Hey Scott,
In keeping up with the recent, strange trend of 'borrowing' from TNA (the new opening montages, cena/ziggler/aj), do you suppose we're headed for an Aces & Eights type thing with an eventual reveal of who The Shield are working for? I think we can rule out Punk and Maddox at this point, but do you think their employer/leader is something they're building up to?
Not really. I mean, it seems pretty obvious that Punk is the leader and he's just a lying fuck who's been denying it all along because it's his nature.
That being said, it does make me want to address something that was brought up in the RAW thread about how this angle is supposedly just as bad as Aces & Eights. To me, even at two weeks old, it's way better than Aces was. The TNA storyline is plagued by the TNA extreme decompression storytelling, where they have a definite start and stopping point and god help you if you need something to happen between those two points. Also, it took MONTHS for them to even reveal Devon's involvement in the group, and he wasn't even a featured guy under a mask before that. They have no motivation; they literally pick their targets at random with a dartboard. You have no faces to put to the people and no personalities to assign to them, so as a viewer you can't empathize with anyone. Even if they gave them all wacky nicknames and characteristics (Masked Wes Brisco could be "Lucky" and his thing could be that he's always very fortunate in his escapes or something) so there's SOMETHING to hook fans with. Hell, during their FIRST APPEARANCE, Michael Cole told us that 1) these guys were named Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns and 2) They were from NXT. There you go, names and backstory in just their initial attack. With the Aces we still haven't established why they're here, what they want, why they targeted Hulk and then just started ignoring him, who they are under the masks, or a million different questions that most forms of entertainment will answer right off the bat. The dramatic tension with the nWo didn't come from the mystery of the participants, it came from seeing how WCW would react to those participants. TNA seems to think that the anticipation of unmasking a bunch of guys is somehow a substitute for making people care about those guys. The Brisco/D-Lo thing was really clever and all, but it's like six months into this storyline and seemingly either fans are WAAAAAY ahead of the story and already know the payoff, or just don't care about it in general. Like after BFG I was joking that we'd get one unmasking per PPV, but now it's looking like we're not even gonna move THAT fast with it.
So in summation, Shield good thus far, Aces & Eights good to start but long gone over a cliff.
You're right on the money, Scott. It started out fine the first few weeks, but when you had weeks and weeks of endless run-ins without story progression, the angle became DOA, then went to shit with the torture crap ("JOSEPH PARK IS GETTING BRUTALLY BEATEN WITH A HAMMER IN SOME GARAGE BY A GROUP OF THUGS...and now here's the Bound for Glory standings!") and then fucking Devon as the leader?
ReplyDeleteObviously The Rock is paying Shield to cause chaos before his return, just like he paid off Kane last year
ReplyDeleteWho are we to doubt the word of CM Punk AND Dean Ambrose?! They both say Punk's not behind it and they are both honorable men.
ReplyDeleteY'think the Shield might be Vince pissing on TNA "Yeah, you wanna do a mysterious invader angle? Let me show you how to do a mysterious invader angle."
ReplyDeleteGah, sometimes people actually say shit like "Well he said he didn't do it, so obviously he didn't do it". I mean, Brad Maddox said he didn't plan his screwing of Ryback with Punk, so obviously Punk wasn't involved.
ReplyDeleteThat actually is a great idea. Gives Shield a major league rub in the form of the Rock anointing them the next big thing AND gives us a ready made big time storyline for the road to Wrestlemania, if they want to gives us Rock vs Cena: Rock is declaring war on the WWE and Cena has to fucking man up and be an actual hero for once in his lifetime and stop Rock....
ReplyDeleteAn alternate suspect: Undertaker
ReplyDeleteHe's not liking the shit that is going on in the WWE, and has forged "Shield" to do his dirty work and right wrongs while he does the Mumra Zombie chant to get ready for his once a year Wrestlemania match.
They need something to bring Undertaker back with since him jacking of in the middle of the ring with Shawn Michaels and HHH is not an option anymore. Having him come back as an evil mastermind would at least be a change of pace for him, especially if they put him against Punk (meaning that we can have Punk continue being the "good guy" by pointing out that Undertaker is being a hypocritical bully and a coward, having Shield do all of his dirty work.....
Am I the only one that thinks "The Shield" is a shitty name for a group?
ReplyDeleteBut it's an excellent name for a show.
ReplyDeleteTell these guys that:
ReplyDeleteMaybe Shield put him in that coma in 2010?
ReplyDeleteFace Punk? Who else but Quagmire?
ReplyDeleteI think this is exactly it. Heyman said in an interview ages ago that when people present Vince with pop culture he'll try and find a way to do a better 'WWE' version of that.
ReplyDeleteTell Phil Coulson that.
ReplyDeleteWell, if I don't doubt El Dandy, I sure as hell won't doubt them. They seem like jam-up guys.
ReplyDeleteToo bad Vince's "AJ affair" angle was shittier than TNA's. They didn't have the good fortune of Kaz and Daniels saving that crap every week; Kazarian doing the AJ taunts with the teddy bear still slays me.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what happens, they can always rescue this angle with four magic words.
ReplyDelete"It was ME, dammit!"
And we all know who Undertaker is working for...
ReplyDeleteI don't trust that Roman guy though... he only speaks when there's nothing left to say!
ReplyDeleteWell said Scott. TNA sucks.
ReplyDeleteMaffew's greatest contribution to the IWC.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udjWdJ9agjo
im with u
ReplyDeleteno.
