garynysmon

Saw a lot of chatter online so assumed it was starting soon. Bloody hell, this pre show is as long as those early In Your House PPV’s!

1 hour ago, SaitoRyo said:

Tears.

Vince McMahon is a cunt and all that, but can you imagine him ever trying to placate any of his biggest stars over the years by essentially giving them their own standalone show and roster to pick from?

Its fucking mental and how anyone expects this to end well is beyond me.

7 hours ago, Slapnut said:

 

The greatest night in the history of our car park.

I actually have a story about Mr Schiavone and am surprised I didn't bring this up myself.

When I was about 9 years old we were told that a Mr Tony Schiavone was coming to our primary school to talk about something (I can't even remember the reason why).

But gullible young me actually expected the WCW Mr Schiavone to pop up at a random entirely Welsh speaking school of about 50 pupils in the mid 1990's.

Well, let's say that who turned up wasn't Lois Schiavone's husband anyway.

Mind you, the way the Welsh Schiavone pronounces his surname with a hard c rather than the sshh sounds much more Italian/authentic and makes me wonder who is right!

19 hours ago, IronSheik said:

Yup.

I can imagine one of those Benoit apologists saying something like this.

They’re fucking everywhere these days.

I’m seeing way too much “Bret Hart is overrated” bollocks these days too, if we’re expanding this to “shit modern day takes”.

And below is essentially the correct answer to this entire thread….

Did anyone, on a Tuesday morning in 1999 when Raw was doing monster numbers, remark once about how many stars the 3 minute Billy Gunn v Goldust match was worth?

On 8/1/2023 at 11:47 AM, BomberPat said:

You could nitpick and pull apart Hogan's technical ability, but that's never been what draws money.

It drives me fucking bonkers tbh and is a 'take' you hear more and more from newer fans or workrate perves.

Coventry would have been the only feasible one for me (albeit still 3 hours away), but I have a wedding that day anyway so its a moot point.

The venues seem to be quite modest so I hope this is a dipping their feet into the water kind of thing and they’ll be back next year.

7 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

I guess it has been said many times before but it does show their ceiling if they can put on something like this with that much talent AND Ibushi's first appearance and the gimmick and that's the rating they pull in.

But given that wrestling is a niche pasttime, surely someone like Ibushi is a niche wrestler even within that narrow genre?

The general public doesn't give a flying fuck about the 'good wrestling' and five star matches, which is the style so favoured by the hardcore fanbase that makes up a bigger percentage than ever of the watching audience.

Stone Cold whacking McMahon over the head with a bedpan has been seen by more people than every Kenny Omega match put together.

Hey, its great from a financial standpoint, the sad acts watching wrestling will spend more of their disposable income on wrestling than ever before.

But let's not pretend that signing New Japan lads is what you need to be doing to capture that mythical lapsed fanbase out there. It appeals to those that are already watching the million hours of AEW and ROH every week anyway.

1 hour ago, jazzygeofferz said:

It always feels like the people in Impact are doing what they want to do, as opposed to what they're being told to do by creative, or at the very least they get a lot more input in their stuff than it seems they'd have elsewhere. 

Well I suppose when you can’t pay them anywhere near what the market leaders can, creative freedom is another tool to try and keep them around. 

There are plenty of examples of Impact being used to sharpen an act before moving on/back to the bigger leagues.

@Hannibal Scorch Whoever’s decision it is its fucked things up for a lot of other promotions by launching a Saturday night show on free tv. Good for AEW but shite for anyone else hoping for successful Sat night PPV’s.

This was one of the 4 actual PPVs rather than monthy shows, so Fite/Dazn or whatever dodgy means that exist.

18 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

I’m amazed that no bigger company has attempted to poach Scott D’Amore for his booking talent. He’s done such a great job. This is a company that deserves to be more visible.

He's done a tremendous job and doubt he'll ever have trouble finding employment. But if he went anywhere else now it would be a dramatic drop down the pecking order in terms of duties.

