The General Wrestling Thread

[JimLeavy59]

The WWE needed to do that with The Shield.

[Warner2BruceTD]

[Guest]

Tara got a huge pop

I believe shes from Chicago and just opened a restaurant or something.

[JimLeavy59]

The Royal Rumble buyrates really didn't jump up from last years. Vince must be in a great mood.

[Warner2BruceTD]

I will say this, Impact has far fewer lame, embarrassing, insulting, groan inducing segments than RAW does.

[MrBill]

I believe shes from Chicago and just opened a restaurant or something.

From Los Angeles but calls Chicago home and her new pizza place called the Squared Circle had its grand opening there today. There was a private event there last night for all of the TNA folks. There must have been a couple dozen pics on Twitter last night.

[JimLeavy59]

Bully Ray is exactly what Aces & 8's needed.

[JimLeavy59]

Last segment kinda dragged out but I thought it was pretty cool to see the heels get the upper hand in that situation. You never really see that.

[Derrville]

Awesome Impact to start the road era. Bully has given the Aces their balls back. The AJ mark in me wanted Styles to come out after TNA had been beaten down and clear the ring.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Awesome Impact to start the road era. Bully has given the Aces their balls back. The AJ mark in me wanted Styles to come out after TNA had been beaten down and clear the ring.

I hear you, but it's too soon for that. No reason to blow that load yet.

If nothing else, TNA has been very patient with their stories over the last several months. Maybe TOO patient. But it's a drastic departure from the Russo era, and it makes for a much, much better product.

TNA is a totally inoffensive watch these days. Easy to understand, basic, logical undercard stuff, and the Aces & Eights thing is at least finally getting over if nothing else.

In terms of promotions that intrigue me right now, it's New Japan, the Dragon Gate universe (DG, DGUSA, EVOLVE), and then it's probably TNA.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

TNA needs to sign a couple of legit workhorses.

They completely lack those strong workers at the lower and mid-card level. TNA looks like a good product on the road and they aren't offensive, but then need in-ring workers to give you that wrestling. They also need to beef up that X-Division...that was always the perfect spot to throw the flippy bastards in and give them something different. The strong workers they do have (Aries, Angle, Styles, Daniels, Joe) are all caught up working Sports Entertainmentz angles and have no time for strong worked matches, it seems.

While the WWE is full of embarrassing stuff, it does also give you one or two matches a week that those that like ring work can appreciate.

And perhaps it is too soon to say, I feel like two hours isn't enough for TV. I'm not saying add a third Impact hour, but perhaps another show, online, or on Hulu or something, to get some lower card stories over.

[EmpireWF]

One thing that's been totally forgotten about on TV...Bully's attack on Abyss.

Isn't that what "Joe Park" came to TNA to handle? To find out who fucked up Abyss? Now it's apparent that Bully & Aces/8s were behind it, will they go back to it at some point?

[Warner2BruceTD]

TNA needs to sign a couple of legit workhorses.

They completely lack those strong workers at the lower and mid-card level. TNA looks like a good product on the road and they aren't offensive, but then need in-ring workers to give you that wrestling. They also need to beef up that X-Division...that was always the perfect spot to throw the flippy bastards in and give them something different. The strong workers they do have (Aries, Angle, Styles, Daniels, Joe) are all caught up working Sports Entertainmentz angles and have no time for strong worked matches, it seems.

While the WWE is full of embarrassing stuff, it does also give you one or two matches a week that those that like ring work can appreciate.

And perhaps it is too soon to say, I feel like two hours isn't enough for TV. I'm not saying add a third Impact hour, but perhaps another show, online, or on Hulu or something, to get some lower card stories over.

The thing about TNA that i've noticed lately, is they work their matches like sprints, where as a big WWE match is more of a marathon.

WWE stresses "telling stories", you always hear them talk and say "we tell stories in the ring", especially when you read quotes where they are taking shots at the latest indie darling, or giving a backhand compliment to Japan.

We all know the WWE main event style. To them, that's the only way to work and "tell a story". Now, sophisticated fans know this isn't true, but that's how they do things and that's that.

