The Wrestling Thread

[Joe King]

RAW is three hours!

Oh dear.

[Joe King]

Someone give me a kiss. I announced this ages ago.

Bret Hart will be hosting or appearing on RAW soon.

[MrMichael]

Desmond Wolfe > Seumas, even if the latter is ginger.

Someone give me a kiss. I announced this ages ago.

Bret Hart will be hosting or appearing on RAW soon.

You're not getting a kiss, but well done.

4th Jan. TNA on a Monday special, Hogan, very possibly RVD, and probably others. Gonna be interesting at least. I would be very unsurprised if WWE go for the likes of Hart that night in a counter-attack to try and bury the TNA rating.

Edit - oh, and wtf was Raw tonight? That was horrible, just horrible *shudders*

[johnly]

Desmond Wolfe > Seumas, even if the latter is ginger.



You're not getting a kiss, but well done.

4th Jan. TNA on a Monday special, Hogan, very possibly RVD, and probably others. Gonna be interesting at least. I would be very unsurprised if WWE go for the likes of Hart that night in a counter-attack to try and bury the TNA rating.

Edit - oh, and wtf was Raw tonight? That was horrible, just horrible *shudders*

No kiss for you Joe, I will however give you a firm handshake

Raw was bloody abysmal. I really enjoyed TLC but that was just horrendous.

Jan 4th will be a very big day. I was saying to my lodger, who's also a fan, I just hope TNA don't screw the pooch on this one.

Bret Hart! Can't wait

Big rumours floating around that WWE will get some big changes in 2010 with ECW kind of disappearing and SD changing a bit. More talent releases to come too

[Joe King]

Wrestlemania is shaping up fairly well

Jericho - Edge
Michaels - Taker II
McMahon - Hart
Cena - Orton

Fantastic stuff

[javier_monsterano]

I don't watch wrestling,but I might if bret hart is going to be on it.
When is this happening?

[johnly]

I don't watch wrestling,but I might if bret hart is going to be on it.
When is this happening?

Talk is, Hart has signed a talent deal til around late April. This will allow him to debut on the Jan 4th Raw (up against the first live TNA impact featuring Hulk Hogan)

When his music hits, the roof will come off the building

[Joe King]

Talk is, Hart has signed a talent deal til around late April. This will allow him to debut on the Jan 4th Raw (up against the first live TNA impact featuring Hulk Hogan)

When his music hits, the roof will come off the building

Any idea as to where Raw on Jan 4th is?

OHIO!

[MrMichael]

Well, looks like the TNA thing has already kicked the WWE into action. Got to be good for the business.

I know which show I'll be watching on 4/1. You just know TNA are going to bring it, and I suspect Raw will just be 10 mins of Hart adulation then another hour and a half of usual raw nonsense.

I would love it if TNA paid Bret three times as much to no show Raw and turn up on their show, now that would really be a way for him to get Vince back for Montreal.

[Joe King]

I don't know to be honest. I expect both to really crash and burn big time. TNA are doing a three hour special? That's going to be car crash imo. Raw hasn't been good in a long time so I'm not expecting much but a long speech from Hart at the end of Raw.

Is it me or do all TNA entrance themes sound the same? My god, give me a Casio keyboard and I'll do something for them.

[MrMichael]

I don't know to be honest. I expect both to really crash and burn big time. TNA are doing a three hour special? That's going to be car crash imo. Raw hasn't been good in a long time so I'm not expecting much but a long speech from Hart at the end of Raw.

Is it me or do all TNA entrance themes sound the same? My god, give me a Casio keyboard and I'll do something for them.

Raw is just a disaster. Even Bret can't save it.

I dunno though, if TNA bring their A game they can put on quite a show, the last ppv showed that (did you get round to watching the main events from that?). If it were me I'd put AJ and Angle in the ring and let them go for 30mins+, and give Desmond Wolfe as much air-time as possible (best heel in the business). That would be a win on its own in my book.

Oh, and Sabin and Shelley winning the tag belts please. If tna wants to stand out to casual viewers, they should showcase as much of those two as possible.

Apparently Bischoff's doing a big set redesign etc, even talk of getting rid of the 6-sided ring. I guess the entrance themes will be part of that (although I quite like some of them myself). Might be some interesting debuts too, all the talk is of rvd, flair, even Goldberg (I know how much you love him), but I reckon there might be a genuine surprise or two.

I know you don't care for the knockouts much but it sounds like they're hiring Sara Del Rey; any combination of her, Hamada, Sarita, Kong or Alissa Flash can put on a match to rival anything wwe's men can.

