She was born with a really pornstar sounding name.
Printable View
She was born with a really pornstar sounding name.
nice for ROH to have a decent woman worker on their roster. WOH matches have been complete shite since since day dot.
Stephanie McMahon vs. Charlotte Flair is a future main event.
I don't think a women's match will ever main-event Wrestlemania because the main title should main-event the show. But they could really build that match and make it a marquee match in the next few years. The women all leave sooner or later. The men stay; the women leave or stick around until they're let go,
I'm sure Stephanie vs. Rhonda will end up with Rhonda submitting Stephanie once she gets her hands on her. We all know that. Triple H and Stephanie have to be on the card which is my biggest criticism with them. Bow the fuck out already. Just like Shane. Shane and Stephanie grew up in this world and want to be part of it, but they need to step back and let others shine.
Only time will tell if Ronda's going to be a significant draw for the WWE, especially for the long haul. Some of us did comparisons last year comparing Lesnar's ppv buys in the WWE and you could see each ppv pretty much did less than the year prior for the same event he was on. Sometimes the matches were bigger than the previous year but who knows, could be the card, who knows.
I will say this....Her last fight did huge numbers. And look @ Lesnar. He got murdered in his last 2 MMA fights prior to joining the WWE again and it didn't matter one bit. I can't compare the 2 in pro wrestling obviously but part of me thinks that the mystique of Ronda in pro wrestling will be good for at least a year. I don't see her wrestling that often so that'll help.
I'm sure she'll do well in the ring. It's the mic work that will be the key. She wasn't really good with words, she'd always work herself up and start crying. Even back in Strikeforce when she thought she was Femme Diaz, she came across awkward. And even then...just because you were a good talker in the MMA world doesn't mean you can blow it out the water in the scripted WWE environment.
She’ll be a draw, she’s a legitimate fighter who loves wrestling and wants to make it work.
And she’s anointed by Hot Rod.
But she has the charisma and choreographed ability of wet spinach.
Doesn’t hurt Orton.
Nah, dhe’ll be ok, she knows her way around a fight which makes the learning curve better for the in ring stuff, look at Lesner, Lashley, Shamrock all guys with no ‘choreographic experience’ and limited charisma (at best) but it worked out, let her work with Paul for a while or team her with Rock and I’m confident she’ll make it.
Orton doesn't have shit choreographed ability. He can work a very good match. And though his character portrayal may leave a lot to be desired it is Academy worthy compared to what you'll get from Rousey.
He’s also got a little bit more experience than her.
And less personality than cardboard.
Orton might be wooden at times but the dude is a top 10 performer in the company and IMO one of the most slept on in the entire history of the sport.
With that said....Lesnar, Lashley, and Shamrock are odd comparisons. The only reason I say that is because Lesnar and Lashely weren't MMA fighters prior and Shamrock actually was trained as a pro wrestler prior to fighting in Pancrase if memory serves me correctly.
Lashley is good? Eh. Shamrock was very charismatic dating back to the early UFC's and Lesnar just has a presence plus he had a mouthpiece God plus he looks like a God. Ronda looks like a fan.
I'm not disagreeing with you being confident she'll make it. I think in terms of in-ring ability, she'll be pretty good at the least, better than most we've seen in the WWE. It's everything else that might be a problem but the smartest thing the WWE could do is put her with Heyman. It would be a great story. He already brought in and "made" Lesnar, whether you want to go back to his debut or his return, without Heyman I have no idea if Lesnar would be half of what he became. Kind of like Undertaker with Paul Bearer at the start.
The story is very similar to Lesnar's return from MMA only Rousey won't be returning to pro wrestling. They could even spin the narrative how you hear from men: There wasn't money in MMA or I would have tried it back in the early 2000's or whatever. Now they could say: There wasn't any money for women in professional wrestling until Ronda Rousey changed the game for combat sports in general. They could say she wanted to be a pro wrestler after the Olympics but chose MMA due to the lack of respect the WWE had for women in general, something to that affect.
In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer speculates that the reason Nia Jax pretty much destroyed Asuka on Raw could be because the plan might be to have Jax put over Asuka at the PPV and the angle on Raw where she came across as the dominant force is a way to appease Jax. If rumors are to be believed, Jax had previously nixed putting over Sasha Banks a few months ago.
