simonworden

Has the US title been abandoned or am I just being blind, don't remember seeing it at Mania or on Raw the next night?

Had my first day casual teaching last Friday, and I got to live out my lifelong dream of incorporating wrestling catchphrases into classroom instruction. I was about to take them out to sport, and casually asked, "Are you ready?" Very little reaction. I couldn't help it then. "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, I said are...you...ready?" Big pop, never seen kids get more hyped for a game of football.

 

Luckily, the kids thought I was awesome, and in addition to telling me I was the best teacher they'd had, said I'd also make a great announcer/commentator. Don't think I could have lived it down if they thought I was a total dickhead.

 

Dude, I used to be a DT teacher in secondary school and after I'd told a year 11 class the difference between thermoplastics and thermosetting plastics one kid quite innocently said "Really?" and without thinking I replied "Oh It's true, It's damn true" I got ripped for liking wrestling. "Arr Sir but that's fake/gay!!"

 

Maybe subconsciously, this might be the reason I now teach primary school. haha I do sneak in wrestling catchphrases too. Just recently, I've had multiple choice questions on the board and asked a kid to come up and pick the correct answer. I asked the class "is he/she right?" and I have them point up and say "YES" or cross their arms in and out and say "NO"

I work in a school in Vietnam and the kids occasionally do the yes yes yes or no no no which gets the opposite back from me. I also had to teach sports vocab to some teens the other day and did a "guess what sport they play" warm up exercise. Had to finish with a fantastic posed picture of Warrior. they had no idea who he is though

Got great pleasure a few months ago at a school I work in which was having a cultural fair and they had on the USA stall a cena and punk cap. Got the kid who brought them shit scared when I questioned him on what they were about who was who. What they did etc only to turn around and say actually I know ive seen them both live and shaken hands with punk before he was in WWE. Most impressed anyone has ever been by the Wrestlers ive me

I almost want to agree that Vince wouldn't buy the TNA library, but that said he did buy the XWF stuff, I think really just for that one Hogan match on the pilot for the hogan boxed set. Also with the network eventually needing more modernised programming to show (although way off right now) the TNA library could be quite handy

900 is bad, just started watching lockdown and it doesnt look so terrible on TV as i thought, after seeing so many photos of recent PPVS (last few yers) with 1500 people at them Its easier to pick up but they are still good with disguising it.

I think the Willow character surely has to be some extension of Hardy in the story lines, perhaps in a Faces of Foley kind of way or a known alter ego of Hardy that he can pull out when he has no other choice. Unless they go down the route hardy has completely lost it and now thinks he is Willow.

If 900 Tickets are all they can sell for Lockdown then TNA need to really regroup and stop touching any arenas at all. They need to make the product look as stunning as possible on TV like they did with the original impact zone to various levels of success and be prepared to try and flog it as a nice little TV show to other networks if they lose spike. Basically work out what a B level network would pay for the show and work out a way to break even minimum otherwise they are dead. House shows in arenas and alike really need to go as well. For one its just a waste of money when a local nightclub or theatre would work fine and secondly if I went to a show in a 80% empty arena I would have a worse time than if it was full and it would put me off going back

Yeah, they have fucked up the balance for years now. They can never get the pacing right for Mania. I remember in 2012, they seemed to go to long with music acts and entrances and video packages. But last year they seemed to go over on match time. I dont know if its the 4 hours that fucked them up or what, but its been dodgy for a while now. I remember they couldn't have paced WrestleMania 19 any better. That card was wonderfully done. All the matches were in the right place.

 

They have the option for a fifth hour this year I read recently. That might be to much for me, like.

Thanks Ian for years I've been wondering why Wrestlemania has been "a little off" so to speak and why I still have a fond memory for some that others don't and it's definitely the timing when I think back to some Manias. Examples include 25 (although match ordering was probably more of a problem), 26, 28 and 29 all felt like they lacked that quality. It's things like omitting the little skits backstage the last year or two, not having so many moments where they just look at the awe of the crowed, fireworks and buildup packages that must be omitted for time which make it seem like less of a show when it is done. They did cut really quickly to the main event this year just gone and it felt damp after that. 26 as an example I felt was similar that they didnt really present it on the night as that big an event but it was a few years ago and memory might be misleading me. Funnily enough 27 I remember being pretty well timed and because of it I have some decent memories of the event.

