{"id":46059,"date":"2018-08-19T10:58:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-19T14:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=46059"},"modified":"2020-08-08T10:58:14","modified_gmt":"2020-08-08T14:58:14","slug":"being-unsatisfied-is-what-being-a-wrestling-fan-is-all-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=46059","title":{"rendered":"Being unsatisfied is what being a wrestling fan is all about"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Since I don\u2019t have cable television anymore, I can\u2019t watch RAW<\/em> or Smackdown<\/em> anymore.\u00a0 I keep up with storylines primarily by the convenient litany of condensed highlight packages that YouTube channels generate that have extremely short shelf lives before the WWE Internet Police™ gets them all taken down.\u00a0 But by the good graces of a close friend, I have WWE Network access, and I\u2019m still able to enjoy NXT on a weekly basis, as well as the monthly pay-per-view shows, that are the culmination of each month\u2019s storylines.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are lots of weekends where during the evenings, I find myself with a dearth of things to do, and I think to myself, \u201cman, I wish this were [name of WWE ppv] weekend.\u00a0 Now would be the best time to sit back and enjoy some wrestling.\u201d\u00a0 But because it isn\u2019t, I ultimately end up laying on the couch and playing Fire Emblem Heroes<\/em> on my phone, and wonder why it\u2019s suddenly 11 p.m. and that I should probably get ready to get some rest for work or a Sunday morning jog.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then there are weekends like this past one, where it was in fact, SummerSlam<\/em> weekend, where wrestling fans not only were privy to watching the annual SummerSlam, but by virtue of being a big show, also NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn 4<\/em>, on Saturday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

It goes without saying that fans like me look forward to the NXT show more than the main roster show, but frankly, there were reasons to be optimistic for SummerSlam as well.\u00a0 Smarks probably looked forward to matches like AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe, based on their history of solid matches in Ring of Honor and ironically, TNA, and the Seth Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler match seemed like a sleeper show stealer, since both guys are obsessed with trying to steal the show.\u00a0 Personally, I was looking forward to the Daniel Bryan vs. the Miz match, since it was clearly one of the storylines that has been slowly built for years, and could have been one of the more entertaining matches on the card.<\/span><\/p>\n

Smarks also probably bemoaned the presence of matches like Brock vs. Roman #68, Jeff Hardy vs. Shinsuke Nakamura because Jeff Hardy is old and busted now, and personally I didn\u2019t want to see the inevitable squashing of Alexa Bliss at the hands of Ronda Rousey.\u00a0 But maybe that one is just me.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Regardless, it should come as no surprise that SummerSlam ultimately underwhelmed, as a whole, and was easily outdone by the vastly superior TakeOver show the night prior.\u00a0 Not a single match on the SummerSlam card was remotely good as anything on the TakeOver lineup, and the general impressions that I got from SummerSlam was a creative strategy of punting on their #2 largest show of the year in order to try and attempt to build slow-burning feuds for the #1 show, Wrestlemania\u2026 which is still nearly eight months away.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But again, the main roster can\u2019t touch NXT\u2019s quality, where a nearly context-less match between Velveteen Dream and EC3 still outshines everything on the SummerSlam card, although I will say that NXT is in desperate need of some fresh baby faces, since Johnny Gargano jobbing in the main event for the 5th<\/sup> or 6th<\/sup> time in the last calendar year has gotten really tired, and fans like me are growing over it for so many build ups without any payout.<\/span><\/p>\n

Styles and Joe were completely handicapped by being a WWE match, ending in an eye-rolling DQ which keeps the feud going to where it will inevitably conclude in another month, maybe two, at a smaller show, instead of the #2 show of the year for some reason.\u00a0 Rollins and Ziggler had a pretty decent match, which may have been one of the better matches of the night, but that\u2019s not saying that much.\u00a0 The New Day and Bludgeon Brothers had a surprisingly good match, but had another disappointing DQ finish, leading to the feud to continue on television and likely concluding at a lesser show, which just makes me shake my head and question what the company is doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

