Pro Wrestling! (For Everything WWE , Impact , Indies & Japan !)

[Punisher007]

In the case of Charlotte Flair, I don't think the nepotism arguement really holds water. She's good enough to be in the position she's in.

But certainly it's fair to argue WWE basically made Asuka an after though. They are prioritizing the 4 horsewomen as part of the build up for the Wrestlemania main event, and I do think that is basically putting the rest of the womans division in their shadow.

They could have put Asuka in a mid-card feud with a mid-card opponent... and I think that was the original plan. Probably Mandy and Sonya, based on how the storylines were going. But at the very last minute they seemed to scrap it for whatever reason. I can't say I'll miss the match as it honestly would have been just filler... but certainly I feel bad for Asuka.

I do think it holds water because there are other talented women on the roster who do not get these opportunities.

What made Roman "Roman" and made people turn against him, despite him being a really good performer actually (as is Charlotte) was that he was constantly forced into big situations whether or not he "earned" them in-story or not.

Charlotte is the same way:

-Becky won the RR, eliminating Charlotte. Yet Charlotte gets put into the Mania ME just because she's Charlotte, and Becky (who won the RR), has to beat Charlotte AGAIN at Fastlane to get into the match that she already earned.

-Charlotte shows up on SDL and is handed a title match out of nowhere with no explanation (even the commentators seemed like they didn't know how to explain it and were trying to make something up on the fly), and despite doing nothing to earn it (and a #1 contender's match being advertised as late as the previous day). And she's booked to win as decisively as possible, and Asuka is screwed out of her own Mania match.

-The only explanation seems to be, she's Charlotte and she NEEDS that title going into Mania in WWE's minds.

-Etc.


THIS is where the Roman comparisons come in. For comparison, Roman kept losing to Brock, yet kept being gifted more title shots with little to no explanation for why. Braun didn't get a rematch when lost to Brock, nor did Joe, nor did Finn, nor did Kane, etc. Yet Roman did seemingly, just because he's Roman. And many perceive Charlotte the same way as well.

[Angelo2113]

The thing is, you cannot sacrifice everyone else for the sake of one match or three people. You need other credible challengers and WWE has been abysmal at doing that recently.

Vince has done that for years and will continue to do so. He's hardly a creator these days, just a manufacturer.

[XPac]

I do think it holds water because there are other talented women on the roster who do not get these opportunities.

What made Roman "Roman" and made people turn against him, despite him being a really good performer actually (as is Charlotte) was that he was constantly forced into big situations whether or not he "earned" them in-story or not.

Charlotte is the same way:

-Becky won the RR, eliminating Charlotte. Yet Charlotte gets put into the Mania ME just because she's Charlotte, and Becky (who won the RR), has to beat Charlotte AGAIN at Fastlane to get into the match that she already earned.

-Charlotte shows up on SDL and is handed a title match out of nowhere with no explanation (even the commentators seemed like they didn't know how to explain it and were trying to make something up on the fly), and despite doing nothing to earn it (and a #1 contender's match being advertised as late as the previous day). And she's booked to win as decisively as possible, and Asuka is screwed out of her own Mania match.

-The only explanation seems to be, she's Charlotte and she NEEDS that title going into Mania in WWE's minds.

-Etc.


THIS is where the Roman comparisons come in. For comparison, Roman kept losing to Brock, yet kept being gifted more title shots with little to no explanation for why. Braun didn't get a rematch when lost to Brock, nor did Joe, nor did Finn, nor did Kane, etc. Yet Roman did seemingly, just because he's Roman. And many perceive Charlotte the same way as well.

Sure other women don't get the same opportunities Charlotte gets. And the same could be said for Roman, Cena, Rock, Austin, Hogan, etc etc. In wrestling there are main eventers and mid-carders, and main eventers by definition get more main events.

In storyline terms yes she is getting opportunities without necessarily earning them. But from a meta standpoint she's put in these positions because she's as over as she is and as good a perfromer as she is. And as long as she keeps getting heat and puts out arguably the best matches on the PPV she's in, she'll likely continue to be put in those postions because thats how wrestling works.

That's not to say that people like Charlotte can't be used to put people over. She spent the first half the year jobbing to Carmella and the second half jobbing to Becky. But when Wrestlemania comes around, the big stars get the spotlight. Main eventers (or people they are making into main eventers) get matches, and the mid-card guys get whatever random battle royal they are having that year. If this were Backlash instead of Wrestlemania we'd probably be getting Asuka vs Mandy or whatever. But for Wrestlemania, that sort of thing is harder to squeeze onto the show.

