Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

MAY 2021 Discussion of Wrestling.


Recommended Posts

2 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Didnt Virk used to cohost the post Raw show on Sportsnet with Renee? Or was that someone else? 
 

id expect him to show up on her porch or the  Deitsch pod.

I think you're thinking of Arda Ocal who in a strange circle of life kind of way, recently hosted his first episode of Sportscenter.

I always felt bad for Ocal, that post-Raw show was his idea that he pitched with himself as host, the Network wanted a co-host and put Renee in there. Once Sportsnet bought out The Score (The channel where it debuted), WWE immediately swooped in and snatched up Renee, leaving the guy who created it with a sad "Congratulations Renee, hope to be your co-worker again one day in WWE!" type tweet. Then he bounced around a bit (I remember he was on the Weather Network doing "humourous" weather segments), actually did get signed by WWE to do those awful "WWE Universe, WWE is coming to your town for an exciting untelevised event!" bumpers.  He didn't last very long there, but seems to have landed on his feet doing some ESports stuff and now getting on ESPN.

1 hour ago, Happ Hazzard said:

Vince was a great announcer back in the 70s and 80s. And even in the 90s he was still better than anyone today.

 

The announcing and overall production is the one thing about WWE that has inarguably regressed the most in the last 20 years. It's utterly, utterly awful and would make the shows very difficult to watch even if the wrestling was good.

This is probably one of the truer things I've read. I DETESTED the last few years of JR and Lawler (still not that keen on JR in AEW) but it at least felt like two human beings announcing a wrestling show. The way the announcing is now, it sounds like one of those early 2000s PS2 wrestling games with everything sounding scripted and generic ("I like this match" "I hear that TAZZ is a very good person"). With all the various WWE buzzwords ("Thunderdome!" "The WWE Universe", "It's Boss time" and "Title Opportunity!") and words they can't say (In addition to all the really weird Vinceisms,I really think they're not allowed to say the word 'God' anymore and it really takes me out of a moment when someone is being set on fire and the announcer says "Oh my Gosh!"). I actually think you could run a prerecorded track over Raw and it really wouldn't make much of a difference.

Also, Tom Phillips is pretty clearly the best (second best?) play-by-play guy they have, right? Why is WWE constantly replacing him? I thought he was great on Smackdown then when they moved Michael Cole to SD, they replaced Phillips with Vic Joseph before dropping him after 2 or so months. Phillips came back, then gets randomly dropped again for Virk.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This observation might be a bit too hot-takey for some people, but the biggest issue with Ross in AEW over everything else is that he pretty clearly doesn't like the AEW product. This could absolutely just be me hearing something that's not there, but he has a sort of barely-concealed contempt for a whole lot of it outside of maybe guys like Moxley who he seems to like. 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 2
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I was ranking announcers from the territory era, I'd prob put Vince in the middle category, probably ahead of Mercer, Lowrance, Whalen, Gorilla, Trongard and Nelson. I thinknits always beneficial to have your announcer be the booker/promoter to advance angles and what not. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, caley said:

I think you're thinking of Arda Ocal who in a strange circle of life kind of way, recently hosted his first episode of Sportscenter.

I always felt bad for Ocal, that post-Raw show was his idea that he pitched with himself as host, the Network wanted a co-host and put Renee in there. Once Sportsnet bought out The Score (The channel where it debuted), WWE immediately swooped in and snatched up Renee, leaving the guy who created it with a sad "Congratulations Renee, hope to be your co-worker again one day in WWE!" type tweet. Then he bounced around a bit (I remember he was on the Weather Network doing "humourous" weather segments), actually did get signed by WWE to do those awful "WWE Universe, WWE is coming to your town for an exciting untelevised event!" bumpers.  He didn't last very long there, but seems to have landed on his feet doing some ESports stuff and now getting on ESPN.

 

 

I completely forgot that Arda Ocal was a person that existed, but yeah he would have been the actual cohost. Shows how great Renee was at it that my memory just wiped Arda from existence

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Technico Support said:

Jesus, imagine that staff meeting.

Dunn: Okay Bill, what are your thoughts?

Bill: Well Kevin, I think we...

Dunn: CUT TO JILL!

Jill: Uhhh, my idea is...

Dunn: GO FOR SAM!

Sam: Well you see..

Dunn: BACK TO BILL!

Bill: Um, what?

Dunn: DAVE!

Dave: ...

Dunn: CUT TO LISA!

This is like the McLaughlin Group skit from SNL. And now I wanna see a WWE version of it with Vince as the host. 

Edited by PetrolCB
  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

WWE let go Adam Kirshner, he worked for them for over 15 years, way back to the earliest days of the WWE website. He was Associate Producer and produced top 10s for WWE on youtube. He had several other jobs, PWInsider goes into more detail:

"Kirshner held the position of Manager - Media & Metadata Operations for WWE over the last two and a half years.  Over the course of his WWE run, Kirsher was The Associate Producer for WWE's Top 10 and Inbox series on YouTube, was Senior Associate Producer for the company's digital media team as they grew the YouTube channel to the force it has become, began overseeing all the back end of WWE's digital video manager system and most recently, was a big part of the relaunched WWE Network (prior to it shifting over to Peacock domestically), including managing the Network's standards and practices, redeveloping all of the metadata for the relaunch, development and programming of the Network's free tier and more, including helping with the migration to Peacock."

International office staff were also let go, Jay Rosenstock, WWE's Executive Vice President of International is gone. Nick Khan will handle all the offices now under one roof and they will align closer to the American office. So Nick gets even more power.

