Poor Heath Slater

[Navi]

Am I the only person who felt sorry for Slater and Hawkins last night during the Great Balls of Fire PPV. They were sent out after the Strowman/Reigns fight supposedly to put on a hastily put together match.

The only part of the match I saw was the intro's and not even much of that. Everyone must have been watching the tron and the action in the back. You know what action I mean, Reigns backing up the ambulance with Strowman in it into one of the WWE semi-trucks.

The commentators tried a little to describe the match but got carried away with what happened to Strowman. My question is, why put Slater and Hawkins out there to begin with? No one cared about that match at all, every one was interested in what was going on in the back of the arena.

I can't help but feel it was a little disrespectful to Slater and Hawkins to put them out there when the other match hadn't even really finished yet. Is Vince really such a fool at times. I have a feeling though that we had glimpses of the first dark match to actually air halfway through an ongoing PPV.

It will be interesting tonight on RAW to see if it is mentioned, as Bo Dallas was saying on RAW Talk last night he hasn't had a PPV match in two years, don't know if that figure is correct, but that's why he's glad to be part of the Miztourage, this way he gets air time.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Nope. That's their role. I like Slater but he was given a nicertain little run 6 months ago and now he's back where he belongs. He's a heavily featured jobber, and that's a perfectly good position.

 

[Dave]

Like Jake said, that was his role last night. The WWE needed some filler segment designed to bridge the gap until the Strowman/Reigns follow up. Hawkins and Slater are jobbers,, whether that annoys you or not. They were the perfect choices for that spot and that's okay.

 

[The Perfect Max]

I was confused as to why they were sent out there in the first place. I would have rather seen a couple of those minutes featured elsewhere in the shorter matches on the card. I suppose they needed something to bridge out the two segments though. But really, who cares? They got a pay-per-view match out of it, which is more than what can be said for Finn Bálor, a former NXT and Universal Champion, and the guy who he is actually feuding with, Elias Samson. They didn't get a match and they are involved in a weekly program, so if anything, lucky Slater. He had a nice little run on SmackDown, but on Raw, with a packed roster, he's where he fits for now.

 

[OYDK]

Yeah, they knew what they were going out there for. They knew that they were only having a match to sell the idea that "this isn't a work, folks," and I'm sure they more than aware that nobody, not even the announcers, were going to be paying attention to them. Like others have said, it was their role for the night and I highly doubt they had any problem playing it.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Can't say that I feel sorry for him exactly. By now, Slater has to have figured out that his future in WWE is going to be almost exclusively as a high profile jobber. His run with Rhyno as SmackDown Tag Team Champions was a nice little moment in the sun for him and I can honestly say I never doubted that he'd go back to his usual role once his time as one half of the tag champs was over. I can understand if Slater is frustrated, or becomes so, with such a role but let's be honest, people aren't going to be demanding to see Slater pushed ahead of people like Styles, Cesaro, Balor, Rollins, Wyatt, Joe, Zayn, Nakamura, Owens, Corbin, Neville, Miz or a number of others. As I said, Slater has to know by now what his overall place is in WWE and for all we know, he may accept and enjoy it. He might never be a megastar, but he can keep working in WWE for solid money and ultimately be able to retire comfortably when the time comes.

As for the "match" last night, I thought it was played in nicely with the "anything can happen" feel of the atmosphere generated by Reigns' actions; it was as if what happened was the very, very, very last thing they could have imagined happening and they "hastily" threw together something to give some sort of cosmetic appearance of keeping the crowd "focused" on what's happening in the ring while simultaneously on what was happening with Strowman.

 

[Mr.Maikeru_Sawyer]

yeah it was kinda stupid to send them out for that 'Match' as described on a news page..the first ever dark match DURING THE PPV instead of before or after.
seriously though. the Finn v Sampson match was supposed to happen last night and was scrapped, most likely this was the match that was replaced by Curt and Slater so they wouldn't have to "cut to the back" while Balor was in the ring

 

[DCLXVI]

No, their entire gimmicks are jobbers. It was sending two jobbers to the ring, nobody got hurt in the process.

 

[DCLXVI]

You guys get way too analytical about this stuff... they are paid "actors"/"performers". They are not emotionally engaged. They know they will never sniff the world title. It's like having extras or bit-roles in movies. Navi - you are a mark if you think these guys were really sad about being featured in a prominent role on Pay-Per-View or WWE Network/whatever with a consistent pay check that they'd have to work for in the indies and have been too damaged to even do that without getting a real job or saving their money well. Most guys never see TV. Let alone Pay-Per-View in a major story line.

