garynysmon

15 minutes ago, Ambulance Chaser said:

That was a fucking tremendous show. I'd recommend people give this a shot, the overriding thing I took away was this was Wrestling aimed at me, a 33 year old jaded bastard that is absolutely pig sick of pancake jokes, a 70 year olds fart jokes and fucking B-Team bollocks. This was gritty, raw, edgy, every match felt like something had to be settled and a personal grudge. I aint read many reviews or seen every post on here but Callihan/Pentagon is one of my favourite matches this year, proper scrap, Callihan is one despicable mess of a man. I thought Aries performance in the main event was outstanding, he bumped his arse off and made moose look good. Great crowd, callis added a sense of importance, it all just felt like a fucking grown up version of Wrestling.

 

Couldn't agree more. I don't really follow the independent or foreign scenes at all and half the current WWE roster are just names I couldn't put a face to. But Impact has brought in a load of nobodies (to my ignorant mind anyway) and given me a reason to care about who they are and why they're fighting.

That is such a stark contrast to why I loved TNA in 2008-13 or so, which was a way of having stars from my childhood like Hogan, Sting, Nash, Flair etc on my telly every week.  

It does seem somewhat reminiscent of the Attitude era in some ways, although eliminating some of the most adolescent stuff. The Impact roster is not a big one, but maybe that's its strength? A bit more time to concentrate on giving everyone a storyline or at least character development but on a two hour show as opposed to countless hours of product a week.

The comparative lack of content is what keeps me watching TNA and what kept me somewhat interested even when it was at its worst. Most anyone can find two hours a week to watch a wrestling show without having to miss anything.

If I had any major gripe it would be that Slammiversary (which is meant to be its nostalgia PPV) had no nod to the past, no cameo from anyone or an appearance from old wrestlers (unless you count the former incarnation of LAX.)

If I had to guess why, I suspect that was a deliberate attempt to differentiate the current regime to the TNA stink as the rehabilitation process is still a little fragile.

Just finished watching the show. I'll tell you what, I enjoyed that as much as I could enjoy any wrestling show in 2018 and at this stage of my life.

I generally feel that too much emphasis is put on in-ring match quality and not enough on match build-up these days, but they got both pretty spot on.

Plus its such a game changer to hold shows in front of a hot crowd that cares, it improves the presentation ten fold.

I felt so bad for watching the show by less than legal means that I've gone ahead and bought a T-shirt from the Impact online shop. Being the cheap bastard that I am, that's quite some accolade.

12 minutes ago, uklaw said:

On a side note, after the Windsor tapings, and especially after Slammiversary, IMPACT absolutely should never ever again return to the Impact Zone in Orlando.

Ordinarily I'd argue that Orlando was unavoidable due to economic reasons. But I think they have rehabilitated the brand enough to reach the stage where they can attract a reasonable paid crowd.

They also have the fallback of Windsor, Ontario which I doubt they are paying much for anyway. The company's also taping in Vegas in November which is probably free or even a bought show anyway. 

If they do tape in Orlando again, make it a Twitch special or something. Maybe enough time will pass where the IZ will be a nostalgia show one day.

Until this week's, I hadn't watched an episode since the World Cup started. I don't know if anyone else feels the same and whether its down to the fresh roster, Callis on commentary, getting out of Orlando (or all of the above). But its noticeable how more 'big time' the product feels compared to even this time last year.

Definitely moving in the right direction but could do with a belting PPV on Sunday to keep the momentum going.

He's Brazillian and somehow ended up being a fucking goalkeeper. Its going to end in tears.

Wrexham should get between £1-2m there, assuming that the sell-on clause was around the 20% mark which is about standard isn't it? Huge difference at that level, a million adds about 20 grand a week to the wage budget if they spunk it all.

I hope Schmeichel leaves Leicester now, in terms of the national side we could do with Danny Ward playing week-in-week-out as I can't see Hennessey keeping his spot at Palace.

On 7/16/2018 at 9:05 PM, AshC said:

I still can't get over Bischoff arguing that the nWo storyline was based on two disgruntled ex-employees of WCW returning to the company to exact revenge. To the point I think that he must be on a wind-up and fishing for a reaction. I can't ever recall that theme being played up on TV.

That's just revisionist history, it sounds good now but no way was that ever the intention.

Tessa Blanchard's signed a new long-term contract.

Good signing, fair play.

I hated the Callihan v Edwards fight in the woods, which was the last episode I saw. In fairness though, I wasn’t a fan of the ‘Broken Matt’ stuff either and am just not into these location shoots at all, they just come over as so hokey and unbelievable.

That was the last episode I watched, and will probably be the last until the World Cup’s over. Other than that I’ve been enjoying the last couple of weeks, very solid.

Great news that Eli Drake’s signed a long term extension, big fan of his.

I was in a McDonald's in Benidorm on a stag weekend at 4am last week and spotted ex-Newcastle and Bolton midfielder, Kevin Nolan, tucking in.

