offical wwe thread

[famicommander]

It's almost "future endeavors" season for WWE anyway. I'm sure a lot of these guys will be gone soon.

 

[neo_X7]

WWE has trademarked the name Shinsuke Nakamura, which is weird because that's his real name.

It is just WWE trying to buy everything up asap. WWE and New Japan/ROH is getting ready to go to war over copyrights soon. WWE is using Bullet Club left and right on every thing but Raw and Smackdown. New Japan renewed their copyright on the Bullet Club logo. Rumor is NJPW wants to start releasing region 1 DVD's soon.

 

[JoeAwesome]

So glad to see Colt Cabana back in ROH. I don't think he'll take the title off Lethal but I think they can have a great match together.

I don't know who is going to take the title off Lethal at this point. They seem to be building Kyle O'Reilly but, as talented as he is, he just isn't all that exciting.

I want to see guys like Dalton Castle and ACH start to move into the title picture. Roddy and Adam Cole could both be transition champions but they both just lost feuds to different members of reDragon. I don't think Moose is ready.

Still want Christopher Daniels to get a world title run. It's criminal he's appeared for both ROH and TNA for most of both companies' existences and never won a world title. But it'd be hard to break up the Addiction; they're a great heel tag team and can have great matches with anyone.

I wouldn't mind seeing Tanahashi and Lethal trade the title back and forth. Let Tanahashi win the belt, hype it up in Japan, have Lethal win it back and then put over a young guy. Spend the interim time buliding Castle, ACH, or maybe Adam Page to take the strap off Lethal by the end of summer.

Castle and ACH look better for the TV title, to me. Page? Not so much for either. Maybe start a tag team. Same with Moose (maybe with Cheeseburger, or more seriously, Dijak?)

Who can take the world title? I like your Tanahashi idea and Daniels idea, as well, but if it's with the current roster without a shakeup... Idk. Dijak, again? Cole? It was confusing to see the Lethal/Briscoe feud end at their last match, but it'd be almost impossible to top.

 

[famicommander]

It is just WWE trying to buy everything up asap. WWE and New Japan/ROH is getting ready to go to war over copyrights soon. WWE is using Bullet Club left and right on every thing but Raw and Smackdown. New Japan renewed their copyright on the Bullet Club logo. Rumor is NJPW wants to start releasing region 1 DVD's soon.

WWE has already declared war on ROH+NJPW. Just in the last two years they've signed tons of major ROH/NJPW talent, offered venues WWE shows in exchange for no longer running ROH shows, booked Liger for a show while ROH was running a show with NJPW talent in the same city at the same time, etc.

NXT itself exists to destroy the likes of ROH, TNA, NJPW, and LU. To sign away their talent, draw in their audience to the Network, and retain fans that can't stomach WWE's main product anymore.

 

[famicommander]

Castle and ACH look better for the TV title, to me. Page? Not so much for either. Maybe start a tag team. Same with Moose (maybe with Cheeseburger, or more seriously, Dijak?)

Who can take the world title? I like your Tanahashi idea and Daniels idea, as well, but if it's with the current roster without a shakeup... Idk. Dijak, again? Cole? It was confusing to see the Lethal/Briscoe feud end at their last match, but it'd be almost impossible to top.

Dijak isn't ready for the title picture either. He's got the talent and charisma but needs seasoning.

Briscoe was never going to get a third title reign. Only Austin Aries and Jay Briscoe have ever even had 2 reigns. The ROH World Title is a rare prize; Lethal's reign is only the 22nd ever. TNA has had 54 title reigns in the same timespan and I can't even count how many WWE reigns because of their brand split/title unification shenanigans.

Mark Briscoe could be an option, though. At this point he's as good as Jay and has never held a singles title.

Like I was saying, as far as guys getting a second world title reign only Cole and Roddy Strong would be worthy right now, but again, they just lost at Supercard of Honor to Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish respectively.

So right now the world title scene is essentially O'Reilly and Cabana.

 

[neo_X7]

booked Liger for a show while ROH was running a show with NJPW talent in the same city at the same time, etc.

That was wrong on NJPW for doing that but NJPW has been trying anyway it can to break into the US since the mid 2000's. WWE has been trying to sign Jay and Mark Briscoe and Okada over the past couple of months also.

Mark Briscoe could be an option, though. At this point he's as good as Jay and has never held a singles title.

It would be awesome to see a Castle vs Mark feud for the TV title.

 

[famicommander]

That was wrong on NJPW for doing that but NJPW has been trying anyway it can to break into the US since the mid 2000's. WWE has been trying to sign Jay and Mark Briscoe and Okada over the past couple of months also.

