2024 Pro Wrestling Thread

Darby coming out with a fucking FLAMETHROWER is certainly a choice.

I especially liked the part of Darby casually dangling it at his legs as they went do dark while it was still SHOOTING OUT FLAMES.

 

Hot take alert:

I don’t know what I did to the “algorithm,” but lately Facebook is giving me a lot of “reels” of old Rock promos from the Attitude days.

He’s really overrated on the stick. His promos were childish and formulaic, his delivery was alternately manic and cheesy, and he always went for the lowest hanging fruit.

 

Oh I agree I never liked the Rock in that era. Nothing funny about picking on Kevin Kelly and swear words.

That’s part of the reason this last run was so good and refreshing. The last thing we needed was low hanging fruit, get the crowd to chant Tribal Queef

 

Speaking of that era. 25 years ago today.

Owen.



I was the SE as the one-man sports department for a small town afternoon daily with the salary to match, so I didn’t get the PPV. I remember watching the local TV news and as the newscast was about to end, I stood up, started pointing the remote at the TV to turn it off and go to bed, and the newscaster said, “In late breaking news, WWF wrestler Owen Hart died tonight,” as they signed off. I stood there, just stunned.

Next morning, the regional paper had an AP story and photo of the shocked ref on a back page. My section normally consisted of the front page, an agate page, and a third page that sometimes had ads, but occasionally I would get a fourth page with a small space with the ads. For that day, I had a fourth page, so I put Owen’s death story on there.

I showed the page to my EE to proof; he looked at me and was like, “There’s no other sports news you can put there?” I responded that it was a pretty big deal. He rolled his eyes and handed the proof back to me.

That night, NBC Nightly News led its show with Owen’s death. Next day, my EE came over to me and said, “OK, it is a big deal.”

RIP Owen.

 

So they award the 2026 event before the 2025 event? Or have they already unofficially committed 2025 to one of the international markets? And do they really need to expand SummerSlam to two nights as well?

 

My theory on the Rock is that he had about six amazing months where it seemed like he was coining a new catch phrase in every promo—laying the smack down, know your role and shut your mouth, etc.—and then he's been either "playing himself" or being a generic tough guy ever since.

 

Agreed right around the time he started talkin about monkey poop and hermaphrodites it jumped the shark

Nation Rock, Corporate Rock, most Rock with Foley and Hollywood Rock were different animals.

 

Yeah, not sure I need two nights of SummerSlam. I guess it's good to separate it as the clear No. 2 PPV on the calendar (the Royal Rumble seemed to be taking that role lately), but it's one of those things I just don't know if I'm feeling it. They'll have to build up a hell of a lot of feuds to stack the card.

 

I've heard that this is a sign that they've committed WrestleMania 2026 to either London or ... ugh ... Saudi, and this is to ensure there's one big PLE showcase on U.S. soil.

 

So Darby shows up with a flamethrower and in less than 24 hours people have found footage of Jack Perry practicing a fire stunt in a random cup-de-sac.

 

For those wrestling fans who need a smile for today.

 

Speaking of all the Rock stuff talked about a few posts ago, the Busted Open guys had Brian Gewirtz on to go a little bit behind the curtain of all that happened to lead up to Mania.