King Pitcos

10 hours ago, Lord-Mountevans said:

Over in the UK in the 1980's when kayfabe was alive & well, you could politely approach the likes of Giant Haystacks or Fit Finlay (who were hated heels) & get an autograph. They would not tolerate rudeness or crowds, but if you approached them in a similar way to your mate Triple H, you would not get the snapped pen treatment.

Years after Finlay's WWE in-ring career, he was on video laughing and bragging about how he used to break fan's fingers if they knew wrestling was fake. He's much more of a cunt than someone who breaks a pen.

12 hours ago, Joe Blog said:

If you could just tell us all why he is such a cunt then this would all be sorted.

There's no mystery there. Lord-Mountevans is mentally deficient and was on the wrestling Internet in the early 2000s, of course he developed an obsessive hatred of Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Stephanie McMahon and so on. The real answer to your question is just "Because Dave Meltzer said he is."

11 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

They often have the habit of having Triple H make someone look like shit for ages and then he puts them over at the end. But by burying them during the buildup the damage is already done. Especially as he usually moves straight on to something else prominent while the person who beat him is left to flounder.

No wonder Cena never made it in WWE.

8 hours ago, Michael_3165 said:

Hate the TNT title's name. Sounds low rent. IC, US or International title would have sounded better 

Nah, it's fine. It's something new. WWE should have debuted a FOX title when they started on there.

7 hours ago, Hugh Thesz said:

My work called on Monday to ask if I would agree to be placed onto Furlough pay. Glad to be honest.

I wish mine would. I've no motivation at all, and I'm sick now - I don't think it's COVID, but it's going to make it even harder to force any productivity.

2 hours ago, Wideload90 said:

I can't work out which direction the taker styles match is going. Very odd. 

Another decent attempt at trying to build the strangest wrestlemania in history. 

The Calaway-Jones match, you mean. 

Can we get a rule in here of no match spoilers? At this point with it already having been recorded, changes in betting odds have the potential to spoil results.

Judging by the last few weeks, Undertaker won’t be in drag at this year’s Mania. First time in 17 years! 

Quite a lot of “this is a shoot, brother.” Real names being thrown about, who got special moves more over, who was a dickhead in developmental.

6 hours ago, BrodyGraham said:

There wasn't a whole lot that bugged me about Dynamite this week, but the second Matt Hardy sharted out, "Because I am maaaagiiiic!", I turned that shit right off. By far the shittest thing they've put out.

I always feel like there's a disconnect between how Hardy perceives the Broken shit and how it comes across. We're constantly being told how groundbreaking it is/was when a lot of it is just a bit embarrassing, really. It feels like they think they're making Jaws, when they're actually making Sharknado. Or if we're being wanky that Hardy thinks he's Truffaut when he's actually Wiseau.

Its a strange one. Remember the first time they did it in TNA, everyone shat on it. Other wrestlers like Maverick and EC3 made their own pisstake of it in a hotel. And as time went on, people embraced the shittiness of it and had fun with it. So bad it's good. But it seems like the "Vince won't let me do it, he's holding back my creativity" thing has played with people's memories of it and had us thinking unleashed Hardy was going to be good good.

I love it! Princes of the Universe for his new theme song.

I want my hour back.

Nothing on the show this week indicated any of the reported changes to the WrestleMania card, then. I wonder why they're leaving it til next week.  

This was maybe my favourite of the empty arena shows yet, though I skipped through the WrestleMania 32 replay. I liked Triple H's little breakdown of Reigns vs Goldberg, I wish we got that kind of thing more in the build-up to big matches.

I'm always up for Usos and New Day, especially with Miz and Morrison on commentary. My main bugbear with SmackDown is that Miz and Morrison's entrance is rubbish - they've been back together about two months now, and the slo-mo bit still looks poorly synchronised. 

Firefly Funhouse Match! I'm excited for it and hoping it's better than the House of Horrors.

25 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

And therein lies the problem. Generally the eye has been taken off the ball in terms of trying to grow the wrestling audience and attract your traditional wide ranging fanbase, in favour of everyone trying to appeal and wring every last penny out of the same narrow demographic that will always be there anyway. 

The most popular periods in wrestling aren't known for the high quality of the in-ring action, with more emphasis on the characters, promo work etc. This seems to have been forgotten.

Nobody has foolproof ideas to grow the audience though, and it's dangerous to rock the boat with experiments. The first boom was about Vince's vision for taking wrestling mainstream, and the second boom was fighting for survival in the marketplace. Now, COVID aside, nobody's back is against the ropes, cruise control is comfortable. For AEW, their whole identity is built on appealing to disgruntled WWE fans, and deviating from that will alienate those fans eventually - like it did when the first TNA tried to grow. Their challenge is always going to be walking the fine line of how much anti-WWE fan service is just right. For WWE, the milquetoast, stage-managed product is bringing in more money than any other era did, so throwing some radical shit at the wall is too risky until one of the bubbles bursts.

10 hours ago, Gay as FOOK said:

The fact that AEW started out of the gate as a hot ticket in decent arenas will tell you how much the smart/internet/pro wrestling as nerd universe audience has become the dominant cash cow in the last ten years. And how well they marketed themselves, obviously. 

