February 2022 - Professional Wrestling Omnibus Discussion

[Zakk_Sabbath]

17 hours ago, Craig H said:

Control the Narrative potentially getting a TV deal before GCW is...weird. I figured after the success of Dark Side of the Ring that at the very least Vice would start airing weekly wrestling, but all they did was have MLW on for a short period of time if memory serves. GCW seems perfect for Vice.

I could be completely wrong about this, since I'm a newcomer to it, but after watching their last PPV I'm not entirely convinced GCW would work on TV, at least not on a weekly basis. They would have to lock at least the top 5-10 guys in, and that would get expensive fast. Approaching it any other way runs the risk of constantly having anyone with momentum getting scooped up by the big two. I'd love to see it if they could make it work.

[hammerva]

Yeah GCW isn't goin to run TV.  Especially given that almost 70% of their talent is made of up guys working other national TV shows who allow them to work indies.   There is no way that AEW or Impact is going to allow guys like Janela, Blake Christian, Thunder Rosa, and others to work 2 different TV shows

Edited February 18, 2022 by hammerva

[dragonzombie]

The Undertaker to be inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame. 

Bayley returns somewhere in end of March. Asuka is expected to return soon after her shoulder surgery this month, but still could be slotted to return later on.

[Hagan]

No real big surprises on the Observer awards. Omega joins, Race, Flair, Styles, Misawa, Kobashi, Jericho, Cena, Tanahashi as the only multi-time winners. What is striking about that is Styles feels like the outlier there historically but once we all go back and really deep-dive into his TNA run it won't be nearly as odd looking. Kind of amazing that someone that historically great has spent random long patches of his career being booked as a comedy goofball. Like, imagine AJ Styles with 20 years of even moderately consistent good booking?  I think he's been booked well for like 5 of those years overall with 15 years of mismanagement. 

Also unique, and building from last year, before these two Young Bucks MOTY wins you would have to go back to the 2006 ROH Dragon Gate six-man for a multi-man match to win and 2002 for a straight tag. 

[The Natural]

9 minutes ago, Blue Dragon said:

The Undertaker to be inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame. 

Bayley returns somewhere in end of March. Asuka is expected to return soon after her shoulder surgery this month, but still could be slotted to return later on.

Well deserved for The Undertaker. Wonder if he's the only inductee as it's been speculated in the past.

I've missed Bayley. Still pissed at her treatment post losing the WWE Smackdown Live Women's Championship getting saddled with the racist piece of shit Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania last year. Bayley was one of the few WWE bright spots in 2019-2020 as WWE Smackdown Live Women's Champion and her team with Sasha Banks becoming the Golden Role Models holding the WWE Smackdown Live Women's Championship, WWE RAW Women's Championship and WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.

Edited February 18, 2022 by The Natural

[The Natural]

27 minutes ago, Hagan said:

No real big surprises on the Observer awards. Omega joins, Race, Flair, Styles, Misawa, Kobashi, Jericho, Cena, Tanahashi as the only multi-time winners. What is striking about that is Styles feels like the outlier there historically but once we all go back and really deep-dive into his TNA run it won't be nearly as odd looking. Kind of amazing that someone that historically great has spent random long patches of his career being booked as a comedy goofball. Like, imagine AJ Styles with 20 years of even moderately consistent good booking?  I think he's been booked well for like 5 of those years overall with 15 years of mismanagement. 

Also unique, and building from last year, before these two Young Bucks MOTY wins you would have to go back to the 2006 ROH Dragon Gate six-man for a multi-man match to win and 2002 for a straight tag. 

Spoiler thoughts:

Spoiler

I really really disagree with the winners of Wrestler of the Year, Most Outstanding Wrestler and Match of the Year. WOTY and MOW should have gone to Bryan Danielson and MOTY, Bryan Danielson vs. Kenny Omega at AEW Dynamite Grand Slam, 22nd September.

Bryan Danielson is the 2021 Wrestler of the Year even missing nearly five months, that's insane:

• Daniel Bryan vs. Roman Reigns vs. Edge at WrestleMania XXXVI. ****1/4.
• Daniel Bryan's last WWE match vs. Roman Reigns on Smackdown Live. ****3/4.
• Bryan Danielson vs. Kenny Omega. Dynamite, 22nd September 2021. *****. My MOTY.
• Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki. AEW The Buy In: Rampage. 15th October 2021. *****.
• Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston. AEW Rampage, 29th October. ****3/4.
• Bryan Danielson vs. Adam Page. AEW Winter is Coming Dynamite, 15th December. *****.