[titanfan]

The thing is, you cannot sacrifice everyone else for the sake of one match or three people. You need other credible challengers and WWE has been abysmal at doing that recently.

Imho, this is the downsize of WWE's big roster and it's own developmental. You actually can bury everyone else on the roster because whenever you need a new challenger you can bring people up. (Or someone will be back from injury that you can give a mini-push to, etc)

[XPac]

Imho, this is the downsize of WWE's big roster and it's own developmental. You actually can bury everyone else on the roster because whenever you need a new challenger you can bring people up. (Or someone will be back from injury that you can give a mini-push to, etc)

For the men, that's true. On most WWE rosters they usually have more talent than they need, and when the roster is thin they can call up talent from NXT. So there's a system in place. That said, I don't think it' entirely fair to say they don't make new stars. Once Kofi caught on, WWE did a pretty amazing job of transitioning from a mid-carder into a main eventer practically overnight. Based on fan reaction, you can argue he's currently the most over male superstar in the company.

I think it's harder for the women though, because there's usually only like 8 or so women on each division. On Smackdown for example, you have 2 top stars in Becky and Charlotte, with Asuka and Naiomi on rung under them, with very green newcomes making up the rest of the division. They tried building up Carmella earlier in the year by having her beat Charlotte and Asuka, but once Becky and CHarlotte became WWE's main event both of them weren't really going to be used to build up new talent. That basically leaves Asuka and Naiomi to try and put over Mandy and build her up.

It's a tough balancing act, because you want to make new stars but you also want to protect your established ones to some degree. People complain about them not making new stars, but people were sort of rolling their eyes when Charlotte and Asuka were losing to Carmella or Mandy too. It's sort of a trial and error thing.

[HUTHAIFA]

Reportedly the issue is promo ability which I can believe.

Which is hilarious because most of the women can barely do a half decent promo.

Here is the thing about Asuka. She isn't a true face.

She is a seductive mysterious force of nature. Her cutting promos takes away her mystique.

[HUTHAIFA]

For the men, that's true. On most WWE rosters they usually have more talent than they need, and when the roster is thin they can call up talent from NXT. So there's a system in place. That said, I don't think it' entirely fair to say they don't make new stars. Once Kofi caught on, WWE did a pretty amazing job of transitioning from a mid-carder into a main eventer practically overnight. Based on fan reaction, you can argue he's currently the most over male superstar in the company.

I think it's harder for the women though, because there's usually only like 8 or so women on each division. On Smackdown for example, you have 2 top stars in Becky and Charlotte, with Asuka and Naiomi on rung under them, with very green newcomes making up the rest of the division. They tried building up Carmella earlier in the year by having her beat Charlotte and Asuka, but once Becky and CHarlotte became WWE's main event both of them weren't really going to be used to build up new talent. That basically leaves Asuka and Naiomi to try and put over Mandy and build her up.

It's a tough balancing act, because you want to make new stars but you also want to protect your established ones to some degree. People complain about them not making new stars, but people were sort of rolling their eyes when Charlotte and Asuka were losing to Carmella or Mandy too. It's sort of a trial and error thing.

But you can just throw enhancement talent at them. It's better to have a beat the clock match with Mercedes Martinez than Ruby Riott.

[Punisher007]

"Hmm, people aren't buying our SDL Women's Division. Well we could, you know, try building them up. Nah, lets just bury them further and turn the SDL belt into an accessory to a RAW title feud, that'll fix the problem." This company sometimes.

-Asuka taps out Becky, their most over star, clean at the RR. You'd think that this would lead to them building her up right, because why else do it?

-Nope, she doesn't appear on TV for THREE WEEKS following the RR, then when she does come back it's just to lose to Mandy in a lame way, then neither she nor Mandy were on TV the week after to follow up on it.

-She beats Mandy and Sonya in matches, because they cost each other the matches, which does nothing to help.

-She's off TV again.

-This happens.

Hey WWE, the reason why this is a problem is because YOU MADE IT ONE, YOU'RE WRITING THE FREAKING SHOW!! Asuka shouldn't be screwed out of her Mania match because you're too incompetent to come up with a good story for her despite having MONTHS to potentially do so.

