AUGUST WRESTLING DISCUSSION

[JRV]

this ki/joe/mvp/cide roundtable on sam roberts' show is fuckin' dope as hell

[Phil Schneider]

Cassandro got a big profile in the New Yorker this week

 

Cassandro the Man without a mask

 

Cassandro is the master of press, this has to be the fourth or fifth mainstream magazine or newspaper profile I have read of him

[nofuture]

Meh...They could  build Swagger up in three months and make him a threat if done correctly. I'm sure he's jaded and doesn't give as much of a fuck as he could, after putting him in silly scenario after silly scenario.  If Brock started to treat every performer like he did during that Summerslam match, who else on the roster is gonna hold their own? And as for talking, Brock is no daisy on the mike either, that's part of the reason Heyman is with him.  Zeb does the heavy lifting on the promos anyway.  The guy just needs to be motivated. 

 

Funny how quick you guys are to shit on Swagger and he has more tools going for him than Reigns by a country mile. 

 

Reigns hasn't been arrested during his big push like Swagger.  That's going to cause some to lose trust with Swagger.

[Patrick B.]

Indy rasslin in the STL area for September:

-Saturday 9/6: Dynamo in Fenton, MO
-Saturday 9/13: MMWA in St. Louis, MO
-Friday 9/19: Dynamo in Glen Carbon, IL
-Saturday 9/20: SICW in East Carondelet (Koko B. Ware appearing)
-Saturday 9/27: SICW in Fairmont City, IL; MMWA in Herculaneum, MO

[Spritenaut 32]

Re: Network:  I'm guessing "I just don't want to" wouldn't be acceptable.

 

Works for me.  I subscribed, but I'm regretting it.  In August, I think I've watched about an hour out of the archives and the Cena/Lesnar match from SummerSlam.  I don't really have a good reason not to renew my subscription.  Cost isn't an issue.  I think it's a good deal and would like to see it succeed.  There's plenty of content available I'd like to watch.  But.... I don't need to watch hours of wrestling a day.  I don't even need/want to watch much wrestling each week at this point.  And if I spend whatever time I have for wrestling on Network stuff, I'll never get around to watching Portland, Crockett tv, WCCW, Stampede, etc.  What the network would run me for a year is about what I'd spend on a pair of running shoes or a few good books, or a couple DVD box sets. Those things interest me more at the moment. 

 

It might take me half a week to watch even one PPV on the Network.  Even if I keep it, I'd probably never get around to watching a lot of the footage that interests me.  For me, it's not so much "Is it a good deal? or "Can I afford it?".  it's more "If I drop it, will I ever think twice about it?"

 

(Well, actually, I will, since they'll probably keep shilling the thing incessantly on all their free tv broadcasts.)

[Patrick B.]

Another thing:  I'm already terrible about procrastinating on house and yard work.  If I had the Network, I'd probably never leave my already-overused computer seat and my yard would turn into a mini-jungle (err, moreso than it already is).

[Super Ape]

Also, I'm amused by the outrage towards people's various reasons not to use the Network when the old board had several people bragging about not spending anything on watching wrestling.

[Matt D]

Yeah, that's kind of my rationale. I got the network as a gift from someone who was annoyed at how cheap I was being, but I have a tacit deal that I don't spend money on wrestling with my wife. Wrestling exists as this thing which I make work on my own time and does not at all disrupt my family life. The only exceptions built in are 80s sets that I usually get for myself around my birthday or xmas or something. 

 

Still, this mimics a lot of my thoughts nicely:

 

 

I am still befuddled by the obsession over PPVs that you could have watched on Youtube 4 days ago but I am old and cranky.

Please add more content then I AM WATCHING A RANDOM NITRO FROM 1998!!!!

 

 

I think I have access to LESS stuff now than I did before WWE knocked out Steck's DM account. It's fine that they did. i get it, but then they went and didn't upload 90% of the stuff he had there. 

[Victator]

I was referring to the people canceling their bank account and getting paypal refunds. 

[Super Ape]

Not going to lie; I'd plunk down $10 or even $20 a month for a New Japan or All Japan archive, but I have zero desire to pay anything to Vince. I am fully willing to accept that I may just be an elitist asshole.

[Technico Support]

I have the network.  It's fine.  To me it's worth $10 per month to save myself the trouble of torrenting to see the one or two good matches from the PPV, all of NXT and whatever else I want to watch on a whim.  I wish I had more time to watch more stuff but it's cool to know I have an easy option when I do feel like watching some wrestling.

[nate]

... but I have a tacit deal that I don't spend money on wrestling with my wife. ...

 

Now, I'm by no means a "grammar Nazi" ... but funny *is* funny ...

[JohnnyJ]

I'm guessing people just put in fake information and the WWE application process wasn't sophisticated enough to catch it. 

 

I renewed my WWE Network subscription a few weeks back and I'm still getting constant e-mail reminders that my subscription is about to expire. We're not exactly dealing with a perfect system here.

