Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Sept 1, 2018 19:18:11 GMT -5
He announced a sixth move to plug the Shanghai show and he used the move on the Shanghai show.
It's not that big of a deal.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Jul 18, 2018 18:22:26 GMT -5
Jinder Mahal's WWE Title reign was actually very good and AJ Styles' current reign is the level of phone-it-in delivery and bad matches and moments that y'all get on the case of non-Indy workers for, but because it's AJ Styles everyone sees it through rose-tinted lenses.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on May 15, 2018 19:56:53 GMT -5
They run that Miz/Bryan program with Bryan finally winning the title in front of 60,000 at the Rumble Almas wins the damn Rumble Run the story of the guy who took years to get to the top against the guy who had the quick rise to the top Like Angle/Lesnar only a lot better
Andy vs. Bryan should main event Wrestlemania next year.
Ronda opens. It's the better spot anyway.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Mar 17, 2018 17:50:49 GMT -5
I am returning from my seasonal excursion to this travesty?
It is Apollo's nation. Done. Boom.
Cesaro is better off as a tag wrestler, as evident by his teams with Tyson Kidd and Sheamus taking off and him not connecting to the crowd either with Heyman or post-Kidd. Rusev has too much negative baggage to have a meaningful World Title run. Transitional champion at best. Matt is old and not good. Zack Ryder peaked at the start of the decade and wasn't even close to the best part of the Hype Brothers.
Apollo has enough up his sleeve to win over the crowd in the ring. Titus is a perfect mouthpiece for him. He's likable as a guy and as a brand. Titus Worldwide already takes photos and meets the celebrities who come to Raw every week as it is.
Follow Apollo, baby.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Feb 23, 2018 9:21:24 GMT -5
Where to start.... 1. *waste 2. His move set is fine, I have no idea why everyone complains about it, the guy is huge and you can't expect him to pump out a shooting star press every match. Also, Braun Strowman and Dean Ambrose have about the same number of moves and no one complains, just jumping on the bandwagon I see? 3. The way in which Vince McMahon or the WWE creative team have tried to get him over hasn't worked, and that isn't Roman's fault. I don't think he's brillaint and i'm not a fanboy by any means but please, don't jump on bandwagons and talk rubbish. thats total BS, Roman never paid his dues and look where his sorry butt has gotten because of his size and who his relatives are Rollins was on the indie scene and was in ring of honor and Ambrose busted in you know what in combat zone wrestling done even get me started Dean has bleed more times than most wrestlers will ever know. oh yea thanks for the spelling lesson. Neither have you. And to get back on track, blaming creative is a lazy argument. This is such an odd hill to die on. Cody Rhodes took a non-existent midcard on SmackDown in 2011 and flourished because he changed things up and did things to stand out, and it was rewarded with a lengthy IC Title run. JBL cemented his legacy on an abysmal SmackDown roster by changing things up and doing things to stand out. AJ Styles has had all the opportunity to stand out and change things up, and it's been the same "Champ that Runs the Camp" promo week in and week out, the same insults week in and week out, and it's been lethargic.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Feb 23, 2018 7:28:23 GMT -5
He’s just given nothing to work with. The feud with KO and Zayn has dragged for too long. He’s essentially been feuding with Owens since the summer. Smackdown is starved for talent. Once the feud with Nakamura gets going, he’ll be fine. It’s more of a Smackdown problem than an AJ Styles problem. It also doesn’t help that the writing is terrible. That boile line was cringeworthy. Road Dogg Jesse James, ladies and gentleman. Braun had no business being good when Raw's creative was bad. The Straight Edge Society had no reason to be good when 2009's creative was bad. The fact of the matter is AJ Styles has had every opportunity to stand out in his performances on a relatively dull brand and has underwhelmed considerably. The Vaudevillains and Blake and Murphy had a feud that had no right to be as good as it was. That was bad creative, but it paid off. If The Vaudes can make a feud like theirs with BAM interesting and engaging, there's no excuse for AJ and Owens/Zayn.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Feb 23, 2018 5:26:36 GMT -5
AJ Styles has been on cruise control since the Shane match. His promos are largely the same, spoken in monotone, or he tries to ramble on to get to a punchline that never hits with the zing he intends it to be.
