Pro Wrasslin' Thread: I don't know what I just saw

[Stro]

Btw I think last night’s Raw was the worst I’ve ever seen.

They outdo themselves every week...just in the wrong way!

I know this is more for the long-term, but LOL at the roster moves with feuds that have just continued from the other shows, like Miz and Shane.  And double-LOL at The Iiconics being on matches, as the tag champs, on MAIN EVENT already. 

Vince McMahon logic: See Sasha, I did you a favor taking those belts off you

[TVC15]

Ugh I’m a captive audience for Smackdown tonight, too. I have freelance work to do and need background noise.

[Stro]

You're in a dark place even for you TVC. Thoughts and prayers 

[nachobro]

Okay, Lars punching a chair was pretty funny

[bork]

UFC President Dana White told ESPN's Ariel Helwani on Tuesday that the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and mega-WWE Superstar has informed the promotion that he is retired from the sport.

"He told me he’s done," White said of his recent discussion with "The Beast Incarnate."

White added, "He’s retired."

[nachobro]

meanwhile brock did a q&a in canada last week where he said the match vs dc was ready to roll sounds like he's only retired cause the check isn't right

[Stro]

Goldberg is being advertised for the next Saudi show

[bork]

 

Goldberg is being advertised for the next Saudi show

[nachobro]

https://twitter.com/JonMoxley/status/1123438186410205184

[nachobro]

meltz saying dbryan is good to go

"We don’t know what the issue was, but Bryan was at TV on 4/30 in Columbus, OH and medically cleared and will be written back into the storylines, perhaps as soon as next week."

[Stro]

Ambrose is trash but at him lying to Vince's face for months and getting Vince to basically give him a 3 month tribute on TV just to post that video FIVE MINUTES after his contract expired

[Stro]

Some round up shit:

Jericho and Omega got into a brawl at some local Georgia indie, I don't believe either guy were announced even for an appearance. It was a $10 show Speaking of Jericho, he's returning to NJPW to challenge Okada for the IWGP Championship at Dominion on 6/9. Both of these things were announced/happened the same day so it was definitely Jericho getting his name back out there for NJ and then AEW being able to piggy back on it for build to Double Or Nothing, which is 3 weeks away and seems to have almost no buzz. Hiromu Takahashi will be returning at the BOTSJ finals after breaking his neck in a match last year at the G1 show in San Francisco.

Roman Reigns is being put on Raw and Smackdown, unknown if it's just to do build for MITB/Saudi show or a more permanent thing. The line up for the Saudi show has not even been started yet, only some of the talent who will be appearing. There's still no set plans for what Goldberg or Taker will be doing, for instance.

TNA is going full nostalgia bullshit, their tapings at the ECW arena feature RVD vs Tommy Dreamer, Dreamer/Sabu/RVD vs Moose/The North, and they're bringing in Great Muta for a special show also at the ECW arena next month for the rebranded Global Wrestling Network now known as Impact+.

Sasha Banks and WWE have apparently come to an understanding and she has signed a new deal (that news seems weird because she was reported to have just signed a multi year deal LAST year) and will be back on TV soon.

WWE.com is straight up threatening to embarrass The Revival every week and saying it's up to them if the back shaving segment was the first or last embarrassing thing that happens to them They have still not signed a contract extension even after being offered $500K per year. A similar situation is Lio Rush keeps pissing everyone off by refusing to do any of the young boy shit (like carrying bags, water, etc) and publicly complaining about his money situation, but then turned down a $300K for 3-5 year deal and wanted, allegedly, at least double despite at this point being a manager who hasn't worked a match in 2 months. He also asked to be released. Luke Harper is straight up being held hostage, as now they've added the time he was out injured to his contract and refuse to release him or use him despite him pitching ideas the entire time he was out hurt and a planned angle with Sami Zayn being dropped last second for Sami to get a gimmick where he comes out and shits on the fans every week. Apparently Vince lost interest in him years ago because he couldn't do a Southern accent...because he's from upstate New York.

Miz's dad wasn't supposed to get in the ring at WM and Shane accidentally broke his rib with the knee strike

War Raiders/War Machine/Viking Experience/Viking Express/Viking Raiders have vacated the NXT Tag Titles, which seem to be heading to a multi team ladder match at the next Takeover. Tyler Breeze has returned to NXT apparently full time. Killian Dain is also being sent back to NXT. Beth Phoenix has replaced Percy Watson on commentary. Whatever the fuck the UK talent deals are is still bizarre, as Ilja Dragunov (who is assigned to NXT UK) has an upcoming match with Brian Cage, TNA Champion, at a WXW show, which is NXT UK Champion WALTER's promotion and has an official relationship with WWE. A lot of the other UK guys are still working matches with NJ and TNA talent in unaffiliated promotions, and the UK women seem to be allowed to do full tours of STARDOM, even the champ Toni Storm.

