Wrestling Discussion Thread II

Cheers! I'll give that a look at some point, oh I hope you started a dilapidated boat chant. I really hope Broken Matt Hardy comes to ICW one day.

Closest I got to starting any chants were "the referees a wanker", which a couple guys joined in with, or when I got the whole bus to WOO after the show.

How many folk were there? Looked like a cracking card from what I saw.

Standing room only by the time we arrived. Must have been a thousand at least.

That was the first wrestling event I've ever attended which wasn't PG. I'm a fan of the PG style in the WWE, but this wasn't full of gauche attitude era stuff, this had it's own, Brit influenced, style with just the right amount of wanker and fuck off shouts thrown in. Lots of very good matches, excellent comedy and match quality in the lower card bouts, and I'm now considering watching WCPW on the reg. Highly recommend attending their shows if they're in your area - our tickets cost £15, and we would have gone for the £60 - meet and greet + ring side seats - tickets had they not sold out, both of which are great value.

The only downside is, while some of the merch was cool, there's no way I'm buying shirts literally nobody else is going to get unless they work without the wrestler/stable name attached.

The UK Title looks real nice

This tournament is going to be really interesting, though I do think they've made a mistake not having Joe Coffey in it. Anyhow at least Wolfgang is in there.

Easily one of the nicest titles they've made, makes you wonder how the Universal title happened when they're making stuff like that.

So I just caught up with TLC this morning & it was a bit of a cracker eh? Loved the moment where Ambrose was recovering from that crazy elbow drop spot & with a little grin on his face you could hear him say: "I love doing this" oh also kudos to Kalisto & Baron Corbin for one of the best chair spots I've seen in a good while.

It was! I watched the morning after the fact.
Roadblock, on the other hand, I watched on the night, live, drunk, with friends. There wasn't a bad match, per se, but every single result was predictable.

There wasn't a bad match, true, but it didn't feel like there were any great matches on the card to me. One of the weaker PPVs in recent memory.

I've been rewatching WWE PPVs from 2002 and have been watching Royal Rumble 2003. It's crazy how they got away with the Dawn Marie vs Torrie Wilson storyline (Dawn Marie marries Torrie's "dad", he then dies and they fight at the funeral). The obsession with bra and panties is really vulgar too, it's like they took the days of teasing with Sable and Trish to a dirtier, more awkward level. When you consider what Sasha and Charlotte (and others!) are doing these days, it's a real shame, especially when you have something like Benoit vs. Angle straight after one of them crap matches.

I tried doing something similar a while ago, trying to watch all the RAW's and the PPV they built towards from the start of the Attitude Era. But there's just too much damn content on the WWE Network for me!

PPVs only seems like a sensible way to do it, and I'd like to work through the NXT archives as well. As you say, it's great how far the WWE have come with their women. I've been much more interested in the RAW Women's title bouts than the Universal. I love KO but the title run feels more like it's got Jericho's list over than made Kev more legit.

Don't get me wrong, I love Jeri-KO, and clearly the division got messed up by Balor's injury, but KO doesn't feels more chump than champ at the moment. I am still looking forward to his match with Reigns though, if only for the ludicrous shark cage stipulation.

In terms of actual investment, Sasha and Charlotte is the only Raw feud I've felt myself caring about since the brand split.

The only one on Raw, but I think Smackdown has had some really good feuds since the brand split. The Miz has been outstanding. His battles with Ziggler have been an absolute treat, but his Talking Smack segment with Daniel Bryan was something else.

Oh, I agree, I did just mean Raw. When Ziggler put his career up and gave those teary promos, that was edge-of-your-seat stuff for me.

Muss wrote:

I tried doing something similar a while ago, trying to watch all the RAW's and the PPV they built towards from the start of the Attitude Era. But there's just too much damn content on the WWE Network for me!

PPVs only seems like a sensible way to do it, and I'd like to work through the NXT archives as well. As you say, it's great how far the WWE have come with their women. I've been much more interested in the RAW Women's title bouts than the Universal. I love KO but the title run feels more like it's got Jericho's list over than made Kev more legit.

Don't get me wrong, I love Jeri-KO, and clearly the division got messed up by Balor's injury, but KO doesn't feels more chump than champ at the moment. I am still looking forward to his match with Reigns though, if only for the ludicrous shark cage stipulation.

Oh also they didnt explain triple H handing KO the title, did they?

Nah don't think they did and I'm not even sure they'll bother now. Stinky title run for such a talented wrestler

I've enjoyed the Cesaro and Sheamus stuff on Raw though, but boy I'd struggle to watch 3 hours of the same upper card feuds every week, wasted cruisers, and shoddy Rusev storylines. Youtube catchup is where it's at.

Yeah, I really haven't regretted not watching the weekly shows like I thought I would.

I almost feel like the show is made for youtube/ network fans these days, and that Raw and Smackdown is dragged out for a few hours for the benefit of the live audience. Youtube catchup, PPVs and a vague awareness of WWE's social media presence is enough to follow the goings on and get max enjoyment from the big matches. The higher ups must know that's where the dog's share of the audience is watching these days?

I can definitely see what you mean but I think a wrestling show is still at its best when using a 2 hour slot, things like SD and the nxt specials prove this time and again especially when the focus is on giving you varied wrestling matches week to week.

I know it wont happen any time soon but I honestly cant wait for the brand split to be over and hopefully it takes the 3 hour raw with it.

I used to watch Raw on Sky and fast forward through most of it. The amount of adverts is obscene and makes me glad to not live in the US of A. It's a shame because from what I have watched in the past few months has been entertaining (Jericho, Kevin Owens, Dean Ambrose, Sheamus, Cesaro - these guys are all brilliant). There is an edited 2 hour version of Raw that shows on Sky a few days later which is what I'd like to watch, but by then I've already seen spoilers on social media because Facebook KNOWS I like WWE.

I just got round to watching that WWE UK Championship Tournament and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to get a nice wrestling experience they can go into without knowing anyone and be done with in two hours.

I'd seen a couple of these guys here and there, particularly Moustache Mountain, but I went in with pretty much no idea who I would or wouldn't like and ended up having a great time. Brilliant matches with a whole range of different guys showing off different Wrestling styles. There were quite a few wrasslers I want to see more of. Hopefully we'll get that weekly UK show HHH mentioned. If not, I hope to see a fair number of these guys pop up in mainstream WWE.

I actually wish this had been televised on a UK channel. It was great fun, and it did a good job of building heat and telling a story over the short run time. I reckon it would have done a good job of getting people on board. You know they're doing something right when they get a whole UK crowd to boo the heel and cheer the face!

Spoiler:

2 hours? Did you not watch both days then? Also I'd put down Mark Andrews vs Pete Dunne as an early match of the year contender they crammed so much good stuff into that 10 minutes, oh and I wonder how Trent Seven feels about Bate winning since he was one of the guys who trained him.

Nah, just misspoke; I watched both.

I like to think he'd be happy to see his friend and protegé do well. He can hardly say he didn't deserve it!