uklaw

3 hours ago, andrew "the ref" coyne said:

Was just about to share. Utterley fantastic that the official WWE watch along crew are confused and having the ending shat upon.

X-Pac verbalised it but they all thought it. Look at Cathy Kelley’s very telling raise of the eyebrows when he said what he said...

... but she values her job.

2 hours ago, BomberPat said:

I guess the question is what, if anything, they're building towards, and whether there's still a market for this kind of wrestling presentation.

In terms of shows, they have announced a PPV on December 14th. Over the 2 days they taped 8 episodes, so I presume that will take us to that event.

If the question relates to an overall business plan, then I guess that remains to be seen.

Joe Galli is/was the main commentator for Championship Wrestling From Hollywood and has lead the commentary on all of NWA’s big shows so far (70th and Crockett Cup). He’s not too shabby, actually.

As for the matches, I saw a report from Night 1 that suggests that most of the matches were under 5 minutes in length and that only Aldis vs Tim Storm went over 10 minutes. No spoilers here, as the match was announced ahead of the tapings.

1 hour ago, King Pitcos said:

Apart from the Raw women’s title (which could come to a close at the PPV) and the Reigns/Bryan/Rowan/Harper thing (which probably needs a while longer), there’s not much to wrap up storyline-wise anyway.

That is actually true. I’d say this is probably the chance for Eric Bischoff to lay some kind of marker on Smackdown, but given the profile the show now has (I’ve seen people say it’s probably now the A show), the roster/star pitches and dictations FOX are making, the fact Vince moved his most trusted Lead Writer over, and seems to have placed Bruce Pritchard on the ground shows he may not trust him too much to run things operationally. 

I suspect the answer lies somewhere between ‘very little’ and ‘zero’ but what are the chances the issues and feuds as they are now start wrapping up between Hell In Cell and the 14th October Raw?

So that the 18th October (Friday Night) Smackdown serves as more than a soft reset/relaunch?

Or perhaps the rosters are done in such a way that everything stays as it is? Gosh forbid 😳

This is true. Like most shows, it has its off weeks, but by and large, Impact has been an enjoyable watch.

I previously called Impact the ‘boy who cried wolf’ of wrestling. They finally get their house in order (both on and off screen) but no-one really bothers with them anymore.

While I’m pleased their immediate future is a little more secure, I know it’ll take a lot more than a bigger platform to receive goodwill. And things like the Killer Kross situation won’t help in shaking off their own automatic heel status within the business.

Courtesy of AEW Twitter:

Just been announced. Anthem have purchased AXS TV.

EDIT: Mark Cuban retains minority ownership and Steve Harvey is involved in the deal as well.

According to Wrestling Observer, creative changes have been made. 

Long time RAW Lead Writer Ed Koskey is being moved to Smackdown as Head Writer under Eric Bischoff. I think I read somewhere that he ‘gets Vince and what he wants’. 

Guess Vince got tired of junking entire shows and the official word is Ryan Ward (trusted Triple H guy, me thinks) is on ‘personal leave’. 

The RAW Lead Writer is now Jonathan Baeckstrom, who was the 205 Live lead writer, and apparently hand selected by Paul Heyman for the RAW team not long ago.

I’d bet that this appointment is heavily influenced by Heyman. 

But yes, I think most of us had to know Ward’s position was untenable given Vince so publicly naughty-stepping him on a weekly basis for what seemed like a good couple of months and with the FOX move, upcoming draft and re-separation of the brands (apparently) and XFL, he only has his has hands full to be changing whole shows.

He’s a heck of a get for Starrcast. It’s a tap into that particular fan base (not WWE, ‘stock it to the man’, ‘we’re coming for you noggin’ crowd) and likely said before, it could slightly backfire on AEW at All Out.

As some people, who either want to appear like they ‘knew all along’ or through some force of will, won’t let ‘CM Punk’ chants go. And they may take over parts of the show.

I think it has been suggested (by Wrestling Observer) that Vince and Kevin Dunn would definitely take a much more hands-on approach with NXT if it ended up on USA. 

Until confirmed by WWE themselves what they are doing, it’s all hypothetical but imagine how Triple H feels if, after being passed up for running RAW or Smackdown (or declining them to stay with NXT, if other narratives are to be preferred) he has his own project/product/baby taken away from him?

After avoiding RAW since Wrestlemania (and not missing it) I might give this one a go.

Based on what I know of the show, it reads like a changeover. Blowoff matches,   character resets, returns and the start of new feuds. 

If I had to guess, I’d say the upcoming tournament is going to kickstart other storylines and shape the landscape going towards Wrestlemania. 

A few have been saying it, and a few more (including me) have not been saying it publicly, but it’s now been picked up, opinion-wise.

As I’ve said to a number of people, iMPACT are proving themselves to be the ‘boy who cried wolf’ of wrestling.

Shame all this happened only when they had nowhere else to go.

https://whatculture.com/wwe/6-reasons-you-should-be-watching-impact-wrestling?page=2

Given the suggestion by a combination of Meltzer and @wrestlevotes over the past week, it’ll be interesting to see how many of the RAW and Smackdown matches have a sense of finality about them, devoid of screwy or ‘open issue’ finishes.

