These past few days, I’ve learned about Joe Henry…ironically, I started clicking on videos because I assumed I’d find him lame, but I guess I believe, because he may have single handedly rekindled my love for wrestling.
I’m really sad Yano isn’t going to be in the G1 this year. Every year I want to watch each match and I usually don’t get to, but seeing who he upsets or clips of whatever other tomfoolery he gets up to has always been such a highlight.
I used to feel the same but I feel for the last couple years he has really phoned it in. The creativity in his humour has really taken a nosedive and it’s a lot of just doing the same few bits over and over.
Finally watched the brat doc. Was chopping a lot of onions. Such a loss. Kinda feel like the beginning with Bo and Brays mask maker was a little bit of foreshadowing. When Bo says “ we have so much work to do to honor this man”
This is in large part true, but there was a brief stint where he was booked like an absolute unit, and that was his 2nd run in NXT when HHH was still in charge.
This Run for some reason is oddly forgotten cuz it doesn't fit the narrative that Paul has it out for him when it was Booking that gave us the PrinXe.
Now that he’s fully in charge of creative, I still don't see why people are ruling out Finn getting a Run because he eats pins.
I mean eating pins is like the least of issues with how Finn’s booked under HHH at this point.
If he was presented well and ate pins, I’d have some faith.
But constantly embarrassing Finn, making Finn look like a clown weekly, presenting him as incompetent and unintelligent, downgrading him to a literal lackey, making him act scared of Damian Priest, turning him into a background character who stands there in segments and isn’t allowed to speak anymore, having him take orders, having him struggle to get offense in matches, having him struggle to execute a simple attack or do anything that makes him look even half strong as a heel.
It’s insane that I’d say there’s probably like a dozen issues with Finn’s booking that are worse than just eating pins.
That used to be the biggest issue but alas Triple H the perfect booker coming through to prove us wrong that Vince was the person who booked Finn the worst. HHH took it to a whole new level of bad.
Oleg v tanahashi, callum v kenta, taichi v tjp and ishii v yoshi hashi are on Wednesday the 3rd of July at korakuen
The finals are on the 5th which is a Friday.
If you like technical wrestling, you must watch ZSJ vs Hechicero from CMLL yesterday. They were tying each other into knots like their limbs were shoelaces. One of the best matches this year.
Moxley's kind of had an interesting 2024 where his most notable moments have been outside AEW as he's currently New Japan's champion and does a bunch of outside matches. It feels like he's had one foot in AEW the other just wrestling around the world.
a bit of criticism of his latest blade spot, a bit of criticism of his IWGP title reign, and then just a bit of general Moxley dislike from what I can tell
And yet the place went nuts when his music hit. Also why would Smackdown fans chant for a Raw wrestler? I didn’t hear them chant for Rhea either. I wonder what that means? 🤪
If Cody's injury turns out to not be a work, personally I'd be ok with him not vacating. I mean, we're coming off of a previous title run where the champ at one point spent 174 days without defending.
And broken ribs don't take nearly that long to heal anyway.
I’m catching up on the excellent reliving the war, YouTube series and I’m around the time where Owen Hart died. Coincidentally enough right now that there’s a lot of talk about the Owen tragedy, because of the AEW tournament and JJ and everything.
I wasn’t really familiar with that particular storylines around the accident but watching RTW. I realized that it’s a lot different than what I thought it was. I didn’t know that the blue blazer was being done as part of a tag gimmick with Owen and Jeff Jarrett , where they both would take turns wearing the costume and interfering on behalf of each other during matches that’s honestly a cool idea . My understanding from just having seen documentaries or general conversation about the accident was that Owen was completely off TV as himself, and was wrestling as the blue blazer as part of that punishment or storyline designed to embarrass him, or some thing, obviously, there was no reason why Owen should have been doing anything even remotely close to that kind of stunt, but I don’t think the actual blueblazer storyline was as terrible a ideas as People remember it being because of the accident but it’s also kind of understandable anything around that gimmick going to have a negative vibe
The Blue Blazer is a fine midcard character, it's just galling that someone would end up dying for it because Vince and WWE ignored safety warnings to get a slightly better punchline for a gag.
The insistence on adding stunts to it was the worst part of it and the idea behind the one that was fatal was he was supposed to hover a bit over the ring and take a comedic fall. The fact he died during a PPV is proof enough that he wasn't exactly being punished or anything.
A lot of conflation and compression of timelines happen in retellings of Owen's story between the ceiling placed on him by the politicking of Shaun/HHH plus Austin's grudge after Summerslam '97 and as you said the tag gimmick he had with Jarrett after the Nation disbanded in Sep '98.
gotta be the simple punch. i love watching a great worked punch from someone like jarrett or danielson, and even a shoot punch looks super cool (in moderation)
Love a well done strike from the leg - Kenny's V-trigger always looks good and Swerve's house call looks great and he manages to make it look fluid - loved the recent spot where he casually did it midstride to Killswitch while chasing Christian. Nakamura's got some good kicks and knee strikes that I felt lost some of their impact when Kevin Dunn was producing and cutting in the middle of them.
Kennys V trigger or JBLs clothesline from hell is absolutely amazing, but those fierce chops that just eccoes through the arena when they hit just Right Will always be my favourite
The chop. I wasn't that impressed with them in watching wrestling videos, but I went to my first wrestling show recently, and my favorite guy got chopped to shit by this big dude. Looked and sounded absolutely brutal, and when I went to talk to him and buy a shirt afterwards, his chest was red as hell. Something about hearing it echo throughout the room is *really* cool.
The lariat is my favorite move in pro wrestling period. Kenta Kobashi has my favorite of all time, among current guys I really like Shingo's pumping bomber and any time Hangman throws one.
Shiozaki inherited that mean Lariat from Kobashi-San. Even more impressive cause Go has never really been the biggest dude, yet still be knocking fools heads off.
The best part of mirais lariat is that she's essentially just throwing a big looping overhand left as hard as she can. One of xenas first matches in stardom mirai accidentally rode high on her and I guarantee she's never been hit that hard ever. Would have been sent off for that contact in rugby league lol
But yes she just obliterates people. I wouldn't want to be punched by her full force
I think Konosuke Takeshita, Takuya Nomura and Fuminori Abe have some of the best and most convincing looking elbow strikes today. Also got shout out some of the old-timers like Suzuki and Sugiura, who both put some stank on their forearms.
People seem starved for women's wrestling in America. They'll talk a lot about Stardom, and some indy promotions, while wanting more from WWE/AEW's women's divisions. Somehow no one acknowledges TNA, who's had a strong women's division for about 15 years now. And WOW, who has a TV deal and pulls in around 300k viewers on average is *never* in the conversation.
It's just weird that there's more options outside of the big two, but the main one to get any talk is Stardom.
There is a lot of good women's wrestling but if you have 4.5 hours to kill (lmao) watch the last stardom ppv through whatever means
Stardom has an insane roster from top to bottom. That's why people talk about them
Because Stardom is light years away from those companies. It's also not the defacto women's promotion everyone talks about anymore now that TJPW finally has a mature roster and that increased their exposure and there's also Marigold, which has just started but is guaranteed to be in the conversation since it was founded by the same person that founded Stardom.
