The Unknown Poster

Yowza

For sure. And certainly now because there is a goalie controversey and no defined number one. So both guys are going to be over analyzed after every game.

And to be fair, it also makes a difference what type of show it was. Many promotions have their main venue and then a secondary location where the trainees/rookies get ring time because you need the ring time to get better. Hopefully guys are trained enough that its not horrific, but it is possible to see a show and have it be a "training" show. I dont really like that from a business perspective but it happens. Years ago we used Rookies Sports Bar for that. it was where I first started booking (and my partner booked the main shows). But we had a handful of rookies who didnt appear on the main shows and sprinkled in a few veterans. A really good veteran can make a green as grass trainee look passable and still teach him how to work in front of a crowd. That should be the goal on "training shows"

Well the level of talent that I saw was really bad and had I went in the ring I would of probably been in the top 3 shape despite not hitting a gym in years. It was really bad. The same can be said for mma/boxing.. I went to an old Gladiator card and remember seeing an obese guy from a reserve boxing against a guy on the Canadian national team and was absolutely destroyed. Anyone could get into the ring/cage if they want to. I cant judge for sure without knowing who you watched but there is cosmetic shape and then there is wrestling shape. Trust me, performing in a match is a whole different level of cardio. RME did have a lot of lower end talent. But you will always see that when you're watching the "grassroots" end of any entertainment or sports enterprise. You could go watch pretty bad hockey too. RME did have some decent guys too, to be fair. And in my own promotion we've had great and awful. But our job isnt exactly to only feature the 25 very best guys,. We're trying to develop talent of all levels. So you have the guy having his first match. You have the guy going into his 20th year in the business. And all points in between. Thats just local wrestling (or local anything really). If we didnt have enough talent to put on what I judge to be a good show, I wouldnt do it anymore (and in 13 years, we've had our fair share of bad shows...it happens).

Good. I wonder if the "attack" on NK yesterday had anything to do with it. I hope Cineplex Canada changes their tune on this also.

No doubt. Some would claim Angle is the best in-ring performer of the modern era.

They seem to be saying it was NK pretty definitely. And NK sort of gives it away when they plead innocence, demand a joint investigation, claim its a US set up and then praise the hackers. Something will eventually happen with NK. Either revolution or war. They keep pushing their luck and dont really suffer any consequences.

What a wrestler goes through in the ring and what a ufc fighter goes through are very different. But wrestling has far more serious injuries then ufc does.

Good post rich. I did a double take wondering who was freaking out lol

Angle didn't tap. He probably would have had to, or had his arm broken, if the ref wasn't smart enough to make the 3 count, but he didn't tap. Yeah and you can't use that Puder incident as any sort of indication of Angle's skills since Angle wasn't trying to fight. Angle and Brock had a take down contest one night and reportedly angle won every round. He would have been a very very good ufc participant had he gone that route.

ISO - in not sure what your point is. I would hope you "get" wrestling by now but that doesn't dininish the risk of injury. Brandon - believe me what you saw at an RME show wasn't wrestling. Like any entertainment or sport enterprise there exists various levels. A drunk woman hopping in the ring does not equate to anyone being able to wrestle. To be a wrestler requires a lot of training. That's why there is an awful lot of bad wrestlers - because they don't train like they should.

That wouldnt be wise. And Im sure China would have something to say about that. I do think this is something of a national security issue. A Nuclear Nation is threatening 9/11 style attacks on US soil. There's rhetoric you ignore and then there's delivering consequences when necessary.

Lol you are comparing them as though you stepped into either tomorrow? Because if you put in the required trading for both then your statement would be different. And without the required training no you could not be a wrestler tomorrow. I don't have to train to know the difference. Okay, so WHY.... does the WWE call itself that with the word ENTERTAINMENT at the end of its name? Because that's what it is. Entertainment. Not a sport. The outcomes are scripted. The wrestlers in the ring communicate what next move should be done between them. Guys get hurt, yes but they try not to have that happen. Bumps occur but mostly accidental. In MMA guys are trying to knock each other out or submit. No wrestler gets hit like UFC fighters do when they're on the mat being pummeled by punches or elbow shots. Sorry but there's no comparison between what happens in UFC & WWE. You're not honestly going to tell me you can get in the ring and wrestle tomorrow and dont need to train to understand what goes into it are you? You think you know wrestling. You're telling me how wrestling works...dude, Im in the wrestling business.

He *might* have legitimate natural talent. But skills? Hes never been in an organized fight in his life. The only legitimate fight that we know of, he lost (to a guy with boxing skills). It will be difficult at his age to train enough to be a quality MMA'ist

I dont North Korea would hit South Korea with a nuke.

I would love it if the US (or China at US's request) has NK's internet shut down. "We will hack you more! Oh uh....hmmmm..never mind"

Apparently there is a massive attack on NK's internet currently. Word is most of the Internet in NK is down.