ReplyDeleteyour face sucks.
ReplyDeleteTechnically if it "started out fine the first few weeks" it couldn't be DOA...
ReplyDeleteAha, but WWE is using the angle to get Dolph from upper middle card to main event.
ReplyDeleteNow it's not entirely working... but funny as Daniels and Kaz were, they were feuding with someone they've feuded with dozens of times. Least the WWE, in theory, is trying to elevate someone.
The only real way to determine which affair angle is worse is to see which is around longer.
ReplyDeleteI still say there's plenty of time to screw up the Shield. And is there any chance they have a real significance by Wrestlemania?
ReplyDeleteI have always wondered by the way they dress up if they will be tied to Heyman's masked SWAT guys from WWE-ECW relaunch in 1996.
ReplyDeleteI get the distince feeling they are working for Heyman, and when CM Punk loses the WWE title, he will set them loose on Punk. Which would then set up essentially Brock vs Punk at WM.
It was me Austin, it was me all along!
ReplyDeleteProbably not, if they make the PPV, which I doubt it'll be some throwaway six man tag against Ryder/Santino and Fandango. But they'll probably just be warm bodies in the preshow battle royal that Khali will win so the fans can be in awe at his size.
ReplyDeleteWhy do they have to have a leader? It seems like every stable these days needs some mystery man behind the curtain. The worst thing they can do is go down that route or even hint at it. It creates way too much hype and they'll never pay it off right. Just let the 3 of them do their shit.
ReplyDeleteThey were called the Strike Team
ReplyDeleteI love it when someone does someone else's dirty work.
ReplyDeleteThey did it for the Rock... they did it for the people.
ReplyDeleteIn the WWE, they'd take a guy who's real name is Nick Fury and give him the name Phil Caulson
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard anything about D'Lo being a part of it, and only associate Wes with it b/c of Scott mentioning it. Is this all fantasy booking or is there a way to pinpoint "Yep, those two are part of it"? I've stayed away from A&8 spoilers (what little there have been).
ReplyDeleteA while back, D'Lo was under a mask and it was really obvious and I think the mask even fell off at one point.
ReplyDeleteSomething I was thinking about the other day: anyone else find it odd that the blog had a thread about the Mt. Rushmore of WWE, and then not a couple weeks later Punk is talking about it on TV?
ReplyDeleteI wanna say this isn't the only time there's been weird coincidences like this. Scott does know some people in WWE... any chances someone is mining the more prominent sites?
They had a Mount Rushmore thing on WWE's website a couple of weeks ago, where fans voted who would go on there. It ended up being Hogan, Austin, Taker, and Cena.
ReplyDeleteWell, if it's going to be Shield vs Ryback and Hell No at the PPV, I would guess these guys will be going the way of Nexus. Make an awesome impact with your debut, get the upper hand for a few weeks, get squashed in the blow off, then split up and flounder in the midcard.
ReplyDeleteWhy aren't The Shield called The Big Boss Men?
ReplyDeleteYou really do have to see him in person to understand how BIG he is. I'm telling you he is BIG.
ReplyDeleteYou probably aren't, but I think it's awesome personally.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I should've caught that, my mind was fried in the middle of writing term papers.
ReplyDeleteOne of my fav BM moments: AKI Man and the LOD were my favorites. IIRC, those were user-submitted.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between this and Nexus is there's no dead weight. It's three dudes who all have the goods to be major stars and they waited until they had a big storyline to debut them.
ReplyDeleteIt'd be like if Nexus had debuted just with Barrett, Bryan and Ryback (and as Ryback, not Skip Sheffield).
Nexus was a great storyline from the beginning but was immediately hamstrung by Daniel Bryan getting suspended/fired, and had too much dead weight with Tarver, Slater, Young and Sheffield. And even three of those four have gone on to viable roles.
I can't like that comment enough.
ReplyDeleteHe's FAT!
ReplyDeleteIt's not like this group is their endgame. It's the first vehicle for exposure for three dudes who all have the goods to be legit stars. Like I said just a minute ago, the difference between this and Nexus is the lack of deadweight.
ReplyDeleteIt is Paul Heyman. Heyman gave it away by complaining about "injustice" to Vickie. That way, Punk is telling the truth because he had no knowledge of Heyman's plot.
ReplyDeleteBut does he have frying pan hands? Well, does he? I need to know!
ReplyDeleteActually it's Ryback/Hell No vs. The Shield...
ReplyDeleteSo...suck ma dick.
Yup. Exactly that. It's like if at Bash at the Beach, it was Hogan, Norton and Buff Bagwell.
ReplyDeleteWwvmd
ReplyDeleteI sure hope not. Those guys sucked even in 1997.
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing, the match is a TLC match, and they can win buy pinfall or submission. So look for Bryan to be eating a pin.
ReplyDeleteDo you not like money, Fuj? Print the shirts.
ReplyDeleteWell, for the love of God!
ReplyDeleteCount your blessings: it could be Team Shield, or the Cottonwood Boys.
ReplyDeleteThe pleasant surprise about the Shield so far is that they're considered a big deal by the crowds, because they've yet to look weak booking wise. Plus, and this is the best part, they look intimidating and have this cool swagger about them, so it makes it easier for fans to buy into them.
ReplyDeleteYour comment makes Michael Chiklis sad.
ReplyDeleteSeems like a missed opportunity not to have one of them named Cletus Van Damme.
ReplyDelete