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July Wrasslin |OT| The Game, The Kane, The Pain, and The Insane (AJ)

Paracelsus

Member
You should go back and watch old RAWs to pass the time :)

I am watching both raw and smackdown from right after the 2004 draft lottery. Good stuff.

SKJMh.jpg
 
I reckon Cena won't win it.

I think he'll go to cash it in, but someone (Rocky) will do him over and stand over him at the end.

Stone Cold has to stun everyone in the ring at some point.
 
Oh wow, that should be a ridiculously awesome match - I just recently watched GNE VI, actually. Really enjoyed Hailey vs Jenny Rose, Sara vs Veda and the No DQ match between Allysin Kay & Mia Yim. Definitely going to check out more AIW womens shows in the future.

Yeah I'm really looking forward to seeing these two go at it. Im expecting them to blow the roof off the joint.

I wasn't a huge fan of the GNO events at first but after seeing a couple of them I look forward to them more then regular AIW events alot of the time.
 

RBH

Member
From the Observer:


A notable thing regarding Davey Richards not wrestling this summer for ROH is that he is booked on independent shows, which tells you he’s not taking the summer off. Nobody has given any details but it was the promotion’s decision to take him off the shows. It had to have been something in the last two weeks since they shot the angle where Kyle O’Reilly turned on him and challenged him on the 6/24 iPPV. Richards also didn’t work the 6/29 TV tapings and it was noted that Richards drew with Mike Mondo on a recent show instead of beating him. This came right after Richards dropped his rematch to Steen in New York, although it was pretty well known going in that they weren’t going to switch the title back immediately. O’Reilly, who is Richards’ usual traveling partner and they work most indies together, is still being booked.

Even though it’s pretty much said that ROH and Gabe Sapolsky are enemies, and from the ROH standpoint, there has been communication at various times between the two sides. Joe Koff went off at a recent media conference when asked about a comment Sapolsky made when they had their third iPPV malfunction, saying he wouldn’t address anything he said. They also sent a legal cease and desist letter to him for comments he’s made about the promotion. Plus, for the past year or two, without being prompted, people in ROH have constantly brought up Sapolsky in a negative way. However, there was talk in late January from the ROH side with him about WWNLive.com taking over for GoFightLive.TV as their iPPV provider. The WWNLive people made a proposal to ROH, but never heard back. Jim Cornette called Sapolsky about getting an award on the 10th anniversary show in New York (the show where Nigel McGuinness mentioned Sapolsky as one of the key people who built the company) and they spoke at the time. The idea the award was going to lead to an angle at the show. I don’t know the details, but it was not going to be a Dragon Gate USA vs. ROH feud and Sapolsky turned down the idea. He countered with an idea of returning to the company, since it is a different management than the ones who fired him a few years back, and he and Cornette worked together for a long time when Sapolsky was booking. But ROH wasn’t interested.




396147_10151208053336328_1100098547_n.jpg


Ring of Honor returns to iPPV, Sat Aug 11th w/ BOILING POINT


ROH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
ROH World Champion Kevin Steen defends against Chikara Grand Champion Eddie Kingston

TAG TEAM WAR
The Briscoes vs. "Zombie Princess" Jimmy Jacobs & Steve Corino

DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR IX REMATCH
"Unbreakable" Michael Elgin vs. "Outlaw" Charlie Haas

GRUDGE MATCH
Jay Lethal vs. "The Sicilian Psychopath" Tommaso Ciampa w/ RD Evans

Signed to appear:
- ROH World TV Champion Adam Cole
- "Die Hard" Eddie "Eddie Edwards" Edwards
- "The Prodigy" Mike Bennett w/ Maria Kanellis & Brutal Bob Evans

More Stars to be announced!


http://www.rohwrestling.com/news/BoilingPointMainEventSigned
 

SpOOkyO

Neo Member
I wonder who will be in the 3rd limo tonight?

I have a question, I will be in Florida, Orlando, in August. I will be there with my little brother and I want to raise the next gen of us. What ist a good place to take him TNA, FCW or where is NXT Taped and how do I find out about dates.

Best place would be where Regal is at, cause he is just as man's man.

He is the manliest of all man and will take AJ from DBry tonight, leading into an awesome Regal/Bryan Feud.

