2016 Pro Wrestling Thread

The quote under my posts has been Chris Jericho for a long time. I have finally found a quote worthy to join it.

 

Things that can go away pronto:
1) Extended interviews with any of the McMahon family. (Shane is momentarily OK, but man, they're doing their best to kill it.)
2) Angles involving referees.
3) Angles involving both referees and the Montreal Screwjob. (Also, how bad does Bret need money? He gets brought in, for his first time on WWE TV since recovering from cancer, and the end of the match is the screwjob redux for the 50th time.)

 

1. Agreed. I was bored as hell during the Asylum, and it sure as hell wasn't Dean's fault.

2. Properly done, a ref angle was great in the 80s. This is the 2010s. Why isn't Shane firing Robinson's ass and ordering an immediate rematch?

3. Supposedly, Bret didn't even care about being there, besides helping Nattie. the Screwjob redux is dumb as hell. It was 19 years ago. Stop trying to recreate something that can't be recreated.

 

Entirely because they don't want to write new stories for the next PPV in 2 1/2 weeks and they couldn't think of another way to get there. If I cared I'd mention how foolish it is that Nattie brings in Bret, gets screwed anyway, and proceeds to get the better of and humiliate both Flairs by herself 24 hours later but.....I'm over it. It's nothing more than a bridge to get to Sasha Banks, who thank god has a magic ability to remain hugely over despite not being on television. They're really playing with fire with her though.....she should 2000% be in a women's midcard feud with someone, anyone, so the casual fans don't forget she exists.

 

Looks like we've seen the last of The Ryback:

Ryback clarifies his issue with WWE, says it 'isn't solely about money, it's about commitment'

I can't say that I agree with him that every single wrestler should get paid the same, but in the past, for what it's worth, wrestlers used to get paid a percentage based upon their spot on the card and by how much the house drew (albeit, with the promoter providing the count, which, needless to say, wasn't always up to snuff). Main event guys might get 5 percent each, upper mid-carders might get 4 percent, midcarders 3 percent and so on, with the NWA champ, or another big draw like Andre, getting a higher percentage.

I think his point is that you may have someone like Kane who is in the midcard getting paid as much or more as someone like Owens, who, although he doesn't have as long a record in the E, is right now at a higher level on the card, and that someone like Owens would deserve more.

 

Observer from May 2:

- Chyna’s death is believed to be an accidental overdose, but a determination probably won’t be made for a while. There were Ambien and Xanax pill bottles near here, but there was still pills left, suggesting she didn’t make a suicide attempt.

Her manager found her after she hadn’t been responding to messages for several days. She likely died on April 18. Producers from the show Intervention were trying to get her booked, after her manager realized that she was loaded all the time.

A lot of Chyna’s background was made-up or exaggerated by her, but she did speak multiple languages. She got started in wrestling at 18 when she was dating Brutus Beefcake, and started training at 25 with Killer Kowalski. She was later critical of him in a book, but he got her started with WWE by telling Shane McMahon that WCW was going to sign her. She was hired in 1996 by WWE, after a short run on the indies, thanks to positive word from Kowalski, Fabulous Moolah, HBK and Triple H.

Chyna’s actual in-ring work was minimal. She didn’t wrestle in 1997, and in 1998, she was only in a 2-on-1 handicap match with XPac vs. Mark Henry, and an eight-man tag with DX. In 1999, she did 39 matches, almost all of which were on TV. Almost none went longer than 10 minutes, unless she was with someone like Jeff Jarrett or Jericho, who could protect her.

Famously, Jarrett got $200,000 for putting her over in a weapons IC match. It required a one-day contract extension, hence the cash, because WWE had been sloppy in negotiating his last deal, not realizing it ended one day before a PPV. Despite this, Jarrett worked a good match with Chyna, put her over, and did it in a match where he had to take some weapon hits.

The Jericho program started to end her wrestling appeal with fans, as they saw that she couldn’t really keep up in the ring with him. He also worked a stiffer style, and it got him heat with backstage, since Chyna was still with Triple H at that time.

Chyna’s popularity swelled a bit again in 2000, as she was paired by Guerrero and appeared in Playboy.

However, Triple H was now dating Stephanie, and a lot of her protection backstage was gone now. She also got harder to work with after Playboy, thinking that her appearance was going to lead to a world title run, whereas WWE wanted her only working in the women’s division. At one point, she told Vince that it was unprofessional for an executive to be dating a wrestler, not knowing that he had encouraged Stephanie to date Triple H.

