Does Anyone Watch Wrestling? (WWE, AEW, TNA, NWA, etc)

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Smackdown tonight.

Night one of the WWE 2024 Draft.
Cody Rhodes & AJ Styles contract signing.
CM Punk appearance.

Dominik has since tweeted out that he doesn't need surgery on his elbow injury.
 
Draft was uneventful. Bron Breakker to Raw is probably the main highlight behind Nia Jax to Smackdown. Most stayed in their original brands

Not necessarily a bad thing, it had Bron Breakker to Raw stand out helped by his squash match earlier (which poor Cedric though)
 
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We still have Monday, might change up.

New matches for Backlash
  • Women's Championship Triple Threat (Bayley v Naomi v Stratton)
  • KO and Orton v Solo and Tama Tonga
 
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More Draft picks were announced on social media today, the most interesting one being Baron Corbin moving from NXT to Smackdown. Its a bit werid that they are making a big deal of Carmelo Hayes moving to Smackdown when he had already had some matches on the brand. I'm happy for Kiana James moving from NXT to Raw.

Carlito finally turned on Rey Mysterio and attacked him after security footage revealed that it was him who attacked Dragon Lee a few weeks ago.
 
Yeah he's finally signed a deal which is a reported three years with a big pay raise, he is currently dealing with a hyper-extended elbow so I don't know how long he will be out of action for, he was working with the injury during the recent UK tour which was appreciated backstage.
 
Advertised for Raw tonight.

Night two of the WWE Draft.
Logan Paul appearance.
Judgment Day v Andrade, Jey Uso & Ricochet.

Any predictions for the Draft tonight, my guess is Gunther to Smackdown.
 
Second night of the Draft was a little more news-worthy with a few more people switching brands and more NXT call ups.

The following all switched brands last night.

Damage CTRL.
LWO.
The Final Testament.
Shinsuke Nakamura.
Chelsea Green & Piper Niven.
DIY.
Candice La Rae & Indi Hartwell.
Giovanni Vinci
New Catch Republic
Tegan Nox
Apollo Crews
Kayden Carter & Katana Chance

The NXT call ups were Ilja Dragunov, Lyra Valkryia & Dijak all moving to Raw with Blair Davenport moving to Smackdown.

The Draft dominated the show so there wasn't much in ring stuff, There was two title matches with the IC title being fought between Zayn and Bronson Reed but that match barely got going before Chad Gable got involved and caused the DQ, Awesome Truth picked up an easy title defense win over Otis & Tozawa. CM Punk appeared and continues to get under the skin of Drew McIntyre. Main event was the six man tag which was pretty good.

Backlash is this Saturday with only four matches on the current card.
 
WWE has curated an updated list of all the times that Rey Mysterio has been betrayed:

Eddie Guerrero in 2005
Chavo Guerrero in 2006
Vicki Guerrero in 2006
Batista in 2009
Dominik Mysterio in 2022
Santos Escobar in 2023
Carlito in 2024

Rey needs to stop being so trusting. :lol:
 
MUSC4EVER
WWE has curated an updated list of all the times that Rey Mysterio has been betrayed:

Eddie Guerrero in 2005
Chavo Guerrero in 2006
Vicki Guerrero in 2006
Batista in 2009
Dominik Mysterio in 2022
Santos Escobar in 2023
Carlito in 2024

Rey needs to stop being so trusting. :lol:
Click to expand...
Sting:
trailer youll get used to it GIF by Zombillenium
 
MUSC4EVER
WWE has curated an updated list of all the times that Rey Mysterio has been betrayed:

Eddie Guerrero in 2005
Chavo Guerrero in 2006
Vicki Guerrero in 2006
Batista in 2009
Dominik Mysterio in 2022
Santos Escobar in 2023
Carlito in 2024

Rey needs to stop being so trusting. :lol:
Click to expand...
Weird the must trusting wrestler didnt get betrayed by the must untrustworthy wrestler (Big Show)
 
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MUSC4EVER
WWE has curated an updated list of all the times that Rey Mysterio has been betrayed:

Eddie Guerrero in 2005
Chavo Guerrero in 2006
Vicki Guerrero in 2006
Batista in 2009
Dominik Mysterio in 2022
Santos Escobar in 2023
Carlito in 2024

Rey needs to stop being so trusting. :lol:
Click to expand...
This seems too short, but he really wasn't in much team/faction stuff for a while was he? Wonder what it looks like if WCW is added.
 
