The Wrestling Thread's Never Been So Disgusted With a PPV... - Part 139

[Wheels]

I applaud that crowd last night,it was well deserved and I hope it continues tonight and especially at Mania!

Agreed.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

The reactions on Tumblr are sad, yet, hilarious.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

I'm not a 'McMahon apologist'; I'm someone who watches wrestling for the sheer enjoyment of what it offers as a television program and as a form of 'unscripted' entertainment.

There are much better ways to express displeasure with the product being offered than to **** on people who don't deserve to get shat on, and that's what is happening any time a crowd decides it wants to act like a bunch of spoiled toddlers whose parents told them they can't have candy.

Um....they paid their hard earned money and this is probably the one form of entertainment to see live where you can really voice your opinion on something you like/don't like. Last night was the prime example of worst case scenarios and obviously, the crowd had every right in the to **** on it.

 

[strikezone89]

I hope the trend continues tonight and the crowd ****s on all of it

 

[TheNextNolan22]

Hoping Cleavland is a very smark crowd tonight.

 

[SpideyFan866]

I still can't get over the fact they advertised Bryan for the Rumble, on the show itself, yet still didn't have him in it.

 

[Van Petrol]

Obviously, my friend, but how can any fan defend that?

I agree, dude. It just beggars beyond belief.

 

[Van Petrol]

I still can't get over how much life was sucked out of the cowd when Mysterio's music hit instead of Bryan's, it just died instantly. Hillarious, but sad at the same time.

 

[H.U.S.T.L.E.]

So before I start ranting, I'll say this in the interest of full disclosure - I don't even own a TV at the moment, let alone pay for cable, so all of the WWE product that I watch is through torrents (with the exception of NXT, which I watch on Hulu). So whatever I say about the product, feel free to take it with a grain of salt.

I got home around midnight after being out of town and having avoided spoilers all evening, I downloaded the show when I got home. Since I didn't want to stay up super late, I watched the only two matches I cared about, the opener & the Rumble match itself. My thoughts below...

-As expected, I thought the Bryan vs. Wyatt match was excellent. I actually don't have a problem with the finish, but I think it's because I foolishly had my hopes up that we'd see Bryan in the Rumble. Even with Bryan not in the Rumble, I don't mind him eating that pinfall because Bray needs to look strong going into whatever is next. The biggest problem though is that all of the storytelling involving Bryan is completely backwards - his feuds with Orton & Wyatt involved the heel getting the better of him in the end, when normally the babyface would eventually rise up & conquer the odds. This is the main reason that Bryan's booking is so maddening to me, because it throws out all the conventional pro wrestling storytelling & he's instead used as a tool to get others over.

- The only thing that REALLY bothered me about that match was the crowd in one specific instance... I understand that when you pay for a ticket you're allowed to chant what you want, but the "Husky Harris" chant really ticked me off. Wyatt is a guy who has worked so hard to reinvent himself & has become one of the best characters in recent memory, it's a huge slap in the face to him. Those are the worst kinds of smarks, who think they're so cool & funny by chanting the name of a performer's previous gimmick. At that point, I knew any outcome in the Rumble not involving Daniel Bryan was going to be crapped on (and I understand THAT reaction, but I was surprised that Wyatt got smarked by the crowd, when most of the IWC universally praises the guy with good reason).

- Oh the Rumble... we all saw this a mile away & I really can't blame the crowd for reacting the way they did. I've already outlined my issues with Daniel Bryan's booking, but because of the way they've treated him it's overshadowed a lot of the good things that have happened. As others I've said, I don't feel bad for Batista considering his Twitter comments & the fact that he's pushing aside talent who's been working hard for the last year also rubs me the wrong way. I do feel sorry for Sheamus, Rey Mysterio & Roman Reigns however. Whatever goodwill you had from Sheamus' return was pissed away the moment #30 came & it wasn't Daniel Bryan... at that point, Sheamus is a reminder of WM 28 & the crowd was having none of him. The fact that Rey got booed out of the building simply because he wasn't DB was unfortunate, but not unexpected. And while Roman wasn't affected as much, his accomplishment is certainly overshadowed by the crowd's response. I also fear for Roman's future if he's elevated & Daniel Bryan is shunted aside once again. There's a very real possibility that he'll get the Cena treatment based on the fact that he's got the weight of the machine behind him. Make no mistake about it, by refusing to give in to the crowd's demands for Bryan, they're shooting themselves in the foot long term & it's not going to look good.

