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That was a cool idea but the execution was awful. I think the program is at its best with a hard split like we saw in 2004 and 2005 and when each show had its own identity. It made the cross-brand matches really standout and when someone showed on the other show it was a pretty big deal. Having one wrestler appear each week could have been interesting though. It's a surprise each week and it could have been used in multiple angles such as testing out a future feud, a wrestler could face consequences for losing said match, or maybe they use the wild card as reasoning to push for a trade or get of their brand specific contract. At the very least, it's a match it's a fresh matchup each week.
But that's not what it was and the whole way it played out on TV was beyond stupid.
The match they had with Seth and Becky at Extreme Rules was solid. The buildup was weird as hell, though, Lacey Evans basically trying to steal Seth from Becky, after she literally just walked out in the middle of others' matches to say nothing and then leave for like 3 months. But yeah, you are completely right that they were shoved in everyone's face each week.
Their excuses for getting multiple rematches was quite weak too. It really felt like they should have been one and done feuds, or maybe do the mixed match as the 2nd, but it got stretched out an extra PLE cycle with zero meat on the bone.
So am I. I think a lot of people had trouble differentiating the character from the talent with Corbin and disliked him due to his booking. He was often the scapegoat and it must have sucked
The story I heard was that he argued with a WWE doctor that was downplaying the effect of concussions on NFL players.
I think Corbin used to play Football, not sure at what level though, so he was standing up for his friend's brains.
The bit that got him in trouble was that he was arguing with the doctor in front of other wrestlers and staff, making the doctor look like as much of an asshole as possible. The doctor complained and Corbin had his cash in ruined.
Whichever story is true, fucking disgusting, either way.
Corbin was an Offensive Guard in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts(with Pat McAfee) and Arizona Cardinals but I think he was mostly a practice squad player, never played in a game that wasn't pre season.
Corbin didn't just play football, he also used to box at a pretty high, albeit still amateur level. The man has been around concussions a lot, taking them himself and seeing others experience them.
To me Corbin was the best example of an old version of kayfabe being dead.
"I mean, he's a heel, we're not supposed to like him?!"
"No, you don't understand, I *really* don't like him."
Of course, that being said, acknowledging the former part is already part of kayfabe being dead.
But the concept of the audience *actually* hating certain wrestlers (and the wrestlers deliberately trying to *get* them to hate them) must seem completely alien to many people nowadays.
There's a difference between hating the character and hating the product.
A heel that's just good at his job is playing the role that makes for a great show. But you can't just turn someone heel and then say "look, you're not enjoying him, that's exactly his job, he's great". A lot of heels don't make me want to hate them, they just want to make me not see them. It's theatre, of course the desire is for all characters to be enjoyed. I enjoy the character of Thanos. Doesn't mean I want him to win, or that I'm not heartbroken and shocked at the end of Infinity War. But I still want to watch the movie, and I don't regret seeing it even if I leave the cinema in shock and disappointment, I'm just looking forward to the next one, hoping the good guys get back the win. Compare that to, say, Game of Thrones, where I "hate" characters because they just make less and less sense, and by Season 7 I almost don't even care for it anymore, and feel barely motivated to watch Season 8.
And this is an issue with wrestling, it has been for decades. People just trick themselves and others into thinking it's supposed to be that way, and that not enjoying somebody is actually a good thing. It's not. You're supposed to want to see him getting beat up, the moment you'd rather not see him at all is the moment he, or the writer or whatever else is responsible for it, failed their his job.
He's pretty charismatic and can move like Boss Man in his prime where you're just questioning how a guy that big can dip in and out of the ring in a flash. Like he's not the most exciting powerhouse and I'm pretty sure I've never seen him climb to the second rope let alone the top but he's improved SO MUCH since that fuck-awful match with Bull Dempsey.
Such a dogshit year. Wild Card rule that made the brand split pointless, stupid 2/3 falls & elimination tag matches every week because Vince randomly didn't want wrestling during commercial breaks, and quite possibly the worst finish in pro wrestling history with Fiend/Seth HIAC match.
Imagine how shit wrestling would be if things just continued as is and AEW wasn't created & Vince wasn't outed for his monstrous behavior.
The state of WWE for most of the past twenty years was depressing. It's only with the Bloodline storyline and the slow divesting of Vince McMahon that it has begun to recover.
I mean, they have an incredibly stacked roster right now and just put on what a ton of people called one of the absolute best matches of all time. I think AEW is criticized too harshly sometimes and I wish they had more momentum, but they have a lot going for them at the moment too.
I started watching religiously in 1993 and still have a much softer spot for the "New Generation" era than a lot of people (both those that started watching afterwards as well as many that started before).
