Random Wrestling Thoughts (Part 2)

One of the best storylines that WWE did from start to finish. WWE wishes it was this interesting now.

Ken Shamrock was cool as fúck.

Rock and Austin were always 1 and 2 for young me but Shamrock was 3.

I think JR said in his book that Shamrock struggled with pressure and was known to disappear at times so they never made him the guy.

One of the enduring rivalries in modern wrestling. Unlike a lot of wrestling enemies, I've never seen Lawler and Funk come out and say that they're in fact really good friends. They probably are, but I've not seen them say it.

The above is what conversational wrestling promos should be. Two guys shooting from the hip and cutting across one another, rather than waiting patiently while the other guy recites his bit of the script, which generally looks phony as s**t.

Cena has smashed it in all he has been in. I've really enjoy so many movies that he has been in. In a world now full of dud blockbusters he has driven some rock solid movies Blockers, Trainwreak, Bumblebee and Suicide Squad are all flicks I'd happily view a number of times again. Bit like The Rock he is also wholly entertaining when he's "doing the talkshows". Witty, self deprecating and has a wealth of interesting stories.

WWE should bring back the mixed tag challenge

Apparently the Super J-Cast guys (who broke the Forbidden Door show) said in their discussion about Kushida that other people wanted to go back to NJPW when their contract expired and Balor was one of them.

Probably true - though you do have to bring in the nostalgia factor. Like, even when I was a lapsed fan (for close to 20 years) I'd have been well up for heading to a Kurt Angle event, as he was such a big character right at the time I was most into it.

So, because Kurt angle sold less than 300 tickets, WWE isn't a creative shitshow and thousands of Irish fans will flock to Cardiff?

That's an interesting take.

Here's one given the week that's in it. I hope no wrestler stays in AEW for 20 years as an active roster member.

Big difference in running a stadium show in a historically receptive market where the last stadium show has gone down in folklore as one of the best shows the company has ever run with the killer Bret/Bulldog main event and saying that the awful product hasn't resulted in declining ticket sales, particularly in certain markets, when the evidence is clearly there for all to see that, that is the case. While their big shows, Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble and Summerslam still draw on the strength alone of those individual brands, you only need look at the ticket sales for their most recent MSG show which was heavily promoted on TV and given the Brock bump too to see the struggles they are having in their home market.

Though equally this is no longer a company that lives and dies by live attendance, to the point where they could literally have sold not a single ticket last year and it would still rank among the very best years the company has ever had financially through their TV deals, Peacock deal and Saudi Arabia shows.