FUM

1 minute ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Also, this has been timed to be released now as damage limitation. Companies often make announcements like this late on Friday as it’s likely to be forgotten by Monday

Also while they have a TV show ongoing, it’s certainly damage limitation timing.

Slim Jim has paused their partnership and apparently another major sponsor has dropped interest they had.

I think it’s likely people knew but didn’t realise the type of relationship it was and just assumed it was mad Vince being one of the boys with his chat and pictures without actually thinking “he’s abusing this girl”.

I’m absolutely not defending that or saying that is the right culture but I doubt they’ve really thought much deeper into the full extent of the relationship.

I imagine, even for those who knew of her, the actual full story comes as a bit of a surprise too.

Maybe I’d just rather think that many people wouldn’t fully stand back though as it’s horrible to think not one person stepped in knowing the extent.

I’m really trying to stick with it but there’s nothing really going on. It’s not a bad show necessarily but I have nothing I’m interested in. The champion is just there too with no real threats to his gold yet. I feel these two shows since Hard to Kill have sort of been “look we have Ospreay and Okada, tune in” with nothing to make me come back.

They also need to deal with the issue of putting similar characters on one after the other. That little spell of Crazzy Steve, Decay then Killer Kelly all felt like they were very similar. Split them out through the show.

Noticed this has made the front page of the Sky News site so hopefully should mean there’s no running from it for him if it’s getting mainstream coverage worldwide.

Awful. He’s absolutely finished this time for sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if any links to him go as well in the new set up with TKO. Then again, Ari has never really cared about Dana’s conduct but this is different level.

1 hour ago, Carbomb said:

I noticed that Netflix now have ratings systems, so, if I can't deny WWE my money, I can at least give them a thumbs down.

Believe this purely relates to your own viewing experience rather than being an assessment of anything else so a thumbs down probably the right route for you not to have to see WWE pop up as a recommended viewing.

Not that I was interested as it’s been done to death but was a Kurt Angle episode nixed then? They’ve been known to start filming episodes then when it leaks stop because they can’t get the right people to talk. Believe that’s what happened with Scott Hall and Mike Awesome episodes.

Some good sounding episodes there though - looking forward to it. 

Wasn’t he the highest grossing or paid actor for a year or two running as well? His acting career nowhere near failed, it was a huge success.

4 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Damien Priest, the reigning Mr Money In The Bank, is so keen on headlining Wrestlemania for the World Title he has declared for the Royal Rumble.

Urgh.

Personally, I would absolutely enter the Rumble even if I had a guaranteed shot already. Why would you not want two chances?

Double post due to merge.

1 hour ago, Kfogg1991 said:

So it's just going to be raw live on netflix smackdown is going to remain on the same channels for now at least.

SmackDown is going to Netflix in the UK too.

I hope this doesn’t mean a second series of The Wrestlers gets canned.

19 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

The newest member of the TKO Board of Directors...Dwayne Johnson. I wonder if this is a first step to rolling the new UFL into TKO's portfolio.

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/dwayne-the-rock-johnson-board-member-wwe-tko-group-1235882746/

It may be down to the UFL thing but it’s probably also hard to deny a man with his business acumen combined with his history in this specific business is more than qualified to sit on the board of directors really when you drill it down.

19 hours ago, Carbomb said:

That's absolutely fair - I don't have a problem with the six-sider in itself, but I would prefer that they had a proper reason for having it, other than "it just looks different". 

I genuinely don’t have an issue with that reason. Looking different from your rivals can be a huge positive even if the product is fairly similar. There are points of WWE I look back on with nostalgia that I thought were crap at the time purely because the product is so over-produced now and I liked the look of it back then. I think you need to take every opportunity to look different at the minute when there are so many options available to fans in terms of viewing.

TNA will forever be asked about the six-sided ring as it is fairly synonymous with the brand to people who watched TNA when it was at its best.