The only guy on the TNA roster who works that "workhorse" style is Angle when he's in a big match. They have guys capable of it, like Aries, Daniels, Roode, even a Chavo when put in that position, etc, but the TNA style, especially lately, is more of a sprint. Your typical TNA tv match is a lot different than a WWE tv match. How many rest holds did you see tonight on Impact? I can't instantly recall any. That's not me burying the WWE, but the current TNA doesn't call for that. They don't build around out of the ring bumps to set up commercial breaks, and they don't build matches around submissions like they do so much in the WWE. It's just a different style, and honestly I think its refreshing and I like the diversity.

Anyway, wall of text, i know. Just noting some things i've picked up on lately. I think TNA should pair up guys like Robbie T & Jesse & Zema Ion and pair them up with Chavo & Doug Williams & Joe on house shows, like WWE used to do with people like Finlay & Regal. Teach these dudes how to structure a long match, how to work different crowds, etc. It would go a long way.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

The thing about TNA that i've noticed lately, is they work their matches like sprints, where as a big WWE match is more of a marathon.

WWE stresses "telling stories", you always hear them talk and say "we tell stories in the ring", especially when you read quotes where they are taking shots at the latest indie darling, or giving a backhand compliment to Japan.

We all know the WWE main event style. To them, that's the only way to work and "tell a story". Now, sophisticated fans know this isn't true, but that's how they do things and that's that.

The only guy on the TNA roster who works that "workhorse" style is Angle when he's in a big match. They have guys capable of it, like Aries, Daniels, Roode, even a Chavo when put in that position, etc, but the TNA style, especially lately, is more of a sprint. Your typical TNA tv match is a lot different than a WWE tv match. How many rest holds did you see tonight on Impact? I can't instantly recall any. That's not me burying the WWE, but the current TNA doesn't call for that. They don't build around out of the ring bumps to set up commercial breaks, and they don't build matches around submissions like they do so much in the WWE. It's just a different style, and honestly I think its refreshing and I like the diversity.

Anyway, wall of text, i know. Just noting some things i've picked up on lately. I think TNA should pair up guys like Robbie T & Jesse & Zema Ion and pair them up with Chavo & Doug Williams & Joe on house shows, like WWE used to do with people like Finlay & Regal. Teach these dudes how to structure a long match, how to work different crowds, etc. It would go a long way.

The WWE stresses a similar style for everyone, but with stretching RAW to three hours, they've featured some of their better workers regularly, and allow them time to develop a match and because its some of their better workers...they make it work and the matches have resulted ranging from good for TV to pay per view worthy.

While TNA offers sprints, I feel like the quality of the sprints is just low...and they rarely mix it up.

I want to turn into TNA and see some crazy flippy bastards in some X-Division matches...usually the X matches are sloppy as fuck. You never see the workhorses put on a good mid-card match...its always crappy 3-5M matches...nothing truly distinguishable from PPV matches (that rarely deliver anything different from TV)...the main event is very WCW-esque...no focus on ring-work at all...always puts over the angle.

They basically have one guy right now that delivers in the ring...its Aries. They have others capable, but Aries is the only guy that gets it done in the ring.

[s@ppisgod]

That just makes me miss when TNA had a strong undercard. You had someone like Styles as the X champ and then you had guys vying for it like Petey, Sabin, Shelley, and Lethal. Spotty guys, admittedly, but they all had strong in-ring work. Petey and AJ had a couple great matches. Any combo of them usually produced good matches. Even throw in quintessential spot monkey Sonjay Dutt, and while not great matches, were certainly entertaining.

I do think it's every bit as much about the time as it is the lack of talent. They seem to want to cram as many wrestlers/matches in one show as they can, instead of giving undercard guys 8-12 minutes sometimes to try and have a good match. They need to have real main events on their weekly shows, more like WWE does. It's always gonna be shorter, and it's always gonna have some fucked up finish, and be rushed, and make you be extremely tired of the Aces and 8's storyline. Look at the MCMGs vs. Beer Money series. Look at when Kaz won a title shot against Angle. No ref bumps, no interference, no gang beatdown, no overdone storyline that doesn't even get a reaction anyway.