Arena Pro Wrestling Discussion

SmackDown live? There's a show in Newark NJ on 2-11-16 in November. That's a Tuesday filming.

 

NJPW is coming back to AXS TV on Friday! Two hours weekly of JR again!

DarthPunk

 

With all the various content and promotions out there, and now a brand split happening, if done right overall, we could be looking at a potential silver age in wrestling happening soon.

It'd be nice if they can take Superstars or Main Event and give it some importance like Sunday Night Heat had back in the 90's.

 

Taz predicts 2 hour Raw, 2 hour Smackdown and a 1 hour NXT on TV. That would be better than even more empty content from the WWE, imo. Too much WWE will hurt the smaller promotions, and without them there's just the perpetually declining WWE. LU is barely hanging on with 100,000 viewers in the US, apparently.

 

i didn't like the brand split the last time. i havn't been watching smackdown for a while. more than 1 show a week is too much for me
then again i havn't been watching RAW since wrestlemania either.

 

Instead of splitting the WWE Title again they should just make the IC the "world title" by elevating it.

 

A 3 hour Raw with a slightly smaller roster that could lead to more over exposure for it's talent will definitely that be good.

Hope Taz is right. Hell 3 hours of anything is to much most of the time.

 

Ricochet vs Ospreay

Super fun, but I'm sorry I'm on Vaders side on this one.

 

I watched TNA Victory Road 2016 and it was all right. Every match was at least good - it looks as thought at least one bad match was edited out (at least in the UK broadcast version) as we got a sweaty post-match interview with Chris Malendez without seeing him fight anyone. I'm guessing someone involved in that match was fired between then and now (probably Mr Anderson). Bobby Roode delivered a backstage promo despite not being in TNA any more. The 3.5 hours was padded out with three classic matches from previous Victory Roads (something that's been creeping in to TNA PPVs recently) which in principle is a bit low for a PPV but the matches were actually worth seeing.

The replays highlight the decline of the company and the decline of PPVs themselves though. The replayed matches all clearly tied in with Impact story lines of the time, and were very well attended. TNA seem to treat PPVs as a different entity now. Some feuds were addressed and a couple of scores settled, but very little was made of it in the show itself, and pretty much nothing was said promoting the event within Impact leading up to the broadcast. TNA PPVs are in a weird place right now.

We had the debut of 'The Tribunal' (a couple of French guys dropped by NXT) who delivered a good 80s foreign heel promo before jobbing to the BroMans. The match was not spectacular and saw Basile Baraka (Tom La Ruffa) doing most of the work, but they certainly look the part. They didn't get much **** in, suggesting they're holding back or they don't have any **** to get in yet. Time will tell. Weird that TNA should choose to make their new team lose their debut, but it was unpredictable (in a good way) and I guess they need to protect the BroMans' won/loss record (they've been a little 50/50 since reforming a few months ago).

Trevor Lee was the hardest worker of the night. His fisherman's buster is devastating, and thank **** he seems to have modified it a bit to make it safer. The first couple of times I saw him use it he clearly knocked himself out. DJZ comes a close second. I think TNA are beginning to realise just how amazing this guy is.

Main event was EC3 ("Super Ethan", "Happy Birthday") vs Ely Drake ("You Still Suck"). Ely doesn't suck, but he is a very good heel.

TL;DR:
Good matches but weird editing and weird continuity.

 

They've replaced the Matt Hardy/Kurt Angle match at the Wrestling Under the Stars event with Kurt Angle vs Cody Rhodes. I'm gonna get to see Jeff Hardy vs. Jushin Liger and Angle vs. Rhodes! I don't think I could be more excited!

 

So good. That would've been the highlight on a good Raw episode, but on one that was really quite poor it shone like a beacon.

 

I don't blame you, Cody is a much better match for Angle.

 

Very well done segment, and best part of Raw last night. Rest was a bore.

AJ works way better as a heel. His NJPW run proves this.

 

Now let's see if AJ can actually get some legit heel heat against Cena.

 

Kinda interesting that as of now tickets are no longer on sale for the NXT Brooklyn show. That plus the name of Takeover was changed to THE END.

My guess is that with the brand split, NXT as we know it will be coming to an end. The great alternative will instead be going back to being completely dev talent.

Which mean all the stars, Joe, Finn, Nakamura, Aries, etc may very well be headed to the main roster come July.

 

NXT Takeover Brooklyn tickets were not on sale yet to begin with. Plus, I don't think WWE is going to kill their number one rated show on the network. Until WWE does an official press release one way or the other, no one actually knows what the plans are.

 

Another part of the first WrestleMania is gone with the passing of Ali.

 

So Lesnar's returning to UFC AND wrestling at SummerSlam. Wonder how that came about.?

 

Wonder if we get to see some extra arm bars at the next WrestleMania out of this

 

LloydChristmas would probably like that depending on who's delivering the armbars.

 

A while ago there was a report that UFC might be for sale, then a short time ago it was reported that Vince McMahon had cashed in a load of stocks/shares, now Brock is in UFC 200...

 

It'd be worth it for the boiled **** that'd brew up amongst die-hard, snobbier UFC fans.

 

No way in hell would UFC sell to Vince. IT's rumored that UFC is worth 3.5 Billion. Don't think Vince has that much for something he doesn't even really like or understand,

Just a one off thing, that no doubt has Vince hoping he can use Rousey and Mcgregor down the road. Plus great cross promotion. If Lesnar wins it will be huge for Summerslam.