The IIconics seem to have the tools. I'm not as high on Peyton as Nash-honestly, I'm not sure that Peyton Royce is as high on Peyton Roycs as Nash is-, but I think she's got potential. They actually have chemistry as team.
While they have characters, there's nothing about those characters that make them compelling champions. From an "earn it" perspective, there hasn't been a strong reason for the fans to get involved either in the story or the characters.
I hope this Alexa/Nikki storyline leads to Nikki eventually blindsiding Alexa. Seeing her act normal and buddy buddy to Alexa is weird.
I would like to see Nikki become the first woman to come out of a feud with Alexa looking stronger than when she came in.Originally Posted by Badger
I'm still shuddering from "This Is Your Life Bayley"
If they had Alexa pretend to change her ways and pretend friend Bayley instead of Nia sorta driving a wedge with Baykey and Sasha hen Bayley snaps when she learns the truth, that would have been better.
Last edited by Badger; June 11th, 2019 at 3:03 PM.
I hope they go after the tag titles and stay friends
Peyton=NEXT BIG THING I've said this for about 2 years since she was in NXT. Just wait.
From an "earn it" perspective.....Well, they're heels. So they don't need to earn shit. That's what gets them the heat required. I fucking hate when a heel is in the ring and the fans are chanting "YOU DESERVE IT" And the fans actually did that to the IIconics the first night they were on t.v. after Mania. And they played it up so heelish it was perfect, they were like "Of course we deserve it!"
And it's hard to justify who earned what in a brand new division. I mean, if we're splitting hairs, in terms of legit active wrestlers, they have been a tag-team longer than any other female team.
LOL TRUTH
The iiconics are baad. Like bad bad
If its done consistent, and we get some interaction with challengers that presents a story, I don't hate how they use the IIconics when they are on TV now. Just felt like there was no real successful build, and little week to week consistency.
I would have liked to have seen the IIconics be "awarded" their title shot after beating teams like they are now. Get the shot after an impressive winning streak, cheat to win, duck the contenders. Perhaps offer rematches to the jobbers they beat before win, to show they are "fighting champions". Demand that the Kabuki Warriors match your winning streak before getting a shot. IDK. Do some shit.
IIconics could be good heel champs. Their reactions are good. Just get some type of actual storyline going.
Well now you're going away from the "earn it" perspective because again, heels shouldn't have to necessarily EARN anything, that's what gets them heat. And like I said, the division is brand new. I can see the POV in thinking Sasha and Bayley should have held the titles longer, give IIconics a couple wins but against who? What got them super heat was dethroning the internet darlings and them constantly rubbing it in everyone's face.....
The downside is it's tag division. Doesn't matter who are the champs, right now Daniel Bryan, the most over wrestler of the last 15 years and he's not doing jack shit with them in terms of feuding with people. It's a prop. And as long as you look at the tag-team titles as a prop these days, it makes it easier to digest what Vince and the WWE are doing with them. It's not about Peyton and Billie needing to have X amount of wins, they're heels, doesn't matter how many WINS they have. But they are super entertaining, to me at least.
I think we're getting a little caught up with the "earn it" phrase. I suggested a fake earn it, by beating jobber teams. They are transparently not earning it, similar to how they are not fighting champions now. The difference is building proactively to develop the reaction. You wouldn't have this go on for months.
Part of the reason Becky got a good reaction with Charlotte last summer was that Becky was earning it the hard way, Charlotte got a quick path to her shot. The story was set-up (in this case accidentally) before, and it ended up enhancing both.
I'm not suggesting that the IIconics legitimately earn anything. What I am suggesting is a more cohesive story, rather than a less connected series of interactions. Instead of saying "earn" the fan reaction, it may be more accurate if I say that it needs to be developed
I don't know about the rest of you, but the Women's Division has gone flat again. I knew as soon as Ronda left, they'd get demoted to the sideshow. The only thing that has me excited is the possibility Bayley will get some revenge on Alexa.
