I was thinking about his today and wondering if it’s just the volume of shows that is making WWE so difficult to write for. I have basically switched WWE out as a hobby and replaced it completely with MMA. While I enjoy the fights, recently, they have been able to generate great stories and massive intrigue around fights...

Mike Perry vs “Cowboy” Donald Cerrone

In this one, Cerrone is a long time vet of the UFC, slowly creeping up on the record for the most wins, although his best days are now behind him. He was matched up with young, talented Mike Perry who represents younger crowd, always on instagram and a world away from Cerrones personality. He chose to come and train at Cerrone’s gym and when he complained about it, suggesting it would be a conflict of interests, the gym held a meeting and decided to basically keep Perry and basically (summarizing) chose him over Cerrone. Since then, all sorts of details have come out and the fight has this fascinating backstory going into it. Each man is real, but they have their own characters and personalities and the story arch makes the fight extremely interesting.

Tyron Woodley vs Dana White

Dana White is the owner of the UFC and was hyping up young, loud Liverpudlian Darren Till to take the title off Eoodley. Leaks suggest that they see him as difficult to work with and too demanding a personality. Woodley had also been criticized by fans because of boring fights and focusing on other ventures in the past. Come fight time, he annihilates Till, winning over fans and a disgusted White leaves the event without doing media duty. He is in the process of setting up yet another young, controversial grappler, in Colby Covington, to try to take Woodley down.

Khabib vs Connor

Khabib Nurmagomedov is an undefeated Russian grappler, known for his wrestling and sambo (who does that remind you of?). His father made him wrestle bears as a youngster and he is as serious a personality as they come. Tensions between him and the increasingly volatile McGregor cane to a head after a UFC event when McGregor threw a gurney through a bus window to try to intimidate Khabib into getting off the bus, injuring other fighters in the process. The recent presser was done with no fans because of security issues and had a tense and overly excited McGregor having people question possible drug use and his mental state before the biggest fight of his career. It’s a cold, serious wrestler vs a volatile, badtempered striker. Two men who clearly hate each other and it’s probably going to be the biggest selling event in UFC

The tale of Francis Ngannou

Ngannou exploded onto the scene with a series of highlight reel finishes culminating in almost sending Alistair Overeem into orbit before getting a heavyweight title fight. The much hyped Ngannou lost amid rumors about his ego and lack of preparation for the fight. In his comeback fight, commentators watched in stunned silence as he barely through any offense for 3 rounds in one of the most bizarre fights in the history of the company. Afterwards he admitted that “the fear” had gotten him. Where does he go from here and can he overcome “the fear”?


A lot probably won’t read that but it got me thinking about how the intrigue and stories not only build up excitement for the fight, but also create new names and promote the fighters, creating constant new stars in the process. With every big card, we are seeing fighters being proactive and calling out other fighters in a competitive rankings system where every fight means something and has worth

Basically, UFC has..,

- Big Personalities
- Rivalries
- Intriguing Stories
- Found an easy way for all matches to have importance

It seems to me like what should be WWE’s biggest strength (control), has become their biggest weakness, as no one can be an individual and they exert too much control on stories, forcing fan opinion rather than just letting things happen

But UFC is way more shit now than it used to be tbh and honestly hit a plateau.

Pride > UFC

IDR anyone's name other than this guy GHOST

@ OLD RASSLIN FANS

Would Brock Lesnar have beat Minoro Suzuki in a 'MMA Battle' if both were in their primes??

TPWW poster Rollermacka is Paul Titan, for the record.

Probably not considering Suzuki was very deadly as a submission specialist in MMA.

I'd still give Lesnar a realistic chance though since most of Suzuki's losses came via TKO or decisions and Lesnar would have the power and likely speed advantage in that fight.

https://i.imgur.com/IsGXkYr.jpg

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P1sxqqzN59U" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Joined a fire pro e-fed cause I'm super gay. More of an e-NWA, as everyone gets a promotion in a different region. Time period is 1980 and will progress from there. Been pretty fun so far doing the draft and designing the logo and ring. I got Stan Hansen who ended up being voted the inaugural world champion.

What do you even have to do there? Are you writing roleplays and shit?

Some people are doing big write ups. Some guys are making intros and inserting 80's commercials in between matches.

I don't personally have time for all that so I'm just writing a quick blurb about the matches and streaming the card on twitch.

So very different.

Lol, no one (and I mean this in a general sense) watches Curt Hawkins matches. Him winning a belt with his first win makes zero sense and buries whatever belt he wins (not that they mean anything anyway). So yeah, it will probably happen.

