The Official WWE / NXT Discussion Thread *May Contain Spoilers*

[Johnny Fenoli]

Just watched Smackdown...... and I have a new favorite wrestler!

 

VIVA ALBERTO DEL RIO!!!!

[ampulator]

You know, Matt Strikers was making doing a lot of dog whistles on who Alberto Del Rio really was.

 

And it seems the WWE really gimped their match. I was hoping for a Lucha Style match.

[Stennick]

was making doing a lot of dog whistles

 

I'm sorry but I read this a few times and don't understand what your saying. "was making doing a lot of dog whistles" ?

[ampulator]

I mean Matt Striker was making a lot of references to Alberto Del Rio's real history, but in a way that only Smart Marks, could understand.

[Stennick]

I figured thats what you meant but the "making doing" thing threw me off.

 

I'm not a fan of that anyway. I figure if you're telling smart marks who a guy is and only telling them who he is then I'm sure they already know who the guy is. I didn't watch the segment but I'm never a fan of pandering to a small group of people no matter how much or little it is.

[Self]

Watched the Alberto Del Rio match. Good debut, but he's a bit too JBL2.0 for my liking. He's got the car. He's rich. He's got the towel around his shoulders. I dig the ring announcer, but Del Rio isn't doing much for me yet.

[The Shape]

Watched the Alberto Del Rio match. Good debut, but he's a bit too JBL2.0 for my liking. He's got the car. He's rich. He's got the towel around his shoulders. I dig the ring announcer, but Del Rio isn't doing much for me yet.

 

Yeah that's what hit me when I saw the promo. Still, he's Mexican, which is something different enough for my liking. Great debut, the best there's been in a while really in terms of instantly putting someone over. People moaned about the vignettes but they sure are an effective way of building someone before putting them on screen.

[FlameSnoopy]

Watched the Alberto Del Rio match. Good debut, but he's a bit too JBL2.0 for my liking. He's got the car. He's rich. He's got the towel around his shoulders. I dig the ring announcer, but Del Rio isn't doing much for me yet.

 

Del Rio is of royal blood. JBL isn't

[b0shey]

Just watched Smackdown and i have to say I'm liking Alberto Del Rio, he could really grow to become my favorit wrestler on Smackdown.

[Jaysin]

Alberto needs new ring attire. It looked way to bland. I'd rather see him have a lucha style match with Rey or have him face someone his own size. I love his mic work, but that match was awkward as hell.

 

Kane's promo was amazing though. Here's hoping they keep building Kane's momentum and have him go over Taker in their first meeting.

[James Casey]

I think I'm the only one who sees nothing in Del Rio. It's X-Pac heat for me - I'm so astonishingly bored of Del Rio, that unless they have Big Show doing those huge slaps of his on the guy next week I think I'm a lot more likely to turn the channel then watch.

 

As for his outfit.... It looks like he goes to Cody Rhodes' tailor. Not a good look at all.

[The Shape]

As for his outfit.... It looks like he goes to Cody Rhodes' tailor. Not a good look at all.

 

Don't tell me he wasn't wearing kneepads?! I only fleetingly saw the match and once I notice something like that a la Cody, or Randy's loss of wristbands, it makes them unwatchable

[The Final Countdown]

I think I'm the only one who sees nothing in Del Rio. It's X-Pac heat for me - I'm so astonishingly bored of Del Rio, that unless they have Big Show doing those huge slaps of his on the guy next week I think I'm a lot more likely to turn the channel then watch.

You're not the only one; I'm right there with you. Depending on whether I was watching the show as it was happening or off of my DVR, I either changed the channel or fast forwarded past his last several vignettes. His promo & match last night did nothing to change my mind.

[benjacko]

Shows how opinion can be so different, I personally like Del Rio, looks to have big potential to me. Loved his own personal announcer too.

[LoNdOn]

For me Del Rio has potential but needs to change a couple of things to make me care more.

 

1) Pea**** the attire out a little bit. What he wore for his match on Smackdown made me fall asleep instantly.

 

2) Add more facial expressions to the arsenal. Right now he just has the "I just farted in a lift and only I know it was me that did it" look.

[benjacko]

Forgot to add that his finisher did look impressive, nice to see a submission being used for once.

