The Wrestling Thread

Your Fav Wrestling Promotion


  • Total voters
    78
Because Cena is the Superhero of the WWE, I swear to god if it wasnt for that douche, then WWE wouldnt have turned PG. The guy rarely loses, theyve made him the Wayne Gretzky of wrestling, hes always protected.

Your very wrong, you ALL are. The fact of the matter is they went PG because of Linda McMahon's run for senate, Cena had & still has NOTHING to do with whether WWE goes &/or stays PG. WWE has slowly started pulling itself out of being completely PG, but it won't go backwards in time either. People REALLY need to get a better understanding of how wrestling works as a BUSINESS! lol
 
Yeah Hogan's star power overshadows alot of peoples judgements within TNA, even if they are for the right reasons. I HATED Bubba The Love Sponge coming into TNA, he doesn't represent Pro-Wrestling as it should be presented and was really only in it for the money. I think after the Kong/Bubba scenario TNA really did wake up to themselves along with Hogan aswell, Awesome Kong was one of their best ever Knockouts and was really marketable since she was a unique character, It was a huge loss to their Knockout division.

I felt that to TNA somewhere along the lines Hogan was a bit intimidating for them, they kissed his ass because of what he accomplished, but I can see very bright things if TNA and Hogan work together well, I'm enjoying the Takeover Storyline they've got going on and It's kinda neat seeing an actual Wrestler run the whole company now as they're more easier to relate too compared to the likes of Dixie Carter.

Still though, TNA really needs to stick to consistent storylines, clean finish matches ( When I think of Impact in 2010 all I can really remember were the CONSTANT run-ins during matches, it's such a buzzkill ), giving the lower card wrestlers more time to progress their characters and proper Title matches ( No more random Title matches to Wrestlers who didn't work for it, or even doing Title Matches on TV, why does TNA have to give away PPV class matches on Impact? It makes no sense ).

The ONLY real problem with TNA, is TNA. They're truly reinacting WCW right down to the oversaturating of old/established talent over the original cores of the company. Their old slogan "We Are Wrestling" changed for good reason, because they're no longer about what made them the best alternative to WWE. They've lost the albility to be objective, because Bischoff is praticing by the same principles that had made WCW a success. The BIG problem with that is, it's not 1996, & anyone that remembers the Monday Night Wars will not go through this wash rinse & reuse formula of wrestling. They just need to go forawrds instead of trying to reclaim lost glory. They've went through almost every former WWE Superstar that was ever in that compnay & they STILL can't go pass 1.1, or even 0.7 at times. If they go back to their old ways of working a crowd they'll succeed.

And for the record, Hogan having power wasn't the issue, as he was long gone after the Russo fiasco that lead him to sued WCW for breach of contract, it was the fact that everyone within WCW were getting overpaid, everyone was backstabbing everyone because they all thought/wanted to be boss of the locker room, & the fact that The network they were on, TBS, no longer wanted them around & thereby caused WCW to die.
 
****! What happened?

Stone Cold was the guest host of RAW, mainly coming to promote himself as the host of the new Tough Enough.

Later in the show, Michael Cole was announcing his hand-picked special guest referee, and everyone thought it'd be Stone Cold, but was in fact JBL! However, before JBL could sign the contract, Stone Cold comes out, stuns JBL, and signs his name on the dotted line. So Stone Cold will be the ref for the Jerry Lawler / Michael Cole match at Wrestlemania.
 
Okay one thing i always wanted to know about stone cold...

His backwards middle finger....

Doe it have a meaning or anything??? is he saying "F da people behind me"???? (by 'behind i mean figuratively)
 
Your very wrong, you ALL are. The fact of the matter is they went PG because of Linda McMahon's run for senate, Cena had & still has NOTHING to do with whether WWE goes &/or stays PG. WWE has slowly started pulling itself out of being completely PG, but it won't go backwards in time either. People REALLY need to get a better understanding of how wrestling works as a BUSINESS! lol

lmao, it wont go backwards in time? How long have you been watching wrestling? You do know it was PG in the 80's, right?
 