I call BS on this. Nia doesn't really seem the type to refuse to put someone over or to have a ridiculous ego.
Does she?
Dave Meltzer has no WWE sources. He's 'reporting' out of his asshole.
Nothing that's been confirmed, but of course the internet rumor train painted her "walking out" a couple months back as an ego thing. But Nia's lost plenty of times so the story doesn't really add up. It's not like Asuka is some nobody.
Nia is kind of a weird one for me. I liked her more as a pseudo-face during her little thing with Enzo (obviously that had to be dropped, sucks for Nia though because the fans were getting behind her) than I ever liked her as a monster heel, and her vs. Alexa or her having a title reign as a monster heel sounds so boring to me at least.
That whole "walk out" thing was such a non-story being dressed up with bullshit to try to make something out of it. Such a tabloid story. Surprised they didn't say she was pregnant or in rehab while they were at it.
I'm with PT, I'd like to see more face Nia. The crowd always seems pretty into her and eager to see her toss folks around and be Lady Braun.
Do they need a Lady Braun considering Braun is the outside looking in at WrestleMania? I honestly hope Viper gets signed, so they can have a monster vs monster feud.
Wow. Cheap way to get heat, Alexa (or really, whoever wrote her promo)... by saying Asuka isn't very good at English and speaking to her like a damned racist. Bliss did a fine job at EC, but I'm seriously so over her at this point. It will be interesting to see if she can still thrive in the women's division when she isn't holding the title.
Agreed. It sucks because we know it is not her just being an asshole and going off script, it is literally what she was told to say. But it was still not great in 2018.
Also, I have a terrible feeling if we get Alexa vs Asuka at WM, which honestly seems more likely at this point, that they are going to have Bliss retain cleanly at WM. I also see her retaining at WM against Nia. I just see them overexposing Bliss with the title for as long as they can.
Has she been hurt? I'm just curious as to why we had a couple months where it seemed she wasn't even on the show let alone wrestling.
She's supposed to be a bitch amd so she acts bitchy. She's probably only of their better heels after Miz. She just knows her character so well.
I had no issue with it - she's making herself very difficult to cheer and she's getting sympathy on Asuka, both of which are what she is supposed to be doing.
She can come across as bitchy without resorting to gray area racist comments. I just find it unacceptable. Again, not Bliss, but whoever wrote her promo.
You know how else someone can get over at being a heel? Get booked to actually act heelish. We all knew that Charlotte did not need any help in the ring, but that never stopped her from using heelish tactics (paying a ref, using her father, using Dana). While a lot of Bliss' storylines have been her saying "I'm better than you, let me prove it" and then doing exactly that and cleanly. It's hard to boo someone when they are booked to look like they are right.
I guess ultimately, you are right. Ff she is finally gaining boos, then good for her. I just wish that it could have been done differently.
She's hot as fuck, she's never going to be a full blown heel. Go back and watch Sable, Sunny, Trish Stratus. It's worse today because there are way more fans who will cheer a heel for a good promo or a good match and then that gets distorted as the heel getting a babyface reaction. Then there are actual fans who imo are heels who always cheer the heels.
With Bliss....I mean....when her opponents are all booked like shit against her it's definitely on the writing. Look @ what happened to Bayley. Super over until she worked with Bliss. Sasha Banks, same thing. Once they stop working with her, people start getting back into that person, hoping for the best.
Bliss is basically like watching Stephanie McMahon punk everyone out. It's boring and she deserves better. She reminds me of Sunny in a lot of ways. Mainly her verbal skills.
She was being patronising but it wasn't racist. If Asuka spoke fluent English and Bliss had done that then yeah you'd have a point.
That right there. And you are right, Bliss does deserve better. I could actually see myself really getting behind a face Bliss, but I think she is one of the most overrated heels in the WWE right now. And I always feel bad for saying that, because I want to like Bliss, but her booking just makes it really hard. Maybe I'm too particular.
And yes, poking fun at Asuka's lack of English is in fact racist. If it wasn't, it would not have received the instant (cheap) heat that it got.
