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2015 Pro Wrestling Thread

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by schiezainc, Jan 1, 2015.

  1. Bradley Guire

    Bradley Guire Well-Known Member

    No, this was about six months after they jumped. Benoit beat Sid for the Dubya See Dubya strap in January, and the Radicalz showed up the next night. Benoit was IC champ at WrestleMania 2000 (took it off double champ Angle in a triple threat with Jericho, who took the European belt) and had some great IC title battles with Jericho for a few years. Fighting for that belt meant something after The E ... uh, WWF quit putting it on guys like Godfather and Val Venis.

    This Triple H/Benoit program (October at No Mercy) started with Benoit head-butting sweet, innocent Steph, establishing his tendency of violence toward women. (Sorta. Yeah, mostly. OK, totally.)
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2015
  2. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    Who is this Benoit guy you're all talking about. Did you mean Chris Masters?
     
  3. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    I think Benoit Benjamin did some sort of scuffling in his day.
     
    jpetrie18 and schiezainc like this.
  4. sgreenwell

    sgreenwell Well-Known Member

    Observer from Nov. 30:

    - Vince made the call for the title switch the day of the show. It’s similar to when Daniel Bryan cashed in, as they’re portraying it somewhat as a lucky occurrence, as opposed to a dominant performance. Bryan lost the belt in the 8-second match at Mania, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Sheamus drop the title in a similar way now.

    - The after-Survivor Series Raw hit another all-time low for viewership, with a 2.15 rating and 2.95M viewers. There was strong competition from Patriots vs. Bills, but still, the show after a PPV is usually seen as one that might have increased viewers, not a drop. It’s the lowest number since Feb. 17, 1997, which did a 2.1 against Nitro. Potentially scarier for WWE: It was the first time ever the show fell below a 1.0 in viewers 18-49.

    - Survivor Series split the Observer voting base. Thumbs down 36.6 percent, thumbs up and thumbs middle both got 31.7 percent; 224 people voted. Ambrose vs. Owens got best match (106 votes), followed by Reigns-Del Rio (69) and Reigns vs. Ambrose (20).

    - Orton’s injury is worse than expected, as he also needs neck surgery to clean up bone chips. He’s out 3 to 6 months for the shoulder surgery, at which point, he can get the neck surgery. (They can’t do both; shoulder has to heal first.) If it is just bone chips, it would only be a couple weeks after his shoulder heels, but if it’s worse than expected and he needs some sort of spinal fusion, like a lot of other wrestlers, he’s out 12+ months.

    - Cesaro first hurt his shoulder two months ago, but said he tried to work through it. This is probably what made it turn into a full tear. (And also, the company doesn’t discourage that behavior.) He’s out four to six months.

    - TNA officially announced its move to Pop TV, trying to spin it as a positive because the number of homes is up (85M according to their numbers, 74M according to cable industry sources, vs. 57M for Destination America). However, Pop isn’t believed to be paying anything for the programming. The only people making OK money at TNA now are the Hardys, Bobby Roode and Bobby Lashley, since everyone else’s deals have expired or are expiring (Angle).

    Angle confirmed that he would not be re-signing with TNA when his deal expires. He’d like to try acting, and he wants to write a second autobiography, claiming that WWE was too hands-on with the first one.

    - Probably because of the new network announcement and cancellation rumors, TNA dropped to a low on Destination America, with a combined 280K viewers between the initial airing and replay. ROH did 114K viewers, its second lowest number.

    - AAA cancelled its Dec. 4 show, which is usually one of its biggest of the year. They claimed it was because of a local promoter issue, but they also had another two wrestlers quit in the past week. It’s a big turnaround from the summer, when they looked to be on an upswing thanks to Del Rio, Mysterio, Sin Cara and others in the company.

    - Lucha Underground has taped about 8 episodes out of 24, even though Mysterio and Konnan have been unavailable.

    - Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly aren’t close to an extension with ROH, and they’re now being lobbied by some WWE wrestlers to sign with NXT developmental instead.

    - Awesome Kong may or may not be retired. She has a chronic back injury, which she used as an excuse to get out of some Japanese bookings.

    - WWE sent out a release confirming that they signed La Sombra (Manual Oropea, 26) to a developmental deal. He had been with CMLL.

    - Zack Sabre Jr. (Lucas Eatwell, 28) is moving from Pro Wrestling NOAH (Japan) to the states. He has drawn some interest from WWE in the past, and was featured in a WWE.com article on top prospects recently. Regardless of whether he signs a WWE deal, he wanted to move back stateside.

    - Solomon Crowe (Sam Johnston, 28) received his release from WWE, when he asked for it. He hadn’t been on NXT TV since mid-August, and had signed with the company in May 2013.

    - AJ Lee has signed a book deal with Penguin Random House – and not the WWE. It’s scheduled for release in early 2017.

    - Lana is described as having “nuclear heat” backstage now, as the report in the previous week’s Observer was criticized as being understated. Lana’s claim that she was bullied by Paige was “preposterous,” with some noting that Paige and Charlotte were the ones given the most crap from existing wrestlers.

    - Stephanie McMahon is back from her fellowship work, and will be on TV more.

    - Foley went off on the WWE for the 4-minute Banks vs. Lynch match on Raw, as well as not properly pushing Ziggler, Cesaro and Owens. He said he was close to just turning the product off completely.
     
  5. nietsroob17

    nietsroob17 Well-Known Member

    Rumors are Paige and Charlotte will have a ladder match at TLC. Have they done anything remotely extreme with the Divas since Lita?
     
  6. sgreenwell

    sgreenwell Well-Known Member

    Some spots here and there, but few and far between. Oddly enough, the most memorable recent one to me was AJ Lee going through a table, which wasn't in a match, and was an angle involving her being a crazy bitch vying for the attention of two guys. I thought it was stupid on Raw that they cleared the table for a submission hold.
     
  7. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    What's also stupid about it is that Paige did it a couple of weeks earlier, and even more stupid is that the table really doesn't come into play when she puts on the hold. The opponent is being held up in the air and isn't even touching the table. How is that supposed to be any different than having it done in the ring or on the floor?
     
    schiezainc and sgreenwell like this.
  8. nietsroob17

    nietsroob17 Well-Known Member

    I'm waiting for someone to step in the hole where the monitors are, like Orton famously did.
     
  9. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Ir's funny how they're twisting themselves into knots to explain the whole Rusev/Lana mess.
     
  10. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Tommy Dreamer! The real one.
     
    Tommy_Dreamer likes this.
  11. nietsroob17

    nietsroob17 Well-Known Member

    For all the predictability of WWE, I can't say I expected to see Xavier Woods doing the Dirty Bird dance.
     
  12. nietsroob17

    nietsroob17 Well-Known Member

    Championship match an hour before 11? What kind of shenanigans are we going to have here?
     
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