Actually, WWE went PG because they landed a deal with Mattel to make action figures and whatnot. They weren't getting a lot of money from their old deal with Jakks Pacific and are getting substantially more from Mattel, and one of the terms was they wouldn't get to the levels of sex and violence they did in the Attitude Era.

If you ever watch any other show on TV, you'll notice WWE tends to be on the low end of PG rating. They can (and recently have) push the envelope and still be in the bounds of TV-PG ratings. Rock can talk about sticking things in candy asses without breaking the new rules. I just wouldn't count on seeing any bra and panty matches anytime soon.
 
So, how about that TNA PPV ending, eh? Sting and Jeff Hardy for the TNA world title, and Sting wins in 90 seconds. Many fans cried out "BS", and rightfully so. You don't build up the entire PPV for a match that lasts as long as a pee break! But on the other side of things, rumor has it that Jeff was visibly high and Sting knew it. Therefore, instead of working with a man that could potential hurt himself or others, Sting forced him into the three count.

http://de.justin.tv/rkofan2006/b/281517372 : Replay of the final "match"
 
Oh god, I was gobsmacked about how bad the ending to Victory Road, NEVER have I seen an ending to a PPV be as THAT bad. A 90 second Main-Event? God, I'm about to give up on TNA if sh*t like this continues, but hey! It's not like TNA put in any effort into Victory Road, the hype sucked so much that I forgot that it was on today...
 
It's TNA's own stupid fault for putting a guy with serious issues like Hardy in a PPV main event. Even if he was in condition to perform, he's still got a pending court case and could end up going away for a while. Just seems silly to put yourself in the position where someone like that is at the top of the card.
 
Honestly, if any ONE program could get the Rock, Stone Cold, or Hulk Hogan back, I would shit myself...

But the best thing to do would be to bring back Goldberg...
 
So The Rock brought it again... Via satellite. I am seriously praying now that he makes at least ONE appearance before wrestlemania, cuz this is just BS.
 
But the best thing to do would be to bring back Goldberg...

This would only make sense ring capacity wise for a one time appearance at Wrestlemania. Honestly the only person they could even hype for that would be either Kevin Nash (to get his revenge for Nash screwing him out of his streak when he was booker) or the Undertaker to try to end the streak. He has no value as an on screen personality, because his entire character value was built around the streak. Once they ended that, they ended Goldberg value. Sure he came into WWE for a while but it wasn't the same. He was gone a couple of years later.

Goldberg's too old to work a full schedule, and really has no interest to go back to wrestling.

It would be a lose lose situation for TNA as he would want too much money and he really couldn't deliver what he did back in 98-99

Actually, WWE went PG because they landed a deal with Mattel to make action figures and whatnot.

Ehh, I mean there may be some truth to this, but its no coincidence that they started going PG right around the time Linda was considering her Sentate run. I think that probably played a bigger role. Numerous other superstars though have said they went that route to draw in a larger family audience, and I actually buy that too. Off and on though WWE has hit some rough patches with viewership and its really hard to tell if this move has improved this any as some weeks it seems like it shoots up, and others you read about how PPV buy rates for a show are in the toilet. I think they dropped or were considering dropping one of their themed PPVs because of poor buy rates although I don't recall which one.

So, how about that TNA PPV ending, eh? Sting and Jeff Hardy for the TNA world title, and Sting wins in 90 seconds. Many fans cried out "BS", and rightfully so. You don't build up the entire PPV for a match that lasts as long as a pee break! But on the other side of things, rumor has it that Jeff was visibly high and Sting knew it. Therefore, instead of working with a man that could potential hurt himself or others, Sting forced him into the three count.
I don't know about Hardy being high (although the shirt throw tease so many times was strange) but it sure looked like Bischoff called an audible there whispering to both Hardy and Sting. There was that one awful WCW PPV with Goldberg/DDP that the feed got cut due to time constraints before the match ended and they lost a boat load of money. I didn't keep track of the time of the PPV nor do I know off hand how much time TNA purchases for one. Maybe Bischoff knew the show was going to run long and told those guys they had to make it quick or something. Either way a very poor end, and it does show some of the booking woes still exist.