If Asuka spoke fluent English the segment would never have happened. They scripted her to clown an Asian person for not speaking English very well. This was the same thing they had Jinder do and it was met with heavy criticism by many. And you'd think after the NXT house show incidents with Kari Sayne that they'd try to avoid this stuff.
I can respect someone thinking "racist" is a very strong word to label someone. I will scale back and simply say it was in poor taste and we're above this kind of heat seeking. If you can't get heat without dipping into the realm of clowning a foreign person struggling with the language, there's something missing.
I think the problem with Alexa as a heel is just like with Steph. Where's the comeuppance? Where's the babyface getting revenge? Alexa should be like Shawn Michaels 1993-1994. Winning only because of Diesel or some other antics. Shawn rarely won clean. Hell he rarely won. He lost a lot of matches as IC champion even, DQ's and countouts up the ass.
Alexa will walk in and beat Nia Jaxx clean no matter how absurd it is all while the WWE will go "Make fun of her thick thighs and manly voice and how she looks like The Rock that'll get you heat!" And then plaster her all over Anti-bullying campaigns. Just like Stephanie.
Like I said above I think racist is a strong word that maybe some are uncomfortable labeling someone. But yeah, she didn't get the heat you're wanting as a performer you're getting the heat that will do more bad than good for the brand itself not just Alexa's character.
But she doesn't speak English well. It's no coincidence that Bliss said this after Asuka's bad promo last week.
Yes, you're right that if Asuka spoke good English they wouldn't have attempted to play on her being a foreigner who doesn't speak English. Because they weren't trying to be racist and didn't consider it to be in poor taste.
You tying it to genuinely racist comments thrown at Kairi Sane is something I find to be in far worse taste. Asuka's English isn't very good and it's fair game for her opponents to target. Conflating that with actual racism cheapens the debate and its stuff like this which does way more harm than good when it comes to trying to stamp out attitudes and behaviours (like those shown by the 'fans' at the NXT show last week) which have no place in decent society.
FWIW I will offer Asuka to help her with her language skills when I meet her at Axxess next month. :cool:
Sorry guys, I didn't hear about what happened with Kari and NXT. Fill a guy in?
I dunno man, I think it’s pretty reasonable to say that in terms of ways to generate heat it’s one that’s in pretty poor taste. Particularly given some ‘fans’ clearly didn’t need any excuse for some racist behaviour the other week. You normalise an environment where you are picking on a foreign person being different due to their poor English and unfortunately with some of the fan base it is a bit of a gateway to other stuff being said because they think it’s normal/ acceptable. It’s hard to look at this in a vacuum. You might not consider this as making it ok to mock a foreign colleague or classmate for their poor English, but I don’t know that you are representative of the entire WWE audience. There is obviously a difference between poor taste and outright racism, but it’s not unfair to consider one in respect of the other and on balance I don’t know if this is the way I would want WWE to handle people of different races/backgrounds. It doesn’t sit very well alongside a progressive attitude to things like the women’s revolution.
With regards to Kairi Sane, a group of fans apparently shouted anti Japanese slurs and things about Pearl Harbour at her at an NXT live event but weren’t picked up on it by security. Kairi then posted a picture on Twitter of people of mixed cultures holding hands.
That's awful that fans did that to Kairi.
And you couldn't be more right with your observation.
Did fans ever say the same shit to Asuka that they said to Kairi?
If they did nobody cared to report it to the social media world. I mean, in the 20+ years of reading dirt on the web I can't even think of any incident where it was reported fans or just a fan was chanting racist shit at wrestlers. I'm sure it's happened, probably more common back in the day. But then go listen to Attitude Era commentary, Jerry Lawler did enough racial profiling so to speak. Some of that shit, wow.
And the part of the story that bothers me is why didn't these fans get handled? Security didn't hear it but others did? Maybe those others should have made it a point to get them booted or beat the fuck out of them after the show.
I don't know that it was bad as the Jinder stuff. Which was some of the worst stuff we've seen recently.
However, when someone is speaking to someone with a different native language patronizingly due to lack of english-there are pretty clear negative implications. Often, its tied into insulting someone's intelligence (as patently ridiculous as that is). It's pretty common in a lot of racist dialogues.
It's a poor sign if you need to go that route to draw heat.
