Author Topic: Pro Wrestling: Then, Now, Forever (2016) (Read 23415 times)

imref · « **Reply #200:** May 09, 2016, 03:33:43 PM »

I'm glad I didn't spend $40 on that PPV. Horrendous ending.

BTW, There's a fantastic interview with Chris Daniels and Frankie Kazarian on Jericho's podcast this week. I listened to it yesterday while mowing the lawn. Daniels noted he based the Curry Man voice on Jushin Liger as a rib that only the other wrestlers understood. He also talked about showing up for a tour of Japan, dressed in his Michael Jackson military-style uniform as part of his 'ring general' gimmick. NJPW booker Gedo pulls him aside and says "your gimmick...uh....Hitler?"

Lintyfresh85 · « **Reply #201:** May 09, 2016, 07:08:13 PM »

WWE annual spring cleaning

Hornswoggle, El Torito, Wade, Sandow, Cameron, Santino, Zeb and Alex Riley.

Vega · « **Reply #202:** May 09, 2016, 07:21:43 PM »

Quote from: Lintyfresh85 on May 09, 2016, 07:08:13 PM

WWE annual spring cleaning

Hornswoggle, El Torito, Wade, Sandow, Cameron, Santino, Zeb and Alex Riley.

More releases are reportedly coming soon. By the way, we may get an NXT call-up tonight. Dana Brooke is backstage.

imref · « **Reply #203:** May 09, 2016, 07:28:32 PM »

Sandow. Booo

Vega · « **Reply #204:** May 21, 2016, 01:55:15 PM »

Cody Rhodes has asked to be released.

imref · « **Reply #205:** May 21, 2016, 10:30:12 PM »

Quote from: Vega on May 21, 2016, 01:55:15 PM

Cody Rhodes has asked to be released.

I saw earlier that Dustin walked out too.

imref · « **Reply #206:** May 22, 2016, 10:56:30 PM »

Incredible main event tonight, and the return of a much-missed superstar.

BerakosVA · « **Reply #207:** May 22, 2016, 11:01:40 PM »

and the bury of another superstar.

imref · « **Reply #208:** May 22, 2016, 11:08:43 PM »

Quote from: BerakosVA on May 22, 2016, 11:01:40 PM

and the bury of another superstar.

I don't think they buried Styles, he looked pretty strong even in the loss. I imagine they see Reigns vs Rollins as the bigger program right now. I'm not sure where they go with Styles now though.

BerakosVA · « **Reply #209:** May 22, 2016, 11:56:22 PM »

I was really hoping he'd come back with a different finisher =(

imref · « **Reply #210:** May 23, 2016, 12:12:26 AM »

#stuffromankicksoutof is being discussed on Reddit.

Vega · « **Reply #211:** May 23, 2016, 03:43:22 AM »

Quote from: BerakosVA on May 22, 2016, 11:01:40 PM

and the bury of another superstar.

Not at all. Styles looked like a million bucks in that match. They both ate a ton of offense from each other and Reigns countered AJ's finisher into a more potent version of his own finisher for the win. That was far, FAR from being a burial. Having a match that probably will end up being a top five if not top three match of the year worldwide does not bury anyone involved.

Quote from: imref on May 23, 2016, 12:12:26 AM

#stuffromankicksoutof is being discussed on Reddit.

AJ kicked out of pretty much the same amount of stuff that Reigns did. Oh, and you see what Reigns didn't kick out of? The Phenomenal Forearm. He countered it instead. AJ left a WWE title match with his finisher protected. That doesn't typically happen given how much WWE likes to use kickouts of finishers in big title matches.

It has been fascinating watching Reigns for the past year or so. WWE very clearly picked the right guy to hitch the wagon to. He is a truly special talent in ring and if his initial push hadn’t gotten so botched to hell, maybe they would have had a guy that people would willingly cheer as the face of the company. Sure, character wise he has his limitations, but as Cesaro shows, it is very possible to get over without being a dynamo promo or character. If they had just taken their time and given him a slower build to the top; perhaps by having him beat Rusev instead of Cena and giving him the US open challenge; people would probably have gotten behind him and been clamoring for him to be the top guy. Unfortunately, they freaked it up and he is getting booed out of buildings and many fans are so blinded by their hate towards him that they don’t even see his excellent in ring work. It’s a damn shame things have ended up this way. What a waste.

As far as the rest of the show goes, it was largely quite good. Jericho/Ambrose and Nattie/Charlotte were godawful, but aside from that, a very enjoyable PPV.

imref · « **Reply #212:** May 23, 2016, 09:16:34 PM »

As quickly as it began, the Rollins face push is over. Big mistake.

imref · « **Reply #213:** May 23, 2016, 11:09:25 PM »

And styles gets buried. Horrible raw.