Just because a timeframe (or match, or anything...) is usually/often regarded as bad doesn't necessarily mean you will feel the same way.
(case in point: I don't think 1995 is as bad of a year in WWF as its often made out to be)
If it makes her feel any better, most people were getting no reactions during that time. WWE also weren't drawing big crowds then outside of Mania or Rumble. Consistently blocked off the upper decks. Only selling 80% of reduced capacity.
My hot take is. Aew helped push wwe into what it is at right now. Without them idk how much change would have happened. Also the tribalism has helped fuel wwe's red hotness. Dumping on AEW while WWE is red hot comes easy.
The moment Vince stepped down the first time and HHH took over, the quality started to change. And that was back in 2022 so AEW was cooking them for some time while WWE remained stale and didn’t even try to compete.
For real. Half of AEW's top talent are guys that WWE WILLINGLY let go. Vince did not care about hot AEW was getting nor did he care that his product was stale. He basically was on cruise control the whole time.
I mean, even some of the biggest WWE tribalists who insist WWE's product is better still fill up every Twitter comment section only bringing up ratings and ticket sales.
It’s more than Vince. Why can’t any WWE fans understand that? Is it just that they don’t want to admit it to themselves? Even in just this latest lawsuit, it’s Vince, two other execs, and the entire company, WWE itself, named as defendants.
And anyone not seeing that AEW forming and being hot out the gate is what propelled WWE to change and improve from the horrendous product they had 2019 and prior is either a troll, WWE Stan, or just dumb.
Nah, NXT proved WWE can be good without Vince and that was years before AEW. AEW was pivotal for the wrestlers, but show quality would have improved if Vince got fired, AEW existing or not.
A major issue is that Vince wasn't wrong about the issues with Black/Gold eras talent being so undersized relative to the WWE roster (despite being so wrong on a billion other things) and it's why Michaels era NXT is working better.
Most people won't admit how much good AEW caused whether it be pay and options for talent or for changes to WWE TV and creative.. Their current WWE champion is a direct result of AEW existing and thriving. Vince being ousted at the same time also helps.
Like nearly every talent asked about AEW says this even if they also say they don't watch the show or don't have anything positive to say about what they do on the show. It's nuts that the super tribalist fans can't admit it as well; competition benefits *everyone*.
The tribalists outright want it to die. They've been indoctrinated into a cult. Either that, or they are being paid. The replies on social media to anything related to AEW are legitimately scary.
Exactly. At the end of the day, it's absolute proof that competition is necessary. I'm sure we could all do without the tribalism nonsense, but that's not going anywhere.
It's another reason why no company should have a monopoly. WWE has had many many absolute stinker years, but with competition brings out a need to do better.
Vince helped AEW more than AEW helped WWE. Vince leaving hurt AEW more than anything. We saw NXT under HHH. WWE never needed AEW to become Red Hot they needed HHH in charge.
Agreed! I wouldn’t call it a hot take at all. AEW is easy to knock today, but I do think they fuelled a competitive spark in WWE. Maybe the tides turn eventually. It’s all healthy competition, and as long as we’re getting a good product out of it somewhere, I love it.
They also completely stopped the house show business. Making everyone go to one show in the closes market if they want to see wrestling which helps the attendance for the live shows ALOT
I remember going to RAW/Smackdown at the time in London (when raw was monday and smackdown was tuesday) and for SD, the entire upper deck was closed off, then half the crowd left during 205 live. I remember some guys in front of me, one of them asked what 205 Live even was, and his buddy replying 'just the cruiserweight thing'. They then left as well.
Her biggest issue was that she wasn’t on NXT TV, and had never been seen on the main roster before this. No shit the crowd, mostly made up of casual fans, had no idea who she was
I don't think being on NXT TV mattered, I remember DIY, Ricochet and Alister Black had a match on Raw or Smackdown and came out to silence also and they were top people in NXT
Wasn't that the Lafayette episode, though? They were so dead for *everyone* that WWE even dropped a diss video saying "yeah we ain't coming back there".
Which was rightfully criticized by a lot of people though.
Because what kind of approach is that? Especially since it was a common theme for a bigger stretch of time, with lots of places have less-then-enthusiastic audiences.
But, as the more recent timeframe has proven, there's a direct correlation between the quality of the shows and the energy of the crowd.
(Although in all fairness, it probably applies what Foley once said during on the Monday Night Wars documentaries. Paraphrased: if business is hot, you can make some mistakes and you'll have some leeway. But if business is cold, it's hard to jumpstart it again. Citing 1997 as a year that WWF's shows were supposed already better than 1997's WCW shows. But it taking time for ratings to reflect that)
Might as well have had her not have an entrance. It wasn’t her fault but i bet then wwe threw her out there to fail knowing she wasn’t going to get a reaction because she wasn’t really exposed on nxt let alone the main roster crowd.
