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

[stevieg1980]

Yeah but your listening to both Russo and Disco who are both fucking doughnuts at the best of times.

 

I'd rather have Dirty Dutch write TV for me to watch than either of your fucking two clowns. At least with Dutch writing I more inclined to watch. If Russo was I wouldn't bother whether it was on free to or not.

 

Besides Russo is just bitching as he hasn't been asked. If he has he'd be crawling up Jarrett's arse quicker than Benno can put up a graph showing TV ratings.

[Benno]

An almost reasonable post from Scotswizard there. I'd even agree with some of it, if I didn't think Russo is probably completely wrong about Dutch Martell writing that many shows "by himself".

 

That seems very unlikely with the amount of people they have there backstage.

Edited March 4, 2017 by Benno

[scotswizard]

That's what Dutch told him. Spoke in the afternoon, he said he had just written 10 episodes of Impact Wrestling and a PPV on his own. He could of course have been lying to Russo and had many helpers. Russo said at 67 years old he should not have been left to write 10 weeks of TV on his own because you don't know if it's gonna work or not. If the first episode is great then good, there's a good chance the other 9 will be great too but if the first episode isn't then that means the other 9 could be the same way because it's coming from one man. People tend to write what they know so if you have one man writing 10 episodes then chances are all 10 are gonna be fairly similar.

 

 

 

And Russo also heard from Jeff Jarrett last week by email. Jeff Jarrett was asking about the numbers he gets on Podcast One, Russo told him he has 5 shows a week, Monday to Friday and together they total 250k so quarter of a million listeners per week, a few days later the news broke on the dirt sheets about Bruce Prichard being hired because of his podcast numbers so he said well at least he knows why Bruce Prichard is there, he's only there because his podcast numbers must be higher than Russos which i find hard to believe. He also says they were stupid to use the TNA name for so long and despite what Jeff Jarrett or anyone else says, it was always Tits and Ass wrestling, they can kid themselves all they want and they were imbeciles to keep the name for so long, the minute they stopped doing the weekly PPVs and went to Fox Sports in the early days the company name should have been changed immediately.

 

 

And I thought someone might have taken a dig. Russo himself says he shouldn't be writing wrestling in 2017 and even if he did have the chance, one man can't do it, not even him and Ferrara because TV by the week is getting better and better and the people that sit and watch TV now don't just watch any old shit on it, people are more picky and choosey than ever, they're not gonna waste one minute of their time watching a program that they don't love and enjoy right off the bat. That's why wrestling has so few people watching it now, the rest of society has moved on. It will never be as popular as it used to be ever again because the people writing wrestling just now have been in the wrestling business for decades, all they know is basic wrestling, good guy vs bad guy, roll up, pinfall, count out, commercial. 1970s wrestling. They can't compete with Walking Dead or NCIS or Blue Bloods or Bates Motel or Big Bang Theory. Shows where the characters are so well thought out and the storylines are so well thought out in advance. There's no way you can compete with that and it's not a slight on Dutch because told Dutch all this, you shouldn't be writing all of that on your own because you can't do anything organic week to week. If something organic happens on the show or get's a reaction online or something, you can't even reference it because you've block taped everything. You need to wait 10 weeks before reacting to it. All people need is 1 week, not 10 to decide if they like it or not and because it's just the same guy booking it all, if you dislike the first episode, chances are you're not gonna like the other 9.

[Guest]

By your normal logic you spout, Tits N Arse wrestling would be the best name ever and wrestlings ticket back into the big time, but you're just parroting Russo as per, who is just parroting what countless fans have been saying for years

[scotswizard]

No it wouldn't infact when TNA first started I didn't even seek it out, infact the night Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan turned up  was the very first full episode I watched, up until then I had only flicked through the channels and seen it on Bravo and even then I never sat and watched any match or promo so I went all those years without seeing any of it.

 

Russo is not parroting anything anyone says, he has lasted longer than any booker or writer in the history of wrestling, from writing the WWE magazine in 1992 to writing TV in 1995, going to WCW in 1999, he got paid 500k per year for 2 years, he said he made a million dollars just from WCW alone, when that ended in 2001 he went to help Jeff in 2002, only lasted a few minutes before becoming  a born again Christian, returned to TNA in 2004 and lasted till 2011 when he left. That's nearly 20 years of constant employment in wrestling companies. Apart from a few short gaps between WCW and TNA and his short break in TNA when he left because of the issues in his life, that's a long time employed. I don't think anyone else managed that level of employment with just 2 short breaks.

 

 

And I don't care either way. I've already seen the best wrestling has to offer, I saw it in the 80s', i saw it in the 90s, I've seen the best wrestlers ever. It's no different than watching Robert DeNiro in a movie now or Morgan Freeman. I've seen their best work, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, I've seen it all but I appreciate them now for what they did in the past. I still do that with wrestling. Its never gonna be good again. The WWE has a fat waste of space as their champion, I don't know what TNA has but It wont be much better. I've seen wrestling at it's best. It will never be that good again. I, like many others thought the people in power over there at Anthem, would have given someone new a chance but once again, it's the wrestling business, it's friends getting jobs, the same old people doing the same job and getting the same results, nothing, ever, changing.

