WrestlingPower

I was surprised to hear Meltzer totally poo-poo the concept of NJUSA. Usually he's all about more alternatives and places for people to go and rarely totally discourages the existence of something. He was openly saying this was pointless, their business plan of house shows demonstrates they aren't in touch with the US market, etc. All of these may be valid points but to me you let these companies learn their own lessons and discover for themselves. If NJ is willing to pay for talent to work shows in front of 400 people, it's their choice and their bottom line, to me they shouldn't be discouraged. It may work for them, who knows. And I'm sure the fans that go would enjoy it depending on what's presented. I'd be interested in possibly going depending on the lineup. I was thinking about how this affects ROH too. To me ROH may already be close to the level of Impact since reports are their most recent PPV drew 800 buys as compared to doing 10,000 somewhat recently (Mania weekend maybe?). I think AEW needs to get some guys from there and NJPW would probably need them too to fill up US cards. NJ either thinks they can do it al on their own or don't trust the ROH infrastructure but to me it would make more sense for this to be a joint venture with ROH and let them handle some of the heavy lifting of US promotion & logisitics. I guess my point is we need to see how this plays out.

Thanks for the backstory on Josephus. I wasn't aware he had lost a hair match. It took me a while to realize this must be the same guy that was doing a Brody gimmick with long hair on SAW several years back. I just assumed he had gotten a 9-to-5 haircut and we just had to accept that he still wrestles while having to look presentable for his day job. He was entertaining enough though as a Black Bart loud-mouth, big bumper type who gets beat up. I like James Storm a lot, but granted I probably haven't really seen him wrestle in 5+ years. I don't mind the Aldis character, you have to have a guy in that role that looks the part & takes himself seriously. You can argue (really now or anytime in the last 20 years) about whether the NWA and/or their champion taking themselves seriously & trying to act like the belt is what it once was is good for business or extremely out of touch & pathetic. Not to dig too deep in the Cornette discussion here, but this isn't a Cornette project. I agree he goes too hard on the Bucks & Omega but totally agree with him on Janela, Ryan, etc. I think his deal with Janela is much more about him being an untrained hardcore guy than what his body looks like. I'm more curious to see how Cornette handles calling Cabana matches given their history. And also, I guess I must have missed it, when/where was it revealed that his feud with Callihan was a work? He went pretty hard on him again last week with writing off Impact for giving him a push.

Just starting in on this thread but I think EL-P kind of captures my thoughts on this, he just put it in better words. I was thinking this was a like a dream/flashback sequence you'd see on like a sitcom where current people get transported back in time & are placed on a replica of that time frame. Yes, cosplay is a good word for it. I can totally appreciate the expense that went into this and agree that it came across extremely well but yeah it's 2019. I kind of feel the same way watching this as when I stopped going to local indies. I have hundreds of unwatched DVDs of people doing 80s style in the 80s that I haven't watched, with people I am familiar with from that timeframe doing that style. I don't have time to watch current (mostly unknown) people doing a retro style. I kind of feel like "what's the point" if you can't do something progressive. But all that said, this is something different and I hope they do get a TV outlet so those involved can justify the time & expense that went into this and it can be another option for the boys & the fans.

I'm curious to hear Cornette on the NWA shows as they are pushing Cabana and I heard there was a jobber on there in basically street clothes. I fully get that Cornette would have to be professional and do the job he was hired for but I'll be interested to see how he toes that line without coming off as a hypocrite. He's kind of painted himself into a corner on some of this type of stuff where he'll either have to recuse himself on commentary from certain matches, or "go into business for himself" in creating a diversion that wouldn't serve the promotion any if he goes off on some of his biases on commentary. I'm totally in agreement with Cornette though on his criticisms of Omega. The preening, jazz hands, and exaggerated expressions do totally distract me from his "performance" in a match. Unless AEW really start pushing him soon (and I'm not advocating for that), I think Omega is kind of being exposed as not as big a deal as he's been presented in recent years. He's not in the main event scene yet and it's not like he's come across in a way that it's some crime against humanity that he's being "held down" in the booking. He seems perfectly fine in the upper mid-card where he probably belongs.

Thanks for that on Meiko, I haven't followed Japan all that closely for 10 years or more. I largely wasn't aware of her Europe stuff. To me it seemed like she dropped out of sight there for a while between when Sendai Girls started and when she started coming to the US. My wheelhouse is more late 90s-mid 2000s since I went over there several times. I always thought Gaea was criminally underrated by the Observer, especially when they seemed to be the one promotion that could still draw in arenas for their annual April show. I know virtually nothing about Stardom and its stature.

