anarchistxx

Charisma, presence and look are the first things you look for when you want somebody to be the defacto face of the company. Christian has a horrible look - he seriously looks creepy, and not in a good way, and is also pretty weedy. He'd be best off playing a sleazy heel if he wasn't so established as a respected veteran. He has some charisma but never enough to get the biggest pops in the building, and some of it seems forced. His presence isn't great; if he walked into a room he wouldn't demand attention, faces wouldn't turn. He just looks like a regular guy. Other factors to consider are if the person stands out, has a well developed personality, connects with the audience and of course how good they are in the ring. To take your examples of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan: - Punk is great on the mic, and got himself over with some brilliant promos at the time when his future was in the balance. He connects with the crowd massively, and also had a unique look and persona in the context of WWE. He has been built up slowly into a top guy, has put a lot of work in himself, and is now established as a top guy. He certainly wasn't 'championship material' when they first threw the belt on him in 2007 or whenever, which is another argument to stop handing out title reigns left right and center. Punk has a very cool look with the tattoos etc, and a clearly defined style. He is instantly recognizable, something which can't be said for Christian. - Daniel Bryan stands out initially by being truly outstanding in the ring, something that helped Chris Benoit get into a position where the crowd would buy him as a champion. Christian was never on that level in the ring. DB has also added to that catchphrases, a slightly cartoonish personality, a developed character - and in the process has got insanely over all of his own accord, something Christian never did. Now I wouldn't really be happy with Daniel Bryan carrying my company for a long time either, especially when you have guys like Brock Lesnar who look like they could kayfabe destroy him in about five seconds. Too much of a mismatch. But in this particular era and what the WWE goes for nowadays, Bryan is an excellent placeholder for a few months - the fans love him, there is a sense he deserves it, and he is totally inoffensive and will represent the company in a very positive way. I suppose The Rock in 2000 is the prime example of 'championship material' in a mainstream US wrestling context: fantastic look, brilliant on the mic, effectively got himself over, is able to ad lib, looks totally comfortable in front of the cameras or in front of the press, is a decent in ring worker, can play a range of feuds and emotions from comedy to brawling, is absurdly popular with the crowd. Ric Flair in 1989 is another one. Obviously things are different if you start talking about 'championship material' in relation to New Japan, or 90s AJPW, or 70s NWA or even a modern US Indy. But in mainstream US wrestling, I would say look, presence, charisma, believability, connection with the crowd and in ring ability are the things you want to look for. A lot of it is truly indefinable though - some people just don't seem plausible as top level stars for whatever reason, and other have that intangible quality that immediately sets them apart.

He's simply not championship material in my opinion. His look, style and ability just screams upper mid card enhancement talent.

Can't believe they are running Christian/ADR at Summerslam. Everybody knows he is jobbing too. Surely a more interesting scenario would be: - RVD getting the shot and winning the strap, carrying it for a while, giving it a bit of prestige - Orton getting the shot and winning the strap, and then using his MITB to try and unify the titles at some point down the line The RVD return has been badly botched anyway, no meaningful feuds or programs, just a few random matches. They could have actually built some momentum there, but already he is just another guy. Del Rio himself has to go down as one of the blandest, dullest main eventers the company has ever had. This guy screams mid card at best, yet he has consistently been pushed to the moon as both a face and a heel. There is nothing remotely interesting about his character, and his ring work is solid without ever being especially exciting.

Nobody deserves that spot. Character has no legs whatsoever. He'll be jobbing to Kofi Kingston on Superstars every week within a year.

Is it hopelessly naive of me to think that Daniel Bryan isn't on roids?

Never knew that - makes it even a bigger tragedy that Dynamite is now broke, disabled, on benefits and living in a tiny dilapidated house on a council estate. If we are indeed talking about Tiger Mask I. First time I've heard somebody play down the Crush Girls phenomenon. It probably tends to get overstated it due to the raw emotions and noise of the crowds around the time, or maybe it's just one of those early internet things that has carried through.

You must have been high when you wrote this. Chris fucking Hero ending the streak?! Not to mention wasting John Cena, arguably their biggest draw, in a multi man tag match, along with other major names like Orton and RVD. There is also no way a double main event of Bryan/Lesnar and Punk/Ambrose is going to carry Wrestlemania either, however much talent they have.

Pretty sure the answer to this is no. The Crush Gals were a pop culture phenomenon. Hulk Hogan is I suppose the best US comparison, but it it still totally different their popular was amongst teenage girls who are certainly the most obsessive demographic in terms of fandoms. They are more akin to a major boyband or a huge female pop star.

Who wants to watch wrestling in a window on a laptop screen? Just viewing stuff on Youtube takes any of the fun away from me. If I ever put aside any time to watch anything, I want to lie back and watch it in proper quality on a proper television.

No 'real' sport uses a Fall Out Boy song as its anthem.

With all the grainy low VQ wrestling footage we have all watched over the years is the lack of HD really an issue? The first time I watched Puro it was on some eight hour video tape I had lent off a friend, where is constantly seemed like snow was falling down the screen and the sound would intermittently cut out.

Soccer is a worldwide phenomenon though. The USA were very much the exception in not treating it as the biggest sport in the world.

Interesting, probably should take a closer look at the schedules. Not that I was ever into WOS ther than watching Jim Breaks ham it up. Men&Motors? I've only ever seen replays of Top Gear on there, I'll probably take a closer look through. I don't think it works both ways to be honest - American audiences aren't nearly as interested in UK television as we are in things like Breaking Bad, so any good shows/concepts that get made over here will just continue be remade to tailor for the stateside audience. Programming like Skins and The Inbetweeners were remade for the American audience even after airing in the states on BBC America.

