The Wrestling Thread has much larger nipples

[DarthSkywalker]

That was a great show. Even the early lesser stuff ranged from fun to pretty darn good. The Moxley and KENTA moments were fantastic. The G1 already has KENTA, Moxley and Takagi announced.

Okada/Jericho was my favorite Jericho match in years. Ospery and Dragon Lee put on a damn good show, which of course couldn't possibly live up to the BOTSJ final. But it was never intended to. Really enjoyed the tag and openweight title matches as well. Loved Sanda's gear and I wonder if he might be breaking up with Evil soon.

But tonight was all about Ibushi and Naito. I really, really, really hope Ibushi is okay. That bump he took on the ring apron was insane. I thought he broke his neck for second, but he seemingly kept going just fine. Beyond that, it was fantastic. I love the stories they tell together, and that might have been their best.

 

[JabarR]

 

[JabarR]

 

[godisawesome]

Moxley and KENTA in the G1.

AEW giving Moxley the same contract flexibility that Jericho has to go to NJPW is whip smart right now. He’s in a high quality product right now while AEW’s TV show is getting set up, winning a belt and getting his reinvigorated persona fleshed out and exposed to an international audience against top notch competition. And drawing attention from WWE fans towards NJPW likely also plays a part in any future plans AEW might have to replace ROH as a partner should ROH become a less sexy partner.

It also makes sense considering the fact that AEW likely understands that it’s long term survivability might be located in convincing the hard-core, internet active smarks who already pay attention to NJPW to see AEW and it’s roster as something they have to pay attention to, once AEW actually premiers, even if Raw and Smackdown manage to pull out of its current deep dive and in spite of NXT probably being an equal or greater product thanks to HHH’s vision and WWE’s resources.

 

[vantheman77]

Impact Wrestling held another event on Sunday called Digital Destruction, where they partnered with Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore. The event was on Twitch as AEW’s Billy Gunn and Luchasaurus appeared.

Teddy Hart, Little Guido, Joey Ryan, and Bull James also appeared at the event.

 

[JabarR]

 

[JabarR]

 

[Dr. Evil]

John Cena says WWE doesn't need him.

That's false.

 

[JabarR]

New Japan Pro Wrestling and ‘WOW – Women of Wrestling’ to Move to Saturdays on AXS TV (Exclusive)



Shift off Fridays means NJPW action will be turned around far quicker for U.S. TV viewers

Tony Maglio | June 11, 2019 @ 1:45 PM Last Updated: June 11, 2019 @ 2:45 PM

Credit TV Asahi-NJPW


AXS TV is giving professional wrestling its own night: “New Japan Pro Wrestling” and “WOW – Women of Wrestling” are moving from Fridays to Saturdays, TheWrap has learned exclusively.

Starting July 13, those summer Saturday nights will feature an eight-week recap of “WOW” Season 1 matches. The show’s 24-episode second season premieres on Sep. 7 at 8/7c, when a stable of new and returning Superheroes — WOW’s branding for its wrestlers — will try to take the belt off of Tessa Blanchard.

Among all that other all-female action, “WOW – Women of Wrestling” Season 2 will also feature a single-elimination tournament to crown tag team champions.

“WOW” founder David McLane and Stephen Dickey will again provide the analysis and commentary for Season 2.

“WOW” will lead in to “New Japan Pro Wrestling,” which will air at 9/8c on AXS TV.

To kick off the rebranded Saturdays, AXS TV will present a special live broadcast of Night 1 of NJPW’s G1 Climax 29 Tournament. The Dallas, Texas event begins July 6 at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT.

After that, every Saturday night, AXS TV will air two hours of the tourney, which will be called by Kevin Kelly. AXS TV’s same-day coverage will also feature the A Block Final on Aug. 10. Special coverage of the B Block Final will air on Aug. 17, and the Tournament Final comes to cable on Aug. 24.


Ordinarily, being scheduled on a Saturday would be a bad thing for a TV show. In this case, the move will actually allow for much faster turnaround of NJPW events, as you can get a taste of through Climax 29 coverage.

Previously, the Saturday night New Japan events would have to wait until the following Friday to air on AXS TV. Now, Saturday shows will air on cable television less than 24 hours after they take place, which ought to be music to NJPW fans’ ears.

The scheduling change also pulls New Japan Pro Wrestling away from WWE’s “SmackDown Live,” which moves to Fridays on Fox this fall. That series currently airs Tuesday nights on USA Network.