It's still real to me. So very, very real. *sob*
 

Entropia

No One Remembers
Do you guys think Undertaker will be there?! I mean, he was in the first main event.

(Maybe Damien Demento comes back lol?)


Maybe we need to start posting airport pics!!??!
 
... I don't know what you're talking about. Obviously Orton used the three-quarter facelock to mask his true counter-attack: pressing the channeling points in Bourne's neck. At some point, he must have seen someone use Hokuto Shinken, and incorporated that aspect of it into his technique for the RKO. Those hypermobile shoulders are as much of an advantage as they are a curse!
That Viper like deadly precision, he lives the gimmick and makes HHH proud.

I have this DVD. I might watch it later

http://i.imgur.com/9ZKSb.jpg[IMG]

[SPOILER][B]UNCOOKED[/B][/SPOILER][/QUOTE]

I have this as well, Kane reaps the ultimate reward of best match in Raw history, okay so him and a bunch of others but dammit he was the match winner.
The DVD highlight is in the extras checking out Cole and Tazz's favourite Raw moment
Cole: My favourite Raw moment was..."Tazz".
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
When is Berto going to get jobbed out like Swagger? The crowd continues to not give a shit about him, he's injured all the time, and last I checked, he was using the job as a jump starter to get into acting.
 

Kyoufu

Member
I'm not even the biggest fan of either, but a Miz/Punk feud would be pretty swank.

Gonna pretend I didn't read that.


When is Berto going to get jobbed out like Swagger? The crowd continues to not give a shit about him, he's injured all the time, and last I checked, he was using the job as a jump starter to get into acting.

I'm sure he has a Mexican following. Mexico is a decent market for them AFAIK.


Yeah I'm not the biggest Punk fan either but damn that'd be cool to see.

..
 

RBH

Member
USA Today article on the WWE:



LAS VEGAS – It sounds like an episode of Glee: An on-again, off-again couple finally decide to get engaged, and two separate dance numbers — one involving a disco ball — break out amid a heap of betrayal, wars of words and a few sneak attacks.

But the only thing this program's stars do with glee is hit each other with flying elbow drops off the top rope.

This is Monday Night Raw, World Wrestling Entertainment's wild and woolly live weekly show on the USA Network. Tonight in St. Louis (8 ET/PT), it celebrates its 1,000th episode, a major milestone in the streak of the longest-running weekly episodic program in TV history with no reruns.

In addition to Raw, the WWE has its Friday night Smackdown show on Syfy, and WWE Main Event will air on Ion on Wednesdays starting Oct. 3. That's in addition to 12 pay-per-view events a year and a huge presence on social media.

"It's like an athletic soap opera in some respects, and that's what grabs people," says Glenn Jacobs, a 6-foot-7 mountain of a man who plays the masked monster Kane.

The program has been a cable ratings giant itself over the years, pulling in a consistent and fanatical 5 million people each Monday. "They get acclaim for their original series, but Raw is one of the core reasons USA has been the most-watched cable network for the last six years," says Brad Adgate, senior vice president for research at Horizon Media.

Part of the show's success has been that its target viewers — teens and young men — tend to be hard for shows and advertisers to reach, Adgate says. "These are the ones who are playing video games or going online to watch YouTube."

Raw is more than just a TV show, though. Since its first airing on Jan. 11, 1993, it has been a traveling circus of good-guy/bad-guy drama (or, in wrestling parlance, babyfaces vs. heels), airborne physicality, standup comedy, Broadway showmanship, vaudevillian shenanigans and colorful characters, in a new arena and city every week.

The show moves to three hours starting tonight when it originates from the Scottrade Center and popular stars of WWE past, including Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Bret Hart and Mick Foley, share the wrestling ring with today's talent. The tattooed WWE champion CM Punk will defend his title against John Cena, the square-jawed face of the organization, in a battle of fan favorites, and there will be a "wedding" of that engaged couple, Daniel Bryan and his eccentric tomboy girlfriend AJ Lee.

Historically, wrestling weddings don't go all that smoothly, and Raw production designer Jason Robinson would know. His team will do everything from picking out the rings to designing the setup for the vows, and he has done several weddings in his nearly 17 years with WWE.

