fakeplastictrees

Yeah I see Roode and Ziggler as just that. Guys who are trying to make chicken shit into chicken salad. It would be so easy for them to just phone it in right now, but they are trying to do something. Dirty Dogs will get a bigger reaction from the crowd than the team of Ziggler and Roode that are clearly just collecting pay checks. Both has been bores of the years and i don't think anyone will argue that Ziggler is well past his expiration date. But again, I appreciate the effort and they have delivered something that is somewhat, and I must emphasis the word 'somewhat', entertaining nonsense. If one or both are released this year, they at least tried.

This should be fun. The MLW reboot has been fun since its inception. It's good to see they are continuing to re-invent the company. I mentioned it earlier in this thread, but I always found SDR a little too try-hard. She's gotten a little better in her role over time, but she still does nothing for me. Apparently both WWE and AEW are interested in her services, but I feel Impact or ROH would probably be a better situation for her. It's going to be interesting to see where she lands. El Jefe in MLW is going to create some must see TV and if WWE an MLW are working together then we can possibly see Lucha House Party, Escobar and his crew, Humberto, and others.

I am just tired of the MMA gimmicks in pro wrestling. It's a crutch. It does nothing for me. I want to see more. Perhaps I missed a few things in the past two weeks or so, but the "Legit" stuff needs to go. Last video package I saw of her, she was standing in a ring talking about fighting for her family. it's boring. It's the go to gimmick for anyone who doesn't want to try and refuses to be larger than life. If I am wrong, I am wrong. I hope to be wrong. I love being wrong about wrestlers. I thought Brit Baker and Sammy Guevara were bad signings. I thought TNA brining in Scott Steiner in 2006 (?) was a bad idea. All 3 proved me wrong ten times over. I hope Leyla does the same. If not, and she settles into being "Legit", she can pack her bags. I'm not interested. Same for Tay Conti. Conti has improved in the ring and I am still waiting for her to develop a personality beyond letting people know she's a black belt. I will never apologize for wanting pro wrestlers to be larger than life and turn the personality up to 10.

Mel, Shanna, and Leyla can definitely go. I don't want to see anymore men or women who refuse to learn how to get over or transition beyond being a good in ring. I can see money in Abadon, Red Velvet, and MK Twins if AEW are interested in signing the latter. There's nothing in the first three IMO. Pro wrestling needs less serious, no charisma, MMA gimmicks right now. Having a black belt or being 'legit' means absolutely dick to me when it comes to pro wrestling.

It is true there are some bad actors out there that are looking to slam AEW, I am not one of them. I am not saying that anyone on this board is calling me one. Here's the thing though, if this was Shimmer, AIW, Freelance, etc. then people would go with it. However, when a billionaire owned multi-million dollar company does this on national TV for one of their biggest shows of the year, it's something different. AEW needs to get it together when it comes to delivering on big matches with big stunts. If this match ended with the threat and no pay off, I think everyone would have been okay with that (to an extent). AEW will slowly lose consumer confidence if this keeps up. Same thing happened to Impact. Granted, AEW is doing a million other things right, so they will be fine for a very long time, but something has got to give. This is the second big match where the big finale came off like complete shit. Fine, AEW had a dud bomb. Forgivable. But this? People remember finishes.

Is there a reason Natalya doesn't know how to do a proper sharpshooter? It's been years. Despite being related to Bret Hart and having two years (if not more) access to Sting, she still does the shitty version of one. It looks like shit and I don't believe she ever did it correctly.

I don't want to see any invasion angle. KENTA vs. Chris Jericho doesn't become more interesting with a faux invasion angle. It's okay if KENTA has an issue with Jericho and only Jericho instead of RAH RAH NJPW! Fans mainly want to see great matches today, so just make that happen. Impact has enough men and women on the roster to have random and fun matches on Dynamite, Dark, Dark Elevation, and PPVs. Not much of a story is needed to setup Rhino and Kingston on a random episode of Dynamite much like not was needed for Jericho vs. Nagata on a random episode of Thunder back in the day. That's the beauty of these types of working relationships, it helps keep the things fresh and allows AEW wrestlers to pick up wins from notable names without turning an AEW prospect like Jungle Boy in a JTTS. I hope we see an Impact vs. AEW six man down the line on AEW TV. Willie Mack, Rich Swann, Josh Alexander vs. Best Friends or Jurassic Express or Death Triangle to kick off a Dynamite or PPV would be fun.