NJPW didn't coordinate with WWE at all for the Liger booking. Regal called Liger directly and Liger showed up. But that issue actually served to drive ROH and NJPW closer together, because they realize they need each other.

 

[Hot Chocolate]

WWE has already declared war on ROH+NJPW. Just in the last two years they've signed tons of major ROH/NJPW talent, offered venues WWE shows in exchange for no longer running ROH shows, booked Liger for a show while ROH was running a show with NJPW talent in the same city at the same time, etc.

NXT itself exists to destroy the likes of ROH, TNA, NJPW, and LU. To sign away their talent, draw in their audience to the Network, and retain fans that can't stomach WWE's main product anymore.

At most I'd say NXT exists to destroy TNA, trips doesn't mind ROH or NJPW as he's gone out of his way to pay them( and credit them ) for footage. They've gotten commentary to mention the NJPW world title for AJ and Brock and damn near the entirety of Balor's mini doc on the network.

Also you can't fault some of the guys and gals wanting to work for the E, it's the Hollywood of pro wrestling

Dijak isn't ready for the title picture either. He's got the talent and charisma but needs seasoning.

Briscoe was never going to get a third title reign. Only Austin Aries and Jay Briscoe have ever even had 2 reigns. The ROH World Title is a rare prize; Lethal's reign is only the 22nd ever. TNA has had 54 title reigns in the same timespan and I can't even count how many WWE reigns because of their brand split/title unification shenanigans.

Mark Briscoe could be an option, though. At this point he's as good as Jay and has never held a singles title.

Like I was saying, as far as guys getting a second world title reign only Cole and Roddy Strong would be worthy right now, but again, they just lost at Supercard of Honor to Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish respectively.

So right now the world title scene is essentially O'Reilly and Cabana.

I think we might get some NJPW guys thrown into the world title hunt. I know all I need is Gedo to come out on a YouTube video and say, "Jay Lethal you are a worthy and great champion but you are not THE RAINMAKER!" to get hyped

 

[JoeAwesome]

Is there another top guy at NJPW after Tanahashi and Okada? All I've seen is the delayed AXS footage, so I would've said Naito and knee-highs (name escapes me, atm, but the last new musketeer), but those don't look likely, especially Naito with the Ingobernales angle.

 

[famicommander]

At most I'd say NXT exists to destroy TNA, trips doesn't mind ROH or NJPW as he's gone out of his way to pay them( and credit them ) for footage. They've gotten commentary to mention the NJPW world title for AJ and Brock and damn near the entirety of Balor's mini doc on the network.

Also you can't fault some of the guys and gals wanting to work for the E, it's the Hollywood of pro wrestling

i don't fault the wrestlers at all, but it's not even arguable that WWE is targetting ROH/NJPW. TNA is irrelevant. ROH and NJPW are the only promotions in the world right now with anything close to a national/international footprint that are growing. TNA, LU, Noah, AJPW, AAA, and CMLL are all in major trouble and WWE, while still healthy, has been declining for years.

You don't try to muscle ROH out of arenas if you're not targetting them. You don't raid NJPW for four top talents and a color commentator, plus try to sign Tonga, Fale, Elgin, Moose, Okada, Ibushi (looks like they got him), Romero, etc if you're not targetting NJPW/ROH. You don't run a brand new cruiserweight tournament while Best of the Super Jrs is going on. You don't book Liger at the same time in the same city as a joint NJPW/ROH show.

They signed Nakamura, Styles, Gallows, and Anderson the day after NJPW's biggest show of the year.

WWE doesn't mention NJPW specifically. They sporadically reference the IWGP belt but in general they just say "Japan".

NXT is a direct assault on NJPW/ROH. The most over guys in NXT past and present are ROH/NJPW guys. Austin Aries, Tyler Black, Samoa Joe, Kevin Steen, KENTA, Claudio Castognoli, PAC, El Generico, Prince Devitt...

All NXT is, is watered down NJPW/ROH.

 

[famicommander]

Is there another top guy at NJPW after Tanahashi and Okada? All I've seen is the delayed AXS footage, so I would've said Naito and knee-highs (name escapes me, atm, but the last new musketeer), but those don't look likely, especially Naito with the Ingobernales angle.

Naito is the IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Other top guys in NJPW are Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, Katsuyori Shibata, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, and recently Kenny Omega.

 

[norton9478]

WWE isn't trying to destroy ROH/NJPW/LU.

They are just making sure that they will never have to worry about competing with them.

-Same difference though.

 

[JoeAwesome]

Naito is the IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Other top guys in NJPW are Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, Katsuyori Shibata, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, and recently Kenny Omega.

