Runa216 said:
JWeinCom said:
Been a bit busy and not following wrestling as much, but Backlash was a very nice little surprise. I had low expectations that were blown away.
Rollins vs Rhodes was great. Old schoolish match with a story as Rollins was now prepared for everything Cody was doing and he had to adapt. But also had some great spots. Surprised they went with a rollup finish as I don't see where this feud goes unless they want to beat Rollins thrice. But great match.
Lashley vs Omos surprised. Omos is getting much better with his movement. He's not gonna be the next Big Show, but also probably not the next Khali. Having a guy that size who can make Lashley look like David instead of Goliath is an asset. Good Raw match quality, nothing more.
Rousey vs Flair was surprisingly good. Rousey does some things well, but transitions between spots isn't quite there yet. So, whoever said "ok make it I Quit so the ref can check on her between spots" deserves a raise. This also had the benefit of being the one true grudge match with weapons and all over brawling, which helped it stand off. Surprisingly exceeded Rollins and Rhodes for me.
Moss vs Corbin was, whatever. I sort of like the characters cause I love puns, but I'm not all that interested in seeing them fight. It was fine.
Edge vs AJ Styles was... ok. It's not that it wasn't really good, it's just that the chemistry between them just isn't what you'd expect it to be. Considering how good each person is, you'd expect it to be an all time classic, and it was good, just not that good.
The main event on the other hand was really good. All the people involved come off like stars. Because they scrapped the unification stip, it lacked stakes which made it hard to get into, but once they got rolling, it was just six really fucking good wrestlers doing what they do. Mcyntyre and Reigns is obviously the build for Summerslam and they teased it just enough here to start building to that. This was a 6 man spotfest kind of match but everything was executed so well, and again, it benefitted from being the only type of that match on the card.
Maybe just my low expectations, but I thought this was great. My one complaint is that there was only one women's match. I'm not saying there has to necessarily be a quota, but it's hard to justify Omos, Corbin, and Moss having a spot on the card when Bianca Belair doesn't. In general, there is a problem with how many talented people are in the company and the amount of PPV time. I sort of liked it better when they had separate PPVs for Raw and Smackdown so you could cycle through people a little more. It's a catch 22, because I get why you want your biggest stars on every show, but then you don't get as much opportunity to build other people. You want to use your veterans but this show didn't exactly feature a lot of spring chickens. |
If WWE put more time into their matches instead of Pre-Match packages and in-between skits they could easily fit twice as many feuds onto a card and still keep under 3 hours. I think like 60% of their PPV time is preamble and garbage nobody cares about or was on the pre-show or was already seen in Raw/Smackdown. when I go to Wikipedia after a PPV and see that half the matches are ten minutes or under, I just wonder how that's justified internally. This was a 3-hour PPV and only just over half of it (93 minutes, 45 seconds) was matches. and that's an abnormally high ratio! |
I think video packages are important. You have to remember three things. First off, not everyone watches the shows weekly. I haven't been able to see much this month, so I needed the reminder. Second, there is a live audience, and sitting in event live is different than watching it at home. People need to get up, get snakcs, give WWE their merchandise money, take a piss, etc, and just to generally come down from a match to be ready to get energetic for the next. Third, these shows do not just air once. When I watch old PPVs from time to time, I have no idea why anyone was fighting anyone, and would be completely lost without the packages, so even if I was watching Raw and Smackdown religiously, I would still need those packages if I ever rewatched it.
I'm not saying the exact ratio is correct, but I don't think an average of 5 minutes of packages is unreasonable for most matches. And, a good chunk of the non-wrestling time is also entrances and I love me a good entrance. I generally don't feel super bothered about it when I'm watching the events. And of course, you don't necessarily have to watch it live, so you can always catch up the next day and skip through, although that does nothing to resolve the issues of not featuring enough talent.
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