The announced card for AEW Double Or Nothing from the MGM Grand:


No.   Matches*   Stipulations
1   "Hangman" Adam Page vs. Pac   Singles match[19]
2   SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky) vs. Strong Hearts (Cima, T-Hawk, and El Lindaman)   Six-man tag team match[20][35]
3   Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho   Singles match[36]
4   Dr. Britt Baker vs. Nyla Rose vs. Kylie Rae   Three-way match[31]
5   Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes   Singles match[31]
6   Sonny Kiss vs. Kip Sabian vs. Brandon Cutler vs. Ace Romero vs. Glacier vs. Brian Pillman Jr. vs. Sunny Daze vs. MJF vs. Joey Janela vs. Chuck Taylor vs. Trent Baretta vs. TBA   Over the Budget Battle Royale[37]
7   The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) (c) vs. The Lucha Bros (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fénix)   Tag team match for the AAA World Tag Team Championship[32]


The NJ G1 show in Dallas is going to be a disaster, with somewhere around 3500 tickets sold to a 20,000 seat venue. Not only that, but Raw is running the same venue 5 days before  AAA is running MSG in September.

[Trent Dole]

CM Punk is somewhere laughing about WWE losing 1/3 of the shield.

[Stro]

CM Punk hasn't laughed since 1993

[bork]

500k per year seems like a pretty good offer for two short dudes in a tag team :shrug

Saw something about this saying that when you factor in all the expenses they have to pay on their own, it doesn't equate to anywhere near as much and probably ends up getting being like $300,000.  Still better than someone like Lio Rush is getting and uh...I certainly wouldn't be complaining.

[Sideshow Raheem]

500k per year seems like a pretty good offer for two short dudes in a tag team :shrug

Saw something about this saying that when you factor in all the expenses they have to pay on their own, it doesn't equate to anywhere near as much and probably ends up getting being like $300,000.  Still better than someone like Lio Rush is getting and uh...I certainly wouldn't be complaining.

It's probably too fannerd, but I'd be interested to know what wrestlers get reimbursed for. I can't imagine they have to pay for transportation and lodging, and I'd hope they're on a per diem for food.

Also, the base pay doesn't include appearance fees for promotional events. I'm not sure how in demand these two guys are for that, but I guess they can augment their (meager?) salaries by doing signings and such.

[Trent Dole]

WWE doesn't cover travel at all, at least within the US.

[nachobro]

I'd read that they cover a flight to the first stop of a tour leg but after that it's on the performer to rent cars or do whatever to get through the rest of the tour leg. As far as food I believe they just provide catering all day for TV/PPV but other food stuff for tours and such is on the performer.

[Stro]

WWE has to be one of the few companies in the world of any type that's main problem with staff is that they're too passionate about their jobs for the company to deal with. You have like 10 people over the past year asking to be released so they can go do good work somewhere that will let them. None of the people are asking for title runs, they're just asking to be allowed to have good matches with consistent booking that doesn't change from show to show. The money isn't important to (most of) them, they just want to be able to do their job the best they can. Pretty baffling that WWE can have that much passion in their locker room and still be putting on such garbage shows and making everyone, fans and talent alike, so unhappy.

Vince (and therefore the people he surrounds himself with) is clearly the main problem, and he's only going to get more erratic and set in his ways. If the XFL is a success this time around (lol but stranger things have happened), maybe he'll be putting his attention into that and mostly step down from WWE. The stories about his thinking pattern and the reasons why he'll change something entirely are baffling, and it's been that way for 40 years.

They've definitely hit a level where even the most ardent boosters can't pretend there isn't a huge problem. They're now doing Hogan/Bischoff era TNA ratings for Raw and SD. Network subs are down, house shows are down, audiences at TV are down, and what's keeping their numbers okay are expanding and running MORE shows.

[bork]

Don't worry, ROMAN REIGNS will INVADE RAW tonight, so surely there will be a massive ratings spike!

[Stro]

The dude just got done with 5 months of chemo and he's already working double duty

[nachobro]

The dude just got done with 5 months of chemo and he's already working double duty

dat Top Guy spot

[nachobro]

wwe is lucky that all their competition is incompetent

njpw has no idea how to even approach the us market and their big draw whiteys all left
roh will never grow cause sinclair won't give them money and now bubba is booking so lol
impact is impact
aew has a chance i guess but i couldn't give less of a fuck about anyone on that roster other than jericho and this juggalo thing he's doing is stupid as fuck

[Stro]

wwe is lucky that all their competition is incompetent

njpw has no idea how to even approach the us market and their big draw whiteys all left
roh will never grow cause sinclair won't give them money and now bubba is booking so lol
impact is impact
aew has a chance i guess but i couldn't give less of a fuck about anyone on that roster other than jericho and this juggalo thing he's doing is stupid as fuck