WiisardNic
Yes, there's a lot of burnout from US Wrestling to be honest. The fact that Raw is 3 hours long (3 hours long) is irritating beyond belief, I very rarely sit and watch a whole show. Smackdown is a lot more bearable, I can do that a bit more often. But for Raw, I only really watch it on the side (like today) if it's a Work From Home day for me on a second monitor.

Have been slowly doing a rewatch from WrestleMania 17 to WrestleMania 19 (currently up to the lead in to Unforgiven 2002), and can actually sit and watch the shows when I sit down for them. I can't do that very often anymore except for PPV/PLE's.

That's a good segue for me - I love lineage lists (did one on the World Endurance Championship recently, which tbh is still a work in progress), but did a full list of "World Champions" and how many reigns they have (at least in my books, there's been a couple small changes) for both Men's and Women's. So... Charlotte is on top of course. Becky is now the second highest of solely WWE branded World Championships.

Can share more in depth later on if you all want - but essentially (for equality purposes) - both Men's and Women's lists feature the reigns from the same companies. I started with the Men's list, and pretty much included any "World Championship" that was either considered THE championship, or at an equal to THE championship at any point in time (however, this means including it's complete lineage, so modern day NWA is still World Championship status). Plus Japan's two largest companies.
So for Men's that list includes:
  • Original World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship, which morphed into the:
  • NWA World's Heavyweight Championship, which theoretically split into the following five titles at some point in time:
  • WWE Championship
  • WCW World Championship
  • ECW World Heavyweight Championship
  • TNA World Heavyweight Championship
  • AWA World Heavyweight Championship
  • WCW International Championship (which I believe is Ric Flair returning to WCW with the NWA Championship before WCW unifying everything into the WCW Championship - before WCW and NWA split for good - I'm summarising that very basically there)
  • AEW World Championship
  • WWE World Heavyweight Championship (WWE recognises the current as separate, but I'm considering it a re-activated title)
  • WWE Universal Championship (I am currently considering it deactivated as of the WrestleMania 38 unification match)
  • IWGP World Heavyweight Championship (and it's predecessors - IWGP Heavyweight Championship, the offshoot interim championship when Brock Lesnar/Kurt Angle wrestled with IGF, and the first iteration of the NWF Heavyweight Championship, + the original IWGP Heavyweight Championship)
  • Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship of All-Japan Pro Wrestling (as well as specifically the lineage of the PWF World Championship that was part of that unification)
Essentially using the equivalents for the Women's World Championships, gives the following titles to use:
  • Original Women's World Championship, which morphed into the:
  • NWA Women's World Championship. This was also recognised as the WWF Women's Championship until they left the NWA, so all of Moolah's WWF Championship reigns (bar the last one) I have recognised as NWA Women's World Championship reigns. Before that happened though, it was split into the following two titles:
  • AWA Women's World Championship
  • WWWA Single's Championship (of the now-defunct All-Japan Women's Pro Wrestling)
  • WWE Women's Championship (from Moolah's last reign up to the Divas title unification in 2010).
  • WWE Women's Championship (current title that Bayley holds, but I am including the Divas Championship lineage in this - this is where Charlotte loses one of her WWE recognised reigns, as to me she just successfully defended her title at WrestleMania 32 and was presented with a new championship belt).
  • WWE Women's World Championship (current Becky Lynch title, plus.... whatever the lineage of the other title was)
  • WCW Women's Championship
  • TNA Knockouts Championship
  • AEW Women's World Championship
  • IWGP Women's World Championship (only a very recent title)
The one question I will answer before you all ask: Yes, Vacant is the most common champion, and has held the Men's World Championships on 78 different occasions, and the Women's World Championships on 35 different occasions.
Click to expand...
Ok, so I have done my list including all reigns (So counting days held now, as well as how many reigns) on the Men's side.
Championships now included (this is a slight reduction from before):
  • Original World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship, which morphed into the:
  • NWA World's Heavyweight Championship, which theoretically split into the following five titles at some point in time:
  • WWE Championship
  • WCW World Championship
  • ECW World Heavyweight Championship
  • TNA World Heavyweight Championship
  • AWA World Heavyweight Championship
  • WCW International Championship (which begins with the start of Ric Flair's 1993 NWA Championship reign, and ends with the unification with the WCW World Championship - more on that later)
  • AEW World Championship
  • WWE World Heavyweight Championship (2002)
  • WWE World Heavyweight Championship (current)
  • WWE Universal Championship (I am currently considering it unified as of the WrestleMania 38 unification match)
  • IWGP World Heavyweight Championship (and it's predecessors - IWGP Heavyweight Championship, the offshoot interim championship when Brock Lesnar/Kurt Angle wrestled with IGF, and the first iteration of the NWF Heavyweight Championship)
  • Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship of All-Japan Pro Wrestling (as well as specifically the lineage of the PWF World Championship that was part of that unification)
Essentially, can rank them all now based on:
  • Days held a championship
  • Times held a championship
  • Average length of each reign
NEW GROUND RULES (and you'll notice this mostly affects Ric Flair, but does affect some others):
  • Awarding of splintered championships that begin as the reign of one championship and continue to the awarding of a second are one continuous reign.
    • EG - Ric Flair's 1993 NWA Championship win is considered the beginning of the WCW International Championship, and not two separate reigns.
  • Vacancies/title changes that appear to have no kayfabe reason to reverse title change (eg, Dusty Rhodes under a mask) are still recognised
    • EG - Ric Flair losing the title to Harley Race in 1984 in NZ before regaining on the same tour, are now recognised reigns.
  • As an extension of the 'Champions advantage', Vacancies where the reigning champion vacates due to a non finish, and then regains the title in a direct rematch are recognised as one continuous reign.
    • EG - Ric Flair vacating WCW championship in 1994 due to a double pin with Steamboat, and regaining the vacant championship in direct rematch with Steamboat.
    • If said vacancy is contested in a non-direct rematch (I believe one example is an Elimination Chamber match being used to award a vacant title contested between three wrestlers), then the vacancy + subsequent reigns stand.
  • "Interim champions" (where it looks like the only 'official' use has been Jon Moxley winning his first AEW Championship) are counted in the same way that AEW has counted that:
    • Injured/vacant champion reign continues until the unification match with interim champion. If interim champion wins, their reign is considered as starting at that moment
    • Other 'kind-of' uses of the 'Interim' rule include 2011's Summer of Punk, and Moose's reign upon Tessa Blanchard vacating/not defending the TNA World Championship.
  • Just because a new belt is awarded, doesn't necessarily mean it's a new reign. I don't believe this actually came into effect on the men's side, but will when I do the women's side, as I'm considering the current WWE Women's Championship held by Bayley, as a direct continuation of the WWE Divas Championship (which was held by Charlotte going into WrestleMania 32, and she was awarded the WWE Women's Championship upon winning at WrestleMania 32. WWE considers this a new lineage, but it's very clearly linked and I'm not counting it as a new title/title change.)
Ok, so here are the biggest champions in history! (Counting up to and including May 3rd 2024)
  • Days held method (2000+ days)
    • Verne Gagne - 4677 Days
    • Bruno Sammartino - 4040 Days
    • Giant Baba - 3866 Days
    • Lou Thesz - 3749 Days
    • Ric Flair - 3571 Days
    • Hulk Hogan - 3362 Days
    • Ed Lewis - 3073 Days
    • Nick Bockwinkel - 2990 Days
    • VACANT - 2722 Days
    • Jim Londos - 2628 Days
    • Brock Lesnar - 2151 Days
    • Bob Backlund - 2121 Days
    • Kazuchika Okada - 2043 Days

