Sergio Bellend

That’s some pretty heavy backtracking there. 

2 hours ago, Carbomb said:

I know Fandango was a bit over for a while, but would it be fair to say his music was also more over than he was?

Yeah he definitely came to mind when I read that. Probably a few of the guys who had a snazzy, sing-a-long entrance and were over in NXT but just became an ‘entrance’ when they hit the main roster - Bobby Roode and No Way Jose for example. 

6 hours ago, dopper said:

The WWE 24 documentaries have been consistently fantastic for that aspect.

 

What surprised me about this specific one though was how they downplayed the rain delay.

A few shots of leaky ceilings backstage and a 20 second clip where Vince, Hunter, & Stephanie were stood with Hogan & Titus as they got told they had to wait.

 

I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but something more than that.

With how quickly they removed the rain delay from the Network (and if it wasn’t for seeing about it online, you’d never have known it happened from what they uploaded), they’re clearly doing that thing where they pretend something didn’t happen and hope we all forget about it. 

On 7/10/2021 at 10:03 AM, wordsfromlee said:

The current Lynx one is shit, but in a TIL crossover, Aitch and Anthony Joshua are CGI’d into it as it’s originally an Axe advert in the US. 

At least it’s better than the last one with the least convincing school from ‘Manchester 1995’ I’ve ever seen, and a squirrel shagging a can. 

1 hour ago, Daaaaaad! said:

Surely we can’t be far off from “WWE has released the following superstars from NXT UK:

All of them. The end”

Cuts are nothing new, but I’m really starting to believe that rumour about them prepping the company to be sold.

Nahhhh, as long as they’ve got the majority of the British scene locked under a contract, it stops any possibility of a WOS-type promotion gaining a foothold over here. NXT UK isn’t going anywhere. 

21 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

I just watched it again and I reckon the Italian has Chiellini'd him. The judge says something about the jump off, then says about them both having Gold, "this is possible".

The Qatari lad looks like he doesn't know what to do and before he knows it, Luigi Highjumpio is hugging him and jumping all over him, basically making the decision for him!!!

Fair play. 

Was a funny one, but it sounded to me like the official was trying to go through how a jump off would go and the Qatari lad says something like ‘Can we have two golds’. Before the official can get anything out about them both agreeing to it, the Italian lad just goes crazy and that was that. 

1 hour ago, The Dart said:

I don't get it....I can understand them deciding to not make any new documentaries for whatever reason, but this and the Luger one and perhaps the Nexus one, have already been made, so why wouldn't they show them?

And if the reason is they want it to be on before a PPV so more people watch it....do people really watch WWE Network like that?   Surely not.   PPVs sure, but are people sitting waiting for the debut on the live stream for an interview show?   You'd just watch it on demand when you fancy it.   The fact they still have a 24 hour live stream I find strange enough.

Also what happened to the second half of the Ruthless Agression series?   Surely that's already been made too.

I think there’s probably quite a high percentage of people who don’t spend a lot of time on the Network, and some who will only whack it on for the latest PPV. It’s not necessarily for those watching it live per se, but plonking a couple of ads in the PPV saying that their latest doc/interview will be available straight after you’ve watched this show is quite a sensible tactic, especially if you are spreading your content quite thinly.

They also seem to have binned off/paused all the cheap behind the scenes stuff like Chronicle and Day Of that were their staple ‘go-to’ content they were regularly churning out during the pandemic  

I don’t watch AEW every week (mainly just the PPVs and some of the special Dynamite episodes), but Caster is an absolute standout every time I do catch it. He just gets the perfect mix of humour, edginess and topicality in his intros. 

Luna Vachon always seemed the most baffling ‘Legacy’ inductee to me in terms of when they were around wrestling.

Suppose it works as a way to induct dead people that would otherwise be a bit awkward, like Luna or Brody. Surprised that’s not the route they went down with Bulldog in the end really. 

1 hour ago, LCJ said:

Will they though? I was surprised WWE managed to get so much money out of Fox for the current deal. Fox must be out of their minds. It’s not deserved.

Course they’ll get as much, probably more. TV ratings are down everywhere in the States - sports, general TV, everything so don’t read anything in to that. In a world of DVRs and cord cutters, networks (especially Fox) are desperate for content that people watch ‘live’, and wrestling is one of those products. 

51 minutes ago, Thunderplex said:

KFC crisps do not taste like KFC.  Fucking travesty.

They don’t taste like KFC, but the smell when you open the bag for the first time is very KFC. 

48 minutes ago, Nexus said:

I liked both lots, but the Zinger ones were way hotter than a Zinger ever is. 

Yeah I thought the Zinger ones were really good but your right, they are a heck of a lot hotter than a Zinger. 

22 minutes ago, WeeAl said:

While it seems odd on the face of it that WWE didn't/wouldn't have wanted to book a larger stadium for those 'Mania's such as 15, 16, 21 and 22, considering the merch money that wasn't grabbed, I'm going to guess financially they didn't make out much differently. 

I believe the bigger stadium shows come with higher rent and significantly lower ticket prices than the smaller arenas, particularly if those arenas are in major cities. My guess is they made more money for 'Mania XX at the gate than 'Mania 19. The merch is the difference, and how that matches up to the difference in rent between stadiums and arenas. 

Who knows how correct this is, maybe it's way off the mark, but it would be interesting if Brandon Thurston, David Bixenspan or someone like that had some info comparing this type of thing. 

Plus, even now I think they still offer a heavy amount of comps for locals to fill seats, so 15 years or so back before Mania became the proper, proper  international tourist event when they went back in to the big stadiums in ‘07 and ‘08 that make sense. 

