2021 Pro Wrestling Thread

Reading a random comment from Cageside Seats has kinda triggered me into being pissed off.

Remember how in the summer of 2015, NXT was this little developmental thing that was going to have a little Takeover show in Brooklyn right before Summerslam, and ended up selling out the Barclays? And here's where I get pissed off. COVID aside, imagine that happening now with the 2.0 version. They'd be lucky to draw 2,000 people.

A League of Their Own also was on TV this week, and thinking about how NXT 2.0 is now reminds me of the scene when Lowenstein is trying to convince Harvey to not shut down the league because there's actually a product that people were interested in and buying. The E had that with NXT. I was more interested in NXT than I was with Raw quite often. Now, it's some sort of meh rookie ball. And I'm trying to get interested, and with all the cuts that the E is doing and the malaise from their main product, I just can't.

It also reminds me of the last time I more or less ignored the E (or rather, the F), which was during the Monday Night Wars. WCW was putting on Eddy Guerrero vs. Ultimo Dragon in between NWO invasions while the F was putting on jobber squashes and T.L. Hopper vs. Salvatore Sincere. I'd peek in to Raw between commercials, while spending 90 percent of time on Nitro. And then, eventually, Nitro started annoying the heck out of me, the crowd was semi-dead, and I flipped to Raw and saw a hot crowd cheering on DX. And I got interested in the F again.

I still find Smackdown to be semi-interesting because of Roman's storyline, and I like Becky, but otherwise, I'm finding myself spending probably 80 percent of my time looking at my phone than the TV screen. And then, when AEW is on, I'm enjoying the hot crowd, the announcers sounding like they're having a blast, and the wrestlers acting like they're enjoying themselves instead of looking stressed. And I'm enjoying the show.

Vince has fucked up majorly, except for financially, of course. Where he has managed to succeed in spite of himself. And I'll watch Survivor Series because there's not much else on. But man, it's hard work being a WWE fan, and it shouldn't be. It should be fun.

Rant over.

 

NXT is a shell of itself but if they put a Takeover on at Barclays with a War Games match or two and threw on a Walter match it would sell out

 

A 25-man battle royal at Survivor Series? Are there even 25 men left on the roster?

And for the love of all that's holy ... ENOUGH of this crap with Sonya, Naomi and Aliyah.

 

I believe it's in the Death of WCW book, but they note that it actually took months for WCW to lose the lead to WWF, even though they were running shitty angle after shitty angle. But once they lost the lead, pretty much nothing they did got it back. It feels like WWE is in a similar position now - that they're permanently shedding audience here, short of something radical to get them back.

 

I wonder about its finances.

 

Much like the pro sports leagues, WWE's TV contract is now so huge that that alone can support it, even if they're getting zero from the gate. I think the only danger would be if the networks have certain "outs" when it comes to ratings.

 

I’m telling y’all, this is all to up profits ahead of a sale in the next couple of years.

 

yep this is all Nick Kahn cares about, to the detriment of the wrestling business

 

These two comments made me think of something else from that Death of WCW book. That the guy who put the final nail in WCW's coffin was a corporate decision by a Turner suit named Jamie Kellner to pull the promotion off of TV. I kind of feel like Nick Khan is starting to play the Kellner role in WWE's decline.

Come to think of it ... Nick Khan ... Tony Khan ... If we reach a point where AEW takes over WWE, will it be revealed that this was all a long con (no pun intended)? And then the long-lost Khan brothers reunite as the greatest heel faction of all time?
(Yeah, I know they aren't related, but let's have a little fun here, huh?)

 

I will say Tony Kahn making coments about how his contracts are real contracts as opposed to WWE’s….. when his family owns a fricking NFL team…. is embarrassing

 

That was a great fight between Becky and Charlotte. You could tell the extra bad blood was there.

And why did a world without Pat McAfee on commentary ever exist? I'm sorry we probably won't see him in the ring again (can't believe I would've ever said that at first, but he did an amazing job at that WarGames with Cole), but he is pure unquestioned gold.

 

For a Survivor Series match with no stakes that I give a shit about, those guys put on a helluva match. Along with Becky and Charlotte, the first hour and 20 minutes have been entertaining as hell.