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Wrasslin' Thread 20XX |OT| New Age WrestleGAF

Bullet Club

Member


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"How do you do, fellow kids?"









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Dthomp

Member


I swear, I hope Kenny fucked the shit out of Cornys entire extended family for the amount of crazy he has towards Kenny. Like I get it, it's his "schtick" and I'm sure he gets more hate watches from trashing Kenny then he gets having an actual intelligent conversation about wrestling but still.
 

DKehoe

Gold Member
I cant believe they put Evil over Naito, I havent watched much recently but does Evil even have potential and as much talent?

He doesn't feel like he's on that IWGP Champion level, which is something they've really protected in recent years. It's not a "you deserve it" belt where everyone gets a chance to hold it eventually. I was pretty shocked at him beating Naito since Naito is the most over guy in the company and only had one defence since winning it. I guess with the lockdown they're maybe moving fast to catch up on whatever booking plans they had. It's not like EVIL is bad though so I'm curious to see how he does. They set up him vs Hiromu at the end of the show and that should be fun.
 

REE Machine

Banned
He doesn't feel like he's on that IWGP Champion level, which is something they've really protected in recent years. It's not a "you deserve it" belt where everyone gets a chance to hold it eventually. I was pretty shocked at him beating Naito since Naito is the most over guy in the company and only had one defence since winning it. I guess with the lockdown they're maybe moving fast to catch up on whatever booking plans they had. It's not like EVIL is bad though so I'm curious to see how he does. They set up him vs Hiromu at the end of the show and that should be fun.
I think its more the fact that is seems the prestige is gone, the second double champ in history is......EVIL....lol
 

DKehoe

Gold Member
I think its more the fact that is seems the prestige is gone, the second double champ in history is......EVIL....lol

When Hiromu challenged he said he wants to face EVIL for both belts but will fight him for just one if necessary. So it seems like they are gonna be transitioning away from the double champ thing.

Also, Naito's body is kind of a wreck at this point. And he still insists on doing stuff like this:



and this



Him stepping back to allow two guys he mentored take centre stage does make sense.

If nothing else it does freshen up the main event scene with some new faces. Which they've needed for a while. I like that there is a prestige to being on top in New Japan but it can also lead to the booking revolving around the same few matchups.
 

REE Machine

Banned
When Hiromu challenged he said he wants to face EVIL for both belts but will fight him for just one if necessary. So it seems like they are gonna be transitioning away from the double champ thing.

Also, Naito's body is kind of a wreck at this point. And he still insists on doing stuff like this:



and this



Him stepping back to allow two guys he mentored take centre stage does make sense.

If nothing else it does freshen up the main event scene with some new faces. Which they've needed for a while. I like that there is a prestige to being on top in New Japan but it can also lead to the booking revolving around the same few matchups.

Jesus at those bumps, hopefully EVIL can hold the company down for a lil while things get back to normal. I wonder where this puts Kenta though, isnt he the "leader" of the bullet club or is it still White? Just because you think the torch is somewhat passed seeing as EVIL is now the top dog.
 

DKehoe

Gold Member
Jesus at those bumps, hopefully EVIL can hold the company down for a lil while things get back to normal. I wonder where this puts Kenta though, isnt he the "leader" of the bullet club or is it still White? Just because you think the torch is somewhat passed seeing as EVIL is now the top dog.

It kinda feels like Bullet Club doesn't have a defined leader as such just now. Despite attacking Naito after he won at Wrestle Kingdom, Kenta hasn't quite been that top level guy. I guess if I had to say who the leader is it would be White but obviously he's not been around in a little while. But I guess now that EVIL is champion he becomes it by default.
 

REE Machine

Banned
It kinda feels like Bullet Club doesn't have a defined leader as such just now. Despite attacking Naito after he won at Wrestle Kingdom, Kenta hasn't quite been that top level guy. I guess if I had to say who the leader is it would be White but obviously he's not been around in a little while. But I guess now that EVIL is champion he becomes it by default.
Thanks for the incite, good talk
 

LarknThe4th

Member
Naito does have better underdog/redemption arcs though
Their does come a time though when you cant play that card anymore and you alter the wrestlers arc accordingly and Naitos crowning was the culmination of like all that

He needed to get some heavy title defenses under his (two)belts and then hand ot off, and I have no faith in EVIL guy seems like a try hard, are we really supposed to believe he is in the league of even Jay White or Sanada?!

