[Gorefest]

But they do.

Apart from the televised shows, they do untelevised house shows as well. There is actually a WwE event 4-5 days per week, but only two get taped. Some wrestlers perform 3-4 times per week, sometimes even 2-3 times per night because Superstars is filmed prior to Raw and Main Event is filmed prior to Smackdown. An Raw and Smackdown are filmed in a different city every week.

The whole thing is absolutely massive. They have their own trucks and planes etc. They play to full 20,000 seat areas or bigger almost every night and it is usually sold out.

On their current european tour, half the roster did Amsterdam and half Dubai for house shows, then all of them came to the UK and there they did two other cities split up, they tonight they had Raw with the full roster, tomorrow Smackdown with half the roster while the other half goes to a different place, and Wednesday night they do Newcastle. Then flying back to the USA on Thursday and I think the next USA show will be Saturday.

No rest for the wicked! It is gruelling.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 18 April 2016 - 10:43 PM

[worry]

Chyna died.

[Tiste Simeon]

Oponn Relationship, on 21 April 2016 - 05:52 AM, said:

Chyna died.

I just saw this. I haven't seen anything as to how yet...

[champ]

Tiste Simeon, on 21 April 2016 - 09:54 AM, said:

Oponn Relationship, on 21 April 2016 - 05:52 AM, said:

Chyna died.

I just saw this. I haven't seen anything as to how yet...

I googled her the other day to see what she was on with.

Life went downhill after her failed porn career it looks like, she tried to get back into wrestling but it wasn't happening.

I have a feeling that it'll be another unfortunate circumstance ex wrestler death, hopefully I am proved wrong...

[Gorefest]

It won't be anything good, that's for sure. Such a shame.

HHH got asked earlier this year by Steve Austin if there ever was a chance of seeing her in the hall of fame, but Trips sort of hinted that it would never happen because of her porn career. Which to me shows some dubious double standards, because they have no problem inducting Snoop Dog this year. So drugs glorification is cool, but porn is bad.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 21 April 2016 - 07:00 PM

[worry]

Drug glorification IS cool obv, but that said, it's worth noting that Snoop is also involved in porn, if not as a performer. It's a total double standard, and beyond that, as an employer I'm not sure historically the WWE has any room for self-righteousness over the porn industry. Anyway, obviously there's a long history of women in wrestling, and the WWF/E flirting with it over the years, but I don't think you can overestimate Chyna's impact on the glass ceiling and how things stand now.

[Aptorian]

From what I've heard, it's not about the porn. Or the fall-out of HHH leaving Chyna for Stephanie McMahon. It's politics and PR.

Chyna was unstable. Battling drug/alcohol addiction and some mental issues that may or may mot be related to said drug/alcohol. She was doing radio and podcasts where she was throwing some pretty heavy accusations at various people. The WWE obviously don't want to induct people that can become a liability. Half the reason why people get inducted while they are alive is so that they can use them as ambassadors and create good will.

Putting Chyna in the HOF alive could have turned sour quickly. Now she is dead and they can paint over the past 10 years of her life and just focus on the Attitude era.

[worry]

In other words, it's just one more in a long line of worthless halls of fame.

[champ]

Says it all really...

[Bulwyf]

unrelated, yet related:

This WWE talk reminded me of a random youtube podcast, I think it was 123 kid/xpac talking about how he climbed over a fence and dropped a deuce in Sable's (I think) travel bag/suitcase.

It was kind of interesting behind the scenes story telling, talking about the factions/cliques and tensions back stage.

[WinterPhoenix]

Watching Payback last night, I was wondering whether anyone else on here watched any wrestling. From reading through the thread, I think I have a similar viewpoint to Gorefest for the most part - as in the sooner Vince McMahon is declared senile and removed from any control at all, the better for the company as a whole.