I am sure there is a correlation between Eva Marie fans and those who like to 'just ask questions' in order to attempt to hide preposterous bad faith takes. Eva Marie looks good. That's it. Being physical stunning is not charisma. She was terrible in the ring and all of her promos were robotic. She was a Divas era hire while the fans wanted something more. Eva represented the old way and her on screen presentation had some fear she was going to become the new template for future hiring and on screen presentation. She had the bad kind of heat that, at some point, was mistaken and eventually accepted by some as the good type of heat. I am not sure why they re-hired her. She is yet another MAGA, anti-mask, anti-vax, conspiracy theorist liability.

@kas Yes. I believe his court case is coming up soon. Kidnapping and other charges. This impending court case lead to another unfortunate Joey Ryan rant where he felt he just needs to point out a few things. Joey Ryan was on Twitter complaining that TK pulled AEW wrestlers from a show Joey was scheduled to be on (the one that was cancelled), and yet TK allows AEW wrestlers to be on a show with ADR. Fucking Christ! There are some other things I really like about AEW that I noticed after watching the show a second time. I love that every faction has its own swag, purpose, and even colors! Dark Order has purple, Team Taz has black & orange, The Inner Circle has black, Best Friends have multiple bright and fun colors, etc. Its' also great that some of the weaker stuff involving some of these factions are not put at the forefront and is usually in the background and is quick and painless. No one wants to see a Shawn Spears match, but it's usually less than 10 minutes and actually moves forward the much larger narrative. The multiple factions also keep storylines and matches up fresh as TK isn't 'forced' to book Darby vs. Cage multiple times before their big blow off at the PPV. This has always been a problem with WWE TV for at least 20 years at this point. So it's refreshing to see TK not use TV time as an excuse to trot out the same matches every week. The entire show moves are a fantastic pace. AEW uses its 2 hours to the fullest and its good to see a pro wrestling promotion do that without padding those two hours with tons of recaps, 20 minutes of exposition that could have really be done in 30 seconds with JR making an announcement on commentary, etc. Raw hasn't done that in years, Impact was moving at a break neck speed and nothing stuck, AEW has found the balance.

Nick Khan might be the saving grace here. He doesn't seem to be interested to be involved in the carny bullshit of being part of WWE and living a childhood dream or whatever it is the wrestlers tell themselves and others while they work on their flip routines and refuse to learn how to actually get over with a crowd. I will be interesting to see how the coming months shape out or if its all going to be business as usual. WWE has clamped down on WWE superstars social media in the past, so it shouldn't be too hard for Nick Khan and team to send out the directive of no more QANON, COVID-19 theories, etc. on social media or that's an automatic pink slip. If Xia, Kross, Drake, Nia, and others find that so hard to comply with, then let them go to Impact and wrestle in front of 200 fans, not make any money, and post all the nonsense on their social media accounts. I would like to see all of this out of pro wrestling period, but that's just wishful thinking on my part.

Has anyone ever been so badly exposed as ADR post WWE run? We already saw the cracks in the armor while he was in WWE. Once WWE took away the cars, the music, the announcer and had him do the Mexican-American gimmick, we saw a mid-tier performer that loved to call people dogs a million times during his promos. This guy is worthless without the smoke and mirrors. He did nothing to move the needle in terms of attendance or ratings for AAA, Impact, or whenever else he popped into and after a while people realized what was going on. ADR is a great con man as he is able to convince people he is a million bucks and will help bring in a million buts, but this never really happened. The failed business, personal problems, and public meltdowns did not help matters at all, but holy smokes! Now it seems as though he is only wrestling because there is nothing else for him to do. Did he spend all his WWE and AAA money on lawsuits, lawyers, and failed businesses. It's kinda sad, but at the same time no one deserves this more than him. Sort of reminds me of an artist who has hits with a producer, but decides to strike out on their own and bomb and in the process completely destroys their brand and any good will associated so much to the point that a show at a random club in Ohio where that artist plays all the greatest hits from their heyday is only attended by 150 people on a Friday night. ADR is just a very weird guy to associate with at this point. I know they have history and ADR probably cried on the phone to get this to happen, but yikes!

Is there a comprehensive list of pro wrestlers that are QAnon/COVID deniers? I am afraid to put one together as I don't want any surprises. I would hate to find out someone like Molly Holly is secretly Q'd up.

