November 2021 Wrestling Discussion

[Ultimo Necro]

37 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

Touching on a post I made last night.. I kinda want the Golden Egg to be the Gobblygookers urn. You know a zombie turkey with the Undertaker's mannerisms would actually be scary.

It’s content like this that makes me believe RAW would be greatly improved if this board was allowed to run the show.

I’d like the Full Taker entrance with Col. Bob Parker as some sort of Undead Poultry  Overlord / Paul Bearer.  ”oh my Gobbledy-Taker” while holding up the golden egg.

Put Azeez, Omos or heck, even Brock in the suit and it would be even scarier.

The Gobbledy-Taker, returns every year from Halloween until Thanksgiving and wins at Survivor Series each year ad infinitim

 

[Cobra Commander]

I suspect somebody being called "The Gooker" for short is slightly less socially acceptable in 2021 than 1990 though, so Gobbledy-Taker is a better name.

Any promotion that isn't thinking too hard would have bridged from "the egg has disappeared" to "the egg was used as a foreign object to win a match" later that night. Even if that concept would be shit on by people, it's better than what they actually did.

[zendragon]

On 11/20/2021 at 1:51 PM, The Natural said:

To go with the above. NSFW:

 

To throw it back to the Dream Matches this is mine one and only... a Cinematic Match which starts off with Mox puliing up to Yano's crib in a some sort of Dr. Seuss mobile, Yano looking terrified  as he peaks out the curtains, he escapes out the back door into a neighboring bakery ony for Mox to pop out of a cake 

[Just Dave]

(in no particular order)
 

Bryan Danielson

Mox

Mick Foley

Kurt Angle

Eddie Guerrero

Christian

Arn & Tully (couldn’t differentiate or separate)

Booker T

Barry Windham

Chris Jericho

 

[Infinit]

AEW Dynamite at Arthur Ashe Stadium sold more tickets than Survivor Series and Raw combined. That's wild.

[The Natural]

Currently watching this as it's airing on BT Sport 3. Here's the YouTube version. I recommend it to you.

[Cobra Commander]

27 minutes ago, Infinit said:

AEW Dynamite at Arthur Ashe Stadium sold more tickets than Survivor Series and Raw combined. That's wild.

There’s other big reasons for the WWE having ticket problems, I wonder how much purely indoor events are gonna have some struggles with selling tickets due to the giant elephant in the room. I use the word purely indoor since Ashe had a retractable roof that was probably not likely to be opened up.

Even if some people insist they’re not concerned about Covid, if 9/11 kept some people from large public events due to safety concerns for a time, this has to be impacting sales a little since some people are concerned about any gathering. Not sure if what other big indoor concert tours are going on that can be observed to see if non-WWE entities are having some ticket problems indoors.

[Infinit]

17 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

There’s other big reasons for the WWE having ticket problems, I wonder how much purely indoor events are gonna have some struggles with selling tickets due to the giant elephant in the room. I use the word purely indoor since Ashe had a retractable roof that was probably not likely to be opened up.

Even if some people insist they’re not concerned about Covid, if 9/11 kept some people from large public events due to safety concerns for a time, this has to be impacting sales a little since some people are concerned about any gathering. Not sure if what other big indoor concert tours are going on that can be observed to see if non-WWE entities are having some ticket problems indoors.

Dynamite in Long Island has also sold 3k more tickets than last night's Raw.

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

45 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

There’s other big reasons for the WWE having ticket problems, I wonder how much purely indoor events are gonna have some struggles with selling tickets due to the giant elephant in the room. I use the word purely indoor since Ashe had a retractable roof that was probably not likely to be opened up.

Even if some people insist they’re not concerned about Covid, if 9/11 kept some people from large public events due to safety concerns for a time, this has to be impacting sales a little since some people are concerned about any gathering. Not sure if what other big indoor concert tours are going on that can be observed to see if non-WWE entities are having some ticket problems indoors.

I imagine college basketball ticket sales are a better comparison.  The ticket sales figures I've seen have been fairly good.  Same for games I've been to or watched on tv.  It's a little too hard to tell in November because a lot of schools don't draw well until conference play starts in January.  My alma mater can get people out for conference games if they've expected to be good that year, but nonconference attendance is usually sparse.  We sold out our first two home games this year, and the third game was close.  Opponents were tiny schools that weren't a draw by themselves.  I'm told season ticket sales are up this year.

Edit: Despite my username, I'm not a UNC grad.  That's my wife.  I went to a Division II school to run track, and have a MBA from a Big 10 school.  But I root for UNC over my alma mater, so... 