The ONLY real problem with TNA, is TNA. They're truly reinacting WCW right down to the oversaturating of old/established talent over the original cores of the company. Their old slogan "We Are Wrestling" changed for good reason, because they're no longer about what made them the best alternative to WWE. They've lost the albility to be objective, because Bischoff is praticing by the same principles that had made WCW a success. The BIG problem with that is, it's not 1996, & anyone that remembers the Monday Night Wars will not go through this wash rinse & reuse formula of wrestling. They just need to go forawrds instead of trying to reclaim lost glory. They've went through almost every former WWE Superstar that was ever in that compnay & they STILL can't go pass 1.1, or even 0.7 at times. If they go back to their old ways of working a crowd they'll succeed.

If the old ways and the core stars was the way for them to succeed, why'd they deviate from that? No, they never gained any ground for 7+ years doing it that way: promoting their guys from within. Sure the core fans loved it, but ECW was the same way. Play to the core fans, and never find a way to get mainstream. Different reasons, but the same philosophy.

I read an interview Kevin Nash did shortly after he re-signed with WWE where he gave TNA advice on how to get to a level to compete with WWE, and honestly his advice is the true root of TNA's problem: money.

Kevin Nash said TNA needs to open up the checkbooks, start at the top with John Cena, and find a way to get Cena, Orton and some other top guys over to TNA, and here's the kicker: in their prime.

They tried this with Kurt Angle, but the problem is Angle while still a great wrestler, was just coming off the top of the hill of his career. He was what 36 or 37 when they got him? Orton's about 10 years younger than that now.

The WCW comparison is legit, but for the reason of money that I stated above. Remember back to around the late 80s and early 90s. WCW had some draw guys: Flair, Luger, Sting, Steiners....but nobody that could touch Hogan. Heck Macho was probably a bigger draw than Sting and Luger. WCW really fell on hard times around 92 when Flair jumped ship. Aside from right before the company flopped, those were some of the lowest years in their history, as the top two draws in wrestling were both in WWE at the time.

What'd WCW do? They opened up the check books. First they got Flair back when his contract was up, then in 94 they got the biggest draw in wrestling: Hogan. WWE didn't immediately drop to #2 in ratings, but that started a tailspin that they really didn't start to see the light from until 96 when Austin became who he was and carried them back to #1 a couple of years later.

TNA has no Austin. They don't have anyone even close to being able to draw like Cena (even as much as you and I, the core fans, don't like him) or Orton. A lot of rumors have swirled around WWE not really having any young guys to take over for the likes of HHH, Undertaker, and Cena if they get hurt or when they retire, so now would be the most opportune time to steal away their bread and butter guys. If Cena and Orton go over to TNA who is WWE going to have headline their PPVs. Undertaker's only good for 3-4 a year including Wrestlemania. CM Punk? He's pretty good but I don't know if he's there yet. Bring back Jericho? That would help, but I don't know how much or how long he would stay. Miz? Morrison? Sheamus? Del Rio? Barrett? They might be diamonds in the rough, and if they really pushed him they could possibly recapture some of Shawn Michael's magic with Morrison....you never know. What if TNA really went all out and got 4 or 5 of those guys I just named? You'd have ratings reversal! THAT'S how TNA can compete.

Today you have to have someone that draws while you're trying to build up your own talent (it helps if you can pull over a couple of other top caliber guys in addition to THE guy like WCW was able to do with getting Luger back and also pulling over Macho Man around the same time as Hogan arrived). TNA has gotten some really good talent recently like RVD and Mr. Anderson, but nobody that can put 70k seats in an arena. The two top people who can main event a card and pull close to those numbers are Orton and Cena. If TNA wants to stand any kind of chance of ever threatening WWE, they need to open up the check book like Nash said, and poach from the top. Not the middle guys like Christian or the over the hill guys like Steiner or Nash...they've got to get the biggest draw in wrestling today the way WCW did in 94 when they got Hogan and paved the way to their successful run. Until they get some more financial backing or really open up Dixie Carter's pocket book....they'll continue to flounder in that 1.1 rating area unless and until a Stone Cold Steve Austin circa 1996 comes along, and that guy is not on their roster today.