 

Between the ease of use of the network and the pricepoint I view it as an incredible bargain. I just like having lots of wrestling on my tv at my fingertips. I was one of the few who subscribed to Classics On Demand for the same reason.

[Matt D]

 

Now, I'm by no means a "grammar Nazi" ... but funny *is* funny ...

 

From Wiki: According to a WWE Magazine article in 2009 by WWE's production designer Jason Robinson, who co-designed the structure, several designs for the Elimination Chamber were considered. The structure was manufactured inColorado Springs, Colorado and took six to eight weeks to make from design blueprints; it cost US$ 250,000 to construct.^[3]

The structure is made of black-painted steel with an outer structure of 16 frames, each weighing 300 pounds (140 kg).^[3] The chamber is 16 ft (4.9 m) high and 36 ft (11 m) in diameter, and weighs a total of 16 short tons (15,000 kg), 10 of which consists of steel.^[3][4][5] Each inner chamber consists of three large steel framed sheets of plexiglass, costing US$225 per sheet.^[3] The chains that surround the chamber stretch 2 mi (3.2 km) long and weigh 6 short tons (5,400 kg).^[4][5]

 

 

This stuff can get expensive, okay?

[nate]

Now, I'm by no means a "grammar Nazi" ... but funny *is* funny ...

From Wiki: According to a WWE Magazine article in 2009 by WWE's production designer Jason Robinson, who co-designed the structure, several designs for the Elimination Chamber were considered. The structure was manufactured inColorado Springs, Colorado and took six to eight weeks to make from design blueprints; it cost US$ 250,000 to construct.^[3]

The structure is made of black-painted steel with an outer structure of 16 frames, each weighing 300 pounds (140 kg).^[3] The chamber is 16 ft (4.9 m) high and 36 ft (11 m) in diameter, and weighs a total of 16 short tons (15,000 kg), 10 of which consists of steel.^[3][4][5] Each inner chamber consists of three large steel framed sheets of plexiglass, costing US$225 per sheet.^[3] The chains that surround the chamber stretch 2 mi (3.2 km) long and weigh 6 short tons (5,400 kg).^[4][5]

This stuff can get expensive, okay?

I totally understand that.

My own particular problem was with the dude that *was* spending money to wrestle with *my* wife ... hence my current circumstances ... I've said enough ...

[odessasteps]

Insert Apter Mag apartment wrestling cover

[JonnyLaw]

Course I speak as someone that just cancelled mine, but only until Survivor Series so I can get it through WM again.  Just not really interested in the next few PPVs and it will give them time to add more content.

 

This is me.  I have no interest in watching Cena overcome the odds against Brock.  I'm about to have a kid, so my already limited time is going to become even more limited.  All I have time to watch as is is NXT and the PPVs Special Events, and one of those things is still on free Hulu.  

[Matt D]

I'm doing an column on placetobenation.com attached to the WTBBP podcast now (cheap plug: Column One, Column Two), which means having access to the old WCW PPVs and Clashes at a touch is useful, but for what I watch recreationally, it's almost all lucha. I like the documentaries on WWE. I like Countdown and what not. That's pretty much all I'd miss from not having the network. I like the brand new content, but as someone who's been watching wrestling for years and years, most of this other stuff I've already seen. 

 

and Johnny, I watch the lucha mainly while I'm trying to get the two year old to go to sleep, on her floor, on my tablet, on youtube. So you'll have time to fit it in if you're clever about it.

[Spritenaut 32]

I misread Nate's post.  Been wondering for several minutes now why Nate's wife was charging him to wrestle her.

 

Then, I considered that "wrestling" was most likely a euphemism for some other sort of activity, but... well... that didn't bode well for Nate either.

[Cristobal]

People hate on the WWE just to hate on it. I posted before the Lorne/Vince comparison. The other great point between the WWE and SNL is that every hardcore fan thinks stuffing instead of potatoes is nowhere near as good as it used to be and/or they could do it totally better.

 

This is so dismissive, and it flies in the face of what is demonstrably true: All those guys Niners mentioned have absolutely cooled off. You can defend Bray's booking all you want, but in January, he, Harper, and Rowan were incredibly hot, and in August, Bray was struggling to draw heat while trying to get a win back against Chris Jericho. The Rhodes Brothers have massively cooled off. Cesaro looked like the next big face in March, and now he's trading wins with Jack Swagger and RVD. 

 

The only reason we got the WM that we got in the first place is that the fans essentially hijacked every show on the road to WM until the company was forced to do what the fans wanted, so I guess the fans actually did know better than the company.

 

Self-congratulatory much? Anyone that thinks they're more responsible for the success of WM than the creative team is, for lack of a better term, a mark.

 

While there is room for improvement and always will be, this "stuffing instead of potatoes is in the toilet just because Bryan is injured and Punk is gone and the sky is falling" stuff is completely out of control.

