The General Wrestling Thread

[Warner2BruceTD]

I just think the dynamic between Brock & Bryan would be perfect. Bryan can do it all, but truly excels as an underdog "fighting spirit" babyface. Anybody who saw the Takeshi Morishima feud in ROH can only imagine how good a Brock feud would be, since Brock is about 1000X more menacing than Morishima, and that's not even a knock on Morishima because the one good thing about him is he is a very good monster.

Brock could beat him silly, and Bryan could fight & fight & fight until he vanquishes the monster. It's simple, old school booking with the two most perfect people in the business to do it with.

 

[JimLeavy59]

Yeah but Bryan is small, knowing the WWE they'll turn Ryback face in a few months and have him beat Lesnar at Mania.

And...

 

[s@ppisgod]

They don't book for us. We're irrelevant to them. People will eat up H's and Lesnar, the Rock returning, Cena with the strap and the rest of the status quo. The only thing they really have going for them good is The Shield right now, and it could be Ziggler but they've booked him like shit.

And I get that. But it's past WM. The casual fan falls asleep until Summerslam. Why not get away from the HHH feud that interests nobody and has been going on too long? They're making one of their ONLY attractions boring by pairing him with Trips for months and months, building (if you can call it that) to alutely nothing. And it has nothing to do with the usual "it's what Vince wants" bs. It's 100% power play by Trips. And I'm not surprised, it's just lame. If it were any of Vince's boners like Ryback or Orton and the like, the feud would be over months ago. It's business as usual, but not, if you get what I mean...

 

[JimLeavy59]

I love how the WWE acts like the Bella twins are such major stars outside of the WWE, I'm sure they'll do the same for Kelly Kelly whenever she comes back next year. I swear the people who run the WWE live inside their own bubble where the world revolves around the WWE.

Sandow was gold last night.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

And I get that. But it's past WM. The casual fan falls asleep until Summerslam. Why not get away from the HHH feud that interests nobody and has been going on too long? They're making one of their ONLY attractions boring by pairing him with Trips for months and months, building (if you can call it that) to alutely nothing. And it has nothing to do with the usual "it's what Vince wants" bs. It's 100% power play by Trips. And I'm not surprised, it's just lame. If it were any of Vince's boners like Ryback or Orton and the like, the feud would be over months ago. It's business as usual, but not, if you get what I mean...

And the kids. And between us and the kids, well, you know where they target the product.

 

[FedEx227]

Pretty stupid thought process considering their ratings pattern show fewer kids than EVER are watching and the average age continues to grow year in and year out.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Sponsorships and not doing anything offensive to upset investors in the publically traded era are what keeps the show PG.

Vince can't really show the same bravado and disregard for the outside world anymore. In many ways, he sold his balls when he took it public.

 

[EmpireWF]

Those 2 reasons & the lack of a serious competitor. No reason for him to push the envelope at all.

 

[FedEx227]

The issue I always have is PG can be good. We've seen it happen. Just because they have sponsorships or are a publicly traded company doesn't mean they have to have "Sweet T" jump over a tug-of-war line or Kaitlyn receiving gifts from a Secret Admirer. It's written for 11 year olds despite the fact that their average fan is over 30. That's just silly.

You can be PG and not pissed off your sponsors and still book somewhat reasonable wrestling. They aren't zero sum.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Could a straight, well booked wrestling show survive in the U.S.? Not threaten WWE, just share the market.

Let's assume it had the production values people demand to be taken seriously (unlike ROH), enough money to compete for real stars (say, like TNA level where its a real option to make real money), and did old school, simple, logical, pro wrestling booking. Say, 90% athleticism, 10% story driven. Current New Japan level layered, compelling booking.

We would eat this up. Would the public? Would lapse wrestling fans who went away in 2001 return? I'm basically describing the old TBS era Jim Crockett/NWA. I think you'd get people back from the south. Could this survive on a TNA level or higher?

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

If you want a straight, old school, simple, logical, pro wrestling American show, even under the WWE umbrella...watch NXT.

Its not like the shit doesn't exist...its just not on RAW, Smackdown, or TNA.

 

[SuperKevin]

Could a straight, well booked wrestling show survive in the U.S.? Not threaten WWE, just share the market.

Let's assume it had the production values people demand to be taken seriously (unlike ROH), enough money to compete for real stars (say, like TNA level where its a real option to make real money), and did old school, simple, logical, pro wrestling booking. Say, 90% athleticism, 10% story driven. Current New Japan level layered, compelling booking.

We would eat this up. Would the public? Would lapse wrestling fans who went away in 2001 return? I'm basically describing the old TBS era Jim Crockett/NWA. I think you'd get people back from the south. Could this survive on a TNA level or higher?

Someone get in touch with chael sonnen to invest

 

[FedEx227]

Could a straight, well booked wrestling show survive in the U.S.? Not threaten WWE, just share the market.

Let's assume it had the production values people demand to be taken seriously (unlike ROH), enough money to compete for real stars (say, like TNA level where its a real option to make real money), and did old school, simple, logical, pro wrestling booking. Say, 90% athleticism, 10% story driven. Current New Japan level layered, compelling booking.

We would eat this up. Would the public? Would lapse wrestling fans who went away in 2001 return? I'm basically describing the old TBS era Jim Crockett/NWA. I think you'd get people back from the south. Could this survive on a TNA level or higher?

