NWA Powerrr

[The Thread Killer]

Yeah, if I never hear the word "cosplay" again for the rest of my life - not from the AEW fanboys, not from Cornette, not from anybody...it would be too soon.

[El-P]

Cosplay.

I mean, really people. Get over it. That's what it is. No one preventing anyone from enjoying it, it's excellently done. But pretending it's not is simply false.

[Ricky Jackson]

Yeah, I didnt really have strong feelings towards the term "cosplay" before Power debuted and this thread started, but Jesus Christ, I HATE it now. Please stop.

I'm an old school guy, in pretty much all forms of entertainment, not just wrestling, so maybe that helps me enjoy this show. If you're all about modern and the future, ok, this must be torture to watch, whatever. Personally, I thought the first show was great and I think this show has tons of promise.

As for those who are upset the show hasn't been nitpicked or criticized enough...really? Yeah, that's what wrestling discourse in 2019 needs more of, bitching and complaining about every little thing. I mean, of course WWE deserves the pile on, but Power has released ONE SHOW, let's calm down a bit. If the presentation and "lack of stars" are a turn off, fine. But for some, it works and is a perfectly fine representation of pro wrestling 

[El-P]

9 minutes ago, Ricky Jackson said:

I'm an old school guy, in pretty much all forms of entertainment, not just wrestling, so maybe that helps me enjoy this show. If you're all about modern and the future, ok, this must be torture to watch, whatever. Personally, I thought the first show was great and I think this show has tons of promise.

As for those who are upset the show hasn't been nitpicks or criticized enough...really? Yeah, that's what wrestling discourse in 2019 needs more of, bitching and complaining about every little thing. I mean, of course WWE deserves the pile on, but Power has released ONE SHOW, let's calm down a bit. If the presentation and "lack of stars" are a turn off, fine. But for some, it works and is a perfectly fine representation of pro wrestling 

AEW has been piled on *before* the first TV show, based on assumptions, inference and personal taste of people hatin' on anything remotely approaching the vicinity of modern. So yeah. The fact a Youtube show seemingly could do no wrong when the biggest names here are basically old TNA guys who have been otherwise derided forever is a wee bit ironic when you think about the neverending "those guys are geeks" posting for months and months about AEW.

But anyway, yeah, indeed we don't need more bitching and moaning. Actually, like I've said before, this show is super well done for what it is. It's not torture to watch at all. This approach just feels sterile to me, like every kind of retromaniac approach in music, movies and any other form or entertainment/art. I don't mind the cosplay/retro stuff when there's at least a twist to it, like Swinger's gimmick on IMPACT. I don't mind this show at all, I might even watch some bits of it in the weeks to come to see what they do with it. 

[Mad Dog]

I will watch it weekly as long as it lasts. I do question how viable it is long term though. But I am questioning how viable wrestling as a TV product is starting to become after watching the last 2 weeks of ratings. 

[El-P]

3 minutes ago, Mad Dog said:

But I am questioning how viable wrestling as a TV product is starting to become after watching the last 2 weeks of ratings. 

Meltz actually has shared a pretty bleak opinion of where this could go, for everyone... 

[Mad Dog]

3 minutes ago, El-P said:

Meltz actually has shared a pretty bleak opinion of where this could go, for everyone... 

It just feels like the WWE has damaged the audience too much. I'm not sure there are even 5 million people left willing to support wrestling on TV anymore. I love AEW and I would love to see this NWA show last but I just worry there just aren't enough people left to support them. 

[WrestlingPower]

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.

[C.S.]

4 hours ago, War is Raw said:

I had the same thoughts you did. I am glad you were able to get in your opinion quickly here before it became a 99% positive circlejerk like on every other podcast and forums I have seen about NWA Powerrr. Seriously, no one dares nitpick Powerrr, but they start a federal case on AEW about the slightest undercard "transgression".

Absurd comment.

If you're too lazy to read the whole thread, don't criticize other posts and posters here.

My post was mostly positive, true, but I wasn't exactly head over heels in love with the weird James Storm-Josephus shit. 

I didn't mention it, but Eli Drake does nothing for me either.  