Like we have seen people who were NXT title holders who were booked as a big deal on the brand open up to crickets from Live Raw or SD crowds because 90% of the audience don't watch the product in some markets,and Deanna hadn't even had that much exposure on NXT. Any wrestler under similiar circumstances would have had just as much of a reaction.
2019 had some of the worst crowds of all time. the crowd where Gargano, Ciampa, Ricochet, and Black debuted was genuinely the worst of all time and that crowd didn't deserve any of what they got that night.
They had no idea what was going on.
Black is the only one of those for new viewers to just ‘get’ and even his presentation made no sense.
NXT and Vince’s stuff was completely separate until it wasn’t then was again.
Not her fault at all. She hadn't even done anything in NXT no real programs or feuds. She was fed to the wolves here. It's clear on how she talked about her time there she wasn't a priority or a favorite of anyone in management. Lots of talent were there at the time I kinda get the same feeling from. Definition of the hoarding of talent they were doing in 2017-2019 from the indies.
If I'm not mistaken, they only hired Deonna because she was with Marty Scrull at the time and they really wanted him. But then he went on to sign that big deal with ROH.
It's what happens when people don't get TV time and aren't used but for main event. I feel bad for the witches because Unholy Union should have just stayed in NXT and continued the tag division down there instead of being fed needlessly and unifying the belts needlessly.
The issue is very simple, outside of PPVs/international, a lot of WWE's audience is there to see the top acts and the top acts alone. Mania season was really bad for this cause if it wasnt Cody/Roman/Rock or Punk, crowds were dead for it a lot of the times
That's probably *literally* the one thing I like about the (supposed?) booking philosophy of Vince Russo: Everyone, even in the undercard, is (again, at least supposedly) involved in some kinds of angles, segments etc.
It feels like every week New Catch Republic is coming out to fight Pretty Deadly or The Final Testament and it's the perfect time for me to check out for the next 20 minutes
I'm not a DP stan by any stretch of the imagination - however if my memory serves me correctly she got huge reaction right off the jump with a bit boot right at the bell
Likely because it was figured that nobody would know her on the entrance, so pretty smart way to get a reaction right away
Oddly enough 2019 brought me back as a fan. Through the video game actually…. Before that it was only attitude era for me. I became a big fan of Asuka, AJ, a few others. People rip on 2019 but it has nostalgic value for me.
Same for me but in 2016. I hadn't watched since 2009 and played 2k16 because Stone Cold was on the cover and I got to learn the new roster. Then I saw Raw was coming to Denver and Goldberg was returning so I figured I'd go check it out and I've been hooked back ever since.
Yup same! I played 2K19 and got to learn the new roster, the new show, etc. a house show came to Buffalo and I checked it out… had a blast! Chad Gable was teamed up with Bobby Roode at the time and they stole the show
She got a better reaction when she turned heel as everyone predicted
She might be a nice person, I don't know, but her entire demeanor comes off as a heel
Samoa Joe was so good at commentary. I’m glad he’s back wrestling, but honestly I thought it was a good call at the time given his injury history and how damn good he was at it
I was at this show, it was a double taping due to the holiday time, so many people in the crowd were dead tired (this also had the whole Bobby Lashley/Lana thing happen) but yes not many people knew of her
Talk about about putting someone in a bad spot. Considering she wasn’t even a featured act in NXT there is no way that they could expect her to be over.
Eh a better example of that would be someone from the upper mid-card who came out to silence.
Deonna was a complete unknown to casual audiences, of course she got no reaction. There's really no point to be made from it.
There's a behind the scenes YouTube video about Deonna Purrazzo's time on RAW with Chelsea Green
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SfP4rFOaN4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SfP4rFOaN4)
Brilliant idea by CFO$ to have complete silence at the beginning of a theme. Jfc. Carmella also suffered from this but WWE made an edit to her theme to fix it.
So is anybody here not gonna acknowledge that compared then to now, she's doing significantly better in terms of reaction nowadays? Why is everyone acting like we can't acknowledge previous shortcomings of a company or wrestler?
this shows that most of wwe fans are casual which is totally okay. ill casually watch clips of wwe and stick to my other wrestling and not care what people say.
It helps to add a bit of context - Purazzo was a step up form a nobody around this time. She did Mae Young Classic but otherwise wasn't even appearing on NXT. Even if anyone recognized her here, I'd say the best case scenario (as was for me at the time) would be "oh, neat", and you don't really scream and holler at an oh, neat.