A cocky over confident Naito losing the belt on the run in to Wrestle Kingdom next year to Sanada would have been fresh and would give both guys some interesting angles to work with

"Is Sanada the nw ace in the making?, is Naito a bit too tranquilo?"

We would have had stories out of that, this seems WCW 98 bad, not unfixable but a worrying turn of events
 

LarknThe4th

Member
Record low ratings, Sunny up to her old tricks, Easy E getting like ANY exposure years after he has been proven to be a hack

Wrestling is in the toilet

Now even New Japan is getting in on the crazy so I cant enjoy that...... sigh I guess i have to crawl back to Bret in 97 again to get any joy out of this hobby.....
 

LarknThe4th

Member
Evil just beat Naito for the title out of nowhere, yeah that's right that limited guy with a shit look has just been hotshot The to the big one!!

97 WWF is amazing, so much different things happening Sids popularity out of nowhere, Shawn losing his mind , Sunny.... in 97 🤤🤤 and under the hood you have guys like Austin, Foley and Bret just being next level good in the ring
 

Dthomp

Member


WWE needs to realize many people just aren’t watching tv outside of the news right now and stop panicking. It’s the summer, during a worldwide pandemic. Heyman was right with pushing the younger guys and building around Drew, especially since ratings were gonna be down anyways.

Nothing is gonna change these ratings overnight, and I think for every employees sanity they need to accept that.

Also not sure how the subscriber numbers dropped but i just had to cancel my YouTube tv due to the big price hike, and I know many online also cancelled so that’s another chunk of people you may see not tuning in too going forward.

They should have found a way during last negotiation to have raw and sd to go up the next day and a small network price increase and keep leaning your product more towards the network and improve it, but Vince chased the cable money and they get to lay in the ratings bed for the foreseeable future
 

DKehoe

Gold Member
WWE needs to realize many people just aren’t watching tv outside of the news right now and stop panicking. It’s the summer, during a worldwide pandemic. Heyman was right with pushing the younger guys and building around Drew, especially since ratings were gonna be down anyways.

Nothing is gonna change these ratings overnight, and I think for every employees sanity they need to accept that.

Also not sure how the subscriber numbers dropped but i just had to cancel my YouTube tv due to the big price hike, and I know many online also cancelled so that’s another chunk of people you may see not tuning in too going forward.

They should have found a way during last negotiation to have raw and sd to go up the next day and a small network price increase and keep leaning your product more towards the network and improve it, but Vince chased the cable money and they get to lay in the ratings bed for the foreseeable future

Wrestling is one of the few types of show that actually reminds you of whats going on because it’s not like normal. For all WWE’s talk of wanting to help people forget what’s going on for a few hours their show can’t do that.
 

Harts316

Member
WWE needs to realize many people just aren’t watching tv outside of the news right now and stop panicking. It’s the summer, during a worldwide pandemic. Heyman was right with pushing the younger guys and building around Drew, especially since ratings were gonna be down anyways.

Nothing is gonna change these ratings overnight, and I think for every employees sanity they need to accept that.

Also not sure how the subscriber numbers dropped but i just had to cancel my YouTube tv due to the big price hike, and I know many online also cancelled so that’s another chunk of people you may see not tuning in too going forward.

They should have found a way during last negotiation to have raw and sd to go up the next day and a small network price increase and keep leaning your product more towards the network and improve it, but Vince chased the cable money and they get to lay in the ratings bed for the foreseeable future

Even before the empty area matches, I was falling off RAW for a while.

My biggest issue is with how inorganic it feels. The formula and presentation never changes and everything is predictable. Every segment is structured the same exact way right down to the camera angles and commentary. You know how every segment and match is going to play out within the first 5 seconds.

It stopped being possible to suspend any disbelief either. I realize everyone is playing a character, but it all comes across as wooden and lifeless. It's obvious that they are reading lines that were written for them since nobody on the planet speaks like that in real life.
 
Did anyone watch Slammiversary?

I haven't watched TNA in probably 10 years so I watched a couple of episodes of impact to get an idea of how the product is now first and it helped.

I ended up feeling underwhelmed with all of the surprises teased though.

I wonder if Miro would have shown up if he didn't have covid or if he's going to AEW.

