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WWE/NXT/AEW/NJPW Thread

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I think the problem is that they need to sell it as a live show, so they can't film it all in advance. Plus, if they did that, there's a borderline 100% chance that the results would leak ahead of time.
Agreed. I'm just worried they're going to 1. Do a live show and put lots of people at risk. 2. Do the status quo like we saw on Raw and it falls flat.
This can be a big opportunity for the WWE if they can hit a homerun with Mania and their other televised events during this pandemic. Wrestling is the only sporting event that can still operate during these times and I hope the WWE can capitalize on that opportunity.
 
Check out dark side of the ring on YouTube or vice if you got it.. two 45 min parts about Chris Benoit. Was a solid watch.
 
The one good thing about being in quarantine is that it has gotten me back into wrestling as I recently purchased the WWE Network. Full disclosure: I was a rabid wrestling fan throughout the 90s (Monday Night Wars) and early 00s but started to naturally just lose interest post-2010. I was never a huge Cena fan and it was obvious that WWE was hellbent on putting him over to replace The Rock as THE guy.

I basically have started watching the last 5+ years of PPVs to essentially crash course myself into getting acclimated to the recent scene and am thrilled to see such an active thread regarding wrasslin.

My initial thoughts (up to about mid 2016 FYI) is that while Reigns is a good wrestler, my god is he a boring character with subpar mic skills. Hoping his total heel turn comes soon because its pretty hilarious hearing him booed excessively while the announce team try to act like he's still a babyface.

I am immediately drawn to the Wyatt Family stable (die-hard Taker and Kane fan so I am all about my oddball, evil dudes) and think their backwoods shtick just works. Also a big fan of the Kevin Owens / Sami Zayn feud - those guys are both excellent at selling.

All in all, I feel like the overall quality of wrestlers from a technical standpoint greatly rivals the 90's / 00's collectively as a roster but the storylines / characters just don't have that same oomph. Probably more-so due to nostalgia but nothing will ever top Stone Cold, The Rock, DX, nWo days, IMO.

With that said, curious as to who else I should be honing in on now? (keep in mind still rounding out 2016) Any of the other guys not named Reigns, Styles, Ambrose, Rollins, or Lesnar I should be keeping tabs on that are still relevant today?
 
The one good thing about being in quarantine is that it has gotten me back into wrestling as I recently purchased the WWE Network. Full disclosure: I was a rabid wrestling fan throughout the 90s (Monday Night Wars) and early 00s but started to naturally just lose interest post-2010. I was never a huge Cena fan and it was obvious that WWE was hellbent on putting him over to replace The Rock as THE guy.

I basically have started watching the last 5+ years of PPVs to essentially crash course myself into getting acclimated to the recent scene and am thrilled to see such an active thread regarding wrasslin.

My initial thoughts (up to about mid 2016 FYI) is that while Reigns is a good wrestler, my god is he a boring character with subpar mic skills. Hoping his total heel turn comes soon because its pretty hilarious hearing him booed excessively while the announce team try to act like he's still a babyface.

I am immediately drawn to the Wyatt Family stable (die-hard Taker and Kane fan so I am all about my oddball, evil dudes) and think their backwoods shtick just works. Also a big fan of the Kevin Owens / Sami Zayn feud - those guys are both excellent at selling.

All in all, I feel like the overall quality of wrestlers from a technical standpoint greatly rivals the 90's / 00's collectively as a roster but the storylines / characters just don't have that same oomph. Probably more-so due to nostalgia but nothing will ever top Stone Cold, The Rock, DX, nWo days, IMO.

With that said, curious as to who else I should be honing in on now? (keep in mind still rounding out 2016) Any of the other guys not named Reigns, Styles, Ambrose, Rollins, or Lesnar I should be keeping tabs on that are still relevant today?
Watch the NXT TakeOvers 90% of them are better than anything Raw and Smackdown has put out in the last decade.