Becky Lynch trolling Carmella/Liv Morgan at the same time on Twitter is pure genius.
Becky is great. She's so funny and charismatic. Big fan.
After the Alexa/Nia backstage segment it's looking more and more like that could be the Wrestlemania Raw women's title match. Which would be... a little odd because Nia would be the face I guess? I like Nia better as a face but her character shouldn't have to break a sweat against Alexa's and that's a strange dynamic for the face in a feud to have. lol
I would say it's weird that everyone on Raw is assuming Asuka is challenging Alexa, but if they're going the Asuka vs. Charlotte route (which I expect because nobody on SD feels built up as a suitable WM opponent for Charlotte, as much as I'd love to see her vs. Becky), I guess that's the point until Charlotte is done messing with the Riott Squad.
Alexa Bliss & Mickie James vs Nia Jax
Charlotte Flair vs Asuka
Bayley vs Sasha
They'll need to find something for a few of the other women - Becky Lynch is the one who instantly jumps off the page as not having anything to do. I'd expect her and Charlotte to move to Raw after Mania with probably Bayley joining Asuka on Smackdown.
They had a perfect opportunity to do Alexa vs Nia last year. Fans were ready for it, but they backed off and we got months of nothing. Feels like the moment when this would have been hot has passed.
It's times like this when I wish we could embed twitter posts here.
Exactly. And now all of a sudden because Alexa kind of fat shames Nia and makes her cry, Nia is now deserving of a title match at WM? After she lost her opportunity at both Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber. Don't get me wrong, I am all here for a champion Nia, but storyline dictates that she has blown her opportunity. Twice. Nia and Alexa both deserve better, story wise.
And are we suppose to believe that Alexa can actually put on a lengthy match with Nia? It's bad enough watching her dominate people like Sasha, Bayley, Becky, Mickie, and even Asuka in the ring, but Nia? Well, hopefully this is a squash match, so actual good matches like Charlotte vs Asuka and Sasha vs Bayley will have more time. Can't wait to see all of the scripted drama on Total Divas, because we know that's a huge reason as to why Nia vs Alexa is happening. :rolleyes:
Damn shame that Becky is looking to be left off the card.
Well they just need to do Womens Only andRe the giant Memorial BAttle Royal.
A WORMBAR.
I mean, they were definitely experimenting her as a face during her storyline with Enzo, and it's about when the live crowds starting getting behind her.
Enzo was a heel though.
I hear ya about the live crowd getting behind her at times. I wouldn't call that a good way to judge her as a babyface, but I'd like to see her in that role for sure. What I don't want to see is depth in her character in terms of her crying and shit. What the fuck? Is she Big Show?
But that IS why she was crying. She started being emotional at the end of the match. Alexa was rubbing salt in the wounds and was mentioning all the lost opportunities as well as the bullying. Alexa was drilling her with everything, all her recent failures on top of a lifetime of being different and excluded and bullied. She had every reason to be crying and she fucking did legit tears and it was very well done. Now there's going to be a great emotional layer added, a reason for fans to sympathize/empathize/root for Jax.
The only real complaint I would have is if this doesn't result in Nia destroying Alexa at Mania. A size mention on top of the failures shouldn't have the PC brigade up in arms. I have no problem with this so far.
Nia showing weakness and then getting over it is more interesting than just brushing off the insults.
I hear you. However, I would add that I think the fans are already pretty behind Nia as it is. Alexa rubbing her loses in her face was more than sufficient to add some more layers to this story. I just think the "Nia is a big girl" is low hanging fruit.
And agreed, Badger. This absolutely needs to be a squash match, though it will most likely end up with Alexa running away for a majority of the match and hitting some cheap shots to put up a believable offense.
I didn't say it should be a squash as such, Alexa should get some offense in otherwise it would be a waste of a match and build if it was completely one-sided. However Nia completely devastastating her tiwards the end once she's weathered the storm would be a very satisfying finish.
I see Alexa going over Nia, and then being confronted by a traded to Raw Charlotte shortly thereafter.
If the 123 Kid can beat Bam Bam Bigelow then Alexa Bliss can beat Nia Jax.