This isn't a Jeremy Borash level hiring.

He's an EVP within Anthem Sports and booking a nationally and internationally televised company. Clearly there are bigger companies out there but he would be answering to either VKM/HHH or Tony Khan in the event of any move. He's in a pretty good position really. 

I imagine he'll be at Impact for as long as he wants to be. He was clearly the most important hire of the D'amore/Callis duo.

18 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

That’s one thing I really like about Impact, it’s consistently enjoyable and consistently fun. Even when there’s no ‘great match’, it’s hard not to have fun while watching their shows. The fact they achieve that with the roster that they have is pretty miraculous.

I can't profess to being a huge fan of everyone on the roster, but its probably stronger overall than a company of Impact's size/reach has any right to have.

The turnover rate is remarkably small when you consider there are two much better paying companies in the United States alone, and wrestlers you'd have expected to leave are signing new deals more often than not. You also have the likes of Kaz and Eric Young who willingly walked away from deals elsewhere.

You hear enough wrestlers raving about the locker room and the backstage atmosphere to know that it must have something to it, and is probably a better overall package than the sum of its parts.

Personally I've never been arsed about the likes of Dreamer or Sami Callihan but when you hear of others saying what integral parts they are backstage, I just accept it as it is and figure their presence is probably for the greater good and helping people I actually do enjoy to stick around.

I wouldn't say it a poor or even average roster though tbh.

I always find that women’s wrestling works best when you don’t make a song and dance out of it and just present it as an integral part of the show as you would any other feud.

Whereas WWE were often guilty of making a big fuss of their ‘women’s revolution’ and “look at us, we’re main eventing women”, its best to just do it quietly and without fuss and it will be accepted by the audience.

There have been multiple occasions when women have main evented Impact PPV’s because they were legitimately the best or most built feuds on the card.

There was an argument that Deonna Purazzo v Trinity could have closed Slammiversary on Saturday, and if they had no one would have complained.

Its not a token gesture any more. Deonna Purazzo can legit go as well as any man on the roster.

The general quality of women’s wrestling is such now that if people aren’t watching women’s matches in the same numbers as men’s, then its down to how they’re being presented rather than the audience being against it.

22 hours ago, Vegeta said:

I really enjoyed slamiversary thought it was a great show all round. Even found myself watching the pre show.

I'm loving Joe hendrys work at present he's become quite the highlight each week.

I feel it was lacking maybe one other ‘great match’, with PPV’s being the only time I’m even remotely bothered about match quality.

But as per, a perfectly enjoyable watch and with so many title changes it seems like a bit of a reboot for the company.

It felt like a TNA show from days of yore due to the crowd being lit up, which makes a massive difference and Windsor is becoming a dependable and great little base for the company.

Great to see Eric Young back home.

I was genuinely expecting Aldis to capture the gold so not too sure he’ll be sticking around now.

Edit - It seems that Aldis’ short run is over.

He filled a gap in the main event scene until Josh Alexander was back, was mutually beneficial and he did business the right way. How could anyone complain?

I’m pretty sure that Slammiversary was the biggest attended post-Anthem show they’ve had.

Enjoyable show I thought, which would have had more of an impact were it not almost impossible to get any night to yourself these days. (Fuck you Tony Khan, these Battle of the Belts are clashing too often now for it to be a coincidence).

Really shocked at some of the outcomes though, my predictions were well and truly off for most of the title defences.

That confirms Chris Benoit for Slammiversary then…

1 minute ago, simonworden said:

They're more of a top level indy now than a distant no2 mainstream promotion. 

Well I suppose what makes an ‘indy’ and what makes a proper ‘fed’ is up for debate.

But given it has domestic and international TV deals and contracted talent, I’d still class it as a distant US no.3 rather than a traditional indy which uses talent on a more ad-hoc basis.

