Some of Todays Wrestling News and Rumours (Possible spoilers) ***NO CHAT***

gnfnrhead

I'll be shocked if Bully leaves at this point in time.

rovert

WWE breaks major barrier



WWE broke a major barrier earlier today as with the rising stock price, the company's market capitalization broke the $2 billion mark.

At this moment, with the stock trading at $27.03 a share, the highest total since a short period after going public, the market capitalization was $2.03 bllion.

A year ago it was $8.72.

Obviously Wall Street expect big things from the TV rights negotiations and the TV Network.

JP Liz V1

jaykhunter wrote: »

He's pulling a Hogan (i.e. tweeting about anything relevant to give himself some free publicity). Dismiss this transparent stuff.

True but I would love to see him back for a singles run as a heel with Heyman

rovert

Triple H gets rattled here:

B.A._Baracus

rovert wrote: »

A year ago it was $8.72.

Obviously Wall Street expect big things from the TV rights negotiations and the TV Network.

Didnt Steph recently sell some shares? to pay for a "house"
Could it be that she thought the only way is down from here so make some good money selling a few shares?

A Primal Nut

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Didnt Steph recently sell some shares? to pay for a "house"
Could it be that she thought the only way is down from here so make some good money selling a few shares?

Well shares have since gone way up - she sold them for just €14.55, so you can't really accuse her of anything dodgy.

Actually, an executive probably wouldn't be advised to sell shares right now, because if something as big as WWE network or network rights failed a few weeks from now, they could be accused of insider trading.

It is possible she knew WWE were entering a risky period and chose to deversify her investments when she still could a couple of months before rights negotiations and WWE network started. But that's just good wealth management rather than an expectation that it could fail.

rovert

Observer is reporting AJ Styles is Wrestling in New Japan:

A.J. Styles is expected to start here, perhaps as early as April. It's not official but talks are going on and those in the promotion are expecting a deal. He should be a great addition because he's an American who can work with the top mix with all kinds of new matches.

So excited about all the matches he could have and there's a lot of them.

Albert Harle Jr., 26, who works in ROH as ACH, will be at the next tryout camp with Kevin Steen and Roderick Strong. ACH to me has a lot of potential as a high flyer.

ACH is class and has a real coolness factor about him but he is a very short "5 ft 9 in "

TNA should have signed him ages ago for the X-Division but him leaving in Texas makes him an expensive fly in.

GTR63

AJ Styles to New Japan is awesome. So many fresh matches there as you said.
Kevin Steen at a tryout, better give Bully Ray a call & I love the guy and all but he'd of been signed by now if it wasn't for his physique.

rovert

GTR63 wrote: »

Kevin Steen at a tryout, better give Bully Ray a call & I love the guy and all but he'd of been signed by now if it wasn't for his physique.

Most recent footage of him have much slimmer than what he was at turn of the year (which was as big as a house) but yeah it is a real concern. Not just for cosmetic reasons but cardio wise too. WWE's tryouts are super duper cardio intensive.

Steen is one of my absolute favourite wrestlers as a "serious" wrestling fan and definitively connect with just a "mark" wrestling fan. Just really charismatic, funny, likeable, has the "IT" factor the whole deal.

Moneymaker

Obviously they see something in him, fingers crossed it goes well for him as I am a big fan.

gnfnrhead

Never got the fuss about ACH so would be quite surprised if he got signed. Dont think Strong will either, but it would be ironic considering his ROH gimmick is more or less hating on everybody who left through the years. Steen has the best chance but I dont think it is very high.

Delighted to hear about Styles seemingly going to NJPW. I didnt think they would have room for him but luckily it seems like they do. Pretty much ends any chance of a TNA return in the near future too. Definitely looks like he is holding out to see what happens with Jarrett before considering anything with TNA again.

Machismo Fan

rovert wrote: »

Observer is reporting AJ Styles is Wrestling in New Japan:

He can get revenge on Tanahashi for starting to use the Styles Clash.

Riddle101

New Japan, eh? Now AJ can see what it's like to be in a top notch promotion for a change.

rovert

Wrestle Talk TV would like to make a public apology for the actions of Joel Ross on social media this past Monday. Joel became embroiled in a disagreement with multiple wrestling fans online, which resulted in comments being made that we at WTTV found unacceptable. As a result, Joel will no longer host Wrestle Talk TV going forwards. Three episodes already recorded featuring Joel however will air as planned.

Wrestle Talk TV would like to make it clear that it does not agree with or condone any of Joel's comments and greatly values its audience base and their right to express their opinions as wrestling fans. Joel is also saddened by his regrettable actions and will make a full apology himself in due course.

Joel Ross has been a very important part of the Wrestle Talk TV team since we began in 2011 and we hope that we can work with Joel again in the future in some capacity.

WTTV is a show made for wrestling fans by wrestling fans and we hugely appreciate your continued support for this show.

The WTTV Team

Joel made fun of Lionheart the guy who broke his neck in two places after taking AJ Style's Styles Clash.

jaykhunter

rovert wrote: »

Joel made fun of Lionheart the guy who broke his neck in two places after taking AJ Style's Styles Clash.