I think most fans don't know the IIconics are the Tag Champs until the announce team reminds them. They have a solid act and are good at what they do, but they have absolutely no heat.
This
They Iiconics are great and surprisingly sell a load of merch. They are good talkers and have a pretty decent following, they are really good fun on social media and interact well with the fans. They ooze charisma.
They are also nowhere near as bad in the ring as people make out. They are "fine".
I'm not a huge Lacey fan but mainly because I don't get her gimmick. She is a throwback but she kind of isn't either. At least make her music match her background.
She has potential though, I do find it mad that she has a legit interesting real life back story and instead they give her a different gimmick.
Revenge for what?
For Alexa (WWE creative with Alexa as the conduit) absolutely burying Bayley in the summer of 2017. For a multitude of reasons, nothing positive comes from Alexa (a Raw superstar) winning the SD! title from Bayley, especially on Bay's first PPV defense.
To touch on other points:
-The IIconics are ridiculously charismatic, especially in backstage promos (especially when Peyton corpses omg). They are both fine in the ring, though I wouldn't be surprised if they are two women who wrestle drastically different as heels than as faces. Like Lacey, nothing they've done in the ring has overly impressed me.
-I am always torn on Lacey. I think she is pretty good, if not repetitive, on the mic. Her gimmick is stupid, but at least it's a gimmick I guess. Outside of her impressive moonsault, nothing she's done on the main roster has yet to blow me away. She's certainly a future multi-time champion, but I seriously hope they don't take the belt off of Becky this soon.
-Nikki coming out on top of a Bliss feud would be great, though I wouldn't place a bet on it. I'd be more interested in a tweener Bliss teaming with Cross to take on the IIconics.
Buffy pretty much explained what I meant about Bayley getting revenge.
The IIconics are fine as a Tag Team. As long as Billy Kay's time in the ring is kept short and Peyton carries their matches, then they can hide their weaknesses.
Lacey has impressed me on the mic. She seems comfortable and does the best she can with the material they give her. Her matches have been pretty standard, so I still can't say much about her wrestling.
I don't see any benefit to Bliss continuing in singles matches. Like Mazer said, no one benefits from a feud with her. She should focus on the Tag division from now on.
Anyone else here a big fan of Nickelodeon's Doug?
Because Lacey sounds so much like Patty Mayonnaise it's all I can think of when she's talking.
Or even be a mouthpiece like Paige. She'd be a heck of manager who could still take some bumps. At her best in the ring, Bliss has been a slightly better version than Nikki Bella; that is to say, they are both painfully mediocre. Don't get me wrong, I'd be fine seeing Bliss jump into the tag division. Her star power could really help to elevate a division that is dead in the water. But she's not that good in the ring.
The more wrestlers from NXT/NXT UK (that are used properly hopefully) they bring up like Shayna, Io, Mia, Bianca, or even Toni, Piper, Kay Lee, Jazzy from the UK, the more Bliss will be exposed in the ring. Can you imagine her using her create-a-wrestler DDT3 and pinning someone like Shayna or Io?
And no, I don't hate Bliss. I just think her talents could be used more efficiently.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
I'm a Dougalo. Down since day 1.
Why do we need more allowance?
Because we do.
I haven't watched Doug in ages, so I couldn't tell you if Lacey reminds me of Patty. She mainly reminds me of Rogue from the 90's X-Men cartoon.
Lacey has some skill. She's very athletic. But God is she still rough around the edges. Last Raw she was clearly supposed to be standing near the corner on the outside so Bayley could do a spot where she sort of Sami Zayns the turnpost and kicks her. Alexa tried to kind of push her over there but she wasn't getting the message. Eventually Bayley just had to do it and it looked like ass because Lacey was so far away Bayley could barely tap her with her foot.
There is at least one really rough spot like that in all of her matches. She'll work them out with time but she should have been allowed to work them out in NXT in front of a smaller audience.
