Pro Wrestling Thread

[BlobVanDam]

Total. Bullshit. They're shooting themselves in the foot yet again. Stop putting washed up part timers in the main event who can't handle main event length matches. This is why Wrestlemania is so bad now. Goldberg Lesnar 2 is going to be even worse than the first time.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

Total. Bullshit. They're shooting themselves in the foot yet again. Stop putting washed up part timers in the main event who can't handle main event length matches. This is why Wrestlemania is so bad now. Goldberg Lesnar 2 is going to be even worse than the first time.

[ZKX-2099]

How can SmackDown be SO much better than Raw?

[axeman90210]

On the bright side, the Neville vs Gallagher match was one of the better cruiserweight matches on the main roster.

Also still trying to figure out the booking for the women's division. On one hand, I was glad to see the title stay with Bayley because that belt has moved around way too much over the last 9 months or so. On the other hand, it doesn't make sense to build up Charlotte's PPV streak and then have it snapped at a random PPV a month before Mania. I think giving Bayley the title in the first place was a mistake. I would have had Charlotte retain by any means necessary up until Mania. Then at Mania I'd run the rumored fatal four way with Charlotte, Bayley, Sasha, and Nia Jax. Get to the end of the match and let Bayley have Charlotte dead to rights (maybe a finisher from the second turnbuckle, Cena style), only for Sasha to sneak in and screw Bayley over and get the win. Sasha turns and then Bayley finally wins the belt at Summerslam.

[Zook]

Goldberg was always my favorite wrestler, and the short matches in WCW never bothered me. His current run however is very disappointing. He may not be the best wrestler, but I know he's capable of putting on longer matches. Makes me wonder if this was something he negotiated, as in he'll only return if he can just go out and do 30 second squash matches, or if he's just not physically able to wrestle for long periods of time.

Is Kevin Owens the longest reigning transitional champion? And once Lesnar beats Goldberg, it's back to months without a champion.

Remember when Lesnar would actually talk on the mic? I miss Stone Cold...

Rambling of a confused wrestling fan.

[Cool Chris]

These days I think I read this thread and watch Whatculture on youtube more than I watch actual WWE wrestling. Not sure why I even do that anymore. Probably the nostalgia factor.

And speaking of nostalgia....

[jingle.boy]

I can't remember the last time I watched any WWE.  Lucha is far more entertaining, but I'm not totally committed to it.  If it's on when I've got the TV on, I'll watch it.

WWE feels like Tater constantly trying to bring back Queensryche material - they've lost everything they once had, and are just trying to capitalize and recapture their past glory.

[BlobVanDam]

On the bright side, the Neville vs Gallagher match was one of the better cruiserweight matches on the main roster.

Also still trying to figure out the booking for the women's division. On one hand, I was glad to see the title stay with Bayley because that belt has moved around way too much over the last 9 months or so. On the other hand, it doesn't make sense to build up Charlotte's PPV streak and then have it snapped at a random PPV a month before Mania. I think giving Bayley the title in the first place was a mistake. I would have had Charlotte retain by any means necessary up until Mania. Then at Mania I'd run the rumored fatal four way with Charlotte, Bayley, Sasha, and Nia Jax. Get to the end of the match and let Bayley have Charlotte dead to rights (maybe a finisher from the second turnbuckle, Cena style), only for Sasha to sneak in and screw Bayley over and get the win. Sasha turns and then Bayley finally wins the belt at Summerslam.

I don't get their booking either. They have a habit of blowing their load before WM these days though.
And yes, the Cruiserweight match was very entertaining! They usually are, but the two guys' styles worked really well together. The only other time I've seen Gallagher was in the RR when he was just there for some light fun, so I was expecting it to be just gimmicks here, but he was a great wrestler, and very entertaining, even though I think the gimmick is very Indie/NXT.

[BlobVanDam]

It appears that Lucha Underground is now on Netflix, so get on it, people.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

Kurt Angle did an AMA on Reddit, some pretty interesting answers and insight.


https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/5xny09/i_am_olympic_gold_medalist_thirteentime_world/#bottom-comments

[BlobVanDam]

Wow, great answers all around. He didn't talk shit about anyone, and I didn't sense any bitterness. I'm so glad he's finally back with WWE.

[jjrock88]

It seems like he really has his head on straight and is winning the addiction battle.  He is helping a lot of other people fight addictions as well, so you have to respect that.  He really wants one more title run and I hope he gets it, he deserves it.

[cramx3]

I used to really like Kurt Angle and stop following as my interest in wrestling fading, but didn't realize how big of an addict and dick he was.  I read some, and still am reading more, of that AMA and it's really interesting and good to see him acknowledge his mistakes and work towards bettering himself.

[axeman90210]

So... turns out Paige used to get around the locker room

[BlobVanDam]

Yes yes, I'm investigating this right now......

[Zook]

You'd think after The Fappening that they would have learned their lesson.

[BlobVanDam]

Yeah, you would. Looks like some of the stuff of her is a few years old though, so I guess the damage was already done. Once it's out there, it's out there. And Paige is young and stupid, so it doesn't surprise me too much.

[axeman90210]

I bet Alberto is pissed

[Anguyen92]

I bet Alberto is pissed

I mean if this was a few years back before they got together, it shouldn't be a problem.  Then again, Alberto Del Rio/El Patron/etc. seems to get pissed off about anything pretty easily.

[Zook]

So this Cloud thing. Is there no was of removing content like this?

[KevShmev]

Back when I still watched, I think I was one of the few guys who didn't think much of Paige.  The WWF/WWE has had countless more attractive more women/divas over the years.

