The Wrestling Thread

[Reprise]

Really sad about his double knee surgery. That man has truly turned his life around since his stint at TNA. And he also understands his veteran status, so he doesn't want too much of the spotlight and just wants to help the coworkers and company grow.

Reprise, are you going to Forbidden Door in London?? Obviously, it is not All In, but it still looks like a fantastic card!

https://cultaholic.com/posts/report-wwe ... l-with-wbd

Also, seeing the obvious counter programming and all these awful things that WWE keeps doing just makes me dislike them even more.

There is this old saying in Wrestling and in business in general: When things are going good, you can do no wrong. When things are going bad, you can do no right.

It's amazing how the tide has turned recently because WWE was at such a "high". Now, however, they can keep tripping over themselves and can do absolutely nothing right.

Sadly not. Unfortunately I tend to use a lot of my holiday quota at work in the summer period for childcare and it's an expensive time of the year for me, but maybe I will finally go to All In next year. I really want to attend one of the UK AEW shows at some point.

The card for Forbidden Door this year is great. I have seen some criticisms that it is very AEW heavy this year, but I am ok with that to be honest. I feel the concept has kind of lost its appeal for the most part. I am very much looking forward to watching it at home.

And WWE is just a shitty company. Every time I give them a shot, it's like watching something aimed at 11 year old kids. They can continue to counter program if they want. Apparently they're doing Brock vs Cena on the day of All Out and Cena's retirement match on the night of World's End.

Next year it's rumoured they will have two Wrestlemanias. What's the betting that one of them will go head-to-head with next year's All In?

They just look petty as fuck and it seems to be backfiring so far to be honest.

They're oversaturating the market and spreading themselves too thin. They're scrabbling last minute to build matches and storylines just so they can counterprogram AEW and put on a bunch of extra PPVs. It's affecting the quality of their product and from what I see online, more and more people are noticing it and criticising WWE. They're definitely past the honeymoon phase, in terms of the post-Vince / TKO era.

[Markies]

I have seen that criticism regarding Forbidden Door. Unfortunately, I think it just shows the sad state that NJPW is in at the moment. Granted, many of their top talent left in the past 5 years, so they really don't have a lot of people at the moment. With Tanashi starting as President, they are very much in the rebuilding phase. With Takeshita doing well over there at the moment, I think it will take a bit for the Youth Movement to take over. Speaking of, I would not surprised to see him as NJPW Champion in the next couple of years.

But, for Collision, they are advertising a #1's Contender spot and one of the competitors is Nigel McGuinness. If they do Nigel Vs. Zach Sabre, Jr. in London, that would be an AMAZING match. That match alone would sell so many tickets.

Like always, WWE wants a Monopoly. They don't care about actual wrestling. For them, if you want to be a wrestler, you have to be a WWE wrestler to make a living. And for many years, the performers were like indentured servants. "If I want to be a wrestler, I have to do whatever WWE tells me to do." That is why they cannot stand AEW/WCW/ECW/TNA(back in the day). Wrestlers now have options and don't have to work for WWE.

Ever since All In and the return of Lesnar with his 41 rape allegations, I have seen so many being fed up with WWE. Wrestling with Wregret which is a popular YouTube channel has stopped doing modern reviews. People are beginning to see that HHH's booking is actually pretty awful. So many online voices have stopped watching wrestling or they are moving towards AEW. The momentum is shifting back towards AEW. I think if you get one more wrestler who decides to pick AEW over WWE, that would be a good indication of the changing times in wrestling.

[Reprise]

WWE fears AEW. They see them as a threat. It isn't the ratings or the attendance etc they are threatened by, as they know they have AEW beat and there isn't much chance AEW can catch up. It's the fact they cannot control AEW they fear, it's the fact wrestlers now have a choice they fear and it's the fact they now have to be competitive with salaries that they fear. They don't want to give wrestlers more benefits, more money and have to fight to sign them or keep them signed. That's why they are helping TNA and bought AAA.

I forgot about the Collision match and the potential Nigel McGuiness vs Zach Sabre match that might lead to. Man, that would be amazing.

