2016 Pro Wrestling Thread

Shit. The spoiler tag didn't show up.

 

Santino was brought in as a guy out of the crowd who won the IC title (with help) on his first night, and turned it into a comedy role. Elllsworth could fill that niche.

 

Santino was a unique talent for that role. I don't know if Ellsworth could do it.

They could have him in a Mikey Whipwreck role where he mostly gets killed, but wins on the occasional fluke, then becomes a protege (kinda like he's doing with Ambrose), teach him a few moves, then he gets a surprise IC/US title run for a few weeks, and ends up as a midcarder who eventually feuds with his mentor.

 

I understand Santino, but he at least was already on the payroll wrestling in Ohio Valley. Ellsworth was just some indie journeyman they brought in to get tossed around by Braun Strowman, who began getting a cult following.

Betcha he probably wouldn't be here if he had a more pronounced chin.

 

I can't believe we're seriously discussing it in the first place.

 

The only comparable I can think of to Ellsworth is Blue Pants, but 1) she was strictly an NXT only talent and 2) she got heat because she wouldn't sign an NXT deal, because she was making more money just selling her merch as opposed to being on a WWE deal. I imagine that for a main roster contract though, the money equation is different.

 

Went to an NXT house show this week, outstanding product. Cedric Alexander and Roderick Stong tore the place down in the match of the night. shinsuke, roode, dillinger Joe and the diy/revival teams were great at working the crowd. it was a ton of fun, awesome yet laid back atmosphere, highly recommend checking it out if nxt tours in your area.

 

Ellsworth vs. Lesnar at WrestleMania. Book it!

 

Survivor series goes tonight.

Some debuts were made at this event.

Kurt Angle

The Undertaker

The Rock

Goobly Gooker

Doug Furnas and Philip LaFon(Can't find the video)

 

Observer from Nov. 21:

- HBK will not be taking over WWE training anytime soon. According to people who work there, the job Matt Bloom does actually involves a lot of paperwork and administration, and HBK would be a poor fit. However, WWE had the idea of HBK working with guys on the cusp of being promoted from NXT to WWE, in small groups, for a couple months.

- TNA’s new owners, Anthem Entertainment, announced a settlement with Billy Corgan on Nov. 11. It’s unknown what the terms were, but it’s likely between the $1.5M he was owed at least and the $2.6M he asked for.

Anthem is currently analyzing the TNA management structure and deciding on who to keep and who to cut loose going forward. It’s said that the front office is a skeleton crew, so hires will be needed to beef up advertising at the very least.

Their most pressing free agent will be Matt Hardy. He’s on WWE’s radar because he’s been getting over on the Internet, but he’s in the Top 5 of valuable guys to TNA right now.

- Joey Styles is now a free agent, after getting fired from a couple independent promotions for making offense remarks in the aftermath of the election. A promoter asked him not to make any remarks about it before a show, but he panicked on a live mic and adlibbed, “Joanna you look great tonight. If our next president was here, he’d want to grab you by the…”

He didn’t finish the statement, but it got bad heat with the crowd and promotion, especially over the next few days. Despite this, TNA might now be interested, since he might pair up nicely with Tazz.

- A report from the cities of Dallas and Arlington estimated the financial impact of Mania at $170.4M. Those numbers are usually inflated, since they’re by politicians and businesses trying to justify having an event there, but it’s still a number well higher than past Manias. Paid attendance was 93,730, and total attendance (performers, security, comps, etc.) was 97,769.

- It’s unknown officially when the fourth season of Lucha Underground will begin filming, but right now talent expects it to be in February.

- Drew Gulak and Tony Nese have been offered contracts, after performing as freelance talent for months on cruiser shows for WWE. Both have been allowed to keep using their real names, as WWE is currently more favorable to that vs. making up horrible fake names.

- ROH’s Steve Corino spent a week as a coach at the WWE performance center, and he was featured heavily by WWE in video packages and advertising for that week, which is odd. He’s under contract to ROH through 2016.

- Dorada is now gone from CMLL. He has signed a 3-year deal with WWE.

- Skyhorse Publishing has been hired for Jim Ross’ much-talked about biography. Right now, the plan is for it to be at least two parts, similar to Jericho’s books, first the first part covering up to 2000.

- Dominick Gutierrez, 19, the son of Mysterio, is now training to be a pro wrestler.

- Brooke Hogan said her father is in talks with WWE to come back for Mania. Hulk Hogan said she just made it up. Meltzer said Brooke is the more credible of the two.

- E! has commissioned a second season of Total Bellas.

- Kentucky has re-created its wrestling commission, and removed a restriction on blood in matches. (Before, if there was blood, a match had to immediately stop.) As a result, WWE and other promotions might be willing to have PPVs and TV shows there now. While WWE doesn’t have a ton of blood now, and usually stops matches, they bristled about a third party having control over it during a live broadcast.

- WWE is advertising Santa’s Helpers matches at future shows with the divas, even though it seems like a 90s Attitude era gimmick that’s way out of place now. Liv Morgan is expected to be brought up for some of them, or Mandy Rose, because you can’t really use Asuka in them.

- LeBron James blew off the Undertaker, when Taker went to that Cleveland game. While Taker was invited to the game, he apparently showed up in full costume and with a WWE camera crew, which the Cavs folks weren’t expecting.

- Summer Rae has been out with an injury for months. It’s unknown what the injury is, or when she’s coming back.

- 30 for 30 is doing a documentary on the XFL that airs Feb. 2.

- Paige is still under contract, but not at WWE shows. She was at the Jersey All Pro Wrestling show on Nov. 2, because Alberto Del Rio was there. She was introduced as a “special guest,” but her name wasn’t mentioned.

 

I found it amusing that this story seemed to snowball simply off Kevin Nash breaking the 'news' in an interview. Does anyone ever listen to Kevin Nash and not consider most of what he says absolute bullshit?