Edited November 23, 2021 by Tarheel Moneghetti

[Coletti]

1 hour ago, Infinit said:

AEW Dynamite at Arthur Ashe Stadium sold more tickets than Survivor Series and Raw combined. That's wild.

It's obvious that AEW is doing great with live shows and is probably making money hand over fist with merch, makes me wonder why that's never brought up when people wonder aloud about TK spending too much on talent

[Ultimo Necro]

I don’t know which arena SD ran last week but it’s the first time in years I’ve watched a (non lockdown era) WWE show and went “oh, that building looks really small for WWE”

[Technico Support]

43 minutes ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

 

Edit: Despite my username, I'm not a UNC grad.  That's my wife.  I went to a Division II school to run track, and have a MBA from a Big 10 school.  But I root for UNC over my alma mater, so... 

I find this shit fascinating and should probably start an "explain your username" thread.

[Cobra Commander]

1 hour ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

I imagine college basketball ticket sales are a better comparison.  The ticket sales figures I've seen have been fairly good.  Same for games I've been to or watched on tv.  It's a little too hard to tell in November because a lot of schools don't draw well until conference play starts in January.  My alma mater can get people out for conference games if they've expected to be good that year, but nonconference attendance is usually sparse.  We sold out our first two home games this year, and the third game was close.  Opponents were tiny schools that weren't a draw by themselves.  I'm told season ticket sales are up this year.

is there a norm in college basketball between attendance figures being "tickets sold" vs "people in the arena"?

The school I graduated from is Division 2 with a 6500 seat arena for basketball, and they played their first two home games at 1pm Tuesday and 1pm Friday and drew under 200 each time. They're playing a game tonight at 6pm, so they should be able to actually get people to attend that one or at least give people a better idea of what attendance would be for a smaller school in a big-ish building.

Going over to Mizzou, they got 7272 for their first game, 6887 for the second game, 6302 for game three... in a 15,061 seat building.

And at KU, they sold out for games vs Tarleton State and Stony Brook. It's possible that the Day After could literally be happening in Lawrence and KU would still sell out for a game vs some random jobber school.

Another WWE ticket thing that would be interesting info if it's out there.. how does their ticket price in 2021 compare to 2019? has there been any sort of "pay for the stuff we need to do to have safe looking shows" increase in prices or are they still offering a lot of more affordable tickets in various parts of the arena.

[nate]

14 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

I suspect somebody being called "The Gooker" for short is slightly less socially acceptable in 2021 than 1990 though, so Gobbledy-Taker is a better name.

The Undergooker

(I just wanted to see what that looked like written out.  Carry on.)

[matt925]

2 hours ago, Ultimo Necro said:

I don’t know which arena SD ran last week but it’s the first time in years I’ve watched a (non lockdown era) WWE show and went “oh, that building looks really small for WWE”

Supposedly they’re going to start using the “B” arenas in some markets rather than automatically booking the nba/nhl arena. Makes sense to me. 

[matt925]

Speaking of venues and tickets and whatnot, this blurb from the observer is absolutely fascinating and I must know more:

Quote

They also were able to make a deal with the Dallas Mavericks to have the 4/1 home game moved to an away game so WWE could get Smackdown at the American Airlines Center. Originally that was thought to be a problem where they’d have to get another building for Smackdown.

I’m going to assume Dave misunderstood something here because I find it extremely unlikely for a major league sports team to switch a home game to an away game to accommodate Disney on ice (I’m not being condescending to wwe but wrestling period). 

[Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie]

1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

I find this shit fascinating and should probably start an "explain your username" thread.

Go for it. Fair warning: mine's depressing!

[odessasteps]

2 minutes ago, matt925 said:

Speaking of venues and tickets and whatnot, this blurb from the observer is absolutely fascinating and I must know more:

I’m going to assume Dave misunderstood something here because I find it extremely unlikely for a major league sports team to switch a home game to an away game to accommodate Disney on ice (I’m not being condescending to wwe but wrestling period). 

Off the top of my head, this seems to only happen due to extreme weather/natural disasters/security or police issues. (Before the pandemic of course)

The only way i could see it happening is some weird confluence where the special event is financially connected to the arena or team owners and even then, they would likely have to compensate the other team and the league,.

 

hypotehtical: FSG wants to host a mythical 39th game at Fenway between their club and Manchester United. They ask MLB to flip flop a weekend series vs Tampa with another series in August. I could see MAnfred agreeing to do that if John Henry cut MLB a big fat check.

[Cobra Commander]

I don't know exactly why I picked this username.

Anyways, I guess one upside to the WWE having a bunch of corporate money invested in keeping the federation rich is that they can't do an antivaxxer heel gimmick. I'd hope "whiner who doesn't want to get injected by a needle" is a heel in a Vince's mind even when the needle isn't filled with steroids. Now, if Vince Russo was writing for an antivaxxer character, he'd probably go over in the big match where he has to win the title or else "he will be vaccinated in this very ring".

