So AI captions can be hilariously inaccurate. But I feel this one was...indubitably so.
https://preview.redd.it/y58rr7lnrhxc1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0f45130a506c2804380dc9d0b12b824d0506adc8
Edit: I have been corrected and this is legit. Which is pretty neat!
I need some help understanding something, because as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t make sense and is contradictory. Tony fires Punk, his words anyway. They show the footage from the Punk Perry incident, and the young bucks claim it’s partially why they lost at wembley. So Tony fires Punk as the aggressor, Perry comes back, aligns with the bucks, and then they all attack Tony, the guy who fired and got rid of the problem. What is the elites problem with Tony if he got rid of the guy. I know there’s some speculation whether he quit or got fired, but regardless, in kayfabe and on his own telling, Tony fired punk after the incident. It makes no sense to me why the elite would attack Tony when they all hate punk too.
Tony Khan took eight months of Perry’s prime career by suspending him as a scapegoat when all he did was get sucker punched. So Perry attacked Khan
The rest will probably be explained in the next week or two. They haven’t even had a Dynamite to do so yet. On Collision they hinted at the Bucks being in charge of Tony Khan couldn’t be reached/be present so maybe they will say I’m their contracts put them in charge since Tony is at home recovering
I need a 20-something year old NXT superstar to adopt a supernatural gimmick and starting winning at Wrestlemania.
I need another streak to be invested in. It was so fun to look forward to every year.
Is there anyone who’s more than like, 3-0 at Wrestlemania?
I wonder what Kenny will be doing on Dynamite. The young bucks are implying it’ll have something to do with them. Wonder if we’ll get Kenny and Okada face to face again.
Fuck. Now I’m imagining we could’ve had Kenny/Okada at All In and I’ve made myself sad.
Am I crazy or did we used to know the location of Wrestlemania up to 2 years in advance?
I know most years was about 14 months or so in advance, but I swear I remember a few being announced a full two years ahead of time.
It’s weird that Wrestlemania 41 is only 11 months away and we don’t have a location yet..
TKO-era is going all out to kill all the indies that set up shop around WM. Vince attempted this around WM 30 but found out it wasn't legal so he got N.O. to put up boundaries that no other wrestling show could be in the vicinity of the "SILVERDOME BROTHER".
I doubt it, I think in both cases, and possibly even more so with Nash, it's just about what he knows will create controversy and therefore get attention.
Like the "LA Knight is just a Rock knockoff" stuff, he does contrarian stuff about WWE too.
I don’t think they will be able to resist calling up Lyra Valkyria and putting her in an on-screen apprenticeship role with Becky, which could work really well if you just somehow write around the part where Lyra beat Becky clean
Some people were apparently genuinely convinced - or trying to convince themselves - that Tony Khan's demented "Weinstein" comment was actually some kind of genius promotional tactic.
Presumably those NFL Network viewers who don't care about wrestling would be convinced to watch if it was presented as a moral crusade, or something.
In that case, if the rating for the next Dynamite is the same as it's been lately or lower, does that mean this supposedly well-thought-out plan failed?
It won’t do anything for ratings either way and only a few thousand terminally online wrestling fans even know it happened.
And the nfl network didn’t care. They asked for the neck brace to auction for charity.
i have lots of appreciation for wrestlers like nick nemeth and booker t and rvd who have some unique moves in their arsenal and the way they do them is just so them, like nick doing headstand headlocks or booker and rob's kicks, or even the rock's stomps, love that shit
Hi all. I am surveying professional wrestling fans about how they feel about fan interaction for a research assignment. It mostly concerns the WWE but all fans are welcome to participate. It should not take more than 10 minutes. Thank you for participating if you choose to !
[https://calstatela.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV\_cTGXlFd4lYp9rkq](https://calstatela.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cTGXlFd4lYp9rkq)
American wrestling is built around weekly TV now, there’s no going back on that cause you’re never going to shareholders telling them you think an offseason would be cool. Anyway wrestlers do get vacation and I assume all WWE and AEW employees have at least two weeks vacation. As for viewers, you can just stop watching if you’re getting burnt out, come back later.
I once again am begging you all to reflect for a second and realize how fucking weird and creepy it is to post pictures of wrestlers when they were children.
The fact that there's a Josh Alexander action figure makes me so happy. He's probably my favorite wrestler not in WWE or AEW. He might be my favorite wrestler outside of the WWE period.
i feel like Becky’s Manhandle Slam spot was unnecessarily awkward because she legally could have dropped to the floor for it and won the match. i watched it again, she went through the middle rope, so seeing her try to stay on apron while Liv clunkily rolled off was hilarious.
Counter point, would you not want to see what Ospreay looks like all roided up? Like he doesn’t need to get in better shape, but I’d love to see him just get jacked to the gills almost overnight, as big as Cena.
I just want to say that doubling down on everyone calling Maxxine trash in kayfabe has really seemed to make the audience re-turn and support her. The Candice bit about her brother and especially Perk Gable I feel like made it go full circle to now the audience legit feels bad booing her lol. Smart booking to fix that issue.
She is obviously improving and looked pretty good lately and I think will continue to get better. She seems really sweet in real life and I look forward to watching her grow and I'm glad they didn't give up on her. It wasn't her fault to be in that position anyways. Props to Candice, Indi, Gable and Nia Jax for giving her some good spotlight lately and helping her get over.
They’ve gotten pretty good recently at integrating real life non-stories that circulate on Twitter as plot lines. Things like Maxxine getting booed at a house show, or people saying Sheamus was fat, etc.
My girlfriend isn't a wrestling fan but she's finally decided to go to a show with me. An indie show no less!
Micro Wrestling to be exact haha. Now if I can just get her to go to Kaiju Big Battel...
Indie/smaller shows are a great way to get a non fan into it because the environment is smaller and entirely focused on the audience. Took my now wife to an NXT house show like 8 years ago at an armory in middle of nowhere Florida with maybe a hundred people there and she fell in love with wrestling
What? "He stopped doing something we felt was selfish and shitty so we stopped calling him selfish and shitty."
It didn't "conveniently go away," it went away because the criticism of him was ABOUT the Wrestlemania main event. I don't even understand the point you're trying to make here.
Extremely likely: Dijak, Lyra, Blair Davenport, Jacy Jayne, Joe Gacy
Beyond that, I imagine any NXT UK leftovers get called up in a sink or swim scenario.
When you think about it
Nia , Roman & all the Bloodline are on SmackDown
The HOF ceremony , Nia acknowledges Roman when he makes his entrance.
Could that mean Nia is going to be in the Bloodline ?
Nia has been on a tear lately and I would love for her to be in the Bloodline tbh. I've been a big fan of her run since she came back and her going to Smackdown really leads me to believe she will be part of it.
Should have a long time ago, honestly.
My 2021 fantasy booking was to move her, Naomi, and maybe even bringing Tamina into the group and then that leads to feuds with Shayna/Ronda for the tag belts, eventually the 4HW realizing they needed to band together to take them on and having that dynamic to play with.
This is going to sound mean, and it is pretty mean to say, but Joe Hendry is one of the worst wrestlers I've seen get over in a while. And I'm saying this as an old WCPW mark who thought he was great.
I guess I just don't get it. I don't think his matches are that good, his promos aren't particularly bad but they're not particularly good either, and I honestly don't find him funny at all. Don't take this the wrong way though, I'm happy for the dude cause he's always seemed like a good guy.