It's an utter shambles when a no-talent hack like Roman Reigns can go over AJ Styles - legitimately the best professional wrestler in the world, and has been for a decade! - just because he has the look that makes Vince swoon and works well on the Today show. Reigns worked alright as the brooding, silent muscle of a heel faction, where he was protected and made to look better than he is by Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, both better than he, Seth Rollins far, far better. He simply shouldn't be a face of any kind, and he doesn't have anything like the skills to be the 'face of the company' like Vince wants, he's a second-rate Cena; at least Cena has/d decent mic skills and put on some good to great matches without having to be carried through them, the era of LOLROMANWINS has begun and 10 years of him will be a far worse malady than Cena ever was He's atrocious on the mic, lacks any real charisma, extremely limited moveset that basically boils down to 2 moves of doom (even worse than Cena's 3), his finishing spear is lacklustre in comparison to others over the years and yet nobody is allowed to kick out, even when he kicks out of 3, 4, 5 of his opponents finishers in a single match. It's frustrating as hell, because everywhere he goes the fans make it clear they don't want him, but Vince refuses to listen. The man hasn't lost a singles bout clean in over 4 years! His last clean singles loss was to Cesaro in NXT before he was even in the shield! And yet Kevin Owens only has 28% win ration on Raw, frankly it's absurd and just a little bit soul destroying :/

[Gorefest]

I don't even mind Roman that much, he can put on a decent match and he has a good physique for the company etc. What annoys me is how he is being pushed down our throats even though it was clear from the start that the fans didn't gel with him, or at least not yet. But it just seems that every wrestler that the fans get behind is burned down or sidelined, almost as if McMahon wants to make a point that he knows best. He is confusing 'messing with expections' with 'killing off legitimate talent'. That said, Payback was sort of okay though. It did very little to further any storylines, so in that sense it was a failure. But some of the matches were truly outstanding. Even Ryback vs Kalisto in the pre-show was decent, and that is saying something.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 02 May 2016 - 07:24 PM

[WinterPhoenix]

Gorefest, on 02 May 2016 - 07:23 PM, said:

I don't even mind Roman that much, he can put on a decent match and he has a good physique for the company etc. What annoys me is how he is being pushed down our throats even though it was clear from the start that the fans didn't gel with him, or at least not yet. But it just seems that every wrestler that the fans get behind is burned down or sidelined, almost as if McMahon wants to make a point that he knows best. He is confusing 'messing with expections' with 'killing off legitimate talent'. That said, Payback was sort of okay though. It did very little to further any storylines, so in that sense it was a failure. But some of the matches were truly outstanding. Even Ryback vs Kalisto in the pre-show was decent, and that is saying something.

It was alright I'll concede, better than the utter drivel that was Wrestlemania 32 anyhow. It still had so many issues though, why didn't Corbin go over Ziggler? What was the point in ending the woman's match that way? Don't even get me started on why on earth Charlotte is still champ, when they have Banks and Lynch just sitting there. Really wanted Cesaro to win, but it was a decent match and I can understand ending it that way to further a program perhaps between them, maybe with some sort of triple threat/fatal 4 way eventually. As for the main event, well I've made my opinions on Reigns clear but even despite that I felt it was more than a bit overbooked. The stoppages were unnecessary and just seemed to be a way to keep the McMahon's in the spotlight, the interference was even more unnecessary considering the outcome and how weak the Bullet Club looked against The Usos, and cutting away to the McMahon's at the end was just a cheap ploy to hide the boo's from viewers, since they got found out for turning down the mics at Mania.

Don't get me wrong, Reigns made Styles looks a million bucks next to his clunky, amateurish ability, but Styles has been putting on match of the decade contenders for 10 years - the triple threat between him, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels in TNA is hands down the best Triple Threat I've ever watched and that includes Benoit/Michaels/Triple H at Wrestlemania 20 - and I can't help but feel the match could've been so much better against a different opponent, just think about Styles/Rollins and how sweet that would be :/ Honestly It was just more indication they are turning him into the new Super Cena, 4 Phenomenal Forearms (including one through the table), 1 Calf Crusher, Bullet Club tag finisher and the 450 splash, Reigns kicks out; 1 spear AJ is down. The Styles Clash went from the most protected move in New Japan, to non-existent, meanwhile Reigns continues to beat literally anyone with 1 naff looking spear - he put down Kane for 10 whole seconds in a Last Man Standing match with that spear back in 2014-15, 1 spear!!!

I'll stop ranting about him now Zayn Vs Owens was brilliant, literally brilliant, and honestly I had no worries about the outcome either way, I love both of them they are so damn good. Great match, not Zayn's best match of the year so far but quite possibly Owens'. As for Zayn's, his match with Nakamura at Takeover Dallas truly sensational, legitimately the best match I've seen in the WWE for at least 5 years maybe more, as good as Nakamura's bout with AJ at Wrestle Kingdom 10 for New Japan in January, both 5* from any PoV. Takeover Dallas was just brilliant all around, so much better than Mania it would have been funny if it wasn't so pitiable.

