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December 2022 Wrestling Discussion


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16 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

I checked out of curiosity since I am pretty sure Damien Demento (hailing from the outer reaches of having a good match) was gone from WWF by late 1993. Cagematch counts it as an indie show and not a WWF show.

Hey now. Maybe Demento was no great shakes, but his shtick was absolutely top-notch. I saw him against (I think) Typhoon at a house show in Peoria during that timeframe and he honestly was one of the best acts on the whole show.

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1 hour ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

Did you get grandfathered into that with Comcast, or are they running that deal again? I ask because I could've sworn I read like six months ago that they were ending that. If that's back, I might have to defect back to Comcast, because I'm starting to get pissed off with YouTube TV.  At this juncture, the cost has risen to the point that it's just like having regular ass cable -  might as well get it from the same company I get my internet from and save a couple bucks, which was the whole reason I left in the first place. 

(Sorry for turning this into the streaming bullshit thread, btw - killing time before Dynamite...)

I don't believe we were grandfathered in. We had Fios and switched over about a year ago. Almost positive they are still doing it. 

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11 minutes ago, Pete said:

Hey now. Maybe Demento was no great shakes, but his shtick was absolutely top-notch. I saw him against (I think) Typhoon at a house show in Peoria during that timeframe and he honestly was one of the best acts on the whole show.

Yeah, respectfully disagree on that one. That said, Prichard said they brought him in because his gimmick worked on the independents. It didn't go over well in the WWF to say the least, and he was pretty damn lackluster in the ring. Not the worst in the WWF especially in 1993 (Mike Shaw giving up on giving a damn and Virgil come to mind), but he was near the bottom. 

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1 hour ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

Did you get grandfathered into that with Comcast, or are they running that deal again? I ask because I could've sworn I read like six months ago that they were ending that. If that's back, I might have to defect back to Comcast, because I'm starting to get pissed off with YouTube TV.  At this juncture, the cost has risen to the point that it's just like having regular ass cable -  might as well get it from the same company I get my internet from and save a couple bucks, which was the whole reason I left in the first place. 

(Sorry for turning this into the streaming bullshit thread, btw - killing time before Dynamite...)

The ceo or whoever was just saying that eventually they wouldn’t be offering a free version anywhere. At the time I read that as not having any timetable, and I’m still getting it for free. 

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recent news makes me think of a good dead on arrival ripped from the headlines wrestling character: a dude who is turned from face to heel after he's exposed as lying about his background. Like something worse than the usual wrestling lies about playing in the NFL. Maybe he claims to be trained by someone who didn't train him. Probably can't get to George Santos levels of lying in this sport due to the limits of good taste.

Maybe babyface claiming friendships he doesn't have and ends up becoming a heel once he's exposed as a fraud?

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21 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

you mean we're not gonna see if Gunther can make Brock Lesnar's upperbody look disturbingly pink at Wrestlemania?

Hmmmm

Gunther v Sheamus at Elimination Chamber then?

Then Gunther is free to fight Brock while Sheamus defends against Solo Sikoa at Mania?

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I was listening to Bischoffs podcast today and he was talking about if the Fusient deal had gone through, they wanted to set up the Power Plant in Las Vegas for a more centralized location where the training area could turn into a make shift studio.

Which made me wonder. Could a major promotion run exclusively out of Las Vegas? Every week you have your one or two shows from the studio, maybe travel for PPVs or something. The amount of tourists/visitors helping with the attendance? I know it's not a 1/1 example and sports are different (loyalty, etc.) but the Raiders have seen a rise in attendance (moving from around 88-90% of a filled stadium in Oakland to around 95% in Vegas). 

I just feel like wrestling could fit like a shoe with Vegas as we have seen with PPVs in the past.

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23 hours ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

I just read a rumor yesterday that NBCU might try to just buy WWE outright when their deal is up. If that happens, perhaps FOX decides they want to stay in the wrestling business, and makes the 904 call - suddenly AEW is in about 96% of American homes...

Interesting times abound 

Even without all the rumors these past 4 -5 years of WWE preparing themselves to be sold. I wouldn't be surprised if these big corporations were all of a sudden just interested in buying WWE after Vince Stepped down. Given how everyone was panicking about the executive changes in Warner Media and how that could possibly effect AEWs television deals in the future. It would definitely be a concern for people in and outside of WWE as to how they'd be treated by any of these big corporations if they bought WWE. Regardless of all the Creative and the uninspired workrate at the end of WCW but ultimately it was ended because the Network decided they didn't want it any more. On top of that they sold it to their direct competition for little to nothing. That has to factor into Vince's mind when he thinks about selling it 

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18 minutes ago, Ziggy said:

Regardless of all the Creative and the uninspired workrate at the end of WCW but ultimately it was ended because the Network decided they didn't want it any more. On top of that they sold it to their direct competition for little to nothing. That has to factor into Vince's mind when he thinks about selling it 

If WCW existed in 2022, they never would have been thrown away for a song by AOL Time Warner. They missed the potential of streaming because they couldn't even conceive of such a market, a lot like the BBC wiped a bunch of shows in the '50s, '60s, and '70s because they couldn't begin to conceive of a home video market.