Sportsnet 360 on Thursdays. The specials they air on the Network are what people should go out of their way to see too. They are like PPV's for NXT and better than WWE PPV's.

I get that the US doesnt want to be perceived as going it alone. But I think a by-product of a weakened US is a weakened UN. The UN is a joke. A middle east solution has to come from the middle east and I like the movement of Cuba. But ISIS is a cancer that needs to be cut out.

If I was suddenly in charge in WWE here is what I'd do: Make it SPORTS entertainment. UFC isnt kicking WWE's butt but they took a lot of fans who longed for realism. I'd go back to a sports presentation with a more realistic story telling. Which is not to say I'd get rid of wrestling gimmicks, not at all. In fact sometimes I think WWE is so determined to own everyones names that they give guys goofy "real" names, like Dean Ambrose. Guys get names before they get gimmicks but they need gimmicks, even if they are realistic gimmicks. I'd have commentary that called the action. I'd emphasize the championship belts and wins and losses. I'd change the production to look different and I'd make RAW and Smackdown look different from each other. I dont know if I'd turn Cena heel because i think the ship has sailed, but I'd strongly consider it before he completely doesnt matter anymore. I'd look around the Indy scene for bookers I could develop. They look for workers, refs, announcers. But they dont want bookers. Wrestling is not like normal TV. I'd find talented young bookers and bring them in and develop them. Id tell organic stories. Example: They have Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes and Cody Rhodes. All of them are great. All of them can promos. its essentially three generations of Rhodes. They own video of all of them for decades. And Dusty is in NXT teaching guys to work, Cody has the worst gimmick of all time and Dustin is just spinning his tires. Tell the Rhodes story. They started down this path when Dustin came back but went in a different direction because they didnt want guys getting over. Dusty, in a promo, waved his hand in Steph's face and "hushed" her in a moment that got a big pop but was perceived in the back as disrespectful. I dont think Dusty was on TV after that. Thats the kind of ego BS that has to stop. So Dusty gets exiled to Florida and his kids are burried in a go nowhere gimmick. Basically Hunter is our only hope. And there is pushback from the financial community about him. Vince has been working very hard to try and prep Hunter to be an EVP of a billion dollar company. I always suspected Shane might have to come back one day just to make shareholders more comfortable.

It airs on WWE Network and is syndicated though Im not sure where. You can see it online. I suggest youtubing. if you youtube Finn Balor's entrance, its a small example of how NXT is different in presentation (and how cool the former Devitt is). Sammy Zayn (El Generico who I booked a couple of times) is their champion and one of the best workers in the world. Kevin Steen just started there as Kevin Owens (A homage to his son and Owen Hart). KENTA is there as Mike said, though I dont think he's going to get the opportunity he deserves. They have some really, really great women wrestlers. And there are a few guys out there that could walk in there right now and amazing, like Kenny Omega (a Winnipegger who challenges for the World Junior Title in New Japan on Jan 2nd).

The problem is we can look at WWE and say its stagnating. Vince doesnt think it is. I call it the "bubble" where they are so inside of it, they are completely clueless about what the common fans think. Usually if fans react in a way they dont like, they blame the fans. Vince is in the bubble. And he's also surrounded by people in the bubble. And his plethora of writers write for only one person - Vince. Jim Ross was fired 3 or 4 times. He was one of the few people who would tell Vince he was wrong. No one does that. No one wants to be fired. They write to make Vince happy. Vince likes low brow humour so they write low brow humour. Its almost as if Vince hates wrestling. Everything is wrong. Everything must be changed. They didnt want Jim Ross calling the action because he didnt look good enough. They dont want Michael Cole calling wrestling like a sport. They dont want a sport presentation at all. They are so full of their own egos and bullshit, they dont have a clue what they're doing. Here's a recent example. Charlotte Flair is the NXT women's champion. She is a natural athlete. She's fantastic. She is unique in that she's very tall and very athletic and has a lot of charisma. They debut her on RAW four days before the last NXT special as a way to promote the special. They have her lose in two minutes. They should have spent those two minutes showing a pile of money burning instead. This isnt genius level stuff. It's common sense. And then Hunter subtly admits it was BS on his weekly conference call. So whos running things? What power does Hunter have if he cant even get one of his pet projects protected? It's Vince. And it sucks. Because Vince wont stop until he dies and he's probably going to live forever.

