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Hagan

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Posts posted by Hagan

  1. Haven't posted on here in a very long time but wanted to send my condolences. DVDR and Dean's writing was such a huge part of my teenage and college wrestling fandom in the late 90s and early 2000s. Would print them out and read on the bus to and from school. Dean and all of the DVDR guys did so much to expose so many of us to different forms of wrestling and wrestlers. 

    All I can say is thank you, Dean. 

    • Like 6
  2. The example people keep using is Baba deciding Misawa was going over Tsuruta but even that wasn't DURING the match. That was Baba getting to the arena, seeing the reaction for Misawa and running with it. I'm not sure there is a high profile example of a finish being changed on the fly due to crowd response. Injury, for sure. 

    You also have examples of like Janela submitting to Nick Wayne and Nick not knowing he was going over. 

     

  3. 8 minutes ago, Krone Meltzer said:

    I believe that's Lexy Nair, and for a random tidbit on her... apparently she is dating Mr. W. Morrissey. I guess size does matter and ya can't teach that.

    If I'm not mistaken, Lexy is DDP's daughter as well. 

  4. As with many things - a lot of things can be true at once. Sasha has a history of temperamental behavior and pushing back at creative. To be fair, WWE would be better if more of their top stars pushed back harder. That said, walking out mid-show in any live performance whether it's sport/theater/movies/TV/or just like YOUR JOB is never okay. It puts stress on your co-workers and does a disservice to the people who showed up. There's a way to handle stuff and a way to not handle stuff and barring legit safety concerns (which, let's be honest - that WWE statement is all nonsense. Zero chance either of those women had issues with the skill level or safety of their co-workers, unless Nikki and Niven are secretly the APA just fucking people up daily) or like sexual/mental harassment you don't leave. 

    The WWE statement is totally unprofessional and it is amazing in this sort of Nick Khan corporate sterilized WWE that that statement was greenlit. In Hollywood, accused rapists get nicer press releases when they get fired. 

    Obviously, a ton of stuff to come out and a lot of moving parts need to settle. Sasha has walked out before and it got smoothed over. This feels a little different. Naomi is the weird one as this seems really unlike her public persona and she's a company lifer and her family is all tied up with the company.  

    And, yes it's very hypocritical for WWE to get mad at THEIR creative being changed when they do it constantly but hypocrisy doesn't mean a person is wrong with their point. It just means they should self-reflect on their own actions and behaviors. 

    Anyway - fun story! Most exciting stuff in a while!

    • Like 4
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  5. 7 minutes ago, JLowe said:

    I agreed with a lot of what you said (that I snipped) but I had this exact same thought last night. Ricky Starks is a future superstar, they should be using Cole to build and put over guys like him.  

    I know you're not referencing age but rather how each guy has been pushed but pretty crazy that Cole and Starks are both 32. Cole has been a main event act in a shit ton of companies forever while Starks feels still like a guy just getting his first push. 

    • Like 4
  6. 3 hours ago, Technico Support said:

     

    Only Sammy Guevara could turn Dan Lambert 100% face.  I still feel bad for Conti, who went from being an over babyface to being the person Sammy graphically sucks tongues with for heat.  

     

    I agree with you especially because this sort of character leads to a lot of toxic bullshit from fans but she has GREAT HEEL facial expressions and this douche-bag act they have can be a hot act. Like, Tay as plucky babyface had a ceiling especially with the self-imposed limitations AEW has with the women's division and her own limitations bell-to-bell. This act is going to get her on TV every week and they're already touring around together, like hitting AAA in a few weeks. Honestly, it's a net-positive for both of them, I think. 

    • Like 6
  7. I feel Forbidden Door is kind of a wait and see. I mean ideally it's like Punk vs Naito, Moxley vs Tanahashi, Ospreay vs Omega, Danielson vs Okada, Hirumo vs Darby, Page vs Ibushi and Joe vs Shingo. Just banger after banger of top tier matches especially from the New Japan guys that haven't been around in America in a while. 

    Most likely we're getting some tags and a bunch of matches where the winner has to be pretty obvious and a BIG serving of the Bullet Club Saga. 

    • Like 2
  8. 1 hour ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:


    I mostly agree with you, but not on the celebrity WM involvement. That would be like saying well if Hogan was a mega-star in 1985 they wouldn't have needed Ali & Liberace and shit. Wrestlemania is based around celebrity involvement. So them using Johnny Knoxville or Logan Paul would have happened regardless of how many tickets sold or how popular the brand is / how big of a mega-star Roman is.

    Fair point though I don't think Ali or Liberace meant a whole lot. Cyndi and T did, obviously but as we transition in '87 the celebrity involvement wasn't needed as a focal point. Hogan used that celebrity exposure to become an all time star. 

    Austin is another good example. The Tyson thing was huge in launching him but WM 15, 16, 17 you didn't need an outside celebrity to carry the ball. Austin and Rock and the gang WERE the celebrities. 

    John Cena main evented for over a decade and aside from the Donald Trump angle when did the WWE load up the celebrities at the big shows as the main draw? This is definitely a more modern trend because they don't trust their stars to be able to bring in fans. If they believed in their guys you don't pay whatever they pay Bad Bunny or Ronda Rousey or Logan Paul or Johnny Knoxville or STEVE AUSTIN to bail out these shows.  I mean, this UK show...they're totally gonna try to get Tyson Fury in there. You think they're going to trust Roman vs Drew alone to sell (even though they probably won't need Fury because the pent-up demand is so great)?

