Paid Members PunkStep Posted September 13, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted September 13, 2018 Nothing solid, just people putting 2+2 together after they announced they aren't taking bookings for 2019. Pentagon said he 'isn't going anywhere' last week, which of course means fuck all. Why would WWE try to fuck MLW? They (most of the top staff) probably don't even know who they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dart Posted September 13, 2018 Share Posted September 13, 2018 (edited) I think you're underestimating how much attention WWE pay to the indy scene quite a bit there. MLW are on national TV in America. Someone high up in WWE is going to be watching that show every week. I doubt they're trying to "fuck" MLW though. Just keeping an eye on them and their talent. Pentagon and Fenix would be awesome in NXT, so it's no surprise they'd want them. They almost certainly don't need them though. Edited September 13, 2018 by The Dart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members PunkStep Posted September 13, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted September 13, 2018 They're hardly going to feel threatened by them though, are they? I don't get why WWE would bother signing a couple of guys purely to fuck them over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Blog Posted September 13, 2018 Share Posted September 13, 2018 Unless a wrestler emerges that actively puts WWE out of pocket they won’t try to sign anyone just to fuck over competition. They don’t even have competition, they have been the mainstay for so long now that WWE is wrestling for most casuals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted September 13, 2018 Share Posted September 13, 2018 1 hour ago, Joe Blog said: Unless a wrestler emerges that actively puts WWE out of pocket they won’t try to sign anyone just to fuck over competition. They don’t even have competition, they have been the mainstay for so long now that WWE is wrestling for most casuals. Exactly, it's hardly when Microsoft used to sign the best coders and whatnot, then have them do nothing, so that nobody else could utilise them and produce a game changer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philjax Posted September 13, 2018 Share Posted September 13, 2018 Matt Riddle was also a main player there before he got signed. Now MLW is signing guys to contracts to avoid this. Triple H and Steph met personally with then MLW Champion Satoshi Kojima in 2003. Even then they were trying to hijack talent. Different landscape I know. You can bet your life Tripper knows all these promotions (he's probably been letting Joey Mercury wrestle on them to scout talent!), especially ones with national TV deals on what appears to be the Sky Sports of America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Blog Posted September 13, 2018 Share Posted September 13, 2018 Where has this ‘hijack’ nonsense come from? Did Madrid ‘hijack’ United when they signed Ronaldo? It all boils down to wanting to have the best product and the WWE do that without having to steal other companies stars. And despite what people say I find it hard to believe that any wrestler does not eventually want to end up at WWE. No one was going to boycott Mania in 2003 if they had not signed Kojima. It is utter nonsense to even suggest that the WWE is attempting to hijack other companies, this is not the monday night wars anymore where your Rocks, Austins and Takers could have made a difference by going over to WCW. It is 2018 and WWE is the biggest wrestling company in the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members PunkStep Posted September 13, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted September 13, 2018 46 minutes ago, Philjax said: Matt Riddle was also a main player there before he got signed. Now MLW is signing guys to contracts to avoid this. Triple H and Steph met personally with then MLW Champion Satoshi Kojima in 2003. Even then they were trying to hijack talent. Different landscape I know. You can bet your life Tripper knows all these promotions (he's probably been letting Joey Mercury wrestle on them to scout talent!), especially ones with national TV deals on what appears to be the Sky Sports of America. Matt Riddle isn't known as being an MLW guy, he wrestles everywhere and is usually one of the top guys wherever he goes. If anything I consider him an Evolve guy. The same Evolve that has become a bit of a feeder for WWE developmental. Kojima wasn't known for being an MLW guy either was he, he was known for being a fairly big name in Japan and MLW were nothing more than one of the many indy promotions using the same roster of talent at the time. Oh of course Triple H knows about the indy scene, so do some of the producers, but to suggest they're signing talent purely as a cock-block measurement against a small promotion with a tv deal that will never take anything away from WWE is madness. Not in this day and age anyway. Going back to Pentagon and Fenix, I don't think 'ah, those MLW guys'. I think of them as the Lucha Underground key players that are now Impact regulars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philjax Posted September 13, 2018 Share Posted September 13, 2018 Well, no one is an 'MLW guy' yet. And yes of course Riddle wrestled elsewhere but he was front and centre of their initial promo campaign. They're still getting going but this is what I have noted from various reports. They've only been on TV for 4 months. The show has only been available worldwide on youtube for 8 weeks. They have some money behind them and given recent events elsewhere always have to be taken seriously. Sinclair WERE quite happy for ROH to tick along. Impact has decided they are in Indy with TV and have a low budget to run with. If All In is grossing half a million dollars at the gate and Fite TV grossed a million in purchases over that weekend someone like Vince is asking why is that not our 1.5 million dollars? Or the shareholders are. That's competition regardless and you don't want other upstart promotions gaining traction (with TV backing) and turning that lost revenue into 2-3 million say, and on a more regular basis. Trips wants that revenue in the future. That's why he's building now for when he takes over to make the main roster product more non-WWE fan friendly and not alienate those fans who attended in Chicago (yeah I know they've probably all got the Network even if they won't admit it!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted September 13, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted September 13, 2018 WWE doesn't give a shit that Cody and his mates drew 10,000 people for a supershow with one year's hype, once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Blog Posted September 13, 2018 Share Posted September 13, 2018 You want to get yourself in the horse shagging thread Philjax. Having a mare here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted September 13, 2018 Share Posted September 13, 2018 1 hour ago, Joe Blog said: You want to get yourself in the horse shagging thread Philjax. Having a mare here. To be fair, he's had worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ambulance Chaser Posted September 13, 2018 Share Posted September 13, 2018 (edited) I love the thought of Ciampa taking on somebody like Dozovic, just something you never even think about and a proper random pairing but i'm intrigued by it. I like the idea of matches like this, reminds of the early 90s when Bret Hart would face a Headshrinker or Skinner or somat. Remember loving seeing the top guys go against lower or tag wrestlers. Edited September 13, 2018 by Ambulance Chaser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted September 14, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted September 14, 2018 WWE aren't signing Riddle, and after Penta and Fenix, because of MLW. They're after them because they're the most sought after wrestlers in the world. Matt Riddle worked EVOLVE and PROGRESS, companies with direct public relationships with WWE, it's absurd to think that it's because of MLW they went after him. Penta and Fenix have worked Lucha Underground, Impact, every major indie, and managed to have enough clout that they can work both AAA and CMLL unchallenged. WWE would be crazy not to look at those guys, and the idea that they're after them specifically to fuck over MLW is bonkers. WWE have been after a big Hispanic star to replace Rey Mysterio for years - Penta and Fenix have proven that they have crossover appeal, by becoming sought after talents outside of Lucha Libre. That's why WWE wants them, not because they want to undermine MLW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Accident Prone Posted September 14, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted September 14, 2018 Yeah, this MLW rhetoric really falls at the first hurdle. Matt Riddle, Pentagon and Fenix are legit indy superstars, booked around the world with MLW playing an incredibly small part in their careers. Matt Riddle has been working in prominent positions for WWE-related promotions for the past couple of years and, like Penta and Fenix, was booked in upper card/main event matches for every major promotion worth their salt. If WWE went out of their way to sign Kotta Brazil, Tom Lawler and Jake Hager then you may have a point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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