Wrestling/MMA fans? WWE/TNA/UFC/INDIE PROMOTIONS discussion

[Bilge Rat]

Yeah, I have played that storyline in the game. A lot of the stories in the games can actually be rather good. There was a good one a few years ago when MVP formed a 'Better than U-topia', where anyone competing against his staple had to endure lopsided rules such as the challenger not getting a rope break and requiring a five count for pins. I think they best story they ever had involved Candice Michelle using a magic wand to transform other characters, resulting in you wrestling a mirror of yourself and becoming the Boogeyman.

The stories in the real shows tend to be extremely underwhelming nowadays, generally boiling down to 'I don't like you so I'm going to attack you a lot'. They must have hundreds of ideas for things to do so they must be too conservative to risk doing anything different. I still think that Edge should have had another live sex celebration during his marriage with Vickie, which could have been interrupted by CM Punk cashing in his MitB case.

[Bilge Rat]

...Funkosaurus

[Mr Marvellous]

Im loving it.... Sombody call ma mama!!!!

Was so out the blue but you can understand why they have done it, you would have thought and expected him to come back as a monster heel, yet they have Mark Henry for that now. Want them to stop the squash matches now, he seems to be over with the crowd, now lets see what he can do ablity wise as for a big man i think hes got a bit to offer and if i remember from nxt his cardios is pretty good for a big dude too.

[regemond]

I have a suggestion for before the Funkasaurus novelty wears off...

Tag Team... SantinoSaurus!!!

[INCINER4TE]

hahah nice. Santino is getting dull to watch now. I'm enjoying Brodus Clay's new gimmick so far. I'm actually enjoying WWE more than TNA at the moment, TNA seems to really have dipped in quality lately, their most talented wrestlers are either being squashed by Gunner or not being used at all. Personally I don't like Gunner, Crimson, Pope, Devon, Mexican America, Garrett fricking Bischoff, Madison Rayne, Karen Jarrett ... sod it ... MOST of the people who have all the air time right now. Give more time to AJ, Daniels, MCMG, Samoa Joe, RVD ~ such a waste. Eric Young is awesome too.

[Bilge Rat]

TNA has been in a rut for a while now. Everything they do seems like I have seen it 1000 times before.

I used to quite like Gunner when he was a bad ass who, despite being a heel, would stand and fight no matter the odds. His current gimmick of hitting people on the concrete is pretty dumb though. I loved Pope after he first came to the company but I think he works better as a cocky anti-face. Devon is pretty dull since splitting from Bubba and I'm not sure Crimson deserves what he is getting. I especially hate Garret though. I tend to resent any character that is first introduced as a non-wrestler who is somehow able to compete with the best in the world. I hated Taylor Wilde for years because of this, but Cody Deaner, Shane Sewell and to a lesser extent Jesse from Ink Inc tried the same thing. I don't like when they treat the viewers as idiots and try to make as think that they just anyone can throw themselves around in a ring.

[Bilge Rat]

I'm kind of surprised to see Taker apparently going up against HHH again this year. He has been out for an entire year and he is just going to repeat the last match that we already saw? I thought it would have been a good idea for them to totally hype up one of the up-and-comers (Ziggler would have been perfect) and have him boast for weeks that he could break the steak. Taker could then come out at Wrestlemania, pin him in under ten seconds, and then WWE could finally let the poor bastard retire at 20-0.

[Snaggletooth]

Well I just got back from a really fun Evening, Went to Lucha Britannia, been meaning to go for a couple of years, defiantly a great fun night, Think Mexican Wrestling meets best of British meets alternate cabaret.
http://www.luchabritannia.com/

Highlights, Too many with great characters like The Bakewell boys (howdo), Metallico, Leon Britannia, Perverso, Transexico you cant go to far wrong

[Bilge Rat]

Wrestlemania. A few decent matches. A few average ones. Yet another tag match where the booker failed to realise that increasing the number of participants makes the match worse, not better. One terrible divas match with some lame American celebrity whom I had never heard of thrown in at the last minute. Overall it was OK but not earth-shattering. They wheeled out the Funkosaurus again but I am struggling to see how they are ever going to do anything other than having him win squash matches and do dance-offs. It took me a surprisingly long time to figure out that one of his backup dances is Naomi from NXT, but even more hilariously the other one ('Cameron') appeared on the last series of Tough Enough. She was the pathetic one. Who was kicked out first. Who told Stone Cold that her favourite wrestling match ever was 'Mileena vs Alicia Fox'. Yeah.

