Pro Wrestling Thread

[BlobVanDam]

Yeah, AJ did some cool stuff in that match. I think that will be a great WM match, I just hate having rematches at WM.

[axeman90210]

Evidently the Zayn vs Samoa Joe 2 out of 3 falls match is the whole episode of NXT tonight. Much excitement.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

Creative missed a golden opportunity again. Last night, if Ziggler beat Trips in a non-title match, he would get a match at Wrestlemania, and it would be a match of Ziggler's choosing. If Ziggler lost, then he wouldn't compete at Wrestlemania.

So you'd think they'd have Roman Reigns come back, distracting Trips and allowing Dolph to roll him up, which gives Ziggler something to do at Mania, and adds intrigue to the show because you don't know which match he'll request. Plus it will have some of these Anti-Reigns fans like him for helping out Ziggler. Too easy right?

Instead they have Trips soundly beat Ziggler.... then Reigns comes out and he and Trips brawl. End of Raw.

[KevShmev]

HHH going over is almost always what's best for business...according to HHH.

[BlobVanDam]

I have no idea what the point of that match was, unless they just wanted to rub it in further that they don't give a shit about Ziggler or what the fans want. I won't give them the benefit of the doubt that it will go any further before Wrestlemania. At best he'll be lumped into a multi-man match for one of the mid-card belts.

And the Undertaker / McMahon match is so lamely booked. The Undertaker is secondary to his own match. He's not working for Vince, so he's not a heel, but we're supposed to be going for Shane, the non-wrestler to be the only person to beat Undertaker at WM other than Lesnar. I don't care how many people come in and interfere, I don't want the history books to say that Shane McMahon has a WM win over Taker. That's stupid, and an insult to all of the legendary wrestlers who have competed and lost to Undertaker, not to mention the wrestlers who haven't even been given a match with Undertaker at WM.

Then we have Jericho doing all of the work in the AJ/Jericho feud because Vince thinks Southerners shouldn't be allowed to speak.

The Lesnar / Ambrose match has been booked pretty well so far, but the best booked would actually be the women's title match. Very much looking forward to that one.

[Cool Chris]

That was a pretty cool bit they did with Ambrose and Charles Manson.

[Zook]

Then we have Jericho doing all of the work in the AJ/Jericho feud because Vince thinks Southerners shouldn't be allowed to speak.

He must have forgotten about Matt Hardy Version 1. I think we'd all like to, but he had no problem with Hardy on the mic constantly.

I did hear that Styles isn't the greatest on the mic, so that might be why.

[ozzy554]

I get that but fans these days tend to look past mic skills if they are really good in the ring like Cesaro. He was building up a good sized fanbase before he got hurt.

[Zook]

I never considered Cesaro to be that bad on the mic. He and Daniel Bryan were about the same. Serviceable, but you could tell they were reciting lines. Roman Reigns is a few steps below them. Even Rusev has better mic skills than Reigns.

I miss CM Punk. Everything he said sounded natural, and not the least bit rehearsed.

[Cool Chris]

In case you are not following the Gawker/Hogan trial, an update: While Hulk Hogan may possess a 10" penis, Terry Bollea admits he does not.

[ozzy554]

thats good to know

[Anguyen92]

In case you are not following the Gawker/Hogan trial, an update: While Hulk Hogan may possess a 10" penis, Terry Bollea admits he does not.

I've been reading some highlights of that case.  Somewhere along the line, when they were asking him to describe himself, or rather Hulk Hogan, he was quoting the lyrics to "Real American"?

[jingle.boy]

In case you are not following the Gawker/Hogan trial, an update: While Hulk Hogan may possess a 10" penis, Terry Bollea admits he does not.

I've been reading some highlights of that case.  Somewhere along the line, when they were asking him to describe himself, or rather Hulk Hogan, he was quoting the lyrics to "Real American"?

"When it comes crashing down, and it hurts inside" ??

