Pro Wrestling

There was talk of a Hogan vs Tyson match in the late 80's, according to certain reports. As well as speculation of Tyson and Austin working a match in the late 90's, played up by the announcers on TV and by fans. Obviously both would have been huge, so I ask which would have been bigger? Personally, I feel although the Austin / Tyson initial confrontation got a lot of publicity, the prospect of a "in his absolute prime" Mike Tyson appearing in the golden age WWF would have been better. Tyson was due to appear on SNME before the Douglas loss, which I'm sure would have been a big deal if it were Tyson knocking down Savage and holding Hogan's hand instead. Just thi…

Could this be one of the lamest world champion roll calls in wrestling history? WWE World Heavyweight Champion - John Cena TNA World Heavyweight Champion - Bobby Lashley ROH World Champion - Michael Elgin IWGP Heavyweight Champion - AJ Styles AJPW Triple Crown Champion - Joe Doering GHC Heavyweight Champion - Naomichi Marufuji NWA World Heavyweight Champion - Rob Conway AAA World Heavyweight Champion - El Texano Jr. CMLL World Heavyweight Champion - El Terrible

So for this weeks podcast, we're going to look at ECW, and discuss the merits of the product throughout it's history, and talk about how much of the stuff was genuine quality, and how much of it was the Heyman illusion. I think it's a pretty interesting topic, given the loyalty amongst hardcores it seemed to have, given the microscope that was always given to the Big Two. As usual, I'll be reading feedback on the show and crediting you accordingly, but I want to get a bit of a gauge on opinions here - did you like the ECW product during the time? How do you feel it looks retrospectively? What periods were best, which ones were worse, how important do you believe it wa…

The guys over at Elbow Productions have started a Kickstarter for an Ivan Koloff documentary. These are the guys who did the JCP dic. that was really interesting. Ivan has a great story to tell. Plus with donations to the Kickstarter their are some cool stuff to go along with it.http://kck.st/1usLHC7

I can't say it was good. I can say it was a lot better than it was, and better than I thought I would get to see tonight. I went to my local/regional Indy and it wasn't bad. Wasn't actually good, but it really wasn't bad. And, best of all, it really was fun. XWA started about 12ish years ago as a shitty hardcore show in an even shittier bar in Saint John, New Brunswick. It was essentially a backyard fed that moved indoors. Over the years, they grew to the point they gave a full tour route, hitting each town once a month year round. I've been to a few shows in the past, and while I found them fun nights out, that was probably more about not seeing decent live…

I think I have done this here before with mild success. I'll give three wrestler names, you put them in order from best to worst. The exercise is supposed to make you think about what you value from a wrestler more with the idea being that the names are similar in some fashion so as the make the decisions tougher. Different fans are entertained by different things, even from just an in-ring perspective. What else influences your enjoyment of someone? Their character work? Does their outside-the-ring activities alter your perception of their work any? Group A: Road Warrior Animal, Rick Steiner, Demolition Smash Group B: Terry Gordy, Bam Bam Bigelow, John Tenta Group …

I do 180s on wrestlers all time. I should probably learn not to be such a judgmental prick in the first place, but it's fun changing your mind. In Euro wrestling, I've done a slight 180 on charisma-less heavyweights like Pete Roberts and Ray Steele who I now enjoy for their wrestling skills and workers like Bobby Ryan and Zoltan Boscik, whom I completely dismissed at first. I've warmed up to Rocco over the years, did a complete 180 on my impression of my first impressions of Brian Maxine and gave Skull Murphy, Bob Anthony and just about everyone else a second chance. All that remains is for me to change my tune on my hated triumvirate of Naylor, Sanders and Collins. …

There has been a lot of talk in the Gorilla Monsoon thread about how while Mr. Fuji wasn't the greatest manager, or even a good one, he was "not even close" to being the worst manager of the year when Meltzer and co gave those awards out at the time? My question, therefore, is: who was? NOTE: This thread isn't all-time, it's specific to late 80s and early 90s, the time Fuji was active as a manager. To be specific Fuji won the award every single year from 1984 until 1995 with the exception of 1986 when it was (correctly) won by Paul Jones. By my reckoning we can automatically "tier" the top managers of the era as follows: Tier 1 - GOAT contenders Jim Co…

