It was famously said that Vince is a millionaire who should be a billionaire because his ego will not allow him to believe that his ideas might be out-of-date and that the fans who pay to see his product are cheering and chanting and getting behind guys that he hasn't hand-picked to be the face of the company.
Paging Rym to the thread, since it cannot be explained effectively in 140 characters.
Roman Reigns debuted in 2012, in a dominant group with two other well known independent wrestlers. Reigns was still a relative unknown and was clearly the weakest of the three breakout stars, but right from the beginning, he was Vince McMahon's chosen Golden Boy because he has "The Look" and is the Rock's cousin. The Royal Rumble was meant to be the event that established Reigns as The Guy, starting his push towards the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania this April.
However, the WWE has been forcing current top star John Cena down everyone's throats for the past 10 years, and the fans have steadily grown bored with the generic superhero good guy, built on the same model as Hulk Hogan. Since Cena is getting older and more broken down, they need a newer, younger star to take over. There are a number of guys that the fans have been solidly behind, absolutely desperate to see get a shot at the top - many of whom were involved in the Rumble, and were all unceremoniously removed from contention one by one. A few of them were literally dumped out of the ring like sacks of garbage.
Add to this that the show was in Philadelphia, the home of the most angry, bitter wrestling fans in the country who will not be told that they must get behind the traditional "Hero." Despite all of this, Vince McMahon went ahead with his original plan to completely ignore ALL of the crowd favorites and run with his original Golden Boy, who clearly isn't ready to spearhead this company yet.
So yes, we didn't like the way the show ended. But it's so much more than that - it's a culmination of a decade or more of Vince McMahon actively being at war with his fans, denying them what they want because he believes he knows best. It was famously said that Vince is a millionaire who should be a billionaire because his ego will not allow him to believe that his ideas might be out-of-date and that the fans who pay to see his product are cheering and chanting and getting behind guys that he hasn't hand-picked to be the face of the company. He would rather watch his company burn to the ground than admit that he was wrong.
It pisses people off even more when you think about the situation. It's not just that Vince pushed Reigns to win despite him just not being as popular as someone like Daniel Bryan. Look at how hard Vince tried:
-He eliminated Daniel Bryan before Reigns could come out so the more popular wrestler wouldn't outshine Vince's chosen star
-Other stars who might have gotten big pops like Dolph Ziggler, Dean Ambrose, and even Damian Sandow to some extend were not allowed to do anything of note in the match, most getting kicked out fairly quick
-He booked Reigns to not only eliminate the two members of the evil authority, Kane and Big Show.
-He booked Reigns to eliminate probably the most hated heel in the company, the evil Russian Rusev.
-He even flew the freaking Rock in to try to help get the fans to cheer for Reigns.
Look at the lengths Vince went to try to make you accept the guy he wants instead of the people the fans wish to cheer for. He bent over backwards trying to push the guy he personally wants instead of taking the much easier route of just giving the fans the people they want to see. So, what you saw, were the fans backlashing hard against the show.
The funniest thing about all this is that wrestling is fake. It's not like a real sport where the leagues have to hope that a popular player does well. In wrestling you can script whoever the fans are behind to look good.
Everyone should check this out. Chris Hero is going to wrestle on June 7th to benefit ALS Canada. The more donations he gets, the longer the match he wrestles. He's already doing two hours and he could go longer if they raise more money. Everything goes to ALS Canada. If you donate, you get a digital download of the match after it's recorded and edited and all that jazz. I would ask anyone who can to toss a few dollars their way.
I just started watching Lucha Underground last weekend, and I'm already 24 episodes into it. Holy crap guys.
It's essentially a Telemundo soap opera that just so happens to have incredible wrestling between the pre-taped backstage segments, and that really can't begin to describe it.
The tournament to crown the first ever Trios Tag Team Champions was probably the greatest storyline I've ever witnessed in my 17 years of wrestling fandom. God damn.
I watched all of Lucha Underground this fall. It was pretty cool and I'm definitely waiting for the second season. The first wresting thing I've really watched.
After that I've watched some NXT and while it's watchable and helps with withdrawals, it's not replacement.
It's amazing, when I started watching the current iteration of NXT when it first aired, I was blown away by how much better it was than the main WWE product. But Lucha Underground is really another level above that.
I've also checked out some RoH and NJPW, and those are awesome too. But after a few months of following it, I kinda fell off because there aren't enough hours in the week to watch all the wrestling that's out there.
While I'm certainly not an advocate for piracy in any way, I hear tell that watchwrestling.net is the place to go for any and all wrestling streaming you could ever need.
Yeah, it's kind of inside baseball from the SomethingAwful forums. You aren't allowed to post links to pirated material on there, but you can imply it.
