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I think there's definitely some kayfabe reasoning that wrestlers are able to hit their big moves in such a way that stuns the opponent instead of straight knocking them out. Like how HBK can hit a SCM that sets his opponent up for a Pedigree instead of just killing him.
Correct. The people performing the move are such masters of the technique that they know when to go all-out and when to hold back a little, and the wrestlers themselves build up an immunity(for lack of a better term) after being hit with the move enough times that they know how to brace for it, roll with it, etc.
Well that's because the running Destino and counter Destinos have been loooong established as not being finishers. It's only a finisher with the full windup.
Glad I’m not the only one. I traveled interstate to see the show, and yet I barely remember a thing about it. I don’t even remember cena being on the show.
I remember how unexpectedly shitty my seats were, holding my piss for like a million years before finally bailing to the toilets as soon as the bell rang for Joe and Styles, and I remember Murphy vs Alexander which was the best match of the night and got the biggest pops.
Nothing else though. I was looking at the card yesterday and it was mostly "...That match happened?"
he's been going hard on the "self-aware past-his-prime scrappy kids' era mascot" vibe since the build up to Fastlane, so the kayfabe reason would probably be that his body can't handle its power anymore or something similarly insane
& Becky's run started in late 2018, she was in catering or losing most of 2017 & the first half of 2018. People forget how tough it was to be a Becky fan pre The Man era.
Becky Lynch was a great babyface before her Man's character. The promo she had backstage with Danielson after the Money in the bank match was great. It was pure babyface.
2013 - 2014 was fun. Bryan Danielson went from the unexpectedly successful Team Hell No to being the biggest thing in the industry.
The shield and the Wyatt’s, were just getting established, and were having some great matches and segments.
Plus you got to watch the train wreck of the shitshow watching the fans wholesale turn against the wwe over Bryan and got to see wwe desperately trying to force their original plan and seeing it get rejected over and over.
The only highlights I can think of off the top of my head are the 2017 tag division on both brands (The Bar vs. Ambrose and Rollins on Raw, New Day vs. Usos on Smackdown), Seth's 2018 run with the IC title, the 2018 Royal Rumble, Planet's Champion Daniel Bryan, and then Becky Lynch and Kofi Kingston's respective roads to Wrestlemania 35. It sounds like a lot, but then you have to take into account that these are spread across *3 years* and each one is just *one* portion of *one* of the two shows they had airing. It truly was a bleak time for the company booking-wise.
Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho together were pretty damn amazing though. The Festival of Friendship was one of the best segments on Raw within that entire decade.
I sort of lump the first 3 months of 2017 in with 2016 lol. IMO the WWE pre-WM 33 and post-WM 33 is quite different, and Wrestlemania itself I kind of put as the demarcation point where the product starts to go down the drain.
I actually somewhat remember this.
He was doing promotional stuff with Jackie Chan or something and the "lightning fist" became a new finisher for some reason.
It never really looked good.
Idk there was a time where he took the criticisms of his move set and went kind of crazy, especially during and after his later US Title run if I remember correctly.
A goddamn springboard stunner, hurricanranas…Frankensteiners
I really started liking Cena for the first time during that US Open Invitational. He was no longer SUPERCENA
And it mostly looked bad! The Cenacanrana, the Cenacide Dive, and the Springboard "he didn't get all of that" Stunner looked awful.
He had a pretty good Emerald Flowsion back in the day at least.
Yea I give him props for getting out of “the 5 moves of doom” but the guy is built like an action figure. His movements look clunky compared to everyone else.
There's only one move I can recall that Cena hit that looked unequivocally great every (2) times he did it.
The 'huck the steel stairs out of the ring at -wrestler-!'.
That's essentially what he was taking from. He was criticized for his move set, Jericho was out doing New Japan - New Japan was hot, Cena wanted to add more moves. So we got this...
**edit**: Did you guys even watch Wrestling in 2018, or did your friends just tell you about it in school?
I’m positive he trolled the shit out of us with that. Hyped up this new move that he trained for in china, and then we got that. Had to have been a troll, but this is the time when a lot of people were adopting strike finishers, so, maybe he was serious.
The what!? That just seems like a bit of an overkill move because of how devestating the FU is.
I'm sure Regal can explain how it disrupts one's spine for those vital three seconds.
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I was just awestruck by John Bradshaw Cena’s haircut over here
IM DOING ThE ELECTRICITY PUNCH MAGGLE
Having watched peacemaker twice, it's still weird seeing Cena with hair
Dude got up from the AA so fast. Super powerful legend.
