Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

[Andrew]

I disagree. They've done some good stuff with Punk, Daniel Bryan's rise has been fun to watch and he'll probably be back in the main event at some point, Undertaker's matches have been Match of the Year candidates for a few years running and The Rock's been back for some extended runs and a handful of PPV matches, something that seemed very unlikely just a few years ago. They've erred and the booking has its problems, but I disagree that it's been all bad or that they haven't done anything entertaining in years.

[JaoSming]

It's tough to get excited for anything with them though. Punk's promo was fantastic and everything up to his leaving was the best shit evar. When he came back for his face reign, he was booked similarly to Cena/Orton and it started to stale. Then we had the gradual heel turn that turned a great wrestler into a coward because no heel in the WWE can be dominate or win cleanly. Nevermind throughout all of it, Cena was still in every main event (last match on).
Bryan was fantastic, got over with the YES! stuff, and then, well, has been nothing but NOs, skits with Kane, and gags with his beard. There is potential, but when you talk about being in the main event scene 'at some point' its not worth it knowing Sheamus & Orton are supposed to be in that scene, along with Show, Ryback, Henry, etc etc. Being in the main event scene just means being second rate to Cena.
Hasn't the Rock been in 3 total matches in his return? Promos were great (well, until Punk got leashed) but the sparacity kills it for me. At least Jericho is still around.....dancing.
Undertaker's matches in the past few years can be counted on one hand. Not discounting those matches' quality, but again, the sparacity.
Saying there has been nothing entertaining is wrong, but having to wade through all the BS and terrible stuff to get something entertaining is the issue. Shield has been the most consistently good thing in E lately....and boom, last night they were hotshotted by an injured SuperCena. "Reigns has never been pinned!" *Pinned by Cena*. It was 3, on, 1, Cena had them all beat (yes I know DQ but you know what I mean with STFU middle of the ring). That kind of booking is what kills any good we do see.


Still, this

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That still gives me hope for E. I am excited for Brock and HHH in a cage match, which will hopefully be an actual old school cage match and not interfered or w/e with. But there is no believable chance for Ryback, there is a fucking strap match on the card, and the rest is just bleh (for injury reasons or not, bleh).

I'll draw the comparison for TNA. Bully vs Sting yes has Sting in it but he is still performing well in ring. Its a loose end from all the screwing over that got Aces & Eights to where it is and serves as a blow-off for the two, even if Sting has no chance (plus side of the banned from the world title for life stip). 4-way tag match that will probably become a 3-way due to Storm's injury is still going to be amazing in-ring, but the promo work from Aries, Daniels, and even Chavo has been fantastic. All four of those teams are intertwined with head games and completely separated from the Aces and Eights. AJ vs Angle is a played and true match, which makes sense with the AJ who's side stuff, but its a safe bet for a great match.
I keep going back to the match quality because that is the most important thing for me. Promos are icing, and TNA's gettin' me fat. WWE is more like tease it, tease it, here are some fuckin' veggies with a fudge dipped fried bacon once or twice a year.


Clearly I am losing my mind, but after returning to watching this stuff the past few years, it just gets me that people would not give a good show a chance because the main storyline is similar to the NWO. So what? What if they actually keep it up to quality like they have and it progresses better and ends satisfyingly this time instead of the bad parts of NWO?

[formx]

Clearly I am losing my mind, but after returning to watching this stuff the past few years, it just gets me that people would not give a good show a chance because the main storyline is similar to the NWO. So what? What if they actually keep it up to quality like they have and it progresses better and ends satisfyingly this time instead of the bad parts of NWO?

Personally I love the NWO style storylines, unless they fuck up like how WWE did with the 2002 NWO.

[Andrew]

Saying there has been nothing entertaining is wrong, but having to wade through all the BS and terrible stuff to get something entertaining is the issue.

Fair call. Good points on the rest, too. I still think there's way too much Hogan in TNA's storylines, but when he said he'd be mostly behind the scenes when he joined the company in 2010, was there anyone who actually believed him?

Update on the Aries/Hemme incident:

Austin Aries Will Be Disciplined For Christy Hemme Incident
Fallout Over Aries/Hemme Incident
Dixie Carter Says Incident With Austin Aries Was Taken Very Seriously, Handled Immediately

[Andrew]

Taker out of character again:

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[JaoSming]

Slammiversary was jaw dropping. The gutcheck match was by far the worst thing on the show, but everything else was just fucking amazing.
You guys have said that it hurts TNA's PPVs to have such high quality matches on Impact, well, its OK when the PPV matches are that this level. I mean, it sounds like a bad PPV when you can say that the knockouts stole the show, but aside from the fact that it actually had an ending, it was more physical and faster paced than Ryback/Cena. Go out of your way to watch that one when you can.
Bully vs Sting upped the ante too, strong heel just throwing around an old wrestler going on willpower. This "super Cena" stuff worked so well in that match due to Sting's history and the brutality with the piledrivers and exposed ring and just great hardcore stuff. The table spot was one of the most hardest I've seen since he was so helpless in comparison (see how vague I am?)

