General

Lol I legitimately meant to watch it but completely forgot.

Couldn’t sleep so I started SS. I cannot believe they threw away the history between The Bar to have Sheamus win a spot on the SS team via interference against his old pal Cesaro. Sheamus is heel, and in WWE that means any previous relationship is void. Silly.

That said, the Men’s SS match has been entertaining so far, and Becky/Charlotte was VERY good. Not a bad show so far, despite the awful buildup.

What was the deal with that whole gold egg gimmick? During the backstage segments I could barely understand a word Vince was saying (it has been that way for the past couple of years, his voice is so low and gravelly now), so I gave up trying to make sense of any of it and would just check my phone or something whenever he came up on screen.

You've probably read about that fan that hopped the rail to attack Seth Rollins last night, just a crappy situation overall because the dude is clearly "not all there".
If this stuff is true with all the screenshots being leaked from his social media, apparently this goes back to 2019 where he was scammed/catfished by a fake Seth Rollins account online that screwed him out of hundreds of dollars and got his girlfriend arrested when she tried to cash a fake check that the scammer sent.

He'd be one hell of a heel if he actually WAS the person ripping off the fan. Make it so, Vince!

Slammiversary 2021 is being released on VHS
https://shopimpact.com/products/slammiversary-2021...

Been awfully quiet

Anyway anyone excited about the so called nxt 2.0

lazarro wrote:


I still watch every week. Some of the changes weren't for the better (I dislike how the announcers have to keep plugging what's happening on the main roster, I swear they weren't doing that before), but the actual in-ring product is still solid. I'll keep watching until it's not.

RAW, SmackDown, Dynamite, I usually just keep on as background noise. But NXT, thanks to Peacock, I can watch when I want to so that is pretty much the only weekly 'rassling show I will sit there and pay full attention to.

Where it was once complete cards full of good matches, NXT is now a one match show most weeks. Like all of WWEs programming. Not worth the time imo.

Well then I’m glad I’m not watching wwe then

So wwe cancelled their Canadian events

I forget which recently released wrestler said this but when asked “where do you see WWE in 2 years?” she simply tweeted “Sold.”

Does sorta feel like it’s looking that way, and people are starting to pay attention to Vince’s shady past as a crapty dude so we’ll see what happens.

You know wwe can be better than what they are doing. I’m not gonna rsstate what has been said but if the company wants to put out a trashy product then let the true wwe fans watch the junk


There’s a reason why ratings change every week based on who watches what

I just feel aew is doing a better job than wwe

I understand some stuff has to be scripted to a point

Problem is as long as Vince is in charge wwe product will decline. And if you get unhappy talent then things start to trickle down from it

To be fair, ratings for the business in general are in the crapter. Not enough people care anymore.

My expectations with NXT moving to a different night was that it and AEW would both reach 1 million viewers or close to it.
NXT hasn't reached 1 million yet but while AEW has, they're not doing it as consistently as I hoped (I think only once or twice since Punk's debut). Both shows are usually getting what they already were during the Wednesday Night War, neither has grown much at all without having to share a time slot anymore. It seems the fans had already made up their mind which "side" they were on when they were head to head.

Ratings are all relative now, it isn’t the 90s anymore. It all depends solely on what the networks want. Fox and USA have openly been upset with WWE’s performance (being such an established brand for so long brings certain expectations). Meanwhile TNT is very happy with their not even 3 year old program’s performance considering it’s already comparable to WWE’s (which is sorta wild).

Hopefully they keep that momentum when they're booted to TBS next month (which is in more homes than TNT).

Yeah, or at the very least stay consistent. TBS is also under the Turner umbrella so as long as they keep this trajectory, they should be alright.

I just think having split brands at time ago was a good and fresh creative idea

I just think maybe it’s time to junk the idea

If talent is appearing on both shows because of certain script aspects go back to having two general type of shows

That was the initial idea

Having drafts for both brands is one thing. Being successful and purpose execution has been flawed

Releasing people just because you wanted them not to be on rival company when signed in the first place is a bad excuse of financial business

Here’s what I would do if I was in charge
Feel free to comment


1. Keep nxt as a developmental show for developing talent it’s almost a clone of aew dark

2. Ditch main event matches and make a recap best of the week programming show

3. You want to separate talent into brand shows get rid of some of the backstage interviews and skits it’s pointless to keep doing the same skits with same talent

Have interviews in place of either before or after the matched

Yes I know your gonna say there doing that but is it productive necessity.

Again just my opinion
Again part of it is the scripted writing

In aew they don’t have prewritten promos which wwe needs to quit doing

You think nxt talent aren’t going to be the only ones complaining.

Anyway you either like my ideas or you just don’t bash hard them just my opinion

lazarro wrote:


I'm sure I've said this in here before because I always say this when this topic is brought up, but the original 2002 brand split was a good idea and they executed it well. If you wanted to see Cruiserweights you had to watch SmackDown (or Velocity, which for a while was known between my friends and I as "The Paul London Show" because he was killing it every week on there). If you wanted to see the Womens title defended, you had to watch RAW. I preferred how they did it in the beginning where there was one Undisputed World Champion who had to defend against challengers from both brands and the same for the Tag Titles.

Eventually it started to feel a little watered down when they added a second set of tag titles and another world title. And now it's even further watered down, because both shows look and feel exactly the same, except one show is one hour longer and has a title that random dudes that creative has nothing better for will chase after for some reason.
I do give credit to Heyman when he was "in charge" (quotations used because in the end we know Vince is the one in charge of everything) of RAW's creative. The Mexican dudes were getting much more TV time, so were guys like Ricochet and Viking Raiders, and that seemed to come to a halt when he was removed from his position.