Last edited by Rancid_Planet; June 12th, 2019 at 7:12 PM.
Alexa Bliss fucks up in every single match countless times. Doesn't matter, she's a little hottie and solid as a character. Lacey will get there but she's definitely better than half of the women out there on Raw/SD these days.
I really dislike Lacey. She has potential because she's athletic but she is still rather sloppy to me and doesn't stand out to me because she is really Charlotte Lite.
I love the Iiconics a lot. I think they work well together they just don't seem to be bothered by giving them any sort of consistent story. Where did Asuka/Kairi go?
It's just too bad they need women so badly to add to the division that they have to keep rushing them before they're ready.
Maybe with time though.
I do agree with this sentiment. Look at Bliss and Carmella.
Well Alexa was probably as ready as she was going to get. She was in NXT longer than some of the horse women I believe. And she had a nice well defined character and good promo abilty. She'll never be strong or tall enough to pull off some of the moves the top women pull off but she could hold her own.
Lacey will end up being far better than Alexa in the ring. But right now she's just a very athletic woman with a ton of raw potential but no real clue what she's doing yet.
And those promos. I know they're all written for her but fuck. She says "sweet heart" every third word. And her character is kind of there but not entirely. I bet if she'd had another year or so in NXT she'd have come up to the main roster and fucking stunned people.
First impressions matter a shit ton in wrestling. Calling people up to soon is an awful thing.
This just makes me think of Apollo Crews, the poor bastard...
You fuckin nailed it. Which, despite how I feel about Macey Estrella-Kadlec (she's homophobic), sucks for Lacey Evans the wrestler. If she doesn't show out in this rather underserved second title match with Becky, then I don't see her becoming much for a year or so. I'm hoping that this match with Becky is 1. won by Becky because if the past few weeks have shown us anything, it is that Lacey is far to green to hold a title right now; and 2. can help make Lacey look good. I fully believe people can come out of a match looking strong even if they lose, so I hope that's the case for Lacey.
How is she homophobic? I haven't heard about this.
https://www.ringsidenews.com/2018/09...ed-homophobic/
Though I’m fully aware that people evolve and change over time. And heck, maybe it’s not even true.
Hmmm. Disappointing if true.
Ya'llz need to be more tolerant and accepting of her and her feelings.
If there's one thing I won't tolerate. It's intolerance.
What I love is Gibbs says "I'm not going to put out information that I got 2nd hand" but still says what he said in the first fucking place lol. So basically someone is getting something you're not and the thing we've seen happen over the years is "bury them on social media". If you're hearing 2nd hand information that someone takes issue with you being gay but every interaction you have with that person is positive, what the fuck are you doing?
Paige and the Kabuki Warriors have been MIA on tv for a month. Their storyline with Mandy and Sonya was far more interesting than what they're doing with Carmella.
Paige and the Kabuki Warriors is just some random shit that would have worked in the 80's but not today. Not even talking about the name, just the pairing. I think Paige as a heel valet for a singles wrestler, male or female, would be better. Asuka and Sane are probably in limbo due to how the WWE generally treat Japanese talent as it is. They'll give them a good 5-6 months of looking solid and then forget about them. Surprised Asuka even won the championship against Becky just to job a couple weeks later to Charrlette Flerr
I really hope they aren't waiting for Io to get called up and make them a trio, that would be a WASTE of talent IMO.
You know I wouldn't have been negative if they all 3 debuted on the main roster as a trio. I know it would feel very lazy lumping 3 Japanese women together as a stable but if they were able to explain WHY in a non-lazy way, not a bad idea. But me personally, I would prefer them all 3 separate from each other. Asuka and Sane teaming up just didn't feel natural because we saw so much of Sane and Shirai together in NXT, Asuka just feels like another level due to how she was booked in NXT and to an extent on the main roster.
It will be very interesting to see where Io Shirai fits in with the main roster when/if she comes up. She's one of my favorite wrestlers in the entire company.
