cm funk

Uh, not really. They've been taping NXT from Full Sail for almost two years now. It had international TV for a while, and has been on Hulu and the wwe youtube channel for a while. It's not something "designed for the network" or for the hardcore fanbase. If anything, now that it's on the network it will probably start becoming less like the NXT of 2013 now that they'll pay more attention to it and use it as a vehicle to get handpicked talent over. People got gimmicks over organically in NXT....we might see less of that now. I hope not. I know Dusty does a lot of work with people on developing characters and promos, and they have great trainers....so I hope they don't meddle with it too much

I find the criticism of HHH/Steph/HBK on the show ammusing HHH opened the show getting the crowd hyped putting over NXT as the future of wrestling. Short and sweet. Steph hyped up women's wrestling and Paige and Emma as the future female stars of the sport HBK, the guy who made the ladder match famous, put over the match and the guys who were about to compete in it I get that people just dislike all three of them for various reasons and all that, but of all the things to criticize, showing up to put over NXT is not one of them. Like it or not they are WWE "icons" and faces of the brand and company, for whatever that is worth. The crowd seemed to appreciate them being there.

Of course it was a tease If Bo had actually suplexed him from that position Neville would have either broken in half on the ropes or broke his neck or they both would have died. The ladder was in the middle of the ring, nowhere for Neville to land safely, and Bo was a few steps up on the ladder and would have been pushing it out from under himself to do the throw I'm not a fan of the insane bumpy indy spots like that....has anyone ever actually taken a german suplex off of a ladder from that position and ring positioning? I hope not

Not any specific matches, no, I just like the gimmick and the push they've gotten in NXT.

I like the Ascension. Seem to be in the minority on this board. I definitely think they can get over on the main roster

Definitely a fun time to be a wrestling fan I understood Cesaro winning because he's being primed for (and in the midst of) a huge push on WWE tv right now. And Zayn "got his respect" I think they could bring Zayn up, reference the NXT series, and if Zayn beat him in his debut would be an instant star

Tonight during Superstars they played the old Los Guerreros "Valet" vignette followed by the Savage/Liz/Jake wedding angle

Yeah, my roommate and I were thinking of getting tickets on Tuesday, but the only pairs available were upper deck in the last few rows or marked way up on stubhub. It would be cool to be part of that crowd, but I'll take watching it on TV. From Meltzer's daily update:

they need to bring back this screen for the network

I marked out so much for that. Hadn't seen that in years and it was as funny as I remembered So far the random things they put on the "commercial breaks" have been as entertaining as the content on the live stream. I'm hoping they start putting all of that stuff VOD once the issues with VOD are sorted out

I gave up on trying on demand yesterday. I just started trying it again. I searched for Terry Funk and not a single one of the videos that popped up would play. Every full PPV I then tried wouldn't load. I did get a Legends of Wrestling ep to load and play fine. Was hopeful these issues would be sorted out after more than 24 hours now. I haven't messed around with the search function too much, but I found it odd how far down in the list of guys named "Terry" Funk was. It wasn't alphabetical either. They did have "Terry Allen" listed which I chuckled at. Would anyone searching for Magnum TA search "Terry Allen" other than possibly people who post on this board

They're showing the prelim Superstars taping live I'm going to end up being so addicted to this darn network

Yes, so far the "commercials" on this have been great. The Vince and HHH introductions to the network were awesome and both had total shit eating grins on their faces I'm very impressed with the quality of the "live feed" so far. The VOD not so much, but they'll sort that out

Several of the WCW and ECW PPVs wouldn't load for me on PS3. Some will, some won't, it's very hit and miss It took me about an hour just to sign up earlier today. Beyond trying to sign up and actually getting the ap working on my PS3 took up an hour of my time and I haven't done too much exploring of the acutal content yet. I know it was brought up here and many other places in the months prior to this launch, but setting it up where everyone was signing up and downloading the app at roughly the same exact time was just asking for trouble. When I went to wwe.com to sign up the lead headline was "TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES". Apparently their entire web site crashed due to the traffic early on, which is kind of crazy because they are generally a high traffic website. I'm sure they had their reasons for doing it that way, but from what I've been reading today people have had major problems signing up, and to your less decicated or less computer saavy wrestling fan I'm guessing a lot of people just said "f this" and gave up

No-one is stopping UFC from doing their own in-house enhanced randomised drug testing, but they don't want to pay for it. They like the status quo where they can brag about their athletes being tested by the Government, while placing the heat on the ACs for anything that goes wrong. In most interviews Dana White has a genuine disdain for ACs, to the point where I have to take him seriously. Obviously they have certain commissions that they are on friendly terms with (Nevada, Cali) but I think he's sincere when he says he says he wishes UFC could control everything themselves. He's more pissed about the shoddy officiating and judging they get handed, and about the money these various states take out of their pockets, but he ranted about the shitty inconsistent drug testing more than enough. White also professes to be against THT exceptions, which it's hard to take on face value. They being doing enough dodgy stuff in recent years (booking guys like 'Reem and Barnett in certain states where they won't be tested more stringently as a result of their past failures/bannings, the whole GSP testing fiasco, etc.) that obviously nobody in the sport is blind to the huge problem there is, but that's not just UFC, it's all of sports. You can put the most stringent testing in place and athletes will find a way to beat it. I think if it were up to Dana he'd want a cleaner sport, but it's not a realistic goal