Yeah NJ has completely botched their US expansion, hard, they're having Japanese guys who have never done marketing for English speaking markets handle the promotion, and now relying on Lance Hoyt to do all the local promotion because he's from Dallas. Meanwhile they have Harold whatever personally handling promotion for UK and Australian events and they're selling everything out. They got super cocky thinking they could run multiple 20,000 seat arenas in the US with little to no promotion after a handful of shows in LA that sold less tickets each event they ran. They have a show in Miami scheduled later in the year that's also going to bomb. Even with The Elite nerds, MSG was a once in a life time event, thinking they could just run random 20K seaters in areas they have no history with or coverage in is bonkers.

Same goes for ROH, they're garbage and have been for most of the past decade. Their 17th Anniversary PPV, which was 2-3 weeks before the MSG show, was held in a casino lounge small enough that TNA ran Impact there a few weeks later. Without NJ talent, their attendance is dog shit. They actually significantly downsized the venues they ran starting this year when they ran a PPV in Vegas last year in some kind of arena and drew like 2000 in a 12000 seat venue.

AEW I don't think is going to go that far, 10K I think is going to be their limit. All In sold out as a once in a life time thing as well, Double Or Nothing has to absolutely knock it out of the park to make people stay interested for another 5 months with no TV and a smark roster that are mostly unknown to anyone but legit smarks. I'm pretty confident they're going to be running ROH sized venues, putting more people in them perhaps, but they aren't going to be selling out pro basketball arenas weekly. Nor does WWE these days. In fact I'm pretty sure WWE's declining audience is probably going to hurt AEW as much as it hurts WWE. I have no idea how they'll be ran, but a bunch of wrestlers playing with a billionaire's money seems like a recipie for losing a lot of money in a hurry. Is the Jags a well run operation?


No company is competition for WWE, but this is a pretty great time to be a fan if you want to watch other stuff. There are a ton of companies all over the world that are pretty easy to access that know their audience and don't try to over shoot their limits or have delusions of grandeur. WWE is NBA/NFL/MLB tier for wrestling, even if it gets shitty and people tune out, it's still the main "big leagues" and will always win out over whatever other league pops up. 

[nachobro]

Is the Jags a well run operation?

[Stro]

 

[Trent Dole]

I was at a Beyond show this weekend, it was longer than Raws run and it was fun as heck. Raw meanwhile nearly always feels like a goddamn chore even if I just have it on in the background while doing other things.

[nachobro]

Vince, Roman, DBryan, and Kofi all came out within the first 10 minutes. They are dying for a good rating

[bork]

Vince, Roman, DBryan, and Kofi all came out within the first 10 minutes. They are dying for a good rating

Vince explaining this as "WHAT IF WE HAD A WILDCARD RULE AND THREE MEMBERS OF SMACKDOWN CAN SHOW UP ON RAW AND THREE MEMBERS OF RAW CAN SHOW UP ON SMACKDOWN!"   

[nachobro]

Oh it's Drew

[bork]

VINCE!

ROMAN!

DANIEL BRYAN!

KOFI!





and now here comes Drew to tank the ratings.

[nachobro]

pls no one from raw go to smackdown

[bork]

I'M BRILLIANT!  SOME MANIA REMATCHES!  THIS WILL BE A NIGHT YOU'LL NEVER FORGET (UNTIL NEXT MONDAY)!!!
\

[bork]

pls no one from raw go to smackdown

To me that pretty much translates to "AJ back on SD and welcome Seth Rollins too."

[nachobro]

a night we'll never forget cause this is when aj and the good brothers reunite and just kill everyone in the ring 

[Human Snorenado]

Vince, Roman, DBryan, and Kofi all came out within the first 10 minutes. They are dying for a good rating

WWE fans: "how about we have lots of action instead of 20 minutes of talking to open the show, then spend 1/3 of the rest of the time recapping shit that happened last week, 1/3 hyping shit for next week or next ppv, and also book people in a way that they have compelling, consistent characters that go beyond 'squints a lot, runs the yard, sells chicken finger ads'?"

WWE: here's all the shit you don't want actually

WWE fans: k I guess I'll go masturbate or whatever instead of watching RAW

WWE: Y U NO WATCH THO

[nachobro]

masturbating while watching raw

[nachobro]

lmao in the middle of this dreck i get a marketing email to try and get me to buy tickets to a live show

[bork]

a night we'll never forget cause this is when aj and the good brothers reunite and just kill everyone in the ring 

Haha no, because Vince doesn't know who those guys are. 

LASHLEY AND CORBIN and I just turned this off. 

[Stro]

They put all the blame on Raw's bad ratings and shitty shows on Baron Corbin's existence in kayfabe, yet they still put him all over every show and expect people to keep watching?

