NoFistsJustFlips

Shit. You're right. But I hope they ignore that. In VPW2 my favorite thing to do was wait on the ramp during the rumble mode at the Tokyo Dome and attack dudes during their entrance. Then toss those fuckers off the ramp to eliminate them lol. It was a small detail but it added another layer of fun to that arena. They used the long ramp at Revolution that was in Chicago, so maybe that would be better than doing it at Daily's Place.

Hard disagree. They want their guys to be robots that script every spot out for the cameras. Every pose and entrance is timed exactly the same. They want people good at reciting scripted promos that random writers write for them. What about any of those skills screams Ric Flair? He could teach them to be great pro wrestlers in the mold of what he did. But what he did is the opposite of what they want. So it's not insane to me. To nate's point, I always called it the Michael Jordan principle. Jordan was the unquestionable gaot in his time. But a lot of what make him a great athlete is just inherent to his DNA. It's not something you can teach. And it's not something great athletes are able to even verbalize to try and pass it on. That's why the best coaches are usually middle of the road guys. They had to work their ass off and study to get to the next level, instead of just being born great. That's why someone like Lance Storm is a far better trainer than Ric Flair probably could be.

Double post. So I will use this opportunity to put out into the world that I hope in The AEW game, in battle royal mode you can get knocked over the top onto the stage at Daily's Place and not be eliminated like The Tokyo Dome ramp in VP2. Make it happen Tony Kahn. Yes I know you'll definitely 100% see this.

A couple weeks ago 2K Battlegrounds was a Games with Gold Free Play Weekend game on Xbox. I was able to beat the whole story mode and clear out all 1000 achievement score in just a weekend. I verrrrry much prefer it to the regular 2K games. Give me fast and fun over authentic and boring. It wasn't quite as good as All-Stars. But I had a blast with it. I'm sure I will pick it up one day when it's marked down to like $5. I seriously can't wrap my head around how anyone finds this game less fun than the regular 2K20 style game. But I grew up on N64 wrestling and that's the style I prefer. The first couple Smackdown games were fun at the time, but after Shut Your Mouth it seemed like they devolved REAL quick.

RunningFromAmerica. Sorry, thought it was obvious with him running wild on the last two pages. Victim blaming & standing behind his use of a derogatory term for the mentally disabled are pretty shitty actions to begin with. More so when Dolfan told him to chill on the subject and he kept going. Sorry if I was too vague and you thought I might have been talking about you? I have been annoyed by some of your one line drive by posts before lol, but you post a lot of good information and always add a lot to the discussions.

The sooner this new gimmick poster gets cashed the sooner we can get back to paying our air bills... just saying...

Christian is one of the most under rated dudes of all time. The match I'm really hoping happens is Edge & Christian vs The Usos. Would love to see Christian vs Bryan, AJ, Ali, & Ricochet too. But E&C vs The Usos would tear the house down.

The way the Edge thing played out if I remember correctly, because he was kinda vague with his wording in his Network doc, was that he got independently cleared by like 3 or 4 different doctors. And for years WWE said that wasn't good enough, "no" means "no". So then he had a meeting or phone conversation with Tony Kahn where he received a hefty offer. But out of respect for all WWE has done for him he went to Vince and laid it out for him. I am cleared. I want back in WWE and my doctors say it's safe. But if you wont have me the competition will. And WWE immediately wrote a big ass check and "no" no longer meant "no". I'm going to assume Christian did the exact same thing. He did the Bryan hyperbolic chamber rehab and doctors cleared him. He has no more risk of a concussion than any other person. So he probably went to Vince and said I want back in WWE, but if "no" still means "no", I'm setting up a meeting with Tony Kahn.

Someone left Madden franchise mode loaded on a GM's computer. That's the only way this insane trade makes any sense. Two 1sts and a 3rd for a QB starting his 13th season that is only slightly better than average? Oh and they threw in a younger version of the exact same slightly better than average QB on top to sweeten the deal? McVay must really hate Goff. He's so disgusted by the sight of him he gave away the farm just so he didn't ever have to talk to him again. Watson's agent has been up all night pricing out small islands knowing his cut of that deal is gonna be like 3x this haul.

