Wrestling

[UNORTHODOX]

1 hour ago, The Palace Fan said:

I don't think the "TV War" exists any more to be honest. 

Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer promote it to remain relevant but nobody cares about the Neilsen estimate. Its just an estimate based on a small amount of households watching TV across America last.

There's streaming, external websites, twitter clips, podcast reviews, YouTube reviews etc. So many other ways to judge the size of your audience. 

I hope Dynamite beat Raw int he live raisins for the story, but in the long term Vince McMahon can sack 30% of his work force during covid whilst putting out a shit product and still turn a huge profit without the peacock debacle. The state of history changing in his  upcoming documentary is astounding but people will still watch it and nobody cares enough in the long run.

It is exciting though. Take it for what it is. If Tony runs it like WCW who cares. WCW 1997 was awesome.

You never know what number Raw or Smackdown is gonna do these days though, its up and down. WWE’s viewers are completely fed up with the product and are much more likely to switch allegiance than they were like 10 years ago. I don’t think the loyalty is there anymore and they’ve already driven away so many viewers in the last couple of years. The idea of AEW taking away like a half a million viewers from WWE doesn’t seem to be that much of an ask anymore. Maybe im underestimating WWE though.

[Guest]

@The Palace Fan  The good thing about aew now is the potential champions. At the beginning it was hard to see where they would go after Jericho,Moxley and omega. Now you look at it and there are a lot of wrestlers who could be champion. Hangman page, cm punk, (bryan Danielson if he signs) Darby Allen, miro, mjf.   There are enough realistic champions for a few years. Also they have improved the womens division enough for the air time it has. So they have done well in just under two years for me 

[Dave]

11 hours ago, UNORTHODOX said:

You never know what number Raw or Smackdown is gonna do these days though, its up and down. WWE’s viewers are completely fed up with the product and are much more likely to switch allegiance than they were like 10 years ago. I don’t think the loyalty is there anymore and they’ve already driven away so many viewers in the last couple of years. The idea of AEW taking away like a half a million viewers from WWE doesn’t seem to be that much of an ask anymore. Maybe im underestimating WWE though.

Yeah, Rock and Cena will give them slight boosts and Roman Reigns will become a big star off the back of it but I can't see them regaining momentum any time soon. They have had chances to catch the main stream audience in the past and not capitalised on it. People are too aware in the modern age of how badly they treat people backstage too. To boast about record profits after releasing so many people during Covid is evident of that. They can't get away with the false narrative of 'the billion dollar company trying to run us out of business' like they did in the mid 90s pre Attitude Era.

[Dave]

53 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

@The Palace Fan  The good thing about aew now is the potential champions. At the beginning it was hard to see where they would go after Jericho,Moxley and omega. Now you look at it and there are a lot of wrestlers who could be champion. Hangman page, cm punk, (bryan Danielson if he signs) Darby Allen, miro, mjf.   There are enough realistic champions for a few years. Also they have improved the womens division enough for the air time it has. So they have done well in just under two years for me 

Yeah. It's the first time I don't know what direction they'll take the title now. It's felt too predictable the last two years they'd go down the Jericho, Moxley, Omega, Hangman route but now I think they may hold off Hangman for another year or two.

[JoshBRFC+]

I’ve watched AEW on what I can count on one hand. But if anyone knows before hand when CM Punk is debutant please tag me as I will tune in. He’s my favourite since the days of Rock/Austin. I rate him that highly. In recent years in WWE since he left I’ve most enjoyed Rollins and Becky. Also looking forward to her return. 
 

On another note since we can now post links. 
 

Best Wrestling related clip in recent years? Heyman is the fucking . Glad he went viral and gets the recognition he deserves. Legend.

 

[Dave]

15 hours ago, JoshBRFC said:

I’ve watched AEW on what I can count on one hand. But if anyone knows before hand when CM Punk is debutant please tag me as I will tune in. He’s my favourite since the days of Rock/Austin. I rate him that highly. In recent years in WWE since he left I’ve most enjoyed Rollins and Becky. Also looking forward to her return. 
 