Shame. Don't think I've ever seen any wrestling on ESPN classic here unfortunately. The only 'classic' wrestling we got over here is WWE Vintage showing replays of The Miz vs Dolph Ziggler from 2010...

Not to be a downer but such regimented scheduling never works in my opinion. Life can't be arbitrarily split into two hour blocks like that, unless you are Hugh Grant in About A Boy or something. I give it two weeks.

^^^ There is actually an early Kurt Angle match with Mark Henry fairly identical to what you describe there. It's on the Raw with that famous ten man tag, and only goes about four minutes. Really enjoyable. They also wrestled a short fun little match on Smackdown in 2002 straight after the draft split.

There will definitely be two channels called BT Sport 1 and BT Sport 2, so they won't just be carrying on under the ESPN brand. I wasn't aware BBC had acquired some NFL rights. Hardly big business over here though, Channel 5 used to air it at 1AM on weeknights to recall. Wasn't he presenting Italian football for Setanta or Premier Sports recently? Football Italia was an amazing program back in the day, I remember watching it all the time as a kid on Saturday mornings, even then I thought it was cool as fuck. Good article about it here if you haven't read it http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/20...l-4-italian-job . I'm not entirely sure it would work bringing the program back. Totally different time now, and Italian football has lost its identity, its glamor and even its legitimacy with the constant match fixing scandals. Also there aren't the big stars that there were in the 90s to keep it so engrossing, most Italian clubs are financially crippled and the top players these days go to Spain, Germany, England and recently Monaco/PSG.

Interesting, will that be airing on ESPN classic in the UK? Are the ESPN channels even going to continue to be on Sky, now that BT Sports have taken their EPL rights? I heard they were shutting down all the channels over here. ESPN classic would be a loss for me, got loads of great football off there over the years, World Cup and European Cup finals shown in their entirety etc. I imagine JVK knows something about this?

There isn't anything Heyman or anybody else can do to make TNA a company on the level of WWE, which is where they want to be. If they want to remain even halfway profitable they are going to have to phase out the guys on big contracts and start developing their own talent/poaching more from the indies. They somehow have a fairly established fanbase, and they seem the sort of fans who aren't simply watching for the big names (begs the question what exactly they are watching for), so they would survive a loss of the people considered 'stars'. Unfortunately there just isn't a big enough niche for a second wrestling company. Remember, most fans of the WWE today don't even remember a WCW or ECW - they have grown up on the idea that there is just one wrestling company, that WWE IS wrestling. They aren't clamoring for another Monday Night War or whatever. Even if a multi-billionaire oil sheik started a wrestling company and poached John Cena he'd have a job competing with the WWE. The quality of the TNA product is almost irrelevant. Of course, it doesn't help that TNA isn't particularly different to WWE, and indeed actively strives to cover the same ground. They should be pushing themselves as an alternative, as a different type of product, because they sure aren't going to woo any fans away from the WWE by just being a watered down lite version. Give themselves a proper brand, a proper identity, something that sets them apart. Try and change the whole dynamic of what a professional wrestling show is. I wish they had the balls to do that. When did this happen? Seems a good move. Are they still running the twelve events with eight of them free to air? Or is it just three months of television leading up to the PPV?

Steve Austin is a clear #1 for me. Had easily his best match at Summerslam 01 and there is also the cool match built around the piledriver and a bunch of fun TV matches from 2000/2001. The Benoit matches tended to be a little overdone, Lesnar brought out the worst in his style. Mysterio is a good shout, the matches never went long enough to descend into the usual suplex marathons with a million near falls, and Rey bumped brilliantly for all Angle's stuff. Angle is a fantastic base, he always makes offence look good due to his athleticism. Probably only watched about twenty minutes of his TNA run though. The Lethal match seems intriguing, I used to dig Lethal as a fiery underdog face in the indies.

TNA is king for this - some of the WWE rejects they signed were just ridiculous, and made them out to be complete marks who just wanted anyone associated with McMahon to give themselves credibility. Who the fuck wants Tyson Tomko, a man responsible for possibly the worst PPV match ever? Or why push a charisma and talent vacuum like Matt Morgan? Maybe not puzzling as you can see why they brought them in, but certainly stupid.

Well like all natural cycles it continues to go round and round, usually until the wrestler is released or quits.

a. debut the wrestler b. establish the wrestler c. push the wrestler to the moon d. job the wrestler out week after week e. release the wrestler/repackage the wrestler/push the wrestler Pretty much the prototype for anyone who comes in and gets an initial rub by the WWE. Bizarre booking policy, and one that prevents anyone being seen as a threat to their truly top level guys. Nobody ever gets to move up to that level, because after the initial push the rug is pulled from under them. Ryback and Barrett are two recent examples.

I never rated Chris Hero on the indies. He looked way too forced, you never really bought him either as a character or as an in ring threat. Once he loses the size advantage he has on the smaller feds he just blends into the background, I can see why WWE wouldn't be too high on him. He lookes hideous in the picture posted.

I didn't think Bryan/Cesaro was that good. It was a match built around strikes and most of the strikes looked pretty weak, especially Bryan's kicks, they look even less painful than Rey Mysterio's used to. It benefited from the fact it was worked in a style most around here like, not too spot heavy, decent pacing, fairly snug and kept minimal with good builds for every big moment. The corner spot was nice, even though the crossbody counter looked messy. The finish was probably the best part of the match, it looked great and was executed to perfection. They should do more flash pin victories, especially for the smaller guys who don't have finishers that look particularly dangerous. Cool little TV match, which came off as better due to the context. Not a MOTYC though, unless standards are particularly low.