[Aptorian]

Malankazooie, on 01 March 2019 - 04:31 PM, said:

Ok. It being about a month out, it's time to start talking about WrestleMania.

I don't watch or follow professional wrestling anymore, but find the whole WrestleMania event still fascinating. So what do you connoisseurs of sweaty, oily, muscular men and hot, sexy, chicks fake beating on each other in skimpy tights think? What are some of the stories that are being shaped and crafted and timed to explode at Wrestlemania we should be paying attention to? What surprises do you think are in store? What events (Monday Night Raw, Smackdown, etc.) should we be paying attention to as WrestleMania approaches? Drop your wrestling knowledge on us plebes.

I watched the Rumble and none of it really interested me. Not much if seemed to build towards anything great.

HHH vs Batista will probably be good.

Brock vs who ever he squashed will be fun.

I heard Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens returned. I assume they'll still be booked as an unlikable Babyface and a chicken shit heel that's supposed to actually be a good wrestler.

Last year they promised to shake things up. So far it's still just over produced poorly scripted trash.

I'll still probably watch the 8 hours it takes though.

[Malankazooie]

Anything interesting in the works for Ronda Rousey? I've zero knowledge about how her wrestling career has gone since she left MMA/UFC. So was wondering if she has assimilated well into the WWE.

Are they going to knock the dust off any oldsters and parade them out for nostalgia sake?

[Aptorian]

Rosey has been great.

Rousey exposes what the difference between wrestling and fighting is, every time she wrestles. She's so much faster and stronger than the women's roster.

Sort of like when Brock Lesnar goes to work.

[Malankazooie]

I never doubted Rousey's athletic ability would help her transition well into the WWE. How's her mic skills though? That is a huge part of pro wrestling. And other then having a few menacing stare downs at UFC weigh ins, Rousey, for the most part, has the personality equal to that of a bottle of Ranch salad dressing. What little acting she has done in action movies hasn't ever impressed me either. In fact, I felt her poor acting has detracted from movies she has appeared in. So I imagine before she made her WWE debut, most of her efforts were probably focused on crafting a 'character' she's comfortable with performing as.

[Aptorian]

I've only watched the big events so I couldn't comment.

[Gorefest]

I've sort of lost track with WWE, bit on a wrestling fatigue streak. I did watch the Rumble and NXT Takeover but nothing much since.

Rhonda Rousey is awesome, she is a natural for the WWE. Obviously her MMA skills are a given, but she has really impressed me with how she transitioned her move set to work within WWE without crippling half the roster around her. Her ring work still looks vicious and convincing, but as far as I know she hasn't actually injured any fellow wrestlers so far.

But her mic work is where she has truly come on in leaps and bounds. When she first appeared on the scene it wasn't all that great, but within 1-2 months she was throwing out awesome promos. I would say that she has currently firmly established herself as the postergirl for women's wrestling.


I'm actually following the indie scene more of late, especially the development around the new AEW brand. They might be the first genuine competition for WWE since the days of the Monday night wars. They got the money (Khan family who also own the Jacksonville Tigers and the British football club Fulham), they already have some seriously big names on the books (Kenny Omega, Cody, Young Bucks, Chris Jericho, Pac, Christopher Daniels, Pentagon Jr, Kylie Rae, Bea Priestly, etc), they are forging clever alliances with big wrestling organisations outside of the US to achieve a global profile, and they are using modern media interaction. Currently mainly through YouTube (Being the Elite), but talk is that they are trying to sign a deal with Netflix. That would be stellar. Their worker policy is way better than any other in the business as well. Some of their main selling points:

- better and more secure salaries instead of appearance-based payment
- equal pay for their male and female wrestlers based on performance
- all their wrestlers get health insurance
- match results actually mean something and can/will have longer term implications for storylines etc
- big platform for different styles of wrestling, e.g. they have already announced close collaborations with the Chinese OWE and the Mexican Lucha Libre AAA worldwide; and i suspect they are trying to get NJPW on board as well, as a lot of their current talent has history with that brand

So the expectation is that we will see a significant flow of (underused) talent from WWE to AEW in the coming months.

