Pro Wrestling

[Lone Star Horn 2016]

I know it's not a real sport, but i know some on here enjoy watching it. 

I went to WrestleCircus show in Austin, last night. Good show, lots of action, lasted just over 3 hours. 

Currently watching the NJPW "Strong Style Evolved" on AXS tv, it's live but I DVRd it and zipping thru the minimal commercials. Good ole JR is past his prime, he sucks with live commentary.  Also Josh Barnett dropped an f-bomb after the Ronpongi Vice 3k vs So Cal Uncensored.

[hpslugga 4058]

Dedicated Cornette-ite here

[Hook1997 5351]

This is the least exciting mania buildup in a long time in my opinion..  What’s with not bringing out Undertaker yet to build up a match that is in two weeks, dumb.

[scottonian 36]

man, i'm pretty stoked about mania - build or not.

Styles - Nak / Charlotte - Asuka / return of the Bryan are all going to be awesome

[hpslugga 4058]

10 hours ago, Hook1997 said:

This is the least exciting mania buildup in a long time in my opinion..  What’s with not bringing out Undertaker yet to build up a match that is in two weeks, dumb.

Possibly because he won't face him in a match, Cena will have to settle for someone else, and then Taker will do a run-in during that match. It's funny because I mentioned Cornette earlier and he's long speculated that Taker will, at some point (and maybe he's already there) act not as a competitor but as a specter that looms over Wrestlemania given his run of dominance for so long. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he spent a few years doing exactly that: fucking with other guys who call him out, they end up losing their matches, and Taker basically cuts a promo stating "even in death, people still lose when they challenge the Undertaker at Wrestlemania."

[scottonian 36]

Also, anything involving the Miz is worth $9.99 / mo right now, imo

[Vertigo 20276]

On 3/27/2018 at 9:11 AM, scottonian said:

man, i'm pretty stoked about mania - build or not.

Styles - Nak / Charlotte - Asuka / return of the Bryan are all going to be awesome

Agreed, this is going to be a good card. Strong tag team matches, strong title matches, strong women's matches, decent main events. I think they should do more than just Reigns vs Lesnar, or at least do a match stipulation that makes it more interesting like hell in a cell. Really excited to see what they do with Strowman and Miz. 

Rousey I think will be a letdown. They have her going in the wrong direction already. She needs to be a Goldberg level destructive heel to Charlotte and Asukas face, and she will not be very polished in the ring. 

Cena vs Taker will be meh, Taker is 2 or 3 WM's past his runway as much as I love the guy and cant really move in the ring anymore. Cena will have to carry that match and I have never been a huge Cena fan.  

[Texas Cow Fucker 0]

I miss The Ultimate Warrior...

[Hook1997 5351]

Mark Henry went into the WWE Hall of Fame last night.  First longhorn in that HOF?!   If anything I wish I went to NO to go to Kevin Nash’s party tonight, $100 a ticket all you can drink till early into the am and tons of old school attitude era wrestlers hanging out.  Now that would of been fun

[MNLonghornFUKM 8817]

http://ripple.is/mma/2402-wwe-wrestlemania-34

[Fudbelty 2787]

Wrestlemania bitches! The only wrestling I watch all year.

[hpslugga 4058]

That first match was great when miz wasn’t involved in the action.

Girls’ match is ok.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8817]

geez...the chicks match was actually pretty good

[BigOrange1 6432]

flair's daughter is such a star.  wonder if the ultimate goal is for her to face rousey.

[Fudbelty 2787]

Uhhhh. Ref definitely fucked up there. He hit the mat a third time while Orton had the cover.

[hpslugga 4058]

Time for Rousey.

if the WWE employed bookers instead of writers, this match wouldn’t be taking place and even if it did, this wouldn’t last more than 3 minutes bell to bell.

Edited April 9, 2018 by hpslugga

[hpslugga 4058]

There it is, folks. Ronda Rousey selling for Stephanie McMahon. The spirit of Vince Russo lives 

[Fudbelty 2787]

That was actually entertaining.

[hpslugga 4058]

Cena in the ring

[Fudbelty 2787]

John Cena suuuuuuuuuucccckkkkkkssss

[Fudbelty 2787]

This sucks. Taker better come out.

