What The Internet Did to The Shield | Super Eyepatch Wolf

Super Eyepatch Wolf: The Unreality of Pro Wrestling, Reaction Part A
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The Unreality of Pro Wrestling
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[@dexterwilliams2520]

I might be biased by being a pretty big wrestling fan, but I feel like The Unreality of Pro Wrestling is Super Eyepatch Wolf's magnum opus. He did a better job of explaining the clusterfuck of the Roman Reigns story than I ever could. Sure there’s some details he’s omitted because the video is already well past the hour mark, but he covers all of the important parts and about half of what he omits bubbles down to either "and the people hated it" or "if you watch this video in one sitting you’d be able to make the connection yourself". All I can say is: you’re about to get a crash course on the last ten years of wrestling. Enjoy yourself.

[@TheDemonCaine]

Clusterfuck isn't the right word. The progression made total sense and his character development was insane because of how he started.

[@riverroth3688]

13:04 it's simple. At the time nobody liked or wanted Ryback. And management wasn't fond of Punk, they used this as a kick the can down the road moment to figure out the eventual face of the company, considering the shield ended up being 3 future TOP GUYS in the company, it was a brilliant move, in hindsight.

[@Jason_Ultimate]

Well no, people liked Ryback at the time. He was a genuine dominating force that people liked seeing, but nobody with knowledge of wrestling as a business liked the idea of Ryback as world champion, let alone _the_ face of WWE. He was an exciting act in short bursts, much like Roman Reigns, but he suffered from the Goldberg problem of not doing well in anything longer than about 5 minutes. Once these issues became more obvious and the hype and shine of Ryback began to dull, that's when people started turning on him.

[@trappestarrgaming3422]

Ryback was the second biggest face at the time

[@KenTheNoun]

To be fair to Santino, sure what he did was silly and kinda dumb, but it was fun. Easily one of the most comedic wrestlers and one of my personal favorites.

[@Ve-om7lf]

Who didn't love the moment he screamed "COBRA!!!"

[@Abridgimation]

woulda loved to see him win the world title from Del Rio

[@KenTheNoun]

@@AbridgimationIn hindsight with how horrible of a person Del Rio turned out to be, Santino should have won the 2011 Royal Rumble.

[@fatcoyote2]

Also, the man was a tank. Seriously, man had actual mat-wrestling chops and never seemed to get tired. Saw him do a Triple-threat for half and hour at a house show, and while I cannot remember who his opponents were, I do remember that they were both sweaty and breathing hard, and Marelo was still fresh, despite being the guy both of them were beating on.

[@rockassassin64]

his Daughter is in NXT right now and she is hilarious

[@SuperBrewcrew8]

Dean Ambrose, now going by Jon Moxley, left WWE in 2019 due to frustrations with the creative process. He goes into great detail on this in an episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast and believes the creative environment in WWE may have caused him depression. He now wrestles full time for All Elite Wrestling (AEW), which was founded that same year and part time for New Japan.

[@KawaiiNeko333]

IIRC there was one storyline that he felt so uneasy with that he couldn't say it on the air. He told Jericho off the record so that’s between them and Odin.

[@LPTheGas]

Re: 'why didn't they just stick with the guy's real name if it was something as perfect as Johnathan Good?' - My guess would be the company can't own a performer's real name.

[@nikosnikos5082]

they can actually, so it's prob closer to jonathan not wanting them to own his name

[@ALIENjoy]

Mox also references his tough upbringing in his book. I can see him starting in the independents not wanting to associate with his govt name.

[@samcarter565]

@@nikosnikos5082it’s absolutely WWE wanting to own the IP of ‘Dean Ambrose’.

[@Imps603]

​@@samcarter565Dusty Rhodes actually came up with the name while Mox was still in WWE Developmental

[@samcarter565]

@@Imps603 I’m aware. I listened to his TIJ episode years ago. Dusty helped come up with the name and WWE owns the rights to it. Mox had a one off in TNAs early days as Jon Moxley or some variation of his name.

[@NothingKingKN]

The whole thing about "Getting someone to drink a bunch of shots", if done with malice, *is* a form of bullying. As a victim myself, if a group targets you and wants to take you out to drink some stuff, it's because they want to humiliate you. They get you to drink a lot, get you hopefully drunk, and then take the piss out of you, record videos of your antics, and will now have a lot of material on you. Another thing they do is use that event to hook you into the friend group where you are the butt of the joke all the time. People suck.