2 hours ago, Accident Prone said:

On the downside, it's WWE's further monopolization of the BritWres scene. Guys and gals no longer being allowed to work the likes of Rev Pro, Defy and whoever else is on the NJPW/ITV side of the fence. Making fans choose between who they are going to support. And we all know that WWE doesn't play nicely with others.

I hope my negative feelings about this are wrong and WWE's active involvement actually shines a spotlight, purposefully or indirectly, on the fantastic range of promotions on offer in the UK.

Its disappointing to see this happen now tbh. The World of Sport show is potentially the biggest development to hit British Wrestling in decades. Exposure on one of the country’s biggest TV networks, it doesn’t get any bigger than this.

The NXT promotion will be broadcast to the fanbase that’s already hardcore enough to fork out a tenner a month for a dedicated wrestling streaming service.

I do worry that pretty much every development in wrestling these days is aimed towards pleasing its existing audience (that’s pretty much dwindled to its mid 90’s hardcore) and not to be accessible to a more casual fanbase. That goes for the workrate over storyline style that pretty much every promotion is adopting, to business moves like this.

Under Pressure is worth a watch, just caught up on the Channel 5 app now.

Anyone else think that Josh Matthews is x10 more bearable when sitting alongside Don Callis?

Interesting that Ishimori is wrestling at Slammiversary, definately some New Japan collaboration going on here.

Nice to see they sold out two nights (paid) at Windsor over the weekend with floor seats for Slammiversary already gone too. Things are on an upward curve.

On 5/15/2018 at 10:59 AM, Silky Kisser said:

I've only watched 2 episodes so far (38 and 39) and it's the complete polar opposite of today's Raw. The matches are largely crap (Although there was a sweet Booker T/Scott Steiner match on 39) and everything in between seems to be random, erratic and full of chaos. The type of stuff that would give Vince a heart attack just thinking about. However, it's just such a fun watch and I'm really enjoying it. 

I think you've pretty much encapsulated why I find wrestling, on the whole, to be so dreary and depressing these days. Not to mention ridiculously over produced...

A large part of the fanbase seems to want it to be a sporting event, whereas what I want in my wrestling is the polar opposite. Bloody vanilla midgets!

I thought it was Eli Drake

9 hours ago, Accident Prone said:

As much fun as Steiner is, I'm finding it hard to impressed by him considering what 50 year old Pierre Carl Oullett did over Wrestle Mania weekend. Scotty needs to up his ante.

In fairness, Steiner hasn’t really stopped working since he debuted in the late 80’s, plus he’s had a number of serious injuries.

I can't stop smiling when watching Scott Steiner these days. He's just a joy in every way!

As someone who thinks the industry in general is a little too workrate heavy these days. he certainly breaks up the monotiny.

I haven't watched much New Japan at all, but Don Callis was a welcome addition to the commentary team. I wonder if he'll be a permanent fixture now or just wheeled out for PPV's? The show in general was very enjoyable, nicely paced too.

They've already announced that Slammiversary is taking place in Toronto at a 3,000+ seater arena.

Its funny really that the moment they start a small resurgence in terms of US TV ratings and planning a first UK show in years, this happens.

I have more interest in watching this than Wrestlemania!

Really? If parents are anything like most were in my day, they wouldn't have a clue who Roman Reigns etc even are. 

The ones that I find to be pretty scandalous are cases such as the Dudley Boys, where they used the names before even coming to the WWE (i.e the company didn't even come up with it), yet they were still stopped from using it in TNA.

Prichard usually sticks to the WWF narrative on most topics anyway, I can’t see it being a major hurdle.

I’ve only seen the Steiner and Teddy Hart v OVE tag match, but it was good for a laugh.

I think they need to cut their ties with Alberto now. I get that he has name value but all the buzz surrounding Impact is for Brian Cage and Sami Callihan/Eddie Edwards right now, is he worth the hassle?

At this rate, it looks like this will be the first Wrestlemania I’m not going to bother with since being able to regularly access Satellite TV in 1993. 

In fairness, the card doesn’t look too bad on paper at all, its just that I have absoloutely no interest in the current roster whatsoever.

Is anyone else feeling the same?

(Disclaimer: My ramblings could turn out to be complete bollocks and I end up watching it sometime next week.)

I will apologise for my 'hanger' earlier, promise not to go on forums before lunchtime from now on

What I will say for Impact is they seem to have good hands, wrestling people, running the show now.

Its been a decent to good two hours of TV since the turn of the year, with little drama behind the scenes, which is more than I could have wished for 2 years ago when they didn't have a pot to piss in and Billy Corgan was bailing them out.

Fair enough, sorry, bit OTT on my part. But there's no need to go around saying "Fucking hell, they're idiots" when that's not the case.

There's plenty of stuff they've been rightfully chastised for over the years, but a bit unfair when its a calculated decision.