[Brandon Bones]

2 hours ago, christopher.annino said:

It's obvious that AEW is doing great with live shows and is probably making money hand over fist with merch, makes me wonder why that's never brought up when people wonder aloud about TK spending too much on talent

I’m not going to swear on it.  But I’ve heard it mentioned (through some sort of media I consume) that AEWs merch side of things is really disorganized to the point they might not be doing what they could be doing.  The suggestion being that while they manage to sell out on T-shirt’s and popular items.  They could be doing more but don’t seem to have the inventory to meet it.  
 

I don’t know.  I’m not even particularly sure of where I’m sourcing this from.  So take it with a grain.

[matt925]

3 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

I don't know exactly why I picked this username.

Anyways, I guess one upside to the WWE having a bunch of corporate money invested in keeping the federation rich is that they can't do an antivaxxer heel gimmick. I'd hope "whiner who doesn't want to get injected by a needle" is a heel in a Vince's mind even when the needle isn't filled with steroids. Now, if Vince Russo was writing for an antivaxxer character, he'd probably go over in the big match where he has to win the title or else "he will be vaccinated in this very ring".

Instead of syringe on a pole with the wrestlers are trying to grab it, you have exploding boards with syringes on them that the wrestlers desperately try to avoid. 

[Just Dave]

On 11/23/2021 at 3:37 PM, Brandon Bones said:

I’m not going to swear on it.  But I’ve heard it mentioned (through some sort of media I consume) that AEWs merch side of things is really disorganized to the point they might not be doing what they could be doing.  The suggestion being that while they manage to sell out on T-shirt’s and popular items.  They could be doing more but don’t seem to have the inventory to meet it.  
 

I don’t know.  I’m not even particularly sure of where I’m sourcing this from.  So take it with a grain.

In fairness to them, if that's true, this might be the worst time in the last fifty years to attempt to expand a supply chain with which to offer more merch options. I can't imagine trying to wholesale 5k plain black t shirts, get the AEW logo printed on them without a bunch getting messed up, and getting them shipped correctly given our current economic climate.

Edited November 25, 2021 by just drew
Economic client? Jesus.

[BloodyChamp]

My 10 best 1 night only/1 storyline only/recurring/ tag teams

Sting and Lex Luger

Ric Flair and Arn Anderson

Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho

Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko

Cactus Jack and Raven

Abdullah the Butcher and Killer Tim Brooks 

Abdullah the Butcher and The Sheik 

Giant and Jumbo

Magnum TA and Mr Wrestling II

The Super Destroyers 

I never watched The Rock n Sock Connection, which would be on most people’s ballots I think. Also I have 1 more good idea for a listmania but I’ll have to see before I try it. I thought this was a good idea until I ended up have to end the list with a picks that I haven’t exactly seen 100 matches from. I went ahead though because these teams didn’t have a 100 matches together in kayfabe. 

Edited November 23, 2021 by BloodyChamp

[Just Dave]

Since I'm in a list making mood, here's 10 folks I've discovered in the last 2-5 years that might make there way into my top ten someday;

1. Ricky Starks. Saw him live about 7 months before AEW debuted and he stood out on that indy supercard. Dude looked like a STAR.

2. Eddie Kingston. Pretty self explanatory.

3. Jungle Boy. If I had to bet on one guy carrying AEW into the 2030's as a top guy, it's him. Dude has it all.

4. IMPERIUM (seriously, I can't tell you how many thousand times I've watched that 8 man vs. UE and giggled like a little girl).

5. The Varsity Blondes. Love me a fiery babyface tag team. Their whole act just works. Adding Julia made them stand out.

6. Daniel Garcia. Dude is what, 22? Unbelievable.

7. Lee Moriarty. A very recent discovery I just love.

8. The AEW women. Anna, Taya, Rosa, Shida, Red Velvet, Big Swole, Statlander, Britt Baker, Jamie Hayter. They've all taken leaps forward, except Rosa, who has ruled since day 1.

9. Keith Lee. Looking forward to seeing what's next for him.

10. Hangman Page. I have been enthralled with his story since AEW started. I'd never heard of him until then, and now he might be my favorite wrestler.

Honorable mention; Malakai Black, Andrade, Nikki Cross, Mia Yim, Johnathan Gresham. 

[tbarrie]

5 hours ago, Technico Support said:

I find this shit fascinating and should probably start an "explain your username" thread.

My last name is "Barrie". My first name starts with "T".

That one's going to be hard to top, I realize.