[@terrencenoran3233]

Bryan Danielson's wrestling arc went from "will bend your arm into a pretzel because he felt like it" to "one of the most influential babyfaces in WWE". Currently, he's in the "will retire soon, but will bend your limbs into a pretzel because it's funny to him" arc.

[@Airier]

They later clarified it was Nifty... I think this is better? 😶

[@ajaylivingston1417]

CM PUNK returned to WWE recently btw. One of the most WTF Holyshit moments in the industry

[@colt1903]

Santino Marella gets a bad wrap, but he's genuinely one of the funniest people in the history of the WWE.

[@John-Stark]

Dude, SVR 2010 showcased the glory of Santino by making him one of the Big Rivals of the CAW's RtWM alongside Vince

[@colt1903]

@@John-Stark funny. I don't remember that at all. 🤔

[@SuperBrewcrew8]

For the record, while he does look like a homeless man sometimes, Bryan Danielson is considered by both fans and wrestlers to be perhaps the greatest wrestler of all time.

[@dioliksniper5618]

24:53 WWE in fact owns that brand, it’s the New Day’s merch. Those three individuals are the New Day tag team. For context, they basically all had a promo claiming that within the singles matches they are sidelined, but they could be amazing as a team. Which they are.

[@John-Stark]

I miss Big E

[@Ve-om7lf]

Okay...it's kayfabe pronounced Kay, as in the jewlers, fabe, rhymes with babe. It's old carney speak derived from pig Latin.

[@Alex-bs4md]

The not using their real names in WWE thing is a copyright issue about ownership of the character

[@lupinrangerjoker]

Yeah lots of wrestlers rarely if ever go by their real names because of either for copyright purposes or if some people feel that their real name isn’t good enough let alone for marketing. I mean how many actors go by their real name and not a stage name, it’s the same for wrestlers. Look at you, is Airier your real name or is it your fictional KZbin name?

[@luisjauregui2197]

Or they use an alias like The Rock, which makes them able to use their name and they just trademark the nickname instead

[@Whitewingdevil]

I'm not really a wrestling fan myself, though I lived with a housemate for a year who was OBSESSED and watched every single thing the WWE released, so I spent a fair bit of time watching. At first I REALLY did not get it, I couldn't suspend my disbelief and was just laughing at the over-the-top playfighting, but after a couple of pay-per-views it finally clicked for me, I stopped seeing characters in a story and started seeing glimpses of the people behind those characters. When you remember that the guy flipping through the air onto another guy's knees is a real human being with goals and ambitions of their own as well as the character they are portraying it just hits differently.

[@federicosamsa]

Actually the match interrupted by the Shield ended with Punk winning on Cena, while Ryback was KO outside. It was without disqualification, so it just continued

[@superjonh1000]

Looking in retrospect The Shield were so popular back then because of the PG era indeed. When these guys showed up for the first time it was a breath of fresh air. WWE was in a terrible state in 2011-12, probably the worst booking WWE ever had, no stars were being built up. It was the most predictable era of WWE when no one could beat Cena, but then these guys showed up and the following years until 2015 were really great. It also worked well because WWE didn't have any factions at the time, in fact the tag team division itself was at its weaker state ever. We had The Shield showing up in 2012 and The Wyatt Family in 2013. I hope SuperEyepatchWolf makes a video on The Wyatt Family (or Bray Wyatt) someday, they were another faction in WWE who were really out of the box during this time. In fact one of the greatest matches from this era was between these 2 factions. The Wyatt Family have a more supernatural origin, they were led by this guy called Bray Wyatt who was like a cult leader, who btw unfortunately passed away last year at the age of 36. To this day I still say Bray was one of the greatest characters WWE ever created, it all came from his own genius mind too. Even though I love The Shield, The Wyatts were my favorites. I wish WWE would've treated them better tbh, they didn't accomplish as much as The Shield guys. Oh and yes, everyone thinks Roman looks like Jason Momoa. He looks it even more today with thicker beard and more muscular build. And one last thing, YES! The Shield was inspired by the Bullet Club from New Japan. The idea for the group was pitched by CM Punk and he cited the Bullet Club as inspiration. Another interesting thing is that Roman Reigns was not supposed to be in the group, the original formation would have somebody else taking his place but Vince wanted him, because of his samoan heritage and his strong physique. CM Punk didn't think he was ready to be in that spot cause he was too green, Roman was in his 2nd year as a pro wrestler by this point. In comparison, Seth and Ambrose had been wrestling for more than 6 years in the indie circuit before being signed by WWE. You can kind see where things are headed in the video just by this explanation.

