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August Wrasslin' |OT| I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU-LY

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
I thought I had heard angry Alvarez...

...until I found out about his 2009 TNA rants :eek:
 
......why

why would someone do this

People are so fucking stupid

I was at an explicitly feminist all womens wrestling show and someone called one of the wrestlers a slag, then doubled down on it, and was promptly tossed out

he was a money man for a promotion that often runs womens shows with stardom and was flyering his show inside the other show

Ospreay took a burning hammer through a chair and kicked out like it was nothing.

Ospreay kicked out at 2.9, and stayed down, not stood up immediately like nothing happened. I'm still very happy I pegged Rush on my shitlist ages ago

Also I loved the Joey Ryan spot
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
I just herd alvarez mention Tetsuya Naito in this TNA rant... whut? :eek:
 

tchocky

Member
I just herd alvarez mention Tetsuya Naito in this TNA rant... whut? :eek:

DEzApmBXgAMexnu
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
Im not sure how I feel about those TNA posts...

I know its not a good feeling tho.
 
Speaking of Ospreay, haven't seen anyone mention it yet, but he's just won a couple of belts in Australia, and afterwards cut a promo where he said the UK doesn't need him anymore, so he's working on becoming an Aussie citizen so he can help the Aus/NZ scene blow up like BritWres did.

Guess it also makes those New Japan trips much easier. (EDIT: Just checked, never mind it's like 2 hours shorter)
 

SilentMike03

Neo Member
So I started watching Progress with SSS 16 (Chapter 49). Currently on Chapter 50. I'll probably go back to Chapter 1 and watch it all the way through once I catch up currently.

But one thing that has really jumped out to me, and it's a big part of why I enjoy the shows so much, is that the whole promotion just feels fun. Like WWE tries to claim that they are all about having fun. I can't remember the last WWE event that seemed even half as fun as these Progress shows. Just the whole vibe of the crowd and the characters of the performers and the interludes by Jim Smallman. It all fits together so well and every event just feels like a great time. It's a very unique vibe that I don't think any other company really has.

I watched a lot of Progress yesterday. Watched all of 53 and then jumped back to 25. I'm not watching the whole shows, just the matches that interest me. It does feel like a tight community. During the intro to the show, Jim's interactions with the crowd are so... personal that it's almost unbelievable. He took the time (at a wrestling show) to talk to an audience member about her pregnancy, another gentleman's fashion sense, and someone else's wedding. He knew who they were and called them out by name. It's really something you can only do with a small community like that.

Edit: I will say the commentary could be better. They frequently call moves wrong. It's not that big a deal as they're usually drowned out by whatever chant the crowd is doing, but it does bug me.
 
Speaking of Ospreay, haven't seen anyone mention it yet, but he's just won a couple of belts in Australia, and afterwards cut a promo where he said the UK doesn't need him anymore, so he's working on becoming an Aussie citizen so he can help the Aus/NZ scene blow up like BritWres did.

Guess it also makes those New Japan trips much easier. (EDIT: Just checked, never mind it's like 2 hours shorter)

Yeah I heard about that too. There are a lot of good workers here who dont get much to any exposure at all. The local promotion in my area is surprisingly successful given we arent that big of a city here. Monthly shows regularly draw 400 or so people. Their big annual shows draw 600+. There is a surprisingly large amount of hardcore fans here.

NJPW are doing tryouts in Melbourne soon too and Fale's dojo is picking up steam too.

I guess it'll be interesting to see where things go from here but I worry how difficult it will be.
 
Yeah I heard about that too. There are a lot of good workers here who dont get much to any exposure at all. The local promotion in my area is surprisingly successful given we arent that big of a city here. Monthly shows regularly draw 400 or so people. Their big annual shows draw 600+. There is a surprisingly large amount of hardcore fans here.

NJPW are doing tryouts in Melbourne soon too and Fale's dojo is picking up steam too.

I guess it'll be interesting to see where things go from here but I worry how difficult it will be.

I mean that's a good spot to be starting from, BritWres was still pretty in the pits 5 years ago, and it's blown up, there's no reason it couldn't happen there too, especially with all the VOD service foundations laid so much better now than they were back then.
 
I mean that's a good spot to be starting from, BritWres was still pretty in the pits 5 years ago, and it's blown up, there's no reason it couldn't happen there too, especially with all the VOD service foundations laid so much better now than they were back then.

It is definitely a good spot to be starting from. It will be exciting to see how things progress from here.
 
So I started watching Progress with SSS 16 (Chapter 49). Currently on Chapter 50. I'll probably go back to Chapter 1 and watch it all the way through once I catch up currently.

But one thing that has really jumped out to me, and it's a big part of why I enjoy the shows so much, is that the whole promotion just feels fun. Like WWE tries to claim that they are all about having fun. I can't remember the last WWE event that seemed even half as fun as these Progress shows. Just the whole vibe of the crowd and the characters of the performers and the interludes by Jim Smallman. It all fits together so well and every event just feels like a great time. It's a very unique vibe that I don't think any other company really has.

A lot of this is likely due to the size of the promotion. A lot of the same fans will follow their shows or always be at certain locations. It allows for that fun close family feel. If it suddenly jumped up to 5k+ venue every time I'm sure the feel and luster would wear off. They did one or two events in larger venues and even then it just felt different. It also helps that the Brits, and euros, are just naturally better at being a sporting crowd.

I think Jims done a good job of controlling the growth and letting it happen in a more organic way. I just worry about the potential WWE interference or partnership.
 

Syder

Member
To be fair to TNA, most of these guys weren't ready and weren't being given chances by NJPW. I mean, No Limit was literally the excursion of the New Japan tag team of Naito & Yujiro, can't blame TNA for that one. The most egregious one is obviously Tanahashi.