Going off on a tangent I miss the post show wrap up videos they used to do with the music and highlights, why did they stop them?

Also with house show attendance being so low it might have been done to try and boost attendance under the "anything can happen" idea. I know WWE have used it a few times

While robes are awesome and we do need another robe wearer I don't think any of them fit wearing one unless they have a big character overhaul.

Ambrose should be the one to stay as close to his current attire as possible as he fits the dirty slimy heel look well and only minor adaptation need to be made to accommodate this. If it could translate to america without being too hick I would love to see him as one of those slimy alcoholic types you get in a wetherspoons that involves themselves with everyone and thinks they know it all, yet you wouldn't trust them with your worst enemies wallet. In a PG way of course

Reigns is the guy, I just don't know what he should do looks wise. What did he wear in FCW / NXT? I genuinely can decide what he should wear, I expect he will go down to trunks of some kind though. He does need I think to begin with a coat of some kind but the tech coat has been overdone with people like Edge, Miz, Taker among others having nice ones in the last few years.

Rollins definitely needs to play to his more colourful hair and add more colour elsewhere I think but as it depends on what gimmick they go with. I still think post shield he is the most likely to fall into obscurity

I would assume they all have a mute button so if need be they can cough, sneeze etc. Although what if they have a bad cough do they just keep muteing if they need to cough.

In regards to toilet breaks that has me fascinated as well now, Does one of them get to run off during those backstage/promo/advertising segments or anything? I guess at a taping there only out there for 3 hours maximum and if your used to your routine you can hold it. But PPVs and Mania they must have scheduled break times, I reckon they could all pop out one by one during some of the midcard matches and noboddy would notice or during the music/attendance/ hall of fame stuff

As for wrestlers and toilet habbits - adrenaline will stop the pissing problem I reckon and as for getting the shits I guess you have two choices. 1 Immodium and suck it up get through the 40 mins out there (PPV night main event) and go or get under the ring and have the "perfect poop". From experience I have had to suck it up for 2 hours before and wait till I have enough time to shit and my body is screwed to fuck so an athlete should be able to hold it

Whats this about bought shows? have these actually been bought and paid for by an outside organiser? If so then its not so bad as TNA wont lose anything if they just received a pay check and some chump couldnt sell tickets. If not then Oh dear although 1000 is a normal amount for TNA house shows they just need to stop booking arenas

That middle school actually looked lovelly, hell if I was a mid-high level indie promoter and thought I could see a decent amount of tickets I would book a place like that as it would look great full. In fact with the lights and dazzle a wwe house show or impact wouldnt look bad there

Why is there attendance so fucking poor. I genuinely dont understand how they can do so badly. They have 2 hours of TV a week, a half decent web presence as well and a roster with some knowns still on it such as Joe and Angle

If you put on an indy show full of half Joe nobodies and Angle Joe Daniels Roode and Magnus for example you would expect at least 500-1000 people in the hicksville armoury. TNA can and should be promoting the fuck out of house shows and drawing 1000 minimum I feel and at least double for TV

I get the impression you could really call ROH a more successful promotion these days in terms of attendance surely?

Im living in Vietnam at the moment just switched on a fairly high profile cable channel to find Raw being shown but its actually a blatant download of debatable quality for a TV broadcast and still has the Sky Sports 3 logo in the top right corner

I think it looks pretty obvious that Sting is going nowhere, he will lose to Magnus and then be revealed shortly as the new investor

I have no problem with the venue its nice to see something different used for TV. But they still could have forked out a little on the set. They've used basically there house show set up with no entrance way and a cheaper cage included. I get they can do the follow the wrestler out thing that they do in the UK to hide the shitness of the entrance but they can't hide that shoddy cage off to nobody or the crappy floor mats.

When was the awesome 'Badstreet USA' song and video filmed, and was it filmed for any particular angle? I assume they were in WCCW At the time.

Pretty sure it was actually part of the UWF nothing to back that up other than a vauge recollection of seeing something UWF related during a clip of the video

In Jericho's second book he talks about how much he worshipped his Dad and I got the impression it was like super-mega-hyper-number 1- ultimate-fantastic worship. He also apparently asked when it happened if he could still watch wrestling. Pretty sure that type of love for wrestling, idolisation, hearing what your dads done and genetically crazy genes means he is a little unhinged

I was just reading the wikipedia page for Raw and noted it said it has been filmed in 10 different countries. They included the tribute to the troops shows in Iraq and Afghanistan there and England, Italy, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Japan and of course the US but also said South Africa....