New Japan superfans can still pay for live coverage via the NJPW World SVOD service. You’re just going to be paying like $9 a month and waking up really early.

“WOW” and “New Japan Pro Wrestling” used to air as part of AXS TV’s Friday Night Fights block. They were paired with mixed martial arts action on “AXS TV Fights,” which will remain on Fridays.

AXS TV is owned by CEO Mark Cuban in conjunction with AEG, Ryan Seacrest Media, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and CBS.

 

[chamber-music]

Really good 205 Live this week. Lots of good wrestling, little backstage garbage and everything helped move the story forward or give someone a character development moment.

Great match between Chad Gable and Jack Gallagher.

The number one contender main event match was really great as well. The crowd were hot for the match.

John Cena says WWE doesn't need him.

That's false.

Cena probably doesn't want to be wrestling right now. His movie career is really starting to take off with him landing roles in Suicide Squad 2 and the next Fast and The Furious film.

Plus he has Tv gigs like hosting Nickelodeon's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

 

[Pink Ranger]

John Cena says WWE doesn't need him.

That's false.

More accurately: the WWE shouldn't need him. But they still do. Which is unfortunate, because the last time I remember the roster being this stacked was 1991-1993, when they had Hogan, Flair, Savage, Piper, Roberts and the LOD, plus a young Michaels, Hall, Hart and Taker.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Since I only watch NXT, I don't care that Shane McMahon is on the main roster. Just keep him away from NXT and I don't care.

 

[javonstokess]

IMO, my top 10 biggest mistakes WWE has made in the last 5 years (no particular order):
1. No heel turn for Roman Reigns
2. Brock Lesnar dominating the Universal title
3. Putting Triple H in the main event of WM35 vs. Roman Reigns instead of Dean Ambrose
4. Too many title reigns for Charlotte & Alexa Bliss
5. Letting Brock Lesnar kill Braun Strowman's title push
6. Not pushing any of the New Day as single competitors until this year
7. Relegating Finn Balor to mid-card status
8. Roman Reigns going over Bobby Lashley
9. Any Universal/WWE title feud with Dolph Ziggler (momentum killers)
10. Repeated burial of Sasha Banks pushes.

 

[Rodimus]

What a jackass.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Some spoilers for Takeover:

Spoiler

NXT Title Match
Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole (champion)

NXT Women’s Title Match
Mia Yim vs. Shayna Baszler (champion)

Triple Threat for the NXT North American Title
Pete Dunne vs. Roderick Strong vs. The Velveteen Dream (champion)

NXT Tag Team Titles Match
The Undisputed Era’s Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish vs. The Street Profits’ Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins (champions)

NXT Breakout Tournament Finals
Jordan "ACH" Myles vs. Cameron "Trevor Lee" Grimes

Also

Spoiler

Breezango reunited at the tapings and Kushida faced Apollo Crews

 

[godisawesome]

IMO, my top 10 biggest mistakes WWE has made in the last 5 years (no particular order):
1. No heel turn for Roman Reigns
2. Brock Lesnar dominating the Universal title
3. Putting Triple H in the main event of WM35 vs. Roman Reigns instead of Dean Ambrose
4. Too many title reigns for Charlotte & Alexa Bliss
5. Letting Brock Lesnar kill Braun Strowman's title push
6. Not pushing any of the New Day as single competitors until this year
7. Relegating Finn Balor to mid-card status
8. Roman Reigns going over Bobby Lashley
9. Any Universal/WWE title feud with Dolph Ziggler (momentum killers)
10. Repeated burial of Sasha Banks pushes.

I’d add one more: managing to have an utterly stacked roster, but booking the tag teams and midcard into destruction, making NXT call-ups more of a death sentence to a career than a promotion unless you are immediately booked into title shots *and* win.

 

[JabarR]

 

[JabarR]

 

[JabarR]

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Block A is insanity!!!

 

[DarthSkywalker]

IMO, my top 10 biggest mistakes WWE has made in the last 5 years (no particular order):
1. No heel turn for Roman Reigns
2. Brock Lesnar dominating the Universal title
3. Putting Triple H in the main event of WM35 vs. Roman Reigns instead of Dean Ambrose
4. Too many title reigns for Charlotte & Alexa Bliss
5. Letting Brock Lesnar kill Braun Strowman's title push
6. Not pushing any of the New Day as single competitors until this year
7. Relegating Finn Balor to mid-card status
8. Roman Reigns going over Bobby Lashley
9. Any Universal/WWE title feud with Dolph Ziggler (momentum killers)
10. Repeated burial of Sasha Banks pushes.