This is basically gonna be an old man yelling at clouds post, but man I wish they would make the big 4 two night events. So like, one Rumble main events Saturday one main event Sunday. You can fit all the titles on this way. But separate them from that gender's Rumble night. Like all women's title matches and the men's Rumble on Saturday, all the men's title matches and women's Rumble on Sunday. Could do the same with the Survivor Series gimmicks. Could make each world title main event a night at Mania, or one night be the big men's main and the other the big women's main. But even more importantly... the doubled up gimmicks would cease to be an issue if they, ya know, went back to booking gimmicks based on story telling vs 'hey it's October let's cue up two Hell in a Cell matches'. And this year it was fucking 3 of them wasn't it? They've been doing the shoe-horned gimmick PPVs for a decade now so they aren't going anywhere. But back in my day Cactus Jack vs Triple H in a Hell in a Cell was because the wanted to fucking kill each other, not just because the calendar said October ?

I know the cgi thing was a joke my dude. Obviously lol. But there's been 2 pages of posts wondering if staying in one place / doing thunderdome was viable.

What are you guys going on about lol.... WWE is not going to scrap touring / live audiences. They know how much harder their shows are to enjoy in an empty building. Wrestling needs a live crowd to feed off of. So zero percent chance they go all thunderdome all the time. Setting up shop in one location is also a no go. You remember how Impact Zone TNA guys used to get over by drinking with the same 300 people who came every week? Can you imagine Vince finding out the crowd is going ape shit for like Gulak every week because he drinks with the fans, and it starts hijacking the show? Not to mention if they stay in one place they are drawing from a pool of the same 5,000-6,000 people every week which will dwindle and not spend money on merch over time. When things open up they are going balls to the wall touring again. House shows will be gone. But Raw / SD / PPVs will be all over the country / world. There's money to be made from entertainment starved audiences. The optics of crowds being so hyped because it's been 3 years since they've been to a live event are a can't miss prospect. Everyone is right they are a content company now. But that doesn't mean they're going full studio / cgi / tape a year in advance. It's still a touring live event and it always will be.

If you mean in the in-between time, from say Mania until fall-ish when things are *supposed* to open back up for real, sure. I could see that. But ain't no fucking way if things are completely opened up they stick with a virtual crowd. They've done an admirable job trying to roll with the punches. But the art form of wrestling just doesn't work the same without the live audience. I couldn't tell which one you meant from your post. Honestly until things are fully opened back up, Mania and Summerslam are the only events I expect them to try and use a live audience for.

Setting yourself up for failure my dude. When has WWE made anyone quarantine to work there?? I've seen zero buzz or insinuation of Punk being involved outside of your post. Think you're connecting dots that just aren't there. Would love to see it happen, but it just doesn't make any sense. Where would he even fit in? Why would WWE shell out for him in the empty arena era? If they ever make up, you'd think they'd want a huge crowd there for the reaction. Think you're also setting yourself up for failure on the men's 30 / women's 1 & 2 being on Backstage. That show was drawing dismal ratings. Like less that 40,000 people were watching, hence why it was cancelled. I think them announcing that you'll find out a couple Rumble spots on there is a their way to drive eyeballs to the show. Why would they give away a big name on a show no one watches? If it was meant to be important it would stay a surprise, or they'd announce it on TV and beat us over the head with it like everything else they push. My random predictions for winners based on absolutely nothing: Women's Rhea Ripley. Flair & Asuka lose the tag titles in February. Flair beats Auska in March. Rhea vs Flair for the Raw title at Mania. Men's Cena. Mind you I'm picturing some kind of smoke and mirrors video editing where Cena doesn't have to leave his tv show set up in Canada. Somehow they send a ring up there and film something wacky that everyone hates. Goldberg beats McIntyre. Cena vs Goldberg for The Raw title. Yuck.

