|
Post by ahunter8056 on Jun 19, 2019 5:47:14 GMT -5
I stopped watching NXT UK about 7 weeks ago, having given up on how boring the product was. After hearing a lot of interesting story developments since then, I decided to catch up within the past couple of days. And I'm glad I did! They're really making an effort to improve their product. The Imperium faction is great, uniting British Strong Style in a match is great (though time will tell if this is permanent or temporary), Piper Niven continues to be the best part of the women's division (at least in my opinion), and the arrival of Jazzy Gabert adds even more depth. They're even finally explaining individual character motivations, with that short personal story told by Ligero. Until that, I had no reason to care for Ligero. Now I do.
Still a couple of negatives though. I have no idea why Travis Banks won the match to become the #1 contender. He's been part of NXT UK since the beginning, but I still don't know what his individual character is, what his motivation is, or why I should care about him. One of the blandest guys on the roster. And I'm trying to take Ilja Dragunov seriously. I really am. But I just can't. He's being presented as an intimidating, intense competitor. But his exaggerated gestures and facial expressions are just so silly.
Overall, while NXT UK still has it's fair share of problems and is still nowhere near the level of NXT, it's made big improvements in the past couple of months, and continues to get better every single week.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on Jun 13, 2019 11:07:11 GMT -5
I'm glad to see Shawn Spears sign with AEW. I wasn't exactly a big fan of his, but I wouldn't mind seeing what he can do in AEW.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on Jun 13, 2019 9:33:19 GMT -5
I saw news that Sasha Banks was doing work for the 2K20 game this past week or two which I have to say annoys me to no end. Call me petty, but if I was the WWE I wouldn’t allow it. She didn’t get her way and walked out after WrestleMania so there’s now way I would allow her to make any money off of the WWE. There’d be no merchandise or games featuring her (or anyone else who did what she did) for as long as she was out. I would make certain there was no chance for royalty checks. Do you have a legitimate source for those claims? There has still yet to be any verification from anyone involved that what was reported actually happened. Ryan Satin's stories have been denied by Sasha herself, Peyton Royce, and Cathy Kelly to name a few. Yet you're continuing to bash her based purely off that? I'm sorry, but I just find that very silly. The amount of fans that will blindly believe everything they read which is reported by wrestling "journalists" is just astounding. Remember that time it was reported that Nia Jax had walked out on WWE at the urging of the Rock, and it turned out that she had been struck on the head by someone else's luggage on a plane and WWE were giving her time off to recover? There are plenty of possibilities for why Sasha hasn't appeared since WrestleMania. She could be dealing with a nagging injury. She could be mentally burned out on wrestling. WWE could be giving her a long break to refresh her character for a return. She could be stressed out from long-term dealing with creative in a similar way to Ambrose. These are just a few possible alternatives. Until it's confirmed by someone credible that she did actually walk-out, you might want to ease up on the Sasha Banks bashing.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on Jun 4, 2019 11:53:56 GMT -5
If I'm going to be brutally honest, I think this was the first bad NXT TakeOver. Certainly the weakest by far, at least. Just honestly horribly booked, and the build wasn't that good either. It's such a shame because usually NXT is borderline perfect. It's such a shame that they got it so wrong this time. Starting off with some positivity, it was fantastic to see Street Profits win the NXT Tag Team Championships! They're such a good tag team, and they've been wrestling for so long with practically no success, it's great to see them finally reach the top of the division. Unfortunately, that's the best that the show got. Breeze VS Dream was pretty good, don't get me wrong. Even if it wasn't as mindblowing as I expected, it was still fairly memorable. I would have been happy with either man winning, but I do wonder how big a shock it would have been if Breeze had won. The NXT Women's match was such a monumental letdown. Honestly, I think it's time I gave up on the NXT Women's division. I've never been a fan of Shayna Baszler. She's a good heel, don't me wrong. But she's such a bore to watch. They're so obsessed with giving Shayna a monster run, that the NXT Women's division has suffered greatly, and it's so incredibly stagnant. There are so many fantastic talents in the division, from Candice LeRae, to Dakota Kai, to Bianca Belair, to Io Shirai. Yet none of them are allowed to shine, because Shayna simply HAS to be the undisputed star of the division. Triple H has repeated the mistakes of Brock Lesnar and Alexa Bliss on the main roster. Shayna has been on top of the division for nearly 14 months now. It's LONG overdue to give someone else a shot. I'm just