2016 Pro Wrestling Thread

If hologram broken Matt Hardy isn't a squad goal I don't know what is

 

I don't want to get political but I just saw a Rosenberg video on the cops shooting people thread and good god am I glad I quit Cheap heat. That guy is so full of himself it's absurd.

I equate it with Bob Costas.....I don't need my wrestling guy telling me how I'm supposed to feel about social issues. His opinion on anything is no more or less important just because he's a radio jockey, yet he seems to think it is. It drives me nuts about all celebrities across any number of platforms and issues, but damn if Rosenberg is not the worst.

 

But what you're either ignoring or don't know is that Rosenberg is also a DJ on a hip-hop station. The shooting effects his audience. Plus, he didn't just go off for no reason. It was in response to a call from a police officer who wouldn't even admit that it looks bad. This was germane to the conversation they were having on his show. That's what they do on radio. That's his job, whether you like what he has to say or not.

And you're absolutely right. His opinion is no more right than anyone else's. But he has a platform. There is absolutely nothing wrong with him using it to express his opinion, just like there's nothing wrong with you getting on Facebook and expressing yours or coming onto an anonymous message board and expressing your opinion. The only difference is the size and nature of the platform.

 

I mean....there's nothing "wrong" with it per se but it still drives me bananas and is a huge turn off. People that have ruined Facebook with the constant memes and slanted poli posts are also a huge turnoff.

This is always my speech when this kind of stuff comes up at work.....if we're to believe voter turnout, then about 50% of the population does not give a damn. If we're to buy into how polarized things are now, and assume a roughly 50/50 split between right and left, then when you're in sports and entertainment (in this case sports entertainment) you're immediately alienating roughly 75% of your audience. It's foolish.

I truly can't think of many media personalities as self righteous as Rosenberg and so few people even know who he is that I didn't know where else to post.....don't mean to thread jack.

 

The late spring and summer of 1996 had a helluva lot going on.

Curtain Call

Hall invades Nitro

Nash invades Nitro

Austin 3.16 speech

Hogan turns heel/NWO is born.

Kimona Wanalaya dancing on top of the ECW arena

 

It's Lesnar vs. Orton at Summerslam.

 

It could be good, but what sort of storyline are they going to be able to build with it? Orton as an underdog? No way.

And I sure as heck don't want Orton winning. He doesn't need it.

About the best thing they could do to build it up, not that they would actually do it nowadays, is have Orton RKO Lesnar, then punt him. Have Lesnar show some vulnerability.

 

Been watching some old Nitros on the Network. Just got through Halloween Havoc 1995, when Hogan and Show had a monster truck battle and then a match for the title.

That match was a clusterfuck, with Jimmy Hart turning on Hogan and joining the Dungeon of Doom to the debut of the Yeti -- or, as they pronounced it, Yet-tay -- who dry humped Hogan and Savage in a bear hug with Show, to Lex Luger joining the DoD as well.

The next two Nitros weren't that great, either, but we got a damn good match between Benoit and Eddy on one of them and then the announcement that the title was being held up and would be determined in the 60-man battle royal at World War 3.

Fun times.

 

I just got done watching the Kerry Von Erich vs. Ric Flair cage match on the Network that started the Von Erich/Freebird feud.

They each did a promo before. Kerry mumbled his way through some stuff. Flair gave a quiet, confident promo that was unlike his screaming stuff later on.

They had a camera behind both of them as they made their entrance, which was a pretty unique thing. Flair went through OK. But Kerry was literally mobbed by girls who were hugging him. Security was a mess. He could barely get through.

A really weird match, in a way. What a lot of people forget about is the same night, they started setting things up by having Hayes and Gordy win the Six-Man titles in a tournament, with David Von Erich subbing for Buddy Roberts, who supposedly missed his flight.

Then, Hayes was a special ref in the cage, along with David Manning, after "a fan vote". So the fans all thought Hayes was on Kerry's side. During the match, whenever there was a pin attempt, both Hayes and Manning jumped down to count simultaneously. Like I said, really weird. During it, Hayes was really aggressive with Flair, then briefly with Kerry as well. Kerry shrugged it off. Flair got pissed.

Everyone recalls how Gordy slammed the cage door on Kerry's head (a very solid shot, BTW), but even more strangely, that wasn't the actual finish. Hayes, who had been going at it with Flair at first, then with Kerry, had climbed back in the cage, put Flair on top, and counted to three, even though Kerry not only escaped, but was on his stomach when Hayes hit the mat the third time. There's some hesitation there, and the bell even rings, but then Hayes just walks out with Gordy.

The match even continues for a couple more minutes. Kerry kicks out of some Flair pin attempts, but continues to sell the cage door shot, but gets some punches in, then KOs Flair with the discus punch before collapsing. Manning then rules Kerry can't continue, and Flair wins.

I can see them wanting to protect Kerry from eating a pin, but it just seemed like having Flair pin him after the door shot would have been best.

 

Observer from July 11:

- The UFC sale is currently in the discovery and financial investigation stage, and an announcement probably isn’t imminent at UFC 200. It’s believed they’ve gotten two bids for more than $4 billion.

- The Jon Jones news came out after deadline, but even before then, UFC was cutting some of the super high end ticket prices ($1,000 to $800, $800 to $600, etc.) because sales were a bit soft.

- WWE isn’t believed to be getting a piece of UFC 200, because they didn’t hype the show on the go-home Raw or any other program. However, Lesnar is always billed as a “WWE superstar” in UFC advertising, so it’s believed that was the exchange.

- It took UFC a year to clear the rights to use Hank Hill for UFC 200 commercials that are airing during Adult Swim.

- Moose from ROH is now expected to sign a two-year deal with TNA. WWE was the frontrunner, but delayed the signing because of a past domestic violence charge.

- Hideo Itami returned from injury on June 30. He was out for 13 months because of a shoulder injury.

- The domestic violence charges against Lawler were dropped, and he was back on Smackdown on July 5.

- WWE is looking at Curt Hawkins, James Yun (Jimmy Wang Yang), Volador Jr. and Rush.

- Jericho said Fozzy would release an album in 2017, at which point he’d be back in the studio and doing music full-time.

 

I started Nitro from episode 1 however long ago. I'm through that part and saw that Benoit/Gurerro match, and that was a beauty. The last few episodes I caught, Hulk, still sans fu manchu mustache, was wearing a black costume with a cape, a mask, and a broadsword and cutting a promo on....something. Then Macho Man joins him and they're on Muscle Beach, in all black, on a couple of hawgs, cutting a promo on....something. It's weird. I'm just trying to get into 1996 for some Jericho, nWo, and the revival of the Hogan/Piper feud.