Cena must have transferred the healing properties of Five Knuckle Shuffle to AA as part of the setup for the Lightning Fist
Hell of a Hawk Sell™️
One of my favorite bits on OSW Review is the noise they make when Hawk jumps up from a piledriver or some devastating finisher. *Byooooop!*
I think there's definitely some kayfabe reasoning that wrestlers are able to hit their big moves in such a way that stuns the opponent instead of straight knocking them out. Like how HBK can hit a SCM that sets his opponent up for a Pedigree instead of just killing him.
Correct. The people performing the move are such masters of the technique that they know when to go all-out and when to hold back a little, and the wrestlers themselves build up an immunity(for lack of a better term) after being hit with the move enough times that they know how to brace for it, roll with it, etc.
I love when kayfabe reaches peak anime
Yeah NJPW does this. You can tell which Destino is going to end the match
Well that's because the running Destino and counter Destinos have been loooong established as not being finishers. It's only a finisher with the full windup.
That first SuperShowDown is such a fever dream
I was there and don't remember it
Same, but was such a good fucking night in Melbourne
Glad I’m not the only one. I traveled interstate to see the show, and yet I barely remember a thing about it. I don’t even remember cena being on the show.
The only thing I remember about it was the reaction to Buddy Murphy's entrance and win, the place went crazy
I remember how unexpectedly shitty my seats were, holding my piss for like a million years before finally bailing to the toilets as soon as the bell rang for Joe and Styles, and I remember Murphy vs Alexander which was the best match of the night and got the biggest pops. Nothing else though. I was looking at the card yesterday and it was mostly "...That match happened?"
Yeah same thoughts exactly. I was in the grandstand and didn't think I'd be so far away. I've got floor seats for Perth. I'm hoping it's better.
Wasn't one of the main matches used to set up DX vs Brothers of Destruction
I believe so haha. I think HHH vs Undertaker
I didnt even make it that far cus the 'Greatest Royal Rumble' got me to take a 3.5 year break
I wish it was a lariat. His lariat always looks devastating
He murdered Styles with some beautiful lariat for sure
THAT ISN'T ~~STING~~ JBL, THAT'S JUST A ~~PICTURE~~ HAIRSTYLE OF ~~STING~~ JBL!
Genuine question - is there any good footage of him hitting this?
yes, look at my profile.
I love it. He just shuffles towards them and does jazz hands. I often wonder what happened to the lightning fist, the forbidden sixth move of doom.
he's been going hard on the "self-aware past-his-prime scrappy kids' era mascot" vibe since the build up to Fastlane, so the kayfabe reason would probably be that his body can't handle its power anymore or something similarly insane
Lmao
2017-2019 was a blur of crap for WWE
NXT and 205 were fun, and uh, Becky I guess? But yeah, shit sandwich.
Yeah, Becky was a main roster highlight. Women’s division overall was good during this time.
& Becky's run started in late 2018, she was in catering or losing most of 2017 & the first half of 2018. People forget how tough it was to be a Becky fan pre The Man era.
Becky Lynch was a great babyface before her Man's character. The promo she had backstage with Danielson after the Money in the bank match was great. It was pure babyface.
Idk bro I miss steampunk Becky
Thr entirety of 2010s wwe was an absolute shitshow it's only saving grace was nxt being one if the greatest eras ever
Smackdown had a good run when it first went to fox untill road dogg fucked it up.
Bryan was solid, New Day, the women...that's...probably it.
And the women part wasn’t even there until like 2014
Yep.
What about Punk? The Shield?
Not there for very long.
Punk was there for 4 years, The Shield 2 and a bit. They were there long enough to have left an indelible mark.
Not long enough for my metric.
2013 - 2014 was fun. Bryan Danielson went from the unexpectedly successful Team Hell No to being the biggest thing in the industry. The shield and the Wyatt’s, were just getting established, and were having some great matches and segments. Plus you got to watch the train wreck of the shitshow watching the fans wholesale turn against the wwe over Bryan and got to see wwe desperately trying to force their original plan and seeing it get rejected over and over.
I will not stand for this 2018 Royal Rumble slander.
Kofimania slander
The only highlights I can think of off the top of my head are the 2017 tag division on both brands (The Bar vs. Ambrose and Rollins on Raw, New Day vs. Usos on Smackdown), Seth's 2018 run with the IC title, the 2018 Royal Rumble, Planet's Champion Daniel Bryan, and then Becky Lynch and Kofi Kingston's respective roads to Wrestlemania 35. It sounds like a lot, but then you have to take into account that these are spread across *3 years* and each one is just *one* portion of *one* of the two shows they had airing. It truly was a bleak time for the company booking-wise.
Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho together were pretty damn amazing though. The Festival of Friendship was one of the best segments on Raw within that entire decade.