Thrilled Bryan Danielson reclaimed the Bryan Danielson Award (Best Technical Wrestler) stopping Zack Sabre Jr's seven year run. Very surprised MJF won Best on Interviews over CM Punk/Eddie Kingston. Punk or Kingston were more deserving. Jade Cargill as Rookie of the Year over Bron Breakker and Hook?

 

Edited February 18, 2022 by The Natural

[(BP)]

45 minutes ago, Hagan said:

Like, imagine AJ Styles with 20 years of even moderately consistent good booking?  I think he's been booked well for like 5 of those years overall with 15 years of mismanagement. 

We could go on forever about TNA’s mistakes, and we have, but for me their biggest error was not making Styles and Joe circa 2005 their Rock and Austin. One of the times I gave up on them was when Styles, who’d already been in the business for close to a decade and been TNA champion, became Angle’s young boy and had the Karen Jarrett romance angle. 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

3 minutes ago, (BP) said:

We could go on forever about TNA’s mistakes, and we have, but for me their biggest error was not making Styles and Joe circa 2005 their Rock and Austin. One of the times I gave up on them was when Styles, who’d already been in the business for close to a decade and been TNA champion, became Angle’s young boy and had the Karen Jarrett romance angle. 

I was actually meaning to make a post touching on this - YouTube TV has added an Impact streaming channel, and it is straight infuriating to watch in terms of missed opportunity. Example: yesterday they cut from a Bound For Glory ('09-ish?) on the road in a packed arena, right into Sami Callihan vs Penta in a God damn bar. Which, don't get me wrong, was a fun watch, and I love small/unique venues, but that roster at one time was a who's who. If anyone involved had a semblance of a clue, we could've been living AEW a decade earlier.

[odessasteps]

4 hours ago, Gorman said:

I think I do - it's hard to hear my commentary because they had me do it over the PA system. That was a challenge, but we made it work.

How do you feel about the concept of doing live pxp over the PA system? This may be super nerdy, but it breaks the fourth wall to much for me. I mean, if you are describing how the heel is cheating, wouldn’t both the babyface and the ref hear you? And so them ignoring it breaks the verisimilitude.

[AxB]

1 hour ago, (BP) said:

We could go on forever about TNA’s mistakes, and we have, but for me their biggest error was not making Styles and Joe circa 2005 their Rock and Austin. One of the times I gave up on them was when Styles, who’d already been in the business for close to a decade and been TNA champion, became Angle’s young boy and had the Karen Jarrett romance angle. 

They kept doing it. Every time a new creative team came in, they looked at AJ Styles being small and having a young face and said "There's my up and coming underdog, we can build to his breakout match" even though he'd already done that exact angle already. Never before has a boy become a man (and then somehow shifted back into being a boy again) so many times in one lifetime.

[RIPPA]

The Garganos have welcomed their first child - Quill Gargano (yes named after Star Lord)

 

[Mario]

1 minute ago, RIPPA said:

The Garganos have welcomed their first child - Quill Gargano (yes named after Star Lord)

 

Still holding out hope that their second child will be Lockjaw Gargano.  If only the Inhumans tv series hadn't flopped....

[RIPPA]

Per Mike Johnson - the WWE will run a 2nd PPV in April (Saturday, April 23) under the Saturday Night Main Event name

It will be in Montgomery, Alabama

So 3 weeks after Mania and 2 weeks before the May Mania Backlash show

[Gorman]

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

How do you feel about the concept of doing live pxp over the PA system? This may be super nerdy, but it breaks the fourth wall to much for me. I mean, if you are describing how the heel is cheating, wouldn’t both the babyface and the ref hear you? And so them ignoring it breaks the verisimilitude.

I don't agree with it, but if that's what the boss wants, I can make it work. You have to talk a lot less than normal and give the wrestlers a chance to interact with the crowd. JC (Firestorm's boss) wanted to give the live crowd the feeling of also watching on TV with the commentary. 

You're exactly right about the biggest problem. You can't make the referee look bad. If the heel cheats behind the referee's back, you have to react without saying EXACTLY what is happening. "Whoa! He got clobbered (with a foreign object)!" 

