The Wrestling Thread

[Reprise]

I managed to buy the first 20 episodes of Lucha Underground on DVD. I believe the first two seasons (split across 4 sets) was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in Germany in a really low print run. The sets are incredibly hard to find now (I have been looking all year), so I pounced on this set when it appeared on eBay.

Looking forward to rewatching it.

[Reprise]

This wasn't on my 2025 bingo card:

[Markies]

Yeah, I don't think anybody saw that coming. I read/watched at a dozen unique people making predictions for Full Gear and not a single one of them picked Samoa Joe winning.

Props to Samoa Joe. I was a big fan of his back in the TNA Days and I know he doesn't have many years left in him, so I am glad that he is getting one last title reign. I'll be curious to see what the next couple of weeks will be like on television and where does this take them. There is very much some intrigue now.

I know its several months away, but with All In being in London, I can't help feel that is the time to crown Ospreay. I don't know if Joe will hang on until then, but I feel like that is something that will happen in the future.

AEW never misses on PPV's and Full Gear was no exception. Glad to see Ricochet get a title as I think he has deserved it. The same with Mark Briscoe as that was a very emotional win. The story they are telling with Mercedes is really good in that she cannot win the one title that she so desperately wants. And, of course, that Elite reunion was a thing of beauty.

[Reprise]

I didn't think Joe would win, but I did wonder if it could happen. There was maybe 10% of me that thought they might do it, because I kept wondering "why do the rematch? Are they really that short for contenders and feuds?" Also I had this feeling that MJF would return and I know AEW sometimes likes to do callbacks and can revisit feuds and with it being World's End next month they could have done Joe vs MJF II, marking two years since their last encounter. I guess I was wrong about that though, because it was Swerve who returned!

But despite those thoughts, I really didn't think there was much chance. I don't know how I feel about Hangman's reign ending already, but like you said, it does make things more interesting now.

The stuff involving Hook makes no sense to me and I really don't think Hook is capable of getting over at this point, so I wasn't too big on that swerve, but it is what it is.

Ospreay surely has to win the title at All In. It's in England and it just makes sense. He's supposed to be out until around mid year, so hopefully it all aligns ok and if he's back by May or June, he should be able to enter the Owen cup.

I am not sure who will be the next set of champions or how long Joe will hold it for. I know Joe talked about retiring soon. Will he retire next year and then maybe hold it as part of some kind of retirement storyline? I hope it's not over for Hangman. With Swerve being back, MJF surely back soon, it could be quite interesting to see Joe, MJF, Hangman and Swerve all fighting for the belt and I wouldn't be totally opposed to some quick reigns and a bit of hot potato with the title. I know AEW likes long reigns, doesn't like it changing hands on television, and some people think quick changes devalue the belt, but I think very occasionally it can make things quite exciting.

Kyle Fletcher definitely needs to win it at some point too, but they might wait until Ospreay wins it first. The question is though, do people want Kyle to get his first big win as a heel or face? Because I can see them turning Kyle face before letting him win the big one, just because the crowd probably wants to see it happen and cheer for him. But I can also see him winning as a heel, particularly if he beats Ospreay who is way too over as a face to turn heel again right now (particularly coming back off of a major injury).

[Reprise]

TNA bagged themselves a television deal. Thursday Night Impact is coming to AMC in the new year.

[Markies]

I'll be very curious to see how TNA does on AMC. I know that the Television landscape has changed dramatically in the last couple of years, but I just do not see the demographic of people who watch AMC would be interested in a 4th or 5th tier wrestling program.

Historically, AMC was known for the Walking Dead along with some unscripted series' and showcasing movies. If you look under their current batch of television shows, it shows a lot of thrillers and horrors. I guess I could see some crossover there, but I think it might be very little. With all the saturation, it kind of reminds me when ECW was launched on the Sci-Fi Channel. That one kind of bombed pretty hard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_p ... ast_by_AMC

Also, AMC is owned by AMC Networks. AMC Networks owns BBC America, IFC(Independent Film Channel), Sundance TV and WE(Women's Entertainment) TV. These are not channels or people that are interested in wrestling.

Obviously, if the ratings are good, then they can last. However, if the ratings are not good, the show could easily be cancelled and gobbled up by the entire WWE empire.

[Reprise]

I must admit I know nothing about American tv stations, so I really don't know what to make of the deal. Much like I don't really know what to make about all this talk about Warner Bros being in trouble and possibly being bought out and what impact that might have on AEW.

With that said though, I find TNA such a fascinating promotion to watch grow again, but in a very odd way. I don't think TNA is particularly good. I started dipping in and out of their shows (mostly the PPVs) around the time I started watching AEW. It was early 2020 when I had more or less given up on WWE and was looking for some other wrestling to watch.

I started paying more attention towards the end of its existence as 'Impact Wrestling' right as they announced they were bringing the TNA name back. Straight away I thought that was really bizarre. Then they fired Scott. which I thought was even more odd. And then they started the formal partnership with NXT and I was just baffled.

But ultimately, it's hard to argue that it hasn't paid off.

But I don't really know what people get out of TNA now. It's odd. Because the quality of their product has declined dramatically over the last few years imo. They have lost their biggest most important names from recent years (Josh Alexander, Speedball, Joe Hendry, Jordynne Grace, the Motor City Machine Guns etc). Most of their value has come from being WWE's little bro which gives them a short-term boost, but long-term I don't see what that does for them. And the booking and writing has returned to the LOLTNA style. Not to mention all I think of now watching TNA is people like the Hardyz, Dudleyz and Nic Nemeth, who are all way past it.

I am interested to see where things go though.

And does this mean the partnership with WWE is over? Or is WWE going to send AJ Styles, Kurt Angle and Hulk Hogan's corpse over for the debut episode of Impact on AMC to help them beat Dynamite's ratings that week, so all the wrestling influencer grifters and terminally online geeks can push out this 'TNA is the real number 2 company' nonsense?

Edit: Fightful has confirmed that the partnership with WWE is continuing and that WWE even helped TNA in securing the deal.

[marurun]

I must admit I know nothing about American tv stations, so I really don't know what to make of the deal. Much like I don't really know what to make about all this talk about Warner Bros being in trouble and possibly being bought out and what impact that might have on AEW.

You can know a lot about American media companies and STILL not have any idea what on earth is up with Warner Bros. It's been a shit show this past decade or two. And even if you know WHAT on earth is up, you'll still be trying to work out WHY on earth. The people at Warner Bros and all the companies that bought them, merged with them, and want to buy them definitely don't know WHY on earth. Otherwise we wouldn't be here now.

[Markies]

I didn't care about John Cena's retirement. I respect John Cena more as a person than I do as a wrestler.

With that being said, I love hearing about negativity coming towards HHH.
Could not happen to more of a worse individual.

[Reprise]

MJF winning the championship was what I expected. The show was decent, but mostly transitional in terms of progressing storylines into 2026. No surprising returns, shocking debuts or moments. Mox vs Kyle Fletcher was incredible and Mox winning the C2 was also unexpected.

I expect now that Ospreay winning the championship at All In Wembley has got to be what they will build to, assuming he will be able to return soon. So I wonder who will be holding the championship before then. I think MJF could easily hold it until All In, but also there's talk of Omega returning to the title picture, so could he beat MJF for it before All In? I think he could.