I completely understand why they don’t have it though if it’s as bad on the body as some say but it will always come up as a topic.

22 hours ago, air_raid said:

The contract signing was very well executed, with one obvious flaw which I’ll get to.

I really enjoyed this review of the show and potentially have overlooked it in the length of the post but did you get to the obvious flaw? I’m not sure what the obvious flaw is.

2 hours ago, BomberPat said:

One of the first things Triple H did when he took over creative when Vince "retired" was to have Max Dupri do a promo dropping that gimmick to become LA Knight. But who is LA Knight compared to Max Dupri? Could he not have just separated from the Maximum Male Models and kept the name, rather than confusingly saying "the name that most of the audience know me by isn't my name, a different made up name is"?

I mean to be fair he attacked them with a chair backstage, told Maxxine to stop calling him that name because he’s not going to be someone or something he isn’t anymore all to a great crowd reaction. I don’t disagree with your general point but the changeover to LA Knight was done fine and not a very good example.

Enjoyed it for what it was. I’m also in the camp of not really caring about a lot of the people involved, and I probably have a dislike of Moose far more than the others - he’s always bored me to death. That’s a personal opinion though and I get he’s over. I’ll probably do my usual and watch the next Impact or two before forgetting all about it. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it either - they’re a very forgettable watch at times in a world with so much professional wrestling.

That new Dana Brooke name is dreadful. Commentary had already got it wrong by the second time they read it.

I actually thought Brawling Brutes were a good little team for the tag division and were over enough to warrant their spot on the roster. It’s a shame Ridge appeared to be a liability as not sure any other reason they decided to split them.

I see Matt Striker decided to use his platform as a commentator to make a case for the defence of Matt Riddle.

I wonder why he would think that’s the move to make.

Really loved that ending with Roman celebrating completely unaware of the consequences of his actions while the viewer was. A proper “take that you bastard” moment for the fan watching at home.

1 hour ago, Infinity Land said:

Is FX even a thing in the UK anymore? Don't think its on VirginMedia anymore at least.

Seems you’re right, ended in 2021. Probably shows me up for how little I actually watch TV channels as opposed to on demand content these days.

12 hours ago, BomberPat said:

As far as I know, neither has any live content whatsoever. And that's what WWE's main selling point is to a streaming partner - the video library and IP are a strong bonus, but the main attraction is having live appointment viewing, and that's not currently the Disney+ or Netflix model. I don't know if there's any talk of them trying to move in that direction, though.

I don’t know about Netflix but Disney own multiple live TV channels like FX. There’s always a chance a deal could be done with Disney to put the on demand stuff on Disney+ and the live shows on the TV channels. Believe this was the potential chat in the US of what could happen at the end of the Peacock deal a while back too so no reason it couldn’t happen over here.

4 hours ago, garynysmon said:

Mad to think that most kids would gave given their eye teeth to have WWF on free tv in the 90’s, yet by the time they finally got round to it the audience wasn’t there.

The excitement for watching Heat on a Sunday afternoon on Channel 4 was unreal. A true golden era.

21 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Everyone accepted that it wouldn't be a fantastic well-built hometown win for sympathetic babyface Sami Zayn at Elimination Chamber, because Cody Rhodes was waiting in the wings for a win at Wrestlemania.

No we didn’t.

Anyone denying Rock v Roman is the biggest match WWE has available to them nowadays is off their rocker regardless of what they’d prefer.

Yeah, we’re all wise that the match won’t be the best wrestling they have on show but the sheer spectacle of it will ensure it works. I could be misremembering to be perfectly honest but I’m sure Rock v Hogan was met with a bit of a negative reaction at the time until the match happened though happy to be put in my place on that.

Unfortunately for Cody, time is running out on The Rock so the moment he says he’s ready, that’s when it needs to be done. Business wise, you don’t pass up that opportunity when Cody has pretty much proven he can remain hot through setbacks.

In saying all that, I also wouldn’t be surprised if it happened in Australia.