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Post by THE FVNKER on Jul 18, 2022 17:34:37 GMT -5
I'd like to think a super common answer here is obviously going to be WCW or ECW, feel free to elaborate if either of those are a choice though.
I'm a huge nerd about all the promotions that popped up in the early 2000's in the wake of the #2 and #3 going under, so I would think my top picks would be
- XWF From what I saw, I didn't really care for it much, but if they had somehow been able to really lock in Hogan and keep him from going to the WWE (hard to type that and not laugh) it would've been crazy to see them be able to capitalize on that and maybe get traction as a nationally recognized product. Looking at it objectively though, I'd say even keeping Hogan it still winds up only getting as big as maybe like, TNA by the time 2006 rolled around.
- MLW When MLW debuted it was probably the best carrier of ECW's legacy, but still had enough of the new, indie style that people were quickly gravitating towards. I suppose they don't really count as defunct but with that super long hiatus I think it counts.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2022 17:39:47 GMT -5
Lucha Underground.
Lucha Underground.
LUCHA UNDERGROUND.
Greatest wrestling show I've ever watched. To this day, the only wrestling producers I've seen who went "Oh shit, we're on TV we can tell this story like a fiction program." Plus it felt like it was custom made for me with all the insane characters.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2022 17:54:57 GMT -5
Where would you POSSIBLY! want me to start huh lol. It is the greatest televised wrestling show of all time and no other wrestling show has been able to touch it's quality even if they try their damdest to ape bits and pieces from it..whether it be trying to do the vingettes or trying to recapture that same character in another company. It is IMO the only televised wrestling show in like the last 20yrs that legit came to the preverbial table with purpose of being and bringing something different and they more then fulfiled that purpose.
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Post by "Playboy" Don Douglas on Jul 18, 2022 19:22:15 GMT -5
Smoky Mountain Wrestling.
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Post by Big BosskMan on Jul 18, 2022 19:24:23 GMT -5
Well, it was a victim of the mid 1980s economic downturn in the territory as well as Vince's national expansion plans, but I enjoyed the hell out of Bill Watts UWF/ Mid South Power Pro when it was on TV and wish it would've been able to keep running.
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Post by kingoftheindies on Jul 18, 2022 19:29:28 GMT -5
WrestleCircus when they first started they had a very PWG feel to them. Sadly things went downhill
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Post by Mozenrath on Jul 18, 2022 19:31:56 GMT -5
Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Frankly, yeah. I do feel like, if it had kept going for a while longer, at least, it'd have probably been good for the wrestling ecosystem. Of course, I kinda think it'd have just ended up filling a similar role for WWE as OVW, but that would have made sense.
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Post by "Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik on Jul 18, 2022 19:43:02 GMT -5
I actually enjoyed Wrestling Society X and think they could've improved a ton if they got a second season.
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Post by Natural Born Farmer on Jul 18, 2022 20:01:32 GMT -5
Used to love going to Austin for those WrestleCircus shows, then heading out on 6th street.
Unfortunate the math just didn't work.
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Post by MolotovMocktail on Jul 18, 2022 20:05:52 GMT -5
Lucha Underground: it was as if ECW and Mortal Kombat had a baby.
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Post by Cyno on Jul 18, 2022 20:08:00 GMT -5
Wrestling Society X was so goofy and ridiculous that I wanted more of it.
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Post by Mozenrath on Jul 18, 2022 20:11:28 GMT -5
I'd have loved more WSX and Lucha Underground for wild bullshit. The latter, admittedly, I lament the loss of less given the people they f***ed over. Some people like Pentagon and Fenix benefited hugely from LU, but then you have people like Jeff Cobb and Fantasma who were given exposure, sure, but also were left frustrated professionally due to its production woes.
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Post by kidkamikaze10 on Jul 18, 2022 20:16:54 GMT -5
Lucha Underground but they would need a much more fair/financially sane production team.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2022 20:25:59 GMT -5
I'd have loved more WSX and Lucha Underground for wild bullshit. The latter, admittedly, I lament the loss of less given the people they f***ed over. Some people like Pentagon and Fenix benefited hugely from LU, but then you have people like Jeff Cobb and Fantasma who were given exposure, sure, but also were left frustrated professionally due to its production woes. I am not going to detail it all here....Geckos thread will get there eventually and I will then go into more. But I will just say this NO ONE on that show had an issue with anything like contracts while the show was running...it was the fact that the show got delayed for many months post season 2 or in the case of season 4 took nearly 2 f***ing years to happen and that wide a gap is then what snowballed into the contracts being an issue because the producers wanted to always keep the show going and were fighting to get it back as soon as possible and thus not wanting to let anyone go to WWE or the other companies. IF the show had remained air consistently like they intended...do a season and come back 3-4 months to film the next one like they did from season 1 to 2 then you would have never heard a peep about contract issues and this is not speculation or anything this is from listening to many many interviews with both show runner , producers and talent while the show was running and even shortly after season 4. People only bring up the contracts but never any of the context which IMO with that whole thing is a vital piece to understand properly what happened.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2022 20:29:27 GMT -5
Lucha Underground but they would need a much more fair/financially sane production team. There was absoloutley nothing wrong with the TV/production people working on the show...never have I heard anything negative from anyone talent or otherwise that had an issue with them , the show would never quite frankly work without them and there is not a talent that would say differently. The people you would never want are the people very few even know were the real problem....and that is Univision ..if people ever want to know who was to blame for LU's fall there you go.
