Hey it's the first [Wrestling] thread of 2017

wirehead26

Thought I might try and start the new thread. Discuss wrestling! Such as how good Smackdown Live is now!

Sprout

That IC title match was super great!

Does this mean that Dean Ambrose is just a Tag Team title away from being a Grand Slam champion now?

BlankZoe

Sprout wrote: »

That IC title match was super great!

Does this mean that Dean Ambrose is just a Tag Team title away from being a Grand Slam champion now?

He was before the match, he was IC champ last year and late 2015.

Owenashi

I know the Miz has lost the belt before if briefly but the end of that match still had me thinking this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J6-3l3hCm0

Sprout

Blankzilla wrote: »

Sprout wrote: »

That IC title match was super great!

Does this mean that Dean Ambrose is just a Tag Team title away from being a Grand Slam champion now?

He was before the match, he was IC champ last year and late 2015.

You make a good point.

Crippl3

"Why would you do that?"
Thanks ref, for saying what everyone was thinking.

Sweeney Tom

ShopTNA is incredible

Sweeney Tom

PS(A): Wrestle Kingdom in a few hours, gonna be the greatest wrestling card of 2017, MOTYCs out the wazoo

BlankZoe

While I don't doubt Wrestle Kingdom will be amazing there are 4 NXT Takeovers this year and they have been bringing the fuckin' thunder so I wouldn't say it is for sure the best already

Nirya

Also, last year's Wrestle Kingdom wasn't super great, just carried by a few great matches.

PwnanObrien

Blankzilla wrote: »

While I don't doubt Wrestle Kingdom will be amazing there are 4 NXT Takeovers this year and they have been bringing the fuckin' thunder so I wouldn't say it is for sure the best already

Last year's show had KUSHIDA VS Kenny Omega, Ishii vs Shibata for the NEVER title, Nakamura VS AJ Styles for the IC title and a main event of Okada taking on Tanahashi for the rubber match, the IWGP Heavyweight title and the role of top ace in the company. Between New Japan and NXT 2016 was a parade of MOTY candidates and I don't doubt 2017 will be much different.

PwnanObrien

Also holy shit that Lashley...towel? Shirt? Curiously stylized anatomy aside it's real clear the artist just discovered the gradient fill option in Photoshop.

Sweeney Tom

http://6abc.com/1684448/

A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday dismissed the murder case against former pro wrestler Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, saying he is not competent to stand trial in the 1983 death of his girlfriend.

The decision by Lehigh County Judge Kelly Banach comes a month after Snuka's lawyer told the court that his 73-year-old client has dementia, is in hospice care in Florida and has six months to live.

Blankzilla wrote: »

While I don't doubt Wrestle Kingdom will be amazing there are 4 NXT Takeovers this year and they have been bringing the fuckin' thunder so I wouldn't say it is for sure the best already

I have Thoughts about Takeover that will probably get a lot of hate here, so I'll keep quiet and leave it at "they've had great matches but overrated endings"

Zayn/Nakamura was alright but not that great imo (especially compared to other matches each have had separately, both elsewhere and, in Zayn's case, in NXT), and Takeovers would have been a lot better in every case except his last one if Finn's match hadn't been the main event

Nirya

You don't have to keep Takeover opinions quiet. For example, the Takeovers would be so much better if they weren't determined to book Asuka like Brock Lesnar at the expense of the entire NXT Women's Division.

PwnanObrien

Ok. In the same way Okada has the best dropkick and Alicia Fox has the best bridging suplexes Mustafa Ali officially has the best tornado DDT. I'm pretty sure the CGI ninjas WWE uses for bumpers between cruiserweight segments aren't that fluid.

Radius

I'm so proud of my boy Giant Tiger getting to be in the first wave of people that matter declaring they'll win the Rumble.

Also for ridding the world of face Ziggler.

Nirya

Also, my brother decided to stay up with me to watch WK 11 tonight, which is cool. I still wish NJPWWorld was easy to use, but that's just personal problems.

PwnanObrien

Mustafa Ali is SO much better as a face.

wirehead26

Mustafa Ali wins another match, cool.

Lasbrook

Please

PLEASE stop saying Alicia Fox like that.

Crippl3

Lasbrook wrote: »

Please

PLEASE stop saying Alicia Fox like that.

(warning: very loud)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfBZwxGB0MI

Sprout

Nirya wrote: »

You don't have to keep Takeover opinions quiet. For example, the Takeovers would be so much better if they weren't determined to book Asuka like Brock Lesnar at the expense of the entire NXT Women's Division.

