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Post by corndog on Sept 6, 2021 16:01:08 GMT -5
I sure hope so, the Real Rock N Rolla needs to return.
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Post by corndog on Sept 6, 2021 15:55:16 GMT -5
I didn't mind the pace, I loved the story telling and honestly it's nice to see old school wrestling like that in this day.
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Post by corndog on Sept 6, 2021 15:50:09 GMT -5
That was great, especially when he refused to apologize, even better after hearing him on the podcast cursing like a sailor. You can tell Tony really enjoys his job and I'm glad he gets to call professional wrestling again when someone else wouldn't give him the opportunity.
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Post by corndog on Sept 6, 2021 15:41:48 GMT -5
Seriously this has to be on the cards at some point!? I know there is a pandemic pretty much preventing this, but someday this has to happen. Also, will they ever address Jay White overthrowing Kenny in Bullet Club? Jay White even showed up on Dynamite and I'm pretty sure he is still in the States.
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Post by corndog on Sept 6, 2021 15:31:04 GMT -5
I've been a pro wrestling fan for almost 30 years. Every Monday night in high school I was excited to watch for Nitro(until 1999) and Raw. I also discovered ECW in 1997 and enjoyed that as well. I was hooked, but after the Invasion failure, it never felt the same. I still watched, because I love wrestling. I always tried to find alternatives, I was never a "one brand" person. I watched ROH, but WWE strip mined their talent. I watch TNA, which I actually enjoyed until Hogan arrived and ruined everything. WWE got a little better when they started pushing Punk and Daniel Bryan, but eventually went back to worse than ever. I finally completely stopped watching WWE in November 2016, after having the Network for several years and only watching old schools, NXT and the PPVs, I stopped watching Raw earlier that year.
A year before that, I discovered New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV. I saw AJ Styles wrestling and was hooked, since he was one of my favorite wrestlers. In 2016 I started subscribing to New Japan World for the G1 tournament. I finally found something I enjoyed and would fill the void that WWE had left. It was the year Kenny Omega won the tournament and it was obvious that he was something special. Although oddly, I found another favorite instead in Tetsuya Naito.
Nonetheless, I found New Japan and started watching indies on YouTube like WCPW and NWA Powerrr. I thought that was what I would be doing until the end of my time here, watching indies and Japanese wrestling. I thought there would never be another major American wrestling promotion in my lifetime and there was good chance that Vince McMahon would just hit the nuke option and kill American wrestling himself.
Even when AEW started I was skeptical. I was kind of bitter about the way Elite left, and they still need to address the elephant in the room of their Bullet Club departure. I did hope they would succeed, but honestly after watching so many companies with plenty of money fail, I was pretty skeptical. I thought maybe the Bucks and Kenny would get lazy, or book themselves over everyone else, that this would be like TNA where the right talent wasn't getting pushed. I didn't like the wall between them and New Japan, especially after Tanahashi said he respected Kenny and wanted to face him again, it made me sad. Then I saw their ratings kept climbing, they still continue to put out good products. While Kenny and the Bucks have been booked strongly, they don't mind showing weaknesses. And finally I saw All Out and I realized, this is a turning point in professional wrestling. AEW isn't going anywhere and they are going forward, not backwards.
I am trying to temper my expectations, but I truly believe we are about to see a boom period in United States professional wrestling. To some extent it has already happened in Japan and the UK. Maybe not like the 80s or 90s, but it will become mainstream, there will be more than 2 million watching wrestling a week. It will not be unusual to see people in wrestling t-shirts. But it won't be WWE, Vince McMahon is like Verne Gagne in the 80s now, they are living on borrowed time. I honestly think if and when Stephanie inherits the company, she is going to sell for a lot of money and retire. When the tv contracts run up, they will not see any where near the amount of money they are receiving, which is the only reason they make money besides the Saudi blood money. Because by time that happens, Vince will have completely alienated the fanbase with no hope of turning it around.
What makes all of this even more beautiful and wonderful is the fact that it's not just AEW. Wrestling companies all over the world are working together and creating this wonderful thing. We not only got to see Bryan Danielson and CM Punk in AEW, but Minoru Suzuki as well, the Lucha Brothers. The possibilities are endless and now we can see Tanahashi face Omega again and of course Okada. We could see Bryan Danielson in the G1 some day.
