2015 Pro Wrestling Thread

First, it's funny hearing this from Hudson, who made one appearance on Raw as an announcer and it was one of the most panned appearances in the show's 22-year history (the WCW title match between Booker and Bagwell).

Second, he is right, though, although I chuckled briefly before switching to MNF when JBL threw in a "that was awful" in response to the video segment.

Besides that, Saxton has done nothing for me as an announcer, and Cole and JBL have been just putting me to sleep. And it may not even be their fault, fully. The show just has too many lulls and segments that I could care less about.

 

I really enjoy Rosenberg's impersonation of JBL that he does on Cheap Heat. "I can't believe it Maaaahhh-kel!" The announcing, blah. They've now had a bunch of them since JR-Heyman (my favorite squad from the Attitude Era) and they've all been bad. The few people that have been good for a short period - Foley, Striker, JBL - either quit because of Vince or gradually get shittier. It has to be a Vince thing, since the announcing on NXT is fine. On Raw, they're always so focused on pushing some shit (Tout, Twitter, the next PPV, Total Divas) that it kills your desire to see it.

 

I haven't seen them promote Tout in a long damn time.

Pushing Twitter has been bad at times, especially when they say it's the No. 1 trend worldwide.

 

I know, just bringing up a past example. The Twitter stuff is mostly bunk too - I believe it heavily weighs intensity. So a couple thousand tweets in a minute - like for a Raw match - can get you on the 'trending' list, but it probably doesn't draw in anymore eyeballs. After all, they've been boasting that for a few years now, yet the TV ratings just keep going down.

 

Rosenberg has gone on record that "Maggle!" Is the correct spelling. And I hope Shoemacher legally changes his name so that it never stops.

 

What's better? Rosenberg's JBL or Katie Linendoll's Nikki Bella? Or even her Brie Bella? #c'monnikki!

 

I'm going with Katie's Brie but they're all arguably funnier than anything on the actual main roster show since Sandow got buried.

Small edit, and Big E.

 

Yeah, where the heck is Sandow these days?

6 months ago, he has the most entertaining and creative act on the show. Now, he's MIA.

Which says it all about the E.

 

I think he's gotten buried in the fallout from Hogan, since he and Ryder were doing that tribute act. However, it was a pretty horrible, awful, stupid idea for him and Ryder to be doing that in the first place, so...

 

This reminds me of an interview that Gordon Solie gave before he died. He told the story of one of his last days of working in WCW. He had some kid producer in his 20s tell him to keep mentioning the upcoming PPV while he was calling a match.

Despite the laughable notion that some kid was telling him how to call a match, Solie chose to be polite and decides to mention the PPV at the beginning of the match, throws in another reference or two in the middle, and mentions it at the end in context with the win giving the victorious wrestler momentum for the PPV.

The kid producer starts going off on Solie, telling him he didn't mention the PPV enough, that he should have focused most of his call on the PPV and not on the match. Solie looks at him, and says, "If I'm broadcasting the NFC championship game, I'm not mentioning the Super Bowl in every sentence." The kid shut up, walked away, and shortly afterward, that was it for Solie.

My point, is that the announcers spend way too much time on other bullshit, and not enough time on what I'm watching to make me care about it. You look at their PPV broadcasts, and there are times where they do a great job at selling the story for the match, because they're not as focused on other BS. I'm not talking about the occasional digression, which actually can be fun, and I understand the need to pay bills. But it gets to be too much, to the point where the big picture is being ignored. If they don't care about what's going on in the ring, why should I?

 

Curtis Axel, not Ryder.

 

I've said this before but Jim Ross' calls such as "Stone Cold! Stone Cold! Stone Cold!" and "Those Damn Dudleys!" were essential ingredients of the Attitude Era. The calls did more to sell characters—and thus PPVs—than any blatant salesmanship.