Yes Impact uses a lot of free agents for a few taping blocks at a time, and outside talent from New Japan on the regular, but so does AEW so the lines are much more blurred than was once the case.

In fact, even WCW did a fair bit of that.

46 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Although it speaks volumes of Impact's reach today if a "good hand" type like Alex has the big belt.

I’d be shocked if its not a “thanks for your years of service” little transitional run, rather than strapping a rocket to his back tbh.

I tend to agree that Alex Shelley doesn't really scream ‘star power’ and a headliner for what’s become usually their best and  biggest show of the year.

17 hours ago, David said:

Quick question for anyone who can be arsed answering. Is the Emergence event usually worth watching? I'm thinking of going along next month.

Its a monthly special rather than PPV, so its a B rather than A level show. But the Rebel is a lovely looking venue and they’re usually fun enough to justify going.

I’d go to that rather than the following night’s TV tapings, given the choice.

The Slammiversary card for Saturday. Again, a crying shame that it will be drowned out by Collision and Battle of the Belts, as its usually a cracking PPV.

• Pre-show: Joe Hendry(c) vs Kenny King – IMPACT Digital Media Championship
• Scott D’Amore & PCO vs Bully Ray & TBA
• The Covan(Taylor Wilde & Kilynn King)(c) vs Masha Slamovich & Killer Kelly – IMPACT Knockouts Tag Team Championship
• Frankie Kazarian vs Eddie Edwards
• Mike Bailey vs Kushida vs Jonathan Gresham vs Angels vs Kushida – Ultimate-X match
• ABC(Ace Austin & Chris Bey)(c) vs Sub Culture(Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster) vs Moose & Brian Myers vs Rich Swann & Sami Callihan – 4-way match for IMPACT Tag Team Championship
• Chris Sabin(c) vs Lio Rush – IMPACT X-Division Championship
• Deonna Purrazzo(c) vs Trinity – Impact Knockouts World Championship
• Main Event: Alex Shelley(c) vs Nick Aldis – IMPACT World Championship

Not old exactly, but Rey Mysterio Jr is 48 and Sheamus is only three years younger at 45. I mean, how the fuck?!

Rey Rey feels like he's been around for almost as long as I've been watching wrestling, and Sheamus is still someone I'd consider as having come on the scene post 2010 and well into my lapsed fandom.

One last run at Vicarage Road brother.

42 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Glad to see Dango doing well there, a stupidly entertaining lad and him in Fashion Peaks is honestly one of my top things in modern wrestling.

Until a month ago I’d have disagreed wholeheartedly with that, but loving his new gimmick.

A photo from this weekend's tapings from Center Stage, Atlanta, which is becoming a good little touring stop for them.

I always find it bonkers that Impact, with a much smaller budget and footprint nowadays, is attracting paid crowds of roughly the same size as the free entry Impact Zone when it had some of wrestling's biggest stars of the day. 

Moose has been treading water for a bit, which is understandable given his contract status was up in the air and they weren't going to get behind someone who was potentially fucking off. So the news that he's now sticking around for the foreseeable is fantastic.

I was a bit surprised as to the manner that Maclin lost the title, but at least he's tied up in a high-ish feud on the Slammiversary card so can't be in the dog house.

They're clearly going for a Nick Aldis title win over a babyface at Slammiversary, which will probably lead to a big match with Josh Alexander when he's healed up.
 

I was never too high or too down on Aldis, and not necessarily a fan of his Bockwinkel knock off gimmick, but he does have a presence at least.

I tend to cruise through wrestling shows and would be useless at analysing them segment by segment, but thought that this week’s was a particularly easy watch.

14 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

The theme song will be Elton John - Saturdays Nights Alright.

Ok then.

I always thought the WWF missed a trick by not using it for Saturday Night's Main Event.

I realise that its now 2023 and not 1987 but I still feel it could work great.

I haven't watched the show properly yet, but I couldn't be happier for Alex Shelley.

Its almost certainly a short transitional run but fantastic stuff!