WWE also gutted WWE Studios as well,  https://deadline.com/2021/05/wwe-studios-layoffs-features-tv-digital-consolidate-vince-mcmahon-1234764095/

Edited by D.Z
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

This observation might be a bit too hot-takey for some people, but the biggest issue with Ross in AEW over everything else is that he pretty clearly doesn't like the AEW product. This could absolutely just be me hearing something that's not there, but he has a sort of barely-concealed contempt for a whole lot of it outside of maybe guys like Moxley who he seems to like. 

I don't think JR being out of touch with modern wrestling has been a hot take at any point over the last 25 years. You could hear the same tone at many points during the attitude era. They'd be way better off with just Tony and Excalibur, with Tazz and Callis interjecting some heel commentary occasionally without it being all over the show.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Happ Hazzard said:

Vince was a great announcer back in the 70s and 80s. And even in the 90s he was still better than anyone today.

 

Does anyone on this board go back long enough to remember Vince's catch phrase of Wham-a-Lam?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really don’t like JR in AEW. It’s been said but he doesn’t care for the style at all. 
Hell. He even put over a guy in another company (Orton) as the best in the world. 
meh. Hope he leaves when his contract is up. They do not need him. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, caley said:

... (In addition to all the really weird Vinceisms,I really think they're not allowed to say the word 'God' anymore and it really takes me out of a moment when someone is being set on fire and the announcer says "Oh my Gosh!")...

Well, like Heyman said in that one post-show ep, they don't speak of talent that's been let go, and you never did see God in a WWE ring after that match with Michaels against the McMahons. 

  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, Valcourt said:

I really don’t like JR in AEW. It’s been said but he doesn’t care for the style at all. 
Hell. He even put over a guy in another company (Orton) as the best in the world. 
meh. Hope he leaves when his contract is up. They do not need him. 

JR stinks, and has for a while. I wish it was Schiavone and Excalibur only.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

This observation might be a bit too hot-takey for some people, but the biggest issue with Ross in AEW over everything else is that he pretty clearly doesn't like the AEW product. This could absolutely just be me hearing something that's not there, but he has a sort of barely-concealed contempt for a whole lot of it outside of maybe guys like Moxley who he seems to like. 

You want to hear JR put someone over when he really wants to? Just wait for Jake Hager to do literally anything. 

  • Haha 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Go2Sleep said:

I don't think JR being out of touch with modern wrestling has been a hot take at any point over the last 25 years. You could hear the same tone at many points during the attitude era. They'd be way better off with just Tony and Excalibur, with Tazz and Callis interjecting some heel commentary occasionally without it being all over the show.

I know that JR being out of touch is a talking point, but he seems like he has even less time for stuff out of his wheelhouse than normal. Like, he still finds time to love guys with collegiate athletic backgrounds like @John from Cincinnatipoints out, but there's "grumpy JR" and then there's "hostile to almost everything on the screen in a way that makes the show hard to watch JR" who I feel is a whole new terrible thing. 

Agreed on Tony and Excalibur in a two-man booth. I'm not a huge fan of three-man booths anyway (with a couple of exceptions), and Tony's rekindling of his love of wrestling comes through, sells the product, and shouldn't be offset by a guy in a cowboy hat who only wants ex-football players to be pushed as champ. 

Re: Getting costs off their books for a sale, I must appreciate that Vince came to the realization that his dipshit kids or the moron ex-pro wrestler that his daughter married shouldn't be running the company by themselves. He's out of touch, but not entirely delusional if they're selling, so I have to give him that much. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There should just an ongoing thread for the people who regularly complain about JR’s commentary.
 

(Or do people already do that in the folder i dont read?) ?

Edited by odessasteps
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still don't have that much of a problem with JR and mostly tune him out until he starts talking shit about Chuckie T, but Chuck also was rotated out as a regular for the time being so I notice JR even less.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/22/2021 at 12:01 AM, Craig H said:

This. Is. Amazing.

IPost image

I'm laughing so hard at some of these, like "well, not a million."

If we were going to make one of these for JR in AEW (or, say, a "JR in AEW" drinking game or a "JR in AEW" soundboard), what would you include?

Off the top of my head, I've got:

"Strange enigma"

"Quicker than a hiccup"

Says something cringe-inducing about a female competitor's physical appearance. 

Goes on a rant about how the only reason anyone is in pro wrestling is for the money.

Chastises a wrestler for "voluntarily leaving their vertical base."

Critiques a wrestler's pinning technique.

Complains about a wrestler not going for the pin.

Badly mispronounces a word.

Uses a word incorrectly and/or uses the wrong word.

Mangles a common expression.

 

Do we need "slobberknocker" or "Praises someone's amateur sports background for an AEW-specific game?

I guess we could throw in "talks about a wrestler's father's sports background."

Looking forward to reading what you guys have got for this.

 

Edited by El Gran Gordi
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, RIPPA said:

The other "weird" news story of the day

Apparently in doing press for F9: The Fast Saga in China, John Cena referred to Taiwan as a country which of course pissed off the Chinese government

So Cena then did a promo in Mandarin apologizing.

Which is now leading to Cena getting backlash for apologizing

Including the amazing double standard here...

 

Why would this upset WWE or is it because the clip is viral and it's getting Cena backlash right now?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, El Gran Gordi said:

If we were going to make one of these for JR in AEW (or, say, a "JR in AEW" drinking game or a "JR in AEW" soundboard), what would you include?

Looking forward to reading what you guys have got for this.

 

I've got two:

Praises a racist (or two) from 50/60 years ago as the best examples of people who've used moves. 

Compares all Mexican wrestlers to Eddie Guerrero/compares all British wrestlers to the Dynamite Kid. 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Fighting a man with a perm said:

I've got two:

Praises a racist (or two) from 50/60 years ago as the best examples of people who've used moves. 

Compares all Mexican wrestlers to Eddie Guerrero/compares all British wrestlers to the Dynamite Kid. 

To be fair he really wants to use Benoit for the PAC comparison

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...