Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

[shadowgrin]

As expected most of the best moments in that video were when the TNA had the six-sided ring.

TNA is so fuckin' terrible

Took you that long to realize it huh.

[JaoSming]

I've never denied the ebb and flow of TNA, so add in that context of "right now" PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[Lean]

Yeah, why did TNA change the six-sided ring?

[shadowgrin]

Hogan and Bischoff afaik.

[JaoSming]

under the reasoning that TNA wouldnt be taken seriously with a gimmick like a 6 sided ring

[koberulz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtTa5Q4r4ao

phpBB [video]

How did that not include the finish to the Styles/Daniels-LAX Ultimate X?

[JaoSming]

for those curious

phpBB [video]

[[Q]]

Styles Clash off the ramp through the table
Diving through a hole in the top of the Hell in A Cell (I had no idea TNA copied that)
Their old ring announcer who was also the WCW ring announcer

[JaoSming]

Daniel Bryan's dad died and theyjust wrote him off TV with a damn good beatdown from Kane. Sucks that the main champ will have been off TV more than on TV before the next PPV, but they did that well. You could tell DB didn't want to get on the mic.

[Lean]

Sad news for Daniel. But at least the WWE lived up to their promo that he will return on TV today.

I'm kinda disappointed on how Emma is being booked and being paired to Santino. Seeing her matches on NXT makes me wonder that I think all of the Divas on the main roster are actually good wrestlers but are dumbed down by this whole 'Diva' thing. Emma is a good wrestler, and her matches with Paige are great.

[[Q]]

WWE just doesn't take the women seriously. AJ who is easily the best ring worker in the last few years wasn't wrestling when she was in the middle of her "crazy" angle and was on TV every week. Serena was really good and did not wrestle a match either. It's a shame Kharma didn't get a run. The Divas are and have been just a mere afterthought. There's just no story, no build up. It's just basically a random #1 contender each month or a battle royal of some sorts. So lazy. Surprisingly, Divas title gets more attention than the US title, which I forgot still even existed.

[koberulz]

Also being terribly booked:
Paige. She'll get over if she's able to have good matches, so let's stick her with perhaps the two least talented divas on the entire roster, and act surprised when the crowd is dead for the terrible matches that result.
Cesaro. Guy gets over as part of a tag team with someone nobody's ever cared about, taking an average gimmick and running with it. So they split him out and turn him heel, give him a completely different gimmick, and have him feud with the guy nobody cares about who's also a heel.
Bryan. Has there ever been an episode of Raw that didn't involve him getting killed?
The Brotherhood. One of the best teams in the company, missed out on WrestleMania, and now they're splitting up for no reason.
Brock Lesnar. You can beat the Undertaker at WrestleMania, or you can take a six-month vacation. Not both.
Bray Wyatt. Was a big deal pre-WrestleMania, then Cenawinslol and suddenly he's a joke.
Kane. But that's nothing new.
Bad News Barrett. Wins IC title, does nothing, loses IC title, is taken off TV to be repackaged. Comes back, wins IC title, does nothing, loses IC title, is taken off TV to be repackaged. Comes back, wins IC title...

[JaoSming]

Bray's a joke?

[koberulz]

Cena certainly seems to think so.

[JaoSming]

yep, and that has been the character for forever, at least now they have a bad guy that calls him on it

[Andrew]

At least with this week's RAW, there was a need to write Bryan off TV (and possibly a few upcoming live events) for personal reasons. He needs to be protected moving forward though.

[[Q]]

Also being terribly booked:
Paige. She'll get over if she's able to have good matches, so let's stick her with perhaps the two least talented divas on the entire roster, and act surprised when the crowd is dead for the terrible matches that result.

They are actually halfway decent (more than a minute long) but are matches they used to have to build up new upcoming stars, not champions.

Cesaro. Guy gets over as part of a tag team with someone nobody's ever cared about, taking an average gimmick and running with it. So they split him out and turn him heel, give him a completely different gimmick, and have him feud with the guy nobody cares about who's also a heel.

They're trying so hard to keep him as a heel, it's terrible. Everybody loves the swing. How do they try to get him heat? have Paul Heyman not talk about Cesaro for 4 mins before his opponent comes out.

the most interesting thing on RAW was that the IC tournament results were the exact opposite of what I expected. Barrett seems to be teetering on that Cesaro line where he's a heel but people are starting to cheer for him.

[JaoSming]

Starting to cheer for Barrett? Many of the Bad News Barrett segments were cheered right?

Foley opted out of his Legends deal because of WWE 2K14/5?