    • Like 1
  9. I know kayfabe is long dead and buried but, man, just changing Kacy's name to Katana Chance without like any storyline reason or repackaging or even being pulled off TV is just annoying. Like, I dunno if one day Randy Savage came out as Reginald Sanders I'd probably just say 'fuck this" and switch to something else. I cannot fathom being a week to week WWE watcher actually invested in anything. 

    • Like 3
  10. In regards to Roman as a draw: I mean, he's the biggest full-time star and SD is doing fine but he's not the draw Cena was. Cena came back and sold like a shit ton of tickets. WWE has been resorted to doing 2 for 1s lately on tix. They had to tease a surprise for an MSG house show to get it up to a respectable number.  Night 1 on Wrestlemania outdrew Night 2, right? 

    It just seems that if Roman is a mega-star you don't need break glass on Steve Austin, Pat McAfee, Vince McMahon, Johnny Knoxville and Jake Paul to try to move tickets. 

    • Like 3
  11. 16 hours ago, Log said:

    When I think "draw", I think the person people pay/tune in/show up to see.  Rhonda and Brock appearances may have spiked ratings, so that's something.  I just think we're past the days of a wrestling promotion getting by on a Hulk Hogan-like draw.  I don't see that happening again.  

     

     

    I don't disagree with you on the whole but the WWE is the only company on Earth that thinks this way. New Japan had its greatest financial period on the back of a massive draw in Okada. Ring of Honor had its hottest period with the Young Bucks and business immediately collapsed when they left. Everyone's mileage may vary on where Adam Page's reign is in relation to his star power but the first three AEW champions were/are guys who have been proven money draws in this country and internationally. 

    Every other company on Earth from Japan to Mexico and in between is trying to find that long-term ace to build business around. The WWE, to their credit, developed a model where it doesn't particularly matter.

     

    • Like 1
  12. Yeah - WWE, which is doing perfectly fine, is still down in like every single metric over the last several years. By what measure is Roman (and Brock for that matter) lighting the world on fire? The whole premise of the company is it's the brand that draws and not the performers. Roman has been a massive failure up until this last monster push. Let's not pretend he's Bruno on a 7 year hot streak. Brock is a massive, massive star but not like the TV shows are doing monster ratings or show are drawing as well as they've done in other times.   

    Brock was a phenomenal draw in UFC and is obviously a difference maker but the dude isn't prime Steve Austin either. Roman isn't even prime Cena. Jericho very rarely got an ace position but dude was a main eventer when the company was a LOT more popular. 

    • Like 3
  13. And as Meltzer pointed out today, WWE pretending that they invented recruiting outside athletes to be pro wrestlers is ahistorical. It's been going on since the beginning of the industry. 

    I think the big issue is, as smart people point out, is that you don't have to be hard and fast on ANY rule. Eric Bischoff famously told Steve Austin "“you know Steve, you might need to find something else to do for a living or somewhere else to go. Maybe New Japan or ECW, because you go out there in those black trunks and black boots and there’s not a whole lot of ways for me to market that.”

    I feel that Steve Austin and Bill Goldberg did pretty well with black trunks and black boots. 

    Eddy Guerrero was a big money drawing star. So was the Undertaker. Daniel Bryan and Jeff Hardy were bigger stars than Mason Ryan and Ezekiel Jackson by a million fold. What is silly is that WWE flip-flops on these pronouncements based on Vince's whims every so often and people bend over backwards to justify it as opposed to just dismissing it as Vince being Vince. 

    I mean, when Kevin Owens came in and pinned Cena, or Nakamura debuted against Zayn at Dallas, or Takeovers were selling out arenas, or former ROH champion Seth Rollins was hot not many were ranting and raving about how broken their developmental system was. It was only when AEW debuted* that a large portion of their fans/co-opted pundits had to justify that indie/foreign wrestling was the wrong kind of wrestling.

     

    edit: *it kind of started when New Japan got hot where people couldn't accept the praise the Okada Era was getting.   

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  14. 39 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

    I don't think I said any of that but let me go back and check my post just in case I maybe had some sort of break and my other personality did it.

     

     

    Nope.

     

     

    My point is they're making a big show out of saying indy guys are too hard to work with or whatever, while the indiest of the indy guys from the last generation of indy geeks, two guys that super duper traditionalist Jim Cornette said had no future in wrestling, were the ones trusted to carry a movie/TV guy and an aging veteran who hadn't wrestled in decades.

    NXT flopped against AEW.  Vince likes big muscular dudes and that's always his fallback when things stop working.  Making a showy, drastic change is easier than trying to really figure out a real solution.  Everything else is just a story they're telling to justify it.  Nothing else to say.

     

    Right and someone being dismissive of Chris Jericho and Rey as draws is just silly. Both them and Brock are all Hall of Fame level drawing stars. All have headlined big, big shows. In fact, someone with more time on their hands can probably argue that Rey Mysterio has been a bigger career draw than Roman. 

    • Like 4
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