Yeah, turning Asuka into distaff Goldberg was probably a mistake. The NXT women's division is in a really tough spot, though. Aside from Asuka, literally everyone they spent any amount of time building up over the last year-and-a-half got called up. So they've basically got to start from scratch with Performance Center trainees and indy wrestlers who are just now being introduced to the audience. It's gonna take a good amount of time to build anyone up to be a credible threat, but it looks like they're starting that process with Nikki Cross.

Sprout

Lasbrook wrote: »

Please

PLEASE stop saying Alicia Fox like that.

Counterpoint: ALWAYS say Alicia Fox like that.

PwnanObrien

Nirya wrote: »

Also, my brother decided to stay up with me to watch WK 11 tonight, which is cool. I still wish NJPWWorld was easy to use, but that's just personal problems.

I always use https://njpwworld.com/auth?lang=en and it works fine. The translation's a bit spotty in parts but really the worst part is that it's coded to bounce you back a page rather than direct you to NJPWWorld.com and that's really just the minor annoyance of having to re-type the address.

411Randle

Sprout wrote: »

Nirya wrote: »

You don't have to keep Takeover opinions quiet. For example, the Takeovers would be so much better if they weren't determined to book Asuka like Brock Lesnar at the expense of the entire NXT Women's Division.

Yeah, turning Asuka into distaff Goldberg was probably a mistake. The NXT women's division is in a really tough spot, though. Aside from Asuka, literally everyone they spent any amount of time building up over the last year-and-a-half got called up. So they've basically got to start from scratch with Performance Center trainees and indy wrestlers who are just now being introduced to the audience. It's gonna take a good amount of time to build anyone up to be a credible threat, but it looks like they're starting that process with Nikki Cross.

Pretty much this. After the draft and Bayley leaving, the NXT Women's Division basically was Asuka, a bunch of newbies, and a debuting Ember Moon. They basically had to bring in Mickie James to face Asuka at Toronto because there literally were no credible challengers left. Now that some time has passed, they've built up Ember, Nikki, and the Full Sail Sirens to some extent (although Peyon and Billie are clearly sacrificial lambs to feed to Asuka at San Antonio), and with that Women's tournament on the way, I wouldn't be shocked if Asuka loses some matches soon.

Reynolds

What time does Wrestle Kingdom start? I might stay up and catch it.

Also, the wolf shirt Baron Corbin has been wearing isn't one of his up for sale on the shop...is it a new shirt, or for something else? I don't see his name/logo on the back, which makes it seem like it's not a WWE shirt...

PwnanObrien

Yo, the crowd is getting into this match because it's really good and there's a bit of character work going on.

Shocking.

Nirya

411Randle wrote: »

Sprout wrote: »

Nirya wrote: »

You don't have to keep Takeover opinions quiet. For example, the Takeovers would be so much better if they weren't determined to book Asuka like Brock Lesnar at the expense of the entire NXT Women's Division.

Yeah, turning Asuka into distaff Goldberg was probably a mistake. The NXT women's division is in a really tough spot, though. Aside from Asuka, literally everyone they spent any amount of time building up over the last year-and-a-half got called up. So they've basically got to start from scratch with Performance Center trainees and indy wrestlers who are just now being introduced to the audience. It's gonna take a good amount of time to build anyone up to be a credible threat, but it looks like they're starting that process with Nikki Cross.

Pretty much this. After the draft and Bayley leaving, the NXT Women's Division basically was Asuka, a bunch of newbies, and a debuting Ember Moon. They basically had to bring in Mickie James to face Asuka at Toronto because there literally were no credible challengers left. Now that some time has passed, they've built up Ember, Nikki, and the Full Sail Sirens to some extent (although Peyon and Billie are clearly sacrificial lambs to feed to Asuka at San Antonio), and with that Women's tournament on the way, I wouldn't be shocked if Asuka loses some matches soon.

My point is that it didn't help that at no point Asuka looked to be in any sort of trouble. You can talk about how also losing Bayley, Alexa, Nia, and Carmella was unexpected for the division, but Bayley had just lost twice to Asuka in pretty convincing fashion, as had Nia, while Alexa and Carmella were never put on that level. Don't book an unstoppable monster if you don't have an exit strategy, because otherwise you end up with a weakened division.

wirehead26

That was an overall solid episode of 205 Live.

