The Wrestling Thread

[GordieBoy80]

Here I pose a question that only a few may know but I was wondering if anyone could help me out as I am rather curious.

Can anyone tell me what the conclusion of the Vince McMahon death storyline was going to be or what was going to happen? For obvious reasons it had to be scrapped but it may have had the potential to be very dramatic and shocking...

Thanks a lot Chris!

From Vince McMahon Wikipedia:

Numerous incidents (2007–2009)

On June 11, 2007, WWE aired a segment at the end of Raw that featured McMahon entering a limousine moments before it exploded. The show went off-air shortly after, and WWE.com reported the angle within minutes as though it were a legitimate occurrence, proclaiming that McMahon was "presumed dead".^[69] Although this was the fate of the fictional "Mr. McMahon" character, no harm came to the actual person, the "presumed death" of McMahon was part of a storyline.^[70] WWE later acknowledged to CNBC that he was not truly dead.^[71]

The June 25, 2007 edition of Raw was scheduled to be a three-hour memorial to "Mr. McMahon". However, due to the actual death of Chris Benoit, the show opened with McMahon standing in an empty arena, acknowledging that his reported death was only of his character as part of a storyline.^[72] This was followed by a tribute to Benoit that filled the three-hour timeslot

[forehead7]

From Vince McMahon Wikipedia:

Numerous incidents (2007–2009)

On June 11, 2007, WWE aired a segment at the end of Raw that featured McMahon entering a limousine moments before it exploded. The show went off-air shortly after, and WWE.com reported the angle within minutes as though it were a legitimate occurrence, proclaiming that McMahon was "presumed dead".^[69] Although this was the fate of the fictional "Mr. McMahon" character, no harm came to the actual person, the "presumed death" of McMahon was part of a storyline.^[70] WWE later acknowledged to CNBC that he was not truly dead.^[71]

The June 25, 2007 edition of Raw was scheduled to be a three-hour memorial to "Mr. McMahon". However, due to the actual death of Chris Benoit, the show opened with McMahon standing in an empty arena, acknowledging that his reported death was only of his character as part of a storyline.^[72] This was followed by a tribute to Benoit that filled the three-hour timeslot

I remember watching that Benoit tribute. Glad it happened before they realised it was homicide. I think my brother taped it

[#Gary]

I was expecting HHH as the last member of that team. I reckon that's the match HHH will be involved in if he does indeed return at SummerSlam.

Surely Bret Hart won't be wrestling again.

[Parscelona]

Either Bret Hart or John Cena will turn heel and cost their team the match and then join the Nexus leading to "Why Bret/John ? " signs

Bret Hart can't take any bumps so i doubt he'll even be involved in the match, he'll probably get taken out and they'll need a replacement, in steps Triple H who turns heel on the WWE side and reveals himself as the Nexus leader all along.

That's my theory anyway.

[Lambies_Apprentice]

Bret Hart can't take any bumps so i doubt he'll even be involved in the match, he'll probably get taken out and they'll need a replacement, in steps Triple H who turns heel on the WWE side and reveals himself as the Nexus leader all along.

That's my theory anyway.

Thats how I reckon it will pan out.

Well, not exactly sure about Triple H being in the match, but the end result, yeah.

Edited July 20, 2010 by Lambies_Apprentice

[DomDom]

ECW's never been given the platform to be a mainstream success. The few hints of one it's got, it has done well(ONS2005 being the 2nd best-selling WWE-produced PPV of the year, the Rise and Fall of ECW being top of the DVD sales charts). At the very least, it deserves a run on national TV with a fair crack of the whip in terms of advertising etc.

You're forgetting that from late 1999 onwards, not only did they have the TV coverage, but they also had superb marketing going their way. EVERYONE knew who ECW was and what they had to offer. A lot of people didn't want what they had to offer though.

ECW caters to a niche market. There's only so far you can go with that. The reason that the One Night Stand show did so well was because it was a one-off nostalgia trip.

[Shuggie_Murray7]

It is believed that TNA Wrestling's May and June pay-per-view events, Sacrifice and Slammiversary, drew approximately 8,000 buys apiece. The gross sum per event would total to approximately $111,000 for the company, though that is before the expense of running a live pay-per-view event is factored in.

By comparison, TNA drew in the neighborhood of 25,000 to 30,000 pay-per-view buys when iMPACT! was airing at 11 p.m. on Saturday nights. And when WCW was on its death bed, the company was still garnering approximately 40,000 buys per pay-per-view.