I absolutely think it could. There was a base formula for professional wrestling that worked for almost 100 years. Only in the past 15-20 has that formula been turned inside out. To me, that tells me if you get back to that basic formula, it could absolutely work.

The issue, of course, is that over the last 15-20 years that entire formula has been turned inside out to the point where most young fans probably don't understand that professional wrestling isn't hokey backstage skits, dancing, General Managers and heel stables trying to take down the company.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Could a straight, well booked wrestling show survive in the U.S.? Not threaten WWE, just share the market.

Let's assume it had the production values people demand to be taken seriously (unlike ROH), enough money to compete for real stars (say, like TNA level where its a real option to make real money), and did old school, simple, logical, pro wrestling booking. Say, 90% athleticism, 10% story driven. Current New Japan level layered, compelling booking.

We would eat this up. Would the public? Would lapse wrestling fans who went away in 2001 return? I'm basically describing the old TBS era Jim Crockett/NWA. I think you'd get people back from the south. Could this survive on a TNA level or higher?

A) Does it have a sustainable, somewhat popular network backing it.

If Yes. Then yes it could survive.
If No. Then...well...no, it couldn't.

In today's American market, it all comes down to having some sort of stable backing of a known commodity of a cable network that will support the product.

However, there are very few that would actually support wrestling. USA and Spike do, but they already have 99.99% of the market covered.

 

[krulmichael]

I love how the WWE acts like the Bella twins are such major stars outside of the WWE, I'm sure they'll do the same for Kelly Kelly whenever she comes back next year. I swear the people who run the WWE live inside their own bubble where the world revolves around the WWE.

Sandow was gold last night.

 

[Bigpapa42]

The issue I always have is PG can be good. We've seen it happen. Just because they have sponsorships or are a publicly traded company doesn't mean they have to have "Sweet T" jump over a tug-of-war line or Kaitlyn receiving gifts from a Secret Admirer. It's written for 11 year olds despite the fact that their average fan is over 30. That's just silly.

You can be PG and not pissed off your sponsors and still book somewhat reasonable wrestling. They aren't zero sum.

This. Entirely this. People blaming PG is kinda dumb, in my opinion. WCW was never really more than PG through its entire run. You can go back to any period of WWE in the past 12 years and you can take out some of the more "mature" elements without making the storytelling dumb. They basically give no fucks at this point. And they are making money, so why should they?

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Mike Bucci goes HAM on Bob Holly.

So I heard throught the grapevine that I was apparently "buried" in Bob Holly's book. My thoughts on this are as follows - Bob Holly was a good worker who I always had solid matches with.

Personally, he was despised by all who ever met him for being an asshole bully who sucked the air out of every room he ever came into. Every person I ever knew in WWE hated the guy, with good reason. He was always miserable and treated everyone like crap. From taking liberties on Matt Capottelli (and to this day , how anyone can condone what happened, is truly insane) to beating up his fellow-drug-addict-loser-travel partner Rene Dupree, Bob showed his true colors, unless of course, the victims name was Brock Lesner, and then we all know how that worked out.

He was also the biggest "stooge" in company history as he spent more time on the road and TV in Johnny's office than Johnny's suit coat did! If you blinked the wrong way or sneezed , good old Plug was off to the races to Johnny, Vince, Taker or JBL..didn't matter who...that was how he stirred up sh** constantly for no reason, hence the reason he was there for so long. I don't care about stating the obvious , due to the fact I'm not going back to WWE either, so I guess that makes me and Bob equal.....

In thinking about it, I don't actually hate Bob. I pity him. You know why? Because of his ruined legacy and how he went out. Is Bob working as an agent or trainer? No. Is he in TNA or any other company? No. Even the few indys that had him never wanted him back. His "wrestling industry christmas card list" is probably 5 people long and no one has ever had a good word to say about him. Every agent who ever had his matches hated dealing with him and his lousy attitude.

Finally, lets all take a look at how Robert was cast off from the gates of the WWE. Did creative have nothing for him? No. Did he refuse a new contract? No. Did he get injured. No. His dismisal came after he was basically found crawling around backstage STEALING drugs from his "brothers". This had been going on for a while, so finally someone (Ken Kennedy, and good for him) decided to tell the office that Sticky Fingers had to go. And that was that.......

In closing , this will be the only time I address this misfit. The guy who pumped my gas this morning meant more to me than Bob ever did. In fact, he probably meant more, due to the fact he had a smile on his face and was a pleasure to be around.....

 

[s@ppisgod]

Why are so many of these guys complete trainwrecks? Foley agreed to pretty much be a crash test dummy, and he's one of the most normal people in the business. Sometimes I forget how crazy it all is...

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Why are so many of these guys complete trainwrecks? Foley agreed to pretty much be a crash test dummy, and he's one of the most normal people in the business. Sometimes I forget how crazy it all is...

Gotta be a mindset thing.

Foley's also got a stable life. He outkicked his coverage for a wife and she loves him to death. He's got kids that love him to death.

He wanted to be a wrestler and basically lived his dream. He didn't shoot'em self up full of drugs and didn't binge on alcohol and party.

And, he has an already happy disposition and a good dude.

 

[EmpireWF]

Not that he's had the type of ups and downs as the guys mentioned but look at someone like Necro Butcher and all the shit he's done to his body. The guy is perhaps one of the legit smartest people in the business (meaning not about the business, but smart in general) and seems like one of the most down to earth guys as well.