Grimmas Posted May 25, 2015 Report Share Posted May 25, 2015 Click here. Host: Steven GrahamGuests: Tim Livingston & Will On the brand new Pro-Wrestling Super Show we discuss the future of North American wrestling. We answer your questions and debate where we are headed. Tim and Steven watch Golga vs Jeff Jarrett for the Earthquake Super Match of the show. Finally the show ends with Will and Tim playing the “Is this a Canadian place” game show! Come join us for another super podcast experience! The Earthquake Super Match https://youtu.be/zJF0oPgZhLA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pol Posted May 25, 2015 Report Share Posted May 25, 2015 This was a good listen. One thing that really frustrates me about current WWE is that I don't think they truly understand which stars of theirs are most marketable in the cultural climate of 2015. I mean, you just have to look at at the stars that have generated the most mainstream buzz over the past few years and its CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. Guys like that and Sami Zayn are ten times more marketable than a Roman Reigns at this point. The modern fanbase of wrestling is people that like comic books/comic book movies, watch shows like Walking Dead and Big Bang Theory (ugh), and are all over Twitter and Tumblr - people that you could loosely term hipsters or nerds. That's the culture that WWE needs to draw from. Your generic cool guy musclehead like Reigns does nothing for those people - though ironically he did in the context of The Shield because he was just one part of a larger dynamic. The previous booms happened when the company was able to produce a superstar that jived perfectly with the cultural climate of the time. I don't see that happening again because theyre 1. completely out of touch and 2. not willing to run with it when they luck into something. I think for a company to become a solid #2 to WWE they'd have to have their finger on the pulse of pop culture in a way that WWE doesn't AND have someone willing to front the cash, which is a tall order. If Lucha Underground gets Univision that could be interesting, if only to see how WWE attempts to fuck with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawho5 Posted May 25, 2015 Report Share Posted May 25, 2015 One thing I really identified with was the discussion of neck/spine injuries. It's something I have thought for quite a while. If this current Bryan stuff is head/neck related I'm all for him retiring before things get too bad. As unfortunate as it seems there's no way around how fragile the human body can be and it's best to be safe about serious injuries. Great listen and I have to agree with Tim about the future of wrestling. Nothing is going to change much. I'll catch up on NXT and watch that weekly until too much WWE nonsense ends up moving it's way over there. Beyond that I don't have much hope for anything except highly pimped PPV/TV matches available on the Network. So I guess I agree with Will that it's a good thing there is all kinds of wrestling out there from the past and smaller companies that I can look to when the WWE isn't delivering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pol Posted May 25, 2015 Report Share Posted May 25, 2015 I do think there's something to Sammy's claim on Twitter that we are in the midst of a new boom period, it's just not happening at the gate. If you want new wrestling there's a ton more options out there now than there were even five years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted May 25, 2015 Report Share Posted May 25, 2015 I don't think he understands the definition of boom period. Boom period, by definition, relies on the gate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingSavage Posted May 25, 2015 Report Share Posted May 25, 2015 Yeah. I think most people associate the term "boom period" with a boom in business. The industry doesn't feel like it's undergoing a complete turnaround like it did in the 80's and again in the mid-nineties. There's certainly a huge upswing in available content. But that resurgence didn't happen overnight. It came (like most things) with the introduction of YouTube, other streaming platforms, and access to online ordering. Wrestling itself is a niche product, and the marketplace is absolutely saturated with easily accessible content now - more so than EVER before in the past. Wrestling itself is still a niche, and I don't think it's really anymore popular than it was before. It's essentially the same audience watching. It's just that they've/we've now got a whole hell of a lot more options & avenues for watching. I don't know if WWE is capable of attracting or creating new fans with their product. Each time they seem to stumble onto that opportunity - Punk in 2011, Bryan in 2013, etc. - they really just seem to shit the bed. I think the best hope lies with a new, more unique product attracting or creating those new fans. It took the nWo concept, ECW influences, and "Attitude" to do it before. I just feel like the best chance lies with new fans finding interest in a Lucha Underground, PWG, or perhaps even NXT - as something distinct and unique enough to get them to dial in and commit to fandom for it.I just don't see WWE creating & maintaining that sort of buzz anymore. They're too far into their comfort zone & usual holding pattern to change anything major. It's like they don't want to run the risk of alienating existing fans in order to attract or create the new ones. But that's business. And I just don't believe a real boom period can occur again until something gives on that front. It's going to take something substantially different. Again, right now it's the same audience watching. They've just got more to watch. The "boom period" doesn't happen until a new audience latches on to some of the stuff that's out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse Ewiak Posted May 25, 2015 Report Share Posted May 25, 2015 I have a weird definition for a "legitimate" #2 promotion, but I don't think it's that off the rails - basically, a legit #2 promotion will only exist when the median wage of the midcarders and lower midcarders in WWE have to rise due to the competition, as they did throughout the 80's and 90's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pol Posted May 25, 2015 Report Share Posted May 25, 2015 I don't think he understands the definition of boom period. Boom period, by definition, relies on the gate. I think he was just using it metaphorically to describe the explosion of new accessible wrestling we have now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAC Posted May 25, 2015 Report Share Posted May 25, 2015 I appreciate Will's take on the question of building the promotion around heel v. face champions. The notion of chasing the heel champion has been quite thoroughly romanticized (Jim Ross talked about preferring that model on a recent podcast), but I think the traditional WWF model of strong face champions works better. There's something utterly deflating about watching a promotion in which the faces constantly lose to the heel champion. Worse yet, when they win, they quickly drop the title, proving themselves unworthy of your faith. People want to cheer a winner. In the Attitude Era, probably the most compelling stretch of television the WWF had was in the spring and summer of 1998 through to Summerslam, when Austin was fending off all challengers That said, there's room for a bit of both. A solid run on top for a heel champ makes the face's quest for the title more compelling. But there's no need for anything like Triple H's boring title runs in the early part of the last decade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted May 25, 2015 Report Share Posted May 25, 2015 I am more depressed people haven't latched onto my "Rusev Forever" catch-phrase. I think it has legs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAC Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 During "Is this a Canadian place", I kept hoping to hear "St. Louis de Ha-Ha". I was thrilled to hear it referenced. We have a few decent place names in Nova Scotia beyond Shag Harbour that are worth mentioning. Not particularly clever, but I like that while Germany no longer has an East and West Berlin, Nova Scotia does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillThompson Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 I don't think he understands the definition of boom period. Boom period, by definition, relies on the gate. I think he was just using it metaphorically to describe the explosion of new accessible wrestling we have now And I completely agree with him for this very reason. It's kind of sad to see people complain and complain about the product WWE is offering when there's so much variety now available to the wrestling viewer. I'm not even saying give up on WWE or anything like that, but there's so much other stuff to watch (both from the present and the past) that when WWE disappoints I can find something else to leave me a happy wrestling fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert S Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 There may no be a place called "Fuck" or "Fouq" or whatever in Canada, there is however a town called "Fucking" in Austria. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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