Wrestling News & Rumours Thread ***NO CHAT***

JP Liz V1

Asuka now injured, ladies tag titles curse continues

Agent Coulson

Looks like Matt Hardy is jumpiing ship back to the WWE now he is a free agent he was at RAW last night and Michael Cole mentioning him on commentary.

How long has Jeff left before he is a free agent and he jumps back to the company he faked being on drugs in a match to get out of.

Necro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121911723#Comment_121911723

Mania 40 maybe? They'd pop the crowd for that night at least even though it's been done before.

Necro

Jokes aside though Matt could easily get a cushy agents gig with WWE if he wanted, I'm sure the door is always open there for him.

Furious-Red

Tbh no real interest in the hardys back in wwe and that's coming from a fan growing up. Neither Matt nor Jeff can go anymore (plus Jeff's history) .

Agreed if Matt got an agent job that would be a decent position for him.

Agent Coulson

Nic Nemeth vs Alberto for the vacated AAA Mega Championship has been announced for Triplemania XXXII  Monterrey on April 27th.

Vikingo had to vacate due to knee surgery.

El Patron Alberto being a world champion in 2024 would be very strange.

Nemeth will also face Moose for the TNA Championship on April 20th.

Nic Nemeth the belt collector could be happening as he is the current IWGP Gobal Heavyweight Champion in NJPW.

Agent Coulson

Reports today that the The Motor City Machine Guns will be free agents next month.

That would be a big lose for TNA.

ThePott

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121913300#Comment_121913300

Lots of speculation too that he's going to be at OTT's Scrappermania in August.

ThePott

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2024/03/19/pfl-bellator-warner-bros-discovery?publicationSource=closingbell&issue=2a4db7e489b04e4a8cf2e1b2a13750ec

Bellator events are going to be streaming live on MAX from Friday. Wonder what this means for a potential AEW/Max deal.

Kinda surprising they went out and got this deal when AEW are already part of the WBD family. Then again UFC/WWE being under Endeavour and Bellator/AEW might be a good pairing in WBD's mind.

Surely, this means that AEW is going on Max in the not too distant future, or once they get another TV deal ironed out.

Agent Coulson

Fightful are saying MLW are in talks to bring Mauro Ranallo in.

Love hearing Mauro on commentary.

JP Liz V1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121912665#Comment_121912665

I'd like to see them go in the Hall of Fame

JP Liz V1

Goldberg ranting, poor Asuka

J. Marston

It makes it even better that he is so rattled by it.

Necro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121928016#Comment_121928016

Best thing to come out of the whole Tribal Chief run was him squashing Goldberg.

JP Liz V1

Slammys are Back

https://www.wwe.com/article/2024-slammy-awards-voting

CastorTroy

Unlike Goldberg, all of Asuka's matches actually happened. Since weren't Goldberg's numbers inflated?

And does he think they planned it just to annoy him which would involve multiple months of planning.

Patrick Mahomes

I was surprised to read today that the return of CM Punk and The Rock hasn’t spiked WWE’s TV rating even in the run up to Wrestlemania the ratings have dropped over the last year and have pretty much flatlined over the last few months. I would have thought the return of both would have brought back lapsed WWE fans.

Regards,

P.

ThePott

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121934644#Comment_121934644

Hi 'P'.

I've seen another poster make this argument before. I'd like you to explain 'pretty much flatlined'.

Because if you look at the ratings, and average for all of 2023, you'd get 1.708 for Raw and 2.22 for Smackdown.

Here's the last month of Raw - 1.738, 1.649. 1.751, 1.687. Two over the average from last year and two below, so sounds about average.

Here's the last month of Smackdown - 2.272, 2.348, 2.439, 2.34. The month before was even higher, but all of these are above the average of last year.

That's before we get into the whole, ratings are down across the board point. I just have to ask if you actually looked at the ratings before you posted or are you being a bit inflammatory? Most people won't respond to this stuff but I find TV ratings interesting cause I'm a movie and tv nerd going back years, so I will. You could make the argument that Punk and Rock haven't 'spiked' their ratings but you'd also have to look at the Raw and Smackdown that happened after their returns and see that they are the highest rated episodes that have happened recently.

If you wanted to ask, why they didn't keep those numbers, you could. Possibly could be that fans realised that the Rock and Punk aren't going to be wrestling and the 'lapsed fans' aren't gonna be brought back by any one wrestler or probably even, at all.

Not attacking you for the record, just your post.

Petermc83

you could also argue that the views on social media numbers for these returns have skyrocketed aswell.

Not all people can watch the product live... and judging by the views that are up on YouTube where the Rock is involved in segments, its hitting between 2mill-5.7mill views!

JP Liz V1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121937652#Comment_121937652

I believe Punk's return most highest viewed for WWE for YT social media

JP Liz V1

Rhea Ripley has named her Mount Rushmore of female WWE stars:

- Herself

- Bianca

- Becky

- Charlotte

J. Marston

Becky has two months left on her contract. She's obviously going nowhere. She didn't even bother playing the "Maybe I'll leave?" card.

https://twitter.com/MMAFighting/status/1773075920309358886

Lord TSC

Does say nothing has been discussed yet though and that it’s unusual.

Still, I can’t see any world where she jumps ship.

Necro

It's possible she might just take a year or two as well and expand the brood. 37 now so may not get that opportunity again.

ThePott

I reckon this is a case where they've given her assurances and the exact amount of years/money hasn't ben nailed out, so no formal offer has been made.

Mind you, come to think of it, there seems to be a lot of contracts up this year and think that's another reason why WWE aren't chasing 'free agents', they've got some of their own stars they have to nail down first and foremost. Thinking Becky and Drew at the very least.

Agent Coulson

Endeavour have shown with the UFC they will offer what they offer and if you don’t like it you can leave.

They happily sent there UFC heavyweight champion packing when they couldn’t come to terms on a deal.

Lord TSC

New championship announced.

https://twitter.com/wwe/status/1773122996061770152?s=46&t=YGfMSgruKRJVScb4IwMoSA

Agent Coulson

Another championship in the world of overcrowded wrestling championships.

Headshot

WWE must be releasing their own branded version of Amphetamine.

J. Marston

"Exclusively on X"

So, a Twitter Title? I'd put the 24/7 title above that in terms of prestige.

3 minute matches, appealing to the demographic of people whose attention spans are absolutely fúcked due to Tiktok.