For context, this is from Turning Point '08 where he was involved in a ten-man X Division elimination rankings match, which involved Eric Young, Consequences Creed, Doug Williams, Homicide, Jay Lethal, Jimmy Rave, Petey Williams, Sonjay Dutt, Tanahashi and Volador.

Tanahashi would go on to be eliminated by Jay Lethal...
 
A lot of this is likely due to the size of the promotion. A lot of the same fans will follow their shows or always be at certain locations. It allows for that fun close family feel. If it suddenly jumped up to 5k+ venue every time I'm sure the feel and luster would wear off. They did one or two events in larger venues and even then it just felt different. It also helps that the Brits, and euros, are just naturally better at being a sporting crowd.

I think Jims done a good job of controlling the growth and letting it happen in a more organic way. I just worry about the potential WWE interference or partnership.

I mean we've been worrying about WWE ruining/changing PROGRESS for at least a year now and so far nothings changed.
 

Recall

Member
To be fair to TNA, most of these guys weren't ready and weren't being given chances by NJPW. I mean, No Limit was literally the excursion of the New Japan tag team of Naito & Yujiro, can't blame TNA for that one. The most egregious one is obviously Tanahashi.

For context, this is from Turning Point '08 where he was involved in a ten-man X Division elimination rankings match, which involved Eric Young, Consequences Creed, Doug Williams, Homicide, Jay Lethal, Jimmy Rave, Petey Williams, Sonjay Dutt, Tanahashi and Volador.

Tanahashi would go on to be eliminated by Jay Lethal...

TNA was a learning excursion as it had every right to be.

These incredible Japanese talents actually wrestle everywhere to learn and understand their craft and in return we get some of the godliest matches ever once they put all their pieces together and mature as performers.
 
To be fair to TNA, most of these guys weren't ready and weren't being given chances by NJPW. I mean, No Limit was literally the excursion of the New Japan tag team of Naito & Yujiro, can't blame TNA for that one. The most egregious one is obviously Tanahashi.

For context, this is from Turning Point '08 where he was involved in a ten-man X Division elimination rankings match, which involved Eric Young, Consequences Creed, Doug Williams, Homicide, Jay Lethal, Jimmy Rave, Petey Williams, Sonjay Dutt, Tanahashi and Volador.

Tanahashi would go on to be eliminated by Jay Lethal...

Tanahashi made his first trip to TNA in 2006, before he won his first IWGP Heavyweight championship.

He made his second trip in 2008, when he teamed with Volador and fucked around with Sonjay Dutt and Consequences Creed (now Xavier Woods). By then, he had been IWGP Heavyweight Champion twice.

To be fair, No Limit made their trip after they had been IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Tram Champions and before they became Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Sanada and Okada were not really established before they made their TNA visits.
 

Hex

Banned
Tanahashi made his first trip to TNA in 2006, before he won his first IWGP Heavyweight championship.

He made his second trip in 2008, when he teamed with Volador and fucked around with Sonjay Dutt and Consequences Creed (now Xavier Woods). By then, he had been IWGP Heavyweight Champion twice.

To be fair, No Limit made their trip after they had been IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Tram Champions and before they became Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Sanada and Okada were not really established before they made their TNA visits.

Yeah but when you are doing a coop thing, you give and take.
They jobbed out Yujiro and Naito like they were sleeping with someone's wife, I mean it was not even fun.
I mean hell at least Taka got the junior belt in WWE for a day or two and Kaientiai had tag belts once or at least in site before being comedy teamed out.
 

Syder

Member
TNA was a learning excursion as it had every right to be.

These incredible Japanese talents actually wrestle everywhere to learn and understand their craft and in return we get some of the godliest matches ever once they put all their pieces together and mature as performers.

Tanahashi made his first trip to TNA in 2006, before he won his first IWGP Heavyweight championship.

He made his second trip in 2008, when he teamed with Volador and fucked around with Sonjay Dutt and Consequences Creed (now Xavier Woods). By then, he had been IWGP Heavyweight Champion twice.

To be fair, No Limit made their trip after they had been IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Tram Champions and before they became Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Sanada and Okada were not really established before they made their TNA visits.
Yeah, I don't really get people using it as a reason for TNA being bad. New Japan isn't really the same company it was in the 2000s.

TNA sucked for a myriad of reasons, this isn't really one of them.
 
Yeah, I don't really get people using it as a reason for TNA being bad. New Japan isn't really the same company it was in the 2000s.

TNA sucked for a myriad of reasons, this isn't really one of them.

It does point to TNA failing to use the talent they did have access to and burning their relationship with NJPW so they couldn't even have access to those wrestlers or resources. But that's a symptom of a bigger issue with TNA.

That said, Okado and Samoa Joe was almost offensively bad.
 
Sunny Mac would've slapped the tornado, and dried up a sea while he was at it.

This is all because the real Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon have a tag team victory over God.

Sweet JEEZUS, I have so much to catch up on after the G1 has finally climaxed.

From AJPW Summer Action Series Night 1, I have Hikaru Sato (c) vs. Minoru Tanaka, The Big Guns (c) vs. NEXTREAM, Kento Miyahara vs. Joe Doering, and Shuji Ishikawa (c) vs. SUWAMA.

From BJW's Endless Survivor back in May, I have to watch Hideki Suzuki (c) vs. Yuji Okabayashi. And from Ryogukutan 2017, I have Shinobu vs. Kazuki Hashimoto for the BJW Junior Heavyweight title, Hideki Suzuki (c) vs. Ryuchi Kawakami, and Strong BJ (c) vs. Abdullah Kobayashi & Ryuji Ito.

I can't even use next weekend to catch up because Evolve 91 and PROGRESS NYC is next Saturday.

Too much pro graps.
 
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