The Wrestling Thread: WWE WrestleMania 31 [NSFW]

[Balloon Sod]

He doesn't wrestle any more; he's UFC's Heavyweight Champion.

If he is too ill to put in the 12 hours of training for UFC every day, perhaps he'll return to the wrestling ring occasionally.

[Frank]

I know he went to UFC, but I still live in the hope that someday he'll return to wrestling... I've always found UFC a bit crap, to be honest...

Also, what's the likelihood of Hogan coming to the UK with the TNA tour in January? I'm betting they'll be miniscule.

[ITSMILNER]

Raw was awesome sauce last night it was the best i've seen in ages and felt very attitude era the set was great as were the promos/matches

If WWE knew what was good for them they would continue it this fashion

Finally i'm not the only one who liked RAW this week.

I can't believe no one else thought it was good Everything was entertaining to watch (Santino ) The crowd played there part aswell

[A J Styles]

Haven't Watched RAW yet, will YouTube it later on.

TNA Haters: Watch Wolfe Vs. Angle & AJ Vs. Daniels Vs. Joe tomorrow & then tell me that the WWE puts on a better Wrestling product than TNA.

Your persuasion skills are really gooseberry fool.

You would have been far better off saying something like 'You chaps who like WWE, give the following matches a watch and tell me what you think. I think you will really enjoy them'.

Your current tone is very demeaning - just a tip.

Enjoyed the Wolfe vs Angle match, Wolfe is becoming a huge favourite of mine lately

[KK]

Jim Ross thought Raw looked the part last night, too...

WWE's TV people hit home runs with their new music, graphics packages, and the overall "look" of the show on HD.

I like the short, smaller set as WWE used the short, live event entrance for the show instead of the long ramp entrance which kills a bunch of seats. Over 20,000 fans were in the Garden Monday night of which we heard on multiple occasions. We may have heard it with such regularity that I thought we might might be the audio daily double at the end of the night. Seriously, that was a huge crowd and an accomplishment for any event. I don't know but I assume that that short entrance way was for MSG or other similar arenas and that the traditional entrance will be used next week, but that's just an assumption.

He's also picked up on the Tony Schiavone school of announcing that's been plaguing the product recently....

I think we are approaching a non productive trend in the business as it relates to the announcing. We are all guilty, me too, of doing too much hyperbole, talking about too many things that are not related to a bout. In other words sell, sell, sell. "The most historic, most anticipated, most watched, most longest running, most amazing main event, most..most ..most." This isn't a knock on my fellow announcers as I have been just as guilty, if not more, but after being home for several weeks and hearing a bunch of wrestling on TV it begins to become noticeable and not in a good way.

It's the new "Greatest night in the history of our sport"!


In other commentary related news...

There is feeling backstage among higher ups in the WWE that Michael Cole is no longer taking his job seriously any more. The company is apparently not happy with some of the stupid comments he has been making on television recently, & is simply out there to make the promotion look bad. There's a belief that he is no longer putting the company first & is instead just humoring himself.

Sounds familiar...


Oh, hi Tony!

[Psychic]

Doesn't Vince just yell at them what to say down the headphones though?

[KK]

Doesn't Vince just yell at them what to say down the headphones though?

Yep. He's in their ear practically the entire show. And because he can speak to each headset independently, he regularly plays the commentators off against each other...usually at the expense of JR. The irony of course being when Jim Ross isn't there, he's never satisfied. Yet he continually fires/humiliates/takes Ross off Raw...only to bring him back again because everyone else is gooseberry fool. Makes you wonder why Vince just doesn't go back to doing it himself...


...still, if this means Cole off Raw/sacked I'm all for it.

Oh, yeah I loved the part where King said that "He loved the Black Eyed Peas." That was one of his best lines of the night. BTW the Black Eyed Peas opened for U2 here in Norman a few weeks ago and it was the first time that I had seen them in person and I will admit that they are awesome. But Jerry....

BTW, did the WWE mention the special start time of 8 for A Raw Thanksgiving once? I don't think they did.

[gaminglegend]

Thanks KK for the list, I think including gaunlets there was around 12-13 tag main events

On a side note, after watching MVP be defeated again, I've noticed, we all do complain about the roster depth, but I think its not deep enough, What we have in WWE now, are all established stars, and their losses hurt them more each week, such as MVP, who is becoming a real loser, yet he's a former US Champion, and was in line for a main event push in the fans eyes.

Whereas in say 1999-2000, the undercard matches were the hardys, dudleyz, edge and c, APA, all these tag teams in singles competition, even essa rios, taka..etc.. and they werent booked as huge stars like Rock, Austin, HHH, Angle (near end 2000), taker. I dont know if you can understand what I mean, its hard for me to explain what I'm trying to put across in words.

And on the Michael Cole note, I highly doubt he would do it on purpose, surely he'd be killed by Vince at the end of the show.

[Zellery]

Raw was awesome sauce last night it was the best i've seen in ages and felt very attitude era the set was great as were the promos/matches

If WWE knew what was good for them they would continue it this fashion

Finally i'm not the only one who liked RAW this week.

[KK]

WWE Hall of Famers Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair worked an angle at a press conference in Australia to promote their series of matches in Australia this month.