Im not knocking anyone but its kind of crazy hearing people say there are a lack of female wrestlers on Raw and SD only because I remember in like 2004 there was a period where there was only 3 active female wrestlers, I think it was Trish, Victoria and Molly Holly or maybe a Diva search winner. Now they have almost 30 between Raw and SD plus more in NXT and NXT UK and probably some in NXT: SVU (which is where I think Sasha is going).
Last edited by Tim; June 13th, 2019 at 6:54 PM.
There's just a lack of women in wrestling period when it compares to men. I mean if they want quantity instead of quality that's actually fine by me because there are quite a few women in the WWE/NXT/etc. that are better than half the men.
I don't see how the number of women is a problem at all.
Its a lack of direction and storyline. Early Smackdown Live, you had multiple rivalries. Now, there doesn't seem to be a consistent one. I'm hopeful Bliss/Cross turns into something.
I would be curious to know what exactly this particular group of fans mean by the lack of women. To me it's not so much them saying the problem with the storylines is that they don't have enough women involved in the story. I think some fans want to see MORE women in general. You have to think Raw has 6-7 male driven storylines and only 1 female driven storyline. So I could see the argument being, we need to even that up.
One thing that made the big periods in the 80's and 90's "big" in the first place was that damn near everyone had a purpose. Everyone was usually having a storyline or simply a rivalry with another wrestler or tag-team. And they have about 30 more people on the creative team than before so how difficult can it be to section of talent with X amount of people involved...
I'm hoping it either turns into Cross has been pretending all along to be Bliss's friend or she was genuine but Alexa was using her all along. Either way, Cross snaps and goes back to the crazy lass we all know and love from NXT.
The fact Cross was rolling her eyes on Raw when Bliss was gushing about Lacey on Raw makes me think there will be an end point to this partnership soonish.
I could see one of 2 things happening with Nikki Cross. Nothing and Nothing.
Put her on the pile of dead bodies being sent back for regeneration to NXT. 90% of the call ups this year have been a waste of time.
As much as I would have loved that she stayed with Sanity when she got called up, she at least is getting regular TV time now alongside Bliss whereas the rest of Sanity have been nowhere to seen since Miz beat them all up.
It will lead somewhere I'm sure. It's a temporary act with Bliss.
But one has to think if she stayed with Sanity maybe they would still exist and not be torn to shreds because Vince doesn't "get it".
Being positive, I can see this being similar to the Nia Jax storyline where Bliss says or does something to Cross in a bad way and Cross snaps back completely into her old skitzo self.
The problem with Cross is again, I don't think Vince "gets it". What did he do when they called her up? Stuck with Alicia Fox, because she's "crazy" too. lol. She should be her own thing, not lumped in with people who are nothing like her.
Oh I agree with a lot of that. Though EY was leader, she was really the heart and soul of that group. I even made the Nia comparison myself earlier. Whether Vince "gets" her or not is the burning question, but perhaps she's one talent HHH has had a successful word in his ear about and there are tell-tale signs show that her and Bliss will dissolve though it may be a slow burn. At least she's getting regular TV time so we can only hope.
At least they didn't go the total "crazy" route and match her up with Fox.
Though it is pretty clearly being set up to be Nikki vs Alexa, I was really hoping for a tweener Bliss to legit team with Cross. It would be an odd pairing for sure, but I totally could buy into it. As I've said plenty of times, Bliss can play one hell of a character (and actually a believable face, too), and Nikki is a heck of a wrestler and also severely underrated on the mic. They'd be an unconventional but potentially super successful team.
If they do what we think they are doing, we've literally seen the exact same storyline with Alexa and Nia, which still ended with Bliss getting the upper hand, and the company is/was way more high on Nia than Bliss, so my hopes are not high.
I am also really hoping WWE isn't stupid and kill Bayley's momentum by allowing Bliss to pin her and take the title.