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Post by corndog on Sept 6, 2021 14:51:07 GMT -5
The tag match by a large margin, absolutely insane stuff and good psychology as well. That was probably one of, if not the best tag match and cage match I have ever seen.
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Post by corndog on Sept 6, 2021 14:49:20 GMT -5
That was one of the best American wrestling shows I have seen in years. Holy crap, it made me remember why I love pro wrestling. Other than the Big Shows match, which was just a squash, all of the matches were good. The Lucha Bros. vs the Bucks was absolutely insane.
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Post by corndog on Sept 1, 2021 13:36:52 GMT -5
I bet the executives who said this aren't even fans of wrestling. TNA is just a concept to them, and the concept is "Any competitor will eventually fail against us because they're not run as well as we are." The best thing about AEW is that theyre not competing against WWE, theyre competing against the mistakes and business pitfalls that kill off disruptors in particular industries. They also have very different business goals from WWE, being a company that has to please its fans to be successful, while WWE is focused on shareholders and corporate partners. TNA did a fairly good job of being a disruptor, but Dixie based her business model on WWE, and they were just in a different universe. This is a very good point, TNA tried too hard to be WWE and at the same time didn't have any business sense. AEW has business sense, but at the same time isn't trying to be anything like WWE and has competent people running the business side. They are running an up to date, modern wrestling company to appease the 18-49 demographic that the WWE has completely allienated in the last twenty years. WWE focuses on children and bleeding the most money possible out of their dwindling hardcore fanbase. They might throw the hardcore fans a bone here and there to keep them strung along, but have no plans on building their product for them, while that is exactly what AEW is doing. They found a giant void in the wrestling world and are filling it. To me AEW isn't about beating WWE, it's about saving professional wrestling in the United States. It gives hope again to an industry that Vince McMahon nearly killed after the fall of WCW. Instead of building a monopoly, AEW is actually working with the independents and foreign wrestling companies to help make wrestling as a whole better. To make it like it was before the WWF's expansion in the 80s, where wrestling flourished across the country and in other parts of the world as well, especially the UK and Japan. Now granted I don't see wrestling ever being as popular as it once was, but if you look at England and Japan, they have came closer to the glory years than the US. But AEW is getting there and they are doing quite well.
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Post by corndog on Aug 25, 2021 15:25:17 GMT -5
I am going with Steamboat and not just the matches, but the matches were damn good. They actually had some angles, especially when Flair messed up his face in the 70s, which I felt was a break out moment for Flair. They fought for every title and always felt like they were on the same level, starting with the TV/US title in the 70s and the World Title in the 80s.
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Post by corndog on Aug 25, 2021 15:02:39 GMT -5
Watch Kane get moved on Deadline Day in some ridiculous deal.
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Post by corndog on Aug 25, 2021 14:52:08 GMT -5
I like to golf, even though it is frustrating at times. The key is to golf with someone better than you, so they can help you with your game.
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Post by corndog on Aug 17, 2021 12:07:47 GMT -5
Covid allowing, a new indie boom as WWE continues to release talent, most of them with some degree of name value and something to offer. I really thought COVID was going to kill the indies. But instead it has opened all kinds of doors, where most of the mid-majors in the US are working together.
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Post by corndog on Aug 17, 2021 12:06:04 GMT -5
I was wondering how KUSHIDA was doing in WWE/NXT. He probably should have moved to heavyweight, at least had some NEVER runs in New Japan. Honestly, I didn't blame him for leaving New Japan, he was in a dead end and even as the Junior-Ace, he was on borrowed time even though Hiromu got injured. I don't really know what is going on with his run in WWE/NXT, but I hope he's doing alright and is happy. I also think HHH brought him in to help train and to help with Japanese talent brought over, since he speaks pretty good English and even before coming to WWE, had residency in Toronto.
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Post by corndog on Aug 16, 2021 14:39:16 GMT -5
Raw goes below 1 million viewers consistently, and WWE ends the brand split because of their roster being so much smaller. Other promotions continue to be on the rise, however. That would be a quick and deep fall for WWE, I don't see it being that drastic. Although they have been on a consistent decline for years. I could see with AEW's consistent rise and most likely even stronger star power with the potential of both having CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, AEW Dynamite drawing very close ratings to Raw, even beating them fairly often.