so sick of getting my hopes up every single TakeOver, only to be disappointed. And Io's attack post-match made no sense. Shayna is a heel, and viciously attacking the opponent after losing is a complete heel tactic. Io is a babyface. How does this make any sense?! I can only hope that the reason Shayna has held the title for so long is because Triple H has been waiting for Dakota Kai to come back to take the title. I can accept that. But until Shayna loses the title, I simply can't stand watching the NXT Women's title picture anymore. The result of the main event was just horrible. Don't get me wrong, Adam Cole is fantastic, and deserved to be NXT Champion in his career. But by taking the title away from Johnny Gargano on his first defense, months after immediately losing the North American Championship in the same fashion, they've turned Johnny Gargano into NXT's Sasha Banks, in terms of embarrassing immediate championship loss. How are we supposed to take Gargano seriously anymore, if he can't successfully defend any championship he wins? In my opinion, Johnny Gargano should be the face of the brand, and deserved a long title reign. Not to be a transitional champion. And all that is not even to mention how backwards this entire feud has been. What makes a rematch intriguing, is when the stakes are raised, by adding a stipulation. However with this feud, they started with a 2/3 Falls match at New York, then LOWERED the stakes with a regular singles match at 25. How does that make any sense?! Honestly, it feels like the exceptionally poor main roster product has affected Triple H's creative process. TakeOver had an exceptional run, but now the streak of excellent shows is over, with NXT's first bad TakeOver. Of course this is all just my personal opinion. Even if I didn't personally enjoy the show, I'm glad to read that it seems everyone else on here did. Oof your favorites didn’t win so it’s the worst takeover. Gargano is injured, that’s why he lost. We’re lucky he pulled through to give us the stellar match he and Cole had. If you actually read and understood my post, you'd know it's not anywhere near simplistic as that. I outlined multiple issues with the show, and not just with the main event. I've not seen any official statement that Gargano is injured. You don't share my opinion, that's fine. But next time, perhaps try not making a snarky reply? There was absolutely no need for your dismissive, condescending reply. If you don't like my opinion, ignore it and move on. Replies like these are exactly why I usually don't bother checking threads after I've read and posted in them. No matter how respectfully I try to communicate my opinion, there's always a crowd of people here who seem to delight in being unnecessarily rude and sarcastic, instead of replying with a respectful debate. Kudos to punksnotdead for doing the latter.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on Jun 4, 2019 11:35:06 GMT -5
Just started my subscription to Eaglemoss' brand new WWE Championship Collection line of figurines. Had no idea they had started a WWE line, but apparently they've been advertised since October. 1st issue is AJ Styles. I used to collect the Doctor Who line from Eaglemoss, but stopped when I both ran out of room and my interest in Doctor Who lost out to WWE once again. Having recently made room for potentially starting to collect Mattel WWE figures, I think I'll scrap those plans and just collect the new Eaglemoss line instead. Much smaller, don't have to bother posing them or worry about them falling over. Cheaper too. I'm really looking forward to collecting this new line. Just searched for details on these and they look very cool. Very interested in the dimensions of that free display ring you get for signing up on their site. While they've still yet to state the dimensions (as far as I'm aware), we do now have a photo of the ring, where it was displayed at MCM Comic-Con: It is a large photo, and tbh I'm not sure how many people reading this thread will care for it, which is why I've put it in spoiler tags. But you can see the ring pictured, along with a large amount of the upcoming figurines, a few of which hadn't been revealed before. I've got the first few issues now, and they all look really good. I'm really glad they brought this figurine collection out.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on Jun 2, 2019 19:42:36 GMT -5
If I'm going to be brutally honest, I think this was the first bad NXT TakeOver. Certainly the weakest by far, at least. Just honestly horribly booked, and the build wasn't that good either. It's such a shame because usually NXT is borderline perfect. It's such a shame that they got it so wrong this time.
Starting off with some positivity, it was fantastic to see Street Profits win the NXT Tag Team Championships! They're such a good tag team, and they've been wrestling for so long with practically no success, it's great to see them finally reach the top of the division.
Unfortunately, that's the best that the show got. Breeze VS Dream was pretty good, don't get me wrong. Even if it wasn't as mindblowing as I expected, it was still fairly memorable. I would have been happy with either man winning, but I do wonder how big a shock it would have been if Breeze had won.