He has also blown up a limo and a bus on live TV, driven everything from a Zamboni to a milk truck to the ring, and split the stage so someone could drive a tank through it.

"I guess whatever happens next Monday will be the next craziest thing," Robinson says backstage at last week's broadcast from Mandalay Bay Resort and Hotel.

No ceilings

Wrestling has been a fixture on television since its earliest days in the 1950s. But its popularity really soared into pop culture in the 1980s with outsized personalities (and physical specimens) such as Hulk Hogan and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.

Vince McMahon, the WWE CEO who has run the company since 1980, never dreamed of having 1,000 episodes as a goal, "but I have some pretty wild dreams, and have all my life," he says. "I don't know limitations until they really slap me in the face."

His business philosophy is to never have a ceiling, which is why he has expanded his media empire to include a WWE Films brand and an upcoming WWE Network.

"Many years ago, I had a chief financial officer say, 'Vince, you make your money on pay-per-view, so why do all this other crap?' Without all the other stuff we do, pay-per-view doesn't work," says the CEO, whose PPV revenues are up 30% after setting a record with 1.2 million buys for Wrestlemania 28 in April.


McMahon has involved himself in the on-screen action as well, playing an evil version of himself. When Raw debuted in 1993, though, he was just an announcer.

That first episode kept the old-school style of fans' favorite heroes and villains squashing hapless weaker opponents (known in the parlance as "jobbers"). But when rival World Championship Wrestling, owned at the time by media mogul Ted Turner, began airing its Nitro program opposite Raw, "having value in the matches became the most important thing," says David Shoemaker, who writes about wrestling for the websites Grantland and Deadspin.

"We had to build a better mousetrap," says McMahon, whose current competition "across the board is all forms of entertainment."

Back in the day, a Cena/Punk contest would have been held for a WrestleMania or other pay-per-view event. Now, headliner matches are a staple of every Raw.

Fans watching the show at the arena or on their couches see only the spectacle of such a match. But the actual live broadcast is the end to a long and hectic day for wrestlers as well as crew members.

On the morning of the 999th Raw at Mandalay Bay, 14 semis of equipment roll in to put up the ring, a huge HD panel, assorted lights and pyrotechnics in around four hours. Then the creative types show up, including McMahon, for the daily production meeting to go over what will happen on Raw, from wrestlers' story-building "promos" to what tweaks are needed for the script.

Sans mask and in athletic wear, Glenn Jacobs is the first in-ring talent in the building and attends the meeting. He's a 17-year mainstay on Raw, but he has been toying with the idea of moving to that less-bruising side of the industry when he hangs up his size-15 boots. "Now that I have seen a little more about the production side of it," he says, "you realize how impressive doing a live television show every week is, and everything that goes into it and the changes that have to be made as you're going along."

Many of those alterations are made in rehearsals before the arena is open for the live audience. Producers go over matches and segments with the wrestlers in a TV writers' room of sorts, and clad in a headset, Paul Levesque, the WWE's executive vice president of talent and live events — he performs under the moniker "Triple H" — makes sure the smallest details will run smoothly. (He also happens to be McMahon's son-in-law.)

At the "Gorilla position" just behind the staging (named for the late wrestling and announcing great Gorilla Monsoon), wrestlers get last-minute instructions on matches, and referees also have in-ear monitors for audibles during the action.

"Raw is live, and it's live right up until we're done, which means we're changing stuff," says Levesque, who will flip the script on the fly depending on crowd reaction. "The reality of our business is fans control the content. They control who's the most popular, who's the most hated, because we really go where they're going."


Going big on social media

A large mat comes out when it's time to practice some of the evening's biggest power moves. The ring has a few inches of padding, but really it's just steel, wood, canvas and ropes, says Sean Sellman , director of production logistics. So stars are taking some serious bumps.

Mike Mizanin just recently returned to the WWE after filming the movie The Marine: Homefront for six weeks — Johnson, Cena, Hogan and other stars over the years have flirted with varying success on the bigger screen. A couple of weeks in, though, the former reality star on MTV's The Real World noticed his back oddly starting to tighten up. "I was like, you know what, I think it's healing right now," the dapperly dressed Mizanin says after a WWE.com photo shoot.