AJ's matches have not been anything special. The feud with Owens was largely not very good, full of lethargic promos and matches that took ages to get going.
You could blame SmackDown creative, I guess? Just remember that when Raw creative was actively hurting the show in the fall of 2016, Kevin Owens was still a beacon of light. He still persevered despite bad creative. He had really creative promos and put on consistently good matches on TV and PPV despite bad booking. AJ has not been a beacon of light on a bad SmackDown, and in almost every week's case, he's felt just as lifeless as the rest of the show.
Remember when AJ beating Jinder was supposed to be the cure for SmackDown's bad show? It wasn't. The show has been just as, if not more, lethargic as it's ever been. And yes, some of it is attributed to the show being basically a rerun every week. But if you look at the individual people appearing on the show, you have Liv and Naomi doing Lucha spots every week trying to stand out. You have The Usos cutting strong promos, trying to stand out. And you have AJ, doing legitimately the same thing he's been doing for almost a year.
It's great that you like him, I do too. But I just think that he hasn't been nearly as good as he was in 2016 or the first quarter of 2017. I'd take a great Jinder match over an average AJ Styles match no matter what.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Feb 11, 2018 9:00:00 GMT -5
Lots of pointing and staring.
A promo on the go-home show.
A lot of "fill in the blanks yourself" type building.
Probably a loss in a tag team match that will drive a riff between them.
Then a match in the Dome.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Jan 23, 2018 7:32:11 GMT -5
AJ Styles literally forgot to kick out on pay-per-view. And? it was one mistake. Styles still outclasses Jinder. Might just be me, but I don't think causing an unplanned title change on a televised Network event in front of a major market crowd is just one mistake to be shoved off.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Jan 22, 2018 21:48:38 GMT -5
AJ Styles literally forgot to kick out on pay-per-view. AJ Styles dragged Jinder to the best match he'll likely have in his career. AJ Styles can't drag anyone to a good match on his own. It takes two to tango. See: vs. Kevin Owens, vs. Toru Yano, vs. Yocrapatsu, vs. Bobby Roode, etc. Again, go back and watch AJ vs. Jinder from May, then their matches in the winter. COMPLETELY different wrestler, and it's not because of AJ. There have been far worse people holding that title for far longer, and what Jinder did with it was more than fine. It goes back, as I keep saying, to people not having an open mind and writing him off immediately. For someone who went from nothing to champion in six weeks, he was built incredibly well and felt just as legitimate as anyone he worked. I know I'm not going to change minds with any of this, but I have more than enough merit in what I'm saying.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Jan 22, 2018 21:17:26 GMT -5
The fact that something like this happens just shows that no one gave him a chance and wrote him off as a joke from the start of his reign. Watch a Jinder Mahal match from Raw 2016. Then watch the #1 contender's match. Then watch Backlash with Orton. Clear improvement at a rate we've never seen before. Think about this: he was better than AJ Styles and Kevin Owens in the summer of 2017. Busted his ass, went from working squashes to main events with no sweat, and had good matches for 6+ months straight. But your newsletter says that his lack of a PWG win-loss record discredits him. haha no. Styles and Owens outclass Jinder in every way possible. AJ Styles literally forgot to kick out on pay-per-view.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Jan 21, 2018 10:49:28 GMT -5
There's no point in using NXT talent for the Rumble because it's not the place to debut new talent. You think Riott Squad and Absolution aren't cared about by the fans after being exposed to the main roster audience for almost three months? Wait until someone shows up having only ever worked on the WWE Network. The historic nature of the match is its selling point. Plus, it only exacerbates the "is she called up?" rumors and people will be disappointed when Peyton, Billie, Ember, etc. aren't on TV the week after.
And there's no better way to get Riott Squad and Absolution a little credibility than by having them beat up and throw out a few of those legends.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Jan 21, 2018 10:39:07 GMT -5
I don't think more moves = better story, and I think that was on display ridiculously prevalently in the 80s and prior.
The gargantuan number argument is moot because you have to take into account the physical limitations of the people involved. I think using that argument in general is such a slippery slope logically. Okay, Big Show knows theoretically how to do a moonsault but he's not going to do one in his match. People have repertoires for a reason--it fits their character, it helps them stand out, etc.