[Log]

2 hours ago, Ricky Jackson said:

As for those who are upset the show hasn't been nitpicked or criticized enough...really? Yeah, that's what wrestling discourse in 2019 needs more of, bitching and complaining about every little thing. I mean, of course WWE deserves the pile on, but Power has released ONE SHOW, let's calm down a bit. If the presentation and "lack of stars" are a turn off, fine. But for some, it works and is a perfectly fine representation of pro wrestling 

Yes!  That's a new weird trend popping up in pro wrestling discussions. People aren't criticizing this enough!  I get that it's stemming from people getting excited for AEW as an alternative and maybe overrating them a bit, but c'mon.

Wild idea, but maybe the people who watched this NWA show and came here to talk about it actually liked it?  Maybe that's all there is to it?  

[The Thread Killer]

1 hour ago, WrestlingPower said:

Not to dig too deep in the Cornette discussion here, but this isn't a Cornette project.

That's one of the more hilarious aspects of both the hype and the criticism around this show.  Cornette said this past week on his podcast that people have been congratulating him all week on the show, which he himself claims he deserves little to no credit for, because he is just the Color Commentator and nothing else.  He had nothing to do with the concept of the show, or the design of the sets, he only saw the studio for the first time the night before the first taping. This is totally a Billy Corgan/Dave Lagana project. Then again, some people wanted to blame Cornette for the weak creative in MLW and he was pretty much just doing commentary there too.  He's such a controversial figure now that even when his involvement with something is periphery, he tends to become the focus.

[El-P]

Well, Cornette is the one who made the idiotic "children and cosplayers" comment on the air, so if you're tired of hearing it, blame him because that's what triggered the discussion anyway (although I would have called it cosplay anyway because of how obvious it is)

And it may not be a Corny project at all, but it totally looks like "Corny's Safe Space", which kinda cracks me up. 

[The Thread Killer]

2 hours ago, Mad Dog said:

I will watch it weekly as long as it lasts. I do question how viable it is long term though. But I am questioning how viable wrestling as a TV product is starting to become after watching the last 2 weeks of ratings. 

That's the million dollar question, right there.  They themselves seem to know this is not sustainable in the long term. I know Corgan has said a few times that he is hoping the YouTube show will help them secure some kind of TV deal, but what are the odds of that?  Pro Wrestling is already a niche market and this NWA project is only going to appeal to a niche within that niche.  I absolutely love the concept behind this show, but I don't think it could appeal to enough fans to garner interest from a TV Network that would result in rights fees being paid, or advertising revenue. 

ROH was a promotion which existed off VHS/DVD sales, but that market is gone now thanks to streaming, so they had to get a TV deal in order to survive.  Look at Impact and MLW.  They have TV deals and are paying their talent next to nothing and are barely hanging on.  The only other revenue source is Pay Per View.  Corgan has said they will be having a PPV. I suppose it's conceivable that they could have an iPPV, and I would buy it for sure.  That wouldn't pay enough to make it worth it for them. And traditional PPV?  Forget it. AEW is the hottest thing going right now, but I still wouldn't dream of shelling out $50.00 to watch their PPV.  I know they are hoping to use traditional PPV as a way to generate income, and I don't see it.

WWE and UFC are the two biggest names in traditional Pay Per View, and both of them are out of that game now, more or less. WWE has their own Network, and rumor had it that UFC was going to do the same thing with Fight Pass, until ESPN+ came into the picture.  Boxing is now pretty much the only sport I can think of that can make money on traditional PPV, and that's because their shows still do monster buy rates.

I am going to enjoy this NWA show while it lasts, because it promises to be awesome...but I can't see any way it will be sustainable long term.

[The Thread Killer]

3 minutes ago, El-P said:

Well, Cornette is the one who made the idiotic "children and cosplayers" comment on the air, so if you're tired of hearing it, blame him because that's what triggered the discussion anyway (although I would have called it cosplay anyway because of how obvious it is)

And it may not be a Corny project at all, but it totally looks like "Corny's Safe Space", which kinda cracks me up. 

Really? I never would have guessed that, I don't think you'd mentioned that before.