[James Casey]

Don't tell me he wasn't wearing kneepads?! I only fleetingly saw the match and once I notice something like that a la Cody, or Randy's loss of wristbands, it makes them unwatchable

 

It's more the granny trunks he's wearing - some guys they just don't suit. I know what you mean, though. The Legacy match at WM was spoilt for me as I kept looking at Cody and going "It's the biggest match of your career - maybe your life, ever. And you're wearing brown trunks."

 

However, I did notice when I was flicking through his gallery on wwe.com earlier that he seemed to wear kneepads that fell down, just like Cody...

 

Oh, and a funny slip on WWE's part from earlier today (fixed now):

 

http://i34.tinypic.com/vczae8.jpg

 

EDIT: I'll say this for him, though - I really like his music.

[Teh_Showtime]

Was that Joey Styles?

 

Hilarious mess up and good look into the future but seems like bad news for Punk

[SaySo]

Alberto Del Rio beat the former two-time World Heavyweight Champion and Masked Legend Rey Mysterio via submission (It took Mysterio less than 6 seconds to tap for the SmackDown's no.1 fan favorite). He didn't even need outside interference or the typical cheating that you see with the no-good Americans.

 

I'm a fun of his (since i love the heelish JBL and this guy should be more entertaining to watch in the ring) and it appears WWE management sees something with him (the same company that saw something in The Rock back in their down periods). He's already have a amateur background. He is a freaking gold medalist (Pan Am Games lol) and is 9-5 in MMA fights. He even has a crown on his name logo, so consider him 2010 King of the Ring. Who needs tournament. He bought the honor and put it on his name logo. And even if they had a tournament, he's damn good and will take it.

 

And what a perfect honor that Alberto Del Rio will take Rey Mysterio spot as the Latin Great One.

 

Matt Hardy and Christian, better watch out....because Del Rio is coming for you. Dream Match, Alberto Del Rio making John Cena tap out at WrestleMania 29 in Mexico City, book it Vince!

[ampulator]

I think I'm the only one who sees nothing in Del Rio. It's X-Pac heat for me - I'm so astonishingly bored of Del Rio, that unless they have Big Show doing those huge slaps of his on the guy next week I think I'm a lot more likely to turn the channel then watch.

 

As for his outfit.... It looks like he goes to Cody Rhodes' tailor. Not a good look at all.

you need to see his Lucha LIbre work.

[joehelmer]

I also liked Del Rio's debut, he seems to have potential to become a future main eventer.

 

Yes, I thought this before I saw the slip from wwe.com.

[Moe Hunter]

So I finally watched a full Smackdown for the first time since Taker ruined CM Punk's title reign. Kane proved that even if he wasn't a giant monster type guy, he could have easily gotten over as a promo guy (which I already figured having seen him give a Libertarian speech a while ago). Just dynamite.

 

Rey has never impressed me on the mic, and partly by association that made me less than impressed by Del Rio. Awful script for their interaction, so bland. By the way, would the crowd EVER put up with two Japanese workers using as much Japanese in their promo as these two did with Spanish? Very cold start to the show for me.

 

CM Punk's latest look is awesome! Short cropped hair and the pointy beard - he's gone from looking like Jesus to looking like Satan. Very cool. Mercury doesn't seem nearly as dopey live as he did in some of the photos I'd seen previously.

 

Can someone fill me in what they mean (not from this show, but previously) when they say Sarena "fell off the wagon"? I know what the expression means, but are they saying she was a total addict before? How deep was her addiction, and to what, and how much of a setback did she take? If it was just that she was a casual drinker, and had one drink so can't be called "Straight Edge", it's not exactly serious.

 

Overall a pretty slow show, really.

[James Casey]

I'm not sure, but I imagine SD was taped in the south-west last week to benefit from a strong Spanish-speaking audience predisposed to react to Rey and del Rio appropriately. Similarly, Yoshi Tatsu was in the main event for WWE in Japan last week.

