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Another Attempt at a MARCH Wrestling Thread


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15 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Right?  I specifically read the Meltzer quotes looking for that.  The closest thing to it is him saying "it's not like they sold 60,000 right away" but then there's mysteriously no quote from him on the final number.

Now I'm getting bummed wondering how many of the wrestlers believe the worked number.

Want the most exhausting, frustrating experience of your week?  Read the bickering over the attendance numbers in the Talk section of Mania 3's Wikipedia article.

TJ Spyke? That's clearly someone who A) works for WWE, and B) creates wrestler's names.

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I don't know why this tweet makes me laugh so much.  Mainly because I'm reading it in my head in Vince's "RUTHLESS AGGRESSION" voice.  Maybe it's the discussions about women's revolution and super women while Dana Brooke takes copious notes in the background.
 

 

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5 hours ago, CSC said:

https://www.njpw1972.com/g1special/

 

Looks like it will be through Ticketmaster, although the event isn't listed yet. 

What's funny is the countdown on the site runs to midnight pacific on April 1, 8 hours before the tickets are supposed to go on sale. Just realized it. I'm not sure if it's a mistake but it seems silly to have a countdown that ends 8 hours before they actually go on sale. Now I'm going to have to be online at that point just in case. 

Edit: actually if my math is correct it's counting down to midnight pacific on April 2, 16 hours after they go on sale. 

Am I totally misreading it?? I'm confused now. 

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10 minutes ago, Web Conn said:

I want to see New Japan live in LA, I'm a worrier so of course I think I'm going to get on ticketmaster too late.

Same here. I think we can just ignore the countdown and figure 8am pst Saturday, but I'll still be compulsively checking until then. 

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On one hand I wish Ranallo all the luck in the world, fight the good fight, stay strong and I hope he feels better to come back soon. On the other hand there is just too much Tom Phillips on WWE programming with Ranallo out. Now that Phillips has been doing 205 Live in Ranallo's absence he commentates on every WWE show besides Raw including NXT. Ranallo come back please get this face fucker off my television.  

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I'll be surprised if Ranallo is with the company much longer.  Honestly, I don't feel like he was ever as good as the hype - though it may well be that no one will be good in that job with Vince yelling in their ear, micromanaging every comment.

4 minutes ago, Ace said:

I'd go with Tyson Kidd or Jimmy Jacobs, myself.

 

Doesn't Tyson Kidd have mostly bad things to say about WWE right now?  I don't watch Total Divas but I'm under the impression that he (and Nattie, I guess?) are off the show because the company doesn't want to give him a platform to trash them.  Is that not the case?

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I think you'll find yourself in the minority regarding Mauro. He's absolutely everything that was promised and did a fantastic job elevating SmackDown.

I also think he'll remain with WWE as long as he wants to stay there. It may sound sleazy, but with Mauro, WWE has an opportunity to reach out to others with depression and eventually do a campaign for it like they did with Be a Star.

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7 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

I thought they have written Tyson out of continuity because of his injury.

Yeah, my mistake.  What Tyson actually said (tweeted) was that the company took him off Total Divas completely so they wouldn't have to show his injury and explain how it happened and how severe it is.  I assume showing workers suffering severe injuries makes wrestling even harder to sell to advertisers.

 

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The newest Observer is already up on the site and has a big update on Mauro's situation and apparently a lot of blame is being put on JBL

Quote

Mauro Ranallo missed his third straight week of WWE broadcasts due to battling depression.

Ranallo, 47, had disappeared from public view and only been in touch with his closest friends like Bas Rutten and Frank Shamrock.

“I’m deeply touched by your tweets of support,” Ranallo wrote on Twitter to fans who had written in support of him in his only contact since missing the 3/14 Smackdown tapings in Pittsburgh. “My doctor wants me to stay off social media for now, but I wanted to thank you.”

The story of what caused this is, and it could be a lot of things, or perhaps very minor things, is Ranallo has battled bipolar disorders since his teenage years and spoken openly on the subject.

The timing of this came after a very strange public set of circumstances involving broadcast partner John Layfield, which most figured was just part of the show since the two play characters at odds with each other on Smackdown.

