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.
> Anyway anyone excited about the so called nxt 2.0
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.
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).
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
> 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
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
ROH Final Battle 2021, very possibly their last big show, is awesome so far. I’m still getting caught up.
There’s a six-man tag match halfway through the show, and the guys involved included the following sequence (which pays homage to a bunch of prominent ROH wrestlers and it was so fudging cool):
-Brody King performs the Muscle Buster to Eli Isom (for Samoa Joe) -EC3 performs a WILD Lynn-style Piledriver to Brody King (for Jerry Lynn) -Homicide performs a Pepsi Twist on EC3 (for CM Punk) -Taylor Rust performs a Cutter and a Lariat on Homicide (for Homicide himself, with the moves he used to help win him the ROH title vs Danielson in 2006) -Rocky Romero hits Taylor Rust with the Sliced Bread #2 (for Brian Kendrick) -Tracy Williams performs the Jawbreaker Lariat on Rocky Romero (for Nigel McGuiness) -And then Tracy Williams locks in the Cattle Mutilation on Rocky Romero (for Bryan Danielson) -Tony Deppen performs the Top Rope Double Stomp on Tracy Williams (for Low Ki) -Eli Isom performs the Helluva Kick and the Top Turnbuckle Brain-buster on Tony Deppen (for El Generico/Sami Zayn) -After a small sequence, Homicide hit Isom with his move the Cop Killa (which is what he finished Danielson with at Final Battle 2006)
The crowd didn’t figure it out until the last few moves and were pretty fudging useless for a lot of the show but for people who actually watched pro wrestling outside of WWE for the past few decades, this was awesome stuff. The rest of the show so far has been entertaining as hell too, you can tell they feel like this is the last hurrah. This spot was just so friggin cool.
...debuted in fudgein ROH. So wild. No idea if this is a sign of ROH’s imminent return down the line or if it just means him, EC3, and the others involved in the segment will move on elsewhere as a pre-established faction. If ROH DOES return in Q2 of 2022, which is what they insinuated with the “hiatus for Q1” terminology, bringing THAT guy in is a big fudging get.
Yeah I was surprised to see him there. Reminded me of when Rhyno was there around a decade ago. Their styles are not what I think of when I think ROH. Or at least what I used to think of ROH before I stopped following it.
I get videos from "The Hannibal TV" recommended on YouTube quite a bit and they're usually interview videos. I didn't know he actually was a wrestler. Turns out he nearly murdered a ref at a show last night and even put it on his YouTube channel. Some people are claiming it's a work (the fact that the ref bladed, and he put this on his own YouTube channel makes me think it might be), but others are convinced he went into business for himself. One of the other refs have commented online saying none of what happened there was planned at all and the reason why nobody from the back came out to stop it sooner was because they didn't have a monitor setup back there for anyone to watch was happening in the ring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TnId77_wVU
Also, RIP Jimmy Rave. Mega underrated wrestler during his time and really had a rough go of things toward the end of his life. At least he's not in pain anymore.
Classic 2005 cage match - Jimmy Rave vs. CM Punk. Dude was great.
> 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.
At this point he probably needs pills to recover from the moves he is expected to perform. Swanton at age 50? He isn’t Terry Funk.
I also feel bad for the wrestler taking the swanton from a 50 year old Jeff hardy (I’m not sure about his actual age but I’m guessing late 40s/early 50s)
> watching or watched dynamite why an hour for a match between page and danielson.
Because they're great wrestlers and can keep an hour long match interesting. This match has been friggin awesome.
Hour long matches are commonplace in the indies (and back in the NWA/AWA territory days). Danielson has some of the most legendary hour draws in ROH history.
I will say I wish Page went to the hour limit and beat him at the last second, but it ended as a time limit draw. Which still rules, but would probably mean a BIT more if Danielson/Omega didn't go to a half hour draw a few months ago. However that just leaves the door open for a Page/Danielson rematch down the line. Great long-term booking from AEW, which seems to be their strong point.
Anyone watch Young Rock?? It's amazing how similar the wrestlers are to their real life counterparts.. They have Andre, Samoas, Iron Shiek, Macho Man, JYD and last night's Xmas episode they had Elizabeth and Mean Gene.. It's crazy how much they look alike (even the oldest 'Rock' looks a lot like him')
I haven't seen it yet, but I've been meaning to check it out on Peacock. Nick Khan's sister is co-creator of that show. I didn't realize that until I looked it up a week or so ago when The Rock posted a pic of the three of them and talking about how they grew up together in Hawaii.
Anyone pick up that Action Arcade Wrestling game? I see it's currently on sale for under $10 on PlayStation 4, but I was thinking of waiting until next month for the Switch release. But I've seen a couple of people mention that the Create-A-Wrestler feature requires you to use a PC or something and not the console itself?
Probably the same as Fire Pro. Consoles block off community-created DLC, so no chance of downloading wrestlers under a different trademark. On PC community creations are tolerated.