Vega · « **Reply #214:** May 23, 2016, 11:13:43 PM »

Quote from: imref on May 23, 2016, 11:09:25 PM

And styles gets buried. Horrible raw.

Again, not buried. They're doing something with the Club story. Still not a very good Raw though despite the good matches. They completely freaked up the main event picture. Rollins didn't need to be a heel. He could have easily had an indeterminate alignment where he didn't really care about much besides getting the belt he never lost back. They just came out of a good main event feud with shades of grey from both participants. There is no reason why it couldn't have worked again. Also, the Club breakup came too fast. I'm guessing it leads to AJ being Sting-levels of stupid and getting Finn to help him in a tag match at MitB and Finn turns on him. Not a bad story... necessarily, but it is rushed and I don't know where AJ goes after that. In any case, this was a depressing episode of Raw. Rollins remaining heel legit may go down as one of the biggest wastes of a babyface pop in wrestling history.

imref · « **Reply #215:** May 24, 2016, 11:06:21 AM »

yeah, overall it was a good show with several good matches. I'm just bummed about seeing Styles moved down the ladder. He's been far and away the best performer they've had for the last several months and now they are cutting out his legs from under him.

Agreed about Reigns/Rollins. They also missed a huge opportunity to leverage Rollins' return and push him as a mega-face. Instead, he's back to being a weak heel who too will have to try and and get Reigns over as a face.

imref · « **Reply #216:** May 24, 2016, 04:44:21 PM »

meltzer says the plan is to keep AJ Styles near the top of the card and that they have 'big plans' for him. It would be interesting to see him get some help from former TNA buddies to take on Gallows/Anderson. Samoa Joe? Bobby Roode?

Vega · « **Reply #217:** May 24, 2016, 04:53:32 PM »

Quote from: imref on May 24, 2016, 04:44:21 PM

meltzer says the plan is to keep AJ Styles near the top of the card and that they have 'big plans' for him. It would be interesting to see him get some help from former TNA buddies to take on Gallows/Anderson. Samoa Joe? Bobby Roode?

It'll be Finn at first until Finn turns on him. What happens after that is pretty much impossible to predict.

Lintyfresh85 · « **Reply #218:** May 25, 2016, 10:21:40 AM »

WWE going back to the brand split. Smackdown going to live on Tuesday.

imref · « **Reply #219:** May 25, 2016, 10:51:12 AM »

Quote from: Lintyfresh85 on May 25, 2016, 10:21:40 AM

WWE going back to the brand split. Smackdown going to live on Tuesday.

interesting. That's a lot of TV wrestling over two days.

On another note, Ric Flair is on Chris Jericho's podcast this week. They spoke of Flair's trip to North Korea in 1995 along with Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Antonio Inoki and several others where they wrestled in front of an estimated crowd of 190,000. Flair told the story he shared in his book about the North Koreans not knowing anything about pro wrestling, and becoming very upset when they realized it was a work. They actually thought they were staging a greco-roman wrestling competition.

Lintyfresh85 · « **Reply #220:** May 25, 2016, 10:56:48 AM »

I hope they run Smackdown like Nitro. Create a cruiser division and bring back enhancement talent squash matches.

Vega · « **Reply #221:** May 25, 2016, 01:10:46 PM »

Hmm. The brand split is... interesting. Probably a good idea given how many talented people they have employed.

Vega · « **Reply #222:** May 25, 2016, 03:38:50 PM »

Rumor has it that the women's division is headed to Smackdown and that Daniel Bryan is likely to be the Smackdown GM. Also, Vince is really excited about the whole thing and is gonna start dropping serious money on top free agents. TNA and ROH have some notable names like Moose, Roddy Strong, the Hardys, EC3, and Lashley all nearing the end of their contracts in June and Adam Cole and the Young Bucks' contracts end in December. NJPW probably needs to be very afraid as well. Probably is also good news for the more TV-ready guys in NXT like Joe, Aries, Young, Nakamura, and probably Roode. I'll bet they dump buckets of money at Ricochet too.

imref · « **Reply #223:** May 25, 2016, 06:38:19 PM »

Meltzer floats the prospect of 5 hours of McMahon family storylines per week.

Vega · « **Reply #224:** May 25, 2016, 11:03:16 PM »

Very interesting. So the next Takeover is called NXT Takeover: The End. NXT also doesn't have any house shows scheduled for outside of Florida after June 17th. Pure speculation of course, but it is being tossed about that NXT as we know it is about to end and be effectively merged with Smackdown and NXT will revert back to being strictly developmental instead of HHH's super indy.