Coffey

Currently: Lucha Underground - Probably won't watch again until at the end of the season now, after watching the first couple episodes of season two, so I can watch it all in one marathon session. Really enjoyed the first season. WWE - I've fallen out of favor with them. I'll always still watch the Big PPVs, at least Rumble & 'Mania. I used to always watch RAW but I've skipped a few weeks now. I never watch any of the non-RAW TV shows. NXT - I don't enjoy the weekly show as much because I was a fool & read spoilers. It's hard to avoid them when even WWE themselves spoil their owns shows. I'll still watch the Takeover events. NJPW: I'll watch Wrestle Kingdom every year but at this point, that's the only show I go out of my way to see still. "Other" - I'll occasionally catch an odd ROH PPV every now & then but that's about it.

Excited for the Freebirds. They certainly deserve it. The Hayes speech is going to be SO LONG.

Can we just talk about pro-wrestling without taking personal shots at one another (this thread) or making gay "jokes" (NXT thread)? I'm not loving the direction I'm seeing things lately. C'mon, y'all. Let's not turn this into DVDVR.

I hated the brand split & I don't want another one. I don't want to have to go out of my way to try to watch more WWE shows. The shit that matters happens on RAW, the flagship program. Nothing else matters. A brand split just means they're moving some people that I would otherwise care to watch to a show that I'm not going to watch, like Smackdown. If anything, I wish they would get rid of the non-RAW shows.

What are they going to give The New Day? They have been the most over act that WWE has had pretty much all year... I hope they don't just give them throw away fodder, but I'm sure they will.

I'm more confused of why we're supposed to act like Shane McMahon is a big star. I mean, he has big moments, like getting thrown through glass or falling off of high things... but I don't feel like he's ever accomplished a lot as an on-screen character. Maybe I am misremembering or forgetting a lot of things though. I think a lot of the pop was because it was a genuine surprise factor. I certainly didn't see Shane McMahon coming... but I also don't think that Shane McMahon is a credible opponent for almost anyone on the roster. Certainly not for The Undertaker at Wrestlemania in a Hell in a Cell match. It just seems so... random. It's really confusing to me.

On the Wrestling Observer Radio show today, Dave Meltzer insinuated that there are as many as 20,000 unsold Wrestlemania tickets. Am I misunderstanding what he's saying here? It's around the 55 minute mark of the show. "This year should be interesting. They got a lot of tickets sold but it ain't like they sold 70,000 tickets. And now we're already at the point where there's not a lot of people buying tickets anymore. It's not like they're selling 20,000 tickets between now and show time."

Today I learned that The Undertaker has a "1" in psychology. I like to picture wrestlers reading these lists... Reminds me of the C.M. Punk shoot when the one jabrone at the wrestling school said he was "like Shawn Michaels... only with more charisma." I think instead of running every guy through your wrestling number grinder, JVK, you should first definitively reassess what those criteria actually represent/mean.

He's my #30 exactly. I don't know if there's another wrestler in the world that has made me mark out as many times as The Undertaker. Not even Hulk Hogan when I was a child. Like... his entrance still gives me goosebumps and I'm in my thirties.

I can't stop shaking my head at the screen and chuckling. Totally unreal the things this company thinks are good ideas. Triple H. Vs. Roman Reigns for the top belt. The Undertaker Vs. Shane McMahon; Hell in a Cell as a draw? lol... Can we bring back Linda too!?

It's probably going to Triple H.

EDIT: Hmm, I should have read the thread as this was already asked. I apologize. Never the less, I think my list is finalized now & whenever we decide on how to submit the entries, I'm ready.

Stone Cold Podcast with The Big Show is awesome. Everyone watch it. Main event of Monday Night RAW, maybe not so much. WWE seems to always have faith in some of the wrong people & that's been a trend since I started watching them in the 80's. Fast Lane, if the above posted is the card, doesn't look even fun on paper. Wasn't it rumored that WWE really wanted Fast Lane to be a big deal this year & not just a placeholder in-between Royal Rumble & Wrestlemania? It doesn't feel like that, it feels like a throwaway PPV still. I'm starting to feel concerned for Wrestlemania.