More than just his body is refreshed; he brought his cocky and brash character "The Miz" back with a new haircut and some facial scruff. "Just that little change of your hair and your face, people will notice," Mizanin says. "Twitter is blowing up my hairdo! My hair's trending, what the hell is going on?"

Social media has become a major focus for WWE. Its latest push is with Tout, a newer platform allowing wrestlers to interact with fans through videos of 15 seconds or less.

Many of its stars are on Twitter, and most Monday nights during Raw, Twitter's most popular topics are wrestler names or hashtags created from what's said during a wrestler's verbal sparring with another. The hashtag du jour: #Raw1000.

On social media as well as in arenas, Lee is one of the most popular of the WWE's female "Divas" and a rising star from a current love-triangle angle involving her "crazy chick" character, Bryan and Punk. (The spunky and diminutive Lee, who comes across as shy off-screen, also laid a big wet smooch on the much-larger Jacobs one night to make it a love rhombus for a time.)

"I love the in-ring work, but as a fan I love the dramatic stuff more than anything," says Lee, a self-admitted "nerd" who hopes to inspire little girls the same way WWE women did for her when she was 12.

"This day and age, there needs to be a girl who's not wearing as much makeup and isn't that pampered-up and fancy. There's a place for that, but there's also a place for a girl I think fans want to hang out with and see themselves in."


The fans come first

She's getting a lot of cheers, but the man who garners the most — and receives just as many jeers at times — is Cena. While other wrestlers partake in the vast catering spread or work on their matches, he takes the time to visit with a pair of little boys from the Make a Wish Foundation whose wishes are to meet their muscular idol.

In turn, he dotes on them with autographs, hugs and attention.

"Our audience really attaches themselves to characters," Cena says. "Somehow along this 10-year journey, I've been able to morph into myself."

For him, a 1,000th Raw is just as historic as The Simpsons reaching 500 episodes or 20 seasons of Law & Order.

"It's something that transcends everything, but at the same time, there is no 'Hey, man, they just hit 1,000 episodes!' from the entertainment folks," Cena says. "I've never paid much attention to the 'important' critics. I pay attention to the people who come to see us."

The key to longevity — and another 1,000 — will be continuing to be fresh and innovative, Levesque says. "We'll get to Raw 2,000. It's on the moon, I think."

One guy who hopes to be there, too, is WWE commentator Jerry Lawler, a 42-year veteran who was at the first Raw at New York City's Manhattan Center.

"I might just be a head in a glass tube," Lawler laughs backstage, just before his entrance music queues up — Mussorgsky's The Great Gate of Kiev— and he walks out to 10,000 cheering fans.

"Even if I'm just a head, just set me in front of a TV somewhere."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/televi...18/wwe-monday-night-raw-1000-shows/56423082/1
 
Kane is a winner among men, that big red intellect.

"And then I'm going to come in and Pedigree you both because my marriage is the only one that matters in this business"
I like how Bryan's pose plays so well into this.

When is Berto going to get jobbed out like Swagger? The crowd continues to not give a shit about him, he's injured all the time, and last I checked, he was using the job as a jump starter to get into acting.

Maybe they can swap his position on the card with Swagger, I want to give the all American, American, American another chance.
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
I'm sure he has a Mexican following. Mexico is a decent market for them AFAIK.
They've got Rey, Hunico, Sin Cara, and Averno's locked away somewhere. Also, Undertaker's like a god in Mexico


Also going to take this time to say Tenille Dashwood is in my harem when you marks see her start showing up on WWE
 

Anth0ny

Member
"Raw is live, and it's live right up until we're done, which means we're changing stuff," says Levesque, who will flip the script on the fly depending on crowd reaction. "The reality of our business is fans control the content. They control who's the most popular, who's the most hated, because we really go where they're going."

wwe-triple-h-hhh-happy-6bb61e3b7bce0931da574d19d1d82c88-16.gif
 

RBH

Member
Sans mask and in athletic wear, Glenn Jacobs is the first in-ring talent in the building and attends the meeting. He's a 17-year mainstay on Raw, but he has been toying with the idea of moving to that less-bruising side of the industry when he hangs up his size-15 boots. "Now that I have seen a little more about the production side of it," he says, "you realize how impressive doing a live television show every week is, and everything that goes into it and the changes that have to be made as you're going along."
Would be interesting to see what role Kane has behind-the-scenes in the future. Sounds like he'd be more than just an agent.
 