I guess I was wrong about Naito! And it was Shibata I was referring to. Although I've liked the matches of Goto and Ishii, I've always felt there was something missing about them. Charisma for both, but a lot of other qualities for Ishii. His matches with Makabe make him look like a brawler and nothing more. And Omega's legit. His matches are great with Taguchi.

 

[famicommander]

WWE isn't trying to destroy ROH/NJPW/LU.

They are just making sure that they will never have to worry about competing with them.

-Same difference though.

WWE tried to set up a talent share with LU but were basically told to fuck off. TNA also tried to get LU to run a joint show with them and got the same response.

LU might not make it past season 3, so all WWE really has to do there is wait.

But the kind of people that watch ROH+NJPW are the same people Vince wants to subscribe to the Network. WWE's TV audience is primarily 35-55 year old white men, but online viewers naturally skew much younger and more diverse. NXT exists to recapture that audience.

Just the reactions that guys like Styles and Nakamura are getting in WWE proves that ROH/NJPW are starting to break into the mainstream.

If ROH and NJPW were smart they'd collaborate on a shared streaming service. That's the only way they would be able to compete with the Network as far as volume of content goes.

 

[FilthyRear]

WWE tried to set up a talent share with LU but were basically told to fuck off. TNA also tried to get LU to run a joint show with them and got the same response.

LU might not make it past season 3, so all WWE really has to do there is wait.

But the kind of people that watch ROH+NJPW are the same people Vince wants to subscribe to the Network. WWE's TV audience is primarily 35-55 year old white men, but online viewers naturally skew much younger and more diverse. NXT exists to recapture that audience.

Just the reactions that guys like Styles and Nakamura are getting in WWE proves that ROH/NJPW are starting to break into the mainstream.

If ROH and NJPW were smart they'd collaborate on a shared streaming service. That's the only way they would be able to compete with the Network as far as volume of content goes.

Holy shit, if one of the Japan companies would do a streaming service in the US I'd drop the network in a second.

 

[famicommander]

I guess I was wrong about Naito! And it was Shibata I was referring to. Although I've liked the matches of Goto and Ishii, I've always felt there was something missing about them. Charisma for both, but a lot of other qualities for Ishii. His matches with Makabe make him look like a brawler and nothing more. And Omega's legit. His matches are great with Taguchi.

Ishii is great. Look into his match with Shibata at Wrestle Kingdom 10, his match with Roddy Strong at Honor Rising Day 1, and his match with Honma at Power Struggle 2015. All absolute classics.

 

[famicommander]

Holy shit, if one of the Japan companies would do a streaming service in the US I'd drop the network in a second.

NJPW World is available in the US already. You get pretty much all their shows, with the biggest ones having English commentary. And sometimes you also get shows from Japanese indies like Suzuki-Gun as well. It's like 8 bucks a month.

 

[Electric Grave]

You know Trey...I wish your sig pics would have links to a photoshoot...so many times I clicked on all your honeys......hey how about names?

 

[famicommander]

The Observer is saying we should see some movement by the end of the week regarding TNA. I really, really hope the Carters sell it all off.

 

[FilthyRear]

NJPW World is available in the US already. You get pretty much all their shows, with the biggest ones having English commentary. And sometimes you also get shows from Japanese indies like Suzuki-Gun as well. It's like 8 bucks a month.

So checked the site out, and it looks shady as fuck. Not discounting it, but would like to hear from someone who already has it regarding what, if any, hoops a someone from the US would have to go through to get it and watch t.

 

[famicommander]

So checked the site out, and it looks shady as fuck. Not discounting it, but would like to hear from someone who already has it regarding what, if any, hoops a someone from the US would have to go through to get it and watch t.

I already have it. It's legit. Just select "English" from the drop down menu at the top of the screen and follow the on screen prompts. I got my subscription the day of Wrestle Kingdom 10 and haven't had a single issue.

 

[BanishingFlatsAC]

Is the quality still 480 garbage that pixels out during action or did they finally fix it?

 

[famicommander]

Is the quality still 480 garbage that pixels out during action or did they finally fix it?

NJPW World has always been HD as far as I know. A lot of ROH's shows are still 480p but that's their deal, not NJPW's.

 

[BanishingFlatsAC]

NJPW World has always been HD as far as I know. A lot of ROH's shows are still 480p but that's their deal, not NJPW's.

I got World the first few weeks it was out and the quality was almost unwatchable. If it really is better I will gladly give them $8.00 a month.

 

[famicommander]

I got World the first few weeks it was out and the quality was almost unwatchable. If it really is better I will gladly give them $8.00 a month.

I've never seen a show that wasn't smooth and in HD. But like I said, I got it this January.