Just a difference in philosophy, but a lot of folks on this board have a very narrow and rigid view of wrestling IMO because they place 100% importance on "being a worker" and zero importance on all of the other factors that go into creating a complete wrestler. It's a viewpoint I can't imagine anyone in the wrestling business subscribing to, because someone who is a "great worker" and has nothing else going for him will be a jobber, period. Look at Brad Armstrong (who I loved, BTW, but let's not pretend he was able to display any kind of charisma or compelling character work). The fact that people are posting about Jake ("Not a great worker but an awesome promo, good character & good look.") And I also said I consider him one of the greatest 100 Wrestlers of All-time but let's ignore that.

Episode 3 left a lot to be desired but the main event Last Man Standing was fun. Everything before that was kinda sloppy. The closing plot reveal was fun. I don't know if anything from this season is going to make me feel as excited as I was when Pentagon, Jr ran in on Mil Muertes at the end of the first episode though. That was crazy fun.

Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Not a great worker but an awesome promo, good character & good look. Some of the worst punches I can remember ever seeing in wrestling, actually... but he got psychology & pacing. Also had a sick finish. He's on my GWE list... so... I'd say the sum of all the parts matter.

Again, we can't compare pro-wrestling to other businesses, even pro-sports. If a jobber in TNA grabbed Dixie on-camera, would they get in trouble? Yeah, probably. ...I don't know who runs the other promotions I guess. HA!

I still think it's just cause it happened on TV. Mr. McMahon is portrayed as pretty much the most important guy on the entire show. He shows up rarely... and when he does it's a big deal. Titus is an undercard guy that doesn't really do anything. Off camera, it's two guys horsing around. On camera, it's basically a jobber attacking the top guy there is. OF COURSE John Cena wouldn't get in as much trouble. He's the top guy and makes the company a ton of money. WWE is weird about shit like this. Especially if it's something that involves the blurring of kayfabe. Look at the Lana/Rusev engagement shit that happened on Twitter.

I figured that the issue was he did it on camera, not that he did it.

Yeah, this is definitely where I'm at. Edit: An hour and forty-five minutes later, I definitely no longer think a work is a possibility, sadly.

It doesn't even look good as a finish either - just not worth it, imo.

People saying things like this is why Vince McMahon wants to do "entertainment" & not "pro-wrestling."

Johnny Mundo is one of my least favorite performers in the entire industry right now. That dude just doesn't do anything for me. It all comes off as so fake. He can't even ever hit his own finish without it looking like a botched spot. He's also not a good promo. Not a fan at all. Putting him out there with Killshot wasn't even a good idea on paper to me, so whatever. It was what it was. They had a pretty good Spear spot on the outside. I did think the first episode this season was better than the second but they're doing a good job of reintroducing us to the previous characters & bringing in some other people. Keeps things fresh. Looking forward to seeing Mysterio in Lucha Underground.

Another added bonus of having jobber matches is two-fold: one you can re-establish finishers. Like how everyone always has to kick out of an Attitude Adjustment nowadays so you never buy the first one winning the match anymore. Well a jobber doesn't have to kick out of one. Second, you can win matches with other things. Like the top rope Snowplow that Kevin Owens has been doing, or when Cena was doing things like the Springboard Stunner or Code Red. If you beat a dude with that, when you do those moves in bigger matches, the false finishers mean something & people will actually buy-into them instead of just knowing that they're 2-counts which takes away any heat/intrigue from them.

I think back to Lucha Underground. Sure, they only have an hour, not like... five that they have to fill. But even the people that weren't doing anything, they found them something to do. All the people that had their arms broken by Pentagon, Jr.? They came back & had a match against each other, with something on the line. Then the one guy lost his mask and turned heel on Sexy Starr. Even the jobbers were given something to do. If WWE would just give everyone something to do, they wouldn't have any trouble filling up the TV time. People like Fandango, The Ascension or Jack Swagger rarely even make TV. They have people down in NXT that are ready to be called up. The whole star Vs. star for every match thing was due to the Monday Night Wars, from like, what, 19 years ago? You're not really battling to win quarter hours anymore. They need to be making stars. Some jobber squashes wouldn't be the end of the world. Maybe not bringing in local guys to lose every week like they did with Ryback for awhile but having designated jobbers wouldn't be so bad. Like the Social Outcast. They gotta at least TRY. They can't just keep hoping stars from yesteryear will always be there to bail them out. They have an entire creative team that gets paid to come up with this shit. If they can't come up with something, fire their asses & get someone that can.