The Wrestling Thread

[Segata]

AEW is pretty great so far. It still has kinks to work out but overall pretty happy with it. Chris Jericho is esp fantastic. Damn he is funny and fully unleashed he is pure genius. I like the fully unhinged gimmick of Moxley. Not that there is a direct comparison but he feels like a dash of Brian Pillman and a Dash of Stone Cold and the rest is all Mox. MJF & Sammy are very much future stars. MJF is one of the best heels around. Same with Socrpio and Page. (Page has the best theme) Janela reminds me so much of a young Jericho in personality. Darby Allin is just athletic as hell. They have some really great talent.

Need to work on that Womens division better. Less false finishes.

[RCBH928]

My understanding is that Vince Russo is to be blamed for a lot of the reality tv like cheesey story lines in pro wrestling. After listening to an interview with him, he seems to defend himself well by saying that during his time in WWF, WCW, and TNA the ratings were at their highest while they drop down in each organization after he left.

I don't know whats the truth, but I always believe in listening to the two sides of the story.

[Juan Aguacate]

AEW Revolution was fantastic and including this PPV the company has been on a hot streak for a few weeks now. They are routinely beating NXT in the ratings, and frankly that product is getting bad with the awful Velveteen Dream/Roderick Strong feud and the way they keep making a fool of Teagan Nox.

AEW is where it's at right now. Frankly, them and NJPW are the only things in wrestling worth watching. I wish the two companies would start working together. I could see big, HUGE, things happening for BOTH companies if they did.

Hangman Page is MAJORLY over right now and it just kind of happened organically. I think they planned to turn him heel and yet he caught fire as a baby face. He seems even more over than Jon Moxly right now and actually feels more like a modern "Stone Cold" right now than Mox too. Orange Cassidy is also very over, but I don't know how far they can go with his gimmick

People keep saying Matt Hardy is heading to AEW. I'll believe it when I see, but I'm in favor of it.

I look at guys like Edge and John Morrison and I just don't get going back to WWE. Morrison has been a nobody since going back, he could have been someone in AEW. And Edge is just rehashing old story lines. Oh look, Edge and Orton in a story line together, haven't seen that before. Even Morrison is just back to stuff we've already seen by pairing him up with Miz. I hope those idiots are at least enjoying their pay checks for going back to WWE. Don't even get me started on that sell out CM Punk on that weekly WWE talk show

Jericho is smarter. He's ADDING to his pro wrestling legacy by being in AEW, while these are guys are doing nothing in WWE land where they'll eventually just be buried by aging part timers like Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg or Undertaker who add nothing of value to the product and can barely wrestle. Jericho is a bonafide legend and GOAT right now. This man is so awesome the crowd sings his theme song in every arena he goes to. Years from now, people will talk about the role he played in building the foundation for AEW and if AEW ever has a Hall of Fame, it'll have a spot for Jericho IN ADDITION to the one he'll already have in WWE. And Cody, wow, I never knew how much ambition he had. The Rhodes family name means even more now than it already did.

I love this company right now and Tony Khan seems like a smart guy who really knows what he's doing (unlike Vince McMahon)...just need to fix up that awful women's division though and please god get the belt off Nyla and onto Shida

[RCBH928]

I only saw a couple short clips, but I never thought how much of the crowd makes the actual wrestling show. Without attendance Wrestlemania turned from an event as big as the SuperBowl to something like school gym show. I kind of felt sorry for the WWE and the pro-wrestlers that were hoping this year to be featured on Wrestlemania. I am sure if they were given more time (and if they had competition) they could bring out a show that looks better than this even without attendance.

[RCBH928]

I am out of touch but anyone knows whats going on with TNA/Impact Wrestling? As almost the only WWE alternative AEW should have shut the casket on them, why are they even around I really doubt they make any money if not losing it. Hard to believe at one point their roster had AJ Styles, Kurt Angle, Sting, Hogan, Flair, team 3-D, and Jeff Hardy. That may be a better roster than the current WWE.

[Markies]

"The demise of Impact Wrestling has been greatly exaggerated."

It has been reported that TNA/Impact is the cockroach of professional wrestling. People have assumed it will die, but it keeps finding ways to survive.

The biggest hit TNA took was when the Spike deal fell through. They bounced around TV stations and ownership for several years. They were on Destination America and then eventually landed on PoP, two very small networks. Billy Corgan tried to buy the company from Dixie Carter, but that fell through until a Canadian Company called Anthem bought them.

TNA began to bleed talent as many of their mainstays like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle all left to go to NJPW/WWE. They created new stars like EC3 and recreated Bobby Lashley, but they also eventually left to go to WWE because the contracts were so much bigger.

Last year, Anthem acquired a controlling interest in AXS TV, which ironically was showing NJPW at the time. TNA/Impact moved to AXS and booted NJPW. With Anthem owning IMPACT and AXS, it appears that they aren't going anywhere.

With the many roster cuts WWE had because of COVID, Impact picked up several stars. Eric Young, The Good Brothers/The Club and EC3 all came back to Impact wrestling. On the business side, the company is run by Scott D'Amore, who was a part of Impact for many years and Don Callis, who has also been there for a while.

Currently, the best way to describe TNA/Impact is that it is a feeder promotion. There are talent there that like it there as it does little touring and is basically a TV show. But, most times, once a talent becomes big in Impact, they move onto WWE or AEW because they can offer larger contracts. It's almost like ECW back in the 90s. It fits perfectly into that 3rd slot behind WWE & AEW.

Back in 2004, I was a huge fan of TNA. They moved to Fox Sports and eventually moved to Spike TV. They had a perfect mix of new talent and older stars. However, they eventually started bringing in stars that really couldn't wrestle anymore like Mick Foley and Ric Flair. Also, once Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff took over, the older stars really took over and I began to loose interest. I wanted to watch the X-Division, not former NWO Members.

[RCBH928]

With the many roster cuts WWE had because of COVID, Impact picked up several stars. Eric Young, The Good Brothers/The Club and EC3 all came back to Impact wrestling. On the business side, the company is run by Scott D'Amore, who was a part of Impact for many years and Don Callis, who has also been there for a while.

Back in 2004, I was a huge fan of TNA. They moved to Fox Sports and eventually moved to Spike TV. They had a perfect mix of new talent and older stars. However, they eventually started bringing in stars that really couldn't wrestle anymore like Mick Foley and Ric Flair. Also, once Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff took over, the older stars really took over and I began to loose interest. I wanted to watch the X-Division, not former NWO Members.

Thanks that was insightful. I don't think its just about surviving, JJ created TNA as the home for the non-WWE talents which developed and picked by Dixie that was in it to take on WWE and fund her hobby by her parent's money and all of that failed. My point is, why keep going on? Whats the point of the organization any more? Why not just shut doors? My understanding that WCW was shut down not because Turner or Time-Warner couldn't fund it, its was just minuscule to them to put the effort into.

The same I would say for the current TNA owners, aren't you better off just to liquify it and take your investment else where that might make more return than Impact. Something tells me they paid too much and hoping it will pickup again solely based on whatever is left after the WWE market, and the sucker punch is AEW. Who would've thought that in 2019 someone would establish a new wrestling fed attracting WWE talents.