Rolling 2013 Moustache Thread

tag title match was fun enough. what's bryan's gimmick besides guy with big beard?

Fandango = comedy wrestling stereotype

dancer who's now also a wrestler for some reason is a nice early 90s atavism, better times.

^ otm

seems unusually progressive of wwe to have an anti-immigration heel.

I just started watching and it's goddamn Del Rio. Ugh.

Punk didn't quite get the needed distance for that elbow to the announce table. I grimaced when they showed the other angle on replay.

yeah I winced

good match tho

Brock's "MWAAHAAAH!" duck scream made me laugh.

it was super lol

Even with three quality announcers, Rock v. Cena II is dead air. 80,000 bored fans waiting for one of them to not kick out.

planet earth is a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the only two creatures living are the rock and john cena, reversing each others finishers over and over into eternity.

Rock/Cens was sooooo boring. Punk/Undertaker should have been the main event

Cena

i stopped watching wrestling not long after he first emerged, but i get the impression that cena is shit and boring and has always been shit and boring. t/f? his ten years at the top seems completely inexplicable.

he is charismatic somewhat but def, def a boring wrestler

there's vague hints that he could turn heel, i dunno how likely that is though. i would start watching Raw again if that happened. but he's a *total* snooze as he is right now

Cena's a great wrestler and has had countless classic matches, but for anyone over the age of ten it's almost impossible to get invested in the character.

I liked Mania a lot more than most people seemed to, but it still amazes me that they have to rush through and cut matches on a four hour show.

Punk-Taker def stole the show, Rock-Cena was really good for what it was (a throwback to the Austin-Rock WM matches) and a lot better than last year's match. Nothing else really stood out but nothing was bad either.

The crowd sounded dead for most of the night though, I read that the cold was a factor and there were a lot of seats with obstructed views (which was my first reaction when I saw the set).

Yeah I always find it problematic when the crowd isn't making much noise for the rasslin. Crowd going berserk for every little thing kinda validates it, I think. When you can hear a pin drop it drives home exactly what it is you're watching (i.e. 2 nearly naked greased-up men pretending to fight each other). One of the many reasons I never got along with indy wrestling

I mean, wtf happened to pops like this? Is it really because the crowds are way younger these days and therefore less prone to yell themselves hoarse all night? Honestly don't see the point of going to these events unless you're gonna go mad for everything that happens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV3h34tUIcQ

the ryback: face in peril

nope

Windsor: Daniel Bryan has been getting INSANE crowd reaction for the past 18 months, Punk has been getting good reactions too. It's really blatant that Bryan is the only guy with a consistent character, catchphrases and crowd participation. The only one! Compare that to the attitude era where there was only like 4 guys without a personality, and even they had gimmicks to fall back on (lol lethal weapon steve blackman).

Oh and there was a streak where Santino was the most over guy in the company last year. In fact the face off between Santino and Bryan at Elimination Chamber 2012 was a) a really good match and b) the best pure crowd reaction of the past 5 years*.

*Punk in Chicago, for the title, on his last night doesn't count.

I've seen some decent pops for D-Bry when I've caught any of it in the last few years, but there were definitely times when it felt like his "YES" chants were getting more over than he was, kinda like "WHAT" about a decade ago, just getting yelled out indiscriminately for almost any situation.

Santino I find interesting because he's always seemed to be under-utilised, even in his comedy role. I'm not sure he could have ever made it to the top, but he definitely has something. I wouldn't term it "charisma", which is just the most nebulous concept in wrestling circles and is maddeningly unhelpful when you're trying to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes a guy entertaining, or good on the mic. Santino strikes me as being more intelligent than many of the guys on the roster, perhaps? Or maybe it'd be fairer to say that he's a better actor, at least in comedy roles. Whatever, I think that his delivery is absolutely impeccable. Better than looooooads of the top guys who are meant to be great on the mic. He comes across more like an actor in a bad comedy movie or tv show than a wrestler. I always felt kinda the same about The Rock.

It came to mind that Jake the Snake's theme was pretty ominous but I couldn't remember it besides that, and checking it out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edmNpPrwjlQ

I hear that it's a p cool John Carpenter ripoff. Who else had good theme music before the nu-metal hegemony came into place?

Oh man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DII3OtgUlVo

And this one didn't pre-date the one-size-fits-all nu-metal craze, happened in parallel and stood out as being brilliant as a result. But what a great theme song for Kurt Angle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q41UvkovDTQ

Kurt's theme was the Patriot's first. And I think maybe Mark Henry might have had it for like two matches. Was their generic yay america theme for a while before Kurt made it his own.

I've been told I should watch the Post-WM Raw because the crowd was nuts over the dancer and Dolph cashed in but both of those things sound like a joke to me.

that Repo Man theme is all-time.

Repo Man 1st class ya. I forget what specifically it was I came across when I was looking last week but for some reason I always enjoyed when WWE would go cod-classical with their themes, especially when that involved somewhat cheesy synth string sections and such.

I think someone recently mentioned the current WWE crowd not being very into the action, and having watched a few WCW matches this past couple of weeks the difference is amazing, WCW crowds giving a lot more for lower-mid carders than the WWE headliners are getting now. Notably insanely-into-it crowds for Saturn beating Raven and Dean Malenko returning disguised as Ciclope to beat Chris Jericho.

thought i'd check out my first raw since punk/cena

how fucking stupid does the start make EVERYONE look? heyman and the announcers are all "oh hhh isnt here" and then he turns up... as if going to another continent is something you can just do on the sly without notice with the rest of his own company.

also hhh's head is way wrinkly, he needs to grow hair again

That stuff happens all the time, saying "X isn't here" is wrestling code for "he's here". It's up there with insulting the local sports teams to get people to boo -- it's a total cliche, but it always works.

You're right about HHH's head though, that was an ugly sight.

Seth Rollins v. Daniel Bryan on last weeks Raw was dope and essential viewing.

Dolph v. Del Rio at Payback is fucking amazing though. It's been a long while since I've heard someone genuinely BOOED like Del Rio there. Fucking brutal. Dolph's title reign was a fucking mess but if they cant work from that then the WWE needs to really sort its fucking shit out.

SummerSlam tonight. Looking forward to Bryan v. Cena

Introduction of HHH and the McMahons / Orton lurking with the MITB briefcase leads to fear that it could devolve into an overbooked mess, but yeah, I'm excited. Bryan winning would be huge

I tuned in but I suppose I'm a bit late. h8 u Cena c'mon Daniel. How's the rest of the card been?

I missed all the earlier matches, too. This is pretty solid so far.

is Cena a heel or just widely hated?

hated.

good good.

YAAAAAAAAAS.

woohoo!

I didn't believe they'd actually do it.

no! no! no!

:'''''(

At least it sets up the next storyline. :/

I'm thinking Triple H working with Orton to get the title is something to do with the Return of Evolution. Which would be great.

Only if it means the return of Big Dave and Naitch running interference in his wheelchair

awww i didnt see this thread had been bumped. boo the corporation again. nothing says ~lyfe sucks~ like the bosses austin was trying to defy 15 years ago being more powerful and smug than they've ever been. you'll never win, why even bother, a mcmahon will always beat you in the end.

I know those feels :(

Babyface underdog Daniel Bryan is getting a good promotion though.

i like that i'm still so accepting of the various conceits and constructions of pro wrestling that it wasn't until someone pointed it out that i realised slobby hairy outsider ~real~ underdog daniel bryan still has all of his body hair waxed off.