The Wrestling Thread

[cb_diamond]

12 hours ago, airdrieman said:

Pete Dunne definitely strikes me as a Triple H/HBK guy and one who’ll want to stay loyal to the brand given that he was practically the founding father of NXT UK. Speaking of which there’s also now essentially no UK Indy scene for him to come back to. That being said, I do think he (wrongly) has a ceiling in WWE and he’s probably relatively close to it already. And AEW need UK stars if they want to seriously crack the market here (take Tyler Bate out of NXT UK purgatory please). And/or he’s someone who’d be great in Japan. He’s also young enough that he could go away for a few years and come back to WWE for a decent gig on NXT again or an easy one on the main roster. 

So aye I can’t see him going but I’d certainly like him to. 

Age is absolutely on the side of both Dunne and Bate and unless they hit them with stupidly long contracts then they are likely to be around 30 and 26 respectively when their deals come up again and barring injury will likely be even better.

[TheGoon]

I think AEW will be fine here without UK names. They’ve got Ogogo & PAC obviously, but look how big TNA got here - it certainly wasn’t the British Invasion behind it. 

What a weird few years that was. I even went to a press conference with Dixie to announce them running TV here. It felt massive. 

[grumswall]

Iv seen it mentioned elsewhere that alin was involved in the stuff that happened last year. Iv no idea of the involvement though, anyone able to shed any light on it?

[diamond_for_life]

57 minutes ago, grumswall said:

Iv seen it mentioned elsewhere that alin was involved in the stuff that happened last year. Iv no idea of the involvement though, anyone able to shed any light on it?

Yeah seen that on Twitter tonight. Didn’t see his name mentioned last year when the speaking out stuff first came to light but looks bad from what I can see tonight 

[grumswall]

Yeah seen that on Twitter tonight. Didn’t see his name mentioned last year when the speaking out stuff first came to light but looks bad from what I can see tonight 

Seen a few suggesting it was known about at the time but I honestly can't remember his name involved. I do hope he hasn't done what iv seen suggested. It does seem strange timing for it to come up though. It's an absolutely mental business that just seems to have this sort of thing happen far too often.

[TheGoon]

These NXT releases are fucking insane. Bobby Fish, Leon Ruff, Brinson Reed to name a few. Fair enough guys you’re not using, but this is an actual decimation of NXT 

[Ludo*1]

Vince made a sarcastic comment about AEW last week saying, 'maybe we can give them some more' as in talent. He's still on a releasing spree.

[djchapsticks]

5 hours ago, TheGoon said:

These NXT releases are fucking insane. Bobby Fish, Leon Ruff, Brinson Reed to name a few. Fair enough guys you’re not using, but this is an actual decimation of NXT 

The surprises just continue. Of the 12 gone Reed and Fish completely shock me given both were pretty high on the card.

 

[cb_diamond]

Thing is some of these releases are absolute mind bogglers BUT in general their overall talent roster was ridiculously bloated, it was well over 200. A lot of releases were inevitable this year. It's more who they have released that I find surprising.

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

I think we all now know what Vince's recent visit to the PC was all about. Bronson Reed is the real shocker in this batch, he definitely has something about him.

Maybe firing all of Adam Cole's mates when trying to get him to sign a new deal isn't the best idea.

[FairWeatherFan]

They renewed the NXT tv deal without an increase and sold off the Network to Peacock. What touring is going to look like going forward is also uncertain.

If their focus is on making money, which it usually is. They can scale things back to being the developmental brand it was supposed to be before the super indy boom period it had between TNA downsizing and the AEW proving itself viable.

[TheGoon]

NXT as we know it is pretty much done then. Going back to purely developmental, with an emphasis on younger, bigger guys.

Their argument will obviously be it isn’t producing main roster main event guys anymore, but I don’t think that’s on NXT, it’s WWE’s booking. Kross, Ricochet, Keith Lee, Black, Andrade to name a few were all pissed up the wall. NXT couldn’t have made them any stronger, and fans liked them. 

[FairWeatherFan]

4 minutes ago, TheGoon said:

NXT as we know it is pretty much done then. Going back to purely developmental, with an emphasis on younger, bigger guys.

Their argument will obviously be it isn’t producing main roster main event guys anymore, but I don’t think that’s on NXT, it’s WWE’s booking. Kross, Ricochet, Keith Lee, Black, Andrade to name a few were all pissed up the wall. NXT couldn’t have made them any stronger, and fans liked them. 

The other part of that is NXT didn't make any of them. 

All outside talent coming in on a decent salary compared to random ex athletes and kids of wrestlers. 

[TheGoon]

16 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said:

The other part of that is NXT didn't make any of them. 

All outside talent coming in on a decent salary compared to random ex athletes and kids of wrestlers. 

It’s always been that though. Jobbers underpinned by Indy names, think the biggest issue (for them anyway) was they wanted it to train guys on the ‘WWE Style’ but there ended up being an NXT one - which they wrongly feel needs taught out of them on the main roster. 

[cb_diamond]

Vince legitimately saying "no more midgets" (a direct quote apparently), while really pushing the boat out to resign 5'8" Adam Cole is peak WWE logic.

[Ludo*1]

If Vince wasn't as old as he is, I'd say this isn't the worst decision which sounds bizarre. I say it because Vince can never fully get behind 'smaller' guys and if he's getting a selection of 'big, sweaty men' just how he likes them then he's usually willing to put more time into them and let them have long term storylines.

As it is though, he's just dismantled Triple His succession plans and went down the road with Prichard and Laurinitis. Dangerous game even for Vince to be playing. 

I don't mind the NXT to be seen as developmental again. That's its main purpose. Not to become a solid alternative to Smackdown or Raw. 

I can see it working tbf. Even if the fans initially hate it.

[TheGoon]

An alternative isn’t always a bad thing though. It allows them to present a show they know some of their audience want, still under the WWE umbrella. I guess if their celling is 700k and rights fees aren’t going up then they’ll probably be like what’s the point, but it’s a nice thing to have for folk that aren’t big fans of RAW & SD. 

[Ludo*1]

Definitely but I'm sure they'd rather have a shite third show and two stronger main shows because of it than 3 utterly shite shows catering to different audiences with their developmental being the best or one considered 'good'.

[cb_diamond]

The fact that IWC idiots are now blaming Gargano and Ciampa for the death of NXT as we know it is mind-blowing in its stupidity. One of the worst takes on an event I've ever seen.

[SamuraiJock]

Sounds like the end of an era for NXT - as someone who never watches Raw or Smackdown, the only reason i used to pickup the network would be to catch-up on NXT. All i really want is a couple of hours of wrestling a week with decent matches and NXT used to fill that gap perfectly without any of the cringy pish you have to sit through on the main shows. Apart from the Rumble for nostalgia and Wrestlemania for the hype i can't see the network interesting me at all any more.

AEW is filling the gap nicely for a decent weekly show, but i'm a bit worried about all the other shows they seem to be planning in the future. Don't water things down and spread them out into 8 hours of TV a week please.