[Mad Dog]

55 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

That's the million dollar question, right there.  They themselves seem to know this is not sustainable in the long term. I know Corgan has said a few times that he is hoping the YouTube show will help them secure some kind of TV deal, but what are the odds of that?  Pro Wrestling is already a niche market and this NWA project is only going to appeal to a niche within that niche.  I absolutely love the concept behind this show, but I don't think it could appeal to enough fans to garner interest from a TV Network that would result in rights fees being paid, or advertising revenue. 

ROH was a promotion which existed off VHS/DVD sales, but that market is gone now thanks to streaming, so they had to get a TV deal in order to survive.  Look at Impact and MLW.  They have TV deals and are paying their talent next to nothing and are barely hanging on.  The only other revenue source is Pay Per View.  Corgan has said they will be having a PPV. I suppose it's conceivable that they could have an iPPV, and I would buy it for sure.  That wouldn't pay enough to make it worth it for them. And traditional PPV?  Forget it. AEW is the hottest thing going right now, but I still wouldn't dream of shelling out $50.00 to watch their PPV.  I know they are hoping to use traditional PPV as a way to generate income, and I don't see it.

WWE and UFC are the two biggest names in traditional Pay Per View, and both of them are out of that game now, more or less. WWE has their own Network, and rumor had it that UFC was going to do the same thing with Fight Pass, until ESPN+ came into the picture.  Boxing is now pretty much the only sport I can think of that can make money on traditional PPV, and that's because their shows still do monster buy rates.

I am going to enjoy this NWA show while it lasts, because it promises to be awesome...but I can't see any way it will be sustainable long term.

Yeah, I give it maybe 6 months. If they do get a TV deal, I think it's going to be something like MeTV in the U.S. Honestly, they probably need to try and get a streaming service and maybe see if they can do the OVW thing and get advertisers for the ringside area to try and make some money. 

[El Dragon]

36 minutes ago, Mad Dog said:

Yeah, I give it maybe 6 months. If they do get a TV deal, I think it's going to be something like MeTV in the U.S. Honestly, they probably need to try and get a streaming service and maybe see if they can do the OVW thing and get advertisers for the ringside area to try and make some money. 

I’m surprised things like sponsorship for the YouTube videos (becoming increasingly common now a days) as well as, if they are willing to think really outside the box, Patreon aren’t coming up as options. Online based options can be viable now.

[Mad Dog]

1 minute ago, El Dragon said:

I’m surprised things like sponsorship for the YouTube videos (becoming increasingly common now a days) as well as, if they are willing to think really outside the box, Patreon aren’t coming up as options. Online based options can be viable now.

It's weird. Corgan is a creative visionary and he's generally had good business sense but seems to lack imagination and honestly seems a little out of touch when it comes to getting this off the ground.

[NintendoLogic]

I don't know how much faith we should have in Corgan's business acumen. He was out-carnied by Dixie Carter, after all.

[Mad Dog]

Let's be fair to him there. Dixie has out carnied some of the biggest carnies in the business.

[FMKK]

11 minutes ago, Mad Dog said:

Let's be fair to him there. Dixie has out carnied some of the biggest carnies in the business.

Has she though? Because after every big carny thing she thought she was pulling off she was left with less and less.

[El-P]

25 minutes ago, Mad Dog said:

It's weird. Corgan is was a creative visionary in 1991.

There. I stand corrected. 

[Mad Dog]

I'm sure she got a nice settlement to fuck off into obscurity.

[Mad Dog]

Just now, El-P said:

There. I stand corrected. 

I disagree with that. Impact did turn around with him at the helm and I think he had a hand in the Broken universe. He has good creative instinct. I think he's just trying to approach this from a far too traditional approach.

[El-P]

I admit I totally missed that part of IMPACT history. Then again, people talked about how IMPACT got so much better thanks to Bruce Prichard when he was over there. What has Bruce Prichard done since he was hired back by WWE? So I dunno about Corgan. Maybe the show will develop into something cool and sustainable. It would really surprise me if it did, while forward thinking Lucha Underground slowly died a sad death after three awesome seasons (and a not so awesome but still cool fourth one that no one watched).

[Coffey]

An hour until showtime.