Thursday, April 12, 2018

Pro Wrestling: It's WrestleMania week Part 4


I saw an early screening of The Rocks new movie Rampage. It's a fun popcorn movie based on a video game and has some UFC fighters in it. That's something else to add to the week that was WrestleMania events. For this post lets do some recapping, projections, reactions, and complaining about all the money I had to spend for next years WrestleMania week.


As usual the NXT TakeOver show was the best show of the weekend. What annoyed me to the point of fury was WrestleMania went until midnight Eastern Standard time. I know that sounds trivial but that show should not end at midnight for next years show. Having people leave from New Jersey back to New York at midnight on a Sunday is a bad idea. Therefore next years show needs to end at 11PM. Since the show might be 7 hours long the pre-show would have to start at 4PM with people coming into the building as early as 3PM, that's a sleep cycle. Going to WrestleMania next year will take up one-third of a day next year. What fan wants to leave MetLife Stadium at midnight, closer to 1AM if you know how long it takes to leave that place sometimes. No one wants that, especially if your going to Raw and Smackdown on the following days.

That's a big deal if your planning on going to Axxess, NXT, WrestleCon, and any indys shows around town. Think about it like this, I'm sure that if Fozzy is still on tour they'll play the Gramercy Theatre around WrestleMania time next year to get another sold out crowd. Some wrestlers have taken up doing comedy shows. There will be some DDP Yoga sessions around town. Planning for all the events that you may go to has to include travel time, food, and sleep times. If I'm going to WrestleMania next year I'll have to put aside money for food at the stadium along with any merchandise that might catch my attention. And comfortable shoes along with a warm hoodie since that stadium is still cold and windy in April.


This years show should have been much better then what it actually was. I said that the show needed to end on a positive note, it did not. Brock Lesnar walking up the ramp not even trying to face the crowd with the championship over his head was sad. I'm guessing that's the reason he and Vince had their backstage argument after the show. The WWE spent a lot on money on pyrotechnics that just went unused. I'm sure Vince was not happy about the crowd not getting that shot but the lose of pyro that can't be reused is a big deal. And of course Brock doesn't care about that since he was involved in another WrestleMania in New Orleans that had a bad ending. It was almost WrestleMania 20 bad in terms of reaction for him. That doe not help his drawing power, people booing you at the biggest show of the year only takes money out of your pockets long term.


The Roman Reigns experiment is almost over. Here's a little something to remember about WWE when it comes to whose the top star, they get that spot for five year. Looking back on the company since Hogan beat Sheik for the championship five years is usually the range where Vince stays with one person before moving onto someone else. Hogan had his run which ended with Ultimate Warrior, Bret ended when Austin was rising, Cenas run wasn't ten years it was five. After 2011 Vince had Punk, Bryan, and Brock in prominent spots that once were exclusively for Cena. Now with Roman Reigns it's been four years. Vince will go with Roman for one more year but after that a new person will need to take that spot.


The WWE Championship match did what it needed to do. Nakamura is now a heel, AJ is still champion and we have Money in the Bank coming soon. People should be happy that now the Nakamura that was the founder and leader of Chaos in New Japan gets to tear shit up in WWE. The faction is called Chaos so yes, they were supposed to be bad guys. They became babyfaces over time but they started as a heel faction. Will WWE really let Nakamura be the kind of heel that I think we all expect him to be? Did you know he has a book coming out in August? Will New Japan ever lower the prices on their Tanahashi and Nakamura DVDs so I don't have to pay $250 per boxset. Or will they put the interview portions on New Japan World, with English subtitles, so I can finally watch them?



I was right about Daniel Bryan leaving the General Manager position. I was wrong about who would replace him. That match between Bryan and Styles was very good. Bryan going back to the style (no pun intended) that made him one of the best wrestlers in the world will help prolong his career. I said it before and I'll say it again, BAN THE DIVING HEADBUTT. I hope they got the message.     

I feel sorry for Sheamus and Cesaro after WrestleMania. Not only did they get crushed by Brawny Strongman, he brought in a 4th grader to watch them get crushed. This whole Nicholas thing was terrible. It's the worst thing I have ever seen at a WrestleMania and I've seen a man get hanged inside a cage. There's an understanding that you suspend disbelief when watching pro wrestling, but this crossed that line by miles. This was embarrassing to see at a WrestleMania. Someone had the nerve on that blue social media site that starts with F to argue with me about how bad this was. I shut them down with this idea. The next time you see WWE programming say, these are trained professionals, please don't try this at home, remember that a ten year old boy won a championship at WrestleMania. It's the equivalent to Tom Brady going into the stands, bringing a one eyed old man into the field at the SuperBowl and throwing him the game winning touchdown pass.

That concept is too ludicrous to ever happen, if it did you'd never take Tom Brady seriously ever again. Whatever credibility Brawn Strowman was building as a badass went right out the window. I worry that soon he'll be like The Big Show with the back and forth heel, babyface, heel, jobber, jobber, whatever they feel like doing with him to get someone else over type of character. This should have been the start of his ascension to a world championship. Now, he becomes another victim of WWE booking themselves into a corner. They'll quit on him rather than keep him looking like a true monster among men.

