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The Shield/Wyatts match getting THIS IS AWESOME chants when nobody is even touching each other is a testament to how amazing that build was. E: In hindsight, the entire Shield run may be the most important thing to happen to WWE in the 2010s. Bryan's rise to the top was amazing, but sadly short-lived. The Rock/Cena matches drew huge money, but were blips on the radar in the long run. With The Shield, they not only booked the modern-day version of the Four Horsemen (and booked them smart, a rarity in today's WWE), but after the breakup managed to make all three guys relevant main-eventers. Yeah, Dean had some rough spots, and Seth's title run sucked, and Roman's problems are well-documented, but at the end of the day they all held the title, and that wouldn't haven't been possible if The Shield didn't take off like it did. It really was a perfect storm of young talent eager to get over and take spots, and the bosses willing to get behind them. Benne fucked around with this message at 06:10 on Jun 23, 2016 |
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Jun 23, 2016 05:55
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I mean, you could possibly make the case that everything with CM Punk from the Cena feud in 2011 on was the most important thing to happen to the WWE in the long term, but that's less about who's on top of the WWE and more about how fans perceive the company. It's also more of a stop-start thing, where you have most of the major stuff in 2011 and then flash forward to Punk's exit and podcast tell-all in 2014. I wasn't actually watching at the time, so I'm certainly not the person to explain it, but if the shield is more or less everything right with the WWE, Punk's whole situation is kinda everything wrong. Here's a relatively short, not necessarily accurate telling of this. Before anything, you need two things for background: 1) John Cena was despised by the fans for going over everyone and making all other wrestlers look like chumps, and this had been going on for years. 2) CM Punk was a huge fan-favorite, a bit of a diva (by which I mean a bit stuck up, egotistical, etc.), and really loving good on the mic. Like, not Austin or Rock good, but just below them. Some stuff happens, punk gets over, and fans want a push for him. Stuff happens, then the promo known now as the pipebomb (Punk said that while microphones were just mics to other wrestlers, in his hands, they were pipebombs: devastating, powerful, and so on. He wasn't exactly wrong.) In this promo, aside from making continual references to backstage aspects of wrestling (such as the existence of places like Ring of Honor, and he mentioned his friend, indie wrestler Colt Cabana, by name in this promo: more on that guy later.), Punk basically said that people didn't get to the top of the WWE by being good wrestlers or actors, but by being bootlickers: he referred to the Rock as "Dwayne", targeted Cena specifically, and generally confirmed every single thing that fans were mad about. Oh, and his contract expires on the day of Money in the Bank, and he's planning on winning the title, and walking out with it. This whole thing got national coverage: people franjly thought Punk wasn't even playing a character during this speech. This sets up a feud where Cena is painted as the corporate champion, Mr. McMahon's lackey, and a series of promos ensue where Punk, McMahon, and Cena go at it. The whole thing is electric, one of the best feuds the WWE has ever done, and fans loving love it. So Punk doesn't re-sign (in kayfabe, at least), he gets suspended, but reinstated by Cena's request. And then Cena gets an ultimatum from Mr. McMahon: he's fighting Punk at MITB, and if he loses, he's fired. MITB is in Punk's hometown of Chicago, which is already the smarkiest city in the US. The feud is very lax on pure faces and pure heels, but in Chicago, everyone's behind Punk. He comes in for the match, and the place goes loving nuts. Cena comes out, and is booed to hell and back. They have a match. It's incredible: Meltzer gives it 5 stars, it's one of the best matches the WWE has put on in a decade, and it ends with Punk winning. He leaves through the crowd, with the title, and the PPV ends. It owns, it's great, and then it goes to poo poo. Punk eventually comes back, loses a few feuds, and is treated as an afterthought in terms of main eventing mania: instead, the rock does it. Flash forward to 2013, and Punk has MRSA. He just doesn't know it, and the WWE and Punk are currently engaged in a lawsuit over defamation of the doctor who was supposed to check him (they claim he never went to the guy, Punk claims the doctor advised him to ignore the lump.) Punk's on a billion antibiotics, gets injured and comes back before he's fully healed, gets injured in a match with Ryback, and so on. We're at the Royal Rumble in 2014, Punk is wrestling ill and injured, and, eventually, he can't take it anymore: he quits. He goes to HHH and Vince and