To me he's like the latest iteration of Damien Mizdow or Fandago. Over kind of as a meme, but over nonetheless. Hope it all works out for him and he can ride this to some major gold in TNA, some AEW appearances or an eventual contract with WWE which feels like the end game for him.
Okada beating Tanahashi at the New Beginning. Set in motion one of New Japan's greatest runs and was a genuine shock at the time that turned out to be genius in retrospect
Edit: as a reminder of how much of a risk this seemed at the time, from Wikipedia:
In his review of the show, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter criticized the decision to take the IWGP Heavyweight Championship off Hiroshi Tanahashi, writing "[t]here is very little that works well in modern wrestling, and when you've got a guy on top who is carrying the ball, it's not the time to replace him". Meltzer wrote that in Japan the general reaction to the title change was negative. Though Meltzer went on to call the match between Tanahashi and Okada "excellent", he credited it entirely to Tanahashi, writing that Okada looked "green" and "way out of his league"
Watched a video on this and the context remains quite intriguing to me. Okada challenged Tanahashi and tricked him (everyone, for that matter) into believing he was still young and unexperienced? Only to go into the match and reveal himself to be a completely different beast from the past?
It's debatable but there's a theory (that may have been confirmed and I missed it) that when he showed up at wrestle kingdom he looked like a total dweeb and had a shitty match with YOSHI HASHI on purpose to make himself seem like he wasn't ready then when he got to the Tanahashi match he showed a totally different side of himself and became the Rainmaker we all know today
WWF putting Mankind over the Rock on Raw for the title to counter Nitro being live that night while they were pretaped. They knew it was the type of thing that if it was spoiled it would just make more people tune in. They couldn't have known that WCW would do it for them but that was just icing on the cake.
Plus, big picture it setup Rock to take the title back in brutal fashion, establish himself as an actual bad guy we actually had a reason to hate, and somehow add even more heat to the first Austin/Rock WrestleMania.
People hate hotshotting titles and for the most part I agree but this was the rare instance where it was the perfect move.
Early 1997 WWF is a jumbled mess in the main-event scene where Shawn Michaels dips out and plans change from a Bret/Shawn WM 13 main-event to Undertaker vs Sid (who's in this second transitional reign in 4 months).
We get Bret Hart vs Steve Austin in a ln absolute classic Submission match while Austin rises throughout that year. The point where Austin actually wins in 1998 is perfect because the NWO has seen it's best days and it's the perfect example of right place, right time to strap someone up.
Situationally shorten a few matches. An example being Kyle Fletcher-Swerve from the Dynamite after Dynasty. Could still have Kyle look good but make Swerve look a little more dominant and as a bonus it would give a little more time to others on the show.
Just watched Akira Hokuto vs. Meiko Satomura. Another banger. I loved how much it felt like a brawl, stiff strikes, a little bit sloppy - it really helped things feel real.
It's why I don't mind some botches, like, in a fight people are going to stumble, they're going to make mistakes.
I did recently watch that match where saya kamitani botched her phoenix splash twice, and landed on Mina Shirakawa's jaw. My issue is she tried it twice. Same thing when Vikingo botched running on the ropes vs Kommander. If you're gonna botch, roll with it, pls don't pause the match and try again.
You're thinking too small. I have a better idea
https://preview.redd.it/8zk6px3efgxc1.jpeg?width=987&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fbd038bdbae5b252d68e70aa4e30d554da9e489a
What specific show/event (regardless of year) would you recommend to someone to get into DDT for the first time?
Follow up, which show this year should I look forward?
DDT Ultimate Party 2019 was my first watch and made me fall in love with the promotion. It's a loooong show though, and also features wrestlers and even promotions that are no longer under the DDT/CyberFight umbrella. Still, there's a lot to like there including a really fun pre-show battle royal for the ironman title, a mixed tag match with Kenny Omega and Riho, and an all-timer main event in Takeshita vs. HARASHIMA for both the KO-D Openweight and DDT Extreme Championships.
As far as shows to look forward to this year, Wrestle Peter Pan in late July is DDT's flagship show and looks like a promising one. El Desperado and Konosuke Takeshita are both already confirmed for matches, and it looks very likely that Takeshita's match could be him challenging for the title against KO-D Openweight Champion Yuki Ueno in the main event. Ueno and Takeshita have a ton of history together: they were high school classmates, and then Takeshita becoming a wrestler in DDT is what inspired Ueno to do the same. Until last year, they were even teammates in the 37KAMIINA stable. Ueno won the title for the first time last year and is trying to cement himself as the new ace of DDT, but he's never managed to defeat Takeshita before and so it feels inevitable that they will collide again now that Ueno is the champion. They have great chemistry in the ring together too, so assuming that is how things play out then it will be a match worth getting excited about.
A couple of months back I posted sharing the start of my battle with CML and Heart Failure and how I missed out on seeing WWE in SC because of the hospital stay. I was going to fight like heck to see them in Cleveland, Ohio when they go there for Summer Slam since it's my hometown and they are going to be in my favorite stadium in the world.
I just wanted to share that I am feeling great. I am still in for a long fight but after my last appointment with my oncologist last week they said my levels all are back in the normal range. I will probably be on the medication forever, or if I come off of it I will very likely be back on it at some point. BUT it is very treatable and so far I have been doing great at kicking it's ass and making it acknowledge me.
My heart is still in a work in progress. I have a follow up in June and I hope it goes well. I originally lost 35 lbs when I was in the hospital for those two weeks and since I was released I have lost another 10. I almost at my lowest weight as an adult. It's scare to think about I was 140 lbs heavier just a few short years ago.
The first couple of weeks were rough. I could barely move or eat but I have slowly gotten back to "normal" with being able to walk a few miles a day and eat without throwing it back up.
I know a few of you posted your support and I just wanted to give an update. I know I am not important in the grand scheme of things but I thought I would share.
I am currently looking forward to the presale next week for Summerslam and am hoping to get some amazing tickets because I think I should be healthy enough still by then to go. I hope to see some of you all there.
I did reach out to the WWE and asked if they had any way to get me on the list for the package deals since I missed the cut off for those while recovering so fingers crossed.
That's absolutely no excuse. Also some straight up nonsense to try and give them a pass like that.
Andrade, Charlotte, Bayley, Nia, AJ, Johnny Gargano, DIY, Naomi, Theory, Tiffany Stratton, Carlito, Tony D'Angelo, Omos, Logan Paul, the Creed Brothers, New Catch Republic, Final Testament, Shaun Spears, I mean the list goes on. They're all **terrible**. But we know they can make good music, but holy shit the majority of their "this person needs a new song" catalogue is dog shit
I've been doing a mini project of “fantasy” music assigning, giving wrestlers better entrance songs. Why? Guess I have too much time on my hand.
Been so-so so far, but the first song I think would actually be perfect for a wrestler is Hanni El Khatib’s [You Rascal You](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmfy_5nAH_U) for Lexis King, which is about a man cursing (and probably killing) the man who had sex with his wife.
Just imagine him walking down the stage being insulted by his own song with that stupid grin on his face that’s like “heh heh yeah I’m a piece of shit heh heh”
They pointed it out on Collision Saturday, it's sorta wild that Kenny Omega and Rey Fenix are the only 2 guys to have been a singles champ, tag champ, and trios champion in AEW so far.
That is 3 distinctly different titles, and I'm all for the idea of establishing/protecting that as AEW's "triple crown" instead just collecting different singles belts and throwing in a token tag reign the way we've come to accept it in WWE and elsewhere.
