Brock spoke more tonight than he has since he returned near 10 years ago. :shifty:

Brock was great tonight.

Or well yesterday.

SmackDown — the only show that holds.

Going all the way back to when he started, it was never that Brock was bad at talking, it was that his voice did not match his look akin to Mike Tyson. It was a perceived weakness by Vince, that he didnt sound like the monster he looks like. Thats just one of those McMahonisms, like how he disliked that Brodie Lee looked like a southern but didnt have a southern accent.

I watched some highlights this week. SmackDown seems like a surprisingly good show. It sounded like it got a bit off track there for a while.

* Starting with Brock is always a good idea. He did a really good job talking, and it told a story. Zayn didn’t look out of place with Brock.

* A hype video for Shayna makes her look like a deal. Sasha is a star. Smart to go from her after the Zayn and Brock stuff.

* Toni Storm is not the best promo in the world. God the Australian accent is awful on television. She looks good, but she doesn’t feel there as the whole package. But it’s building to something.

* Happy Corbin’s outfit was ridiculous in a good way. The segment was terrible in terms of its content, but if AEW did it Meltzer would defend it as hilarious and that it’s the heels making lame jokes. Drew and Jeff look good together.

* Xia Li’s packages are indeed good.

* I’m not into the Naomi/Sonya stuff on the face of it, but it told a story and seems to be going somewhere. It’s not offensive.

* I’m so over The New Day together. I get the value in never splitting them up and having them rip each other to shreds and stuff, but their content is just there. The Usos are stars. Feels like they’ve had a billion matches against each other, but it’s something advertised for Day 1. Big PPV feel to it so far.

* Sheamus and Cesaro is a good match. I like that they didn’t ignore their history as The Bar.

* Brock kicking Sami’s ass is fine. It gives Sami an “out” and a way to be annoying and keep complaining about conspiracies and the like. Rubbing shoulders with the top stars on your show isn’t a bad thing either.

I feel like I might be forgetting something, but it was way easier to watch than I remember (granted I was catching highlights). Everything on the show felt like it had some sort of functional purpose, even if some of it was cheesy or not executed the best.

Oh yeah, Los Lotharios vs. Viking Raiders. They’re obviously pushing Angel & Humberto as Hispanic stars. Makes sense they’d win, but The Raiders don’t look especially great just zigging out to Boogs on the guitar. Whatever. The priority is this Nakamura thing with them, which is weird because they actually feel like a tag team but seem to be going after the IC Title.

I dunno, I really see the argument that SmackDown is probably the best wrestling show on television. Nothing was absolutely horrible. It may not be the most invigorating program ever, but a lot more work goes into “WWE = bad” in regards to this show than seeing why it’s the only show that really holds its ratings.

This motherfucker over here writing thesis after skimming through highlights :smh:

Where does this work get put in? Seems to me it’s mostly positive vibes in this thread. The stuff that’s downright shit gets called out (Womens Title Exchange), beyond that it’s mostly people saying how good Roman is.

SmackDown is easily the most watchable show of the week.

It’s definitely out there. It’s refreshing to hear you say that though. I think there is a wider consensus that Roman is the best thing in wrestling, but you’ll find places where the narrative is still that Roman Reigns is a bust, can’t wrestle, is pushed too hard, etc.

While I’m a fan of Roman Reigns’ work since his return, I’d love to see Noid sit through one of his title defenses. Doubt he’s even seen his match against Zayn either.

Here’s the thing that frustrates me; it may be out there, but it’s not here - or at least not with the same volume as it is elsewhere - but you act like it is. It’s like going to a nightclub where everybody is a pretentious prick then going to a pub where most people are not pretentious pricks but treating them like they are. You project sentiments from elsewhere on to the folks here a lot. Don’t get me wrong, there are some poor takes, but it sometimes feels like “gas-lighting” where I have to go back and check what’s actually been said in the thread :lol:

Eh, it’s pretty bad here, dude, lol. Although I would like to state that I don’t think it’s ever been my intention to imply it is any worse or better here. I’ve always spoken pretty generally on it.

To me it’s more like leaving a club of pretentious pricks, going to another club full of potential pricks, saying “there are some pretentious pricks out there” and the pretentious pricks there getting upset and saying “Not us!” Well, I didn’t say it was you. But it totally is them too.

But oh well. Sorry you feel I’m projecting. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken specifically to it, even though I wouldn’t disagree with the suggestion that it is more rampant here than you are giving it credit for.

WWE is just an advertisement vehicle at this Poit.








narf!

I can't even feel bad for fans who buy a ticket to a wrestling show and see barely an wrestling.

WWE TV has been "spend long periods of time watching on the screen" for ages now. You know what you're getting into. Go to a house show if you want to see wrestling.

Sheamus and Drew was predictably great and violent. Way too short though.

Charlotte and Toni was surprisingly terrible. Timing was way off.

New Day vs Usos vs RKBro is your main event with 25 minutes to go. Could be great! Let’s see.

Good match so far. One of the best hot tag fakeouts I’ve ever seen. Crowd is hot.

I was wondering if Charlotte being bad intentionally to try and make Toni look bad, because yeah it seemed really off.

Why are RKBro on SmackDown?

Toni Storm has been bad on the main roster from what I have seen.

Maybe but I would note that it was definitely Toni who was out of position for that Andrade double moonsault spot. That looked really bad.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/SonyaDevilleWWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SonyaDevilleWWE</a> is back in action!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SmackDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SmackDown</a> <a href="https://t.co/JTe74SxbIp">pic.twitter.com/JTe74SxbIp</a></p>&mdash; WWE (@WWE) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1469487571935838211?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Is Sonya Deville doing a dominatrix gimmick now? Because I would go out of my way to watch that.

lol xia li

Fucking terrible debut

ItS certainly better than cosplaying as Paula Poundstone.

Lol THERE’S a random reference.

I dunno, I just always thought that's how she looked in a suit. 🤷

CNN Sucks bros..#watchsmackdown

Tuning in now. Didn’t know this was a Chicago show

Baron Corbin on now. Will check back in later. Cya guys

New Day and Usos in a “momentum building” match before their title match at Day One. This is the dumbest shit in the history of wrestling but these teams are also in the “fight forever” group so a bit conflicted

Pretty good. Usos and New Day definitely up there for best modern tag feud. Maybe all time?

One has to go away forever. Who is it? Corbin or Garvin?

saw on twitter roman fired paul heyman and attacked him until brock saved his advocate from a heinous beatdown

Its a swerve for sure, Heyman gonna cost Brock at Day One.

This is tough. Because recently I’ve been watching more classic wrestling (Thursdays at 9:00 pm EST) than current WWE programming. They’re both just so boring.

At least Garvin gets a fireball in his face eventually. Corbin’s gotta go.

I don't get it. Reigns has been amazing for over a year now it seems. Lashley has been on a tear and most of the RAW main event stuff has been golden for the past year. Why can't the mid card storylines come anywhere close to the main event stuff.

Brock looks like he just got back from felling some trees and feeding the pigs.

The main event is the most important stuff. If everything is drummed with the same emphasis it loses meaning. That doesn’t mean your stories have to be horrible, granted. You also see a bit more autonomy in the main event stories, which is useful to making them seem better.

Hopefully as WresteMania approaches and the WWE enters a year of stadium shows, some things start to pay-off.