It's like getting Bubba the Love Sponge off TNA. Embarrassing way to go out but good for the viewers. Well I'll definitely try it out again with someone else at the helm.

rovert

He allegedly seems to have a real problem with the drink (and social media). He made fun of Lionheart, then attack Preston City Wrestling over not paying tax (untrue) and their use of licensed music (long story it doesn't really matter, flies below the radar).

What did him in besides the Lionheart comments was he is comments about Wrestling fans. Wrestletalk TV was just a side gig for Joel and he didn't really love it:

GTR63

jaykhunter wrote: »

It's like getting Bubba the Love Sponge off TNA. Embarrassing way to go out but good for the viewers. Well I'll definitely try it out again with someone else at the helm.

Thanks for explaining that rovert saw it on the twittah machine & wondered what he said. I wouldn't give it another go Jayk, the show gives off the geeky vibe of the type of people that do be buying into crap like the toe-curlingly cringey Hijack Raw Manifesto

CastorTroy

I don't mind it as background tv. I know Joel challenged Rockstar Spud to try presenting so he's supposed to be presenting this week.
At least now I know they record at least 3 weeks in advance. Which is kind of a hindrance as they can't be too topical leading to all discussions being more about a random suggestion.

Diabhal Beag

It has the production qualities of RuralTV

Rjd2

I remember him along with JK back in the day, incredibly untalented pair of hyperactive self obsessed tools. :mad:

Shocked he is still getting work tbh.

takamichinoku

Rovert, charge your phone!

ayatollah

http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/wwe/Batista_Shoves_and_Punches_Radio_Show_Host_at_Last_Night_s_WWE_Live_Event_In_Winnipeg.html

batista being his usual douchey self of kayfabe?

MitchKoobski

ayatollah wrote: »

http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/wwe/Batista_Shoves_and_Punches_Radio_Show_Host_at_Last_Night_s_WWE_Live_Event_In_Winnipeg.html

batista being his usual douchey self of kayfabe?

Not as clear cut as that.

http://www.pwinsider.com/article/84115/more-on-batista-fan-incident-in-winnipeg.html?p=1

The fan in question was a local morning DJ, Cam Carson, who works for Winnipeg radio station Power 97. The station had been promoting the show and was listed as a sponsor for the event.

Batista began jawing with Carson before the match and when he turned to return to the ring, Carson hit him in the back/shoulder area, according to one fan that was sitting nearby. That led to Batista forcefully shoving him down. Carson tried to get over the rail but was stopped and spoken to by security - yet allowed to remain. Batista then began wrestling Big Show in a singles match.

Later on, Batista flipped the finger to Carson as he passed him while circling the ring. That led to Carson "losing it" and trying again to hop the rail, at which point he was walked out by security.

Rjd2

Interesting article from Steven Godfrey who worked in professional wrestling for five years. Now he works at SB Nation.

I used to sit in on meetings with our writing team. The writing team - nicknamed "Creative" in kayfabe terminology - was forced to present the upcoming plot lines of our TV show to the marketing and public relations employees at least once a week. Creative hated this process. If you didn't work on Creative, you didn't understand the complexities of pro wrestling and you never would.

The meetings helped us troubleshoot, as one time I lamented to a Creative member that our TV show was featuring female wrestlers in a tag team "bra and panties mud wrestling match" the same week that I had been ordered to pitch a profile of one of our executives to a Christian parenting magazine. I didn't ask for the segment to be removed outright because I never had that kind of power. I really just wanted a sympathetic ear for an increasingly impossible job.

"That's tough man, but if we lose the bra and panties it really takes away from the layering of that storyline. We're trying to build a narrative here," he said.


A few of us used to call these comments "Truman Show ****" because our coping mechanisms for working in minor league pro wrestling had been reduced to the half-belief we were trapped in our own reality TV show.

Ten years after it had found its peak in the Monday Night Wars, veterans of wrestling's halcyon era littered our office. If every day wasn't 1997 those bastards were convinced tomorrow sure would be. Sometimes the network would push back on some of Creative's ideas, but they'd be damned if a bunch of 20-something ex-fans sitting in their own conference room were gonna point out storyline errors or provide "feedback."

To do just that would be the dream of so many fans, so many "smart marks" of the IWC (Internet Wrestling Community). On Monday night in Chicago a worldwide effort to disrupt WWE Raw's march to WrestleMania took over the Allstate Arena. It was a naive mission to protest on behalf of disgruntled WWE Superstar CM Punk, who abruptly left the promotion in January.

The movement rallied around the hashtag #hijackRAW, an attempted "shoot" tactic which WWE itself promptly seized as "worked" part of their storyline, thus nullifying the nerd coup. Former Punk manager Paul Heyman opened the show entering to Punk's theme music and delivered an absolutely brilliant promo that reduced the crowd's deafening "CM PUNK" chants to a serviceable conceit for "WrestleMania's" Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar storyline.