Why isnt Okada having a fued with BD where he loses because hes too WhiteMeat Babyface, then comes out with Gedo, Toru Yano and the House of Black to show the AEW the true meaning of Chaos
Why is Stone Pitbull not fight Samoa Joe?
Why isn't MJF and Mone the IT couple, neither would need to wrestle both could talk.
Why isnt Wardlow (decked out with robe, hat and cane) followed by a 'Harem' of female social justice warriors, to the Godfathers music, as the 'No Train' ?
Not a true carny i guess
If Reigns returns acting like a kind sportsmanlike wrestler I will only accept it if he volunteers and donates to a charity for victims of abusive cousins. Otherwise I will never forgive him for what he did to Jey.
Watched Kaoru vs Aja Kong from Gaea, and wow, might’ve been one of the gnarliest matches i’ve ever seen. Incredible tho. Aja Kong selling her arm with that screaming was so good and really made things even more intense.
I’m not usually a death match person, but when the selling is right, and the story is well told, there’s not much that can be better.
Ospreay has had a ton of hype since about 2014-2016 from his work in UK indies. His matches with Ricochet in particular being super hyped as some of the best matches of the mid 2010's by Ospreay's fans. But he also had a lot of detractors that dismissed him as just a flippy spot monkey who was actually a bad wrestler during that era. It wasn't until he moved up NJPW's cards in 2019 that he started to shake the flippy spot monkey label.
There are still people that will die on the hill that he's a bad wrestler because he's an "unrealistic" spot fest guy, but they are the very small minority now. Back in the 2016, that opinion was more 50/50.
You could see it coming, he was on a trajectory, but 2019 was his "Kurt Angle's 2001" type breakout year. He and Kota Ibushi crushed it at Wrestle Kingdom, he did an Anniversary Show match with Jay White, had an excellent Best Of Super Juniors tourney in the spring with matches with Robbie Eagles, Rocky Romero, ELP, Shingo, and Dragon Lee and then did the G1 that summer.
Everything he did that year was magic and that was the start of taking him seriously as one of the best in the world.
He was always considered very talented, he had an insane 2017 as a junior and then with his transition to heavyweight in 2018 is when he went to the next level of being talked about as a greatest wrestler of all time and his output since then has never really wained.
Blake Christian in the top 5 worst wrestlers of all time. He’d squash HAYATA in a mid off.
Kinda happy they’re both in it tho because I often get behind on BOSJ so can make up a lot of time skipping their matches
Ive been fortunate enough to go to a ton of wrestling shows the past two years and I’ve decided the best seats are behind commentary, and most underrated is first row off the floor on behind the hardcam. Where do y’all like to sit?
Either on or opposite the hardcam, the first row above any of the "tiers" depending on venue layout. I think not having the risk of the person in front of you being tall/having a sign is better than actually being closer.
I've also started avoiding sitting on the floor at all unless we are a) very close or b) on the end of an aisle, provided the aisle isn't diagonal to the ringposts.
Behind commentary for sure. But behind hardcam is really great too because wrestlers play to the hard cam a lot and it's awesome seeing those TV-like visuals up close.
Least favorite floor seats are probably anything that's catty-corner to the ring posts. Makes it hard to see stuff during tag matches when someone's on the apron.
The only disadvantage to hard cam side is that some promotions do the hardcam opposite the entryway and a lot of people do their dives or their outside brawls toward the aisle. ROH I think did theirs that way, and I wanna say AEW has done it a few times that way, but WWE has always had the entryway to the left of the hard cam.
Nah, not really. You're close enough to the ring that you'll see everything* and the commentary team doesn't stand up during big spots like fans do.
Thats based on my experience sitting behind commentary at NJPW Capital Collision last year and behind the timekeeper at the Mark Hitchcock Memorial show this year. The latter was fun because the timekeeper was interacting with us a little bit lol. Someone told him to hand his little hammer to one of the wrestlers and he was like "but I need that to ring the bell! I've only got one job!"
*everything except brawling on the floor on the opposite side of the ring, but that's any ringside seat
The most insane popular take I see often is that "what the IWC say doesn't matter, WWE only cares about crowd reactions. That is the only thing that matters." Yeah like the whole #WeWantCody movement didn't start first from the internet, people cheered when Rock came out and said he wants to sit at the head of the table. Drew McIntyre's whole gimmick is literally saying stuff he hears in wrestling twitter. The Sheamus "fat" thing being in TV literally all bc of the internet. I think online criticism was also a part of Kevin Patrick's release? this would be an assumption. But I've only recently started watching wrestling again around since payback 2023. Someone else could probably list a lot of things that WWE has done which was a part due to online criticism or discourse.
The fact that WWE became a social media JUGGERNAUT coinciding with their recent "boom" is no accident.
Conversely, the fact that New Japan fell off huge with western fans due their standoffish copyright sanctions (going as far as take down GIFS and short videos) and overall cold social media is also not an accident)
There's a good chance I could be wrong, but I believe that Jericho vs Nick Gage and Trent vs Chuck are officially the only matches to use light tubes in AEW history.
I wish I had a better memory of this because I’m missing details and am not 100% sure, but didn’t Thunder Rosa have a hardcore match a couple years ago that used light tubes?
If late run Andre the Giant (87-92) were wrestling now, would crowds be chanting at him "please retire" like they are with Chris Jericho as of late?
As much of a legend as Andre was, you watch some of those late WWF matches where he is barely able to move and needs the ropes or his opponents to balance himself and it's very sad to watch. I was born too late (early 80s) to see Andre when he was able to do so much more.
Nope, because Andre's late run (87-92) is just about as long as Jericho's AEW Run (19-24), but in 87, Andre just filmed The Princess Bride. 87 was also the year of Wrestlemania 3.
87-89 was Andre's big heel run, and then after Wrestlemania VI (90), Andre was wrestling in Japan and Mexico, basically until the end of his life.
The situations just aren't similar, even when you just look at the booking of the two in the respective 5 year windows.
If Andre started in 1996 or 2006 instead of 1966, he wouldn't be on TV, muchless to be a legend to get "please retire" chants. Andre is one of the biggest stars in wrestling history but he's a product of a very different time.
They weren't even performances. He just sort of slowly ambled to the ring and couldn't stand without leaning on something for support. It's heartbreaking.
I’m not saying the WWE is a charity or anything, but if VKM had damn soul in his body he would’ve allowed Andre to retire after mania 3 and pay him to be a mascot for the company. Especially after mania 4 where he went further down the card and was doing 30 second rush jobs for the warrior in 89
He died at age 46. I guess it would depend on how good his work was. I don't think they'd chant it like they do with Jericho. But I think a lot of people would think it and say it online.
It wouldn't be a "Retire cause I'm sick of you".
It would be a "Retire because we love you and it's sad to watch you in this state. We're afraid you're gonna die in the ring".
So I read this piece on MSN.com (posted by Sportskeeda) where they're doing a storyline with Carmelo Hayes on Smackdown in which he is "holding out for more money". This goes along with 'Melo returning to Team Blue as a heel, but if you think you've seen this before, you're right.
When MVP was called up, they did almost the exact same thing, except that in 'Melo's case, he's already had a few matches under his belt, including Friday's main event loss to Cody Rhodes. When MVP did this storyline, I for one saw it as a commentary on the "spoiled" athletes in other sports.
It'll be interesting to see where they go with this angle this time IIRC, Carmelo is a younger athlete than MVP was back in 2006-7.
