You know that saying, "A Picture is worth 1000 Words?"
On the Insanity Message Boards, this takes on a meaning all its own, as Random and Insane Wrestling Pics continues to be one of the most popular threads in Insanity History.
Here are a few of the recent additions to our Insane Picture Archive –
Aaron Wood
ZAH: Tommy Dreamer's Extreme Ice Cream
Canadian Bulldog: The New Era?
Mike Johns
But the absolute capper (yes, even better than Cena in drag), has got to be…
Aaron Wood
Yes, kids, that's ECW original Amish Roadkill having his picture taken with the Olsen Twins circa 2000.
Leave it to Aaron Wood to dig up something creepy like that…
You're just DYING to know what stupid thing Michael Cole said on Monday Night Raw this week, aren't you?
Sadly, so am I, as I all about missed Raw this past week.
In the process of seeing if anyone else caught it, though, I found this post in this week's Raw Thread –
Frencymartin
Just turned the tv on 20 minutes ago... 1 women match of 30 seconds and one backstage skit of 45 second... And over 15 minutes of ads... Why am I not watching football...
Congratulations, Frenchy.
Your first post, and you're already featured in Hot Threads.
Think you can top it?
Join the Boards and let's find out…
Meanwhile, in this week's Raw Thread, of all the things people could talk about, it seems the new SmackDown Theme Song (Green Day's "Know Your Enemy") was a point of some controversy.
The Green Teabagger
Ted DiBiase's music SUCKS more than the new Smackdown theme
Aaron Wood
This is actually true. But it's CLOSE. And at least, in theory, DiBiase's theme fits.
James Bullock
I thought Ted didn't like rap, hip hop, or something close to it when he had that sing-off with Truth a few weeks ago.
Mike Johns
In theory, I really should seriously bitch out the idea that there's a bad Green Day song, but "Know Your Enemy" was a weak song that needs the album to hold up (Last of the American Girls was a FAR better single), and completely inappropriate in this situation. Of course we know who our enemy is. He's the guy on the other side of the ring!
RDLee
Everyone is spending way too much time bitching about the Green Day song. It's not bad at all and is far better than getting stuck with another damn Nickleback song.
The Epitome of Man
Both bands completely suck... although Green Day is the lesser of the two evils by leaps and bounds.
Aaron Wood
Green Day are OK, but they have become WILDLY over-exposed in the course of these last two albums, and their music gets over-played to near-Nirvana levels. At least in the UK. Butthe band is not the problem I have with them using it. It's the song itself.
And here's the thing. The music that opens the shows needs to have some bombast to it. It needs to get you into what you're watching. As much as Nickelback such, the song they use for RAW is the right sort of song. Rise Up (the old Smackdown song) was perfect too. Saliva's one for ECW was on the fence.
However, Know Your Enemy, or at least their use of it, is a HORRIBLE choice. It's the same relatively mid-tempo riff and refrain over and over. There is no "boom" moment at the end to signature the start of the show. That's the one thing I don't particularly like about the RAW theme in that they use what is essentially the end of the song, and then they have to start the energy up again. There's no such energy to "Know Your Enemy" that benefits a suppoedly high-octane "sports entertainment" show. It doesn't compel me to get exctied for what I'm about it see.
So, there was this Hell in a Cell PPV this past week.
Here's what the folks on the Boards had to say about it –
Squeaky
If you only take one thing from last nights PPV, take the perfect execution of the entire Cena/Barrett match and the Nexus angle. Perfect all around. Nexus has the numbers to be a force again and they have Cena which is just an interesting storyline waiting to happen.
Captivate the interest. Well done.
The Chosen 1
What a waste of the Hell In A Cell. This match should have been the match that ends this feud. It would have been Poetic in the Hell In A Cell 13 Years to the Month Later.... and now just because it's the fact that the show is called Hell In A Cell it's wasted on this.
RDLee
Buried Alive is a more fitting ending if you asked me since it's much more rare.
Aaron Wood
It as rather obvious. I mean, you can see the whole feud as it plays out as I stated before. Buried Alive match at Survivor Series. Taker goes down. Comes back for one more match at Mania and then retires either with the Streak in tact and he leaves in some wacky way or with Kane breaking it and him.
The Chosen 1
Ugh. Yeah that sounds fantastic.. except I liked that storyline better when it was called WRESTLEMANIA XX.
TheGreatWhiteDope
I actually figured Buried Alive would end with Taker burying Kane and Kane retiring off of that. Along with Bearer going away. Bearer and Kane buried together for all eternity.
I wouldn't have a problem with that. Kane title reign already awesome
Aaron Wood
That would be a way to go, and there has been talk of Kane retiring. I just think he's got a couple more years in him, whereas Taker is kinda sad to watch right now, because he clearly has trouble moving.
Then, there's the issue of the Nexus T-Shirts.
Apparently, they're not selling as well as WEWE had hoped, believing that Nexus would catch on as an Anti-Establishment meme, of sorts.
Here's what some of our Board Members had to say on the matter –
ZAH
Well...if you want to move those "N" shirts, having Cena being part of the team would TOTALLY get them sold. And let's face it...McMahon NEVER likes to admit defeat at ANYTHING, so he could have Cena join Nexus (without a heel turn) simply to say the Nexus was a success.
