Any Pro-Wrestling Fans Around?

[Denim&Venöm 19,561]

12 hours ago, Laurel Crown said:

As I watched NXT last week, I'm gonna ask: how much garbage is Kona Reeves? 

So much so that I haven't even heard of him? 

Sounds like he'd be perfect for the main roster. 

 

On a completely different note, what's everypony's predictions for Best Of The Super Juniors 25? 

Everyone seems to have Taiji Ishimori penciled in, but I think that's too obvious. 

Some of the biggest names in the tournement (Scurl, Kushida, Hiromu) have already been beaten by the champ. So they aren't getting a second chance. And the rest of the field are either older guys who haven't been relevant in a while (Taguchi, Tigermask), tag wrestlers (Rupongi 3K, kanemaru/desperado) or aren't around enough (Dragon Lee, ACH).

So who makes the most sense? 

The champ himself: Will Osprey. He wins it and challenges whomever beat him during the tournament. 

Edited May 23, 2018 by Denim&Venom

[Laurel Crown 120]

13 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

Sounds like he'd be perfect for the main roster. 

Allow me to digress.
So far he has shown a really bad gimmick of a cross-over between EC3 and Velveteen Dream minus the actual arrogance of the One Percenter and the magnetic personality of Patrick Clark's character. He comes off as your typical vain heel who boast about himself as his catchphrase is "I'm The Finest" [about what?]
Also his finisher is a lazily modified Samoan Drop called the "Hawaiian Drop".
So I know he debuted really early and needs time to mature, but so far he's proven to be useless when you have better dastardly heels like EC3 and Adam Cole.

[Denim&Venöm 19,561]

11 hours ago, Laurel Crown said:

Allow me to digress.
So far he has shown a really bad gimmick of a cross-over between EC3 and Velveteen Dream minus the actual arrogance of the One Percenter and the magnetic personality of Patrick Clark's character. He comes off as your typical vain heel who boast about himself as his catchphrase is "I'm The Finest" [about what?]
Also his finisher is a lazily modified Samoan Drop called the "Hawaiian Drop".
So I know he debuted really early and needs time to mature, but so far he's proven to be useless when you have better dastardly heels like EC3 and Adam Cole.

To wwe, it's quantity over quality. The don't need stand out performers. They just need enough bodies to fill a minimum of 8 hours of airtime a week. 

That and NXT succsess doesn't translate well to main roster succsess. At the moment, Rhoode, the revival, Asuka, bailey, nakamura, mcintyre, are not the paradigm shifters the die hard fans thought they'd be. If anything, being mediocre seems to help you adjust better.

Elias, Nia Jax, Alexa bliss, they weren't stand outs, but they fit the wwe mold, as opposed to the indy/ strong style mold. 

Edited May 24, 2018 by Denim&Venom

[TheRockARooster 52,548]

UNPOPULAR WRESTLING OPINION

nWo > Bullet Club.

[Castle Bleck 19,386]

20 minutes ago, TheRockARooster said:

UNPOPULAR WRESTLING OPINION

nWo > Bullet Club.

 

The early nWo was far superior to the late one, IMO.

[Denim&Venöm 19,561]

On 5/25/2018 at 12:45 PM, A.V. said:

 

The early nWo was far superior to the late one, IMO.

 

On 5/25/2018 at 12:22 PM, TheRockARooster said:

UNPOPULAR WRESTLING OPINION

nWo > Bullet Club.

Problems with the nWo are that they never made any new stars. Who was elevated thanks to the nWo? Scott Steiner? Jeff Jarrett? Everyone else was already an established star, or was relegated to a supporting role. If anything, joining the nWo held some people back. Rick Rude, Curt Henning, The Great Muta, Hiryoshi Tenzan, Buff Bagwell, Scott Norton. These guys either remained at the same level in WCW where they started or even sank lower on the card. 