Hey, EY's been chasing R-Truth around. And apparently has a massive back tattoo now...
I agree with that - if Bliss pins Bayley clean, it will set Bayley waay back. I'd have Cross "accidently" cost Bliss the match. Like maybe Cross gets herself kicked out of ringside after being caught almost interfering to help Bliss, then Bliss gets distracted and walks into a Bayley to Belly and a pin. Then, on a moment of Bliss, Alexa is angry, but eventually gives Cross a couple of weeks to try to prove herself. Since they've been having Bliss cut off Cross' mic time, play up on this. Finally, Cross gets to cut a great promo along the way, and I think she can do it. Cross has a chance in this, to come out looking great, or she can come out looking as though she is not ready for the big time. But I think they are setting it up so both Cross and Bliss will look better.
Though Bliss/Cross would probably be a better match even if the storyline is the same. Couldn't get into Bliss/Jax at all and that is because of Jax playing the victim with Bliss half her size and they didn't mesh well. Nikki could at least be a more believable victim and get a very good match out of Bliss. I'm hopeful that they have plans for Bliss though at the same time you never can tell with how the wind blows in WWE.
Haven't noticed him in the chase so good pick up. Is the tattoo of Brock Lesnar's mother? [/wordlife]
Cross can definitely cut a great promo.
The best way thinking about it rather than broadcasting Alexa's comments like they did with Nia is to do a Batista face turn and have her overhear Alexa outside the door badmouthing her to Mickie and someone. Cross then laughs and plays with Alexa later.
For Paige, since she can't get physical, the best bet to use her would be to make her a mouthpiece for a man I think. When she was injured before she officially retired but was still part of Absolution, it really kind of made me side eye when Mandy and Sonya were getting attacked or were attacking somebody else while Paige just kind of shouted and stayed on the sidelines without getting involved or any opposition acting like she was even there. Which would also be weird if she were managing a man, but at least we're more conditioned with the idea that men hitting a woman in modern WWE is bad so that kind of gets around the weirdness of her being unable to take a bump.Paige and the Kabuki Warriors is just some random shit that would have worked in the 80's but not today. Not even talking about the name, just the pairing. I think Paige as a heel valet for a singles wrestler, male or female, would be better.
With RAW being 3 hrs., and the brand split pretty much being dead, there's no excuse for them not to have 2 or 3 decent women's storylines each week.
I'm with Nash. Sadly, I don't think they'll do anything with Nikki in the long term. She's not the kind of woman that appeals to Vince. I think she's actually shorter than Bliss. Lacey is clearly his new favorite. Cross just can't compete with that.
Bliss-Cross feels a tiny bit like Mickie v. Trish only with Cross being the babyface as opposed to a psycho heel. This could be one of those situations where what if Bliss fucks with a true psychopath that has zero remorse, has zero desire to be a role model or loved and respected by the fans. Bliss v. Nia was so corny, Nia should have Angus'd her ass (Anyone who has seen the movie knows what I mean) and while I'm sure it was supposed to show layers to Nia's character...it killed off the savagery she had built up for herself prior to that storyline.
Nia became Big Show lol.
Cross I feel could be like a Victoria type character. I see her being able to play both heel and face pretty easily because we saw it in NXT with her feud against Asuka for example. Now coming up here she has a very twins-from-the-Shining vibe.
I have to hand it to Nikki. She's been great in this storyline with Alexa. Based on her original character, I didn't think it would work, but she's portrayed the naive, gullible doormat perfectly. That fact that she wears hardly any makeup gives her a real baby face too, which adds to her innocence.
Agree with this - and also give a lot of credit to Alexa for playing her role so well - she is bringing out the best in Nikki. There aren't a lot of women on the roster who seem to get the idea that the whole women's movement in WWE depends on them developing characters that we the audience will want to care about - give us something more each time we see them - so that we either love them or hate them, we want to watch them.
Nikki and Alexa have it.
