GRcade

WWE has hit the first (well, the current new first...) of what I’m sure will be many panic buttons throughout the year and announced Roman Reigns for RAW tomorrow at the beginning of the show...despite the fact he only just moved to SmackDown.

I’m not sure if anything moves the needle that much anymore though, particularly when it comes to sustaining viewers across the 3 hours.

Is it even worth attempting to make sense of Vince McMahon’s new impromptu Wildcard rules?

I hope WWE keep shooting themselves in the foot, gives other promotions a chance to shine.

KK wrote:Is it even worth attempting to make sense of Vince McMahon’s new impromptu Wildcard rules?

Nope, no it is not. Just ignore it, don't think about it, just like it's best not to think about all the time travel consequences in Endgame.

The brand split needs to either be fully implemented or scrapped. Back when it first started (originally I mean) , I feel they should have revived WCW and replaced Smackdown with Nitro. Smackdown is an odd brand name anyway as it is born from the attitude era and a catchphrase from The Rock.

You could have had Smackdown/Nitro touring the old Crockett/WCW territory and kept it as a genuinely separate brand with WWE touring the more Northern States. Then you could have had a second WrestleMania with Starrcade and created some genuine in company competition.

It amazes me WWE never went for a second brand to target the non-PG demographic. It seems like money left on the table to me.

It would make sense for brands to actually have different characterisics rather than just be names and colours. Raw could be more adult orientated and Smackdown more kid orientated. You'd think they'd attract more viewers that way, but nope apparently not.

Seriously though, the only difference between raw and smackdown is the length and the wrestlers. When you actually think about it it's strawberry floating stupid.

Imagine if Xfactor was on 2 nights a week but it had a different brand name each night, it would confuse the strawberry float out of people.

Yep, there is no point in a brand split if the brands are the same. I'd like to see one of those shows being more adult. Imagine if Smackdown wasn't PG and more adult themed, and then you had Roman Reigns show up. Or reverse it the other way and have a guy like Kevin Owens go from the adult show to the PG show and being able to see how he coped in a PG environment.

I don't mind them being PG at all, but even with that they blur the lines, WM for instance wasn't PG when it got to the HHH/Batista match.

PG is boxing them into a niche, which is easily solvable if you diversify the brands and make them actually different. Just end PG on Smackdown and move creative from Vince to purely HHHs direction and give us something different.

captain red dog wrote:The brand split needs to either be fully implemented or scrapped. Back when it first started (originally I mean) , I feel they should have revived WCW and replaced Smackdown with Nitro. Smackdown is an odd brand name anyway as it is born from the attitude era and a catchphrase from The Rock.

You could have had Smackdown/Nitro touring the old Crockett/WCW territory and kept it as a genuinely separate brand with WWE touring the more Northern States. Then you could have had a second WrestleMania with Starrcade and created some genuine in company competition.

It amazes me WWE never went for a second brand to target the non-PG demographic. It seems like money left on the table to me.

It’s called NXT.

Why do people still watch WWE?

Because they keep buying up all of the wrestlers people like

I'd quite like to get into some other promotions, do they have youtube channels etc?

Fade wrote:Because they keep buying up all of the wrestlers people like

I'd quite like to get into some other promotions, do they have youtube channels etc?

https://njpwworld.com/

About 7 quid a month for every show, live and on-demand (the majority of them having English commentary as an option)

What about Stardom?

Mafro will happily fill you in on that

New Japan also have a YouTube channel. Most of it is post-match interviews but they often upload highlight videos of events and full matches from shows from a year or so ago.

Fade wrote:What about Stardom?

Stardom World is about £6.40ish. They don't do live shows but have one or two shows a week usually with 5 matches, they had a bunch of special shows four days in a row for Golden Week. The shows get uploaded as individual matches rather than all one show which I kinda prefer anyway. There's no commentary (a few Japanese promotions are like this) but the pre and post match promos are subtitled. They've got a YouTube channel as well which they've just started using again after about a year of posting nothing. Most of it is behind-the-scenes videos of some of their bigger shows but they often put up whole matches for a limited amount of time like this one. Stardom World just got completely overhauled in March and they haven't uploaded the majority of their older content yet but you can find a lot of it on Japanese video sites.

If you're wanting to get into it then now is probably a really good time. The promotion is based around four factions (STARS, Oedo Tai, Queen's Quest and Tokyo Cyber Squad) and they just had their annual faction draft the other week which shook up the roster a bit and is basically the start of a bunch of new feuds and storylines.

It's easily my favourite promotion just now. It's genuinely entertaining and probably has a large number of the best women wrestlers in the world right now. It's where Kairi Sane and Io Shirai came from and a lot of current WWE, NXT and NXT UK wrestlers have worked there like Shayna Bazler, Toni Storm (currently there just now and was their champion last year), Viper, Ruby Riott and Dakota Kai.

There's a helpful in-depth FAQ on the Stardom subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/stardomjoshi/c ... le_giants/

If you want a free taste of Joshi, this match the other week ruled. Sareee doesn't work many big promotions, so I've not seen her before, but Meiko is the absolute boss always.

Might check out Stardom.

WWE is utterly unwatchable just now. I'll still put myself through PPVs and keep my network sub for the Takeover shows and WCW that I watch all the time.

NJPWworld is good use of £7 a month.

I'm working from home today, so catching up on the Cinderella Tournament. If you want to start out with Stardom, I can't imagine a better way as it's lots of short matches (10 minute time limit), showcasing a big chunk of the roster.

Just ignore the obnoxious western fan chanting solo through half the show.

Minty14 wrote:I'm working from home today, so catching up on the Cinderella Tournament. If you want to start out with Stardom, I can't imagine a better way as it's lots of short matches (10 minute time limit), showcasing a big chunk of the roster.

Just ignore the obnoxious western fan chanting solo through half the show.

That fan was at a few shows from other promotions as well and was getting absolute pellets on Twitter for being a dickhead. Stardom’s English twitter account basically called him out as well This was great too

twitter.com/jamesdizarnell/status/1125581022953910273

Mafro wrote:

Minty14 wrote:I'm working from home today, so catching up on the Cinderella Tournament. If you want to start out with Stardom, I can't imagine a better way as it's lots of short matches (10 minute time limit), showcasing a big chunk of the roster.

Just ignore the obnoxious western fan chanting solo through half the show.

That fan was at a few shows from other promotions as well and was getting absolute pellets on Twitter for being a dickhead. Stardom’s English twitter account basically called him out as well This was great too

twitter.com/jamesdizarnell/status/1125581022953910273

This was my favourite moment:

twitter.com/bradcat/status/1124078125346848769

I honestly don't know how anyone can be so un-self aware. Even if you don't know the culture (which you cannot claim when you obviously watch enough shows to be invested enough to bother flying to Japan), just read the strawberry floating room for strawberry float's sake. The way he doubled down when called out was astounding too.

AEW: Double or Nothing will be broadcast live on ITV Box Office for £14.95.

https://www.itvboxoffice.com/