  • Total Reigns (10+)
    • VACANT - 67
    • Ric Flair - 19
    • John Cena - 16
    • Triple H, Sting, Randy Orton - 14
    • Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle - 12
    • Brock Lesnar, Jeff Jarrett, Edge - 11
    • Verne Gagne, The Rock - 10

  • Average Reign length (Top 10)
    • Jim Londos - 1 reign @ 2628 days = 2628 days
    • Bruno Sammartino - 2 reigns @ 4040 days = 2020 days
    • Frank Gotch - 1 reign @ 1824 days = 1824 days
    • Dory Funk Jr. - 1 reign @ 1563 days = 1563 days
    • Lou Thesz - 3 reigns @ 3749 days = 1249.66 days
    • George Hackenschmidt - 1 reign @ 1065 days = 1065 days
    • Pedro Morales - 1 reign @ 1027 days = 1027 days
    • Earl Caddock - 1 reign @ 1026 days = 1026 days
    • Pat O'Connor - 1 reign @ 903 days = 903 days
    • Dan Severn - 2 reigns @ 1559 days = 779.5 days
 
So Smackdown has happened, it was on a little earlier than normal because it was in Lyon. And firstly I just want to say that he crowd was insane! I know that Backlash is a B-Show but the crowd will make it feel like an A+!

