air_raid

1 hour ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Just catching up on Raw properly, and I think Sheamus might be on my list of favourite wrestlers - were I ever to sit and make a list.

There's enough lists going on out there. The "100 wrestlers better than Shawn Michaels" one gave me AIDS.

1 hour ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Raw desperately needs a draft, especially with Cody seemingly moving to Smackdown. Raw has a load of talent I love watching, but misses a bit of stardust with Cody and Rollins gone.

I wonder if they shift LA Knight over and try and heat him up.

Draft's happening 26th SmackDown - 29th Raw. Knight would be a decent call for Raw, actually - I imagine they could get people behind him for a crack at Priest.

Not going to lie, saw a mock up for SummerSlam that showed Rock vs Cody, Punk vs Drew, Reigns vs Rollins and Priest vs Balor, and everything between now and July is going to twiddling my thumbs waiting patiently for the crushing letdown when that's NOT what they're able to put on. Christ, throw in Usos vs Solo & Tama Tonga (umm, at least in story terms) and it's the best sequel to Mania I could come up with.

11 hours ago, RedRooster said:

I do wonder if this discussion should be shifted to a standalone topic to do it justice, 

The woke thread is there for people who want (and currently are) discussing the topic in broad strokes.

3 hours ago, Healy52003 said:

could of 

Could have.

The best thing they could do now is get blacklisted by OK state, then throw a show called "I'd Sooner Be In Texas" or similar crap pun, in Dallas/Houston/wherever. Nothing beats a cheap pop.

30 minutes ago, WeeAl said:

The only two names I've ever seen that were to be Vince's choice in 83/84 if he didn't go with/get Hogan were Kerry Von Erich and going with Snuka. Both wouldn't have worked.

Good one there. Take Kerry out of Texas and does he draw? The NWA obviously didn't think so on a big scale.

I hope I don't regret this.

Many casual fans of Belinda Carlisle that love "(We Want) The Same Thing" are probably unaware the version they love isn't the original. The better and more widely-played version (Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! intro) is called the "summer remix" and was used by Peugeot in an ad in the 90s. The original version that was released as a single and was on the Runaway Horses album was a bit rubbish in comparison.

See you back in On Topic.

On 4/15/2024 at 5:38 PM, Carbomb said:

Would he not have been given the same push if Hogan wasn't around? I genuinely can't think of anyone in the WWF at the time who would've enjoyed the same kind of attention and popularity - Andre was on the tail end of his career, Piper was great but better suited to heeldom at the time, and most of the other faces at the time were fun but not exactly main-event.

Well, we're a little at crossed purposes here, but Savage got over really strong initially as a heel working Hogan all over the country, and thats when people realized how good he was - later, in combination with the sympathy Liz got, it made for a logical babyface turn. So the question might not really be "would Savage have got the same push as a babyface in a world without Hogan in New York" as "would Savage have got over as strong in 85 if he's wrestling a different babyface?" As to who that babyface would have been...... still Bob Backlund? I mean, a maniac like Savage would have been a good foil for straightlaced Bobby and his atomic drops, but would it have drawn?

It's still a question for the Vince Jr debate - no Jr to overrule Sr historically blackballing the Hulk, possibly no Hogan for Savage to work. I'm still slightly bitter "Irish" Terry Hogan never saw the light of day, to be honest. Bruno drew the Italians, Pedro drew the Hispanic... let's get the Irish New Yorkers in the building!! Actually, that probably answers my question as to who might supplant Backlund if there's no Hulkster. He may have been 44 at the time but maybe it was time to pull the trigger on Polish Power! Who Randy ended up working later on anyway, albeit for the ICT.

3 hours ago, Your Fight Site said:

Isn’t that what WWE is doing with WWE Speed, albeit on Twitter X instead?

Ah, you didn’t catch the one word that makes all the difference.

4 hours ago, air_raid said:

for maximum "engagements" the matches will all need to be short enough to go on TikTok.

