Yep, it’s only Hogan selling that story, and it’s not like Hogan never let truth get in the way of a good story.
Randy Volley, aged 69, has passed away. He was Moondog Rex, and the original Crush of Demolition, before Barry “Repo Man” Darsie took over.
Rusev said something in the TLC pre-show that may have tipped off a future plot. I have a feeling that they’re going to tease a Lashley-Lana wedding, but, at the last second, Lana calls it off - for the sole reason of making sure Rusev has to pay her alimony, which will lead to some “Rusev is poor” storyline.
I give TLC an ehhhh.
Too many props. If one match on the card is a TLC match, that’s fine. When just about every match is TLC, it’s overkill. You realize you spend a lot of time watching them move props around.
New Day vs Revival had already did as much with props as was possible, and all took some sick bumps to make it a good match. However, every TLC match after that was more of the same. Buddy Murphy vs Aleister Black kicked ass and didn’t need no goddam props.
Bray Wyatt vs Miz was a lot of setup and no payoff. Hey look, Bray’s got a Harley Quinn hammer. Oh, he never uses it. Hey, the lights go out. Oh, Bray’s gone. Hey, a hooded guy attacked Bray. It can’t possibly be Daniel Bryan. Oh wait, it is, he just got a haircut.
Also, what’s the difference between a normal Ladder Match (SD tag titles match) and a TLC Match with belts hanging from the ceiling (women’s tag titles match)? It’s not as if tables and chairs are illegal in a ladder match.
Don’t forget the new (at least I don’t remember hearing it before now) “Klunk” sound effect when the lights go off and on - well, about a second or two before they go off and on, but the audio types need to be in sync with the lighting types. It reminds me of “Raw General Manager Laptop” with the “bob-o-link” sound effect that never was synced to the lights properly.
I liked that it was a Bray Wyatt match and not a Fiend match. But only that. The women had the better TLC match; poor Sane got her Bell really rung.
These PPVs highlight first that the matches are mostly TV matches that are 50% longer. Obviously TV is such big money now that it needs top matches for ratings, but it makes the PPV a little less special. Second, there are simply too many titles. Titles that aren’t defended on a PPV feel less special to me. I was apparently one of the few who preferred brand-specific PPV for that reason.
you know if njpw wanted to stick a middle finger to Vince id have muta come down in the original NWO style/gear he created …
see this was the fear that they had when they created raw manny moons ago that fans wouldn’t accept the 5/10 minute squash matches as they did on superstars of wrestling or wrestling challenge (even tho raw had that type of match, in the beginning, try to put one on there now and the howling would last weeks and weeks) and it would kill off the PPVs one day because they weren’t “special” anymore
I’m packed full of useless wrestling information, but I hadn’t heard of this. Care to elaborate?
The women showed up the men once again. They do need to practice those chair shots though, they were starting to look really fakey. And permanently drop the idea of being immobilized with loose ropes. But even then it was better than most of the men’s matches. And where were the rest of the women?
If these things weren’t on the network I wouldn’t pay PPV prices to see them.
It appears Sane was knocked out early and probably should have been taken out. Flair was getting frustrated with her when she “no-sold” the spear and again the power bomb. Flair is really good and she should have realized Sane wasn’t no-selling but was legitimately hurt (and appeared to be tapping Flair during the powerbomb as if to say Please don’t do this), though in the heat of a match, maybe Flair didn’t realize it until after the table powerbomb. Sane was protected after that.
The logical part of me understands how the money-earning aspects have changed, but seeing a PPV match on TV the next day AND with a clean finish one didn’t get on the PPV just makes me sad. I love seeing great matches for free on TV, but I also loved that the PPV would mean something and that it wouldn’t be until the next PPV where one could get revenge for a screw-job or non-finish. But WWE now makes more $$$ from TV than most PPV, so it only makes sense to somewhat flip the script.
I looked at that again, didn’t realize she was hurt that bad from the table slam because it looked like she got hurt right at the beginning when Charlotte kicked her in the face coming off the ring apron. Kairi took a several hard bumps in that fight. I think they were all worn down at the end, some of it from having to ad lib the match because she was hurt so much.
I miss the old wrestling structure a lot, but I think the biggest problem is changing the wrestlers themselves. I look at them now as actors playing video game characters. And I see that in the PPV/network shows. The matches are scripted, choreographed, and rehearsed, but the end result is often lacking. Good wrestling matches have an ebb and flow and crescendo building to a conclusion, and it takes wrestlers with an emotional investment in their art and with the crowd to produce that kind of match. But the crowd has changed too, I think they’d rather see a single career threatening dangerous move more than an entire quality match. They’ll even shout ‘That was awesome’ for some pretty lame moves, which may look better next to the ho-hum performance for most of the match. But I can go on forever complaining about modern wrestling. We had the quality period in the transition where some older traditional wrestlers mixed with the new breed and the changing environment to produce great shows, I doubt it will ever be better than that.
You know, the one time ever we get good seats at Full Sail is the one time they open the barriers and let people run into the ring and we’re TOO FAR AWAY TO PARTICIPATE
It occurs to me that if Connor “The Crusher” Michalek were still alive, he’d certainly have won the 24/7, 48/10, 7/11 European Championship by now.
Oh no doubt.
They gave it to Michael Waltrip for chrissakes
Kyle Bush, actually. Waltrip was the ref.
Ah damn. Got my NASCARS confused.
Anyone following this Lars Sullivan gay porn story? Apparently he appeared in some gay porn movie back in the day, which makes his old homophobic tweets all the funnier.
I’m not paying a huge amount of attention to it, but it’s a thing.
He’s deleted his Twitter since the story broke, but the long and short of it is that about ten years ago he did some shoots for a gay porn site under the name “Mitch Bennett”, at least one of which involved him receiving oral sex from another man.
I don’t think it should be held against him, especially since he’d hardly be the first wrestler to have compromising pics or videos wind up online, and he hadn’t even started wrestling professionally at the time.
Some interesting new stipulations have been announced for Wrestle Kingdom - which, as a reminder, is this Saturday and Sunday morning, 3 AM Eastern/midnight Pacific, live with English commentary on NJPWWorld for 999 yen (currently $9.20) per month.
If Hiroshi Tanahashi beats Chris Jericho in their match on Night 2, he gets an AEW world title shot at a later date.
Lance Archer vs. Jon Moxley for the US title is now a Texas deathmatch - no DQ or countout, which can be won only by knockout or submission.
Also, on the pre-show for night one, there’s going to be a women’s match for the first time, as NJPW’s parent company has purchased STARDOM - Mayu Iwatani & Arisa Hoshiki vs. Hana Kimura & Giulia.
I’m friends with Hana’s mom Kyoko through a chat room we both pop into now and then, so I’m really hoping we get to see that match instead of it being dark.
Since when did a Texas Death match become another phrase for an I Quit match? “In my day,” a Texas (aka Mexican) Death match was what WWE likes to call a “Last Man Standing” match, but the 10 counts didn’t begin until after each pinfall.