Monday, July 27, 2020

WWE Is Ruining... Asuka


Remember NXT Asuka? Truly an awesome force. She made sense. She was better than everyone, but if you made her mad, she stepped it up and just whooped ass on whoever was dumb enough to offend her sensibilities. It was phenomenal, and although she came up during one of the most shallow times for women's wrestling in WWE, she may be the greatest NXT Women's Champion. 

Then she joined the main roster, and things went downhill. They became so obsessed with the undefeated streak, which probably should have been ended by Ember Moon before Asuka was brought up to the main roster. But it wasn't, so she not only remained undefeated, but that streak had to include the Royal Rumble, so she won that as opposed to "losing" a match. 

So then she goes to Wrestlemania and loses to Charlotte, meaning that this massive undefeated streak never even led to a main roster title. Things got worse from there as she was unable to overcome the dominant reign of Carmella as she constantly got bamboozled by James Ellsworth. 

It took them about two years, but they finally figured out that Asuka is awesome. There have been some bumps in the road, but she is now never far from the main event picture, which is where she belongs as long as she wants to continue wrestling. As I write this, she just kind of lost her title to Sasha Banks at Extreme Rules, but not really since nearly every finish in WWE has some sort of cockamamie ending that makes no sense. Still, it's Sasha Banks and Asuka, and not even WWE could find a way to totally screw that up, but they did still find a way to screw it up as much as possible.

I had the pleasure of seeing Asuka at dumpy little house shows when she was doing the NXT loops, and she's a star. The WWE tried to deny that since English is not a strength, although even in that regard, she has made tremendous strides. Still, let Asuka be Asuka. She can convey everything about her character without a word, and I just hope they keep her away from James Ellsworth in the future.

Other Wrestlers WWE Is Ruining
Aiden English
AJ Styles
Brock Lesnar
Buddy Murphy
Carmella
Cesaro
Chad Gable
Posted by at 1 comment:

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

WWE Is Ruining... Drew Gulak


Drew Gulak does not seem like a WWE guy. He's not an overwhelming physical specimen, he's not incredibly athletic, and he's not a huge personality. Although he can do just about anything in the ring, nothing really stands out when you give him a first look. He's the type of guy that can easily get lost in the shuffle. But Gulak has defied the odds and actually found a nice niche in the WWE Universe.

He did it originally on 205 Live with possibly the only good use of Powerpoint in history. But he was able to pivot and become a pure wrestler, in the mold of Daniel Bryan and align himself with Bryan and most recently, Matt Riddle. 

He has been in more of a sidekick role, but a sidekick role that has seen him get wins over AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura in the process which doesn't sound like a bad place to be. But those wins were meant to be as meaningless as possible as he could never come through in matches that were important. 

How I would describe Drew Gulak right now is that he's in the mix. Right now, he doesn't seem to be a relevant title challenger to any belt, but it wouldn't be too shocking if six months down the line, he has a legitimate shot at the IC Title or has a strong partner where he could challenge for the tag titles. Not everybody is a World Champion who leads the company for a decade, but Drew Gulak is a guy who can put on a good match with anybody, and he has enough intangibles in other areas to be remain a valuable part of the WWE roster.

It took them a while to figure it out, but the WWE and Drew Gulak are in a good spot these days.

Other Wrestlers WWE Is Ruining
Aiden English
AJ Styles
Brock Lesnar
Buddy Murphy
Carmella
Cesaro
Chad Gable
Posted by at 1 comment:

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

WWE Is Ruining... Alexa Bliss

Alexa Bliss is fantastic. Obviously, with the name of this series, I crap on WWE a lot, but Alexa Bliss is an undeniable success. They managed to take a fitness competitor, bring her to the performance center, and transform her into a fairy. She found her way out of that gimmick and found a voice that has made her one of the most compelling characters in the organization over these last few years.

But everybody knows how good Alexa Bliss is on the microphone. Maybe even more incredible is the progress she has made in the ring. She may not be in the discussion for best female wrestler in the world, but she has gotten light years better from when she started. Despite her diminutive size, her offense looks much more realistic, and it's made everything better. I also think that being in a tag team for a while isn't the worst thing for her.

Ultimately, no real complaints with Bliss. Right now she is a face, but she'll transition back to her natural spot of heel and continue being one of the most charismatic wrestlers in the world. This is a feather in the cap for the WWE Development system so bravo to everyone involved. 


Other Wrestlers WWE Is Ruining
Aiden English
AJ Styles
Brock Lesnar
Buddy Murphy
Carmella
Cesaro
Chad Gable
Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels: , ,

Monday, July 13, 2020

WWE Is Ruining... MVP


MVP recently came back, and originally, I thought he was just a random Royal Rumble occurrence to get a quick pop and be on his way. But months later, MVP is still around, still showing up every week on Raw, still having his most meaningful feud be with a lady.

I have to say that I've been fairly happy with MVP's usage up to this point. He's a jobber as a wrestler, but he's a manipulative manager who can do the speaking for some less charismatic clients. It also appears that he's working on putting a stable together, and as anyone who has been reading these pieces knows, I love me some stables as they are not used nearly enough in WWE which causes WWE to just put random guys together with no thought put into it. As I write this, I am watching Humberto Carrillo and Aleister Black team up which proves my point better than words ever could.

So just let MVP do his work. Job out in matches, get his comeuppance from good guys but continue to manipulate very talented wrestlers to get them to more important levels than they would achieve on their own. 


Other Wrestlers WWE Is Ruining
Aiden English
AJ Styles
Brock Lesnar
Buddy Murphy
Carmella
Cesaro
Chad Gable
Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels: , ,

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

WWE Is Ruining... The Forgotten Sons

The Forgotten Sons were surprisingly pushed to the main roster and immediately found themselves in the tag title picture. Then Jaxson Ryker decided to share his political beliefs. The problem with Ryker sharing his political beliefs isn't totally that they're dumb as dog shit; it's that he's not talented enough to share his political opinions. You've got to have a little more clout and actual in-ring talent to share something out of the ordinary. Since that point, they have been off television, so here's the first step. Just release Jaxson Ryker. He sucks way more than a lot of the talent released, so just dump his ass and turn the tag team back into a two-person tag team.

After that, let Wesley Blake reclaim the greatest catchphrase that NXT house shows have ever seen, "Garbage." Just let this man exaggeratedly call everything garbage, and then print the damn money.

Let Steve Cutler play the straight man. Change their name to The Garbage Sons, and they can refer to their former teammate as White Trash.

Boom, you got yourselves a viable tag team now. 


Other Wrestlers WWE Is Ruining
Aiden English
AJ Styles
Brock Lesnar
Buddy Murphy
Carmella
Cesaro
Chad Gable
Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels: , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)