Posted August 11, 20169 yr comment_5762673 http://www.espn.com/wwe/ now, they said they would cover non-wwe also, but so far it's just wwe. also annoying that it's named 'wwe' but whatever. wrestling is real again.
August 11, 20169 yr comment_5762689 Or is it just that other sports are more fake now? Bingo. Well, it has always been fake, but, yeah.
August 11, 20169 yr comment_5762713 I wonder if ESPN would be interested in getting back in the wrestling game and having a program again like the AWA/GWF shows?
August 11, 20169 yr comment_5762716 I wonder if ESPN would be interested in getting back in the wrestling game and having a program again like the AWA/GWF shows? Did ESPN Classics carry Herb's UWF at one point or am imagining that?
August 11, 20169 yr comment_5762722 I wonder if ESPN would be interested in getting back in the wrestling game and having a program again like the AWA/GWF shows? Did ESPN Classics carry Herb's UWF at one point or am imagining that? Yes, I want to say they also briefly ran that weird AWF group that had rounds like World of Sport. Also the worst part of this will be endless Dave Meltzer rants on how ESPN isn't treating wrestling like a sport and how that's such a black eye to their journalistic cred (when in reality that ship sailed when they became official PR departments for the sports they cover).
August 11, 20169 yr comment_5762729 AWF was never on ESPN. AFAIK, the only wrestling they carried were AWA, WCCW, USWA Dallas,Abrams UWF, and GWF.
August 11, 20169 yr comment_5762754 Huh. My brain was convinced they were on ESPN but a quick check shows they were in fact syndicated.
August 11, 20169 yr comment_5762756 I wonder if ESPN would be interested in getting back in the wrestling game and having a program again like the AWA/GWF shows? Did ESPN Classics carry Herb's UWF at one point or am imagining that? Yes, I want to say they also briefly ran that weird AWF group that had rounds like World of Sport. Also the worst part of this will be endless Dave Meltzer rants on how ESPN isn't treating wrestling like a sport and how that's such a black eye to their journalistic cred (when in reality that ship sailed when they became official PR departments for the sports they cover). ESPN does plenty of good journalism on the sports they broadcast. On the other hand, they've demonstrated neither the ability nor the inclination to do good journalism on wrestling. I'm not even sure they know what that would look like.
August 11, 20169 yr comment_5762757 ESPN is widely mocked in most places for being the NFL's power bottom in their relationship, and they act like sports they don't have a contract to carry don't even exist.
August 12, 20169 yr comment_5762775 True, but it really exposes how in-the-bubble Dave gets when he gets Aspberger's level hung up on ESPN not treating WWE with journalistic integrity when in reality they're just more open about WWE stuff being a paid ad buy.
August 12, 20169 yr comment_5762779 The mistake people make in assessing ESPN is that they view it as one, unified thing. It's actually a sprawling, messy beast of a company. So you have some arms, like Outside The Lines and the Magazine, doing quality, nuanced journalism on the leagues ESPN broadcasts. And you have other arms taking a more compromised approach. But reducing it to "ESPN has no journalistic integrity" is bullshit. Dave is absolutely right to say they have not lived up to their standards with other sports in covering wrestling.
August 12, 20169 yr comment_5762790 The problem is that things like OTL and the magazine get a fraction of the push from the company that the afternoon Shouty Head Shows get. Plus you have ESPN Radio where they replace real journalists like SVP with meatheads like Danny Kannell who just aren't sold on head trauma being serious issue, and anyone who thinks so is part of the War on Football.
August 12, 20169 yr comment_5762794 If I were Hunter,I try to get NXT on ESPN since its looked at as a way more serious Program than the other WWE brands and they are based out of Orlando. If he kepts it separate from Raw and Smackdown and kept a more sports like feel he can kinda get away from the WWE stigma and build a broader fan base that are sports fans exclusively that wouldnt mind giving wrestling a chance again.
August 12, 20169 yr comment_5762802 The mistake people make in assessing ESPN is that they view it as one, unified thing. It's actually a sprawling, messy beast of a company. So you have some arms, like Outside The Lines and the Magazine, doing quality, nuanced journalism on the leagues ESPN broadcasts. And you have other arms taking a more compromised approach. But reducing it to "ESPN has no journalistic integrity" is bullshit. Dave is absolutely right to say they have not lived up to their standards with other sports in covering wrestling. ESPN has the same problem that Fox News, CNN, etc. have. They present news and they present opinion shows and the line is often blurred between which is which.
August 12, 20169 yr comment_5762845 The mistake people make in assessing ESPN is that they view it as one, unified thing. It's actually a sprawling, messy beast of a company. So you have some arms, like Outside The Lines and the Magazine, doing quality, nuanced journalism on the leagues ESPN broadcasts. And you have other arms taking a more compromised approach. But reducing it to "ESPN has no journalistic integrity" is bullshit. Dave is absolutely right to say they have not lived up to their standards with other sports in covering wrestling. It was inevitable that ESPN would take a compromised approach with WWE because none of their real journalists would take it seriously, plus they employ a couple of personalities who used WWE as a springboard to success outside the company. The media as a whole has overall always done a very poor job of wrestling coverage whenever they've deemed it worth their effort.
August 17, 20169 yr comment_5763699 Let's be honest it's ESPN. ESPN is one step up from tmz when it comes to journalistic integrity. They've spent the past 2 days doing nothing but fantasy football coverage. It's basically been a 48 hour informercal for their fantasy football app.
August 17, 20169 yr comment_5763745 The last thing ESPN cares about in its wrestling coverage is journalistic integrity because 99 percent of its viewers could care less about wrestling being covered journalistically. Wrestling headlines generate clicks. Lots of them. That's why ESPN "covers" wrestling now.
August 22, 20169 yr comment_5764741 "This is awesome". Pro-wrestling as artistic skating. Mike Oles was right !!!!
August 22, 20169 yr comment_5764767 I will give them credit for have details in these star ratings. The actual rating of the matches leave a little to be desired (Cena vs Styles 5 stars ) but oh well. Love to poll the people running this section asking if they ever heard of TNA, Ring of Honor, or even New Japan Pro
August 22, 20169 yr comment_5764769 The CMLL/ROH/NJPW working arrangement announced last week seems like something that could have potentially been mentioned. I guess this week you wonder how they report on this stuff without focusing heavily on the wellness policy stuff or maybe on Orton being opened up so severely, which did make Deadspin and other places, I imagine.
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