I know this is really late out but I just never got around to fleshing out some of the points before Sunday and I’ve just been super busy at work to do it since then but here it is! Our 5 things about Loaded #8.
Nathan Cruz is a danger to everyone!
This is the kind of thing that we should have been seeing in the first place. Nathan Cruz, confident yet pissed off goes on the attack after his match and forces Omari to face him in another match. It seems a pointless thing to have happen right now, I doubt very much that Cruz is going to win the PPV match so it makes his character look weak as hell and whilst I enjoyed it well enough Omari isn’t strong enough on the mic to carry this kind of thing off.
I liked dangerous Nathan Cruz it is just a shame the actions some week don’t really match up with the story being told by DEFIANT.
Simon Miller is FINALLY doing SOMETHING!
How many weeks ago did he become General Ameen’s assistant and then he just disappeared?
Like it wasn’t even as if he did anything on the show he was made assistant on either, he was there in person one moment and on the phone to Ameen the next then nothing. Well Miller is finally here and finally doing stuff.
This is a positive though because it is always lovely to see Simon on the show but also it does give Ameen time to go off and be his ridiculous self and not get into situations like Miller did with Kidd and Coyle in this episode. Miller can do the darker stuff whilst Ameen runs about the place doing the light hearted stuff. It is a good pairing and it was just weird that it took so long to actually go anywhere.
I want Miller to be a wrestler but I think he would also be a great GM. He has that mix of seriousness and comedy that I don’t think any of the other GMs have had. I just want him to be wrestling again though.
Martin Kirby is just the best
Do I really need to expand on that?
Loved everything about his part in the show and since Loaded has returned he’s really been pretty amazing to be honest.
Kind of Meh?
Overall the episode was probably the poorest since Loaded has returned, there just wasn’t any real structure to it and I found myself bored at parts. Some of the matches were decent, some of the backstage stuff was good and Kirby and Cruz saved it as much as they could.
I think Loaded started off really strong but now they’ve hit this bump where… It isn’t awful, don’t get me wrong, but the stories aren’t working and the character work is missing and a whole bunch of the matches every week aren’t worth the effort of tuning in and I get that it must be hard when you tape so many shows all at once to find pacing and all that for all the episodes but it just feels disjointed and this episode suffered from being heavy on the “not really that important” stuff so I didn’t feel the need to actually engage with the episode as much as I usually do.
Still a good show, not something I’m going to refuse to watch the next week because it was so poor, just very forgettable.
I want to continue complaining about Cruz vs Omari story please…
I keep trying to find the words for how I feel about some stories in DEFIANT and this one is really starting to help me find those words.
I LOVED the idea of Nathan Cruz going on a rampage against young talent because he’s a vet, been around for over a decade, and deserves more respect then he thinks he’s getting. It is a great story that is so simple to pull off and whilst Omari isn’t as good at playing a character on the mic Nathan Cruz more then makes up for that and Omari then makes up for it in the ring.
Thing is they’ve already kind of put a dampener on it.
We didn’t see Cruz cause mayhem, we saw one attack then Cruz being cocky and then a match. The match was a challenge from Omari to Cruz after no other interaction between the two, Cruz wasn’t even there to gob off at Omari or accept the challenge himself. That match was then won by Omari and the story might have been that he was kind of lucky to win it but they also had him kick out of anything that Cruz threw at him so that the story of the match felt like it was “Omari the underdog getting the victory” instead of “Omari was lucky, Cruz got cocky and he stole a win but he’s the good guy so we’re happy.”
Omari now has a win over Cruz and it makes sense that Cruz is angry about it.
Thing is I don’t believe they’ll have Omari lose at Unstoppable so maybe this is all my problem but because I’ve seen similar stories and similar things happen to wrestlers in DEFIANT after Cruz lost his first match I can for see a bunch of matches between Omari and Cruz with Cruz losing every single one but us for some reason having to believe that he’s still a danger.
Look at the Gimmick Killer (or whatever he called himself) gimmick with HT Drake. Drake played it PERFECTLY but at every single step in his story he was beaten. Usually by the same person. Yet week in, week out DEFIANT sent him out to give promos like we were meant to worry about the message he was spouting. We didn’t care anymore, we cared about Drake because he’s a fantastic wrestler and great on the mic but the story died and why should we care when DEFIANT never really build up their midcard bad guys?
Cruz’s “I am putting all these new comers on notice” stuff is going the same way.
His first obstacle defeated him so now what? Another match against Omari. If Nathan Cruz wins then we’ll get ANOTHER match but that just ties Omari and Cruz up together when if Cruz had won the first and been forced into a second that Omari could win we could have Omari end up deciding he wants his final match against Lucky Kid or something else. If Cruz wins of course he could then move onto harassing someone else which would end with Omari having to team with someone else to teach him a lesson but the fact is… Cruz has already lost to Omari so they’ll be one all and whilst Cruz could work that as a arrogant ass hole Omari isn’t good enough to bite back.
So what I’m saying is that they have guys like Drake and Cruz lose too often especially in matches that really matter when building longer stories. They might never be destined to win the feud but they should be able to get the upper hand once in a while and you stagnate your story if you keep having them lose.
Their stories just seem all over the place and even something as simple as this just ends up a big muddled mess. Which didn’t help the feeling of the overall episode of Loaded either.
That I guess is my rather negative 5 Things for Loaded #8. It is sad because it has been so strong for so long but I guess that is why when a episode doesn’t really excite you as much you notice it so much more. Hopefully #9 will be better.
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