Wrestling

[The Unknown Poster]

On 2017-09-02 at 6:24 AM, Atomic said:

Forced out maybe?

I don't think so. But he doesn't need it. He left last time cause he just got bored of it and the pressure vince puts on announcers. I suspect he'll be back eventually 

he also commutes from bermuda every week. If I lived in Bermuda I'd never leave home. Beautiful county. 

Graves will be doing both shows. 

[The Unknown Poster]

I know Christmas is a big sports and entertainment day but this seems unnecessary.  Feel bad for the talent 

 

[SpeedFlex27]

2 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I don't think so. But he doesn't need it. He left last time cause he just got bored of it and the pressure vince puts on announcers. I suspect he'll be back eventually 

he also commutes from bermuda every week. If I lived in Bermuda I'd never leave home. Beautiful county. 

Graves will be doing both shows. 

Hurricane Ivan is coming. 

[The Unknown Poster]

AAA has stripped Sexy Star of their women's championship.  She also posted another statement that was just awful.  Basically saying how wonderful she is to have tried to work with Rosemary and that she applied the arm bar as she would any armbar and that Rosemary did not seem hurt after the match because she didnt leave on a stretcher and no X-Rays have been shown to her.  Doubled down on her stupidity.

GFW is trying to pop a rating off this, promising to show footage and discuss it.  I hate to say it wouldnt surprise me if they try to make it an angle and bring Sexy Star in for a match with Rosemary.

[The Unknown Poster]

 

interesting. There were reports he was in poor condition in Mexico. So one can speculate. 

And:

 

Edited September 5, 2017 by The Unknown Poster

[The Unknown Poster]

Also, Reby Hardy (Matt's wife) had posted court documents showing JJ had one of those blow things on his car, where you have to blow zero alcohol for the car to start...and that he blew over the limit on it (or tried to remove it or something).

Hopefully JJ gets some help.  Its been an open secret for years that he was a big drinker.

But man, TNA...the gift that keeps on giving.  Now there are reports that after announcing a merger between TNA and GFW and re-branding as GFW, that they may not have legally consummated the relationship and thus, JJ still owns GFW.  The end result might be another re-branding for TNA if they dont end up taking JJ back.

And this:

Justin Barrasso of Sports Ilustrated is reporting that Global Force Wrestling, under Anthem Media's ownership, has been "hemorrhaging funds" and that "sources close to the situation have confirmed that Anthem is ready to withdraw itself from the wrestling industry and sell GFW."

 

Edited September 6, 2017 by The Unknown Poster

[The Unknown Poster]

Here's far more information about GFW/Jarrett than anyone probably cares about...but its interesting!  Courtesy Dave Meltzer

Yesterday, Global Force Wrestling announced that Jeff Jarrett, who was running the wrestling end of GFW and is part owner of the company, was taking an indefinite leave of absence from the company to deal with personal issues.

According to those close to the situation, the personal issues aspect of the story is legitimate and the public story is accurate.

It was clear that the decision was not something he knew about in advance because he sent out a tweet that morning talking about going back into the office to start a day of work. He was scheduled to host a party for the company staff at his home that day, which ended up being canceled.

However, others in the company were aware of the decision for at least a week.

There were a long list of reasons involved that date back several months including a screaming match with Bob Ryder at a television taping. Although issues between the two were settled quickly, it was said the situation was very bad when it happened. Another was Reby Hardy's admission of receiving unprofessional drunk text messages revolving around her going public on the Broken Hardy intellectual property conflict. The messages had gotten around to some in the company.

It appears the breaking point had to do with Jarrett's behavior at this year's TripleMania. Jarrett was said to be not in shape for wrestling and stumbled down the ring steps (although, he wasn’t the only person on the show who had trouble with the steps), doing little wrestling in his match. Ed Nordholm, Executive Vice President of Anthem Sports & Entertainment, was on the trip and made the call to remove Jarrett. 

A Potential Sale

Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated reported Wednesday that with Anthem losing significant money, sources close to the situation say Anthem is ready to pull out of running a wrestling company and is ready to sell. Sources in the company denied that, but that type of story is also always going to be denied until it happens for the obvious morale reasons, and also because even those at the top would not be in the loop on a sale.

As noted in the Observer Newsletter last week, the company's inability to get a new U.S. television deal is hurting them because it’s clear the company can’t grow financially while on Pop TV and their current situation doesn’t appear to have any other way to make money. After testing the waters with three house shows in the Northeast (one of which was canceled and neither of the others drew well), no future house shows are on the schedule, nor is anything past the television tapings in November after Bound for Glory.