The problem is they really have no one to sacrifice other than jobbers to build her up but I guess her size and "strength" are good to always have. I don't see them having Sasha or Bayley do the job. Mickie James and the 2 from Absolution I guess. I'm with you, the unstoppable feeling is gone for me. I've seen her lose clean to Asuka several times since their time in NXT to now. Not to mention, the real decline, for me, was when Becky Lynch tapped her out with the quickness at Survivor Series 2016. I know that was over a year ago but still....
And I'm not feeling the fat shaming aspect. Nia shouldn't give 2 fucks about what some little thin bitch thinks about her size. Especially when Nia is all about self-empowerment on social media. Seriously, she's got a short vid of her on Instagram unzipping her top and lettin the puppies breathe. MMMMMM
Bring back this Nia:
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view7/201...-nia-jax-o.gif
Alicia accidentally hitting Nia with that box is still funny two years later. :heart:
Rank these 3 women:
Awesome Kong
Bull Nakano
Nia Jax
Aja Kong >>>> all of them
Kong
Nakano
Jax
I don't see the point of adding a Women's Memorial Battle Royal. I think the Men's one is pointless enough I mean Mojo Rawley won the last one of all people and all the winners so far of the men's one it meant nothing for their careers and the match has even been regulated to the pre-show. So its honestly to the point where the men's one shouldn't even exist, because no one cares and now they add a women's one? I don't see the need for either one to be honest. Just seems like a time filler at best and now there's going to be two of them when one was more than enough and the one there already is shouldn't exist anyway.
It's not about filling time as they have a million ways to do that, it's about squeezing almost everyone onto the card.
I just wish it weren't named after Moolah. WWE's insistence on pushing Moolah as somebody who supported women in the industry is pretty ridiculous when digging up her past is a Google search away.
You would think that but Moolah might as well have been a McMahon. I mean she's not exactly Chris Benoit but I think they should have thought this through a little more. Like not even doing it.
I get where the WWE might be hitting their head against a wall when thinking of a name. Sherri and Liz died of drug overdoses, Alundra Blayze will always be remembered as the girl who threw the belt in the garbage in another promotion (plus she's alive), Chyna can't even get a sniff of respect plus she died of a drug overdose. So who's left? Luna? Yeah that's not going to happen as she apparently committed suicide correct?
That's true actually. Trying to find a well known and historical yet completely positive woman to name the thing after would be hard.
Maybe they should have just named it the Trish Stratus Battle Royal. She's the agreed upon jumping off point for the modern era of women's wrestling in the WWE anyway.
It's not like there will ever be any nasty stories about her coming out one day. She's Canadian for God's sake.
Luna died of a drug overdose too, probably one of the big reasons why she's been ignored for the Hall of Fame (along with her lack of big "moments" in WWF I guess).
If they wanted to honor the roots of women's wrestling, name it the Mildred Burke Memorial Battle Royal. She's in their Hall of Fame as a legacy induction now. Hell, even Mae Young would be a better choice than Moolah despite the Mae Young Classic already using her name.
The Battle Royale didn't need to be named after anyone. Andre The Giant was synonymous with Battle Royale's, especially at Wrestlemania. Moolah wasn't, no woman was.
Well, after a second week of "You can't speak English" and the not so subtle fat shaming, I think Alexa will for sure finally get her comeuppance at Wrestlemania. While I am no fan of Bliss, she and Nia both deserve a more compelling story than, "You are fat and dumb." Those insults, to me, don't give Nia a championship match at Wrestlemania, but whatever. Nia will win and hopefully Bliss can go onto manage Braun or someone for a bit while the division can have some new life injected into it. Bring Bliss back into the title picture (if you must) in 9 months or so.
Still a damn shame that (arguably) the best worker, Becky, has nothing going into Wrestlemania this year. Hopefully they have plans for her for the remainder of 2018.
Bliss is actually a damn fine valet. She got Blake and Murphy over as a top heel act in NXT.
The irony is Mickie James being cool with the comments Alexa has made. And why are they even paired up again? WWE booking is fucked up beyond belief. Nia Jax crying all over the fucking place and ripping the zippers off luggage is about as "monster" as Vince will apparently allow the women.
Yeah, tuning in and seeing Mickie w/ Alexa was weird. She's had a history of detesting those that criticize people about their weight... so I guess WWE's thoughtless writers strike again.