[hpslugga 4058]

I knew it’d be a squash if it happened at all

[hpslugga 4058]

Styles vs Nakamura next 

[FartingMonk 3606]

Aj styles is an awesome entertainer.

[FartingMonk 3606]

that gut buster was pretty 

[FartingMonk 3606]

nakamura with the heel turn!

[Fudbelty 2787]

Was Nicholas a Make A Wish Kid?

[MNLonghornFUKM 8817]

geez...that match was about an hour long

[FartingMonk 3606]

i was wondering if it was  make a wish thing tooo

[FartingMonk 3606]

that belly to face plant looked botch

[FartingMonk 3606]

kinda surprised Brock retained.  I figured he was going back to UFC.  Maybe it was just to fuck with WWE so he can get more money to do nothing

[hpslugga 4058]

Never thought I’d see a Wrestlemania main event end with a hard-way. Good touch

as far as UFC, forget that shit. Brock turns 41 this summer and is in no condition to make that transition.

Edited April 9, 2018 by hpslugga

[Fudbelty 2787]

I’m far from a true fan of WWE. I literally only watch Wrestlmania every year. That being said this was probably my least favorite one.

[hpslugga 4058]

In terms of what?

not being a smart ass, i really have no basis for comparison because I stopped watching regularly after that hideous invasion angle in 2001 and only watched 3 full Manias after that. Really all I ever did in that span is watch Undertaker matches, and of course Mark could get the crowd to pop to him working with a dead turtle.

I will say that I did like the fact that it was pure wrestling and promos and none of that backstage horseshit that pro wrestling became so notorious for in the late 90’s up until (apparently) recently. I didn’t like the fact that the guys are going for so many high spots with absolutely zero psychology for long stretches (that opening match was ridiculous with all those excessive momentum shifts), and aside that fucking New Day team, that last girls match, and Rousey taking arm drags from a girl who couldn’t whip cream with a boat’s motor, I didn’t think it was all that bad compared to what I remember turning me off to it so long ago.

 

 

Edited April 9, 2018 by hpslugga

[Bigpoppapump 529]

I liked the IC match, Charlotte asuka match, Ronda match, the rest were alright. Most of the crowd left before bork and Roman. I was also spoiled at NXT the night before.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Hook1997 5351]

Dana White already said Brock is resigned with UFC and is prolly going to fight for the belt, they need ppv sales

[Bigpoppapump 529]

I liked the IC match, Charlotte asuka match, Ronda match, the rest were alright. Most of the crowd left before bork and Roman. I was also spoiled at NXT the night before.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fudbelty 2787]

I really can’t pin point exactly what it was. Maybe it has more to do with I don’t watch any wrestling at all.

I think I was missing that HUGE moment that Wrestlmania usually provides. It felt like Cena and Taker was attempting to be it but it fell wayyyyyy short.

I actually enjoyed Charlotte and Osuka(yes I probably got her name wrong), Rousey and Angle, and Aj Styles vs the other guy. The rest honestly just kind of Meh’d me.

Again this is all my own shitty opinion and am likely way off base.

[Hook1997 5351]

Brock resigned but will be able to fight for the UFC also.

[BigOrange1 6432]

lmao @ that failed conclusion to the roman reigns experiment.  fucking hilarious.  what a bust he turned out to be.

[Jshep34 2308]

Rumor is roman to get title at event in saudi Arabia.  Dont know if brocks new deal is just till end of month

[hpslugga 4058]

12 hours ago, BigOrange1 said:

lmao @ that failed conclusion to the roman reigns experiment.  fucking hilarious.  what a bust he turned out to be.

That’s what happens when they force guys down people’s throats: they get rejected and don’t produce near the crowd reaction they were hoping for.  The only difference between John Cena and Roman Reigns is that the girls like John Cena.

[Vertigo 20276]

Pretty sure Brock will drop the title to Reigns in the UAE. It will be in a steel cage, so should be pretty funny to see Lesnar throw him around for another 20 minutes. 