Yeah carny math indeed lol. JR's first territory he drove around the promoter everywhere because he was blind. Forget the promoter's name. Leo McGirk maybe? But even carny math is better than no math... If you're THE GUY like Stone Cold or Hogan, let's say you get 5k a night as your bonus. (The amounts varied on the draw, who else was booked ect). But for the sake of easy math: 5k x 4 night a week (leaving one night as a tv night where I don't think they did bonuses) = 20k a week x 52... you're pulling in a bonus of $1,040,000. A million dollars on top of your salary for the major top stars. Even if you're the lowest guy on the card you're getting at least 200 a night as your bonus. 200 x 4 = 800 a week x 52... even the lowest of the low card dudes where pulling in a bonus of $41,000 a year on top of their salary. So depending on where you were on the card, how often you worked, how much the office like you... you're getting between $40,000 - $1,000,000 extra a year on top of your salary. And that's how they operated for almost 40 years. Now, it's just gone. You get your downside and no house show bonus. No ppv bonus. No third party money. You get salary, merch sales cut, and a bonus if you make one of the video games. But in recent year's they've cut the video game bonus significantly as well. The whole pay structure of the talent keeps getting cut. It's pretty ridiculous when you think about it. They've singed multiple billion dollar deals in the last 18 months. I'd love to see what the revenue share is in WWE vs NFL or UFC or NBA. Them signing 500 people and trying to open up territories all over the world surely add to the total talent budget, but the overall slice any one person gets has got to be tiny compared to the company's profits. And that's before we even start on how every single person on any single episode of any single television show that's shown on Peacock gets royalties, EXCEPT for professional wrestlers appearing in all that WWE content they just purchased now. It sucks that Andrew Yang was apparently just blowing smoke a few months ago. Because wrestlers need a union / collective bargaining so very badly.

Except for the fact the performer contracts are still heavily skewed towards the majority of your income is based off of house show bonuses. WWE did away with PPV bonuses when the network started. They took away third party platforms last year. They are now scrapping house shows completely. Merch bonuses is legitimately the only source of income now for the performers, outside of the downside guarantee. Which kind of makes downside guarantees obsolete and carny as fuck. Hey pal take a lower salary here but you'll make it up in bonuses if you do well. (But we're gonna take away 75% of the bonus opportunities so actually you'll pretty much just make your downside. Haha. Capitalism pal, gotta love it.). Multiple billion dollar deals in the last 18 months for the company. But the earning power of the performer has never been lower than it is now.

One thing I don't think I've seen mentioned about the Peacock purchase... what is the advertising budget of Peacock? And what amount of that did they allocate to this purchase? In addition to the actual network they purchased, they've now get what amounts to 5 prime time hours of promotion every week on USA Network, and probably more importantly 2 prime time hours of promotion on Fox. We all know how WWE hammers people over the head non-stop with whatever they're pushing. They are gonna run the promotion of Peacock into the ground during the weekly shows. And that advertising makes the price make a little more sense. They get the WWE Network and 1,800ish hours of potential promotion over the next 5 years. On two networks. It's a ton of content. It's a ton of advertising. It's roughly 1 million subscription growth. I still think $1 billion is a major overvaluation. But I kinda get it when you look at the whole package.

Fuck. Yes. Pleasantly surprised to see this. When you give up on the players you've lost the team. I'm so happy Doug Pederson got that long look at a practice squad player that has no relevance to Philly's future. Hopefully it was worth losing his job over. Bye Felicia.

I like this idea. I think everyone universally agrees Roman's new character is the best act in the company. Unify the titles, make a singular world title mean something again, and get Roman on both shows as the touring champion. It would kind of kill Drew's momentum. But on the other hand, what momentum? Have Edge win The Rumble and instead of wanting his world title shot he wants revenge on Orton or whatever. Lots of ways to get around the Rumble winner thing. Dont know why Miz has MITB again. But just have him get squashed somewhere along the way too.

