A lot has happened in the world of professional wrestling since the last episode, so Matt and TL are here to sum up the highs and lows of Hell in a Cell, AEW Dynamite, NXT on USA, the brewing Wednesday Night War, the WWE Draft, and more!
One thought on “Cheap Popcast #104 – Bad Creative”
Great show guys! Sorry about the huge comment. I have a lot of thoughts and not many outlets to express them.
So with the Cain v Lesnar stuff I think a lot of people sick of Lesnar (me among those people) & it’s rumored that Cain was in talks with AEW so there’s that.
Three other points:
– I think TL brought up the Million Dollar Man’s background and while you’re not wrong about tons of people coming to wrestling from other athletic backgrounds most of those people didn’t immediately come into headlining spots. For example The Million Dollar Man had to work long and hard in the industry to even get himself to that level. Even then, he had a cup of coffee as a headliner and that was about it. Even Ken Shamrock they tried to stick him in a headliner position right away but pretty quickly backed off of that when they saw how rough he was in his match with HBK. Sure he would go on to have matches with big names like Steve Austin, The Rock and Undertaker but he never really headlined another event after his match with HBK. The problem is that modern WWE no longer knows when to back of on things. They put getting headlines over putting out a solid product.
– Wrestling fans as a whole (myself included) frequently like to point how certain things were better or worked in pre-2000s wrestling but it’s been over 20 years since the start of the Attitude Era. My point being both in and outside of wrestling the world is a very different place in 2019.
– Matt talked about WWE having to appeal to kids and a mainstream audience which you’re not wrong but also they’re doing everything they can to be edgy within the confines of their PG rating. Cause cuckold storylines are not for kids and WWE of 2019 as a whole doesn’t read like a product for kids but because they’ve managed to somehow hold on to their PG rating (guess because they don’t have much blood or use many weapons?) they get to have their cake and eat it too. My point being even though AEW’s ratings are insignificant compared to Raw & Smackdown Vince has always struck me as someone who wants what he can’t have and he wants that AEW audience. I’m pretty sure if he could shut down AEW tomorrow he would.
Where I’m at with WWE now, they have an incredible roster but outside of Becky, Bailey & Banks I have no desire to watch even a minute of their programming. Obviously WWE isn’t going anywhere and they won’t be missing my viewership but after 30+ years of watching WWF/WWE I think I’m done with them.
I unsubscribed to the network last year after the Greatest Royal Rumble and have not resubbed since. No longer having to look down the barrel of 10+ hours (about 2 of which was actually any good) of wrestling a week from a single company is freeing. And having watched about a handful of their PPVs at my cousin’s house since cancelling has left me feeling like I’m really not missing out on much. Their women’s division continues to be on fire so I miss watching that but otherwise they have an amazing pool of wrestlers that I don’t actually have much interest in watching.
I’m happy to limit myself to all non-WWE wrestling because I’m just so tired of that company as a whole and how they operate. I’m sure AEW will do things I don’t agree with (like hire Jake Hager) but I’m willing to give them more rope because they don’t have 30 years of history that will allow me to predict how things will go. Between AEW & NJPW I get more than enough wrestling out of these companies.
I get being annoyed by people talking crap about WWE & I certainly would never begrudge anyone for still being a WWE fan as they have a lot of amazing talent there but I think the vitriol you see being directed towards WWE speaks to how tired people are of the way that company operates and how ready people are for another major US based alternative. I also think thats one of the key differences between now and when TNA tried to make a real go at WWE is that I think the wrestling audience just wants alternatives now in a way that they didn’t as much back then.
Even with NXT, pure wrestling is great but I also need some sizzle which AEW strikes a nice balance for me and NXT still has just enough of the WWE stink on it that I just don’t want any part of it now. While I think AEW ever overtaking WWE frankly unrealistic. All I want is a solid product that doesn’t have the stink of a McMahon on it and I’ll be happy to watch their weekly 3 hours and the occasional PPV.
For me, I think the weaknesses AEW has (and they’re admittedly pretty major) is the women’s division, they need more people of color and I’m not a big body guy but they do need more of that kind of talent:
– None of the women in AEW are terrible but outside of Riho they’re all super green.
– They need at least a person of color in the main event scene. Enough said.
– As for big body people they need more. Wardlow will fit that bill nicely. He’s not a tall guy but he is stout so I’ll be interested to see how they use him.
It was brought up that wins and losses don’t matter because of the Pac situation but Pac won his last match per cheating and Cody mentioned in a tweet that the quality of wins matter. In kayfabe a cheating victory would probably be considered a low quality win. Also it seems like AEW plans to lean into this for a storyline as Pac complained about this on commentary recently. In the short time of AEW’s existence they’ve already been pretty good at acknowledging criticisms so we’ll see how it goes.
Again love the show guys and even though I don’t watch WWE anymore I will kind of always be interested in hearing about where the product is and you guys do great recaps. While I don’t like saying never, with where I’m at right now i genuinely have a hard time imagining myself watching anything WWE related right now. I don’t want them to go away, I just don’t feel like I need to watch them anymore.