Another big issue is that there was no one to stop them. Every fight was one sided with the nWo. The good guys rarely won. It got so bad that the only credible threat against the nWo was another nWo. The nWo may have been popular, but they were also villains, and never changed from that stance. So at some point, they should've been vanquished. And they never were. They just quietly disbanded as the WCW ship sank. 

Bullet Club on the contrary has elevated stars. Finn Balor, Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, arguably AJ Styles, have benefited from the groups inclusion. And even though they've been around for a while, longer than the nWo even, they've been kept in check. They have factions and companies to oppose them. They've lost some major battles. They allowed the good guys to look strong, or changed enough over time to become the good guys themselves. 

Another key difference is that the Bullet Club is made up of relatively young stars. Most of the members haven't been established main eventers. In contrast, the nWo was very much a veterans game. Half the WWE hall of fame seems to have joined the nWo at some point. Hall, Nash, Hogan, Hart, Debiase, Luger, Savage, Sting, Dusty. That's an absurd amount of veterans in one group, and WWE veterans at that. 

In short: nWo had too many old guys, rarely made new stars and was dominant to the point of stagnation. BC is made up of young or up and coming guys, has made plenty of new stars and has healthy competition. 

 

[Castle Bleck 19,386]

1 hour ago, Denim&Venom said:

In short: nWo had too many old guys, rarely made new stars and was dominant to the point of stagnation.

 

That's why I feel the early nWo rocked and the late nWo sucked; the latter was when those problems became all too clear.

[Denim&Venöm 19,561]

23 minutes ago, A.V. said:

 

That's why I feel the early nWo rocked and the late nWo sucked; the latter was when those problems became all too clear.

Personally, I think it all should've ended at Bash at the beach '98. Goldberg takes the belt from Hogan while the rest are beaten in a war games match. Group disbands after that. Two years was quite a while for a bad guy faction to be around in those days. 

[Castle Bleck 19,386]

 

Can't say Sting was wrong; the world was "shocked," all right.

[BrawnyCharger 513]

2 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

 

Problems with the nWo are that they never made any new stars. Who was elevated thanks to the nWo? Scott Steiner? Jeff Jarrett? Everyone else was already an established star, or was relegated to a supporting role. If anything, joining the nWo held some people back. Rick Rude, Curt Henning, The Great Muta, Hiryoshi Tenzan, Buff Bagwell, Scott Norton. These guys either remained at the same level in WCW where they started or even sank lower on the card. 

Another big issue is that there was no one to stop them. Every fight was one sided with the nWo. The good guys rarely won. It got so bad that the only credible threat against the nWo was another nWo. The nWo may have been popular, but they were also villains, and never changed from that stance. So at some point, they should've been vanquished. And they never were. They just quietly disbanded as the WCW ship sank. 

 

Exactly. As great as the nWo was, it wasn't without it's flaws. IMHO it should have ONLY consisted of wrestlers who were made into stars by the WWF at the time. That way it would have truly felt like an invasion. Plus, I felt they should have put all the WCW wrestlers over at Starrcade 1997 with Sting cleanly beating Hogan for the title.

[TheRockARooster 52,548]

UNPOPULAR WRESTLING OPINION

 

Sting in WCW = Legend.

Sting in TNA = Icon.

Sting in WWE = Jobber.

Edited May 28, 2018 by TheRockARooster

[ZethaPonderer 2,200]

Well I may be no wrestling fan, but I’ve heard and watched a pro wrestling fan Youtuber named Billy Bob Tanley giving off his insights of what he thinks [of] wrestling nowadays and how PG WWE had become because of John Cena being the Superman of WWE (aka boring and polarizing) overshadowing all the wrestler superstars due to Vince Mcmahon’s questionable direction for WWE.

