2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

So on Austin's podcast, Vince talked briefly about Punk, mostly apologizing for firing him on his wedding day. He claimed a snafu with the legal department and that the firing in that day was just coincidence. (Yeah surrre). He did say, that, like Warrior, et al, that he hoped Punk would come back in the future. From what the sites reported, He address anything else Punk-related, like the doctors.

Some other interesting stuff on the podcast as well, including Vince saying that Savage will be in the Hall of Fame at some point, just not sure when.

 

Man, I hope Cesaro gets super motivated from this podcast. Austin touched well on him being with Heyman was a bad idea in hindsight.

Good interview so far. Vince handled the Punk stuff as Vince would. Which isn't a bad thing. He was sincere about the situation and gave as much detail as he felt was needed. Of course he was still going to be optimistic about the idea of working with Punk again. His reaction to working with Hogan again was incredible.

Vince has gone from pouty facing to laughing a lot too. Still got a ways to go though.

 

Hogan and Vince working together again likely has more to do with Hogan's divorce than anything else. I'd also imagine he spent a lot of dough on his son's legal problems.

Hulk needs to work. If the rumors are true, it is unlikely that Punk will ever have the financial need to work with Vince again. Of course, I'm not totally ruling out the idea of this being an elaborate ploy to finally bring Punk back in the true main event spot at a 'Mania.

 

Someone on some other site pointed out how ridiculous Vince's line was about Cena being the last man to be able to reach the brass ring. That poster pointed out Bryan and Punk as two others.

I'd also submit Ryder as a guy, who, while he wouldn't have gotten the brass ring, has pretty much kept his job for an extra five years because he did something without their permission.

 

Vince has been around long enough and seen enough to know that never rarely means never. And from what both sides have said, I'm not even sure the beef is entirely between Punk and Vince. Sounds like it's more between Punk and Triple H, which is what will keep Punk from coming back in the future.

 

Other sites have pointed out in the past that Triple H is kind of serving as the Johnny Ace-like hatchet man for Vince now. Meaning, he's saying "no" to talents instead of Vince, and they can appeal to Vince if they want. So, it wouldn't surprise me if Triple H's "relationship" with everyone is kind of clouded because he's playing bad cop right now, and things might be different once he and Stephanie are solely in control. (And to sound morbid for a moment - since they're only gaining control when Vince is dead or mentally unstable - that'll be a weird and fascinating time when they do finally take over.)

 

Meanwhile in England, it was just announced that the next Bond movie is "Spectre." Christophe Waltz is the main villain, and his henchman is Bluetista, er, Batista. Good for Dave. "Guardians of the Galaxy" and his buzz from that and now landing a Bond film has pretty much convinced me he'll never wrestle again, even part time. Maybe a retirement match in a year or two. Maybe WrestleMania.

 

Someone on here a long time ago asked about recommendations for wrestling web sites and such. I'll nominate one that I had never really paid much attention to in the past, but I'm finding myself becoming almost addicted to it.

It's the Kayfabe Memories message board.

I don't post on it, but there is just a vast amount of stuff on there from just about every territory from the old days. Ostensibly, the posts are supposed to cover up to 1989, but some exceptions are made.

There are your annoying posters,of course, such as one guy who thinks the color of Lex Luger's tights affected how he was perceived by promoters. But there's a lot of other great stuff. Best yet, some former wrestlers check in from time to time and post responses to old rumors, or answer questions. Apparently on their old site years ago, Marty Jannetty posted a long response telling his side of the incident where he paralyzed a jobber and got sued for it. One guy who used to manage The Sheik posts on there quite frequently. Paul Bearer used to as well, before he died.

Check it out if you wish.

 

So if The Monday Night Wars come along and for whatever reason it turns out Vince doesn't know anything about wrestling and can't compete (Ignore the stupidity of this but just hypothetically speaking) and WCW crushes WWE into the ground and out of business. What does the 2014 wrestling scene look like? Is WCW still going strong as the new monopoly in the wrestling industry? Have a whole load of other companies come up and there's more choice than ever for fans? Or does WCW still make the same mistakes and cause people to tune out regardless of no alternative available and basically see the death of pro wrestling?

Obviously there's no way of knowing whatsoever, but interesting to see what you guys think?

 

AOL Time Warner would have shut WCW down or sold it no matter what. They thought pro wrestling was an embarassment to the corporate image. Look at how much The E has changed since it went public.

 

If WWE doesn't win the Monday Night Wars, WCW eventually will get sold -- as Bradley said -- to the highest bidder. And it would probably wind up like TNA -- riding the coattails of 90s stars and struggling to find a new home on TV.

 

Observer from Dec. 8:

- According to Meltzer, Punk mostly vocalized what many in the industry already knew about his situation, namely, his frustration with the McMahon family and his booking and payoffs. There was one aspect somewhat glossed over though: In February, McMahon told investors on a conference call that Punk was on “sabbatical.” In truth, he was suspended, and you’re not allowed to lie like that on conference calls.

It was also believed previously that WWE had just let Punk’s contract lapse, as opposed to firing him, since there was never an announcement of his being fired. However, they fired him because that way the year-long non-compete would happen, although it was later rescinded after Punk threatened to sue.

Amongst the other wrestlers, they support some of what Punk said – there is a lot of double standard among what Triple H is allowed to do vs. other wrestlers – but a lot of it does come off as sour grapes. Colt Cabana has nuclear level heat for serving as the messenger.

Punk’s settlement is believed to be pretty significant. He got all of his merchandise money, rights to the CM Punk name for other media purposes, he still gets a royalty on any merchandise (shirts, video games) WWE sells with him, as well as a settlement check. He did not agree to a non-disparagement or non-compete agreement.

- Internally though, there was a negative reaction to McMahon’s podcast with Austin over his remarks about Cena being the last guy to grab the brass ring. Meltzer brings up a good point that we’d probably agree with: The WWE probably makes too much out of a guy’s weakness, instead of hiding this and accentuating their strengths.

According to Meltzer, he also spoke to someone close to Shane McMahon, and the parting between him and the company was not as amicable as Vince portrayed it. The source told him Shane took his $50M from WWE stock “and got the **** out of there.”

- There is interest from Bellator in both Punk and Del Rio as MMA guys, since they’ve shifted more toward attracting casual fans. It’s unknown if either one of them has much interest in competing though.

- On Dec. 1, in addition to the US television deal, New Japan also launched a worldwide digital service similar to the WWE Network. It costs 999 yen (about $8.22). There is a ton of old matches – you can watch Dynamite Kid (Thomas Billington) matches – but they only have about 350 hours of their library up now.

- Ring of Honor and New Japan will most likely combine for some talent-swapping shows in May 2015, like they did in 2014.

- WWE applied for a trademark on Big Red, and it’s believed it’ll be part of Rowan’s new name.

- Lesnar will not be on Raw on Dec. 8, since it’s the go home show for TLC and he’s not on it. Instead, he’ll return Dec. 15 in Detroit. Also, his last contracted date isn’t Mania, it’s the Raw following Mania, although depending on what happens at Mania he might not be on Raw, obviously.

- The ringside tickets for the Raw after Mania, which is usually a smarkfest, sold out almost instantly even at $475.

- A Jerry Lawler DVD is scheduled for 2015.

- A warrant has been issued for Heath Miller (Heath Slater) based on an alleged assault in 2011 after Mania. A female security guard claims that after she denied Miller’s advances, he tried to drag her to his room. She reported it to her company initially, but after inaction on their part, she filed a police report.

- Cena’s in-ring work has been slipping lately, especially his punches, and there is speculation he might have a serious shoulder injury.