sek69

BTW I would guess Cody not being in the G1 means he's probably winning the ROH title on their show and they didn't want their champ tied up doing all the tournament dates.

I kind of did. He was getting a lot of MMA and boxing work, and that plus whatever dirt he had on them with the JBL stuff probably meant they made him a ridiculous offer.

Looks like we're getting two years of WWE ECW soon as well.

I bet Brad Maddox would consider that art. (seewhatIdidthere) I mean, why not. Art is like the most subjective thing there is. Too many people dismiss something they don't like or don't "get" as not having any artistic value. As a longtime video game fan, I've heard that argument all the time from people who had little to no understanding of what they were talking about and were just being dismissive of something they felt was beneath them. Wrestling at its core is performance art, whether it's a Santino comedy match, an indy spotfest, or a NJPW six star classic. No one would suggest movies aren't art just because there's tons of shitty B/C level films made every year.

Last year's was great but like jcmmnx said the search function for CAWs was so busted it was too frustrating to play on any kind of regular basis. Which was really too bad since there were tons of great ring and belt creations to go along with the wrestlers.

What I don't get is Carmella and James made a valid defense, and Bryan actually agreed with them, but then he took the case away anyway because reasons. It seems popular on Wrestling Twitter to say that people who didn't like the women's MITB and the aftermath are being worked by WWE's brilliance here but since they troll the fans all the time now it's gotten to the point that not liking something they do is their version of the guy who's all "it was just a prank bro" when they get called out.

The Bruno-Hansen cage match is so great, just two guys clubbering each other until Bruno just beats his ass and walks out. I will say Stan teasing that he's going to climb out of the wobbly ass 70s WWWF cage was the scariest part of the match.

That and he was tired of having to fight Enzo's battles for him after he would shoot his mouth off. Considering WWE doesn't do managers not named Paul Heyman, there's not much Enzo can do now. I think he'd be great as a modern day Jimmy Hart pipsqueak heel manager, but that role won't be there for him in this company.

I'd say EA Sports is at least honest, they pump out sports games year after year and don't really pretend anything else. Which is fine because FIFA and Madden sell bazillions every year so why fix what isn't broken. People were lol'ing at them adding a story mode in next year's Madden but it's not like it's really changing much of the actual game. WWE acts like the fans dictate what they do when all available evidence points otherwise. It would be if EA saw that people really enjoy playing FIFA but decided to put all their effort behind a new cricket game because it's popular in India.

Or they're getting tired of the same old shit and getting mad at the bookers for seemingly not being able to move past worn out crutches to get heat. Possibly. Edit: this was in response to the post where it was suggested folks are just getting mad at the bookers for heels doing heel things.

Heels cheating to win and/or not lose has been a thing forever of course. When nearly the entire card involves heels winning and the babyfaces are constantly being portrayed as losers who never get the job done it creates a deflating environment for the crowd that just wants to see the people they cheer for have even the briefest moment to celebrate.

It's not about having her win or lose matches as much as not scripting her like they've done in promos since she's come up.

Basically old timers be all "our silly, hokey shit was just fun times while your silly hokey shit is destroying the biz".

The thing with live crowds is that outside of the handful of big cities they run regularly, most towns only get WWE shows once or twice a year. The youngsters in the crowd by and large aren't watching for 3 hours a week.

That was my understanding, plus I have a hard time believing Hulk would be aware of Dustin's existence in the slightest in any of the periods their paths would have crossed.

He was one of the biggest draws in wrestling history, and if we're going to disqualify people for being pieces of shit human beings there'd only be room to discuss like 5 people max in the history of the business.

She's been in CMLL for a long time, nothing spectacular, but CMLL luchadoras tend to range from very good to trainwreck waiting to happen. This probably explains why they've been heavily (by their standards) implying she's going to have a mask match soon.

Dave did make a good point that if you showed someone who never watched All Japan in the 90s a clip of one of those comedy matches with old Baba they'd probably think it was the worst promotion ever. Cornette making opinions of PWG over a 10 second Chuck Taylor clip is the same concept.

This seems to be fading away, but occasionally a story will pop up from someone on the indies that they inadvertently offended some old timer by not shaking their hand/genuflecting properly in their direction. I get wanting the young guys to show respect, but some take it to the nth degree. While true, the insecure nature of most wrestlers tends to cause it to be worse in their field. Hell, Roman just went on a mini Twitter meltdown over an indy wrestler who didn't share the idea that going to WWE is the end all be all for everyone in the business. #DumbAssMark is a hell of a hash tag for your supposed top babyface to try to get trending.

Getting over in WWE is all about charisma, that's why Nakamura is still popular on the main roster despite them doing their damnedest to WWE-ize him with the "Artist" nonsense.

Remember when Triple H said they'll only promote guys from NXT when they have a plan for them on the main roster? It sometimes seems like Vince is fucking with him when he pulls up guys like American Alpha and then they get forgotten. Guys like Owens got lucky that between injuries and the brand split, the ranks were too thin to not push everyone, and since you have about a month from your first appearance before Vince permanently slots you in his mind he was able to stay high enough on the card to not get sent to jobberville.

I have never once watched a wrestling match and thought about what star ranking to give it. That it became the essential part of a lot of people's viewing habits baffles me to no end. If Dave gives the next Okada-Omega match eleventy million stars and you disagree, so what? It shouldn't matter what someone else thinks.

That's the thing, it's not dying, it's just horribly stagnant. WWE has settled into a comfort zone of being just profitable enough to not piss off Wall Street while rocking the boat as little as possible (except for the Jinder thing, but even that was on the B show). It's why I wish there was a viable second major promotion in the US more than anything else it gives Vince a kick in the ass he needs to put out the best product he can.

The difference is something like Bayley should never have ended up in the "only worked in NXT" bucket. She has been so badly misused on the main roster it's nearly criminal. They absolutely suck at getting babyfaces over on the main roster to the point they reconned the Daniel Bryan era to say that it was all their plan from the start. Now they think that constantly beating babyfaces gets people behind them so you have Bayley and Sami Zayn going from huge babyfaces in NXT to geeks in WWE. But I suppose the blame will be placed on the acts themselves for "just not being able to translate".

I mean, one of the factors that helped push WCW over the cliff was the switch to 3 hour Nitros and how bad it made the product. Now obviously WWE isn't going to be at that level and have guys going on TV smashed out of their gourds, but it eroded the fan base even before the really bad shit started. WWE's position is bad in another way. It's near impossible to attract new fans to watch a three hour main program (plus two more hours for Smackdown), but they can't broach the subject with USA since TV money is their bread and butter. I know Triple H has pretty much said he hates it being three hours, so it's not as if they don't realize the problem. The age of WWE viewership is going up and up, which means they are more or less retaining the hardcores and not bringing in anyone new. There's no reason for a wrestling show to be longer than a hour, 90 minutes at tops. Even at two hours you're getting to the point of needing filler, at three hours plus the silly vestigial tail that is the overrun you're turning your flagship show into the Baatan Death March.