WWE will always be around in some form because content is king and is going to be king for the foreseeable future. 

Edited by SirSmellingtonofCascadia
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42 minutes ago, Krone Meltzer said:

Which made me wonder. Could a major promotion run exclusively out of Las Vegas?

Could argue that the AWA wasn't major after a point but they were pretty much running Vegas by the end. I wonder how much of Bischoff running out of Orlando instead of house shows was inspired by him being around the AWA in the final years.

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3 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

recent news makes me think of a good dead on arrival ripped from the headlines wrestling character: a dude who is turned from face to heel after he's exposed as lying about his background. Like something worse than the usual wrestling lies about playing in the NFL. Maybe he claims to be trained by someone who didn't train him. Probably can't get to George Santos levels of lying in this sport due to the limits of good taste.

Maybe babyface claiming friendships he doesn't have and ends up becoming a heel once he's exposed as a fraud?

Wasn't that what we thought Drew McIntyre's gimmick was going to be, pre-3MB? When he was Mr McMahon's supposed chosen one, and kept giving Teddy Long those letters saying to treat him well

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19 hours ago, Krone Meltzer said:

I was listening to Bischoffs podcast today and he was talking about if the Fusient deal had gone through, they wanted to set up the Power Plant in Las Vegas for a more centralized location where the training area could turn into a make shift studio.

Which made me wonder. Could a major promotion run exclusively out of Las Vegas? Every week you have your one or two shows from the studio, maybe travel for PPVs or something. The amount of tourists/visitors helping with the attendance? I know it's not a 1/1 example and sports are different (loyalty, etc.) but the Raiders have seen a rise in attendance (moving from around 88-90% of a filled stadium in Oakland to around 95% in Vegas). 

I just feel like wrestling could fit like a shoe with Vegas as we have seen with PPVs in the past.

Didn't WWA try to do shows in Vegas? Didn't exactly turn out that well.

Unless the actual home base is that city (much like Top Rank Boxing or UFC), I would not really run out of Vegas if you don't have an established following there. Even with Top Rank and UFC, the founder of the former is friends with a bunch of casinos magnates (one being the now disgraced Steve Wynn) and the latter owns their own huge state of the art facility right next door to the headquarters. The UFC is making money hand over fist, and they realized during the pandemic they don't have to hit the road for their TV cards when they can just do the same shows from their facility and generate almost the same atmosphere. So it makes no sense for a company with no following or on hard times to lose their shirt running out of the Cosmopolitan or the Hard Rock.

For a company like WCW, if they wanted to start over, they could have just kept their home base as Atlanta and run the Georgia Championship Wrestling/Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling loops 2 or 3 days a week, tape a show on Saturday morning, and have a your PPV from one of those key cities in those areas every other month. 

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4 hours ago, Ziggy said:

Even without all the rumors these past 4 -5 years of WWE preparing themselves to be sold. I wouldn't be surprised if these big corporations were all of a sudden just interested in buying WWE after Vince Stepped down. Given how everyone was panicking about the executive changes in Warner Media and how that could possibly effect AEWs television deals in the future. It would definitely be a concern for people in and outside of WWE as to how they'd be treated by any of these big corporations if they bought WWE. Regardless of all the Creative and the uninspired workrate at the end of WCW but ultimately it was ended because the Network decided they didn't want it any more. On top of that they sold it to their direct competition for little to nothing. That has to factor into Vince's mind when he thinks about selling it 

If the company got sold, a lot of the current culture would be reflective in the new culture going forward. When the UFC got bought, not a whole lot changed once everyone who got paid left (the matchmaker Joe Silva and the Fertittas) or got fired once it was clear they were sharing the same job duties as people in the company that made the purchase. Dana White got $300 million and got to stay on as the carnival barker with less hands on responsibilities. I feel like Ari Emanuel realized that for all of Dana's faults that it would make it easier buying the company by keeping the face of the company around so it felt like some sense of normalcy. Here's where it is comparable to WWE: it takes a unique knowledge of the actual content and the modern day going ons and landscape more than buying a NBA or NFL team. There is no real life pro wrestling or MMA league general manager that could be successful if their knowledge of the actual product is zero.

