Wrestling

[Brandon]

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

What a week for Graves.

This real life story-line seems much more interesting then anything the writers could write for TV...

[SpeedFlex27]

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

So a new story that is getting some news coverage so its....out there.

A week ago Corey Graves went nuts on twitter, verbally attacking a Deadspin writer (who does a lot of wrestling stories).  He made fun of people on welfare, claimed he once ate a bottle of Fentanyl etc

That was the warm up for his wife publicly revealing Graves was having an affair with Carmella.  She posted texts messages Graves sent her where he seems to insinuate he might kill himself (or hopes to die), pretty manipulative.  He then claims WWE called him and will sue her if she doesnt remove the messages. 

THEN, Carmella posts a short video where she sends birthday greetings to Graves's young daughter.  Yikes.

Then Pro Wrestling Sheet (meh) reported that Graves and his wife are separated and have been going through a divorce and the wife got pissy when graves told her he was seeing someone else.  The wife then posted a text exchange with Graves where she quoted the story and called Graves a liar (accusing him of leaking the story).  Graves replied that it wasnt him and the story is wrong.  The wife replied that the more Graves lies, the more she will reveal.

Then she deleted her instagram.

What a week for Graves.

Not a huge fan of Corey Graves.... I get what his role on the broadcast team of Raw, Smackdown & NXT is but maybe it's just a little too much.

[JCon]

Movie thread? Wrestling thread? Hot garbage thread? Not sure where this belongs...

Chris Hemsworth to Play Hulk Hogan in Biopic Directed by Todd Phillips

[The Unknown Poster]

Roman Reigns to return on RAW to give an update on his medical condition and also scheduled for Good Morning America.  So we can presume its good news.  He looks great and did a movie and TV show so....

Report that Arn Anderson was fired.

Crazy rumor from a disreputable source that WWE is talking to Serena Williams about going to WWE (I could see maybe a WM appearance).

[The Unknown Poster]

 

[Jpan85]

Bruce Pritchard has been hired again by WWE.

[The Unknown Poster]

5 hours ago, Jpan85 said:

Bruce Pritchard has been hired again by WWE.

Wonderful. Fresh blood. Young ideas. 

Barf 

[Goalie]

50 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Wonderful. Fresh blood. Young ideas. 

Barf 

Yet u spend a half page talking about Arn Anderson? K

[The Unknown Poster]

9 minutes ago, Goalie said:

Yet u spend a half page talking about Arn Anderson? K

I did?

[Brandon]

7 hours ago, Jpan85 said:

Bruce Pritchard has been hired again by WWE.

I guess kissing ass and being a company man on his podcast paid off.

Maybe they can bring back the red rooster gimmick!

[The Unknown Poster]

13 hours ago, Goalie said:

Yet u spend a half page talking about Arn Anderson? K

I think I wrote six words about Anderson getting fired without expressing an opinion.  Care to explain? (Probably not)

[The Unknown Poster]

Alright here are some more words on Arn Anderson

According to Meltzer, Vince and Arn didnt get along for awhile.  Arn was not seen as a company guy in that he didnt defend the crappy storylines to the talent.  When talent would complain, Arn would agree with them.  lol

But from many accounts coming from many places, he was tremendously respected.  He was Cena's agent almost exclusively and Hunter supported him too.

One unconfirmed source indicated a lot of talent was livid when the news broke.

Apparently something happened at a recent house show for which Arn got the blame (with various sources lining up on either side).  Arn and Vince supposedly got into a yelling match and Arn was sent home to cool off.  Vince then decided not to bring him back.

Now...Arn is older so would he work in AEW?  I dont know.  But I do know he's one of the best promos and psychology guys of his time, two things that arent really going to be lost due to age or modern changes (promos might have changed but for the worse as they became scripted).

Speaking of which, Bruce Prichard actually hates scripted promos.  So if he can be in Vince's ear and push through some positive changes, more power to him.  But his era was early to mid 90's which was a dreadful time creatively in WWE and he did virtually nothing since being fired.

