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| Mirror color schemes on oddly similar tracks Photo Credit: WWE.com |
In every long-term endeavor, there are aspects of it that come to fruition the way the creator intended, and there are, let's be charitable and call them the other aspects. This is a subtle reminder that should be carried forward in all ways of life, but especially those that find their home in the arts. Completely coincidentally, the first September Main Event WWE put on started off with Dolph Ziggler and Damien Sandow before ending with Not Cody and Not Dustin Rhodes and had a middle that was a Total Divas infomercial with a wrestling match coating.
So let's be kinder before we get rougher, hehn? Let's note right away after months of taking on water and sinking towards irrelevancy in the cases of both former MITB holders, Ziggler is now finding new life as the Intercontinental Champion and Sandow as the erstwhile Zoe Bell to Miz's Uma Thurman. The program kicked off with a match, but not before Sandow hosted an episode of MizTV. (Joined already in progress, though. Ouch. A sign of Sandow's base on the win-loss totem pole since he blew his chance at John Cena or a masterstroke tying into the faux-Mizaninanity? Who can even say anymore?) Having been set up by a Sandow stunt double stunt (sorry) that led to Miz beating Ziggler the night before on Raw and adding some extra sizzle to Miz's upcoming rematch, Ziggler first sought out retribution first with repartee and then with action. Sandow looked decent with the offense he managed to get, sure, but the outcome was never in doubt whether or not Damien could replicate moves from his boss' playbook. Ziggler dodged the figure four a couple of times and the second counter lead directly to a Zig Zag faster than you can say show over.
Unfortunately for those who aren't fans, Total Divas is set to begin, leading to an absolute fustercluck tag match where you couldn't tell the faces from the heels and not all the divas involved were on the show that's coming to an exclamation point of a network near you and far, far away from the BCB. Summer Rae teamed with Layla. This is fine; this is the narrative on WWE TV since the Fandango implosion. However, from what commercials have been gleaned from entire seconds of seeing before flipping, Summer comes off as a total Too $hort's favorite word and Layla's not on the show. They went up against Rosa Mendes and Natalya. Pretty sure Rosa was last seen as a heel on WWE TV, but on TD she's the wild card Nattie gets more or less assigned to babysit by the higher-ups with the always Lumburghian "You're the best we have, you're the only one that can do this for us, enjoy this job that sounds like something hitting the fan" with Nattie slightly grumbling -- keep in mind, she's Canadian, so not getting full vitriolic or anything -- that if she wanted to babysit somebody she'd still be with Summer. Anyhow, Rosa was in the ring, and wasn't horrible even though she was a step slow at times and there was a wardrobe malfunction that might not be a malfunction.
This is another Reality Era thing where the glitches in the Matrix seem to be getting retconned into features. Of course, Nattie was so good at what she did no matter her reservations about doing it she got Rosa chants started before the match was even five minutes old and Rosa was drawing Antarctic heat pre-match and would've died a slow death with a lesser partner. As it was, their team died a wholly predictable flash death when Rosa blind tagged in and then spent time reassuring Natalya in the ring that absolutely everything was fine and nothing was wrong. She might as well as been holding up some punk hit-and-run kid for a guy dressed up like the Gorton's mascot with a hook for a weapon as Layla (you know, the babyface) flash kicked Rosa down and shoved Nattie out of the ring to get her side the victory. So...hooray? Good for the heelish goods? Aw phooey for the the happy heels? Or since it was more promotion than match execution is looking for pesky things like logical long-term storytelling best left for morons and fools?
And a more serious question: if the Dust Brothers are heels, why isn't the crowd booing them? Furthermore, considering the fact we've seen both Cody and Dustin be capable heels before, why aren't they doing more with their work during matches to make the crowd boo them? One taunt that can't be heard by the majority of the watching in-arena audience doesn't count. They even ran a short video prematch where they showed the biggest jerk move they've pulled off since jumping to the black hats where Cody chaired Jey's injured leg into the post, and then Cody sort of shrugged and gave his best Babbo smile and the crowd went
"Oh, right. They so crazy. YAY FAMILIAR PEOPLE!" Maybe they should be against someone on these Tuesday nights who aren't the Matadores, as it took two segments for some reason to pull off what could've been accomplished with a four-minute win followed by a post-match beatdown and reverse decision. You know, just as an idea of a way to get booed or even vaguely unsettled. The Matadores came out Very Serious actually showing continued storytelling from the previous week's match and dominated early and lasted longer. It was only marred by the crowd chanting for Goldust on several occasions and the Rhodesia not getting booed once -- pre-match, during, post where Goldust laid one or the other one of them out with one shot sending them to the floor. Goose egg zip nada sad trombone do not pass go do not collect $200 do not get over without the midget, etc.