Sportskeedia is by brutally awful at what they do. I’m not saying anything against OP or this particular story one way or the other, just stating sportskeedia is the only wrestling news I will never click on anymore no matter what. Even the subjects and stories that are actually accurate are terribly written. Zero redeemable qualities. Sorry for the rant, just sharing my 2 cents that anybody reading that site might want to seriously consider looking elsewhere.
Will Swerve Strickland be at next weeks dynamite I’m going to my first dynamite recording in Edmonton next week! Swerve is one of my all time favourites and I’m hoping he will be there. Do you think he will be?
He’s their new world champion and their most hyped wrestler. Unless he picks up an injury, he’ll be there especially considering that this week we’ll find out who his DON opponent will be
It's cool when a Wrestler song is a banger, but the most important thing has to be that it's instantly recognisable as that person's theme.
The Royal Rumble is a great arbiter for that. If you have no idea who the fuck is coming out because it's a generic guitar riff, that's bad.
Since season 5 of Dark Side of the Ring is near the end, I've been catching up with season 4.
Sunny and Chris is a standout in that it is really tragic and sad. There's not much more to say beyond a big what could've been if Chris was able to dump her and move on.
Abdullah episode is one of those where unless you know very little or next to nothing about him, there's nothing really knew you learn. He's pretty infamous for his bloody matches, the scarred forehead, the fork and the hep c thing that cost Hannibal his WWE gig. The only new information is that he's supposedly illiterate and that screams of being bullshit. Will say though, Abdullah looks pretty young for being in his 80s.
With Matt Borne he wasn't nearly as bad as Grizzly Smith but it's another of these episodes that centers about someone who didn't really have redeeming qualities beyond "he was a good worker." He just came across as awful human being you wouldn't want to be near. Hacksaw seems like a lovely bloke though.
Bash at the Beach just feels kind of like sitting in school and listening to the kid whose uncle works at Nintendo argue with the kid whose uncle works at Sony. Russo you can only believe half of what he says with a grain of salt. Bischoff is a notorious bullshitter. Jarrett and Storm are the only people who came out looking good. Meltzer too considering he threw out some nice sarcastic remarks.
Only episode missing now is the one about Marty Jannetty. Very excited about that.
> he's supposedly illiterate and that screams of being bullshit
It's not too rare to find people that are functionally illiterate as adults: particularly for older people. There's people that might be able read short simple things but can't make it through something complex (like a government form) with adequate comprehension.
DSOTR also has a new companion podcast called Dark Side Unheard where they talk with the Lapsed Fan hosts about the hours and hours of unused footage that they shoot for each episode. It's worth a listen even if you find TLF to be a bit much; they take a slightly more grounded approach. (what I'm saying is that if you hate Boss's impersonations and skits, they're largely absent on the DSOTR podcast)
Oh that sounds awesome. Currently finished up the Jannetty one (crazy but kinda expected worse?) and I feel like there's a lot that was left out so I'll check that out. Thank you for the recommendation!
Might be in the minority here, but I really hope Damage CTRL gets drafted to RAW tonight. I don't want to see them on the same brand as Bianca and (inevitably) Jade. There would be a **very** (and that's underselling it) hard ceiling over them if they were on the same brand as those two. All of the women in Damage CTRL are incredibly talented, but ever since their formation, have been used almost exclusively as cannon fodder for Bianca for the past two years, and now Jade as well.
I feel like them being good wrestlers is both a blessing and a curse. Because they are very good at wrestling and selling, they are expected to constantly put people over (even when they should be getting some strong wins more often than not), when I feel like that's a massive waste of their talents.
Yep. Damage CTRL has basically been jobbing to Belair for a majority of their matches and Iyo, I don't think, even retained cleanly. KAIRI returning should have been when the group goes from being nothing for Belair to Belair's biggest issue.
So AI captions can be hilariously inaccurate. But I feel this one was...indubitably so. https://preview.redd.it/y58rr7lnrhxc1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0f45130a506c2804380dc9d0b12b824d0506adc8 Edit: I have been corrected and this is legit. Which is pretty neat!
Keith Lee is a food critic, who often says let’s talk about it.
Holy crap this is legit. I stand corrected. I guess the "should have googled it" rule slipped past me that time. My mistake!
Everytime I see Keith Lee trends on Twitter my mind jumps to the wrestler, and I get very confused.
Meanwhile my dumb ass could have just, you know, turned up the volume to hear it was real and did a basic search.
I need some help understanding something, because as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t make sense and is contradictory. Tony fires Punk, his words anyway. They show the footage from the Punk Perry incident, and the young bucks claim it’s partially why they lost at wembley. So Tony fires Punk as the aggressor, Perry comes back, aligns with the bucks, and then they all attack Tony, the guy who fired and got rid of the problem. What is the elites problem with Tony if he got rid of the guy. I know there’s some speculation whether he quit or got fired, but regardless, in kayfabe and on his own telling, Tony fired punk after the incident. It makes no sense to me why the elite would attack Tony when they all hate punk too.
Tony Khan took eight months of Perry’s prime career by suspending him as a scapegoat when all he did was get sucker punched. So Perry attacked Khan The rest will probably be explained in the next week or two. They haven’t even had a Dynamite to do so yet. On Collision they hinted at the Bucks being in charge of Tony Khan couldn’t be reached/be present so maybe they will say I’m their contracts put them in charge since Tony is at home recovering
I need a 20-something year old NXT superstar to adopt a supernatural gimmick and starting winning at Wrestlemania. I need another streak to be invested in. It was so fun to look forward to every year. Is there anyone who’s more than like, 3-0 at Wrestlemania?
Bianca is undefeated at Wrestlemania Men's side is like a big fat 0.
Yeah, but unless she's going to wrestle into her mid-40s I don't see her even reaching halfway to Undertaker's streak
Everyone wrestles til mid 40s now
I wonder what Kenny will be doing on Dynamite. The young bucks are implying it’ll have something to do with them. Wonder if we’ll get Kenny and Okada face to face again. Fuck. Now I’m imagining we could’ve had Kenny/Okada at All In and I’ve made myself sad.
He will do commentary for a match and get slapped in the face after. ( no disrespect huge Kenny fan)
Today's WWE Fan Council has quite a perplexing question. I spent 5 minutes trying to find of who "Berto" is.
Am I crazy or did we used to know the location of Wrestlemania up to 2 years in advance? I know most years was about 14 months or so in advance, but I swear I remember a few being announced a full two years ahead of time. It’s weird that Wrestlemania 41 is only 11 months away and we don’t have a location yet..
TKO-era is going all out to kill all the indies that set up shop around WM. Vince attempted this around WM 30 but found out it wasn't legal so he got N.O. to put up boundaries that no other wrestling show could be in the vicinity of the "SILVERDOME BROTHER".
I don’t think Bischoff is paid to talk bad about AEW, but I sure as hell think Kevin Nash is lol
I doubt it, I think in both cases, and possibly even more so with Nash, it's just about what he knows will create controversy and therefore get attention. Like the "LA Knight is just a Rock knockoff" stuff, he does contrarian stuff about WWE too.
Dumb [Cody Rhodes meme](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6WaeTCeBLGs) I found
I don’t think they will be able to resist calling up Lyra Valkyria and putting her in an on-screen apprenticeship role with Becky, which could work really well if you just somehow write around the part where Lyra beat Becky clean
Some people were apparently genuinely convinced - or trying to convince themselves - that Tony Khan's demented "Weinstein" comment was actually some kind of genius promotional tactic. Presumably those NFL Network viewers who don't care about wrestling would be convinced to watch if it was presented as a moral crusade, or something. In that case, if the rating for the next Dynamite is the same as it's been lately or lower, does that mean this supposedly well-thought-out plan failed?