Also, when it comes to Anderson vs Prichard, they had different jobs.  Booker and agent are not the same.  

EDIT: Also, apparently Steve Corino was bumped up to the main roster (unconfirmed).  If so, great move.  And a Winnipeg connection.  I believe Sarah Stock (also of Winnipeg) is an agent on the main roster (I saw her in a vignette on RAW once).

Edited February 25, 2019 by The Unknown Poster

[The Unknown Poster]

Do you want a raw Spoiler? Surprise return 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Unknown Poster]

That was a pretty darn good raw. If that is Prichard’s influence, more power to him. 

[The Unknown Poster]

 

[JCon]

Good for him. Long overdue. 

[ediger]

4 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

 

His acceptance speech will probably be longest he's talked without making a gay joke about Pat Patterson in over 20 years.

[Brandon]

Honky is finally going to take a legends contract ?   I'm guessing his comedy tour where he ripped into all of his friends and co workers dried up?

[The Unknown Poster]

Just now, Brandon said:

Honky is finally going to take a legends contract ?   I'm guessing his comedy tour where he ripped into all of his friends and co workers dried up?

Yeah Im guessing he's getting less bookings.  Which makes sense.  He's 66 years old.  I did see he was willing to take wrestling bookings again which...yeesh. I dont know if he "needs" the money so much as he wants to make money.  He genuinely seems to enjoy working and being on the road.  

The legends contract can be decent.  I think it's $10,000 but then even if WWE does nothing with you, it will boost his own bookings.  But being friendly with WWE can create more opportunity.  Guest appearances, talking head gigs for those documentaries they do, merch sales etc.   He passed up the HOF a few times...I remember one, I think WM was in Arizona where HTM lives and they wanted him and he declined because he was working tons and didnt want to answer to WWE on anything.

Im sure we have some vignettes with Elias to look forward to.  I always had a great time with Honky and he was nothing but professional and easy to work with.  I think we had him in ten times.  

[The Unknown Poster]

This week's wrestling news (courtesy of Mr Meltzer among others):

- he confirmed Arn Anderson's firing from WWE and that the incident that precipitated it is being kept really quiet.  Arn and Vince didnt get along.  Cody Rhodes was very complimentary of Arn so AEW might be a soft landing spot for him.  A lot of WWE wrestlers were very upset at Arn's firing.

- Bruce Prichard is basically back as Vince's right hand man which is probably an indication Vince wants to 1) improve the product & 2) have an ally close to him.  Whether Prichard CAN improve the product is yet to be seen but he's very smart, though has done little since being fired from WWE in 2008 and is seen as a con-man and yes-man by many.  Bruce has been back basically since January but just started full time with last week's RAW.  RAW was better and Bruce might inject some better long form story telling, less scripted promos and less awful announcing.

- In the latest example of LOL Impact, Jeff Jarrett has a $4.8 million lawsuit against them for destroying his master tapes of the GWF shows.  JJ gave the tapes to Anthem (Impact's parent company) when GWF and Impact were merging and JJ was given points in the new company.  Then JJ was fired for drinking issues, went to WWE rehab and joined that company.  JJ asked for the tapes back and for impact to stop airing the GWF shows on their streaming service.  Impact replied by saying they destroyed the tapes "through the normal course of business".  Which is absurd.  JJ is going to win this one.  He probably could have sold the tapes to WWE.

- Batista's deal was newly signed this past week but had been worked on for a little while (I'd assume that when they booked the Flair party, they knew what the outcome was).  Its a bit odd Batista is the heel but he seems to prefer that.  It was either going to be Hunter or Undertaker as his opponent but Batista wanted Hunter, assuming Hunter is medically cleared by then (which, presumably, he will be).  

