The Wrestling Thread

Put the world to rights here (off-topic discussion)
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Matty_the_Emo_Slayer
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby Matty_the_Emo_Slayer » Mon Apr 04, 2016 10:36 am

Some excellent matches and no bad ones (other than the unadvertised squash.) I can't decide if it was a good Mania or not yet but the unrelenting negativity people gave it was ridiculous. Currently getting mega-heat on a FB group for calling someone who said it was "the worst Mania ever" a spastic.
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Jobdone
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby Jobdone » Tue Apr 05, 2016 8:58 am

I was getting similar vibes from one of my facebook groups. Though I think the more you've been watching the product later the more bitter you get. It was nice having Andy on facebook messenger talking about fannies and how good some of the matches were to even out the negativity.

Thing is match quality wise is was one of the better ones tbh. Who would've thought a few years ago we'd have bloody El Generico and Kevin Steen in a major Mania match.

Also good to see Corbin get his push onto the main roster, I hope they give him some promo time to shine through his "Fuck you" character and not just have him fall to wayside.

Plus WOO. WOO. WOO. YOU KNOW IT. got the IC belt which si amazing.

It just felt like some of the other results were so odd. They pushed this mania with a general theme of change and newness, and instead we've got the status quo. Dunno if I've ever seen so many heels win at a mania.

And fuck the fact they used the Wyatts for that Rock/Cena squash. No need when you've got your comedy jobber team already in Social Outcasts.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby Matty_the_Emo_Slayer » Tue Apr 05, 2016 3:56 pm

Yep, absolutely. Not having The Wyatts on the card at all would have been better but I reckon it was a last minute decision and they originally had Strowman booked to win the battle royal. I would've liked that better as I don't think Corbin is ready yet. His match with Aries on Friday was okay but not of the standard he had with Rhino or Joe.

To be honest I think the only way to be as negative about that show as a lot of people were is if you're a massive childish mark. "It's the worst Mania ever because Roman won the main event!" I don't get why people value who wins a match more than if the match is good or not.

Overall I think I'd rate the Women's Championship match ****1/4, the ladder match and Styles vs Jericho ***3/4 and the main event, street fight and Hell In A Cell ***1/2. No one seems to be talking about what a great scientific performance it was from HHH, pure throwback to 2000 for him. Also I only saw the last 3 minutes of the 10-woman tag match but the ended was actually pretty good. Not the best average match quality in Mania history, but pretty good nonetheless.

Add in the great Michaels, Austin and Foley segment, Shaq and DDP in the battle royal, the giant box of Booty-O's, the big emotion of Ryder's win, the attendance figure, the sheer amount of Firefly's in Bray's entrance and Triple H's entrance (I actually loved Stephanie's really campy performance) and it pushed the show to about a 7/10 overall. Not the best Mania ever by a long shot, but nowhere near the worst.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby Turbo » Tue Apr 05, 2016 6:29 pm

I was really glad I stayed up for it. Yeah I lost my shit over HBK, Foley and Stone Cold. Swapping my spotify membership (I rarely use it) for WWE network was probably the best decision I made this year.

Now I need to catch up on 16 years of main events.

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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby Jobdone » Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:09 pm

Shit you're in for some fucking quality, and the occasional dire, matches there mate.

And about 30 minutes into Raw and it's already looking up.

EDIT: I was so angry about Reigns champion that I remembered our challengers are fucking AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and all those. I might be on board with Reigns championship.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby Turbo » Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:43 pm

Been watching Royal Rumble 1999. An absolute classic.

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Annihislater II
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby Annihislater II » Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:21 pm

I've really gotten into wrestling since last posting.

A mate told me to get a free trial of the WWE network back in June, and I've not looked back since. I haven't watched since I used to watch WCW as a Kid, so starting with the first Epsiode of Nitro I've been working through WCW and the PPV's in chronological order. Currently just past episode 100 of nitro and the last clash of the champions.

I've also been following every nxt, every ppv, 205 live, the cruiserweight classic. I've also done loads of interviews/documentaries/hall of fame inductions ceremonies. I feel like I've learned an incredible amount in such a small period of time.

The problem now is that there's this weird disconnect where I effectively missed 15 or more years of wrestling. So when you ask me my favourite wrestlers you get the odd mix of the likes of Ultimo Dragon, Hector Garza, Jushin Liger, Rey Mysterio Jnr, Sting Arn Anderson and then more current guys like Dolph Ziggler, Bobby Roode, Roderick Strong, Gran Metalik, Lince Dorado, The Revival, DIY and so on. No real in-between

I essentially missed the Shield being a thing, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Nexus etc.

I also went watching Smackdown Live in Manchester last November which was my first show I've been to.

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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby Matty_the_Emo_Slayer » Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:49 pm

You know strangely I've still never been to a WWE house show in Belfast, at least not main roster. NXT last year was my first one and it was beyond amazing. Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura vs Samoa Joe and Austin Aries in the main event, with Drake Younger as the referee. A year before that and I'd never have believed any of those 5 men would be in a WWE ring, nevermind seeing them in my hometown.

