JULY WRESTLING DISCUSSION

[BrianS81177]

I'm kind of feeling the same as Super Ape. I still enjoy a lot of the in ring product that WWE is putting out, but by and large their storylines just aren't doing anything for me. Ambrose vs Rollins was getting me hooked, but I feel like they took a lot of the steam out of it by not having the match. I mean hell it could have ended with Rollins running away and being counted out or something. Now it just seems like it's going to be another month of "Ambrose jumps Rollins in parking lot, Ambrose jumps Rollins in locker room", etc. Steph vs Brie is fun but in a campy sort of way and I doubt it's going to be any good once it finally takes place in the ring. 

 

TNA hasn't interested me in months. Until I can be assured that I will not see anyone with the last name Carter on my screen, I watch Impact with the fast forward going. 

 

Has there been any word on that AAA/El Rey promotion? Is the idea of it that it would be licha libre but with english commentary?

[notoriusvig]

He should've just parked at Titan Towers and locked his keys inside his car when he decided to just stop showing up. He might not have got himself into a legal situation if this were planned better. That, or show up to TVs and gut a fish in the Gorilla Position. Either scenarios are good.

Yea and crazy Vince would think he still worked there since he saw his car there all the time.  They'd think he was the hardest working guy there.

[MORELOCK]

The sad thing about Alberto is that he's a legitimately charismatic guy but WWE seems reluctant to push him again. They need to give him his car back and give him a valet. Eva Marie isn't doing anything, just have her Alberto's arm candy for a while. Let him be the rich, aristocratic heel again. 

 

I fail to see how anything about Del Rio would be different if Rodriguez were there and he were to arrive in a vehicle now. He's playing the same character either way. And it sucks whether they spend thousands of dollars a week on a rental car or not.

[thee Reverend Axl Future]

I didn't want to start a new thread for this because I don't think this deserves one, but you know, I'm starting to feel like wrestling's passed me by, and whatever WWE's slinging just isn't for me anymore.

 

It sucks because I've been a wrestling fan since 1996, to such a degree that it's shaped my perspective on the world.  I used to keep it under my vest for YEARS, only to find out when my friends and I were adults, that they were fans too.  I never got to watch an ECW show live (I was a kid then, and my folks would have never let me go to that nuthouse), which is one of my biggest regrets, but WWE, WCW, I went to almost every show that came to Philly for many years.  I met one of my best friends at a Bret Hart DVD signing.

 

But now, I guess I'm jaded and just fed up with what's going on these days.  Like I said in a previous post, I've become the token "Vince is the devil" smark, with the aversion to giving him a dime anymore, and all I can muster up as excitement goes these days is the occasional "told ya" whenever the WWE does what I expect them to do, and hearty laughs at TNA's own ineptitude.

 

A friend, the same I met at the Bret signing, who has even let me use his WWE Network account, suggested I start taking a different approach to watching wrestling, to re-evaluate how, and even WHY I watch it (this was after a breakdown I had when I made an off-hand comment on how Davey Richards and I have some common ground, only to realize how accurate that was).  And that it was possible that I've simply outgrown it.

 

Yikes.  That was a lot.

Just because you didn't mention it, I am assuming that you haven't been to any indie shows lately. I am outraged: you (still?) live in Philly and haven't tried out any of the dozens of South Jersey groups (On Point Wrestling is fun), CZW, House of Hardcore, that great Masked Republic lucha card a couple months ago, or even some of the silly Extreme Rising shows? If live wrestling doesn't rekindle the fire, then take a sabbatical. If you want to watch again in a few months then do so. What you wrote is as if somebody said to me "gee, I really don't enjoy music lately", and I come to discover that they only listen to pop radio. There's is a whole world of alternative, underground, grass-roots, DIY, indy, cutting edge, etc sounds out there being made, over the inter Webs, on CD/vinyl/cassette and most importantly LIVE. Hell, there is more music than one can listen to in a lifetime that's already been produced. Put a bit of effort into it and you will be rewarded. If the Pizza Hut on the corner is making you sick, then don't tell me you don't like food - get off your duff and try the local pizzeria down the block, or the pub, or the seafood restaurant or buy a cookbook.

Not to blame the victim, but since you posted up here for advice or a solution or commiseration, I feel the next step is to be more pro-active, or step away for awhile. I enjoy the WWE, I think it's been fun lately, and I feel like $9.95 is a fair amount to give them a month for what I get back. When I am not enjoying something, I FFw it or turn it off. If I am in the mood for rasslin', I have the rest of the WWENetwork, youTube, tapes, DVDs  and so on. On the Roku and 'net I can find indy, Japanese and lucha as well, and there are plenty of shows on the weekends to round up a passel of friends for and go enjoy. It's a fine time to be a fan.

pshaw,

RAF

p,s, - I still love thee, Mr. McMahon.