 

Serena went on a drinking binge one night a few months back. The video was used to clear Punk of Undertaker's attack, as it was the same night. They haven't got into how addicted she was, but I believe the implication is that she was a casual drinker who's fallen under Punk's sway more than anything else. Her drinking wasn't so much a 'risking being a drunk again' as 'going against Punk's ideals' - obviously a major no-no for any SES member. Being Straight Edge means no alcohol (or drugs) so even a sip of alcohol would have been cause for the SES to boot her out, so it's serious enough as far as they're concerned. Punk kept her on, and since then there's been tension between the various members.

[lazorbeak]

Rey has never impressed me on the mic, and partly by association that made me less than impressed by Del Rio. Awful script for their interaction, so bland. By the way, would the crowd EVER put up with two Japanese workers using as much Japanese in their promo as these two did with Spanish? Very cold start to the show for me.

 

I'm not sure, but I imagine SD was taped in the south-west last week to benefit from a strong Spanish-speaking audience predisposed to react to Rey and del Rio appropriately. Similarly, Yoshi Tatsu was in the main event for WWE in Japan last week.

 

I'm confused why this surprises Moe Hunter, hasn't the Latin Smackdown audience been pretty well-known since forever? And they taped in Bakersfield, California, 100 miles north of LA.

 

Also some baffling criticism earlier in this thread based on somebody's debut show: how on earth could anyone justify "X-Pac heat" towards a guy based on one appearance? I just don't get that sort of thinking at all.

 

 

Just watched Smackdown. My thoughts:

 

Del Rio is going to be a huge deal. I like the size and the look a lot, I like that he's using a submission finisher, in keeping with his MMA career. Don't like the name much, and I wish there was more references to his family history beyond being a descendant of Ferdinand and Isabella. His mic skills aren't great, but that's why he's on Smackdown, where nobody except Punk is particularly great on the mic. It's the ring-work focused show, and his ring-work should be solid.

 

Gotta love the 5 minute memory of the WWE: "we've never had a diva like Serena before!" Yes, you've never had a girl with a regular body type and a shaved head before. That said I'm a fan of Serena so good to see her join the active roster. Why was Kelly Kelly sent to Smackdown when the Raw women's division is so horrific? Kelly's not great but she's acrobatic and can be carried to a good match, as long as she's not in there with someone greener than she is.

 

Didn't care for Kane's promo at all. Kane just sort of goes up there and gives a history lesson and talks about how all those times in the past decade he was Taker's partner was all part of a decade long plot to beat his brother. I didn't love the structure or the presentation: it fell flat as a piece because the crowd wasn't involved at all. In the old days this would've been a segment where Jim Ross would conduct an interview with Kane either in the ring or backstage. It would've flowed better and seemed less like Kane rambling, and would've given the audience a chance to get into it, since it would create natural pauses for the fans to boo. This was just really flat and seemed pretty heavily edited.

 

Speaking of things I don't care for: MVP as a babyface. He's just awful. "How's your dad's diarrhea" is a terrible line, but his delivery of the line was even worse. Kind of sucks for Swagger that he's this far down the pecking order so soon after being champ.

 

I'm liking the Christian/Matt vs. McIntyre/Rhodes set-up they're doing. Smarks may not like Cody or Drew, but they're young and have a good look going into the future, and they get experience dealing with solid hands like Christian and Matt who are, let's face it, never going to be main eventers. The only thing that sucks is WWE doesn't have enough PPV time to advance the storyline for guys at this level, so nobody tends to get elevated. In the old days they could work this feud over a month or two and end it on PPV in what would basically be a filler match between midcarders, but they don't even have time for that because filler matches seem to belong to the divas or the tag team champions.

[James Casey]

Also some baffling criticism earlier in this thread based on somebody's debut show: how on earth could anyone justify "X-Pac heat" towards a guy based on one appearance? I just don't get that sort of thinking at all.

 

Thayt'd be me, and the simple response is that it was his debut show, but it seems like the videos hyping him have been running since Wrestlemania.

 

A guy shows up and tells you how superior he is, fine. Prove it.

 

By the third week, you're curious enough to want to see him get out there and get his backside handed to him in his hat.

 

By the tenth week - and sometimes the videos were shown twice a show - it's X-Pac heat. Short of being in that rarefied Flair/Hogan/Rock club where they can knock you sideways with the slightest movement, there was no way Del Rio could overcome the ennui I felt towards him on Friday.