Yep, you read it, folks.
Check out possibly one of the only positives to come out of the WWE App, and that's slightly looser promos, and viola - you get Dolph Ziggler having a meltdown and cutting one helluva scathing promo.
Wow.
http://www.wwe.com/videos/tom-phillips-interviews-dolph-ziggler-after-his-match-wwe-app-exclusive-jan-31-2-26179139
Check out possibly one of the only positives to come out of the WWE App, and that's slightly looser promos, and viola - you get Dolph Ziggler having a meltdown and cutting one helluva scathing promo.
Wow.
http://www.wwe.com/videos/tom-phillips-interviews-dolph-ziggler-after-his-match-wwe-app-exclusive-jan-31-2-26179139
And he'll still get zero live tv promo time. You ever realize how no one outside of the top guys get promo time on Raw? I can't remember another time in WWE history where that was the case.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is, the material is so samey and boring.
ReplyDeleteThey'd never let him do this on TV!
It's weird. At times I wonder if it's a way to get around fans realizing while they have a gigantic roster, all they do is cycle through the same match ups week after week.
ReplyDeleteI think it is 10 percent lazy and 90 percent creative has no idea how to build and sustain a feud over a week, let alone a month.
ReplyDeleteWhen they decide on what guys are facing each other on PPV, what they do is have them face each other trading wins on every tv show leading up to the PPV. lolwat.
And they wonder why buyrates went in the toilet.
It's BECAUSE of shit like that that he gets no promo time.
ReplyDeleteYep, no wonder they have such burnout in creative. All the soap writers they bring in have at least some sense of stability and the virtue of their filming schedule aren't victim to the day to day whims of Vince.
ReplyDeleteIs the WWE Network "TV"?
ReplyDeleteShip his ass back to OVW until he learns to behave like a sports entertainer.
ReplyDeleteYes, I realize that OVW has nothing to do with WWE or TNA anymore.
Yep. Can't have real emotion overshadowing Cena poop jokes.
ReplyDeletePretty good, really.
ReplyDeleteThe promo is okay, but I found when he started yelling halfway through, the pitch in his voice made him sound more whiny than angry. He sounded like a teenager having a temper tantrum. But it's still better than anything else we'd heard from him before.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I wish they'd bring back the short, pre-made interviews like back in the day. Remember the WWF Updates with Mene Gene where he'd run down the card for the upcoming PPV or even house hows and everyone got the chance do a 1-minute promo? Those were great. You got a feel for each character AND a little bit of trash talk to their opponent.
I don't know why WWE doesn't do that anymore. Too focused on live, backstage segments or in-ring promos these days. But not everyone can handle a live mic. Practising in a studio would do wonders for their mic skills. Hell, NXT does it relatively often, like the Regal/Cesaro match a few weeks ago. Regal's promo was OUTSTANDING; probably one of the best promos I'd heard in a long time.
The kids would get scared and the casuals would hear the tone in his voice and just assume he was worked up over Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
ReplyDeleteIn appearing on the Zack Ryder YouTube shows, I always thought Ziggler could cut a good promo. That and his skill in the ring, I've never understood why the WWE does not get behind him. I guess he should try to become HHH's workout buddy.
ReplyDeleteAwesome. I really like Dolph. It's a shame he has no chance of getting near the top again. Especially after blasting total divas and calling out the WWE for another painful Orton push.
ReplyDeleteHe needs to learn how to work obv
ReplyDeleteFor context, here's the Regal promo I mentioned:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4zmenHmjxk
Undeserved shot at Sheamus. Dude has earned his spot.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that can't get on TV.
ReplyDeleteI agree, it reminded me of Chris Jericho's temper tantrums during his first heel turn. I like the depth it adds to his character though. I think it's a good direction (standout athlete who's frustrated because he's never encountered failure before) but I think he needs to think through these promos--should they continue--and exercise a little more restraint.
ReplyDeleteWow. That's the power of restraint. Compared to Ziggler's promo this is a great demonstration that a raised voice can be much more effective than a scream.
ReplyDeleteMan, I really wish Regal would get one more good run in the WWE. Imagine Regal asking Triple H for another shot, based on their history, and Triple H "punishing him" with a non-title match against Orton (also a test for Orton). Regal wins clean; Orton destroys him after the match; a bruised, bandaged Regal cuts one of THOSE promos the next week on Raw--that program could easily main-event a lesser PPV.
Actually, I got one better. Now, this is assuming that at SOME point, Bryan wins the title and they decide to run with him as champion for an extended period.
ReplyDeleteRegal was one of Bryan's trainers and mentors. They had a great match on one of their C-shows like Velocity a few years ago. So, imagine they just do the old, "I taught you everything you know, but not everything _I_I know" stories. Regal feels that to really become a true champion, Bryan needs to prove himself against the man that made him what he is today.
