Wednesdaymania 303: The State of Wrestling in 2020

In Which I Blather About Wrestling

It's a new year, and wrestling is... very different than it was in January of 2019.

Let's go through, company by company, and see what's up on the Wrestling front as of 15 January, 2020!

WWE:

• RAW and Smackdown numbers are down pretty badly
• NXT has massively risen in popularity
• Local people are actually talking about wrestling now in my home town
• The Big Show is back in the ring
• R-Truth isn't a punchline, he's throwing the punchlines. And he's great.
• There is a lot more money being funneled to the talent.

ROH:

• The outlook is pretty grim, actually :(
• Due to talent being gobbled up by pretty much every other promotion, ROH is struggling to keep their roster up
• They managed to keep Marty Scurll by:
• paying him a ton of money
• making him booker
• telling him he only needed to wrestle a few times a year

NJPW:

• Despite losing a lot of talent (Kushida, the Bucks, Cody, Kenny, etc), NJPW has managed to really soup-up their roster with some amazing Young Lions (Karl Fredericks and Clark Connors) and really pushing their great talents (Naito, Ibushi, Shingo, Takahashi, etc)
• The LA Dojo and the US shows are fantastic
• Jushin Thunder Liger retired
• It's really fun, but there's a definite change in how matches flow. It's both more and less western, and the only way to explain that is to see it.

MLW:

• Holy mole, they lost a lot of talent when AEW formed
• Still, they have held onto some great guys and worked well with their roster to create interesting programming
• Also, they signed on with ICM Partners with an eye to better TV deals in the future, which could be huge.
• There's a lot of upward momentum, I think, despite the blows they took to their roster.

NWA:

• Oof, the Cornett stuff was bad, but they handled it fairly well, once people pointed out that there was flummery afoot.
• Dat roster, tho - it's both one of the best and worst rosters in wrestling, with some of the most charismatic and fantastic wrestlers... as well as some who I don't get why they're popular, but that's my own opinion, and you should really see the show for yourselves.
• Question Mark. That's all I'll say. Make your own judgments.
• I love, love, love the commercial segments, the cheesy set, the music... it's the real deal, and I love how corny it is. It's its own beast.
• Nick Aldis continues to be a National Treasure, and having Big Poppa Pump show up is amazing.
• Yes.

AEW:

• From their inception and debut, AEW has grown by leaps and bounds
• They have one of the most bizarre and interesting rosters of any show right now
• The seamless blending of internet content and television content, along with the way both storytelling mediums mix, is fantastic and definitely sets it apart as a new creature
• They just got renewed through 2023
• I really, really, really want to see more every time I watch
• I still don't really get the appeal of Britt Baker in the ring, but I like her as a person. Same with Brandi.
• I'm not 100% behind Riho as women's champion, because I feel like the storytelling is fairly lackluster with her.
• I'm 100000000% behind Kris Statlander, and I am beyond thrilled with the interactions between her and Orange Cassidy on BTE.
• Oh man, just... I love this company, and I hope they continue to grow and improve.

IMPACT:

• It's last here because I know next to nothing about it
• They employ some of my favorite workers, but I can't watch the show (legally), so I have no idea what's going on there.
• Hope everyone's getting paid!
• Hope everyone stays safe!
• Have fun, guys!

So those are my thoughts on wrestling as it stands today!

Any companies I should look into and cover more? Anything anyone would like to add? Let me know!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Wednesdaymania 245: So Much Happening At Once

In Which I Talk Wrestling

A few quick notes before I begin:

1. Today is way nicer than yesterday - it's cooler at 45℉ (~7.2℃), but it's sunny and breezy and lovely. If only it had been this nice yesterday :|
2. I haven't finished typing up my notes on last week's AEW shows (Dynamite and Dark), but I promise you they were well worth watching, and if you want to go look them up somehow, I strongly encourage you to do so. Hopefully TNT will allow us see an archive of episodes within the next year or so, like a collection released on streaming of some sort? That'd be cool.
3. I haven't been keeping up with most of the Wrestling I used to - there may, in fact, not be enough hours in the week, lol!

Without further ado, here are my thoughts on wrestling this week:

• AEW
• OMG, this company is going to be the death of me. After a completely bananas show last week, knowing tonight's episode is the "Go Home" show (the last show before a Pay Per View) just makes everything more intense
• It's with a heavy heart that I tell you that Hunter Horse Helmsley aka Stoney aka the horse Hangman Page rode in on during All Out passed away a while back.
• SCU winning the Titles is amazing, but it's very odd how they won with a rollup. I mean, I don't have a problem with it - it's very seat-of-the-pants and neat, it's just not something I'm used to for such a weighty match
• With as much as I despised the NWO stuff in WCW, I actually love the Inner Circle nonsense. Because unlike with the NWO, there are consequences to Jericho and his cronies' actions.
• I still can't follow either MJF or Sammy Guevara on Twitter because they would still make my head explode. I'd switch to decaf, but I need caffeine to live lol.
• I cannot wait for tonight. Seriously. I'm super excited. I just hope I can get access to a tv for the night (I'm sometimes on the move)...
• IMPACT
• What kind of low-rent nonsense is this? They legit filmed a Pay Per View on someone's phone
• And now they're trying to call out AEW Dark by telling people how much more available they are? Joey Janela has the receipts...
• NJPW
• It has been 16 months of waiting with baited breath and trepidation, but it's finally happening - HIROMU IS BACK, BABY!!!
• I'm very excited to see more NJPW - it's been a while, but hopefully this will get my wrestling friends back into the idea of watching more NJPW!
• WWE
• Where do I even begin?
• The Saudi Arabia stuff? Well, a bunch of wrestlers were abandoned on the tarmac because they weren't rescued by Vince, who claims that the wrestlers who got out of Saudi Arabia on time by getting their own private plane, but let's face it, Vince almost certainly had something to do with them getting out on time because he likes them best.
• From the rumors I'm hearing, it seems that most of the people who were stuck on the tarmac because of a "mechanical problem" that may or may not have existed, are very very upset with Vince and with the situation in general
• I'm not a wrestler, but I say this with all love to wrestlers and out of a desire to see these amazing athletic performers succeed and thrive in this world without being murdered by a foreign government - PLEASE UNIONIZE NOW, I KNOW A LOT OF YOU ARE ANNOYED BY DAVID STARR AND I GET IT, NOT EVERYONE GETS ALONG, BUT PLEASE, UNIONIZE SO THAT YOU HAVE MORE POWER OVER PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO CONTRACT YOU. YOU DESERVE THAT POWER. YOU DESERVE TO BE ABLE TO COME TOGETHER AND FORCE THE MONEY MEN TO RESPECT YOU.
• Not that I believe any wrestler reads my rinky-dink blog, but I hope they do unionize. They deserve the power collective bargaining can bring, and it might help them in ways they'd never expect. They need the power to say "no" without nonsensical repercussions (like being blamed for not showing up to a broadcast half the world away when your boss has just gotten into a fight with the aggressive and occasionally homicidal leaders of a foreign nation)
• Basically, the WWE is a dumpster fire, and I hope that the actual wrestlers, even the NXT wrestlers see this as writing on the wall - they are not respected and nothing they can do will ever gain them that respect, so they must become more powerful.
• Also, this Saudi crap makes me really grossed out and want to dump the WWE App, even though I love the backlog. Bleh.

As you can imagine, this was a weird week in wrestling. I am super excited for both tonight's episode of AEW Dynamite, so I'm going to go finish up all of my daytime nonsense so I'm ready for tonight!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC