MoS

Awwww good for you!

I like how JvK has continued his tradition of saying stupid shit, and announcing he is leaving a thread, only to keep coming back to the thread, and then accusing everybody who tells him that the stupid shit he is saying is stupid of being "emotional" and arguing against "facts". I am just waiting for him to say this bill is objectively wrong because Ric Flair would not like it and it is not fair to Flair. I hope he does a 3-part podcast whining and moaning about it.

I agree. Fantastic article. We do not have a catch-all main site feedback thread, but I just wanted to say that all the reviews and articles have been great and I have loved reading every one of them. I must make a special mention of the Lawler-Snowman article; that was particularly awesome. Excellent work Loss and as a reader and wrestling fan, I am so glad you are doing this!

Bryan is such an excellent wrestler. I really like his new style focusing on limbwork and submission grappling since he has come back.

Cain's weight training videos are genuinely cringe-worthy to watch. His trainer should never be allowed to train anybody ever again. I think Jake Roberts also once said that a lot of weight-training for pro wrestling in the 1980s (with steroids involved of course) was not smart and was very hard and taxing without being smart or effective. I forget his exact words but I think he pointed to a couple of injuries he got while training and said the methods used by pro wrestlers were sub-optimal.

Right now, AJ might be the better wrestler (and is obviously awesome) but I have been really loving Bryan's matches and his more mat-based style since returning from his retirement. It is such a breath of fresh air. I also like the fact that WWE is not using him in the tired role of the ultimate underdog who gets beaten up but wins against all odds, instead portraying him as a highly dangerous grappler who can break the limbs of other wrestlers if he wants to, including certified badasses like Samoa Joe.

I swear I am not making this up - when I was a kid, my mom once told me to go to sleep else "The Undertaker will come". When I asked her who Taker was, she said, "A very bad man with long hair." He had turned face a long time by then but I am guessing his initial image of undead heel zombie lasted for a long time. But yes, he has been enormously popular as a mythical, almost supernatural figure for decades now.

Yeah, Khali would definitely be able to single-handedly draw such big houses on his own. People have not heard of his school or his promotion, but they have definitely heard of him, and he is definitely a draw here. It is why I thought WWE missed a trick by not booking him especially for their Indian event last year. Even with the obscenely prized tickets, he would probably have sold out the arena, even if it was just as Jinder's manager. As it is, the WWE name is so hot here they managed to almost sell out a near-35,000 seat arena with massive ticket prizes, and presumably made a lot of money, so I am sure they are not regretting it, but he would have certainly helped. One of the reasons Khali became so huge in India was that for the longest time, the wrestler who was by far the most popular in India was The Undertaker. He was the kind of wrestler my mom had heard of when I was a kid, and she had never watched a second of wrestling in her life. He was so huge that in a mainstream Bollywood movie in the mid-90s, they literally stole his character, including the name and the gimmick, for a supporting villain role. (This is part of the opening scene of the movie. Poor Crush was not even credited. Vince probably does not know of this otherwise he would have surely sued the makers for this blatant breach of copyright.) Khali debuted and was immediately put in a program with Taker. Not only that, but he was booked as an unstoppable monster who got the better of Undertaker multiple times in the build-up, and in their match, he completely squashed Taker. That was one of the strongest ways they could have introduced a character back then. I remember being stunned by how strongly they booked him against Taker. Very soon, he dominantly won a battle royal and had a cup of coffee with the SD world title. That was enough to make him a permanent star in India and that is why I will forever defend that booking, even though it was criticised severely at that time. India does not have PPVs, and for the most part, we do not have a culture of people going to bars or pubs and watching wrestling or boxing or MMA, or anything at all except perhaps cricket. But clearly the ratings must have been excellent, because their TV rights deals here kept getting exponentially better, and now India is their 3rd biggest market after the USA and England, despite having much less disposable income. Regarding what Jinder said about the political stuff, it very well might have happened, although honestly I do not know for sure. Khali has met the PM (he is a big enough celebrity to meet the Prime Minister for stuff like this, that really tells you something) and might have asked him to let his show happen in the arena in its first few dates. The PM was probably happy to do so because wrestling is really popular in India, Khali is also really famous and a known celebrity, and unlike the USA, there is no stigma attached to wrestling as such; it is considered harmless fun. Supporting it would have probably got the PM easy political points because no one would oppose it and wrestling fans would be happy. By using the Coldplay concert for political ends, I meant the PM had, as a suprise, literally appeared on the stage via satellite when Coldplay were doing a concert here, a few days after he had announced a controversial new policy about demonetisation. https://scroll.in/video/822001/watch-narendra-modi-beams-himself-into-coldplay-concert-and-jokes-about-demonetisation I cannot imagine them doing that with pro wrestling, but what you said about choosing Khali's show to sell out the first few dates of a new arena is very plausible. Thanks for summarising Jinder's appearance on the podcast! It was a very interesting read for me.