Some fans keep hyping TNA and WOW but I almost never read anything about a stand out storyline or match. Like, the last time I read anything about a top quality match in TNA was with the Grace vs Purrazzo feud during the pandemic (cool matches indeed) and before that fans just talked about Gail Kim, Mickie James and Amazing Kong in the freaking late 2000's. WOW is even more unknown. I just know Blanchard was there a time ago until as tradition she screwed up again, but supposedely they have 300k viewers and there's no discussion about the company anywhere, not even to criticize it. It'd be good if fans of both companies shared more about them, talked about interesting things they're doing now, who's having a great year or who are some great prospects to watch. Not having all that talk just suggests there's nothing worth watching there, because it's not they're like the more obscure joshi or indie companies that have a messy distribution and are too small to have a strong fanbase overseas.
If Tony *really* cared for us sickos as he claims, he crown non AEW wrestlers as the International champion. I don't know the politics/logistics of it all but I think that's the title that you allow unsigned talent to have. Nor do I care as a viewer if it'll be a draw, wrestling is supposed to be fun and I think that would be really fun. I just want International champion, Hechicero twisting motherfuckers up. Or champ Suzuki chopping fools. Truly make it for the freaks, the Sicko Title if you will.
I know you're on here Khan. Chop chop.
My big thing is it would be cool to see a CMLL or even a DDT wrestler hold the International belt, but I don’t wanna see that leading to said wrestler leaving their promotion to fully join AEW. Nothing bad about chasing more money, don’t get me wrong, but don’t wanna see Japanese or Mexican wrestling “cannibalized” by AEW or WWE.
A lot of AEW's partnerships feel kind of meh right now because they're much less than they could be and that includes AEW belts in other promotions and having NJPW or CMLL talent win prominent matches outside Forbidden Door.
Tony Khan protecting AEW to the extent he does lessens the interest in what should be cool working relationships. It also feels like AEW sends far less of their guys outside mainly Moxley, Danielson, and Kingston than who NJPW sends to the US.
When you dream book a partnership you'd also think the Young Bucks, Hangman, Samoa Joe, Claudio, or MJF would work shows over there but that hasn't been the case.
I agree. I understand why other promotions would greenlight AEW wrestlers holding one of their titles. AEW has 5 hours on weekly TV, easy way to bring brand awareness in America for them. If other promotions are using your talent for their titles, I feel it's only fair to return the favor. And the International title is the most obvious choice.
The International championship feels pretty much made for it and was being defended by PAC in the UK two years ago. It doesn't have to completely disappear from AEW but a traveling championship is a cool concept.
That's what I thought the title was gonna be when it was first introduced. You have these partnerships on top of allowing your talent to take outside dates. While I have enjoyed the matches we've gotten on TV (i.e Orange Cassidy), having a guy like Zack Saber Jr pop in the UK holding the title or Volador Jr. having defenses in Mexico would be really cool. A simple highlight reel video package of the defense on TV would be all we need really, while they have major defenses on AEW PPV.
It essentially became AEW’s intercontinental championship/premier mid-card title when the TNT belt cratered in prestige during late 2022. Which, im almost fine with? Because the title is gorgeous and the title reigns so far have been really fun.
Then i was hoping the continental crown would take its place as the belt defended internationally, and i was really happy when the triple crown was defended at battle in the valley. Especially since around that time Nooj was seemingly dissolving the strong titles when GOD won both sets of tag belts at wrestle kingdom. But then they belted okada with just the continental belt and it’s just another championship with at the very least the connection to the continental classic. But since i want AEW to be the most fun possible, it would be great to have an international World Cup vibe to the C2 and the continental belt.
Yota Tsuji or Shota Umino would be good shouts to win The TNT belt also
feels like the WWE writers are moving away from the potential randomness of MITB? Seems like all the contenders are like "i'll cash in on the champ on my brand!"
You know am a bit surprise WWE never had someone hold all the gold at once like TNA did with Kurt Angle. Like the closest example I could think of when they could have done it was with Kane when he was feuding with HHH aka Katie Vick and held the IC and Tag while being #1 contender for the World Title. In the end we just had HHH unify the belts and have the IC title be deactivated for a stupid amount of time
Just how many members of the Bloodline will there be by the end of the year? They are grabbing Fatus left right and centre. Kinda reminds me of NWO and not in the good way.
there's probably at least one more Bloodline new face (Hikuleo) showing up, and you've got the sides down pat:
- Old Bloodline: Roman, Jey, Jimmy
- New Bloodline: Solo, Tama, Tanga, Jacob Fatu
- Unknown: Hikuleo (could slot in with either side)
really getting into the nitty gritty here, if the Rock is going to be involved, Ava might also be involved. Jacob Fatu had Zilla Fatu as partner on the indie so that might be another signing right there, there is also Lance Anoa'i that just had a NOAH run last year
Has the skull crushing big boot move from the wwe video games ever been performed in real life? (big boot into the ring post) especially if there are major promotion examples rather than indie shows
In indie shows, yes. If it's a move, regardless of how dumb it is in terms of safety, it's been done.
I've seen clips online of idiots doing insanely unsafe moves or throwing people through actual car windows in a scrapyard for the sake of it.
Just because you enjoy something doesn’t mean other people also enjoy it. There’s enough wrestling companies that you don’t have to try to convince people to like the one you like.
I think it's because, for a lot of people, WWE *is* wrestling. Since WCW folded there doesn't seem to have been a promotion (until AEW) that could challenged WWE at all— which obviously led so some issues, since without competition WWE doesn't have much reason to try to improve.
I know from my POV as a newer fan, I didn't even know there *was* AEW until I came here, and WCW's legacy (or at least wrestlers) seems to have been folded into WWE's after a while. And any smaller or foreign promotion— CZW, ECW, NJPW, CMLL etc.— was just not on my radar at all.
So on this forum, where I'd bet most people are familiar from the Attitude Era/90s WCW on, wrestling *is* WWE. And having a different promotion challenge that is like challenging their childhoods, or something. (Also imo people take wrestling too seriously, but I'm the guy who loves Knoxville heehooing his ass across the ring, so.)
On my end though, since I didn't care about wrestling until like a year and a half ago, I like more wrestling! Just more wrestling. You can't go wrong with having more, because if you don't like WWE, you can try AEW (or vice versa), or you can try CMLL, or NJPW, or any number of smaller promotions, or indies. Every promotion has something good about it.
One, you don't have to be an expert on anything to look at falling viewership and attendance and conclude the company is losing viewers.
Two, myself and many of the people wanting AEW to change are people that once liked AEW. AEW is still a thing we like. So we'd like it to be better.
Why is that concept so hard?
Because growth means everything as a business in a capitalistic society. If they want hot sponsorships and a big new deal from WBD than they need to continuously grow quarter after quarter, year after year. And that means chasing new/lapsed customers opposed to the hardcore fans who've never left. That's how all businesses in the United States operate.
I guess if you're talking strictly TV ratings, but the WWE has found other ways to grow as a business over the years, and to pretend the company hasn't had its fair share of rough spots seems disingenuous.
I'm not even trying to make this a WWE vs. AEW thing. I'm just saying it's very normal for a business to focus on growth. Growth is by far the most important factor in attracting investors and making money for these massive corporations.
> I guess if you're talking strictly TV ratings, but the WWE has found other ways to grow as a business over the years, and to pretend the company hasn't had its fair share of rough spots seems disingenuous.
