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January 2022 Discussion of Wrestling


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1 hour ago, Lawful Metal said:

I don't give a fuck about AEW's finances.  Pay the wrestlers as much as they can and have a fun show and product.  Make the wrestlers happy.  Don't be cheap.  There's no way AEW should be outbid by anyone.

This strategy worked well for WCW.

 

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8 minutes ago, Infinit said:

Totally differently structured companies...comparing apples and oranges.

Not only this but I'd argue that the fact that they gave too many people power was a bigger detriment than giving too many people money.  They were really successful when paying people shitloads of money, they fell off when they couldn't tell good stories because too many people had too much creative input.  If Starrcade '97 ended with Sting going over clean and strong and looking like a fucking superstar, I'm pretty sure they had another six months to a year of incredibly profitable business.  

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4 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

If AEW's roster wasn't so bloated right now, I'd be all for them signing Murphy and Strickland. I think they are better off not signing right now.

I agree some of these guys are going to stand out better outside of the big 2 for a minute. AEW might be more exposure for alot of these guys but it'll be easy to get lost in the shuffle.

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4 hours ago, SturmCRF said:

They need more TV time

 

2 hours ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

Hard disagree. At least in my opinion. Adding Rampage has been subtraction by addition for me. Throw in The Battle of the Belts deal and AEW is actually producing too many first run hours for me to keep up with already. Wish they stayed at just 2 hours of Dynamite. But that's just me maybe. 

man, i'm torn.

based on their incredibly deep roster, 2 hours of Rampage is becoming damn near a necessity. SOOO many underutilized talents.

on the other hand, there's weeks that i struggle to make time to watch what's already airing. adding another hour certainly compounds that.

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2 hours ago, supremebve said:

 If Starrcade '97 ended with Sting going over clean and strong and looking like a fucking superstar, I'm pretty sure they had another six months to a year of incredibly profitable business.  

Funny thing, even after that terrible decision they made 30 million profit in 1998 which I think was their most profitable year ever. But I guess that ending was really the start of all the bad decisions to come. It's still hard to believe it only took 3 years to bring the whole thing down.

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I'm not sure what they said about it, but it's amusing to me that they did this right after letting the blood flow in the Bron Breakker?/Ciampa title match on NXT the other week. Went to closeup even! 

(It also amuses me to put a question mark after Bron Breakker, as if he's Trent? That really isn't your name and WE KNOW IT)

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That’s why I asked the other day about blood vs blading. They seem to be easing up on the former, but still have banned/discourage the latter.

presumably, the general public may not care about the hair-splitting that we do on the matter.

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1 hour ago, joseph2112 said:

Funny thing, even after that terrible decision they made 30 million profit in 1998 which I think was their most profitable year ever. But I guess that ending was really the start of all the bad decisions to come. It's still hard to believe it only took 3 years to bring the whole thing down.

Probably had a years worth of good will build up in 97, but yhea Sting/Hogan, Nash/Goldberg, and Nash/Hogan probably used all that up

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19 hours ago, SturmCRF said:

I think AEW should 100% sign Buddy and Swerve, I love watching both of them and the potential matches make me drool.

Never been convinced by Bandido as a top tier talent, but he's good and I wouldn't be unhappy to see him there. Gresham is excellent but incredibly short, I know his style makes up for that but I think it limits his main event potential in a company of AEW's size. Again though, would be happy to see him there.

Having said Gresham is too short, I don't think any of these guys, or AEW's current roster, should be pigeonholed as cruiserweights. I don't even like the idea of a junior division in Japan, where they're treated with relative respect. Darby Allin shows how a small guy can be a believable main eventer if they work to their strengths, and in a company where an Alan Angels can get 10 minutes with the champion, someone with Ali's level of talent and presence can be presented as capable of beating the champion.

As far as what Ali brings that separates him, apart from the superb wrestling and promo abilities, he's been hinting/outright saying for years now that he wants to present an heroic Muslim babyface character, which pro wrestling is definitely ready for and would firmly put a stamp on what separates AEW from WWE. But probably getting ahead of myself, as they could yet stick him in Pac exile for years for not being satisfied with being an ineffective Antifa ringleader or whatever the fuck he was meant to be until they settled on him as Mansoor's unsupportive friend.

With Marvel/Disney's upcoming Ms. Marvel series, it would be wise to have a (n outstanding) Muslim babyface on the roster, if not already being pushed. Get ahead of the curve, just in case the series is a hit, speaking strictly capitalistically. 

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4 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

imagining a scenario where the WWE hints that a Legacy member is gonna enter the Rumble, making people think Cody is jumping... only for Ted DiBiase Jr to debut in his "wrestling to repay the state of Mississippi" gimmick

At this point Ted might turn them down.