At Mania in 2001, Chyna won the title, with the plan being to transition it to Lita in the next year, letting Chyna’s contract expire. She was supposed to drop the belt in May, but talked Lita out of it, getting company brass furious. She was also asking for a $1M yearly contract, even though the company was going to get rid of her. So, she never dropped the belt.

Worse for WWE and Chyna, she agreed to do Celebrity Boxing once she left the company, and got knocked out by Joey Buttafucco, 46. Other nutty stuff: She bought a house in 2002 with money from a second Playboy appearance, and had the pool made into the shape of Triple H’s ass.

She had a run with New Japan in 2002, but it didn’t get much reaction and lasted only six months. She also released six sex and porn tapes, from 2004 to 2013, with the XPac one selling more than 100,000 copies. She repeatedly tried to get back with WWE, but the company avoided her, given her rampant drug problems and erratic issues. Waltman tried to get her help several times, which she never took.

- Balor is expected to debut on the main roster any day now. He does have a banged up shoulder, but he can still work with it.

- WWE Studios reached a deal with a production company headed by Wesley Sniples, so they’ll be doing more movies together.

- Rob Gronkowski of the Patriots was at the NXT show in Kingston, RI on April 22. He’s friends with Rawley from Rawley’s football days, but Gronk left after Rawley’s match. Carmella went to URI, where the show was, but transferred to another school.

- Trevor Mann (Ricochet) worked for Lucha Underground tapings on April 23 and 24, but he’s still negotiating with them and WWE. Lucha upped its money offer to him, and he’s now believed to be leaning toward staying with the promotion. WWE is offering less money, but it’s WWE, and they would also sign his girlfriend, Tessa Blanchard, who he’s currently paired with in LU.

- Rey Mysterio Jr’s contract with LU runs for three seasons, so it would have to be breached for him to go anywhere else.

- There’s no movement on the TNA ownership situation. Some new companies might be interested, but want an accurate valuation for the tape library.

- Velvet Sky, 34, did not have her contract renewed by TNA. SoCal Val has replaced Christy Hemme as ring announcer. Allysin Kay has been brought in as Sienna, who got the pin on Sky in her last match.

 

Re: Ryback, I can kind of see his argument, but 1) he's probably the wrong guy to be making it, since he was pushed several times by the WWE, and ultimately had trouble with staying power when it came to his health and crowd support. 2) I think the biggest issue with WWE booking right now is 50/50 stuff, which means guys aren't losing and jobbing consistently enough to me.

 

Adam Rose posted his doctors note:

WWE Wrestling News, Rumors, Results & Spoilers | Rajah.com Adam Rose Shows Doctor's Note Prescribing His Use Of Adderall

 

I don't understand Ryback's point. If its not about money then why's he sound like he wants more money because he loses? I don't really think the guys that go over all the time are paid more for winning, but that they're winning because they're paid/earn more. Ambrose loses all the time and I'm certain he's making more than the "big guy." The hottest guy in the company lost at Mania. I have to wonder if Ryback is taking those Goldberg comparisons too seriously.

Re: Adam Rose......I know adderal is banned in the NFL and other places because it's a performance enhancer but I fail to see why WWE would give a crap other than to say "Our policy is same or harder than NFL or Olympics" just for PR purposes. If that's really what he's on that's stupid. Test these guys for street drugs and for stuff that causes real long term heart damage......not this stuff. Right? Or are there some long term problems with these that I'm not thinking of?

 

He also says the E knew he was being prescribed it for more than a year.

Can't say I blame him for defending himself with this. Not that the E will care.

 

Most sports have and allow therapeutic use exceptions / exemptions, so it would be surprising if the WWE didn't. However, it would also be surprising if they cared *that* much about Adam friggin' Rose to ignore that he had filed one in the past, so, I kind of believe WWE's side more on this (that he failed a test and after the fact, he's trying to justify it).

 

Still, what aspect of the performance of WWE will be enhanced by adderall? If there are no long term health effects then who cares?

I thought NFL guys used it to sharpen awareness and basically to stay awake to study film more.....if its a masking agent I could see WWE banning it but if its just to say their policy is same as other "sports" then its really stupid.