If Bush was in the White House, he would call NK out and threaten military action. We can debate that all we want, but Obama is generally very weak on foreign policy and this is another example. We can say Obama was not prepped well by his people but he hires his people so the buck stops with him. He shouldnt have blamed Sony. Can you imagine? Blaming Sony. Wow. And the refusal to use the word "cyberterrorism" because he wont label anyone or anything as a terrorist. Obama is just snoozing though the rest of his term. it wouldnt surprise me to see a despot little nation like NK try something knowing Obama is unlikely to do anything about it before the next election. Even if the Dems win, Hillary is stronger on foreign policy and who knows who might be President if the Rebublicans win (Jeb?) but they too will be stronger than Obama.

That was Punk vs. Cena on Raw and it was one of the best matches I've seen in the last few years. Really makes me wish Punk would just go back to wrestling. When he finally does go back, he will have more power and a bigger push so it will be better for everyone. WWE is really stifling right now. I'd suggest watching NXT if you want to see could wrestling. The myth of Vince McMahon, genus, is really becoming apparently. I have my reservations about Hunter in charge but NXT is really good and RAW isnt. So there's that. I haven't followed wrestling in a really long time. Probably not since the Monday Night wars era (and maybe a little bit after WCW folded). They say wrestling is cyclical. Do you see anything bringing it back to a high (or has it already been there and I just haven't noticed). I remember buying PPVs to watch the shock value of what somebody like Foley would do in a main event. My interest started to wane after he retired. At the same time, I also don't think it is right or realistic to expect people to put their bodies through what he would do. The "wrestling is cyclical" argument probably doesnt apply anymore. Im not sure what would bring it back because Im not sure what there thats left to be done. The problem is, WWE is such a monster that they control the North American (and most of the world) business so they arent as prone to outside influences anymore. And they've really gotten away from what made them successful in an effort to a) play it safe embrace the myth that Vince is an entertainment mogul and not a pro wrestling promoter. On Steve Austin's podcast a couple of weeks ago, Vince said pro wrestling was what his dad did. Vince is very out of touch. And the idea he's a genius doesnt hold much water anymore. He basically had one idea: National expansion. But national expansion was coming one way or the other. Vince just did it first and did it best and didnt honour old deals in the process. That was 1984. And the WWE took off in the 80's as pro wrestling. Vince gambled on Wrestlemania and was lucky to win. Mr T did it for him. He was set to go bankrupt until Mr T did a ton of media including SNL the week of the show (Mr T almost backed out). Vince was almost bankrupt again by the mid 90's. He hung onto his old notions of 80's wrestling. In his mind, WWE succeeded on the back of Hulk Hogan in the 80's (which is not untrue) so he was always looking for the next ONE guy to be Hulk Hogan. He saw how his dad cycled top guys out but the era of a guy that looked like Bruno or Backlund being on top was long over. And the steroid era was ending and Vince had a lot of trouble accepting that. Randy Savage should have been a huge superstar but his rise basically set up Hogan's return. And Vince was always looking to move Hogan out and looking to move the "old" guys out, like Savage. Thats why Savage went to WCW, because he wanted to wrestle and pitched a year long angle with a young Shawn Michaels that Vince declined (plus the rumour about Savage and Steph). Vince was a one trick pony. In the 90's, with WWE in decline, Shane McMahon, who had his finger on the pulse of "cool" way better then his dad (and probably rightfully so) was begging Vince to go more adult. Shane watched ECW and wanted a smarter, more adult product. Vince resisted. (Shane also named Kevin Nash "Diesel", lobbied to sign Chris Jericho and Big Show). Eric Bichoff watched a Japanese angle generate a ton of heat using a worked "invasion" storyline and that gave him the idea for the nWo. It was only after seeing WCW's ratings and buyrates skyrocket and on the verge of bankruptcy that Vince was finally willing to go adult. Plus, he had Shawn Michaels and his buddies who were pushing for it as well. That led to the Survivor Series 97 screwjob (though business had already turned around on the back of the DX vs Hart Foundation angle) and Vince back-doored into being his own best top heel. Steve Austin was brought in as the silent "Ringmaster". Failing terribly, he finally convinced Vince to let him be himself. The fact Vince also had Vince Russo writing for the magazine who was pushing for adult storylines didnt hurt. Vince was listening to old school guys like Patterson and Cornette. Russo provided a fresh voice and a new direction. But you go back and watch the Attitude era, it doesnt hold up. But it was different and a product of its time. Today, there would never be a Steve Austin or a Rock because guys are so heavily scripted and there is a formula they follow where a guy comes in, gets a push, gets over and then is purposely cooled off to "test" him (look at Bray Wyatt) or they hand pick a guy to push to the detriment of others. Batista is a good example of this as he came back with the idea of the big push. Meanwhile Daniel Bryan was resonating with fans and WWE did everything they could to cool off Bryan. Even now, their hand picked guy is Roman Reigns yet Dean Ambrose is way more over but he's being cooled off with stupid segment. These