PwnanObrien

Reynolds wrote: »

What time does Wrestle Kingdom start? I might stay up and catch it.

12AM Pacific, 3AM Eastern, 8AM UK, 5PM Japan

It's apparently going to be four and a half hours long with a pre-show airing beforehand. Also there's no intermission. Though, hey, I bet you could go for a piss break during the NEVER Openweight tag team gauntlet or while Shibata chokes Goto to death.

Sweeney Tom

PwnanObrien wrote: »

Reynolds wrote: »

What time does Wrestle Kingdom start? I might stay up and catch it.

12AM Pacific, 3AM Eastern, 8AM UK, 5PM Japan

It's apparently going to be four and a half hours long with a pre-show airing beforehand. Also there's no intermission. Though, hey, I bet you could go for a piss break during the NEVER Openweight tag team gauntlet or while Shibata chokes Goto to death.

And if you don't want to stay up, it'll be immediately archived on World when it ends, so you can just watch the whole thing later when you're awake

EspantaPajaro

Smackdown was good tonight , love the AJ/ cena segment.

PwnanObrien

I do wish New Japan would match WWE Network's tech of saving your spot in a video.

Reynolds

Sweeney Tom wrote: »

PwnanObrien wrote: »

Reynolds wrote: »

What time does Wrestle Kingdom start? I might stay up and catch it.

12AM Pacific, 3AM Eastern, 8AM UK, 5PM Japan

It's apparently going to be four and a half hours long with a pre-show airing beforehand. Also there's no intermission. Though, hey, I bet you could go for a piss break during the NEVER Openweight tag team gauntlet or while Shibata chokes Goto to death.

And if you don't want to stay up, it'll be immediately archived on World when it ends, so you can just watch the whole thing later when you're awake

I am normally up fairly late, that's starting at 2AM for me which isn't that bad. I can probably run it in the background while playing Granblue or something, and really tune in for the big matches. Are they doing any English commentary again this year?

Lasbrook

In this week's Talking Smack we get down to the hard questions.

Do Carmella and Ellsworth fuck?

Nirya

Reynolds wrote: »

Sweeney Tom wrote: »

PwnanObrien wrote: »

Reynolds wrote: »

What time does Wrestle Kingdom start? I might stay up and catch it.

12AM Pacific, 3AM Eastern, 8AM UK, 5PM Japan

It's apparently going to be four and a half hours long with a pre-show airing beforehand. Also there's no intermission. Though, hey, I bet you could go for a piss break during the NEVER Openweight tag team gauntlet or while Shibata chokes Goto to death.

And if you don't want to stay up, it'll be immediately archived on World when it ends, so you can just watch the whole thing later when you're awake

I am normally up fairly late, that's starting at 2AM for me which isn't that bad. I can probably run it in the background while playing Granblue or something, and really tune in for the big matches. Are they doing any English commentary again this year?

Kevin Kelley and Steve Corino are doing English commentary.

....so the Japanese commentary is preferable in this situation.

Reynolds

I have no idea who those two are.

Also, someone find me that wolf shirt. I need it.

PwnanObrien

Man, everything The Miz is involved in is so entertaining these days. The way they've tied both hosts of Talking Smack into it and culminated tonight's shows in that last segment was just perfect. Smackdown's so much better than RAW.

Sweeney Tom

Nirya wrote: »

Reynolds wrote: »

Sweeney Tom wrote: »

PwnanObrien wrote: »

Reynolds wrote: »

What time does Wrestle Kingdom start? I might stay up and catch it.

12AM Pacific, 3AM Eastern, 8AM UK, 5PM Japan

It's apparently going to be four and a half hours long with a pre-show airing beforehand. Also there's no intermission. Though, hey, I bet you could go for a piss break during the NEVER Openweight tag team gauntlet or while Shibata chokes Goto to death.

And if you don't want to stay up, it'll be immediately archived on World when it ends, so you can just watch the whole thing later when you're awake

I am normally up fairly late, that's starting at 2AM for me which isn't that bad. I can probably run it in the background while playing Granblue or something, and really tune in for the big matches. Are they doing any English commentary again this year?

Kevin Kelley and Steve Corino are doing English commentary.

....so the Japanese commentary is preferable in this situation.

Agreed but at least Striker isn't doing the commentary this year. Could be far worse

BlankZoe

And Dean with an early contender for line of the Year

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/816506910643875840

wirehead26

Blankzilla wrote: »

And Dean with an early contender for line of the Year

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/816506910643875840

Yep