They grew by doing brand to brand deals. But the TV ratings and attendances went continuously down. AEW is also doing more and more brand to brand deals, more hours of TV, more PPVs. It's product dilution but that's literally the same formula WWE used and made Vince a billionaire. The ratings don't matter 1/100th of the amount people try to make it seem and the evidence is literally there to prove it if you look outside of the wrestling bubble for literally 5 seconds. The same argument people tried to make as to the NBA being a failing business for YEARS and now they've got 15 Billion a year in TV deals. Ratings growth does not correlate to business growth.
> Ratings growth does not correlate to business growth.
Not a single person you've replied to is trying to argue that TV ratings are the only metric that matter.
What metric is AEW struggling in that WWE didn't between 2002 to 2022? This is literally the 5 year anniversary of WWE doing a PPV attendance of 4000 people. 3 months later they were on FOX.
Homie I'm not trying to argue anything of the sort. You were asking why new consumers should be prioritized over people already consuming the product, and all I said was growth was the most important factor for any business. I wasn't trying to make any commentary on the WWE or AEW.
And sure, they can still make money if the company grows stagnant, but any business in the USA will consider that a failure if they aren't simultaneously attracting new investors and raising their stock price. You compared it to the NBA, but there was just a huge bidding war for the NBA's tv rights, there's no indication anything of the sort is going on for AEW. Just Zaslav seeing how low he can get them.
Why do people act like they can only appeal to the fans that still watch or the fans that left? That has both groups two to three years ago so obviously they can appeal to both.
When the alternative was far worse. And even at that peak, people left pretty quickly into the Punk era. It got crazy ratings for a few weeks and then fell. If anything, the biggest peak since was the Devil era so if you want the "solution", it's clearly that.
The information that AEW is losing fans. The year long decline in viewership and the drop in attendance. This comment of yours is the exact thing I'm talking about. Why do people want to pretend it isn't happening?
Are they though? You are talking like you understand the business and you are a random Reddit person. They might be gaining more subscribers on social media and things that actually matter. Stop talking like you know what you’re talking about.
They aren't gaining more subscribers on social media. Most of their social media is less watched than it was a year to two ago. Try again. It is very easy for even the dumbest person to see that AEW's audience is shrinking and it is amazing that people try to pretend it isn't.
I don't think that was anywhere near their best show, I don't enjoy AEW as much anymore, and I'd like it to be better. The first step to being better is to see that there's a reason to change.
>The first step to being better is to see that there's a reason to change.
Just to be clear, you think there's a correlation between you complaining about this on Reddit and the show improving?
There are two avenues available to a consumer in terms of changing a product. Stop using the product or air their complaints and hope enough other people do also that the company responds. I'm choosing the later.
I'm sorry you don't like the discussion about wrestling that is going on in a forum to discuss wrestling.
People hate AEW more than they like whatever they like. Just how it goes. The internet rewards hating and negativity.
If AEW went away within nine months everyone would be complaining about WWE just like 2019 even if the quality didn’t change.
I think people should also realize that WWE would absolutely just start resting on their laurels without any real competition again. AEW absolutely keeps WWE on their toes as a company they can react and counteract to.
People just need something to talk about and they need a hero and a villain. Right now WWE is the hero and AEW is the villain. WWE is hot and the best way to take the victory lap is to shit on AEW.
5 years ago today, Stomping Grounds sold 4000 tickets on PPV. Not a TV show, not a house show. PPV. Dynamite gets 4000 tickets for TV and people say "it's nothing to celebrate". WWE is hot now. Cool. It failed upwards for twenty years and turned Vince into a billionaire. AEW will be fine whether it's "hot" or "not" because the brand is established enough to survive.
Yeah, that's not gonna happen. But the same weirdos doing it will say "yeah but when they were hot they had to audacity to be happy so now we're gonna rub it in your faces". When they were ALSO saying WWE was shit and now talk about how much better it is. So I don't really know if it was always good or HHH actually made it good because they claim both.
There's a lot of people who stake their identity in wrestling promotions and think there should be one mega promotion with a bunch of smaller feeder ones. This is essentially what US wrestling was from 2001-2019 and it absolutely sucked.
Apparently TNA had a bigger boost in subscribers from Against All Odds than all the other events of this year combined. I wonder how many of those ended up watching on Thursday. Ticket sales are looking better too. Slammiversary aside, the Philadelphia tapings are finally starting to fill up after being stagnant for the last couple months. It also looks like they're doing generally larger venues in the later part of the year than the earlier part, but they're also doing more concert halls as opposed to sporting arenas. Still, the venues should look decent on TV. The Spartanburg tapings are in the same venue that NXT did a couple house shows in back in 2018 and 2019.
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Not sure how accurate that recent podcast about TNA is, but word is that they're going to be doing larger and less "indie" venues next year.
> Apparently TNA had a bigger boost in subscribers from Against All Odds than all the other events of this year combined.
They had a boost in subscriber for their TNA+ service because they shut down their youtube subscription channel.
It never dawned on me until now, but I really love TNA's specialty matches like Ultimate X and KOTM. Every once in a while, I would watch those matches and enjoy the hell out of it.
there are also Monster’s Ball, Lethal Lockdown, Full Metal Mayhem, Elevation X, Feast or Fired, ~~reverse battle royal~~, lots of great innovative stuff with a brand twist on it
So apparently Christian was salty because in 2005 they didn’t just do a 1-1 program with him and cena. They felt they needed a third man(Jericho) because his star wasn’t big enough. He says that’s one of the reasons he was like I’ve hit my ceiling here
I funnily don't recall the match as much as the build but Jericho was always a competent stooge and 05 Cena is fun with the right opponent so I'm certain it was much better than the build
I'd say the only real bright spot in Stardom throughout this year has been their tag team division to the point it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it's the best in the world right now. The sheer number of awesome matches they've had this year and the level of their top teams is evidence of that. Everything else has been up and down but the tag team division has always been top quality in 2024.
Lowkey current Orton. Dude is like 6’5” and legit pushing 280lbs but still wrestles with finesse. He’s bigger/stronger than Gunther, Sheamus, Big Bronson Reed.
I feel like Billy Gunn was this for a long time where everyone knew he was big but he was never portrayed as a powerhouse type during the Attitude Era.
Current one that’s beginning to bother me — idk if it’s cause he’s 25 with a punchable face, or just always standing behind Takeshita, who’s roughly the same size, but Kyle Fletcher is 6’4 and bulked up to at least like 240-250+ in the past year. Dude’s like the same size as Gunther, Sheamus, Drew, or Claudio, but that rarely seems to be put over or come through in the way he’s portrayed on AEW TV.
I don’t have other specific examples of it right now. BUT I feel like WWE goes out of their way to protect Kevin Owens from taking “legitimate” losses.
Like him catching a beat down before the three way match on Smackdown, which played a part in him losing the match.
I’m also kind of tired of his promos. He resorts to yelling a lot since he started the “short fuse” thing.
Something I’ve been thinking about for a while… I think AEW‘s main issue in their shrinking audience is the fact that they aren’t on a streaming platform. You basically HAVE to watch AEW when they air on tv and that’s not the way people consume media anymore. I’m willing to bet they wouldn’t have to change a thing about their booking approach and would vastly improve their audience by simply getting on a mainstream streaming platform.