[@vanyadolly]

Pro Wrestling is often dismissed for being fake without giving credit to how complicated and real it also is. Even the fans forgot there was a REAL person behind Roman Reigns who had to live through years of abuse for no fault of his own.

[@deshinosephiroth]

Actually you used the term Throuple perfectly there, I’m pretty impressed!

[@Ashurman666]

Oh god The Shield. I was still a fan back when they were first introduced and I love them. Seeing what they have become now...man, it's depressing. 21:58 You are NOT the only one

[@THENAMEISQUICKMAN]

At least we still have Mox doing cool shit. I am not into the "Roman wins lol but he's a heel now so it's really different, right? Also Seth can have the I Can't Beat Roman Championship, whatever" story at all. I'm just really checked out of WWE at this point, hell I even watch AEW a bit less.

[@lordkai59]

It ain't depressing. It's amazing. Greatness amongst you. They're still dominating the wrestling space

[@lordkai59]

​@@THENAMEISQUICKMAN 1. It's not even that lol especially when lost last year in june. Hell he had two DQ's with seth ad Xavier. 2. He can beat roman. That as literally their whole story in 2022. Rollins is undefeated against Roman in title matches. Thanks for not understanding lol

[@Ashurman666]

@@lordkai59 They are a mere shell of what they used to be. Seth "Freakin" Rollins is a terrible character that's not even half of what Rollins used to be, Roman Reigns is just...yeah. And Dean Ambrose? Yeah apparently he's still being successful outside of WWE

[@lordkai59]

@Ashurman666 It's really not terrible lol it is the best character he has. Roman is still the biggest star and character In all of wrestling so don't even try that. Ambrose/ Moxley is still very successful so again GGs on not understanding

[@greenprimos]

Part 2?

[@hakairyu1]

Been waiting half a year for this, especially since Roman Reigns is the one wrestling story I know because Littlekuriboh's Mark Remark show ran through that era

[@uatcgfhdhu]

YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS More super eyepatch wolf!! Great!

[@oldeskul]

Once The Shield broke up and Roman Reigns made a baby face turn, WWE started pushing him as the face of the company. It quickly became apparent that he didn't have very good skills on the mic, the fans quickly turned on him. It was painful to watch as he'd get in the ring, put on a show, try to build shine and just get a wall of boos. It felt like nobody had taken the time to teach him how to build his gimmick, persona and how to work the mic. WWE used to use the larger indy companies as a development camp, where they'd send talent that they felt had major potential to build their gimmick and learn how to work the mic. In 2018 WWE changed gears, they moved their headquarters down to Florida(They still keep their main corporate base in Connecticut) and now only recruit from a single Florida-based indy company and then send the new talent to their developmental brand called NXT.

[@BaronesaReturns]

speaking of long content... anything by Hbomberguy would be a good idea xD

[@maxacorn]

you should see dean's wife, renee. she looks like the sweetest, nicest woman who is just the epitome of adorable. and she's married to this guy who looks like hannibal lecter's worst nightmare.

[@fatcoyote2]

The Shield were awesome as a team and as individuals. Problem happened is that when they were broken up, WWE failed them in every single way they could despite the fact that they did literally everything right when they were building them up. And Roman Reigns' failure to be taken seriously as a hero was the worst part of that, because he WAS actually over with the WWE audience...at first.

[@kingdarius513]

Are you continuing the rest of the video?

[@LynIsALilADHD]

Ngl....super happy to find a react on this video..... saw it a while back.... its def an interesting watch!!!

[@Fieryxjoe]

Part 2 when?

