2015 Pro Wrestling Thread

I was thinking, double turns never happened as often as they should. Which led me to think which one is my favorite. I have to go with the Demolition/Powers of Pain.

The babyface turn allowed Demolition another year for their title reign and let them develop into being even bigger bad asses. Powers of Pain were duds as faces, so giving them Mr. Fuji was a better fit. There's even some hilarity in it when it comes to Mr. Fuji dumping the tag team champions to go with a team that at best were only #1 contenders, before selling Powers of Pain contracts so he could concentrate on being the manager of The Orient Express, a team that weren't even in title contention. Before Yokozuna came around, Mr. Fuji made some awful career choices during that stretch of time.

 

I hated the double switch because at that time, POP was quite over, and once they went with Fuji, they fizzled.

 

I had lots of time last night, and decided to watch every match that Undertaker had at WrestleMania. Out of all of them, I thought only thirteen were good.

vs Diesel - WM 12
vs Kane - WM 14
vs Ric Flair - WM 18
vs Randy Orton - WM 21
vs Batista - WM 23
vs Edge - WM 24
vs Shawn Michaels - WM 25
vs Shawn Michaels - WM 26
vs Triple H - WM 27
vs Triple H - WM 28
vs CM Punk - WM 29
vs Brock Lesnar - WM 30
vs Bray Wyatt - WM 31

If you remove the bad matches(just a fun exercise on my part) The Undertaker was only 12-1 at WrestleMania

 

You did that all in one sitting?

 

Not in one sitting. But, all his matches combined at WrestleMania(not including the entrances) is about five and a half hours long.

 

Observer from April 13:

- Smackdown is moving to USA in first quarter 2016. USA’s ratings have been slipping, and both it and SyFy are owned by NBC, and it was deemed more important to prop up ratings on USA than SyFy. The move will probably drop Syfy from No. 19 to No. 24 in ratings (Smackdown is its most popular weekly show), and move USA from No. 3 to No. 2 (TBS and AMC are its main competition, with both having seasonal swings based on The Walking Dead and live sports).

- Tough Enough is also returning to USA on June 23. It’s believed that it will involve more live elements, which is why Steve Austin is unavailable (he’s committed to CMT for the Broken Skull Challenge) and why they kept postponing from past record dates in February and April. Jericho has said he hasn’t had any talks about Tough Enough, so it’s unknown what talent will be used for it.

- AJ Lee provided the WWE with notice of her leaving on March 30 roughly, after Mania, which is why she was booked to win that match. Those close to her said she wasn’t going to be coming back (re-signing) after Punk filed his lawsuit. It’s unknown if she’ll wrestle again at some point. She’s “retiring” to get out from her contract.

She got heat from the other wrestlers when she was voted Diva of the Year in 2014 and slipped in a line about how next year, she hoped it would be won by Bayley, Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Emma or Paige. That line was unscripted. AJ had also gotten June 20, 2013 tattooed on her neck, which was when she won the title and started a 295-day reign. Alex Riley joked on Twitter when she retired that he was going to get a tat on his neck of April 3, 2015.

- Kurt Angle said in a Sports Illustrated interview that WWE didn’t even meet with him when his TNA contract expired in 2014, which is true, according to Meltzer. When his WWE contract wasn’t renewed in 2006, it was because he was in poor shape (injuries) and he had erratic behavior. As a result, they’ve stayed away since.

- Mayweather will make more money in one fight ($120M) than any other athlete has booked in an entire year. Tiger Woods was the previous yearly salary record holder, as he made $115M in prize money in 2008. This $120M for Mayweather is after the promoter get $30M.

- Right now, the booking plan isn’t for a mixed tag match, it’s for separate singles matches with Rock vs. Triple H, and Rousey vs. Stephanie. However, the latter would have several hurdles. Dana White would have to give permission to Rousey to actually wrestle, and Rousey is represented by the William Morris Agency and likely would command a huge sum. In the past, Lesnar nixed Lesnar vs. Taker when Lesnar was under contract. Rousey is also in demand for movie roles, and based on her schedule, she’d likely have a fight between March and June 2016, which might leave her busy for Mania season. Rousey’s business manager is The Rock’s ex-wife. (They’re still friendly.)

- WWE is trying to get all of the class action lawsuits against it moved to Connecticut. WWE performers sign contracts that have a clause saying all cases will be tried in Connecticut, which is obviously helpful for them.

- Daniel Bryan pitched a match against New Japan talent Shinsuke Nakamura, with the idea being that it would be broadcast on both streaming services from the companies at the same time. However, it didn’t receive support from WWE.

- WWE Studios announced two more films. Eliminators will star Scott Adkins and Wade Barrett, which is about a guy not staying in witness protection and looking for revenge instead. Rampage has a similar revenge tale, no cast announced yet.

- Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is scheduled to shoot in February 2016, making a Mania run for Bautista next year very unlikely.

- Sesugh Uhaa (Uhaa Nation) began with the company on April 5 in Orlando.

 

I've always liked his match against Roberts at WM8 for the sheer uniqueness of him being a baby face. It's not a classic, by no means, but it's fun to watch.

The Flair match tells a great story of Flair being the old man trying to survive. When Arn interferes, I love the fan pop. And although Taker was winning, I assume Vince got a boner over him triumphing over two of the Horsemen, even though he was the heel.

 

I'm no legal expert, but I believe the E tried to do that change of venue thing with the lawsuit with Owen Hart's widow, and it failed, quite simply because Owen's fall happened in Kansas City.

It'll be interesting to see how the court rules, especially since the E is relying on the contract, which Vince has been quoted in the past as saying it's not worth the paper it's printed on. If I'm one of the wrestlers, I challenge the whole contract for it's independent contractor status, which, as we can tell from Del Rio, the E is quite nervous about.

 

Yeah, Meltzer noted that Owen's widow was successful with the change of venue, and it was also one of the few cases the WWE has lost. So, that's probably part of the reason they also aggressively try to get cases moved to Connecticut. I'm not a lawyer, and while the WWE is an expansive international company at this point, they are still headquartered in Stamford, CT and seemingly do most of their business there.

 

It wasn't as bad as some of Taker's other early PPV matches. The program was pretty fun though once you got past the idea that the evil Undertaker had some morals. Roberts locking Taker's hand in the casket so he could go after Paul Bearer made for a good Funeral Parlor segment.

 

With the entrances, it takes 16 days.

 

I think the return of Kurt (probably won't happen unless it's a HoF thing) is the last big one left.

Unless Punk comes back, but I don't believe he will. He shit all over the company to the point it's likely helping the doctor with the defamation suit.

Sting coming in was the end of all big returns. What other major talent is left? Bret, Jake and Warrior came back. Everyone of main event status from WCW came to WWE at some point (except Savage, who obviously won't). Hogan, Hall, Nash, Page, Goldberg, even Bischoff.

Lesnar came back. Heyman. Batista. Bubba Ray had a Rumble return.

Double J is never coming back. If the Hardys come back, is it that big of a deal?

Guys who have never made the jump? Styles and Joe, but the casual fan won't know these guys or give a shit.

So I think Sting at Mania was much more than "last guy from WCW comes over."

If Angle doesn't come back, there are no major returns left. Guys like Cena and Orton would have to leave for a while, but that doesn't seem likely.

Am I missing anyone?