Official WWE/TNA Wrestling Thread

They actually had a Macho Man DVD announced for this year but it was cancelled. But yes it is wishful thinking on my part.

 

There's actually a hidden story behind the elbow pad, but what the heck I can tell you right you wont tell anyone right?

Anyways my woman caught me doing the arm waving thing that the Rock use to do befor the people's elbow naked in front of the mirror in the bathroom yrs ago, so I told her i was going to give her a prop.

 

Well then....

 

Wow the pop or lack of pop for Flair was surprisingly low.

It was also nice of Triple H to basically come out and tell everyone that he's going to kill Jericho's heel push after he's done with Cena. Because there's no way Jericho (who's probably the hottest heel in the WWE right now) will beat both HBK and Triple H.

EDIT: Oh good the WWE decided to job Jericho tonight on RAW. Of course Triple H has absolutely no backstage power. Way to waste a potential Summer Slam main event on free TV.

 

Ok the ending was pretty good with Cade and Jericho. Hopefully during the brand draft John Morrison and Shelton Benjamin get drafted to RAW and join a Jericho stable with Cade.

 

I actually liked Raw quite a bit tonight. I am no fan of Cena's but I liked the opening interview with the two. I also liked the Umaga street fight, but I am an Umaga mark so that is no surprise.

I was surprised to see Carlito get so much offense and such a long match against Hardy considering the interview he conducted this week. I figured he would get jobbed out tonight and released tomorrow.

I must be in a good mood because I even liked the bikini thing, and I HATE those. Maybe it was because Melina was in it (She is pretty much the perfect woman if you ask me) and the main event was pulled off nicely.

I actually smiled a bit when Cade came out, because if anyone follows some of my fantasy booking, I had him actually siding with Jericho against HBK. Cade was trained by HBK as wasPaul London and American Dragon (who had a tryout last week and wrestles for ROH...and helped train yours truly for a brief time). and I liked the idea of having his trainees unleash hell on their trainer with a veteran presence (like JEricho) leading the way.

The only thing I would have done differently is when Flair came out, instead of challenge him to a street fight, I would have had him hug Jericho and thank him for doing what he, and most everyone else in the lockerroom has wanted to do for years: Punk Shawn Michaels.

You could have HHH come out and wonder what was up and then still set up the main event the same way.

Then, at the end, Jericho, Cade and Flair are in the ring celebrating their beatdown, with two more to be added to the group the following week, thus completing the re-formation of the four horsemen with Flair as the manager and Jericho in the Flair mold as the leader.

Another stable I am interested in seeing fom is a possible second generation stable with Ted Dibiase Jr as the leader. Ted, DH Smith, Cody Rhodes and Carlito would be a nice whiny heel stable of young talents. Have them complain that they haven't been treated the way they should be considering who their fathers are/were and they are sick of waiting for "their time." Have them attack like jackals for weeks on end and just create havoc. That would be great.

More than likely though, Ted's patyner will probably be Bob Holly who will turn on young Cody for the money and claim that Cody wouldn't listen to him, blah blah blah and Cody will then plot revenge with his daddy by his side. It will be boring and predictable and be a waste of young talent but whatever.

 

Melina and Layla were clearly the hottest ones, IMO. and yeh Raw was ok..minus the fact that I didnt win any money.

 

yeh me neither.

 

You know, I'm kinda on the fence on this one...I dont know if its a fake or not.....the people this time sounded alot more convincing than last time, but I would not be surprised if this comes back as a scam.

 

i cant watch those old DVD for the fact that they blur the WWF logo which it annoys me so much i cant watch it...i keep thinking about the blur

 

They have to...they'll get sued if they dont. But yeh it is distracting.

 

btw samphin you got some great ideas...i think WWE needs some fans for their writers

 

Thanks guys. I have had the fortunate and unique chance from a young age to be exposed to all aspects of this business. Most know that my uncle was a wrestler, so I was able to go to the shows while super young and meet many of them while young and see how they communicate and what did and did not work.

Then growing up as a fan for many years, I knew what I liked and did not like about the industry and kindof filed it away for when I went pro. Training to be a pro wrestler opened my eyes to many things and made me understand why some things have to happen and others don't (from a business standpoint). Which is why I maintain that The Great Khali can be a solid contributor to the WWE if used properly. Having had a part of his in ring development when he was extremely raw (you try telling a legit giant who doesn't speak english to go easy on you withhis forearms...)

Anyway, the point is, I know this business and I think I know what could work more times than not. But it doesn't matter, Vince and the WWE's philosphy is that it is no longer "wrestling" but "entertainment, " which means traditional ways of thinking for booking wrestling typically don't fly there.

Any they would NEVER listen to a fan who riffs on the internet. It simply would not happen, especially someone as small as I. Someone like Rick Scaia or Dave Meltzer may have some pull but it is subtle pull at that. But the WWE would rather hire tv script writers from SNL and sitcoms who, while they have a writer's background, have probably never invested time in knowing wrestling or what will work with a wrestling audience that varies wildly from city to city and person to person as to what they want to see.

They do have some traditional wrestling guys helping out. For al of his faults, Michael Hayes is a good creative wrestling mind, as is Dean Malenko and a couple of others.

Personally, I think if given the books for three months, I could turn many things around without disturbing too much of the status quo. Middle tiered guys need programs and chracter development as well and it sucks that they are ignored except for the few months they decide to pull someone up only to get squashed and sent back to purgatory.

Also, in my opinion, ECW right now, has the best wrestling and sustained storylines on TV. The stuff that Kofi and Shelton are doing is great.

 

No problem bro. I like sharing the ideas here as everyone seems to have good ideas on what to do. If they put me in charge of the company for a whole year, I would have aplan for that entire year for just about everyone on the roster and backup plans in case injuries occured.