Then they have an amazing, 20+ minute technical showcase of a match on a major PPV. Regal wouldn't even had to win, but it would be one last amazing showing for him, ala Flair's retirement.
It's weird that they can't even cut 5 minutes from the overly long in ring promos to use these to flesh out 2 or 3 midcard feuds. The way the live stuff goes on and on just makes a lot of what they say redundant & repetitive, and everyone who can hold the crowd for that much talking is gone. The shorter prerecorded interviews can also hide the weaknesses of less skilled talkers by not taxing them beyond their limits. When I was a kid I knew the character of everyone from Hogan to Koko from Mean Genes interviews so I agree with you completely.
ReplyDelete20 minutes of the Authority Talking = weekly recapping and listing a PPV's contents.
20 minutes divided into minute and a half promos = multiple performers adding depth to their characters and reinforcing the importance of their matches.
Regal is so underrated on the stick. My favorite Regal promo:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcb8RoxQPD0
"I WILL BATTLE YOU WITH EVERY OUNCE OF VIOLENT VENOM THAT RUNS THROUGH MY VEINS!"
Nope. Aside from his pasty white skin, there's nothing that sets him apart from the rest of the roster.
ReplyDeleteAs for Dolph, if you have to come out and say that you have the "it factor", than you probably don't. But it was nice for WWE to let him advertise himself for the indies. They really are wishing him the best in his future endeavours.
That'd be great. Hopefully, what with him being friends with Trips, he'll be more featured in WWE programming from now on.
ReplyDeleteNot feeling it. Obviously not a bad promo, but it seemed like a wrestler's approximation of a good promo, rather than the real deal.
ReplyDeleteViolent venom! Some great purple prose there!
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure it's "vile and venom". The "and" makes it sound like "violent".
ReplyDeleteThe fact that he is muscle head who can actually go, and can also last longer than 10 minutes in the ring without blowing up also sets him apart from the rest of the roster.
ReplyDeleteI think you are correct.
ReplyDeleteYeah Sheamus in Japan would've be interesting to see cause he occasionally shows that Goldberg-esque brutal intensity in everything he does, especially that Brogue Kick when he wrestles someone that can sell it up to code. The schooling in main event style did help, but you can tell that if Sheamus was given a few more big power moves that he could do with his trademark fire he'd be pretty awesome. As is, hes good, prolly a shade better than Orton and occasionally better than Cena (Not being sarcastic, I don't hate either guy or Sheamus. I occasionally hate how they're utilized, but I don't agree with the Cena sucks part of the chant.)
ReplyDeleteAs far as promos go, an on-form Cena blows Ziggler on his best day out of the water.
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody remember all the buzz and talk online of Regal getting a WWE title run when he was red hot with the commissioner gimmick? Then his drinking got the better of him and he fucked up again.
ReplyDeleteI prefer Sheamus' TV matches to Cena's, but Cena's better than almost anyone at delivering in big matches.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't matter if on-form Cena only shows up twice a year.
ReplyDeleteSheamus is the King of TV Matches. No one consistently has better TV matches than him. It's weird. They are almost always PPV quality.
ReplyDeleteThat more due to perception of Cena being a hated guy. I get emotionally invested in a Cena/Punk or Cena/Bryan match because with the right crowd it always has a "big fight" atmosphere. As a standalone match, neither Punk/Cena or Bryan/Cena is ***** in terms of execution, but theres genuine tension and stakes there that you just dont see. If you were to judge solely by the action, Sheamus/Bryan was better than Cena/Bryan, but Cena/Bryan is ultimately better because they had the crowd in the palm of their hand the entire match.
ReplyDeleteZiggler needs a character overhaul. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have his character "snap" and just not give a hoot. It would add some much needed freshness to his stale, cocky character.
ReplyDeleteI love that Cena/Puna MITB 2011 is sloppy. It makes it more realistic.
ReplyDeleteApparently he was going to have a WWE Championship feud with Trips during the summer, and then the suspension put a stop to all that. Huge shame, but he has no one to blame but himself.
ReplyDeleteThey had a run on Raw where they were doing Sheamus matches at like 10:15 every week and they were all pretty damn good.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the thing I really like about Sheamus is how wild and fast-paced his matches seem. Cena's obviously a really good worker, and Orton's fine too, but neither can pull of the chaotic brawl the way Sheamus can. I'd love to see him and Cesaro have a 10-15 minute power match at 'Mania. They're both scheduled to be in the Chamber together, so why not start a storyline there?
