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

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Joe was brought back so he can be a talent scout. He was always on borrowed time as far as being an active wrestler.

To be fair I thought he was on borrowed time considering they last released him as an announcer. I didn't think his 2nd run would happen.

I wonder if Joseph Parks is still there. (Abyss ?)

[BeastieRunner]

RIP Shozo "Strong" Kobayashi.

He had a series of matches with Karl Gotch, Bob Backlund, Stan Hansen, and Inoki that were off the hook. His Tiger Jeet work was phenomenal as was his tag team with Seiji. He was one of the grandfathers of modern puro "strong style" and inspired KENTA, Shibata, Shinsuke, and countless others.

Monster Roussimoff vs. Strong Kobayashi


06.05.1972
Morioka, Iwate, Japan
International Wrestling Enterprise

[Immortal Weapon]

To be fair I thought he was on borrowed time considering they last released him as an announcer. I didn't think his 2nd run would happen.

I wonder if Joseph Parks is still there. (Abyss ?)

If he is he better not be a HHH guy.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

One thing these releases on NXT and shift in the mindset of things seems to make me remember a few years back. Back in 2017 or 2018 a report came out that NXT in a 2 year stretch had racked up costs of over $30+ million to run at a loss. Which at the time we all could say , well the WWE is knowing its a brand that will run at a loss as its a developmental and its for that next generation to get over and be brought up.

Unlike the old WWE Farm leagues which was ran by the company , OVW and others had talent sent places to learn and those bookers there had to keep the small territories they ran working and within budgets. Jim Cornette himself brought up that relationship worked at 1st and how the company sent talent down to work , learning and give him enough time to make changes to programs or give the new talent they had a push. But as Ace came in the attitude changed to where Ace believed OVW was owned by WWE and he could boss them on who to put on cards , guys he wanted to pull etc.

Anyhow that relationship didn't last as WWE decided they wanted to own their own developmental finally. But as Jim pointed out when he saw the costs of NXT those 2 years he was stunned. If OVW had ran at that , they would have gone outta business a long time ago. But the WWE could logically eat those costs and be happy...then.

Somewhere between then and 2020 the company must have examined the costs of NXT and the talent brought in and up from it. They had to weigh the decisions on it and whether or not it made sense to keep going with it costs wise. And perhaps costs went up as NXT signed more stars from all over as well. Was all these indie stars worth it ? Do we have plans for talent like Adam Cole , Johnny Gagano etc ? Or we just signing these guys to do great on this developmental brand and then we really don't wanna call them up with a plan ?

Plus you had guys like Cole , Gagano and more detail how they really didn't want to be on the main roster. Its like , the whole process of going to NXT was to prepare you to graduate up and a lot of talents didn't want to move up. So this had to have people thinking , what the hell are we doing with NXT ? We have a top group that has stayed there for 3-4 years lol.

So the costs and these reasons likely led to Vince McMahon deciding the company had to go back to basics approach. They would go back to what they did with the talents they signed in 2000's and even late 2000's with Florida developmental (where they sent Windham Rotunda (Bray Wyatt) , Drew McIntyre , The Usos , AJ Lee and more started in Florida before it morphed into NXT.

They are going back to that. Rick Steiner's son is one of the 1st in this back to basics approach for NXT 2.0.

[BigLbo]

bron breakker is good for now, but von wagner is the future!!

WWE released Gabe Sapolsky. They let a good booker out in the wild.

there's so much talent out there now gabe could easily start up a new promotion or just bring back evolve.

As said before Vince wants to create the next John Cena , Kurt Angle , Randy Orton , Batista for the company. Its why he gutted NXT , the company has already set down what they plan ahead.


- No one over 30 in NXT as a developmental.

- No one under 6'0 .

- No older stars going into NXT from the indies.


The company is returning to the mindset of wanting to create that type of star now instead of one already created that the WWE can't craft.

he could've done that years ago. so much great talent has passed through there. if a cena, angle, orton, or fruitista were dropped into their lap 5yrs ago 3 of the 4 would've probably been released by now and wrestling for other promotions.

good news fenix arm isn't broken at all, there was a bad dislocation. it's been reset and they're thinking he'll be out for weeks rather than months. guess it was the right time to drop the titles.
so many good tag teams, they should start breaking them up!!

[Immortal Weapon]

With all these releases with NXT personal who is left to train the new guys? I bet Ace will do something stupid like rehire Bill Demott

[JBatmanFan05]

Samoa Joe may not have much or anything left as far as an active wrestler, but I really hope he goes to AEW. Perhaps wrestles some last matches there. Then shifts to other roles within AEW to help it and the talent there.

