ClassicsGuy

Triple H Conference Call from 26th January.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as3rQLWnJSg

22:59 in. Details how WWE are being picky over which UK promotions that they're allowing certain contracted UK talent to work.

What he doesn't mention is the additional restrictions also being placed, which are that guys aren't allows to work shows that are being taped for DVDs/streaming. Although again, it's assessed by WWE on a case-by-case, individual-by-individual basis.

Ironically at the 26:40 mark he talks about how he wants companies to use Pete Dunne, using Dunne as his example.

It's also worth noting that apparently all the WWE UK guys are signed on the same deals, and T-Bone is still advertised for the PCW shows, so more than likely, Pete Dunne pulled himself out because of the insensitive comments, as he has stated

Not every person in the WWE UK tournament has signed the same deal. 

Dunne, Wolfgang, Bate and Seven have all been on NXT tv since. T-Bone hasn't, nor have many others in the tournament.

I would imagine Fight Club Pro have a better idea than anyone on here whether Dunne is allowed to appear or not, being as it's Co owned by Trent Seven who has the same contract.. Dunne wasn't pulled from this months FCP show which also had Trent, Tyler and Dan Moloney on the card...

 

Fair point. The match against Omega & the Bucks seems like something WWE would ordinarily try to prevent, but as you say with Seven's ownership interest, maybe they'll turn a blind eye.

Lionheart has been suspended from ICW following the situation with Joe Hendry. Lionheart addressed it all on his Twitter.

https://twitter.com/LionheartUK/status/833694864873287680

https://twitter.com/LionheartUK/status/834082172873109504

Lionheart noted Joe Hendry would no longer be appearing on the Pro Wrestling Elite show on March 18th.

https://twitter.com/ProWrestleElite/status/834372891672248320

It's an interesting alternative take on the situation Classics, guess my counter question would be, and bear in mind I've no idea whether PCW tape all of their shows for DVD, or would all of the shows with talent the calibre of Dunne booked...

 

But I question why Dunne would potentially affect future bookings and harm his relationship and with one of the countries most active promotions when there were a hundred other ways to withdraw from the show?  As has been pointed out, he'd already acknowledged the situation once where he pledged to donate his fee, so if he was 'always pulling out' why not then? 

 

I'm not saying your wrong by any means, but I question the logic of the approach that was taken if you are in the right ball park.

 

 

Why he didn't pull out when he originally tweeted that he'd fulfill his booking and give a donation is the million dollar question. Maybe he didn't want it to seem an overreaction. Maybe he genuinely didn't know that PCW tapes every show for DVD release and have done for years, although again, how could he not know that? PCW are far from the biggest UK promotion, but they're one of the more high profile ones. Dunne has very rarely wrestled for PCW - just twice before in the promotions 6 year history - once in January 2015 ironically on the charity fundraiser show for Travis that Dunne worked for free, and then again 4 months later vs Sabu in May 2015. It's not like he's a PCW regular or has a big recurring booking relationship with Fludder. Maybe he doesn't like Fludder and wanted to stick it to him by pulling out 5 days before the show? Only Dunne can answer this. He's claiming 'insensitive comments' though, which is a true - if convenient - get out. Whether meant or not, it's a way of pulling out of the booking and coming up smelling of roses, and putting all the heat on Fludder and not on himself or WWE.  

For those keeping track and who can see the bigger picture, Dunne has pulled out of 3 major UK/European promotions shows that he was booked on, at the last minute, in the last month.

WxW, IPW-UK and PCW.

He knew a month ago, after pulling out of the WxW and IPW-UK shows due to the terms of his WWE contract prohibiting him from wrestling on shows being taped for DVD and/or streaming, that he wasn't going to be able to wrestle on the PCW shows. Because it was EXACTLY the same type of situation. He had to have known, unless he's an idiot. And to be as successful as he's been thus far, he's not an idiot.

Regardless of Fludder's comments, which at this point are at best a massive coincidence that gave Dunne the excuse to pull out and babyface himself in the process, and at worst, provided him with the 'out' he needed. Dunne claiming that WWE didn't pull him from PCW is just using semantics as a get out clause. They didn't 'pull' him; Dunne himself signed a contract with WWE in January that doesn't allow him to wrestle on the shows. Blaming 'insensitive comments' sounds a lot better than 'I finally understand the small print in my WWE contract now'. Especially after HHH publicly talked about the whole WWE UK guys contracts in his conference call last month.

