The Wrestling Thread

[prfsnl_gmr]

Four matches and a garbage LA crowd. Sounds like the first Raw on Netflix was awful.

To their credit, they basically booed Hulk Hogan out of the building.

[Reprise]

Four matches and a garbage LA crowd. Sounds like the first Raw on Netflix was awful.

It was terrible. I couldn't make my way through it all, had to skip through the bollocks. Not sure why people on social media are talking about it like it was the greatest thing in the world.

It was 3 and half hours of self-congratulatory bullshit.

[Raging Justice]

I'm pretty sure Hogan got booed for political reasons, because it's a California crowd. So no, I will NOT praise them for their rude behavior.

[marurun]

I'm pretty sure Hogan got booed for political reasons, because it's a California crowd. So no, I will NOT praise them for their rude behavior.

You don't think it was for Hogan's own bad behavior in the past and WWE's cynical presentation of his now over-the-hill personage as some kind of figurehead?

[Reprise]

'Taker didn't get booed.

Political views are just a small part of it, I feel. I am pretty sure the fact he is a self-absorbed liar and racist, who is 70 years old and no one cares about anymore, played a bigger role.

Now if people could also boo the Rock and stop jerking over him, that would be great too.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I didn’t think about politics at all, actually…

I thought he got booed because everyone’s realized he was a crappy wrestler who injured people and never put anyone over…

[marurun]

I didn’t think about politics at all, actually…

I thought he got booed because everyone’s realized he was a crappy wrestler who injured people and never put anyone over…

Yeah, Hogan was a very self-serving wrestler who didn't even really put a lot of effort into his in-match work. He worked the crowds well, which was his appeal, but behind the scenes he was not well-liked and he was constantly abusing his position to ensure he came out on top. He got booed probably because he's just a pretty poor human being.

[Reprise]

A multi-year partnership between TNA and WWE has been made official. I wonder who might show up in the Rumble? Joe Hendry seems a certainty.

TNA is basically now a feeder organisation for NXT.

[Markies]

TNA is basically now a feeder organisation for NXT.

100%. Granted, it gives some financial security to TNA.

But, I would be utterly shocked if a Main Roster WWE Superstar ever walked into the Impact Zone.

[Reprise]

TNA is basically now a feeder organisation for NXT.

100%. Granted, it gives some financial security to TNA.

But, I would be utterly shocked if a Main Roster WWE Superstar ever walked into the Impact Zone.

I could see AJ Styles making an appearance at some stage. Maybe. But probably more just as a special appearance than to wrestle.

I am ever the cynic though. I think this is more about slowly crushing AEW than anything else. This move, along with the WWE ID Program, is all about WWE starving AEW of new talent and ensuring they can get to groom talent early to recruit them into WWE before AEW even gets a look in. It is about WWE exerting its dominance. It's them saying to TNA "hey, we will help you, but just understand where you are in the food chain". We know a bunch of TNA's biggest names have contracts ending soon and that they will likely move to WWE soon.

I don't see WWE wanting to purchase TNA like some people think. The tape library isn't worth anything to them now (a decade ago when DVDs and blu-rays were big business, it might have been). It's just about building up the third brand to hurt the second brand and providing them with up and coming talent they can pull into NXT.

Of course AEW is guilty of loads of own goals and has their own issues even without WWE making moves to hurt them. Just watch this week's Dynamite to see that in action. I am not excusing any of that. But I know from 30 odd years of being a fan that WWE only ever does anything to help itself.