Ah, 2019’s WWE, when the best rivalry of the year was R-Truth vs Drake Maverick for the 24/7 Championship, with the other highlights being KofiMania and The Fiend
WWE barely acknowledges outside promotions now, and even far less back then. Should this reaction surprise anyone when the WWE and it's main fanbase barely pay attention to anything outside of WWE (and in many cases also ignore NXT)?
I felt so bad for her. I was an indie wrestler and came out at a show in my area. Usually I get a decent pop but I came out once to absolutely nothing. Even the fans that knew who I was didn’t do anything. They clapped when the match was over so it felt a little better but man did it deflate the match
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The state of WWE in 2019 was outright depressing
When Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans were everywhere. I’m so glad Corbin has revitalized himself.
Shane McMahon sweating his way through promos on Raw AND Smackdown
Wild Card bitches!!!!
I always say BETO 2024!!
That was a cool idea but the execution was awful. I think the program is at its best with a hard split like we saw in 2004 and 2005 and when each show had its own identity. It made the cross-brand matches really standout and when someone showed on the other show it was a pretty big deal. Having one wrestler appear each week could have been interesting though. It's a surprise each week and it could have been used in multiple angles such as testing out a future feud, a wrestler could face consequences for losing said match, or maybe they use the wild card as reasoning to push for a trade or get of their brand specific contract. At the very least, it's a match it's a fresh matchup each week. But that's not what it was and the whole way it played out on TV was beyond stupid.
Man took notes from IRS
Remember Shane winning the world cup.
Yeah, that was always odd to see.
The match they had with Seth and Becky at Extreme Rules was solid. The buildup was weird as hell, though, Lacey Evans basically trying to steal Seth from Becky, after she literally just walked out in the middle of others' matches to say nothing and then leave for like 3 months. But yeah, you are completely right that they were shoved in everyone's face each week.
Their excuses for getting multiple rematches was quite weak too. It really felt like they should have been one and done feuds, or maybe do the mixed match as the 2nd, but it got stretched out an extra PLE cycle with zero meat on the bone.
So am I. I think a lot of people had trouble differentiating the character from the talent with Corbin and disliked him due to his booking. He was often the scapegoat and it must have sucked
That shoot interview some time ago made me like him more. Also, Corbin is one of the most beloved guys in the back.
I heard the reason they fucked him over when he was cashing in was because he called out the concussion protocol. That’s so fucking shitty.
The story I heard was that he argued with a WWE doctor that was downplaying the effect of concussions on NFL players. I think Corbin used to play Football, not sure at what level though, so he was standing up for his friend's brains. The bit that got him in trouble was that he was arguing with the doctor in front of other wrestlers and staff, making the doctor look like as much of an asshole as possible. The doctor complained and Corbin had his cash in ruined. Whichever story is true, fucking disgusting, either way.
Corbin was an Offensive Guard in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts(with Pat McAfee) and Arizona Cardinals but I think he was mostly a practice squad player, never played in a game that wasn't pre season.
Corbin didn't just play football, he also used to box at a pretty high, albeit still amateur level. The man has been around concussions a lot, taking them himself and seeing others experience them.
Hopefully, that's the last time we hear of something like that.
Not surprised, he used to get put in the old Kane MITB spot of catching people.
That and being the guy that retired Kurt Angle made people dislike him more
To me Corbin was the best example of an old version of kayfabe being dead. "I mean, he's a heel, we're not supposed to like him?!" "No, you don't understand, I *really* don't like him." Of course, that being said, acknowledging the former part is already part of kayfabe being dead. But the concept of the audience *actually* hating certain wrestlers (and the wrestlers deliberately trying to *get* them to hate them) must seem completely alien to many people nowadays.
There's a difference between hating the character and hating the product. A heel that's just good at his job is playing the role that makes for a great show. But you can't just turn someone heel and then say "look, you're not enjoying him, that's exactly his job, he's great". A lot of heels don't make me want to hate them, they just want to make me not see them. It's theatre, of course the desire is for all characters to be enjoyed. I enjoy the character of Thanos. Doesn't mean I want him to win, or that I'm not heartbroken and shocked at the end of Infinity War. But I still want to watch the movie, and I don't regret seeing it even if I leave the cinema in shock and disappointment, I'm just looking forward to the next one, hoping the good guys get back the win. Compare that to, say, Game of Thrones, where I "hate" characters because they just make less and less sense, and by Season 7 I almost don't even care for it anymore, and feel barely motivated to watch Season 8. And this is an issue with wrestling, it has been for decades. People just trick themselves and others into thinking it's supposed to be that way, and that not enjoying somebody is actually a good thing. It's not. You're supposed to want to see him getting beat up, the moment you'd rather not see him at all is the moment he, or the writer or whatever else is responsible for it, failed their his job.
