Arena Pro Wrestling Discussion

Looks like Ricardo Rodriguez is gone from WWE.

 

Sad. Del Rio was most over when he was with Ricardo.

Pretty obvious his days were numbered when they pretty much took his on screen job from him.

Always count on WWE to take what ain't broke, and then break it anyway.

 

Pretty much.

 

So apparently Russo was still employed by TNA afterall, despite telling Spike TV he was gone, which is what caused Spike TV to cancel Impact.

Russo has now been legitimately fired.

 

He claims he was asked to take a break from the company, and declined. Thus leaving on his own terms.


Bbbbbuuuullllllllllllll$@?!

 

Yeah, Russo talking out of his butthole again.

 

The Russo connection is what makes me think the story is bogus. Unless Russo has some sort of personal history with the commissioning executives at Spike (or vice versa), why would they give a flying fig? He's a divisive character within wrestling, but it's not as if that matters to a broadcasting company looking to profit from advertising sales and licensing DVDs and downloads. TNA gets about a million viewers a week on Spike, or so says Jim Ross. That seems pretty good for a low budget rasslin' show on a vaguely trendy cable channel, no? Why would a company throw money away just because of some obscure writer?

..The only thing I can think of might be the Hogan era Monday night rescheduling disaster, Russo was involved in that, right?

 

Honestly, I don't know and nothing would surprise me anymore.

 

WWE is ceasing publication on their magazine. Last issue will be in October.

 

Batista is so good in Guardians of the Galaxy that I almost forgive him for being such a crappy wrestler.

 

No spoilers! I'm still plotting my way to see that this weekend!

Five developmental wrestlers were released by the WWE today:

• Jody Kristofferson - Garrett Dylan
• Danielle Jackson - Dani Jax
• Shawn Ricker - Slate Randall
• Sam Udell - Travis Tyler
• Will McNamee - Mac Miles

 

Ouch.

 

Yeah really.

 

Or they break the wrong way. Ask Finlay about that.

 

I have to say I like Stephanie as a villain replacement for Vince. She is good at this.

 

Or Rock. Tables seem to break around him without him hardly having to do anything.

 

Th...the...the Bolieve streak is over?! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

Went to an indie show last night, and got to meet some cool guys.

Saw Brian Anthony again, this guy is cool, and he signed a pic.



Saw the Bullet Club's Young Bucks, got their autographs



Here's Jerry Lawler



There's Booker T, he saw me taking a pic so he gave me a peace sign



Snapped a pic of Matt Sydal, or Evan Bourne as we all know him



And here's Maria



Got to have a pretty cool conversation with these guys right here



But this meeting was 20 years in the waiting. I saw him when I was little but could only afford the glossy of him, not the autograph. 20 years and I finally got him to sign it.



I told Bret the story of when I saw him, and how long I've waited. He stopped signing my action figure, looked up at me with the greatest smile on his face, and said "You held on to that picture for that long? That's pretty cool, I really appreciate that." Took the picture, asked me my name, and signed it first.


Here's some pics from my seats



That's Matt Taven. He faced Mike Bennett in the first match and it was the best match of the evening until the end.

Everyone was driven to the entrance barricades to the ring except for Anthony and the Hardy's

Here's a shot of Jeff sprinting across the field



And here' a shot of Jeff hitting the Swanton



Brodus Clay and Velvet Sky were there too but I couldn't get close up pics of them.

I'll post a review with the card of the event later on.

 

Sounds like an awesome night, especially the Bret Hart story

 

It was 20 dollars for the seats, which I thought were great for that price, and the autographs weren't that expensive. Got 2 of Bret's, Brian Anthony's, Jeff's, and the Young Buck's. Wish I could have gotten more. I'll have to post pics of the ones I got too.

 

...Booker T in a St Kilda guernsey. What?

 

Wow. After watching that vid for the Lesnar vs Cena match, I've got to say I'm sold. That was the most brilliant thing WWE has done in a long while.

It's actually sold and booked as a fight between Champion and Challenger. That's all the story is(so far). Clear stakes. Clear motivation. Classic wrestling booking.

EDIT: And just as I've seen WWE do one of their smartest thing in a while. I just saw them to their dumbest with that fake Adam Rose dream BS.

 

Did a Spin-A-Rooni in it, too.

Got a review of the show.

First match was Matt Taven vs. Mike Bennett w/ Maria

Everything you here about how great these guys is all true. The two of them in ring together set the bar high for the evening and these guys put on a performance like no other. The acrobatics and showmanship of Taven had my draw dropped for most of the match, and Bennett played real well to the style. To top it off both of them played their roles great and had the fans eating out of their hands.

Second event of the evening was Bret coming out to the ring to thank the fans for all the support over the years. I got to be part of a "Thank You Bret" chant, which was something I thought I'd never get to do.

