Brian Damage
It’s Saturday and today we have ’This Week in Wrestling’, the 48th entry of 2022. Today Brian examines wrestling fans attention spans and shares all the best wrestling content from this week.
Spanning the World of Pro Wrestling
One of the biggest gripes I have been reading about for a good long time is that titles no longer mean as much as they did in the past. Too many titles changing hands like a hot potato, wrestlers unworthy of being champion, not enough emphasis on how important a certain title is…etc. To be honest, that has been very true for a long time. Just look at how many times the WWF world title changed ownership during the Attitude Era…a staggering 22 times with the most title switches happening in 1999 with 12 title changes. That was then and it all a part of the whole “Crash TV” style that they were presenting during that era.
In the years since the end of the Attitude Era, many fans have complained that the WWE’s championships in particular have lost all meaning and prestige for the very reasons I mentioned above. If you have been keeping up with WWE programming the last couple of years, the company has been trying to change that issue. Of course, there is Roman Reigns who has been WWE Universal champion for well over 800 days, GUNTHER has been the Intercontinental champion since June, the Usos are currently the longest reigning tag team champions in overall history of WWE, Bianca Belair has been Raw women’s champ for over 200 days and even NXT women’s champion Mandy Rose has held that belt for over a year.
The title reigns have certainly been longer and yet, fans are now complaining that they are bored or that some particular champions have been champion for too long. It seems to be a vicious double edged sword where Triple H or whoever books wrestling can’t truly win. Fans attention spans won’t allow a wrestler to be champion for a great length, some just don’t have the patience in this era of instant gratification with the emergence of the internet and technology. On one hand they want the titles to have more meaning, but some aren’t willing to sit and watch a slow burning /title reign/storyline/angle.
Since Bray Wyatt re-debuted with WWE, some fans are now growing impatient to see him wrestle and do other things. The slow burning storyline with the emergence of ‘Uncle Howdy’ isn’t pleasing to everyone. That goes for other angles in wrestling as well. What is the balance? When is long…too long? What is the expiration date on a particular champion? When should the payoff of a story conclude? There doesn’t seem to be any kind of fair balance.
I personally like the long run of Roman Reigns and advocate longer title reigns all around. I think it builds up the champion, the title and the eventual wrestler that will ultimately win the title by knocking off the champion. As for the long, drawn out storylines, I like them if they keep my interest for the majority of it. Keep throwing small, subtle hints that this angle will culminate into something big. The whole angle with Sami Zayn as an “Honorary Uce” and a member of the Bloodline has been thoroughly entertaining. It has held my attention and will eventually turn into something bigger in my opinion.
Many fans lately want the best of both worlds and that just can’t work. Patience is the name of the game. Just enjoy the ride if you can.
Photo Gallery
Tis the Season!
Bloodline to the Hairline.
WWE’s Austin Theory is in tremendous shape!
A tattoo of Rob Van Dam riding a horse…because why not?
Triple H’s latest signing…Quill Gargano!
Stay Down Rocky!
Johnny Cena
Someone did a sexy drawing of Bayley
Maryse and sister Michelle
Independent wrestler Queen Aminata
Impact Wrestling’s Deonna Purrazzo
Katarina Leigh Waters (Formerly of WWE and Impact)
Mandy Rose
Dana Brooke
NSFW
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Former WWE/Impact personality and former Mrs. Bobby Lashley….Kristal Marshall
AEW’s Toni Storm
Nia Jax
Video Gallery
A couple of oldie, but goodie commercials involving AWA wrestlers.
First, Jesse Ventura advertising a local liquor store in 1984.
Second, the AWA advertising a show in Las Vegas in 1988…
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Ring the Damn Bell 
I’M BLIND!!!!!!!!! Why Nia Jax?
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To help you calm down after Toni Storm. HOLY SHIT MAN!!!
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And yet you have no problem with that botch-bitch breaking your dick while screaming “OW MY HOLE!”
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Because your tastes don’t dictate the taste of others…
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Yet you like to have sex with that wife of yours but no how matter she rolls over on the bed, you’re still on the bitch.
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What’s the big deal? If you don’t like her pic, keep scrolling.
