fullMETAL

I'm referring to (I think), Punk's solo run as heel champ, minus the SES. In any case, Punk was fine with the promoing, Swagger was boring.

So, in the almost 100% certain event that what you're saying is accurate enough about heel champ Jericho and heel champ Punk promoing in 2009/2010-ish, that would mean that the writers ganked their style and then copied it for Swagger to use, which actually makes even MORE sense and indemnifies the writers even more for not working to fit the promoing to Swagger rather than vice versa.

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="The Final Countdown" data-cite="The Final Countdown" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I wouldn't blame the writers for that.</div></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="K-Nection" data-cite="K-Nection" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Yea it is more Vince than anything...</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Fair point (I didn't mention Vince, though I'd figured we were all already aware of "Vince has final say" by now), though even if you take the Vince Approval out of the equation, it feels like the writers haven't been working enough with the wrestlers they're writing for to find the right voice for them.</p><p> </p><p> I would probably compare the WWE writers' room (ESPECIALLY Raw's) with the one from Saturday Night Live, because there are a fair amount of parallels (in an ideal world, anyways).</p><p> With SNL, they've got to write a 90-minute show every week, within a week -- even taking out the musical guests, they've still got to write enough material for the sketches, the monologue, and Weekend Update, so that after cuts, the show will still fit the runtime.</p><p> Generally, after all the writers together do their round-table pitching, they break off into groups, usually with the cast members they're writing with/for, to try and figure out how to make those pitches work, and to tailor them specifically to the cast involved (and usually the host), and *usually*, you can see that effort, that one specific detail of the writers and cast members working in tandem, in the final products on the sketches.</p><p> Like, when you see a Kate McKinnon part of a sketch, you can tell that Kate's actions there were tailored for Kate's style specifically-- take her Kellyanne Conway portrayal; if you had Vanessa Bayer playing her, her portrayal would be wildly different, even if some commonalities might be found.</p><p> This past Saturday had a "behind the scenes" style sketch where Leslie Jones decided "if Melissa McCarthy could play Sean Spicer, maybe I could play Trump" and then practiced Trump stuff before going to Lorne (with Vanessa trying to psyche her out beforehand), getting shot down, then seeing Vanessa going in as Trump and doing a Trump thing before going in.</p><p> Leslie's Trump-isms were portrayed noticeably differently from Vanessa's Trump-isms, and you could tell that was due in part to the non-Leslie-and-Vanessa writers of that sketch working with them to find the right way to accommodate their specific styles.</p><p> </p><p> With the WWE writers, it's been made known previously that guys like Cena, Ambrose, Wyatt, so forth, generally get to come up with their own stuff and actually work with the writers to get the talking points down and tailor it to their style, but the other guys generally get stuck with a generic mess -- the most notorious example being the almost-exactly-the-same way that heel Jericho, Swagger, and Punk promoed at almost the same time when each of them had the World Heavyweight Title, with the same super serious, practically boring style.</p><p> Another example being the ("fella" parts notwithstanding) pretty similar scripting of promos for Roman recently and Sheamus not even that long ago.</p><p> Sure, Vince has the final say, but the writers still, in the end, are ending up writing what gets said, and what gets said, for the most part, winds up uninteresting unless they work specifically with the guys who are supposed to be delivering these words to find a way for their unique voice to come through. And not suffering from "Jericho-Swagger-Punk Syndrome".</p>

If I can quickly go back to the whole idea of "do it better", if I can be perfectly candid about it, I would actually keep about 2/3rds of the current WWE match and angle booking roughly the same as it is/was, but I'd completely gut and replace the writer's room, because THAT'S where the REAL problems lie.