I cannot think of an episode from South Africa or any kind of taping. Have I forgotten something recent, was it like the Germany deal in 1997 or are they counting like footage from a house show or something i've forgotten

Just another thought but could we see in the next week the match changed to a 4 way with Del Rio and Big Show included in order to prolong a 1 on 1 between Orton and Cena?

So Orton gets the heavyweight title down, leading to a battle over the WWE belt, where Cena wins it. So each man swaps roles. They did it in TNA once. Doug Williams and Magnus had the IWGP titles, and won the TNA tag belts and the Dudley Boyz took the IWGP belt down. That TLC match seems like an excuse to rearrange the chess pieces and get the main belt on someone who people might have interest in seeing defend it in main events.

Never thought of it like that, now that seems so probable in terms of an easy way out (so they can test the waters for it being a draw) while shuffling the deck as you say....problem is wont the ending go down like a shart in church?

It is amazing that with the WWEs global reach and appeal there are 8 US states they havent held a RAW in. Granted, Hawaii and Alaska arent really runners but id have thought there'd be interest and a suitable arena for the others?

 

I'm kind of surprised about Hawaii. Ok obviously flights for crew, workers etc. aren't a problem but logistics of equipment etc. may be - but I'm still surprised. Be awesome for a summer outdoor Raw.

I've been quite a few times and the big arena in downtown Honolulu is right in the centre and well placed for hotels, beaches etc. I would've thought it would be a great place especially if you stick someone like the Usos on as they'll be seen like hometown heroes plus it has a big US military presence still with lots of servicemen's families living out there.

Think you hit the nail on the head with the costs there. Would be really high for a single one off show and even more than ever WWE runs like a business and not a wrestling company doing certain things for the sake of it. Its not like the UK where they can tour several venues either it would be one shot only.

That said they did Puerto Rico for a PPV in 2005 didn't they which always seemed a bit odd and expensive for the sake of it

To be honest how many people went to that TNA show to watch those guys or the ones who did wrestle. Even a big company can work with 8 Wrestlers by doing a tournament or some people doing double duty to get 5-6 matches. Plus your more likely to get longer better matches with a smaller crew

There were things I loved about the FWA, the set up was great, the storylines were mostly engaging and it was wonderful at the time that they brought over all this indy talent which we could only see otherwise on badly copied tapes.They certainly created in my opinion a lot of what british wrestling is today in terms of what the workers and promotions try to produce. Many of today

I know they have had a few good post-mania raws but this whole almost hipster thing doing the rounds of "its so much cooler at the post mania raw than mania" thing fucks me off big time.

 

People think that?

Heard a few things similar although I was just looking to have ago at hipsters for the sake of it to, that said I have seen loads of stuff here and there (nowhere credible) going on about how the NJ crowed was "the best wrestling crowed EVA!!!" etc which for some reason pisses me off

Flights will be the same unless they have been hiked up so much due to mania (which I doubt) hotels will be the same to? Mania tickets go as low as $50 I think or used to maybe even cheaper if you sit up in the cheap seats. You may as well pay for a cheap seat for mania two if your on a tight budget, otherwise you will kick yourself that you only saved like

After watching Money in the Bank 2011 today. Why didn't Vince just cancel the Cena/Punk match if he didn't want Punk to leave with the belt?

 

I expect this was explained in the build-up but i just kinda keep up to date with WWE results and watch occasional matches.

 

Also my Cena hating friend claimed to me that during Punks year long + title reign he only main evented 1 or 2 PPV's cos Cena always did. Is this anywhere near to the truth?

Do you mean in the storylines or in terms of the backstage issues? Storyline wise Vince did want to but Cena threatend to leave to and even made a "brother" comment to make an inside joke about jumping to TNA, which of course scared vince into the match happening.

If you mean backstage issues, then Punk would have happily done the job if he was leaving and asked to

pretty positive they are both WWE owned as Goldust wrestled as Goldustin when he did the gimmick outside of WWE and Lita I think is announced as Amy Dumas or possibly Amy "Lita" Dumas if the promoter can go under the radar a bit