I'd say most of these are legit problems, but perhaps not the worst. And Charlotte having title reigns hasn't been an issue. After all, they have two belts.

The three biggest problems for the WWE are:

1. No long term booking that they stick too. Especially as Vince is now re-writing episodes of RAW as they are happening.

2. Only focusing on a few wrestlers.

3. Vince not wanting stars.

The first two problems basically go together. Charlotte and even Alexa having long title reigns weren't issue. The issue is that none of the women who aren't booked as champion never get anything to do. Sasha, Bayley, Becky, and everyone else disappears when they aren't in the title hunt. Alexa and Charlotte don't, which is also why they are always in the title picture.

The wildcard rule has emphasized this general issue. Nakamura and Rusev weren't doing much, but at least they were on Smackdown most weeks. But since this BS wildcard rule, the same guys and gals are dominating both shows, making the brand split absolutely meaningless. The wildcard rule has wiped out the midcard.

One of the obvious things the WWE could do with a lot of their talent is just let them work really good matches to fill the mountains of time they have on RAW every week. This would allow them to get over, so that if you do want to push them, they don't come off as not really viable to casuals. Instead we get extended promos for Shane, who appears multiple times every week. I don't like Roman, but he'd be a lot better if we saw him 15 mins a week, instead of what feels like an hour.

Finally, Vince seems burned by his stars leaving, and thus seems reluctant to make new ones. This is why we get dumb crap like 50-50 booking. I honestly don't get this, because the promotion of the WWE is guys like the Rock and Batista making it outside of wrestling.

On and on Brock. Brock dominating the title was never an issue. The issue was that Vince did that knowing Brock wasn't going to be around. That is a fundamental problem. Brock is one of the last stars Vince willingly made, so I get why he falls back on him, but the issue is that Brock should be an attraction, which helps get over other people, who are actually there every week.

 

[Dr. Evil]

I'd say most of these are legit problems, but perhaps the worst. And Charlotte having title reigns hasn't been an issue. After all, they have two belts.

The three biggest problems for the WWE are:

1. No long term booking that they stick too. Especially as Vince is now re-writing episodes of RAW as they are happening.

2. Only focusing on a few wrestlers.

3. Vince not wanting stars.

The first two problems basically go together. Charlotte and even Alexa having long title reigns weren't issue. The issue is that none of the women who aren't booked as champion never get anything to do. Sasha, Bayley, Becky, and everyone else disappears when they aren't in the title hunt. Alexa and Charlotte don't, which is also why they are always in the title picture.

The wildcard rule has emphasized this general issue. Nakamura and Rusev weren't doing much, but at least they were on Smackdown most weeks. But since this BS wildcard rule, the same guys and gals are dominating both shows, making the brand split absolutely meaningless. The wildcard rule has wiped out the midcard.

One of the obvious things the WWE could do with a lot of their talent is just let them work really good matches to fill the mountains of time they have on RAW every week. Instead we get extended promos for Shane, who appears multiple times every week. I don't like Roman, but he'd be a lot better if we saw him 15 mins a week, instead of what feels like an hour.

Finally, Vince seems burned by his stars leaving, and thus seems reluctant to make new ones. This is why we get dumb crap like 50-50 booking. I honestly don't get this, because the promotion of the WWE is guys like the Rock and Batista making it outside of wrestling.

On and on Brock. Brock dominating the title was never an issue. The issue was that Vince did that knowing Brock wasn't going to be around. That is a fundamental problem. Brock is one of the last stars Vince willingly made, so I get why he falls back on him, but the issue is that Brock should be an attraction, which helps get over other people, who are actually there every week.

I wonder how desperate things have to be for them to try to bring John Cena back?

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I wonder how desperate things have to be for them to try to bring John Cena back?

They want him there, he just seems to want to transition to the bit part role completely, while working in Hollywood. Which seems fair to me, after carrying the company for a decade.

 

[TheVileOne]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, during Cena's era WWE was so overly reliant on him, they weren't able to build up anyone to take his place. It's no wonder fans gravitate towards guys like Daniel Bryan instead of stale acts like Cena and Roman Reigns.

 

[vantheman77]

So someone bought multiple tickets for AEW's All-Out. Is that how the event is sold out?

EC3 continues to be a joke in tonight's Raw, especially when dancing funny with New Day as a referee.