Rousey was great, AJ/Nakumura was really good, Rollins/Balor/Miz was great, Charlotte/Asuka was great. The rest was a big step down, although I did find it funny that Stroman pulled a 10 year old out of the crowd for a tag team championship match. 

 

The Raw after wrestlemania is my favorite show of the year. So much craziness and the crowd is like they are at a soccer game. 

Highlights:

Jeff Hardy is back, but looked rusty as hell and botched a swanton bomb and it was kind of hilarious. 

Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt are now a tag team and I am really looking forward to that. 

Bobby Lashley is back in the WWE. I hope they don't mid card him like they have done with Balor/Nakamura/Gallows/Anderson.  Side note: EC3 is in NXT now.

They pulled up Ember Moon, AOP, and No Way Jose to the roster. Jose SUUUUUUUUCKED. Ember was pretty badass, I could see her and Asukah having some awesome matches. 

Page retired due to neck injury

Reigns came out and looked like he was in a car crash, had a softball sized knot on his head and could barely walk, came out and started whining. Samoa Joe came back and punked him for whining...Again. 

 

 

[hpslugga 4058]

Ok, busy as hell yesterday and didn't have the time to put in the thoughtful reply to the Rousey match that I wanted to until now:

Here's the deal, and I'm basically parroting the words of Mr. James E Cornette, but I'm doing it because I legitimately agree with it. Professional Wrestling used to be built around a very simple formula:

-Two guys (or girls or a tag team or whatever the fuck) do not like each other
-One of them is an asshole that hates everyone, the other one is a hero that people cheer for
-They're going to have a fight
-They're going to work said fight
-They're going to work said fight in such a way that leads the audience, both at home and in the arena, to believe that they're really fighting each other
-One of them is going to win, the other is going to lose, and you (the fan) are interested either in watching it on free TV, PPV, or buying a ticket to go and watch it live and in person to see what the fuck's going to happen.

Of course that concept died a slow death beginning in 1983 when Vince Jr. started competing against the WWF's former allies of the NWA, but time has proven that the Sports Entertainment model is a failure and in this day, pro wrestling has never been less popular in terms of television viewership and ticket sales than any other point in history since its inception. Recently it has seemed that they're trying to reintegrate the more extreme elements of worked-shoot angles (i.e. Brock hard-waying guys like Reigns and Orton, CM Punk's pipe bomb promos and the like) in order to restore a semblance of credibility, but the problem is it's not near as consistent and they still have those idiotic Sports Entertainment features like the New Day team. The only way that WWE can flip its future in terms of declining PPV buys, TV ratings, ticket sales, sponsorships, etc is to reintegrate those worked-shoot fights full time.

Ronda Rousey was the perfect piece of evidence for this. In case you haven't seen it, she actually offered an apology to the WWE fans because she didn't think that they'd accept a person like her. 

Let me translate that: she was surprised that she, a legitimate shoot-fighter, was accepted in the realm of Sports Entertainment. Why? Because contrary to what she had been led to believe by Paul Levesque, Stephanie, Vince Jr., etc, the fans still want to see shoots (or at least worked-shoots). That's precisely why the UFC has been beating Vince's ass in PPV buys.

If Ronda Rousey were booked against Doink the Clown, they'd boo his ass out of the fucking building and would throw babies in the air when she locked him in that armbar. That's why she got that huge pop every time she walked into the arena: they wanted to see her whip someone's ass. It's the same reason the people still pop for Brock even though he's taken a shit on the business at every given opportunity: because when he's actually participating, he beats the living shit out of even the biggest guys on the roster. But in my estimation, Rousey's shine wore off the very second that she was taking arm drags and such from Stephanie McMahon. In real life, Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey would have dismembered those two in about 15 seconds, and I only say that because Kurt would get HHH near the point of tapping before tagging in Ronda to let her get her shit in as well. Going over 20 minutes with daddy's princess and the son-in-law doesn't help Rousey's image in the WWE.

What happened in that match is akin to a Martian invasion of Earth taking place, and when the Martian ship opens up, out walks Marvin the Martian with his cosmic ray gun. Rule #1 when it comes to outsiders breaking into new pro wrestling turf is "get the invader over." If she is gonna take arm drags from and getting her best shit blocked by Stephanie McMahon in a match that took 60X the amount of time she needed to win it convincingly, why would it be ridiculous to have her actually lose to a Nia Jax or a Charlotte Flair?

