WWE Great American Bash 2008 *SPOILERS*

Man In Black · Anime Mod

RE: WWE Great American Bash 2008 *SPOILERS*

Creepfnshow · On The Casting Couch

kind of liked this show and can appreciate the whole silliness of the JBL/Cena stuff but dumb gimmicks aside there was a high powered well worked brawl in amongst all that and both guys took some horrible bumps. Layfield throws punches so well i am in awe and Cena has developed substantially in the last two years to the point where his daft punches and nonsensical submission finish can be overlooked in favour of the all round good work contained around it.
It's the same with the match with JBL last night, if you can look past the silliness there was an awful lot to like about that little scrap.

Man In Black · Anime Mod

Creepfnshow wrote:
if you can look past the silliness there was an awful lot to like about that little scrap.

A bit difficult when the whole thing was one big pile of silliness.

Honestly I cannot say anything favourable about that "match" other than the finish spot was a cool visual.

Gimmick brawls like that for me never work because they are inherently handicapped by the gimmick. I know that wrestling requires suspension of disbelief and plenty of it but this was ridiculous. Cena - who showed no signs of the "grazing" on RAW by the way - survives a DDT on the car roof? Cena gets out of a burning car and shows no ill effects like smoke inhalation? And isn't that JBL's second homicide attempt on Cena in the same week?

I don't care how hard they bumped it was dumb concept, with illogical spots and was aimed at the lowest and most naive common denominator possible.

And have you noticed that Cena NEVER sweats? Ever? The only guy who can go 20 minutes and not a bead of sweat or perspiration shows up on him at all. Weird....

Mollison · 500 Club Member

He's just got two words for ya.... TALCUM POWDER!

Symphony Of Destruction · Metal Mod

I actually fell asleep during the interval before the CM Punk V Batista match. I wasn't impressed though.

Why did they Job out the World Title match to bloody Cena V JBL it's crap. I hope they don't completely bury Punk's Title Reign like they did Jericho.

From what I saw of it I say I wouldn't have enjoyed the PPV.

Creepfnshow · On The Casting Couch

i guess i just felt quite positive about the show and felt that dumb gimmickry aside there was a good brass tacks back and forth between Cena and JBL. I absolutely love the way JBL throws a punch and i think Cena sells very well even if he can't throw a good punch back.
As far as the dumb gimmicks go i don't blame JBL and Cena for that , i blame the writing staff who felt the match needed that kind of help which it clearly didn't.
Used correctly JBL is useful and i think he works well with Cena and went a long way to gaining cena credibility with his i quit match against him in 2005.
All i'm saying is if you can remove all the gimmicky nonsense and the bad storyline stuff you can see two guys who really worked hard despite being saddled with a lousy idea.
It's like the old footballing adage of ' you can only play the team on the field' meaning you can't do more than you can do as a person and an athlete.
When Triple H was given the hog open match with Henry Godwinn he did the best he could with a crappy gimmick and got some plaudits for the professionalism he showed in dealing with a bad situation in the most professional manner possible. I think JBL and Cena deserve a share of that kind of credit for their hard work, nothing more than that.

Man In Black · Anime Mod

Well, that's your opinion and I understand what you are saying. Personally I hate JBL and think he is a lousy worker incapable of having a good match unless there is some to carry him although he does seem to bring them down to his crappy level. I will give him his due though for taking those bumps with his supposed back issue.

I'm not a Cena fan either and I don't think he sells that well. He's like Hogan or Warrior - he's been booked too much as a Superman type guy to the point he only really knows how to do his comebacks. It is very difficult for me to take Cena seriously as a wrestler and a legit tough guy because of that.

Sure there have been brawls that were sloppier in their execution that this one and it was fairly stiff but the WWE have decided to try and appeal to the younger audiences again so they booked it to play out with OTT spots and "cartoon" violence which overshadows the more "realistic" action and is certainly not conducive to furthering a scenario supposedly based on hatred and revenge.

In other words, people don't remember the bumps and stiff shots: instead they remember the fire, broken windscreens and forklift trucks. Much like the infamous Foley/Taker HITC match everyone remembers Foley's two sickening bumps but not the rest of the match. Or remembering the special effects in a film but not the story or the performances.

Ergo: all style no substance.