garynysmon

Today marks 21 years since the WWF became WWE.

Biggest downgrade ever or what?! Going from a distinguished sounding federation' to 'we all know its bollocks don't we' entertainment marked a dark day in my house!

The only positive being that due to both UK boom periods happening before the change, it shall forever be known by our parents and commentators of proper sports at any sign of a fight as the WWF.

Not going to lie, 21 years on and WWE still sounds a bit awkward to me.

Signings like Trinity always catch me out because I haven’t watched WWE in years and don’t really know who she is.

I watched the Mickie James Royal Rumble when she was Impact champion, so I must have seen her in that, but will have to bow to everyone else’s superior knowledge on if she’s any kind of star or how good she is!

On 4/29/2023 at 4:39 PM, Infinity Land said:

Don't Impact already do a fair few Friday PPVs?

Which didn’t do particularly well, by all accounts.

Probably rehabs Impact’s image more than Punk’s, given how vocal he was about previous regimes. 

Whether you like the bloke or not, he and Monet do carry some clout.

Its just hit me what a fucking nuisance this AEW Collision show is going to be, which pretty much forces everyone's PPVs to Sunday nights now.

The irony of posting this on a wrestling forum populated by blokes in their 30’s, but buying and carrying around replica titles is weird behaviour.

2 hours ago, Butch2000 said:

Or they can go a couple of tiers below and take over Ruabon Rovers then I get a double whammy

Should get Sparky on board.

1 hour ago, jazzygeofferz said:

The anticipation of that high glamour clash with Total Network Solutions The New Saints would be some brilliant long term booking.

There’s actually long term heat there.

4 hours ago, Fog Dude said:

What makes you think they should go straight into the Premier? Colwyn Bay didn't. If the co-owners really want to tell another Hollywood promotion story, make them start in the Adran North! 

Good point. They can battle it out with Bangor 1876 next season!

Wrexham town centre seemed to be absolutely rocking last night, bet it was a great night.

But if Reynolds and McElhenny want to turn babyface in my house they’ll have to send an application to the FAW to join the Welsh Premier.

It was for the opposition, but this is probably the best goal I've ever seen in person (probably even beats Hal Robson Kanu v Belgium in Euro 2016 which I was there for as well).

Lee Beattie for Prestatyn against Bangor in the Welsh Premier.  We still won 3-1 so I didn't care too much.

I mean, we all have our personal favourites and often without any rhyme nor reason.

But they lost complete shithouses like Joey Ryan and Michael Elgin, and a completely disinterested RVD. Tessa Blanchard should have been a massive hit if her head was screwed on.

The most successful pickups seem to be NXT releases with something to prove, Deonna Purazzo or Steve Maclin for instance, or indy wrestlers slightly off the beaten track (i.e Canadians) like Josh Alexander or Speedball Mike Bailey who Scott D’Amore knows well.

’Bigger name’ pickups like the Good Brothers or the Iconics don’t seem to work as well.

Mia Yim was fine during her 6 month run though, and Taya was only ever going to be a non-contract thing as she angled for an AEW gig.

For a company that should have been fucked the second AEW came into being, they generally do quite well at resigning wrestlers though.

Don Callis leaving seems to have caused fewer HR issues too…

33 minutes ago, Loki said:

Another example of how religion is carny - Ted left wrestling to find God and devote his life to his religion, except it turns out it was just a way of scamming money out of poor people.

Grifters gonna grift.

In fairness my expectations for the match were low given that Tommy Dreamer was front and centre. But the format was decent enough, featured acts that I like, had some high spots and bits made me laugh. 

That’s good enough for me given how non seriously I take wrestling at this stage of my life.

I remember reading on my phone on a Wales Away trip at an eastern European airport in 2016 (I think) that the next tapings weren't going to take place as they had no money left and that WWE was snapping up the tape library.

So I suppose that my remaining and now unwavering affinity for Impact is mainly a gratitude of and a reflection of how bonkers it is that its still around at all. Little engine that could and all that.

I wasn’t watching much wrestling from 2002 to 2008 or so (other than brief hopes for the ECW revamp). Having gone to uni in 2002 and only dipping in while at home, the Ruthless Aggresion era felt like a massive downgrade compared to the Attitude days and the whole ‘feel’ of WWF/WWE felt a bit ‘off’.

I never was a fan of TNA early doors, it looked a bit bush league and I never fully came on board until Kurt Angle and the Main Event Mafia were around, it felt like the 'new WCW' I was craving so much.

Given its the proper stars that brought me in, you’d have thought I’d have stopped watching at the same time that most normal folk did. But for some reason I was so interested in the backstage shenanigans and the obvious money issues, that it kept up my interest.

In fairness the company now is a million miles away from the spike version, so I can see why @Lokiwould be disappointed.

If that's what you're looking for then AEW is the obvious product to watch. There are aspects of Dynamite that give me the fuzzies, it feels so much like Nitro. Its just a shame that some aspects of the fanbase and Tony Khan grate me so much.    

Impact's production isn't what it should be and you're not going to see 10,000 seat arenas on Impact every week.