I think this is awesome and I will support you in any and every way I can.

Khali's school/promotion is still around and doing well, but it is not that famous. I have heard of the number he did as well, and I do not know how worked it is, but it is not something most of the country knows. I have not listened to the podcast, but some of Jinder's claims seem to be exaggerated. Yes, there is red tape involved in renting arenas and doing shows, and there is probably more red tape here than in the US, perhaps for no other reason than the fact that Vince knows most people who are in charge there, but it is not significantly more difficult. Also, India does not use pro wrestling for political ends. The current Prime Minister did use a Coldplay concert once for political points, which is probably stupider, but not pro wrestling. Most famous and legendary global acts have toured India in the last few years, so perhaps it was hugely difficult to book arenas before, with a lot of loops to jump through, but I really doubt that is the case now. The Indian crowd is definitely more casual and "willing to believe" than the casual American fanbase. I have never attended a Khali show, but I would not be surprised at all if all of them were there just to see him, and to see him victorious. He really became something of a pop-culture phenomenon here.

I still think Braun can be the guy, at least in the short term. His match with Balor last week was a perfect example of how he can be shown to be vulnerable and beatable while still retaining his aura and remaining over. If constantly booking him in comedy angles continues for a couple of months, that ship might sail as well. I hope he wins the MitB briefcase in a dominant manner.

This one? I have really enjoyed the posts in this thread. Related to the topic, Jericho v. Omega from this year's WK is right now my favourite match of the year. Jericho went all out both in the build-up and during the match to get as much heat and hatred as he could.

Loss's point about wrestlers not knowing who they or their characters are is very salient. This uncertainty leads to them not believing in their words, and that is invariably the death knell for promos. WM season was not too long ago, and many promos were cut to hype matches, but I thought of the sit-down interview Austin and Rock did with JR before WM 17, and Austin, with an almost deranged look, told Rock that "I really need to beat you Rock. I need it more than anything else in the world." This was after Rock had said, again while displaying great facial expressions, that "I will give you every drop of sweat and blood at WM. Win lose or draw, you are going to get the absolute best of The Rock." There was a conviction there which is simply missing in 99% of the promos today, and that is one huge reason why promos today are not as memorable as they used to be, and arguably do not sell matches and card as well as they used to. Austin's heel turn ultimately was a flop, but that promo still gives me goosebumps, and nothing complex about the nature or meaning of life or whatever the fuck was said. Just a simple "I need to beat you, I will give my best, I will win."