Evidently, at some point this got too real, which is unfortunate for WWE right now. Apparently, Layfield wasn’t even aware of it until a few days after Pittsburgh, because he went after Ranallo on social media for missing Pittsburgh (where the public reason given was weather problems in transportation) and saying how every other person in the company made it to the show. He then took the tweet down and hasn’t said a thing about Ranallo since, although WWE has continued to air the WWE network episode of “Bring it to the Table” that first aired on 3/13 that apparently played a part in all this.

Ranallo hasn’t talked, and those close to him have only said that he’s getting stronger and recovering. However, Rutten, who has talked with Ranallo almost every day, has made hints and outright told people about his feelings for Layfield.

In a tweet he said, “JBL? Ha ha, would love to meet him.” At another point when people thought he was knocking someone on twitter who said something on the subject, said, “I’m flaming those Ahole (s), JBL, whatever is his name.” He also wrote, “Please attack me for that comment, JBL, please.” “I mean, he was a pro wrestler, but please, you always take care of your broadcast partner. Always.”

Those close to the situation said things had been building. On the air, JBL had always made fun of Ranallo being so active on Twitter and re-tweeting to many comments, and JBL talked about how he blocked Ranallo. While it appeared in fun on television, JBL evidently got mad especially when Ranallo tweeted the results of the Wrestling Observer Announcer of the Year awards, where Ranallo won, and later wrote, “Honored to Have won the award two years in a row.”

Within wrestling, the general rule on any awards unless they are given by your promotion and you are promoting those awards, is that you don’t acknowledge them. But Layfield was legitimately very upset, and must have said something in response. Ranallo sent out a tweet on 3/13 saying, “Jealousy is one hell of a drug.” There was no saying it was aimed at Layfield, or even a hint, but it was clear people took it as a response to that.

A few hours later, the episode aired, which was likely taped before that tweet. A lot of viewers were mad, although when watching, I just figured it was all in character. Layfield getting mad about he results of the Observer poll was funny, but he also skewered Ranallo’s announcing and pop culture references. If it was part of the character, it would be one thing, but obviously, it wasn’t the case and evidently played a key part in triggering things. Even if it was “in-character,” it was mean spirited and the key is that those are the type of things, as far as being that vicious about announcing style, that you don’t do with your broadcast partner unless you are involved in an angle with him. If anything, with Ranallo’s background and being hardly a secret, such a move was terribly ill-advised

Ranallo has made no secrets in the past about his episodes and once missed an Invicta show, but in the past, these were short-term things. I don’t know that this was the most serious issue, but it was the longest down time he’s had since he started working regularly on U.S. television for Showtime covering MMA and then boxing. Ranallo got his start in pro wrestling for Al Tomko’s promotion in British Columbia as a fast-talking heel manager and later started as an announcer, and then transitioned into other sports, but wrestling was his first venture and he was a fan of the genre since childhood. Even though he announced the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight, perhaps the biggest non-team sports events in the world of this generation, he legitimately described the WWE gig when he first got it as his ultimate dream job.

The WWE has said nothing publicly about this, and really the company is in a no-win situation. On 3/21, they stated Ranallo missed the show because he was sick, and on 3/28, there were no references made at all.

It’s a complicated issue. It would look terrible publicly if Ranallo wasn’t used again, particularly with the WWE Alliance with Be a Star and the backstage bully environment and dominance games of the past that corporate partners have known about, but looked the other way at. The feeling is WWE is a powerful company and the alliances are valuable because of the celebrity status its biggest stars now have, and how kids look up to them. But at times, notably during the period Vickie Guerrero’s weight and appearance was used regularly by performers and announcers to make fun of, there were people in those places holding their nose, or their mouths. WWE on television has become far more careful since then.

Within the industry, the feeling is that publicly acknowledging the Observer award on Twitter was a political mistake, because of the unique nature of the wrestling business. Such a thing would be perfectly acceptable in any other industry. Layfield’s going after his partner on that show in the manner he did was horribly unprofessional. And that’s the problem WWE faces, because in theory, unless changes are made, the two would be working together again as soon as possible. I’d like to go with the idea that Layfield clearly had no idea the result of what he did and would never do it again. But it was bad judgment to tape the segment, worse to air it, and far worse to continue to air it.

 

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