Still, in my opinion WWE is now producing significantly better shows than TNA. I'm not sure this is because WWE has improved as I think it is mostly to do with TNA getting worse. Victory Road was utterly dull with nothing to recommend about it whatsoever. Some of their 'epic' story moments seem to have been written by a five year old (and yet Russo apparently isn't there any more!). Bobby Roode threatening Dixie Carter is just retarded and when I have so little belief in the scenes that they are 'acting' out then I just lose interest completely. Apparently Hogan is being a good guy again. Whatever.

With both companies I am finding that the producers' obsession with Twitter is becoming very tedious. 'Big Show' is trending world wide? Don't give a shit. @HedLox4Life thinks that Sting needs to teach Roode some respect? Don't give a shit. At least the WWE keep it fairly low key but TNA's obsession with it during Victory Road was intolerable. I was amused when a recent Botchamania episode on YouTube pointed out that Borash was bragging about something being the number one topic in the UK - despite the fact that there is no legal way to watch TNA PPVs in this country

I thoroughly recommend Botchamania actually. I discovered it fairly recently and the shows are very well put together. It isn't just a load of clips of indy wrestlers falling on their ass; the creator does a really good job of making each episode varied with a mix of falling over, confused promos and logical fallacies from commentators.

[Snaggletooth]

Tbh, Bar the few remaining old school I find WWE boring as hell, they just have no personalities there, and with the old guard as good as dead its just so uninspiring to watch, at least with TNA there are interesting characters and personalities which I would sooner watch, even if that means a laughable story line.
I will probably watch HHH / Taker online but really dont give 2 figs about the rest, even the Cena / Rock build up I found really uninspiring.

On another note did anybody go to see Brit Wres-Fest in London yesterday? There is a lot of effort going into trying to but British wrestling back in the spot light again, and the event on Sunday which featured matches from most of the predominant British wrestling associations, It was supposedly free to enter with any donations on the door going to Great Ormand Street, There's actually some really good talent here in the UK, with Lucha Libre (mentioned in my last post) gaining a lot of attention atm.

Would personally love to see it make a come back at least in the UK.

[Snaggletooth]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l7pymkFGJ4

[Bilge Rat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l7pymkFGJ4

Tbh, Bar the few remaining old school I find WWE boring as hell, they just have no personalities there, and with the old guard as good as dead its just so uninspiring to watch

My first introduction to wrestling was with the WWF Smackdown! video game in 2000. The only wrestlers who have made it throught every game from there to WWE 12 are Taker, HHH, Kane and Edge, and with Edge gone and HHH and Taker surely on the brink that only leaves Kane to have been wrestling more-or-less regularly with the same company for twelve years. Big Show, Y2J, Mark Henry and Christian are also in the first game but have been missed from at least one of the others due to long-term injury or leaving the company. Mankind is in there, depending on whether you count Foley as being active. The Rock has also made it into a surprising number of the games despite leaving after about the third one. The first game also includes Jeff Hardy and the Dudleys who are all on TNA. Angle started in Smackdown 2.

Overall a good third of the roster is still around in some form or another and only one is dead, so far as I am aware. Things haven't changed as much as I thought.

The same can't be said of the divas with WWF Smackdown's Tori, Debra and Chyna long gong. Kelly Kelly has probably been in as many of the games as any woman has

I think Mickie James and Victoria/Tara are about the only women still active since I started regularly watching the shows in about 2007, and even then Victoria never got a match.

[INCINER4TE]

hah! Funny video =]

So, did anyone watch Wrestlemania or the following RAW? I've given up with Impact Wrestling now, it just got really really poor, all the talent were being used incorrectly and I couldn't justify the 2 hours spent watching it anymore, shame. Before Hogan and Bischoff turned up it was leagues ahead of WWE in terms of wrestling, now it's just a poor man's WCW, I watch UFC instead.

[Bilge Rat]

OMG, just saw last week's RAW

[INCINER4TE]

hehe yea, was a nice surprise =] ruined slightly by the crowd who were chanting before IT happened =] I haven't seen this weks yet though.