<p>I very much agree with your "you think you can do it better? then DO it better" sentiments (it's why WCPW exists, after all!), and I'd like to address one of your points (the Older Guys Versus Younger Guys one) as well as throw in my 2 cents on 1 or 2 others.</p><p> </p><p> It makes sense for people to want the older established guys, since those are the guys they grew up with, know best, and would have the most nostalgia for, but regardless of how people are split on that, it's a universal truth that the old guys NEED to help build the younger guys (even if not all of us WANT that).</p><p> </p><p> In my own personal "stopped watching" thing, the only reason I only barely keep up with WWE at this point is because they took SmackDown off network TV in 2011 and made it cable-only (I don't have cable because I'm dirt poor), otherwise I'd at least be reasonably aware (through recaps) of what's going on company-wide.</p><p> </p><p> I do try to make a point to watch the NXT TakeOver events, some WWE PPVs with specific matches, and a couple of the big NJPW shows (Wrestle Kingdom, and a couple of the other shows if there's some big thing that happens, like the Team 2000 reunion and Suzuki-Gun return at New Year's Dash!! the night after this year's WK).</p><p> </p><p> WWE-wise, while I started out as a staunch Hogan-and-Warrior mark, I eventually evolved into a Savage fan, then a Bret fan, then a Hardyz-and-Lita fan, then singles-face Edge, then Angle-and-early-Cena (it was around here where I started to truly appreciate heel work and started to be a fan of heels as well as faces), Hurricane, and it was about plateaued until the indy darlings started to debut and I evolved into appreciating Punk, Bryan, and Wade Barrett (when I watched NXT Season 1, I immediately figured Wade would be a main-event star, except he became injury-prone <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/frown.png.e6b571745a30fe6a6f2e918994141a47.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /> ), Miz when he won the WWE Title, then October 2011 happened and I lost touch with WWE except through online results and the occasional YouTube and DailyMotion match clip.</p><p> At this point, I'm mainly a fan of good matches (NXT does a TON of those, so I'm certainly not left wanting there) and seeing entertaining promos--Y2KO stuff, Punk's pipebombs a few years back, when Cena really puts his all into one (like when he and Rock were promoing against each other for their WM matches), Miz's recent super-passionate anti-Bryan stuff (also hearkening back to his promos as WWE Champion).</p><p> </p><p> In terms of "boo overpushed Cena", I felt that way somewhere about late 2006 when it was becoming clear that he would get title matches and reigns for essentially no reason other than "Cena wins lol" (whereas we all felt his first few belts came about because he was a good in-ring guy with great charisma on the mic) and they'd stifle his in-ring work to the 5 Moves Of Doom.</p><p> While I eventually softened on any anti-Cena sentiment after seeing he could still put on great matches with people if the higher-ups just LET him, I was still a bit annoyed that while he's still good on the mic, the material is/was/whatever basically the same ol' lines.</p><p> That's (in my <em>opinion</em>) the main cause of a lot of lingering anti-Cena stuff--the feeling of "we KNOW you're better than THIS because we've SEEN it when you did THAT, so why are you still doing THIS instead of THAT?"--since it wasn't until the Rumble when they put the WWE belt back on John for the first time in a few years and the "Cena's champion again, lol" faded into the periphery.</p><p> </p><p> In my own experience of "you can book it better? then do it", I certainly have made my own efforts in TEW/EWR and the couple of times I was in charge of running somebody else's efed, and I've made my own mistakes along the way, and the roads were bumpy, but other than backstage politics (there always is) in the efeds, I think I did a reasonably positive job in my efforts, and next time I start a TEW game, I'm gonna try to see if I can shake off my ring rust and do that again every so often (though I probably wouldn't be able to do a diary, due to various scheduling conflicts).</p><p> </p><p> This was a lot longer than I'd thought it'd be. <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p>