says he's done, at least for a while. This, alongside a fan revolt in favor of Bryan, causes the WWE to change mania plans from batista winning to the daniel bryan thing. But that's an entirely different story. Now, most of the earlier stuff is generally agreed upon, and beyond this is from Punk. He never hears back from the WWE until 2 days before his wedding (with a former diva, April Mendez, known as AJ Lee, and one of the few non-dire parts of the women in WWE for years) when HHH wants to talk with him. Punk says he's busy, but will talk as soon as his honeymoon's over, since he's preparing for his wedding in 2 days. He gets fired on his wedding day. At some point, Punk sees a doctor and is diagnosed with Staph, and spends a while recovering. Flash forward a bit, and after the WWE refuses to actually pay him his paychecks, he gets fed up and does a tell-all interview/chat with his friend, Colt Cabana, on the latter's Art of Wrestling Podcast (pretty good podcast, fyi, he has lots of cool guests). This podcast rips the WWE a new rear end in a top hat. From limiting outside appearances (you don't want punk, you want sheamus!) to being passed over for part-timers, to being pressured to ignore his own medical health by vince, Punk spends like 3 hours over two podcasts explaining exactly why he left. Fans flip their poo poo, because Punk directly confirms basically every negative rumor about how the WWE is booked...including a little tidbit about being told to make Roman look strong (Punk, by the way, claims to have basically come up with the idea of the Shield. Who knows if it's true.) The relationship between Punk and the WWE is poisoned, the fans have had all their suspicions confirmed, and suddenly, even being tapped as the heir apparent to Cena is toxic beyond belief: while Roman Reigns' issues with getting over as a face come from many places, the animosity fans feel towards the WWE for treating Punk like poo poo (if he's to be believed) certainly contributed a bit. So yeah. Punk and the WWE hate one another and actually settled in Punk's favor regarding him not being paid, they're currently dealing with a defamation suit by the WWE's head doctor, Chris Amman, against Punk and Colt Cabana, and everyone comes out looking like poo poo, which is especially awful because of how utterly awesome Punk's rise to becoming a megastar was. Jen X fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Jun 23, 2016 |
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Jun 23, 2016 06:19
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GeneX posted:I mean, you could possibly make the case that everything with CM Punk from the Cena feud in 2011 on was the most important thing to happen to the WWE in the long term, but that's less about who's on top of the WWE and more about how fans perceive the company. It's also more of a stop-start thing, where you have most of the major stuff in 2011 and then flash forward to Punk's exit and podcast tell-all in 2014. Yeah, I probably should've included the Summer of Punk, but the followup to that MITB match was such a wet fart I'm not even sure how much it changed long-term. Punk got his record title reign afterwards, but he was forever marked as "the less important guy," with his title matches getting second billing behind whatever Cena was doing that month. MITB '11 was 5 years ago, so by now we should have a decent barometer to judge that angle in hindsight. I'm just curious to know how much it changed WWE, if at all.
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Jun 23, 2016 06:36
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RacistGuidingLight posted:Promote a big money match or have R Truth and Miz as main eventers. No issue promoting the WM28 match, sure, but having Cena beat both Miz and R Truth by himself on Raw before the Ppv anyway just killed them.
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Jun 23, 2016 07:43
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Benne posted:MITB '11 was 5 years ago, so by now we should have a decent barometer to judge that angle in hindsight. I'm just curious to know how much it changed WWE, if at all. At least a handful of people have said several times that without CM Punk (and Daniel Bryan) 3/4ths of the current roster would have never even come into WWE, let alone be main roster main event world title picture players. And considering that Bryan was a struggling mid to UM-card act tag-teaming with Kane and being left off Wrestlemania and losing his belt in 6 seconds to Shaemus up until around the arrival of The Shield, I'm inclined to think Punk did more.
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Jun 23, 2016 07:50
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I think Punk was important and should be noted as such, but I think the Shield will end up being moreso going forward. Punk led to the Shield, but the Shield are the future, and even WWE seems to be aware of this (albeit in their own, not particularly well-booked way).
