garynysmon

11 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Jarrett said he wasn't asked to have any involvement with Impact 1000, either.

I’ve never been sure what the relationship is really. I’m sure I read somewhere that Jarrett owed D’amore money after that GFW fiasco and Jarrett’s exist in 2017 wasn’t exactly amicable.

Yet Impact produced Ric Flair’s last match and they seemed to be on good terms. Is any beef between Jarrett and higher ups, not sure?

It may well be a case of not even wanting to ask AEW in case the answer was no? Who knows.

Having now watched Bound for Glory its probably the company’s PPV of the year.

The KO Tag-title match seems to have been left off to allow more time for the Hall of Fame speeches which, while disappointing for those four, was entirely justified given how well Traci Brooks and Mike Tenay spoke.

Not a bad match on the card but if nothing else I’d make some time to watch (wrestling) Mike Bailey v Will Ospreay if nothing else. Wowzers!! (Was never going to be a bad match though was it?)

The TNA promo video was still about 2 mins too long but have got the song stuck in my head all morning!

8 hours ago, Gay as FOOK said:

It's found a niche as a no-nonsense booking company over the last few years. It doesn't make mistakes these days, really, but it's still got that Impact vibe of just being a bit...dead. 

Fair comment really. 

Despite Anthem saving the company from the abyss, arguably the most exposure its had since then was the Kenny Omega crossover which was filmed in an empty studio and doesn’t exactly make your company look and sound alive.

I think they've reached the stage where most people are aware that Impact is throwing out a solid enough to good product but there's almost always a 'but' or 'if only' thrown in by your average fan.

The number of times I've heard people say "Yeah, Impact is great and I'd watch if they got out of that studio in Nashville." Well they got out of that studio in Nashville and have been touring and holding tapings twice a month across north America ever since.

But if that's the perception people have then maybe that’s exactly why a rebrand is needed?

At least its got people taking about Impact/TNA and not Collision today, which is no easy feat when you have WWE and AEW sucking all the oxygen out of the room on any given weekend.

I’ve always thought that placing themselves away from the tired and toxic WWE/AEW megafan petty internet wars was Impact’s best bet. If everyone else is pumping out untold hours of content that your average punter struggles to make time for every week then, rather than fight it, use your solid 2 hour weekly show as your usp. Be that product that doesn’t take that much time out of your life but is an easy watch when you do.

A rebrand for a rebrand's sake is one thing, but if your product is built on something solid rather than your Malibu Stacy hat scenario then there's a chance that sharp shock will make at least a few more eyeballs stick around.

(All that and I haven’t been able to sit down and watch Bound for Glory yet…)

21 minutes ago, kidzero said:

Are they not bringing back six sides?.. eventually they'll have too even just for a random ppv TNA to me is six sides but overall great news

The wrestlers hate it.

I imagine its to do with brand recognition and while the TNA name was undeniably damaged goods when the rebrand was made, the beauty of nostalgia is if you allow enough time to pass people start becoming more willing to gloss over the shit parts in lieu of stuff they enjoyed when younger.

I’ve been quite surprised how well the announcement seems to have gone over. I was expecting the usual string of LOL TNA and laughing emojis, given that anything the company does gets a string of negative comments or “no one watches that shit anyway”.

The number welcoming it like TNA was starting back as a new company, like Impact has never existed, was quite an eye opener and may explain it?

Given the company was planning a production overhaul over Christmas and new set etc anyway, now was the time to do it clearly. Impact 1,000 etc garnered quite a lot of buzz so evidently TNA still means something to people.

It can’t  hurt there’s still a bunch of generally revered “TNA wrestlers” still with the company such as the MCMG, Eric Young etc and that relations clearly remain good with Mike Tenay and some other names we’ve seen pop up recently.

28 minutes ago, kidzero said:

I would like Josh to win back the title is there gonna be a surprise debut..Id honestly like a couple of ex lower tier Indy/WWE guys and gals turn up and get a chance making something of there career's...the way we've seen with Maclin,Swann..etc 

I don’t think the 90 days are up for the latest batch of main roster WWE releases.

I wouldn’t have a clue about any WWE talent beyond the biggest names, but there’s usually a Steve Maclin or two out there begging to be given the Impact career rehab.

Am working this weekend so unable to catch BFG live tomorrow night, but its a strong looking card in fairness.

Will Osprey v Mike Bailey can’t help but being great surely?

Loved the build for Alex Shelley v Josh Alexander on the go-home show too. I never thought of Shelley as anything but a transitional champ but he’s really grown into the role and I’d like him to retain.

Brad Schwartz, a higher up at CW, was with Pop TV when TNA was on there and Corgan was still involved.

As others have said, if its a prime time deal then its good for NWA on a decent channel, but if its a WOW type arrangement then its not worth much. MLS's TV deal turned out to be a total damp squib.

Unless NWA are planning a major investment into their production and talent I can't see it doing much for them. You can lead a horse to water etc. You could stick it on prime time NBC and no fucker would be watching that rotten product.