A fun Impact. Everyone in the parley came off looking and sounding credible with the exception of, surprise!, Shawn Spears. There is no way he isn't dropping buckets of blood by the end of the match and taking the pin fall. The guy is useless. Imagine Spears picking up the victory for his team. It will be the dude explosion all over again, but this time Eddie Kingston won't be able to easily explain it away. I am excited for Nagata's return to TNT, Blood & Guts (of course), and the Omega tag match. Disappointed that Nakazawa is Kenny's partner. Cutler and Nak should remain on Dark and Dark Elevation eating pins and picking up victories here and there. If they appear on Dynamite or PPV, its to serve as the stooges to The Elite and not as pro wrestlers. Despite that, AEW has built enough good will with me that I am sure Michael will get his ass kicked rather nicely and put through a table or something. We'll see. Dynamite is still the best weekly pro wrestling show and its not even close.

This is good news! Thanks for sharing and providing an update. I hope things move in a positive direction for you! The JJ podcast would be interesting if he was going to be honest. 2004 JJ podcast would have been interesting, 2021 WWE HOF JJ though? How much is he willing to say. JJ doesn't come off as bitter about anything and had mended a lot of bridges over the year, to various degrees, so hearing a level headed JJ talk about CWA and CWF should be fun. I would like to hear more of that, but I know that's just me. Now that I think about it, I don't think we ever got JJ's taken on Bash At The Beach 2000, The Hardy Final Deletion/Broken Matt Hardy lawsuit, or the whole Billy Corgan fiasco. I'll give the first few episodes a listen, but it it goes the same direction as the Bischoff podcast, I will be checked out before episode 5.

@sek69 is correct. WWE allows Drake to be comfortable in his delusions. Any adult, with any senses, will ensure all potentially harmful, crazy, or controversial takes are done without potentially impacting the bag. Drake learned that he can do and say whatever he wants and WWE will continue to send him a check twice a month. The optics are beyond bad and this is all sad to see. I assume there was a meeting in NXT today where it was essentially stated that all 'outside activity' should be conducted off WWE/NXT/PC grounds and without any WWE/PC/NXT apparel, references, etc. At this point, Drake needs professional help. It's one thing if an adult wants to spend his/her time involved in conspiracy nonsense, but the rules change once children are involved. Again, none of this looks good from a personal or professional standpoint.

@Flyin' Brian don't forget the "Gold Standard" era. Benjamin rocked the Sisqo hair color for a bit and seemed to come out of his shell, for Shelton standards, to show his personality somewhat. Overall though, your point's taken. The social media bullying is insane to watch in real time. We haven't learned anything from Hana Kimura. Nothing. Zero. Nada. From Natalya invoking Hana's name because someone isn't a fan of her character and doesn't want her to win the title to fans spilling tea when they don't get their way ( the Green situation), its just all around toxic. I wish some of these people will think of the end goal. We have Natalya acting in complete bad faith because she worked herself into a shoot as it relates to her character (remember the fantasy team 'scandal' ), fans looking to scoring points with other fans, and other nonsense. No real end goal. Just people who want to feel superior to others. This post itself, is not that. I am not above any of this, I just find it completely silly. So rather than rising above and potentially being part of the problem, I try to just stay out of it as much as I can on social media. I think we should also try to distinguish commenting on an issue, regardless of how mundane the comment and/or issue, and actually dog piling. The first is usually, and I do mean usually, pretty harmless. The second on the other hand leads to doxxing, death threats, and negative impacts in various forms.

How much does Impact make a year? There is no way this company makes more than 3 million a year at this point and that's best case scenario. Youtube profits for the last 90 days, according to Variety (IIRC), were about 84k or so. If we break this into quarters, that's 336,000 give or take. Toss is 4-6 tent pole events a year at 30 dollars a pop that receive between 5-10K buys and we are looking at roughly 1 million dollars. Impact + has to have at least 10,000 people subscribed right? At 7.99 a month, assuming that number holds, then Impact should receive a little over 958,800 a year. Impact is shown in over 12 countries. I don't know the specifics of any of the deals, but I assume Impact is pulling it at least 100-500K a year in international TV Deals? All of this junky, rough, and completely speculative math brings Impact revenue between 2-3 million dollars per year. I am sure sponsorships, tickets sales (when that happens again), and merch help flesh out this number. Does any of this sound right? There is no way this company is making even close to 5 million a year, unless I am completely missing obvious revenue streams or super lucrative sponsorship deals.

