A New Era for the Wrestling Thread

[OnTheAir]

Oh good...we'll be getting more of the McMahons

 

[chesslover]

Congrats to The Undertaker on his position as RAW GM

 

[Dr. Evil]

The only NXT Call Up that I really like is Nikki Cross, although I have enjoyed Heavy Machinery over the past few months. All of my favorites are still in NXT: Ciampa, Gargano, Black, Undisputed Era, Velveteen Dream, Matt Riddle, Burch and Lorcan, Ricochet, War Raiders, Kassius Ohno and Keith Lee. Also Bianca BelAir, Mia Yim, Candice LaRae and Kairi Sane.

 

[Mani-Man]

So they have gone with short term solution to a problem that is not going away in the long term.

New call ups wont do anything in 6-8 weeks.
The roster is full of people that arent used, people that were there for short 15 minute excitement and then thrown aside.
That wont change now suddenly.

You need to do more, you need to have good writing and booking, wins and losses need to matter, titles need to be important and not just a gimmick.

If they dont understand that, the ratings will continue to fall...maybe not for a few weeks, but they will fall until the problems are adressed instead of brushed aside.

 

[javonstokess]

How many pushes are we going to give Natalya? Sigh...I expected a "shake up" and got the same ole same old. I'll go back to DVR-ing RAW then fast forwarding through it.

 

[WereCoyote]

I went to sleep in the middle of the gauntlet match.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Very curious to see who the headliner for the 2019 WWE Hall of Fame is. If it's Batista or Undertaker, then the dates of the WWE Hall of Fame and Takeover being moved is a panic move on the WWE's part not wanting to compete with New Japan/ROH at MSG. If in a few weeks they announce that the Headliner for the 2019 Hall of Fame is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, then the switch of dates is probably to accommodate his schedule.

 

[NDX]

On the new call-ups, I don't see Lacey Evans being ready yet. She's shown a hell of a lot of growth the last year, but I think she still needs some seasoning before she's ready. I like Heavy Machinery, but they will get lost in the shuffle fast. EC3 is fine, I'd like to see him on SD but he'll probably be on RAW. Either way, if he debuts strong I think he can do well. Nikki Cross has been ready and hopefully she'll help boost her Sanity teammates. PUSH KILLIAN DANE! Shaddup, I've been a Big Damo mark for years. Lars Sullivan needs to go to SDL since Strauman is on RAW. And he needs to go for the midcard title right away. Okay, I just want him to, because I'm hoping Rusev is champ at the time and that's a match I want to see.

 

[Dr. Evil]

On the new call-ups, I don't see Lacey Evans being ready yet. She's shown a hell of a lot of growth the last year, but I think she still needs some seasoning before she's ready. I like Heavy Machinery, but they will get lost in the shuffle fast. EC3 is fine, I'd like to see him on SD but he'll probably be on RAW. Either way, if he debuts strong I think he can do well. Nikki Cross has been ready and hopefully she'll help boost her Sanity teammates. PUSH KILLIAN DANE! Shaddup, I've been a Big Damo mark for years. Lars Sullivan needs to go to SDL since Strauman is on RAW. And he needs to go for the midcard title right away. Okay, I just want him to, because I'm hoping Rusev is champ at the time and that's a match I want to see.

Spoiler for next Smackdown:

Spoiler

Christmas Day is also Rusev Day!

 

[NDX]

Spoiler for next Smackdown:

Spoiler

Christmas Day is also Rusev Day!

Spoiler

But every day is Rusev D-

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YES!

 

[chamber-music]

Zack Gibson should to start using his car stereo in NXT UK like it's his version of Triple H sledge hammer

Gargano has gone fully to the darkside. His going to be force choking Candice the rate his going.

The saga of Gargano and Ciampa is going make an epic Blu Ray someday.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

It really needs to end with Gargano coming back to the light, and beating Ciampa at the WM Takeover.

 

[chamber-music]

Gargano beating Ciampa for the title, realizing his gone too dark and returning to being a babyface should probably be the end game of the storyline in NXT but I'm not sure it will happen.

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[famicommander]

They admit on live television, breaking kayfabe, that their product sucks. Then they blame a kayfabe character, and say they're going to fix it by having the McMahon family in control, who've been in control the whole time.