Not completely related, but some posters here have seen me often talk about the Indian wrestling fanbase, which is huge and also mostly "casual". I attended their live event in December last year, and Roman and The Shield were tremendously over. They received a 10-minute ovation during their entrance, and the crowd remained molten throughout their match. Roman literally had a shit-eating grin on his face cuz he was probably not expecting it. Well, the other day I was following a cricket ball-by-ball live feed on a popular cricket site about a domestic cricket match, and the commentator casually dropped in a wrestling reference. That led to a host of readers writing in referencing wrestling. One of them said that some cricketer's name should be "Roman 'Big Choker' Reigns" or something because he always seems to lose hyped, important matches. This is completely anecdotal and literally a single bit of evidence that could very well not mean anything at all, but it made me feel that those who are saying he is done as the ace and can never attain that position are right. The constant pushing him to the main event scene, even when he in theory does not deserve it and comes off as a whiner (all the while talking about how there is some conspiracy by management to hold him down!!) only to make him lose while the live crowd very vividly shits on the match might be seriously impacting his appeal with the casual fanbase that does not really care about whether it is unfair that he was chosen to be the ace while other more "deserving" wrestlers were ignored. However, they arguably do care if someone is constantly inserted into the main event, only to lost most times, before being predictably inserted into it again, often on account of very tenuous and unconvincing logic. Again, it could very well not mean shit, but it is a thought I had while following that cricket match.

I do not really understand what their end-game with this constant carpet-pulling is. What happens next? Reigns claims he got screwed because he won the match and thus he gets another title shot whenever Brock wrestles next? The title is stripped from Brock because of the controversy? The finish is reviewed or whatever and Roman is awarded the championship? Because all of them are distinct heel scenarios and I fail to see how doing any of them would help Roman.

Agreed. It's excellent. His personal tribute at the beginning is also great. You can tell he genuinely regrets not having found the time to call him in the last couple of years, and that he is really upset cuz Bruno was a good friend.

I watched the main matches yes i never tried to derail anything i just state my view on what i see and how i see things. People say i troll becuase of my odd views when i do not troll and i tend not to give out high ratings with ease like alot of people Why don't you state your views on what you see and how you see things in the relevant threads instead of derailing almost every single thread? You can for instance give your ratings on the matches you watched. Ronda was excellent. She was the best worker in the match, and it was her first match. Hell, if someone tried to argue she was the best worker of the night I wouldn't disagree. Brock was in a dgaf mode, and that is a pity. I am guessing they thought Reigns kicking out of 5 F-5s, including one on the table, would puthim over big-time given the move has been rebuilt as a one-shot killer over the last several months. Given his crimson mask, they really did try to get him over ala Austin at WM 13. But it was so overdone and frankly ludicrous, it actually worked against him. He was getting steadily over in the build-up and now he might just be less over than he was at the start of the year.

Really glad Dara Singh is getting some recognition by WWE.

I do not know if he was a gimmick poster or if that is how he actually types English in general, but I felt he was always respectful and open to discussing his arguments, even if I felt some of his opinions were strange as fuck. He certainly seemed inoffensive and I do not think he was breaking rules or detracting from the discussions we have here.

Austin returning at Unforgiven 2000 is one of the biggest pops ever, despite the fact that they fucked with perfection and modified his theme song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5JprJGEmfs (Sound quality is not great, which kind of defeats the purpose, but it is still good enough) I am a huge Austin fan so obviously I am biased, but it is incredible just how many ridiculously huge pops he received during his run at the top.

I love the sit-down interview Austin and Rock did before WM 17. That promo video prior to their match was also amazing.

Sasha got straight-up squashed. Evidently she is being held responsible for what happened to Paige.

Paige got injured in a house show tonight; it was a 6-person tag and it had to be stopped due to her injury. She walked out on her own from what PWI reports. Hopefully it is nothing serious because I have liked the Absolution angle so far. It's not been perfect but it has shown definite promise imo.

By far the best wrestling board on the Internet. I do not have much to add; most of what I feel has already been said by others. However I do want to thank Loss and Will and the others for running this board so well and for creating an atmosphere which fosters excellent wrestling discussion.

For what it is worth, the spot has gone viral. Indian comedy pages which have never posted memes about wrestling before with the exception of the huge stars like Cena, Austin, etc have made memes about that spot. That is not going to earn them any money per se, but it is certainly...something, I guess, even though it is the kind of wrestling I hate. The are certainly gaining notoriety and leverage, so good for them.