Charlotte and Becky have it.
Paige had it. Carmella gets it, though her in-ring work is lacking, she is doing great helping R-Truth.
Bayley - I think she's coming along.
I think the IIconics get it as far as developing fresh characters, but they badly need a feud.
Not really digging the Nikki Cross-Alexa Bliss storyline. I like them both, I just don't really care for the angle. It's the 3rd Bliss angle revolving around her using someone to her advantage and then eventually fucking it up. Mickie James, Nia Jax, now Cross.....I don't know. It's not a shit angle, I get why people are into it, but it's too basic and easy for me when it comes to Bliss. We need something beyond her using people and those people being too idiotic to notice it after X amount of times happening.
Yeah, the angle's been done before, but I don't think it's been handled as consistently as this one has. Nia kept disappearing, so there were stops and starts to the story. I also never felt any tension between Alexa and Mickie until the very end. This is the first time they went the classic route and we've been able to see it develop week after week. It's not amazing, but it's exceeded my expectations.
To me, the big difference is that Nikki, who the story is about, is worthy of being handled more “consistently” compared to the previous running mates for Bliss. She’s easily able to be more versatile than the other minions Bliss has had.
Well, imo, I think the reason it feels this way NOW is because of the previous 2 storylines so you are expecting the same result. "When is this going to blow up in Alexa's face?" is an understandable feeling because it's what is expected. Which is what kind of sours me on it.
I agree with you about Nikki being more worthy than Nia - who just wasn't ready for that push, not in the ring but especially on the mic at the time (but she had been getting much better just before her recent injury). But I have to disagree with you about MIckie - she is better in the ring and on the mic than all but a few on the women's roster. They seemed to treat Mickie only as a placeholder, instead of recognizing her talent.
Speaking of Mickie, where the heck is she? Is she even still with the company? I checked her twitter, and she's been focusing on her music.
ACL injury. Pretty much out until Mania.
Ouch. That sucks. Even though she was lost in the shuffle, Mickie's a great asset to the company. I wish she had gotten one more run with the title. The crowd was really behind her when she had those matches with Alexa, and a short title run would have been a great way to cap off her career.
I was rooting for Mickie to win the title one last time. But the WWE imo felt Bliss needed even more heat so they denied us that in hopes we'd hate Alexa even more. Nope. She's too cute. Dudes won't boo her and fuck man even my 8 year old daughter thinks she looks cool.
what the hell happened to poor Asuka holy shit she isn't even on tv anymore. The Iconics are barely on and they are the tag champs. aren't they supposed to be defending on all brands?
It's a fucking travesty how Asuka's been handled. I actually thought they were going to do her right when she won the TLC match and then subbed Becky CLEAN. The Kabuki Warriors team is so corny. It pisses me off how Vince treats Japanese talent for the most part. I can't totally shit on how they've handled Asuka and even Nakamura, but it could have been better. Much better.
It's totally true. That and she's hard to boo when she wins most of her feuds. Not her fault, but rather how she's booked. I've always thought her look and size would make her a way better "badass" face than a heel.
The way I see it with Alexa is that she is basically what Sunny was back in the mid 90's. Only she wrestles. Sunny was a heel, but everyone loved her. Maybe a better comparison would be Lana when she's heeling it up with Rusev....but I could see Alexa as a manager, which she was and did a great job in NXT with those 2 jabronis, but I could see her leading a stable and never having to wrestle again.
I mean they each won the rumble and were given pushes. It just stopped for some reason. I get they aren't fluent in english but they were getting really good reactions every single night. Nakamura shouldn't have turned heel. They did nothing with him after that Styles feud.
The fact they were getting great reactions without knowing much English shows that it's not always about cutting a 10 minute promo in perfect English.
The Kabuki Warriors wrestled the IIconics at the show in Tokyo for a "future title opportunity". They won, so I'm guessing it will happen at Extreme Rules. The IIconics responded to their loss on RAW last week.