The fans never stopped chanting, and the show ended with reviled Triple H standing over a beaten Daniel Bryan, bookending Heyman's nullification of #hijackRAW with another chapter in Bryan's storyline, which has become WWE's meta-parody of wrestlers who try and trade on their IWC popularity as equity in the WWE Universe. All that heat went exactly where the WWE wanted it to. End of uprising.


It's a terrible thing, being popular on the Internet: We once had a talented young guy buried in the lightweight division. A few of our younger staffers were convinced he was destined to be an accessible, new media savvy star.


Instead of wearing fanny packs and talking about the 'roided-out 80s on FM radio to promote a weekend house show, this kid could speak intelligently on video games to web sites and bloggers and introduce the company to the next generation. And he was fire in the ring. The kid could bump, yet he and most of the guys his age were all but ignored by the company.

His ring name was Chris, so one day I got the gumption to ask Creative what, if anything, they had planned for Chris.

"Uh, yeah. He's a good kid. Something there. You know that show I keep hearing about? 'Everybody Hates Chris?' I think that's it. We should really do something about that, maybe find a way to do something with that."

"Everybody Hates Chris" was a CW sitcom in which comedian Chris Rock narrated stories from his upbringing as a picked-on minority in a white suburb of New York in the 1970s. Our Chris was a 22-year-old white kid from the midwest. It was improv bull****. Those infallible Hillbilly Hemingways had farted out a quick excuse in front of half of our company because they could.

Two days later I was reprimanded. A week later I stupidly approached a member of Creative and stated my case for Chris getting a push, capping it with what I would learn to be the most backhanded of compliments in that industry:

"Look, this guy is HUGE on the Internet. Our hardcore fans love him."

"Great," Creative responded. "Then we don't have to do **** with him ever."


The cruelest thing I can tell a passionate, dedicated smark is that the more he knows the less he matters to WWE. The smark is the one person the company knows will be watching the show every week, no matter what. They're buying the licensed merchandise to complain about it on podcasts and paying the extra $20 at TV tapings to stand in an autograph line and tell their favorite disrespected mid-carder just how he should be used in the main event.

Even at the emptiest of house shows (non-televised events usually packaged as tours) we could spot the dedicated IWC member on hand to record completely meaningless* match results for one of the "insider" news sites.

(*Seriously, most of them meant absolutely nothing. Unless we were promoting an ongoing TV storyline, house show winners and losers were determined at random and on the fly if a title belt wasn't on the line. No one cared, least of all the talent, yet the next morning we'd read a thousand word analysis on why certain matches were booked to favor a particular wrestler.)


Angry that Daniel Bryan or CM Punk isn't in the title picture at WrestleMania because of Batista? The WWE doesn't care, because you're buying their product anyway. I've been in these meetings, albeit for another company, but it's the same perception: You're an assumed gain, a given. Even when you swear you're never watching the show again (which focus groups told us is an empty threat), you're on various media platforms telling people how much you dislike our product.

The WWE doesn't care what a smark with a bookshelf full of Ring Of Honor bootlegs thinks. They care about marrying their company to Marvel Studios when Dave Bautista stars in "Guardians of the Galaxy" this August. They care about 7-year-olds and the uninitiated. If you're a self-professed smark who couldn't see a Batista title run dovetailing with a summer movie PR tour as soon as his casting was announced, you're not that damn smarky. If you ever believed #hijackRAW would do anything other than help WWE make more money, you don't understand this niche of pop culture (which you likely love more than anything else).



If the dynamic of smarks vs. WWE can teach us anything writ large, it's that we're living in a transition era of pop culture, a turning point in which the community of self-aware consumers are not yet the established providers of content. Right now those who make the biggest decisions about our most coveted entertainment properties didn't attain their success through acknowledging crowdsourced feedback or checking Twitter. If you bought a ticket to boo in person at RAW or live-Tweeted your disdain, the WWE only sees another successful night of revenue and branding.

Creative finally did figure something out for Chris. They paired him with a veteran wrestler for a multi-week storyline in which he was the young and stupid kid challenging the wise old sage. One week, much to his personal embarrassment, they made him wear just a diaper to the ring and cry like a baby. The Internet howled in protest.

The next week Creative said it was one of the strongest segments of that week's show.

"Everything in this arena right now, including them, belongs to us."

http://www.sbnation.com/2014/3/4/5468468/wwe-pro-wrestling-stories-creative

rovert

Ain't saying she's a gold digger:
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20795238,00.html

Ape Lincoln

Rjd2 wrote: »

Interesting article from Steven Godfrey who worked in professional wrestling for five years. Now he works at SB Nation.





http://www.sbnation.com/2014/3/4/5468468/wwe-pro-wrestling-stories-creative

Who was the Chris?

Jimmy Bottlehead

Ape Lincoln wrote: »

Who was the Chris?

Chris Sabin, I believe?

J. Marston

rovert wrote: »

Ain't saying she's a gold digger:
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20795238,00.html

She's only 34? She looks older in that picture.

/Bitchiness.

gerrybbadd

Jimmy Bottlehead wrote: »

Chris Sabin, I believe?

Was he in WWE?

rovert

John Cena is fantastic here in this clip at South by Southwest:
http://instagram.com/p/lVClnAmcLY/