15 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

I'm sorry but I absolutely hate that Danielson Vs Ospreay poster, it's like the worst MCU fan knock up you'd see on twitter.

Works for me.

something something Storm Breaker something something

34 minutes ago, Gus Mears said:

It's Vince, the same man who thought ZZ Top were at the bleeding edge of culture until about 2012. He'd probably end up hosting it all on Bebo.

Well, assuming he does go with his own instincts rather than pay an agency, he can hit ALL the big ones - MySpace, Bebo, Faceparty, Hi5. Let's just hope he doesn't accidentally revert to using Roman numerals wherever he can, otherwise that last one becomes problematic.

Having said all this... remembering WWEs brief fetish for Tout... I still don't know where Vine failed and TikTok has succeeded. Fickle kids.

He'd probably pay some young peoples' marketing agency to help get him up to speed with what all the kids are into these days, and end up deciding that for maximum "engagements" the matches will all need to be short enough to go on TikTok.

@JLM As I may have said before, I wish they'd kept their full names - Deuce Shade, Dice Domino and Cherry Pie sounded brilliant.

From memory... isn't there a fairly decent knock off of Teen Spirit that they dub over WCW's original Teen Spirit knock off, that's miles better than the dreadfully dull, generic Metal jobber tune they gave to DDP when he wrestled for them?

4 hours ago, RedRooster said:

As for Cody, he's been...well...Cody since winning the belt. Exactly as you'd expect, which isn't a bad thing. But I think babyface champions need a bit of time to settle in, and for the threat of them losing the belt to actually feel real, creating that sense of consequence in their matches; making their reign more of an emotional journey. 

This is a tricky one to get right. There's no coincidence that "seemingly unbeatable odds" was the recurring theme of the two most successful WWF Champions in history - Hulk Hogan faced seemingly unbeatable odds because he was usually up against HUGE MASSIVE SCARY MONSTERS and while we all know now there was usually no chance of him losing, as kids it was what we were constantly in fear of. And Steve Austin faced seemingly unbeatable odds because the boss was constantly moving the goalposts and changing the rules to try and fuck him over, and even managed to short term, but Austin always got back up and carried on swinging.

Where you go with Cody to create insurmountable odds now he's already outfoxed The Bloodline (or got lucky, depending on your perspective) - that's the question.

20 hours ago, BomberPat said:

I think that's more likely; how much of his trademarked AEW material has actually got over? Does anyone care about "the Demo-God" or "The Ocho", or is just rattling off every idea in his head hoping that one will catch on?

I saw someone suggest that he's only trademarking "The Vortex of Jericho" so that nobody else merchandises it to make fun of him. But even knowing it's a thing means he's aware of his current reputation, and there's no good being self-aware enough to know that you're an old bloke clinging to younger stars for clout if you're just going to keep on doing it anyway; I'm sure that the story with Hook is going to be built around that reputation, but how do you work with that in a way that's not just doing the exact same thing again?

On the other hand, if there's no plan to change course, might as well profit from it. WWE sold a Cena Sucks t-shirt, after all.

Just now, RedRooster said:

discussion 

I’m just happy we’re calling it that. “Discourse” needs to fuck off.

10 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

If the court case is settled in some way I wouldn't be shocked to see him attempt something - even if it was something that predominantly targeted non-US markets; or relied on an alt-right streaming platform. Heck, perhaps it's the kind of thing Elon Musk would host on Twitter much as he does Tucker Carlson. It's obviously a different kettle of fish; but given their crossover political views; it's not outside of the realms of possibility that it ends up being presented as some sort of 'deep state conspiracy'; and enough people buy into that to allow something viable to exist. I wish it felt more ludicrous to type those words than it actually is. 

Sure sounds like another of those threads I avoid until they start announcing matches.

4 hours ago, simonworden said:

Am I right in thinking if he sells all his shares he closes the door on being able to come back unless the company has a real change of heart and let's him in?

Being a public limited company, all “change of heart” needs to mean is enough shareholders sell enough shares to him for profit.