To answer your bolded question, wrestling is so much more than just simulated conflict. It's entertainment, whether you're watching a show from 1984 or 2018. It's simulated conflict, yes, but that doesn't sell unless it's wrapped in showmanship. People are going to watch MMA or boxing for their violence fix. They watch wrestling for something extra. The moves the wrestlers do are moves that incite stories you don't get in MMA or boxing, which makes it stand out.
And saying wrestlers do moves that "hurt their business" is an ugly ideal to think. Wrestling has its niches no matter what the style, and there's people who will eat up literally anything. Doing moves that "hurt" the business to you are being lapped up by a completely different, just-as-passionate sect of fans.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Jan 12, 2018 9:36:13 GMT -5
The shark cages work because we've seen a myriad of instances where managers/teammates interfere in matches on television and the authority figure wants to prevent that. Jericho was banned from ringside during the Owens/Rollins no DQ match, but he still came out in a Sin Cara mask and interfered. Legitimately the only way Foley could prevent Jericho's interference in Owens' title defenses was to lock him in a shark cage. It made sense.
I'm surprised we're not getting one at the Rumble with Zayn or Owens in the cage.
The best implementation of them are to lock them up on the ground at the stage, though. I feel for the people in the cage who may have acrophobia. Plus it prevents and Enzo/Jericho situation where the person in the cage is still able to interfere in the match.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Dec 17, 2017 18:55:15 GMT -5
Oh man can't wait to hear all your civil and totally well-thought out in-the-moment reactions to Jinder Mahal winning the championship fifth match on the card, baby.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Dec 11, 2017 20:48:39 GMT -5
Apollo Crews is cookie cutter Talent. Must be a racism thing honestly I get it. Fear what you know will be the best. I appreciate you taking the time to make a post on WrestlingFigs.com forums, but I have to disagree with this sentiment. Apollo Crews smiles, and he MEANS it. He is on a level unlike any other white meat babyface in history. Ricky Steamboat? Smiling only when it mattered. Apollo Crews? Smiles ALL the time. Boom. Apollo's never gotten into that groove, much like guys like Neville, Sami Zayn, etc. who had lull periods on the main roster before getting into their runs. Apollo was well on his way to success and maybe could've used a few more months in NXT, but they saw something in him. Something they didn't see in Austin Aries, something they didn't see in Kassius Ohno, they saw in Apollo Crews. He was ready, willing and able to take the brass ring. I implore you to check out his performance in the original SmackDown Live battle royal. Marvelous. We saw glimpses of that peppered all over his main roster run, and it's only a matter of time before that shines full-time.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Dec 7, 2017 19:24:20 GMT -5
I come back to this site from my annual sabbatical and THIS is what I come back to?
Apollo Crews literally has the greatest smile in the history of the business. Super likable. Never committed a felony. Does flips, so the marks appreciate him. Has a mouthpiece, reminds you of the 80s. Gave Braun his best squash match since Ellsworth.
He should've beaten Miz at Summerslam last year.
God.
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Nov 19, 2017 20:42:07 GMT -5
Yeah man I hate it when a team realizes they're stale and they completely reinvent their look, characters, promo style and structure of matches to both appeal to the current wrestling fan and get themselves over it's tragic when people start to get behind a wrestler or wrestlers who work hard to get over
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Nov 19, 2017 18:54:45 GMT -5
Plus Shield have beaten them all beaten Evolution beaten almost every superstar on the roster at one point or another and The Shield have the experience factor too You may be right the Shield have more experience than the New Day Big E debuted in 2012 a month after The Shield Xavier Woods did not debut until 2013 or 2014 even wow but Kofi Kingston was wrestling in WWE since debuting on ECW in 2008 so he has more experience than The Shield in the WWE but don't forget Big E Langston defeated Seth Rollins to become the NXT Champion so who knows
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Dante, The Voc
Main Eventer
If I'm not online, I'm on the toilet
Joined on: Dec 5, 2010 9:48:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,374
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Nov 19, 2017 18:49:12 GMT -5
Shield vs New Day? I say Shield all day every day...The New Day just are not in The Shield's league all 3 members of The Shield have virtually done it all in this business they are former WWE and World Champions something The New Day hasn't done I agree at one point each member of The Shield Dean Ambrose Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins but not in that order held the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the same night and that night was Money in the Bank 2016 the New Day have only been WWE Tag Team Champions yes indeed
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