[Reprise]

Just as we were discussing all this, reports are coming out that TNA are making progress in their attempts to pick up a TV deal. It's believed that WWE is helping and it's possible a network or networks that WWE already has close relationships with could pick up TNA, with Wednesday nights head to head against Dynamite being the goal

Also, another report has come out claiming that Lorenzo Fertitta could be buying TNA. He used to own UFC, before it was sold and put under the TKO umbrella.

Lol call me cynical, but I can see it now:

Millions of adverts for the debut episode of the 'all new' TNA Impact on Channel whatever, all advertised on WWE.

WWE announces the main event of the debut episode of the 'all new' TNA Impact will be AJ Styles vs Leon Slater or something.

Breaking news: The Undertaker will appear on the debut episode of the all new TNA Impact:

Breaking news: CM Punk will appear on the debut episode of the all new TNA Impact.

Breaking news: John Cena comes face to face with Nic Nemeth one more time!

Anyways, so does TNA enjoy WWE 'little bro-ing' them or something? Way to just let yourselves be WWE's bitch and pawn in their games with AEW.

[Markies]

Anyways, so does TNA enjoy WWE 'little bro-ing' them or something? Way to just let yourselves be WWE's bitch and pawn in their games with AEW.

Yep, this is all part of the WWE narrative. They control TNA and they want everyone to believe that TNA is the #2 promotion in Wrestling. They basically want to get rid of AEW and are doing their best to hurt them before they get a new TV Contract.

It sounds like TNA has a suitor in the CW, which is where NXT goes. Granted, CW is a network channel so basically anybody can watch it. I don't have cable or streaming, but I could watch NXT basically for free. The problem is that NXT doesn't do great ratings on Tuesday nights. They kind of score about the same amount as Dynamite, which is insane to think about considering NXT is on free TV while Dynamite is on paid cable. NXT has a much bigger audience to draw from and are still barely drawing better numbers.

They then expect people to tune in on Wednesday to watch TNA. A company that hasn't been on a cable network in over 20 plus years. A company that doesn't have a single drawing character outside of NXT cast offs. And they want to put it on a night where people are already dedicated to watching wrestling. The CW is not doing well, so they will take anything that draws even positive numbers and wrestling is incredibly cheap to produce, but I can't imagine they will do well at all.

TNA has been bought and sold by so many companies in the last few years that I don't know who owns them now. In fact, TNA went to Tony Khan twice about buying them and he said No both times. Last year, they fired Scott D'Amore who basically brought TNA back to relevancy because he was against selling to WWE. Now, this new partnership is in bed with WWE because that will keep them financially afloat.

It's funny because TNA was the first company created after WWE bought out WCW and created a wrestling monopoly. WWE did their best to make TNA go away. They were the original AEW. Now, more than likely, they are a partner of WWE and will likely be bought by them.

[Reprise]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about how NXT barely beats Dynamite as it is, on a free channel that everyone has access to, so I am not sure how they expect what is now the developmental to their developmental to beat Dynamite.

But then I don't think that's the goal anyways. They just want to hurt AEW and, like you said, try to stop them getting another media rights deal.

I expect all this will eventually blow up in their faces, but who knows? TNA just doesn't really have much value in 2025 in my opinion, so it's weird seeing WWE and its entourage of podcast grifters and social media influencers trying to build it up as "the true number 2 promotion"

Like there was all this hype about Slammiversary drawing over 7,000 fans and being one of their biggest shows ever (and the biggest in at least a decade I think), but I was tracking the ticket sales to that event. They were struggling. They had only sold about 3,000 tickets, maybe even just below that, a week before the show. They shifted over 4,000 tickets in the last week off the back of just a) the initial AJ Styles tease and then b) the full announcement that AJ would be there.

And then I watched the show and it really was not good at all and the main event was downright crap.

[Markies]

Yeah, ever since Scott left, the TNA booking has been absolutely terrible. All of their best people have either left for AEW or were taken to NXT.

And at Slammiversary, they went with a screwy finish for the NXT guy instead of crowning a homegrown TNA Talent that wanted to be at the promotion. And All In was happening at the same time and people were comparing the two and its like not even close. I had no idea that they sold over half of their tickets because of AJ Styles. That is really sad and shows that the only value TNA has is their history when they were rivals to WWE.

