The Wrestling Thread: WWE SmackDown France - LIVE, 6pm TNT Sports

[Prototype]

Do what you can to see Danielson vs Ospreay from the AEW show last night. Two of the greats absolutely killing it.

+1 to that.

Realise that the superlatives to describe Ospreay have become a meme to an extent... but I cannot believe how much they raised the bar last night.Danielson has to take the same amount of credit. Just the best.

The whole card from top to bottom was fantastic.

[CuriousOyster]

Smackdown and Clash tickets get. £400 for second tier

Quite a few available now the rush has calmed

[Prototype]

not going. not paying that

[Return_of_the_STAR]

These prices are a major joke. £345 for the top tier. Yes it includes both nights but come on that's ridiculous.

[KK]

Seems to be a common theme for these events, as was the case with AEW and Money in the Bank. WWE can probably feel they can get away with it though as the arena is quite small. AEW and WWE had to greatly reduce their prices following the initial rush for the stadium.

Amazes me though that pro wrestling is more expensive than what many would consider to be elitist sports such as Wimbledon tennis, golf and even Formula One at Silverstone (across multiple days).

Another excellent AEW PPV on Sunday. Thought only Jericho/Hook was poor.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

twitter.com/wrestletalk_tv/status/1783433909922934891

I’m assuming this is a real quote. If so that’s big news as although he’s awful he’s a shoe in to get re-elected.

Person though I’m a little worried a wrestlemania in early April would get rained out in London.

[Prototype]

[KK]

Tony Khan's selling...



Kevin Nash powerbombs Eric Bischoff off the stage: WCW's head of security Doug Dellinger is immediately on the scene.
Steve Austin stuns McMahon: Austin is immediately cuffed and arrested.
Tony Khan gets punched and given a needlessly elaborate piledriver over the course of 2 minutes: yeah, strawberry float him, we'll go check on him in half hour.

World Champion Cody Rhodes: face of the company
World Champion Swerve Strickland: a face on the show

Whether people now want to see the Bucks all over TV and heel authority figure power struggle storyline again is another matter. At least it provides some intrigue ending the show and a cliffhanger. Though some of the crowd cheering for Perry and chanting 'Whoop that, Trick' in reference to NXT's Trick Williams after the owner has just been murdered in front of the least engaged crowd at Daily's Place that I can remember (ignoring Covid, obviously) probably isn't the best start. Coming off a PPV loaded with phenomenal matches, this Dynamite should have been much better. Apparently they were also having some audio issues on tbs, but it wasn't impacting international.

[KK]

twitter.com/wrestletalk_tv/status/1783433909922934891

I’m assuming this is a real quote. If so that’s big news as although he’s awful he’s a shoe in to get re-elected.

Person though I’m a little worried a wrestlemania in early April would get rained out in London.

It'd be great if we could get it (though imagine the cost ), but I'm not optimistic following Nick Khan's comments during I think it was Mania week where he didn't sound that thrilled about it being in Philadelphia this year due to the weather; and this was prior to the cold conditions then noticeably dampening crowd enthusiasm on night 1. It was warmer in London compared to Philadelphia, but look how unpredictable it is here - it's now suddenly freezing again.

[Johnny Ryall]

I always liked that Tony kept out of stories and just did announcements and stuff like that.

So yeah this is lame

They need to go back to basics. What worked for them - long term story telling, is now what's working dividends over at WWE

[Kanbei]

twitter.com/wrestletalk_tv/status/1783433909922934891

I’m assuming this is a real quote. If so that’s big news as although he’s awful he’s a shoe in to get re-elected.

Person though I’m a little worried a wrestlemania in early April would get rained out in London.

It'd be great if we could get it (though imagine the cost ), but I'm not optimistic following Nick Khan's comments during I think it was Mania week where he didn't sound that thrilled about it being in Philadelphia this year due to the weather; and this was prior to the cold conditions then noticeably dampening crowd enthusiasm on night 1. It was warmer in London compared to Philadelphia, but look how unpredictable it is here - it's now suddenly freezing again.

twitter.com/TripleH/status/1783495200536424594

Sounds like something is cooking anyway.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

twitter.com/wrestletalk_tv/status/1783433909922934891

I’m assuming this is a real quote. If so that’s big news as although he’s awful he’s a shoe in to get re-elected.