[TVC15]

Nice to see Corbin catch a win over the best of the SD roster.

[dkdk]

https://twitter.com/allan_cheapshot/status/1125313121818640384

have fun.

[TVC15]

Ugh. Time to take a big shit.

[bork]

Came back to Braun dumping Sami in a dumpster and a Lucha House Party squash match.

That'll get those sagging ratings up!

[Trent Dole]

Ugh. Time to take a big shit.

         /

[bork]

LACEY EVANS SQUASHES A JOBBER IN FRONT OF THE MIB ENTRANTS!

RIVETING!

[nachobro]

thank god bork watches so i don't have to

[bork]

thank god bork watches so i don't have to

I was done after that, lol.

Checking the results, the Raw main event of Smackdown's Kofi Kingston versus Smackdown's Daniel Bryan ended with...Kofi retaining.  And now the wildcard rule is four wrestlers after Lars showed up.   But WAIT- Elias popped up too, so that's five!  Uh...? 

[bork]

Match of the night:

The Revival vs. Gallows & Anderson: Before the opening bell, The Usos interrupt from the stage with mics. They talk about The Revival claiming to be the hottest team in WWE. They ask if you've heard of Icey Hot, and they bring out a jar of something called "Uso Hot," and they say it should be activating right about now. The Revival members start selling that there is something in their trunks burning them. The Usos tell the Revival to come up to the stage and take some bottled water to relieve the pain. The Revival grabs the water and pours it in their trunks. The Usos then inform them that that will make the burning worse, and they were supposed to drink the water. The Revival keeps selling the burning in their trunks and they run backstage.

 

[Trent Dole]

If the only wrestling product you consume is wwe you might think you actually hate wrestling but really wwe is just really really bad. Watch something else, take in some local indie shows, anything but all vince's shit all the time. Ok maybe not say, tna, but generally.

LACEY EVANS SQUASHES A JOBBER IN FRONT OF THE MIB ENTRANTS!

RIVETING!

Man this segment was so stupid and pointless. All the other entrants beforehand went 'Screw Lacey lets show her' and then they did literally nothing, even after Becky showed up and whopped her post match, they just let her wander off! If there's several of them and only one her and they hate her, shouldn't they all collectively stomp the shit out of her? It was terrible and bad and made no goddamn sense! What are you even doing aaaah

[Stro]

Match of the night:

The Revival vs. Gallows & Anderson: Before the opening bell, The Usos interrupt from the stage with mics. They talk about The Revival claiming to be the hottest team in WWE. They ask if you've heard of Icey Hot, and they bring out a jar of something called "Uso Hot," and they say it should be activating right about now. The Revival members start selling that there is something in their trunks burning them. The Usos tell the Revival to come up to the stage and take some bottled water to relieve the pain. The Revival grabs the water and pours it in their trunks. The Usos then inform them that that will make the burning worse, and they were supposed to drink the water. The Revival keeps selling the burning in their trunks and they run backstage.

 

This adds up considering they were literally warned they were going to keep getting embarrassed on WWE.com. Why Vince thinks embarrassing them with terrible angles every week is going to make them re-sign is baffling, and it's not going to hurt them at all for the audience that will pay to see them outside of WWE. In fact, it probably HELPS them with that audience. You'd think he'd just take them off TV and let them rot until they re-sign or their contracts run out.

[bork]

As pointed out by David Bixenspan, Triple H briefly liked a tweet blaming Vince McMahon for WWE’s ‘confusing and pointless’ storylines, and saying the company should provide its wrestlers with health insurance.

 

[Stro]

It also wouldn't help  TV RATINGS if they gave the talent health insurance 

[bork]

https://twitter.com/Maffewgregg/status/1125703805788729344

[nachobro]

[bork]

Smackdown opens with AJ Styles, totally acting like a face.   

Meanwhile:

According to the Wrestling Observer, both the FOX and USA Networks are putting pressure on WWE to end the brand-split due to poor program ratings for Raw and SmackDown. This somewhat explains the bizarre "wild card" rule announced by Vince McMahon on last night's episode of Raw, where he stated that a certain set of superstars can jump back and forth between the brands at any point. This week's viewership numbers haven't been released yet, but WWE did have Game 4 of the NBA playoff showdown between the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors to compete with.

Meanwhile, last week's numbers were the lowest WWE has had all year, down significantly from the same point last year at the start of the new quarter. SmackDown Live specifically has dropped nearly 40% in the 18-35 demographic.

[bork]

Oh boy, open the show with multiple people all talking in the ring.  Worked so well last night.

[nachobro]

no no no no no

don't ruin smackdown too goddamnit

[nachobro]

EL IDOLO PLS SAVE US

[nachobro]

usos