Lets Discuss All Things Wrestling - Even The T-Shirt Company AEW!

[PARROTHEAD]

3 hours ago, bcb1213 said:

I mean not really.  Big bang theory reruns hit 1.5-2 mill and don't cost as much to use.  Yea the diehards will watch but for how long.  Thunder was the beginning of the end for WCW.  It's hope I'm wrong but it's think it's a colossal misstep for AEW to do two shows a week 

Thunder was doing 3 million viewers and avg over 700k in the under 18 dept during its home stretch.

Those poor numbers then are somehow good enough to warrant a billion dollar contract today. Today theres just diehards that wont tune out no matter how stupid the product is. Theres a locked in base to where it pays to cater to them. Jericho sold 12k bottles of "the bubbly" at 23 bucks a pop in the first week alone. Then tickets, tshirts, videogames and all. Theres money around the product.

[Livewire]

So on the go home show for the Royal Rumble the main event was a mixed tag match that lasted four minutes. Come on.

Edited January 21, 2020 by Livewire

[Totty]

On 1/21/2020 at 1:16 PM, Livewire said:

So on the go home show for the Royal Rumble the main event was a mixed tag match that lasted four minutes. Come on.

This is a nutshell comment about why WWE is irrelevant anymore.  The characters are stale, with very few exceptions.  NXT is far and away better.  AEW is better than NXT.  The writing is awful.  Brock needs to step aside, and stay away.  The titles mean less than ever.  Most titles are hideous.  There is so much wrong in the E its not funny.  As a lifelong viewer, and subscriber, I am borderline walking away.  Monday and Friday nights at 8, I could care less anymore.  

[Dr LBC]

On 1/16/2020 at 5:06 PM, Deadpulse said:

well Brandi cant wrestle and Mel is green AF and Kharma is a part timer it seems. 

 

Their women's division sucks. Britt Baker is servicable, Nyla is a one trick pony, Riho is a novelty IMO, and Statlander is good with a ton of potential who has the worst gimmick that will hold her back. The only woman worth a damn as is is Shida but they dont book her as they should. She should be in Riho's spot except Kenny Omega likes em young. 

Yup.  Britt is still green and it's pretty obvious.  That said, it's criminal that they haven't followed through on some of the reach-out that they had in the past to the veteran female workers who could (for lack of a more appropriate word) carry her and make her look better than she is while she continues to learn.  I was truly shocked to see Mercedes Martinez show up in the NXT women's battle royal because I could swear she'd signed with AEW and was exactly the kind of hand that Britt needed to call matches against her and help build her up.

I honestly feel like they tried to throw Kenny a bone with the women's division because "he wanted to feel on the same level" and was insistent that he knew what he was doing... and he doesn't.  And, to be honest, he's been over in Japan for so long, I don't know that he actually has the connections to the hands on the domestic independent circuit to know who would be good to try to get in and who wouldn't, so he just keeps grasping at Japanese women who struggle to get over with American audiences.

Going out and getting someone like a Cheerleader Melissa (get her to work a different gimmick, maybe under her shoot name) or Tenille Dashwood (Emma), because barring them getting in a finished all-around product like Tessa, they're likely going to need to pin their hopes to whenever they manage to get hold of and bring in Jordynne Grace - and based off what I've seen of Kenny's booking, she'll end up a luke-warm attraction when she could be much more. 

[Dr LBC]

On 1/21/2020 at 10:16 AM, Livewire said:

So on the go home show for the Royal Rumble the main event was a mixed tag match that lasted four minutes. Come on.

The main event segments are in the 9'o'clock hour not the 10'o'clock one anymore.  By main event, I mean the segments they spend the bulk of the show building up.  It's a clear criticism that they should, and even recognize it, just go to two-hour programming for RAW, but (story of WWE these days - and it isn't just Vince, it's the whole family) they're greedy so they've not going to turn down the opportunity to sell more ad space and charge USA for an additional hour.

I realize that all wrestling is cyclical and rehashing of its own past, but I can't help but feel like anyone who is heaping praise on AEW for its "innovative writing" has never seen the Crockett Promotions days of WCW - they're literally rebooking stuff almost shot for shot from that era (not surprising, it's basically Dusty booking and it's pretty clear that Cody's got the book for this stuff - likely with input from JR and Arn).  You've got three different story arcs that Dusty himself into and worked going on right now with different AEW characters.  I'm only being fair here, not looking to grind an ax.

The titles meaning less than nothing argument is very debatable.  They don't have to be defended weekly or even monthly in order for them to have meaning; conversely, there's an argument to be made that "getting a shot at the title" means more because they happen less often for the tippy-top titles.  Should Brock be the title-holder?  I'd say no, but considering they've yet to build an attraction comparable to him, it shouldn't surprise anyone that a business is positioning themselves to put their biggest attraction in a marquee placement for their biggest spectacle of the year (Mania).

[Dr LBC]

On 1/17/2020 at 12:32 PM, PARROTHEAD said:

Thunder was doing 3 million viewers and avg over 700k in the under 18 dept during its home stretch.