Classic.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Is Bumblebee any good? I think that the success of that film will determine if Cena is leading actor material.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Is Bumblebee any good? I think that the success of that film will determine if Cena is leading actor material.

I have heard Bumblebee is very good. Cena on the other hand apparently sticks out like a sore thumb.

 

[Dr. Evil]

I have heard Bumblebee is very good. Cena on the other hand apparently sticks out like a sore thumb.

How is that possible since we can't see him?



In all seriousness though, that is good for Bumblebee as the franchise has been a mess. It will be interesting to see if there will be a time period where Cena is gone from WWE programming for a year or so. His last appearance was at Super Show Down in Australia, and he'll be appearing at live events next week and in January and a rumored Raw return in January. There will come a time where he's gone from WWE for a year.

 

[Dr. Evil]

 

[famicommander]

Impact has found a network even smaller than Pop.

Starting in January Impact is moving to Pursuit Channel, which is a tiny hunting-focused channel I don't even get.

It's owned by Anthem, Impact's parent company, so it's safe to say no other networks offered them anything close to a good deal.

Also, they are moving to Friday nights. That will put them head to head with both Smackdown on Fox and MLW Fusuin on BeIn Sports.

Seems odd that a channel owned by Impact's parent would put them head to head with not one but two other promotions.

I would speculate that they are just burning off episodes until their lucrative Indian TV deal expires, then they'll close it up and sell the video library to Vince or Sinclair

 

[Pink Ranger]

Too bad Anthem doesn't seem to be making progress with Impact. I liked the idea of having a Canadian-owned wrestling federation, but alas.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Sooner or later, John Cena will be gone from WWE TV for a year or more because of Hollywood. He's scheduled to return in January, so I wonder how the WWE is going to deal with Cena being gone for a year or more? At this point, he's like the Rock, a glorified WWE Ambassador at this point and if Bumblebee does very well, Cena may be forced to hang up his baseball cap and jorts because the film roles will start piling up to the point where he cannot appear in the WWE every few months anymore like he has been.

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[Mani-Man]

Impact has found a network even smaller than Pop.

Starting in January Impact is moving to Pursuit Channel, which is a tiny hunting-focused channel I don't even get.

It's owned by Anthem, Impact's parent company, so it's safe to say no other networks offered them anything close to a good deal.

Also, they are moving to Friday nights. That will put them head to head with both Smackdown on Fox and MLW Fusuin on BeIn Sports.

Seems odd that a channel owned by Impact's parent would put them head to head with not one but two other promotions.

I would speculate that they are just burning off episodes until their lucrative Indian TV deal expires, then they'll close it up and sell the video library to Vince or Sinclair

Rumor has it that this only happens because there is talk with a bigger network and they want to keep it low profile for now...but that seems like a weird thing.
I dont think Impact will ever be able to get out of the corner they are in.
I dont know what it is but Impact feels just weird.

They have good people and decent enough wrestling, storys and so on...but somehow it just cant gain any momentum.
Its like i always said, in order to really get somewhere with a wrestling company...you need a good network.

From there everything else builds itself up.
If you can have a good time slot and a network that is willing to spend money on a wrestling company, you can do a lot.
Its imo the only thing the wwe really has that puts them this high above all else...especially with how they book and write currently.

The best thing would be if we would get a few promotions to have stable and widely accessable network contracts...that would be nice for a start.
Have more choices to watch wrestling even as a casual viewer, it would do a lot of good i think.

 

[S. Grundy]

Rumor has it that this only happens because there is talk with a bigger network and they want to keep it low profile for now...but that seems like a weird thing.
I dont think Impact will ever be able to get out of the corner they are in.
I dont know what it is but Impact feels just weird.

It has nothing to do with keeping a low profile, it was just Pop are rebranding in 2019 and while they were willing to let IMPACT stay on until they got a new network, IMPACT thought it would be easier to just jump to Pursuit while they look for another network. Honestly people are making it out to be a bigger thing than it is, their big money contract is with India, it's the thing that kept the doors open in the lean years. So losing out on $2 million from Pop isn't a huge thing if they can get themselves a better deal.