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Jun 23, 2016 14:01
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Punk was the first indy guy to get the belt and not gently caress it up I'm looking at you, RVD!
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Jun 23, 2016 14:25
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Sanguinia posted:At least a handful of people have said several times that without CM Punk (and Daniel Bryan) 3/4ths of the current roster would have never even come into WWE, let alone be main roster main event world title picture players. Looking at FCW's roster when it was the main developmental territory is a good indication of how different the current WWE roster would look if Punk didn't open the door for all these indie guys and indie-influenced guys. As always, posting headshots from that era is more than welcome
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Jun 23, 2016 15:12
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Tokelau All Star posted:The first Shield match vs. Bryan-Kane-Ryback is one of my favorite all-time matches. In fact, I think I'll go watch it right now! WWE network: making dreams come true for 9.99.
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Jun 23, 2016 15:24
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Tokelau All Star posted:The first Shield match vs. Bryan-Kane-Ryback is one of my favorite all-time matches. In fact, I think I'll go watch it right now!
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Jun 23, 2016 15:40
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Jenny Angel posted:Looking at FCW's roster when it was the main developmental territory is a good indication of how different the current WWE roster would look if Punk didn't open the door for all these indie guys and indie-influenced guys. As always, posting headshots from that era is more than welcome  I love how even the better FCW photos look like the wrestling equivalent of made-in-Taiwan knockoffs of your favourite action figures.
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Jun 23, 2016 15:46
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That guy's shoulders are messing with me.
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Jun 23, 2016 16:09
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His trapazoids are as large as his shoulders...
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Jun 23, 2016 16:12
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Imagine an FCW Takeover main evented by Alex Riley vs Titus O'Neil.
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Jun 23, 2016 16:12
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Gavok posted:Triple H asked the Shield to let it go, but they refused and demanded a match against the Wyatts. With weeks of prime build where I don't believe either side actually physically clashed with the other, the first match happened at the Elimination Chamber PPV. That was a really excellent RAW, too - there was a Christian / Bryan match that was really fun and technical even though the crowd was bored by it, but it also had the Cena / Cesaro match that earned Cesaro a standing O backstage and kicked off his ill-fated face run through Wrestlemania. That match got more pops than the rest of the show combined.
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Jun 23, 2016 16:19
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Cesaro picked up Big Show and tossed hin out the ring like it was nothing, got a massive pop, and then turned heel and went on a losing streak with a manager who constantly reminded us about his much better client. 
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Jun 23, 2016 16:39
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Shine posted:Cesaro picked up Big Show and tossed hin out the ring like it was nothing, got a massive pop, and then turned heel and went on a losing streak with a manager who constantly reminded us about his much better client. Remember when I called that as Death-on-Arrival of his push IN the Post-Mania Raw Thread and nobody believed me because Heyman can do no wrong and Cesaro was too over to ruin? You should because I remind everyone when the subject comes up because I'm a very small petty person.
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Jun 23, 2016 19:04
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What are the origins of "Bork Lazer," "Shave Seltzer" and "Butt The Shitman Fart?" They make me laugh every time but I can't remember where they came from.
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Jun 23, 2016 22:51
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Benne posted:What are the origins of "Bork Lazer," "Shave Seltzer" and "Butt The Shitman Fart?" They make me laugh every time but I can't remember where they came from. Shave Seltzer was a derogatory nickname someone on TNA Mecca coined because they were mad that Meltz reported Spike TV was cancelling TNA. Another good one was Dogshit Meltzer Bork Lazer was, i think, what Brock was called on video hosting sites when their copyright algorithms were bad so people just came up with dumb soundalike nicknames for wrestlers iirc Butt "The Shitman" Fart began as just Bret Fart and was a sign a fan held up in the attitude era that has evolved overtime
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Jun 23, 2016 22:58
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On RAW years ago the closed-captioning transcriber got bored and started calling Goldberg "Smaffles" - that was always the funniest thing to me
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Jun 23, 2016 23:03
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oatgan posted:Bork Lazer was, i think, what Brock was called on video hosting sites when their copyright algorithms were bad so people just came up with dumb soundalike nicknames for wrestlers If I'm not mistaken it was one guy's video of Lesnar beating up Zach Gowen that kept getting taken down so he'd reup it with new slightly different titles each time. The video featured Gowen wearing green trunks so the title eventually became "Bork Laser beats up One Leg Green Man" or something like that.