You have it completely backward. WWE has been in the toilet because they have failed to get people over, or failed to capitalize when people were. Dust Brothers are over? Have 'em wrestle Rybaxel for two months. Cesaro getting over as a face? Force him to turn more heel, then just job him out. Shield the biggest non-Bryan/Cena thing in the company? Break 'em up, push the one least able to sustain a singles run cuz he's got nice hair, and send the one who was getting super-over to do a movie.

The exception was Daniel Bryan, who then got hurt.

[Super Ape]

You have it completely backward. WWE has been in the toilet because they have failed to get people over, or failed to capitalize when people were. Dust Brothers are over? Have 'em wrestle Rybaxel for two months. Cesaro getting over as a face? Force him to turn more heel, then just job him out. Shield the biggest non-Bryan/Cena thing in the company? Break 'em up, push the one least able to sustain a singles run cuz he's got nice hair, and send the one who was getting super-over to do a movie.

The exception was Daniel Bryan, who then got hurt.

And this isn't an isolated example, either. Let's not even begin on the Summer of Punk angle getting clipped at the knees, Punk holding the WWE title for over a year and main-eventing MAYBE half of the PPVs he was on, and the Nexus being made to look like the J.O.B. Squad three months after that huge insurrection.

I know WWE is basically betting the farm on the Network, so on some fundamental level I want it to succeed because if the WWE shits the bed through all of this, the industry as a whole will probably not be far behind, but then I think about all of this, my lack of faith in Lesnar at NoC, and hearing "nine-ninety-nine" to the point of it almost becoming a parody, and I want it to crash and burn completely out of spite.

[MADCAP]

 

 

 

People hate on the WWE just to hate on it. I posted before the Lorne/Vince comparison. The other great point between the WWE and SNL is that every hardcore fan thinks stuffing instead of potatoes is nowhere near as good as it used to be and/or they could do it totally better.

 

This is so dismissive, and it flies in the face of what is demonstrably true: All those guys Niners mentioned have absolutely cooled off. You can defend Bray's booking all you want, but in January, he, Harper, and Rowan were incredibly hot, and in August, Bray was struggling to draw heat while trying to get a win back against Chris Jericho. The Rhodes Brothers have massively cooled off. Cesaro looked like the next big face in March, and now he's trading wins with Jack Swagger and RVD. 

 

The only reason we got the WM that we got in the first place is that the fans essentially hijacked every show on the road to WM until the company was forced to do what the fans wanted, so I guess the fans actually did know better than the company.

 

 

Self-congratulatory much? Anyone that thinks they're more responsible for the success of WM than the creative team is, for lack of a better term, a mark.

 

While there is room for improvement and always will be, this "stuffing instead of potatoes is in the toilet just because Bryan is injured and Punk is gone and the sky is falling" stuff is completely out of control.

 

You have it completely backward. WWE has been in the toilet because they have failed to get people over, or failed to capitalize when people were. Dust Brothers are over? Have 'em wrestle Rybaxel for two months. Cesaro getting over as a face? Force him to turn more heel, then just job him out. Shield the biggest non-Bryan/Cena thing in the company? Break 'em up, push the one least able to sustain a singles run cuz he's got nice hair, and send the one who was getting super-over to do a movie.

The exception was Daniel Bryan, who then got hurt.

 

 

So....that was basically my point about Swagger but you poo-poo'd the notion.  Interesting...

[Skeeball Wizard]

All of you with kids are such maroons. You do realize that part of the joy of parenting is imposing your views on your kids, right? "Well, doesn't look like Dora is on right now, let's see if Demolition can overcome the odds in this match against Powers of Pain AND Mr Fuji!"

Then, you get them to wager on the outcomes of old matches, in exchange for chores. "Wow, can't believe Warrior beat Hogan, I thought he was unbeatable too! Now go mow the lawn!" You're looking at it all wrong.

[JohnnyJ]

Exactly. Jack Swagger has been getting some absurdly loud pops recently. You can say a good chunk of that is due to Rusev. But it can't be all of it because other wrestlers who stepped up to Rusev werent getting pops like that.

 

Last week on Raw, the Mark Henry-Rusev confrontation indicated that they were now going to push Rusev a step up the ladder and have him face off against Henry.

 

I fully expect Swagger come out in three weeks to whatever pop is leftover to exchange another victory with Cesaro.  

 

Edit: The quote got messed up. 

[Raziel]

All of you with kids are such maroons. You do realize that part of the joy of parenting is imposing your views on your kids, right? "Well, doesn't look like Dora is on right now, let's see if Demolition can overcome the odds in this match against Powers of Pain AND Mr Fuji!"

Then, you get them to wager on the outcomes of old matches, in exchange for chores. "Wow, can't believe Warrior beat Hogan, I thought he was unbeatable too! Now go mow the lawn!" You're looking at it all wrong.

My son only lives because the Network gives me something to watch while getting him back to sleep in the middle of the night.  Because I don't have to read like I do with CrunchyRoll.