Nothing too dramatic happened on the show, Paul Heyman revealed that he hasn't heard from Roman Reigns since WrestleMania in an interesting twist to the current Bloodline story, Solo and Tonga brawled with KO and Randy backstage as the show went off air, AJ Styles slapped Cody at the end of their face to face. Waller and Theory defended their tag titles against the Street Profits but cheated to win, Belair picked up the win in the women's eight person tag match, the latest QR code hinted at Alexa Bliss joining the new Wyatt faction thing.

Elsewhere Ricochet is the first ever Speed champion beating Jonny Gargano in the final, Drew Gulak has been released from WWE which isn't a great surprise given the revelations from Ronda Rousey, there were a bunch of other NXT releases today which are mostly people that WWE didn't think they could make it.

And finally here is the Backlash card for tomorrow.

WWE Women's Championship.
The Kabuki Warriors (c) v Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill

Randy Orton & Kevin Owens v Solo Sikoa & Tama Tonga.

WWE Women's Championship-Triple Threat Match.
Bayley (c) v Naomi v Tiffany Stratton

World Heavyweight Championship.
Damien Priest (c) v Jey Uso

Undisputed WWE Championship.
Cody Rhodes (c) v AJ Styles
 
Cody Rhodes retained his WWE title in a great main event at Backlash, both Bayley and Damien Priest retained their titles but interestingly Priest didn't like it when he had help from Balor and JD and when they both attacked Jey after the match Priest stopped them, another hint towards Priest getting kicked out of the Judgment Day and turning face. We have new women's tag champs in Belair and Jade Cargill.

The big news really was in the Bloodline story, they're match with KO and Randy turned into a street fight and it was a predictably chaotic opening match, the twist came in the form of Tonga Lea who is Tama Tonga's brother, he came in to help the Bloodline win and Michael Cole called them the rogue Bloodline, I think now that when Roman Reigns eventually returns he will be a face and it will be a civil war, shout out to Paul Heyman who looks increasingly confused with goings on with every passing week and also to Tama Tonga who's first match in his WWE return was a street fight and he took a lot of the big bumps.

Final mention to the crowd, who were RED HOT throughout and never stopped singing for the entire three hours, I still have no idea what that chant was whenever AJ Styles did something!

Apparently it was the largest arena gate in WWE history.
 
The Judgment Day stuff is much more interesting if you ask me. Damien Priest reminds me of Sting in the Main Event Mafia, a heel champion who is only in the group out of shared ideals and doesnt act like a heel unless provoked and constantly butting heads. This could lead somewhere, I'm excited to see how this goes in Raw.

Change the roster around but Bloodline is still as stale as ever with nothing actually new happening (not even the matches, still stoic interference win as before) only with characters with no personality that Roman tried to bring (and really depressing seeing Kevin Owens job to them for a THRID TIME! (seriously, get this guy on Raw before he has to job to them a 4th time)). Paul Heyman stellar acting is only thing I understand why people are still watching this.
 
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MUSC4EVER
Final mention to the crowd, who were RED HOT throughout and never stopped singing for the entire three hours, I still have no idea what that chant was whenever AJ Styles did something!
Click to expand...
"Il est vraiment ! Il est vraiment ! Il est vraiment phénoménal la la lala la la" (When AJ styles is here)
"He is truly ! He is truly ! He is truly phenomenal "

French club song that rose to poularity prior to the 1998 FIFA World Cup
 
So the King and Queen of the ring starts on Raw tomorrow with first round matches, its ahead of the finals of the tournament which will be in Saudi on May 25th. Some of the first round matches sound brilliant, Drew McIntyre v Finn Balor, Kofi Kingston v Rey Mysterio, Gunther v Sheamus and Ilja Dragunov v Ricochet, the one standout match in the women's tournament is Lyra Valkryia v Asuka.
 
Advertised card for Raw tonight in Hartford.

King Of The Ring First Round matches.

Gunther v Sheamus
Ilja Dragunov v Ricochet
Drew McIntyre v Finn Balor
Kofi Kingston v Rey Mysterio

Queen Of The Ring First Round matches.

IYO Sky v Natalya
Ivy Nile v Zoey Stark
Shayna Baszler v Zelina Vega
Lyra Valkryia v Asuka

Quite excited for the show with all those matches as some of the them sound great, it does make me wonder about the size of the field considering there are four first round matches for both tonight, could there be more on Smackdown?
 

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