July 2024 Wrestling Talk

[EVA]

15 hours ago, twiztor said:

Does the HHH regime treat tag teams better than the McMahon era? it would hard to treat them worse.......

It’s funny that you asked this question yesterday and then last night on Smackdown, HHH ran with one of Vince’s favorite tropes: singles star single-handedly destroys a tag team. The tag champs, no less!

I hope Fatu beats DIY in a handicap match next week.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

Think it's a little crazy everyone thinks MCMGs will go to NXT. While they would certainly help the workers in NXT get better, if you're paying them enough for them to choose you over AEW I gotta think that's a main roster acquisition. And MCMG vs DIY in Cleveland for Summer Slam would be the perfect debut match for them. I almost think that's why DIY got the belts. To give Gargano something he can really sink his teeth into for Cleveland. I mean that might be wishful thinking. But I think them going straight to the main roster is the move here.

You stick them in NXT and overlap it with the TNA stuff, then from a performer standpoint it's going to be a bit annoying. You finally get that big deal with the biggest company but you're still kinda just doing the same thing working TNA guys or being loaned for TNA shows. That's a morale killer for a lot of guys.

[Raziel]

1 hour ago, EVA said:

It’s funny that you asked this question yesterday and then last night on Smackdown, HHH ran with one of Vince’s favorite tropes: singles star single-handedly destroys a tag team. The tag champs, no less!

I hope Fatu beats DIY in a handicap match next week.

To be fair, Jacob Fatu is damn near Generational Talent level and they're getting him over as an unstoppable force of nature, and WWE's always had one of those lying around.  Should it have been a beatdown of tag champs, probably not, but it's not like DIY got nuked by attempt 24352 to make Baron Corbin a thing.  Jacob is a fucking monster that could be the Brock replacement, and it's clear they have huge plans for him with how he's been presented thus far.

[EVA]

Jacob looked the same size as DIY last night. He can be his own thing, but the new Brock he ain’t never gonna be.

[Shartnado]

24 minutes ago, EVA said:

Jacob looked the same size as DIY last night. He can be his own thing, but the new Brock he ain’t never gonna be.

Knowing what we know now about Brock Lesnar (fuck allegedly, btw), that's not exactly a bad thing.

[AxB]

Jacob Fatu, he did the thing Walter and Pete Dunne did; Be a chunky guy on the indies and look intimidating due to bulk and weight, then go to the fed and slim down a bunch to look lean.

Now he doesn't just look small the way Pete Dunne looks small now, but he's not the 300lb Juggernaut that MLW presented him as (he was probably never actually as heavy as 300 lbs in terms of actual bodyweight, but he resembled a 300 lb wrester-type enough that they could believably claim it).

[odessasteps]

JC said he was probably 275 then, and they are still billing him at 275 and 6’2” when he’s prob like 5’10” or so. 

[EVA]

Ciampa was taller than him when they were trading blows last night. Granted, Fatu was squatting a bit to feed for him, but at best they’re the same height. And Ciampa isn’t close to 6 feet.

[madl]

20 hours ago, twiztor said:

Does the HHH regime treat tag teams better than the McMahon era? it would hard to treat them worse.......

Eh, I feel like the tag team division is worse off.  There really aren’t any ‘tag team specialists’ getting over or being pushed strongly. Belts get passed around makeshift teams who job a lot when they don’t have belts or just don’t get used. Teams go straight from catering to tag titles them back to catering.  Imperium got broken up for no reason then Vinci was sent straight to catering without even a tv match to get revenge on Kaiser for backstabbing him. Etc, etc, etc. It’s a toss up, but I feel like the tag team decision has gotten worse under Paul.

 

 

 

[Eivion]

5 hours ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

Think it's a little crazy everyone thinks MCMGs will go to NXT. While they would certainly help the workers in NXT get better, if you're paying them enough for them to choose you over AEW I gotta think that's a main roster acquisition. And MCMG vs DIY in Cleveland for Summer Slam would be the perfect debut match for them. I almost think that's why DIY got the belts. To give Gargano something he can really sink his teeth into for Cleveland. I mean that might be wishful thinking. But I think them going straight to the main roster is the move here.

