Mad Dog

It has a decent following. I know the main guy and the first one did well enough to get an expansion and get this sequel. As you progress, the profits become more about putting merchandise on guys for their matches and the advertisers you use. You unlock merchandise by maxing out stats. The sequel is 90s Xtreme. You still play through the 80s but get to do the 90s as well.

I'm not sure on that front. He might be becoming less casual but I think there's something about those Okada/Omega matches that caught his attention. I had never in 20 years heard him talk about a Japanese promotion.

Spencer's Gifts is mostly gag gifts and such along with bachelor party type of stuff if you know what I mean. Hot Topic is mostly tshirts and other clothing accessories. They have a ton of music shirts, cartoon shirts, some wrestling shirts, etc. Bascially pop culture type of stuff. I wonder how Hot Topic will survive when that Funko Pop bubble finally bursts.

I don't like Scurll but I bought a Villain Club shirt because it's so cool.

I'm not sure on New Japan World. My cousin is a casual fan and he asked me how much New Japan World was and how hard it was to navigate because he wants to watch Okada/Naito and Jericho/Omega.

Yep, every ICP fan I've ever met is borderline mentally ill and/or mentally challenged - no slight intended to those who are either or both. ICP's brand of wrestling exists in its own universe, and I don't think it would mesh well with the larger Cody/Bucks type of wrestling. Then again, if it's presented as a once-off on a loaded card, it could work - kinda like the Broken Hardys universe did. But then you have the issue of those degenerate ICP Faygo-popping fans polluting the rest of the crowd of Hot Topic-buying geek losers smart marks. How do those two completely different types of audiences co-exist in the same arena? Cody and Bucks might have to go back to pre-Sputnik Monroe levels of segregation to make that work, but instead of separating whites and blacks, you separate the ICP Faygos from the Hot Topics. Edit: BTW, in case "Faygo" sounds like some kind of insult or - God forbid - slur, it's not. It's a terrible soft drink brand favored by the ICP fanbase. Side note but the Faygo Red Pop is delicious. Honest question, does the Juggalo thing carry the same weight with the under 30 crowd that they would probably be drawing on heavily here? Yeah, we all know and hate them but we're also a bunch of old fucks that remember ICP from their height in the big promotions and the Sharon Osbourne fight on Stern and stuff. It seems like they've had a much lower profile the last decade while still pulling their fanbase in for stuff. And their fanbase also seems to be heavily concentrated in the Midwest where we're talking about running such a show. I agree, they bring a risk but let's say they cost you 1,000 sales but bring in 2,000 of their fans. That's still a net gain for you.

They wouldn't be the main draw. They would be like a side attraction to boost the numbers.

If you do the Insane Clown Posse you're probably adding a few thousand fans for just them. Then you just need to get 7,000 in the door and let the ICP name get you close enough that you can paper the last bit.

They could bring in ICP too.

I think it's a tough road but I think it's doable. If they can get Kenny Omega to wrestle that will be a good start. Maybe bring in some lucha guys that would be a really novelty for people. If I was them I would just throw absurd amounts of money at CM Punk to wrestle Omega. If you could get that match I think you could get close to drawing that.

Off topic but the Switch is an absolutely fantastic system.

Johnny Weaver Cup Memorial Cup Tournament 2017: 11/23/2017 live from Gibsonville, NC Round 1: CW Anderson d. David Starr w/ a spinebuster Chet Sterling d. Lucas Calhoun w/ the Blockbuster Cedric Alexander d. Jason Kincaid w/ the Lumbar Check Arik Royal d. Logan Easton Laroux w/ a tilt-a-whirl gutbuster Chip Day d. Brian Fury by DQ Roy Wilkins vs. JT Dunn - Double DQ Andrew Everett d. Jake Manning w/ the Shooting Skyfall Press Caprice Coleman d. Adrian Armour w/ the Leg Splitta Quarter-Finals: CW Anderson d. Chet Sterling by count out Cedric Alexander d. Arik Royal w/ the Lumbar Check Chip Day - bye Andrew Everett d. Caprice Coleman w/ a roll up Semi-Finals: Cedric Alexander d. CW Anderson by DQ Andrew Everett d. Chip Day w/ the 630 Splash Final: Cedric Alexander d. Andrew Everett w/ the Kick 2 Kill II to win the 2017 Johnny Weaver Memorial Cup Cedric Alexander celebrates with the Johnny Weaver Memorial Cup. He gets on the house mic and says that this is a real honor to win. He also tells Trevor Lee to beat Andy Dalton because he's coming for that Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship. Main Event: Dog Collar Match: CWF Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Title Match: Trevor Lee © d. Andy Dalton w/ a killshot knee