I should write this for a wrestling column or something and title it "How TNA can overtake WWE by learning from WCW's success and mistakes"
 
Last edited:
It wouldn't matter if Cena, Rock, Austin, and HHH all showed up on TNA and formed a new superstable. As long as Russo and Bischoff are still booking for shock value like 1999 WCW they won't get more than the 1.3 rating and no PPV buys they get now.

WCW had their boom in 1996 because they had a compelling storyline with Hall and Nash originally pictured as invaders from the WWF (which is why their tag team name was "The Outsiders") and the shock value of Hulk Hogan becoming a villain which a lot of people never thought would happen.

WWF had their boom in 1998 because they had a compelling storyline with Austin vs Vince, because who doesn't want to live vicariously through a redneck stomping a mudhole in his billionaire boss?

TNA has the founder of the company taking his wife on a honeymoon to the same theme park they tape all their shows at, and a drug addict in the main event of a PPV.

Wrestling at it's core really isn't that difficult to figure out, come up with a storyline people can get into and it's pretty much a money printing machine. The problem is (and WWE does this just as much as TNA it seems) that they keep insisting to push who they like and the storylines they think are compelling instead of the ones the fans actually want to see. The problem isn't TNA not opening up the checkbook, it's continually putting people in charge of their booking/writing teams that have done the same thing since the mid 90s creatively and other than one brief run have a solid record of fail.
 
Don't mean to change the subject, but I find it pathetic that the only way that Morrison can compete in Wrestlemania is through some dumb gimmick match that will be quickly forgotten. I mean, he's the most entertaining and talented wrestler to never get a push for a heavyweight championship that WWE has had since Shelton Benjamin (And we all know that despite the WWECW championship being billed as a heavyweight championship, its real value is worth that of a secondary title like the Intercontinential or US title).

I mean, I know that the MITB match doesn't seem likely to happen at WM27 (Why would one be there when they have an entire PPV for it now?), but they could have at least given him a better match that could most likely steal the show. Hell, having him go for the US championship against Daniel Bryan at WM27 would be an amazing match given how both of them are too talented to be wrestling for a secondary title in the first place. It could easily become this generation's version of the Steamboat/Savage WM3 match. It just baffles me how they promote John Morrison so much without even giving him a WWE run...
 
Yeah Morrison definately deserves alot more spotlight than what he's given, WWE's starting to rely on Cena, Orton and Edge way too much to play it "safe" with PPV's, and it's getting stale. Morrison was the highlight for me at the Royal Rumble this year ( One of the WWE's biggest PPV's of the year ) and he stole the show with his Rumble performance.

I seriously hate that he's been put into a match with the likes of Snooki from Jersey Shore, It's soley going to be a dumbed-down match in order to get more publicity for the WWE, I seriously doubt Morrison and Ziggler will get time to really show off their talent with the match and It's such a big waste, these are 2 very gifted wrestlers who can do amazing things in the ring.

I find WWE's pushing too many stars to the main event platform but they're affraid of losing audience numbers since their safe guards Cena and Orton aren't main eventing. WWE's done a good job though in pumping in new talent and It's been fun to watch recently, but they've hyped them up into making you believe that they'll be the next WWE or World Champion but nothing ever happens... but I feel that this years Wrestlemania will change the tides, I can really see Alberto Del Rio coming out as World Champion and Miz may have a chance of retaining unless the WWE pulls out "Superman" Cena.


On another subject, here's a picture of the new TNA World Title that was revealed at this weeks Impact tapings;
newtnatitle2.jpg

Looks pretty damn good, although it reminds me of the World Heavyweight Title mixed in with the UFC Titles.
 
The problem isn't TNA not opening up the checkbook, it's continually putting people in charge of their booking/writing teams that have done the same thing since the mid 90s creatively and other than one brief run have a solid record of fail.