I like Shida, but I feel all of her matches are 5-8 minutes too long. It feels glaring obvious to me that her matches should be a tad shorter. Am I the only one? I enjoy her and I think AEW is doing the right thing going all in on her, but I am often left thinking that I just saw a decent 15 minute match that has a really good 8 minute match somewhere in there. I will not pretend that Shida approaches HHH Mania levels of drawing something out, but shaving off some of her match times will benefit her and the cards she is on.

What's the benefit of keeping him around? I feel a powder keg is waiting to go off in Florida. All the elements are there. - Q'd up Drake - Dream still under contract for some reason - Multiple NXT and WWE wrestlers showing up at Team Vision and yucking it up with Rance - Jaxson Ryker hiding his hate in order to keep a job - Jordan Delvin, Matt Riddle, and a few others with some damning accusations against them What's the end game here? What's the play? WWE was able, to some degree, cover up the 'sex scandal' of the early 90's. All the elements are lined up. Perhaps I am being an alarmist. There is no way this ends well for anyone. WWE has the best roster it's had in terms of pro wrestling skill and the company is a content farm at this point. WWE will make nearly, if not over, 800 million dollars in 2022 (yes 2022) just on contracts and deals alone. 2021 Q1 was something like 137% profit. WWE is fine and is not struggling in the slightest. Banning WWE and NXT wrestlers from Team Vision and firing Drake, Dream, Ryker, and others will not hurt anything. This is a no brainer. The machine will keep going. The risk is not worth the reward.

Now I want to see a Dark Side of the Ring centered around the Lutteroth family. How many people will that family pay off to keep quiet? It would hands down be the most interesting episode in the series.

I don't think he would ever do it, but a Mark Carrano shoot would be very interesting to hear. I think Sean Oliver should at least ask Mark if Mark would like to be a guest on Sean's podcast.

Not really. The buzz on social media is head-to-head with Impact's at times, but take that for what it's worth. Recently, Joe Koff said that ROH does between 500-600K views for ROH's TV show. If that's the case then that means ROH is the 3rd most watched pro wrestling promotion in America. People still watch, but the product has mostly been lifeless post Elite. ROH tries its best, but much like Impact, I feel a lot of fans have given up on the ship turning around despite a few bright spots. At one point, pre pandemic, I believe MLW was out drawing both Impact and ROH on a consistent basis.

I am not sure why AAA just doesn't allow Fenix to run with the belt at this stage in the game. Fenix can do a U.S. Open Challenge gimmick with the belt. Fenix with AAA Mega Champion defenses against guys like Angelico, Jack Evans, Laredo KId, Black Taurus (Impact), Daniels, Kazarian, and Matt Sydal, can easily get 4 months of solid TV/Youtube matches out of the whole deal.

This was always a curious partnership to me. Outside of Texas, the CMLL partnership really didn't do much for either company. Sure the matches were fun to watch live, but I don't know anyone who ever purchased a ticket to ROH specifically to see CMLL guys. In Mexico, does ROH even mean anything? I don't expect ROH to be bigger than CMLL, AAA, or WWE, but where does ROH rank amongst Riot, IWRG, The Crash, and others as far as reach, influence, relevancy, etc. There is no way ROH is getting more eyeballs than Zona 23. If CMLL or ROH didn't really see a boost in business with The Elite exposure, it's probably best CMLL pulled out. I am not up on the politics of everything, but according to Rob Viper (@RobViper on Twitter), Mexican wrestling politics, especially those in CMLL, are beyond frustrating, irritating, and down right confusing. These are not Rob's exact words, however, what I wrote captures the spirit of one of most recent Tweets regarding the situation. The end of this relationship will impact ROH's bottom line. CMLL ending the working relationship will hurt CMLL more than ROH in terms of North America exposure. I am sure the information that will come out in the coming days will be very level headed and not make the CMLL head office seem completely crazy and out of touch.* * I am being sarcastic. This will be a shit show.

It's true. Impact never said any of these people will be at Slammiversary or involved with TNA in any capacity. However, Impact has done similar video spots before and usually deliver. Could this all be a work to get some buzz going? Sure. If not, Slammiversary could turn out to be a must watch show. Impact is not in a position for any bait and switch antics whether assumed by fans or not. It also does a disservice to the current roster if the chatter around Slammiversary, as it is today, revolves around people who won't be there instead of people who will most likely be there like Sabin, Storm, Young, Grace, Fire & Flava, and others. Time will tell.