I've listened to a couple podcasts about this topic and wanted to post some thoughts. Karl Stern is voting for both Edge and CM Punk. He said he's not a Punk fan but feels that these guys are comparable and if he's voting for Edge, he feels he has to vote for Punk since he sees him as slightly above him. I don't think either one should necessarily be in but I agree with him that Punk is a stronger candidate simply because Edge had so many gaps in his career. Fumi Saito didn't totally lay out his whole ballot but for someone so well informed on wrestling, it seems his standard of HOF is much lower than most voters. Listening to him talk, if he could he would vote for a majority of candidates in Modern and Historical US, feeling most should be in already. I do agree with him though that there are quite a few candidates who should be revisited 10 years from now. I think Meltzer has painted himself into a corner though now and won't go back on the 35-year-old rule but it does seem ridiculous that guys are on here like Omega whose stories are still being told. I'm curious to see how Satomura does. To me she's a work candidate and probably does belong in based on that. But given DM's resistance to put on US indy super workers, I don't see how Satomura's any different. The joshi scene in totality and the promotions she's worked for are probably even more obscure and less "major league" than US indies that guys like Daniels, Hero, etc. worked for. To me if she goes in on work, those types should at least be on the ballot despite the level of promotions they worked for.

Re: the topic about Slater & Chavo Sr. in historical, it's based on 30 years since they were last active in a big league capacity. So this year's cut off is 1989. Did either of these do much noteworthy after that year? I guess Slater's time in the Hardliners was early 90s, so maybe he should be in Modern (seems to me that Meltzer counted some years for Ivan Koloff that really weren't major years). Not sure about Chavo's career around that time.

I thought the show was good enough. I'm not a regular follower of NXT. Positives: lighting, production, good promo packages on guys, the 2 matches were both good (nothing blow away but it's TV not Takeover), pacing/easy to watch hour (wondering if it might get old in a 2-hour format); rabid crowd Negatives: I did have enough of Mauro by the end. I understand he's usually excitable so that will take some getting used to. But the constant pop culture references and metaphors got old. Not sure if that's part of his normal shtick or not. It's funny for years people complained about announcers not making current pop culture references but with this guy it comes off forced or like an old man desperately trying to seem hip. I didn't think Dream got to show much of anything tonight in the ring but his character was strong.

Have they fixed the Network to re-add the Hidden gems folder?

I'm within driving distance of the DC show and would love to go but I won't be there for 2 reasons, I'm already going to DC later that week for a concert and the fact it's a Wednesday. I think that fact is going to be a kicker for them in lots of markets. These aren't going to be drive-in crowds, that is like THE worst day of the week to draw anything but the people that live in that town. Yes it will be very interesting to see how ticket sales go after week one. I'm sure there are others out there like me that can't wait to pay to go to one of their shows but has ZERO interest in paying for or watching virtually any other current wrestling. As for the debate about the make up of the roster, it's how they are perceived. If you're selling your company based on the workrate & the guys being given more freedom, I'm concerned that 1/3 to 1/2 of their TV time is going to be filler with the comedy shtick. Putting indy looking guys out there that look unathletic could be a bad first impression, which I think was the intention of the poster above. You also can't deliver 2 hours a week of **** matches as that will burn people out and make nothing special after a while, so I am concerned about them finding a good mix. After watching the 3 shows they've done so far, the most glaring thing I saw is they need good, solid workers in the midcard that know how to put a match together. They have far too many guys who are going to have meaningless car crash matches and you can't build around that either.

I don't really need another podcast in the rotation but just curious how long the typical show is.

Has anyone figured out how to easily find this section? Or if they haven't done away with it, where would the videos be? Are they confirmed as still on there?

Not to be morbid but thinking about Silver King dying in the ring and Terry Funk saying multiple times that he wants to go out that way. I heard Terry hasn't been doing well lately and also heard that he has a booking coming up, not sure when. Hope nothing happens. Part of me hopes an athletic commission steps in.

I was thinking that too. Wondering if Watts had taken control of the TV and shaped it in his image or if this format was McGuirk's and Watts just carried it forward. This was a neat show to see, with the Georgia footage in there too. I had never seen Bob Ellis before nor Bugsy as The Brute. I much prefer him as Brute as his odd mannerisms seemed to go better with crazy heel (dangerous) as opposed to crazy, screwball mental patient (more comedic).

Does this pre-date what was available previously in the Watts collection?