To deal..or not to deal - that is the question. As some of you may have heard, at this point, I am opting not to sign my Legends Marketing Deal, which gives #WWE the right to market my likeness on video games and action figures. I'll be writing in more detail about this in the next week or so, but it would be fair to say that, despite strong sales, I have found the payoffs for the past two video games to be extremely weak - in the 25% range of what most talent was expecting.

Last year, the explanation had something to do with the video game company going bankrupt - a real shame for me, since I was heavily featured as three characters from the "Attitude" era, complete with voice work. I haven't heard this year's explanation yet, but, personally. I think the #WWE just wants to see if the talent will accept a far lower percentage than had previously been given. If so, it would proably be a good business move for #WWE, since very few current wrestlers are going to jeapordize their standing with the company by offering resistance - and most legends will probably come to feel like anything they get from merchandise is better than nothing.

As for me: until I hear a valid reason, I'm opting out.

[Lean]

Barrett's good. I just don't buy the Bad News gimmick, but he's being cheered. Bray's good too. I think it's rare to find a gimmick for a guy then carries it effectively. I like the Wyatt Family gimmick. That's why I feel bad for Bo Dallas to come back to the main roster because I certainly think he's already been overshadowed by Bray.

Paige is good. But apart from what koberulz said about pitting her against the most untalented divas on the roster, I think that has something to do with how the booked matches are timed. They'd give a spot for a Torito-Hornswoggle video packaged and compromise it for the length of the Diva's match. And the crowd is dead because they expect the Diva's portion to be a pee break. I think if they let the divas to actually wrestle then the crowd would probably be into it. Even if the IWC says that they're waiting for AJ and Paige's title match and that it will be good, I still expect it to be the opposite and it will only pick up during their entrances and the actual finish. The last good diva match I've seen is Trish's last match vs Lita in Unforgiven 2006.

As for Brock being the guy to break the streak, I kinda agree with what most said that it will really do nothing on Brock's career since he doesn't appear every week. If they had any other current wrassler to would have broken the streak I think it would only be Bryan or Cena.

I think Sandow and Ziggler are terribly booked. I agree with koberulz on how Goldust and Cody are terribly booked too. Did they ever get their rematch against the Outlaws? Did the Outlaws ever get their rematch vs the Usos?

And who is Laurinaitis texting to during his time as GM?

[Andrew]

Read about Foley and his Legends deal on WNW a couple of days ago. Shame it's come to that.

I'll be writing in more detail about this in the next week or so

And burning a few bridges in the process, probably.

Foley's obviously got a point and it's no surprise that WWE is trying to maximise their profits at the expense of giving featured talent a slice of the pie. Still, it seems like Foley is going about this in the most attention-seeking manner possible.

[koberulz]

At least with this week's RAW, there was a need to write Bryan off TV (and possibly a few upcoming live events) for personal reasons.

Why not the truth?

They are actually halfway decent (more than a minute long) but are matches they used to have to build up new upcoming stars, not champions.

They're long, they're not "actually halfway decent". The Fox match was alrightish, but Aksana is just terrible and nobody on the planet could carry her to a watchable match. Put Paige in there with Emma, Nattie, AJ, or either of the Bellas and she'd be much more over.

Foley's obviously got a point and it's no surprise that WWE is trying to maximise their profits at the expense of giving featured talent a slice of the pie. Still, it seems like Foley is going about this in the most attention-seeking manner possible.

That's only a bad thing if he's in it for himself. If his goal is to get everyone fairer payouts, he's going about it exactly the right way.

[Lean]

Why not the truth?

I think it's because he's advertised to appear on Raw?

[Andrew]

I assume they wanted to advance the storyline without calling upon Bryan to cut a big promo or work a long night. In doing so, they've established the return of unpredictable, monster Kane, as well as a title match with Bryan at the next pay-per...er, special event in a couple of weeks. This way, they've at least got a couple of weeks for that build to play out, and they don't have The Authority getting some cheap heat off a direct mention of Bryan's father's passing. It's not ideal, but I'm not bothered by it, given the circumstances.

[koberulz]

"The circumstances" include all the other beatdowns he's suffered since SummerSlam, though.

[Andrew]

I was only referring to the current circumstances in his personal life and what they're trying to accomplish with the current angle. They've made a lot of mistakes with him in the past, but they also gave him two clean wins over three main eventers to open and close Wrestlemania 30, along with the company's top title. Like I said, I agree he needs to be protected moving forward, but personally I'm reasonably optimistic and don't mind the way they wrote him off this week.