On another note since we can now post links. 
 

Best Wrestling related clip in recent years? Heyman is the fucking . Glad he went viral and gets the recognition he deserves. Legend.

 

He's 99.9% going to debut on Friday 20th which is the first episode of a new show called Rampage which is in Chicago. Darby Allin dropped a massive hint this week about it by saying he wants to face "The Best in the World" and then winked at the camera.

[Dave]

Bray Wyatt has been released from WWE.

[Batard]

2 hours ago, The Palace Fan said:

Bray Wyatt has been released from WWE.

Big news!

[DeadLinesman]

WWE creative with another fantastic shit show. He was so badly booked at the end.

[Batard]

39 minutes ago, DeadLinesman said:

WWE creative with another fantastic shit show. He was so badly booked at the end.

The Orton match and subsequent changed ending with Bliss, that made no sense to write him off television, Vince strikes again. 

[6666]

The whole thing was pretty crappy to be honest. Wrestling shouldn't have so much hocus pocus nonsense. Undertaker teleporting was borderline but even he did a lot of cringe worthy magic tricks.

Enjoyed all the early video promos from this version of Bray Wyatt but the Hawaiian shirt, deep south, cult leader was much better overall.

The most messed up thing about this is them having Bliss basically replace him in his own gimmick and then letting him go.

[6666]

In other news, Cena has returned more goofier than ever. You can tell he's just doing this as a favour and it doesn't mean anything to him. Reigns/Balor would've been better.

[Dave]

On 31/07/2021 at 21:10, Batard said:

The Orton match and subsequent changed ending with Bliss, that made no sense to write him off television, Vince strikes again. 

It does make you think "what's the point" when you see moments like that and it leads to absolutely nothing. The rumour at the time was Bruce and Vince were massive fans because it spiralled in to six or seven different niche things and they ended up not trying one.

On 31/07/2021 at 22:07, 6666 said:

In other news, Cena has returned more goofier than ever. You can tell he's just doing this as a favour and it doesn't mean anything to him. Reigns/Balor would've been better.

I took Raw and Nxt off record this week. The way they've handled all the NXT call ups in the last year has made me question the point in watching either product. Kross and Doudrop cemented that decision. I couldn't get invested in the women's MITB match because I couldn't envisage half the wrestlers being there in two years time.

I heard WWEs version of getting John Cena popular (not that he needs it) was signing Finn Balors contract for a match at Summerslam. That was me done with Smackdown too. Roman Reigns is great but he can't carry that around him for the next two years with a logical successor.

90%+ plus of WWE is embarrassing and wrong at the moment. Even the good stuff in the last five years is now largely pointless because of 'cuts'. I was critical of the image Triple H created as some NXT saviour whilst he was head of talent relations but since John Laurinitus returned the only words I can think of are: "fucking hell", it's reminiscent of the time he forced out @Devil-Dick Willie shill Cornette's OVW at the reputational damage of new talent for four years. He was poot at his job 15 years ago and has a job again when the business has evolved tenfold. Vince gets what he deserves when he makes decisions like that.

Now there's an alternative I hope they never recover. They way they handle talent, rewrite history, treat fans etc. They'll be able to live off brand image for the next couple of years but they'll need a huge shift after that to recover image and momentum.

[Guest]

@The Palace Fan any idea where we can watch rampage to in the UK? Apparently it will be on fight tv which I dont want to get.

 

 

@DeadLinesman @Devil-Dick Willie @6666 @JoshBRFC  so have any if you ever been to a live wrestling event? I wanna go to aew when it comes to england. Dont know any wrestling fans so will be on my own

 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

4 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

@The Palace Fan any idea where we can watch rampage to in the UK? Apparently it will be on fight tv which I dont want to get.

