Professional Wrestling: Irish War Painting II

[Tywin et al.]

52 minutes ago, KingintheNorth4 said:

Part one of the Chris Benoit Dark Side of the Ring documentary is on YouTube.

 

Chilling watch.  The crippler crossface was a favorite of mine as a kid when we'd do backyard wrestling. 

[KingintheNorth4]

I'm happy that Drew McIntyre won the title, it's just too bad it wasn't in front of a hot crowd of 80,000.

[DMC]

2 hours ago, KingintheNorth4 said:

I'm happy that Drew McIntyre won the title, it's just too bad it wasn't in front of a hot crowd of 80,000.

I didn't see it, but I read that he celebrated by pointing to imaginary fans on the turnbuckle like one usually would do.  Something about that just breaks my heart.

[Joe Pesci]

On 4/8/2020 at 10:29 PM, DMC said:

I didn't see it, but I read that he celebrated by pointing to imaginary fans on the turnbuckle like one usually would do.  Something about that just breaks my heart.

I just watched the second night earlier in the week, and I took it as he was pointing at the camera, but that's just me. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good WM considering the shit they've put out over the last few years. Worth a watch if you've got the time.

[The BlackBear]

I watched night one, it was mostly fine, up until the Boneyard 'Match,' which seemed to go down well online, but I hated it.

[Joe Pesci]

1 hour ago, The BlackBear said:

I watched night one, it was mostly fine, up until the Boneyard 'Match,' which seemed to go down well online, but I hated it.

I thought it was hot garbage as well. Strangely I liked the firefly funhouse "match". As long as they stay away from doing theses too often, they'll be fine. I guess if they want to keeping wheeling out the Undertaker, that's about all he'll be able to do as he doesn't seem fit to work in the ring anymore.

[briantw]

4 hours ago, The BlackBear said:

I watched night one, it was mostly fine, up until the Boneyard 'Match,' which seemed to go down well online, but I hated it.

I thought it worked simply because it was undeniably better than any actual match Undertaker could work at this point in his career.  He's been hot garbage in the ring for about five years now and shooting a match like that helped hide that fact. 

[The BlackBear]

Then he should retire.

And more than that, how does this help things going forward? Literally burying AJ, to put over an old man.

[DMC]

2 hours ago, The BlackBear said:

Literally burying AJ, to put over an old man.

But he reached out his hand to show he'll keep fighting!

Anyway, I still haven't seen any of it.  Interesting that the opinions here on the two are somewhat of the reverse of the IWC consensus I've seen - most seemed like or even love the Boneyard one while hating the Firefly Funhouse one.  Like brian mentioned, I think perhaps the Boneyard one is given undue credit because, obviously, a "match" where you can edit & integrate special effects is going to be much better than trying to watch that old man listlessly meander around the ring live.

[Tywin et al.]

I hope this isn't breaking forum rules, but if you need some wrestling, I still believe this is as good as it gets:
 

 

[briantw]

3 hours ago, The BlackBear said:

Then he should retire.

And more than that, how does this help things going forward? Literally burying AJ, to put over an old man.

I mean yeah he should have retired years ago, but if he's stubbornly going to refuse to do so and keep collecting checks, at least they found a way to make his matches entertaining.

I'm not disagreeing that Styles should have won.  He absolutely should have.  But that match in a ring in an empty arena would have been hot garbage.  Instead, they gave us something unique and enjoyable that reminded me a lot of Lucha Underground, which was an awesome show.

Edited April 12, 2020 by briantw

[KingintheNorth4]

I remember this match fondly. Who knew this would be one of the forerunners to the TLC match later on?

 

[The BlackBear]

20 hours ago, briantw said:

I mean yeah he should have retired years ago, but if he's stubbornly going to refuse to do so and keep collecting checks, at least they found a way to make his matches entertaining.

I'm not disagreeing that Styles should have won.  He absolutely should have.  But that match in a ring in an empty arena would have been hot garbage.  Instead, they gave us something unique and enjoyable that reminded me a lot of Lucha Underground, which was an awesome show.

I'm not discounting your point, I do see where you're coming from. I guess I'm just seeing it as the perfect example of how Vice sees his roster. He can't see what he's got because he's too focused on what he once had. And got a bit worked up about it.

Also maybe it's just me, but I feel like I would have liked to see what Styles could have done to make Taker look good. He's past his prime, but AJ was objectively one of the best in the world during his peak. YMMV

 

Tangentially related: The XFL is bankrupt. 

 

Also was hoping to go to a NJPW event in London during October, that was the planned slot, unofficially of course. Whether it goes ahead now is of course anyone's guess, but I'm hoping like hell it will.

[Tywin et al.]

20 hours ago, KingintheNorth4 said:

I remember this match fondly. Who knew this would be one of the forerunners to the TLC match later on?

 

Those four were insane. 

[The BlackBear]

WWE are massively cutting their staff.

Names include: Mike Chioda, Lance Storm, Heath Slater, Drake Maverick, Anderson and Gallows, EC3, Lio Rush, Kurt Angle! Fit Finlay.

And they just keep going.

What a fucking disgusting time to do it at, every time I think Vince has hit his moral rock bottom, he just keeps digging.

[DMC]

46 minutes ago, The BlackBear said:

What a fucking disgusting time to do it at, every time I think Vince has hit his moral rock bottom, he just keeps digging.

You see WWE was deemed an "essential business" by Florida the same day Linda's Super-PAC committed to spending $18.5 million in Florida?  Gotta make up the cost of bribes somewhere!

[lmanion]

Also the xfl is bankrupt and apparently WWE that had 'no financial ties' actually had 23 percent of the shares

[Joe Pesci]

Seems like the internet is super butt hurt over these layoffs. There's like 22 million other people that this happened to, and sure WWE is a huge company and most likely could have kept paying these people while taking the ding to their profitability, but there's a ton of larger companies than them laying off people too. Smarks gonna smark.

[briantw]

26 minutes ago, Joe Pesci said:

Seems like the internet is super butt hurt over these layoffs. There's like 22 million other people that this happened to, and sure WWE is a huge company and most likely could have kept paying these people while taking the ding to their profitability, but there's a ton of larger companies than them laying off people too. Smarks gonna smark.

Well, if your billion dollar company that is obviously not essential business donates 18 million to a pro-Trump super PAC and then is quickly deemed essential business, then you layoff a ton of employees immediately after that, you're gonna catch some shit.

[Joe Pesci]

9 minutes ago, briantw said:

Well, if your billion dollar company that is obviously not essential business donates 18 million to a pro-Trump super PAC and then is quickly deemed essential business, then you layoff a ton of employees immediately after that, you're gonna catch some shit.

True, but most of the grumbling I've seen doesn't involve that. It's more that Vince is a piece of shit (everyone already knows this so I don't see it being particularly relevant) for laying people off at the moment. End of story. That's not a valid reason to be super pissed that a small fraction of mostly unused talent got laid off, and most are rumored to have received nice sized departing payoffs as well. I hate to see anyone losing their job during these times, but who's actually surprised at shady moves by billion dollar companies anymore?