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Post by corndog on Aug 9, 2021 14:04:29 GMT -5
Not yet, but once they get Punk and Bryan they will have a stronger main event roster than WWE, just because they cannot create stars and cut the legs off from under anyone that gets hot. WWE has the biggest and most talented roster in the world that is simply wasted. I would also say New Japan has a pretty strong roster in terms of the quality throughout, but it's not the biggest.
To me, it feels like WCW in 94/95, they are building a strong roster and you can tell they are on the way up, but not quite to their full potential yet. I wouldn't be surprised in 2 to 3 years if AEW is either right at or even beating WWE in the ratings. Much like when the NWO debuted and WWE became edgier with the Attitude Era, I think AEW will make wrestling "cool" again and accessible to the mainstream. As long as they don't do something stupid. The good part is they have been sustaining their fanbase and slowly building it, which is the right way to build a wrestling company.
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Post by corndog on Jul 28, 2021 13:42:06 GMT -5
I was watching a match on New Japan World from his time as Black Tiger and I completely forgot how good he was in the ring, he was damn near flawless and his moves were executed perfectly, he also knew how to tell a story. I started watching him in WCW and I truly believe without him playing such a great heel, the fans would not have gotten behind Rey Misterio so heavily. Not to mention the classic match they had at Halloween Havoc '97.
His promo abilities, character work, everything was top notch. He was so good at playing a heel, I would absolutely hate him, but then other times he was a great babyface. He was easily one of the best all around workers of his time, you could argue he was the best in North America. So yeah, B+, no absolutely not, and if anything his death has made him underrated because so many people use the "he's only rated high because of his untimely death". No, he's rated high because he was that good and if you weren't around to see him, then you really have no room to talk.
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Post by corndog on Jul 28, 2021 11:28:46 GMT -5
KENTA is doing a meet and greet on New Japan’s YouTube page and is really pushing for a match with CM Punk, in reference to current rumors. KENTA vs Punk would be a fun match and feud.
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Post by corndog on Jul 22, 2021 16:18:57 GMT -5
Last time Kenny and Jay feuded, Kenny tried to recruit Jay to Bullet Club and Jay turned on him and took his US title. This kicked the Omega/Cody feud off and also led to the Golden Lovers reunion. Long story short, there is a lot of story potential in picking this feud back up. To be fair, Kenny played the babyface when Jay beat him: he called off any attack on White and gave him the US belt, sort of a “yep, you got me, you earned it” moment, something that spurred on the eventual Cody betrayal against Kenny. Of course, such a good natured soul like King Switch would gladly return such kindness! …ok, but seriously… Still, I do recall Kenny asking KENTA after Dynamite if “Brother Switchblade” sent him over, but there’s also little doubt that the OG crew still would have kayfabe bitterness towards the Elite. The interesting question, and why it makes sense to have this on Impact, is where the Good Brothers stand on that. They’re clearly with the Elite right now, but alongside Devitt, Fale, and then Tama there’s no getting around that Anderson is one of THE OGs, with Gallows added very early in the run, too, so could they try to peel them away from Kenny and the Bucks? As for Tanahashi, I think there’s no question that he’s expressed a desire to work more in the US. A few years back he said one of his goals was to win the ROH title at some point, and he clearly liked using the Jericho feud to hint at things with AEW, including coining the whole “forbidden door” phrase, so I do think it’s inevitable that he comes over for a run on NJPW Strong and then likely works some other places, too. We may finally get the Bullet Club/Elite feud that should have happened several years ago. I could definitely see the Good Brothers turning on Kenny. I am certainly interested to see how this all plays out. Also Tanahashi in AEW would be fun.
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Post by corndog on Jul 22, 2021 16:06:45 GMT -5
The blonde guy? That's Ken Patera. Thanks bud. Of course it is, I can see it clearly now. I originally thought that David Schultz was Ken Patera in the picture, but then decided it was Dr D. Patera was then forgotten about! Dr.D is right next to Terry Funk.
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Post by corndog on Jul 17, 2021 11:27:49 GMT -5
I remember Bret saying something about every Flair match being the same. I would think Bret didn't care for him because 28 years ago Flair was probably at his worst point in WWF and didn't give Bret a 5 star match and Bret was disappointed. I am a HUGE Bret fan too but he holds resentment over the littlest things. Not sure what Flair said, if anything but Flair can be a trash talker too if he's not being paid by someone. Flair in his book said Bret used his brothers death for publicity I heard Flair actually started the fued with his book, which is why Bret trashed Flair in his book. Then they just started shooting on each other until they made up.
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