First thing I thought as well.

Funny thing is there were people calling for Hawkins to be Nicholas’ partner, enough so that they felt the need to run a backstage segment with Braun just laughing in Hawkins’ face and throwing him through a wall to nip any idea of it in the bud.

Reminded me of the “who is Vince’s son?” angle. WWE put up a poll with everyone on the roster and loads of people hijacked it and voted for Stevie Richards. So they had Coach bring Stevie to Vince and say “here’s who people think is your son” and Vince just flat out laughed in his face.

In both cases it was like WWE blatantly telling you “we hear you, but we don’t care”.

In fairness, while you have to be in tune with and know how to read crowd reactions, you don't necessarily want to give the fans exactly what they want. Especially the neckbeards of today who are honestly the dumbest fucking idiots around, and basing decisions around what they want will actually hurt your business.

Yes, size alone.

Nobody is asking for Hawkins to go over Roman for the Universal Championship - although I’m sure there are some that wouldn’t against the idea. But WWE aren’t even featuring Hawkins. It’d be a harmless 10 minute segment once a week on Raw.

Hawkins is really solid he should be featured. He should get a big win over someone like Baron Corbin or Elias randomly and start a program.

Hawkins should be the leader of a stable and be the only one who always loses match ups.

Random thought- Axel and Hawkins as a team.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EIISrIDkHgU" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hawkins should re-form the Legion of Doom with Road Warrior Animal and call himself Road Warrior HAWKins

:y:

Just tag him with Zack Ryder again. "We're tired of being overlooked and the butt of everyone's joke. We are tired of Main Event (the show). We want to be on Smackdown. New Day confidently accept their challenge out of respect, then lose. Boom, next feud for New Day for the end of the year. It's not that hard.

Why not a disgruntled Edgeheads reunion with Ryder?

I posted that before refreshing the page, but yes, what Nicky Fives said.

I just gotta say. I gotta vent this out. We've all gone through this I'm certain. I am in my S.A.D season with WWE/wrestling right now. That's SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER. It's always the worst season for WWE, but across the board I'm just so disinterested in wrestling. I dunno what happened, I was so into it then after Baron Corbin and Roman main evented RAW I was just line "nah I'm good". I will certainly tune in to see HBK next week and will certainly watch Super Showdown and Crown Jewel but I don't anticipate to watch anything else right now. I'm going to MLW Thursday and I'm sure I will have fun but they card seems so "meh" to me. I'm also going to Bound For Glory but I'm not feeling as "pumped up" as I was after the last PPV they had. ANYWAY I don't thin I'm the only one in a SAD season with WWE. The RAW thread was like 4 pages after the show, that is SAD. I've been replacing my wrestling watching with movies btw. And generally, enjoying it much more.

So today I left my house to walk to the shop and bumped into Tyler Bate and Trent Seven coming out of one of the local gyms, shook their hands and said hello and acted like a complete mark but didnt go as far as asking for a pic as they were about to get in their car to drive off.

No way they'd be miffed about taking a pic! Oh well, still cool. :y:

"If a ten year old can become champion by doing absolutely nothing" But see, this is part of the problem.

Lol, why are people calling for Hawkins to be featured? That sounds like something Old Noid would have said when he was so dissatisfied with the product, Sunday Night Heat was legitimately more interesting than Raw. Hawkins isn't very good. I mean, he's not offensive in the ring, but he is boring and has no charisma.

They probably wouldn't but it's polite to NOT ask them for a pic IMO.

Even Barry Horowitz got a push after a while. It's nice way to reward your current fanbase who is very aware of the guy. You just have to give him a bit of a storyline and nothing more as a reward for his hard work. And hey, it could even gain actual traction and make for good t.v. which is better than what we get most of the time anyway.

I get it. I completely forgot to even check the results of HIAC until yesterday. What does any of it matter? Apparently Curt Hawkins and R-Truth are highlights in the company. If you dance around like a jack-ass or just lose constantly, there's your compelling story arc.

I'm genuinely excited for Shawn Michaels to come back, because he's going to blow everybody they have out of the water. And The Rock coming back, if it happens, will be huge. But they don't really have people under that can really hold the fort. They're losing it to the comedy constantly. Wrestling is a big ironic joke without any sincere drama. And everything gets so fatiguing when it used to energize you and pump you full of a desire to watch and see what happens next week. Now it literally doesn't matter.

New Japan seems better, but it's still got a bit of that fatigue factor. It's trendy right now, but I'll wonder if it holds. I hope it does.