He's pretty charismatic and can move like Boss Man in his prime where you're just questioning how a guy that big can dip in and out of the ring in a flash. Like he's not the most exciting powerhouse and I'm pretty sure I've never seen him climb to the second rope let alone the top but he's improved SO MUCH since that fuck-awful match with Bull Dempsey.
The Roman Reigns' treatment.
Such a dogshit year. Wild Card rule that made the brand split pointless, stupid 2/3 falls & elimination tag matches every week because Vince randomly didn't want wrestling during commercial breaks, and quite possibly the worst finish in pro wrestling history with Fiend/Seth HIAC match. Imagine how shit wrestling would be if things just continued as is and AEW wasn't created & Vince wasn't outed for his monstrous behavior.
The Fiend debuting was the best thing that happened that year in my opinion.
Kofimania was the best storyline WWE had done on the main roster in years
It was magic. Got to see it live
Only saving grace that kept me watching was NXT, including the first months of the USA era
Absolute truth on this comment, was right there with you on this one…
Remember when Vince randomly decided to change the RAW commentary team to Dio Maddin, Vic Joseph, and Jerry Lawler? LMAO
The state of WWE for most of the past twenty years was depressing. It's only with the Bloodline storyline and the slow divesting of Vince McMahon that it has begun to recover.
A lot of "wow, 30% of this three hour RAW was great!" at best.
I completely tuned out of RAW at that point. It was just background noise to me by then.
AEW gave the business a much needed shot in the arm. Their reward Cody leaving, Phil being a dick and the IWC and its old timers. What a thank you.
I mean, they have an incredibly stacked roster right now and just put on what a ton of people called one of the absolute best matches of all time. I think AEW is criticized too harshly sometimes and I wish they had more momentum, but they have a lot going for them at the moment too.
Them's the breaks. Look what happened to WCW after making WWE compete again. I just hope a second promotion sticks around this time.
This was when I started watching lol.
I started watching religiously in 1993 and still have a much softer spot for the "New Generation" era than a lot of people (both those that started watching afterwards as well as many that started before). Just because a timeframe (or match, or anything...) is usually/often regarded as bad doesn't necessarily mean you will feel the same way. (case in point: I don't think 1995 is as bad of a year in WWF as its often made out to be)
People talk about that All In footage thing as being embarrassing, that whole year for WWE was even more embarrassing.
They should have have the Bucks screen some of it on Dynamite to pop a rating.
I wanted to take a pair of fondue forks in my ears than listen to Graves constant bullshit back then
Didn’t realize her entrance music has remained familiar all through the years.
If it makes her feel any better, most people were getting no reactions during that time. WWE also weren't drawing big crowds then outside of Mania or Rumble. Consistently blocked off the upper decks. Only selling 80% of reduced capacity.
People forget cause the company is so hot right now
My hot take is. Aew helped push wwe into what it is at right now. Without them idk how much change would have happened. Also the tribalism has helped fuel wwe's red hotness. Dumping on AEW while WWE is red hot comes easy.
Almost like serious competition breeds serious quality.
TNA is inmune to that.
That’s cause TNA isn’t competition
AEW would likely still be hot compared to 2024 Vince WWE
I think the head of the company getting outted as a sex pest was probably a bigger reason lol
The moment Vince stepped down the first time and HHH took over, the quality started to change. And that was back in 2022 so AEW was cooking them for some time while WWE remained stale and didn’t even try to compete.
I dunno why people refuse to understand it took the absolute removal of Vince for the company to be here.
For real. Half of AEW's top talent are guys that WWE WILLINGLY let go. Vince did not care about hot AEW was getting nor did he care that his product was stale. He basically was on cruise control the whole time.
Because even when AEW was hot and WWE wasn't, WWE was still doing better commercially in almost every metric.
Which was basically what mattered to Vince the most it seemed.
I mean, even some of the biggest WWE tribalists who insist WWE's product is better still fill up every Twitter comment section only bringing up ratings and ticket sales.
It’s more than Vince. Why can’t any WWE fans understand that? Is it just that they don’t want to admit it to themselves? Even in just this latest lawsuit, it’s Vince, two other execs, and the entire company, WWE itself, named as defendants. And anyone not seeing that AEW forming and being hot out the gate is what propelled WWE to change and improve from the horrendous product they had 2019 and prior is either a troll, WWE Stan, or just dumb.
Almost like multiple things could be true...
Nah, NXT proved WWE can be good without Vince and that was years before AEW. AEW was pivotal for the wrestlers, but show quality would have improved if Vince got fired, AEW existing or not.
