The Wrestling Thread: WWE WrestleMania 31 [NSFW]

[SandyCoin]

Pathetic stuff. strawberry floating about one of the few entertaining people in the company because Vince hates the internet? Glad to see the reaction isn't good.

I'm kinda new on the Z! bandwagon but really enjoyed all his youtube shows. The one where that guy asks HHH about him is really annoying. "oh are you one of the three people who watch it?". Clueless it seems. Shame.

[Dig Dug]

Pathetic stuff. strawberry floating about one of the few entertaining people in the company because Vince hates the internet? Glad to see the reaction isn't good.

I'm kinda new on the Z! bandwagon but really enjoyed all his youtube shows. The one where that guy asks HHH about him is really annoying. "oh are you one of the three people who watch it?". Clueless it seems. Shame.

Buryingtime.gif

[Dig Dug]

[Zellery]

Watching Slammiversary currently.

Joe shaking Crimson's hand at the end of their match made no sense.

Remember, this was following the actions of hating Crimson so much that Joe attacked him in a bar on the previous impact.

[KK]

Love & Winter beat Mickie James & Tara in 4:43. The finish saw Madison Rayne come out and pull Tara off the apron and throw her into the steps. James had nobody to tag, and Love pinned her with an offshoot of the back stabber. Since Love is challenging James for the title, this booking made sense, which, given that it’s TNA, must have been somebody’s idea of a swerve.

Remember when Kurt came in, it was said he came because he heard people say Samoa Joe was the best guy in the world and he had to prove he was really the best guy, and they actually did business. Must have been a dream.

Along with Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner vs. Matt Morgan was also established in an angle as being for the No. 1 Contendership. At the IMPACT TV tapings, there was nothing about either man facing Anderson for the title (Angle instead talked about going to the Olympics).

Which nicely ties into this...

The overriding story coming out of Slammiversary was the audience. The Impact Zone in Orlando had in the past been a rabid audience that in TNA’s best days, made some good matches come across even better. But everyone seems to have their limits. This was a crowd that has seen so much, and TNA’s endless storylines that go nowhere have led to the worst thing possible. Even the live audience has stopped caring. With a promotion where faces and heels are a blur, the audience reaction was a blur as well. The slogan “Wrestling Matters” would be more apropos as “Nothing Matters,” and that’s what the crowd seemed to think.

WWE RAW Ratings Breakdown

Quarter 1: Show opened at a 2.7.
Q2: Lost 210,000 viewers (Miz & Austin/Kane vs. Del Rio)
Q3: Gained 65,000 viewers (Sin Cara, Daniel Bryan & Ezekiel Jackson vs. Wade Barrett, Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes)
Q4: Lost 10,000 viewers to a show low of 2.6 (Sheamus vs. Santino)
Q5: Gained 924,000 viewers (Christian & Randy Orton promo). Clearly these people forget about the first hour
Q6: Lost 154,000 viewers (Rey Mysterio vs. Christian)
Q7: Lost 131,000 viewers (R-Truth vs. John Morrison, which ended up not taking place)
Q8: Gained 169,000 viewers (Jack Swagger & Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne)
Q9: Gained 342,000 viewers (Piper's Pit/Piper vs. Miz)
Q10: Lost 306,000 viewers (Divas' match)
Q11: Gained 72,000 viewers (Steve Austin smashing up the laptop)
Q12/Over-run: Gained 501,000 viewers (Cena vs. CM Punk), to close on a 3.6.

IMPACT WRESTLING Ratings Breakdown

Quarter 1: 1.1, & the highest rated quarter on the show.
Q2: Lost 132,000 viewers (Mickie James & Tara vs. Winter & Angelina Love)
Q3: Lost 73,000 viewers (Alex Shelley & James Storm vs. Hernandez & Anarquia)
Q4: Lost 73,000 (Mr. Anderson and Gunner, Mexican America confronting Hogan) to drop the show to an abysmal 0.9
Q5: Gained 135,000 viewers (Jeff Jarrett/Kurt Angle)
Q6: Gained 44,000 viewers (Bully Ray vs. RVD)
Q7: Lost 44,000 viewers (Velvet Sky vs. ODB)
Q8: Lost 44,000 viewers again (Sting & Eric Young vs. Gunner & Mr. Anderson)

So, basically, the viewing audience hated everything.

June 20th RAW will be the return of Cyber Sunday. The June 27th RAW, from Las Vegas, will be a double taping. The first show will be the return of RAW Roulette.

Gimmicks ahoy!

At E3, David Arquette showed up to play WWE 12 and said that he wants to do more with WWE.

[Dig Dug]

So it is finally happening, and by that I mean it has finally gotten to the point where TNA ratings are showing a noticable drop.

[tomvek]

New Botchamania Today is a good day.

[KK]

New Botchamania Today is a good day.

I'm glad he got the girl who didn't get the Cena t-shirt. I was wondering what was going to happen all night. And in the end he didn't give it to her. What a bastard.

Batista on the state of wrestling today...