The minute Hawkins loses he becomes uninteresting.

:y:

Well, I don't agree with the "becomes" part, but I know what you mean.

lol pretty much the same as Barry Horowitz.

According to the Observer, Neville pretty much has taken a break from wrestling for the foreseeable future.

Seems either Neville's release from the WWE actually had some hidden strings attached or the bad taste left there has made him less enthusiastic on wanting to continue his career.

It was more me not plucking up the courage to ask for one, if my wife was with me she would have made it happen 🙂

The recent push to get MMA fighters (and wrestlers) classified as employees instead of independent contractors took a huge blow.

National Labor Relations Board recently sided with UFC in a lawsuit over the issue and now gives WWE the legal approval for their stance on wrestlers.

Before WWE was very wary of going to court since they did not want to risk having their stance overturned and caved in every time a wrestler threatened a lawsuit over the issue. Like when they tried to hit Del Rio with a 1-year no compete clause, he threatened to sue over it and their independent contractor stance.

Current rumor going around the net hints at HBK's second match back from retirement is occurring at Survivor Series with Undertaker as his opponent. If it doesn't happen, WWE is rumored to have Royal Rumble 2019 as the backup plan.

Adding some fuel to the rumor is the source being very credible recently when it came to rumors and breaking news early.

Fuck this company

Seriously, what are they gonna do when the guys who got over when wrestling was hot are dead or completely immobile? Not to say HBK won’t come back and still be the best performer in the company when he’s 80. But Taker vs HBK having a multiple PPV program in 2018 just reeks of “We DESPERATELY need star power.”

Ciampa Vs. Gargano the 115th mamma mia here we go again

Just replace them with Cena and a few others who managed to be big stars since the Attitude Era ended.

Either way, WWE is pretty much destined to have another New Gen era happen and when it does, going to be a lot worse for them since there won't be a "WCW" around to push them to get better. I'd be surprised if the Indies are not in another dark period by then like they were after WCW and ECW folded or when UFC exploded in popularity.

At a NXT show earlier this year where he was the ref, the crowd serenaded HBK with a chant of "one more match" and he expressed gratitude while also assuring the crowd that "he's much too old for this shit".

I honestly doubt he wants to wrestle again, but he's still under contract to the company and Vince probably is going to pay him a shitload to do it.

Tessa Blanchard just has...something. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I'm obsessed with her. She's just the best.

Fire ass theme too:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fpRvui6L3eM" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Why is Michael Cole screaming?

<iframe width="818" height="460" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NJ3s_YjZTcM" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I started watching Nitro from the very beginning of 1998. Pretty hilarious that on the second episode, the British Bulldog makes his re-debut...during a Steve "Mongo" McMichael promo. :lol:

Also, I wonder if I can still win a Nitro party w/ Mean Gene and The Nitro Girls.

As much as I love the nWo B Team theme, it had to be a real bummer to join the nWo and find out that you would be using that theme. Also, way too much Vincent.

I also understand why so many people wanted to doubt El Dandy.

Kevin Nash calling himself "Big Sexy the Giant Killer" for the first time after dropping The Giant on his head at Souled Out. I'm sure that match wasn't any good at all.

Wayne Bloom! Who could he possibly be up against?

Jim Neidhart!

I'm skipping the fuck out of this match.

There were so many people in WCW and so many generic themes, you have to wonder if there was anyone who maybe didn't even recognize that a theme was their own.

I think I'm going to stick to all promos and only matches that seem like they might be good.

Ray Traylor cut the shittiest promo of all time whilst dressed in leather pants, challenging Kevin Nash to a match later. What am I doing to myself?

Chavo v. Psychosis? I'll let it run for a second.

Schiavone called Chavo Eddie's brother, and no one corrected him.

*PSYCHOSIS SPEAKS SPANISH INTO THE CAMERA WHILE POINTING AT TATTOOS ON HIS ARM*

ZBYSKO: I have no idea what he's saying, Brain. You take it.

HEENAN: He's saying "I draw on myself. See? Look at my arm."

SCHIAVONE: Stop it.

:lol:

This is such a clusterfuck, but I can't stop watching.

There's dissention in the nWo ranks because Macho Man doesn't agree with the 'pecking order'.

Did Hogan ALWAYS have to get the last word in promo-wise? Quite obvious that the promos weren't scripted word-for-word at this time, and when anyone else seems to put a nice little bow on the segment, he adds some more unnecessary bullshit.

I've heard stories about Nash doing commentary on Thunder. I wouldn't know much since WCW wasn't available where I grew up.