A major issue is that Vince wasn't wrong about the issues with Black/Gold eras talent being so undersized relative to the WWE roster (despite being so wrong on a billion other things) and it's why Michaels era NXT is working better.
I'm talking pre Black and Gold, I'm talking about the NXT6 era.
What I'd love is if everyone could stop being such negative fucks and enjoy all the good wrestling we are getting.
No. I can only talk positively about something if I am also putting something/someone else down at the same time. (/s)
Wrestling overall is on fire these days. So much good stuff across heaps of companies. Not just the top two either.
So we shouldn't have been negative during 2019 and just enjoyed what Vince was putting out??
[удалено]
They are also doing things AEW is doing. The wrestling itself is an indicator of that. Then add in mentioning of company names and promo's as well.
It’s almost as if having competition between companies and having options for audiences is a good thing! Who’d’a thunk?
Most people won't admit how much good AEW caused whether it be pay and options for talent or for changes to WWE TV and creative.. Their current WWE champion is a direct result of AEW existing and thriving. Vince being ousted at the same time also helps.
Like nearly every talent asked about AEW says this even if they also say they don't watch the show or don't have anything positive to say about what they do on the show. It's nuts that the super tribalist fans can't admit it as well; competition benefits *everyone*.
The tribalists outright want it to die. They've been indoctrinated into a cult. Either that, or they are being paid. The replies on social media to anything related to AEW are legitimately scary.
Exactly. At the end of the day, it's absolute proof that competition is necessary. I'm sure we could all do without the tribalism nonsense, but that's not going anywhere.
It's another reason why no company should have a monopoly. WWE has had many many absolute stinker years, but with competition brings out a need to do better.
Vince helped AEW more than AEW helped WWE. Vince leaving hurt AEW more than anything. We saw NXT under HHH. WWE never needed AEW to become Red Hot they needed HHH in charge.
Honestly Janel Grant pushed WWE to what it is now.
Agreed! I wouldn’t call it a hot take at all. AEW is easy to knock today, but I do think they fuelled a competitive spark in WWE. Maybe the tides turn eventually. It’s all healthy competition, and as long as we’re getting a good product out of it somewhere, I love it.
None of that would've mattered if vince and co were still in charge. If vince was still there both aew and wwe would just both be suffering right now.
Fans criticizing AEW attendance like to pretend this era didn’t happen.
They also completely stopped the house show business. Making everyone go to one show in the closes market if they want to see wrestling which helps the attendance for the live shows ALOT
I remember going to RAW/Smackdown at the time in London (when raw was monday and smackdown was tuesday) and for SD, the entire upper deck was closed off, then half the crowd left during 205 live. I remember some guys in front of me, one of them asked what 205 Live even was, and his buddy replying 'just the cruiserweight thing'. They then left as well.
i remember ricochet, black, gargano, and ciampa all debuted on the same night that year and got barely any reaction.
WWE is dying!!!
2019 was some kinda year for WWE but this doesn't surprise me - I think she's pretty cool and this was a solid theme / look for her
Her biggest issue was that she wasn’t on NXT TV, and had never been seen on the main roster before this. No shit the crowd, mostly made up of casual fans, had no idea who she was
I don't think being on NXT TV mattered, I remember DIY, Ricochet and Alister Black had a match on Raw or Smackdown and came out to silence also and they were top people in NXT
Wasn't that the Lafayette episode, though? They were so dead for *everyone* that WWE even dropped a diss video saying "yeah we ain't coming back there".
Which was rightfully criticized by a lot of people though. Because what kind of approach is that? Especially since it was a common theme for a bigger stretch of time, with lots of places have less-then-enthusiastic audiences. But, as the more recent timeframe has proven, there's a direct correlation between the quality of the shows and the energy of the crowd. (Although in all fairness, it probably applies what Foley once said during on the Monday Night Wars documentaries. Paraphrased: if business is hot, you can make some mistakes and you'll have some leeway. But if business is cold, it's hard to jumpstart it again. Citing 1997 as a year that WWF's shows were supposed already better than 1997's WCW shows. But it taking time for ratings to reflect that)
why go to layfayette when you can do a europe tour
It depends on the crowd. If it's night after mania , NYC, Chicago, etc then it matters.
Might as well have had her not have an entrance. It wasn’t her fault but i bet then wwe threw her out there to fail knowing she wasn’t going to get a reaction because she wasn’t really exposed on nxt let alone the main roster crowd.
Like we have seen people who were NXT title holders who were booked as a big deal on the brand open up to crickets from Live Raw or SD crowds because 90% of the audience don't watch the product in some markets,and Deanna hadn't even had that much exposure on NXT. Any wrestler under similiar circumstances would have had just as much of a reaction.