I've never seen anything to suggest that Impact are desperate to move channels. AXS isn't great for them in terms of visibility, but it does offer stability and they're not going to get booted off and kick up a similar drama to TNA's channel hopping to ever diminishing returns post-2014.

36 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

97-99 WWF is peak wrestling production for me. Perfect balance of feeling big time and polished while still feeling gritty and realistic. The backstage stuff during this time in particular was brilliantly done.

As earlier mentioned though, I have no doubt that Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn would argue that the current setup is what they’ve always wanted in reality, just that the technology/finances now allows for screens all over the place and such a ‘busy’ setting.

58 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I don't watch WWE pretty much at all. I've been seeing the praise the shows and some of the big matches get and will check it out I just fucking HATE it. The fact they are so popular right now genuinely baffles me. It just feels so far removed from what I believe wrestling is or should be. I keep trying it but I just can't enjoy it.

I find the production completely off putting. Constant camera cuts (not as bad as it used to be but still painful to watch), flashing lights, graphics and bullshit just absolutely all over the place,  awful music. Just relentess STUFF all over the screen. The ringside area looks like the softplay I take my kid to. Backstage segments dreadfully directed with hideous lighting and completely ignoring the physical laws of reality.

The characters for the most part feel to me incredibly cheesy. Feels like a modern day version of the New Generation. Corny, one note childish gimmicks all over the shows. Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes as top babyfaces - absolutely not for me. A couple of lads from the Wetherspoons calling themselves Brawling Brutes?! VIKINGS! Fuck off.

This is exactly how I feel tbh. I can never get as far as watching the actual wrestling as the whole presentation is just so busy and overproduced.

I don’t find AEW overproduced in the same way and Dynamitereminds me of an episode of Nitro, which is about optimum level for me.

I can just abode live with my annual watch the first few matches of Wrestlemania before going to bed, but how anyone could find their presentation to be watchable every week baffles me.

Its no coincidence that some my favourite WWF eras were the rise of Rock n Wrestling and 1997, when the product was far from polished and still contained lots of kinks and its original charm.

It just feels sanitised beyond belief and a Hollywood-esque production isn’t what I want at all. Its no wonder I enjoy Impact with its questionable lightling and production snafus really is it?

3 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

It's often like if you watch back old movies. Some of them are timeless and will work whenever you watch them. Others are absolutely products of their time and that generation and the appeal is lost more the further away you get from that time period.

Pretty much!

To this day, even as someone who only caught the tail end of the proper Hulkamania run, my automatic reaction to anyone who runs down Hulk Hogan as a performer is to almost recoil in horror.

"What do you mean Hulk Hogan isn't on your mount rushmore, show some fucking respect you cunt! Get those vanilla midgets down from there now!"

Hulk Hogan holds some terrible views and can’t tell the truth for toffee.

But he was really larger than wrestling to many in my generation and that above.

Whereas, in reality, I can fully understand why anyone who started watching after would find his repetitive matches and one trick pony act to be old hat and can more easily dismiss him completely for his said terrible views.

If a current day WWE wrestler said what Hogan said I'd happily cancel them. But embarassingly I still get a bit of a kick from seeing Hulk Hogan walk out on a WWE show even now, as ridiculous and hypocritical as it may be.

2 minutes ago, Doog said:

Why do AEW shows have so many "technical glitches"? I know they blame the weather, the network, whatever, but it never happens on WWE or any other live TV programs really, well very rarely but pretty much every AEW show there's something fucking up. It's piss poor

You’d fucking love Impact PPV’s then 😉

37 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

His promos were real "hope your parents don't walk in the room while this is on" stuff, all threatening to shove things up other guys' asses, cheap jokes and gurning, and all the loud talking and daft threats that non-wrestling fans think make up 99% of wrestling. As I got more into how wrestling works, I hated how he hardly ever put people over in promos - they're trying to put Undertaker & Kane over as an unstoppable tag team, and he's talking about how "Undertaker wants to lick Kane's big red nipple". They're trying to establish Rikishi as a major main event heel, and he's joking about it in promos. When he's not doing that, he's bullying interviewers and backstage staff for no reason. I don't remember a single time where he made a match feel important, or that he felt threatened or endangered by his opponent, or that the upcoming match was something he had to take seriously. 

The Hollywood Rock run is probably the only time I found him consistently entertaining, and it's probably no coincidence that it's one of the only times that you were supposed to find him ridiculous. 

Absoloutely. 

The Rock was terrible for punching down. I suppose we’re a bit more aware of this kind of thing by now, but constantly bullying interviewers and non-wrestlers isn’t exactly face behaviour.

Austin at least used to punch up at authority.

But second generation, good looking Dwayne Johnson always screamed perfect heel to me.

Really enjoyed the main event this week, a three fall (well, three stages of hell really) match between Kazarian and Eddie Edwards.

The crowd was shit but fair play, cracking main event that’s worth anyone’s watch.