PCW are culpable too. They knew Dunne wasn't going to be able to wrestle on these shows, from late January onwards, as soon as the terms of Dunne's WWE contract came out publicly and Dunne had pulled out of WxW and IPW-UK. They were warned by multiple people. And their continuing silence on the matter since Dunne pulled out earlier this week is out of order, as it's basically become false advertising at this point. Almost a carbon copy of the Matt Riddle/PCW/PWG situation last year.

I understand this is all an inconvenient truth to some and that loads hate Fludder and want to jump on the hate bandwagon, but lets not make Dunne a saint in all of this. He could have handled this much better. Both sides are at fault and it's the fans who are being screwed. Dunne's comments about 'Well I'm still wrestling Pentagon Jr the night before in Portsmouth if fans want to see that match' are laughable. Yeah Pete, it's really feasible for the fans who paid money to see you wrestle at the PRESTON shows to do the 10 hour, 546 mile round trip the night before to PORTSMOUTH, on a weeknight, at short notice.     

The list of promotions that WWE allows Dunne to wrestle for in the U.K. is seemingly arbitrary, almost a 'favoured nations' type deal. Dunne is advertised for the Fight Club Pro shows over Easter weekend but I wouldn't be shocked at all if he gets pulled from there too. Maybe WWE won't want him wrestling against 3 top New Japan guys, who knows. 

After watching Thursdays impact definitely think we are going to see an end to the full on Matt and Jeff stuff it was treated more like a joke than the focal point of the program previously

 

Think the new booking team have a more old school mentality when it comes to wrestling storylines so therefore I think the style will be toned down and eventually dropped

Well, if that's the case, the gimmick did its' job.

It kept Jeff relevant and gave Matt a second lease of life. It made both relevant again and in demand.

They'll be in WWE shortly, I have no doubts about that. Especially if they're not going to be the main focus of TNA now. They basically kept that show alive in 2016, they were literally the only interesting or relevant thing on it.

Both deals are up at the end of February. Matt turns 43 and Jeff turns 40 this year. Last chance to earn some big money for their kids, especially for Matt.

Jeremy Botter no longer with Flo Sports.

https://twitter.com/jeremybotter/status/809584889318219777

So, when's the Hardy special (Non-Stop Deletion?)?  Next Tuesday?

January 1st. Probably won't be Total Nonstop Deletion as they'd just call it that if it was that.

It will probably just be a collection of their matches in TNA.

The crowd that ICW drew Sunday night was a bigger crowd than TNA has drawn for its last 14 UK & Ireland events.

You have to go back to January 28, 2012 for a TNA UK/Ireland show that drew a bigger crowd (7000 at Wembley Arena). 

how long do the pcw shows typically last? I'm going to the one in preston on Saturday the first bell says 6pm. just wondered what time it finishes

For that one, it will probably end around 9pm-9:15pm.

It's the 3rd show of the weekend, there's shows on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, so the 3rd show will likely end on time.

Shows typically last around 3 hours-ish.

Shit!!

What was match like?? The main event last night with young bucks was awesome

No idea mate, not at tonight's show. Just read it and ROH tweeted about it:

http://www.f4wonline.com/ring-honor/marty-scurll-defeats-will-ospreay-win-roh-tv-title-224996

https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/status/800458299514597376

Marty Scurll just beat Will Ospreay for the ROH TV title in London.

Will be interesting to see if WWE allow Balor to appear on the live iPPV broadcast.

They've had Regal appear at EVOLVE shows in a non-wrestling capacity before the crowds in the past, but don't usually allow contracted WWE talent to appear on other companies' live iPPV broadcasts.

Both PCW & Southside got screwed over, hence the near identical statements. Southside had EC3 booked for Sat Apr 2nd in Stevenage, and PCW had him booked for Sun April 3rd. It was a joint deal to bring him over for these 2 weekend dates.

Southside are likely fuming more than PCW, as it's the 2nd time in 5 months that they've booked and advertised EC3 for a show, only for him to be pulled by TNA at short notice. He was originally booked for a Southside show in October last year, and was pulled for near identical reasons - TNA claimed they needed him to promote their tour of China (which ended up not happening anyway). 

Progress just made their big New Year's Day announcement - Chapter 36 on September 25th will be at the 2,000 capacity Brixton Academy!

I reckon that will easily sellout. I'm actually surprised they haven't decided to run somewhere bigger than that.

I think selling out a 5000 capacity building would be within their capabilities, with the correct amount of promotion, build up and time. 

What really impressed me post production-wise for Fear & Lothian 3 was the opening segment where Red Lightning had Dallas kicked out of the building, and they had a splitscreen of Dallas getting battered and dumped outside the building by Jack Jester that seriously would not have looked out of place on WWE tv. Really nice, professional, major league looking on-screen graphics.