To draw another comparison, illegal live streams of TNA Wrestling pay-per-view events are nowhere near as popular as that of WWE and UFC. According to a source in monitoring, there are usually thirty to fifty unique live streams for wrestling pay-per-view events with an average of 1,000 viewers per stream prior to its termination. For last week's Victory Road pay-per-view, there were only five streams across the major live streaming sites — Justin.tv, Ustream.tv and freedocast.com. Victory Road garnered less than 1,500 viewers per stream. Meanwhile, live streams for WWE events are in the triple digits with most averaging 60,000 viewers, and UFC events tend to have live viewers in excess of 200,000.

Edited July 21, 2010 by Shuggie_Murray7

[Kris Boyd]

http://www.dailymoti...1998-part_sport

Been watching some ECW PPVs from 98 today, amazing stuff, they just don't make wrestling this awesome anymore

I forget how many great stables there were in ECW, Triple Threat, F.B.I., The Dudley Boys, Impact Players, The Network, Dangerous Alliance and Da Baldies to name but a few.

Styles almost never makes a mistake whilst commentating and doesn't need any cheesey striker/cole-esque lines, I hope Joey comes to TNA

Edited July 21, 2010 by Kris Boyd

[RB-Scotland]

You're forgetting that from late 1999 onwards, not only did they have the TV coverage, but they also had superb marketing going their way. EVERYONE knew who ECW was and what they had to offer. A lot of people didn't want what they had to offer though.

ECW caters to a niche market. There's only so far you can go with that. The reason that the One Night Stand show did so well was because it was a one-off nostalgia trip.

You know a lot about wrestling, but you're talking out your arse here I'm afraid. TNN gave ECW no advertising whatsoever. There was one episode where they gave everyone the impression some movie they were running was going to get in the way of ECW, then ECW came on out of nowhere and the only way anyone found out about it was through online forums(this show still pulled a 0.4, btw). TNN were publicly courting WWF at the time and gave ECW no attention or resources whatsoever. The only way people knew about ECW was through word of mouth or through non-kayfabe wrestling magazines. I spoke to plenty of huge wrestling fans in the attitude era who never knew of this ECW thing until Taz showed up with the belt on WWF Smackdown.

And ONS05 only being a success due to nostalgia makes no sense, given that it wasn't popular in mainstream-wrestling terms due to the limitations previously mentioned. The loyal ECW fans came out and bought it, and those who didn't know of it at the time or only heard of it a few years later(possibly through the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD) then looked it up also bought it.

There's a big market for an ECW-style experience. Give real ECW people like Tommy Dreamer and Raven control over a brand with resources on a WWE or TNA level, and it will get consistently good ratings.

[Shuggie_Murray7]

You know a lot about wrestling, but you're talking out your arse here I'm afraid. TNN gave ECW no advertising whatsoever. There was one episode where they gave everyone the impression some movie they were running was going to get in the way of ECW, then ECW came on out of nowhere and the only way anyone found out about it was through online forums(this show still pulled a 0.4, btw). TNN were publicly courting WWF at the time and gave ECW no attention or resources whatsoever. The only way people knew about ECW was through word of mouth or through non-kayfabe wrestling magazines. I spoke to plenty of huge wrestling fans in the attitude era who never knew of this ECW thing until Taz showed up with the belt on WWF Smackdown.

I was going to point this out, but I'm not the most knowledgable when it comes to ECW and wasn't sure if I was talking out my arse. Wasn't there a shoot Paul E. did on TNN about how little backing thye were giving ECW?

[RB-Scotland]

Yes, TNN bleeped the entire thing out, but here it is uncut:

Joey Styles used to end shows with snide remarks about it too, and of course there was 'The Network' storyline which took up half the year, where Cyrus(giving himself some humorously long TNN job title) would refer to ECW as the lead-in for some show called Rollerjam.

[Kris Boyd]

I was going to point this out, but I'm not the most knowledgable when it comes to ECW and wasn't sure if I was talking out my arse. Wasn't there a shoot Paul E. did on TNN about how little backing thye were giving ECW?

Cyrus the virus was a heel character who was created to act as a pro-TNN / Anti-ECW kinda guy and was part of "The Network" stable and would always go on about how ECW was too violent for "the network" a metaphor for the actual network itself. Steve Corino, Jack Victory and Rhino made up the other members of the Network, all heels, Cyrus would often commentate with Styles and say to him "if you don't watch out I'll dress you up in a cowboy hat and have you calling Raw"

TNN did nothing good for ECW and to say they helped them out or really got behind them is totally false.

Edited July 21, 2010 by Kris Boyd

[RB-Scotland]

Cyrus' commentary was one great thing to come out of the TNN deal, to be fair. He was good already, but that run made him the greatest colour man of all time, in my book.