[Aptorian]

Do you know if there's a way to watch AEW over the internet or something like that?

In other news, just heard on the recent episode of the something to wrestle with podcast, that Bruce Prichard is returning to WWE. Potentially in some kind of creative role. Maybe even head of creative.

I don't believe he's the cure all for WWEs terrible writing and booking but based on the podcast I think his old school mentality could help.

If nothing else I'm just happy for him. From listening to the show, it's clear that Prichard loves wrestling and is extremely loyal to WWE and Vince McMahon. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in a reunion between Prichard and McMahon.

This post has been edited by Alternative Goose: 08 March 2019 - 01:36 PM

[Gorefest]

Nope, because they don't actually have any shows yet. All they have done so far is announce two PPV events, the first one selling out within 30 mins without the headliners even being announced. As long as there is no tv or internet deal yet, AEW only really exists through the Being the Elite youtube channel run by the Young Bucks.

[Aptorian]

Okay. From the chatter I'd heard I imagined they were already on your.

[Gorefest]

Yeah, they've done pretty well on the publicity front considering how little there actually is. The only tangible evidence that this might work is that the core BtE crew organised a PPV in a 10,000 seater stadium which sold out in like 30 seconds or so. The upcoming first official AEW PPV show in April/May sometime (called Double or Nothing) which is in an 18,000 venue sold out within half an hour. So they definitely have momentum. But with the salaries they are paying their wrestlers, surely some sort of broadcast deal must be done imminently or it will all stay a pipedream.

[Malankazooie]

Daniel Cormier was being interviewed by ESPN about the 'UFC Fight Night' event that went down Saturday night. During the interview, he was asked about upcoming opponents for himself. He was was being coy, but mentioned Brock Lesner and that he just may have to crash Wrestlemania and mess with Lesner (causing him to lose?) so Lesner would be goaded to turn his efforts to fighting Cormier in the UFC.

Also, I'm making a prediction - Rob Gronkowski just announced his retirement from the NFL. I say he will show up at Wrestlemania.

[Malankazooie]

[Aptorian]

Watched the John Oliver show yesterday. While he certainly has some points, they're doing the typical news piece on wrestling, it's poorly sourced and lacks nuance.

Using Bret Heart and Roddy Piper as a source is a bad idea for obvious reasons. Showing a statistic on wrestlers who have died is highly misleading (especially the oldest ones) many of them died from a rockstar lifestyle they themselves lived for. Many of them shopped contracts and were still working for other territories. And the WWE have worked to protect their wrestlers better, getting then into rehab, getting them medical checks, drug policies, etc.

That doesn't mean that WWE doesn't have issues but I hate when Last Week Tonight does one of this obviously skewed hit pieces.

[Malankazooie]

I don't watch wrestling, but watched the WWE SmackDown tonight to get some insight into the WrestleMania event happening this Sunday. Wow, this year looks pretty crappy, tbh. I mean, I like the progress the WWE is attempting to display (for the pr optics more then anything obviously *eye-roll) with their main event bout. But I'd rather it was just Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair, and kick Becky Lynch down (or completely out). A three way bout just dilutes things. I see what they did there in the build up though with the arrests and violent histrionics that went down on Monday Night Raw. I little too on the nose and ham-fisted if you ask me, but fair enough, a sufficient way to push the tension and build up I guess.
Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair released from custody

The rest of the scheduled matches receive a big 'meh' from me, mainly because I really don't know who any of these people are. Even the Lesner match is not really compelling me to stop and watch. I'm guessing there will be a lot of surprises and 'special guests' to kick up the excitement?

I kind of want to watch though to see if any of those in attendance yell the protest slogans or hold up signs as suggested by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. That would be something and fucking hilarious.

[Malankazooie]

Triple H looks like Kratos from last year's God of War.