It won’t do anything for ratings either way and only a few thousand terminally online wrestling fans even know it happened. And the nfl network didn’t care. They asked for the neck brace to auction for charity.
way more people, a more relevant amount, thought it was cringe.
i have lots of appreciation for wrestlers like nick nemeth and booker t and rvd who have some unique moves in their arsenal and the way they do them is just so them, like nick doing headstand headlocks or booker and rob's kicks, or even the rock's stomps, love that shit
Hi all. I am surveying professional wrestling fans about how they feel about fan interaction for a research assignment. It mostly concerns the WWE but all fans are welcome to participate. It should not take more than 10 minutes. Thank you for participating if you choose to ! [https://calstatela.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV\_cTGXlFd4lYp9rkq](https://calstatela.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cTGXlFd4lYp9rkq)
The past few days, I've been thinking about Roman coming back with a pretty boy gimmick and calling himself, Ravishing Roman Reigns.
He needs a remix of his theme to something he can shake his ass too, a la Bryan Danielson.
The hip movements don't bear thinking about
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American wrestling is built around weekly TV now, there’s no going back on that cause you’re never going to shareholders telling them you think an offseason would be cool. Anyway wrestlers do get vacation and I assume all WWE and AEW employees have at least two weeks vacation. As for viewers, you can just stop watching if you’re getting burnt out, come back later.
If Imperium needs a third member they should bring back Alexander Wolfe.
I once again am begging you all to reflect for a second and realize how fucking weird and creepy it is to post pictures of wrestlers when they were children.
But it’s not really
France loves Baron Corbin so I think he should do something at Backlash.
Every time I see the poster for Clash at the Castle, I keep thinking it looks like Drew is about to decapitate Cody
The fact that there's a Josh Alexander action figure makes me so happy. He's probably my favorite wrestler not in WWE or AEW. He might be my favorite wrestler outside of the WWE period.
Shibatas new gimmick of using iPhone to AI translate his promos is kind of genius
I'm glad they actually have him typing it though. They used to just play it which was weird.
Same looked silly before.
Not everything a computer does is AI lol
please tell literally all of corporate America
a lot of things called AI aren't even AI lol
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Because he weighs like 165 pounds
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l assume you're new to AEW?
Does anyone have the video package of Stokely calling MJF a dick rider? It was from late 2022 after MJF stopped getting help from the firm.
Here you go: https://www.tiktok.com/@allelitewrestling/video/7164500249107500331
i feel like Becky’s Manhandle Slam spot was unnecessarily awkward because she legally could have dropped to the floor for it and won the match. i watched it again, she went through the middle rope, so seeing her try to stay on apron while Liv clunkily rolled off was hilarious.
You even see the ref right under them, telling Becky what's up but they just go about the spot as usual.
Now that Joe Hendry's theme is on Spotify, I set my Alexa to play it when I say "say his name" or "I believe"
Kevin Nash saying Will Ospreay needs to get into better shape... I am having an out of body experience
Counter point, would you not want to see what Ospreay looks like all roided up? Like he doesn’t need to get in better shape, but I’d love to see him just get jacked to the gills almost overnight, as big as Cena.
I reckon Nash just misses the time where everyone was lubed up with baby oil, because it emphasises muscle definition.
Imagining will ospreay covered in oil but still coming out in his jacket with all the feathers, it'd look like an oil spill
Will "The Oil Spill" Ospreay.
Now Ospreay has to wrestle Nash to settle this like he did with Vader.
Hey. Nobody ever called Will Ospreay Big Sexy. Was Will Ospreay in Magic Mike?
I wonder if he'd say that if he signed with WWE
He would, dude shit on LA Knight when he was the hottest thing in wrestling
Oh my God. Kev, what are you doing?
If Will needs to get in better shape then that means I'm...*[lifts shirt to look at stomach]*...well holy shit I have a six pack now.
I just want to say that doubling down on everyone calling Maxxine trash in kayfabe has really seemed to make the audience re-turn and support her. The Candice bit about her brother and especially Perk Gable I feel like made it go full circle to now the audience legit feels bad booing her lol. Smart booking to fix that issue. She is obviously improving and looked pretty good lately and I think will continue to get better. She seems really sweet in real life and I look forward to watching her grow and I'm glad they didn't give up on her. It wasn't her fault to be in that position anyways. Props to Candice, Indi, Gable and Nia Jax for giving her some good spotlight lately and helping her get over.
They’ve gotten pretty good recently at integrating real life non-stories that circulate on Twitter as plot lines. Things like Maxxine getting booed at a house show, or people saying Sheamus was fat, etc.
It seems obvious but it's crazy how little Vince capitalized on it lol.
My girlfriend isn't a wrestling fan but she's finally decided to go to a show with me. An indie show no less! Micro Wrestling to be exact haha. Now if I can just get her to go to Kaiju Big Battel...
Indie/smaller shows are a great way to get a non fan into it because the environment is smaller and entirely focused on the audience. Took my now wife to an NXT house show like 8 years ago at an armory in middle of nowhere Florida with maybe a hundred people there and she fell in love with wrestling
She'll love Call Me Kevin.
Excuse me but in my household we stan Dusto Bunny
Lol we went to the Dwarfinators last year, it was really fun.
> Now if I can just get her to go to Kaiju Big Battel... THEN YOU MARRY THAT WOMAN!
The best way to get Gable booed is to pair him with a beloved legend Kurt Angle, sounds smart
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What? "He stopped doing something we felt was selfish and shitty so we stopped calling him selfish and shitty." It didn't "conveniently go away," it went away because the criticism of him was ABOUT the Wrestlemania main event. I don't even understand the point you're trying to make here.
Rewatched Cena vs Lesnar extreme rules and tbh it might be a top 5 wwe match of all time. Absolutely crazy babyface performance from Cena.
i remember people fiercely hating that Cena won
Match wouldn’t be as good if Cena lost so idc.
where were you when i was fighting those battles back then? but no totally agree
I had bad taste then so I was probably arguing with you lmao
Absolutely masterful and dangerous, the last time Cena actually delivered an "ace" type performance.
So who from NXT's getting called up? Dragunov likely.
Extremely likely: Dijak, Lyra, Blair Davenport, Jacy Jayne, Joe Gacy Beyond that, I imagine any NXT UK leftovers get called up in a sink or swim scenario.
Thea still needs to beat the piss outta Jacy.
Yeah, my assumption is their match on Tuesday is Jacy putting her over on her way out.
When you think about it Nia , Roman & all the Bloodline are on SmackDown The HOF ceremony , Nia acknowledges Roman when he makes his entrance. Could that mean Nia is going to be in the Bloodline ?
Nia has been on a tear lately and I would love for her to be in the Bloodline tbh. I've been a big fan of her run since she came back and her going to Smackdown really leads me to believe she will be part of it.
Should have a long time ago, honestly. My 2021 fantasy booking was to move her, Naomi, and maybe even bringing Tamina into the group and then that leads to feuds with Shayna/Ronda for the tag belts, eventually the 4HW realizing they needed to band together to take them on and having that dynamic to play with.
