand there's a lot of evidence to point to, Joe, Bryan and a few others have managed to circumvent WWE's dumb stuff and make it work. Let's allow the story to play out, and from there determine whether it's initial starting point was a success or failure
B. Considering that "angry hippie" is the what the average American thinks a "vegan" is, it might not be a terrible idea to add that as a dimension to his character. Should that be ALL of his character? No. But I think that would be an interesting dimension to it.
A. Fair enough
B. I think that waters down the point of Bryan's current character, though. He's anti-fan in a very virulent and personal way. he thinks we tried to piggyback on and/or steal his moment to make ourselves a part of something even though we put zero work into it. He's saying "F*CK YOU FOR TRYING TO MAKE MY HAPPINESS PART OF YOURS!" Anything that involves him feeling and conveying a similar emotion to what a subsection of fans feel is counterproductive. Bryan already has a fantastic amount of depth to this new character. Like I said, I believed that they could find a way to get Miz involved in the feud and have both Miz and Bryan be totally dislikable and yet completely opposite. ("I cheated once, you're been doing it for years" is Bryan pointing out the truth, but in doing so is still being a hypocrite by justifying his own cheating).
The angry vegan is a great character (C.J. Parker Fan Club 4 Life!), but Bryan does not need to be- and should not be- that character at this time.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 12/4/2018 Smackdown

Post by NWK2000 » Dec 5th, '18, 14:05

Big Red Machine wrote: Dec 5th, '18, 12:35

B. I think that waters down the point of Bryan's current character, though. He's anti-fan in a very virulent and personal way. he thinks we tried to piggyback on and/or steal his moment to make ourselves a part of something even though we put zero work into it. He's saying "F*CK YOU FOR TRYING TO MAKE MY HAPPINESS PART OF YOURS!" Anything that involves him feeling and conveying a similar emotion to what a subsection of fans feel is counterproductive. Bryan already has a fantastic amount of depth to this new character. Like I said, I believed that they could find a way to get Miz involved in the feud and have both Miz and Bryan be totally dislikable and yet completely opposite. ("I cheated once, you're been doing it for years" is Bryan pointing out the truth, but in doing so is still being a hypocrite by justifying his own cheating).
The angry vegan is a great character (C.J. Parker Fan Club 4 Life!), but Bryan does not need to be- and should not be- that character at this time.
I'm of the belief that wrestling characters can be multi-faceted human beings , with multiple simultaneous motivations. For example, I think Vince Russo's "shades of grey" trope gets shit unnecessarily. It's a wonderful concept executed by an idiot. And as such we've tricked ourselves into believing wrestling characters need to be babyface or heel exclusively and have a singular motivation. The thing that makes me believe this so strongly is Daniel Bryan right now. We know that he's a giant hippie vegan who grows his own crops. This we've known forever. We also know he spent a lot of time in completely isolated hyperbolic chambers to heal from his concussions, so had he's a lot of time to think about the things that grind his gears (both the fans aping off of his return happiness, expecting him to be the hero they all knew, which disallows him to be cut throat and achieve his goals, and the people killing the environment) This isn't some swerve that's come out of nowhere, these are based in things that we know to be the truth, and things we can easily logically infer he's been thinking about, based on what we knew about him from the beginning, and the fact that he's basically sat in complete silence thinking about things that are eating at him.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 12/4/2018 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Dec 5th, '18, 15:23

NWK2000 wrote: Dec 5th, '18, 14:05
Big Red Machine wrote: Dec 5th, '18, 12:35

B. I think that waters down the point of Bryan's current character, though. He's anti-fan in a very virulent and personal way. he thinks we tried to piggyback on and/or steal his moment to make ourselves a part of something even though we put zero work into it. He's saying "F*CK YOU FOR TRYING TO MAKE MY HAPPINESS PART OF YOURS!" Anything that involves him feeling and conveying a similar emotion to what a subsection of fans feel is counterproductive. Bryan already has a fantastic amount of depth to this new character. Like I said, I believed that they could find a way to get Miz involved in the feud and have both Miz and Bryan be totally dislikable and yet completely opposite. ("I cheated once, you're been doing it for years" is Bryan pointing out the truth, but in doing so is still being a hypocrite by justifying his own cheating).
The angry vegan is a great character (C.J. Parker Fan Club 4 Life!), but Bryan does not need to be- and should not be- that character at this time.
I'm of the belief that wrestling characters can be multi-faceted human beings , with multiple simultaneous motivations. For example, I think Vince Russo's "shades of grey" trope gets shit unnecessarily. It's a wonderful concept executed by an idiot. And as such we've tricked ourselves into believing wrestling characters need to be babyface or heel exclusively and have a singular motivation. The thing that makes me believe this so strongly is Daniel Bryan right now. We know that he's a giant hippie vegan who grows his own crops. This we've known forever. We also know he spent a lot of time in completely isolated hyperbolic chambers to heal from his concussions, so had he's a lot of time to think about the things that grind his gears (both the fans aping off of his return happiness, expecting him to be the hero they all knew, which disallows him to be cut throat and achieve his goals, and the people killing the environment) This isn't some swerve that's come out of nowhere, these are based in things that we know to be the truth, and things we can easily logically infer he's been thinking about, based on what we knew about him from the beginning, and the fact that he's basically sat in complete silence thinking about things that are eating at him.
I don't think you're wrong in a vacuum, but in this particular case it's counterproductive. They're trying to get fans to boo the guy they hijacked multiple major shows to show support for. Not "hijacked" as in "boo! We don't want Roman to be champion!" "Hijacked" as in "WE WANT THIS GUY TO BE THE CHAMPION!" A guy for whom it got to the point where they changed the booking of an entire WreslteMania main event for it. He had to retire for three years, then came back due to a miracle of science when we fans all knew that not being able to wrestle was killing him to the point where he was going to leave the company because their doctors disagreed with his. Then he came back and he's been the consummate babyface ever since, and now they finally gave him the title like we wanted, but turned him heel in the process. Getting fans to boo Bryan is already trying to swim upstream. Anything that will make it harder for anyone to boo him should be avoided at all costs.

And, to be honest, the vegan thing did feel like it came out of nowhere within the confines of the wrestling show. We know what he was thinking about in the hyperbaric chamber. He told us in his original promo. This feels like something new that was tacked on this week that wasn't there originally.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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