Could not agree with you more about Vince confusing subverting expectations with killing talent. Even Daniel Bryan, the biggest indie success (along with Punk, but we all know what happened there) had to fight tooth and nail to get what he did, and really only did so because the fans hijacked the storyline, it was obvious Vince didn't want to give him that shot. You almost don't ever want to see Joe, Aries, Nakamura, Itami etc, ever come up to the main roster for fear of how they'll be treated. Frankly I feel as though at this point NXT needs to add a midcard belt and become a 2 hour show, it easily has the talent to accommodate and such an arrangement would further benefit the performance centre guys by giving them more opportunities on the main show. Besides anything that gets Rich Swann on the program more has my vote

[Gorefest]

I'm curious to see what'll happen on Raw. As I'm UK based, I always have to watch them the night after. But usually Raws after a PPV are better than the PPV itself. That Payback outshone WM32 is no big surprise, as WM is a big display event mainly aimed at pulling in the general public who aren't already watching WWE. So it is usually quite poor on storyline movement and relies heavily on cheap (and often non-sensical) pops by throwing in a bunch of big names that appeal to the masses. Like Cena, who hadn't even fully recovered yet from injury but still gets to utterly ruin any conceivable push that the Wyatts might have gotten from a stand-off with the Rock. But the Raw the day after was pretty good with lots of NXT guys coming up.

And indeed, Zyan vs Nakamura was one of the best matches I've seen in a long time. The talent on display in WWE is amazing, now we just need someone competent to allow them space to show off their skills. I'm also quite hyped about this global crossover Cruiserweight tournament that WWE is running over the summer. Some really exciting names on the card already for that one, like Zack Sabre Jr, Tomasso Ciampa and Noam Dar.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 03 May 2016 - 11:09 AM

[WinterPhoenix]

Gorefest, on 03 May 2016 - 11:09 AM, said:

I'm curious to see what'll happen on Raw. As I'm UK based, I always have to watch them the night after. But usually Raws after a PPV are better than the PPV itself. That Payback outshone WM32 is no big surprise, as WM is a big display event mainly aimed at pulling in the general public who aren't already watching WWE. So it is usually quite poor on storyline movement and relies heavily on cheap (and often non-sensical) pops by throwing in a bunch of big names that appeal to the masses. Like Cena, who hadn't even fully recovered yet from injury but still gets to utterly ruin any conceivable push that the Wyatts might have gotten from a stand-off with the Rock. But the Raw the day after was pretty good with lots of NXT guys coming up.

And indeed, Zyan vs Nakamura was one of the best matches I've seen in a long time. The talent on display in WWE is amazing, now we just need someone competent to allow them space to show off their skills. I'm also quite hyped about this global crossover Cruiserweight tournament that WWE is running over the summer. Some really exciting names on the card already for that one, like Zack Sabre Jr, Tomasso Ciampa and Noam Dar.

Oh god I'd forgotten about the Wyatt's think I'd blocked out that piece of rubbish, seriously the way they've treated Bray is just disgusting to be honest, he has such a bloody cool character and he's prety good in the ring. Top 3 talker in the company at the moment, easily.

Oooh yeah, properly excited for the tournament, I'm hoping Swann enters as well, want to see more of him, he was so good is Pro Wrestling Guerilla. ZSJ is a submission machine! I'm hoping they can get Ospreay as well, he had an recent match with KUSHIDA in New Japan's Invasion Attack, it was a fantastic match.

[Gorefest]

I think Osprey signed with New Japan recently, so I don't think they will make him available for this tournament.

[WinterPhoenix]

Yeah he recently signed and joined Kazuchika Okada's CHAOS stable, I don't watch NJPW all that much, but Ospreay is an exciting talent and he's from right here in the sunny UK as well

But yeah your probably right unfortunately, doubt they'll let him wrestle in the tournie, same probably holds true for Ricochet in Lucha Underground

You should definitely watch Ospreay's match against KUSHIDA if you can, one of the best matches of the year so far.

[Aptorian]

This is a great telling of the Andy Kaufmann vs Jerry Lawler fight on Letterman:



And then watching the actual interview with footage of their matches is great:

[worry]

Dang, the WWE fired -- I mean "released" -- the Brooklyn Brawler after 30 years!

[Gorefest]

They released Damien Sandow as well Should be a criminal offense, that. They release a guy who put himself massively over with the fans on his own merit with blood, sweat and tears, and they put the main title on a guy who nobody wants to see. Go figure.