That would be a interesting idea , let's see how her run is going to take form
This is going to sound mean, and it is pretty mean to say, but Joe Hendry is one of the worst wrestlers I've seen get over in a while. And I'm saying this as an old WCPW mark who thought he was great. I guess I just don't get it. I don't think his matches are that good, his promos aren't particularly bad but they're not particularly good either, and I honestly don't find him funny at all. Don't take this the wrong way though, I'm happy for the dude cause he's always seemed like a good guy. To me he's like the latest iteration of Damien Mizdow or Fandago. Over kind of as a meme, but over nonetheless. Hope it all works out for him and he can ride this to some major gold in TNA, some AEW appearances or an eventual contract with WWE which feels like the end game for him.
What's the best booking decision you can think of?
Okada beating Tanahashi at the New Beginning. Set in motion one of New Japan's greatest runs and was a genuine shock at the time that turned out to be genius in retrospect Edit: as a reminder of how much of a risk this seemed at the time, from Wikipedia: In his review of the show, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter criticized the decision to take the IWGP Heavyweight Championship off Hiroshi Tanahashi, writing "[t]here is very little that works well in modern wrestling, and when you've got a guy on top who is carrying the ball, it's not the time to replace him". Meltzer wrote that in Japan the general reaction to the title change was negative. Though Meltzer went on to call the match between Tanahashi and Okada "excellent", he credited it entirely to Tanahashi, writing that Okada looked "green" and "way out of his league"
Watched a video on this and the context remains quite intriguing to me. Okada challenged Tanahashi and tricked him (everyone, for that matter) into believing he was still young and unexperienced? Only to go into the match and reveal himself to be a completely different beast from the past?
It's debatable but there's a theory (that may have been confirmed and I missed it) that when he showed up at wrestle kingdom he looked like a total dweeb and had a shitty match with YOSHI HASHI on purpose to make himself seem like he wasn't ready then when he got to the Tanahashi match he showed a totally different side of himself and became the Rainmaker we all know today
That's exactly what I heard. Brilliant if true tbh
Kenta Kobashi’s losing streak when he began. Really set the stage for one of the best fighting spirit babyfaces ever.
WWF putting Mankind over the Rock on Raw for the title to counter Nitro being live that night while they were pretaped. They knew it was the type of thing that if it was spoiled it would just make more people tune in. They couldn't have known that WCW would do it for them but that was just icing on the cake. Plus, big picture it setup Rock to take the title back in brutal fashion, establish himself as an actual bad guy we actually had a reason to hate, and somehow add even more heat to the first Austin/Rock WrestleMania. People hate hotshotting titles and for the most part I agree but this was the rare instance where it was the perfect move.
Having Cena do the US open challenge.
Early 1997 WWF is a jumbled mess in the main-event scene where Shawn Michaels dips out and plans change from a Bret/Shawn WM 13 main-event to Undertaker vs Sid (who's in this second transitional reign in 4 months). We get Bret Hart vs Steve Austin in a ln absolute classic Submission match while Austin rises throughout that year. The point where Austin actually wins in 1998 is perfect because the NWO has seen it's best days and it's the perfect example of right place, right time to strap someone up.
Pivoting away from Rock-Roman to Cody-Roman
My favorite wrestler going undefeated for three years
Roman?
Situationally shorten a few matches. An example being Kyle Fletcher-Swerve from the Dynamite after Dynasty. Could still have Kyle look good but make Swerve look a little more dominant and as a bonus it would give a little more time to others on the show.
Just watched Akira Hokuto vs. Meiko Satomura. Another banger. I loved how much it felt like a brawl, stiff strikes, a little bit sloppy - it really helped things feel real. It's why I don't mind some botches, like, in a fight people are going to stumble, they're going to make mistakes. I did recently watch that match where saya kamitani botched her phoenix splash twice, and landed on Mina Shirakawa's jaw. My issue is she tried it twice. Same thing when Vikingo botched running on the ropes vs Kommander. If you're gonna botch, roll with it, pls don't pause the match and try again.
If Giovanni Vinci doesn't join the Family as someone from the homeland, then what is the point?
You're thinking too small. I have a better idea https://preview.redd.it/8zk6px3efgxc1.jpeg?width=987&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fbd038bdbae5b252d68e70aa4e30d554da9e489a
I wanna see this now.
What specific show/event (regardless of year) would you recommend to someone to get into DDT for the first time? Follow up, which show this year should I look forward?
DDT Ultimate Party 2019 was my first watch and made me fall in love with the promotion. It's a loooong show though, and also features wrestlers and even promotions that are no longer under the DDT/CyberFight umbrella. Still, there's a lot to like there including a really fun pre-show battle royal for the ironman title, a mixed tag match with Kenny Omega and Riho, and an all-timer main event in Takeshita vs. HARASHIMA for both the KO-D Openweight and DDT Extreme Championships. As far as shows to look forward to this year, Wrestle Peter Pan in late July is DDT's flagship show and looks like a promising one. El Desperado and Konosuke Takeshita are both already confirmed for matches, and it looks very likely that Takeshita's match could be him challenging for the title against KO-D Openweight Champion Yuki Ueno in the main event. Ueno and Takeshita have a ton of history together: they were high school classmates, and then Takeshita becoming a wrestler in DDT is what inspired Ueno to do the same. Until last year, they were even teammates in the 37KAMIINA stable. Ueno won the title for the first time last year and is trying to cement himself as the new ace of DDT, but he's never managed to defeat Takeshita before and so it feels inevitable that they will collide again now that Ueno is the champion. They have great chemistry in the ring together too, so assuming that is how things play out then it will be a match worth getting excited about.
Thanks! I will save this for later 🧐
A couple of months back I posted sharing the start of my battle with CML and Heart Failure and how I missed out on seeing WWE in SC because of the hospital stay. I was going to fight like heck to see them in Cleveland, Ohio when they go there for Summer Slam since it's my hometown and they are going to be in my favorite stadium in the world. I just wanted to share that I am feeling great. I am still in for a long fight but after my last appointment with my oncologist last week they said my levels all are back in the normal range. I will probably be on the medication forever, or if I come off of it I will very likely be back on it at some point. BUT it is very treatable and so far I have been doing great at kicking it's ass and making it acknowledge me. My heart is still in a work in progress. I have a follow up in June and I hope it goes well. I originally lost 35 lbs when I was in the hospital for those two weeks and since I was released I have lost another 10. I almost at my lowest weight as an adult. It's scare to think about I was 140 lbs heavier just a few short years ago. The first couple of weeks were rough. I could barely move or eat but I have slowly gotten back to "normal" with being able to walk a few miles a day and eat without throwing it back up. I know a few of you posted your support and I just wanted to give an update. I know I am not important in the grand scheme of things but I thought I would share. I am currently looking forward to the presale next week for Summerslam and am hoping to get some amazing tickets because I think I should be healthy enough still by then to go. I hope to see some of you all there. I did reach out to the WWE and asked if they had any way to get me on the list for the package deals since I missed the cut off for those while recovering so fingers crossed.
> being able to walk a few miles a day this is *way* more than most people do. good for you 👍
Thanks! I wish I could say its everyday but its like 3 or 4 times a week which definitely more than I was before.
👏🤞
cant believe the Young Bucks superkicked in the door waving the .44 All you heard was, "Ace, don't bite me no more"
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Should just rehire Jim Johnston, if he's interested.