<p>The difference between building up Slater and building up Zayn though, is that post-split SmackDown in 2016-2017, much like post-split SmackDown from 2002-2005, is in an experimental phase (a bit like "let's throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks", but a slightly smarter version) and has a bit more leeway than Raw (still considered the A show no matter what) to try new things and see what moves the needle THERE.</p><p> </p><p> The live crowds for both shows might possibly be similar, but the SmackDown crowds know that SD is in that period and are being more receptive to new guys being built.</p><p> "Free Agent Heath Slater" would NEVER have lasted as long as it did and gotten as over as it did if he'd been on Raw dealing with Stephanie (who's relying on the older hands and the guys she and Hunter personally built up) rather than SmackDown dealing with Shane and Bryan (who are willing to give the 'underdogs' a chance); in fact, I think Zayn needs to be traded TO SmackDown so that they can give him a GOOD build-up and prove to Steph and Vince that the desired reaction for him IS there and that he can be trusted (barring injuries, of course) to put a main-show belt on.</p><p> </p><p> I happen to think that Cena being drafted to SmackDown was a sorely-needed breath of fresh air for his stale gimmick, and I personally think his matches with AJ (where he got to once again finally demonstrate that he's actually more than 5 moves) did wonders in getting him back over with the usually anti-Cena crowds.</p><p> </p><p> If AJ had been on Raw, sure he probably would've won the Universal Title by now, but we all know that, despite their efforts to push it like the WHC back in the first brand split, it wouldn't have had the same impact as Styles winning the actual nominal WWE (WHC) Championship.</p><p> </p><p> I probably have a few other opinions, but my head is fuzzy right now with the sniffles.</p>

<p>Television writers who only have a superficial understanding of the competitive gaming community (and its sub-communities), naturally.</p><p> </p><p> The episode, as with most episodes of Bull, was really more about the case rather than Titanfall 2 itself (which was really more of an unconventional framing device).</p><p> </p><p> The part about betting against the team and the teammate taking a dive to ensure his bet would've been more believable if it had been like some rich oil-baron foreign prince or something instead of some regular-ass white guy.</p>

<p>WWE 2k17 hit PC yesterday or so, so be sure to tune up dat graphics card before getting it to make sure it runs smoothly.</p><p> According to Itachi (he's got some fantastic CAWs of Japanese guys) putting up a benchmark video on his YT channel, it's supposed to be locked at 60fps, so that's something to look forward to for both playing and recording for you gfx powerhouses out there. <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p>

<p>So last night, the show "Bull" (loosely based on Dr.Phil's pre-Oprah life as a Jury Consultant) had an episode centered around Titanfall 2 competition; the "best Titanfall 2 player in the world" was the focal character of that episode (centered around a defamation lawsuit after his team, DV8, loses the $3million World Championship and he's fired and blackballed) and his effing name was "Jace Rundle".</p><p> </p><p> THERE IS NO G-D WAY THAT THE BEST *ANYTHING* PLAYER IN THE WORLD WOULD BE NAMED "Jace Rundle". D:<</p><p> </p><p> Other than that, I thought that that show, in a STARK contrast to basically every OTHER show that covers e-sports, actually made an effort that episode to go at least a little deeper, beyond old fogies going "oh these kids are being paid to play video games, what has the human race come to?"</p><p> </p><p> (spoiler: Jace's screw-up and the team's subsequent loss was actually a result of early-onset Parkinson's, and it was actually his teammate who took a dive due to making a $500k bet against DV8 through shell companies--the odds against them were 25-1, so HUGE payday there)</p><p> </p><p> BUT I CAN'T STOP SEETHING AT HIS NAME BEING "Jace Rundle". D:<</p>

So this new show premiered on Fox last night, "APB" -- basically, if Tony Stark funded the police instead of making an Iron Man suit for himself. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5542294/ I'm cautiously optimistic about it. I like the premise, each cast member's character is easily identifiable (obviously, if the show goes long enough, they'll hopefully become much more fleshed out), Ernie Hudson, and gadgets~!

<p>Saw NJPW New Year's Dash!! a couple nights ago, and I was glad I did.</p><p> It reminded me a lot (for some reason) of the April 1999 pilot episode of WWF SmackDown! in a good way.</p>

I heard Heyman's "Yeah, but" promo on Raw was really good, anybody have a link to the full segment?

Somebody pointed out that KANE, of all people, was NOT in this Rumble.

