The Wrestling Thread's got...needs - Part 216

[Dr. Evil]

 

[TheCommissioner]

behold the God King of Suplex City

 

[Dr. Evil]

 

[Dr. Evil]

 

[runawayboulder]

Bork face from last night:

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

All this AJ and Rhino talk...

 

[NDX]

To move away from the WWE/ROH discussion, here are the estimated attendances for TNA recently

Tuesday night's live Impact: 400-500
Wednesday's tapings: 200-300
Today's tapings: 150-250

and strangely, they're also doing a live One Night Only PPV tonight.

That should tell you how hard it its to draw fans to a wrestling show in this day and age. TNA has Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, James Storm, Bobby Roode, Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Awesome Kong, Gail Kim, the Beautiful People, EC3, Bobby Lashley, Drew Galloway, and Ken Anderson at these tapings along with multiple title matches and they're drawing less than half of what ROH draws for normal house shows.

It's not hard to draw depending on the location and market. A show with 47 no names here in NYC in the boondocks on the Bronx can still draw 500 on word of mouth alone because we are a wrestling city.

 

[Pink Ranger]

It's not hard to draw depending on the location and market. A show with 47 no names here in NYC in the boondocks on the Bronx can still draw 500 on word of mouth alone because we are a wrestling city.

Also, Bronx residents like to attend wrestling shows so they can use indoor plumbing.

 

[Dr. Evil]

 

[NDX]

Now we just hope they throw us a bone and keep Chris Melendez ... off our screens.

Melendez could be interesting if he was playing the nutjob psycho character Eric Young is playing. The dude should have come in not as a hero but as someone bitter than he was called a murderer for his service, that he lost a limb for the country and they still **** on him. He should have some symptoms of PTSD. Maybe in a tag match someone gets bodyslammed too hard and he ducks from the sound for a few seconds.

Call him Shellshocked. It would have been a much different look at the fomer military turned wrestler character, and I think it could have covered up for a lot of his lacking in-ring ability.

And I will argue until my dying breath that Rhino is crazy underrated. I could watch his ECW run on loop playback all day. TNA and WWE never know what to do with him, even though he did have a World Title run in TNA.

Huge Rhino mark, and I agree. He was one of the best when he was in his prime and hasn't lost much of a step staying active in TNA in indie feds these last 15 years. His return to NXT has been a great asset to the show and he's had some good matches that shows while he's not as fast as he was, he's still a powerhouse beast in the ring and can out wrestle most guys half his age.

I thought he was such a goof until he cut the hair and went with the "Don't Piss Me Off" gimmick, the tag team with him and Owen was solid

fun fact - Debra is now attending Alabama, getting her law degree

I never bought Jeff as a main eventer, but I thought he was a great midcarder and fun talent. Especially when teaming with Owen. Good times, slapnuts.

 

[the dmg]

WK10 was a pretty great show with a fantastic trio of matches at the end. NJPW's booking hasn't been great in 2015, but the amount of amazing matches they produced has been stellar, so I can forgive them for that. The Rumble was fun, Omega/KUSHIDA was great, Shibata/Ishii was brutal, Swagske/Styles was amazing, and Okada/Tanahashi was a few years culmination that leads to Okada finally proving he's the new Ace of the company. New Year's Dash should be interesting to watch knowing what we about Nakamura.

It hasn't even been a week into the new year and we have Cena being injured, plus Styles, Gallows, Anderson, and Nakamura leaving NJPW is crazy. NJPW has been known for a while now as being unable to create new young talent, which will hurt them very soon. The upside here is Omega is going to takeover Styles' role, which is great for him and I believe good for the company. Naito has had a hell of a year and there's going to be good things to come for him this year. Of the talent that's moving with WWE, I think Anderson should have stayed. He had a great G1 where he put on some great matches and really stepped up. If they gave him the opportunity to run with it, he probably would have been able to get a good solo run. Nakamura really throws a wrench in some potential match up because everyone wanted him to move on from the IC championship and face Okada for the WHC. Now would probably be a good time to bring Suzuki back into NJPW, he's too good to be stuck keeping NOAH afloat (though he has some great shows and matches this year).

With the RR coming up, they should just debut Styles and hot shot him to the WHC belt by winning the Rumble. I don't think they would do that, but he knows how to work the WCW style and the event is in an area where Styles is known. I know with the way this Rumble is being framed as an uphill battle for Reigns I shouldn't expect him to lose or not be part of the final four, but this really gives WWE an opportunity to make another star, which is what they're struggling with. The more important program being framed for Reigns is him against the Authority, which involves the title, but doesn't really need the title to go in the direction of Reigns vs. Trips. I can see Haitch winning the Rumble and having Reigns challenge for the title at WM to give him a big moment.

WM itself is a spectacle on it's own where it doesn't necessarily need some star power to it, but there needs to be some big matches to make it a memorable event. AmDrag is by all accounts cleared, so to do something big, which won't happen, but I can dream, would be to have him against Nakamura. A man can dream dammit!

 

[Slushy]

Rumor has it WWE is going to pay the licensing rights to use Nakamura's theme:

[YT]rJusRJWvO2s[/YT]

Castlevania mode activated!

 

[Spike014]

Rumor has it WWE is going to pay the licensing rights to use Nakamura's theme:

[YT]rJusRJWvO2s[/YT]

Castlevania mode activated!

Hopefully they'll do the same for AJ's theme.

 

[I'm Batman.]

I hope he keeps his name too. It's time WWE stop trying to change people completely from the Indies, keeping whatever they had before can be a good way to bring in new viewers. I want to hear this hit at #27 for the Royal Rumble. If true, this is quite a bit of trouble to go through.

 

[nite-owl]

Bad Luck Fale has signed a two year contract with New Japan.

 

[chamber-music]

It's not hard to draw depending on the location and market. A show with 47 no names here in NYC in the boondocks on the Bronx can still draw 500 on word of mouth alone because we are a wrestling city.

The same here in London. Booking a venue is expensive but you can sell it out. I remember watching Samoa Joe wrestle in a town hall in suburban London and it had a crowd of a hundred people. Tna and nxt sold out Wembley arena easily.

 

[Bat Brain]

 

[TheCommissioner]

The Champ vs Oklahomie

MADDEN

[YT]3Hcz7-rAT5s[/YT]

 

[SpideyVille]

So I've been going back and watching a few old Royal Rumble matches. I looked up what the best matches were and that lead me to watch 1998 and 2000 back to back, simply to notice how different and much more improved the overall roster was.

With that said, what are some of your favorite Rumble matches? It doesn't have to be your favorite because of who the winner was, but rather which one stands out the most as being an exciting and fulfilling Rumble.

For me, the one that always stands out is 94, where Bret and Luger eliminated each other. I don't think it was the best Rumble, nor the most star-studded, but I love how crazy and controversial it felt. I think I heard they did that again recently, but It was during the time that I tuned out of WWE. Not to mention, 94 was the earliest WWE memory I have, so it makes me a bit nostalgic.

 

[runawayboulder]

92 and 2002 were the best Rumbles I've ever seen.

 

[TheCommissioner]

I was going to say 2002 as well

 

[Wheels]

1992 and 2007 are the best in my opinion.

 

[NDX]

I like 2004 because even though I knew who would win I really wanted to see it happen. Plus hearing Big Show call spots at the end was hilarious.

 

[MMMMM...Pancakes]

2003 for me. It was my first.

 

[PyroChamber]

I always like 92, 93 (minus the finish), and 94.

Also, Paige made it to UpUpDownDown

[YT]rd9O0Q61yjw[/YT]