RBH

Member
HHH interview:


Is the WWE fake?

Of course. Aren't all of your favorite shows?

Before Richard Hatch, the Situation and the Kardashians, Triple H, the Rock and Stone Cold created on-screen personas fans loved, hated or loved to hate. They were, in effect, the first stars of reality television.

“Every guy we have, whether it’s me, whether it’s the Undertaker, whether it’s John Cena playing the character John Cena, is a performer,” said Paul Levesque, aka Triple H, one of the industry’s most storied wrestlers. “What we did is very much the beginning of reality television. ‘Jersey Shore,’ whether people want to believe it or not, is a scripted kind-of show. They don’t give them every single word, but they give them premises and they set things up. It’s not a documentary where you follow them around brushing their teeth. And that’s what we are — we blur that line and that’s what people find intriguing.”

On Monday, the WWE makes television history when airs its 1,000th episode of “Monday Night Raw” from Scottrade Center. That’s more episodes than “Gunsmoke,” “Law & Order,” “The Simpsons” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” Must-see TV for legions of fans since 1993, the franchise draws about 4.5 million viewers to the USA Network. And starting this Monday, the show moves from a two-hour to a three-hour format.

WWE, already social media pioneers, also adds real-time interaction between “Raw” and its viewers at home. For instance, fans can vote for a certain match and, voila, those two wrestlers will get in the ring that night. Or fans can send a video "dis" of a despised wrestler and watch it be broadcast within minutes.

“It started with the signs that people brought to ‘Monday Night Raw,’” said Levesque. “Our fans want to be seen and heard.”

Monday’s show will boast the biggest names in wrestling including the Rock, who will make his first appearance in St. Louis in nine years. Known better these days as Dwayne Johnson, the Rock parlayed his success as a wrestler into a movie career and has starred in family-friendly flicks such as “Tooth Fairy” and “Race to Witch Mountain.” Other big-name stars on the bill are John Cena, Brock Lesnar, CM Punk, Kane, Sheamus and Chris Jericho. Levesque, now executive vice president of talent, also returns to the ring for a reunion with D-X stable mate Shawn Michaels.

Not on the bill? St. Louis wrestling superstar Randy Orton. WWE scratched Orton after he committed his second violation of the WWE’s wellness policy. Levesque won’t say what Orton did wrong, only that the man they call “the legend killer” will be back after completing his 60-day suspension.

“It is important to remember that all of our wrestlers are human but they also have to be accountable,” Levesque said.


These days, Levesque spends more time in gray suits than spandex briefs. His job is to find the next generation of big names. He admits it’s a struggle.

“We’re trying to teach them to be the Stone Colds and the Undertakers of tomorrow, but the one thing we can’t teach is charisma,” said Levesque. “You can teach people to do moves and create story lines and the psychology of what we do, but you can’t teach someone to be the Rock. It’s an innate ability to walk into a room and have everyone pay attention. Put aside the athleticism and what happens in the ring, what our business is really about is connecting with people emotionally. If you are emotionally connected to your character, then people will want to see you. It’s true in Hollywood and movies. You don’t have to be the best actor, just be a presence.”

Take, for instance, current WWE world heavyweight champion Sheamus. Bullied as a kid, Sheamus learned to be tough to survive. But fans are as charmed by his spiky red hair, Irish accent and trademark pasty white skin as they are wowed by his finishing moves.

“When I first tried to get noticed by the WWE, I shaved my red hair and sprayed on fake tanner,” said Sheamus, who is from Dublin. “But when I got here I realized I have something different in the pale pasty skin and under the lights, I look even whiter. Mattel had to come up with a special shade of white for the action figure. Being in the ring, I’m not afraid to be who I really am.”

Other wrestlers, however, are nothing like their on-stage characters, said Levesque.

“The Rock is the Rock. I’ve known Dwayne since he got into the business and that same charisma that you see in the ring is the same guy you see in movies is the same guy he really is,” said Levesque. “And we’ve got some characters that if you put their personality on air, people would go to sleep. They are the most plain, ho-hum guys you would ever meet. You have to give them something.”