As for the general concerns, I would say Vince was way more obsessive than a Bob Arum if we're comparing two crazy old men. However, it becomes someone else's problem once it's sold. Moreover, you cannot do it forever. Very recently (as in the last month), Bob Arum is talking about how Top Rank is doing better than ever and making more money than it's ever made in it's 50 year history. I have my doubts about that, but I see those statements in a different way. Bob has always floated out the 4 or 5 billion dollar mark as what he would be willing to sell Top Rank for ever since UFC was about to be sold. At 91 years old, Bob Arum isn't running the day to day operations anymore. Hell, he hasn't in probably close to a decade at this point. He's no longer that invested in making it more successful. He's putting those statements out there just so in the twilight of his life he can unload Top Rank for oodles of money and live out of the rest of his life in Cabo San Lucas. He ain't getting nowhere near the UFC asking price and he knows that. However, he would love to have billionaire on his resume before he leaves this Earth. He could give a damn about how the boxers and the employees are being treated.

Vince has already been to that promise land, but for Vince, it's almost an idle hands thing. At some point though, Vince would have had to step away. In the entertainment business, usually, you either get a ton of money to do it or you get forced out. That's probably what Vince couldn't get through his thick ass, probably steroid altered skull.

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19 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

recent news makes me think of a good dead on arrival ripped from the headlines wrestling character: a dude who is turned from face to heel after he's exposed as lying about his background. Like something worse than the usual wrestling lies about playing in the NFL. Maybe he claims to be trained by someone who didn't train him. Probably can't get to George Santos levels of lying in this sport due to the limits of good taste.

Maybe babyface claiming friendships he doesn't have and ends up becoming a heel once he's exposed as a fraud?

This was the way they turned Equinox into Vin Gerard in Chikara. Vin flunked out of the Wrestle Factory then made Skayde lie about being trained by him (if I remember right, he threatened to have Skayde deported or something along those lines) and hid under a mask until he lost it to Chris Hero. He was then expelled from the locker room and had no allies until he turned Shane Storm into Stigma. 

Edited by RefMattyD570
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4 hours ago, (BP) said:

Practical effect trivia: to make Hogan appear 7’, Stallone lied about his own height for his entire life. 

What's funny is that's something I could totally hear Hogan saying. "Brother, they wanted me to be 7' for that movie and they had me in mind for the part like 10 years ago. So Stallone had been saying he was 5'2 before that so that I could appear to be that much bigger."

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17 minutes ago, cwoy2j said:

What's funny is that's something I could totally hear Hogan saying. "Brother, they wanted me to be 7' for that movie and they had me in mind for the part like 10 years ago. So Stallone had been saying he was 5'2 before that so that I could appear to be that much bigger."

“We filmed that right after Wrestlemania III and before my time in Metallica. I had torn all of my back muscles slamming Andre and it actually made me taller! I was 7 feet tall and had to get up to 390 so I would’ve look skinny. Anyway, right after we filmed the Thunderlips scene, I got the call that Andre had died as a direct result of my body slam. I couldn’t bear to go on filming, so they had to scrap the rest of my scenes. Originally, I was going to beat Rocky so bad that he couldn’t box anymore. So, Thunderlips would go on to defeat Clubbed Lang and be the world boxing AND wrestling champ. I’d take over the franchise and fight the Russian (played by Dynamite Kid) in the next movie.”

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22 hours ago, Krone Meltzer said:

I was listening to Bischoffs podcast today and he was talking about if the Fusient deal had gone through, they wanted to set up the Power Plant in Las Vegas for a more centralized location where the training area could turn into a make shift studio.

Which made me wonder. Could a major promotion run exclusively out of Las Vegas? Every week you have your one or two shows from the studio, maybe travel for PPVs or something. The amount of tourists/visitors helping with the attendance? I know it's not a 1/1 example and sports are different (loyalty, etc.) but the Raiders have seen a rise in attendance (moving from around 88-90% of a filled stadium in Oakland to around 95% in Vegas). 

I just feel like wrestling could fit like a shoe with Vegas as we have seen with PPVs in the past.

why not? If TNA could run out of Nashville for a yr why couldn't a company run Vegas?

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On 12/22/2022 at 3:09 PM, Krone Meltzer said:

I was listening to Bischoffs podcast today and he was talking about if the Fusient deal had gone through, they wanted to set up the Power Plant in Las Vegas for a more centralized location where the training area could turn into a make shift studio.

Which made me wonder. Could a major promotion run exclusively out of Las Vegas? Every week you have your one or two shows from the studio, maybe travel for PPVs or something. The amount of tourists/visitors helping with the attendance? I know it's not a 1/1 example and sports are different (loyalty, etc.) but the Raiders have seen a rise in attendance (moving from around 88-90% of a filled stadium in Oakland to around 95% in Vegas). 

I just feel like wrestling could fit like a shoe with Vegas as we have seen with PPVs in the past.

People will travel to Vegas for a big event. The problem is do you have enough of a local base to support a weekly product

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