The NXT Women's match was such a monumental letdown. Honestly, I think it's time I gave up on the NXT Women's division. I've never been a fan of Shayna Baszler. She's a good heel, don't me wrong. But she's such a bore to watch. They're so obsessed with giving Shayna a monster run, that the NXT Women's division has suffered greatly, and it's so incredibly stagnant. There are so many fantastic talents in the division, from Candice LeRae, to Dakota Kai, to Bianca Belair, to Io Shirai. Yet none of them are allowed to shine, because Shayna simply HAS to be the undisputed star of the division. Triple H has repeated the mistakes of Brock Lesnar and Alexa Bliss on the main roster. Shayna has been on top of the division for nearly 14 months now. It's LONG overdue to give someone else a shot. I'm just so sick of getting my hopes up every single TakeOver, only to be disappointed. And Io's attack post-match made no sense. Shayna is a heel, and viciously attacking the opponent after losing is a complete heel tactic. Io is a babyface. How does this make any sense?! I can only hope that the reason Shayna has held the title for so long is because Triple H has been waiting for Dakota Kai to come back to take the title. I can accept that. But until Shayna loses the title, I simply can't stand watching the NXT Women's title picture anymore.
The result of the main event was just horrible. Don't get me wrong, Adam Cole is fantastic, and deserved to be NXT Champion in his career. But by taking the title away from Johnny Gargano on his first defense, months after immediately losing the North American Championship in the same fashion, they've turned Johnny Gargano into NXT's Sasha Banks, in terms of embarrassing immediate championship loss. How are we supposed to take Gargano seriously anymore, if he can't successfully defend any championship he wins? In my opinion, Johnny Gargano should be the face of the brand, and deserved a long title reign. Not to be a transitional champion. And all that is not even to mention how backwards this entire feud has been. What makes a rematch intriguing, is when the stakes are raised, by adding a stipulation. However with this feud, they started with a 2/3 Falls match at New York, then LOWERED the stakes with a regular singles match at 25. How does that make any sense?!
Honestly, it feels like the exceptionally poor main roster product has affected Triple H's creative process. TakeOver had an exceptional run, but now the streak of excellent shows is over, with NXT's first bad TakeOver. Of course this is all just my personal opinion. Even if I didn't personally enjoy the show, I'm glad to read that it seems everyone else on here did.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on Jun 2, 2019 19:15:10 GMT -5
I listened to Moxley's Talk is Jericho today, and I found it absolutely fascinating, and very interesting and informative. It made me realise that unless you work in the company, you don't really have a clue what goes on behind the scenes. We know how horrendous practically all of Ambrose's segments were in 2018, but I know that I never knew the stories behind the scenes, as Moxley described. The examples he gave just sound like terrible experiences, and just shows how out of touch Vince really is.
I don't really want to go too far off-topic or come across as being on a high horse, but Moxley's experiences described on the podcast is exactly why I think fans have absolutely no right to bash anybody who supposedly walks out on WWE. We don't know what they're going through, and we don't have a right to know everything either. Just because one specific reason is rumoured, doesn't mean that was necessarily the deciding factor, if there's even any truth to it in the first place. Really, I think everyone is entitled to happiness, and doing what they think is right for them. If a job makes you miserable, as it clearly did Ambrose, then there's no reason to carry on working there. Good for Ambrose for feeling like he had to carry on to the end of his contract, but I don't think there should be any shame in quitting early either, if any particular superstar is THAT unhappy, for whatever reason.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on May 31, 2019 12:05:53 GMT -5
Luchasaurus was definitely one of the stand-out stars in the battle royal for me. Unique look, put on a good performance. Had never heard of him before DoN, but definitely looking forward to seeing more of him in AEW.
MJF is clearly a very talented heel, from both the battle royal and his promo later in the night. I'd seen a little of him on the 'Road to Double or Nothing' video series, but I was impressed when I watched him in a ring.