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Jun 24, 2016 00:38
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Back when every wrestling video was a cheese soufflé.
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Jun 24, 2016 00:59
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I was so confused about the cheese soufflé thing when I was a kid and only right now do I know what it meant. A 10+ year old mystery, solved!
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Jun 24, 2016 02:19
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oatgan posted:Shave Seltzer was a derogatory nickname someone on TNA Mecca coined because they were mad that Meltz reported Spike TV was cancelling TNA. Another good one was Dogshit Meltzer I thought the "shitman" thing came from when his twitter handle was @RealBretSHart and he didn't know what a shart was
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Jun 24, 2016 03:15
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Platypus Farm posted:I thought the "shitman" thing came from when his twitter handle was @RealBretSHart and he didn't know what a shart was Austin cut a promo along the lines of "put an s in front of hitman and you've got my opinion of him"
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Jun 24, 2016 03:21
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:Back when every wrestling video was a cheese soufflé. I think I was the first person to upload a viral wrestling video to YouTube. I had the raw footage from the Smackdown taping where Mark Henry couldn't get the cage door opened to attack Batista. I uploaded the full 8-9 minute clip of him struggling, and the link got posted to PWInsider - within a day or so it got taken down for copyright reasons. But I remember it had something like 40,000 views before it disappeared.
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Jun 24, 2016 03:33
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shiksa posted:Austin cut a promo along the lines of "put an s in front of hitman and you've got my opinion of him" Oh drat, I had no idea! That's pretty great actually
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Jun 24, 2016 03:35
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Bret vs. Austin as a total package feud has yet to be topped even today.
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Jun 24, 2016 03:37
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:Bret vs. Austin as a total package feud has yet to be topped even today. It is being topped as we speak. 
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Jun 24, 2016 03:55
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MassRafTer posted:It is being topped as we speak. Tell me, when did you abandon reason for madness?
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Jun 24, 2016 04:05
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:Tell me, when did you abandon reason for madness? He's always been p consistent in not being a fan of Randy Savage.
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Jun 24, 2016 17:02
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Platypus Farm posted:his twitter handle was @RealBretSHart
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Jun 24, 2016 19:25
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I've got one: What is the deal with the frames in Botchamania? I remember the older ones were normal, but why did Maffew switch to playing the video on top of itself in the bottom right quarter of the screen. It's distracting as gently caress and makes the episodes drat near unwatchable.
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Jun 24, 2016 22:22
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St Evan Echoes posted:not gonna lie, i've been laughing for 2 minutes straight at this 
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Jun 24, 2016 22:22
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Devil Bird Thing posted:I've got one: What is the deal with the frames in Botchamania? I remember the older ones were normal, but why did Maffew switch to playing the video on top of itself in the bottom right quarter of the screen. It's distracting as gently caress and makes the episodes drat near unwatchable. Watch it on Vimeo or DailyMotion, the videos on Youtube are edited like that to circumvent copyright blocking.
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Jun 24, 2016 22:24
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TransatlanticFoe posted:Watch it on Vimeo or DailyMotion, the videos on Youtube are edited like that to circumvent copyright blocking. Oh, that makes total sense and I feel stupid for not figuring that one out. Thanks!
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Jun 24, 2016 22:27
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How did the "Roman's shameful back" thing get started? Was there an actual report about that, or was it just speculation based on him still wearing the vest?
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Jun 24, 2016 22:58
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yourdadsbestfriend posted:How did the "Roman's shameful back" thing get started? Was there an actual report about that, or was it just speculation based on him still wearing the vest? When Seth attacked him and broke up the Shield, he posted a pic of the damage to his back on his twitter.
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Jun 24, 2016 23:08
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Also the night before at Payback, HHH beat up Roman and ripped off his vest, and people had a good laugh at his toneless torso. He noticeably hasn't gone shirtless ever since then.
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Jun 24, 2016 23:43
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he also put back on the vest immediately after they won that match
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Jun 25, 2016 00:49
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