The Wrestling Thread Ended Itself Early Because of a Dislocated Finger. - - Part 112

[Hunter Rider]

I'm torn on the AJ Styles situation. On the one hand, I respect the hell out of his loyalty, much like Sting, and it's a unique legacy to have when he retires. Plus in TNA he will have the freedom to have the kind of matches he wants and is capable of, along with more character control.

On the other hand, it would be cool to see him wrestle on the big stage and have the opportunity to make more money and become a bigger star. Plus, the idea of him wrestling Bryan, Punk, Brock, and Cena makes me salivate.

In TNA, he cannot go any further other than having a long reign and TNA is not going to gain a bigger audience for years, if ever.

In WWE, he could lose much of what makes him special (name, look, moveset) and potentially be buried. WWE has struggled pushing what is not their creation and AJ has a lot of negatives in Vince's world. For one he is not much bigger than Daniel Bryan, and two he has that southern twang that Vince hates.

I'd like to remain hopeful and give WWE the benefit of the doubt that they would see what makes AJ Styles one of the true stars in the business that hasn't come from them, and not change it, but I have serious doubts.

It's just sad that TNA has basically lost all control. Dixie has lost just about all of my respect in the last couple of months and TNA is suffering for her decisions. It's just a shame the boys are suffering for it too.

By the way, here's some food for thought that the guys at PWInsider pointed out. All of the TNA guys who had deals that were expiring or were let go by TNA (Roode, Joe, Morgan, Bully) were not signed by WWE or made significant offers.

With all due respect to those guys I think AJ is more unique, I feel if WWE have watched him they will see that as an athlete he can do things that no one else can.

I also don't think WWE would neuter his style because AJ works much smarter now, only using the big spots at the right moments, I'd wager he uses less spots than RVD these days. Stuff like the Pele kick and the springboard forearm as well as the shooting star plauncher would all fit fine in current day WWE.

Him being Southern, made elsewhere and 36 are the biggest obstacles without a doubt, he'd need to have someone within WWE that has influence to get him the chance to showcase himself, because once showcased WWE will push him as my guess is the fans will get right behind him from the off as he's the one homegrown guy that people who aren't a fan of TNA know and like.

 

[NDX]

This one:

[YT]TTxXF8Iha7E[/YT]

Well, that's just silly.

Rock flipping over actually made sense with that move.

It's one of the times his overselling made total sense and worked with the move instead of looking like total ********. Plus he just flipped over instead of pushing himself up. If he did that with the Stunner, it would have looked better.

This is my favorite sweet chin music, though I couldn't find the full gif of the moment with Kurt pulling HBK up screaming at him to tap out

My favorite WM match of all time.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Eric Bischoff recently spoke with Bob Kapur of SLAM! Wrestling . Below is a quick recap:

On TNA's current position:

"As someone who is very clearly associated with and very much invested in it emotionally, I want to see it succeed, obviously. I think the business, and the television business, is an extremely competitive one. It's difficult for a lot of people and for a lot of networks. We're competing with general entertainment, we're competing for extremely valuable real estate on a very important television network that's owned by a very important media conglomerate. But I think there is a ton of potential in TNA. It’s uniquely positioned to grow, and to become much larger in many ways than it is right now."

On his role behind the scenes in TNA:

"My role doesn’t extend to the hiring and firing or recruiting. That’s the business side of TNA's business, and I’m not involved in that. My partner Jason Hervey and I are the Executive Producers of Impact. Essentially, my role is: to oversee the creative side of the production; to be involved in post-production as is necessary; to execute the creative direction and vision of each episode; to work closely with the network to make sure the TNA side of the equation understands the network's goals; and to be the liaison for TNA on the production side of things so that the network understands what our challenges are, and where we're going, and what we're trying to do. My involvement is really limited to the show itself. I’m not involved in many aspects of the business that the internet would suggest I’m involved in."

On his son Garett Bischoff becoming a pro wrestler:

"I'm extremely proud of him. I'm very, very proud. It was a goal of his, something that he'd wanted to do since he was extremely young, as a child growing up - which I didn't really find out about until just a few years ago when he broke into the business. I'm very proud of him for working hard to do what he's needed to do. Clearly he had an advantage in getting into the business, I think everybody understands that, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't think that was a factor. But he also has had to overcome a lot because of who he is, and because of who I am. And he's handled that really well. But there's a part of me that knows - and I tell him this - that this is an extremely difficult business, more difficult now than it's ever been. There's really only one big place to work, and TNA is what TNA is and where they are. It's a tough career choice when there are really only two car manufacturers and one's in mass production."