CWF Worldwide #8: 11/22/2017 taped from Gibsonville, NC CWF Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Trevor Lee is backstage with a dog collar on. He knows Andy Dalton thinks that he can't cut it in a brutal dog collar match. Well that was his first mistake. You don't get to hold a top singles belt in any promotion without being able to handle any variety of match that gets thrown at you. He's going to put Dalton in his place once and for all. Adrian Armour d. Lucas Calhoun w/ a cross body block Lucas Calhoun attacks Armour after the match. He hits a Samoan Drop and then does a variety of Elvis poses and karate moves in the ring before leaving. The announcer catches Calhoun backstage and asks him why the attack afterwards. Calhoun calls Armour a bum. That match was a fluke and he's going to prove that it was a fluke. Corsey Edsel comes down to the ring with the Johnny Weaver Memorial Trophy. He tells all the fans to come out Thanksgiving night to watch a great tournament. Some of the best wrestlers today will be competing for this trophy. Cedric Alexander comes out. He tells the fans that he's honored to be a part of this tournament and he's hoping to win. Cedric Alexander d. Logan Easton Laroux w/ the Kick 2 Kill II CWF Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champions Arik Royal and Roy Wilkins are backstage. Royal says beating Rave and Archer was no big deal last week. Everyone bought into a couple of big names coming through and overlooked the hometown boys. He forgives the fans for that. Now it's on to the next challenge for the All-Stars. He has no idea who that will be but he doubts they'll be taking these belts. Wilkins agrees. He shakes Royal's hand and wishes him luck in the Johnny Weaver Memorial Tournament and hopes they'll meet in the finals. Main Event: CWF Mid-Atlantic Television Title Match: Chip Day d. Jake Manning © by DQ Day had Manning pinned in the center of the ring when Grizzly Redwood came in and attacked Day to draw the DQ. Day tossed Grizzly to the outside and then tossed Manning out of the ring. Manning and Redwood retreated to the back. Next Week: CWF Mid-Atlantic Television Title Match: Jake Manning © vs. Chip Day The Carnies vs. Ethan Case and George Gatton Jason Kincaid vs. Chet Sterling

Flip Gordon is one I have been waiting forever to get in a set.

You couldn't be anymore wrong than you are. Ronda at her peak was nowhere near Conor, so comparing them is horrible. Also Conor is an entirely different fighter than Ronda. Ronda brought into her own hype and that's why she got wrecked. Conor on the other hand is a smarter fighter and picks fights carefully. That's why he avoids taking certain fights. He knows who he matches up with better stylistically and he also knows who he can draw the most money with. He also got choked out by Nate Diaz and TKO'd by Floyd Mayweather Jr. and if anything those 2 loses made him a bigger star than he already was. That pretty much disproves you're argument. Also lol at implying that Cena's rise to popularity has anything to do with Big Match John and not because he's extremely charismatic and marketable. I'm sure whenever he's being considered for movie roles the producers and writers are thinking "Jeee, hopefully we can get Big Match John to show up." Ronda was a one dimensional fighter that got exposed and had her aura shattered. Nunes wrecked her and you could see no amount of training was ever going to allow her to even have a prayer of beating her. She was largely a fraud beating up inferior competition that got manhandled when she ran into real fighters. That's heavily simplified but that's essentially what happened to her. As for Connor. MMA always remembers their stars. Chuck Liddell wasn't a blip on the radar. Neither was Mark Coleman, Rampage, Gracie, Fedor or any of the other numerous guys out there. Connor is the biggest star in MMA right now and has been for a couple of years. He's going to be remembered for a long time. With that said, Cena is a bigger star because of the stuff he does outside of wrestling. Most people would know Cena's face vs. knowing his name. It would be like comparing Peyton Manning to Drew Brees in football. Brees might win the Super Bowl this year and your average person wouldn't know him if they saw him on the street but they would recognize the retired Manning because of his commercials.

Bryan seems more like the swirlie type.

I feel like they've done a good job the last 3-4 years of not making the time between the G-1 and WK to be a total dead zone. I was surprised when Omega didn't beat him in May. I also liked when he was selling they leg injury during his program with Suzuki. I agree it hasn't been the most drama filled but I usually know I'm getting a good match out of it.

I like what the Stardom service does as far as how English friendly they've made the product. I wish NJPW would do that but it's not a deal breaker.

I hated that with Ring of Honor commentary in the old days too. But you so miss Gedo on commentary with the English and he sounds like Kermit the Frog.

I would consider watching the English feed for better announcers but I stick to Japanese because it feels more authentic.

The number of people I know that actively watch New Japan now is about double what it used to be. But they were interested before and just had that price barrier. The vast majority of wrestling fans I know in real life, you can't get them to watch anything that isn't WWE. They might even enjoy something you show them but they have no interest in wrestling outside of that.

If that's true, then Jericho wrestling Omega is completely pointless. The whole idea - I'd imagine - is to get thousands of new fans. But New Japan needs to meet those fans halfway by upgrading their bush league NJPW World service. It's to draw for their American shows plus it will probably get them some attention in Japan. Their product can be as amazing as they want and their streaming service as simple as possible and they still will have a limited appeal because of the language barrier.

I'm not really blinded to anything. Yeah, it is annoying and it will hold them back. But there aren't thousands of people out there chomping at the bit to watch Japanese wrestling that are being turned off by this.

You can buy a Chromecast for cheap. It's really not that hard of a website to use. Google Translate is pretty automatic if you're using Chrome. The navigation on the website isn't quite as good as it was but it's harder to find the games on NHL.tv than it is to get to the matches you want on New Japan World.

I find it really impressive that Omega can move the needle that much when his home promotion is in Japan.