[Gorefest]

During last night's Hall of Fame a crazed 'fan' attacked and punched Bret Hart on stage during his Hart Foundation induction acceptance speech. WTF. Human-shaped piece of trash, tackling and hitting a 60-year old stroke and cancer survivor. No official reason given, but according to the guy's Twitter history he was both mentally unstable and a massive white suppremacist. Lots of tweets from his account days prior to the attack about WWE being disgusting because the main event is a women's match.

Seriously, wow. What a massive c***. Bret Hart is alright, but his attacker got beaten the seven colours of the rainbow out of him by the surrounding talent (and Travis Browne). I am not a violent man, but part of me hopes that this dumb f*** wont recognise himself in the mirror anymore for the next few months.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 07 April 2019 - 10:28 AM

[Aptorian]

I always love these stories about people attacking wrestlers and getting tuned up in the aftermath.

In other news. WrestleMania. Don't know why but I'm planning to watch all of it tomorrow morning.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 07 April 2019 - 11:10 AM

[Gorefest]

Well, NXT Takeover was excellent as usual and will trump WM easily, but that is pretty much standard these days. Interested to see how Black and Ricochet will do in the Smackdown tag team championship match after their Friday match. Ricochet seemed to pick up an injury; hopefully it isnt anything concerning. I want them to pick up a surprise victory so much.


Also very hyped for Bryan vs Kofi. And of course the first ever women's main event at WM. Becky is on such a huge streak, really hope she wins it. But the likely outcome will be Rousey, of course. Because WM.


Brock vs Seth is a nice match on paper but I am just rather fed up with Brock now. If it will be another smash match, I've really had it with the guy. Blegh.


Batista vs Triple H is the usual crap, typical pointless WM fodder.


Kurt Angle vs Vafon Corbin is bollocks as well, though I assume it is a work and on the night somehow Cena will replace Corbin in that match to give Angle a nice retirement send-off.


And I assume no Taker, but I have thought that before. He has come back 2-3 times too many already (Saudi bollocks Arabia, seriously, disgraceful). So if they drag him from the grave again it feankly wouldnt surprise me anymore. Great way to kill a legacy.

[Malankazooie]

I don't watch wrestling anymore, and don't plan on watching WrestleMania (except hope to see highlights of protesting - per John Oliver show), but I read that at the hall of fame induction there is a section of the ceremony that is devoted to 'legacy' inductees. Not sure what that means, are they wrestlers who are dead? (dunno). Anyway, I was looking over the legacy inductees and didn't recognize any of them (before my time I guess), but Luna Vachon caught my eye. I did some 'vestigatin and found some highlights of her. Damn, she was death metal vocalist before death metal. Do you think she needed a lozenge after performing?

Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

[Aptorian]

Watched the WrestleMania kickoff

Forgettable matches but:

Spoiler

I have admit I did like seeing Kurt Hawkins breaking his losing streak. I feel like they could have made even more out of it.

Liked that Carmella won the Melee. She's such a good heel. Barely recognized her with brown hair.

Just started the main show, that's a hell of an opening. Crazy start.

Spoiler

Hulk Hogan intro, into posing with Bliss, into Lesnar vs Rollins. That's a rocking start.

But this is how Lesnar drops the belt? This is what they spend a 4-5 year build up on? Like, it wasn't even a convincing match, didn't cement Rollins as a Beast Slayer. Just a small guy who beat a big guy with a low blow. I'll never understand WWEs creative team.

That Miz vs Shane match is the best falls count anywhere/Street fight match I've seen since the 90s. If they go down the road with Shane becoming more arrogant and a bit more Chicken shit I could dig a return of a Heel Mr McHahon Junior.

I continue to hate that the World Championship match is not headlining WrestleMania. Titles shouldn't be meaningless.

What the hell is up with Kofi Kingston's chest? There's a gaping hole at the center of his chest where the pectorals should be attached to his sternum? I've noticed Scott Steiner has the same issue.

Spoiler

Food ending. Seeing them celebrate makes the title mean something.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 08 April 2019 - 02:40 PM