The creative has improved under Jarrett, particularly the quality of the show stemming from the last television tapings. Most of the damage was done prior to his return, but the new storylines haven’t led to any kind of a ratings increase. In the big picture, that’s a moot point with GFW having signed with Pop for another year, ensuring they have television. However, they aren’t going to be able to make any serious money off it. So, from a business standpoint, things will remain tough.

WWE's interest

Barrasso noted the value in selling to WWE, which would acquire a tape library that could be used for the WWE Network and other projects since it contains footage from WWE main roster talent like A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode. When Dixie Carter was in talks with WWE in the past (denied to those in the company at the time), it was about selling the tape library as WWE had no interest in anything outside that.

An added wrinkle is that the intellectual property the company claims ownership to includes the Broken Hardy gimmick, which would remove any obstacles of the Hardys using the gimmick in WWE. It isn’t clear who else would be interested in buying their assets, although just a few months ago, musician and former TNA creative member Billy Corgan was interested in taking over the company. 

Because all the paperwork on the GFW merger with Impact Wrestling hadn’t been completed, any sale talks would be regarding the Impact Wrestling name and not the GFW name. However, the feeling is that, for the time being, it makes no sense to do another public rebranding so the GFW name will continue to be used on television.

Who's In Charge?

The creative side of the company for the time will be led by John Gaburick, who was in charge under Carter, along with Scott D’Amore and Sonjay Dutt. Gaburick being in charge of wrestling is interesting since there was a lot of heat and criticism from when he was in charge in the past. All the key people on the creative end were either brought in specifically by Jarrett (i.e, Dutch Mantell and Jim Cornette) or those who are longtime friends of his.

Jarrett had been on television doing a feud with American Top Team head Dan Lambert, although when Alberto Rodriguez (El Patron) was suspended, the pre-taped television wasn’t changed when it hit air. Jarrett was also scheduled for a package that was put together before he was let go with he and Jeremy Borash commenting on the recent Sexy Star situation from TripleMania.

If the Lambert angle even lasts past Bound for Glory, it can be easily transferred to Cornette as the GFW authority figure since that’s also been pushed on television. However, that could change depending on what happens with Cornette and Mantell. One company source said the decisions regarding both men were up in the air, and in the case of Cornette, there was at least a feeling of downplaying or not having an authority figure going forward. If authority figure angles are done away with, that changes a lot of the creative direction.

Similarly, the future of Karen Jarrett and Bruce Prichard are up to the new creative team. To complicate matters, Karen was working in the office and whether that continues is also up in the air.

[SpeedFlex27]

Happened to watch an episode of Monday Nitro from early 1999 replayed on the WWE Network last night about a week after Hulk Hogan defeated Kevin Nash with the infamous finger poke to win the WCW Championship on one of their pay per views. I had forgotten just how bad the last version of the nWo was & how it & that finger poke probably killed WCW. 

They even had a segment with Nash & Hogan sitting together in a tv studio discussing the poke & showing it again. Nash calmly telling Hogan that poke had more power than he ever experienced before. How it stunned him & knocked him over. Just a crazy, crazy segment. Goldbeg later said in an interview that Nitro was all about Hogan & Nash & that they were giving the finger to the rest of WCW & the wrestling world. 

The entire show was about the nWo.  In 3 hours, maybe about 4 or 5 matches. Conan was tased by Scott Hall. The Giant (Big Show) tased by Hall. Goldberg was tased by Nash. All were spray painted. Hogan & nWo was accompanied to the ring by actual Hells Angels members on bikes. Every match was interfered with by the nWo. You could see how other wrestlers who deserved a push were held down by these guys. The other problem was the number of mid carders who were nWo members. When you have someone like Disco Inferno involved, the angle is bad.  Fans complain about Raw & Smackdown today. It's still head & shoulders above the hot pile of steaming garbage WCW served up every week on Nitro & Thunder. 

Edited September 9, 2017 by SpeedFlex27

[The Unknown Poster]

Kevin Nash might be the worst booker in the history of wrestling. 

[SpeedFlex27]

3 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Kevin Nash might be the worst booker in the history of wrestling. 

Oh yeah, they had Bischoff being replaced by Ric Flair at WCW offices & the guy working setting up the ring being yelled at by some fat old guy who kept saying, "You work for me now!!" Unbelievable.

 

[Brandon]

IMO the moment Hogan joined the nWo  it became crappy....   every Nitro and PPV were the exact same thing over and over again.       DQ finish ,  spray paint,  babyface joins the faction,   nobody being put over aside from the old timers.      The only thing I enjoyed from WCW was the cruiser-weights that put on fantastic matches.  