After Smackdown I would be surprised if the plan for Summerslam was anything but DIY vs. G.o.D. Before the beatdown by Jacob, Solo talked up the Bloodline having so much of the gold. 

[Technico Support]

Can somebody who knows more than I do explain the Joe Hendry thing?  I know he was a cult favorite who was signed to TNA and is now making inroads to NXT, but is he any good?  I get the sneaking suspicion he’s one of these “and then the bell had to ring” meme wrestlers.  Am I wrong?  Is he Warhorse or is he Orange Cassidy?

[EVA]

More in the LA Knight tier. He’s just fine in the ring. Will neither wow you nor embarrass himself and the business.

Edited July 13, 2024 by EVA

[Cliff Hanger]

10 hours ago, Norwegian Rudo said:

NXT's Josh Briggs and former Olympian Tavion Heights will be competing in Noah's N1 Victory tournament. Briggs is solid while Heights has just debuted on TV.

He has not just debuted on TV  He's been on LVLUP for a whole year and was past due for promotion to Tuesday; he was also in the 2023 Breakout Tournament.

[Cobra Commander]

Less ambitious match stips: A Money in the Bank match where the briefcase is in a bank vault and you gotta open the vault and get the briefcase out to win the match. Leading to spots of someone trying to slowly enter a code to open the vault before it's broken up by the other wrestler.

[Eivion]

3 hours ago, odessasteps said:

JC said he was probably 275 then, and they are still billing him at 275 and 6’2” when he’s prob like 5’10” or so. 

 

3 hours ago, EVA said:

Ciampa was taller than him when they were trading blows last night. Granted, Fatu was squatting a bit to feed for him, but at best they’re the same height. And Ciampa isn’t close to 6 feet.

When all of the current Bloodline are together Tanga Loa is noticeably the tallest and is listed at 6'2. I think the rest are no taller than 6' and are more likely 5'10. Its going to be noticeable when Rock, Roman, and the Usos get involved since all of them are taller.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

16 hours ago, Ziggy said:

choff wasn’t a big tag team guy either. I never understood why other promotions never really tried to get behind building Strong tag division just for the sake of setting yourself apart from WWF/E. 

 

13 hours ago, zendragon said:

Was Verne Gagne not a tag guy? I wonder if that's where Bischoff might gotten that

 

Apologies for the destroyed formatting - not sure if this is the case for Verne, but I know for Bischoff the philosophy was that tag teams = two guys = two paydays. I've also heard that attributed to Vince as a reason why he would always split up tags and push one - so it's entirely possible that's the conventional wisdom.

 

 

 

22 hours ago, Norwegian Rudo said:

Not really. Tag team wrestling is really struggling in both companies right now.

I quoted this post before I saw your latest because I was gonna say the same thing about the trios titles. I like the idea of them in theory (outside of the budgetary thing I mentioned about tag teams which isn't really the conversation) but I think there needs to be more random teams of undercard guys, or Mexican/Japanese/ROH trios vying for it, and less regular-tag-teams-plus-a-guy. I'm not advocating for getting rid of them, but given that they're unified, I think it might be a good idea to send them to ROH for a while to put the focus back on the duo tag title division. Not to derail and turn this into a boring ass ratings conversation, but if the first segment of Dynamite is consistently the highest rated, and the Bucks' segments are consistently the lowest, I think it would be an interesting experiment to see how it would go if they opened the show for a few weeks defending the titles in some WCW/video game-style triangle matches against other flippy teams. Don't even show the intro, just go right from Sheldon's bullshit into a dive

Edited July 13, 2024 by Zakk_Sabbath

[zendragon]

I remember when TNA was following a UFC event and they opened with Joe kicking I think Christopher Daniel in the head for a cold open. No Intro just UFC Ends/Boot to the face.

I've heard about Vince; Hart Foundation w/ Jimmy Hart v Bulldogs is 5 paydays as opposed to Davey Boy v Bret is just two guys. However Vince was at one time operating as many as three shows a night which would add up.

However if Bischoff was using the same logic it doesn't make as much sense as he immediately cancelled house shows and the Disney taping where guys on guaranteed deals mostly. Also I think scrapping tag teams makes Bischoff look dumb in hindsight as JCP/GCW/ Championship Wrestling From Georgia was always at least partially based around tag teams where The McMahons weren't as much

[Curt McGirt]

On 7/11/2024 at 10:39 AM, The Natural said:

This plus his Dad is a piece of shit.