If you enjoyed the live experience though you should check out some UK indy shows as it's really taking off and becoming the hottest thing in the industry. Insane Championship Wrestling from Glasgow, PROGRESS from London and What Culture Pro Wrestling from Newcastle would be the big three, and all those hit Manchester at least once a year.

I'm not a big fan of WCPW because of the ego of their promoters and because the UK talent get jobbed out by the imported talent too much, but they still have some good matches now and again. ICW aren't always the best for match quality but their old school ECW vibe is great, especially live. And PROGRESS have some of the best matches of any company in the world.

Plus you've got Preston City Wrestling nearby (I went to a show they co-promoted with Ring Of Honor from America a few years ago- definitely worth travelling to for their big events) and probably a few other small companies in Manchester that I'm not aware of. Plus with WWE just having done their UK Championship tournament in Blackpool last weekend and starting a UK based show for the network soon and ITV possibly commissioning a full new series of World Of Sport (no news on that yet) both of those will probably be taping in Manchester quite regularly.

Really aside from Tokyo nobody is spoilt for choice when it comes to live wrestling shows quite like people in England right now!
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby Jobdone » Tue Jan 17, 2017 10:42 pm

Ai, the UK scenes doing amazing at the moment, just wish some of the bigger ones were easier to get to (Trains back from the North stop by about 9/10 most of the time).

Mind you, I'm right down the road from a wrestling training school that runs events every couple of months that are fairly decent so I can't moan too much.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby Matty_the_Emo_Slayer » Tue Jan 17, 2017 11:28 pm

Speaking of the UK Championship tournament and local wrestling schools I have to mention just how proud I am of Tucker. I was worried WWE were putting him in there just to have one person from each country and that he'd get jobbed out in the first match, especially when I saw that his match vs Tyler Bate came first in the bracket. Instead he and Bate headlined night 1 and had the best match of the night. Seeing people on Facebook raving about him has been surreal too. I mean I always knew he was a great wrestler but I didn't know how great til he got this platform.

Add in Jordan Devlin's great heel heat in the tournament and OTT getting the same level of respect from WWE as ICW and PROGRESS and it's clear we're seeing a knock on effect here in the Irish scene. The travel up to Belfast 3 or 4 evenings a week is a pain in the arse but even still I really need to get back to training. I'm 10 years older than I should be for starting out in the business, but the opportunities for Irish wrestlers have never been better. Like a year ago I thought even getting booked in England would be an impossible pipedream!
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby Haldamir319 » Wed Jan 18, 2017 11:17 am

The tournament was pretty swish too, particularly night two. Hopefully this will lead to regular shows of some kind.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby Jobdone » Wed Jan 18, 2017 11:56 am

AFAIK they are looking to set up regular british shows with those sort of performers as Matt described. Fingers crossed it's on an indie kinda contract rather than locking people down.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby Matty_the_Emo_Slayer » Wed Jan 18, 2017 1:11 pm

Yeah the plan is for a weekly show on the WWE Network, which if done in a similar format to NXT will mean one taping every 3 or 4 weeks. No mention yet of whether there'll be Takeover style supercards or whether the UK title will be defended on PPV but one can hope.

Meltzer has reported that all 16 guys from the tournament are signed to £18,000 a year contracts and can still work anywhere else, except for WCPW. That's WCPW's decision though, not WWE's as they seem to be salty over not getting the same nod from WWE that ICW, PROGRESS and OTT got. Presumably if/when WoS comes on ITV full time they won't be able to work there either. The rumour of ICW getting shown on the network has cropped up again too even though Mark Dallas rubbished it a few months ago. If it does happen I imagine they'll just be moving Friday Night Fight Club over from their own on demand service or producing an extra possibly PG show especially for WWE. Time will tell.

Either way it's a sweet deal for the guys involved. 18 grand a year for doing a TV taping one weekday a month, and being able to up your appearance fee on the weekends and use your newfound fame to help grow the companies where you cut your teeth? As long as only one or two guys a year get moved up to NXT or the main roster then this will really be doing more good than harm for the indy scene.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby Haldamir319 » Thu Feb 16, 2017 9:21 am

The Festival of Friendship segment on RAW was one of the best segments in years - probably the best since Mark Henry's fake retirement.

In other news, the latest episode of NXT has Tyler Bate's first defence of the UK Championship against Trent Seven - it's getting good reviews.
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Re: The Wrestling Thread

Postby florencethemachine » Wed Mar 01, 2017 1:06 pm

Smackdown has been laying the smackdown (pun intended) on RAW in terms of wrasslin and angle building. They definitely acquired AJ's services at the right time because that guy has been white hot since he came in. I love the irony of WWE now relying on the draw of homegrown TNA stars to bolster their roster (I am aware that AJ and Joe were both involved in developmental with WWE).

Having never been clued up on NJPW I have went back and watched some of Meltzer's 4+ star rated matches. Holy shit they have some next level sequences and great matches. The hype around Omega vs Okada has definitely shone a spotlight on NJPW for a lot of westerners.
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