[The Unknown Poster]

8 hours ago, Brandon said:

IMO the moment Hogan joined the nWo  it became crappy....   every Nitro and PPV were the exact same thing over and over again.       DQ finish ,  spray paint,  babyface joins the faction,   nobody being put over aside from the old timers.      The only thing I enjoyed from WCW was the cruiser-weights that put on fantastic matches.  

The first time?  Nah that propelled the Monday audience forward and changed the business forever.  Everything that came after fame from that.  A more realistic approach. DX.  Mr McMahon. WWE going public and becoming an empire.  

In hindsight it was mostly a one trick pony. But living through it, it was groundbreaking (even though it was a rip off of a Japanese angle) 

[SpeedFlex27]

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

The first time?  Nah that propelled the Monday audience forward and changed the business forever.  Everything that came after fame from that.  A more realistic approach. DX.  Mr McMahon. WWE going public and becoming an empire.  

In hindsight it was mostly a one trick pony. But living through it, it was groundbreaking (even though it was a rip off of a Japanese angle) 

First time it was great. It may have been a ripoff but how many wrestling fans back then watched Japanese wrestling? So, it was an unknown thing & was quite shocking at the time. The last time in 1999 was terrible. Kind of ironic Hogan left the WCW in 2000 when Jeff Jarrett did what Nash did mocking Hogan by dropping to the canvas & daring he pin him to win the WCW Championship which Hogan did over his objections.Then indignantly walking out of the building throwing the championship belt away never to return.  I just saw that as total hypocrisy. Hogan became pretty irrelevant after that. 

[The Unknown Poster]

21 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

First time it was great. It may have been a ripoff but how many wrestling fans back then watched Japanese wrestling? So, it was an unknown thing & was quite shocking at the time. The last time in 1999 was terrible. Kind of ironic Hogan left the WCW in 2000 when Jeff Jarrett did what Nash did mocking Hogan by dropping to the canvas & daring he pin him to win the WCW Championship which Hogan did over his objections.Then indignantly walking out of the building throwing the championship belt away never to return.  I just saw that as total hypocrisy. Hogan became pretty irrelevant after that. 

That whole Jarrett thing was a work.  Russo's comments about Hogan later that night were the "shoot" that made Hogan sue.  He didnt even know what was said until later because him leaving was part of the work.

Russo wanted Hogan to drop the title to Jarrett but Hogan didnt want to and he had creative control in his contract.  So they came up with the worked shoot angle that we saw - where Jarrett would lie down, Hogan would pin him.  Hogan would then walk out.  The idea was to build Jarrett up as a legitimate champion and Hogan to return later and do a champion vs champion match.

But Russo burying Hogan on the PPV violated Hogan's creative control clause in his contract (because it was not part of the plan).  It was long thought that everything was a work.  Russo claims it was.  But Hogan actually sued.  And you dont go to court to get a work over.  When Hogan and Bischoff went to TNA, Russo being there was one of the major roadblocks. 

The Hogan/Nash fingerpoint and nWo revival was bad.  Not just for reviving the nWo but because it meant nothing.  They had Goldberg's streak shattered and it meant nothing.  It was all goofy politics and Nash and Hogan were on opposite sides politically, but since Nash was booker, he wanted Hogan on his side to ensure his power.  Thats what they came up with.

I actually didnt mind the nWo 2000 idea with Bret, Hall, Nash, Jarrett & Steiner.  Because it was at least an elite version.  But everyone got hurt right away so it died a quick death.

Edited September 11, 2017 by The Unknown Poster

[The Unknown Poster]

 

[The Unknown Poster]

Big angle on SD tonight ...

[Taynted_Fayth]

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Big angle on SD tonight ...

That was probably one of the better episodes of either of Raw/SD i've watched in a long long time.  Had an attitude era feel to it,  the New Day vs Uso's match was great - lots of stiff looking spots and the Owens/Vince at the end to close the show was great.  I'm thinking Steph had a part in it. She didn't even smack Owens when walking past him on the ramp

[The Unknown Poster]

Cowboy Bill Watts, now 78, remains one of the more unique personality in wrestling history. Watts has retired to the Florida panhandle and after Hurricane Irma came along, he decided to encourage looters. He scattered some electronics including a flat screen television at the end of his driveway figuring it would attract looters preying on the elderly who had some of their things destroyed. I’m not exactly sure what he was then intending to do when the baited in looters would show up, but I guess I can use my imagination

[Atomic]

On 9/12/2017 at 10:05 PM, The Unknown Poster said:

Big angle on SD tonight ...