But the ticket sales dying a death after the first few weeks isn’t a good sign of sustainability. Like the original TNA, to some extent that doesn’t matter because rich parents, but it’s not growing in popularity the way a startup should. Although the money in wrestling now (besides Saudi and TV rights deals for WWE) is just fleecing the hardcore fanbase for every last dollar anyway, and they’ve got the brand loyalty to get that part sorted. Even if AEW draws 800 fans, each one will probably buy four t-shirts on the night and already bought seven online.

When dey do turn on the company though, I can see bringing in Matt Hardy and Luke Harper being one of the things talked about as a negative. Using knackered old midcard boys from WWE in the top spots isn’t a great way of standing out as an alternative. Harper as leader of the Voodoo Kin Mafia might turn out alright, but the Matt Hardy gimmick has shat the bed on arrival and runs the risk of dragging the Elite down with it. By rights, Hardy will be shunted down to his own Troma universe away from the main event after this, but the lads have made such a point of letting wrestlers do what they want and using them higher up the card than WWE did, can/will they even tackle it with him?

1 hour ago, WyattSheepMask said:

that’s what Meltzer thinks apparently 

 

Actual Meltzer on WOR: “Uh, uhhhh, umm, uh, I mean - y’know - ummmmm, uhhh, uhhh, i-i-it, ummm, uh - okay - uh, y’know, I mean, uhhhh. Fed bad.”

He sounds like he’s short-circuiting.

12 minutes ago, UK Kat Von D said:

Being serious, I have had an offer to move into my aunts place which is supposed to become available end of next month because her tenant is moving out. Just need to hold off getting booted from here long as I can, so if the government say no one can be evicted for a while it will be a massive help. The flip flopping until it is set in stone has just made them get really aggressive with it. 
 

If anyone ever looks to rent, avoid Haart because they are the definition of useless cunts. I’ve been renting my entire adult life and never seen anyone as incompetent and evil as them 

I think it’ll more than likely just be scare tactics rather than anything they can enforce. The bad press a letting agent would get for turfing a tenant out at the moment would be so damaging - and even if they’re such dodgy bastards that they don’t care about that, I’d be surprised if they’ve currently got the resources to come and force someone out. Even if they got you out today, surely they couldn’t be booking viewings etc until the lockdown is over anyway? I wouldn’t think they’d even be able to come out and check the property over yet if you do leave. What are you supposed to do with the keys - is there a key safe outside the house, or are you meant to go and hand them in at an office that’s unlikely to be manned right now?

If anyone threatening does rock up to your front door, cough at them. Actually, on the day you’re paid up to, just tell the agency you’re displaying Covid-esque symptoms and need to self-isolate for 14 days.

Disgusting that they’re even running shows at a time like this tbh. They should cancel everything.

Braun! He’s already turned himself Internet heel in preparation for a run as top babyface.

Meltzer reckons there are more changes to come as well with people sick or self-isolating. So they mustn’t have already filmed everything.

1 hour ago, PunkStep said:

Fans shouldn't be near the HoF event. Do you get that in any other industry (hall of fame events, awards nights etc)? It's just industry members/affiliates surely. But Vince sees the commercial value in it now so I doubt will go back to how it was.

It also gives the retired boys and girls one last big pop, fans chanting for them etc.

But it would be a much better watch without letting fans in. 

10 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Were they really thinking about Hogan vs Gonzalez at SummerSlam? Not doubting you just never heard that before. I’d obviously heard the Hogan vs Bret stuff for SummerSlam. Hogan vs Gonzalez would’ve been absolutely bloody rotten wouldn’t it? The Undertaker matches were bad enough. 

Hogan vs Gonzalez at that SummerSlam seems a very odd way to go, it’s pretty much the same dynamic as Lex Luger vs Yokozuna. All-American Hero vs Foreign Monster, but Hulk would’ve got a proper win and Lex would’ve had the count out.

How did they manage to put Luke Harper’s Vince McMahon impression on the same show as Cody saying he doesn’t think bitterness should have a place in wrestling? 😂

10 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

I have tried to tell her that we are seeing way more people being diagnosed and recovering then dying

No wonder she’s worried!

20 minutes ago, UK Kat Von D said:

How many people attend Takeover and not Wrestlemania? 

40.

Apparently Matt Hardy’s big idea that Vince McMahon wouldn’t let him do was be a sort of GM of a jobber division and have 15 minutes of the show to do the voice and book matches between workrate guys. It’s obviously a terrible idea for WWE, but it could be perfect for AEW Dark.

28 minutes ago, UK Kat Von D said:

If NXT is established properly as a third brand they might even just be incorporated into the main show, removing that weekend’s Takeover and replacing it with Mania night one.

That won’t go down well with the people who like every Takeover and hate every WrestleMania.

On 3/24/2020 at 11:54 AM, Hannibal Scorch said:

Wasn’t Takeover scheduled for the Thursday night anyway? But yeah, they could easily do Hall of Fame, Takeover and Mania over two nights going forward. Also means the indys that run have less time to do so having lost Saturday night as well

Pre-Covid, the WrestleMania week schedule was:

Thursday - Hall of Fame

Friday - Smackdown

Saturday - NXT Takeover

Sunday - WrestleMania

Monday - Raw 

So I’m not sure how easily they could make WrestleMania two nights, without losing/changing the time slot of either Takeover or Hall of Fame.

Doubling the ticket price for WrestleMania is a massive gamble as well. Currently, because of the lightning setup blocking the corners, it’s about $300-400 minimum for a seat with a decent view. So that’s $600-800 for two events, which means people would be paying $500 or more to look at a pillar and a bit of the ring both nights.