The angle included Flair attacking Hogan during the conference, then Hogan bleeding to sell the media reporters gathered at the event on the "feud" between Hogan and Flair.

From the Herald Sun: "The press conference veered violently out of control today as Hulk Hogan and ring rival Ric Flair let their animosity break into a full scale bloody brawl."



The first match on the tour is on Saturday night in Melbourne. The rest of the schedule is Tuesday in Perth, next Thursday in Brisbane, and next Saturday in Sydney.

http://www.dailyfail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar ... Under.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... ralia.html

Incredibly, this story is being covered everywhere. Wouldn't be surprised to see this feud cross over into TNA...

[Return_of_the_STAR]

Raw was awesome sauce last night it was the best i've seen in ages and felt very attitude era the set was great as were the promos/matches

If WWE knew what was good for them they would continue it this fashion

Finally i'm not the only one who liked RAW this week.

Reading through all the comments of those watching RAW live and then the next morning all people were doing on here was slagging it off. When i said i liked it, someone else said i was easily pleased.

Also on this comment by JR.

I think we are approaching a non productive trend in the business as it relates to the announcing. We are all guilty, me too, of doing too much hyperbole, talking about too many things that are not related to a bout. In other words sell, sell, sell. "The most historic, most anticipated, most watched, most longest running, most amazing main event, most..most ..most." This isn't a knock on my fellow announcers as I have been just as guilty, if not more, but after being home for several weeks and hearing a bunch of wrestling on TV it begins to become noticeable and not in a good way.

This is bang on the most annoying thing i find with the announcers at the moment. Every week we have apparently just witnessed either the best match ever or the most shocking moment in WWE history. It really has been annoying me recently. Hopefully Vince actually reads JR's blogs and rather than fly into a rage he may actually watch back a show a say "wow i didn't realise it was that bad!". Slim chance, i know.

[Zellery]

I played the face Star because Mocky and myself had only just said above how we thought RAW was ace.

[KK]

WWE have announced the guest hosts for the next month...

On November 23rd Jesse Ventura will host A Raw Thanksgiving

On the 30th Verne Tryor will host.

December 7th Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban hosts.

And on the 14th: Comedian Dennis Miller hosts a 3 hour edition of the Slammy Awards

And in bad news for the WWE (& us the viewers, for that matter), Chris Jericho is considering taking time off again early next year to tour with his band "Fozzy".

[Zellery]

And in bad news for the WWE (& us the viewers, for that matter), Chris Jericho is considering taking time off again early next year to tour with his band "Fozzy".

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

[KK]

Interesting stuff from Eric Bischoff on just how stage managed things have become in the WWE:

The quality of production in WWE is second-to-none in my opinion, but part of that is because everything is so tight. Kevin Dunn is sitting in the truck directing an interview or directing cameras to cover an interview on Monday Night Raw and he's looking at the same script that the talent has memorized. He knows when the important part of that interview is going to come up and he'll cut to a tight shot at the right moment and capture the interview live. That level of production requires an equal level of pre-production, and part of that pre-production is a tight script. It's two things. It's one, the nature of the experience of the person who's in charge of directing the talent and producing the talent. And two, it's a manifestation of the change in the business.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

I played the face Star because Mocky and myself had only just said above how we thought RAW was ace.

Yeah i read those comments but my original comment was before your comments so that's why i was confused, don't matter anyway. Most of the vibe elsewhere seems positive aswell. However i'm expecting the feeling to last only this week as next week it will be back to it's usual self. I kinda wish the 3hour show had been at the garden.

The stuff KK posted above about Flair and Hogan is interesting. How did Flair manage to do that to Hogan when Hogan had the Nasty Boyz and Rikishi there as back up?

[KK]

The stuff KK posted above about Flair and Hogan is interesting.

Quite something how, in 2009, the Australian media seem to think that there's a possibility of it being real.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

The stuff KK posted above about Flair and Hogan is interesting.

Quite something how, in 2009, the Australian media seem to think that there's a possibility of it being real.

very true.

Also i noticed the Nasty Boyz and Rikishi just stood by and allowed Flair to beat Hogan up, despite being Hogans buddies

And in bad news for the WWE (& us the viewers, for that matter), Chris Jericho is considering taking time off again early next year to tour with his band "Fozzy".

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

2x FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

[Zellery]

I played the face Star because Mocky and myself had only just said above how we thought RAW was ace.

Yeah i read those comments but my original comment was before your comments so that's why i was confused, don't matter anyway. Most of the vibe elsewhere seems positive aswell.

Your original comment about finally finding someone else who enjoyed RAW actually came after Mocky and my comments, not that it really matters.

Potentially losing Chris Jericho is an absolutely massive blow.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

I played the face Star because Mocky and myself had only just said above how we thought RAW was ace.

Yeah i read those comments but my original comment was before your comments so that's why i was confused, don't matter anyway. Most of the vibe elsewhere seems positive aswell.

Your original comment about finally finding someone else who enjoyed RAW actually came after Mocky and my comments, not that it really matters.

Potentially losing Chris Jericho is an absolutely massive blow.

No probs, i get confused when i don't take my medication. Agree about Jericho. He is in irreplacable character. However having him leave for a while and then come back (as long as he comes back) does allow him to stay fresh when compared to someone like HHH.