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

[Com Fox]

Roman Reigns is now promoted for a Raw show after Survivor Series in a panic supposedly due to low ticket sales especially compared to AEW happening the following week.

Concerned about the over exposure at this point. It'll likely bring people in but I doubt for very long and will fizzle out fast. WWE need better stories and to promote those stories, not gimmicks to generate quick hype

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Raw on Monday was in 18,000 capacity arena, the attendance for the show was just under 4,000, one of the lowest ever for a Raw show.

 

[JohnBM01]

Man, Mansoor got done wrong by Mustapha(?) Ali on RAW. I'm pretty sure Mansoor would want a modicum of revenge over his former partner. I was also rather impressed Doudrop dropped Natalya in their Queen's Crown match. Now, the fun and happiness will be over when Doudrop takes on super bad girl Shayna Baszler.

Other than this... great ready to go All-Elite again- AEW Dynamite is tonight!


[UPDATE] Apparently, NO AEW Dynamite tonight... NHL on TNT (New York Rangers at Washington Capitals) on instead.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

William Shatner has become the first WWE hall of famer to fly into space!

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Super sized Smackdown tonight with it being 2 and a half hours rather than the usual 2 hours, the last half hour will go up against AEW tonight. And the last half hour will be commercial free.

Lesnar making an appearance, Zayn v Balor in the KOTR, Carmella v Vega in the Queens Crown, Naomi v Sonya Deville plus Becky Lynch v Sasha Banks.

 

[GTvsForza]

Had to get a free trial for YouTube TV, I have my "early sleeper" uncle in my TV room...

 

[Darla Starch]

brb making a note to watch Suzuki/Danielson later because apparently it was a fantastic wrestle.

 

[Com Fox]

It appears WWE TLC has been scrapped. They seem committed to a 12 PPV schedule and TLC was removed in place for Day 1.

While I hate the name of Day 1. I much prefer it off PPVs being named after end game matches and having matches being gimmicks instead of actual end games...

 

[EngieDiesel]

It appears WWE TLC has been scrapped. They seem committed to a 12 PPV schedule and TLC was removed in place for Day 1.

While I hate the name of Day 1. I much prefer it off PPVs being named after end game matches and having matches being gimmicks instead of actual end games...

There's also that Money In The Bank is the de facto ladder match show and Extreme Rules fills the quota of "bah gawd he's got a steel chair", so TLC really felt redundant and not very special. Plus I don't think there are many folks left on the roster that really care to do table spots these days.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Good smackdown last night, Zayn/Balor and Lynch/Banks were both fantastic matches, Balor beat Zayn to progress to KOTR final, Banks perhaps surprisingly beat Becky Lynch after Belair caused a distraction after she was on guest commentary.

Both Rollins and Edge gave great promos ahead of their HIAC match, Zelina Vega progressed to the final of the Queens Crown after Liv Morgan distracted Carmella in their match, Usos and Street Profits had a great street fight title match which the Usos retained, the main event segment was great but only because of Lesnar, it was a contract signing for the match and Lesnar signed it without looking and when Reigns called him up on it Lesnar said that he looked at the contract that morning with his advocate Paul Heyman and then left the ring! Leaving an angry Reigns and a scared Heyman.

the last half hour of the show featuring the Lynch/Banks match and the contract signing was commercial free, they taped a match for Tribute to the Troops after the show which was Reigns v Nakamura.

Crown Jewel is this Thursday, on Raw it will be Charlotte Flair v Bianca Belair for the raw women's title...which makes little sense.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Last stop before Crown Jewel this Thursday is Raw tonight, Big E & Drew McIntyre v Ziggler/Roode again, Raw women's title match between Charlotte and Belair and Doudrop v Baszler in the Queens Crown, which it feels like WWE doesn't really care about..

 

[JohnBM01]

Unless the WWE is thinking Shayna is going to dominate Doudrop. However, what if Doudrop pulls the upset over Shayna? Eh, now...

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Headlines from Raw.

Everyone is riding on the Xavier Woods bandwagon for him to win KOTR and thankfully he beat Jinder Mahal to progress to the final where he will face Finn Balor. Later in the show Balor had a match against Mace (very random match!) and Woods was on the KOTR stage during this with the crown and cape on and when Balor won he marched up to Woods and things got tense so Kofi came out to separate them, maybe seeing a glimpse of heel Balor here?!