Great show guys! Sorry about the huge comment. I have a lot of thoughts and not many outlets to express them.
So with the Cain v Lesnar stuff I think a lot of people sick of Lesnar (me among those people) & it’s rumored that Cain was in talks with AEW so there’s that.
Three other points:
– I think TL brought up the Million Dollar Man’s background and while you’re not wrong about tons of people coming to wrestling from other athletic backgrounds most of those people didn’t immediately come into headlining spots. For example The Million Dollar Man had to work long and hard in the industry to even get himself to that level. Even then, he had a cup of coffee as a headliner and that was about it. Even Ken Shamrock they tried to stick him in a headliner position right away but pretty quickly backed off of that when they saw how rough he was in his match with HBK. Sure he would go on to have matches with big names like Steve Austin, The Rock and Undertaker but he never really headlined another event after his match with HBK. The problem is that modern WWE no longer knows when to back of on things. They put getting headlines over putting out a solid product.
– Wrestling fans as a whole (myself included) frequently like to point how certain things were better or worked in pre-2000s wrestling but it’s been over 20 years since the start of the Attitude Era. My point being both in and outside of wrestling the world is a very different place in 2019.
– Matt talked about WWE having to appeal to kids and a mainstream audience which you’re not wrong but also they’re doing everything they can to be edgy within the confines of their PG rating. Cause cuckold storylines are not for kids and WWE of 2019 as a whole doesn’t read like a product for kids but because they’ve managed to somehow hold on to their PG rating (guess because they don’t have much blood or use many weapons?) they get to have their cake and eat it too. My point being even though AEW’s ratings are insignificant compared to Raw & Smackdown Vince has always struck me as someone who wants what he can’t have and he wants that AEW audience. I’m pretty sure if he could shut down AEW tomorrow he would.
Where I’m at with WWE now, they have an incredible roster but outside of Becky, Bailey & Banks I have no desire to watch even a minute of their programming. Obviously WWE isn’t going anywhere and they won’t be missing my viewership but after 30+ years of watching WWF/WWE I think I’m done with them.
I unsubscribed to the network last year after the Greatest Royal Rumble and have not resubbed since. No longer having to look down the barrel of 10+ hours (about 2 of which was actually any good) of wrestling a week from a single company is freeing. And having watched about a handful of their PPVs at my cousin’s house since cancelling has left me feeling like I’m really not missing out on much. Their women’s division continues to be on fire so I miss watching that but otherwise they have an amazing pool of wrestlers that I don’t actually have much interest in watching.
I’m happy to limit myself to all non-WWE wrestling because I’m just so tired of that company as a whole and how they operate. I’m sure AEW will do things I don’t agree with (like hire Jake Hager) but I’m willing to give them more rope because they don’t have 30 years of history that will allow me to predict how things will go. Between AEW & NJPW I get more than enough wrestling out of these companies.
I get being annoyed by people talking crap about WWE & I certainly would never begrudge anyone for still being a WWE fan as they have a lot of amazing talent there but I think the vitriol you see being directed towards WWE speaks to how tired people are of the way that company operates and how ready people are for another major US based alternative. I also think thats one of the key differences between now and when TNA tried to make a real go at WWE is that I think the wrestling audience just wants alternatives now in a way that they didn’t as much back then.
Even with NXT, pure wrestling is great but I also need some sizzle which AEW strikes a nice balance for me and NXT still has just enough of the WWE stink on it that I just don’t want any part of it now. While I think AEW ever overtaking WWE frankly unrealistic. All I want is a solid product that doesn’t have the stink of a McMahon on it and I’ll be happy to watch their weekly 3 hours and the occasional PPV.
For me, I think the weaknesses AEW has (and they’re admittedly pretty major) is the women’s division, they need more people of color and I’m not a big body guy but they do need more of that kind of talent:
– None of the women in AEW are terrible but outside of Riho they’re all super green.
– They need at least a person of color in the main event scene. Enough said.
– As for big body people they need more. Wardlow will fit that bill nicely. He’s not a tall guy but he is stout so I’ll be interested to see how they use him.
It was brought up that wins and losses don’t matter because of the Pac situation but Pac won his last match per cheating and Cody mentioned in a tweet that the quality of wins matter. In kayfabe a cheating victory would probably be considered a low quality win. Also it seems like AEW plans to lean into this for a storyline as Pac complained about this on commentary recently. In the short time of AEW’s existence they’ve already been pretty good at acknowledging criticisms so we’ll see how it goes.
Again love the show guys and even though I don’t watch WWE anymore I will kind of always be interested in hearing about where the product is and you guys do great recaps. While I don’t like saying never, with where I’m at right now i genuinely have a hard time imagining myself watching anything WWE related right now. I don’t want them to go away, I just don’t feel like I need to watch them anymore.