2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

https://twitter.com/Sting/status/486509776629530624

https://twitter.com/Sting/status/486557163079213056

 

WTF are all the Bobby Lashley comments about?

 

It was a show for a couple of years. Curiously enough, they cancelled it before the launch of the network, when it could have at least killed time between Raw Flashbacks and Countdowns

 

Prediction: Sting makes his long-awaited WWE debut on Raw on 7/14/14.
Prediction: Sting's first WWE match is on the Battleground preshow, when he jobs to Hornswoggle while wearing the Gobbledygooker outfit.

 

I have to say, Paige could make me spellbound. She's not close to the hottest celebrity I've ever seen but something distinctly seductive about her.

 

I watched WrestleMania 2 today and saw the perfect match to overdub: Adorable Adrian Addonis vs. Uncle Elmer. You'll never see a clip of that in a WM retrospective.

 

WM2 is one of those ideas that looked really cool at the time (hold the event in three different arenas!), but looks really weird nowadays. Especially when the majority of the matches were just random thrown-together things. Kinda like some of the PPVs today.

 

It was a product of trying to put together three mini-shows, each with a main event good enough to draw fans to what was still a nascent product. One of the first Starcades was split between Greensboro and Atlanta, which worked better because a) two cities, not three, b) no PPV to have to work around/with, c) both cities were deep in the footprint, d) they had the talent and bookers to make it work and e) they even used the dual cities for at least one angle, when Blanchard and Dillon were booked for Greensboro while the rest of the Four Hosemen were in Atlanta.

 

http://screamer.deadspin.com/here-is-j-r-jim-ross-calling-the-brazil-germany-firs-1601968953/+bubbaprog

May have already been posted, but this is fantastic.

 

This week’s Observer stuff:

- WWE is still in cost-cutting mode. The filming of Tough Enough has been postponed from late July to October, if it’s going to happen at all. If they do do it, the production budget is going to be cut, and because they’ve delayed on that it will also cause Legends House S2 to probably be a 2015 show now. It’s estimated that a season of the various reality shows – Total Divas, TE and LH – cost around $4M for 10 episodes.

- CM Punk is hosting the Gibson Brands AP Music Awards in Cleveland on July 21. This isn’t all that special, but because he’s been announced as the host, it probably means two things: 1) WWE isn’t going to be renewing his contract, which is believed to expire a few days before then. 2) Punk is going to use his “wrestling name” for non-wrestling stuff, since he was using it before he was in the WWE and it’s not believe that they trademarked it.

- There is currently no ETA for Daniel Bryan’s return. After his complaints of complications from the neck surgery, they did more testing and MRIs and found lots of shoulder and neck issues. It’s even unclear whether he should get another surgery at this point.

- Ustream is no longer going to be offering iPPV, which means Ring of Honor, New Japan and other smaller companies are looking for alternatives. It’s not entirely sure why Ustream has quit; while they only got 10 to 15 percent of the revenue on an iPPV show, it’s better than nothing.

- TNA has retired their TV title, which hadn’t been defended since it was won by Abyss in June 2013. Humorously, it was kind of a pattern with them, since Devon had the title in Sept. 2012 when his contract ran out.

- Santino retired, and they noted that his original gimmick in OVW – a “real” judo fighter – was instead given to Vladimir Kozlov because they didn’t think Santino was big enough to make it work.

- Petey Williams, who worked for TNA and ROH, has retired at 32. No real reason has been given yet for why.

- Per WWE’s agreement with San Jose for them to land WrestleMania, a bunch of smaller wrestling entities – Ring of Honor, for one – have been locked out from public venues in that area the week of Mania.

- Remember when some WCW guys were on a shit-show of a North Korea wrestling PPV in the mid-1990s that “attracted” 300,000 fans or so? Well, Antonio Inoki is doing one this year, on Aug. 30 and Aug. 31. He said he had 20 athletes from the US, Japan and Netherlands lined up for the show, and it would be a pro wrestling and MMA event.

Spoiler stuff:

- It’s believed that Sting’s tweet is about another project, related to a video game, and not a surprise Raw appearance.

- Jericho is signed through Battleground and the Raw after, so, late September.

- The Kenta Kobayashi signing announcement is July 12 in Osaka; it’s expected to be kind of a big deal in Japan. Charlotte is also debuting on the main roster soon.

- Renee Young is staying with WWE for now, and eventually might be promoted to doing commentary on Smackdown and then Raw. While she was contacted by ESPN, she still has time left on her WWE contract, and it’s believed she’s more of a wrestling lifer than other people who made the jump like Coachman and Grisham.

- Rashad Evans has expressed interest in becoming a wrestler, but the WWE doesn’t have a ton of interest in him, because he’s coming off a knee surgery, and he’s in his mid-30s.

- Adam Rose is now doing matches on Superstars, which is not a great sign.

- Travis Banks and five others will be getting tryouts at the WWE show in Melbourne. The other five weren’t listed.

 

That's kind of ridiculous about the WWE locking other promotions out of San Jose. I know it was sort of a tradition for ROH to do a show that week. Considering the number of people who make the pilgrimage for Mania, I seriously doubt ROH was cutting into the WWE's bottom line. The people who were going to the ROH show were likely buying tickets for Mania anyway. No one is flying out there and spending a week to go see the Brisco Brothers work a solid match in a 2,000-seat civic center.

 

That Bryan news does not sound very good.