2015 Pro Wrestling Thread

I still see more nWo shirts in the crowd than DX shirts.

And of course nWo .. Because when you're nWo, you're nWo 4 Life!

But I don't acknowledge nWo after Hogan split after WM18. Booker T, Big Show, Nash and Michaels. I bet most don't remeber X-Pac and Rude not being the only guys to be DX and nWo.

 

I thought Stewart did great, too.

 

You give the nWo that long a life? I think most people generally gave up on it during or after the red/black split. Or even once they opened the doors to anyone who wanted to join.

 

Bill DeMott resigns as a WWE trainer over bullying accusations. As always in these cases, some of the accusations are pretty harsh and cross a line (mostly the verbal abuse) while the "physical abuse" accusations sound like any number of war stories in any sport where the coach is trying to weed out the wannabes.

WWE Trainer Resigns After Allegations Of Abusing Wrestlers

 

Observer from March 15:

- There are still issues between Lesnar and McMahon, but they’re proceeding with Lesnar vs. Reigns for Mania. If he no-showed the event, he’d miss a huge payday, plus, be in breach of contract and unable to sign with UFC or Bellator anyway. It’s believed that Lesnar’s contract pays him $5M per year, with a condition being 3 PPV dates.

Lesnar can’t negotiate with others while under a WWE contract, so it’s believed that he’ll let his current deal expire, so that he can at least talk with UFC and Bellator, as opposed to signing an extension. Right now, officials with both UFC and WWE think they have the inside track on signing him. Bellator is very interested in him, but it’s suggested that he’s not really interested in them because they’re a second-tier company right now.

- Samoa Joe is only signed to five ROH dates, and it’s widely believed that he and WWE have already reached an agreement. It’s unknown if it’s a main roster deal, NXT deal, or NXT with a quick debut date. It’s believe WWE has upped the money it gives to established TNA / indy guys, since they need talent for NXT, and they lost out on guys like AJ Styles because they were lowballing them.

- WWE and Mysterio have finally officially parted ways. He hasn’t appeared for the company since the day-after-Mania, when he lost to Wade Barrett on Raw. Around that time, the company told him they were executing a clause in his contract that was a one-year extension, based on dates he missed because of injury.

He didn’t appear after that. At one point, he was booked for a “retirement program” of sorts, to run from Survivor Series to Mania, but it never came to fruition. It’s believed that in November or December, they reached an agreement that he would be released in February as long as he didn’t disparage the company. It’s believed there was plenty of disagreement between the sides and it could have gotten ugly; Mysterio failed drug tests in the past, but also had Alberto Del Rio-type racist stories about the WWE.

His knees are said to be in good condition, for him at least, but he’s more interested in a part-time schedule, possibly with Lucha Underground or AAA or both. He’s charging $20k for appearances / autograph signings, a level only below Austin and Hogan. His popularity gives him a ton of leverage.

- UFC made a crapload off the Rousey fight, and it’s been a great year so far. They’re on pace to beat 2014’s numbers – a down year – by April or May. However, it’s unclear where they can go now with her. A rumored match with Gina Carano is off.

There is talk of Cyborg, but her walking around weight is 175 now, nowhere close to 135. There also hasn’t been any indication that she’s trying to get to 135, which is described as curious. If she could make weight, she’d make more in that one fight than she would the rest of her career, nevermind if she managed to win. UFC won’t book her for Rousey at 135 until she proves she can make that weight once beforehand. Rousey won’t fight her at a catchweight because of Cyborg’s past positive steroids test.

- AJ Lee’s return to Raw was scheduled, after some downtime to recover from injuries. Right now, there isn’t a plan to make her tweets to Stephanie McMahon an angle.

- There is a general slide in the number of people subscribing to cable. At its peak, USA was in 101M home. That number is now around 96.3M. Most WWE shows are around the same numbers, but Total Divas has gone up from season to season, with the jump being attributed to Paige.

- Jane Geddes left WWE sometime between a month and six weeks ago. She was a former LPGA star and ran talent relations between Laurinaitis and Triple H, and appeared on early Total Divas episodes.

- WWE now has an unofficial “only one dead superstar per class” rule for its Hall of Fame. As a result, Ray Stevens won’t be going in this year, or Miss Elizabeth, to pair with Savage. Nash is believed to be the final inductee as a result. The plan is currently for him to go last in the ceremony because he’s still living, vs. Savage, who clearly has the biggest star and impact.

- WWE has brought in Rhino to work some NXT matches, and Brian Kendrick will also be doing some spots. It’s similar to how Ross would bring in established but not main roster talent in their 30s to work with guys at OVW.

- Rusev and Lana bought a $644,000 home in Nashville together. They’ve been dating for two years, and living together in Florida the past year.

- Minneapolis, with its new domed stadium, is interested in hosting a Mania. Currently, the venues for 2017 and 2018 (and further out) haven’t been decided, with Orlando and Philly also hot on WWE for shows.

- The next WWE film production is Interrogation, starring Edge and Lana. Because she’ll need time to film it, she’ll be off TV at some point.

 

Finally, a little bit of a dark twist to Cena.

 

The ultimate awesome thing: A new Dangerous Alliance, with Heyman as manager, and Cena as top guy.

Eh, one can dream.

 

Maybe, just maybe, the reason fans are rejecting Reigns-Lesnar is because it's three weeks from Wrestlemania and they still haven't showed more than a feigning interest in actually wrestling each other.

It's pretty ridiculous that both of your Wrestlemania main eventers are in the building yet never come within 500 feet of each other.

 

This has got to be one of the worst booked Manias I've seen. Three out of your four Mania matches (Lesnar-Reigns, Taker-Wyatt, Sting-HHH) feature part-timers and only one of them has actually featured a physical confrontation between the two of the participants.
Then you have a thrown together Divas tag team match, featuring your two most marketable female stars tagging up for some poorly conceived reason, and a throw together IC Ladder Match where suddenly everyone "wants" the title but has no real reason for doing so.
Oh and that IC Ladder Match? As cool as it will probably be, it features two of your hottest male talents and both are playing a cursory role in the actual "feud" and being completely wasted and now it features one member (Stardust) in what was previously thought to be your best and most well-developed singles feud (vs. Goldust).
Then you have your Hall of Fame face of the company, and the star of this generation, competing against your mega heel for the US Title for ... what reason again?
I was telling my wife last night there are only two matches that have even tried to pique my interest and those two are Wyatt-Taker (Though I doubt Taker can go) and Rollins-Orton. The rest of the card might be good enough for a PPV ... MAYBE even a Rumble or Summerslam. But a WrestleMania? Nope.
The last time I've been this completely turned off by a Mania three weeks out was WM27 and considering how shitty that one was, I'm not really optimistic as we head into the Bay Area in 19 days.

 

And, it looks like they're scrapping the Miz vs. Mizdow singles match. It was so simple and so over, I don't know how they managed to screw it up.

 

Any promo, even a Diva promo, featuring so many puns and ending with Yabba Dabba Doo, delivered with a straight face, just made a piece of me die.

 

Because that's what the E does.

They screwed the pooch with two of their hottest angles: Miz vs. Mizdow and Gold vs. Stardust.