I DEMAND you guys to see the Last Knockout Standing match between Gail and Taryn, and the main event of Sting vs Bully.
I recommend you see the 4 way tag, ultimate X, and AJ v Angle.
The rest was good/ok, PPV stuff, but pales in comparison to the above.

[[Q]]

i stopped watching in January, got sick of waiting for Ziggler to win the title but i came back to say that WWE signed a development contract with a Diva and I will be helping run her social media at work in the near future

[Andrew]

You guys have said that it hurts TNA's PPVs to have such high quality matches on Impact, well, its OK when the PPV matches are that this level.

It doesn't necessarily hurt the quality of the PPV, but giving certain money-making matches away for free on TV can hurt PPV buys, in turn eating into profits, which are of course needed to keep the company going. In some cases, a whole angle might get hotshotted by jumping the gun and having a big match on TV. It's a strategy that's been proven risky for the long term stability for the company: WCW went from being the #1 rated promotion doing excellent business to losing over $60 million in one year, and they had a lot more money behind them than TNA does. Vince McMahon ended up buying the company and the entire tape library for $3 million, in a year where the WWF grossed close to half a billion dollars.

I know you've said before that you don't care about that side of things, just the product, but frankly you should care about what TNA is doing to keep themselves financially viable. After all, if they're not making money, they're going to go under and they won't be around to put on the show that you're enjoying so much. There's nothing wrong with having great TV matches (which, for the record, Team Hell No and The Shield have been achieving over in WWE as of late), you just have to be patient and leave fans with incentive to buy the PPVs.

[koberulz]

Yeah, Hell No and The Shield have been awesome. Pity that feud will likely be over by the time they get down here. On the other hand, it looks like CM Punk might be back.

[Andrew]

Can't go wrong with Jericho and Punk. Hopefully they can get a few matches out of that angle.

[Andrew]

Out of character interview with Taker.

[Lean]

Payback was said to be a good PPV. Also, was RVD advertised to appear in Money in the Bank?

[Andrew]

Yeah, RVD is back for another run in WWE.

[[Q]]

Yeah, RVD is back for another run in WWE.

dammit, i might have to start watching again!

[formx]

So.....

A double turn for Del Rio and Ziggler. This should be very interesting. CM Punk is now face again, and enters into a feud with Brock Lesnar. Mark Henry's "retirement" was probably the best segment of the night. "THAT'S WHAT I DO!"

[Lean]

I agree. Anyone who isn't fooled is a liar.

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Lots of respect for Henry

[bowdown]

Henry has stuck around for so long even though he was mediocre in the WWE for so long. As big and good of an actor he is, they ought to give him more varied type of roles than the quiet, angry Black guy.

[[Q]]

so is it just me or do people suck at hiding the fact that they are talking to each other/ coaching each other in the ring?

i watched the aj/kaitlyn match from payback and she had to yell UP UP UP to get Kaitlyn up before the ref turns around to use the belt as a weapon

[JaoSming]

so is it just me or do people suck at hiding the fact that they are talking to each other/ coaching each other in the ring?

You don't watch Botchamania, do you

[[Q]]

oh i watch it all the time and i used to watch all the shows on my computer with headphones so i heard a lot of them. but i honestly don't remember it being this obvious in the 90s. i used to see it a lot in the CM punk/ cena matches too. so yeah i know this happens all the time, it was just a random observation after watching a few matches for the first time in months

[Andrew]

The Attitude Era saw some pretty frenzied crowds, so it's possible a lot of that stuff was drowned out. Perhaps some of the older wrestlers were better at hiding it/disguising it as trash talk, but then maybe you're just more aware of it and even looking for it now, especially if you're watching Botchamania.

[koberulz]

Matches probably involve a lot more on-the-fly calling these days too, with the influx of indy guys and other proper wrestlers. Warrior-Hogan at WM was scripted from bell to bell, as was almost every Randy Savage match. And even the ones that weren't didn't tend to be that involved.

That, and yeah, being more attuned to it makes it stick out a lot more. It's not something I ever hear, so crowd noise has nothing to do with it, but I can clearly see it quite a bit.

[koberulz]

What's the best place to get PPV reports? I used to just go to the WNA forums and they'd be posted there, but those forums don't exist anymore.

[JaoSming]

pwinsider.com but their search for past stuff is quite shitty. Once it drops off the main page, good luck. Also, tons and tons of ads.

wrestlezone.com copies their reports over though. but they have terrible "reporting" and worse opinion pieces. Bouncing between the two of them is what I normally do.

[koberulz]

pwinsider.com but their search for past stuff is quite shitty. Once it drops off the main page, good luck.

Yeah, that's where I ended up because it was the one site I could remember, but it took a while to find Payback, which at this point was almost a week ago (although at the same time, only a week ago).