 

[Wildcat66]

I don't really think Heath minds it all that much. He knew what was going on and he decided to just roll with it.

Besides, as long as he's getting a paycheck by the end of it; he's going to be fine. He's got kids after all.

 

[HeenanGorilla]

Am I the only person who felt sorry for Slater and Hawkins last night during the Great Balls of Fire PPV. They were sent out after the Strowman/Reigns fight supposedly to put on a hastily put together match.

The only part of the match I saw was the intro's and not even much of that. Everyone must have been watching the tron and the action in the back. You know what action I mean, Reigns backing up the ambulance with Strowman in it into one of the WWE semi-trucks.

The commentators tried a little to describe the match but got carried away with what happened to Strowman. My question is, why put Slater and Hawkins out there to begin with? No one cared about that match at all, every one was interested in what was going on in the back of the arena.

I can't help but feel it was a little disrespectful to Slater and Hawkins to put them out there when the other match hadn't even really finished yet. Is Vince really such a fool at times. I have a feeling though that we had glimpses of the first dark match to actually air halfway through an ongoing PPV.

It will be interesting tonight on RAW to see if it is mentioned, as Bo Dallas was saying on RAW Talk last night he hasn't had a PPV match in two years, don't know if that figure is correct, but that's why he's glad to be part of the Miztourage, this way he gets air time.

This comes off as pretty markish. You imply that they were "sent out there" in real life...not as part of the show. I don't think anyone in the back was scrambling and sent these two jobbers out as a bandage. This was most likely all planned and simply presented as a last minute addition to further the plot. If you feel bad Slater is low enough to be used in this role, that's one thing. But to feel bad that he was actually asked at the last minute to go out there...like I said, you sound like a mark.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I felt bad for Slater too. Having this match (if it can even be called a match) didn't really make sense. The live crowd didn't even give it a chance and quickly started "We want Balor!" chants. This match was not advertised whatsoever. It was 100% random so why should anyone have cared? I would have changed a couple of things instead of doing this match where it was. The first change would be a revision to the Raw Tag Team Championship so that it would not HAVE to be 30 minutes long. A simple best 2 out of 3 falls would have been better. This frees up more time. This means Finn Balor and Elias Samson suddenly have time to actually have a match, which could have gone just about anywhere on the card. Now, put Slater VS Hawkins on the pre-show since no one would have cared about the match either way. Bump up the Cruiserweight Championship match to open the show, and then just keep the two ambulance aftermath segments as one long one. Reigns crashes the truck, Angle and the officials show up, Braun emerges full of blood. All one long segment. They did not need to do two segments with a random jobber match in between. The match kept going while the segment video aired, so even the fans watching the show in person didn't care about Slater's win. It was odd, really.

 

[TDFG]

As guys have said, Slater's role is as a jobber, now and again they'll give him a win or a nice run of recognition like they did with his tag-team with Rhyno.

If Slater's happy then let he'll continue doing what he's doing in WWE, he's a recognised jobber and I'm sure he has a following of some sort.

 

[Radical]

I don't feel bad for Slater at all. In his role right now in the WWE he's pretty lucky to be where he is.

Technically, he actually got a PPV match win! I don't know the last time he got one.


Of course, the match itself was not supposed to be watched by many. It was just to extend the illusion that this Reigns and Strowman ambulance incident 'was not planned' and the 'show must go on'. But of course, it WAS planned and so they don't want to put out two other wrestlers who fans care about more because that would be an unwanted distraction.

If they put out Finn Balor vs Elias Sampson, that would have been much worse because the match would not have gone on any longer and fans would be torn between what to watch.

The Slater / Hawkins match did exactly what it was supposed to do.

 

[d_henderson1810]

I have a great idea how to use Heath Slater.

I would have someone with a lot of money take him under his wing. I would then have Slater turn heel, saying that he needed to "sell out" because he has kids, and needs the money.

Slater should then say that he has worked hard over the years, to give his family the best, but his hard work went unnoticed by the WWE.

He says that most of the WWE universe, if given the same opportunity, would do the same thing, if it meant continuing to give their family all those things they only dreamed of. Hard work got him nowhere, but cutting corners, selling out his friends and taking the easy path pays better.

I think that this "character" could make Slater more relevant. Too bad he is on RAW. If he were on Smackdown, maybe he could join up with Jinder Mahal, and Mahal use his opulent wealth to hire Slater to help the Singhs keep the WWE belt around his waist.