ReplyDeleteYeah. I especially remember the couple of matches he had with Sandow because of their quality and how good Sandow looked even in defeat. Probably the first time I really took notice of Sandow.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of my favorite promos ever. On some level I will always hate the WWE for wasting that promo as a set-up for Eugene to be squashed at Summerslam. They should have registered Regal's energy on the spot and changed the program to HHH vs. Regal at Summerslam. That would have had the potential to be a classic match.
ReplyDeleteThey had a pretty entertaining brawl on that same episode of RAW that ended with HHH tipping Regal (in a stretcher) over on the ramp. Here's the video:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o3TC4pnxWs
It was like him and Cesaro were having a competition to see who could have the better TV matches then the one week, they faced each other and the universe imploded.
ReplyDeleteI actually think this is about as bad as a promo can get, in content and delivery. As someone who has always thought Dolph was underpushed, it kinda makes me wanna see him get completely jobbed out just for how whiny and sad he comes across.
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing: kayfabe-wise, it makes zero sense. The guy loses all the time (this came after he pretty much got squashed by Cesaro), so as a character what is he sayong? That he's a terrible fighter... but nobody is better than him? For me, you can't deliver a "wrestling is fake" promo, and there's nothing here that can ground this in the reality of the show. Compare that to say the pipe bomb promo, which can still make sense on a "they don't give me the right match opportunities."
ALSO, it kinda rings false because Ziggler's matches haven't exctly been that good in awhile. Granted he never gets long matches anymore, but when's the last time anyone came away feeling truly impressed by Dolph?
Lastly, holy shit was the delivery bad. Whiny, screechy, rambling, SCREAMING TO PROVIDE EMPHASIS, and boring as hell.
This guy doesn't have it.
Different strokes for different folks, but I thought this was a terrible promo. Weird inflections, clearly forced emotion...it looked like bad soap opera acting to me.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on every single point. If anything, this showed me why he ISN'T getting a push.
ReplyDeleteThat was bad.
ReplyDeleteImagine at 30, Bryan beats HHH. After the match, HHH snaps and Bryan does a stretcher job. The next night on Raw, HHH is taunting Bryan to all the smarks in attendance. Then Regal comes out and cuts that promo. The place would explode. Followed by a wild 4 star brawl at Extreme Rules.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the thing about the pipe bomb promo is that Punk WON his way into it and it was foreshadowed and everything. Basically he got this opportunity, he was going to take advantage of it, and he was going to fuck everyone over.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a promo with so many people either hating it or loving it. I thought it was good not great. Definitely not as terrible as some of you think. Also think it would play better if he cut it on Raw. Doing it backstage made it kinda awkward.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Watching this my first thought was "OK Vince, you were right about this one."
ReplyDeleteTHAT! PROMO! WAS! REALLY! BAD!
ReplyDeleteI'm still holding out hope they give us Sheamus - Barrett.
ReplyDeleteSheamus/Barrett tag team yo.
ReplyDeleteThe content was fine, he just needed to build to the yelling rather than start there.
ReplyDeleteThey shouldn't. It's a bad promo. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteNot a fan of the promo.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I"m tired of the "Oh, woe is me, I'm being held down." gimmick. It's being going on in one form or another for what, 20 years? Longer? I'm all for more realistic angles, but that is just kinda played out.
And I think Dolph is a really, really shitty babyface, so whenever he starts squawking about how he's just that damn good, I really want him to get booted in the face, because he's wrong.
Is Mr. Ziggler really good at a variety of wrestling things? Yeah, he is. But I get the vibe that he legitimately sees himself as the best ever, and it just isn't true.
Except Punk was calling himself the Best in the World when he hadn't won at a PPV in over a year.
ReplyDelete(the wins that people remember)
How about the fact he doesn't bitch when he gets hit in the face.
ReplyDeleteThe dude is legitimately tough, and his moves look like they actually hurt people.
He was a heel when that angle started.
ReplyDeleteIt's no different than the Rock calling himself the People's Champion.
I liked it. Feels like a wasted effort if it's not on the show though.
ReplyDeleteHe COULD be talking about Batista.
ReplyDeleteCould be.
He had just won a #1 contender match on PPV. And then promised to do the "most honest thing that anyone in the WWE had ever done". If he had gotten punted in the face by Mason Ryan the night before, it doesn't work as well
ReplyDeleteThe thing I like about Regal is he doesn't blame anyone but himself. In his book he's pretty open about how he fucked himself over after being given opportunities. Probably why he never got the DDP-intervention level.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, he did beat Rey. But that wasn't for a shot at the title. The triple threat with Rey and Del Rio was.
ReplyDeleteI could have sworn he was one of the guys that got suspended but he had a valid prescription or something like that. I remember Foley citing him as one of the guys who was unjustly suspended but he didn't mention Regal by name.