- The only reason that I can see for the continued treatment of DB is that they're hoping the crowd will eventually be so deflated in support of the guy that they eventually give up. Based on all the reports and things Bryan has said himself (and it crosses that gray line of work & shoot sometimes), it certainly doesn't look like the company intends to feature him as even ONE of "the guys." For a while, I was just watching the product to see some good matches here & there, but Bryan was the guy that sucked me back into the storylines. Well I'm done with that now & will pretty much stay away from the product unless it's to see a match that everyone is talking about. As I saw someone post elsewhere, I've simply run out of times that I can say, "Well let's wait & see where it goes."

 

[bullets]

I'm ashamed to be a wrestling fan now because it's gotten to the point where other fans think they're so entitled to having things done their way that it's ruined my own personal enjoyment of wrestling.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with Batista winning the Rumble. I say this not only as a fan of his, but also as a long-time fan of wrestling in general, and yet other fans and people like Mick Foley are acting like they've been handed an egregious personal slight just because the producers of what is essentially a gigantic 'reality show' didn't change the pre-determined outcome of said 'reality show' on a whim.

I've not always agreed with decisions that the WWE has made, but there's a significant difference between disagreement and obnoxious hate-fueled behavior, and all this whining has reached the point where it's become the latter.

You must be a writer for WWE because you are completely out of touch with what fans want to see.

 

[Donnie Darko]

The ONLY way I see this working AT ALL is if they run with Batista going heel tonight on Raw and Bryan a face (DANIEL ****ING BRYAN) wins the title at Elimination Chamber, only to go on and successfully defend against Batista at WM.

Orton-Batista is going to get DESTROYED by the crowd.

They could partially salvage it by having Lesnar work more dates, beat Orton at EC, and beat Batista at WM, but that's only a band-aid on a bullet wound.

 

[Donnie Darko]

When I read DigificWriter say "There was absolutely nothing wrong with Batista winning the Rumble," I had a really good laugh.

If other companies followed WWE's model, Iron Man would have died during the first act of Avengers and Jack Sparrow would have settled down on Tortuga after one movie and been absent from the Pirates sequels.

 

[TX85]

Batista is definitely going heel soon and they'll just turn him back during summer to promote GOTG,EC is truly the last hope of a miracle before mania

 

[Donnie Darko]

Serious question...

When was the last time Daniel Bryan actually came out on top in a feud? (Bryan-Cena at SS doesn't count, considering it was really even a feud, but instead just a one-time match with little build up, and he didn't exactly leave the ppv on top.)

 

[H.U.S.T.L.E.]

Serious question...

When was the last time Daniel Bryan actually came out on top in a feud? (Bryan-Cena at SS doesn't count, considering it was really even a feud, but instead just a one-time match with little build up, and he didn't exactly leave the ppv on top.)

Exactly. It may have gotten lost in my wall of text, but here's what I said regarding this very thing (for the TL;DR crowd)

"The biggest problem though is that all of the storytelling involving Bryan is completely backwards - his feuds with Orton & Wyatt involved the heel getting the better of him in the end, when normally the babyface would eventually rise up & conquer the odds. This is the main reason that Bryan's booking is so maddening to me, because it throws out all the conventional pro wrestling storytelling & he's instead used as a tool to get others over."

EDIT: And to provide an answer, I guess you could say that it was against Randy Orton during the build-up to his SS match. He had a few matches to "prove he wasn't the weak link" and he beat Orton in the No DQ match, where Randy tapped clean when DB had him in the Yes Lock with a kendo stick.

 

[MMMMM...Pancakes]

Hey guys, did I miss anything?

Spoiler

Went out to a bar to watch it with a rowdy smark crowd and we were pissed when Mysterio came out, we knew Reigns wasn't going to win but damnit, we still hoped for the best. Then Batista did it.

 

[strikezone89]

I'm hoping Batista goes heel this evening or plants the seeds talking about Daniel Bryan not being in the same league and he somehow gets himself in the title picture by Mania. The bummer is that I do not want to see Bryan winning at EC but rather at Mania to have his "Mania" moment which we haven't had in years.

 

[Van Petrol]

This is impressive, I had no idea how much better shape Kane is in now.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Okay, so the landscape right now is:

CM Punk vs. Kane (The Authority)
Batista vs. Orton
Cena vs. the Wyatts
Reigns vs. Ambrose/Rollins

At this point, Bryan is owed a victory over the Undertaker at WMXXX, but I know that will not happen, and instead he will be put in a feud with Sheamus, which will be a waste of both men's considerable talents.

 

[OctaviusINC]

This is impressive, I had no idea how much better shape Kane is in now.

Kane's more of a monster currently in a suit then he's been for the past 6 years or so. I'm diggin' him. And he looks like he's in awesome shape. Good for him.