Orange Cassidy was just hilarious! I'd never heard of him before DoN, but his spot was brilliant, and I've seen looked up more of his work. It's just a simple but effective comedy gimmick.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on May 26, 2019 20:54:19 GMT -5
I mainly use PS4 to watch the WWE Network, but I watch it on my Fire Stick if I need to move my TV into a larger room to watch with friends. If you're after a Fire Stick, it's currently 20-25% off, depending on which version you want.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on May 26, 2019 12:02:02 GMT -5
One fault I did personally find with the show was the amount of false finishes. Now granted I'm not overly familiar with any of the non-WWE guys on the card, so I'm still trying to work out what their finishers actually are, but it did seem like there were a lot of high impact moves in every match that looked like they should have been finishers. It's not a problem unique to AEW, it's a problem in NXT too. I just hope that it's not still a problem when they get going. I can understand why they did it, it's their first show so everyone is trying to show off as much as they can. I just hope the problem gets ironed out in the next few shows, and isn't still present when they get on TV. I just think that finisher kick-outs should be saved for the biggest matches of the year, not used for every single PPV match.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on May 26, 2019 8:20:36 GMT -5
AEW Double or Nothing was incredible! As someone who's been largely WWE-only, bar briefly watching TNA in 2010 and unsuccessfully trying NJPW last year, I absolutely loved the show. I was optimistic beforehand but still a bit reserved for the possibility of failure. Thankfully they delivered. Fantastic matches, fantastic presentation, and fantastic surprises. Pro wrestling at its best. With how incredible their very first show was, AEW showed there is finally a serious, potentially mainstream, easily accessible alternative to WWE. It's a great time to be a wrestling fan!
Some dodgy moments throughout, namely not cutting to entrances correctly in the battle royal, that backstage librarian segment, some awkward camera work throughout, the exceptionally poor timing of entrance videos in the 6 woman tag entrances, the timekeeper screwing up in the 6 woman tag match. But they're all things that can be worked out, and nobody should have expected perfection. Even now, the following day, I can say that AEW has a very good foundation to build off of. I had never watched the vast majority of wrestlers on the show, but I'm happy to discover exactly who they are over the course of AEW's future.
Highlights of the show for me included Awesome Kong's surprise debut, the Japanese 6 Woman Tag match, Cody VS Dustin, and of course Moxley's debut.
Incredibly strong start, can't wait for the future! I may not have been impressed by All In, but Double or Nothing impressed me beyond my expectations.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on May 23, 2019 19:04:13 GMT -5
Last night's episode of NXT was fantastic! Honestly, NXT has been lacklustre since TakeOver, but last night's episode was a return to form. Thoroughly enjoyed every single match and segment. As an nL fan, it was fantastic to see Mansoor finally get his first win. Always great to see Candice LeRae in action, especially whenever she picks up a win, considering how criminally underused she's been. It was brilliant seeing Shayna and her MMA Horsewomen get the hell beat out of them by Io. I can't remember the last time the MMA Horsewomen were made to look weak. I know I really shouldn't be getting my hopes up for TakeOver, but I REALLY hope Io finally takes the title away from Shayna and ends the stale booking of the NXT Women's division. And holy crap, Tyler Breeze's NXT return! Although this is the first time an NXT OG has been moved back to NXT, I'd love to see it become a trend, for superstars like Breeze who aren't likely to do anything too memorable on the main roster.
The NXT TakeOver card looks incredible as well. I had hoped that Roderick Strong would leave the Undisputed Era (otherwise what was the point of teasing Strong breaking away?), and join the NXT Championship match to make it a Triple Threat. It's unfortunate that that isn't happening. As much as I love both Johnny Gargano and Adam Cole, I don't really have a strong desire to see a rematch. Their TakeOver: New York match was pretty much perfect, and a 2 out of 3 Falls is usually a stipulation to end a rivalry, not begin it. Adding another competitor to make it a multiman match would make it seem fresh, rather than a repeat of TakeOver: New York because they haven't got anyone else to challenge Gargano.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on May 20, 2019 9:52:04 GMT -5
The new WWE 24 BeckyLynch is incredible! Maybe the best one they've done. Engaging throughout, and told her journey perfectly. Becky Lynch is such an inspirational person, and is one of, if not the, biggest star in the company. The whole documentary just cemented why. Highly recommended.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on May 20, 2019 7:37:40 GMT -5
All I'll say about this show is that 'When Legends Rise' is a great theme to re-use.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on May 20, 2019 7:14:55 GMT -5