There's plenty of Tag Teams to chase the Women's Tag titles, but the division barely exists. Why is Mandy and Sonya wasting their time time with Ember instead of campaigning for a title match? Or Naomi and Nattie?
It's everything we feared about the women's tag belts.
They cannot be bothered to do more than two story lines total for the women at any given time.
The womens tag division shouldn't even be a thing.
It could be though. Yeah they're short on talent but that's why they should instead focus on the division. On the titles. It could be something for anyone who doesn't have something going on right now. Instead it's just something they came up with and then never did anything with.
I dunno, it just feels like the womens tag division has shallowed the women championship division as well. It's the same thing w/ the mens tag division as well... there should be only one tag team champions and one womens champion. There was way too many dang titles that's made having a title in WWE utterly worthless.
The 24/7 title is more exciting than the Tag titles of either division. That says something.
Unless Ronda comes back and gets a partner, they're probably a lost cause.
Nikki Cross gets it. In her match with Carmella on SD last night, nobody expected Carmella to win, since Cross is in a match at the next PPV while Carmella is not. But Cross got a pretty good match out of Carmella for the time given. What I really liked was the attention to detail - Bayley was at ringside "scouting" one of her PPV opponents, but Cross kept the focus on her match with Carmella - as she is supposed to do. Not only that, but when she pinned Carmella - she didn't just hook the leg, but she looked down at her shoulders and put her other hand on Carmella's face during the pin. There are so many sloppy pin attempts by most of the roster, it is refreshing when someone like Cross comes along who understands that they are trying to make everything look as real as possible.
With a main roster (if people weren't injured) of almost 30 women, one title would put even a bigger limit on who we get to see on TV or at PPVs. You bring up a good point about the actual need of a women's tag division, and as someone who was excited about the potential, they've certainly crapped all over the tag division. But having just one singles title wouldn't work with the large roster they have.
They have a deep womens roster, but of the 30ish that they have... I'd say less than 10 are title worthy. A lot of them are barely on TV or just bottom of the barrel jobbers.
There is only 1 set of women's tag titles though. It hasn't shallowed the division. The booking has just made it irrelevant. Sasha and Bayley, they had the right idea with them. Having them show up on Raw, SD, even NXT. It was a smart move. It would still be a smart move because it would open up the possibilities when you're factoring the NXT brands (US and UK).
The other thing is...If they would just stick to brand exclusive championships and talent for the singles belts then it wouldn't be so bad.
The wild card rule has been particularly odd for the women’s division. While I like the Bayley/Cross/Bliss feud, it is really weakening the SD! women’s division to have two Raw superstars challenge for the SD! title for two months in a row.
I’m still waiting for a Trish/Lita tag team title run...
Ronda and Shayna's two woman power trip will save this division
Just gotta say that Io on NXT was just massively boo'd (in a great way). Her promo was short and sweet: I don't need any friends. I don't need any of you. *mic drop* and she got a huge heel reaction. Proof that you don't need a 5 minute promo. Now, I personally love Io and I think she's the best women's wrestler in the entire company (and one of the best wrestlers, male or female), but her turning on Candice and beating the shit out of her made me a solid believer of her as a mega heel and instantly made me a fan of Candice, someone who I've been lukewarm on in the past. Simple, yet effective booking.
I'll have to check this out. I was very curious how the NXT audience would react on tv to Io Shirai as a heel. I think at one point they tried it with Asuka and it failed miserably. I think it was the Bayley matches. Shirai....She's beautiful, incredible in the ring, but having her turn on Candice who is pretty fucking loved by the crowd was a smart move as opposed to having her beat the fuck out of someone like Mia Yim.
Is a sinus infection really limiting Alexa’s ability to wrestle? I literally just had one and didn’t miss a days work.
The last sinus infection that I had happened to be coming back from vacation, and it got worse because of the air pressure change on the flight home. It can mess with your voice - and in Alexa's case, her second strongest asset (after her hotness) is her ability on the mic. They were able to keep the story moving without her, and it really helped Nikki Cross in a big way.