At some point, something's going to have to happen to get heat behind the other asp--the Rhodes brothers. But it should be noted, especially with the examples provided beforehand by the other matches in the show, you can garner it and it is acquirable rather easily. All it takes is a little moment and some support, and you too can get a crowd to react to you. And there's no question or series of them about that.
So let's be kinder before we get rougher, hehn? Let's note right away after months of taking on water and sinking towards irrelevancy in the cases of both former MITB holders, Ziggler is now finding new life as the Intercontinental Champion and Sandow as the erstwhile Zoe Bell to Miz's Uma Thurman. The program kicked off with a match, but not before Sandow hosted an episode of MizTV. (Joined already in progress, though. Ouch. A sign of Sandow's base on the win-loss totem pole since he blew his chance at John Cena or a masterstroke tying into the faux-Mizaninanity? Who can even say anymore?) Having been set up by a Sandow stunt double stunt (sorry) that led to Miz beating Ziggler the night before on Raw and adding some extra sizzle to Miz's upcoming rematch, Ziggler first sought out retribution first with repartee and then with action. Sandow looked decent with the offense he managed to get, sure, but the outcome was never in doubt whether or not Damien could replicate moves from his boss' playbook. Ziggler dodged the figure four a couple of times and the second counter lead directly to a Zig Zag faster than you can say show over.
Unfortunately for those who aren't fans, Total Divas is set to begin, leading to an absolute fustercluck tag match where you couldn't tell the faces from the heels and not all the divas involved were on the show that's coming to an exclamation point of a network near you and far, far away from the BCB. Summer Rae teamed with Layla. This is fine; this is the narrative on WWE TV since the Fandango implosion. However, from what commercials have been gleaned from entire seconds of seeing before flipping, Summer comes off as a total Too $hort's favorite word and Layla's not on the show. They went up against Rosa Mendes and Natalya. Pretty sure Rosa was last seen as a heel on WWE TV, but on TD she's the wild card Nattie gets more or less assigned to babysit by the higher-ups with the always Lumburghian "You're the best we have, you're the only one that can do this for us, enjoy this job that sounds like something hitting the fan" with Nattie slightly grumbling -- keep in mind, she's Canadian, so not getting full vitriolic or anything -- that if she wanted to babysit somebody she'd still be with Summer. Anyhow, Rosa was in the ring, and wasn't horrible even though she was a step slow at times and there was a wardrobe malfunction that might not be a malfunction.
This is another Reality Era thing where the glitches in the Matrix seem to be getting retconned into features. Of course, Nattie was so good at what she did no matter her reservations about doing it she got Rosa chants started before the match was even five minutes old and Rosa was drawing Antarctic heat pre-match and would've died a slow death with a lesser partner. As it was, their team died a wholly predictable flash death when Rosa blind tagged in and then spent time reassuring Natalya in the ring that absolutely everything was fine and nothing was wrong. She might as well as been holding up some punk hit-and-run kid for a guy dressed up like the Gorton's mascot with a hook for a weapon as Layla (you know, the babyface) flash kicked Rosa down and shoved Nattie out of the ring to get her side the victory. So...hooray? Good for the heelish goods? Aw phooey for the the happy heels? Or since it was more promotion than match execution is looking for pesky things like logical long-term storytelling best left for morons and fools?
And a more serious question: if the Dust Brothers are heels, why isn't the crowd booing them? Furthermore, considering the fact we've seen both Cody and Dustin be capable heels before, why aren't they doing more with their work during matches to make the crowd boo them? One taunt that can't be heard by the majority of the watching in-arena audience doesn't count. They even ran a short video prematch where they showed the biggest jerk move they've pulled off since jumping to the black hats where Cody chaired Jey's injured leg into the post, and then Cody sort of shrugged and gave his best Babbo smile and the crowd went
"Oh, right. They so crazy. YAY FAMILIAR PEOPLE!" Maybe they should be against someone on these Tuesday nights who aren't the Matadores, as it took two segments for some reason to pull off what could've been accomplished with a four-minute win followed by a post-match beatdown and reverse decision. You know, just as an idea of a way to get booed or even vaguely unsettled. The Matadores came out Very Serious actually showing continued storytelling from the previous week's match and dominated early and lasted longer. It was only marred by the crowd chanting for Goldust on several occasions and the Rhodesia not getting booed once -- pre-match, during, post where Goldust laid one or the other one of them out with one shot sending them to the floor. Goose egg zip nada sad trombone do not pass go do not collect $200 do not get over without the midget, etc.
At some point, something's going to have to happen to get heat behind the other asp--the Rhodes brothers. But it should be noted, especially with the examples provided beforehand by the other matches in the show, you can garner it and it is acquirable rather easily. All it takes is a little moment and some support, and you too can get a crowd to react to you. And there's no question or series of them about that.