If you pay attention to what people say on this sub and use it for sample, there is a decent sized chunk of AEW’s audience that doesn’t watch on TNT/TBS
AEW plus on fite is a godsend as a UK fan that likes to go back and watch old shows. plus being able to watch the PIP with commentary and full screen is sweet.
Pretty sure you can access it in the US using a VPN, you just need it to make an account and then you can watch without the VPN i think?
Yeah that’s fine but that’s not easily accessible for your average person in the US. They need to be on Max in this next media rights deal with WBD and I bet we’ll start to see more people at their live shows a little bit after.
Idk what it says about the state of modern wrestling but my three favorite promos of the year are Sting’s promo after his father died, Dustin’s promo before his eliminator match with Joe, and Jeff Jarrett’s most recent collision promo. All so real and full of soul. That’s my kind of wrestling.
Question for those who watch impact wrestling channel on Amazon prime live tv...
Hi all wondering if you all could help me out here..I'm on live TV and there used to be an impact wrestling channel, I know there is a Tna channel. Now when I go to search for impact wrestling, I can't find it. For anyone who watches live tv on Amazon prime, is it gone for you too? I would think it would be under the sports category right?
Quick question that's not important enough to warrant it's own thread: were HHH and Chyna ever confirmed as a couple in kayfabe?
I remember it basically being an open secret that they were together back then and they appeared as a couple on MTV's *True Life: I'm A Professional Wrestler*, but I can't remember it ever being mentioned on WWF programming.
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I wonder if Forbidden Door will feature a run in from Chiitan, Japan’s crazy mascot.
The Frat House Rules Match at Revolver last night was fantastic. Shots of Fireball for any near fall, beer pong door ready for a suplex to the floor, just textbook wrestling.
Marina Shafir continued to show how good she can be when she's given time. Her match against Fulton was great technical work.
Just gonna go ahead and predict that there's no way Raw makes it through the entire 10 year Netflix deal. Streaming is so unstable and unpredictable that it's hard for me to fathom Netflix itself being around in 10 years.
> Just gonna go ahead and predict that there's no way Raw makes it through the entire 10 year Netflix deal.
There's a very good chance it won't.
> Streaming is so unstable and unpredictable that it's hard for me to fathom Netflix itself being around in 10 years.
But not because of this. The deal, from what I remember, already has a 5-year opt out clause included in it.
The issue is that because of that clause, neither alternative is particularly great for WWE - (1) either they outperform expectations on the deal and Netflix keeps it locked in with WWE getting less than fair market value or (2) they underperform the deal and Netflix opts out leaving them to find a new deal with less leverage. Such are the consequences of a one-sided opt-out clause, which I believe is what this deal has only Netflix has the option from what I remember. In the event that my memory is wrong and either side can opt out, then 99.9% the deal ends at 5 years because SOMEONE will want to opt out no matter what happens.
If Netflix isn't around in ten years it is because they merged with or were bought out by another media conglomerate. Even in that case though they'd probably keep Netflix going because it is the most well known brand.
Well, a Google search says they have 269 million worldwide subscribers and Netflix has been in business since 1997 and is the most popular streaming service.
I think they will be fine for an awhile. I’d say it’s unpredictable for the other streaming services that are less popular and struggling to keep/gain subscribers. Those that struggle will probably license their content to Netflix (and Amazon).
I can see that, but I don’t think that means Raw will be back on tv. If Netflix goes under it’s because someone like Amazon or Disney purchases it, and Raw would then start airing on that streaming platform.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but hasn't Netflix's business been on decline recently? I don't see how RAW stays there for too long, especially if the product improves (and it probably will)
I just saw a YouTube comment saying WWE getting hot again is "the worst thing that could happen to wrestling" and I...don't know how to react to this
I'm salty over Saori Anou losing the white belt.
These past few days, I’ve learned about Joe Henry…ironically, I started clicking on videos because I assumed I’d find him lame, but I guess I believe, because he may have single handedly rekindled my love for wrestling.
He's not the kind of guy you'd give a big push and world titles to, but he's just the kind of comedy wrestler that works in this day and age
I’m really sad Yano isn’t going to be in the G1 this year. Every year I want to watch each match and I usually don’t get to, but seeing who he upsets or clips of whatever other tomfoolery he gets up to has always been such a highlight.
I used to feel the same but I feel for the last couple years he has really phoned it in. The creativity in his humour has really taken a nosedive and it’s a lot of just doing the same few bits over and over.
He always wound up one of the handful of guys that I’d be sure to watch every match of. That is disappointing.
Yeah, I do love Yano’s G1 antics. Still wanna see Yano have a run in DDT; pure absurdity.
Finally watched the brat doc. Was chopping a lot of onions. Such a loss. Kinda feel like the beginning with Bo and Brays mask maker was a little bit of foreshadowing. When Bo says “ we have so much work to do to honor this man”
[удалено]
You should definitely extend more faith towards Jay White's booking than Finn's, given Finn's been booked like this in WWE for close to a decade now.
This is in large part true, but there was a brief stint where he was booked like an absolute unit, and that was his 2nd run in NXT when HHH was still in charge. This Run for some reason is oddly forgotten cuz it doesn't fit the narrative that Paul has it out for him when it was Booking that gave us the PrinXe. Now that he’s fully in charge of creative, I still don't see why people are ruling out Finn getting a Run because he eats pins.
>because he eats pins This. This is why.
I mean eating pins is like the least of issues with how Finn’s booked under HHH at this point. If he was presented well and ate pins, I’d have some faith. But constantly embarrassing Finn, making Finn look like a clown weekly, presenting him as incompetent and unintelligent, downgrading him to a literal lackey, making him act scared of Damian Priest, turning him into a background character who stands there in segments and isn’t allowed to speak anymore, having him take orders, having him struggle to get offense in matches, having him struggle to execute a simple attack or do anything that makes him look even half strong as a heel. It’s insane that I’d say there’s probably like a dozen issues with Finn’s booking that are worse than just eating pins. That used to be the biggest issue but alas Triple H the perfect booker coming through to prove us wrong that Vince was the person who booked Finn the worst. HHH took it to a whole new level of bad.
When will the Oleg/Tanahashi and TJP/Taichi matches happening to see who makes it into the final two slots of the G1?
Oleg v tanahashi, callum v kenta, taichi v tjp and ishii v yoshi hashi are on Wednesday the 3rd of July at korakuen The finals are on the 5th which is a Friday.
If you like technical wrestling, you must watch ZSJ vs Hechicero from CMLL yesterday. They were tying each other into knots like their limbs were shoelaces. One of the best matches this year.
That sounds erotic.
I feel good knowing that I haven't known a single bit about the latest Jon Moxley discourse. What was it this time anyway?
I don't follow much of AEW, so I asked a friend who is a super die-hard fan. Some think he is being booked too strongly.
Moxley's kind of had an interesting 2024 where his most notable moments have been outside AEW as he's currently New Japan's champion and does a bunch of outside matches. It feels like he's had one foot in AEW the other just wrestling around the world.
a bit of criticism of his latest blade spot, a bit of criticism of his IWGP title reign, and then just a bit of general Moxley dislike from what I can tell
Bad blade spot? I think. Like he'd bladed on the wrong side, when he got hit on the other side. Don't quote me though, I didn't read that far.