Listen, I'm just gonna straight-up advocate for piracy to make you feel better.
Pirate that shit. Watch masked wrestlers fly from turnbuckles, and do it while illegally not paying for it, probably using Bittorrent or some other terrorist information transfer protocol that Jesus and the Constitution and the Founders never envisioned.
One thing I liked about Ultimate Lucha, was that I was able to start up episode 1 of season 1 and go from there like a TV series, getting the whole picture and following the story/stories from beginning to end. I don't think individual highlight youtubes can deliver that.
Comments
Bonus gif.
Paging Rym to the thread, since it cannot be explained effectively in 140 characters.
Roman Reigns debuted in 2012, in a dominant group with two other well known independent wrestlers. Reigns was still a relative unknown and was clearly the weakest of the three breakout stars, but right from the beginning, he was Vince McMahon's chosen Golden Boy because he has "The Look" and is the Rock's cousin. The Royal Rumble was meant to be the event that established Reigns as The Guy, starting his push towards the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania this April.
However, the WWE has been forcing current top star John Cena down everyone's throats for the past 10 years, and the fans have steadily grown bored with the generic superhero good guy, built on the same model as Hulk Hogan. Since Cena is getting older and more broken down, they need a newer, younger star to take over. There are a number of guys that the fans have been solidly behind, absolutely desperate to see get a shot at the top - many of whom were involved in the Rumble, and were all unceremoniously removed from contention one by one. A few of them were literally dumped out of the ring like sacks of garbage.
Add to this that the show was in Philadelphia, the home of the most angry, bitter wrestling fans in the country who will not be told that they must get behind the traditional "Hero." Despite all of this, Vince McMahon went ahead with his original plan to completely ignore ALL of the crowd favorites and run with his original Golden Boy, who clearly isn't ready to spearhead this company yet.
So yes, we didn't like the way the show ended. But it's so much more than that - it's a culmination of a decade or more of Vince McMahon actively being at war with his fans, denying them what they want because he believes he knows best. It was famously said that Vince is a millionaire who should be a billionaire because his ego will not allow him to believe that his ideas might be out-of-date and that the fans who pay to see his product are cheering and chanting and getting behind guys that he hasn't hand-picked to be the face of the company. He would rather watch his company burn to the ground than admit that he was wrong.
It pisses people off even more when you think about the situation. It's not just that Vince pushed Reigns to win despite him just not being as popular as someone like Daniel Bryan. Look at how hard Vince tried:
-He eliminated Daniel Bryan before Reigns could come out so the more popular wrestler wouldn't outshine Vince's chosen star
-Other stars who might have gotten big pops like Dolph Ziggler, Dean Ambrose, and even Damian Sandow to some extend were not allowed to do anything of note in the match, most getting kicked out fairly quick
-He booked Reigns to not only eliminate the two members of the evil authority, Kane and Big Show.
-He booked Reigns to eliminate probably the most hated heel in the company, the evil Russian Rusev.
-He even flew the freaking Rock in to try to help get the fans to cheer for Reigns.
Look at the lengths Vince went to try to make you accept the guy he wants instead of the people the fans wish to cheer for. He bent over backwards trying to push the guy he personally wants instead of taking the much easier route of just giving the fans the people they want to see. So, what you saw, were the fans backlashing hard against the show.
The funniest thing about all this is that wrestling is fake. It's not like a real sport where the leagues have to hope that a popular player does well. In wrestling you can script whoever the fans are behind to look good.
Pretty cool summery of Tripple H and how to get people on the wrassling.
f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/101-mexico/41727-perro-aguayo-jr-passes-away-in-tijuana-hospital-after-match-last-night
Never forget, whether you like wrestling or not, that it is a dangerous thing and freak accidents can happen. RIP.
It's essentially a Telemundo soap opera that just so happens to have incredible wrestling between the pre-taped backstage segments, and that really can't begin to describe it.
The tournament to crown the first ever Trios Tag Team Champions was probably the greatest storyline I've ever witnessed in my 17 years of wrestling fandom. God damn.
If you haven't seen it, watch it.
After that I've watched some NXT and while it's watchable and helps with withdrawals, it's not replacement.
I've also checked out some RoH and NJPW, and those are awesome too. But after a few months of following it, I kinda fell off because there aren't enough hours in the week to watch all the wrestling that's out there.
Also this:
I'm no good at foruming, okay?
Pirate that shit. Watch masked wrestlers fly from turnbuckles, and do it while illegally not paying for it, probably using Bittorrent or some other terrorist information transfer protocol that Jesus and the Constitution and the Founders never envisioned.
Also, those videos have some super spoilers.