The Brand split has been fairly meaningless for a long while now unfortunately. It's even worse because each year it seems like they draw attention to the fact that split isn't really relevant, thinking that'll make THIS year's draft special mean something more.

It's silly. I agree it did work at one point for a few years but they definitely effed up with it in recent years.

And on the subject of AEW Dark - I don't look at that as "developmental" and I don't think AEW does either. Sure, in some sense it "develops" a character's win/loss ranking and allows them to build their character up more, but it's not a show meant to showcase talent who are only "developing" their talent in general, which is what NXT 2.0 seems to be stepping into the realm of. On Dark and Elevation, they have actually competitive matches between wrestlers who are well know on the indy scene without pulling the WWE crap of pretending they never existed before they got on the card. The commentary notes their histories and all that good, normal stuff. They don't treat them like complete unknowns, even if they are rookies. That said, Dark is definitely a place for signed AEW talent to pick up obvious wins against these other wrestlers and build up a record, regardless of their histories.

My issue with AEW's YouTube shows are they are just used to pad out wins/losses (which is good, at least they're not just making up numbers like WCW did for Goldberg's streak) but majority of the matches are so short that I find them hard to care about.

15 matches on the most recent episode and 11 of them didn't even last 5 minutes. Most of them don't even break a sweat by the time they're over.

Tried to catch the AAA event tonight. Seemed like a clusterfudge from the little bit I watched. Didn't get to see any of the NWA show.

So Jeff hardy got sent home from a show

Chances of him being let go or kept

I know the company gave him chances sort of speak. Should they let him go now or give one more chance

I read he maybe was drunk or something

Disappointing if true. On the Broken Skull Sessions he made it sound like he was clean.

Looks like styles and omos breaking up

Rumor they want to push omos as a separate singles wrestlers

I read this would have been done sooner than now

Well read recap from nxt

Gargano possibly done wrestling
O reily done with wwe rumors of him going to aew

I haven't watched or read results from NXT yet but I don't think Gargano is done. He might just need some time off while his wife is pregnant, similar to Seth taking time off last year for Becky.

He made it very clear he was at least done with NXT, but I’m skeptical he lands anywhere but the WWE main roster. Different from Seth, Gargano’s contract actually expired so it isn’t just time off but he could obv re-sign. He said his only focus right now is on February when his kid is born.

Hopefully they'll put more effort into convincing him to stay than they did with Adam Cole.

Punk with the mega heel heat in MJF's hometown tonight, immediately justifying him going to AEW. The first 5 minutes of #AEWDynamite alone justify it. There's no way even MJF's hometown would have been THAT hot for him without the promo-heavy feud that came prior to tonight. A nice reaction probably but a "hero's return" response? No way - that's what a properly-built feud with an iconic wrestler results in: wrestling stars. And Punk immediately reverted to his heelish tendencies in his promo to play to the crowd, though maybe focused too hard on the whole "local sports team" thing. Still, he played a convincing heel vs. MJF's hometown and it was a very entertaining and interesting segment. Wonderful stuff.

WWE is no longer going to release home videos going into next year and are liquidating Titan Towers. Guess they're just going to all-streaming.

Well that’s wild. They’re 100% selling.

Who would buy wwe? Disney? One of the networks?

dracula wrote:

I’m sure there are plenty of potential buyers out there, if the price is right. Just seems Nick Kahn is trying to angle the company into a more sellable position lately.

Well I actually agree with wwe cutting ties with
Jeff hardy

Interesting if he goes to aew after his no compete clause or he hangs up his wrestling to better his life situation

With streaming popular now you movies being made by Amazon and Netflix so not surprised

But I’m shocked they aren’t doing any talent collections they definitely would make money if people would pay to watch them

Not everyone had access to computers for streaming but most TVs are smart TVs for most part anyway

Sorry to be off topic but fits in current discussion in the thread

Well if Jeff really declined their offer of rehab, good riddance. He refused it back in 2003 also and was released then too. This dude has a long history of drug and alcohol abuse and has seemingly convinced himself that he can overcome these demons on his own, but he clearly can't.

It's disappointing because he still has a fanbase that cares about him (the NYC crowd at Survivor Series made that known). I know a lot of fans will use this as an opportunity to rush to social media "oh I can't wait, he's gonna go to AEW and reunite with Matt", but if he's refusing to get help would it even make sense for him to be on AEW's radar? Nobody wants a repeat of that incident in TNA.

Not gonna lie, sorta hate that “good riddance” take.

If you EVER cared about the man, you should absolutely still care about him - probably more now than ever. An addict doesn’t decide to be an addict. Yes they made the initial choices that led them down a particular path, but the dude has a disease. This is a legitimately tragic situation and we should look at him as a human first, wrestler messing up his career second.

Sincerely I wish he took the rehab, but his chemical balance is clearly out of whack. That sucks. Hoping the best for him.

Yeah, I could've worded that better. But I understand why they would choose to release him (still waiting for their official announce about it on either Twitter or WWE.com). He's putting the safety of others at risk by showing up intoxicated to a workplace where you need 100% trust in your fellow workers.

I agree that it sucks that he declined the offer for rehab. But if Scott Hall and Jake Roberts can kick their bad habits, there is hope for him too but he just needs to realize that he has already proven he can't do it on his own.

I'm still wondering if he was indeed fired, or if it's just a suspension because he failed wellness? When the hell was the last time someone was suspended for failing their drug test anyway? I believe when he left in 2010 he was just days away from WWE announcing his 3rd strike on the wellness test, but he was lucky his contract expired so they just dropped making a public announcement of it.

Jeff hardy was released by wwe

Posted on Twitter with a link from one of the websites I think

Adam Pearce put together a tribute/thank you video for Ring of Honor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCqxdyjXd8w