2024 Pro Wrestling Thread

Dusty had a heel tag-team run in WCCW with Dick Murdoch as part of Playboy Gary Hart's stable in the late 1960s. But the fans loved cheering Rhodes and Murdoch and they flipped in less than a year. I'd forgotten he was briefly in the NWO. I'd quit watching by then and only tuned back in for the final Nitro for Flair-Sting.

What's funny is Cody has tried to retroactively claim he was a heel in AEW, since his refusal to be a heel generated so much heat from the fans. And, therefore, if you're getting heat, then you're a heel.

 

Another casualty. Probably not a surprise, because he barely did more than squat since getting called up (I saw him in a dark match vs. Gable Steveson before SmackDown in Atlanta in January), but I liked his NXT character and the back and forth with LA Knight.

Depending how long Matt Hardy's time with TNA is, that could be a good landing spot for Grimes, since Matt's a big mentor/father figure to him.

 

That is really cool.

 

While her in-ring work was hardly a banner showing, Ava has really carved out a good niche as an authority figure for NXT. Good on her.

I also like how they've integrated NXT with the main roster again over the last year, which they hadn't really done since that one year NXT was involved with Survivor Series.

 

It deserved a PLE-level arena crowd, but an AMAZING main event for NXT.

Trick is ridiculously over and deserves to be the next guy to carry the brand. He is this era's Johnny Gargano.

Now that Ilja is inevitably moving up, gimme the rematch with Gunther. That as the main event of the PLE in Germany would blow the roof off that building.

 

Dusty was a heel, both with Murdoch and on his own until the early 70s. His babyface turn occurred in Florida in the early 70s when he was in a tag team with Pak Song and managed by Gary Hart. They had some miscommunication, and Dusty turned on both of them. I found a PDF copy of Gary Hart’s book, which is a helluva read if you can find it (and be careful of any malware), and he goes through Dusty’s babyface turn (as well as all of his times as wrestler, manager, and booker).

Dusty also had some matches as a heel in Japan, which was typical at the time. Bob Backlund spent some pages of his book (a decent read) talking about his match with Dusty in Japan. They started off as both babyfaces, but then Dusty started to cheat and the fans sided with Backlund.

 

The Dark Side on Sherri was awful, but almost just as much for seeing what shape her son was in.

Next week is a nice, simple, happy story: Sandman.

 

Suck on that, Danielson!

This is absolutely amazing. If the Models can get out there, it would be killer for Ospreay to get there, too. And it would be massive exposure for those folks in Uganda.

 

It would be pretty cool if AEW brought a couple of SGW guys in for training in a real ring.

 

Becky wrote in her book that when she first signed with WWE, the main roster was still in the mode where the women couldn't punch and were still limited to slapping and pulling for the most part.

Now, we've got whatever this was that Sol Ruca pulled off.



I'll admit, at first, I missed the NXT black and gold era that was dominated by all the indie darlings. But after some early hiccups to the 2.0 era, NXT has struck gold with a lot of these wrestlers who came through the college ranks and not the indie roads -- Trick Williams, Tiffany Stratton, Sol Ruca, the Creeds and Ivy Nile, Bron Breakker (his family history aside).

 

Yeah generally speaking Vince was right.

It would have helped if HHH wasnt in a hospital bed during the transition and if the internet didnt run wild with “Vince killed NXT” narratives.

The transition should have been more gradual and there were definite hiccups as talent learned on the fly but NXT’s a great product. HBK as a booker has turned out to be awesome.

 

One of my favorite things about NXT is watching guys grow and shoot up the card. It reminds of being a kid and seeing Bret and Shawn go from tag team to Wrestlemania main event.

Watching Bayley, Gargano, Ciampa and now Trick progress like this is very satisfying as a fan. Which is why bringing Breakker and Wagner and Waller and those guys in on top as “new blood” or whatever it was didnt really work for most of us