The Chosen 1
As far as the N Shirts. As much as I would probably buy one if I ever went to an event while Nexus was still around,.. It's not exactly a good looking shirt. Not the kind of shirt that you'd want to wear outside of a WWE event. The WWE should create a New Nexus logo and leave the Yellow N for the armband. They could still use both logos but the new one would be the one for the T-shirt. Right now it's just overkill. There's THREE Nexus N's on the t-shirt two on them are visible at the same time. The text on the back is just WAY too big. It's really an obnoxious t-shirt. It's no nWo shirt that's for sure. Simple. Black shirt, cool looking simple white logo on the front. Austin 3:16 was similar and with a very cool picture on the back.
Some thing looks like this: NeXuS. Black T-shirt with that in yellow. Somehow that would just look cooler that a shirt that looks like it's a part of a set that can never be finished.
RDLee
I like the shirt. Very NWO-ish in it's meaning. I highly doubt they aren't selling well seeing as they were sold out recently on the WWE SHOP site. Also take a look in the crowds and count all the times you see the shirt. More than any Randy Orton shirts I guarantee.
James Bullock
Seriously, who in WWE thought the shirt would catch on? It's pretty ugly. At least the NWO shirt had some rugged, almost washedout look to it. Nexus' shirt is just a big black "N" with a yellow box around it. If I didn't know, I'd think someone was going for a tryout at Sesame Street, or Barney, or some other kids show.
From another perspective, why did they think kids would convince their parents to buy a shirt representing a group that's beating down their wrestling superhero on a weekly basis? Nexus isn't anti-establishment (which they were when the group formed, but that went out the window soon after), or edgy like the NWO. They're beating down John Cena on a weekly basis (which would only appeal to the dramatically smaller than 2006 Cena hating crowd), and outside of Barrett, and to a certain extent, Tarver and Otunga, none of them have any shred of personality that would make fans get behind these supposed "anti-heros".
James Guttman
The NWO shirts are straight forward - it says New World Order on the front.
If I was in school and some kid wore a shirt that said N on it, I'm sure I'd call him a Nancy, Ninny, Nincimpoop, Necro, Nose Picker, Noodle-d*ck, and a large variety of other words. It's just too open to ridicule. At least the NWO logo would require some thought as to what three word combo starting with "NWO" could be used to mock the guy. Just having the letter "N" makes it too easy, Nutsack.
Mike Johns
I don't get how anyone was supposed to think Nexus was cool or anti-establishment. At least, not the way they've been used about week 2 of the angle.
1- Daniel Bryan gets canned for the tie incident, which the majority of anyone who would have even been remotely into the Nexus or even remotely the target audience of the Nexus, were they to be anti-establishment, knew about. The most anti-establishment guy in the Nexus spends the majority of the angle unemployed, then returns as the Hero who made the Miz tap.
2 - Jennifer Hudson's husband is in the group. Anyone who's heard her music can pretty much scratch out Otunga as anti-establishment.
2.5 - The pics of Otunga and his baby in N armbands looking all warm and fatherly does not help matters
3 - In what way is the Nexus right? Sure, NXT was stupid, and they were made to look like idiots, but, at the same time, WWE has been more than fair to them since. in order to justify your spot as anti-establishment, the establishment has to, in some way, come off as something worth rebelling against. If Nexus weren't given contracts at all, or, if they won the tag Titles just to have the Laptop GM strip them of the belts immediately, or did SOMETHING that gave them a legit gripe against the establishment, this would make sense. WWE has been practically saints in this situation, therefore, Nexus are just a bunch of douches.
4 - WWE simply does not, or does not care, to understand what motivates an anti-WWE attitude. if they wanted to make a group of outsiders that outsiders would cheer and conncet with, then maybe they need to go to more ROH shows or something, because they really don't get what we, the not-so-WWE fan, doesn't like about their product.
5 - The shirts are just stupid.
James Guttman
As for merchandise, everyone has points as to why they didn't sell. The biggest one to me would be the way the shirts were used on TV. The biggest point of the NWO shirts were that they symbolized someone jumping ship. It was a big reveal. A guy went to the ring with one shirt on, turned heel, ripped it off and - bam - NWO. I even remember the reaction the guys from "Dinner and Movie on TBS" got when they did it. It was huge. Anyone could show up in an NWO shirt at any time and you knew they had gone bad.
The rookies that everyone barely knows are the only ones wearing N shirts. You're NWO 4 Life. But you're either Nexus or you're one of the other billion people on the planet. Not too many shocking Nexus t-shirt reveals. Had they flipped a few young stars into the group that way, they would have sold big time.
Finally, in case you didn't get a chance to see it live, courtesy of our own Aaron Wood, here's a montage of the audience reactions to Cena losing this past Sunday, and being forced to join Nexus –
This is just a taste of what you're missing on the Boards. Why don't you come by sometime and check it out for yourself, eh?
You never know when something you post may end up being the next Hot Thread.
http://s14.zetaboards.com/Wrestling_Insanity
*****
Mike Johns, imbued with special, shameless self-promotional powers the likes of which haven't been seen since the height of DX's self-fellatious babyface run in 2006, is a contributor to WorldWrestlingInsanity.com and ClubWWI.com, single-handedly responsible for WWI's coverage of All Things TNA.
In what spare time he has left, Mike produces and records original music under the name 'SaviorSelf.07.05.98' as well as remixes and mash-ups of far more popular songs under the name 'TMJ'.
You can contact Mike via e-mail at MikeJohns@WorldWrestlingInsanity.com
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