Plus if I had a year with the books, I would probably comine the brands and cut down on the amount of hours that wrestling is on TV each week. It is over saturated and no longer considered appointment television for most fans. Part of that is because fans can now access whatever they want, whenever they want.

You start taking away some of those extra hours (for instance ECW would be gone and Smackdown probably scaled back to 60 or 90 minutes) and people will probably star tuning in to Raw mor eoften (which is what they want anyways).

I would also push for the brand split to end, unfiy the following titles:
U.S. merges with IC
Heavyweight Tag Team merges with WWE tag team
Heavyweight Title merges with WWE title merges with ECW title (or just dorp the ECW title)
Ramp up the women's title and bring back the cruiserweight division under a different, non weight class division and actually highlight it(similar to the X-Title).

That gives the WWE a total of five titles to play with and enough time to highlight fueds for those titles and others.

In fact, I would build up the next WrestleMania as the TRUE Night of Champions where all of these titles would be merged. Thank about that. How big would that event feel if the whole night consisted of unified, undisputed title fights between various champions?

This could allow a couple of things. Either you completely get rid of the brand split and have the crew work both tv tapings. OR you simply have the current champions be the only ones with the freedom to roam from brand to brand. When they lose their title (say HHH loses his title to the Undertaker who is a Smackdown talent) the new champ then becomes able to move around while the guy who lost has to stay on the brand that he lost his title too.

That makes for more dnamic movement between the brands and can possibly extend fueds and storylines even further while still creating and shifting pieces around to help keep the audience tuned into both brands.

Actually, I think I like that idea better than just abolishing the brand splits all together...

 

yes and no with the spinner belt. its the same belt but it just does not spin anymore

 

They really need to do a great homage to Mr. Perfect and have someone smash that belt into little pieces. In fact, Joe Hennig, Curt's son is out there wrestling now (and could fit perfectly into a 2nd Generation stable). Get him seasoned a bit, have him come in and as his first official act, take that hideous belt on Raw and crack it over John Cena's head (assuming he is the champion at the time). Just obliterate that belt and start fresh again. I see no rpblem with the old eagle belt. I would love for them to bring that back.

 

it makes no sense...look at the logo...if sued they could say thats just a W and a F, not WWF...i could see if the logo had WWF like that but if the w are like this logo, on top of each other i dont see any violation

 

I don't think so. My opinion has always been that yes, the belts are props, but if you are holding one, you one of the faces of the company, therefore, you are getting more exposure (and money) by working more often. IF it is too tough for you, the fine, drop the belt to someone who will do it.

Also, they don't have to work both shows each week, just that they have the option too. You could run a storyline where say...Jericho is the IC champ but he is avoiding Matt Hardy like the plague, so each week he "injures" himself on Raw (fakes a knee injury, back, has a cold etc.) to where he doubts he will be able to compete at Smackdown, or even appear. It would build heat for JEricho and when he eventually is forced to wrestle against Matt, the payoff is much better for everyone involved as the crowd will be in a frenzy to see him finally get his.

Contrary to that, you can run a storyline where a GM is running a champ ragged by making them defend their belt on each and every show with the opes that perhaps one of their brand wrestlers can beat the tired champ at a later date or on an upcoming PPV.

These are all avenues that they haven't gone down because they lock themselves into their current format. And that doesn't even bring into account brand loyalty. and the possible brnad wars that they have scratched the surface with, but never really fully explored.

 

My fav wrestler of all time was Goldberg and The Peoples Camp the ROCK

 

btwI'm the brains behind samphins ideas. I just let him have the glory.

 

Evan Bourne bringing back the Shooting Star Press? Wow!

 

I picked up the Rock 3 disc DVD set ... thus far it is pretty good. The blurring can get annoying at times, but it's nice to see some of the old matches. It's another great WWE set, but there are a couple of minor annoyances. First, it seems like the WWE may have been trying to bury the Rock a bit. It's funny matches the Rock actually loses on the set ... seems like every other one is a loss or a DQ. Secondly, there's no real backstory or documentary included, except for small snippets interspersing the matches. I would have preferred something introspective and a little more deep. Still, overall it's a great set, and even if you're not the biggest fan of the Rock, you should still pick it up. Some great matchups, and it's nice to see the WWE at it's zenith from a few years ago.

 

The blurry thing used to bug me but now I barely even notice.

I don't think the WWE was trying to bury The Rock, the fact is most of Rock's best matches (against Austin, Jericho, Triple H etc) he lost. Just look at Mick Foley's DVD, I think he might have won 3 matches in 2 discs.

I'm sure if the WWE could get Rock to do an interview or so it would have been introspective and more deep, however because Rock is so busy he doesn't have time and I'd rather not watch guys like Austin and Triple H knock Rock because they're jealous of him. I'm sure we'll see another Rock DVD in a few years with a bio on him.

 

The Foley DVD is a good point ... and brings up something else I noted. What's possibly the most impressive when watching the DVD is counting the number of guys he "made" throughout the years ... I had forgotten how many people he was responsible for getting over. HHH, Foley, Angle, all owe a lot to him. Even without the documentary or participation, it's still a great set.

 

Yeah Triple H should send Foley a Christmas and birthday card every year for the matches they had. The street fight at the Royal Rumble in 2000 is one of the best matches ever. But you're absolutely right, Foley helped make a lot of people's career and make them look like bad asses. He certainly helped The Rock, Sting, and even the Undertaker who was getting stale until Foley came to the WWE.

The Rock actually deserves a lot of credit too as he tried his best to help put over guys like Jericho, Angle, Benoit and Brock Lesnar while Triple H deserves nothing as he never let anyone go over him unless it was Shawn Michaels and even then Triple H made sure he won the rematches.

 

Got the Rock dvd yesterday and my free elbow pad.