But christ, its a solid two hour show that features a strong core roster and wrestlers from all over the place popping up because Impact works with everyone that's willing.

Its probably attracting more paid attendees to shows than it ever did during its Spike heyday, and there’s something interesting about following a product that’s showing baby steps of (re)growth.

I can't think of anything worse than having to catch up with 2-3 shows a week, so at this stage I'm more than happy with my lot.

I'm very seldom left disappointed.

This is surely a bit much?  Is there really a craving for that much product from the same stable? 

49 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

God I hope so. 1997 was the best.

I’d watch this glorified light show again if it was.

33 minutes ago, Tsurutagun said:

Impact crowds have been shit for awhile. The Alexander/Bailey match a bunch of people raved about had a crowd that sounded like it had never watched wrestling before. 

They seem to be very hit and miss. The crowd for the last set of tapings in Windsor, Ontario was very lively and its good they’re going back there to a larger venue for Slammiversary.

But yeah, as you said, Toronto turned out in force and sold out the original batch of tickets well in advance (before more seats were opened up by production), it didn’t come across well on TV. As nice as the Rebel looks on tv, the crowd is also hidden and it didn’t look like there was almost 2,000 in attendance and you could only see a couple of rows.

Yes, Aldis has been dismissive of Impact in the past. But I can’t believe that no one else would have taken him on though, so the fact that he willingly went back there speaks volumes about what a different company it is nowadays.

Its not like there’s a lack of options for wrestlers nowadays is it? And had he popped up on Dynamite, for instance, and given the usual “… is All Elite” treatment, I find it very hard to believe that a man of his background wouldn’t be hailed as a major signing (and rightfully so).

People like Alan Angels, Kazarian (Gresham to a degree) etc have given up deals with AEW to sign for Impact. That must stand for something, and clearly this isn’t the 2015 version of TNA that wasn’t paying anyone and the internet instructed people to laugh at.

Changing the entire ownership structure, channel, most of the roster, studio and management… I mean, there’s not much more you can do to distance yourself from the ills of the past without divorcing yourself completely of the historic successes that also should be celebrated.

@Butch2000 I read that Moose has been working hurt for a while, which would explain being relegated to mainly tags or quasi-comedy matches against Joe Hendry.

Watched it all apart from the women’s match (that main evented).

But that Hardcore War was a million times better than it had any right to be, and Tommy Dreamer even made me root for him. The bastard.

Bloody gorgeous venue too. As always, never fail to deliver on PPV.

Due to various reasons out of their control (i.e injuries), in terms of star power Rebellion is probably the weakest card they've put on PPV for a while.

That said, they tend to deliver so I expect a good show tonight regardless.

Rebellion Main Card
* Impact World Championship Match: Steve Maclin vs. Kushida
* Knockouts World Championship Match: Jordynne Grace vs. Deonna Purrazzo
* Ultimate X Impact WOrld Tag Team Championship Match: Bullet Club vs. Motor City Machine Guns
* Impact X-Division Championship Match: Trey Miguel vs. Jonathan Gresham vs. Mike Bailey
* Hardcore War: Team Bully (Bully Ray, Moose, Brian Myers, Kenny King, Masha Slamovich) vs. Team Dreamer (Tommy Dreamer, Killer Kelly, Yuya Uemura, Frankie Kazarian, Bhupinder Gujjar)
* Last Rites Match: PCO vs. Eddie Edwards
* Santino Marella, Joe Hendry, Dirty Dango vs. The Design

Countdown to Rebellion
* Knockouts Tag Team Championship Match: The Hex vs. Death Dollz
* Heath & Rhino vs. Champagne Singh & Shera

Can we change the name of this thread for goodness sakes?!

Honestly, Cornette leaving killed it for me.

51 minutes ago, Chris B said:

How much of an unknown was Wembley Stadium back with SummerSlam 92, especially without Hulk Hogan?

I'm not comparing current AEW with early 90s WWF in terms of popularity, but I remember it being mainstream for wrestling rather than truly mainstream. 

WWF was absolutely massive in 1992, even the Attitude Era paled in comparison in terms of media coverage in the UK. Regular stories in the press, the Sun/Mirror printing cut out stickers on posters, appearances on kids tv shows etc. 

Really not comparable at all tbh.

32 minutes ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

Thanks, might give it a whirl today. Are they still in the same soundstage?

No, they’ve been touring for a year now. The latest tapings were in Windsor, Ontario.

Thought this last week’e episode was great in terms of storyline and production, if anyone wants a starting point for Impact.

51 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

The NFL is a global brand for sure. But outside of the US they’re ain’t many people who could name 10 teams let alone players. They could put two shit teams on at Wembley and it will be near capacity for the reasons I mentioned above. I’m not saying the AEW brand is anywhere near as well known as the NFL. But they have 90,000 seats to sell to people from all over the world.

WWE is a very close analogy. I’m willing to bet a large percentage of the crowd at Clash in the Castle didn’t have a clue who most of the current roster were, but heard a big and well promoted show was in town and went along to watch ‘the wrestling’.

I have no doubt the ITV publicity machine will be in full effect with Adam Page popping into the Woolpack for a pint.