By the way, when did Triple H hand the running of 205 Live over to Adam Pearce? I remember reading he was the main Producer/Agent but I think Mike Johnson said recently that he runs it now.

Or am I muddled? 🤷🏿‍♂️

Interesting given Paul Heyman’s experience with Vince during his last run in a creative capacity in 2006.

I guess the telling aspect of this is how much say they have over their shows.

If they can collaborate with Vince, with say over the composition of the respective creative teams, some story direction, production input, etc then we might get some distinct, maybe interesting shows.

If it’s Vince essentially saying “Mixed tag main event is in a few weeks, go and make it work, and don’t forget the pauses in action during the commercials...” then you can resurrect Eddie Graham and Dusty to join them, but results will be the same.

There was a rumour making the rounds early on Friday that Gedo had stepped down as head booker of New Japan.

By the afternoon, an office source had debunked it as a ‘crazy rumour’ and that had not happened.

It did get me thinking about who could potentially assume the reigns one day? Is there anyone associated with the company who could take that on? And what would they need to improve on?

On 6/13/2019 at 12:43 PM, Briefcase said:

I thought Smackdown was terrible this week. Even worse than Raw. 

Which is indicative of where we are with the company. I haven’t watched any WWE for going on 6 weeks (which is the longest I’ve not watched the company since 1991)  and don’t miss it in the slightest.

For a while (and certainly after the last brand split)  Smackdown was the superior of the 2 shows and the equivalent of a being ‘good hand’ on its worst day.

Now I read or understand that after Roaddog put down the Lead Writer’s pen for the show that the creative teams have all been fully merged? 

If that’s the case, no wonder Smackdown is now been called worse than RAW (even if just for this week)- even with the shorter running time. 

Very good referee, well respected and has the distinction of being about 6’3, so taller than a lot of the wrestlers he’s in the ring with, in contrast to the norm of referees being smaller.

6 minutes ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

Tony Khan's apparently told the staff he wants AEW to be modelled or at least inspired by Bill Watt's UWF TV show. Hook that shit up to my veins if that's where they're going with it, but where does that fall in with all this comedy shite the VPs champion? You cant do both.

Sign me up for that. Mid-South/UWF has been my go-to for a long time.

2 hours ago, Merzbow said:

I've started to really get into MLW since just before Battle Riot 2, Corny is great fun as commentator and his shitting on Sami Callihan makes even his matches totally watchable.

Contra Unit are an interesting group with Jacob Fatu being the standout star, he's pretty amazing isn't he? Simon Gotch is an odd choice for such a stable but he seems to fit it much better than I would have expected.

Plus, there are multiple fat guys in the fed!

MLW Fusion is my appointment viewing wrestling show.

The shows just flow nicely, able to cover the multiple stories in a way that does not seem like it’s been forced in. 

Contra Unit have been presented as a major threat but in a totally different way to Promociones Dorado (specifically LA Park). And Selina de la Renta... what a force of nature!

Jacob Fatu can’t be long for MLW (sadly for them). Though I’m not sure he’ll be booked to win the title if he was put with Tom Lawlor, he’s clearly the standout.

Jim Cornette has been a good addition to the announcing team, although I also enjoyed Tony Schiavone.

I could go on, but I’m glad for it’s presence. 

If it were any other promotion (of any note) I’d say that Delirious’ position would be in danger off the back of ‘having their pants pulled down’ on their biggest ever stage, but it would appear (and I specifically use that word) that he well and truly has his feet under the table in ROH.

I mean, he’s (in total) been heavily involved in booking (under Jim Cornette) as well as Head Booker (before and since Cornette) longer than Gabe Sapolsky, and I don’t think the shows (especially weekly TV) are much to write home about. 

For the time it has been in existence and what it could (and maybe should) be I don’t find it massively inspiring. 

Back to my original point, seeing as there doesn’t seem to be much risk of him going, I hope he can find something he can spark to life. 

Though Revival was presented as a one-off show, I would argue it had its foundations (or certainly the composition of the roster did) in the original FWA TV series for local South Coast stations.

If you can excuse the rather dated production values, the series was a little gem and the Old School vs New School feud that ran through Revival and carried through to roughly British Uprising 1 originated there.

It’s been 20 years so can’t recall exactl details, but here we go:

I came across the FWA (pre-Frontier Wrestling Alliance meaning) in January 1999 as part of a growing interest in U.K. wrestling after keeping an eye on Hammerlock since the summer of 1998- and running up my folk’s phonebill listening to Dean Ayass on their hotline. 

That was mainly because the 2 young guys tearing it up in Hammerlock-Jody and Jonny- were going to be on the show. I think that’s how I remember it.

I kept up with it since then. Not (the most) exciting, but there you go...

So, the last few (remaining) general tickets sold out in 4 minutes.

Don’t think they’ll be short of pay-per-view buys. 

14 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

I'll be honest, never heard of this network and a quick glance at Wikipedia suggests that it has about as much prominence as the religious channels on the Sky EPG.

The channel is owned by Anthem though, so it makes sense in that regard.

 

That reads very much as a “Syfy, TruTV and WGN were a bust, and POP TV don’t want us, so we’ll take what we can get” deal.