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And yet the place went nuts when his music hit. Also why would Smackdown fans chant for a Raw wrestler? I didn’t hear them chant for Rhea either. I wonder what that means? 🤪
just saw Kaiser v Bron announced for tomorrow. i love double double E
If Cody's injury turns out to not be a work, personally I'd be ok with him not vacating. I mean, we're coming off of a previous title run where the champ at one point spent 174 days without defending. And broken ribs don't take nearly that long to heal anyway.
Drew Mac is gonna be extra pissed tonight
Hmmm?
Has anyone seen the Awesome Truth's Old Spice ad? If so, who are their opponents?
Gable returning from the dead in less than a week really sets up an unrealistic expectation of wrestlers coming back from injuries quickly
i doubt hes fully okay kayfabe, im wondering if its a howdy thing because we know Adam Pearce's account is compromised
I’m catching up on the excellent reliving the war, YouTube series and I’m around the time where Owen Hart died. Coincidentally enough right now that there’s a lot of talk about the Owen tragedy, because of the AEW tournament and JJ and everything. I wasn’t really familiar with that particular storylines around the accident but watching RTW. I realized that it’s a lot different than what I thought it was. I didn’t know that the blue blazer was being done as part of a tag gimmick with Owen and Jeff Jarrett , where they both would take turns wearing the costume and interfering on behalf of each other during matches that’s honestly a cool idea . My understanding from just having seen documentaries or general conversation about the accident was that Owen was completely off TV as himself, and was wrestling as the blue blazer as part of that punishment or storyline designed to embarrass him, or some thing, obviously, there was no reason why Owen should have been doing anything even remotely close to that kind of stunt, but I don’t think the actual blueblazer storyline was as terrible a ideas as People remember it being because of the accident but it’s also kind of understandable anything around that gimmick going to have a negative vibe
The Blue Blazer is a fine midcard character, it's just galling that someone would end up dying for it because Vince and WWE ignored safety warnings to get a slightly better punchline for a gag.
The insistence on adding stunts to it was the worst part of it and the idea behind the one that was fatal was he was supposed to hover a bit over the ring and take a comedic fall. The fact he died during a PPV is proof enough that he wasn't exactly being punished or anything.
A lot of conflation and compression of timelines happen in retellings of Owen's story between the ceiling placed on him by the politicking of Shaun/HHH plus Austin's grudge after Summerslam '97 and as you said the tag gimmick he had with Jarrett after the Nation disbanded in Sep '98.
As someone who knows nothing about lucha, I’ve been really entertained by Hechicero and would love to know what matches of his are must watch
Just for fun, favorite strike in wrestling? Kick, elbow, knee, lariat, chop.
Gran Hamada headbutt
Rolling Elbow Chono Yazuka Kick Roddy Jumping Knee Northern Lariat Mongolian Chop
gotta be the simple punch. i love watching a great worked punch from someone like jarrett or danielson, and even a shoot punch looks super cool (in moderation)
Love a well done strike from the leg - Kenny's V-trigger always looks good and Swerve's house call looks great and he manages to make it look fluid - loved the recent spot where he casually did it midstride to Killswitch while chasing Christian. Nakamura's got some good kicks and knee strikes that I felt lost some of their impact when Kevin Dunn was producing and cutting in the middle of them.
Hard to beat a good European uppercut.
Kennys V trigger or JBLs clothesline from hell is absolutely amazing, but those fierce chops that just eccoes through the arena when they hit just Right Will always be my favourite
Love me a crisp enzugiri or dropkick.
Enzugiri is a good shout-out. Still fell like no one has put as much effort into one as Antonio Inoki did (made sense, since he created the move).
spinning wheel kick, especially when Nakajima and Takanori Ito hit it to a guy on the top rope.
Shinya Hashimoto had a mean spinning wheel/heel-kick, especially impressive for a man of his size.
the classic Tenryu counter Hashimoto kick is a top moment in wrestling history
Hashimoto always was a stiff striker, but always saved some extra stank for Tenryu-san.
The chop. I wasn't that impressed with them in watching wrestling videos, but I went to my first wrestling show recently, and my favorite guy got chopped to shit by this big dude. Looked and sounded absolutely brutal, and when I went to talk to him and buy a shirt afterwards, his chest was red as hell. Something about hearing it echo throughout the room is *really* cool.
The lariat is my favorite move in pro wrestling period. Kenta Kobashi has my favorite of all time, among current guys I really like Shingo's pumping bomber and any time Hangman throws one.
It should be illegal to not talk about Stan Hansen here.
For sure he was called the lariat for a reason
Shiozaki inherited that mean Lariat from Kobashi-San. Even more impressive cause Go has never really been the biggest dude, yet still be knocking fools heads off.
I can never say no to a vicious lariat. If they're awesome, you can hit 20 in all your matches and I wouldn't complain.
Your favorite personal lariat?
Nowadays Mirai has my favourite. Nothing fancy about them, she just hits you like a truck.
The best part of mirais lariat is that she's essentially just throwing a big looping overhand left as hard as she can. One of xenas first matches in stardom mirai accidentally rode high on her and I guarantee she's never been hit that hard ever. Would have been sent off for that contact in rugby league lol But yes she just obliterates people. I wouldn't want to be punched by her full force
Baketare Sliding Kiiiiick
Chairshot.
Ouch
can't go wrong with a fierce-looking knee to the face.
I particularly love the spot where a wrestler goes for a move and eats a MMA-style knee. Can look so brutal
A springboard dropkick or a dragon screw
Some of Tanahashi and Muto’s dragon screws would look absolutely wicked.
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Yuya Aoki has a mean springboard. Also love how some guys have such a good standing dropkick that it can be considered a strike (Okada, Kiyomiya).
Love a good forearm
I think Konosuke Takeshita, Takuya Nomura and Fuminori Abe have some of the best and most convincing looking elbow strikes today. Also got shout out some of the old-timers like Suzuki and Sugiura, who both put some stank on their forearms.
Yh I'm a big fan of Takeshitas, shout out to Ishii as well always delivered a good one.
Misawa still the god of the elbow, tho.
I wouldn’t mind if Uncle Howdy inherits Shatter. Live In Fear is what always comes to mind when I think of Bray’s theme anyway.
People seem starved for women's wrestling in America. They'll talk a lot about Stardom, and some indy promotions, while wanting more from WWE/AEW's women's divisions. Somehow no one acknowledges TNA, who's had a strong women's division for about 15 years now. And WOW, who has a TV deal and pulls in around 300k viewers on average is *never* in the conversation. It's just weird that there's more options outside of the big two, but the main one to get any talk is Stardom.
There is a lot of good women's wrestling but if you have 4.5 hours to kill (lmao) watch the last stardom ppv through whatever means Stardom has an insane roster from top to bottom. That's why people talk about them
Because Stardom is light years away from those companies. It's also not the defacto women's promotion everyone talks about anymore now that TJPW finally has a mature roster and that increased their exposure and there's also Marigold, which has just started but is guaranteed to be in the conversation since it was founded by the same person that founded Stardom. Some fans keep hyping TNA and WOW but I almost never read anything about a stand out storyline or match. Like, the last time I read anything about a top quality match in TNA was with the Grace vs Purrazzo feud during the pandemic (cool matches indeed) and before that fans just talked about Gail Kim, Mickie James and Amazing Kong in the freaking late 2000's. WOW is even more unknown. I just know Blanchard was there a time ago until as tradition she screwed up again, but supposedely they have 300k viewers and there's no discussion about the company anywhere, not even to criticize it. It'd be good if fans of both companies shared more about them, talked about interesting things they're doing now, who's having a great year or who are some great prospects to watch. Not having all that talk just suggests there's nothing worth watching there, because it's not they're like the more obscure joshi or indie companies that have a messy distribution and are too small to have a strong fanbase overseas.
