andrew "the ref" coyne

9 hours ago, Slapnut said:

I must not have been paying attention during Woods’ reign because I have absolutely no memory of it! I even had to Google when it happened - 2021 was indeed likely the year I paid the least attention to WWE.

Absolutely checks out that they would cut short the storyline for the one dude who was actually passionate about the role. Peak “don’t you dare get over by yourself” WWE.

I think the only decent thing they got out of it was the have the bloodline beat Xavier up and put the crown on Roman.

16 hours ago, BomberPat said:

you can't really coast on being the anti-authority guy who speaks truth to power when everybody's queuing up to tell the authority how amazing they are and what a great job they're doing.

I mean... you could as a heel. But they've already kinda did story ten years ago when he turn heel mid wwe title run.

8 minutes ago, Supremo said:

 

Fantastic match between Ricochet and Ilja Dragunov. If Dragunov’s body holds up then he’s going to become a huge star via brute force alone. I haven’t watched much NXT in years, so it was like seeing him with fresh eyes. That maniac is something special. Fucking Superplex on Ricochet where he spikes his own head! Mental! His running, diving, FUCK OFF elbow to the face is also my new favourite finisher. Star-making performance. Something to go out of your way to see.

We're gonna get Dragunov and Walter in the RAW semi and I cannot wait.

19 hours ago, westlondonmist said:

I've heard the ham sandwiches story years ago, never sure it was true or not. I can believe it though.

AGAIN IT WAS ON A BRIOCHE BUN MAN!

9 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Possibly, but "unlikely to be in use by anyone else" isn't really a selling point for venue managers any more - if the venue is open for wrestling in the afternoon, then they're covering costs on staff, cleaning, electricity, sundries, and so on, all these overheads that aren't a concern if they're not open. When the venue's usually used for gigs, getting a wrestling ring in there cuts capacity down considerably, and then on top of that wrestling audiences aren't big spenders at the bar - I see fans try and dispute this a lot, but it's true; if for no other reason than most people won't get up to go to the bar during a match, so the window to make money is pre-show, post-show and interval, whereas at gigs you'll have a fairly steady turnover. It sucks, and it's a symptom of a wider problem, but for a lot of places it can be more cost-effective to let the building stay empty and unused than to host a wrestling show. 

The latter point on being able to clear out before an evening gig is a winner, though - I know companies that went from mid-week dates to Fridays and Saturdays by being able to prove they could run to time and have everything cleared out in time for the next act, and so there might be an arrangement that they've come to there.

We actually have more data than we've ever had before on how much wrestlers are making, as Equity did a pay survey last year:

 

Obviously this skews toward those who responded, and my gut feeling is that the 9% figure of people making a full-time living should be a little higher. I know a few people who do it full-time at the moment; some manage it because they're in high demand, most because they either have regular income through running a training school on top of their wrestling bookings, or that they make a killing on merch sales. It also seems like that there's a lot more British talent getting bookings all over mainland Europe in places that weren't that big on imports in the past, so for some wrestlers it's those international dates that have allowed them to go full-time, almost back to how things worked in the World of Sport days, where very few people were actually making money wrestling in this country, but it gave them the experience and the connections to do a few big money foreign tours a year.

Any data on how many ham sandwiches have been used as payment?

In seriousness though one thing the British scene may be facing is that as fees for decent wrestlers have increased as the scene grew, their fees (and fees of all non wrestling talent / backstage people) have not gone down as the scene took a down turn. 

Not saying it should, but Im sure you can see a situation where outgoings remaining steady whilst incomings drop would be a major issue. 

1 hour ago, herbie747 said:

For all the trash people talk about him, Sanjay Bagga wouldn't still be running shows if he was losing money on them. He was never that much of a mark that he'd accumulate personal debt just to hang out with the boys like so many other promoters are willing to - his priority was always to make money as a promoter.

So it can be done. 

This. Seeing a similar thing in Australia at the moment, with many promotions spending huge amounts of money and not really making much out of it due to wanted to play fantasy booker.

Having worked with Sanjay personally during the Wrestling Channel era, he had the right head for the BUSINESS aspect of wrestling. It's something I wish more promotors replicated over here.

10 minutes ago, air_raid said:

The Ballad Of Never Watched The Bucks?

Did you SEE that Usos match? Fuck me. I refuse to believe the Bucks, as bad as they are with the superkick, have ever produced anything THAT dire.

1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said:

I love Bron's spear. Feels like the complete opposite of the weak Edge one. Bron has a ridiculous speed and intensity. As long as they play into that I think it's a great move for him, even if it can be overused. At least it's not a superkick.

The superkick officially died at WrestleMania by the Usos. 

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

Because Goldberg and Rhino got it over in WCW and ECW respectively, they like to keep using it. Of course, the two things lost in the mists of time is that it was only ever a setup originally for the Jackhammer or Rhino’s piledriver in those places. Blame Edge spearing Jeff Hardy from the heavens at Mania 17 for them thinking it should end a match, probably, around the same time they hired Rhino and he started winning with the Gore because piledrivers were out. Somewhere they forgot they realized the explosive impact move worked great for Goldberg and Rhino because it fit to their intense, explosive personality. There have been plenty of crap ones - Edge AND Christian both using them usually looked rubbish, my personal strongest distaste was Batista doing it when he already had a fine repertoire of signature power moves, but there’s been loads. Charlotte always looks awful doing it, especially. Nobody else should do it while Reigns isn’t retired, he’s been the closest to a good one this century.

You’re not wrong on power moves - we need more press slams, powerbombs and stuff Sid would do. Bring back the whirlybird!