[BlobVanDam]

In case you are not following the Gawker/Hogan trial, an update: While Hulk Hogan may possess a 10" penis, Terry Bollea admits he does not.

I've been reading some highlights of that case.  Somewhere along the line, when they were asking him to describe himself, or rather Hulk Hogan, he was quoting the lyrics to "Real American"?

"When it comes crashing down, and it hurts inside" ??

I've got something deep inside of me........

[hefdaddy42]

Well, let's leave it there, for God's sake.

[jjrock88]

Darn, I should have sent Tim "Real American" for the TAC roulette

Still one of the greatest entrance songs has to be "All American Boys" for the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers. Check it out on YouTube if you haven't heard it

[ZKX-2099]

Anybody else watch aztec warfare? Shit was awesome.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

Anybody else watch aztec warfare? Shit was awesome.

I remember being wow'd by the Aztec Warfare match last year. Really need to get back into Lucha Underground. It's awesome.

[Dimitrius]

El Jefe is back!!

[BlobVanDam]

I just watched Aztec Warfare. Holy shit, I had high expectations, and that still blew me away.

Very unpredictable with when some of the biggest contenders went well before expected, Rey Mysterio had a good showing, and a lot of great spots and storylines. Dario's new big guy is impressive too. He looked like he was going to be the next Braun Strowman, but you can trust Lucha Underground to find an awesome big guy. Half the moves he was doing were ridiculous.

This show just got even better.

[axeman90210]

Ugh, I really need to catch up on season 2, I'm a few episodes behind.

Also, really stoked for the NXT Takeover event next week, the card is ridiculous.

[BlobVanDam]

I have no idea what's on the card, and probably don't know many of the NXT wrestlers at the moment, but I'm watching the show for Nakamura anyway. I'm sure it's a lot better than how WM is shaping up currently.

[axeman90210]

I have no idea what's on the card, and probably don't know many of the NXT wrestlers at the moment, but I'm watching the show for Nakamura anyway. I'm sure it's a lot better than how WM is shaping up currently.

Finn Balor (Prince Devitt) vs Samoa Joe for the NXT title
Sami Zayn vs Nakamura
Bayley vs Asuka (Kana) for the NXT women's title
Apollo Crews (Uhaa Nation) vs Elias Samson
The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) vs Chad Gable and Jason Jordan for the NXT tag titles
Austin Aries vs Baron Corboin

Aside from Nakamura's debut, I might be looking forward to the tag match the most. This is basically a coronation for Gable and Jordan, who have a ridiculous amount of potential. Chad Gable is basically a young Kurt Angle (even competed in the Olympics), and Jason Jordan has some of the best hot tags in the business. Definitely worth it to check out some of their recent stuff if you have the network and some free time.

[BlobVanDam]

Kurt Angle is my favourite wrestler, so you've got me. I know many of the people on the card at least, even if just from the last Takeover.

That roll through german suplex is impressive. That's the kind of stuff I love to watch.

[KevShmev]

I know Brock has coined the term "suplex city," but back in the early 90s, the Steiner brothers were the king of awesome suplexes. Even their matches against jobbers were great to watch just to see them bust out their wide array of awesome suplexes.

[Marion Crane]

Bayley vs Asuka is gonna be siiiiiiiick

[Dimitrius]

Chad Gable is great! Definitely elevates Jordan just by association.

Asuka/Bayley should legitimately main event that show though.

[axeman90210]

Seriously considering buying last minute tickets for Raw tonight in Brooklyn. Going to monitor CL and stubhub to see if anything reasonable pops up for floor seats.

[BlobVanDam]

If I could go, I totally would. It's the last Raw before Wrestlemania, so you know you're getting Taker, Lesnar, and everything else they're willing to do to sell this Wrestlemania.

[axeman90210]

If I could go, I totally would. It's the last Raw before Wrestlemania, so you know you're getting Taker, Lesnar, and everything else they're willing to do to sell this Wrestlemania.

