The Wrestling Thread: WWE WrestleMania XL - 6/7 April 2024

[Dangerblade]

Not as good as Night 2 but especially loved Ibushi vs. EVIL

Some of the match results so far are very interesting indeed, blows things wide open.

[KK]

Not a great show from AEW last night, but still a very good one. Crowd was quite flat in places, though it was apparently incredibly hot.

Tag main event with the Rhodes was descent. Brandi is currently channeling Stephanie McMahon in that you're supposed to cheer her during one portion of the show and suddenly boo her the next, which just doesn't work.

In terms of the aesthetic of the show I thought it was brilliant (though perhaps the camera was in the wrong position), and feels like the ideal type of venue if they can't fill up a big arena every week for TNT, while also looking completely different to WWE. It also makes the set look very good, despite there not really being any set to speak of.

[KK]

Wasn’t expecting them to start the night with The Undertaker...

A No Holds Barred match where you still have to tag in and out.

The bullshit has started early.

[KK]

And so another Brock Lesnar championship run begins again...

[tomvek]

And so another Brock Lesnar championship run begins again...

[KK]

They also announced last night that on the 22nd July they're doing a "RAW Reunion", which they're billing as the biggest collection of old farts ever assembled in WWE history.

Steve Austin, Bischoff, Hogan, Nash, Hall were just a few of the names featured.

Talk about throwing the kitchen sink to pop a rating. Let's hope everyone has forgotten the disappointment of RAW 25...

[KK]

If you're wondering about those Sky ratings...

RAW 1st July 2019 - 26,781 (the return of The Undertaker; Strowman and Lashley destroying the set; an AJ Styles vs. Ricochet main event)
SmackDownLIVE 2nd July 2019 - 23,401
RAW Hits Highlights (Thursday, 4pm) - 15,657
RAW Late Night Highlights (Sunday, 9pm) - 7,572
RAW Hits Highlights (Monday, 5pm) - 13,900

What does it say for RAW and WWE when it's flagship show can only pull in 63,910 viewers across multiple showings, even when heavily condensed and effectively airing as a YouTube edit.

If Sky didn't even bid for it, would you blame them?

[Rog]

Black vs Cesaro was great! Little different from the usual stuff.

[Mafro]

[Dangerblade]

Ishii vs. White and Naito vs. Taichi were great.

Score spoilers:

Ibushi, Tanahashi and Naito all being on 0 points after 2 matches is very interesting indeed

[captain red dog]

If you're wondering about those Sky ratings...

RAW 1st July 2019 - 26,781 (the return of The Undertaker; Strowman and Lashley destroying the set; an AJ Styles vs. Ricochet main event)
SmackDownLIVE 2nd July 2019 - 23,401
RAW Hits Highlights (Thursday, 4pm) - 15,657
RAW Late Night Highlights (Sunday, 9pm) - 7,572
RAW Hits Highlights (Monday, 5pm) - 13,900

What does it say for RAW and WWE when it's flagship show can only pull in 63,910 viewers across multiple showings, even when heavily condensed and effectively airing as a YouTube edit.

If Sky didn't even bid for it, would you blame them?

I can't see it being a worthwhile product for them. They won't lose subscribers when they lose WWE, I guess BT may gain a thousand or so though.

When you take into account the time the live shows are on, the number of Ad breaks due to the US format, and the long term decline that seems to have happened creatively, its just not an attractive program to air. I watched Raw live a few times when it was two hours, and it was painful then with the long ad breaks every 10 minutes. At 2am it's really difficult to stay awake. Extend that to 3 hours and not many people can stay up all night in the UK just for wrestling. I bet most people in the UK just keep up with WWE using YouTube, or reading news sites or listening to podcasts.

[KK]

What was the point of doing that Battle Royal if all they were going to do was Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar again.

Appearing on RAW next week (and this isn't even all of them!)

Steve Austin
Hulk Hogan
Ric Flair
Mark Henry
Mick Foley
Pat Patterson
Gerald Brisco
Lilian Garcia
Alundra Blayze
Kelly Kelly
Rikishi
Ron Simmons
The Godfather
Road Dogg
Sid Vicious
Sgt. Slaughter
Shawn Michaels
X-Pac
Kevin Nash
Scott Hall
Booker T
Eric Bischoff
Santino Marella
D-Von Dudley
Ted DiBiase
Kurt Angle
Jerry Lawler
Christian
The Boogeyman
Jimmy Hart
The Hurricane

Good luck fitting all these names onto a show, along with the current roster (remember those losers?) in anything coherent. Why would you not spread this out for weeks or months to surprise the viewer instead of just throwing everyone out there so they mean absolutely nothing, with no real reason for anyone being there, pretty much zero storylines to speak of, all just to boost ratings for 1 week. Fancy not debuting Eric Bischoff on his own (and on SmackDown, THE SHOW HE'S PRODUCING, that is really dying on its arse in terms of viewers). I wouldn't put it past them to bring back the nWo.

Dean Ambrose turning up meant more than all the names combined who appeared in AEW's battle royal on the pre show. Had you put Ambrose in a match like that he becomes just another name, and his impact is diminished. And that's exactly what WWE has gone and done here.

[captain red dog]

They have three hours so it's not like they couldn't fit them in, but I agree it would have at least staggered the interest for a few months. They kind of had something decent going a couple of years ago when you had Piper doing the odd Pipers pit, or Edge doing his talk show segment.

I'd rather they parked some of the midcarders for a week and did something a bit more interesting with the legends. But we all know its going to be back stage segments where Ted Dibiase will be in a skit with some of the no hopers, that kind of thing. My money is on a legend winning the 24/7 title at some point.

As for the nWo, I guess they will probably be appearing as a group. Seems a wasted opportunity to get the three of them together, only to have Hogan do the Hulkster gimmick yet again (which felt flat on the Mean Gene memorial segment).

[Rog]

AEW have killed the librarian gimmick. Praise the lord!

[Slimgrady]

So Mike Kanelis and Drake Maverick are pretty much completely different characters on 205 live?!

[KK]

WWE has just added a new event to the WWE Network for next weekend on 27th July, entitled SMACKVILLE. These names.

Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Samoa Joe for the WWE Championship.
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Finn Bálor for the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
Music performance by Elias.

[Wedgie]

I thought the Undertaker retired?

[KK]

I thought the Undertaker retired?

He still comes back sporadically pretty much every year. It used to just be for WrestleMania season, but the WWE got desperate and now it’s every few months. For him to be wrestling on a PPV like Extreme Rules is extremely unusual, but his match in Saudi Arabia against Goldberg in June was a disaster, so that probably helped speed up his return this time (plus TV ratings are awful).

[Dangerblade]

Ishii vs. Moxley was an absolute banger to the surprise of nobody.

[coldspice]

I was actually a little worried about Moxley in a New Japan main event, especially in Korakuen Hall, but the match was great. Ishii is consistently the G1 MVP; it's insane.