Just looks like bants so far. Because Meltzer has reported he legally could, all the usual dogshit Twitter accounts have leapt all over it polling “Do you think he will” and “Would you watch.” Appallingly, we may just live in a world where shitting on a woman’s head, passing her round your mates from the office and attempting to book her rape by a Beast Incarnate are not repugnant enough things to be so publicly accused of as to dissuade pro wrestlers from associating their name with yours for the sake of a cheque. Worse still, there seem to be plenty of people saying they’d watch, despite not being bound to any new creation by the kind of Stockholm Syndrome that kept many of us keeping up with WWE when (a) Vince had final say and (b) it was total shite.

But if I’m wrong, then come 2025 look forward to all your favourite booking tropes coming back! We beat the babyface in their hometown, abandon long term plans at the key moment for being “too obvious,” and prepare the next big thing by beating him over and over again! 

3 hours ago, Vamp said:

Besides, he's closer to end the of his career than the prime.

That's one way of looking at it. Another, is that at 46, he's exactly the midpoint between the new World Heavyweight Champion, Damien Priest (41) and the man that won the main event of night 1 at WrestleMania, The Rock (51).

On 4/12/2024 at 9:02 PM, air_raid said:

Road Dogg there continuing a noble tradition of being given the jump mechanism despite never going to the top rope.

Along with, fittingly enough, Repo Man.

And TIL that on top of the "50 McNugget Challenge" story.... this, too, I've said before. Like one of those talking Hulksters with pre-programmed phrases at the pull of a cord. Or a psychotic Krusty doll.

On 7/21/2023 at 9:54 AM, air_raid said:

Not usually interested in customs but saw on Twitter today someone's done a Road Dog custom with the "jump" action... perfectly in keeping with Hasbro tradition of sometimes disregarding whether action fits the wrestler. You can definitely create a "high flyers" dream match now, of Roadie vs Repo Man.

48 minutes ago, Vamp said:

Wasn't everyone on here recently clamouring for more fat lads in wrestling? Not that I'm calling Sheamus fat.

Plus they need someone Gunther can stiff every now and then. 

I'd be happiest if Gunther went back to being fat.

Wasn't Lance Storm the undisputed intergalactic multidimensional champion of Canada in WCW?

Re : belt names. I've never seen one before, no-one has, but I'm guessing it's a White Hole.

45 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Make the Universal Championship exactly that. The top belt. The Champion of everything. The Champion of the Universe. Then the World Title is a slight rung below it. and then the US/IC title below that.

But yeah, two world titles of 'equal' value is a no from me.

The problem with that is, with two shows and two rosters where two blokes are going to be "the champion" its massively counter-productive to present one as overtly more important the other. In terms of getting people to watch the shows or buy tickets to events, you can't have anyone feeling short-changed if they have the "lesser" champion, even though that's exactly what they fell into with Roman's rarely contested Neverending Story of a run with the Undefeated, Undisputed, WWE Heavyweight Champion of Life, The Universe And Everything, gobbling up all challengers into the Nothing, and Seth's Silver Medal - defended most months but nobody really wanted to win it anyway.

The nearest they got to parity was in the first brand split - SmackDown, the junior and fairly obviously less important TV show, still had the WWE title, the oldest title in company history, still regarded as THE title. While Raw, though in possession of the brand new/revived title with the Big Gold Belt as its symbol, could still argue the toss that it had an argument to have THE top guy, because they were champion on the flagship brand and expected to be drawing the ratings on THE show. But they fucked that by swapping Cena and Batista over and taking the respective titles with them, even then.

Still think "World" next to the title names is rubbish and there is nothing wrong with "Raw" and "SmackDown" as prefixes for midcard titles - especially with the Womens. "Raw Womens Champion" and "SmackDown Womens Champion" are far more logical than what they have now - they were the champions of their respective shows. Today, there's a Womens Champion of WWE, and a Womens Champion of "the World." Huh?