OK so I can't believe that would have been a shoot headbutt on McMahon.  He is so old, it just seems too risky.  And the way the blood started coming out looked VERY strange to me.  I think they pulled off some advanced **** that no one has seen before.  Some say Vince bladed beforehand and KO just hit him enough to open it back up but I don't even buy that.  What do you think?

[The Unknown Poster]

7 minutes ago, Atomic said:

OK so I can't believe that would have been a shoot headbutt on McMahon.  He is so old, it just seems too risky.  And the way the blood started coming out looked VERY strange to me.  I think they pulled off some advanced **** that no one has seen before.  Some say Vince bladed beforehand and KO just hit him enough to open it back up but I don't even buy that.  What do you think?

Thats the story.  Not confirmed.  But the mechanics would be a blade job beforehand and then using second skin or nu skin or whatever its called, to patch it.  Then Owens hits him enough to open the "fake skin" and thus, you gush.

Flair used to do it too, less flashy.  He'd actually blade and just put a white bandage on it so it was barely contained.  And then come out and cut a promo so fiery that he'd smack the cut a couple of times and it would gush.

Regarding Vince, when watching it I assumed it was a shoot hardway.  But listening to others, it was framed for blood.  ie. they close up shot it etc. 

Looked great.  utterly stupid though.

[Atomic]

4 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Thats the story.  Not confirmed.  But the mechanics would be a blade job beforehand and then using second skin or nu skin or whatever its called, to patch it.  Then Owens hits him enough to open the "fake skin" and thus, you gush.

Flair used to do it too, less flashy.  He'd actually blade and just put a white bandage on it so it was barely contained.  And then come out and cut a promo so fiery that he'd smack the cut a couple of times and it would gush.

Regarding Vince, when watching it I assumed it was a shoot hardway.  But listening to others, it was framed for blood.  ie. they close up shot it etc. 

Looked great.  utterly stupid though.

Why was it stupid?  Because of the risk?

And yeah, that "fake skin" angle is where I would lean towards.  Because when it started bleeding, the best way to describe it would be that the blood was "soaking through".

[The Unknown Poster]

Just now, Atomic said:

Why was it stupid?  Because of the risk?

And yeah, that "fake skin" angle is where I would lean towards.  Because when it started bleeding, the best way to describe it would be that the blood was "soaking through".

I watched it once, online so didnt notice too much but thats what I heard too, that there was also a small colour difference in the skin

Stupid in that Owens still had to shoot headbutt him.  Which is exactly what happened a few months ago where Shibata ended up nearly dead in the hospital (except he was the one GIVING the headbutt).  There is very little room for shoot anything in a worked endeavor. 

I mean, props to Vince for taking it at 72.  Blood is great.  But he could have bladed if he really wanted blood.  I assume they WANTED it to look like a shoot (they seem to be on a "everything else is fake but THIS is real" kick lately.

[Atomic]

12 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I watched it once, online so didnt notice too much but thats what I heard too, that there was also a small colour difference in the skin

Stupid in that Owens still had to shoot headbutt him.  Which is exactly what happened a few months ago where Shibata ended up nearly dead in the hospital (except he was the one GIVING the headbutt).  There is very little room for shoot anything in a worked endeavor. 

I mean, props to Vince for taking it at 72.  Blood is great.  But he could have bladed if he really wanted blood.  I assume they WANTED it to look like a shoot (they seem to be on a "everything else is fake but THIS is real" kick lately.

Even Vince taking the frog splash from KO seemed pretty extreme.  But hey, can't hate on the guy for taking the hits himself.  It would be different if he was asking someone else to do it.

[The Unknown Poster]

1 minute ago, Atomic said:

Even Vince taking the frog splash from KO seemed pretty extreme.  But hey, can't hate on the guy for taking the hits himself.  It would be different if he was asking someone else to do it.

And to take it from Owens of all people!  Like, bumping for Roman is one thing, but OWENS?? lol  Im sure Shane wanted the best chance to get his angle over though.  Frog Splash is pretty safe from a good worker.  RVD had a notoriously stiff frog splash that the boys used to call the gerbil squirter (you can guess why).

[Atomic]

5 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

And to take it from Owens of all people!  Like, bumping for Roman is one thing, but OWENS?? lol  Im sure Shane wanted the best chance to get his angle over though.  Frog Splash is pretty safe from a good worker.  RVD had a notoriously stiff frog splash that the boys used to call the gerbil squirter (you can guess why).

Lol!  I just think it's hard to avoid that big belly coming down from the sky.  Not sure how that works.