I don't have a problem watching his matches. It's been almost 7 years now. I avoided them for a bit, but I'm fine with it now. I was a big Benoit fan back in the day, and I can still appreciate him as a performer. I never think, "I want to watch a Chris Benoit match!" but when he's involved in something I'm watching it's fine. Hearing the people who knew him talk about him and try to process what he did themselves kinda makes me realize how screwed up he was. I dont make judgements of a man based on the worst or the best of his actions. What he did was horrific, but it's not the entirety of his existence. That was a very weird and bad time to be a wrestling fan, we all had to do some soul searching, and like a lot of us I held Benoit with the highest regard and respect prior to that As messed up as this will sound, in some ways it may have helped the sport. That it took a man mudering his wife and his child and himself to clean up the sport is beyond messed up. It was doom and gloom for a while and there were very legitimate questions being asked about the future of the sport. In terms of protecting the health of their athletes WWE is in a much better place now than it was in 2007. There was a lot of lipservice given to cleaning it up after Eddie died, but it didn't really fully take hold until after Benoit. Obviously still a lot of room for improvement (amazing that the guys haven't unionized yet, still, in 2014) and the drug policy is still kinda "don't get caught" when it comes to steriods/hgh.....but in terms of the concussion testing and physicals they're about as good as you'll find in american pro sports. Athletic commissions are a complete joke, and UFC kinda gets screwed over by them. I'm sure UFC would like to do all their own testings and not have to deal with the various completely clueless commissions, and when they do shows in other countries they do their own testing and more guys end up getting popped. WWE is lucky that they aren't really considered "sport" now and the athletic commissions don't try to involve themselves like they used to

Maybe "starved for live wrestling" wasn't the best way to put it, but there's definitely something to it. I know that there are small indy feds, but that's not the same as having the top televised promotions come to your country a couple times a year. Maybe "starved to see the televised wrestling live" would be more appropriate. WWF/E has always drawn well there, WCW would draw surprisingly well, and it's TNA's best market. The ROH shows over there years ago drew 1,500-2000, and they didn't even have a tv show at the time, let alone UK tv (was some of it shown on TWC?). I think it was NOAH that ran UK shows a few times, they must have drawn reasonably well. I live in the North East....it's the most populous area of the country, and I could go to at least a dozen WWE shows every year if I wanted to, between Boston, New York, NJ, Philly, Pittsburgh, Connecticut and all the other towns they run. And that's without even mentioning all the indys that run this part of the country. WWE next month is running MSG, Uniondale, Atlantic City, Trenton, Brooklyn, Binghamton and Boston....all within driving or train distance for me. In most of the populated areas of the country if you don't mind making some road trips, between tv and house shows, you can go to a lot of WWE live events. "Flyover states" have it the worst, but even most of them get a couple WWE shows a year, and again if you don't mind traveling you could go to more. I'd say the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho and that whole area get the least shows, but they still get some. And honestly, the crowds in a lot of these places come off bad on tv. There's a lot of bad crowds in the midwest and south for WWE tv tapings. So you can't blame them for running in their hottest cities more than they do in other places. TNA has tried to run a lot of these midwest and southern areas and towns that WWE doesn't go to often.....and they can't draw....which is partly TNA's ineptness and partly these just not being hot wrestling markets at this time

It was the usual Meltzer suspects. Half the names were puro guys. I'd be more surprised at Funk not being on it than Lawler. But Dave does these polls for his own amusement, and this was his athletic workrate "Meltzer faves" list. He probably likes Terry more for his promos and his passion for the business more than he does his ring work. Same for Lawler. Were Randy Savage and Rey Mysterio even on it? I only glanced at the poll the day it was put up, what were the final results? When I saw it it was Flair, Bret, Michaels 1-2-3

I definitely didn't ignore the signifigance, but I haven't seen it discussed really. It felt like WWE acknowledging, "yeah, we know you guys are getting sick of John Cena-Randy Orton matches, we're sorry, just bare with us through WM, we promise we'll push new people!" And they are pushing new people. Bryan, despite what some people think about WWE's booking of him, has been getting a huge sustained push for a long time now. The Wyatts. The Usos. The Shield. Roman on the verge of a megapush. Big E. These are all fresh faces getting big pushes. But I think some people online look at the shows and see Randy Orton, Cena, HHH & Steph, Kane, Big Show and just reflexively take the "same old shit" position. My take is...these are all WWE lifers and the biggest stars of the last 10, 15 years they have as regulars....of course WWE will use them in prominant roles. That can be right or wrong depending on your point of view, but it's totally defensible from the WWE perspective. I'd probably book all of those characters differently, but I wouldn't not use them in top roles while they're still around.

