The Pro Wrasslin' Thread (WWE, WWF, WCW, TNA, ROH, NWA, NJPW, etc)

[Runa216]

BasilZero said:

I've been just watching youtube clips and reading dirt sheets about WWE, Impact and AEW.

Dont have any service to watch them.

I watch Ups and Downs for WWE and that's it. I occasionally check in for stuff like Wrestlemania and Royal Rumble and Survivor Series and Summerslam (The big 4 PPV....I mean, 'premium live event') and that's about it. Raw sucks. Smackdown is better but still not great, and they somehow made me hate Roman Reigns. Not in a good, heel heat kind of way, in a 'jesus christ they're doing the dominant guy who's only dominant because he's a sniveling wimp-heel who gets his cronies to do all the work while he takes all the credit' thing again. I loved the Tribal Chief persona at first. a dude who comes in, kicks EVERYONE'S ass, and moves on. that lasted about six months, then Jimmy and Jey started interfering in all his matches and it's just the same 'he's about to lose but they come in and save the day' bullshit all over again. 

Imagine if they presented him the same way they do Brock. He ACTUALLY comes in, absolutely DOMINATES the competition, plays with his food as it were, and then does the same thing he did with Daniel Bryan and Edge, stacking them up. THAT was the last time I found his character compelling. 

WWE is so predictable now that Simon Miller has started tallying 'surprise roll up' wins, which he got to like 150 or something (I have to look at the actual numbers, he started in march or something of that year). He then did distraction finishes in 2021, that got up to I think almost 200. This year he's doing an 'interruption' counter, as in, any time there's a promo that gets interrupted...and he's already at 9 for WWE after only three shows and 11 for the year (including AEW). So yeah, predictable, boring, and lame. 

Oh, and Fuck them for ruining NXT. Seriously, that used to be their best stuff. Indie guys doing indie guy things (and gals, too, of course). but then they decided to fire everyone who made NXT great and just made it the third generic, same-as-everything-else brand. Disrespectful and stupid in equal measure. 

I hope Gargano and Keith Lee end up in AEW. I know that's my overall wish but at least AEW knows a thing or two about long-term booking. They are not perfect because there's only so much time in a week and there's no way they could possibly give EVERYONe the time they deserve, but when you have dudes like Daniel Bryan coming in and putting in the best performances of his career (Well, ever since going to WWE in 2010) on back to back shows, having already done two 5-star matches (his first ever) and three 4.75 star matches in a few months...it's clearly not the performer's fault, it's WWE's. 

I love seeing guys I liked in WWE come to AEW and absolutely kick ALL the ass. Pretty much every ex-WWE guy that came to AEW is treated better, given more creative room to have fun, and as a result are making more engaging stories and matches.

And back to that long-term booking with actually engaging plots: Everything with Adam Page from day one is a 3-year story in the making and it had one of the most cathartic pay-offs I've ever seen, then he went 60 fucking minutes with Bryan Danielson in an instant classic...on free TV. Like, these guys are knocking it outta the park. Adam Cole and the whole Elite vs Undisputed Era is a story I could absolutely get behind and I'm curious to see where it goes, as opposed to WWE where it's 'oh, RK Bro...that's clearly just a set up for a team split and Wrestlemania match'. Tag Team Wrestling is phenomenal over there....the only division I think is weak is the women's division, and even that opinion is changing. That recent women's street fight was amazing. There's been some awesome shit going on over there. 

I do worry they're growing too much too fast, it's only a matter of time before we see less and less of the smaller guys I love (I'm all sad I don't see Joey Janela anymore, even though he and Sonny Kiss are apparently doing stuff on Dark. which are basically house shows that go on youtube.) But right now I'm engaged from top to bottom. I actually CARE about wrestling again. I ahven't watched weekly programs of WWE since august 2018. Probably had something to do with some bullshit Brock Lesnar pulled. I hate that guy. He's got so much potential but his matches are all the same. short and boring.