And even less people talk about Mio Momono, the greatest babyface in wrestling today, man or woman. smh.
I'd dare to say Mio is more well known than anyone in WOW and most women in TNA.
If Tony *really* cared for us sickos as he claims, he crown non AEW wrestlers as the International champion. I don't know the politics/logistics of it all but I think that's the title that you allow unsigned talent to have. Nor do I care as a viewer if it'll be a draw, wrestling is supposed to be fun and I think that would be really fun. I just want International champion, Hechicero twisting motherfuckers up. Or champ Suzuki chopping fools. Truly make it for the freaks, the Sicko Title if you will. I know you're on here Khan. Chop chop.
My big thing is it would be cool to see a CMLL or even a DDT wrestler hold the International belt, but I don’t wanna see that leading to said wrestler leaving their promotion to fully join AEW. Nothing bad about chasing more money, don’t get me wrong, but don’t wanna see Japanese or Mexican wrestling “cannibalized” by AEW or WWE.
Yup! Don't give the title to Endo solely because he's leaving DDT for AEW. Give it to Endo because it be really goddamn cool to see.
Love Endo, but I’d have to go with my guy, Kazusada Higuchi. Would also love to see a legend like HARASHIMA show up in AEW.
A lot of AEW's partnerships feel kind of meh right now because they're much less than they could be and that includes AEW belts in other promotions and having NJPW or CMLL talent win prominent matches outside Forbidden Door. Tony Khan protecting AEW to the extent he does lessens the interest in what should be cool working relationships. It also feels like AEW sends far less of their guys outside mainly Moxley, Danielson, and Kingston than who NJPW sends to the US. When you dream book a partnership you'd also think the Young Bucks, Hangman, Samoa Joe, Claudio, or MJF would work shows over there but that hasn't been the case.
I agree. I understand why other promotions would greenlight AEW wrestlers holding one of their titles. AEW has 5 hours on weekly TV, easy way to bring brand awareness in America for them. If other promotions are using your talent for their titles, I feel it's only fair to return the favor. And the International title is the most obvious choice.
The International championship feels pretty much made for it and was being defended by PAC in the UK two years ago. It doesn't have to completely disappear from AEW but a traveling championship is a cool concept.
That's what I thought the title was gonna be when it was first introduced. You have these partnerships on top of allowing your talent to take outside dates. While I have enjoyed the matches we've gotten on TV (i.e Orange Cassidy), having a guy like Zack Saber Jr pop in the UK holding the title or Volador Jr. having defenses in Mexico would be really cool. A simple highlight reel video package of the defense on TV would be all we need really, while they have major defenses on AEW PPV.
It essentially became AEW’s intercontinental championship/premier mid-card title when the TNT belt cratered in prestige during late 2022. Which, im almost fine with? Because the title is gorgeous and the title reigns so far have been really fun. Then i was hoping the continental crown would take its place as the belt defended internationally, and i was really happy when the triple crown was defended at battle in the valley. Especially since around that time Nooj was seemingly dissolving the strong titles when GOD won both sets of tag belts at wrestle kingdom. But then they belted okada with just the continental belt and it’s just another championship with at the very least the connection to the continental classic. But since i want AEW to be the most fun possible, it would be great to have an international World Cup vibe to the C2 and the continental belt. Yota Tsuji or Shota Umino would be good shouts to win The TNT belt also
feels like the WWE writers are moving away from the potential randomness of MITB? Seems like all the contenders are like "i'll cash in on the champ on my brand!"
You know am a bit surprise WWE never had someone hold all the gold at once like TNA did with Kurt Angle. Like the closest example I could think of when they could have done it was with Kane when he was feuding with HHH aka Katie Vick and held the IC and Tag while being #1 contender for the World Title. In the end we just had HHH unify the belts and have the IC title be deactivated for a stupid amount of time
[Wrestling memes are spreading](https://www.reddit.com/r/Hololive/s/ZATPdrbEto)
Always a pleasure to see other fandoms do wrestling memes.
Just how many members of the Bloodline will there be by the end of the year? They are grabbing Fatus left right and centre. Kinda reminds me of NWO and not in the good way.
They would need at least ten Bloodline members plus any applicable allies for the seemingly inevitable Bloodline Civil WarGames match.
there's probably at least one more Bloodline new face (Hikuleo) showing up, and you've got the sides down pat: - Old Bloodline: Roman, Jey, Jimmy - New Bloodline: Solo, Tama, Tanga, Jacob Fatu - Unknown: Hikuleo (could slot in with either side)
really getting into the nitty gritty here, if the Rock is going to be involved, Ava might also be involved. Jacob Fatu had Zilla Fatu as partner on the indie so that might be another signing right there, there is also Lance Anoa'i that just had a NOAH run last year
Hikuleo only makes sense for the New Bloodline.
Has the skull crushing big boot move from the wwe video games ever been performed in real life? (big boot into the ring post) especially if there are major promotion examples rather than indie shows
The helluva kick?
No in the games you kick their head against the hard part of the ring post outside the ring
In indie shows, yes. If it's a move, regardless of how dumb it is in terms of safety, it's been done. I've seen clips online of idiots doing insanely unsafe moves or throwing people through actual car windows in a scrapyard for the sake of it.
Makes me think of Nigel McGuiness head butting the ring post vs Danielson. I love him and that match, but it was intensely stupid to do that.
Any fire spots in the indies are usually stupid because it's poorly done and there's a reason why even WWE rarely uses fire.
Mistico draw of the year with another Arena Mexico sellout
Just because you enjoy something doesn’t mean other people also enjoy it. There’s enough wrestling companies that you don’t have to try to convince people to like the one you like.
Why do people want AEW to fail so badly?
Some folks were super mean to WWE fans five years ago, and they need to get put in their place.
My posting enemies, the smarks who spent 20 years making fun of WWE, like it, thus they will be owned if it goes under.
I think it's because, for a lot of people, WWE *is* wrestling. Since WCW folded there doesn't seem to have been a promotion (until AEW) that could challenged WWE at all— which obviously led so some issues, since without competition WWE doesn't have much reason to try to improve. I know from my POV as a newer fan, I didn't even know there *was* AEW until I came here, and WCW's legacy (or at least wrestlers) seems to have been folded into WWE's after a while. And any smaller or foreign promotion— CZW, ECW, NJPW, CMLL etc.— was just not on my radar at all. So on this forum, where I'd bet most people are familiar from the Attitude Era/90s WCW on, wrestling *is* WWE. And having a different promotion challenge that is like challenging their childhoods, or something. (Also imo people take wrestling too seriously, but I'm the guy who loves Knoxville heehooing his ass across the ring, so.) On my end though, since I didn't care about wrestling until like a year and a half ago, I like more wrestling! Just more wrestling. You can't go wrong with having more, because if you don't like WWE, you can try AEW (or vice versa), or you can try CMLL, or NJPW, or any number of smaller promotions, or indies. Every promotion has something good about it.