3 hours ago, Tommy! said:

Not quite on topic but I think undertaker is overrated because of the WWE hype machine. Post 91 to 96 was shit and post summerslam to him fucking off was shit.

His 2000 return was good until mania 17 then he was on and off until mania 24.

I'm not saying he's not good, he's just not as good as wwe says and so not as good as people looking only through the WWE lense say 

Certainly benefitted from a retrospective narrative which would like to portray him as the bedrock of the company for decades, yet there's hardly a period of more than a few months when he was ever 'the guy'.

The 'streak' is a complete accident of history they stumbled upon after a while. But what really does a streak matter when its constrained to a single annual event anyway?

44 minutes ago, boshealecta said:

Bret Hart for me. I got into wrestling because of Hogan, Demolition, Beefcake and they were colourful and larger than life. Bret at the time did nothing for me. I used to love Summerslam 91 and watch it over and over but would often fast forward the Bret vs Perfect match.

Personally I was a Bret fan from a young age, but I think it was more down to thinking he was cool as fuck rather than buying into the 'excellence of execution' in-ring stuff. But totally get what you mean about the characters.

WWF Superstars/Challenge were the perfect shows for me as a kid really. You got the wrestlers making their entrances, a quick 2 min match and you got to see their usually cool finisher. Rinse and repeat, very little wastage.

I seemed to skip my teenage workrate period altogether. And while pay per views were great as culminations for feuds, truth be told, I usually found a lot of matches to be a bit long for my liking.

There have certainly been periods when I've questioned if I'm a fan of the actual wrestling at all, or simply the characters, pageantry and bollocks surrounding it.

I appeal on anyone to change the thread title…

Oh christ, I have so many against the grain opinions!

There are several guys I was just never able to accept as main eventers as they just screamed midcard to me. The ‘Ruthless Aggression’ era was terrible for this as they scrambled to fill the void after the proper stars had retired/gone to Hollywood.

The Guerrero/Benoit Wrestlemania ending made me lose so much interest. What a drop off… I could never buy any as a world title threat, let alone holders. With Guerrero I could at least appreciate that outside of the ropes he had a rounded skillset and was versatile. But fucking Benoit (other than being a scummy piece of shit), a personality vaccum so lacking any mic skills that he had no business being anything other than a solid midcarder.

I’m tempted to say Razor Ramon/Scott Hall as, again, he was a fine IC champion but seems to have been retrospectively given this mythical main event status he never achieved when active.

I’ve never understood why his ‘punches’ are so universally beloved and thought they were just open handed slaps that looked shit. Decent Scarface rip off but was a bit one dimensional for me and his career obviously stuttered due to his substance issues.

But Edge, I mean… solid enough hand and I enjoyed the Brood when he first popped up. A career built on good timing or what?! Decent tag team act but never main even calibre for me, let alone building a cumulative 15 year run on top or thereabouts. Was never sure what he was meant to be good at.

3 minutes ago, Nick James said:

Rocky Romero is their main envoy for the NJPW deal, isn't he? If giving him the odd showcase match on Rampage against outside talent continues on that relationship, then give him the main event every week. 

Yup. Its the exact same reason he pops up on Impact every now and then. Just keeping the envoy sweet.

Fuck it, let him carry on. Its funny.

Expecting Captain Lou’s Corner as a new segment on Collision.

Who owns the UWF trademark anyway?…

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

For a man who talks so frequently about wanting everyone to get along and to be the friendly place for everyone to come and have a smile and a slam, he hasn’t half got an edge when he’s got the hump.

He reminds me a lot of Jurgen Klopp in that regard. Klopp likes playing the nice guy but the mask slips very often.

That said, a cursory glance at the NXT promotion and I fail to see how it is ‘stacked’ iapparently. A load of your usual NXT guys most will never have heard of with a couple of old guys standing around the ring like spare parts.

14 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

Wrestling promoters have more digs than Time Team, but they are usually more sly about it. TK is just on full charge because they've moved Dynamite opposite NXT and he doesn't know how his current EWR save can process that. 

This being the same Tony Khan that has coincidentally programmed a Battle of the Belts special up against Bound for Glory for the third year in a row btw.

1 hour ago, air_raid said:

The irony being that treating the modern wrestling landscape as a "war" where there's winners and losers and that "alls fair in war" is a concept that should have been left in the 90s.

To be fair, a large part of the tribal fanbases now wanting a re-run of the late 90s 'wars' are ether trying to relive their childhood/teenage years or started watching wrestling just after the fact and want to experience a re-run, feeling they missed out.

I'd include Tony Khan in that and Triple "lol remember the Nitro tank" H has always been partial to a dig.

8 hours ago, RedRooster said:

We hear lots of talk about the best ever wrestling theme songs, but what about the tunes that don't get the attention they deserve?

@Butch2000 I thought that argument had long been settled here tbh.

Edge's first theme was miles better than what followed.

The York Foundation's theme is also known to get an occasional blast at my house too...