Doudrop surprisingly beat Baszler in their Queens Crown match to progress to that final, Baszler had Drop in the clutch for what seemed like an age but during this Drop basically laid on Baszler with Shayna's shoulders down to get the win, Vega did the same as Woods and was on the stage with the crown and cape on, she was also wearing a barely there dress!

Main event match between Charlotte and Bianca Belair was great, it was very back and forth with a lot of near falls and they had great chemistry, shame WWE had to spoil it with Charlotte hitting Belair with a chair for a DQ! Not a massive amount else from the show TBH, Drew and Big E had a good match with Ziggler/Roode that was more of a standard tag match, Jeff Hardy got his own back on Austin Theory, there was a weird backstage segment with Viking Raiders and John Morrison, Goldberg and Lashley both had a sit down interview together basically still saying there were going kill each other.

It was another pretty bad and confusing Raw, next week its the season premiere with the new roster from the draft, so hopefully things will improve.

 

[Darla Starch]

Chucky is hosting the Halloween Havoc edition of NXT.



Rick Steiner's son is in the main event, so obligatory:

 

[MUSC4EVER]

So rather strangely we have a Thursday PPV, its WWE Crown Jewel from Saudi Arabia, here is the card.

Kick-Off Show.

The Usos v Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin

---------------------------------------

Mansoor v Mustapha Ali

Queens Crown Final.
Doudrop v Zelina Vega

Raw Tag Team Championship.
RK-Bro (c) v AJ Styles & Omos

No Holds Barred Match.
Goldberg v Bobby Lashley

King Of The Ring Final.
Finn Balor v Xavier Woods

Hell In A Cell Match.
Edge v Seth Rollins

Smackdown Women's Championship-Triple Threat Match.
Becky Lynch (c) v Sasha Banks v Bianca Belair

WWE Championship.
Big E (c) v Drew McIntyre

Universal Championship.
Roman Reigns (c) v Brock Lesnar

That is one hell of a card, easily the best card for a Saudi show ever!

Kick off show match was announced earlier.

 

[Com Fox]

So rather strangely we have a Thursday PPV, its WWE Crown Jewel from Saudi Arabia, here is the card.

Kick-Off Show.

The Usos v Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin

---------------------------------------

Mansoor v Mustapha Ali

Queens Crown Final.
Doudrop v Zelina Vega

Raw Tag Team Championship.
RK-Bro (c) v AJ Styles & Omos

No Holds Barred Match.
Goldberg v Bobby Lashley

King Of The Ring Final.
Finn Balor v Xavier Woods

Hell In A Cell Match.
Edge v Seth Rollins

Smackdown Women's Championship-Triple Threat Match.
Becky Lynch (c) v Sasha Banks v Bianca Belair

WWE Championship.
Big E (c) v Drew McIntyre

Universal Championship.
Roman Reigns (c) v Brock Lesnar

That is one hell of a card, easily the best card for a Saudi show ever!

Kick off show match was announced earlier.

Saudi show dates are very odd. Hopefully they don't miss their Smackdown show like they did last time being stuck at the airport

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Here in the UK PPV''s normally have a 1am start time, tomorrow is 5pm! I have to rush home after work to watch it!

 

[Com Fox]

Here in the UK PPV''s normally have a 1am start time, tomorrow is 5pm! I have to rush home after work to watch it!

Australia is very weird with PPVs. We normally have it around midday on a Monday making it impossible to watch if you have work/school. Which was why Summerslam the day before was good thing for me.

The Saudi show will be Friday at Midnight, which means I'll sleep through it , fitting for a Saudi show

 

[GTvsForza]

The PPV starts at noon for me, but I only have a half hour lunch for work. Guess I'll have to watch it when I get home.

 

[Darla Starch]

Since I forgot due to not paying attention, Kazuchika Okada defeats Kota Ibushi to win the 2021 G1 Climax; this marks his third win overall and ties with Hiroyoshi Tenzan for second most under the G1 name, and also his first time winning the tourney since 2014.

Continuing the cursed feel of New Japan in 2021, this was by referee stoppage after Ibushi suffered an arm injury of some sort.

Also of note is noted "aight I'mma kick you until you stop moving" guy Katsuyori Shibata working a match on the undercard against Zack Sabre Jr, his first since the subdural hematoma that retired him in 2017.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

What a match that was between Edge and Rollins, Superb!