Edited May 28, 2018 by ZethaPonderer
Adding ‘of’ in [ ]

[Denim&Venöm 19,561]

18 hours ago, ZethaPonderer said:

Well I may be no wrestling fan, but I’ve heard and watched a pro wrestling fan Youtuber named Billy Bob Tanley giving off his insights of what he thinks [of] wrestling nowadays and how PG WWE had become because of John Cena being the Superman of WWE (aka boring and polarizing) overshadowing all the wrestler superstars due to Vince Mcmahon’s questionable direction for WWE.

Sounds like WWE are actually moving away from Cena. He hasn't been on TV in nearly two months. But how are we to criticize WWE? Yeah, it's boring at times, offensively absurd at others, but it's doing it's job: being a profitable business. 2.5 million viewers each week on TV. 1.5 million paying subscribers. Mountains of ad revenue. And now Fox is looking to buy the TV rights to Smackdown for a 5 year $1 Billion deal. You can't argue with succsess, even if you can't watch it while face palming. 

 

WWE isn't changing, so it's best to move onto something better. Like NJPW! 

Breaking news  everypony, on one of the hottest feuds in wrestling today! 

 

[Castle Bleck 19,386]

19 hours ago, ZethaPonderer said:

Billy Bob Tanley

 

I know him; he's a spinoff of the BDF Network.

 

They're like the AVGNs of wrestling-reviews.

[Sparklefan1234 173,723]

3 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

Breaking news  everypony, on one of the hottest feuds in wrestling today! 

One of my all-time favorite matches is Chris Jericho vs Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIX.

I hope that Tetsuya Naito vs Chris Jericho at NJPW Dominion surpasses it. 

Edited May 29, 2018 by Sparklefan1234

[Denim&Venöm 19,561]

31 minutes ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

One of my all-time favorite matches is Chris Jericho vs Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIX.

I hope that Tetsuya Naito vs Chris Jericho at NJPW Dominion surpasses it. 

Or at least matches Omega/Jericho. 

[Sparklefan1234 173,723]

4 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

Or at least matches Omega/Jericho. 

 

I think there's a good chance that could happen.

[Castle Bleck 19,386]

Remember the late Big Daddy V (a.k.a. Viscera/Mabel)? One of my favorite big men of all time.

 

 

^As one reviewer put it, "Winner -- Big Daddy V, via murder."^

Edited May 29, 2018 by A.V.

[Denim&Venöm 19,561]

New episode of Being The Elite! 

 

[Laurel Crown 120]

So... NXT episode of May 24°

Spoiler

 

Nice match between Heavy Machinery and TM61 giving us a further look between the feud with the newly heel-turned aussies. I like Thorne and Miller better than Tucker and Dozovic. The two big men doesn't look much face to me and could work better as villains. Viceversa with the aussies.
I expected a no-contest finisher with War Machine/Raiders barging in.

Preview for the inside documentary about the E-S-T Bianca Belair. Definitely someone I'm gonna look for.

Kairi Sane vs Lacey Evans. Not a bad one and the Women's Right finisher looks impactful enough, along with a nice work of the heelish Lady of NXT.

Handicap match between Lars Sullivan against Ricochet and VD was one hell of a match.
Obviously the spots were all for the high-flyers and Sullivan, although not my favorite monster heel, had a good run as a force to reckon with. Amazing twist at the end with the Dream giving to the King a Death Valley Driver to remember.
If Velveteen Dream vs Aleister Black at TakeOver: War Games was a strong MOTY contender, him against Ricochet at Brooklyn IV is gonna top it off... spot monkeys aside.

 

 

[Laurel Crown 120]

NXT 5-31-18

With 3 weeks from Takeover: Chicago [not Brooklyn IV as I did last time], time to take a look on this episode.

Spoiler

 

War Raiders had a quick squash against two jobbers as a demostration to their ring skills. If you did not remember them from the indies, back when they're called War Machine, they are a surprise to behold in spite of their physique. Can't wait to see them as Tag Tag Champions during the Dusty Rhodes Classic.