For instance?

“Believe it or not, Kane,” said Levesque. “He’s this Freddy Krueger, psychotic character but if you met the guy who plays Kane, he’s a very nice dude. He’s very politically savvy and he’s a speed reader. He is so the opposite of what he appears in the ring.”


Levesque and WWE’s team of writers insert these characters into heated feuds and scorching romances. In fact, Levesque married his on-stage sweetheart Stephanie McMahon, daughter of WWE chairman Vince McMahon. The couple now have three daughters.

“We control the story lines but we follow the fans. The guy is whoever the fans get behind,” said Levesque. “The beauty of what we do is every night somewhere in the world we have a group touring and those fans in the crowd are our focus group. They tell us what they like and what they don’t like.”

If Levesque sounds more like a TV showrunner than a sports executive, that’s because he is one. He stands behind the WWE’s 2008 decision to make “Raw” PG television. That meant no more chair shots to the head or profane trash talking. Hard-core fans still grouse, but the show’s growing base of family viewers applauds change.

Fan Kerry Wandro watches “Raw” with his teenage son and young nephews and appreciates the family-friendly approach.

“I don’t want the kids to have to ask, ‘Why did he grab his crotch’ or ‘Why did he make him bleed,’” said Wandro of Red Bud, Ill. “It’s still a lot of fun. It’s the soap opera aspect that makes it great.”

The move also has improved WWE’s public image. Critics have always derided wrestling as barbaric, but the steroid scandals of the 1990s and the murder-suicide of WWE wrestler Chris Benoit threatened the future of the publicly traded business. Levesque says he compares a PG “Raw” to a clean stand-up routine.

“There are comics who can be great and never use a bad word,” said Levesque. “I never have had a fan come up and say to me, ‘Ah man, my all-time favorite moment in “Raw” was when this guy used this dirty word.’ What they remember are the story lines. The movies that do the biggest box office aren’t the ones with the most blood and swearing.”


But do not be confused. The pain is real.

“A word we hear a lot and that we dislike is ‘fake.’ ‘Oh, the WWE is fake.’ But let me tell you, it’s physical and it’s hard,” said Levesque. “If a 300-pound guy jumps on you from five feet up, does it hurt any less if you know it’s coming?”
http://www.stltoday.com/entertainme...cle_48ac1376-d212-11e1-9d12-0019bb30f31a.html
 

SoulPlaya

more money than God
BTW, I'm really glad to see Kane is being given an opportunity to get more involved in the production side of things. You don't go that long in the company and still be an upper level-main event talent, and not have something to contribute behind the scenes.
 

bangai-o

Banned
When is Berto going to get jobbed out like Swagger? The crowd continues to not give a shit about him, he's injured all the time, and last I checked, he was using the job as a jump starter to get into acting.

makes perfect sense. After his training and accomplishments in Grecco Roman, his career in CMLL, AAA, mma in Japan and Pride Fighting, he is obviously joining the WWE simply to become a movie star.
 

Enfinit

Member
That logo is bland as shit ):

It's better than the one they use now:

WWE-RAW-LOGO.png


The metallic twinkly speeding-through-the-night crap looks gross to me. The new one's smooth and clean.


I wonder who will be in the 3rd limo tonight?

I have a question, I will be in Florida, Orlando, in August. I will be there with my little brother and I want to raise the next gen of us. What ist a good place to take him TNA, FCW or where is NXT Taped and how do I find out about dates.

Best place would be where Regal is at, cause he is just as man's man.

He is the manliest of all man and will take AJ from DBry tonight, leading into an awesome Regal/Bryan Feud.

It's still real to me. So very, very real. *sob*
They film FCW at the FCW center in Tampa on Thursday nights. It's actually pretty fun, and there's some smaller guys like Ricardo, Steamboat, and A-Ry that are fun to watch. I think WWE films FCW/NXT at the Full Sail University campus in Orlando monthly, but the dates are kinda sporadic. Look at FCW's site to look at dates.

Tampa is only an hour drive from Orlando, FCW's worth the drive if you go on a good night.
 
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