[Newb82]

What's a good Roku channel for non-WWE wrestling?

[Spritenaut 32]

Didn't Del Rio tell the company that he was leaving when his contract expired?  Hence his lack of push?  Or was that just a (false) rumor?

[thee Reverend Axl Future]

What's a good Roku channel for non-WWE wrestling?

The Prowrestlingchannel has the free matches of a middling indy group with an option to subscribe (I haven't) and MaddyGTV carries the often festive AAW There is Ringscoops as well, never watched it and TVbyDemand,com has Loco Wrestling. I think there is one more, I gotta check. When no one is around, i have been known to watch OPW on my TV via YouTube.

- RAF

[Super Ape]

Axl, you're not wrong, but I have a three-year-old daughter and a full-time job. If I'm not at work, I'm either taking care of things around the house when my wife's working, being a dad, or we're going out doing stuff as a family.

I am in fact going to a show on Saturday; Right Coast Pro in Newark, DE. Low Ki and Daniels are the main, and the rest of the card is mostly made up of home-grown Delaware boys, so I'd say that's pretty grassroots. Of course, it's the first time I have the time or money to go to one of these shows, and I live five minutes away from the National Guard Armory where HoH did it's last show here.

[Newb82]

What's a good Roku channel for non-WWE wrestling?

The Prowrestlingchannel has the free matches of a middling indy group with an option to subscribe (I haven't) and MaddyGTV carries the often festive AAW. I think there is one more, I gotta check.

- RAF

I found ACE, which might be the other one you're thinking of. GFL has free content... none of which will load.

[odessasteps]

Axl, you're not wrong, but I have a three-year-old daughter and a full-time job. If I'm not at work, I'm either taking care of things around the house when my wife's working, being a dad, or we're going out doing stuff as a family.

I am in fact going to a show on Saturday; Right Coast Pro in Newark, DE. Low Ki and Daniels are the main, and the rest of the card is mostly made up of home-grown Delaware boys, so I'd say that's pretty grassroots. Of course, it's the first time I have the time or money to go to one of these shows, and I live five minutes away from the National Guard Armory where HoH did it's last show here.

I didnt realize anyone was running in DE besides ECWA, since i drive by the B&G Club in Bear every weekend.

I may have to investigate this, esp if Daniels is working.

[RandomAct]

I've been saying the same thing as Super Ape for almost 2 years.  The work is generally good, but I mentioned sometime back, that WWE doesn't work in a vacuum.  Someone will put over a match that everyone went crazy about, I'll watch it and say "that was fine", because I have no attachment to anyone on the roster, or the stories going in.  Ambrose might literally be the only guy on the roster I find interesting right now, and from what it looks like, the company is already doing what they can to make sure they don't have another "Daniel Bryan" on their hands.

[Matt D]

 

 

What's a good Roku channel for non-WWE wrestling?

The Prowrestlingchannel has the free matches of a middling indy group with an option to subscribe (I haven't) and MaddyGTV carries the often festive AAW. I think there is one more, I gotta check.

- RAF

I found ACE, which might be the other one you're thinking of. GFL has free content... none of which will load.

 

 

I read that as GLF and I was wondering for a second if it was just a big clock on the screen.

[ivpvideos]

Burnout is a very real thing. I have no idea how people watch all three hours of RAW each week. I usually get home from class at about 9 and just start from there. If anything big happened in the first hour they will replay it half a dozen times. I haven't watched Smackdown in years, TNA is dead to me and besides the ROH and return of Chikara PPV I haven't watched any Indy Feds in forever. My backlog of Puro to watch is ridiculous.

If you aren't enjoying it, take some time off. If you skipped Mania because of fear of HHH winning then you are definitely self-sabotaging yourself. Take a month off and come back refreshed

[Newb82]

What's a good Roku channel for non-WWE wrestling?

The Prowrestlingchannel has the free matches of a middling indy group with an option to subscribe (I haven't) and MaddyGTV carries the often festive AAW. I think there is one more, I gotta check.

- RAF

I found ACE, which might be the other one you're thinking of. GFL has free content... none of which will load.

I found an OVW channel too, but it crashed everything first time I tried it.

[cwoy2j]

Burnout is a very real thing. I have no idea how people watch all three hours of RAW each week. I usually get home from class at about 9 and just start from there. If anything big happened in the first hour they will replay it half a dozen times. I haven't watched Smackdown in years, TNA is dead to me and besides the ROH and return of Chikara PPV I haven't watched any Indy Feds in forever. My backlog of Puro to watch is ridiculous.

If you aren't enjoying it, take some time off. If you skipped Mania because of fear of HHH winning then you are definitely self-sabotaging yourself. Take a month off and come back refreshed

 

Same here. There’s just too much filler and pointless rambling. I usually fast forward through the usual 20 minute opening monologue unless something big is happening. There’s no way I could get through RAW without my DVR.