- There is a rumour that the plan is Vince's changing of matches will lead to a power struggle angle between him and Hunter/Steph (which they sort of tried to do before).  The rumor is Vince would replace Seth with Roman against Brock and Hunter would interject and put Seth in a three way with Bryan & Kofi as well as put Becky back in the women's match.  Vince would then be revealed as the one who brought Batista back to take out Hunter and their match would have a stip where Hunter wins, he gets control of WWE, but if he loses, he's out.  Thats actually a lot of real story telling, which is lacking lately, so I like  it.  And again, if that's Bruce's idea, good on him.

- Owens was supposed to be bryan's WM opponent and Kofi the opponent at Fastlane PPV this month.  But it sounds like they decided to strike while hot and go with Kofi.

- Kurt Angle is also scheduled to work WM and so is Cena but plans havent been finalized which is really, really late this year.

- Bucks vs Pentagon & Fenix is on for Double or Nothing.

- Omega gave an interview where he said that to a lot of guys Wrestlemania is the culmination but to him, Wrestlemania was the New Japan Tokyo Dome show.  And that WWE had one thing he really wanted - a program with AJ Styles.  He said wrestling to him is about his art, not his money.  (As an aside, I saw a lot of local guys talk about Kenny's decision before he announced it and one dipshit summed it up by saying "You made your art, now go make your money", which shows a complete lack of comprehension of Kenny.

- Sunny is back in jail after a DUI and failure to pay previous fines.

- Indie wrestler who did mostly "deathmatch" matches, announced he was HIV positive and has been so for years.  He doesnt think he caught it doing double blood matches but says he could never know for sure.

- WM 36 is likely heading to Tampa.  Minneapolis was the Plan B yet again...

- WWE picked up the option on the Hardy's so they are WWE for another year

- Vince desperately wanted Undertaker pulled from Starrcast (the AEW convention) but thus far, he is still scheduled and Starrcast applied for a trademark for the term "Dead Man Talking" which might be a talk show at the convention or an on-going podcast or both.  That would be something else, an Undertaker podcast.

- Reigns told fans at a recent signing that he will convince Ambrose to stay with WWE

- Steve Corino is confirmed as bumped up from NXT to main roster as an agent.  He was in charge of most of NXT's house shows (he was a booker for ROH previously as well).  Steve is a super smart guy and this continues to rapid hiring of main roster agents all of a sudden.

- Flair had his real 70th birthday party in Atlanta and the guests included: Among the names there included Charles Barkley, Evander Holyfield, Dennis Rodman, Todd Gurley, A.J. Styles, Paul Levesque (no Stephanie), Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardy, Shane McMahon, Edge, Beth Phoenix, daughter Ashley (Charlotte), Andrade, Tony Schiavone, Conrad Thompson, Brad Nessler, Ricky Steamboat, Michael Hayes, Fit Finlay and Shane Helms

- Flair's wife Wendy (Fifi the maid) suggested Bradley Cooper should play Ric in the Hulk Hogan films.  Which is actually pretty good.  But Flair is unlikely to be in it as their paths barely crossed until 1991.

- Nikki Bella won an award for "best actress in a reality TV show"...huh?

 

 

[Goalie]

Any thoughts on WPW? 

[The Unknown Poster]

36 minutes ago, Goalie said:

Any thoughts on WPW? 

The PCW & CWE wrestlers are really good. 

[ediger]

3 hours ago, Goalie said:

Any thoughts on WPW? 

Had a blast at their show last night. Top to bottom, really solid card. Gotta get there early to get a really good view, the venue has some sightline issues in places but hey, it's a bar show. It's like 50% party, 50% wrestling show. They seem to have identified a demographic, targeted it and really nailed it so far. Their shows bring in a lot of new wrestling fans. As much as the venue has it's issues, it's right in the middle of a neighbourhood filled with people in their 20s and 30s who like to go out. Should have some decent spinoffs for the other promotions in town. I've got a number of friends who want to go to every wrestling show they can now that they're familiar with it.

Edited March 1, 2019 by ediger

[The Unknown Poster]

Your friends are always welcome. 

Edited March 1, 2019 by The Unknown Poster

[Brandon]

Who runs WPW?