After Rhino had gored Sandman's wife at Living Dangerously and Sandman took her to hospital and thus forfeited from the semi-final of the TV title tournament, the whole attack having been exposed as a Network ploy to get Sandman out the running

"I'm Network, and we at the Network want what the people want *thumbs up*, and what we want at The Network is for the ECW TV title.."

*Styles glaring at him in disgust*

"What are you looking at?"

"Another empty suit. Another empty TNN suit."

"Would you shut up, you have absolutely no idea about ratings, advertising revenue, different demographics, you just have no clue do you?! You work out of your house for Christ's sake..."

"What is your title again?"

"I am the technical wrestling and sports advisor for fan improvement, for the Network"

"When you were given that title, did they provide the mop and bucket?"

*sarcastic laugh*"Sure. Since your new contract doesn't let you put yourself over on TV anymore, how about you call the match?"

Those two could(and did) make matches like The Prodigy .V. Dick Hertz worth watching.

[Kris Boyd]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vswZ73WETpc

The Reason I like TNA better than wwe, not becuase it's a better run show or because of ratings, but because of the fact that I want a company to run without the McMahons eating it up, like he has done to so many companies in the past.

people should want TNA to do well, the only person that benefits from competition is us, the fans.

there is no wonder why wrestling between 2002-2010 sucked, because wwe didn't need to try, they were the only thing around.

[RB-Scotland]

They still are basically the only thing. You should like a show for what's better more than what you perceive as being good for the industry... it is just a TV show you put on to be entertained, at the end of the day(but I do think TNA is far better at the moment).

[Kris Boyd]

They still are basically the only thing. You should like a show for what's better more than what you perceive as being good for the industry... it is just a TV show you put on to be entertained, at the end of the day(but I do think TNA is far better at the moment).

true and yeah I do like TNA better for that reason too, as TNA have either Amazing matches and PPVs or Absolutly fucking terrible botch filled comedy, either way it's entertaining to watch or laugh about! We all know wrestling is fake but wwe just seems to be too over produced or something, maybe it's just because I've watched it so long and I know what to expect next but there is something about it that I can't put my finger on, or maybe it's just cena playing mind tricks.

unrelated rant: after nearly a decade, that "WHAT?" chant thing is really REALLY annoying.

[forehead7]

http://www.dailymoti. ..1998-part_sport

Been watching some ECW PPVs from 98 today, amazing stuff, they just don't make wrestling this awesome anymore

I forget how many great stables there were in ECW, Triple Threat, F.B.I., The Dudley Boys, Impact Players, The Network, Dangerous Alliance and Da Baldies to name but a few.

BWO and Raven's group, the nest?

Not to mention all the tag teams, Public Enemy, The Pitbulls, The Eliminators, Da Gangstas, Cactus and Mikey, Chair Swinging Freaks, Rotten Brothers, Gangstanators. Aswell as combinations from the stables.

[Kris Boyd]

BWO and Raven's group, the nest?

Not to mention all the tag teams, Public Enemy, The Pitbulls, The Eliminators, Da Gangstas, Cactus and Mikey, Chair Swinging Freaks, Rotten Brothers, Gangstanators. Aswell as combinations from the stables.

yeah I was just going by stables but there is a shitload of great tag teams as well, the brief stable of Sid Vicious, Mike Awesome and Judge Jeff Jones was a real power team too. I dunno why but I really loved the F.B.I. Big Sal was a fucking monster!

For a company that was miles behind in terms of money and popularity and just about everything else to WWF and WCW, ECW had some exellent wrestlers, just watching Nova, I don't think I've seen a technically better more inivative wrestler, Taz has beyond doubt the best suplexes I've ever seen and such a variety too, Sandman has the best Entrance Ever, Dudleys imo the best tag team ever, f**k I love this company right the way from the brick wall entrance way to the light blue ring apron with the name of the PPV on it.

Edited July 21, 2010 by Kris Boyd

[RB-Scotland]

I used to love Nova, especially when he became ripped and acted like he had just snapped after Chris Chetti turned on him.

As far as tag team wrestling goes, the match between The Impact Players and FMW team Jado and Gedo is well worth looking out.

[DomDom]

As far as tag team wrestling goes, the match between The Impact Players and FMW team Jado and Gedo is well worth looking out.

Lets not forget the Tajiri/Whipwreck vs. FBI fued. Their best matches were probably in the Hammerstein Ballroom.

The Dudley Boys at their ECW peak were unreal at getting heat. There has certainly never been a team like them since then or before then. Not sure if I'd call them the best tag team ever, but that's purely because of how good other teams have been for good matches. They might be the best full package tag team ever though.