Also, I saw the CharBobby/Ruslana match and I was hoping Charlotte's chops were going to have some affect on Rusev. I've been enjoying the women mixing it up w/ the boys, and hopefully we get to a day where a woman (like Charlotte) can deal some damage to a dude. I've always felt Charlotte could be the one to break through that barrier of the women staying on their own island away from the guys. I think it would be awesome for a woman to challenge a guy that's not a pansy.
That's actually a really great point about Mickie. I'm surprised she agreed to run with that script thinking about it
To her credit I will say that a couple times she did point out that what Alexa said was a little harsh but she was still snickering about some of the stuff Bliss was saying like the Shrek comment.
With Alexa, could it be the WWE really want her to be a top heel and with her quasi-positive crowd response the only way they thought she could get over properly would be to stoop to some ECW 1995 level shit?
I'd have much preferred it if it played out like HHH/Batista did with Nia overhearing them dissing her but still playing cool and then destoying Alexa leading to the match.
Stil, hopefully this leads to Alexa getting the ultimate comeuppance at Mania.
I'm sure it does. But that's what happens when you book your "heel" champion to win against and bury top faces like Bayley and Sasha. Mickie was even gaining some positive crowd feedback but then they had her lose to Women's Special Slap #2. They booked Alexa like Super Bliss, and then are surprised when she is not getting boos.
For the life of me, I have literally no idea why the crowd was chanting "You deserve it" to Bliss when she won at EC. Totally not dissing her performance; in fact, I think it was one of her better matches. But that chant? They should have realized right then and there that they had screwed up with booking Bliss as a super heel.
I'll just be happy when WM is over and hopefully plenty of the women get a fresh start.
Bliss's booking has been ass backwards since she came to RAW.
It's just another example that the main roster struggles to book babyfaces and have no issue booking heels. Yet they book the heels wayyyyy too strong. I feel this is Triple H's influence. When you look at the history of the WWE, they were mainly a strong babyface lead promotion. Bruno, Backlund, Hogan, Bret, Austin. It really wasn't until Austin started fading out and Triple H took the throne so to speak that it became a very heat-heel driven promotion. Think about it....Most of the top heels could easily transition into an Austin type role and most of the babyfaces could take those spots as heels with their current presentation.
There are way too many "Cool Heels" on the main roster. Easiest way to get a Heel booed is have them act cowardly and always back down from the Face. Bliss beating the hell out of Bayley in that Kendo Stick match while Bayley refused to return the favor is one of the most baffling booking decisions in recent memory.
Just saw on my phone they are dropping the Moolah name of the Battle Royal
Yep, they had to disable the comments on their tweet about it due to all the negativity. Honest opinion though there really aren't to many legendary women to name this after due to how women's wrestling was treated.
That will change in 30 years or so time but for now it's very slim pickings.
I think a part of the problem is the fact that the male equivalent is named after a legendary wrestler, so it would've been a little weird if the female version wasn't. And like you said, there aren't many legendary women to name this after.
They should honestly name it after something big for women in general. Like the Susan kommen charity or an equal rights movement and the winner gets a 100k donation in her name or something for winning.
I’m sure it was just sponsor pressure but well done etc. The idea of Moolah’s name being at the forefront of somethIng celebrating female empowerment was so twisted.
Moolah was legitimately terrible as well. Even excusing her abhorrent personal life, her being awful at wrestling did nothing to progress the division, quite the opposite. Can only assume she was friends with Vince's dad.
I'm positive Bruce Prichard touched on the relationship Moolah had with the McMahon's in a recent podcast but for the life of me I don't remember which one. I know that he did say that when the WWWF/WWF needed women wrestlers they would contact Moolah. Then Conrad and Bruce went into the whole allegations and such.
Sensational Sherri Battle Royal could've been a contender for a name, but yeah it is pretty hard to choose from as others have said.
What’s everyones beef with Moolah? I wasn’t alive during her era except for the attitude era stuff.
Apparently Snickers' parent company called the name 'unacceptable' and said they were going to do something about it. Seems like they did. Fan backlash probably played a part, as well, but that was probably the real deal breaker.