Wrestling questions thread

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Big Boss Man
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Wrestling questions thread

Post by Big Boss Man »

We had one of these on the old board so thought I'd bring it back. Was thinking what is the worst ever wrestling promotion?. Not just worst drawing in terms of ticket sales, PPV buys etc but everything about it was wack. WEW, Wrestlicious, the Urban Wrestling Federation, WWA are all among the top candidates for the accolade of worst promotion ever.

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

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Urban Wrestling was funny at least. Bryan & Vinny reviewing it was pure gold.









I never saw Wrestlelicious. I did see one episode of WEW and it was fucking terrible. It was the darkest filmed wrestling show I ever saw, and the highlight was a blind referee doing a Stevie Wonder gimmick.

My pick will always go to Herb Abram's UWF. That was a nightmare on every level. I don't mind bad wrestling if you can laugh at it like Russo's stuff or Urban Wrestling. But there was nothing amusing about UWF outside of the time Abrams announced he was in negotiations to bring Bruiser Brody in. In 1991.

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Re: Wrestling questions thread

Post by Dr. Zoidberg »

Yeah I was gonna say that Urban Wrestling Federation wasn't that bad.

Wrestlicious was quite horrible.


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Big Boss Man
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Re: Wrestling questions thread

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Yea, I was harsh on the Urban Wrestling fed as that's probably right up my street as it's Hip hop/pro wrestling (DEF JAM VENDETTA~!) but I mean the execution of the idea was kinda wrong. I mean they got Melle Mel involved but if they got some of the newer school rappers in when they like manage or have their own crew and they go up against the other rappers crews (kinda like the ATT vs Blackzillians Ultimate Fighter type deal) that would have been better. Plus they should have brought in New Jack for the UWF as like commiss and wrestlers like Low Ki, Homicide was there, but guys who can put on good matches and not really too heavily on the Hip Hop gimmick. I mean in the reviews Bry & Vinny talk about guys getting got and can you imagine that in the WWE or TNA were they wack guys?. Kinda like if they did a Mob type gimmick and you hear JBL go "Maggle, Adam Rose won't be hear this week cause he's sleepin' wit da fishes!".

Wrestlicious could have been fun (and is a little I guess), you know like a GLOW 2.0 and they could have brought in wrestlers who could work and balanced them out with more eye-candy types like Lacey Von Erich et al. But it's more like a parody of GLOW and kinda falls flat because of that and the "comedy" & character development skits don't really work. But really they could have a real women's wrestling fed which could have drawn money in ticket sales and such but to my knowledge outside of the TV tapings they never did a live event.

As for Herb's UWF, IIRC Cactus had some wacky stories about the guy in his first book. I think they had a good enough roster to make something out of it, Steve Williams, Paul Orndorff, Bob Orton, Don Muraco not huge stars but good hands. But I think the biggest complaint was the squash matches and how it was run makes TNA look like a Fortune 500 company.

As for WEW, you can relieve it here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkRRHs ... B1mYRVd7WA They had SHEIKY~! at one of their shows, and Scott Hudson too ;) here: Plus it had ODB~!

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

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New question~! You are the new buyer of TNA!, who do you sign/release, bring in as head of relations/booker/announcer(s) et al

For me I'd bring back the Young Bucks & sign Adam Cole, Adam Page & Kenny Omega so the main players of the Bullet Club is in TNA. They'd be the Four Horsemen-esque faction. I'd also bring in the Briscoes and have them have their own Rebel outlaw type faction which is anti-authority and the antithesis to the DX/nWo-esque Bullet Club. Plus I'd bring back War Games~!for a big payoff angle.

I'd also bring back the MCMG, Jay Lethal, Kaz, Chris Daniels. I'd also bring in Adam Rose but give him his old South African gimmick back. Also Don West~! has to come back to hype PPVs & such & alongside JR is Don 'Cyrus' Callis on announce team. Sinister Minister's coming back too to manage Decay.

For head of talent relations I'm going for JR, whos doing double duty as a commentor. Dutch I'd bring in for creative. We rag on him but I'd bring back Vinny Ru & also Ed Ferrera for creative too. Why? you need to think outside the box and if you had someone oversee their ideas you can filter out the BS to get to the good stuff. Plus you have to do something un-PG to get ahead of the WWE. Not OTT T&A gimmick matches, but make it a new Attitude type era where you have real 3dimensional type characters and ones fans can relate too. EC3 has his cocky heel gimmick back and he's stole Maria from Mikey so thats a big feud there and one Vince & Ed could go to town on and think of some inventive stuff plus it harks back to the old school Tully Blanchard type angles.

Such a shame he passed, as Larry Sweeney would have been one of the first names I'd have brought in, he'd have been the Bobby Heenan of TNA & like Bobby he'd have done double duty too as a manager and announcer alongside JR.

As for who I'd release - noone. The roster's paper thin and the moment so everyone would be given an opportunity to showcase their skills and work for a spot higher up the card. Also TNA and Impact names are gone, main focus is the X Division so Rated X Wrestling (or something similar) is the new name. Wrestling is in and inventive storylines that mean something & build to conclusions & matches fans want to see and are personally invested in. Wacky irrelevant 20 hour long monologues are out, as are nonsensical storylines. Also I'd try and build new talent so although I was thinking of bringing in Hogan & Friends for 'mainstream publicity', Hulk doing his "I'm sorry brothers" could have got a good rating maybe, but nope I'm going for good hands and guys & girls who'll bust their asses for the fans and for the betterment of the biz.

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Re: Wrestling questions thread

Post by Dr. Zoidberg »

I'd just copy NXT, they are only a step above that now anyway. Keep it cheap & basic, try and find new stars that will hopefully get people wanting to check them out.