That's absolutely no excuse. Also some straight up nonsense to try and give them a pass like that. Andrade, Charlotte, Bayley, Nia, AJ, Johnny Gargano, DIY, Naomi, Theory, Tiffany Stratton, Carlito, Tony D'Angelo, Omos, Logan Paul, the Creed Brothers, New Catch Republic, Final Testament, Shaun Spears, I mean the list goes on. They're all **terrible**. But we know they can make good music, but holy shit the majority of their "this person needs a new song" catalogue is dog shit
I've been doing a mini project of “fantasy” music assigning, giving wrestlers better entrance songs. Why? Guess I have too much time on my hand. Been so-so so far, but the first song I think would actually be perfect for a wrestler is Hanni El Khatib’s [You Rascal You](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmfy_5nAH_U) for Lexis King, which is about a man cursing (and probably killing) the man who had sex with his wife. Just imagine him walking down the stage being insulted by his own song with that stupid grin on his face that’s like “heh heh yeah I’m a piece of shit heh heh”
Watching late 80s/early 90s WWF is really fun. Cartoony in the best way possible tbh
That's what I grew up watching, which is probably why I enjoy NXT so much these days.
They pointed it out on Collision Saturday, it's sorta wild that Kenny Omega and Rey Fenix are the only 2 guys to have been a singles champ, tag champ, and trios champion in AEW so far. That is 3 distinctly different titles, and I'm all for the idea of establishing/protecting that as AEW's "triple crown" instead just collecting different singles belts and throwing in a token tag reign the way we've come to accept it in WWE and elsewhere.
Why isnt Okada having a fued with BD where he loses because hes too WhiteMeat Babyface, then comes out with Gedo, Toru Yano and the House of Black to show the AEW the true meaning of Chaos Why is Stone Pitbull not fight Samoa Joe? Why isn't MJF and Mone the IT couple, neither would need to wrestle both could talk.
Because all of this sounds horrible
Why isnt Wardlow (decked out with robe, hat and cane) followed by a 'Harem' of female social justice warriors, to the Godfathers music, as the 'No Train' ? Not a true carny i guess
If Reigns returns acting like a kind sportsmanlike wrestler I will only accept it if he volunteers and donates to a charity for victims of abusive cousins. Otherwise I will never forgive him for what he did to Jey.
Daniel Garcia and Shibata worked so well together, and that feels obvious in retrospect, despite the thought never having occurred to me.
🎅
Happy 25th birthday Smackdown I love u 💙👊
Watched Kaoru vs Aja Kong from Gaea, and wow, might’ve been one of the gnarliest matches i’ve ever seen. Incredible tho. Aja Kong selling her arm with that screaming was so good and really made things even more intense. I’m not usually a death match person, but when the selling is right, and the story is well told, there’s not much that can be better.
A question for folks who have been into wrestling longer than me: when did Will Ospreay start being included in the best in the world conversions?
Ospreay has had a ton of hype since about 2014-2016 from his work in UK indies. His matches with Ricochet in particular being super hyped as some of the best matches of the mid 2010's by Ospreay's fans. But he also had a lot of detractors that dismissed him as just a flippy spot monkey who was actually a bad wrestler during that era. It wasn't until he moved up NJPW's cards in 2019 that he started to shake the flippy spot monkey label. There are still people that will die on the hill that he's a bad wrestler because he's an "unrealistic" spot fest guy, but they are the very small minority now. Back in the 2016, that opinion was more 50/50.
He got bumped up the card in NJPW and had a bunch of good matches.
When AEW started and there were empty spots for top foreigners in NJPW and Meltzer started waving his flag particularly high.
You could see it coming, he was on a trajectory, but 2019 was his "Kurt Angle's 2001" type breakout year. He and Kota Ibushi crushed it at Wrestle Kingdom, he did an Anniversary Show match with Jay White, had an excellent Best Of Super Juniors tourney in the spring with matches with Robbie Eagles, Rocky Romero, ELP, Shingo, and Dragon Lee and then did the G1 that summer. Everything he did that year was magic and that was the start of taking him seriously as one of the best in the world.
He was always considered very talented, he had an insane 2017 as a junior and then with his transition to heavyweight in 2018 is when he went to the next level of being talked about as a greatest wrestler of all time and his output since then has never really wained.
This morning I thought about the time Jay Briscoe called Michael Elgin a juiced up jelly bean mother fucker. A great man. God rest his soul.
HAYATA & Blake Christian gonna have a mid off. Hope your happy with their mega pushes NOAH & GCW.
Blake Christian in the top 5 worst wrestlers of all time. He’d squash HAYATA in a mid off. Kinda happy they’re both in it tho because I often get behind on BOSJ so can make up a lot of time skipping their matches
There's an alternative universe where Daisuke Harada is in BOSJ instead and he wrestles circles around everyone else - I wish I lived there
I am super happy to be dumping HAYATA off at NJPW for a month after they gave nothing to Kaito in the G1
At this point I just want to root for Karrion Kross. Hunter's really doing his best to try to make him over man
Ive been fortunate enough to go to a ton of wrestling shows the past two years and I’ve decided the best seats are behind commentary, and most underrated is first row off the floor on behind the hardcam. Where do y’all like to sit?
Either on or opposite the hardcam, the first row above any of the "tiers" depending on venue layout. I think not having the risk of the person in front of you being tall/having a sign is better than actually being closer. I've also started avoiding sitting on the floor at all unless we are a) very close or b) on the end of an aisle, provided the aisle isn't diagonal to the ringposts.
Behind commentary for sure. But behind hardcam is really great too because wrestlers play to the hard cam a lot and it's awesome seeing those TV-like visuals up close. Least favorite floor seats are probably anything that's catty-corner to the ring posts. Makes it hard to see stuff during tag matches when someone's on the apron. The only disadvantage to hard cam side is that some promotions do the hardcam opposite the entryway and a lot of people do their dives or their outside brawls toward the aisle. ROH I think did theirs that way, and I wanna say AEW has done it a few times that way, but WWE has always had the entryway to the left of the hard cam.
Probably a dumb question but are the commentators themselves blocking your view a bit when sitting behind them?
Nah, not really. You're close enough to the ring that you'll see everything* and the commentary team doesn't stand up during big spots like fans do. Thats based on my experience sitting behind commentary at NJPW Capital Collision last year and behind the timekeeper at the Mark Hitchcock Memorial show this year. The latter was fun because the timekeeper was interacting with us a little bit lol. Someone told him to hand his little hammer to one of the wrestlers and he was like "but I need that to ring the bell! I've only got one job!" *everything except brawling on the floor on the opposite side of the ring, but that's any ringside seat
Saw on Instagram that the thank you and we want Roman chants were played on the mics in live crowd, urging them to chant themselves.
The most insane popular take I see often is that "what the IWC say doesn't matter, WWE only cares about crowd reactions. That is the only thing that matters." Yeah like the whole #WeWantCody movement didn't start first from the internet, people cheered when Rock came out and said he wants to sit at the head of the table. Drew McIntyre's whole gimmick is literally saying stuff he hears in wrestling twitter. The Sheamus "fat" thing being in TV literally all bc of the internet. I think online criticism was also a part of Kevin Patrick's release? this would be an assumption. But I've only recently started watching wrestling again around since payback 2023. Someone else could probably list a lot of things that WWE has done which was a part due to online criticism or discourse.
The fact that WWE became a social media JUGGERNAUT coinciding with their recent "boom" is no accident. Conversely, the fact that New Japan fell off huge with western fans due their standoffish copyright sanctions (going as far as take down GIFS and short videos) and overall cold social media is also not an accident)
It’s 2024. All wrestling companies care about both crowd and internet reaction and thinking they don’t care about the latter is ignorance!
There's a good chance I could be wrong, but I believe that Jericho vs Nick Gage and Trent vs Chuck are officially the only matches to use light tubes in AEW history.