Eric Young was cool to see but I think he looks better with a beard. I've never been a big Rich Swann fan but he does a nice cutter.

Good Brothers just saving Eddie Edwards seemed weird. I would rather they either accepted the open challenge from The Rascals or called out The North for a title match.

I think Ace Austin is going to be big. I feel like he has a ton of charisma and is someone to watch.

I would have liked to see EC3 actually do something but I guess now I have to watch impact to see what happens next.

Moose is good but I don't care to ever see Tommy Dreamer wrestle.

Jordynne Grace vs Deonna Purazzo was really good. Probably the match of the night and had great psychology with Deonna constantly attacking the arm of Jordynne.

The knockout gauntlet match was pretty boring but I'm happy Kylie won.

Chris Bey vs Willie Mack was good. I see why Cody wanted to sign Bey before. It's nice to see title changes on a ppv.

The North is great, I love Ethan Page. I know FTR mentioned wanting a match with them and I'd love to see it. I'm not big on 2 guys thrown together for a tag team so I'm glad Shamrock and Callihan didn't win.

The Motor City Machine Guns showing up and apparently joining impact wrestling was by far my favorite part of the night. They were always my favorite TNA tag team.
 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Did anyone watch Slammiversary?

I haven't watched TNA in probably 10 years so I watched a couple of episodes of impact to get an idea of how the product is now first and it helped.

I ended up feeling underwhelmed with all of the surprises teased though.

I wonder if Miro would have shown up if he didn't have covid or if he's going to AEW.

Eric Young was cool to see but I think he looks better with a beard. I've never been a big Rich Swann fan but he does a nice cutter.

Good Brothers just saving Eddie Edwards seemed weird. I would rather they either accepted the open challenge from The Rascals or called out The North for a title match.

I think Ace Austin is going to be big. I feel like he has a ton of charisma and is someone to watch.

I would have liked to see EC3 actually do something but I guess now I have to watch impact to see what happens next.

Moose is good but I don't care to ever see Tommy Dreamer wrestle.

Jordynne Grace vs Deonna Purazzo was really good. Probably the match of the night and had great psychology with Deonna constantly attacking the arm of Jordynne.

The knockout gauntlet match was pretty boring but I'm happy Kylie won.

Chris Bey vs Willie Mack was good. I see why Cody wanted to sign Bey before. It's nice to see title changes on a ppv.

The North is great, I love Ethan Page. I know FTR mentioned wanting a match with them and I'd love to see it. I'm not big on 2 guys thrown together for a tag team so I'm glad Shamrock and Callihan didn't win.

The Motor City Machine Guns showing up and apparently joining impact wrestling was by far my favorite part of the night. They were always my favorite TNA tag team.
I need to get to it. The reviews seem pretty positive. Glad to see an Impact/TNA fan. Even a lapsed one lol. I would have watched it last night but my gf doesn't care for wrestling :(
 
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OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
So first rey gets thrown off a four story office building and he's fine. Now he gets his eye out and he'll still be fine? Jfc. What are they doing?
 
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NickFire

Member
I think this was the second PPV since I cancelled my subscription. Its a bitter sweet situation. Its sweet that I didn't waste money this month, but I'm still bitter about the month after wrestlemania.

If they want ratings to improve, I have a simple two suggestions. Fire every writer. All of them. Then let the talent write they own promos and scenes. Disagreements and match winners resolved by higher ups. And ban the movie matches and absurd shit like burying an opponent underground or removing their eyes.

WWE product is awful.
 

Dthomp

Member
So first rey gets thrown off a four story office building and he's fine. Now he gets his eye out and he'll still be fine? Jfc. What are they doing?

If I had to guess, this makes it so that if Rey doesn't resign this was his sad sad send off and leaves the door open to doctor magically saved his eye he's all better now.

I think this was the second PPV since I cancelled my subscription. Its a bitter sweet situation. Its sweet that I didn't waste money this month, but I'm still bitter about the month after wrestlemania.

If they want ratings to improve, I have a simple two suggestions. Fire every writer. All of them. Then let the talent write they own promos and scenes. Disagreements and match winners resolved by higher ups. And ban the movie matches and absurd shit like burying an opponent underground or removing their eyes.

WWE product is awful.