[TheCountOfNYC]

I've always thought that Paige was beautiful but in regards to the "scandal", it's not right that these celebrities can't trust that these private photos will stay private.

[KevShmev]

I've always thought that Paige was beautiful but in regards to the "scandal", it's not right that these celebrities can't trust that these private photos will stay private.

I totally agree, but why in the world are you taking pics of yourself and making videos like that, especially once you're a celebrity or in the public eye at all?  That is just asking for trouble.  But that is the selfie world we live in now.  Again though, this kind of violation is just not right.

[Cool Chris]

Taking pictures/videos isn't the issue. It's storing them in the cloud. Never heard of hard drives?

Rumor is out for the WM34 main event. If you haven't heard it yet, I won't write it out here, you aren't going to like it.

[KevShmev]

[ozzy554]

Note to self: If i ever become famous, Turn off auto cloud backup.

[BlobVanDam]

Taking pictures/videos isn't the issue. It's storing them in the cloud. Never heard of hard drives?

Rumor is out for the WM34 main event. If you haven't heard it yet, I won't write it out here, you aren't going to like it.

Yeah, just in case this year's WM wasn't shaping up shitty enough, they had to go and ruin next year in advance too. They'll never learn.

[ZKX-2099]

What she did to the NXT womens title was fucked up.

[KevShmev]

What she did to the NXT womens title was fucked up.

Technically, she didn't do it.

Taking pictures/videos isn't the issue. It's storing them in the cloud. Never heard of hard drives?

Rumor is out for the WM34 main event. If you haven't heard it yet, I won't write it out here, you aren't going to like it.

Yeah, just in case this year's WM wasn't shaping up shitty enough, they had to go and ruin next year in advance too. They'll never learn.

Why would they?  People keep paying for the WWE network, watching every week and attending live shows, no matter how awful the product gets.  Vince probably sits in his office laughing and thinking, "It doesn't matter how shitty our product is, these fools still lap it up."  As a former fan, I can say with 100% honestly that I have not paid for ANYTHING wrestling-related since the early 90s.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

What she did to the NXT womens title was fucked up.

Technically, she didn't do it.

Taking pictures/videos isn't the issue. It's storing them in the cloud. Never heard of hard drives?

Rumor is out for the WM34 main event. If you haven't heard it yet, I won't write it out here, you aren't going to like it.

Yeah, just in case this year's WM wasn't shaping up shitty enough, they had to go and ruin next year in advance too. They'll never learn.

Why would they?  People keep paying for the WWE network, watching every week and attending live shows, no matter how awful the product gets.  Vince probably sits in his office laughing and thinking, "It doesn't matter how shitty our product is, these fools still lap it up."  As a former fan, I can say with 100% honestly that I have not paid for ANYTHING wrestling-related since the early 90s.

Spot on. WWE is rolling in the money. They can do whatever they want with "creative".

In other news, these Southpaw Regional Wrestling videos are pretty funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4RFCRpp9P0&t=197s

[Phoenix87x]

That is hilarious 

[jjrock88]

ha thats good stuff

[Anguyen92]

Why would they?  People keep paying for the WWE network, watching every week and attending live shows, no matter how awful the product gets.  Vince probably sits in his office laughing and thinking, "It doesn't matter how shitty our product is, these fools still lap it up."  As a former fan, I can say with 100% honestly that I have not paid for ANYTHING wrestling-related since the early 90s.

Correct.  All of this.  As long as WWE still pulls in around 70k people for WM, reels in about $600 million in yearly revenue, has millions of eyeballs watching WM and subbing to the Network, live shows still sell well enough, Vince and co doesn't have to try to pull a great wrestling product anymore.  All they care about is pulling enough people, from any kind of demographics, in to make their money and please the shareholders.

I mean yeah, WM is going to suck this year, but does WWE care?  No, because 10s of thousands of people are going to come there anyway to say that they went to a Wrestlemania.  WWE is going to scoop a live gate of around $10-15 million on whatever card great or crappy, plus more in other aspects like merch, etc.  We've been hearing that it's going to be Brock vs Goldberg for the title in the main event for months now and apparently the live audience just don't care that it's going to suck, since WM is still going to sell-out.

I guess in a sense, WWE needs to have a major sense of vulnerability like the Monday Night Wars to really shake things up and give a hoot about delivering a quality wrestling product, but since no other company can challenge WWE, in terms of financial resources, something else probably needs to happen to get WWE to deliver a strong product again.

Either way, I don't care if WWE has a good product or not.  I haven't watched anything from them since the main event of WM 30, with the exception of some of the NXT: Takeover shows.  Time is too short for me to resort to watch hours of a subpar product and I rather spend that time doing other things I enjoy like playing WoW or watching NJPW.

[ozzy554]

I keep watching because the in ring work is probably the overall best in company history. As much as the booking tries to drive me away, I keep coming back because I like the performers. Well thats the case with raw anyway. I actually enjoy smackdown more often than not. I also like NXT a lot and 205 live has been alright.

Come to think of it maybe I just don't like raw lol.


Also Ishii vs Shibata from the new japan cup today was fantastic. Those two always put on a great match.

[Cool Chris]

Interesting thoughts here. WWE is producing such an inferior product, yet they are selling out arenas, getting lots of PPV buys and Network subscriptions.... so how inferior can the product really be? It's the old Nickleback conundrum: If your product is selling and making money, and that is your goal, how objectively can we critique its quality?

I keep watching because the in ring work is probably the overall best in company history.

If you grew up watching WWF in the 80s, you will definitely remember those wrestling clinics that legends like King Kong Bundy, Hillbilly Jim, and Hacksaw Jim Duggan put on