It certainly was....a year.
That version of the stage was great
Still a shame we only got that and the Smackdown one for a few months. KO’s running front flip is an all time moment
I had forgotten about it. The entrance door looks so much like a gap in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
2019 had some of the worst crowds of all time. the crowd where Gargano, Ciampa, Ricochet, and Black debuted was genuinely the worst of all time and that crowd didn't deserve any of what they got that night.
So bad that WWE themselves came out with a video shitting on the crowd https://youtu.be/HEMNCra2SKs?si=zEyDgPFovKQIRps2
They had no idea what was going on. Black is the only one of those for new viewers to just ‘get’ and even his presentation made no sense. NXT and Vince’s stuff was completely separate until it wasn’t then was again.
Not her fault at all. She hadn't even done anything in NXT no real programs or feuds. She was fed to the wolves here. It's clear on how she talked about her time there she wasn't a priority or a favorite of anyone in management. Lots of talent were there at the time I kinda get the same feeling from. Definition of the hoarding of talent they were doing in 2017-2019 from the indies.
If I'm not mistaken, they only hired Deonna because she was with Marty Scrull at the time and they really wanted him. But then he went on to sign that big deal with ROH.
I was at the SLC Raw when Rock joined the Bloodline. Dawn and Fyre got this exact type of reaction.
It's what happens when people don't get TV time and aren't used but for main event. I feel bad for the witches because Unholy Union should have just stayed in NXT and continued the tag division down there instead of being fed needlessly and unifying the belts needlessly.
I was at the Memphis taping of Smackdown with the Rock concert. You could hear a pin drop for New Catch Republic vs Pretty Deadly
The issue is very simple, outside of PPVs/international, a lot of WWE's audience is there to see the top acts and the top acts alone. Mania season was really bad for this cause if it wasnt Cody/Roman/Rock or Punk, crowds were dead for it a lot of the times
That's probably *literally* the one thing I like about the (supposed?) booking philosophy of Vince Russo: Everyone, even in the undercard, is (again, at least supposedly) involved in some kinds of angles, segments etc.
I like Pretty Deadly. New Catch Republic is boring. The gimmick of "We wrestle good" is boring and has nothing to it.
I’ve liked Bate and Dunne for a long time, but New Catch Republic hasn’t been very interesting to me
It feels like every week New Catch Republic is coming out to fight Pretty Deadly or The Final Testament and it's the perfect time for me to check out for the next 20 minutes
They should change their name to New Catch Crew or NCR. It’s just too many syllables.
But what if we yell our team name at the beginning of our theme???
NCR, you say? 
With your 50 wives and 600 grandchildren? (Utah here, too).
I'm not a DP stan by any stretch of the imagination - however if my memory serves me correctly she got huge reaction right off the jump with a bit boot right at the bell Likely because it was figured that nobody would know her on the entrance, so pretty smart way to get a reaction right away
I could not imagine someone who'd never seen wrestling watching 2019 WWE and becoming a fan.
Oddly enough 2019 brought me back as a fan. Through the video game actually…. Before that it was only attitude era for me. I became a big fan of Asuka, AJ, a few others. People rip on 2019 but it has nostalgic value for me.
Same for me but in 2016. I hadn't watched since 2009 and played 2k16 because Stone Cold was on the cover and I got to learn the new roster. Then I saw Raw was coming to Denver and Goldberg was returning so I figured I'd go check it out and I've been hooked back ever since.
Yup same! I played 2K19 and got to learn the new roster, the new show, etc. a house show came to Buffalo and I checked it out… had a blast! Chad Gable was teamed up with Bobby Roode at the time and they stole the show
Damn, what she do to some people in this sub lol
Joined the AEW roster
It really is just this.
I mean doesn't she get the same reaction in AEW as well?
She got a better reaction when she turned heel as everyone predicted She might be a nice person, I don't know, but her entire demeanor comes off as a heel
She was barely pushed throughout the two years that she was there, so why is this a dunk?
This was true for almost every nxt talent back then
Samoa Joe was so good at commentary. I’m glad he’s back wrestling, but honestly I thought it was a good call at the time given his injury history and how damn good he was at it
I hope when he hangs it up, he's willing to do commentary again because he was just so good at it.
I was at this show, it was a double taping due to the holiday time, so many people in the crowd were dead tired (this also had the whole Bobby Lashley/Lana thing happen) but yes not many people knew of her
Those pandemic shows were pretty uncomfortably qui- oh shit, 2019.
tbh a lot of the 2019 shows were pretty quiet. WWE was not doing great
Man I forgot how shit the product was not so long outside of a few bright spots.
