Impact wrestling thread - It's a Don West tribute thread now!

[d-d-d-dAz]

I don't know man, he was a great silly character but the guy was 41 when he came in and he got four years out of it, and walked away with an identifiable character to push up his price on the indies. I think the WWE and the guy himself got as much out of it as they were ever going to.

[Vamp]

Yeah, I wasn't really considering his age.

 

Can we have a Son of the Boogeyman? Bring back the original, do some vignettes with the pair of them and then bring the son in.

[d-d-d-dAz]

Make it Cesaro. They've tried everything else.

[The King Of Swing]

I always imagined he's been living in different childrens wardrobes for 30 years of his life before finding a Jakks figure of Renee Dupree or someone of the floor and ascending upon the world of WWE.

 

Good god that would have made for an amazing debut buildup promo video. In my mind it would play out like an 80's b horror movie trailer smoking closest door and everything.

 

Actual characters and gimmicks (along with the perfect for pro wrestling one hour run time) are the reason why NXT has rapidly become my favorite piece of weekly WWE television.

[Arch Stanton]

Boogeyman's still active isn't he? He seemed to be pushing for a WWE return on Twitter recently. He still looks pretty much the same... Here's a video from a few months ago

 

I absolutely loved the gimmick. His entrance was spectacular.

Edited August 24, 2013 by Arch Stanton

[diamond_dust]

If there is talent about, WWE are snapping it up. John Cena, Brock Lesnar and Batista never wrestled before signing with WWE either, but they still signed Benoit, Jericho, Regal and Guerrero around the same time.

 

He wrestled for around a year in UPW and a couple of other places in that area before being signed.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

He wrestled for around a year in UPW and a couple of other places in that area before being signed.

WWF were well aware of him before he even started training, through Rick Bassman. He wasn't going to slog it out in UPW dreaming of a job on the US indies. He always knew he was WWF bound. He entered pro wrestling knowing where his destination was. Just look at the little time it took for him to have his first training session and for them to sign him to a physical contract. There's very little difference between how Cena got his start and how they are doing this developmental system.

Edited August 24, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[Arch Stanton]

UPW was sort of like an unofficial WWE development league anyway, wasn't it?

[Callum1993]

So Cal Val has left TNA now as well:

 

"Thank u #ImpactWrestling ,the lockerroom & esp the fans for 9 wonderful years. No longer w the company. Really excited 2 see what's NEXT!"

[bAzTNM#1]

UPW was sort of like an unofficial WWE development league anyway, wasn't it?

Yeah. Tons of big roided up guys came up from there ... and Samoa Joe.

 

WWE own the UPW video library now too. I imagine that was pretty much bought for the early Cena footage.

Edited August 25, 2013 by bAzTNM#1

[JNLister]

From the Observer site:

 

New twist for Bound for Glory series

 

 

 

The entire thing is a mess because time is running out and of the 11 matches that would be necessary for each guy in a 12 man round-robin tournament, the guys have ranged from four to six matches completed with time running out.

 

So they are essentially dropping everything, doing the four matches this coming Thursday, and ending it from there with the top four point getters going to the 9/12 final four show.

 

How the fuck does this even happen? Does the budget only stretch to one week-by-week planner and the creative team lent it to the HR department so they can figure out when guys contracts are up?

[PowerButchi]

No, I don't even think they've got that one for HR.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

This company is a complete mess at the minute. They are about 6 weeks away from Bound for Glory and the tournament that builds to the show has went tits up, the lead female character who was set to turn on his Dad has got the chop, their planned winner of the BFG series (AJ Styles) didn't get over in his new roll and they totally dropped the whole thing, the Hall of Fame inductee is currently IN REHAB and the match they have built the entire promotion about since May 2012 (Bully vs Hulk) is now off.

 

TNA TNA TNA.

Edited August 27, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[PowerButchi]

I don't even think WCW Jan-Nov 2000 was this bad, despite the far larger losses.

 

Why can TNA just go into a holding pattern with their booking, like WCW did in Dec 2000 - closure, and TNA did when they lost TV. It was basic, but it wasn't bad, and it was hard to fuck up booking wise. Just do simple things. Simple things work. Then when they can do them properly, then try and do more complicated things.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I don't even think WCW Jan-Nov 2000 was this bad, despite the far larger losses.

 

Why can TNA just go into a holding pattern with their booking, like WCW did in Dec 2000 - closure, and TNA did when they lost TV. It was basic, but it wasn't bad, and it was hard to fuck up booking wise. Just do simple things. Simple things work. Then when they can do them properly, then try and do more complicated things.

Because they have these knob heads who work there who say "social media" a lot for some reason. TNA is buzz word city. Its all "PPV is a dead business" and "wrestling magazines dont make a profit anymore". Aye, for you lot! Because your fucking rotten at running wrestling. By now they should have just gave the pen to Borash and Tenay and said "do what you want lads, as long as we dont need to spend any money". TNA is a vanity project for the people there and when it goes under, everyone will pass the blame. I dont think anyone there gives enough of a shit to want to change it. Its why people in the promotion wanted to go on the road. So they could tell people they were in the big arenas, instead of thinking of the long term effect of it all. The people who actually give a toss about TNA are the likes of Borash, Tenay and Don West. Who was forced to leave to actually make a living. Don West was shockingly underpaid for what he brought it. He's the last person who they should have allowed to go.

Edited August 28, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay