2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

Did Monday Night Wars start on the network or not? I'm watching the Raw Rewind on USA, Cole and JBL are teasing to the debut on the Network after Raw, but I can't find the thing no matte what I search for on the Network.

 

They just had a one-hour sneak preview of it. Episodes start in August.

 

I know we've mentioned this before on this thread but I'm finally getting around to listening to some of Jericho's podcasts and they're fantastic. The episodes with Austin was terrific and the Edge ones were pretty solid as well. I'm jumping around on it because I'm really only interested in the wrestlers but the one I'm listening to right now has Heyman and Edge and it's phenomenal. Just great stuff all around.

 

Oh OK. Thanks

 

Observer tidbits from July 6. Didn’t get access until now because of the holiday and what not.

- Jericho is back, mostly because WWE gave him something creatively that he liked. While he was on good terms when he left, he did note to them that he wasn’t happy with elevating Fandango at Mania, and then having that angle and push go to waste. It’s believed that Daniel Bryan’s health woes caused the company to push to sign him, since he was one of the few A-level free agents out there.

- Barrett had major shoulder surgery on July 2, and will be out several months, which is why they took the IC belt off of him. Cesaro is seen as the favorite for the belt, but nothing has been decided yet, and there is some resistance to doing that because they see him as a top guy by Mania, and they realize the booking for the belts has been so horrible lately.

- Interestingly, there are betting odds for wrestling. And shortly before Money in the Bank, a lot of money went on Kane. However, there is no real indication for why; he was never considered to win internally, so it wasn’t anyone credible leaking that out.

- WWE isn’t believed to have interest in Chael Sonnen, given his steroid test failings and his age, but he has reached out to them. They might consider him in a few months, as a heel manager or in on-air commentary role, but not as a wrestler, because he’s older and has no training. TNA could also be interested in him for that reason, but he hasn’t contacted them.

- TNA’s Bound For Glory will take place Oct. 12 in Japan, and be a joint show with Wrestle-1. This also means that it’ll be taped, since otherwise, it would have to take place at 7 a.m. Monday in Japan to be live on Sunday night. It’s believed to be the first non-live wrestling PPV since SummerSlam 1992, which was done from Wembley Stadium in the UK.

- Dixie Carter, 49, took a power bomb at the June 26 tapings and as a result is believed to actually have fractured a vertebrae in her back. She isn’t a trained wrestler or anything.

- Scott Hall was reportedly “a mess” and 90 minutes late for the New England Fan Fest, even though he had a hotel room and check-in the night before.

- John Morrison was contacted by ROH to come in for some shows, but he wasn’t interested. He’s starring in a Hercules rip-off that comes out VOD a few weeks ahead of The Rock’s Hercules movie.

- Cena will be filming two movies in the coming year, bit parts in both. One is a Tina Fey and Amy Poheler movie, where he’ll be a villain, and another is written by Amy Schumer.

- Sammartino taped about 8 hours of interviews for the WWE recently. It’s unknown how any of the footage will be used.

- Curt Hawkins was interviewed following his release, and said the de-push of Zach Ryder was demoralizing for a lot of guys in the locker room, since he had managed to get himself over without any help from management in the first place.

Spoiler stuff on SummerSlam and other PPV plans, and TNA taping stuff:

- Four matches seem to be set in stone for SummerSlam: Cena vs. Lesnar, Reigns vs. Orton, Stephanie McMahon vs. Brie Bella, and Jericho vs. Wyatt. Daniel Bryan vs. Kane in a Buried Alive match was originally also a lock, but it’s unlikely now. It’s believed that Reigns might take on Triple H at Battleground or before SummerSlam a couple of times.

- It’s believed that of the people who first signed up for the network when it became available, 74 percent of the subscriptions will expire right before Night of Champions in September. As a result, that PPV will probably be built up heavier than before, and Lesnar is expected to be booked for it.

- Flair doesn’t have a start-up date for TV yet. It’s still believed that Sting’s contract will get done, but they’re haggling a bit over money.

- The Shield reunion is already being planned for late 2015 or early 2016. That’s one of their longterm booking goals, with the idea being that they’re DX for the future, with regular reunions and break-ups.

- Hogan is getting a pretty big guarantee, and a high per-date figure, because he’s being used quite a bit on the Japan tour. His name is still huge over there, and they sold out a couple shows already, when sales are usually much more tepid.

- Debuting or coming back for TNA from the tapings they did in New York: Snitsky, Ezekiel Jackson, Rhino, Matt Hardy, Low Ki, Tommy Dreamer, Great Muta and Homicide. The shows were fairly well-received, but TNA probably took a bath on them, as the first show in particular only had about 600 of 1,000 seats sold, despite heavy promotion. Also, the crowd was apparently unruly, and chanted for CM Punk, ROH and other shit throughout.

 

Rollins looked like he got legitimately hurt last night when he hurt his knee. I could see the trainer running in the background and they didn't show him again.

 

All the reports I've read this morning is that it was a work and the knee is fine.

If that's the case, then Rollins played that perfectly since he sure fooled me.

 

Seems superfluous to be working something like that unnecessarily. If they wanted him to sell a knee injury, just have Ambrose whack it with a chair, instead of some hidden thing that was primarily off-camera.

It's like when Cena "hurt" his knee when attacked by the Wyatts, although it was not emphasized afterward.

 

I think maybe it was to "even up" the match at the end. That kind of booking, I guess.

 

My guess is they sold the Rollins' knee injury as a way to bring Brock in as the Plan C on Sunday.
My bet is Cena finds a way to win the four-way (Big shocker there!) and HHH calls out Rollins, who refuses to cash in because of the leg injury or he does cash in and loses with them selling the knee injury as the reason why (thus he doesn't look bad in losing the case) and then Lesnar comes out, mops the floor with Cena and, boom, we've got our Summerslam Main Event.
I only wish they hadn't shown Heyman with HHH/Steph last night as most people are going to connect the dots there I think.
The only way we'll know if that Rollins injury is legit or not is if they cancel the Ambrose match Sunday. If they don't, it's a work. If they do, it could be legit.

 

Or let's say Ambrose goes nuts and further "hurts" Rollins' knee, to the point where he might not be able to legit cash in for a bit (work of course).

Then they have no choice but to bring in Plan C

 

You know what I don't understand? Why a MITB winner hasn't won the briefcase and then immediately hidden it so that people forget he has it.
I know it wouldn't work given this current storyline but it would have been refreshing to see Rollins win it, come out on RAW the next night and declare that no one would see that briefcase until he cashed it in, have him work for months without a mention of it and then, after months of "perfect" moments where a typical cash-in would have occurred, have him cash it in right after the finish of the main event of WrestleMania, right when the crowd would expect it the least.
Talk about a WrestleMania moment to remember.