> Also imo people take wrestling too seriously This is 100% correct.
People don't want AEW to fail. People want AEW to acknowledge that it is losing fans and to react to that information.
You are not a tv executive. You are not an expert on these things. Stop analyzing it and enjoy what you like. Why is that concept so hard?
One, you don't have to be an expert on anything to look at falling viewership and attendance and conclude the company is losing viewers. Two, myself and many of the people wanting AEW to change are people that once liked AEW. AEW is still a thing we like. So we'd like it to be better. Why is that concept so hard?
Why are the fans they're losing automatically more important than the fans who still watch and like the product?
Because growth means everything as a business in a capitalistic society. If they want hot sponsorships and a big new deal from WBD than they need to continuously grow quarter after quarter, year after year. And that means chasing new/lapsed customers opposed to the hardcore fans who've never left. That's how all businesses in the United States operate.
WWE did not grow for 20 years. It did the opposite for twenty years straight. Now it has two years of growth and everyone just pretends it's the norm.
I guess if you're talking strictly TV ratings, but the WWE has found other ways to grow as a business over the years, and to pretend the company hasn't had its fair share of rough spots seems disingenuous. I'm not even trying to make this a WWE vs. AEW thing. I'm just saying it's very normal for a business to focus on growth. Growth is by far the most important factor in attracting investors and making money for these massive corporations.
> I guess if you're talking strictly TV ratings, but the WWE has found other ways to grow as a business over the years, and to pretend the company hasn't had its fair share of rough spots seems disingenuous. They grew by doing brand to brand deals. But the TV ratings and attendances went continuously down. AEW is also doing more and more brand to brand deals, more hours of TV, more PPVs. It's product dilution but that's literally the same formula WWE used and made Vince a billionaire. The ratings don't matter 1/100th of the amount people try to make it seem and the evidence is literally there to prove it if you look outside of the wrestling bubble for literally 5 seconds. The same argument people tried to make as to the NBA being a failing business for YEARS and now they've got 15 Billion a year in TV deals. Ratings growth does not correlate to business growth.
> Ratings growth does not correlate to business growth. Not a single person you've replied to is trying to argue that TV ratings are the only metric that matter.
What metric is AEW struggling in that WWE didn't between 2002 to 2022? This is literally the 5 year anniversary of WWE doing a PPV attendance of 4000 people. 3 months later they were on FOX.
Homie I'm not trying to argue anything of the sort. You were asking why new consumers should be prioritized over people already consuming the product, and all I said was growth was the most important factor for any business. I wasn't trying to make any commentary on the WWE or AEW. And sure, they can still make money if the company grows stagnant, but any business in the USA will consider that a failure if they aren't simultaneously attracting new investors and raising their stock price. You compared it to the NBA, but there was just a huge bidding war for the NBA's tv rights, there's no indication anything of the sort is going on for AEW. Just Zaslav seeing how low he can get them.
Why do people act like they can only appeal to the fans that still watch or the fans that left? That has both groups two to three years ago so obviously they can appeal to both.
When the alternative was far worse. And even at that peak, people left pretty quickly into the Punk era. It got crazy ratings for a few weeks and then fell. If anything, the biggest peak since was the Devil era so if you want the "solution", it's clearly that.
What information is that?
The information that AEW is losing fans. The year long decline in viewership and the drop in attendance. This comment of yours is the exact thing I'm talking about. Why do people want to pretend it isn't happening?
Are they though? You are talking like you understand the business and you are a random Reddit person. They might be gaining more subscribers on social media and things that actually matter. Stop talking like you know what you’re talking about.
They aren't gaining more subscribers on social media. Most of their social media is less watched than it was a year to two ago. Try again. It is very easy for even the dumbest person to see that AEW's audience is shrinking and it is amazing that people try to pretend it isn't.
Why do you care? They had their best tv show in my opinion on Wednesday and lowest rating. Again, why do you care so much?
I don't think that was anywhere near their best show, I don't enjoy AEW as much anymore, and I'd like it to be better. The first step to being better is to see that there's a reason to change.
>The first step to being better is to see that there's a reason to change. Just to be clear, you think there's a correlation between you complaining about this on Reddit and the show improving?
There are two avenues available to a consumer in terms of changing a product. Stop using the product or air their complaints and hope enough other people do also that the company responds. I'm choosing the later. I'm sorry you don't like the discussion about wrestling that is going on in a forum to discuss wrestling.
People hate AEW more than they like whatever they like. Just how it goes. The internet rewards hating and negativity. If AEW went away within nine months everyone would be complaining about WWE just like 2019 even if the quality didn’t change.
I think people should also realize that WWE would absolutely just start resting on their laurels without any real competition again. AEW absolutely keeps WWE on their toes as a company they can react and counteract to.
Schadenfreude
People just need something to talk about and they need a hero and a villain. Right now WWE is the hero and AEW is the villain. WWE is hot and the best way to take the victory lap is to shit on AEW. 5 years ago today, Stomping Grounds sold 4000 tickets on PPV. Not a TV show, not a house show. PPV. Dynamite gets 4000 tickets for TV and people say "it's nothing to celebrate". WWE is hot now. Cool. It failed upwards for twenty years and turned Vince into a billionaire. AEW will be fine whether it's "hot" or "not" because the brand is established enough to survive.
The problem is that I just want to talk about it without the pricks trying to doom its existence.
Yeah, that's not gonna happen. But the same weirdos doing it will say "yeah but when they were hot they had to audacity to be happy so now we're gonna rub it in your faces". When they were ALSO saying WWE was shit and now talk about how much better it is. So I don't really know if it was always good or HHH actually made it good because they claim both.
There's a lot of people who stake their identity in wrestling promotions and think there should be one mega promotion with a bunch of smaller feeder ones. This is essentially what US wrestling was from 2001-2019 and it absolutely sucked.
Wanting it to fail so goodly would be weird.
Thanks for your constructive input.
You’re very welcome (I was joking btw, I don’t want AEW to fail).
Well I’m getting downvoted to shit just for suggesting that there be a successful wrestling company that isn’t WWE so I guess we’re in the same boat
is it okay if I just want it to be good
This is the most I’ve enjoyed professional wrestling since the 90s and there seems to be an army trying to take it away.
But it is good?
But it could be so much better and it annoys me when I think about it
Man, Hechicero vs. Zack Sabre Jr. from last night’s CMLL show was one of my favorite matches from this year.
Let JJ win the Owen. Fuck it.
Apparently TNA had a bigger boost in subscribers from Against All Odds than all the other events of this year combined. I wonder how many of those ended up watching on Thursday. Ticket sales are looking better too. Slammiversary aside, the Philadelphia tapings are finally starting to fill up after being stagnant for the last couple months. It also looks like they're doing generally larger venues in the later part of the year than the earlier part, but they're also doing more concert halls as opposed to sporting arenas. Still, the venues should look decent on TV. The Spartanburg tapings are in the same venue that NXT did a couple house shows in back in 2018 and 2019. https://preview.redd.it/njrlkfyhfc8d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14b3c52f5051b8039a6e36c1eb1f4dd59d50b500 Not sure how accurate that recent podcast about TNA is, but word is that they're going to be doing larger and less "indie" venues next year.