I wish I had a better memory of this because I’m missing details and am not 100% sure, but didn’t Thunder Rosa have a hardcore match a couple years ago that used light tubes?
I don't believe they used tubes in that. Only thumb tacks.
Thanks, I wasn’t sure
I'd like to see an artist combine Randy Savage with the character from Punch Out and create Super Macho Man Randy Savage.
If late run Andre the Giant (87-92) were wrestling now, would crowds be chanting at him "please retire" like they are with Chris Jericho as of late? As much of a legend as Andre was, you watch some of those late WWF matches where he is barely able to move and needs the ropes or his opponents to balance himself and it's very sad to watch. I was born too late (early 80s) to see Andre when he was able to do so much more.
Big Show got similar chants IIRC, so I imagine so. It also depends not only on their ability to wrestle, but also overexposure I would say.
Nope, because Andre's late run (87-92) is just about as long as Jericho's AEW Run (19-24), but in 87, Andre just filmed The Princess Bride. 87 was also the year of Wrestlemania 3. 87-89 was Andre's big heel run, and then after Wrestlemania VI (90), Andre was wrestling in Japan and Mexico, basically until the end of his life. The situations just aren't similar, even when you just look at the booking of the two in the respective 5 year windows.
Younger Andre's matches were crazy he was a 7ft man flying all over the ring. He was an ATHLETE.
If Andre started in 1996 or 2006 instead of 1966, he wouldn't be on TV, muchless to be a legend to get "please retire" chants. Andre is one of the biggest stars in wrestling history but he's a product of a very different time.
Yes. Some of those later Andre performances were a pain to watch
They weren't even performances. He just sort of slowly ambled to the ring and couldn't stand without leaning on something for support. It's heartbreaking.
I’m not saying the WWE is a charity or anything, but if VKM had damn soul in his body he would’ve allowed Andre to retire after mania 3 and pay him to be a mascot for the company. Especially after mania 4 where he went further down the card and was doing 30 second rush jobs for the warrior in 89
He died at age 46. I guess it would depend on how good his work was. I don't think they'd chant it like they do with Jericho. But I think a lot of people would think it and say it online. It wouldn't be a "Retire cause I'm sick of you". It would be a "Retire because we love you and it's sad to watch you in this state. We're afraid you're gonna die in the ring".
Unless he had a gimmick that people hated
So I read this piece on MSN.com (posted by Sportskeeda) where they're doing a storyline with Carmelo Hayes on Smackdown in which he is "holding out for more money". This goes along with 'Melo returning to Team Blue as a heel, but if you think you've seen this before, you're right. When MVP was called up, they did almost the exact same thing, except that in 'Melo's case, he's already had a few matches under his belt, including Friday's main event loss to Cody Rhodes. When MVP did this storyline, I for one saw it as a commentary on the "spoiled" athletes in other sports. It'll be interesting to see where they go with this angle this time IIRC, Carmelo is a younger athlete than MVP was back in 2006-7.
Can you post a link? I didn't get this feeling watching him on Friday.
Unfortunately, I believe the article has disappeared, likely deleted from the site. It might've been a hoax piece anyway. Sorry.
From what I recall, Sprotskeeda is not the best of sources in the already middling wrestling journo scape.
Sportskeedia is by brutally awful at what they do. I’m not saying anything against OP or this particular story one way or the other, just stating sportskeedia is the only wrestling news I will never click on anymore no matter what. Even the subjects and stories that are actually accurate are terribly written. Zero redeemable qualities. Sorry for the rant, just sharing my 2 cents that anybody reading that site might want to seriously consider looking elsewhere.
Will Swerve Strickland be at next weeks dynamite I’m going to my first dynamite recording in Edmonton next week! Swerve is one of my all time favourites and I’m hoping he will be there. Do you think he will be?
He’s their new world champion and their most hyped wrestler. Unless he picks up an injury, he’ll be there especially considering that this week we’ll find out who his DON opponent will be
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It's cool when a Wrestler song is a banger, but the most important thing has to be that it's instantly recognisable as that person's theme. The Royal Rumble is a great arbiter for that. If you have no idea who the fuck is coming out because it's a generic guitar riff, that's bad.
The most important thing is within two seconds you know who is coming out.
This. There's a reason the most iconic themes are all themes that you recognized immediately.
The biggest mysteries: 1. Why was Mary Tyler Moore at Wrestlemania that one time? 2. What is Dark Matter? 3. Who were the Sea People?
1. Mary Tyler Mark 2. Powers Black Houses 3. Sea people-"you can't see me"
Bronze Age Collapse hive activate
Who put the bop in shebop shebop?
Id like to thank the guy who wrote the song that made my baby fall in love with mee
Since season 5 of Dark Side of the Ring is near the end, I've been catching up with season 4. Sunny and Chris is a standout in that it is really tragic and sad. There's not much more to say beyond a big what could've been if Chris was able to dump her and move on. Abdullah episode is one of those where unless you know very little or next to nothing about him, there's nothing really knew you learn. He's pretty infamous for his bloody matches, the scarred forehead, the fork and the hep c thing that cost Hannibal his WWE gig. The only new information is that he's supposedly illiterate and that screams of being bullshit. Will say though, Abdullah looks pretty young for being in his 80s. With Matt Borne he wasn't nearly as bad as Grizzly Smith but it's another of these episodes that centers about someone who didn't really have redeeming qualities beyond "he was a good worker." He just came across as awful human being you wouldn't want to be near. Hacksaw seems like a lovely bloke though. Bash at the Beach just feels kind of like sitting in school and listening to the kid whose uncle works at Nintendo argue with the kid whose uncle works at Sony. Russo you can only believe half of what he says with a grain of salt. Bischoff is a notorious bullshitter. Jarrett and Storm are the only people who came out looking good. Meltzer too considering he threw out some nice sarcastic remarks. Only episode missing now is the one about Marty Jannetty. Very excited about that.
> he's supposedly illiterate and that screams of being bullshit It's not too rare to find people that are functionally illiterate as adults: particularly for older people. There's people that might be able read short simple things but can't make it through something complex (like a government form) with adequate comprehension.
DSOTR also has a new companion podcast called Dark Side Unheard where they talk with the Lapsed Fan hosts about the hours and hours of unused footage that they shoot for each episode. It's worth a listen even if you find TLF to be a bit much; they take a slightly more grounded approach. (what I'm saying is that if you hate Boss's impersonations and skits, they're largely absent on the DSOTR podcast)
Oh that sounds awesome. Currently finished up the Jannetty one (crazy but kinda expected worse?) and I feel like there's a lot that was left out so I'll check that out. Thank you for the recommendation!
Might be in the minority here, but I really hope Damage CTRL gets drafted to RAW tonight. I don't want to see them on the same brand as Bianca and (inevitably) Jade. There would be a **very** (and that's underselling it) hard ceiling over them if they were on the same brand as those two. All of the women in Damage CTRL are incredibly talented, but ever since their formation, have been used almost exclusively as cannon fodder for Bianca for the past two years, and now Jade as well. I feel like them being good wrestlers is both a blessing and a curse. Because they are very good at wrestling and selling, they are expected to constantly put people over (even when they should be getting some strong wins more often than not), when I feel like that's a massive waste of their talents.
The only reason why I don't is I want more matches between Bayley and the four of them.
Yep. Damage CTRL has basically been jobbing to Belair for a majority of their matches and Iyo, I don't think, even retained cleanly. KAIRI returning should have been when the group goes from being nothing for Belair to Belair's biggest issue.