Despite how exceedingly poor the weekly TV product has been for the past few weeks, Money in the Bank was a really good PPV! That's the main event result aside, of course. Money in the Bank got off to a fantastic start! As much as I wanted Sasha to return to win it, Bayley was an excellent choice to win. Great to know that they're building Bayley back up as a serious challenger. And at least they made it clear that Sasha will be returning soon, with her constant namedropping in Bayley's post-match promo. Honestly, I'm not complaining, because it was quite funny, but it sounded like the main point of the promo was to fit Sasha into the promo as many times as possible. Honestly with the crowd booing at the mere mention of Sasha's name (guess there's a lot of people who believe everything they read on the internet, despite being debunked by herself, the IIconics, and Cathy Kelly, to name a few), it seems pretty clear that Sasha should return as a heel. It's about time too, she's spent 3 years as a face and has honestly become stale. She needs a heel turn to revitalise herself. I had no doubt that Becky would retain against Lacey, but Becky seemed to get quite an easy win against Lacey, which surprised me. I expected her to be more beaten up for Charlotte to get a clean win. I didn't expect Lacey to interfere to help Charlotte. So that was an engaging turn of events. No surprise that Charlotte won the SmackDown Women's Championship (one superstar holding both brand's titles would be silly in the long-term). But I didn't expect the post-match double-team beat-down. Nor did I expect Bayley to come to Becky's rescue. That was a really great moment when her music hit and the crowd popped. It was even greater moment when Bayley cashed in! That was honestly the highlight of the night. After having zero credibility as a singles performer since Extreme Rules 2017, Bayley is finally back not only as a credible competitor, but as a Women's Champion! Now they just need to restore Sasha's credibility, and all Four Horsewomen will be where they belong, as the top stars of the division. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about Lesnar's return to Money in the Bank. On one hand, I have absolutely no interest in him as a performer. He just drags the quality of the product down, even further than it already is, and leaves RAW without a World title for the rest of the roster to fight for. He's easily one of the most boring wrestlers ever. However on the other hand, it was completely unexpected, and genuinely shocked me, and it was a unique look for Brock Lesnar to hold Money in the Bank. However on the whole, I think it was a mistake, and a complete waste of Money in the Bank. I believe that the MITB briefcase should only ever be used to build new stars, or to revitalise stars who've fallen down. Honestly though, why can't Brock Lesnar just off?! Both times he's lost the Universal title, we think we've finally gotten rid of him, only for him to show up again to win it back. I really hope that earlier post reporting that half the crowd started leaving the moment he left is true, because somebody needs to tell Vince that Brock is far more of a hindrance than he is a help. At least with the way they book him to hold the World title hostage, he is. Whatever the new title being revealed on RAW is, they should just award it to Brock so he can stay away from the Universal title, since he clearly MUST hold a championship at all times. Even with my issues with Lesnar's return aside, Money in the Bank was still really good, and kept me watching, rather than losing interest as I do more often than not with WWE PPVs. The Women's Division made this show for me. I'd probably give it 8/10.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on May 16, 2019 13:17:28 GMT -5
Assuming this is due to storyline reasons, the news of Alexa Bliss being out of MITB makes me very pleased. That eliminates my worry of her winning Money in the Bank again, and opens up the spot to Cross or Banks (who has strongly implied on social media recently that the rumours of her getting upset and walking out were false, in case anyone still believed them).
On the other hand if she is legitimately not cleared to compete, then I have complete sympathy for her as a person.
Either way, I'm much more inclined to watch Money in the Bank now.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on May 14, 2019 4:30:02 GMT -5
I just really want All-Stars 2.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on May 13, 2019 8:35:31 GMT -5
That "leak" was proven to be fake, due to multiple spelling and grammatical errors, as well as the date being in 2018. Even so, with all the focus on Becky in recent months, it would be a good idea to have her as the cover star. I can't think of any bigger star in WWE than Becky Lynch for the past few months.
However, as already mentioned, Kurt Angle did indeed share himself signing autographs with the 2K logo on it, with Edge commenting "you too?". So they're almost certainly involved with the collector's edition. Renee Young also leaked herself recording commentary, with a portion of the script visible, for a Showcase match of Natalya VS Charlotte from NXT TakeOver, so it's a pretty safe bet that we're getting either a Women's Evolution Showcase or an NXT Showcase.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on May 11, 2019 17:34:28 GMT -5
I can't fathom why they'd drop the Windows 10 desktop app under the excuse that they gave. It's literally the most up to date operating system. Trying to use the WWE Network through an internet browser is perhaps the worst possible way to access the WWE Network.
|
|
|
Post by ahunter8056 on May 8, 2019 17:17:14 GMT -5
If they're going to keep up the whole "make sports reference" thing in every single IIconic promo, I might have to stop watching them. I'm not American, I don't understand them or care. I watch wrestling to watch wrestling. Not to constantly hear about sports that I couldn't give a crap about. It's such an incredibly cheap, overused, and flat-out lazy tactic. Probably my biggest pet peeve in wrestling. Also, what happened to Bayley? I'm certain it was supposed to be a 6 woman tag. Then I'd suggest just ignoring their segments, I personally think the IIconics are great, That's literally what I suggested I might do in my original post. The IIconics are great. But the material they're being given is not.
|
|