 

 

And you all know that in real life right? For those of you working jobs, you've all worked for a boss that's been there for 20, 30 years right? Or you work with someone that's done the job for many years and they just do what they know right? They don't go out their way to learn new things or adapt or change, they do what they know. We all do it. We all do what we know and we just stick to it regardless of whether it's outdated or there's quicker and better ways of doing the same job. We all do it. Wrestling is once again being run by the same old hands that only know one thing......WRESTLING and who's gonna watch it? Wrestling fans. How many wrestling fans are there in the world right now? Not very many. When you start treating it like a TV show where yes....you might see some tits and ass cause that's what happens in real life, all of a sudden you've just opened the show up to the millions of people at home and you now have a chance to engage with them and bring them into your world. How many watch CSI or NCIS for the investigations? How many watch to see Gibbs? Same with Big Bang Theory and Walking Dead. Are people really watching those shows to watch geeks and zombies? Or are they watching becauase the characters are interesting and they see themselves in some of them and they're interested in what they're gonna do and say. It's people. It's characters. Same with the X Factor. Are people watching that looking for good karaoke or are they interested in the backstorys of the people and they want the underdog with a good voice and the comedy act to entertain them and the one that Simon doesn't like, they want them to mouth off at him and put him in his place or impress him. It's people. Everything else is just a hook. Crime scene investigations, geeks, zombies, talent shows. That's just the display sign on the front of shop. The reason people watch is for the people, the characters.

 

When you have a wrestling show that is booked by wrestling people and it's full of nothing but wrestling matches that mean nothing....who is gonna watch that? Wrestling fans.

 

When you have a wrestling show that is booked by non wrestling people and it's full of larger than life characters and down to earth characters and there are stories and twists and turns and every match has stakes and a reason to exist....who is gonna watch that? A lot of people. A lot of people would be interested in that. I wish TNA well. I wish Dutch well but nothing will change because people  don't change. I don't change. None of you change. Everyone does what they know.

[Guest]

Now you're parroting yourself parroting Russo. Have you ever disagreed with anything he's said?

 

He's had a load of work in wrestling cos of exactly what you said - mates getting mates jobs. He's persona non grata now that no serious promotion would touch with a 10 foot pole. Spike TV, a big station by any standards that knows more than Just Wrestling straight up told TNA 'NO RUSSO'. That doesn't speak highly of his writing abilities

 

To anyone who's bothered to listen to Russo's podcast, does he also make bizarre comparisons to utterly random TV shows?

Fucking Big Bang Theory ffs? I don't care why it's popular, as it just is. A huge amount of people think that shows a pile of wank. There are sitcoms that are actually funny and have superb character work that remain cult and under the radar. Certain things blow up, then they'll settle down again. Nobody will be watching the walking dead in the 2030s cos people will have moved on, but Raw will still have a core audience.

Wrestling is actually incomparable cos it's a constantly flowing thing that will always be able to have a cult following and will always be able to entice new viewers because of the eye catching nature of it

If you're gonna compare wrestling to something in TV unfavourably, you could at least use real sports coverage and have SOMETHING of a valid point.

But not even then really, I don't watch cricket cos I couldn't give a toss and think it's the dullest shit imaginable. Others adore the stuff.

You tune into what interests you and nobody else's viewpoint matters cos you're enjoying yourself.

Maybe you should try it

Edited March 5, 2017 by sj5522

[Guest]

https://youtu.be/LDuN7deFdeM

 

This is my internal monologue every time I find myself earnestly responding to scotswizard posts

[scotswizard]

I agree with you, people tune in to what interests them. The thing with TV shows is the ones I listed have gimmicks, singing contests, naval crimes, the undead walking the earth, geeks but that's just window dressing, behind all that you have well developed characters that the people at home can relate to. The shows aren't just about those things, they are about the people.

 

 

With wrestling today, and I say this for all wrestling companies, all they do is wrestling matches. The world moved on from make believe fighting 20 years ago so when that's ALL you have in a 3 hour/2 hour show and the people wrestling are just bland looking people with no personality.....who is gonna sit for 2/3 hours and watch that? Only wrestling fans. Cause there's nothing else there bar wrestling and I can tell you this, the general public don't care about matches, I've watched wrestling for 30 years and I can tell you personally, I don't care about the matches or the workrate. It's not real. I don't care about the match at all. What drew me to wrestling was seeing people on TV that were larger than life and they did things in the ring that I couldn't do in real life. It was a great big show.

