Wrestling Discussion Thread II

Double post, but a deserving one I'd say.

Fuck me, that Roman Reigns news was brutal to wake up to this morning. Say what you will about how he's booked and written by Vince and co., he's a talented wrestler who clearly cares a lot about wrestling. I've seen him described in interviews as the new locker room leader like Taker was back in the day, which is high praise indeed. I hope he gives leukaemia a big ol' superman punch and comes back safe and sound. I can genuinely see his return reaction hitting HHH in 2002 levels.

Horrible news hearing about Roman Reigns last night. Hope he gets through this, hope he gets back when if and when he's healthy again. That's a very poweful opening that put a lot of wrestling things into perspective.

~

On another note, Inside The Ropes just announced that they're hosting a Q&A tour with The Undertaker next year:

https://twitter.com/Inside_TheRopes/status/1054822719093649408



That's some scoop for them.

Yeah as much as I don't like the Roman character, he's still a guy doing his job and hope he can better for his family & what he loves doing.

Seeing Rollins torn up afterwards was really tough too. It's going to feel bizarre watching WWE without Reigns being in a big program with somebody at the top of the card.

As for that Taker thing, it's going to feel weird hearing him talk out of character. Although, if the Q&A is conducted with him in full Deadman mode, that'd be equally brilliant.

I can only echo what you's have already said, it's so easy to forget about the people behind these characters and what they might be going through....as I mentioned on my twitter last night I can only applaud the mental strength that he must have to deal with the pressures of his personal life and work but not let it break him.

Hopefully he pulls through it like he did before.

The Roman Reigns news is awful - I have a friend who has battled leukaemia for most of his life. Can't imagine seeing Roman gaunt and skinny - prayers are with him as it's a horrible disease.

The Saudi Arabia fiasco aside, I've been watching a lot of the Network. My daughter is obsessed with Ronda Rousey and she really enjoyed Evolution - not often a 6 year old girl will sit down for 3 hours. She just started doing Taekwon-do classes because of this infatuation with the women's wrestling and it's great that the product is far superior to the Trish/Lita storylines we were fed in the early 2000s. It's absolutely bonkers that they are pushing how far the women's wrestling has come (in WWE) and then days later, putting on a men's only show in a country where women are treated like shite. Can't wait until Vince is put in a home.

That's really cool to read, gjones. I can genuinely see a women's wrestling main event at Mania some day soon, especially with Ronda in the company now.

Seemingly John Cena and Daniel Bryan have flat out refused to go to Saudi Arabia - good on them for standing by their morals. I think they're both fortunate enough to be in such a position where they won't see a massive negative impact to their booking as I bet there's a ton of the wrestlers who feel the same.

I didn't watch it, but reading the results, Crown Jewel sounded like a brutal show to watch. Coupled with the controversy surrounding the show, it sounds like I made the right choice skipping this one.

It was okay and now WWE will just move on and try to forget about it.

Did you check out Power Struggle, Mas? Looks like the Wrestle Kingdom 13 card is really taking shape now.

Didn't but seen some highlights and results

Worth a watch, I'd say. EVIL vs Jericho was much better than I'd thought it was going to be and Ishii vs Suzuki was just an all-out war.

I'll give you a shout for World Tag League too - could be a laugh doing predictions again.

Always up for some predictions

I saw my first wrestling show last night at the Hydro! It was a Smackdown Live house show.

The seats were really good - maybe four or fives rows away from ringside on floor level, so I felt pretty close to the action. The only downside to that is because I was sitting behind a big lanky bastard, I would miss out on some of the wrestling whenever they went to the mat or outside the ring.

Some thoughts:

Nakamura is so goddamn charismatic. His entrance was a spectacle and a half - he wrestled Jeff Hardy, which was also a treat for me considering the Hardy Boyz were my favourites when I started watching wrestling.

The sound of them crashing to the mat is much louder than it comes across on TV, especially when it was a big lad like Killian Dain or Samoa Joe. Speaking of Joe, he's dead imposing seeing him in the flesh. He wrestled AJ Styles and D-Bry in the main event, which was cracking.

I was initially a bit surprised that the crowd was somewhat reserved during the Wolfgang vs Kenny Williams match considering their ties to ICW, but considering families constituted the majority of the crowd, it makes sense.

The New Day really take advantage of the live show setting - you could tell they were just having a blast out there. They were dancing away to the Usos and the Bar's entrance music before their triple threat tag match - also a cracker, by the by.

All in all, really enjoyed it and I can't believe it took me this long to get myself to a show!

Went to my first one with the Smackdown taping on Tuesday myself. Was probably a slightly different experience in terms of the show they put on as it was TV show but great fun still. I'd definitely agree about the noise of the mat, I was further back and it still made quite a thud.

Also great to see the likes of Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysetrio and someone I never thought I'd see wrestle live Daniel Bryan. Was the second time I'd seen Joe as I watched him in NXT but have to agree with how scary he is, also Lashley is a complete monster of a man, especially stood next to Lio Rush.

On the subject of New Day I was fingertips away from catching a pancake, was even more devastated when the guy that caught it threw it away.

I'll second the Daniel Bryan part - I should have mentioned in my original post how much of a kick I got out of doing the Yes chant with everybody else.

Agreed, so much fun, there was a great bit the Miz did that played off the Yes chants when the camera's weren't rolling which was a highlight for me.

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I was gutted The Miz wasn't at the show - I don't think there'd be anybody I'd love to boo more in the WWE than him, such a great bad guy. Seeing AJ dive over the top rope and land that beautiful phenomenal forearm more than made up for it though.

His reception was pretty good IN Manchester but with "The best in the world" on the same show he was always gonna get off lightly.

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I've massively enjoyed going to WWE shows in the past, and it sounds like the quality of Jay's first house show was a wee bit better than mine, where I got to see Orlando Jordan Vs. Chuck Palumbo, Kidman Vs. Bradshaw, and Jamie Noble Vs. Nidia...

I met Jeff Hardy back in the day! He couldn't have been any less arsed. Still, quality wrestler

The only real low points on the card was Shelton Benjamin vs Andrade Cien Almas and a much too long comedy match between R-Truth and Carmella vs Rusev and Lana. The rest of the card though was a belter.

For what it's worth, I think Jeff's cleaned up his act somewhat in recent years so I'd imagine he might be up to a bit more in regards to meet and greets these days!

It's twenty years to the day since Survivor Series 1998, which hosted the legendary Deadly Games tournament for the WWF Championship:



Does anybody have any memories of this from the time? The match quality wasn't amazing, but there's a brilliant story told throughout the show that's not spoiled by knowing what happened. It's fair to say that a lot of things from this era of WWF doesn't hold up today, but I think this is still excellent stuff.

EDIT: The Deadly Game theme song too, it's a Jim Johnston classic.

I was a bit too wee to be watching at the time - my wrestling nostalgia doesn't really kick in until 01/02 - but I went back and rewatched most of the 97/98 PPVs when the Network launched a few years back. The crowds were absolutely electric in that day and age.

Anybody checking out Survivor Series tomorrow? My excitement for it has been tempered somewhat after the Rousey vs Lynch match was called off, but hopefully we'll get that at Mania. I'm a sucker for the traditional elimination Survivor Series matches, so it's always a good watch in my eyes.

I always enjoy watching Survivor Series purely for the elimination matches although last year's were a bit of a mess. Will most likely catch up the day after though, don't think it'll be worth being tired in work.

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