garynysmon

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

I think there's a few things about this, one is I think society has moved on a bit and constant cynicism and shithousery isn't as charming as it might have been. Things, and people, have changed a lot since then.

But even if you accept its still as welcome as it might have been, it's a different kind of fight. WWF and WCW were trying to fight in the same weight class, as it were. They were trying to compete in the same world, so conflict probably felt more natural.

WWE and AEW are so different, both occasionally great in their own ways, but when they bicker it just entrenches the conflict between two types of people who already think what they think. It's shit and boring and just means were all talking about CM Punk and his AEW drama for more time. It's been years. Literally years. It baffles me people don't just want to move on.

Plus, Jack Perry is so shit. 

 

You also didn't have social media in the 90's.

Its almost impossible to engage in a serious discussion online as everyone just assumes (often rightly so btw) that you're just a bad faith actor that's coming it from an already entrenched position. Its a constant barrage of whatabouttery.

Not really watching any of them has its merits, believe me. A bit like being a Partick Thistle fan in Glasgow.

23 minutes ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Samantha is dreadful.  I'm glad someone said it. 

I came home from the pub just as it started and fell asleep during the main event, but that was one of my main takeaways.

I’ve heard people rave about her but being so dreadfully lapsed I was none the wiser. But everything she did sounded so forced. People are really putting her on the same level as Finkel?! Ffs!

Otherwise I enjoyed the show for what it was and was pleasantly surprised how many of the wrestlers I was familiar with. Can’t believe R-Truth is still knocking about.

(I realise I have now become my Dad, “Hey are the Bushwhackers still wrestling eh?!)

Nothing that would make me want to watch weekly TV by any stretch but the production wasn’t as overbearing as I feared though. 

I still find it a bit tough to sit through these shows given EVERYTHING is such a hard sell. Ads and product placement all over the place is definitely too much.

Maybe you get used to it as a regular viewer? I don’t know.

2 hours ago, westlondonmist said:

He thinks he looks cool, look at me I can spend all this money on a song. I'd just say why pay wrestlers better.

I don’t think there have ever been complaints about AEW wrestlers being underpaid. If anything AEW’s existence has massively inflated the market which is a good/bad thing depending on which end of the negotiating table you are.

There are AEW wrestlers being paid pretty well for doing not much at all yet you hear relatively few complaints. Leaping Lanny would be proud.

Anthem is a pretty frugal company and I doubt they’re making substantial losses. Execs were repotedly chuffed with TNA+ steaming numbers and other revenues after HTK but TNA is essentially a vehicle to provide content they can show on their own channels or licence out.

My relatively educated guess would be they’re treading water and not substantially in the black or red either way.

(They're certainly not spending on production if last week's show is anything to go by... yikes).

15 minutes ago, Chili said:

The older you get you see it with Heyman. That's he's actually a big grifting con artist and tremendous hype man. Being congratulated by a man who actually wanted to kill him and after all those careers and lives he fucked up. Outside of wrestling Paul Heyman would've state evidence for some sort of court case or he'd be running a lower end new age cult somewhere. Horrid

He is a con artist but like many things in life I don’t think its always black and white either.

The more separated you are from a situation, and the more years go by, the more you can fully assess and look at it in its entirety - which includes the good times.

ECW obviously means a hell of a lot to those who were part of the movement and were along for the ride. How revolutionary it was is up for debate, but those who were part of it feel that way.

Its not unfathomable that as people mellow they are able to forgive or forget and remember the good times.

(That and Tommy Dreamer is another carny fuck that won’t shut the door on a possible payday/exposure).

Triple H strikes me as the kind of guy who’s doing this on purpose to wind up Tony Khan though.

Throw a grenade into the room and walk out.

A throwaway comment in an interview won’t get anywhere near the attention or mockery compared to a TK wobbler on Twitter.

34 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I thought "Internet fans" were the ones who liked CM Punk. I'm so confused. Either that or "internet fans" is a meaningless distinction when everyone is on social media and the fanbase is a fraction of what it used to be.

Its essentially “the generation after mine” isn’t it?

Just noticed that Ayozat (Channel 186 on Sky) has started showing classic TNA PPV’s. Slammiversary 2005 is on right now.

In fairness Cardiff is a pretty sorry excuse for a castle anyway. 

I’m sure WWE are referring to this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop's_Castle,_Glasgow

The fact that it last stood in the 18th century is neither here nor there…

1 minute ago, air_raid said:

At least we'll keep the violence in the ring.

All those replica belts should be subject to the 24/7 rule.

