2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

What's the ethics on that? The TNA people were always asking me if I wanted tickets. I politely declined, partly because the shows were on weekends I had to work and partly because I was afraid of getting fired for taking a gift with some actual value. A free T-shirt or leftover hamburger every now and then is no biggie, but a couple of tickets worth $50 or $60 seems a bit over the line.

 

There goes Bo's unbeaten streak ... To R-Truth.

He beat the hell out of him after, though.

This had been an excellent Raw so far. Seems like everyone is stepping up their game tonight.

 

Did Cole just forget to pronounce the "n" in Funkadactyls?

 

Probably not ethical at all, but I was a dumb kid with stars in my eyes. Plus when Vince McMahon offer you tickets, you tend to blank out on your media ethics training. As it was, I was having a hard enough time wrapping my head around that voice answering my questions as opposed to doing play-by-play on Raw (this was right before he went all in on the Mr. McMahon character). It was weird, like interviewing a character as opposed to the person behind it because probably in his case, the two are so intertwined as to be indistinguishable.

Again, dumb kid who didn't know any better or forgot what he knew until later.

 

Know how that is, too. Jerry Lawler was making an appearance at an indy show in our town once, and I got to interview him over the phone. He couldn't have been nicer. He talked to me for about 30 minutes while he was making dinner.
First thing I told him, though, was that he threw me off by talking in a relatively normal voice. I've heard his TV voice so often that I didn't even recognize his "everyday" voice. He just laughed and said, "Yeah, well, I'm not having to scream over 20,000 people right now."
The interview went well after that, but I definitely felt like a fanboi for a few minutes.
Same with the Jimmy Hart interview. I got to hold his megaphone for a minute and had to resist the urge to run amok beating people over the head with it.

 

Excellent Raw tonight. You know it's good when the final segment is a broken-up catfight and the crowd is chanting that it is awesome.

 

Like good ol' JR says, personal conflict can propel any story. Fans don't give two shits about random feuds. Steph is the top heel in the company in a lot of eyes, and this is a great way to keep Bryan in the back of fans' minds.

SummerSlam is coming together fantastically. I'm invested in every story right now, from Lesnar murdering Cena on PPV to a couple of catfights with beautiful women. If I didn't do the Network, I'd buy the PPV for sure.

And did Trips really go there with "She was asking for it"?

 

I'm in total shock. How could Vince just simply end the greatest streak in professional wrestling history like that?
Say it ain't Bo!

 

I think it works better for him that it ended.

But I'm still a Bo-Liever!

And RAW was pretty damn good last night.

 

But to R Truth?!?!?!?! That's unBolievable.

 

My favorite part of the entire show was the two callbacks, the first being the reference back to AJ being "Crazy" and the best one being Jericho's ripping of Stephanie. I knew the minute he came out that he was going to go off and call her a "bottom-feeding, trash bag hoe," and it was seriously AWESOME to see it after so long. Great call there.
In general I think the show was pretty strong but I wonder how much it's going to take a hit if they don't change their longterm plans and leave the strap on Lesnar.
With a pretty weak #2 title (Take your pick, IC or US) and an absent champion, that's going to put a lot on the USOs and Paige/AJ to carry the brand.
Unless they bring up the Ascension, I can't see a great tag team feud in the works right now since the USOs are apparently done with the Wyatts and the Shield is no more. And as for Paige and AJ? Well, while I like what they've done with Paige the last two weeks, I don't know if there's much there to build around. The storyline is kind of weak right now there.

 

I'm guessing they wanted him to pick up a loss, and freak out and deliver a beatdown, because he was kind of getting over at a face. Also, I imagine this sets up R-Truth to join the black wrestler coalition. (Note: Still making my way through Raw, so I'm not sure if either one is mentioned again.)