ReplyDeleteI think Ziggler and Bryan suffer from a really difficult problem to deal with, and
ReplyDeletethat’s not having a great voice. I’ve often thought that they characterize
themselves better in interviews outside the WWE when they use their natural
frequencies and that the WWE doesn’t really know how to write promos for
different styles (since I’ve been led to believe that they write the promos,
not the wrestlers).
I think Ziggler can cut a good promo as long as he uses the lower frequencies, but the really good microphone workers, such as Regal, usually have a great voice to begin with, so it’s a lot harder for them to sound like complete idiots.
As for the promo, I think it’s a quite good promo performed with the wrong voice, which kind of dragged it down a bit.
The snap must include use of the crossface chicken wing, otherwise it's not a snap.
ReplyDeletedo you not understand that you're not supposed to put exclamation points after every word? that's not good grammatical form.
ReplyDeleteand you also capitalized every word, which also is improper grammar use.
you really should make your posts more readable. different posting styles apparently can't be handled by a vast minority of posters (well, one, really) and who hold onto irrational and quite frankly obsessive disapproval
Yeah, I forgot about that. Probably because it involved Del Rio
ReplyDeleteReminds me of Vader's "I'm a big fat piece of shit!" promo.
ReplyDeleteI've never been able to take Ziggler seriously because he's called Dolph Ziggler. I mean seriously, DOLPH ZIGGLER! It's a ridiculous name.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, but you failed in your post, given I did this as more of a one-time spoof of a bad Dolph Ziggler, while you do what you do in every post.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I haven't really been criticizing you on grammatical form, as incorrect as it is. More that your posts become illegible and are thus unreadable and any points you attempt to make (when you're attempt to make point and not making unfunny one-liners, unfunny jokes about downvotes or crying about your lack of lovelife) get lost in your big block of lowercase text.
Other than the alleged scuffle with Yoshi Tatsu.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you totally. Wasn't feeling it.
ReplyDeleteIt's totally different.
ReplyDeleteRock WAS actually a champion when he started calling himself that (Intercontinetal).
Completely agree.
ReplyDeleteThe "Sheamus O'Cena" character is awful, but he can friggin' GO in the ring. I'd say he's one of the top five in-ring guys they have.
It's pretty much impossible to cut a promo like that and have it make sense within the kayfabe world. You have to cut a "no matter how much I get cheered, no matter how much I get knocked down and back up again, I just can't win" kinda promo for something close to this to actually make logical sense.
ReplyDeleteIts a symptom of calling people like Shawn Michael's "performers" on air. He's a FANTASTIC performer, but in universe he's a competitor and it shouldn't matter how entertaining he is.
I think it hurts when promos aren't for anythng. He isn't building for a feud, a match or a newcharacter. He's building himself up for the sake of it and obviously this promo is rooted in a Russoesque "lets make people think this is real out of the context of a wrestling show" mentality. Punks pipe bombs worked as he was using Cena as the focus of his frustrations, Terry Funk can call Lawler a "Baby-Banger" because it helps people "believe" he actually hates him enough to reference something so embarrassing and taboo. Ziggler is basically cutting a promo on how he is losing matches because he isn't shaking peoples hands which, as you said, makes no contextual sense.
ReplyDeleteTough doesn't mean he wins fights, it means that if he say...tears his shoulder he'll be doing the exact same shit he always does in a match anyway.
ReplyDelete...are you joking or missing the point?
ReplyDeleteHeels lie and exaggerate. Punk was the Best in the World because he called himself that as a heel and people just started agreeing with it when he turned face. Same as the Rock as the People's Champion.
I don't like kayfabe bending promos. Or rather, I don't like ones that require you to see wrestling as being fake. Ziggler has gotten plenty of opportunities, but in a fair fight, he lost, super cleanly, to ADR.
ReplyDeleteThe performer thing doesn't bother me cause even in "real" sports, there are entertaining teams and athletes and less entertaining teams and athletes. Floyd Mayweather isn't the most entertaining fighter. Is he the best? Yeah, but he's not as fun to watch as others.
Look, if Dolph turns heel? Yeah, whatever, he's delusional and thinks that things should be different because of unimportant details. But this was a terrible face promo because I have no reason to get behind this character. He's whiny.
Yet again, if he turns heel or changes his character based on this. Cool. But if this is some big sympathy building appeal to the audience...I don't see it. He's basically not taking responsibility for his losses.
ReplyDeleteI'd be like if Chael Sonnen came out and said he keeps losing fights because even though he's cheered and beloved by millions, Dana White hates him.
Except that built sympathy.
ReplyDelete