[MORELOCK]

I mean, Flair didn't need the suits and the rolex and the private plane or his limo or his groupies of the month hanging off each arm... Ric Flair from Charlotte was more than enough of a hook right?

 

Well... uhhh... Cena! Now there's a guy that got over on personality. He didn't need any gimmicks to break through. It was just ruthless aggresion one night and then BAM! WWE Champion... shit.

 

Flair and Cena got over based on booking and their mic skills, not managers or props. I have never seen a good Del Rio promo and I keep hearing here that if he had Rodriguez and came out in a car it would fix everything, but he had both of those things well after the fans stopped caring. The true fault lies, as you said, with how weak the booking is across the board right now.

[JohnnyJ]

My take is it is just really really hard to get over new talent long term. It requires character work and a prolonged push. 9/10 times WWE either gets bored, incoherent, frustrated or down on the talent.

It hasn't been so obvious how bad it has become because largely by chance Punk and Bryan both got really hot and were able to (along with Cena obviously) hold up the main event picture.

The fact that WWE is sometimes resistant to push the acts who are actually over w the crowd certainly doesn't help.

Del Rio was on his way and got derailed by being the odd man out in the Cena/Punk feud. He took a bunch of falls in main event matches and never got his mojo back.

It's seemed like Big E was on his way a few times but there was no follow through.

If you look at someone like Reigns, he has been positioned as the next big guy for the last six months-year. The crowd digs him. The office digs him. And even w the rocket ship firmly strapped he isn't that over compared to past main event faces.

[cwoy2j]

Quick question, was talking on another board about guys who used lariats as finishers and I seem to remember Batista using a lariat as a secondary finisher during his Evolution days. Didn't he do an angle where he was knocking people out with it (specifically Jericho)?

[Super Ape]

What really turned me off between Punk winning the strap and Bryan getting hyped in 2013 was how Cena would main-event PPVs in nothing matches by virtue of Being John Cena, while Punk took a backseat as champion. Now I'm not one of those codgers who says you gotta have a title match for the main all the time, but Cena vs. Kane as the main in a PPV where Punk OPENS THE SHOW defending the belt in the Elimination Chamber is asinine.

[El Ken Erico]

Some people are already sick of Reigns because it's obvious where this is going. And his moveset is all about the superman punch and spear.The apron kick is the only other move i can think of right now. The Shield was just perfect for those guys. Reigns has the superstar look,Ambrose the mic skills and Rollins the flashy moves and is the bump machine.

[E.J.]

Honestly, I'm just glad they're pushing someone else up the card. I don't mind Reigns, I like him. I think he just needs to tweak his look a bit, and cut back on the Superman punch before it gets over-exposed. I agree these start-stop pushes are really hurting the roster, and it's going to be really interesting to see what happens when Cena and Orton hang it up or at least switch to a part-time schedule.

[cwoy2j]

I think Reigns should've stayed with the original riot gear as well. I don't like the trim on his new stuff.

[bink_winkleman]

I'll be honest; I didn't even bother watching Mania because there was no way I could be sure the whole shebang wouldn't end with HHH winning the belt, or even Cena doing a Hulk-Hogan-at-WrestleMania-IX and winning it from Orton. 

 

This was me back with Benoit/HHH.  I didn't enjoy that Mania match at all because I had zero faith that Benoit would win.  And the win wasn't even that emotional for me despite being a Benoit mark since the 90s because I'd been such a bitter little smarky shit about the feud.  So I'd say I quit watching WWE completely from about 2008 or so until the Summer of Punk stuff, maybe just checking in online to see what was going on.  Personally, I think Raw is better than it's been since 2002 or so.  It's not as good Smackdown Six era Smackdown, but it's a lot better than the garbage I quit watching six years ago. 

 

So yeah, you probably just need a break.  Then come back and don't take any of the online bitching to heart and just enjoy the show for what it is. 

[Red is Dead]

Ape - have you tried looking at different promotions? like a pwg or njpw?

 

Or is it burnout of wrestling in total?

[Hoffman]

Damien Sandow has to be one of the most idiotic guys in wrestling.  This guy keeps dressing up like a tool, hoping to gain respect or something, only to get the shit kicked out of him.  Then, instead of giving up and figuring it's not worth it, he continues to do it and he keeps getting shut down.  Does he just figure "today's the day it might work?"  What does he have to gain by dressing up like an idiot?  I thought he was supposed to be an intellectual but he seems more like a dumb idiot.  The average wrestling fan would've given up a long time ago.  He has less intelligence than a wrestling fan.

 

It worked for Wile E. Coyote.  Just bill him as Damien Sandow, Super Genius from Acme Acres and we'll be set.