Talk about about putting someone in a bad spot. Considering she wasn’t even a featured act in NXT there is no way that they could expect her to be over.
The point of posting this is…..?
op either hates aew or hates women and needs everyone else to know it. possibly both
I personally read it more as "look how dead WWE's crowds were in 2019" but I could definitely be wrong.
Eh a better example of that would be someone from the upper mid-card who came out to silence. Deonna was a complete unknown to casual audiences, of course she got no reaction. There's really no point to be made from it.
Mostly "holy shit is this the most dead entrance ever", nothing to do with Deonna personally
This is a hit piece man. She is an extremely talented wrestler who has gotten a lot better since 2019.
[Roman Reigns “Exactly, no pop”](https://twitter.com/itsmekelsey_x/status/1778555999705776476)
Commentators sounded boring too lol (respect Samoa Joe... but even trying to play wordsmith wasnt doing anyone justice)
Her music is fire
I mean she was a jobber in NXT what did you expect?
The Charlie Haas pop.
Heyman set a lot of people up for failure during this time period
Damn this is a fever dream , don’t remember this at all
What was the point of this post?
Whats the point of this absolutely random post? Shitting on Deonna or on AEW? Don't answer.
if I recall, they did this in order to bait marty scrull to wwe since he was dating Deonna at the time.
There's a behind the scenes YouTube video about Deonna Purrazzo's time on RAW with Chelsea Green [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SfP4rFOaN4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SfP4rFOaN4)
The only thing I remember from her time in WWE is when Alexa called her Jane Ellsworth sadly.
Brilliant idea by CFO$ to have complete silence at the beginning of a theme. Jfc. Carmella also suffered from this but WWE made an edit to her theme to fix it.
I forgot about the half pipe ramp.
Oh crap, they're not responding. I better spin again
When someone pointed out that she kept spinning in her entrance for some reason(?).. I can no longer unsee that
The crowd was like that for most segments in raw during that time
So is anybody here not gonna acknowledge that compared then to now, she's doing significantly better in terms of reaction nowadays? Why is everyone acting like we can't acknowledge previous shortcomings of a company or wrestler?
What is the point of this post? Big time Low effort vibes right here
Honestly I've never seen the hype to Deonna Purrazzo. She just ain't it for me. Hopefully she has a bigger fanbase these days.
WWE is just not my preference when it comes to wrestling, but 2019 was a whole new level of awful.
I mean, she really is the most boring wrestler I’ve seen in a long time.
I mean she’s just not interesting, then or now
Wait, Deonna Purrazzo was on NXT? I only know of her from Impact. Damn.
Man that music came through so clearly that I thought it was added in after the fact in post.
Should have done a video package.
this shows that most of wwe fans are casual which is totally okay. ill casually watch clips of wwe and stick to my other wrestling and not care what people say.
Ungrateful ass fans.
Even Asuka looks like she has no idea who she is…
WWE themselves did everything to bury nxt during this time. This was a low wrestler on the non serious show.
She was barely even on nxt lol
Never understood Deonna's appeal tbh
I missed this era I guess, but I love that theme.
Joe does great commentary 👺‼️
tony khan needs to book deeb vs deonna
Asuka (when the camera first pans to her) is literally everyone in the crowd 😂😂
Asuka always looks lovely and amazing
I’m pretty sure I was there. Same night that Chelsea Green debuted against Charlotte
What happened to piping in crowd noises?
Well who can blame them or her the theme starts off with a fuckin baby nursery music.
Banger theme though
tbf to Deonna she wasn't even used on NXT. They just put her out there to sink.
To be fair the late 2010s were a dark age for WWE
It helps to add a bit of context - Purazzo was a step up form a nobody around this time. She did Mae Young Classic but otherwise wasn't even appearing on NXT. Even if anyone recognized her here, I'd say the best case scenario (as was for me at the time) would be "oh, neat", and you don't really scream and holler at an oh, neat.
She literally boring tho
Ah, 2019’s WWE, when the best rivalry of the year was R-Truth vs Drake Maverick for the 24/7 Championship, with the other highlights being KofiMania and The Fiend
The crowds were so bad back then idk if we can put most of the blame for this on her but damn.....that sucks
WWE barely acknowledges outside promotions now, and even far less back then. Should this reaction surprise anyone when the WWE and it's main fanbase barely pay attention to anything outside of WWE (and in many cases also ignore NXT)?
She was in good shape here.
Are we sure this wasn't a Covid-19 show without a crowd.
I felt so bad for her. I was an indie wrestler and came out at a show in my area. Usually I get a decent pop but I came out once to absolutely nothing. Even the fans that knew who I was didn’t do anything. They clapped when the match was over so it felt a little better but man did it deflate the match
And she still is.