 

[Com Fox]

Man I'm going to hate it when Charlotte and Becky Lynch swap titles.

Just rename them so they're no longer associated by brand...

 

[EngieDiesel]

Man I'm going to hate it when Charlotte and Becky Lynch swap titles.

Just rename them so they're no longer associated by brand...

They'll just have Charlotte unify them after a dozen or so more swaps, so WWE can never shut up about how she's a 15-time champion just like Ric (except her title reigns are all WWE exclusive so clearly they're far more important of course, and because there's only one belt now we'll just pretend that all of them were for the same title even though nobody really cares either way)

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Really enjoyed the show, I don't think there was bad match on the card.

Edge/Rollins HIAC match was fantastic and such a good opening match, the women's triple threat was a lot of fun and one of the better women's matches you'll see this year, Big E/Drew had a really good match, I also quite enjoyed Lashley/Goldberg...weirdly!

Zelina Vega won the Queens Crown after beating Doudrop in a decent match, at 5.51 it was the longest match of the tournament and I feel that WWE has made it an afterthought with those short matches, Xavier Woods did become King Of The Ring after beating Balor in a good back and forth match, RK-Bro defeated AJ/Omos to retain the tag titles with Riddle making his entrance on a Camel! I get the feeling that AJ is wasted in the tag division, I know he is only really there to build Omos up but I think its been done now, he deserves to be in the main event picture every week!

I did enjoy the main event but the finish was an anti climax to me, I know it will likely only continue the storyline/rivalry between Reigna and Lesnar (plus Heyman!) but I didn't really like the finish.

So yeah it was a great show I thought, I liked the reaction the crowd gave to both women's matches, they were pretty quiet at the start of the triple threat match but they got noisier as the match wore on, having a major women's title match in Saudi Arabia is a pretty big deal and a big step forward IMO.

 

[Com Fox]

What a way to make the Womens and Tag Team titles seem less important than the single men's by making them interchangeable.

 

[Darla Starch]

View attachment 1088206



What a way to make the Womens and Tag Team titles seem less important than the single men's by making them interchangeable.

QUICK WE'VE GOT TO INFLATE CHARLOTTE'S REIGN COUNT

 

[BKGlover]

Since I forgot due to not paying attention, Kazuchika Okada defeats Kota Ibushi to win the 2021 G1 Climax; this marks his third win overall and ties with Hiroyoshi Tenzan for second most under the G1 name, and also his first time winning the tourney since 2014.

Continuing the cursed feel of New Japan in 2021, this was by referee stoppage after Ibushi suffered an arm injury of some sort.

Also of note is noted "aight I'mma kick you until you stop moving" guy Katsuyori Shibata working a match on the undercard against Zack Sabre Jr, his first since the subdural hematoma that retired him in 2017.

I'm sad about Ibushi, Okada's gonna do his thing, but Shibata...I heard it this morning but only had a chance to find a clip this afternoon. I'm still reserving my excitement, but...it's really hard not to get too wound up. I hope he's 100%, I hope he never does a headbutt again, but I'd love to see him plant both boots in KENTA...I gotta start watching regularly again.

 

[Darla Starch]

I'm sad about Ibushi, Okada's gonna do his thing, but Shibata...I heard it this morning but only had a chance to find a clip this afternoon. I'm still reserving my excitement, but...it's really hard not to get too wound up. I hope he's 100%, I hope he never does a headbutt again, but I'd love to see him plant both boots in KENTA...I gotta start watching regularly again.

With Shibata, I'm holding out hope it's more akin to Edge's current "Now that I can return, I'm going out on my terms" run; couple main singles matches, perhaps a final G1 run.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair had a confrontation backstage following Smackdown last night, it was after the title exchange segment when Becky threw the title to Sonya Deville rather than giving it to her like she was supposed to, there has been tension between the two for a few years and it was reported that neither was happy to do a title swap anyway, strong words were said backstage but it wasn't physical and Charlotte reportedly blanked Vince as well, Andrade also tweeted about it!

That first 35-40 minutes of the show last night with Lesnar going crazy was brilliant but the rest was kind of flat.

 

[Darla Starch]

Yeah nobody came out of that confrontation looking good, especially (shock and awe) Charlotte who I think instigated because "she didn't want to look weak or her title reign to look weak"