I've been struggling recently with feeling down so decided to re-up my membership for last nights....event? what a waste of 10 bucks. I feel beyond bad for Drew right now. He is the champion we deserve, a total package and the no fans crap as well as what you said above is making WWE completely unwatchable. They need to do something different for these PPV event things, cause with every show being done at the PC with the same shitty camera angles and 4000 cuts a match it just all feels the same, mixed with shit tier writing and storytelling it's just boring as fuck. At least AEW tries different shit so that not every match feels exactly the same.

Movie matches are beyond dumb at this point....because they aren't even fucking matches. I was fine with the OG Matt Hardy TNA one, but this shit is overdone. That one last night was awful, completely unwatchable trash, and worst yet filmed in Florida...at night...those poor dudes now have to worry about at least 3 other diseases from the fucking mosquitos out there.

The rest of the show just felt like a regular raw. Drew/Dolph was the only match I enjoyed...but Dolph having 1 singles win all year doesn't really make you think he had a shot here. Either push Asuka, or bury the fuck out of her..cause she looks like shit while still trying to be protected. 10,000 women on the roster and I still only see the same 4 every show.
 

NickFire

Member
If I had to guess, this makes it so that if Rey doesn't resign this was his sad sad send off and leaves the door open to doctor magically saved his eye he's all better now.



I've been struggling recently with feeling down so decided to re-up my membership for last nights....event? what a waste of 10 bucks. I feel beyond bad for Drew right now. He is the champion we deserve, a total package and the no fans crap as well as what you said above is making WWE completely unwatchable. They need to do something different for these PPV event things, cause with every show being done at the PC with the same shitty camera angles and 4000 cuts a match it just all feels the same, mixed with shit tier writing and storytelling it's just boring as fuck. At least AEW tries different shit so that not every match feels exactly the same.

Movie matches are beyond dumb at this point....because they aren't even fucking matches. I was fine with the OG Matt Hardy TNA one, but this shit is overdone. That one last night was awful, completely unwatchable trash, and worst yet filmed in Florida...at night...those poor dudes now have to worry about at least 3 other diseases from the fucking mosquitos out there.

The rest of the show just felt like a regular raw. Drew/Dolph was the only match I enjoyed...but Dolph having 1 singles win all year doesn't really make you think he had a shot here. Either push Asuka, or bury the fuck out of her..cause she looks like shit while still trying to be protected. 10,000 women on the roster and I still only see the same 4 every show.
I'm 100% with you on the sympathies for Drew. I was so excited for his run and really happy to see his long journey pay off for him. He's getting screwed by Covid, but I would argue more so by WWE right now. I give them a pass on the no fans because they can't do much about it, but that's no excuse for the lack of anything interesting. Imagine if they hadn't buried the Fiend? I'd be completely against a Drew v. Fiend movie match, but the vignettes and promos would still be fire if the Funhouse still mattered. Or imagine if they let the women have meaningful story lines? They have 5 prime time tv hours a week, excluding NXT, and like you said its just garbage storytelling and no one shines from it.

Worst thing about all of this? I bet anything the people in charge decide that Drew just doesn't draw, and won't even consider that the people in charge just suck.
 

Harts316

Member
I'm 100% with you on the sympathies for Drew. I was so excited for his run and really happy to see his long journey pay off for him. He's getting screwed by Covid, but I would argue more so by WWE right now. I give them a pass on the no fans because they can't do much about it, but that's no excuse for the lack of anything interesting. Imagine if they hadn't buried the Fiend? I'd be completely against a Drew v. Fiend movie match, but the vignettes and promos would still be fire if the Funhouse still mattered. Or imagine if they let the women have meaningful story lines? They have 5 prime time tv hours a week, excluding NXT, and like you said its just garbage storytelling and no one shines from it.

Worst thing about all of this? I bet anything the people in charge decide that Drew just doesn't draw, and won't even consider that the people in charge just suck.

I was excited to see them get behind Drew. Based on WWE’s track record, they’ll blame a lot of the downturn in business on him.

Reading the recaps of this show reminded me to cancel my subscription. I didn’t have high hopes and I’m glad I didn’t watch. You can cut everyone a lot of slack due to COVID-19, but this is ridiculous. There’s so many other streaming services competing for my money, it’s not worth rewarding the WWE for lazy matchups and stipulations that you know going in, they can’t deliver on.
 
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