Yeah and today, the day after all these breakouts have been reported on, WWE has decided Covid testing is no longer required. What a fudging garbage company. They had to remove these wrestlers from the Day 1 event due to Covid, so instead of getting more dedicated to helping stop the spread of the virus, they just make it so no one needs to be tested. From this point on, you can almost guarantee at least one roster member will have Covid at any given time, and WWE just doesn't give a fudge. They're going to allow their performers to work while sick and claim ignorance due to a lack of testing, meanwhile putting everyone in the locker room, as well as fans interacting with them, at risk.
Think its time for WWE to head out to pasture, personally.
Too much of the talent are okay with keeping their mouths shut as long as they're getting paid well. Very few are willing to speak up until after their contract is up or they're released from it.
Apparently several roster members have spoken up on this issue, both in the past and after this recent mandate. Not that it should be up to them to speak up, WWE should take incentive. They just don’t care.
I wouldn’t say they’re “okay” with it, those who remain quiet probably just don’t want to be fired. WWE hanging job security over their heads is BS too.
Little fact I read on Twitter earlier: With tonight's NXT being the final live show of 2021 for WWE, this marks the first year since 1990 that The Undertaker has not made a single appearance on TV.
Looks like Toni Storm has been released. I wonder if there are more cuts coming or if she just requested it?
edit: Also was reading up on the whole COVID testing thing. It's not that they don't test anymore at all, it's just no longer mandatory. It's basically how the the NBA and NFL does it too. Not that I agree with it.
Yeah but you know it’s just so they can get around pulling wrestlers for testing positive. And doing it in the literal middle of a huge breakout within the company makes that all the more obvious. Just about the most foolish decision to make with a new variant rampaging all over the world, and that goes for other sports leagues making the same stupid mistake.
i been paying attention to AEW lately instead of WWE.
I'll just read up on WWE news just for giggles just to see how bad and stupid the product is becoming.
Its laughable, over at AEW theres no internal disorder for the most part within the company. Quite sad for WWE whats going on. Its like they fallen from grace as a good positive promotion to work for.
Omos was advertised to be facing AJ Styles on Raw this past Monday, but he flew home early. I wonder what that was about? From what I've read by people who were there, the night before at the MSG house show he and AJ put on by far the worst match of the night. Letting Omos skip NXT and go straight to main roster was probably a mistake.
All i can say is am puzzled with WWE and how they are doing things at the moment.
The bookings have gone south
lesner vs reigns isn''t gonna help the cause unless they have an over the top story idea. Which in my opinion is preaching to the choir at this point
Few years ago they wanted to listen to the fans, they were changing the company and product for the fans. The fans are themselves(writers, vince and other higher ups)
As far as i am concerned i'm glad i dont spend hours watching the current wwe product
> As a long time lurker of this thread, please stop.
>
> Sincerely,
> Everyone
i'll stop the bashing and only post good thoughts on wrestling
its just that i have watched WWE for years since wrestling challenge / main event when i got hooked on them and amazed how the company product has become since i started watching
>> As a long time lurker of this thread, please stop.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Everyone
>
>
> I was wondering where the heck you've been.
>
Been working a bunch. 1000+ hours of OT this year, 900 last year. Don't have much time to game anymore so haven't been trading.
I have been going to AEW and IWC (where Wardlow and Britt Baker got their start) shows and meeting wrestlers at cons (Steel City Con in Pittsburgh.) Met and got autographs from Darby, Britt, Sammy Guevara, Chris Hero, Orange Cassidy, Dustin Rhodes, and probably more I'm forgetting over the last few months.
> Its laughable, over at AEW theres no internal disorder for the most part within the
> company.
It's not all sunshine and rainbows over there. Around a month ago Kiera Hogan said she felt "lost in the shuffle". Look at Big Swole saying a big reason why she left was the lack of diversity in the company, and then Tony looking like a douche with his response of "I let Swole’s contract expire as I felt her wrestling wasn’t good enough."
Just because I don't crap on WWE and praise AEW in every post doesn't mean I'm not a fan, it just means I'm not jumping on the bandwagon. But poor Tony can't handle any criticism of his company. Did you see him spewing off at Fox News on Twitter a week or two ago? It's become a meme at this point. AEW is doing well, but doesn't mean they're invincible.
Yah lol TK made himself look like a dork today. Just don’t respond to something like that imo.
But AEW is still roughly 40x better than WWE currently, and that’s not a bandwagon thing. It’s just a better show and the majority who work there seem happy, which is absolutely not something you can say for WWE. I’m in contact with Shane Hagadorn, former ROH wrestler and current AEW writer, and believe me - it truly DOES seem to be rainbows compared to reports on WWE’s backstage.
Tbh lately, I’d say it’s more of folks leaving the WWE bandwagon than folks joining the AEW bandwagon. Folks who dislike AEW don’t just start liking them to spite WWE... they just stop watching wrestling. That’s been WWE’s detriment on the industry for decades now, people get put off by their show and write all of wrestling off. Sure, TK made a stupid tweet... still hasn’t done half the crapty garbage WWE management has, especially lately. It is a wide margin between the two companies.
That said, TK pissed off a few of his own workers. Lio Rush is being vocal about it. Difference is, it seems he’s allowed to voice his opinion while working for AEW, yet was immediately fired from WWE for doing something similar. If he leaves AEW, it’ll probably be his own decision this time.
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