Those poor numbers then are somehow good enough to warrant a billion dollar contract today. Today theres just diehards that wont tune out no matter how stupid the product is. Theres a locked in base to where it pays to cater to them. Jericho sold 12k bottles of "the bubbly" at 23 bucks a pop in the first week alone. Then tickets, tshirts, videogames and all. Theres money around the product.

That entire second paragraph can be summed up as "Marks will be marks."  (even if they're not smart enough to realize that they're marks)

[Deadpulse]

1 hour ago, The LBC said:

Yup.  Britt is still green and it's pretty obvious.  That said, it's criminal that they haven't followed through on some of the reach-out that they had in the past to the veteran female workers who could (for lack of a more appropriate word) carry her and make her look better than she is while she continues to learn.  I was truly shocked to see Mercedes Martinez show up in the NXT women's battle royal because I could swear she'd signed with AEW and was exactly the kind of hand that Britt needed to call matches against her and help build her up.

I honestly feel like they tried to throw Kenny a bone with the women's division because "he wanted to feel on the same level" and was insistent that he knew what he was doing... and he doesn't.  And, to be honest, he's been over in Japan for so long, I don't know that he actually has the connections to the hands on the domestic independent circuit to know who would be good to try to get in and who wouldn't, so he just keeps grasping at Japanese women who struggle to get over with American audiences.

Going out and getting someone like a Cheerleader Melissa (get her to work a different gimmick, maybe under her shoot name) or Tenille Dashwood (Emma), because barring them getting in a finished all-around product like Tessa, they're likely going to need to pin their hopes to whenever they manage to get hold of and bring in Jordynne Grace - and based off what I've seen of Kenny's booking, she'll end up a luke-warm attraction when she could be much more. 

It legitimately baffles me that Tenille has not appeared for AEW since Double or Nothing. The only thing I can think of is she said something or they said something to her and the sides flat out dont want to work together. 

Jordynne Grace is with Impact through May of 2021 I think

[Dr LBC]

38 minutes ago, Deadpulse said:

It legitimately baffles me that Tenille has not appeared for AEW since Double or Nothing. The only thing I can think of is she said something or they said something to her and the sides flat out dont want to work together. 

Jordynne Grace is with Impact through May of 2021 I think

I think the issue with Tenille is that she's, allegedly, not a great backstage presence (i.e. more trouble than she's worth) - part of the reason why Impact and ROH parted ways with her.  And if Impact doesn't want you that's a pretty bad indictment.

I figure Jordynne is eventually going to end up in AEW because of her friendship with Jericho.  We may see her make a couple of one-off appearances in things like battle royals and co-branded things like the Jericho cruise, due to Jericho's close ties with Don Callis.  Though that does bring to mind another question regarding Tenille, since she's a Storm Wrestling Academy graduate and Lance, Don, and Jericho are all close.

The whole booking of the women with actual name value who could also be good working hands at Double or Nothing was, realistically, the final straw for me with regard to Kenny's booking.  Tenille, Ivelisse, etc. all got like one token moment of shine each and then were quickly brushed aside.  It genuinely comes across like he doesn't want them there because they'd outshine/(inadvertently-bury) his ear-marked chosens - at which point, how does that make him any more defensible that Vince with his boners for Corbin, Lashley, and to a lesser extent Roman?

[Deadpulse]

32 minutes ago, The LBC said:

It genuinely comes across like he doesn't want them there because they'd outshine/(inadvertently-bury) his ear-marked chosens - at which point, how does that make him any more defensible that Vince with his boners for Corbin, Lashley, and to a lesser extent Roman?

The only thing you can say is that Kenny is just getting his feet wet booking and talent evaluating and he is doing it on a BIG platform with a TON of eyes and not a lot of room for error. 

[Jeezla]

I'll be bummed when Vince steals Keith Lee from NXT

[Dr LBC]

1 hour ago, Jeezla said:

I'll be bummed when Vince steals Keith Lee from NXT

I'm a bit more bummed (not that I don't love Pete Dunne) that we didn't get a renewal of the Matt Riddle/Keith Lee tag team from EVOLVE in the Dusty Classic.  Those guys have such unusual but unique chemistry.

Keith Lee may be the best thing that's happened to Velveteen Dream though.  We should probably get a Dream/Lee feud once Dream is back in action, and I'm hopeful that the potential from that and what it can do for Dream (he's really yet to work with a "big man" and Lee has the kind of athleticism to hang with VD) keeps Lee in NXT through the summer (makes sense if they hold off doing another draft until September of this year).  Dream needs Vince preoccupied with the XFL enough to not be meticulously crafting everything the writing staff is putting out, otherwise he's going to be stuck doing comedy bits like Otis, like Revival were, like Gallows and Anderson were, because he'll make Vince laugh and Vince will interpret that as "let's make him a comedy act, pal!"  And unfortunately, while Dream has burgeoning Rock charisma, he doesn't have Rock's family legacy and locker room connections to fall back on - except maybe Hunter (who will cowtow to Vince), because all the trainers from Tough Enough are rarely around (Booker is the most regular and that's like maybe once a month for pre-shows), the PC trainers aren't around the main roster regularly, his best hope for a backstage advocate (and even he seems to jump back and forth between producer on the main roster and ad hoc producer for NXT/NXT UK and special events) is Steve Corino, who apparently LOVES him.