Manu could jump in and then join the Bloodline though?

Not sure enough people would remember that Sim Snuka was there. Are we at the point of a Deuce & Domino nostalgia run?

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Notes from watching Rumble 91 for the first time:

Rockers/Orient Express was a lot of fun, as one would hope/suspect. Bossman/Barbarian was fun too and probably better than pretty much every other WWF Barbarian match.

The fans were ready to go to kick off Slaughter/Warrior. Like the only thing this was missing was Slaughter blading randomly (which, wasn't exactly happening, yet, in 1991 WWF [wait a few months until the awesome Desert Storm match in June that should have ended the Slaughter/Hogan feud]). Miami had a hot crowd for the opener and at the beginning of this one too.

You need a juiced crowd to get a "bullshit" chant from people attending a WWF show in 1991, especially a WWF show outside of the Northeast. Taste is overrated, give the people an insane person as the American Hero tearing up an Iraqi flag to choke a fake Marine while his actual Iraqi manager goes to the back like it's the Garden and he can't stay out there safely. (I'm sure in theory, he went backstage to 'direct traffic' with Sherri and Savage making multiple run-ins)

Wrestlemania 7 is coming to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (oh no it isn't!). Trivia of questionable use: Wrestlemania 7 wasn't the biggest drawing arena show in the LA area that day. The Lakers in Inglewood had a home game on the same day, beating the Supersonics in front of 17,506. What luck that the WWF had when they could just move to the Sports Arena without worry about a Clippers game.

Koko/Mountie was probably as good as you could get for a bereavement period match. This is the match with the "Jimmy Hart arguing with Frankie" gif. Also Roddy Piper does everything short of admitting he's Canadian while talking about The Mountie gimmick.

Dibiase/Virgil vs the Rhodes was sorta laid out weirdly for a match where they were blaring through a bullhorn that Virgil was about to turn face. Virgil went from working over Dustin's knee to prove himself to hitting Dibiase with the belt quickly. Meanwhile Dusty jobs to a schoolboy rollup after Dibiase tossed Virgil out of the ring. Who says you can't go home, Dusty.

Meanwhile we got Hogan with Mean Gene where Mean Gene gets a report of "Sgt. Slaughter is rumored to be defacing an American flag" (instead he did something worse a few weeks later, he burned a Hulk Rules t-shirt)

Now time for the Rumble match.

——

edit: gotta love how 1991 commentary didn’t try to know everything. Recent commentary will try to tell us whatever the guy in the earpiece wants to emphasize for history. Back in 1991? Gorilla and Piper kept calling Knobbs “the Nasty Boy” because they initially didn’t know which Nasty Boy came out. Sags got to work a dark match with Sam Houston (Sam Houston? In 1991?) and Knobbs got to be one of the final 3 in the Royal Rumble a few weeks after he was in WCW working without a contract. With that sort of rapid ascent, some would suspect that Brian Knobbs is probably just as unvaxxed as his superfriend Hulk Hogan. Allegedly. There’s a variety of solid reasons why Knobbs is Hogan’s Kato Kaelin. How much of Brian Knobbs life is different if WCW was run by competent people in late 1990?

Hogan kept getting handed signs in the postmatch like he was about to get a “Use my sign Hulk” sign with a stopsign inside it from Sign Guy.

The Miami Arena was relatively new in 1991, and it wouldn’t last long. Shane Douglas got a long Rumble stint and then was out of the WWF quickly.

Having Dibiase and Barbarian in singles matches and not in the Rumble probably thinned the herd of people who’d get a late match spot with Hogan. Having Bravo exit early was probably a lot better than doing a Bravo/Quake vs Hogan finish.

But for a place that might not have the reputation of other cities for hot crowds, that Miami crowd was pretty hot. That might be in comparison to modern crowds as opposed to the old days when crowds were expected to be loud drunk rednecks instead of nerds sitting on their hands unless someone did a good spot.

So check another one off the list of PPVs that weren’t in my video store in 1998.

Edited by Cobra Commander
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3 hours ago, L_W_P said:

At this point Ted might turn them down.

Manu could jump in and then join the Bloodline though?

Not sure enough people would remember that Sim Snuka was there. Are we at the point of a Deuce & Domino nostalgia run?

Sim Snuka was Will Wright’s worst and most specific video game.

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I made a post in the Japan section of the board about NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 10 and it got me thinking about AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura. It's the only great Styles vs. Nakamura match, the rest were disappointments. Can you think of other examples? I'd say the same about Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns, delivered a great match only once at WrestleMania XXXI, the rematches letdowns.

Edited by The Natural
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