Adam Cole
Johnny Gargano
Tommaso Ciampa
Velveteen Dream
Keith Lee
Matt Riddle
Pete Dunne

are the current NXT guys I really enjoy

AJ Styles
Aleister Black - NXT
Andrade - NXT
Kevin Owens - NXT
Ricochet - NXT
Samoa Joe - NXT
Sami Zayn - NXT
Buddy Murphy - NXT
Seth Rollins
Cesaro
Daniel Bryan
Dolph Ziggler
Bray Wyatt
Shinsuke Nakamura - NXT
Robert Roode - NXT
Drew McIntyre - NXT

are some current main roster guys that I have enjoyed (many of them were much better during their time in NXT)

Best feuds/matches
Zayn vs Nakamura (Nakamura's debut) - 2016 NXT TakeOver: Dallas
American Alpha vs The Revival - Any match up
DIY vs The Revival - Any match up but TakeOver Toronto was the peak
Gargano vs Ciampa
Cole vs Gargano at TakeOver: New York and TakeOver XXV were incredible
Lee vs Dijakovic

Really any match involving any of those NXT guys on a TakeOver was likely gold or close to it
 
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I'll second watching NXT over main roster WWE. It's just so much better. Honestly, I'd kind of recommend starting with the Takeover where Kevin Owens debuted and Sami Zayn main evented for the NXT title against Neville. That's the show that got me back into wrestling. I don't recall specifically which Takeover it was, but they've all been good to great ever since. The past two years or so they've been pretty uniformly spectacular.
 
Does anybody else think WWE should have postponed and combined Wrestlemania with Summerslam?

They could have made it a two-night event still, and hyped it as the biggest weekend in WWE history.
 
No one else watching AEW?

also Roman is out for Mania.
 
also Roman is out for Mania.

Smart of him given that he's an at risk individual.

Does make me wonder if they filmed his match with Goldberg (all the 'Mania matches are going to be pre-recorded) and it was so bad that they decided to throw it out and sacrifice someone else instead.
 
Smart of him given that he's an at risk individual.

Does make me wonder if they filmed his match with Goldberg (all the 'Mania matches are going to be pre-recorded) and it was so bad that they decided to throw it out and sacrifice someone else instead.
If they were worried about match quality then replacing him with Strowman is a mistake
 
No one else watching AEW?

also Roman is out for Mania.
I never manage to catch anything live, and wwe is on Hulu. So I end up watching way more of it.
 
Does anybody else think WWE should have postponed and combined Wrestlemania with Summerslam?

They could have made it a two-night event still, and hyped it as the biggest weekend in WWE history.

I think any successful attempt to return to normal, at the earliest time that particular attempt can be done safely and feasibly, is a good thing,

Not worth postponing.
 
I think any successful attempt to return to normal, at the earliest time that particular attempt can be done safely and feasibly, is a good thing,

Not worth postponing.
I don't understand what you mean
 
Was just looking at some match records on profightdb

Seth Rollins and Sami Zayn have really gotten a bad shake. They've been put in terrible positions to have good matches.

Rollins won the title at WM35 and then we got a one-off with AJ Styles that was a great match-up. After that, he went into a program with Baron Corbin (sucks), had a quick thing with Lesnar again (actually had a really good match at Summerslam), but then went into programs with Strowman and The Fiend.

As for Zayn, he hasn't been as active over the last year (healing up from shoulder injuries I presume), but before that his most recent singles matches on PPV were with Lashley, Strowman, and Baron Corbin. He had a great feud with Owens that culminated at Battleground '16 with him winning, and they went nowhere with it!

This is why TakeOvers are so much better than WWE PPVs. They actually match up guys who can work. There's certainly a place for the monster giants and brawlers, but that's almost all we see in the main event scene. Even when a guy like Rollins breaks through, he's met with a slew of lumbering brawlers.

Give me more Rollins/Styles/Bryan/Zayn/Owens/Black/etc... There are so many guys who are so damn exciting in the ring when given a chance, but we hardly ever get to see them have extended programs with each other.
 

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