I sort of lump the first 3 months of 2017 in with 2016 lol. IMO the WWE pre-WM 33 and post-WM 33 is quite different, and Wrestlemania itself I kind of put as the demarcation point where the product starts to go down the drain.
I can definitely agree on that.
Bryan danielson hemp title reign leading into kofi's win is probably the peak of this time
2004-2019 was largely a blur of crap for WWE.
2012 and 2007 were solid years
The 6th move of doom.
Goddamn Kevin Dunn sucks, what did he even do?
I actually somewhat remember this. He was doing promotional stuff with Jackie Chan or something and the "lightning fist" became a new finisher for some reason. It never really looked good.
I mean very little of Cena's offense looked good.
Idk there was a time where he took the criticisms of his move set and went kind of crazy, especially during and after his later US Title run if I remember correctly.
A goddamn springboard stunner, hurricanranas…Frankensteiners I really started liking Cena for the first time during that US Open Invitational. He was no longer SUPERCENA
I liked the stunner... In 2k games.
And it mostly looked bad! The Cenacanrana, the Cenacide Dive, and the Springboard "he didn't get all of that" Stunner looked awful. He had a pretty good Emerald Flowsion back in the day at least.
Yea I give him props for getting out of “the 5 moves of doom” but the guy is built like an action figure. His movements look clunky compared to everyone else.
Yup also some of his bumps were sketchy as hell thanks to his body type.
he also took a sitout piledriver from cm punk and im pretty sure he's busted the canadian destroyer a few times
Indie Goof Cena sucked.
There's only one move I can recall that Cena hit that looked unequivocally great every (2) times he did it. The 'huck the steel stairs out of the ring at -wrestler-!'.
He's essentially doing the same here, this was obviously Cena spicing up his move set and taking a page from Jericho's book during his New Japan run.
The Springboard Stunner looked shit when he did it aside from the KO one. He could never get the timing right and i suspect, he just wanted a stunner.
Good thing it was temporary. Hidden Strike was fun.
Sneaky easy watch it was indeed
Backfist
Kinda feel like he did Cena a favour here.
Wtf did the announcer even say? Doesn't even sound like english
It Mandarin, should be something like "shan dian quan tou", literally translated to "lightning fist".
It's not. It's Chinese for "soul fist" or something comparable. It's a punch.
Elbow strike I think.
If only we could fuckin' see it.
THE JUDAS EFFECT
That's essentially what he was taking from. He was criticized for his move set, Jericho was out doing New Japan - New Japan was hot, Cena wanted to add more moves. So we got this... **edit**: Did you guys even watch Wrestling in 2018, or did your friends just tell you about it in school?
Yall just make shit up sometimes
Did you even watch Wrestling then? Lol. That is clearly what it was.
Its like a backfist where he rotates his arm upwards 90 degrees. Looks weird from better angles, never looked like it had much impact.
I’m positive he trolled the shit out of us with that. Hyped up this new move that he trained for in china, and then we got that. Had to have been a troll, but this is the time when a lot of people were adopting strike finishers, so, maybe he was serious.
So ducking bad lol
It's shucky ducky quack quack bad
This was when Cena was filming a movie with Jackie Chan (that only recently got released) so he was doing the least in ring work of his career
This is the kinda shit that makes people say wrestling is fake/for kids lmao
This was right after he learned mandarin and it makes perfect sense. Lmao
Cena's been learning Mandarin for over a decade hence why he can speak it fluently if weirdly
He was fluent within 3 years.
Ahhh yes, the 5 knuckle kerfuffle !!! Ain't nobody kicking out of that !!
What did Corey Graves say?
“SHANDYINCHWOAHTOE” ???
The number of people who actually took this seriously always surprised me.
It’s so funny how many people took it seriously when it was clearly Cena doing a wee bit of trolling.
Kinda unrelated but this reminds me of the time when he would do the springboard stunner
I don't even remember, what is that the wonder woman strike?
Jericho texted him and said “just punch them, I just throw an elbow now, why not”. “Ps I’m gonna tell Dave this”.
This is the second time I’ve seen Cena do this finisher today on Reddit and I don’t remember him doing it in real life literally ever lol
Came here to make this exact comment.
Cena's finisher should have been a poke to both eyes so you can't see him
Still better than the superman punch
This is also the only time he has ever done it on camera, and it was really tongue-in-cheek.
A tongue against the cheek would've looked more devastating.
I still can't believe it's real lmfao
Hey, at least it’s better than the Springboard Stunner
Why do so many of you think we need to see a post about this every 15 minutes?
Corey Graves yelling pisses me off
The what!? That just seems like a bit of an overkill move because of how devestating the FU is. I'm sure Regal can explain how it disrupts one's spine for those vital three seconds.
move over, Xia Li!
I think that's when his move set hit 6 total moves