 

 

 

And you mention TNA and Spike TV and Russo. Did you not hear the famous story of when the night after Bound For Glory 2010 when the first 45 minutes of the show was just promos and the first 45 minutes of the show drew over 2 million viewers and when Dixie and Hulk and Eric and Abyss and Jarrett had all done their talking, bare in mind this is 45 minutes of a 2 hour show.......when they went back to "wrestling", the other 1 hour 15 minutes of the show lost viewers. The very next day the representative at Spike said in the meeting I thought this was meant to be a wrestling show, why is there so much talking? That talking drew over 2 million people, as soon as that talking stopped the viewers left so that tells you all you need to know about Spike TV. They would rather have 2 hours of boring wrestling matches drawing just over a 1 million people rather than 45 minutes of great storytelling and great acting and performance by Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan and Dixie Carter and Jeff Hardy and everyone else involved in the 10/10/10 storyline. That is the perfect example. You have one storyline drawing over 2 million people for 45 minutes, not 5 or 10 or 15 minutes, nearly a full hour of it and they changed the channel as soon as a wrestling match started. And Spike didn't want that, they didn't want 2 million viewers, they just wanted 1.2 or 1.3 or whatever it was.

 

 

And that right there is the wrestling business. Rather than put the effort in and get decent numbers watching the shows and bringing in new fans, it's just being happy with the basic following it has.

Edited March 5, 2017 by scotswizard

[stevieg1980]

The 10/10/10 storyline?! Your reaching now. You'll be telling us next how genius Terri Runnells miscarriage storyline or Disco's Invisible Man idea was next.

 

Just remind me where the remarkable long term storyline of 10/10/10 ended up?

 

And just how do you know these viewers didn't turn off because they had to put up with 45 minutes of storytelling?

[King Pitcos]

They can't compete with Walking Dead or NCIS or Blue Bloods or Bates Motel or Big Bang Theory. Shows where the characters are so well thought out and the storylines are so well thought out in advance. There's no way you can compete with that and it's not a slight on Dutch because told Dutch all this, you shouldn't be writing all of that on your own because you can't do anything organic week to week. If something organic happens on the show or get's a reaction online or something, you can't even reference it because you've block taped everything. You need to wait 10 weeks before reacting to it. All people need is 1 week, not 10 to decide if they like it or not and because it's just the same guy booking it all, if you dislike the first episode, chances are you're not gonna like the other 9.

 

All of those shows you mention also write and shoot all of their episodes in blocks rather than shoot each episode after the previous one airs. Shitty Big Bang Theory has a studio audience, but the others don't. So what do you want -- internet reactions dictating the writing week to week, or storylines being thought out in advance?

[BrodyGraham]

So what do you want your characters to be, realistic or larger than life?

Do you want them to be complex or crudely drawn cartoons? You go on about all the great characters of the 80's and 90's but if we're honest you're looking at them through the lens of nostalgia.

My daughter will always have an affinity for Peppa Pig or Skye from Paw Patrol, but it's not like they're Shakespearean figures. Neither is the Big Bossman.

Conversely you dismiss one of the most well drawn characters in wrestling in years as a fat waste of space or 'just a wrestler'.

Edited March 5, 2017 by BrodyGraham

[Daaaaaad!]

My daughter will always have an affinity for Peppa Pig or Skye from Paw Patrol, but it's not like they're Shakespearean figures. Neither is the Big Bossman.

 

Verily I must take issue with thee, for thou knowst that the worthy Sir Boss Man of the Big nature shall one day soon rise victorious o'er all others in the most Royal of Rumbles. This, I decree, shall be his year.

[WyattSheepMask]

So what do you want your characters to be, realistic or larger than life?

Do you want them to be complex or crudely drawn cartoons? You go on about all the great characters of the 80's and 90's but if we're honest you're looking at them through the lens of nostalgia.

My daughter will always have an affinity for Peppa Pig or Skye from Paw Patrol, but it's not like they're Shakespearean figures. Neither is the Big Bossman.

Conversely you dismiss one of the most well drawn characters in wrestling in years as a fat waste of space or 'just a wrestler'.

He wants a realistic, down to Earth show...that's completely off the wall & swarming with magic robots

[stevieg1980]

 

So what do you want your characters to be, realistic or larger than life?

Do you want them to be complex or crudely drawn cartoons? You go on about all the great characters of the 80's and 90's but if we're honest you're looking at them through the lens of nostalgia.

My daughter will always have an affinity for Peppa Pig or Skye from Paw Patrol, but it's not like they're Shakespearean figures. Neither is the Big Bossman.

Conversely you dismiss one of the most well drawn characters in wrestling in years as a fat waste of space or 'just a wrestler'.

He wants a realistic, down to Earth show...that's completely off the wall & swarming with magic robots

Don't forget the sexy women. We're not real men if we don:t want to watch scantily clad women who bring nothing to our men wrestling in underwear.

[BrodyGraham]

Lucha Underground? Vinny Ru likes it.

You can't accuse it of having 'just wrestlers' either. Although they do actual in ring moves and not one of the characters is Scottish last I checked.