<p>I've always been confused about the Moves section.</p><p> Is that a section ONLY for Finishers and Signatures, or is it used for ANY move?</p>

<p>I miss EA from the 90s.</p><p> </p><p> In my opinion Madden '95 (the GENESIS version, foo'! yes, I played both the Genesis and SNES versions, and the Genesis one just had something the SNES one seemed to be missing) was and is perhaps the best and most fun (hey, remember when football games were FUN?) American Football game OF ALL TIME.</p>

According to the Steam page for WWE 2k17 PC, the tentative release date will be February 7th. Meanwhile, DLC is still currently being released for the console versions, which has me worried about the possibility that the PC version will probably need 2 or 3 GIANT patches to fix any bugs because the gap between the final DLC and the PC release is MUCH shorter than last year's gap. Unless they're still going to make MORE DLC even AFTER the PC version is released, which will mean MORE bugfix patches.

Still gonna be Kelly/Corino unless otherwise specified, I assume?

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but that's a funny idea and I wouldn't complain if that's what you ran with. <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

<p>The only financial goings-on that I would assume did happen to NJPW would be the near-constant changing of official owners over the course of, what, 6 or 7 years?</p><p> (though I think that did also happen to AJPW, right?)</p>

Quick suggestion, can you put some kind of punctuation between the names of the people (a comma, a slash, one of these |, a hyphen, ANYTHING) so that we can better tell who's who?

<p>I've been dealing with depression myself for a long time, basically it started at 8, I was diagnosed for the first time around 13, and 4 years ago had bi-polar II tacked on to it.</p><p> </p><p> My current medications currently manage mostly well most of the time, but I still have down days.</p>