Match 2 was a six person tag team match. I don;t know how to describe it other than as a six person inter-gender, midget tag team match up, featuring the teams of Velvet Sky, Robbie "The Giant", and Mark Sherman vs Reby Sky, Shovelhead Chuck, and Manscout Jake Manning.

this match was more for comedic relief, when they carted Velvet and Robbie out to the ring, Sherman was running behind them trying to catch up and when he got to the ring he just kept jumping up and down and waving at the fans. The gimmick didn't distract from the fact that he was good in the ring though. The match started out with Robbie going against Chuck, and a spot where Robbie was pinning Chuck and Chuck powering Robbie out of the pin and into the refs arms, with the ref throwing Robbie back onto Chuck and starting the pin again. This happened about 4 times before the match continued. Most of the match Reby using heel moves to dominate Velvet until one spot where Reby kept running off the ropes to drop to her knees mocking Velvet, getting a kick in her head by Velvet for all her troubles. One hot tag to Sherman later and the match ended on all 3 faces pinning all 3 heels at the same time.

Match 3 was a USA vs non-American heel match with Romeo Roselli vs. Sergei Volkov.

Volkov comes out with his manager waving a French flag, inciting boos. Romeo comes out with a member of the military, waving an American flag while everyone chanted USA. Both guys were tremendous in the ring depite the cheap pops they were garnering. The spot of the match was Volkov's manager distracting the ref and Romeo while Volkov tried to hit Romeo with the flag pole, only to have the Staff Sergeant take it away and punch Volkov in the face, helping win the match for Roselli.

The next match was The Platinum Entourage w/ J Busta vs. Brodus Clay w/ Booker T

The Platinum Entourage is basically a 3 man group of Dolph Ziggler's with Ric Flair robes on, very cheesy gimmick, but vry good wrestlers none the less. It was your typical handicap match starts out with Brodus dominating until a timely manager interference. The Entourage works the leg while J Busta interfers until Booker T gets tired of it and punches him in the face. Brodus starts taking over and wins the match. After the match Booker T does a Spin-A-Rooni and we all mark out to it, then we get a 10 minute intermission, to which I used to pre-order the dvd of the event.

The next match was former New York Yankee Joe Ausanio vs. Dan De Man.

Ausanio started wrestling 3 years ago, and he's about average. Dan De Man carried most of the match though, but that's what you'd expect from a ring veteran who's putting over a green face. A decent match all around I'd say though.

This match was triple threat match for the NEW Championship with Evan Bourne vs Brian Anthony vs Caleb Konley

This match was amazing and the only bad thing about it was it wasn't longer. Evan's finisher is even more impressive when you see it in person and Brian Anthony proved why NEW ha kept the belt on him for over 1000 days. Konley was an impressive young talent and after that match I can tell you Anthony and Konley can easily be big name WWE talent in the future if they ever got signed. Anthony can cut a great promo and has the look, and Konley reminds of Seth Rollins. Anthony retained the title and after the match Bourne and Anthony shook hands and showed each other respect.

Next up was Jerry Lawler vs. Kevin Steen in a piledriver vs piledriver match. Whoever hit their's first won the match.

Steen came out with Bennett and Maria and cut a promo on Lawler on how Bennett was a piledriver enthusiast and how Steen was gonna beat Lawler. Lawler took the mic and brought outMatt Taven to back him up, then said "Now it's still 3 on 2, and I was gonna get someone to be opposite of you Maria, but apparently you had already taken over her street corner." It was more or less a punch match not much technical wrestling but a good show. After a bunch of interference, Taven got hit by Steens piledriver, then King hit Steen with his to win the match.

The Main Event of the evening was one the greatest matches I've ever seen. The Young Bucks vs The Hardy Boyz.

Before the match I saw Reby Sky in the stands with us and asked her for a pic. You could tell she didn't want to do it but did anyway.



I can't put into words how amazing this match truly was. The spots, the high flying, the execution of the words. One move Nick Jackson pulled off was so amazing I got to start a "This is Awesome!" chant because of it. These guys spent 30 minutes putting on a spectacular match up and the hype of it being a Dream Match was fulfilled and then some. The entire time I was standing up and all four of these guys had us eating ut of the palm of their hands. Finally the Hardyz took the win and after the match Matt grabbed the mic and gave the Young Bucks props and they all shook hands.

Overall the show was amazing, great wrestling, fun moments, and all at a great price. They do it ever summer and I'm going to make it tradition to go to the show with my friends and watch the past, present, and future of the business perform.

 

I'll forgive something like Adam Rose, if they do smart booking like they apparently are with Cena/Brock. Like you said, Champion vs. Challenger, doesn't need to be any clearer than that.

 

Sure that wasn't a Russian flag? Seems like a confusing gimmick otherwise.