And continuing the trend of building towards the future, the Miz and Daniel Bryan had a definitive finish, with the Miz cheating to win, but it\u2019s very abundantly clear that the program is far from over, and will likely burn all the way to Wrestlemania, to where the wives Maryse and Brie Bella will inevitably get involve, and probably be a mixed tag match in March\/April.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kevin Owens getting squashed made it crystal clear obvious that Braun Strowman was going to make an encore appearance, to which he did, stated he would challenge the winner of the Lesnar\/Roman match, but then didn\u2019t, when Lesnar wiped him out during the match, leading to yet another convoluted false ending.<\/span><\/p>\n

I will say though, SummerSlam wasn\u2019t without any good at all.\u00a0 Becky Lynch demolishing Charlotte Flair after the triple threat match for the Smackdown women\u2019s championship was the obvious high point of the entire show for me, and based on the reaction from the crowd, I can\u2019t say that I\u2019d be alone in thinking such.\u00a0 It was a little predictable, but still satisfying to say the least, to see the narrative of a hard-working superstar who earned her title opportunity, only for a friend to show up at the last minute, infiltrate her way into the match, and usurp the championship out from underneath.<\/span><\/p>\n

If creative plays their cards right, they\u2019ve got a great storyline with Becky Lynch drawing both the relation and sympathy of the crowd in spite of her turn to the dark side, boiled over her overachieving friend in Charlotte Flair who isn\u2019t necessarily a face or a heel, but still the antagonist to the frustrated Lynch.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t have to be black or white, because most fans tend to like things kind of gray, and this has a golden opportunity to be the de facto match of the night at Evolution<\/em> in October.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m ecstatic to see a Becky with an edge, because she\u2019s far too long been the squeaky-clean paragon of the women\u2019s division who\u2019s come up short time and time and time again for three years, and it\u2019s easy to understand the change in persona for those who have been watching as long.\u00a0 With Charlotte, she could very easily have some five-star matches that aren\u2019t just good for women\u2019s division standards, but straight-up outstanding wrestling matches that can steal shows outright, regardless of who else is on the card.<\/span><\/p>\n

But speaking of women, if I\u2019m a female wrestler in the WWE, I\u2019d be begging to be sent to Smackdown.\u00a0 Or get kept in NXT.\u00a0 Because with Ronda Rousey as the women\u2019s champion on RAW, that belt is going nowhere any time quickly, and women wrestlers\u2019 health is safer away from her.\u00a0 As accomplished of a UFC fighter she was, she\u2019s greener than baby shit in professional wrestling, and her combination of over-jacked intensity, how much she blabs in the ring, and her sheer lack of pro-wrestling experience is going to get someone hurt, really soon.\u00a0 I felt bad for Alexa Bliss who not only got utterly squashed by Rousey, but she actually looks like she had her arm ripped out of its socket a few times, before being tapped out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Especially with the supposed departure of Brock Lesnar, Rousey is the new key to WWE continuing to get mainstream exposure, and the WWE machine is going to eat that shit up as long as it\u2019s going to continue being spoon fed to them.\u00a0 Save for larger women like Nia Jax or Tamina Snuka, or anyone in her MMA posse like Shayna Baszler or Jessamyn Duke, nobody in the women\u2019s division remotely looks like a competitor to Rousey, not that creative is going to really give anyone a convincing chance as long as she holds the belt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bottom line is, I do not feel that Ronda Rousey is not good for business.\u00a0 Angry Becky Lynch however, is.\u00a0 But constantly punting the present to perpetually be preparing for next Wrestlemania is not, and I wish the WWE would occasionally let some feuds end without constantly promising to see us on thenextepisodeofnitro<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I don\u2019t have cable television anymore, I can\u2019t watch RAW or Smackdown anymore.\u00a0 I keep up with storylines primarily by the convenient litany of condensed highlight packages that YouTube channels generate that have extremely short shelf lives before the WWE Internet Police™ gets them all taken down.\u00a0 But by the good graces of a … Continue reading Being unsatisfied is what being a wrestling fan is all about<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[83,54,55],"class_list":["post-46059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-observations","tag-wrestling","tag-wwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46061,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46059\/revisions\/46061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}