26 minutes ago, Suplex Sinner said:

I'm sure she gave an interview in the run up to the title win where she said she was bullied because of her weight/look and she had thought about quitting so many times etc.but was fighting to prove people wrong. She won the belt shortly thereafter and the crowd were sympathising/supporting her by chanting "you deserve it" which still baffles me because you don't deserve it unless your ability and skillset has earned you it. WWE thought it would be good publicity because "anyone can achieve their dreams."

Really odd that whole spell was. She was a heel, then turned face with that promo after Alexa Bliss (I think) wasn’t being very nice to her. Had a ‘Wrestlemania moment’ then promptly turned straight back heel again. All in the space of about 2 months. 

They deserved being put out of business for those horrendous opening credits. A time lapse of a studio set build that felt like it was in slow motion. 

4 hours ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

The talk about Mania getting announced in Tampa for April reminded me that Austin Theory, pre Speaking Out revelation and linking up with Gargano on NXT, was in a trio with Andrade and Angel Garza during the empty area run on Raw last year and got a Mania tag title match out of it

And also had a brief run as Rollins’s lackey after Vega kicked him out of that group.

It was a horrendous run from start to finish. He looked like a chump, showed absolutely zero charisma and I’m not sure if he ever actually won a match. No idea what they see in him, especially to keep him around after those allegations. 

4 hours ago, Chili said:

Good job Striker has the baton passed to him then. He was really cack in 2011 or whatever, did he ever get better or did he get worse than saying 'I'M MARKING OUT' and getting proper rightly rinsed for it.

Lawler couldn't stand the sight of him could he.

I’m not sure any of them could. I seem to remember that spell when they did multi-brand matches like a Royal Rumble or MITB and had every commentator from the two or three shows calling the match at the same time. Striker would say something stupid, and the rest of them would rinse him for the next 10 minutes. 

Heard him doing some boxing the other week, which was a bit weird. Seems to still have the same style I’d say. 

5 minutes ago, Ralphy said:

I stopped wearing them after the cow showed its disapproval of them by spearing me into high heaven! 

I am pleased that i can seemingly still go

The amount of people out kinda threw me really, but i cant complain, as i am out too 

also, my parents went shopping today, and it was fine according to them 

The only thing people can really do is go on a walk, so you are bound to see lots of people about, just like back in last Spring. If you are worried, at this time of year try going for a walk first thing or in the evening when it is dark still. 

In more ‘school news’, my wife, who is early years lead at her school is having to teach her set of key worker kids in the classroom while at the same time live streaming various activities and chunks of the day to the rest of the class watching at home. 

Sounds a recipe for disaster and not much use for anyone really, I presumed those at home would be getting something a bit more bespoke! And quite how they expect 14 classrooms to live stream at the same time with no technical hitches I’ve no idea. 

40% of their pupils are expected to be in school as key worker children, which seems to negate a lot of the reason for shutting if those sorts of ratios are across the country. 

24 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Sorry for the live chat but Todd Grisham is the commentator on DAZN!

The weekend before Christmas, he did the Golovkin fight on DAZN, Mauro commentated on Showtime and Matt Striker commentated on the Gilberto Ramirez fight for FITE TV. 

On 12/18/2020 at 10:11 PM, poetofthedeed said:

It was in her entrance insert after her first episode, haven't nearly pushed it as much as you'd expect considering the Disney/fox connection 

Perhaps, although Disney don’t have anything to do with the Fox TV network, or Fox Sports. 

3 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

The thing is that NXT isn't a developmental brand anymore. Not in the way it used to be or that it should be. WWE have sold it as a third brand and there's no going back on that, especially from a TV perspective.

So from an internal view, this is exactly what they need, especially if there are little to no live events going forward. And if it's just on the Network then nothing wrong with it really. There's no pressure from TV execs or anything but those involved still get to learn how to work in-ring and for TV.

The live events thing is a a big one. Some of those NXT house shows they used to run around Florida would only ever have one or two people who were TV regulars, with the shows being made up of the proper developmental wrestlers. With none of those for the foreseeable future, it’s probably a chance to give them a bit of exposure and experience. 

12 hours ago, garynysmon said:

Its mad to think how much money he left on the table in leaving the NFL though isn't it?

He can't be on much more than $120k a year at Impact, and doesn't seem very prolific on the indies to top that up either.

I’d never heard of him in the NFL, looks like he had a decent run in terms of time spent there but was very much a journeyman. Safe to say he didn’t exactly leave the NFL of his own accord to go wrestling or anything. 

More Baron Corbin or that Tino Sabbatelli guy than Gronk or McAfee. 

34 minutes ago, Gay as FOOK said:

Watching Velocity on the Network. It's reminded me of how - as a young'un - I used to watch the B shows on Sky and think they were recorded on seperate nights, and they'd just have fans wear the same clothes they did for Raw/Smackdown and sit in the same seats.  

 

Similar with me, although I never noticed the same fans, it always used to be the time difference stuff that rattled me more. Like how could we possibly get Sunday Night Heat on a Sunday afternoon when it was still morning in the States and stuff like that. 

I understood that we saw Raw and Smackdown a few days after it happened but could never get my head around why it would happen in reverse!

8 minutes ago, The Curious Orange said:

No idea if them showing impact is a regular thing now, but Victory Road is on Box Nation at the minute.

BoxNation is owner by Premier now so it’ll be part of that deal. 

7 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

2 years behind is relatively up to date in wrestling terms. For example, Seth Rollins cosplaying as the Night King just the 7 years after GoT started. 

And Triple H’s Mad Max Fury Road entrance at Wrestlemania about five years after the film came out. 

2 hours ago, lanky316 said:

There was that brief spell when they were WWFE but realised pretty soon that was never going to work and catch on.

Seem to remember the Sky guide listing it as WWFE for a while before the official change, but they still called it WWF on air didn’t they?