2015 Pro Wrestling Thread

Not to sidetrack to thread a bit, but nice touch by Big E offering his condolences to the reporter shot and killed in Roanoke this morning. She had featured New Day before.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Shaken by the news of the tragic passing of Alison Parker. We all loved her energy and warmth. <a href="Epsilon on Twitter">pic.twitter.com/TjKRSmT7HA</a></p>&mdash; Epsilon (@WWEBigE) <a href="">August 26, 2015</a></blockquote>
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And a link to the piece the station did: 'WWE Raw' takes over Berglund Center

 

That's frightening. Jeez.

 

The Dudley Boyz Have A Full-Time, Long-Term Deal, Are Set For A Big Match At Night Of Champions

"We also have some interesting notes about this Monday’s big Dudleyz debut. Their return was kept secret from everybody but a few top officials and folks in the marketing and merch department, and the duo were kept hidden right until the last moment. Yes, even their victims the New Day didn’t know what was coming, so those expressions of fear/childlike delight were legit."

 

Sucks for Woods, though. One minute, you're blowing a horn, the next minute, you're unexpectedly going through a table.

 

Or not.

“If you’re not a wrestler, this may be hard to understand. Tonight, I took a 3 from the Dudley Boyz through a table in front of a sold out crowd in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center after I played trombone during our entrance and my boys sand our remake of Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York.’ This is honestly one of the best moments of my life.”

 

Observer from Aug. 31:

- SummerSlam got 78.1 percent approval, 18.3 percent so-so, 3.6 percent thumbs down. Rollins vs. Cena got best match with 153 votes, killing Taker vs. Brock (34) and Owens vs. Cesaro (23). Worst match, the IC belt triple threat (Ryback, Miz, Show) got 71 votes, followed by Divas (64) and Ziggler vs. Rusev (55).

- NXT Takeover got 99.5 percent approval – 206 thumbs up votes, one thumbs-middle vote. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks took 182 votes for best match, with Balor vs. Owens getting 19.

- The plan for Rollins right now at Night of Champions is for him to pull double duty, and to defend the belts in separate matches against Cena and Sting. Vince still has to sign off on it though. The preliminary plan for the rest of the card is mostly rematches, with the Dudleys being injected into the PTP vs. New Day feud. A couple existing feuds will probably be left off the card.

- WWE somewhat acknowledged TNA this week, by saying that the Dudleys are 24-time tag team champions. You can only get to that number by including TNA (and Hustle, and IWGP). However, they didn’t include TNA titles in the count for Sting.

- Liger is actually working several dates for NXT, which is why he went over Breeze. He’s not taking other bookings though.

- Stowman is Adam Scherr, 31. He’s 6’8” and 375, and a former strongman competitor. Although he was signed in 2013, he only started working matches on non-TV events for NXT in December, and he did a Smackdown dark match on June 2. He’s worked less than 10 proper matches for the company.

- NXT will be doing a UK tour from Dec. 10 to Dec. 16. They’re booking arenas for it, not smaller venues, so they’re pretty confident. The headline will be Balor, who’s from Ireland, with the other “names” being Samoa Joe, Tyler Breeze, Emma and Dana Brooke.

- Eva Marie’s crowd reaction in Brooklyn was worse than even Cena and Roman Reigns.

- There was a botch in the four-way women’s match on the NXT show that was for a future taping. Lynch got shook up on a crossbody from Emma and kicked out late, after the three count. It’s unknown if they’ll edit it out or around it with commentary.

- Nash, Hall and Waltman were shown on camera, and then left.

- Kana was shown in the crowd because it’s believed she has an NXT contract now. She’s 33, which is older than WWE usually signs women, but they needed some experienced wrestlers with Banks, Charlotte and Lynch on the main roster. She uses kicks and submissions, so she’ll have a different ring style than most of the women.

- From Meltzer on the Raw divas’ segment: “This segment told me just how clueless they are regarding making this work. The actual idea was supposed to be that Charlotte, Lynch and Paige would show tension and start very subtly teasing a break-up because they all wanted Nikki’s title. That didn’t happen at all.”

- Stardust turned on Barrett to write him out of storylines for a bit. He’ll be in the UK to film a movie.

- Global Force Wrestling had its second TV tapings on Aug. 21. The crowd, still papered, was down from 3,000 to 1,000. The show went five hours long. They still don’t have a TV deal, domestic or intentional, with talent thinking that the money is more likely to come from the latter.

- The co-promoter of Pro Wrestling Syndicate said they used Sabu twice this year. The first time, he had to be told to not smoke pot in the locker room. The second time when he checked out of his hotel, they were charged extra for clean-up because of blood, dog feces and syringes.

- Going from ROH to New Japan in a talent swap are the Briscoes, Matt Sydal (Evan Bourne) and War Machine.

- The situation is still bad in TNA, with no tapings announced past September. There is also nothing on a TV deal.

- The next WWE live house show special will be Oct. 3, and it’ll feature Lesnar’s return to MSG. It’s unknown who he’ll face. Jericho is likely to be on the card as well.

- Daniel Bryan has been cleared by his personal doctor, who serves as the team physician for the Arizona Cardinals, but WWE is still reluctant to clear him. He’s been working out and training, and says he could wrestle tomorrow if they wanted him to.

- Mysterio and WWE have had very casual conversations, since WWE’s efforts to promote a new Latin star have gone nowhere (Lucha Dragons, Kalisto) and Mysterio’s deal with Lucha Underground is in danger because that promotion is so shaky.

- Tough Enough, Josh and Sara Lee were the winners, although most in the company think Amanda has a better work ethic that Sara Lee. ZZ is seen as unlikely to do much with WWE, since beyond the bad body, it didn’t get any better in months of training.

- Charlotte, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch got pay bumps with their promotion to the main roster.

- Another reason for smarks to be upset: John Cena is a complicating factor in the divas division. Not because he’s aggressively butting in, but because he’s dating Nikki Bella and she turns to him for business advice.

- There is talk, but no firm plans, to have Sister Abigail be an actual person.

- For the 2K video game recordings, talent gets story bullet points that they have to improv on. The best at it is Cena. Second best? Xavier Woods.

 

I wondered about that four-way. Rewatched it last night to see if maybe they set it up better on commentary than it played live but, nope, it came out of nowhere.
That was confusing as fuck in person. We're watching along and then, bam, all of a sudden it's over and Emma (who was literally the last person people thought would win) wins and the crowd goes silent from confusion.

 

That idea of Rollins facing Cena first at NOC makes a lot of sense to me if Sting's getting the title. Sells Rollins as being worn out and not 100% which kind of cuts down on him looking weak by losing to a part time guy that HHH toppled already.

 

What does a Sting title win do?

 

Gives everyone who has been clamoring for the fantasy feud of Sting vs. Sheamus a chance to get excited at the many, many possibilities.

 

Nothing for me but I'm operating under the assumption that he has to win, he can't have waited 20 years to come to WWE to lose his first two matches. I'll admit making it a title match has me a bit stumped.

 

Yeah, I mean, if anyone can get a title match without ever winning a WWE match, then technically, you or me could be WWE title contenders. Heck, Special Delivery Jones and Barry Horowitz went years, won a handful of matches, and, to my knowledge, never got a WWF title shot.