His thoughts on the Internet Wrestling Community:

"Unfortunately, the internet, the dirt sheets, the blogs, whatever you want to call them - a lot of them are operating with partial information. And that hurts a lot of the different parties involved. It hurts the talent in certain respects; it hurts the business in certain respects; it hurts the credibility of the people who write about things that they don't fully understand. It's unfortunate, but that’s the nature of the business."

As in the brother from the Wonder Years? I remember he had Pee Wee Herman's bike in Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

 

[SpideyFan866]

I wish someone with serious cash and connections would buy TNA and get them off Spike.

Vince should do it and turn it to another developmental brand.

Though like Velocity and Heat used to be. A secondary who to Raw and Smackdown, the primary brands.

 

[Dr. Evil]

I wish someone with serious cash and connections would buy TNA and get them off Spike.

The problem is he has a network that gets less TV coverage than Spike TV

 

[sweetre15]

With all due respect to those guys I think AJ is more unique, I feel if WWE have watched him they will see that as an athlete he can do things that no one else can.

I also don't think WWE would neuter his style because AJ works much smarter now, only using the big spots at the right moments, I'd wager he uses less spots than RVD these days. Stuff like the Pele kick and the springboard forearm as well as the shooting star plauncher would all fit fine in current day WWE.

Him being Southern, made elsewhere and 36 are the biggest obstacles without a doubt, he'd need to have someone within WWE that has influence to get him the chance to showcase himself, because once showcased WWE will push him as my guess is the fans will get right behind him from the off as he's the one homegrown guy that people who aren't a fan of TNA know and like.

Well, Jamie Noble has been in the corner of a lot of the indy guys that have recently been brought into this company so maybe HE and X-pac could convince HHH and Vince to not butcher him. Not to mention, I'm sure that Daniel Bryan and CM Punk might be willing to put in a good word for him as well.



Also Hunter, what do you think of what I had to say in this post:
I'm not going to say I could run a wrestling company with ease but if I had ANY stroke regarding the people pushed and even the people hired, this would be some things I'd push for:

Wrestlers I'd want Future Endeavored:

Joseph Parks

Garrett Bischoff

Wes Brisco

Mike Knox

Rob Terry

I'd beg and plead Spike TV to make Rampage, King Mo, and Tito Ortiz GTFO as well.

Wrestlers and onscreen presences that I'd want to take more "subdued" roles aka not holding titles or getting more than 10 minutes of promo time in Hogan's case (They can still slither in and out of main event feuds from time to time excluding Hogan and Sting):

Sting

Bully Ray

Hulk Hogan

Jeff Hardy

Kurt Angle

X-Division's top guys:

Manik

Chris Sabin

Zema Ion (when he's healed)

Kenny King

Amazing Red

And work on building and potentially bringing in Okada, Prince Devitt, Trent Baretta, Alex Shelley, Jay Lethal, Joey Ryan as well as resigning Petey Williams and Homicide.

Tag Team Division:

Mostly bringing in teams such as The Briscoes, American Wolves, London and Kenderick and maybe making guys like Roderick Strong, Jimmy Jacobs, James Gibson, and Jimmy Rave be put into new tag teams since they aren't necessarily cut out for the main event but could help increase the talent pool. I'd also have Bad Influence, Bro-Mans and Super Mex as mainstays that said new teams can feud with. Bad Influence would also be the guys I'd have them work with so some of the guys can learn how to not be super reliant on high spots.

Main Event's key focuses:

Bobby Roode

Austin Aries

AJ Styles

Samoa Joe

Occasionally Christopher Daniels

Force Magnus to step his promo game up since he can put on good matches

Knockouts:

Keep as is but make these additions:

BEG AND PLEAD for Angelina Love, Sarita, Rosita, Taeler Hendrix, Kharma and Katarina Waters/Winter to return

Bring in Ivelisse Velez, Mia Yim, Cheerleader Melissa, and Sereena Deeb.


Overall this is how I'd push things along to make a significant change in the company's product regarding the talent pool of each card.

If I can abolish anything booking wise:

I'd keep Stable Wars/Power Struggles off of the table due to how many times TNA has done this back to back to back to back.


Not sure how many would necessarily agree but I think this would be a good way to get back on the right track until their guys at OVW are ready.

If you have any alternatives please feel free to counterpoint....I like keeping you in these discussions

 

[SpideyFan866]

My only reservation about AJ coming to WWE, is that he'd no longer have his awesome theme music:

[YT]sYZKZvo98Uk[/YT]

 

[Dr. Evil]

I still believe AJ will re-sign with TNA and retire there.

Out of all of the guys in TNA right now, for me the one most likely is Kurt Angle, because if he's well and the WWE offers him a contract similar to Brock Lesner (or Bork Laser), I think he would take the WWE contract in an instant.