What they should have done is start booking Rousey in matches immediately after she signed, have her squash everyone in less than 30 seconds, have her win the Raw Women's Championship at the February PPV and have her (with Angle in her corner) face Charlotte Flair (with Ric in hers) for a Title-for-Title match at Mania, and have the match go a little longer but with the same result to unite the two championships.

What they could have done from that point is have her run through the rest of the ladies roster (since she's technically signed to both shows having won both titles) and then some of the men. That would culminate in the WWE signing some other female from MMA/UFC in the time window of Survivor Series-to-Royal Rumble (November to January) and challenging her to a Wrestlemania 35 match, which would have been the peak point of Ronda's career in the WWE. That would have drawn significantly more money, interest, and credibility than that shit show they put on this past Sunday night.

But that ship has sailed, and now she's "that UFC fighter that took arm drags from Stephanie McMahon." Whatever they book her in won't have near the interest, no matter the opponent. Think I'm wrong? Go back and look at what they did with (I should say "to") Dan Severn. 

Edited April 10, 2018 by hpslugga

[Eastwood 4394]

I haven't watched wrestling in forever, but you essentially described the playbook the WCW used for Bill Goldberg. 

[Hook1997 5351]

Yea Steph being able to hold off a arm bar from Rhonda was a bit obserd.  Supposedly Brock just resigned till the deal in Saudi Arabia then he loses the belt to Roman, the change was because  the crowd response wasn’t going to be what they wanted Again...  They think it will be better overseas.  Brock is suppose to fight the winner of the next heavy weight championship match in the UFC, Dana needs ppv buys with Connor out of the picture I’m guessing.

[cmontexas 3270]

Rousey and Charlotte is going to main event Wrestlemania next year

[hpslugga 4058]

9 hours ago, Eastwood said:

I haven't watched wrestling in forever, but you essentially described the playbook the WCW used for Bill Goldberg. 

And that was one of the few correct things that they did, which actually slowed their demise until of course they hired Russo and Ferrara to commandeer an already leaking ship and steer it directly into the iceberg. They did that for Goldberg because he was new to the industry, he was a big strong tough guy and couldn't cut a promo, plus they needed some new blood because it had been all about the nWo for about a year and a half they didn't know how to follow up that angle. 

If they really just had to have HHH and Stephanie in there (due primarily to the fact that Vince always kowtows to HHH whenever he wants to work with the guy that draws all the money), what they at least should have done was, instead of using Kurt Angle, allow Ronda to include her husband and have them squash the Helmsleys in a couples match earlier in the year (i.e. February PPV or Royal Rumble), which still opens the door to that year of terror I just described. 

Edited April 11, 2018 by hpslugga

[ATLLonghorn 848]

On 4/10/2018 at 11:34 AM, hpslugga said:

tl;dr

Rousey's debut has been near universally praised by marks, smarks and people who cover and write about pro wrestling for a living. You're really swimming against the current here.

[hpslugga 4058]

1 hour ago, ATLLonghorn said:

Rousey's debut has been near universally praised by marks, smarks and people who cover and write about pro wrestling for a living. You're really swimming against the current here.

Oh goddamnit. This is just like on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares where Ramsay tells the head chef that the food is shit, the person retorts with some insipid remark to the effect of "we get compliments from the customers." As Gordon would fire back, "the fucking dining room is empty!" 

And 2016-2017 was even worse than 2015. In fact, 2017 barely stayed over the 2.0 mark (2.17 to be exact). With no other real competition, what I said earlier is accurate: this present period marks the lowest point in pro wrestling's history in terms of total TV viewership and ticket sales. They've botched every single opportunity they've had, and you're coming at me with the opinions of the very limited few people who still give a shit about this business.

The people you're referring to are those who have a tendency to approve whatever product they're presented, which is why WWE gets away with (when it comes to those viewers) some of the dumbest angles in the history of wrestling. 

Edited April 11, 2018 by hpslugga