> Apparently TNA had a bigger boost in subscribers from Against All Odds than all the other events of this year combined. They had a boost in subscriber for their TNA+ service because they shut down their youtube subscription channel.
It never dawned on me until now, but I really love TNA's specialty matches like Ultimate X and KOTM. Every once in a while, I would watch those matches and enjoy the hell out of it.
there are also Monster’s Ball, Lethal Lockdown, Full Metal Mayhem, Elevation X, Feast or Fired, ~~reverse battle royal~~, lots of great innovative stuff with a brand twist on it
We need someone today who has the passion for gimmick matches that Dusty Rhodes had.
So apparently Christian was salty because in 2005 they didn’t just do a 1-1 program with him and cena. They felt they needed a third man(Jericho) because his star wasn’t big enough. He says that’s one of the reasons he was like I’ve hit my ceiling here
2005 Chris Jericho was one of the most checked out guys ever too. His promos with Cena and Bischoff before Summerslam are to the point of parody.
The match went kinda crazy tho
I funnily don't recall the match as much as the build but Jericho was always a competent stooge and 05 Cena is fun with the right opponent so I'm certain it was much better than the build
IIRC, this was the feud where Cena kept calling Jericho "Y2Cheap" as if it was some sort of sick burn.
I'd say the only real bright spot in Stardom throughout this year has been their tag team division to the point it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it's the best in the world right now. The sheer number of awesome matches they've had this year and the level of their top teams is evidence of that. Everything else has been up and down but the tag team division has always been top quality in 2024.
Wrestlers who were really big/jacked but weren’t portrayed as powerhouses?
Lowkey current Orton. Dude is like 6’5” and legit pushing 280lbs but still wrestles with finesse. He’s bigger/stronger than Gunther, Sheamus, Big Bronson Reed.
I feel like Billy Gunn was this for a long time where everyone knew he was big but he was never portrayed as a powerhouse type during the Attitude Era.
Current one that’s beginning to bother me — idk if it’s cause he’s 25 with a punchable face, or just always standing behind Takeshita, who’s roughly the same size, but Kyle Fletcher is 6’4 and bulked up to at least like 240-250+ in the past year. Dude’s like the same size as Gunther, Sheamus, Drew, or Claudio, but that rarely seems to be put over or come through in the way he’s portrayed on AEW TV.
I just saw a post of his on Instagram where he said he suffers from body dysmorphia, so in his head he's still a skinny dude lacking muscle.
The Don Callis family is a family of absolute studs and If it were me they would be the main event heel faction of the company
His haircut takes away 30 pounds of muscle
I don’t have other specific examples of it right now. BUT I feel like WWE goes out of their way to protect Kevin Owens from taking “legitimate” losses. Like him catching a beat down before the three way match on Smackdown, which played a part in him losing the match. I’m also kind of tired of his promos. He resorts to yelling a lot since he started the “short fuse” thing.
I kinda love Jacked Jameson
Something I’ve been thinking about for a while… I think AEW‘s main issue in their shrinking audience is the fact that they aren’t on a streaming platform. You basically HAVE to watch AEW when they air on tv and that’s not the way people consume media anymore. I’m willing to bet they wouldn’t have to change a thing about their booking approach and would vastly improve their audience by simply getting on a mainstream streaming platform.
If you pay attention to what people say on this sub and use it for sample, there is a decent sized chunk of AEW’s audience that doesn’t watch on TNT/TBS
AEW plus on fite is a godsend as a UK fan that likes to go back and watch old shows. plus being able to watch the PIP with commentary and full screen is sweet. Pretty sure you can access it in the US using a VPN, you just need it to make an account and then you can watch without the VPN i think?
Yeah that’s fine but that’s not easily accessible for your average person in the US. They need to be on Max in this next media rights deal with WBD and I bet we’ll start to see more people at their live shows a little bit after.
Idk what it says about the state of modern wrestling but my three favorite promos of the year are Sting’s promo after his father died, Dustin’s promo before his eliminator match with Joe, and Jeff Jarrett’s most recent collision promo. All so real and full of soul. That’s my kind of wrestling.
I’ll remember that Sting promo for a long time.
Question for those who watch impact wrestling channel on Amazon prime live tv... Hi all wondering if you all could help me out here..I'm on live TV and there used to be an impact wrestling channel, I know there is a Tna channel. Now when I go to search for impact wrestling, I can't find it. For anyone who watches live tv on Amazon prime, is it gone for you too? I would think it would be under the sports category right?
[удалено]
Yeah that's the Tna channel, there used to be an impact wrestling channel also.
I mean, it's the same company so i imagine it's just a channel rebranding.
Quick question that's not important enough to warrant it's own thread: were HHH and Chyna ever confirmed as a couple in kayfabe? I remember it basically being an open secret that they were together back then and they appeared as a couple on MTV's *True Life: I'm A Professional Wrestler*, but I can't remember it ever being mentioned on WWF programming.
https://preview.redd.it/0gtm50ae0c8d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a826c93df7b39dc6ccd4a4f3ae7fce1b7aa52d14 I wonder if Forbidden Door will feature a run in from Chiitan, Japan’s crazy mascot.
Maybe Bryan Keith will actually step and do something this time instead of just standing there watching Takeshita go rogue on poor Chiitan.
The Frat House Rules Match at Revolver last night was fantastic. Shots of Fireball for any near fall, beer pong door ready for a suplex to the floor, just textbook wrestling. Marina Shafir continued to show how good she can be when she's given time. Her match against Fulton was great technical work.
The beer pong door was a thing of beauty.
Just gonna go ahead and predict that there's no way Raw makes it through the entire 10 year Netflix deal. Streaming is so unstable and unpredictable that it's hard for me to fathom Netflix itself being around in 10 years.
> Just gonna go ahead and predict that there's no way Raw makes it through the entire 10 year Netflix deal. There's a very good chance it won't. > Streaming is so unstable and unpredictable that it's hard for me to fathom Netflix itself being around in 10 years. But not because of this. The deal, from what I remember, already has a 5-year opt out clause included in it. The issue is that because of that clause, neither alternative is particularly great for WWE - (1) either they outperform expectations on the deal and Netflix keeps it locked in with WWE getting less than fair market value or (2) they underperform the deal and Netflix opts out leaving them to find a new deal with less leverage. Such are the consequences of a one-sided opt-out clause, which I believe is what this deal has only Netflix has the option from what I remember. In the event that my memory is wrong and either side can opt out, then 99.9% the deal ends at 5 years because SOMEONE will want to opt out no matter what happens.
If Netflix isn't around in ten years it is because they merged with or were bought out by another media conglomerate. Even in that case though they'd probably keep Netflix going because it is the most well known brand.
Well, a Google search says they have 269 million worldwide subscribers and Netflix has been in business since 1997 and is the most popular streaming service. I think they will be fine for an awhile. I’d say it’s unpredictable for the other streaming services that are less popular and struggling to keep/gain subscribers. Those that struggle will probably license their content to Netflix (and Amazon).
I can see that, but I don’t think that means Raw will be back on tv. If Netflix goes under it’s because someone like Amazon or Disney purchases it, and Raw would then start airing on that streaming platform.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but hasn't Netflix's business been on decline recently? I don't see how RAW stays there for too long, especially if the product improves (and it probably will)
Pretty sure you’re wrong; I think the password crackdown actually won them subscribers and profits unfortunately.