2 hours ago, FUM said:

Good luck to SmackDown. It’s at the same time as Scotlands first game in the Euros.

Potential of record levels of BO and replica belts then given that even more ‘normal’ people will be filtered out of the equation.

Going through a bit of a wrestling lull atm and weeks can go by without watching any wrestling at all other than clips popping up on social media.

I’ll listen to some podcasts and currently make a point of watching TNA specials/ppv’s, but am not even managing the weekly shows atm.

Wrestling can be very cyclical for me though and I tend to watch a bit more during the summer when there’s less football and current affairs on TV.

To be fair I’ve accepted that I’m pushing 40 now and wrestling and the way its heading generally isn’t really tailored for me any more.

WWE’s production turned me off long ago and supporting any Tony Khan venture isn’t exactly appealing either.

They’re gearing their products for the audience that will spend a big % of their time and income on wrestling and I’m fine with that.

My bank balance breathes a sigh of relief.

As much as I wanted a fortnight in Germany I’m telling myself that two weeks in USA/Canada/Mexico 2026 would be even better.

Fucking furious we weren’t allowed to travel out to Euro 2020, our only WC was in the shittest and most expensive country possible (still enjoyed it) and now we miss out on a brill tournament in Germany though.

Tbh most of the bush league promotions or Japanese undubbed stuff did nothing for me and I thought ROH was the shits (I had the opposite of a workrate smarky period and thought it was wrestling with all the fun stripped out of it).

But I used to enjoy WOS, early TNA and those RF Video shoots they used to play. Its just a shame that the budget so clearly dwindled year on year.

Didn’t Wade Keller have a weekly show for a while there too?

Off topic but have fond memories too of Bravo showing late 80’s/ early 90’s World Class when skiving off sixth form. Eric Embry and Skandor Akbar was the best daytime TV Sky had to offer.

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

It's as close to sounding human Cena has got in ages. That's exactly the sort of joke people Cena's age typically make to young kids wearing an opposition football shirt. 

"Spurs, is it? We'll have you an Arsenal fan before long lad..."

Not our John.

See you in court.

On 2/26/2024 at 7:27 PM, kidzero said:

Anyone watch no surrender I enjoyed the show

The Scott D’amore stuff was a bit of a bolt out of the blue and I didn’t really watch anything for a few weeks but yes, and it was a pretty decent show. 

I haven’t seen Mustafa Ali before but I like his gimmick and seemingly has a built-in fanbase too.

Very glad they signed Hammerstone and while I realise that Josh Alexander can carry anyone to a decent match, I really wanted him signed after their match at HTK.

So far it doesn’t sound like the anticipated budget cuts/fucking around with the product has happened.

Bully Ray is capable of garnering genuine heat.

Seemingly not.

On 2/8/2024 at 8:05 PM, Hannibal Scorch said:

Can’t both be accurate? I mean if they wanted to cut the budget, D’Amore attempted to buy it, that’s certainly a disagreement between both parties.

In fairness that seems to be the case.

It does make a lot more sense at this point, although massively disappointing.

The background seems to be there were consistent clashes re: the budget, with Scott reaching the point where he really wanted to pull the trigger and capitalise on the recent hype and bring in some big names.

Anthem seem to be happy with current growth and wanted to either retain the current budget or even reduce it, causing friction.

Scott trying to buy TNA from Anthem seemed to make his position untenable.

Meltzer's coverage of Impact/TNA has been pretty woeful so I'm not sure I'd be trusting Meltzer's reports given he's spent the last few years giving them as little attention as possible.

Pwinsider has long had high ranking sources in the company and are usually very accurate.

Considering their budget, there is no doubt whatsoever that D’Amore was able to bring in wrestlers that would never have otherwise appeared in a company of Impact’s size.

He squeezed out every last dollar of whatever budget he was given.  I know that no one person is ever bigger than their team/company but this is one of the worst possible decisions they could have made. Leave the wrestling division alone.

I’m happy to withdraw my comment if it ever comes to light that D’Amore has done something he shouldn’t have, but on the face of it they’ve decimated talent morale and thrown the company into turmoil at a pivotal time.  And for what exactly?

Sorry, double post

WTF?…

Scott D’amore came across as a pretty liberal bloke to me, I’m not sure what to think.

In a weird way part of me hopes he actually was fired for the right reasons rather than TNA management being TNA. On the surface there was no-one better to run the company

23 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Dolph Ziggler is headlining for your mob, you can pipe down Gazza.

Stop deadnaming him please.

Move aside lads, the proper stars are back.