[XPac]

Which is hilarious because most of the women can barely do a half decent promo.

Here is the thing about Asuka. She isn't a true face.

She is a seductive mysterious force of nature. Her cutting promos takes away her mystique.

The fact that most women can't cut a half descent promo is probaby why Alexa (probably the best female mic worker in the company) is the only woman who has been able to really reach the sale level as the 4 horse women in the WWE outside of Ronda.

That said, I do think both Nikki and Ruby can talk. So I think they potentially can get to the next level in the WWE.

[master of read]

last night's riffdowns was heated to be sure. the reason? my friends had differing opinions on it. everyone knew it was bullshit. problem was, my friend matis was the only one who saw asuka dropping the belt. you see, matis is a hardcore WWE apologist. regardless of how crap the booking is, he is known for just believing the E has a plan. and he firmly believes that asuka losing is part of some grand master plan and the E is playing the marks and using their anger for more views. he literally spent a solid hour trying to weave this narritive that asuka was gonna get her win back months down the line.

needless to say, my other friend, matty, was not happy about this and got super upset with him on it.

[Immortal Weapon]

last night's riffdowns was heated to be sure. the reason? my friends had differing opinions on it. everyone knew it was bullshit. problem was, my friend matis was the only one who saw asuka dropping the belt. you see, matis is a hardcore WWE apologist. regardless of how crap the booking is, he is known for just believing the E has a plan. and he firmly believes that asuka losing is part of some grand master plan and the E is playing the marks and using their anger for more views. he literally spent a solid hour trying to weave this narritive that asuka was gonna get her win back months down the line.

needless to say, my other friend, matty, was not happy about this and got super upset with him on it.

I don't know how anyone can believe WWE has a master plan with how poor the build up to this years mania. There's been so many changes and scrapped plans all over the the card.

[XPac]

last night's riffdowns was heated to be sure. the reason? my friends had differing opinions on it. everyone knew it was bullshit. problem was, my friend matis was the only one who saw asuka dropping the belt. you see, matis is a hardcore WWE apologist. regardless of how crap the booking is, he is known for just believing the E has a plan. and he firmly believes that asuka losing is part of some grand master plan and the E is playing the marks and using their anger for more views. he literally spent a solid hour trying to weave this narritive that asuka was gonna get her win back months down the line.

needless to say, my other friend, matty, was not happy about this and got super upset with him on it.

Honestly I do think the most likely person to eventually defeat Charlotee for the Smackdown title would be Asuka. Becky is probably going to RAW when she wins the RAW title. I can't think of any face in her league at the moment apart from Asuka. Naiomi I suppose is a possibility as well.

Course by then we'll have a superstar shake up, so there will be more options. I could see Ember Moon beating her too.

[XPac]

I don't know how anyone can believe WWE has a master plan with how poor the build up to this years mania. There's been so many changes and scrapped plans all over the the card.

There does seem to be a lot of changes to the card... but honestly I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Due to the nature of wrestling, I sort of think you have to do that a lot of the time.

I believe the original plan for Wrestlemania was Ronda and Charlotee... but Becky getting over warrents her being put in the main event regardless of their original plan. And the same applies to Kofi. Even if Kevin Owens was the original opponent planned for Bryan (and he would have been a GREAT opponent... KO could have had a lot of fun with Bryans current gimmck), Kofi getting over to the degree he did justifies changing the plans at the last minute.

I think it's a strength of their part that they can change gears when the terrain changes. And that can mean some last minute booking which has it's share of holes, but that can be better than just sticking to the original plan no matter what.

[master of read]

I don't know how anyone can believe WWE has a master plan with how poor the build up to this years mania. There's been so many changes and scrapped plans all over the the card.

that's just how matis is. he will forgive anything the E does because they have succeeded in the past.


in unrelated news, we now know why jojo hasn't been around the last few months.

bray wyatt knocked her up

[AdventureBliss]

Personally, I said (elsewhere) when it was first mooted that the main event of Mania would be Becky, Charlotte and Ronda, that while that is a perfectly fine Wrestlemania match, for it to be the main event the rest of the card would have to be very poorly booked and underwhelming in order for that to happen. Now we know the card (for the most part) I stand by that assessment.

So who did The Riott Squad tick off backstage to be constantly humiliated like this, jeez!

I really feel for the Riott Squad, Jobbed out at every opportunity to try and get less interesting people more over.