guys have a lot of trouble finding their own voices in today's WWE. WWE has 50 writers. Steph getting promoted to head of creative was the worst thing for WWE. She hired all these hollywood writers and made the shows sterile and boring. Vince would never fire her, no matter how bad the ratings got. They brought in WCW and ECW and had a massive PPV buy rate for Invasion and pissed it all away and that angle became the biggest example of burning money of all time. Again, Vince did ONE thing, the national expansion. Eric Bichoff and Paul Heyman did more to make WWE a success in the late 90's and once WWE won the war, they went away from Adult (which was inevitable anyway) and we got the Steph era. Today, WWE can barely keep its own angles straight. They pissed away the most amazing roster of talent in wrestling history just a few years ago to an extent where they might be at their thinnest right now. There was a time, after they pushed Jim Ross out, that their development program didnt want anyone with a wrestling background. They wanted body builders or college athletes, guys over 6'3" that they could teach "the WWE way". They closed down three different development programs, one of which (Deep South Wrestling) closed admist accusations of abuse by its trainer (who is back by the way). The only bright spot in WWE is Hunter. Which is saying something because his rise was all about who he knew, who he dated and once he had some power, he squashed everyone that might get over, cutting guys balls off left and right. If Hunter came along today with the same scenario he debuted with, he would have been released within six months. But as an executive, he shows far more patience and intelligence and he runs NXT which went back to signing pro wrestlers, even small guys who could work. Vince doesnt believe in pushing anyone who doesnt look like they could win a fight which is why he was reluctant to push Bryan. And even after giving Bryan the WM push (because they were afraid the fans would hijack the show), they booked him poorly afterwards (like Rey Misterio who Vince never wanted to push and when he finally did, booked him as such a weak champion that it became a self fullfilling prophecy). So, can wrestling ever have another golden age? I dont know. WWE will always exist and always be a juggernaught. Its a transitionary time right now, moving away from Pay Per View to The Network, which has not gone as well as they thought. But it will eventually work and mean WWE will succeed as a revenue source for a 100 years. But as far as critical acclaim, and wrestling bleeding into the main stream like it did in the late 90's? It could only happen if they completely changed the way they do creative. That wont happen as long as Vince is there. Hunter? Maybe. The one thing about Hunter is, he holds a grudge and can be petty. Vince will work with anyone who can make money, no matter what their personal issue is. Hunter isnt like that. On the flip side, Hunter is the one that made deals with Bruno and Warrior and guys that hated Vince. Its hard to say, really. We wont know til Vince is gone and Hunter is in charge. But if he cuts the Hollywood writers and brings in guys who actually understand wrestling, it would make the shows better. Thats step one. But you need an Austin or a Rock to truly resonate. Bryan has been the best cross over star in a long time and that was without support from WWE. Punk had the potential because he was sort of counter culture and spoke to a different audience. Brock to an extent too but Brock's drawing power has been killed by how he has been booked. There are guys in NXT that could be big stars. We'll see....NXT is written by one guy (Ryan Ward, I believe) and Dusty Rhodes is there too. Ofcourse thats a one hour show once a week and not countless hours of TV per week so you need more than one guy writing but you need a vision and you need people to make sense of it. After Russo, before Steph was a head booker named Chris Kreski who actually came from Hollywood. But he was ridiculed at the time for using storyboards to lay out angles. But he booked the most critcally acclaimed and financially successful time in WWE. Some would say it was the Russo momentum that Kreski simply continued. Who knows. But when Vince demoted him to make room for Steph, the decline was obvious. Kreski had pretty layered angles (he wrote Mcmhaon-Helmsley era story). Personally, my favourite PPV is Survivor Series 1998, written by Russo (though Kreski might have been there) - perfect example of true story-telling in wrestling. Sorry for the novel...but Im passionate about wrestling. So the answer is yes there could be another rise...but most likely not with Vince McMahon in charge.

Severn & Shamrock were MMA fighters before they were wrestlers. Severn appeared in UFC around the same time he pro wrestled. 1994/95. Prior to that he did wrestling competitions, not MMA. But he was in UFC before being well known as a pro wrestler and was never really an accomplished North American pro wrestler but his credentials worked well for him over-seas and a lot of UFC mark wrestling promoters booked him for wrestling shows. I saw him wrestle in Winnipeg in 2002 where the wrestling promoter, who was not actually a trained wrestler and must have been 50 years old booked himself in a match with Dan where he forced Dan to tap out during a fall. ugh Shamrock was a pro wrestler first and worked in Japan where they were doing hybrid work/shoot promotions which is what led him to shootfighting. He was pretty well known as a pro wrestler when he went to UFC. Ludvig Borga (WWE) fought in UFC also but didnt do well if I recall correctly. Bam Bam Bigelow did an MMA fight and was beaten quickly if I recall. Bobby Lashley has done okay. But granted I know a lot more about wrestling then MMA.