I thought I'd start this thread because I believe there are a host of great workers currently working British Indie scene. Currently, in my opinion some of the best workers plying their trade in the UK are: El Ligero, Martin Stone, Kris Travis, Dave Mastiff, Zack Sabre Jr, Johnny Moss, Martin Kirby, Joey Hayes & Noam Dar. I think the guys listed above are all great workers who can tell a great story in a match and have match quality that is very good. Have any of the non UK posters on this forum been exposed to any of the current British guys work outside of the ones that have been brought in to WWE via NXT or in Zack Sabre Jr's case worked in Japan? My U.…

I would be very interested in a list of all the recommended viewing (matches - not necessarily just for match quality, promos, angles, etc.) from January 1, 2010 to the end of this year. I'm putting the idea out there in case there's anyone here who'd like to take leadership of it and make it happen, but I think it would be a good resource to get it down to something like this: 1st Tier - Essential, must-see viewing ... the best of the best 2nd Tier - Great and worth seeing 3rd Tier - Worth checking out (fun TV match, interesting carry job, good lead-in to another match, etc.) Anyone want to make something of this? It would be cool to see something resembling a …

Charles (Loss), Kelly (Titans of Wrestling) and myself will be doing an episode of the Pro-Wrestling Super Show taping Friday to discuss the wrestling rule book. What rules bug you? What rules confuse you? I will look at this thread before the show and touch on anything that may come up. For example, what are your guys thoughts on the over the top DQ rule?

This has come up a bit lately. The consensus view is that, in the past few years, WWE heats up from January-April, then cools off a bit, then heats up again for SummerSlam, and seems to cool off until Rumble again. I've seen people talking about easing off WWE until January now. When did this begin? I've never really noticed a string of poor ppvs in a season until last autumn, and don't think it was deliberate by the company. Is it partly to do with part-timers coming back to create massive WMs for the last 5 years or so? Is it Brock's 3-4 dates per year? Has the network something to do with it now? Or is it the generally poor booking and inability to have a slew…

Pros to turning... - Freshens up the character and the show - Will create mainstream buzz - Allows someone else to elevate to top babyface - According to Dylan, it's hard to create another boom with Cena as your top face. Cons to turning... - Biggest merch seller by far - Too big of a risk - If you turn him, then he'll just get cheered - Nobody to replace him

Many of you will be aware that the TV rights deals to RAW, Smackdown, Total Divas etc. will be coming up for grabs with a decision scheduled for March 4th. (unless they reach a deal to stay on USA for RAW which has to be made by Feb 15th) Potential suitors include Disney, Viacom and Discovery. The Variety article that has been doing the rounds over the last day or so was clearly penned by WWE P.R so anything in that should be taken with a pinch of salt. Where do people see the products ending up and also do you think that they'll increase the rights fee's significantly in line with other sports / companies ?

So, I'm doing a podcast this week on the history of the New World Order angle, and the question I'd like to pose to you all is - do you feel the positives of the nWo outweighed the negatives that ultimately came from it? I'll be reading the best feedback on the show as always, and any personal stories of your perspectives of the nWo while it was going on would be great as well. The deeper you get into your positives and negatives, the better. I'm interested to see what response this gets here...

I saw this video regarding Vader's debut as 'Van Vader': LZwGUsFm7_A#t=193 Was this it? As on Goodhelmet's Vader Comp, there is a match listed as: Big Van Vader vs. Antonio Inoki (NJ 12/27/87), which some attribute that video to, but it isn't the date of the match on the comp. Where Vader is dressed in a 'Venom' type bodysuit. What is the date of that YT Vader/Inoki squash?

A follow on from here because belts are cool! WWE World Heavyweight Championship - 2014 TNA World Heavyweight Championship - 2011 ROH World Championship - 2012 IWGP Heavyweight Championship - 2007 AJPW Triple Crown - 2013 GHC Heavyweight Championship - 2001 NWA World Heavyweight Championship - 2002

Just something I've been thinking about lately. I've been working my way through early 90s All Japan and seeing Hansen hold the Triple Crown while Jumbo/Misawa is clearly the hottest thing in the promotion. It seems like in modern WWE the world title is only involved in the top program maybe one-half to three-quarters of the time. I can see the logic that if the title is a draw by itself, using it to prop up your secondary program gives you two drawing cards rather than one. I guess a counterpoint would be that if the world title spends too long languishing in the secondary spot on cards it eventually ceases to be a draw, so you have to give it top booking some of the…

