Pro Wrestling! (For Everything WWE, Impact, Indies, AEW, & Japan !) 2021

[Immortal Weapon]

They introduced way too many new people at once on NXT. They should have gradually done it over a few weeks. Half of them are going to get lost in the shuffle.

The whole relaunch is giving me WWECW vibes.

What I didn't like is that they didn't bother introducing any of the new guys. Why would they not want anyone knowing that Bron Breakker (that name is horrid) is the son of Rick Steiner?

[choptop]

Whatever happened to the Kofi Kingston heel turn that was going to happen?

[choptop]

They introduced way too many new people at once on NXT. They should have gradually done it over a few weeks. Half of them are going to get lost in the shuffle.

The whole relaunch is giving me WWECW vibes.

I kinda like wwecw back in the day it was the only show new guys got the spot light.

[Jcogginsa]

Whatever happened to the Kofi Kingston heel turn that was going to happen?

That was just part of the Lashley Kofi Feud. Kofi refused to abandon his pal

[godisawesome]

What I didn't like is that they didn't bother introducing any of the new guys. Why would they not want anyone knowing that Bron Breakker (that name is horrid) is the son of Rick Steiner?

Vince’s control freak tendencies are being applied in a way that makes sense to him first and everyone else never - it’s a “get with the program or get out” kind of POV now.

He wants these new guys to be his creations, then prove themselves by his rules. Thus unnecessary name changes, a huge group introduction that no doubt is supposed to challenge them, but in which they will have to appeal to his mercurial and arbitrary tastes.

He wants them to “reach for the brass ring” but “know their place” at the same time.

[wjowski]

Realistically WWE's in no real danger for the forseeable future with both it's massive tape library and two tv network deals.. Which makes me curious as to why they're acting like this.

[godisawesome]

Realistically WWE's in no real danger for the forseeable future with both it's massive tape library and two tv network deals.. Which makes me curious as to why they're acting like this.

I’ve got two perspectives on this:

-They could be overly reactionary because they want to maintain their brand’s dominating value for the next round of negotiations, and as people who’ve often reiterated that “perception is everything,” they genuinely think that appearing to lose is bad for the brand.

-It really could be as simple as Vince’s pride in his product, former monopoly, and denial about his mediocre booking philosophy.

Vince’s pride as an artistic creator often gets overlooked, but is a clear part of his psyche. We all know his skill as a businessman, and as an on-screen talent, and everyone respects that. But he’s clearly also wanted the credit and praise for the entertainment’s success itself.

I could see it being as simple as Vince having a whim last week of “I’ll prove Tony Khan’s not a better booker than me, dammit!” and that being the main thing for him.

Dude is petty enough to hold decades-long grudges that cost him money. He has to be proud enough to aggravated at possible signs someone tells a better story than he does.

[Noodle]

I kinda like wwecw back in the day it was the only show new guys got the spot light.

Yeah but those new guys weren't in title matches and confronting the champ on their first night. Punk wrestled Justin Credible for, like, a month when he was introduced.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Yeah but those new guys weren't in title matches and confronting the champ on their first night. Punk wrestled Justin Credible for, like, a month when he was introduced.

Heyman introduced Punk so well. He did it at Hammerstein and that audience just fell for him quick. (shame we never got to see Heyman's real New ECW vision as Punk vs RVD would have been great)

[titanfan]

The InDex wedding was like the "happy" Season Finale of the old NXT 1.0. I wonder if one or both of them get drafted now.

[BigLbo]

If Joe is legit injured then sadly this likely will be end of his in ring career. He can't stay healthy as the last year or 2 showed. He needs to retire and be GM or announcer. He had a solid career for sure. But if he's injured again then its time to move from that.

hard to say w/o knowing what the injury is.

I mean they straight up let Chris Jericho on Stone Cold's podcast directly after WrestleMania, he talked about AEW first thing off the bat. I'm not saying they don't care about AEW at all but just ask yourself if they would've ever done the same with WCW during the Monday Night Wars.

Can you imagine if there was a WWF Network in 1999, would Vince have let Austin interview WCW star Hulk Hogan?

Also, is it just me or did wrestling fans by and large not care about the 18-49 demo until October 2019? Because Raw usually finishes #1 when Monday Night Football Is over for the season but people always specifically point to their dropping viewership ignoring them almost always being ranked #1 in that demo. I wonder if fans of other shows care as much about that demo as wrestling fans suddenly do.

When casual fans talk about TV ratings of big events like the Super Bowl, Oscars, Olympics, etc the water cooler talk is more "did you hear 112 million people watched the Super Bowl?" and less "did you know the Super Bowl got an impressive 32.0 rating in the all important coveted persons 18-49 year old demo?"

It'd be like ignoring that Endgame made more money worldwide than The Force Awakens simply because TFA made more money in North America where the studio gets a bigger share of the box office.

Movie fans don't act like that so why do wrestling fans?

because a lot of wrestling fans are jackoffs.
that or it has something to do with an anti-wwe pro-aew bias across the iwc.

I mean I get why advertisers and networks care about demos, if their research shows people in certain age groups are more likely to spend money on XYZ product it makes sense to want that group. But I don't see why fans care so much. Scratch that, I actually do see why, bragging rights but none of us are seeing any of the advertising money so no one should care all too much.

To further show why it's not as important as people think both WWE and AEW get better demo numbers than the NHL, but the NHL's TV deals are much bigger than both. The wrestling audience just like NASCAR's is not seen as all that desirable by networks and ad execs.

xactly.

i think a lot of the fans(jackoffs) look to ratings/buyrates etc as proof they are/were right about what or who is a "draw" and all those old lame types of arguments.

I have no issue Big E won. He was well deserving and they need to create stars in company. But its how he won that made Big E look weak or sell him as a big deal in a sense.

- If anyone watched Big E cashed in MIB case on a hurt Bobby Lashley. One who battled through a bad knee to face him. Lashley had just had a hard fought match against Randy Orton.

The whole cashing in was more heelish in a sense. Where a heel takes advantage of the face after a hard fought match.

- Instead of having Big E come out and tell Lashley he's cashing the title shot in at say Unforgiven or Survivor Series to build anticipation of a big title match and program...this didn't happen.

- The entire deal was done to swing back that key 18-34 demographic as we saw. It was short term gain against long term build.

yeah i think lashley having just had a really tough match was enough, they didn't have to throw in the injured leg too.

I kinda like wwecw back in the day it was the only show new guys got the spot light.

it was cool for what it was. they just shouldn't have called it ecw.

Heyman introduced Punk so well. He did it at Hammerstein and that audience just fell for him quick. (shame we never got to see Heyman's real New ECW vision as Punk vs RVD would have been great)

probably because they already knew him.

[Gryphon]

Well the new steiner can talk... thats good

WWE has a star in the making here

[steve2275]

https://twitter.com/i/events/1433378923526574084

[Immortal Weapon]

Well the new steiner can talk... thats good

WWE has a star in the making here

He needs a better name. For the love of God have him go back to being Rex Steiner.

[BigLbo]

He needs a better name. For the love of God have him go back to being Rex Steiner.

no!! wwe must have somebody called bron/braun/brawn on the roster damn it.

but why have him wear that gear if you're not going to acknowledge he's a steiner??

they should've named him "Ian Steiner" and gave him a bookworm gimmick.