I liked how they basically said he had roid rage without saying it in the Legends doc on them.

EDIT: They didnt even bring up Steiner Math! Also, Rick being a realtor is... odd. Like, he can do math?

Edited July 13, 2024 by Curt McGirt

[Cobra Commander]

I'm not a realtor but I'd think there are some non-economic parts to selling a house. Salesmanship, making the place look good, various business skills, and the such. If you're convincing someone to enter into a deal to spend thousands of dollars, you need some skills to make that happen.

[odessasteps]

From things I have seen on the internet, it helps you sell a house if you are a very pretty lady willing to do certain things to close the deal.

#PropertyS*x (so I've heard) 

Edited July 13, 2024 by odessasteps

[SirSmUgly]

5 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

I'm not a realtor but I'd think there are some non-economic parts to selling a house. Salesmanship, making the place look good, various business skills, and the such. If you're convincing someone to enter into a deal to spend thousands of dollars, you need some skills to make that happen.

How many houses can you sell by repeating IF YOU WANT A HOUSE, COME TOUR A HOUSE, IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, BITE ME, really?

[Phantom Lord]

7 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

I'm not a realtor but I'd think there are some non-economic parts to selling a house. Salesmanship, making the place look good, various business skills, and the such. If you're convincing someone to enter into a deal to spend thousands of dollars, you need some skills to make that happen.

When my grandmother's house was sold the realtor changed the living room around. Put in a new couch, turned the upstairs parlor into a bedroom, ect. In the end all the updates and stuff that were done to the house didn't matter cause the new owners gutted the place anyway.

[SovietShooter]

1 hour ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

think there needs to be more random teams of undercard guys, or Mexican/Japanese/ROH trios vying for it, and less regular-tag-teams-plus-a-guy. I'm not advocating for getting rid of them, but given that they're unified, I think it might be a good idea to send them to ROH for a while to put the focus back on the duo tag title division.

AEW has always been built around factions & stables, so I do not have a problem with "regular" teams being in the Trios Title scene... to me it is no different than when two random dudes from a group of 3+ win the regular tag titles. 

I think the actual trios titles need to be be booked as a "lesser" title that is harder to defend, and thus is just passed around a lot more often. Not as willy-nilly as something like a 24/7 title or anything, but just get over the fact it is really hard to defend it successfully. Then you can sell the regular tag division as being for seasoned established teams that work well together, and push it to the PPV main event level that is was (and should be) at.

TANGENT: I really wonder if a few key injuries have stalled some plans in the tag division. The Bucks aren't defending the titles at all, and Dax is out hurt.  I'm wondering if the plan was for Copeland to drop the TNT strap to Perry, the Bucks to lose the straps to FTR, and then somehow pivot to FTR vs Edge & Christian for the tag titles at Wembley. We know TK sucks at pivoting, and this fits that profile.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

8 minutes ago, SovietShooter said:

think the actual trios titles need to be be booked as a "lesser" title that is harder to defend, and thus is just passed around a lot more often. Not as willy-nilly as something like a 24/7 title or anything, but just get over the fact it is really hard to defend it successfully. Then you can sell the regular tag division as being for seasoned established teams that work well together, and push it to the PPV main event level that is was (and should be) at.

I like this idea a bunch, this is exactly what I was kinda trying to get at with the idea of adding more lower card and outside guys to the trios pool  Don't get me wrong, I love a nice long reign like anyone else, but if they're not gonna use the TNT title as a TV title style belt for that purpose, or any of the other ones for that matter, then I definitely think more frequent Trios title changes would work both to fill that void, and also as you said, in establishing a bit of a hierarchy with the reg tags

Edited July 14, 2024 by Zakk_Sabbath

[Norwegian Rudo]

5 hours ago, Cliff Hanger said:

He has not just debuted on TV  He's been on LVLUP for a whole year and was past due for promotion to Tuesday; he was also in the 2023 Breakout Tournament.

Fair enough on the breakout tournament, forgot about that, but no matter how often someone's been on Fridays, they'll always call it an NXT debut when someone first appears on Tuesdays.