I think it’s in a bad spot. I think it’s gone downhill. It really gave me a bad taste in my mouth when they started gearing it towards ‘PG’, & it became too unbelievable, too hokey. It’s one of those things where they use that term ‘suspend your disbelief’ and for me it just, with the whole PG rating & the no blood thing, no chairs, no choking…it just got way too out of hand. Everything that I’d learned from guys like Ric Flair & Triple H you couldn’t do anymore. They’re trying so hard to cram all this PG stuff down everybody’s throats where does that leave someone like me? There’s nothing PG about me! I just felt like I didn’t fit in anymore. I felt very disconnected from the business. I became very unhappy with it.

http://www.f4wonline.com

Brilliant interview. Batista really came across very, very well. A really likeable guy.

[Floex]

New Botchamania Today is a good day.

I'm glad he got the girl who didn't get the Cena t-shirt. I was wondering what was going to happen all night. And in the end he didn't give it to her. What a bastard.

Batista on the state of wrestling today...

I think it’s in a bad spot. I think it’s gone downhill. It really gave me a bad taste in my mouth when they started gearing it towards ‘PG’, & it became too unbelievable, too hokey. It’s one of those things where they use that term ‘suspend your disbelief’ and for me it just, with the whole PG rating & the no blood thing, no chairs, no choking…it just got way too out of hand. Everything that I’d learned from guys like Ric Flair & Triple H you couldn’t do anymore. They’re trying so hard to cram all this PG stuff down everybody’s throats where does that leave someone like me? There’s nothing PG about me! I just felt like I didn’t fit in anymore. I felt very disconnected from the business. I became very unhappy with it.

http://www.f4wonline.com

Brilliant interview. Batista really came across very, very well. A really likeable guy.

Did he say anything relating to his move into MMA?

[Cosmo]

Well the US Capitol is where Congress meets. It makes sort of sense.

[Dig Dug]

[Cosmo]

Anyone going to see Fozzy this year?

[Return_of_the_STAR]

Awesome

[KK]

Did he say anything relating to his move into MMA?

Yes he did, quite a bit actually. Here's a snippet:

I unofficially put it out there that I was looking for a fight, & my manager & I had talked about it & we had reached out to Strikeforce if they’d be interested, & we didn’t sit down and talk until I’d left WWE. We talked about it & they agreed to a three fight deal…and it kinda slowly fell apart.

Did it fall apart strictly because of the UFC deal or were there some other reasons as well?

Originally it fell apart because they couldn’t figure out what they wanted to do with it. Originally they wanted to do a CBS fight with me, then a Showtime fight, then possibly a Pay Per View fight. They wanted to lead up to me & Bobby Lashely in a fight and during that time the movie got pushed back so I needed 8 to 10 weeks to train for a fight, & it didn’t work because of the movie schedule, & then I think Bobby lost, so they lost their interest in that fight. Then they were going to pair me up with a guy called Pujinoski [Apologies for the spelling, this will probably mean more to you than me]…& then one thing after another…first we couldn’t agree on pay, & then PPV points, & this & that…we couldn’t agree on anything. And when we recently went back to talking about it again we had another contract on the table ready to be signed - & this time they wanted me to go directly into a PPV - & we couldn’t come to an agreement on the points. My manager thought they were low balling me on the PPV Points. This lasted about a week & a half before they sold out to UFC.

http://www.f4wonline.com

[Jam-Master Jay]

Just awesome.

Loved his face turn, and the Obama skit was better than the official stuff by far.

[KK]

the Obama skit was better than the official stuff by far.

Doomed himself. Again.

He's making a mockery of WWE Creative. NOT ACCEPTABLE.

[Mockmaster]

You have to admit. He's got balls.

[KK]

I wonder if this has the potential to become like the Matt Hardy/Edge/Lita situation. The crowd chants became so obvious, the WWE had to acknowledge it, & then turn it into a storyline. I remember one promo from RAW between Trish Stratus & Lita at Madison Square Garden where Lita was receiving so much abuse, the segment fell off a cliff. The equivalent of Goldberg/Lesnar from WrestleMania XX.

[Jam-Master Jay]

the Obama skit was better than the official stuff by far.

Doomed himself. Again.

He's making a mockery of WWE Creative. NOT ACCEPTABLE.

It does worry me a bit.

He's gotten over with a lot of fans without being on TV most weeks. Can't think of any other wrestler who's done something like this... probably with good reason as you're essentially taking the piss and publicly complaining about your bosses. The WWE would be strawberry floating stupid to get rid of him though as he's shown he has all the qualities needed to get over and be a success.

He seems to have the support of many wrestlers past and present though. I know Austin is a fan, as is Punk, Jericho and Cena. On the subject of Cena, he gained another load of respect from me for his actions this past week with regards to the ribbing Ryder got. I bet even hardened anti-Cena internet fans have a little love for him now.

[Dig Dug]

I like how Zack has gotten non-wrestlers like scott stanford, the big o and his dad over with his internet show, two of them don't even work for WWE.