Statto

On 5/20/2023 at 9:09 AM, Supremo said:

Yes Boy! Instant favourites. No idea why I was never too fussed when they were in NXT.

It's funny, when they were in NXT UK (a show I kept watching WAY longer than most) I thought they were amongst the least remarkable acts even there, and I was surprised when they got a go in proper NXT.

I gave up being a regular NXT watcher around the time they showed up there so didn't see too much of them in Florida, but what I did see made me think "actually, these guys aren't so bad".

Then they show up on Smackdown and they're fucking great. Trying to figure out if it's my perception that's changed or if they have got that much better.

1 hour ago, theringmaster said:

They really should create a 'Collision' Championship to give the show some importance rather than 'the naughty kids' brand. 

I honestly think you could position the International Championship as the top male title on one of the two shows.

Obviously the name works as an equal to the World Title, but it's become genuinely prestigious under the reign of Cassidy, IMO.

"What?"

"Hit it."

12 minutes ago, Frankie Crisp said:

Just for our Fatty.

 

Obviously it'd be against the rules for me to post it as a Norwich fan, but the volley against Leeds 2 months before this one was even nicer, IMO.

I think my highlight of the night was the two blokes casually continuing to work without a hint of a reaction as one of the biggest stars in the music industry right now was thrown off a platform through 2 tables about a foot in front of them.

10 hours ago, jazzygeofferz said:

I remember a weird time between the WCW buyout and the F getting out when my Sky Planner and channel guide had all their programmingiates as WWFE. They were called World Wrestling Federation Entertainment for a little bit weren't they? 

World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc was the "proper" name of the company from '99 onwards, the name being changed from Titan Sports Inc a little before the IPO on the stock exchange, presumably for recognition purposes there.

I definitely recall a few weeks of crossover on the EPG, yeah. Although I don't think they ever said/displayed WWFE on the programming itself.

48 minutes ago, gmoney said:

I've never met a fan of him. 

*Raises hand*

I realise I'm probably extra biased as he's a Norfolk lad & I saw him on a ton of ridiculously tiny shows over the years (including ending up sitting next to his very lovely but rather bemused parents on one occasion) but I do have a soft spot for Kip. I've been quite enjoying his "Batman villain plus henchmen plus associated crazy women" stable with Butcher & Blade, to the point it's turned me round on those two. Previously they'd been chopping block material for me.

On the subject of getting people spots on the card, I've been kind of hoping they'd use this as an opportunity to do a proper, well-booked Royal Rumble rip-off (y'know, London, England, royal...). Done well, could be a great way to get a bunch of people into a featured spot, as opposed to a messy afterthought Casino Battle Royal (which I suspect is what we'll actually get. Ogogo as the joker).

@Matthew really needs to show up with a "I bussed 230 miles to see [INSERT MAIN EVENT] despite living round the corner" sign.

33 minutes ago, Daaaaaad! said:

I was offered five seats behind the entrance at a total of £140... should I be worried? It brings the price per seat to lower than what I thought the cheapest seats were and I'm concerned that there's going to be something wrong with it now.

It should tell you if there is - I got section 102 which is adjacent to the block where the entranceway is going to be, was quite clear before & after purchase that it was "clear view of the ring, restricted view of the entranceway".

You don't have to sign up at all if you're not bothered about getting an "official" time - just turn up and run!

But yeah, quick sign up on the website, get a barcode and you're sorted. There'll always be a first timers briefing if you make sure you're there 10 mins before off time.

That Hardys/Firm skit was indeed utterly dreadful, but it did have one nugget of gold buried in the pile of shite - Stokely threatening to turn all the lights on at the Hardy Compound and run their electricity bill up.

On 4/26/2023 at 10:36 AM, JLM said:

As long as they find another outlet for Daddy Magic colour commentary I can live with this. 

Question for the Elevation watchers amongst you - I found out yesterday, via a meme, that Paul Wight seems to have been doing play-by-play of late. Is he any good/showing any potential for it?

The meme suggested that he and Daddy Magic just fuck about & have a laugh (which which Excalibur & Taz seem to do on the c-shows too) but I'm intrigued* to know if there's any potential that Wight might graduate to one of the main shows one day. It feels like he'd have the voice for it & there's nostalgic echoes of Gorilla Monsoon with the big nasty giant wrestler ending up as the PBP man.

*Not intrigued enough to watch a bunch of Elevation to find out for myself, clearly.

37 minutes ago, FUM said:

Why is Von Wagner classed as a free agent?

You can make a bit of logic for that - the draft pools for each night included "select NXT superstars" (as opposed to Raw/Smackdown being able to pick freely from NXT). Presumably Wagner was the only one of those made available for draft who didn't get picked and thus becomes an undrafted free agent, for now.

Where it potentially falls down is what happens next - if he signs with either main roster brand as a UDFA, why didn't someone just draft him given there seems to be no limit on the number of picks?

I suspect with Wagner they'll probably do something with him going back to NXT embarrassed and/or humbled (particularly as he's coming off the angle of being ditched by his manager after a losing streak), but will the others end up there too? I could see Dolph & Ali maybe heading to NXT as "good hands" for a bit (and going to guess wherever they end up they'll continue the gimmick of Ali pissing off Ziggler with his positivity, now about going undrafted), but will Omos drop down too? Can't see it, but maybe.

I realise none of this shit matters or ever really makes sense, but how on earth (in kayfabe) has Omos, the bloke presented as a major threat to Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania last month & set to face top star Seth Rollins at the ppv next week, gone undrafted?

Having Shawn Michaels act pissed off at the NXT call-ups was kind of odd. It's very much back to being presented as a developmental brand again, surely the person in charge of developmental should be chuffed when their proteges make the big leagues?

Plus, it's two more titles he can vacate and fill with multi-person ladder matches, so it ought to be his dream scenario.

Immense.

I may be in the minority, but I've actually really enjoyed the Roman model over the last year.

The championship feels WAY more important to me when it's seen occasionally and defended bi-monthly, then having it defended on TV 3 times a month against various randomers.

Less is more. And that includes number of championships.

"Arena Mexico, a place where wrestling matches have been taking place continuously since 1956."

That's a hell of a long show.

I guess none of us will ever know for sure exactly what WWE would have done with Jay White in his first month on the roster.

But surely it'd have been better than knocking about with Juice fucking Robinson and going up against Shawn fucking Spears.

This man has become my hero over the last few years:

https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/23465503.norwich-story-orlandos-earlham-road-restaurant-battle/

20 minutes ago, WeeAl said:

This the current woman that did all/most of Wrestlemania? If so, she's one of the worst, if not the worst, I've ever heard. I had to start muting her after a while. 

Yep, that's her. Social media fucking loves her for some reason.

Echo the love for the show opening with them cutting into a recap vignette to an ongoing brawl. Precisely the kind of stuff wrestling needs more of to feel less contrived.

I believe I'm in the minority from what I see on social media, but I think she's a bloody awful ring announcer.

The odd accents(?) she does when introducing Kaiser & Vinci (as seen there) properly piss me off.

It's not as prominent as it was, but they still have the "enhanced reality" graphic of the hooded druids in their entrance, the same devil wings on the tron as Edge did, the Alter Bridge music etc. And I don't think their colours being the colours most closely associated with The Undertaker (the godfather of WWE spooky) is any coincidence. I'd have ditched all that completely as soon as the Ex Con gimmick caught on.

On another note, I noticed that that wrestling Twitter seems to hate Solo, which only convinces me further how brilliant he is.