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Post by Mozenrath on Jul 18, 2022 20:35:33 GMT -5
I'd have loved more WSX and Lucha Underground for wild bullshit. The latter, admittedly, I lament the loss of less given the people they f***ed over. Some people like Pentagon and Fenix benefited hugely from LU, but then you have people like Jeff Cobb and Fantasma who were given exposure, sure, but also were left frustrated professionally due to its production woes. I am not going to detail it all here....Geckos thread will get there eventually and I will then go into more. But I will just say this NO ONE on that show had an issue with anything like contracts while the show was running...it was the fact that the show got delayed for many months post season 2 or in the case of season 4 took nearly 2 f***ing years to happen and that wide a gap is then what snowballed into the contracts being an issue because the producers wanted to always keep the show going and were fighting to get it back as soon as possible and thus not wanting to let anyone go to WWE or the other companies. IF the show had remained air consistently like they intended...do a season and come back 3-4 months to film the next one like they did from season 1 to 2 then you would have never heard a peep about contract issues and this is not speculation or anything this is from listening to many many interviews with both show runner , producers and talent while the show was running and even shortly after season 4. People only bring up the contracts but never any of the context which IMO with that whole thing is a vital piece to understand properly what happened. That's what I was meaning with "production woes", though it'd have been perhaps better to say distribution woes. I think it also would have really needed a way to have a touring show, to make it work longterm.
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Post by kingoftheindies on Jul 18, 2022 20:36:17 GMT -5
Wrestling Society X was so goofy and ridiculous that I wanted more of it. For as crazy as the shows were they were entertaining for being a 30 minute show. Had they gotten an hour it could have been very good. The issue of course was MTV hated it. And yes Lucha Underground was insanely hot especially with Season 2 and 3. There were so many issues with season 4 (mostly I believe the network and AAA were at fault for it) that it was always gonna be an uphill battle... which was too bad cause season 5 looked like it would have been a huge upgrade
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2022 20:49:02 GMT -5
Wrestling Society X was so goofy and ridiculous that I wanted more of it. For as crazy as the shows were they were entertaining for being a 30 minute show. Had they gotten an hour it could have been very good. The issue of course was MTV hated it. And yes Lucha Underground was insanely hot especially with Season 2 and 3. There were so many issues with season 4 (mostly I believe the network and AAA were at fault for it) that it was always gonna be an uphill battle... which was too bad cause season 5 looked like it would have been a huge upgrade In short Season 4 has it's budget cut big time (from 18 mil that was season 3)and they were forced to shoot what was previously a 3 to 4 month taping schedule down to an entire month and also people they wanted to bring in from Mexico did not get their Visas which was a whole other bucket of worms...what was usually a 6 week wait for visas for talent previously to work became something like a 14 month wait and ontop of that was getting into the new temple ...that they did not want to but had to because again season 4 took nearly 2 f***ing years to happen. season 5 was going to be the conclusion for entire aztec gods storyline and season 6 was gonna start afresh. An idea kicked around post S4 interview was to do a LU set in the 1970s OR even further back in time. I would have to go back to be sure whether this was to open S5 or 6 but one of them was going to start with Aerostar in the old west meeting a younger Catrina.
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Post by Mayonnaise on Jul 18, 2022 21:46:03 GMT -5
WrestleCircus when they first started they had a very PWG feel to them. Sadly things went downhill I've never had more fun at a wrestling show than I've had at those shows at 800 Congress. That drive down from Dallas was always something I looked forward to. I wish that Civic Center they tried once worked out. That location wasn't amazing but the cost savings would have probably helped out a lot. Plus my first show there I went to use the restroom before the main and Fenix ran in for a last second pee, in full gear. That was hilarious.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jul 18, 2022 23:09:06 GMT -5
WrestleCircus when they first started they had a very PWG feel to them. Sadly things went downhill It’s one of those few short lived promotions that I think could make a great documentary, if it was done warts and all style. For how much they did wrong and ESPECIALLY how the company ended they started on such a positive note and produced some fun content. The owner originally was amazingly transparent too. I remember at their height they were planning to launch a wrestling school. They posted an ad on their website that gave an exact dollar amount of what the training would cost. I wish this was done more as some promoters/trainers are so shady. But alas that wrestling school never happened and the ad was pulled within days as things fell apart. I really wish I took a screenshot of it just to remember the finer details. It goes hand in hand with the unfortunate part of WrestleCircus’ legacy. It’s the same reason we’ll never get a warts and all documentary. The owner is done with it. Last time I checked he even scrubbed it from his LinkedIn profile.
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