Sorry man but that's 100% flat out wrong. I'll agree with you that booking does have something to do with it, but you HAVE to have people that draw to build the storylines around. They've tried pushing AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and a couple of other guys they built up from the beginning, and they haven't been able to break through. Right now Cena and Orton are the two "It" guys (btw that phrase gets thrown around WAY too often. You hear veterans saying about some new guy "He's got 'It'". There are plenty of talented in ring people that can perform with the best of them, but they lack mic skills, or charisma, or the personality to be a complete package. That's probably one of the main reasons Morrison hasn't broken through but Miz has. In the early days on ECW Morrison was clearly the better wrestler, but as time progressed Miz improved a LOT in the ring. Now he's crisp, polished, has great charisma as a heel, and a catch phrase....basically he's the new complete package WWE has. He'll never be as athletic or talented ring wise as Morrison, but he far and away excels over him in about every other area. I digress...).

TNA really has no 'It' guy that is the complete package. AJ Styles doesn't have the chops. Samoa Joe doesn't strike me as someone that can get as over as Cena, except to core fans. The closest guy they have IMO on that roster now is Anderson.

A lot of that does go back to McMahon and his genius for finding the right guy whether its Hogan, Austin, Michaels, or Cena....to come along and get the torch passed to him, and really develop him into a bonafide star.

TNA, again neither has him, or IMO, the guy with the potential to draw. I point back to your example about the nWo for WCW. Look at the key players. What do most of them have in common? How many of the core guys were home grown? They were poached from WWE after becoming big stars there: Hogan in 94, Hall and Nash in 96.

Its not even just the talent. Look at the set and the ring in TNA compared to WWE. Its a poor man's WCW setup. Basically the WWE arena setups are Transformers to the TNA's being Gobots. They need major set upgrades at the Impact Zone. Heck they need to get OUT of that bingo hall and start traveling. That all takes $$$

Its more or less implied in "The Rise and Fall of WCW" that WCW/NWA tried for years to compete with WWE with home grown guys....but that they eventually convinced Turner to "open the check book" and sign Hogan, Hall, Nash, Macho and sign back guys like Flair and Luger. The money aspect was just as important as solid booking.

You can write the greatest storylines in wrestling today, but if you don't have guys to get them over and guys that can sell merchandise and pack out arenas to generate more revenue....its not gonna work.

Eventually bad booking was a big problem WCW faced and helped cause its downfall. So I would say you make a great point about booking, but that booking is a major LONG TERM problem they have. The biggest short term problem they have is money though. I don't know much about Dixie Carter, but I don't think she's got Vince McMahon money. They need to get another investor in with some serious dough to back TNA, and then I think you'll start seeing upgrades to both the roster and the booking team.
 
Last edited:
I can really see Alberto Del Rio coming out as World Champion and Miz may have a chance of retaining unless the WWE pulls out "Superman" Cena.
I don't know if this is true, but I heard that the WWE is planning to have Alberto Del Rio win the WHC and have a lengthy reign since Vince really likes the character. That would explain why he got such a big push despite being in WWE for only 8-9 months. As for Miz and Cena, I have no idea who they want to win that. It'd kinda suck if either of them won though because with Cena, he's won in almost every championship match he's had at Wrestlemania (The only exception I can remember was WM24). And with Miz, although he's a good wrestler, it'd be a bit underwhelming seeing how Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Edge, Big Show, and JBL couldn't beat Cena at Wrestlemania.

On another subject, here's a picture of the new TNA World Title that was revealed at this weeks Impact tapings;
newtnatitle2.jpg

Looks pretty damn good, although it reminds me of the World Heavyweight Title mixed in with the UFC Titles.
That one looks better than the old one and WAY better than the Immortal one.
 
March 28th, Rock will be live on RAW in Chicago.

Crap. I was hoping he'd make an appearance this week since I'm going to be in attendance.


Also, re: TNA and signing guys.....yes it was big that WCW got Turner to open up the checkbook, but they also did something with the guys they signed. TNA has signed Sting, Scott Steiner, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy (probably the biggest since he was one of WWE's hottest stars when he left) and has done approximately zero with all of them. They all got an initial "holy balls this guy's in TNA" reaction their first night in and nothing else. Hell, they signed Ric Flair, who even though he's all but done wrestling wise could be used as an effective manager to help get one of the younger guys over. They don't even do that.

Don't forget as well, signing all those guys ended up running massive debts and is the main reason WCW got sold off for peanuts once Turner Broadcasting got a CEO who wasn't a big wrestling nerd like Ted and didn't want to keep shoveling money to a money losing company.
 
Top