Random Wrestling Thoughts (Part 2)

Cherry_Cola

I've seen Bandido live now at the last two PWG shows and he's outstanding. I really he wish he wasn't tied to ROH as he'd be a massive star in AEW or even the WWE.

Itssoeasy

There's a playlist for international PPVs on the network with a picture of Becky lynch with the smackdown woman’s title and the background are the colours of the Irish flag.

PTH2009

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117967727#Comment_117967727

Uk Takeover Dublin was suppose to be the Irish PPV debut but covid had other plans

Hard to see it happening ever

Lithium93_

Given how the company have the Draft ongoing at the moment, and changes then not kicking in until later this month, and Survivor Series being in November..

Would they be better off leaving the draft until post Survivor Series

PTH2009

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117970865#Comment_117970865

Yeah that would make sense and would cut out that brand loyalty nonsense

Fighting for a brand which your only part of for a few weeks is dumb

ThePott

It would also be good if they had some stakes to Survivor Series aside from bragging rights. Like they'd get the first draft pick or something.

PTH2009

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117971737#Comment_117971737

Or numbers 29 and 30 in the Rumble for the winners while the losers get number 1 and 2

Ridley

Just give the survivors, not the full winning team, title shots. Or maybe that GM for a day thing from way back.

LineOfBeauty

Help me out here because I am a bit confused. Is it that WWE have SO many over faces on the female side that they can have Becky return as a heel and basically treat her as an afterthought?

Itssoeasy

Really good move by tony khan to reportedly limit the role the Evps have in the booking of AEW. Removed the potential of a WCW situation where the wrestlers are dictating the direction of the booking.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117980213#Comment_117980213

I was watching some early episodes of Dynamite on AEW plus and there is some amount of shite to go with the good. The nightmare collective is one of the worst storylines, factions whatever you want to call it they've done, and that was the brainchild of Brandi supposedly. Trying to get the Dark order over as a force with Evil Uno as leader was terrible. Other bollox as well like the Librarians (that was a young bucks idea). They should have been stripped from booking back then 😂

I thought I read at the time that Khan took over more control after the Dynamite where the dark order destroyed the elite (before Brodie, when Uno was still leader) at the end of the show and the fans **** on it. That's around 2 years ago now though.

Itssoeasy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117980432#Comment_117980432

Well it may have started back then but it seems it’s fully done now. And to be honest it’s the right call because too many cooks and all that.

Ah Brandi Rhodes doing her best to be the Stephanie McMahon of AEW and not any of the positives. They’ve a new reality show and the few people I’ve heard talk about, it’s seems like it’s awful shite altogether.

RollieFingers

https://twitter.com/voiceswrestling/status/1445426494587785220

It's been known that Khan has the final say for probably over a year and a half at least now, I'd take those reports with a pinch of salt, reads as half truths like most reports really. The Elite with new roster member Adam Cole still appear to be prominent members of the roster doing ok despite having all their power taken away along with their say in hiring talent!

The best thing Khan ever did was refuse to sign Joey Ryan even though the bucks were pushing for him to sign!

J. Marston

Miz got moves. The Cesaro Swing was impressive!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljn6mujgPs8

RollieFingers

https://twitter.com/Machobeard4life/status/1445756996364292109

If this meant the return of Johnny Gargano the pro-wrestler from his Dragongate and Chikara days I'd be interested. If he's still the sports entertainer with just one facial expression he can stay where he is!

PTH2009

Know its only October but its going to be interesting to see who might win the mens rumble next year

Bobby Lashley or Omas would be a decent shout

Agent Coulson

Or Johnny is moving to Smackdown on FOX.

PTH2009

This new Elias has disappeared all of a sudden

CastorTroy

I see that image still has a link to his WWE bio

Itssoeasy

Two years ago today hell in a cell 2019 happened and we had amongst other things a surprisingly good HIAC match between Becky lynch and Sasha banks(I say surprisingly because a few of us were fearing the worst), and then we had THAT cell match at the end of the night between seth Rollins and the fiend which Seth talked about on the latest broken skull sessions with Austin.

Pentecost

Yeah that Sasha-Becky match was decent. Say what you will about Sasha outside of the ring, but she can do the business inside of it.

J. Marston

Has Brock ever done a shoot interview? Would be interesting to hear about all his thoughts on opponents, matches, wrestling politics etc.

Fascinating character being this larger than life monster on-screen and a seemingly reserved very private farmer off-screen.

Lord TSC

New gimmick for Miz

It's great to see real wrestling independent contractors in the world outside WWE version of independent contractor.

Itssoeasy

The main event of tonight’s NXT UK between Ilja Dragunov and A-kid was something special. Just such good pro wresting.

J. Marston

I can't stand that "hockey fight" spot that Owens and Sami Zayn popularised (I think it was them that popularised it anyway). It looks so shít.

Lithium93_

If WWE knew what they were doing creatively, they had an easy slam dunk with Finn Balor with his Prince gimmick, and the King Of The Ring tournament.

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118026623#Comment_118026623

There may be writers in that company who are pitching great stuff all the time but it never sees the light of day because of the whole corporate machine that WWE has become ever since they became a publicly-traded company. Yes, a big component of that machine is Vince McMahon himself since he puts himself at the top of that creative process but there's also that silly corporate stuff which gums up the works. You can't be too controversial because it creates PR issues. You can't suddenly change the look of a wrestler because they have a toy line out. Going by data analytics instead of just your gut like the old days. Plus the usual underlings trying to keep on Vince's good side.