 

[hammerva]

 

Frankly Teddy should be a Netflix documentary.   Love how they mention that WWE isn't involved.  I mean given his history no shit

 

[paintedbynumbers]

3 minutes ago, Gorman said:

I don't agree with it, but if that's what the boss wants, I can make it work. You have to talk a lot less than normal and give the wrestlers a chance to interact with the crowd. JC (Firestorm's boss) wanted to give the live crowd the feeling of also watching on TV with the commentary. 

You're exactly right about the biggest problem. You can't make the referee look bad. If the heel cheats behind the referee's back, you have to react without saying EXACTLY what is happening. "Whoa! He got clobbered (with a foreign object)!" 

 

I hated when AIW did the live commentary. If you are watching a DVD or streaming the show at home it doesn't sound clear at all. It's basically having the ring announcer do commentary through a match.  I never could get used to it and questioned why the only promotions I've ever heard do it are Ohio based. 

[RIPPA]

28 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Per Mike Johnson - the WWE will run a 2nd PPV in April (Saturday, April 23) under the Saturday Night Main Event name

It will be in Montgomery, Alabama

So 3 weeks after Mania and 2 weeks before the May Mania Backlash show

Fightful says this is actually just a house show that will be aired live on Peacock. It is being branded under the new “premium live event” name

[nofuture]

1 minute ago, RIPPA said:

Fightful says this is actually just a house show that will be aired live on Peacock. It is being branded under the new “premium live event” name

PWInsider is now saying that the "Saturday Night Main Event" name is just the branding they're using for their Saturday house shows and won't be aired.  They have one booked the next week after Montgomery in Lakeland, FL.

[Hagan]

1 hour ago, AxB said:

They kept doing it. Every time a new creative team came in, they looked at AJ Styles being small and having a young face and said "There's my up and coming underdog, we can build to his breakout match" even though he'd already done that exact angle already. Never before has a boy become a man (and then somehow shifted back into being a boy again) so many times in one lifetime.

Pluto TV has a 24/7 TNA channel that, when you catch the 2002-2005 shows, is WILD. And yeah, AJ was pushed basically from Day 1. He was World Champion in 2003 (after a really dumb heel turn to align with Russo). And then he continually gets rebooted and shuffled up and down the  card for TEN YEARS. 

I'm trying to think of a WWE equivalent.  Maybe Ziggler who somehow cycles from irrelevant to randomly pushed World Title contender every few years. 

[Sublime]

Well Ziggler showed that he had a much lower ceiling than AJ so it makes sense to keep dropping him down. It was mind boggling that they kept going back to the same plucky underdog needs to finally win the big one with a guy who was the company ace.

[paintedbynumbers]

14 minutes ago, Hagan said:

Pluto TV has a 24/7 TNA channel that, when you catch the 2002-2005 shows, is WILD. And yeah, AJ was pushed basically from Day 1. He was World Champion in 2003 (after a really dumb heel turn to align with Russo). And then he continually gets rebooted and shuffled up and down the  card for TEN YEARS. 

I'm trying to think of a WWE equivalent.  Maybe Ziggler who somehow cycles from irrelevant to randomly pushed World Title contender every few years. 

Do you remember when they did the angle where AJ was always getting iced?  I wanna say Flair was involved cause why wouldn't he be?   But they would hide the Smirnoff ice and AJ would always have to drink it.  

 

[hobo joe]

56 minutes ago, paintedbynumbers said:

I hated when AIW did the live commentary. If you are watching a DVD or streaming the show at home it doesn't sound clear at all. It's basically having the ring announcer do commentary through a match.  I never could get used to it and questioned why the only promotions I've ever heard do it are Ohio based. 

I worked for AIW at the time and I can tell you we all hated it

[dragonzombie]

WWE signed Rok-C.

 

Edited February 18, 2022 by Blue Dragon

[paintedbynumbers]

1 hour ago, hobo joe said:

I worked for AIW at the time and I can tell you we all hated it

I remember you!! I bet you have some fun stories to tell.  I remember the heat Dave the Potato had with the Indy boards. 

[DreamBroken]

2 hours ago, paintedbynumbers said:

Do you remember when they did the angle where AJ was always getting iced?  I wanna say Flair was involved cause why wouldn't he be?   But they would hide the Smirnoff ice and AJ would always have to drink it.