[Jeezla]

1 hour ago, The LBC said:

I'm a bit more bummed (not that I don't love Pete Dunne) that we didn't get a renewal of the Matt Riddle/Keith Lee tag team from EVOLVE in the Dusty Classic.  Those guys have such unusual but unique chemistry.

Keith Lee may be the best thing that's happened to Velveteen Dream though.  We should probably get a Dream/Lee feud once Dream is back in action, and I'm hopeful that the potential from that and what it can do for Dream (he's really yet to work with a "big man" and Lee has the kind of athleticism to hang with VD) keeps Lee in NXT through the summer (makes sense if they hold off doing another draft until September of this year).  Dream needs Vince preoccupied with the XFL enough to not be meticulously crafting everything the writing staff is putting out, otherwise he's going to be stuck doing comedy bits like Otis, like Revival were, like Gallows and Anderson were, because he'll make Vince laugh and Vince will interpret that as "let's make him a comedy act, pal!"  And unfortunately, while Dream has burgeoning Rock charisma, he doesn't have Rock's family legacy and locker room connections to fall back on - except maybe Hunter (who will cowtow to Vince), because all the trainers from Tough Enough are rarely around (Booker is the most regular and that's like maybe once a month for pre-shows), the PC trainers aren't around the main roster regularly, his best hope for a backstage advocate (and even he seems to jump back and forth between producer on the main roster and ad hoc producer for NXT/NXT UK and special events) is Steve Corino, who apparently LOVES him.

I bet Lee shows up in the Rumble, has a good showing, and Vince will very much like the pop he gets. Then you can pretty much guarantee Lee will be on Raw by Wrestlemania. Maybe even have Lee eliminate Lesnar at RR (Since Vince is too dumb to let Drew or Samoa Joe or KO or pretty much anyone besides Seth get over on Brock).

I'd love to see Lee vs Aleister (Or KO or AJ or Drew or Joe)

Edited January 23, 2020 by Jeezla

[Dr LBC]

16 hours ago, Jeezla said:

I bet Lee shows up in the Rumble, has a good showing, and Vince will very much like the pop he gets. Then you can pretty much guarantee Lee will be on Raw by Wrestlemania. Maybe even have Lee eliminate Lesnar at RR (Since Vince is too dumb to let Drew or Samoa Joe or KO or pretty much anyone besides Seth get over on Brock).

I'd love to see Lee vs Aleister (Or KO or AJ or Drew or Joe)

Engh.  With him getting the NA Title last night, I'm willing to bet they keep him out of the Rumble.  If I'm betting on who get the nods, I'd earmark Ciampa, Walter (they're going to bring in someone from NXT UK and odds are best it's either Walter or Kassius Ohno), Balor, and one of Killian Dain or Damian Priest.  Riddle's another possibility, but I feel like they may hold off unless they really want to tease some early Riddle/Lesnar stuff (which may be, flatly, too logical for Vince).

I'm fairly convinced right now that Shayna wins the Women's Rumble.

[bcb1213]

On 1/21/2020 at 1:16 PM, Livewire said:

So on the go home show for the Royal Rumble the main event was a mixed tag match that lasted four minutes. Come on.

Typical wwe is they aren't gonna put any of their big ppv programs in physical jeopardy on go home shows 

On 1/22/2020 at 3:56 PM, The LBC said:

Yup.  Britt is still green and it's pretty obvious.  That said, it's criminal that they haven't followed through on some of the reach-out that they had in the past to the veteran female workers who could (for lack of a more appropriate word) carry her and make her look better than she is while she continues to learn.  I was truly shocked to see Mercedes Martinez show up in the NXT women's battle royal because I could swear she'd signed with AEW and was exactly the kind of hand that Britt needed to call matches against her and help build her up.

I honestly feel like they tried to throw Kenny a bone with the women's division because "he wanted to feel on the same level" and was insistent that he knew what he was doing... and he doesn't.  And, to be honest, he's been over in Japan for so long, I don't know that he actually has the connections to the hands on the domestic independent circuit to know who would be good to try to get in and who wouldn't, so he just keeps grasping at Japanese women who struggle to get over with American audiences.

Going out and getting someone like a Cheerleader Melissa (get her to work a different gimmick, maybe under her shoot name) or Tenille Dashwood (Emma), because barring them getting in a finished all-around product like Tessa, they're likely going to need to pin their hopes to whenever they manage to get hold of and bring in Jordynne Grace - and based off what I've seen of Kenny's booking, she'll end up a luke-warm attraction when she could be much more. 

If think it's hilarious Schiavone is getting more attention from her heel turn then she is 

[twslhs20]

Anyone start the the rumble game sign ups?

If so 30 cuz I'm that guy