I think it took a while for people, creatures of habit, to remember that RAW started at 8pm every week after like years and years of it starting at 9. For a while after they went 3 hours they'd have a big spike at 9 from the regular audience tuning in. Cole was insufferable for a while trying to drill the 8pm start time into people's heads, but they had to do so. Heck, I'd even forget some weeks! Now that it's been going for a while the audience knows to tune in by 8, and they know that 8, 9 and 10 will have the big segments, and that the third hour will be loaded with filler until the ME segment. There are huge drops and gains in the quarter segment ratings and it has less to do with any individual than it does the pacing and structure of the show, IMO. With Cena for example he does better ratings the earlier he's put on the show. WWE has realized this and had him open RAW and then not be seen again several times. When they did the 3 hour "JOHN CENA WILL BE HERE AT 11!" show it did absolutely nothing for the rating, as other people in this thread have noted. Bottom line is 3 hours of wrestling is too long and a draggy chore to watch. 3 hour Nitros were interesting because they had such a large, diverse and talented roster....and you'd get a bit of everything thrown out there. Meng and Barbarian squashing some goofs, followed by a lucha 6 man, followed by nWo wackiness....it was wild. What I do like about the 3 hour RAWS is that it's forcing them to use all of their roster, and the emphasis on long matches simply because they need to fill time. I almost think they could stand to do more backstage and promo stuff, which I never thought I'd say about a modern WWE show. A lot of their tv audience is not most interested in bell to bell long wrestling matches. A lot of the live crowds are, but the tv audience is different. So I definitely think that's a factor in the ratings pattern, of people just getting bored with the long matches and less talking.

The first thing I'll probably do is watch all the ECW that's on there in chronological order. I used to have a lot of that stuff on VHS but I got rid of all my old wrestling tapes and magazines years ago I'll probably rewatch some of the brand specific SD! shows from 02-06ish. I haven't seen any of them in full since first viewing, but I was a big fan of SD! in that timeframe, and it'll be fun to relive that era again. There's several 01-02 shows I've never seen because I was in college and stopped watching on a regular basis. I'm not a big fan of the 01-02 booking, so I'm not in any rush to watch them. Same thing with 00-01 WCW. I don't think I've seen any of the 01 PPVs in full, just cherrypicked matches. But that's another thing I'm not in any rush to see. The selling point on the network for me isn't really the PPV archive, it's all the other stuff. I've seen every 80's/90's PPV from both WWF and NWA/JCP/WCW that exists, multiple times in many cases. I don't feel the need to rewatch something like SummerSlam '90 or Capital Combat: The Return of Robocop again, lol Actually, now that I'm looking at the card, I may need to rewatch Capital Combat. The Road Warriors and Norman against Kevin Sullivan, Bam Bam Bigelow and Cactus Jack (3 of my all-time favorite wrestlers)? A near 20 minute match between the Swat Team and Tommy Rich/Mike Rotunda? A 20 minute Doom/Steiners tag title match? I definitely watched this show too many times as a kid

I think they've been doing that for a while now. I've seen it, probably on the HOF's they broadcasted on Classics on Demand. Yeah, it's definitely been something I've noticed for a while. Definitely on the roundtable show they had, and on DVD releases, and various historical video packages. Not just "courtesy of PWI" but George Napolitano and various other sources. With some of the historical wrestlers they don't really have a choice, it's not like they own much of any footage of someone like The Sheik, just tossing a name out there I don't know what the chances of Kevin Sullivan going into their HOF are, but a lot of the peak stuff of his either doesn't exist on tape or isn't in their library. How much of the classic Florida stuff is around? Showing 70's WWWF or 80s/90s WCW/NWA footage wouldn't really do him justice, but with photos from outside sources you can paint a good picture of the type of wrestler he was

I'd rather watch Great Khali matches than half of the guys on that list. I mean that sincerely. My tastes are wildly different. To me workrate is watching Khali use the ropes.

I actually think it's smart of TNA to rid themselves of high priced talent like Hogan, Sting, Angle etc. etc. With what their business model is right now it doesn't make any sense to keep people like that around. If I was in charge I'd do the same thing. They draw their best houses in the UK and Europe because fans there are starving for live wrestling. TNA gets outdrawn by well promoted indy shows in the states. None of these "big stars" draws houses for them, or moves ratings.....and PPV? They barely even run PPV anymore, and their best drawing show was Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle with straight up old school "this guy and this guy will fight" promotion. I'll actually give Russo a little credit in that he trys to push new talent and fresh talent. He does it horribly most of the time, but I'll give him that. The idea that in 2014 he'd be booking the defacto #2 promotion in the US is insane. I think the most telling thing is that Wrestle-1 is apparently super pissed that Russo is back in the picture, and they have no interest in working with him or sending talent to TNA. I'm sure Mutoh remembers how shitty WCW under Russo was back in like 99 or 00, whenever he did that short run with them. I'd like to see TNA try and build from the ground up with their product, build their own thing very separate from the WWE, but with idiots like Dixie and Russo running the show I have zero faith in that company. Even somebody like Ethan Carter III, who I like and thought WWE made a mistake releasing......why is he wrestling and beating Sting within months of his debut? Of all the things you could do with Sting on his way out.....that's what they decided on? Is Jeff Hardy still around? I figure it's a given he'll go back to WWE sooner than later.