We all have them....things we shouldn't like, but do for some reason. And the flip side - things that we probably should, but for whatever reason, just don't. Guilty pleasure - The Miz. Vast minority here, but I think he's an awesome heel, pardon the pun. I actually really enjoyed his title run and thought it ended too quickly. And he is nowhere near as bad in ring as people make out. He even managed to almost get Alex Freaking Riley over. Might be the shittiest good guy in wrestling history though. Guilty displeasure - Ric Flair. I will (and have) catch heat for this, but no. If for no other reason than the Flop and the run to the top rope for no other …

This is the card... Kickoff Match: Cesaro vs. RVD Jack Swagger vs. Rusev (Flag Match) AJ Lee vs. Paige Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler Chris Jericho vs. Bray Wyatt (Double Pin, No Winner) Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins (Lumberjack Match) Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton Brie Bella vs. Stephanie McMahon John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar So, looking at this on paper, with no tag matches, this could be a good PPV depending on the main event and lumberjack match or a complete wreck. The Bella-Steph and Cena-Lesnar have been the smartest booked feuds but that doesn't always lead to a payoff. Everything else means nothing to me.

Here's the list as presented on the recent dvd - # 50 – Junkyard Brawl • July 11, 1999 # 49 – Canadian Hacksaw • September 17, 2000 # 48 – Warrior • August 17, 1998 # 47 – 49ers Match • October 2, 2000 # 46 – King of the Road • March 19, 1995 # 45 – Russo • April 10, 2000 # 44 – Chucky • October 12, 1998 # 43 – Bad Goldberg? • June 11, 2000 # 42 – La Parka • July 7, 1997 # 41 – Caged Horsemen • September 29, 1985 # 40 – Jericho’s Challenge • November 9, 1998 # 39 – Litigation • July 9, 2000 # 38 – Helicopter • March 16, 1998 # 37 – Forklift Match • August 13, 2000 # 36 – The Debut • September 4, 1995 # 35 – Demolition • September 27, 1999 # 34 – Electric Chair • Octob…

I'd always thought that Piper had a very lengthy no pinfalls policy prior to WM8. I've seen him pinned by Snuka in '85, is that were it began? Or was it more a 'not losing to Hogan' policy? Also, after WM8, he seemed very selective about pinfall loses - are there many examples? Brody - I know he dropped a fall to Abby in World Class in late '87. When was he last pinned prior to that? Steve Williams/Terry Gordy - Did they both refuse to lose in the US because of Japan (the Hansen/Brody excuse)? Did they enjoy lengthy non-pinfall stints in US also? Hogan - Atlas, Andre, Warrior. Is that it from 1981-90? I'm fascinated by how wrestlers could get away with thi…

On 5/28/08, WWE set up a screening of the 2007 Tribute to the Troops USA Network special for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. This was done by WWE to continue to expand its brand further away from 'wrestling' and closer to 'entertainment'. To my knowledge, this was the first time WWE vyied for an Emmy nomination. Years later WWE hired a 2 time Emmy Award winning writer,Tom Casiello, to serve on WWE's creative team. With the quality production, countless angles, 'acting', being the longest running episodic action/adventure show in television history, etc. Can WWE not only earn an Emmy nod but eventually win an Emmy? Why or wht not?

FINALLY, I get to start one of these threads! So a lot of people do not think Roman Reigns will be ready in time for Wrestlemania. If this was the WWF of the 90s, I would say seven months that's plenty of time for Vince to work his magic. However, the WWE of the 00s, seven months does tend to mean that's plenty of time to truly fuck someone up. That is a sad state of affairs, but it is ultimately true. So lets talk solutions! The question at hand is who will dethrone Brock Lesnar not who the next face of the WWE will be. Thus John Cena is eligible for discussion. John Cena - With that lead in, lets talk up the obvious candidate. Cena took two hellacious beatings …

The Background - Not many know this, but The Undertaker is hugely popular in India. Like, Bret Hart-in-Germany level popular. He has always been. So, they got Brian Lee to play The Undertaker in a Hindi movie, matching him up against one of the industry's most popular action stars, Akshay Kumar. He essentially played The Undertaker, a wrestler in an underground wrestling business. In this clip, he takes on Crush, who is sadly uncredited, in a fight literally to the death. It is a fun little match, although the psychology is all wrong - a Tombstone is treated as less dangerous than a drop toe hold, for instance. But it is worth checking out. https://www.youtube.com/wa…