If The Hooligans don't end the reign (which has to be approaching 1000 days) it's hard to imagine who will. They've run out of competition almost. How many challengers they've had in total? That's gonna be quite the list to go through.

The Hooligans should have ended the reign months ago, during their TLC match with Team Single.

PCW does a lot of things right, but I can't understand why they continue to keep the titles on Team Single. It's played out, and was played out months ago.

That's PCW's biggest fault - they stay with a pat hand for too long, and don't change things up in quick enough fashion.  

I blame Red Lightning!

Just watched Fear & Lothian 3 from last Sunday, just uploaded to ICW on Demand this evening. Such a great service, to be able to see a show, really well post-produced, from just 5 days ago.

Really enjoyed the show. ICW's production is excellent. They're easily the most tv-ready of all the UK promotions currently.

I think I enjoyed that 2 hour 20 minute show more than any WWE show in a long time.

The monthly subscription cost for ICW on Demand is rising, from $5.99 to $6.99, ICW sent an email to subscribers earlier today regarding this.

Increase is with immediate effect for new subscribers, but existing subscribers will continue to pay $5.99 a month until May 1st next year.

Does anyone know when last weekend's show headlined by Grado vs Lionheart is likely to be uploaded?  

 

ICW are doing fine without. Better than fine. They had nearly 5,000 at a bona fide arena, and are now going to more than double that.

Not wanting to be negative, but they've not done that yet. If they pull 13,000, I'll be as happy as anyone. But it's a big if. I can't see it, but still think they'll get a very respectable number.

 

If they can get 10000, I'd imagine they'll be doing cartwheels. A British promotion drawing a 5 figure attendance would be a hugely significant milestone.

 

 

Other than TNA Xplosion airing on a Saturday morning, I'm struggling to think of when TNA aired as a daytime repeat.

 

I agree the ICW content is adult and could only be screened after the watershed but that's not really a decent reason for Challenge not to give it a shot.

 

A 10pm or 11pm one hour weekly show would be perfect.

I don't know how many subscriptions ICW get but the TV money may be less as by looking at shows Challenge show, apart from TNA they show repeats that must cost bugger all. Then again ICW may get more followers allowing them to do Ippvs and other on demand shows, more tours and in bigger venues. A TV show could possibly allow bigger shows around the country with TV tapings mainly in Glasgow. If they wanted to do a big standing event with some tiered seating the York Hall (providing they allow standing) would be great for that.

However I stand by ICW being limited to what channel they can go to, really only late night challenge or possibly Channel 5.

 

I think a big worry for me would be that with being on TV is that channels may want shift of some wrestlers and want more english accents. I know some people who struggle with Scottish accents. This could kill some of the stronger characters in the promotion. Also channels may want to get rid of people based on look. Some guys in ICW are not that big or particuarly ripped and they could go. People like Drew Galloway may not be allowed on due to being a tv taping so TNA could stop it.

With all due respect, they're already running shows all around the country. They just completed their 2nd nationwide tour a few weeks ago, taking in Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Birmingham, Southampton etc, running O2 Academy's.

 

 

Other than TNA Xplosion airing on a Saturday morning, I'm struggling to think of when TNA aired as a daytime repeat.

 

I agree the ICW content is adult and could only be screened after the watershed but that's not really a decent reason for Challenge not to give it a shot.

 

A 10pm or 11pm one hour weekly show would be perfect.

With TNA they buy a pre-produced weekly tape. ICW they would have to likely completely fund expensive production. Pretty simple mathematical reasons.

As someone who has only just subbed to ICW on Demand (mainly to watch Fear & Loathing 8 this evening) I have been very impressed with the production values of several of the shows in their archives, and also personality pieces and a documentary on the history of ICW.

They're far more advanced and of good quality than you're giving them credit for. Some of it is easily on a par with TNA, and as others have stated, Challenge shows WrestleTalk TV featuring matches from other British promotions, most of which are below ICW's production quality. I certainly don't think it's anything to do with 'simple mathematics'; I would imagine ICW isn't looking for the earth, obviously some revenue (perhaps ratings-incentive based) but mainly for the platform provided.

Other than TNA Xplosion airing on a Saturday morning, I'm struggling to think of when TNA aired as a daytime repeat.

I agree the ICW content is adult and could only be screened after the watershed but that's not really a decent reason for Challenge not to give it a shot.

A 10pm or 11pm one hour weekly show would be perfect.