 

 

@DeadLinesman @Devil-Dick Willie @6666 @JoshBRFC  so have any if you ever been to a live wrestling event? I wanna go to aew when it comes to england. Dont know any wrestling fans so will be on my own

 

Yes I have. I've been to a few local ones to see Robbie Eagles, Will Ospreay and Ryback

But my friend and I went to see NJPW in Sydney a few years ago. The matches I recall were 

Rocky Romero vs Kushida (best singles match I've ever seen live) 
Evil and Sanada vs the rivalry (robbie eagles and a decent local partner
Bullet club in a 10 man tag (Omega, Chase Owens, Tama Tonga, Tanga Roa and Fale) 
Minoru Suzuki and Lance Archer vs Juice Robinson and Henare
Ishii vs Gino Gambino 
And the final was Okada, Jay White and Will Ospreay vs Cody and the bucks. 

[DeadLinesman]

1 hour ago, Gunnersauraus said:

@The Palace Fan any idea where we can watch rampage to in the UK? Apparently it will be on fight tv which I dont want to get.

 

 

@DeadLinesman @Devil-Dick Willie @6666 @JoshBRFC  so have any if you ever been to a live wrestling event? I wanna go to aew when it comes to england. Dont know any wrestling fans so will be on my own

 

Been to loads mate. Sunmerslam ‘92 was my first big even. Been to loads of Raw and Smackdowns since. Also seen live shows in the US as well from WWE, TNA and ROH. Nothing beats a live show. House shows are a bit meh but the wrestlers have more fun imho.

[Dave]

22 hours ago, Gunnersauraus said:

@The Palace Fan any idea where we can watch rampage to in the UK? Apparently it will be on fight tv which I dont want to get.

 

 

@DeadLinesman @Devil-Dick Willie @6666 @JoshBRFC  so have any if you ever been to a live wrestling event? I wanna go to aew when it comes to england. Dont know any wrestling fans so will be on my own

 

They're trying to sort a network out. If they haven't I'll message you a good website to watch it off.

[Dave]

Latest rumour is Adam Cole only renewed his contract for 12 months a year ago and is not interested in an extension.

When you think what NXT was two years ago compared to now it's pretty much chalk and cheese.

[JoshBRFC+]

22 hours ago, Gunnersauraus said:

@The Palace Fan any idea where we can watch rampage to in the UK? Apparently it will be on fight tv which I dont want to get.

 

 

@DeadLinesman @Devil-Dick Willie @6666 @JoshBRFC  so have any if you ever been to a live wrestling event? I wanna go to aew when it comes to england. Dont know any wrestling fans so will be on my own

 

Only a few as a kid. Not as many as the rest in here  very fun experience though.

Shocked at Wyatt being released. 

 

[Dave]

In all, WWE released from NXT yesterday...

 

-Bobby Fish

-Bronson Reed

-Jake Atlas

-Ari Sterling

-Kona Reeves 

-Leon Ruff

-Stephon Smith

-Tyler Rust

-Zechariah Smith

-Asher Hale

-Giant Zanjeer

-Mercedes Martinez.

 

Just how over budget are they?

Surprised about Leon Ruff, Jake Atlas and Bronson Reid. Its clear the person making these cuts does not watch the show as Tyler Rust was in Roderick Strongs new group they promoted heavily.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

Bobby fish is gone? 

The end of an (Undisputed) era. 

[Guest]

I found the ending of dynamite a bit annoying this week. Cody takes a clean loss only to make the ending all about him again 

[Dave]

3 hours ago, Gunnersauraus said:

I found the ending of dynamite a bit annoying this week. Cody takes a clean loss only to make the ending all about him again 

And then Black beat him up again .

Smart man Cody. Realises the attention will be on Punk, Bryan and possibly Wyatt and Cole after that. So write yourself off TV until the show needs some 'star power' again.

[Dave]

On 07/08/2021 at 23:15, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Bobby fish is gone? 

The end of an (Undisputed) era. 

Yeah. That one was sad but he does not look in good shape at the minute. A return to ROH would probably be beneficial to both parties.

[Guest]

22 hours ago, The Palace Fan said:

And then Black beat him up again .

Smart man Cody. Realises the attention will be on Punk, Bryan and possibly Wyatt and Cole after that. So write yourself off TV until the show needs some 'star power' again.

Fair enough. Never thought of it like that