[@Abridgimation]

not inaccurate on Bryan, when I first saw him on tv in 2013 when my mate was showing me The Shield, I thought he was homeless too lmao

[@Guanaco17]

OMG the Sheild. Eventhoug I became a WWe Fan after it broke up I still think is best faction ever made beacuse all 3 members are my favourite wrestlers of all time.

[@SixArmedSweater]

Did something happen? I’ve been looking forward to the next part of this.

[@Airier]

When I went to record, I had a sound issue after an computer update. Didn't figure it out before the time I had to record ran out. Gonna try again next week (so, about 4-ish days).

[@colt1903]

"Where's the hat I can put a dollar in? He looks homeless." No, just wait for it. Sammy is the homeless one.

[@frederikbuttenschn7562]

Dude, I've been looking forward to this. This might be SEW's greatest video, and I'm not even a wrestling fan.

[@rockassassin64]

Roman Baez had to use a different name other than Joe.Because there's already Samoan. wrestler named Joe and he's the only Simone wrestler.That isn't in the family.That roman reigns is part of At least seems to be the only one.

[@XxSircampsalotXx]

Does this guy think it's scripted but with actual real life consequences? He said the Shield hitting people hard could lead to "legal issues" bro they're professionals 💀💀

[@Airier]

My general take is that it's mostly scripted, but does include moments where people go off script (granted I only know about those moments through super eye patch wolf, so they might be much less frequent than just the depictions he's brought up).

[@XxSircampsalotXx]

@@Airier let's just say the script is not always law. Especially when it comes to wrestlers at the top. The Shield broke up the "fight to determine the face of the company" because they were supposed to, they laid their shots into Ryback harder because they didn't want to be taken lightly as new guys in a profession where it's very physical, so they took it upon themselves to hit a little harder. They're all professionals though at the end of the day. If you have any other questions I'd be happy to chat or not. I've been watching WWE for 15 years and I've been in the internet wrestling community for about 10 of those years. Sorry if this is long-winded. I get passionate.

[@angrybrony]

LETS GOOOOOO

[@bryanmanuelbaes7871]

Bro I HOPE you watch Wrestlemania this April with the Rock and Rollins involved

[@DanFDTR]

Yea I figured there was no way you were going to do this all in one depending on when you were recording it.

[@mister_dadstersays_hi7372]

Day 92 of asking Airier for ENA reaction (Roman Reigns... there is a joke about the coliseum that I can't quite think of right now)

[@Whirlpool730]

Please tell me there’ll be a part 2?

[@Tiredsleepy-u3h]

John is busy with Hollywood hes a part timer

[@harrymasononvacation]

I WAS WAITING FOR THIS

[@ChristopherJames1993]

Wait yoire a Nux fan? You two should collab.

[@TPaether]

Finally

[@filten1132]

Har do you like pain reakt to one of soup empriums videos if so if thay are too much do debunkland's video on the Disney chanal's theme song insted

[@murphyjay9084]

if yu dont like it doen voye iy?

[@ryantiller5624]

The more I learn about this Vince McMahon guy, the more I don't care for him. Joseph Stalin was probably even worse though.

[@dexterwilliams2520]

Imagine Stalin got into the entertainment business instead of politics and you more or less have Vince McMahon. They turned what they owned into a cult of personality, they ruled their domain with an iron fist, anyone who dared to cross them found themselves fired/fired upon, they could be considered utterly depraved based on the things about themselves that they _allowed to be public knowledge_ let alone what they bothered to keep hidden…Not just pro wrestling, Vincent Kennedy McMahon Jr. is the Joseph Stalin of the entire entertainment industry.

[@Lunacorva]

Fun fact about Bryan Danielson (Mr "Homeless-chique") He is considered one of the best wrestlers in the world for his ability to create compelling narratives both within matches, and within the larger story of wrestling. If you'd like more information, I'd recommend Joseph Montecillio's videos on him which look more into the narrative craft of pro wrestling. The story about Dean Ambrose (Jonathan Good/Jon Moxley) leaving WWE is unrelated to the hate Roman got (fans turned on Roman in 2014, he left the WWE in 2019), but is it's own fascinating and, in places, messed up story. To learn more about that, I'd recommend Jon Moxley's real life interview on the Talk is Jericho podcast, and Partsfunknown's "How I would have booked Dean Ambrose's Heel Turn"