 

[Dr. Evil]

 

[Dr. Evil]

Former Boxing Champion Riddick Bowe mentioned that he would like to get into professional wrestling. Here is what he wrote on Twitter earlier today:

"Looking into get into pro wrestling partners. Contact my manager [email protected] if u can help. I want to be first heavyweight boxing champions and heavyweight wrestling champion. I have trained hard with those bumps."

Bowe is 46 years old, which is a pretty old age to get into the sport.

 

[Superark]

With all due respect to those guys I think AJ is more unique, I feel if WWE have watched him they will see that as an athlete he can do things that no one else can.

I definitely agree AJ stands out from those guys. AJ has "It" in spades. I'm just not sold that WWE does or would see that.

I also don't think WWE would neuter his style because AJ works much smarter now, only using the big spots at the right moments, I'd wager he uses less spots than RVD these days. Stuff like the Pele kick and the springboard forearm as well as the shooting star plauncher would all fit fine in current day WWE.

Yes AJ does work much smarter and knows how to tell a story, and when to break out the big spots. His style definitely would fit WWE moreso than a few years ago. Perhaps that would not ban his big spot moves, but I can see them cutting short the amount of ring time he's allowed to work. AJ can make a five minute match good, but it would rob him of his ability to steal the show.

Him being Southern, made elsewhere and 36 are the biggest obstacles without a doubt, he'd need to have someone within WWE that has influence to get him the chance to showcase himself, because once showcased WWE will push him as my guess is the fans will get right behind him from the off as he's the one homegrown guy that people who aren't a fan of TNA know and like.

IMO, the one he needs the biggest push from is HHH. Of course the buck stops with Vince, but HHH is the one continually gaining power and influence in the product. Hell, look at the last two breakout stars Bryan and Punk. As soon as they gained serious momentum and had the fans buzzing at their loudest, he got involved and their pushes and character development took a hit. You cannot tell me that is by coincidence. Their pushes were/are clearly done with some spite.

I believe with the right marketing and build up, AJ's debut in WWE would draw a massive pop. I have no doubt the fans would get behind him even with no build, but WWE would be wise to push him strong right out of the gates. We know AJ can hold up his end of the bargain. His signing would definitely get the internet buzzing. Might as well try to carry that over to your general audience.

 

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

This one:

[YT]TTxXF8Iha7E[/YT]

Rock flipping over actually made sense with that move.

Awww I liked that finisher

 

[Dr. Evil]

It would be great news if AJ Styles signs with WWE and immediately gets support from Triple H.

 

[Trainwreck2100]

it's pronounced BUROCH LESNAR

 

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

Only X-Pac.

https://***********/TheRealXPac/status/371866150931804160

 

[Lantern Venom]

All I can say to Edge is.......

And if I may quote DDP from Yoga for Regular Guys:

"If you don't know what your glutes are.....it's your butt."

t:

 

[sweetre15]

And if I may quote DDP from Yoga for Regular Guys:

"If you don't know what your glutes are.....it's your butt."

t:

DDP should have been the psychiatrist during the "Anger Management" storyline with Team Hell No instead of Dr.Shelby. Just imagine how hilarious that could have been.

 

[I'm Venom]

I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing a revival of Evolution. I like the idea of Triple H taking over the role of Ric Flair. The only problem I see with Triple H in that role is I can’t see him wrestling as much as Flair did in the original.

I’d like it to be:
Cesaro - Muscle
Sandow - Rising Star
Orton - Main Eventer
Triple H - Torch Passer

I’ve seen a lot of people saying Ryback should be the muscle, but I have zero interest in seeing Ryback at all. Sandow being the rising star of the group would a good fit and opportunity for him to develop a mean streak. I could also see Cesaro getting over in a similar way as Batista.

 

[Incrediblejeff]

I'm seeing these rumors online that Viacom wants to buy a majority stake in TNA.I don't see much official,but I think it could be helpful financially if they did.

 

[NDX]

I'm seeing these rumors online that Viacom wants to buy a majority stake in TNA.I don't see much official,but I think it could be helpful financially if they did.

Hey, they could get a secondary show on MTV. Or better yet, Logo.

Only X-Pac.

https://***********/TheRealXPac/status/371866150931804160

He's not wrong, though.

 

[bullets]

 

[nite-owl]

 

[Pink Ranger]

Hey, they could get a secondary show on MTV. Or better yet, Logo.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

Hey, they could get a secondary show on MTV. Or better yet, Logo.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Third generation Superstar and former WWE Tag Team Champion Ted DiBiase, Jr. confirmed via his Twitter account that he will not be re-signing his contract with World Wrestling Entertainment when it expires.

DiBiase has been with the WWE since 2008, when he made his debut and won gold alongside Cody Rhodes. He is only 30-years-old, and is open to a possible return in the future.

I had forgotten he was still with WWE.