But this isn't just in WWE where creativity goes to die. It seems like it happens in so many big entertainment companies. There was a US screenwriter who said that if a network makes a hit show, it's because the executives weren't paying attention or because the network was broke and couldn't afford to replace it after its first season. If you think about it, that's similar to the history of WWE. Stone Cold Steve Austin came about because WWE was on its a$$ and couldn't bring afford any of the old stars, who'd gone to WCW, and so Vince was left with no choice but to let Austin run with it, and it became the biggest thing WWE ever had.

TimesArrow

Tony Khan I think for the most part has been a pretty docile calm presence since the inception of AEW. But recently he’s been mouthing off a bit in interviews, Twitter and seems to be making it “about him” to an extent. I think he should just really let the product speak for themselves and I don’t think he did himself any favours bout the tweet re Smackdown and rampage head to head

J. Marston

Agree. He doesn't have the personality to get into a bombastic promoter war. Guy is a dork who likes wrestling and that's fine but understand that it doesn't lend itself to being a cool larger than life personality. Leave it to the wrestlers.

Roman has a cool factor (very recent cool factor, mind you) so his comments last week were fun and hold weight. Tony Khan's ranting about beating Smackdown (and failing) while on a show called "My Mother's Basement" was cringe.

If you wanna sling mud, get the stars who can talk to do it. Punk firing back at Roman would be interesting.

RollieFingers

Junior dos Santos replied to Reigns and funnily enough there hasn't been a peep out of the Big Dawg.

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035887#Comment_118035887

He's a money mark and it's clear that he wants to be liked by the talent. A bit like Ned Flanders crossed with Herb Abrams.

Itssoeasy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118037286#Comment_118037286

wanting to be friends with the talent isn’t a good idea. He’s their boss not their friend. Ned flanders and herb abrams ? Haha Jesus there’s a mental image. I think he should stick to what has worked previously and I think the smackdown ratings comment was a bad call. He’s done a good job so far but he needs to not let the success go to his head(easier said then done I know) and let WWE make the stupid comments and do the stupid actions.

beakerjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118037286#Comment_118037286

Tony Khan isnt a money mark.

IMO, no one had the business sense, the financial muscle and wrestling knowhow to create a challenger to Vince until Khan.

RollieFingers

https://twitter.com/PWTorch/status/1450195273246990338

No wonder WWE didn't leak the demo numbers like they did the total viewers, considering how loaded they went with their card compared to a fairly standard Rampage card they probably should have easily beaten AEW in the demo. Maybe Khan's comments weren't that ill-judged!

Lithium93_

Also on Itssoeasys point on Tony wanting to be friends with the talent, granted yeah he's also the boss at the end of the day. I mean it seems to be working, there's been no bad mouthing, and the fact that NO ONE on the outside knew the seriousness of Brodie Lee's illness until the news broke of his passing late last year.

kksaints

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118038841#Comment_118038841

Wasn't Punk wrestling on the televised Rampage and a former UFC heavyweight champion along with Jericho probably one of the wrestlers who has some mainstream wrestling attention? That's a bit more than a standard Rampage tbf.

RollieFingers

It was Punks third appearance on the show and against Matt Sydal so apart from ATT I'd say it was a fairly standard Rampage.

Whatever way you look at it it was WWE's A show against AEW's B show.

Necro

Great stuff re: AEW. I don't really care about the whole war etc and don't have a side I'd pick tbh (admittedly I'd still watch more WWE cos my kid loves it, he hasn't gotten mad into AEW yet mainly cos he doesn't know a lot of the wrestlers) but it's great for fans of pro wrestling either way. Overall we're the real winners!

beakerjoe

Its hopefully the kick up the whole WWE needed.

WWE hasnt changed yet though, their shows still could be produced and booked a 100 percent better. Until then, I wont be back anytime soon.

Saudi show does nothing for me

Itssoeasy

I don’t know maybe I’m in the minority but why doesn’t total viewing numbers not matter as much any more ? You read the observer from years ago and it was total viewers and audience share and yes I know TV habits have changed but I don’t understand why demos have become so important nowadays(or more important than they used to be), when surely the networks worry about total viewers as well.

beakerjoe

Advertisiers want the key demos. Its all they care about. Its what makes these companies money.

LineOfBeauty

WWE lost the 30 minute overlap. With the built in lead in advantage. With no commercials. I'm scarlet for them. Punk vs Sydal and Soho vs The Bunny (!!) did Sasha/Becky and Reigns/Lesnar dirty. You could not make up something that funny.

kksaints

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118039685#Comment_118039685

Slightly off topic but The Key demo is 18-34 I think? I always find this interesting because I always assumed that people aged 45-65 would have more income but this doesn't appear to be the case.

LineOfBeauty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118039738#Comment_118039738

18-49 is the key demo. 18-34 is always an important number too. Males in particular as that's the primary audience your likely going to be advertising towards during a pro wrestling show.

PTH2009

Let's hope WWE keep Edge's family out of his next Storyline

Can see Edge vs AJ Styles (would of been a dream match in the mid/late 2000s) been a great fued but it feels another one of those that Edges family is thrown into it

beakerjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118039738#Comment_118039738

18 to 34 have less bills. Usually no mortgage, still living at home, more disposable income. More prone to impluse buy and spend frivolously.

J. Marston

I wish that was 18-34 me. I was fúcking broke for most of my 20s.

Agent Coulson

With all the WWE talk about targeting a new audience and they aim for everyone it really is the over 50's that is keeping the viewerships some what high on TV.