Person though I’m a little worried a wrestlemania in early April would get rained out in London.

It'd be great if we could get it (though imagine the cost ), but I'm not optimistic following Nick Khan's comments during I think it was Mania week where he didn't sound that thrilled about it being in Philadelphia this year due to the weather; and this was prior to the cold conditions then noticeably dampening crowd enthusiasm on night 1. It was warmer in London compared to Philadelphia, but look how unpredictable it is here - it's now suddenly freezing again.

twitter.com/TripleH/status/1783495200536424594

Sounds like something is cooking anyway.

Indeed it does. I still don't understand why they wouldn't look at summerslam at Wembley but throw the kitchen sink at it and treat it like a Wrestlemania. Use Wembley arena for an Access (or whatever they changed the name to) event.

[KK]

Not having a fully retractable roof on Wembley was the worst decision of all time.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

Not having a fully retractable roof on Wembley was the worst decision of all time.

Indeed, it was done to save on the construction costs but was a massive missed opportunity. Wembley will likely be up for at least 50 years before any major works they easily would have emade the investment back.
I felt the same as with the Tottenham stadium. That was also looked at for a retractable roof but was binned when construction costs rocketed.

[Prototype]

I guess the Wrestlemania-London chatter is great for trying to trump the Vince McMahon/Johnny Ace rape allegations in the news cycle.

[RetroCora]

Utterly despicable pricing for Clash at the Hydro. Would've paid £1-200, but those tickets went in sixty seconds in the presale and the best I was offered was £800. Ringside seating was £3,000, so £1,500 for the event and another £1,500 for Smackdown. Normal fans can't afford those prices. I'm genuinely really upset at not being able to go, really disappointing all round.

[Johnny Ryall]

Utterly despicable pricing for Clash at the Hydro. Would've paid £1-200, but those tickets went in sixty seconds in the presale and the best I was offered was £800. Ringside seating was £3,000, so £1,500 for the event and another £1,500 for Smackdown. Normal fans can't afford those prices. I'm genuinely really upset at not being able to go, really disappointing all round.

They've been quite the braggart about the phrase "largest gate ever" recently, they even said on TV about the Raw at the Barclays Center in New York having the largest gate for a Raw. Like we're meant to be impressed at them charging too much for tickets? So I'm not surprised at price gouging in Scotland, it really needs to backfire but the arena capacity means they can do it.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

Utterly despicable pricing for Clash at the Hydro. Would've paid £1-200, but those tickets went in sixty seconds in the presale and the best I was offered was £800. Ringside seating was £3,000, so £1,500 for the event and another £1,500 for Smackdown. Normal fans can't afford those prices. I'm genuinely really upset at not being able to go, really disappointing all round.

They've been quite the braggart about the phrase "largest gate ever" recently, they even said on TV about the Raw at the Barclays Center in New York having the largest gate for a Raw. Like we're meant to be impressed at them charging too much for tickets? So I'm not surprised at price gouging in Scotland, it really needs to backfire but the arena capacity means they can do it.

Yeah exactly how I felt when they were bragging about their highest gate for RAW when it was just in an arena. I just thought surely that just means they've charged loads for tickets.

I'm genuinely worried that if we get wrestlemania or at least a big ppv at Wembley that £300 a seat will be standard for the top tier. You won't see gooseberry fool and it will rain

Also

twitter.com/JulianWks/status/1783947062394200078

Is Tony trying to get people to hate him?

I would have compared AEW to RC Cola personally.

[Cuttooth]

Committing to the injury by wearing a neck brace to the NFL Draft and this interview is pretty funny but that’s just embarrassing.

[KK]

Fact is most people don’t care for this AEW vs WWE tribalistic bullshit that appeals to a tiny and deceptively vocal fraction of the fanbase, they just want a great television programme.