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You wouldn’t be saying that if it was your fat mother-in-law in that picture.
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Mother in law jokes? How old are you? 12?
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That was a long time ago but then again, you weren’t around when these jokes were common place since your parents conceived you while they were listening to that no-talent ass-clown Michael Bolton which explains why you’re a whiny little bitch like the rest of these whiny millennials.
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OK Boomer.
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I’m not a boomer but I tend to agree with them a lot more lately as we think you little pussies whine too much and get offended so easily like the babies you are. Wah-wah!
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Seriously? Resorting to attempting insults to people you have no clue about?
You really need to grow the fuck up.
Unless you actually are the 5 year old you act like, in which case your parents seriously need to start monitoring your internet access.
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Yet, you’re defending a selfish, egotistical, unsafe anti-vaxxer who falsified a vaccine card. You grow the fuck up bitch.
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I’m not defending her at all for any of that.
I’m just pointing out that your opinions are not facts and that you could start accepting other people’s opinions are just as valid as yours.
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Yet, you named yourself after someone, while a great wrestler, who is a fucking scumbag so therefore. Your opinion doesn’t mean shit since you don’t know what the fuck your talking about little boy.
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Actually, I named myself after myself. Billington is my real name. Dynamite is a nickname I was given at school in the 70s long before I knew anything about wrestling.
So perhaps you should question who it is doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
I’ve merely pointed out the fact that other people’s opinions are just as valid as yours.
As you had no valid argument to defend yourself, you’ve resorted to attempting personal insults towards people you have not the first clue about and mother in law jokes which are probably as old as my nickname.
So to conclude, I know exactly what I’m talking about and it’s a longer time than I care to mention since I was a little boy.
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Good story Brian, it’s a tough balance for promotions. I was thinking the same thing with the just finished World Cup on Smackdown, it’s filler programming, nothing more. Few believe Ricochet is beating Gunther but it filled TV time to create a contender for him. But we get a quick payoff in 2 weeks to a storyline and tournament no one will remember in a month.
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Agree with both pov’s and when you look at it, let’s take Reign’s title run it started off as the Eureka moment for Reigns thanks to Heyman’s experience in mentoring Reigns early promos & fan reactions and, as the title matches went on from KO to Bryan to Edge etc after the early ‘rub’ to Jey as Main Event Jey, it all started to gel more and the Bloodline came together with Reigns in a ‘Don’ role over the family.
What worked with Reigns long title run is that he was able to stay enhancing the story around the Usos and, as that angle run its course, Zayn got the new plot role that ran for months between Sami & Jey which finally saw its slow burn result in Jey ‘accepting’ Zayn for all he did at War Games. (The media after Survivor Series definitely boosted that ‘Sami hype’ angle).
The other positive was adding the Usos younger brother Solo to the Bloodline having an extra ‘enhancement rub’ for the Bloodline all while keeping Reigns in the background as Undisputed champion.
Now the ‘trust’ is on Sami it will slow burn the angle to him being at fault come the time with the future ‘turn’ on him by the Bloodline for a screwup (probably it’s costing the Usos their tag titles through a slip by Sami).
Be interesting to see what the plan will be after that with the Usos whether it builds to the Bloodline gradually imploding or staying with the turn on Zayn as the main angle now he’s at the ‘hero’ stage being set for the downfall.
Either way it’s slow burn is being handled brilliantly thanks to Creative keeping focus on the Bloodline, giving ‘rubs’ to all members outside of Reigns and, ironically, the same happened briefly with Gunther’s IC early run where the ‘Jey rub’ went to Ludwig Kaiser then Imperium were reformed adding back Giovanni.
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I wish for The Rock vs Roman Reigns for nothing on the line as there’s a theory where Sami Zayn upsets Roman in Montreal as the WWE Title AND WWE Universal Title holder Sami will defend two belts against friend/enemy Kevin Owens in Hollywood unlike Goldberg vs Brock for UT and KO vs Y2J for US championship at WM 32. The pictures and drawings are very good, while Kristal isn’t that bad looking even though in storyline she ALMOST married Teddy Long, Storm has a wet T-shirt yet it’s not Spring Break, and Nia Jax is a fine BBW model who at least didn’t destroy the camera.
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