I used to watch the first hour of Nitro, but once Raw started, I'd never switch back. Oddly enough, I'd still go to Nitro when it came to town, though.

Hearing a knockoff of DDP's theme (which was already a knockoff of "Smells Like Teen Spirit") on the Network is really quite annoying.

I never got to experience that. It was all "WWF" in the motherland.

<iframe width="720" height="537" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0PEZYJb6fa8" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="720" height="405" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fWbHHTNGz0M" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

He’s screaming for help to end the segment. Michael Cole and Tazz couldn’t contain their feelings on how bad the Al Wilson segments were and they’d openly shit on them on commentary.

LMAO @ COLE hahahahahahahahahaa

Feel bad for current wrestling fans who didn't experience the Monday night wars. Shit was crazy.

In today's edition of "The 80's Were a Different Time":

Watching an old NWA show and Jim Cornette just started a promo with David Crockett by saying "I've got some bad news for ya. Don't look at me like that. It's not your AIDS test."

I can't imagine anyone who didn't grow up on wrestling when it was good and get invested in the business beginning their fandom right now and actually sticking with it.

In Canada they were on different days, so I didn't have to do the flip back and forth thing.

I often wonder, and I think I made a thread about it once, about how younger fans "invest" in wrestlers these days.

Back in our days we pretty much only had what we saw in TV.... but nowadays you have social media, you have clips on YouTube, WWE.com, out of character Network Specials, etc..... I wonder how much of it the youths consume and how much it shapes who they get into, or if they are still just "mostly going by what they see on TV".

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">When you’re trying to Vlog and this happens.....<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oops?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Oops</a> <a href="https://t.co/6gR1hdlNhq">pic.twitter.com/6gR1hdlNhq</a></p>&mdash; Izzy (@ItsIzzyMania) <a href="https://twitter.com/ItsIzzyMania/status/1027704627314274304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Kids ares are dumb. They'll like anything. If she weren't involved in the business now, she'd grow out of it if/when she developed standards for her entertainment.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Classic <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRock?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheRock</a> 🤣 <a href="https://t.co/OJOu1R7gFr">pic.twitter.com/OJOu1R7gFr</a></p>&mdash; 90s WWE (@90sWWE) <a href="https://twitter.com/90sWWE/status/1045769489546190848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 28, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

There were definitely loads of kids like Izzy back in the day but they would get the best tickets they could to WWE shows when they would come to their town a couple times a year. Not really gonna get noticed in a huge crowd at a handful of shows. Moreso than social media even, the fact that WWE had a "minor league" show that never travelled so she could ALWAYS be there had a lot to do with her getting noticed.

Woah. WCW episode from '88 I just watched ended with Ric Flair introducing Dusty Rhodes' number one fan. It was fucking Sapphire. Had no idea she ever appeared outside of the WWF.

Strowman is in the new Sherlock film

Whoa! Looks like Batista is invited to Smackdown 1000.

<iframe width="720" height="405" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z0-kyHgiUVM" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Scarlett Bordeaux's first match in AAA is now the most viewed video of all time on AAA's YouTube channel.</p>&mdash; luchablog (@luchablog) <a href="https://twitter.com/luchablog/status/1045697174703673345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 28, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Watched the early part of 1998 WCW about a month ago and couldn't help but see WWEs current product in it. Not the characters and storylines because WCW was still decent at that time but the format and structure of the shows all the way down to the Snickers adds.

Smokeshow

Lol take a look at this cover and tell me what sticks out to you

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BOHaCyRCIAEj_hm.jpg

Lol beat off the Beverlys

I used to show Raw with sound at a bar I was working at. Started doing it like two years ago. I've since converted five of my close friends into superfandom. They still realize that a lot of the stuff that we see is garbage, but they recognize the good stuff, and they have fun going back on the Network and looking at old stuff. For us though, it's really all about hanging out together and having fun with it, though. We've already got our Starrcade tickets.

It's a smokescreen so he appears humble and expectations are low. Like when he came out in the jeans at SummerSlam and the brown pants and bob at Survivor Series.

The current product is objectively bad TV. At least back in the Attitude era, it felt like something...else. It was live entertainment. This is like high school theatre.

I don't know, I think if Michaels wanted to keep wrestling after WM26, he would've had the pull to avoid a retirement stip in the first place or they'd have simply welched on it. I know a lot of people thought the latter would happen and that he'd have been back at WM27.

But money talks. I half expect Austin to come back and work a match for the Saudis at this point.