2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

Joseph, given that WWE's contract didn't go up quite as much as they wanted, I can't see where TNA's will be anything to write home about. At minimum, they'll probably need to pull back a bit from their current operations, which is as the clear #2 in the US to the WWE. Probably going to be shifting closer in revenue and scale to ROH, but without the critical cache that company has, which makes the future for them look murky to me. One thing I definitely agree with Jim Ross on is that TNA needs to be something besides WWE Lite or The WWE Retirement and Rehirement Circuit.

 

I agree. They need to make themselves look different than WWE. A true alternative. However, the people in charge seemingly won't ever let that happen.

 

Observer for Nov. 17:

- Jim Ross has been announced for the Jan. 4 New Japan PPV; he’ll be providing English commentary. The deal is being financed by Jeff Jarrett, and if it’s successful in the US, Ross is open to doing future dates. They’re negotiating with Mike Tenay to get him to be the second guy, but he’s still under a TNA contract, and they don’t allow their announcers to work side gigs for “rival” promotions. New Japan has a really good current product, but most of their good performers are closer to 40 than 30, and they don’t have much of a development system.

- The WWE and SyFy (finally) announced that Smackdown will move back to its original Thursday slot starting on Jan. 15. It has been rumored since August.

- The WWE reached a settlement with Del Rio, terms undisclosed. It’s believed that he got a financial payout and his non-compete dismissed in return for agreeing not to talk negatively about the company. WWE is believed to have offered to re-hire him, but he wasn’t interested. WWE is also worried about its image regarding Hispanic stars and markets, as allegedly, company executives were making racist jokes and remarks.

- Still nothing announced on the TNA television contract. This past week, they were negotiating with Destination America, which is under the Discovery Network umbrella and only has clearance in about 52 percent of the country. The last “new” episode of Impact is Nov. 19, which is followed by three “best of” shows, ending on Spike on Dec. 17.

- Cena missed the Nov. 3 Raw because he was filming an appearance on Parks and Recreation.

- Hogan is technically in the mix for Mania, but he’ll need to pass an extensive physical. Because he hasn’t taken one recently, that’s why they haven’t even been letting him punch guys.

- Ryder is legit hurt with a torn rotator cuff, and he’ll need 6 to 8 months for surgery. Because he needed the surgery, that’s why he was brought back briefly for the Survivor Series angle.

- WWE’s meeting with Mysterio in Buffalo on Nov. 3 went better than initially reported, and it’s believed that if creative has some decent ideas for him, he’ll work for the company between now and Mania. However, the company wants him to work a full schedule, which is a sticking point, and it’s unclear if his body could even handle that now.

- The Liverpool UK show (Smackdown) was said to be a disaster, with the lowest attendance in about 15 years for a TV taping in that country. They had to have Vince come out to pump up the crowd, which wasn’t initially planned. Fans repeatedly started chants to disrupt on Raw and Smackdown because they weren’t happy about another UK Network delay.

- Charlotte Flair is probably going to be moved up to the main roster soon, with sometime around Dec. 11 a potential target. At NXT, they’re building toward her losing her title to Sasha Banks.

 

Speaking of NXT:

That Adrian Neville-Sami Zayn match on Thursday was phenomenal.

Although you could see the end coming, they're really building a great story with Zayn's road to redemption. Wouldn't surprise me if they try to turn him at some point, shedding the nice guy/lovable loser/Can't win the big one shell.

 

Because lists are fun and WWE desperately needs to plug the Network, they've put out "The WWE 100" -- the 100 greatest matches available on the Network right now.
Not sure if it's a true Top 100 list (it is numbered, but some of the ones in the top 10 are a bit surprising in their relative obscurity), but it's fun nonetheless. Two of the top 11 are Flair-Steamboat matches from their NWA days, No. 1 is HBK-Taker at Wrestlemania 25, and checking in in the top 10 is an Eddie Guerrero-Rey Mysterio cruiserweight match from Halloween Havoc '97.

 

On Cheap Heat, they said that while the list was numbered, it isn't ranked.

 

Then why even number it?

Don't want to post this on the video game thread, but has anyone played through the NXT game on WWE 2K15 yet? I'm working my way through the Zayn storyline and just beat Cesaro -- after four or five tries -- yesterday afternoon. The mode is fun, even if the PS3/360 version is just a copy of last year's game.

 

We know how this will end, but this Cesaro/Ryback match has been pretty competitive.

Kinda surprising since Ryback has been pushed recently.

 

I don't know about you, but having Ryback as my trump card doesn't have me enthusiastic about my chances.
Was REALLY hoping (and half expecting) a surprise return from Orton in that spot. Disappointed it didn't come.

 

It would have been nice, but I don't think his filming schedule will allow for him to take time off for it to happen. He's only out a couple of more weeks, but it sucks that he's not there right now.

 

Orton would've bee nice there. I had a brief thought that a surprise Reigns appearance would've brought the house down. I'm not buying Team Authority as major threats, I don't understand why Rowan and Harper don't like each other? Survivor Series was rough last year and this one doesn't seem to be shaping up much better. Lull in the WWE calendar I guess.

Putting both the US and IC champs in the 5 on 5 main event hurts the rest of the show. There's already no world champ. What are they supposed to build the other 2 hours on? I thought Henry/Show but they threw them in the main event too.

RE Cheap Heat----I got the impression that the lists the guys were looking at at that moment were the matches unranked, but that the actual list on WWE.com was. I don't know if that is right, but that's what I thought they meant when listening to it.

 

Cesaro would have been a stunning surprise, but all they did it for was a joke. I was thinking Reigns would have been the surprise, although a part of me was thinking Bryan would have been one heckuva pop.

And if it would have been Punk, holy shit.