[Immortal Weapon]

Freddy Prince Jr in his podcast said that Vince tried to sell the company to Fox. Vince's asking price was too high so Fox opt to license Smackdown instead.

Apparently Brock Lesnar refused to wrestle Jinder Mahal. It's why he dropped the title to AJ during the UK tour in 2017

[JBatmanFan05]

I stopped watching ROH long ago (mostly because I needed a break from wrestling for a time), but this article I excerpt below does a great job of framing ROH in wrestling history. ROH definitely changed me and my relationship to wrestling. I went from someone who thought only the WWF/WCW/ECW were worthy wrestling to ROH showing me that the emperor (the WWE especially) had no clothes. I truly looked at people like Danielson and Styles and Joe (etc) as the uncrowned main stars of all pro wrestling. I started watching wrestling in 1986/1987 (when I was young), so for me to pull back from Vince McMahon's hold on my wrestling mind was a huge thing, a huge break. I still love old WWF/E, but I'm so glad ROH led me to indie talent and NJPW (and now AEW).

The mark ROH has left on the wrestling industry cannot be understated. Almost every single major star in wrestling since 2002 had come through Ring of Honor. From CM Punk, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Nigel McGuinness, and Bryan Danielson, to Kevin Steen, El Generico (Sami Zayn), The Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, and the AEW World Champion – Hangman Page, all made a name for themselves in ROH, as ROH developed and promoted their talent in a wrestling world that didn’t make it easy for guys like them.

From showcasing several NJPW stars to paving the way for AEW to exist to providing almost 2 decades of wrestling excellence, the influence of ROH over the wrestling business has left fingerprints all over every promotion, not just in North America, but all over the world. When WCW and ECW went out of business, the void was filled by a small independent wrestling promotion that decided that they wanted to push new stars and reinvent and reimagine what a wrestling show could be.

https://dailyddt.com/2021/12/17/how-...iness-forever/

[JBatmanFan05]

Tony Khan explains (very slightly) more the four quarterly TNT specials. I have to admit, it's gonna be a tad confusing, at least for me. Rampage still on TNT, TBS has Dynamite, then quarterly specials on TNT. I can't say I quite understand all the channel hopping we have/will have to do.

And just how "special" are these TNT quarterly specials if they're just one measly hour like Rampage? Whereas the "special" named event Dynamites (Beach Blast, New Years Smash, etc) AEW has all the damn time are the full 2 hours?

They must know something I don't, because it's all a good bit confusing (and sometimes annoying). Nice to have more AEW events, but they feel scattered all over the place with not enough rhyme or reason.

Credit to Barstool Rasslin’ (per Wrestling Inc.):
“Saturday Night quarterly specials, Saturday night fight nights in prime time. They’ll be an hour at 8 PM, it’s a lot of fun. It was something that, along with the move to TBS, I was talking to TNT and we had something really great going with TNT in addition to TBS,” Khan said. “And they love Rampage. Rampage has been such a hit and it’s exceeded all expectations. It had a great lift of ratings towards the end of the year too, thanks to some great wrestlers and some great wrestling. Now Rampage is still on TNT Friday Nights and now Battle of the Belts is quarterly on TNT. First Battle of the Belts show.”

https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/20...-tnt-specials/

[choptop]

Freddy Prince Jr in his podcast said that Vince tried to sell the company to Fox. Vince's asking price was too high so Fox opt to license Smackdown instead.

Apparently Brock Lesnar refused to wrestle Jinder Mahal. It's why he dropped the title to AJ during the UK tour in 2017

Why would brock do that?

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Maybe he thought that Jinder wasn't experienced enough and he could get hurt or something along those lines, maybe he just didn't like the guy for some reason...

[titanfan]

With all these releases with NXT personal who is left to train the new guys? I bet Ace will do something stupid like rehire Bill Demott

They already released a bunch of wrestlers, there were probably too many trainers there in the system.

It would be hilarious if AEW hired Regal as General Manager.

[titanfan]

Maybe he thought that Jinder wasn't experienced enough and he could get hurt or something along those lines, maybe he just didn't like the guy for some reason...

I'm guessing he probably thought the same thing about Jinder that the fans were thinking at the time. ("Mostly WTF?!??!")

[titanfan]

Interesting that Mickie James is a confirmed entrant in the Royal Rumble. (WWE even acknowledging she's the current Impact Knockouts Champion)