<p>Reading that sentence just now suddenly made that "6 stars" rating make a whole lot more sense to me!</p><p> </p><p> While I agree that Okadamega was essentially a perfect match, I probably had the same nitpicks about the Dragon Superplex and the Back Body Drop table spots (the former in hindsight, the latter at about the same time it happened).</p><p> You could've either sold the 'plex stomach-first (instead of neck-first) and nobody would've complained, or done a different and safer move and still nobody would've complained. Meltzer and Alvarez are probably right when they say that Okada's going to point to that bump when he eventually goes in for more neck surgery in the future.</p><p> Meltzer pointed out something I missed in the table spot, about Omega almost being impaled by the SIDE of the table (and also the elevated ringside area not being conducive to spots like those), though my cringe was when he OBLITERATED the wooden part but his neck hit the FRAME, which you can see if you pause it during the instant replay.</p><p> </p><p> Meanwhile, I like Yano (for his comedy factor, which belies a solid technical base that rarely gets to be seen), but holy christ on a cracker was he a dirty rotten cheatin'-'n'-thievin' son of a bitch last week!</p><p> </p><p> I think my favorite non-Okadamega match of WK11 was actually a tie between Shibata/Goto and Takahashi/Kushida, for different reasons.</p><p> With Shibata/Goto, Kelly said that this was their SEVENTH match against each other, with a 2-2-2 split between them (and the 2 draws being double knockouts), which actually got me MORE pumped for it, after seeing their stellar match from back at WK8.</p><p> It was clear from the get that Shibata, while still fighting like he meant it, looked like he didn't give a shit about fighting to WIN but rather fighting to force Goto to wake the **** up, which actually made me mark out when he finally DID!</p><p> It wasn't a PPV headlining match by any stretch of the imagination, but as a visual story being told through wrestling, it was practically second-to-none.</p><p> I've mentioned elsewhere: "THAT is how you tell a dramatic story in a match and I think their total of 7 (WOW!) matches is must-see for any wrestling fan or wrestler to learn about proper continuity and in-ring storytelling."</p><p> </p><p> And more succinctly with the Jr.Heavy match, I didn't know who Takahashi was before this match against Kushida, but WOW I will certainly pay attention whenever I see a match of his now!</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> This was the entirety of my post about WK11 elsewhere:</p><p> </p><p> <span style="font-size:8px;">Watched WK11 last night (English commentary, because...winkwinknudgenudge) and HOLY SHIT what a fantastic show.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> 1 - I was a bit disappointed that the pre-show Rumble didn't have more people in it (seriously, there was like twice as many people in last year's or something). I DID legitimately mark out when Liger's ACTUAL theme played and NOT a dubbed theme like in last year's. Also, nWo Japan mini-reunion!</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> 2 - I liked the Jr.Tag Title match, and I REALLY liked that instead of a 4-way cluster**** that it was a straight-up 2-on-2 match, though I wondered why it was the 3rd (4th?) year in a row that the Jr.Tag Title match to open the show had the Bucks AND Vice. Last year's 4-way had them, and the 4-way from the year before (and possibly the year before that? I don't quite remember).</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> 3 - Brian Zane was right about the crowd not being too vocal for the Tiger Mask match, though they did kinda need a breather after the Tag match before it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> 4 - Gauntlet Match for the Never Openweight 6-Man belts? MORE of that please. </span><img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/biggrin.png.929299b4c121f473b0026f3d6e74d189.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /><span style="font-size:8px;"> (Disappointed that Kojima's theme got dubbed over though) Also, JEEZUS those chicks that came out with Bullet Club! </span><img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/redface.png.900245280682ef18c5d82399a93c5827.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> 5 - Cody/Juice was actually pretty good (and it made Juice look REALLY good, like the Tye Dillinger/Bobby Rude match from TakeOver a few months ago did for Tye), though I'll be honest, that Bullet Club thing came from left field for me--here's hoping Cody does more in it than Jeff Jarrett did (sheesh, smh on that one).</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> 6 - I STILL don't care about Adam Cole (I don't think he's a bad wrestler, I just don't see the "why" behind him). Plus, his face reminds me of a cross between Tom Cruise and Ross from Game Grumps. On a related note, I think probably the easiest thing for a wrestler to do gear-wise is to join the Bullet Club, that way you don't have to wrack your brain trying to design your trunks/tights.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> 7 - Toru ****ING Yano is dirty liar, cheater, and thief! XD lol I will never stop chuckling whenever he shrugs.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> </span><span>http://www.pwponderings.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/yano.png</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> Also, WOW that was a lot of cursing. XD</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> 8 - I didn't know who Takahashi was before his match against Kushida, but WOW I will certainly pay attention whenever I see a match of his now.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> 9 - It took FOREVER but I think Goto's finally going to get a real push. Did you see how Shibata just didn't give a shit most of the match (he was still punishing him, yeah, but there wasn't any emotion behind it) until he got Goto to finally wake up? THAT is how you tell a dramatic story in a match and I think their total of 7 (WOW!) matches is must-see for any wrestling fan or wrestler to learn about proper continuity and in-ring storytelling.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> 10 - I think this is going to be Naito's year for the IC division. And Corino FINALLY got the name right! (I think he was faking the whole show and waited until that moment to say it right...LOS INGOBERNAAAAABLEEESSSSSSS DE JAPON!!!!) It's pronounced "Des-TEE-noh" though, not "DES-tih-noh", but that's just a nitpick.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> 11 - While I agree that Okadamega was essentially a PERFECT match (5 stars, even!) and easily a frontrunner for Match Of The Year, I wouldn't go so far as to put it at 6 stars. XD</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> But goddamn, I was anticipating EVERY. SINGLE. ATTEMPT. at the One-Winged Angel. XD</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:8px;"> I do wish I'd been able to watch it with the Japanese commentary though, especially at the end when Corino and Kelly signed off and the JP team were still talking about stuff with almost total silence on the audio.</span></p>

2 things. 1) I think it would be AWESOME and HILIARIOUS if at some point Ambrose put on a bad dark wig (with badly painted blond streak) and fake beard and pretended to be Rollins for a promo. Anybody else think that too? 2) For those of you with the WWE Network, there's apparently a short 3-and-a-half minute featurette about "Creating the new WWE World Heavyweight Championship". If possible, could anybody who watches it on computer or tablet screencap the plates' design proofs at about 50-55sec, 1:16, 1:32, 1:38, and 1:50? Somebody recorded it with their camera so I've provided caps of the specific frames from THAT below, in the hopes that one of you who can cap it directly from the video (or even the actual video itself at 720p or 1080p) can provide better shots. http://imgur.com/a/FMtrG

WHY do the Briscoes INSIST on looking like homeless HOBOS?? SERIOUSLY!

Actually, Joker IS in fact officially planned for a future season, probably *after* the season with Two-Face (who is also planned).