[Joe King]

This might end up being the most long and boring ratings war ever. Two businesses with no clear strategy for the future. Credit WCW, they bought their early success and using the WWF characters on their show with a fantastic storyline. WWF later on developed a strategy to build the business on Stone Cold, The Rock, Triple H and associate them with Undertaker, Shawn Michaels; which obviously worked.

TNA needs to look at the locker room and seriously needs to kick out the dross. I'm talking Stevie, Jesse Neal amongst others and have a fine 30 man roster and stay two hours, not three. We've seen this before with TNA becoming uber-excited and making a right rick out of fantastic situations. I remember when Team 3D were introduced to TNA and they straight away booked themselves into a match with AMW. Likewise, Angle booked himself with Joe when he came into TNA.

TNA can do a reasonable PPV but how many buys do they get? That's the real barometer for TNA and quite frankly, if it's not progressing, Impact definitely needs to be improved.

A main event possibility for me would have to be a big six man tag. Get the big names in and show who's what. Having AJ vs Angle for 30 mins is giving a PPV main event away for free. At least for the casual fans seeing Angle, Sting, Foley, Rhino, Lashley and introducing younger guys like AJ, Daniels and Joe within the same match brings about some sort of brand association and potentially something for TNA to use in their long term strategy. Of course all of the above is far too sensible for Hogan et al.

I like Bischoff's tv work but getting rid of the six sided ring should be the least of their worries. In fact, it should be marketed as a gimmick compared to mundane WWE and their regulatory four sides. One thing that could be done is it should be made bigger. I personally think Flair is a really bad idea to bring back, for him and TNA. He had the fairytale ending against Michaels and casual fans will think, if he's beating guys on TNA, they're simply not good enough compared to WWE. RVD on the other hand, is jizzworthy.

And you're right, I couldn't care about the Knockouts. Unless it was the Gobbledegooker from Raw a few weeks ago.

[Jayesh87]

Is the great one still guest hosting Raw?

[Joe King]

He was pencilled in. Knowing Vince, one morning he'll start a deal and then the next he'll change his mind.

[MrMichael]

Is the great one still guest hosting Raw?

Jeremy Piven?

This might end up being the most long and boring ratings war ever. Two businesses with no clear strategy for the future. Credit WCW, they bought their early success and using the WWF characters on their show with a fantastic storyline. WWF later on developed a strategy to build the business on Stone Cold, The Rock, Triple H and associate them with Undertaker, Shawn Michaels; which obviously worked.

TNA needs to look at the locker room and seriously needs to kick out the dross. I'm talking Stevie, Jesse Neal amongst others and have a fine 30 man roster and stay two hours, not three. We've seen this before with TNA becoming uber-excited and making a right rick out of fantastic situations. I remember when Team 3D were introduced to TNA and they straight away booked themselves into a match with AMW. Likewise, Angle booked himself with Joe when he came into TNA.

TNA can do a reasonable PPV but how many buys do they get? That's the real barometer for TNA and quite frankly, if it's not progressing, Impact definitely needs to be improved.

A main event possibility for me would have to be a big six man tag. Get the big names in and show who's what. Having AJ vs Angle for 30 mins is giving a PPV main event away for free. At least for the casual fans seeing Angle, Sting, Foley, Rhino, Lashley and introducing younger guys like AJ, Daniels and Joe within the same match brings about some sort of brand association and potentially something for TNA to use in their long term strategy. Of course all of the above is far too sensible for Hogan et al.

I like Bischoff's tv work but getting rid of the six sided ring should be the least of their worries. In fact, it should be marketed as a gimmick compared to mundane WWE and their regulatory four sides. One thing that could be done is it should be made bigger. I personally think Flair is a really bad idea to bring back, for him and TNA. He had the fairytale ending against Michaels and casual fans will think, if he's beating guys on TNA, they're simply not good enough compared to WWE. RVD on the other hand, is jizzworthy.

And you're right, I couldn't care about the Knockouts. Unless it was the Gobbledegooker from Raw a few weeks ago.

Hmmmm. Have you ever seen this match - [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YQHDZtRozE"]YouTube- Cheerleader Melissa vs MsChif[/ame]

(The full version was on youtube somewhere but I can't find it right now)

I know its really indi, but still, wonderful wrestling match on all levels, brilliantly told with great characters and quality technical wrestling. Pretty brutal too.

TNA has about 5 knockouts of that standard, used right they could change everyone's expectations of women's wrestling. For the better. And that would improve ALL current wrestling shows.

Actually I agree with most of what you say about 4/1 and tna though. I still think there's enough there for someone to get it right, and the wresting business is crying out for another company to really make a push, as much to force Vince to start innovating again rather than peddling the same old **** every week.