Get well soon, Miss Bliss.
My ex would get them so bad that she couldn't even walk it was making her extremely dizzy and sick to her stomach. So I can definitely see someone not wanting to try and wrestle with a severe sinus infection.
I don't know what you do for a living though so maybe you're tightrope walking with a fire staff and can pull this shit off like a boss.
I know I often get bad headaches as a result of sinus infections.
They can throw your whole equilibrium off and I was hospitalised for that when I was little. Later on, the minorest things would set it off like once in high school I was randomly bleeding all over my textbook or filling the pool with blood when swimming a couple of times. Especially bad in cold weather. Not fun.
Ok clearly I had a mild sinus infection, I didnt experience any nose bleeds nor was I dizzy.
I had a horrible one once back in high school. I jumped out of bed and fell over on my face because my balance was so thrown off. Then the whole day it felt like I was walking while leaning. So fucking weird. My doctor told me it was one of the worst he had seen.
Out of curiosity, are they building up any womens tag teams down in NXT or NXT UK?
Team Kick, Dakota Kai and Tegan Nox, are both back healed up from injury and are both excellent athletes. Aliyah and Vanessa Bourne are a tag team, but I've not really been overly impressed with them. Marina and Jessamyn are obviously a tag team, but are still pretty damned green. Other than that, I think new teams/random pairings. I am not aware of any tag teams in the women's division of NXT UK.
There were some matches I missed on RAW which I finally got around to watching. The 4 Way to determine who would face Becky at SummerSlam was not good, not good at all. That's not how you showcase the division. It was way too long and exposed the weaknesses of most of the women in the ring. It shouldn't have been more than 10 min. On top of that, Carmella is a face, but she was wrestling like a heel. She repeatedly covered both Naomi and Nattie and kept screaming when she didn't get the pin. That's heel behavior. Was Carmella told to do that, or did she just forget she's been a face for the past year?
It was not a good match, and the women (particularly Bliss/Naomi) deserved the "this is awful" chants. And the "you suck" chants at Bliss were definitely not because she was playing the heel in the match. I don't mean that to be disrespectful to the women; I believe had a match like that had taken place with the men it would have received the same treatment. It was 10 minutes too long, way too many rest holds, and way too many times Bliss was playing the cowardly heel. And I swear I am not intentionally coming for Bliss. Naomi looked like she was phoning it in. Plus, you take two women like Naomi and Natalya, neither who have been featured since MITB, someone who is a bit overexposed like Bliss, and a SD! superstar (Carmella), and you wonder why the crowd didn't give a shit. Honestly, Cross was one of the more entertaining parts of the match, and she wasn't even in it.
Becky vs Natalya will certainly be a solid wrestling match as both are excellent technicians. I am just not sure that's the kind of match people at Summerslam will want to see. I'd like to see it, but I think I am in the minority.
The match was booked badly, with 3 faces and a cowardly heel who had outside help, plus the face champ on commentary right outside the ring.
I actually thought Carmella looked okay, and her covering Naomi and Nattie came off to me more as "everyone is there for themselves". She did her job well, which I thought was to further the narrative that Bliss stood a chance to somehow squeak a victory. And face it, going in, much of the crowd expected them to go with Bliss because she's got a story going on. Carmella's best part of the night was convincing R-Truth to go hide at Comic-Con.
Naomi is talented, but she rarely looks like she cares when she isn't booked to win. While her offense is good, she usually doesn't sell very well, except when she completely oversells. She looks powerful enough that her strikes could be powerful, but the flip side is that when she's barely slapped or tossed outside the ring, she shouldn't be down for 90 seconds.
I thought the best part of the match were the short promo by both Nattie and Becky. Nattie is normally passable at best on the mic, but she showed some fire. I am hoping they can bring out the best in each other.
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