I'm not surprised by wrestlers from the New Japan roster being at WrestleMania, except Suzuki, that was strange. I am surprised by their bad seats at the show. I figured they either went and spent their own money on tickets or got complementary seats. This trip for them might also serve as a recruiting drive. They can scout wrestlers in promotions they may not see often. They might even use it as a chance to recruit some WWE performers who may not like their spot on the card. I'm sure their was some side meetings between a few of them and WWE officials. All unofficial and secretive of course but a good feeling out meeting or two. I mentioned Okada to WWE in 2019, remember that.

All Japan Pro Wrestling finally got into the online streaming service business. It would be great timing for them to start since Champions Carnival 2018 is going on now. This should be a much bigger deal then it currently is. The Carnival has wrestlers from Dragon Gate, Pro Wrestling NOAH and more all performing in it. Even the former Triple Crown Champion Joe Doering will be in this years tournament. This should be a big deal since the winner gets to challenge current Triple Crown Champion Kento Miyahara. Why should this be a big deal? Where do you think New Japan will look to when they need to replace older stars with younger future stars.


On the New Japan side the Young Lions Project will be happening again. This is where New Japan starts to see which of their young boys are ready to become the next stars of the company. The team of Roppongi 3K were the Tempura Boys not even year ago. Now they are one of the feature acts in the Junior Tag Team division. The New Japan Young Lions Project is the equivalent of an NXT: TakeOver special. While not as flashy it is an important part of New Japans talent development program. The other part is bringing in wrestlers from other companies to work for New Japan. In recent times they have gotten away from bringing Japanese talents from other companies. I think that will start to change back to the old model now. Since New Japan has gained a bigger following outside of Japan they've gained a bump in cash flow. That extra Yen can be used to bring in talents like Miyahara, whose not even 30, to help New Japan.


You have to realize that bringing in foreign talent will still happen. The thing is New Japan is still a Japanese company built around promoting Japanese wrestlers. They will still need to find Japanese talents to not only save on travel costs but to help boost local outreach. They still have to show that Japanese talents can be as good as any foreign talent in any country. Therefore whether developing that talent themselves or acquiring their services away from another Japanese wrestling promotion is still a must. You have to understand that Triple H and his folks at NXT know this all to well. With All Japan now getting into the streaming business this may boost their audience outside of Japan. If they find that talent like Okada, Naito, or Nakamura they might get hot again. So before that happens either New Japan, WWE, even Impact wrestling have to pay a little bit more attention to All Japan. Don't think NXT won't get involved in stealing some these talents as well. No one ever said they would only take Japanese talents from New Japan, every company in that country is fair game.

All Japan is still in a bad spot. Their YouTube channel has less then 7,000 subscribers. Their house hows look like they happen in hotel conference halls. They've fallen a long way but that can turn around faster then you think. There was some kind of deal between WWE and All Japan a few years ago, I wonder if it still exists. If you were interested in watching All Japans service keep in mind they don't have the rights to the stuff from the 1990s and earlier, I think. It's still a step in the right direction, since the cost of the service is about $10 U.S. But I'll stick to the YouTube channel for now.

I hope you didn't mind that detour away from WWE into All Japan. There wasn't much point in talking about WrestleMania, NXT and the post shows that other people haven't covered already. I agree with most of them. Remember that I said they needed to end the show on a positive note, they failed. They needed Daniel Bryans match to happen at a certain spot on the show. That kind of happened but the match layout killed the crowd. The show was far too long, the match quality overall was below average. Charlotte versus Asuka is the only match that could have a sequel at a future WrestleMania. The Ring of Honor show was a one match show which Being the Elite did a better job of deep storytelling then Ring of Honor did. And so on, and so on.


I'm finally getting the hang of watching Lucha Libre. It's still ridiculous but I'm better at turning of common sense when watching those shows. I recommend subscribing to the YouTube channels to see whats going on. Don't forget about Twitch since I killed wrestling YouTube but brought it back on Twitch. Profits are up and growth is steadily going upward. No, I have not watched Impact Wrestling even though I have Pop Tv. I'm following Nick Aldis in the Aldis Crusade but I hope he goes to NXT soon. That man is too talented to be wasting his time trying to bring back a dead company. Let someone much younger be the face of that company. A young unproven talent who can ignite a new path for them is what they need. It worked for a while with AJ Styles if you know your history. In writing this post I found out that Dramatic Dream Team (D.D.T.) has a streaming service. Someone inform Cornette so he can have material to make his head explode.


The WWE Network just added WCW Saturday Night. I'm going to be a hermit this weekend with this show. Watching Stunning Steve Austin versus Ricky The Dragon Steamboat for the World Television was awesome back in the day. Enjoy.

   

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