Fifth row floor tickets (basically under the hard cam) are available for just over $300. Seeing as that's what I made helping out at my dad's store this weekend, I may pull the trigger.

[axeman90210]

Ticket purchased and printed 

[hefdaddy42]

 

[jjrock88]

Awesome.  Let us know what the crowd reaction is for Roman from where you are sitting

[BlobVanDam]

The reaction from the broadcast did not seem positive at all. I can't wait to hear 80,000+ people boo him out of the building when he wins the title.

Raw did nothing to raise my hopes for WM.
The thrown together Divas tag on the pre-show is awful. I feel sorry for Paige and Natalya being wasted in such a nothing match.
Triple H vs Roman Reigns is going to need something big to salvage that trainwreck. I hope the crowd is audible enough when they rip it apart.
The New Day are too far beyond the rest of the tag division to have any competition to care about.
The Ladder match should be fine, but we've seen it all before and there's no real story to the big multi-man matches.
AJ vs Jericho should be good, but again we've seen it before.
In terms of wrestling, the women's match could steal the show. They're all damn talented and they'll give this match everything. I'm excited for that one.
Ambrose vs Lesnar is the other match I'm really looking forward to, I just hope we don't get a screwy interference. They probably shouldn't tease with weapons such as the baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire when they're not going to let them do anything with them, but otherwise I think that will be a great street fight.
Kalisto vs Ryback? lol.

[axeman90210]

Random thoughts from last night:

The reception to Roman Reigns winning on Sunday is going to be... not good if last night was any indication. Not sure how it came across on TV, but it seemed like he was getting 80/20 boos/cheers during Raw, and was pretty much entirely booed when he came up during a Wrestlemania promo video they showed before Raw started. There were a fair amount of kids/women with Roman Reigns shirts and/or signs though.

Obviously we all marked out when Taker's music hit to start the show, but Shane was definitely getting a bigger reaction. Curious to see how their match goes on Sunday.

New Day were way over, and I'm glad we got a good promo out of them for the first time in a couple weeks.

That six man tag match went one segment too long, they definitely started losing the crowd. Kevin Owens really is great at his job though. At one point during a commercial break the crowd started doing the wave (and were being egged on by Ziggler and the faces). KO grabbed a mic and said "Alright, everyone who loves Michael Cole's announcing do the wave" and immediately shut it down. Lots of great little character work from him on the apron as well (e.g. acting pleasantly surprised and complimenting Miz any time he did something right).

That said, I hate the way they've booked Owenz-Zayn over the last week. I would have much rather had them not really get physical at all until Mania, and even then have them start out separate in the ladder match. Then you'd have that moment where the two of them clear everyone else out of the ring and look at each other and just start throwing fists. Instead we got to watch Sami get his hands on KO, hit him with the Helluva Kick, and pin him clean already. Waste.

During one of the commercial breaks they did a bit where Lillian narrated as they showed a bunch of the fan signs up on the Titantron. One of the best reactions was for an Enzo and Cass sign, which has me hopeful for their main roster run. I hope they debut on the post Mania Raw, the pop would be huge. Now that New Day are faces, not sure who they'd feud with first though. Dudleys maybe?

Poor Byron Saxton, not only does he not have his own entrance (he has to come out with Michael Cole, entering to a shower of boos), but as soon as JBL came down he starting slapping Byron around with his hat (which I admit got a chuckle out of me).

Lastly, wrestling fans really are the worst sometimes. A lot of the CM Punk chants were originated not too far from where I was sitting, and it was so aggravating. Dude's been gone for two years already... get over it. I don't even mind if you want to get that going in the middle of an exceptionally shitty/boring segment, but busting it out every time there's a moment of quiet is lame as hell. And there was one guy a few seats from me wearing a Punk shirt who stood up and looked around trying to get attention every damn time. Everyone else sitting down by where I was also seemed as focused on getting on camera or taking selfies with superstars in the background as they were watching the damn show.