Speaking of AEW/TNA, Ace Austin has jumped ship and signed with AEW. He was a TNA guy whose contract expired earlier this year and apparently is debuting on Collision tonight. I heard that he is a friend of the Gunn's and with one of them out for a long while because of a knee injury, I wouldn't be surprised to see him paired with them and Juice for a bit. Not a major name, but a good lower mid card talent.

[Reprise]

I had no idea that they sold over half of their tickets because of AJ Styles. That is really sad and shows that the only value TNA has is their history when they were rivals to WWE.

Yeah, I just checked and it was about half or just under.

The weekend before they had sold 3,700. The day after the tease it jumped up to 4,423. Then after they officially announced AJ's appearance they managed to shift another 3,000 ish.

Yeah, I heard Ace Austin had signed. One of the Gunn's posted something about it on one of his social media pages with the eyes emoji I think, so I can see him joining up with them.

[Reprise]

So I feel I have to criticise AEW after Forbidden Door. The show was very mid and felt B level tier.

A "bad" AEW PPV is rarely actually bad, but in terms of moments, storyline progression and new arcs, this was a very skippable show. And the in ring action, whilst there weren't any bad matches, didn't set things alight.

I really feel like now was the time to take the title off of Toni and put it on someone like Athena who could ride a wave of momentum. As Raging Justice would complain, the women's division in AEW for the last couple of years have essentially been dominated by Toni and Mercedes (and to a lesser extent Mariah May). Both have beaten just about every legitimate challenger there is now and Athena was really the 'last' one there was available .

I can only really see Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale being the options they have left. Maybe Alex Windsor once she has become more embedded within AEW or Megan Bayne, but the latter has already had her shot and lost.

Mercedes needs to start losing soon in my opinion.

Just one 'shock' win might have made things a bit more interesting in the women's division. Either Alex Windsor or Athena winning the TBS or Women's championship would have made things very interesting.

Brodido got a 'shock' win, but I think we all suspected the Hurt Syndicate were losing the belts if not here, but soon, given the rumour that Cope and Christian will face FTR for the titles at All Out.

MJF and Hangman was overbooked and got silly. They have a tendency to do all these shenanigans with stipulations and messing around with them, which makes it obvious what the outcomes will be. Hangman forced MJF to use his contract to get his shot, then MJF forced Hangman to give him a shot without using his contract. Well done, you told us there and then that MJF wasn't winning. And he'll no doubt win when he does use his contract.

The Cage match... I enjoyed a lot. But they overdo these multiman over the top hardcore matches now I feel. Particularly when they repeatedly demonstrate that they are largely inconsequential and have absolutely no stakes whatsoever. The faces win and nothing changes. The heels win and nothing changes. So what's the point? I also feel they overdo the comedy spots, like the gummy bears, which takes me out of it. It breaks the fourth wall and kayfabe to an extent, by winking at the audience and reminding them that they don't really hate eachother, there isn't really any heat between the performers, and that they are just having fun.

The post match injury angle with Ospreay was predictable, but also silly since all of the faces apparently forgot how to climb a cage (whilst Marina was in the background literally climbing the cage).

Wardlow returned and promptly joined the Callis family. Ok? Why? How large does this family need to be? And when is anyone outside of Kyle Fletcher (and Takeshita) going to do anything of real note? Are they going to have any storylines, feuds or pushes? Josh Alexander was one of my favourite wrestlers in TNA and I was excited to see him in AEW, fantasy booking rematches against Ospreay and Omega in my head, and then they stuck him in that faction/stable and have done NOTHING with him. Quite literally.

Hayter also returned. I really hope they give her a big push this time. She has 'it'. She has the right look, charisma and can go in the ring.

In terms of positives though, I am pleased to see Killswitch/Luchasaurus back and they are teasing Jack Perry's return, so that could be interesting.

I have noticed every year that AEW seems to have this 'lull' between All In and the end of the year when things start to get more interesting with the Continental Classic. It's like they never have things fully planned out after All In and never really know how to keep storylines interesting or moving forward.

[Reprise]

And now I will praise them...

I actually like what they are doing with Copeland and Christian, by maintaining Christian's heel gimmick, turning them into an odd couple trope instead of going a more predictable "oh we're friends and good guys now, so the old heel persona just goes out of the window" approach instead.