The One Top Percenter EC3 going against Fabian Aichner from Sudtirol.
For the record, because of my nationality he's my boy. Unlike Mendoza or Bononi, Fabian can actually pull some neat stuff. Like a HUGE top-turnbuckle crossbody.
Of course Ethan wins it with ease and we got the confirm from Gargano itself he's going against Ciampa in the Street Fight.

Here's a nice video-docu about Bianca Belair and how her family reached many achievement in spite of the prevalent racism back in the day, mentioning also the undisputed talent and natural athleticism and the debut in the crossfit that allowed her to be a wrestler in the tryout. Not a bad promo if you wanna look wrestlers in their human side.

Quick redemption match for Ricochet against Chris Dijak. Although Ricochet pulled some nasty tricks like a dead weight suplex and a 630° splash, I would recommend to keep an eye to Dijak in the near future.

Of course the Shayna Baszler vs Dakota Kai is gonna be a sequel to their previous bout. Shayna making little work in fighting but doing a great job being a bully to the smaller, frail Dakota along with a hideous stomp on the left ankle. Predictable finale, although with an almost-botched reversal.
As Shayna continues to choke the kiwi to death, Nikki Cross (my waifu) comes in the ring and start a (unofficial) match against the Queen of Spades, finishing her with the fisherman neckbreaker and taking the belt with her, even though she isn't the champ yer. Baszler vs Cross on Takeover is gonna be hype.

 

BTW go watch Cedric Alexander vs Buddy Murphy on 205 Live. You're not gonna be disappointed.

Edited June 2, 2018 by Laurel Crown

[Denim&Venöm 19,561]

New Episode of Being The Elite!

 

[Denim&Venöm 19,561]

So Best Of The Super Juniors has come to a conclusion. My bracket was screwed to hell, but at least I was right on who wasn't winning. A lot of solid matches throughout. Ishimori/Osprey. Sabin/Kushida. Sabin/Scurl. Dragon Lee/Hiromu. ACH/Flip. Chris Sabin and Tiger Mask were the surprise MVPs of this whole thing. 

And I have to say that Night 1 of the finals was probably one of the best top to bottom wrestling shows I have ever seen. A rare night of all singles matches for New Japan. And none of them disappointed. Some MOTY contenders in there. Whole show could win a few awards if it isn't forgotten about by this weekends events. 

Speaking of, Dominion is this Saturday. Current card is as follows. What are everypony's predictions? 

 1. IWGP Jr Tag Titles: Kanemaru & Desperado v. Roppongi 3K  (3K)

 2. Juice Robinson & Dave Finlay vs. Yoshi-Hashi & Jay White  

 3. Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii vs. ZSJ & Minoru Suzuki 

 4. Never Openweight Title : Hirooki Goto vs. Micheal Elgin vs. Taichi 

 5. IWGP Heavyweight Tag Titles: Sanada & Evil vs. The Young Bucks

 6. Marty Scurl, Hangman Paige & Cody Rhodes vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jushin Thunder Liger & Rey Mysterio Jr. 

 7. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Will Osprey vs. Hiromu Takehashi 

8. IWGP Intercontinental Title: Tetsuya Naito v. Chris Jericho 

9. IWGP World Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega in a 2/3 Falls Match. 

 

I think Dave Meltzer is gonna rank Omega/Okada IV

Spoiler

 

Out of 5 stars. 

[Castle Bleck 19,386]

Quick question:

 

The steel chairs -- are they the same as the ones you can buy at the store (admittedly, I've tried swinging 1 or 2 when nobody was looking, but they were unwieldy AF), or are they custom ones specifically for wrestling?

[Sparklefan1234 173,723]

On 6/6/2018 at 7:02 PM, Denim&Venom said:

I think Dave Meltzer is gonna rank Omega/Okada IV

  Hide contents



 

Out of 5 stars. 

 

It is a day that ends in "Y" so, I wouldn't have any reason to doubt that.  

I wonder who won?

I kinda hope Kenny Omega won because seeing Okada win all the time is becoming boring to me.