His stat line wasn't setting the world on fire, but he was single handedly keeping them in the game. Because tanking for draft picks is busch league Madden shit. This is the NFL the GOAL is to win. Jason Kelce, The Eagles' Center, had a recent rant about how winning is the only thing that matters in football. And that teams that worry about tanking and the draft and free agency over winning are consistantly a part of a losing culture. Pederson is safe because he won the city their only Super Bowl ever. But if you look at his leadership since then, he's been a train wreck. Kept the wrong QB (Wentz instead of Foles). Gave Wentz big money. Had a lack of leadership that led to a QB controversy with Hurts now. Plus that micky mouse bullshit where he put in a practice squad player in a 3 point win-able game. I'm telling you now he lost the team. Kelce and Wentz sat on the field alone hours after the game ended last night. No doubt venting about what a piece of shit their coach is. Look I said at the outset The Giants should have won more if they didn't want to be in this position. But your lack of understanding of professionalism and how tanking is offensive to both the players and fan bases is pretty tone-deaf. Also, Eagles could have went into the off season with positive momentum and really feeling good about Hurts had he pulled out another win to add to his resume. In actuality they literally have zero momentum and a coach who lost respect from his players. But hey, three spots up in the draft certainly insures a Division Title next year ?

***The Giants should have won more games if they didn't want to be put into this position*** That being said, real fucking annoying that The Eagles are losing this game on purpose. Fine I can understand not taking the easy points because you're go for it on 4th down all the time kinda team. But putting in the third string QB when you're down by 3 and Hurts is playing well? Fuck Doug Pederson & Fuck The Eagles. Happy for Alex Smith tho. Hell of a journey to get back to a starting QB for a playoff team.

What a strange season. The Giants are one win away from a Division Title (along with a Washington loss), but they're also only one loss away from the number 3 draft pick (admittedly a long shot tho needing wins from the Bengals, Broncos, Texans, Eagles, Falcons, Panthers, & Lions). But I have to think that's a first. Entering Week 17 with the ceiling of winning your division & hosting a playoff game and a basement of the third overall pick. I'm not delusional enough to think The Giants are a good team this year. But I am delusional enough to think if they get in they could actually get the win against The Bucs in the wildcard round. They almost beat them once. Plus in NY with possible bad weather to slow the Bucs offense down. And old man Brady will probably have some arthritis going lol. No matter what happens, it's nice to finally have a meaningful game at the end of the season again.

Do people not understand how Twitter works? If it's only 10 people you would never see the tweets. 10 isn't enough for the algorithm to pull it up in your "for you" section. Generally tweets need to be in the 10,000s to trend, but has to at least be in the 1,000s to show up on anyone's radar in the "for you" section. So thousands and thousands of people were talking about Jericho not 10. Doesn't negate your main point. Just felt the need to point out it's a way bigger sample size than 10. Okay you win the thread. This is a GOOD take lol.

Honestly I didn't think anyone was making a big deal to begin with lol. It's an interesting insight into what non fans think, and considering what might appeal to them. Their follower amounts are kind of irrelevant. Does a person's opinion matter less if they're unpopular? Maybe it's coming off like I'm saying they should change things based off of that insight. That's not what I'm trying to say at all. I look at it more like it was a free market research group. Don't like take Jericho off tv because they were making fat jokes or anything drastic like that. But the consensus was that it looked like a bootleg WWE. Maybe that was a blind spot for AEW. So in that sense maybe they can learn from this free marketing research and tweak some visuals. But his original idea my first post was talking about was that "maybe just focus on retaining the audience you have" is a bad thought process to have. That's all.

Meh. I read it lol. I just narrowed down your point to this : Then my response, narrowed down was essentially : -Focusing on retaining the audience you have, aka not looking for a new audience (or as I phrased it, growing your audience) is dumb. -Then I explained the NBA viewing universe is way bigger than the wrestling viewing universe. So relegating the NBA twitter responses to a "group of friends" is dumb when it's probably closer to 5 or 6 million people... but maybe you have a lot of friends and 5 or 6 mil is no big deal for you playa lol. On this, we agree lol.