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

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Yea that seems like a smart move business wise since injecting but money into the company for pyro, flashy sets and big contracts for talent would create a similar situation they had before when the roster was laden down by Hulk and friend's. I have also heard some good things about Dalton Castle so they'd be signed. Talent agreements with New Japan, AAA et AL are a must too. When UK tours are on an angle with ICW is another big thing that will draw, especially in Scotland. With TV tapings I'm going to stick with the Impact Zone or the X arena, try and get PPV in bigger arenas and do some house shows if things took off. So yea a hybrid of NXT, Old 2006/07 Era TNA, ROH and with some classic JCP/NWA vibes. I like the idea of the territory system so X Rated Wrestling would be a new NWA style umbrella company where you can work with the top Indies although they would run semi autonomic with the promotion.

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

Post by Ocelot »

This company is beyond saving. I'd close it down, sell the TNA library to Vince, and go far far away.

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

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What is universally lauded as the worst ever WWF/WWE PPV match and main event. Big Kev vs Mabel at KOTR. One match and considering the participant's it should have been good but the No Way Out 02 match between Y2J and Austin was bad, I remember watching it at the time and thought it was on the match's you'd fast forward it was on one of the old Coliseum tapes. Any reason why not wasn't good? Seemed like Steve was disinterested so maybe he didn't want to work with Jericho and put on a stinker on purpose?.

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

Post by Bandit »

Mabe/Nash at Summerslam wasn't that terrible. Nash/Bam Bam vs Tatanka/Sid at KOTR was the worst main event in '95. That's my pick for worst WWE match since I paid to see it (I was hoping for HBK/Taker in the tournament.)

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

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When Vince Jr went national what would have happened if the first Mania tanked?. Would there still have been a big rise in popularity in the mid 80s or would the wrestling biz have closed shop and stuck with the tried and tested territories based business structure. Personally I think without Jr and the WWF pro wrestling would never have hit the heights it did in the 80s and during the Attitude Era. Love em or Loathe him but Vinny Mac changed the business, for better or worse. Also without Hulk as the top guy in the WWF who would you have gone with as the #1 guy to tag with T and appear on MTV etc. Macho?, a baby face Hot Rod or do you sign someone else from the territories?.

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

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Possibly Crockett. Flair was cool enough to be on MTV since he was the David Lee Roth of wrestling in 1985 when Diamond Dave was the man. But Verne didn't get it and Fritz didn't even understand why they should get action figures. So Vince is the only guy we know for sure got it. But Crockett maybe with a chance would have put Flair on MTV and Dusty on TNN. Hogan guest VJ'ed once and got over, so imagine Flair with that opportunity talking about Madonna. It would have been huge. And Cornette was a guest DJ on the biggest rock station in Dallas, so maybe he could have been on MTV as well cutting promos on Duran Duran. "The Reflex?! My only Reflex is to vomit in the nearest toilet whenever I see you sissies!"

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

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Was watching the Corny/Bobby at Cornette Castle that Zoidy posted and Jim has a ton of tapes. Does anybody know what wrestling is on the tapes and are the actual master tapes or just stuff he's been given/recorded and it's stuff already in circulation amongst tape traders?.

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

Post by Bandit »

Meltzer said he had some Mid South house shows no one else has. He may have some Memphis masters, too. He also has some Crockett masters.

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

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OK thanks. I wonder if they are legit master tapes since I assume WWE would have some degree of ownership rights over those considering they own the JCP/WCw and Mid South tape libraries. The Memphis tape library ownership is all over the place. I think if WWE put Memphis on the network it would be very well received. As for house shows I doubt they'd be fan cams so broadcastable quality house shows would be something WWE should licensed/buy from Corny for the network too. Speaking of wrestling tapes what is the earliest time frame that fans could record stuff and start off the whole tape trading circuit. I'd imagine early 80s when the VCR became more popular. Betamax had superior picture quality but limitations regarding amount of time to record on cassette. I wonder if say VHS was available back in the 40s/50s how much first industry boom footage (first wrestling on the DuMont network) they'd be available?.

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

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From what he said, when Turner bought Crockett, they told them they just wanted the TV and supercard/PPV library and didn't care about all of the live events they taped. So one of the Crocketts gave them to Jim. So he doesn't own the rights. Although maybe he could go to court and argue he does like RF Video did with ECW, but Feinstein had a contract from Heyman and Corny doesn't.

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

Post by Big Boss Man »

OK thanks. Maybe Corny could license the matches to the NWA ondemand library or put out DVDs/Blu-Rays. Although I'd imagine WWE would legally still have some rights over the footage but if it's not stipulated they have all rights to JCP footage then I'd imagine the Crockett family/estate would essentially 'own' the footage still, but Jim would be in possession of it. Kinda like when a record label keeps a master tape(s) of a recording(s).

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

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Watching Superbrawl II recently and Terry Taylor is dressed almost exact like the Million Dollar Man in his "tailor made man" gimmick. Did Vince and the WWF pick up on this. Has there also been any almost carbon copies of other gimmicks. Some others which come to mind are The Rockers=Rock and Roll express and Powers of Pain=Road Warriors.

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

Post by Dr. Zoidberg »

What about fake Diesel & Fake Razor Ramon? WWE copied themselves!

The Renegade = Ultimate Warrior

Asya = Chyna

Buzzkill = Road Dogg
Big Boss Man wrote:Powers of Pain=Road Warriors.
Demolition = RW as well.

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Re: Wrestling questions thread

Post by Bandit »

The original Nation of Domination were a rip off of the SMW version of the Gangstas. Hulk Hogan was a Billy Graham rip off as a heel.

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