goc

Could just be as simple as he'd uploaded everything he'd already had converted

I really hope that we get the 2007 version of Big Match John who actually delivers instead of 2017 Big Match John who wrestles like he's in a video game.

Glad to hear that!

The people who they haven't yet converted into Network subscribers aren't holding out because there "isn't enough wrestling" so just paying money to buy rights or libraries or produce an "edgy" wrestling show isn't going to suddenly boost numbers. I'm not sure that producing a comedy or drama would either but at least it'd be interesting to see what they come up with since we've seen from GLOW on Netflix that you can base a normal show around a wrestling concept and get good results.

So you're saying they should book Curt Hawkins to get more wins, maybe something like 50/50?

To work people into thinking that a regular house show is suddenly a REALLY BIG DEAL because they gave it a name instead of just having it be part of whatever the tour name is at that time. Judging by the internet reaction that's worked quite well.

If NXT is supposed to be HHH's vision for the future of WWE, I hope Vince outlives him.

I actually think Raw has been hitting a nice balance lately where we usually get at least one really good match every week while they still give time to multiple different angles/feuds up and down the card. Smackdown's biggest issue to me is who they're using and who they're NOT using. You have your 2nd worst woman wrestler on the roster as the heel champion, a fun character but bad worker as the heel MITB holder and the other act in the women's division getting the most time is Tamina who is ANOTHER heel. I can't remember the last time Becky Lynch did anything and I know Charlotte has probably not been at TV because she's been with Ric but even before that she wasn't doing much. Then you have Dolph Ziggler getting yet another push while Luke Harper hasn't been on TV in months and even a guy like Sami Zayn, who I'm not the biggest fan of but at least is better than Dolph, is just treading water trading loses to Aiden English. It's no surprise to me that Smackdown house shows aren't drawing because the house show audience is more of a kids/families audience than a hardcore/smark audience and all the acts that could and should draw on house shows (Naomi, Becky Lynch, Sami Zayn) haven't been booked well. I think the only act that really appeals to kids that's been getting pushed well on Smackdown is The New Day and they're still just a midcard tag team/trio.

My first thought on seeing Dave Meltzer rate a match 6 stars was that Cody was probably thrilled at the new scale since it might mean he'd finally be able to break the *** barrier without improving.

There aren't a whole lot of long heel runs in WWE history to be used for comparison but the ones we have to look at weren't during good business periods, which goes along to my point that it seems fairly silly to speculate that Braun winning the title would lead to some boom in business.

The real weak argument is saying that Braun will never be the same if he doesn't win the title at No Mercy. They haven't built this up as some huge coronation moment like Luger vs. Yoko or something like that, it's just a big Clash of Titans match that happens to have a title on the line and is almost guaranteed to not have a clean finish.

Ok if we can't use Steve Austin because he's a unique case then I'll just point out that John Cena didn't win his first WWE Title match on PPV. Neither did Shawn Michaels.

Steve Austin didn't win his first one on one PPV singles match for the WWF Title

Will co-sign that this was an awesome promo. Been getting caught up on CWF Mid-Atlantic myself lately and it's a fast, easy to watch one hour wrestling show. You also usually get at least one match per week that's really good. It's nice to see an indie that not only has good production values but also still cares about a face/heel structure and a crowd that plays along with it.

There isn't anyone who can somehow magically turn things around for this company. It's BEEN dead ever since Spike kicked them off. They had to take a much smaller deal from Destination America to get on with them and then they got downgraded again to a barter deal just to get on Pop TV. There just isn't a way for the company to make enough money to fund TV tapings on a network that isn't paying them to produce the show. And there isn't even enough of a fanbase now to viably do touring house shows and there certainly wouldn't be one if they stopped doing TV because they can't afford it. And Lucha Underground is really in the same boat because as soon as the people shoveling money into the furnace get tired of seeing it all go up in smoke, that's gonna go away too.

I don't think anyone should really be surprised that Dave isn't watching EVOLVE or any other indies. He's not JUST covering wrestling he's also covering MMA and when you add that up with the amount of WWE & New Japan (and the occasional All Japan or NOAH show) RoH and CMLL that he watches that's a whole lot of time. But the era of "get Dave to watch you by sending him free shit" is over too because it's not like he's gonna go watch something on youtube like CWF Mid-Atlantic or anything else that gets put up there.

I don't TNA is making damn near ANY money on their TV deal with Pop TV. Pop isn't paying them money and I can't imagine they are making a lot of ad revenue considering the ratings they draw and the fact that advertisers pay less for spots on wrestling anyway. The whole issue that caused them to leave Destination America is that DA was having problems selling any ads leading to some weird cult being one of the main advertisers you'd see during Impact commercials. I think the only money they are making off TV is from international deals like the one with Sony Six in India.

Because it's the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object type thing. Plus the smarkity smarks have been whining about Brock's push and not loving wrestling and not putting people over for almost 2 years now anyway. And if we're just using random anecdotal evidence to prove Braun would draw as the champ I also know a hell of a lot of people on twitter who pay to see Roman, including buying his merchandise and paying to meet him at things like Wizard World.

Yes Braun, is a face and not just because of people being anti-Roman, I believe in the beginning he was being pushed to eventually be fodder to Reigns as Champ but luckily he's gotten more time to develop and increasingly get over to the point that he isn't just another token monster. I still say a whole lot of his popularity IS anti-Roman related and that if you make him an unbeatable champ with a long reign he's eventually going to have to start going over guys like Samoa Joe, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Bray Wyatt etc and an "OH MY GOD HE'S BURYING EVERYONE BY BEATING THEM CLEAN!' backlash is going to start to hit.

So you're saying they shouldn't change Braun but they should push him as the top babyface and keep him exactly how he is now? So he'll be the top babyface defending the title against other babyfaces and not wrestling heels? I'm just very confused on how Braun can become The Guy without changing at all and remaining exactly the same in the types of opponents he faces (babyface Sami Zayn, babyface Big Show, babyface Roman Reigns) and keep wrestling the same way (as the dominant person who his opponent has to keep trying to fight from underneath)

The reaction that people give a match doesn't change what is happening inside of it. Are you going to tell me Braun worked the Payback match as the face while Roman worked it like the heel? What you actually do in the match matters and if your idea is "Well just make Braun the top babyface" then that means he's going to have to wrestle heels and work his matches as a babyface.

Roman Reigns wrestles like a babyface and Braun wrestles like a heel. If you want Braun to get pushed as a babyface prepare to see him selling a whole lot more and making fiery babyface comebacks.

The last time Raw had a long run of a top heel champion that none of the babyfaces could beat they did some of their worst business in the past 20 years.

Smart people don't sign up to run money pits. Well, unless they're the ones getting people to shovel money into it but Dixie and Nordholm have been the ones doing the shoveling.

It's PWG I don't know how anyone can be aware of what they are at this point and go there expecting to see "simulated violence." I'd much rather watch a match that seems like an actual contest rather than a cooperative effort to get as many *s as possible which is why I stay the hell away from watching PWG.