At this point, Bryan is owed a victory over the Undertaker at WMXXX, but I know that will not happen, and instead he will be put in a feud with Sheamus, which will be a waste of both men's considerable talents.

And with WWE's current treatment of Bryan, it'll be another 18 second match.

 

[venom892]

I'm sure Bryan will get a decent length of time of mania, even probably win if it's Sheamus, but the point is they are missing out on an incredible Mania moment if they deny Bryan the main event.

Side Note: I was thinking that now Batista is now a two time RR winner which puts him in the same class as Hogan, HBK, Austin and Cena. That's a travesty in itself.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Damn, y'all were livid last night. I totally forgot the Rumble was on, I'll have to track it down.

 

[cyclone]

So this is an interesting one...... Given the monstrosity that was the Rumble, and the fans reaction, imagine you're WWE. What do you do to fix this? Forget Vince, HHH..... What would YOU do to fix this mess?

(Spoiler tags cos it's huge);

Spoiler

As someone said above, I'd do something like this;

RAW
- Bryan opens Raw. He acknowledges the chants and support and says he'll never be 'that guy'. The man in charge won't have it. Cue 'NO!' chants.
- Batista comes out and plays up to what happened at the Rumble (I mean seriously, WWE can't deny it, so why don't they use it?). Telling Bryan how he came back after 4 years and won the Rumble, but the ungrateful fans still chanted for Daniel and booed him, the winner. Batista tells Bryan he's right. He'll never be champion.
- Mid show, HHH announces that the Elimination Chamber match will be for the title and will feature CM Punk, John Cena, Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan, Roman Reigns and Batista.

ELIMINATION CHAMBER
- Cena is distracted by the Wyatt's on the outside and is eliminated
- Roman Reigns eliminates Orton
- Batista eliminates Roman Reigns
- CM Punk is distracted/attacked by Kane and is pinned by Roman Reigns
- Bryan eliminates Roman Reigns
- CM Punk somehow distracts/attacks Batista, allowing Daniel Bryan to hit the running knee, and pins Batista.
- Daniel Bryan is WWE World Heavyweight Champion

RESULTING FALLOUT
- Triple H effectively says Punk is the reason that Bryan is Champion, and he needs to be taught a lesson. The resulting match is Triple H v CM Punk at WrestleMania
- John Cena vs Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania
- Daniel Bryan vs Batista at WrestleMania - Daniel Bryan retains the title
- Kane vs Orton as punishment from HHH for Orton losing at EC
- Lesnar vs Undertaker.
- New Age Outlaws vs Goldust & Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania. Cody attacks Goldust after they lose to NAO (revenge for the Rumble)

How about you guys? How would you fix it? Short of time travel, I mean.....

 

[Karelia]

What a disappointing RR... I can't say anything that hasn't been said.

I loved the crowd though. I hope they follow suit tonight.

 

[SpideyVille]

This is dumb. They are paying customers; they can do whatever they like short of throwing things at the superstars. They have every right to be mad if they're not getting what they paid to see, and for a lot of people they're not getting from the product what they want, how else would you suggest that they express that?

The WWE deserves to get dumped on, and dumped on, and dumped on for this crap that they're shovel-ling their loyal fans, many of whom will still force themselves to watch patiently in the hopes that things will change. The live crowd dumping on them is the ONLY way to deliver the message to the back that people aren't happy.

This is the way that my view on Wrestling/Sports Entertainment has changed over the past couple of years as I've seen more behind the scenes stuff. It's understandable to be upset if your guy, who just so happens to be the good guy and biggest fan favorite, doesn't win the title or a match or whatever. The WWE as a business has no obligation to give you that at a particular PPV or event. But in the longrun, it should be made to be worth it because it should all be for the sake of good storytelling. The good guy can't always win, but he needs to win when it counts the most, and in this case, its Wrestlemania, where all the eyes of the world on on the industry. But until then, they need to create compelling storylines that help push feuds long enough so that they remain entertaining.

And in a case like this, I completely understand why Bryan fans and fans in general are pissed, because it is so evident that the most popular guy in the locker room, the one that the fans have chosen themselves, is constantly being put down. It's not like The Rock, who dubbed himself as "The People's Champ". Bryan was legitimately called to fame by the fans, and the people in charge have done everything they can to push him to the side. And what's worse is that you bring back someone who barely did much during his time here, and you basically hand him the keys to the kingdom right away. It's understandable if they did that to someone like The Rock or Hogan, but Batista? Are you serious? This is the WWE trying to shove another star down our throats saying "You better love him because he's our guy." For that alone, I think the WWE is getting exactly what they deserve and if I were there last night, I would vocalize my disgust too because it's just not right.