Leave the memories alone.

Look at those god damn beautiful spears. Gorgeous.

Although there's a lot of people moaning that "a lot of the draft are people staying on the same show", I applaud WWE for not mixing the established rosters too much. Fewer moves mean more to me, as your not throwing out established back stories from the last year of TV.

But in hindsight, with the exception of the first draft which was AWESOME, the best setup seems to be when it's a Draft Lottery tied into matches outcomes. Team RAW vs Team Smackdown and they get a random draftee right after the match. At least that way you can have a surprise draft of a individual or of an entire team.

The spear really is the most over used and unoriginal move of all time. It's especially bad when multiple people use it as a match ender on the same show.

And why is it when they have a guy strong enough to do a power move on 95% of the roster, you give them a charging move? 

BRING BACK THE MILITARY PRESS SLAM BRON!

Also it's a small thing, but kind of irritates me that the two GMs earlier in the year worked so hard to try and sign Brekker from underneath each other, when all they had to do was wait for the draft and nab him.

But yeah the picks were fairly uninspired. Jay Uso the top Raw draft pick? Get fucked. 

So apparently ole Platinum Max has been suspended from AEW for a rap on tv:

"Switchblade's what I switch. I'll fufill your fantasy and I'll make you my b****. Yo this dude's just making me sick. I'll violate you so bad you'll have to tell the legal team about the taste of my d***."

He certainly likes his gay sexual assault lines and storylines. 

Anyway just before this suspension, he decided to drop a terrible rap about his dissatisfaction about his role in AEW. 

42 minutes ago, Supremo said:

We’re back. What a business.

 

Im so proud of him.

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

Interesting. What’s often forgotten about the much-maligned 90 day clauses is that the wrestlers still get paid their downside throughout. So for every five instances of people frustrated to twiddle their thumbs instead of getting right back on TV with their new employer, there’s one that sometimes comes out and says “It gave me chance to heal up a bit.” So if WWE are made to adhere, while it would return to the wrestlers the right to jump straight back on the wheel, it would also deny them a little paid break while they court potential new companies to work for.

Gonna say, I'm not sure it's a true non compete... they are still employed and paid for 90 days.

Mind you I'm not a lawyer, so be interesting to see what comes of this.

Outside of wrestling that is fucking massive for the corporate world.

Also means McMahons non compete is non existent. 

I hope the next fued Brian Danielson is in sees this exchange...

"So if you wanna say your the best... then I need you to beat me to prove it. Cos I'm the best!"

"Mate you've lost the last 20 fueds you were in. Fuck off."

11 hours ago, Jazzy G said:

It started looking interesting, then suddenly takes this huge shift to bad jokes and I lost all interest. 

Spot on. 

"BAD-ASS-ATRON"

Megatron, a man destined to become a ruthless dictator and crime lord, who will happily enslave or eradicate an entire race to satisfy his people's need for energy "We'll call you B!"

21 hours ago, BigJag said:

Yep. They've taken some liberties.  Elita 1 has some cool moves.

Much more interested in seeing Arrival From Cybertron on the big screen.

https://go.hasb.ro/3PMSiZH

Not entirely sure, but would not be 100% surprised if the Transformers Movie was the first cinema film I ever saw. 

Add in Kenny Omega returning to try and convince Hangman to "do the right thing", only for Hangers to send him back on the injury list, and LaGoosh's story is spot on.

55 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Isn't it also a variant of the Network storyline? I never caught it at the time, but from what I could figure out, it seems like that.

 

Basically yeah. Old Cyrus the Virus was the Network rep and thus had control on their TV show. However he had no power on ppv because it wasn't on the Network.

Just wanted to come on here to say that the new Transformer's ONE movie trailer is the biggest pile of steaming shit imaginable and I hate it. 

Have a nice weekend everyone. 
 

On 4/16/2024 at 11:15 PM, Infinity Land said:

Two people that have been nothing like Jericho. 

Picked specific acts to work with Gunns/Acclaimed and Darby. Played 2nd fiddle in-ring and promos for the most part. Could go months without doing anything on TV. 

With how blatant Jericho was during the Trios match, they're either going to tack on HOOK v. Jericho for Dynasty or get added to the card to set-up Double or Nothing. Either way I'd say get ready for an FTW title reign using the gimmick to have a bunch of TV matches. So he can pretend he can still hang with people half his age, before putting HOOK "over". 

This. I don't think I've ever seen someone so successful at putting people "over", yet somehow they end up worse off. Guevara, Garcia (seriously! how did they fuck that up so bad?), Hobbs.

The Garcia shit really annoyed me. The man is pulled between his mentor and his hero, and his mentor ROH champion Jericho needles him and tests him time and time again, then when it comes time to be the man..... he basically pussies out and Jericho can't be arsed with being ROH champion anymore.

Then he just kind of... walks away from his stable with a "yeah... Im bored of this now. Bye."

If ROH ever wanted to be taken seriously, having Garcia as the young "next Brian Danielson" figurehead of ROH would of been fantastic.  

They no it's not real yeah? Jesus.

Gotta say I dig the new tag belt design. Clearly taking design inspiration from the world titles and effectively making them a family of belts. Love it.

I think the main thing that disappointed me is that I would of liked to of seen Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens involved in that final match too. In fact I would of preferred them over the legends (though im probably in the minority here). They were so much more involved in the two year storyline and would of closed their arcs off nicely. 

Finally I would of done a failed cash in attempt that was a mirror of the "heist of a century" only for Damien Priest to be cut off by someone. Have Priest win the title Monday was a Rollins that is absolutely smashed up beyond believe to close out the post Mania Raw.