WWF/WWE/ECW/WCW

The Wrestling Observer now reports that AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson have all in fact signed with WWE. The site reports that the four stars gave their notice to NJPW booker Gedo this morning at Wrestle Kingdom 10. It isn’t known when they will be starting with WWE but as noted, Nakamaura won’t be leaving right away as he will drop the IWGP Intercontinental Title before he does.

What??? I thought Storm would be on Raw before too long... From 411mania.com

James Storm took to Twitter to shoot down reports that he will be returning to TNA this week at the Impact tapings. Storm posted to respond to the report that he will be appearing for TNA, noting that he will be at the tapings but it is just for a meeting at this point.

It’s worth noting that Storm also denied it when people claimed he would be at the first NXT taping that he ultimately did appear on.

ORIGINAL: According to PWInsider, James Storm will return to TNA at the TV tapings this week in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The site has confirmed that Storm will be at the tapings could appear at the live Impact debut on Pop TV tomorrow.

Storm, who was with TNA through June of 2015, had most recently been appearing for WWE NXT, showing up in October and November. He had been negotiating for a new TNA deal up to the point that he first appeared for NXT, and because he was filmed throughout the World Title Series, he was on TNA TV basically through the show’s final days on Destination America. Obviously he will not likely be appearing for NXT going forward if he has signed a new TNA deal.

Storm is set for all of the TNA tapings this week, which will account for several episodes of Impact and One Night Only PPVs along with a live One Night on Thursday.

tohostudios wrote:

Wow, what s surprise. 

Apparently Big Show is a face again since he just got attacked by the Wyatt Family on RAW.  I used to think Flair held the record for flip-flopping but Big Show is far worse; he flips between face and heel about every 3 or 4 months.

Big Slow keeps flip flopping. Just either stay face or stay heel. I have stopped watching. I have no desire, face or heel, to EVER watch Roman. He is terrible and his finishing move is dumber than a Hogan leg-drop. The only reason they brought in VKM was so Roman would get cheers on TV. I think I will take a "Roman break" from Raw until something interesting happens.

Watching TNA on PopTV.

First time I've seen this promotion in about a year. Enjoying it so far but there's also not a lot to distinguish it from WWE at this point.

EDIT: If nothing else, this show is introducing some new wrestlers.  I have no idea who the "Dollhouse" chicks are and they just made a big deal out of introducing someone called Mike "The Miracle" Bennett.  The wrestling dirtsheets I've looked up seem to think a lot of this guy so we'll see.

tohostudios wrote:

Watching TNA on PopTV.

First time I've seen this promotion in about a year. Enjoying it so far but there's also not a lot to distinguish it from WWE at this point.

EDIT: If nothing else, this show is introducing some new wrestlers.  I have no idea who the "Dollhouse" chicks are and they just made a big deal out of introducing someone called Mike "The Miracle" Bennett.  The wrestling dirtsheets I've looked up seem to think a lot of this guy so we'll see.

Mike is from ROH. Did he have Maria with him? She used to be with WWE (and ROH). The Dollhouse was  Teryn Terrell gimmick but apparently they are no longer using her since she found Jesus. She had stated she was no longer comfortable playing the Dollhouse role so I guess she is out now. (She recently appeared in a Will Ferrell movie. Don't know which one but on the previous he goes for a basketball dunk and takes out a cheerleader. The cheerleader is Teryn Terrell).

I do not have PopTV but I did have DestAM. I recorded ROH and TNA every week. No, there isn't a whole lot to differentiate TNA and WWE but TNA had less skits and more wrestling. I mainly watched for Bobby Roode and Eric Young. I love those guys. I started to enjoy ECIII as well and his heel persona. I believe he was in NXT or WWE developmental at some point?

But I read the results this morning and Storm was back? WTF?!? I thought he had something worked out with NXT and WWE including control of his character. I see going back to TNA as a huge step back. They are going NOWHERE. PopTV is not on any cable provider in my area or even Dish.

Out of the two, ROH is better.

The problem with TNA is pushing mid-card WWE guys (Drew) or guys way past their prime (Matt Hardy). Lashley still does great but I have no desire to see Brodus Clay as a henchman or Kurt Angle or the Hardys way past their prime.

Reports are saying WWE low balled James Storm offering him less than $100,000 while TNA offered him a contract for around $200,000.

Triple H spoke at Lemmy's funeral:

Required Fields wrote:

Triple H spoke at Lemmy's funeral:

That was cool.  I didn't realize HHH actually knew Lemmy that well.

Looks like WWE maybe thinking of throwing a few more peppers into the gumbo of another lackluster Jericho return:

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/662895-chris-jericho-scheduled-to-work-as-a-heel-at-upcoming-wwe-smackdown-possible-feud-set

Just a dark match but could be setting it up. From what I read, the general consensus of fans is that a heel run is needed for this run to be any good. I tend to agree, Chris Jericho was always better as a heel. He knows just how to get under the fans' skin.

I also read that there's some speculation that the Wyatts might be in for a "face" run.  Or at the very least an "anti-hero" run.  They need to do something with them to refresh the characters, especially after they've lost every feud they've ever had.

Another wrestler from my days of watching has passed. RIP Iron Mike.


http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/663663-former-wwe-star-iron-mike-sharpe-passes-away-at-age-64

I remember him. Didn't he always wear a forearm protector because he was "injured"? He was a glorified jobber if I remember correctly. He also always stomped his foot, raised the "injured" arm and hollered when his name was announced before the match.

I'm quite familiar with that name from the days the superstars did mostly squash matches on TV. Mike Sharpe was quite often one of the squashees. He was also responsible for training many lower and upper mid-card wrestlers. Sad to hear this.

Speaking of jobbers, one that was always stuck in my mind was Jim Powers. I recently forgot that he used to be in a mid-card tag team, The Young Stallions. Just watched the first Survivor Series and that team was part of it. Always interesting to see how things used to be. One thing you notice is how much bigger they were. Even the high flyers were bigger than most of the wrestlers today. Of course that was mostly the steroids (the body pimples many of them had was a good indication). Even John Cena, Sheamus, Titus, and other power houses look puny compared to the likes of Davey Boy, Don Moroco, Brutus Beefcake, Dino Bravo (though he was more power lifter than body builder), and other power houses of that day. The closest we have to them is Big E. Not all were that bad though. Ted Dibiase, Greg Valentine, Honky Tonk Man, Bret Hart and others had sensible physiques (without being overweight), but even they were bigger than a lot of what we have. They're much healthier and natural now and quite frankly more entertaining in the ring for sure. Sadly though, even the lowest card wrestlers at the time had more charisma than a lot of them. If we could have the personalities of yesterday combined with the natural athleticism of today, we'd have a much better product (sans the horrible booking and storylines of course, they need to change that too).

One thing was funny was the Team Hogan vs. Team Andre match. Don Moroco who was much stronger and bigger than Hogan (reality wise, not story wise-lets face it, much of the billed weights at the time were absurd), couldn't body slam One Man Gang, not even close. Yet Hogan body slammed him with ease. Yet, such was Hogan's fanbase at the time, nobody thought that unusual or unbelievable.

I decided I want to go through all the old Summerslams an Survivor Series PPVs since I still have the WWE Network available to me. So I might come back to this thread with more observations of how different it was back then.

007 wrote:

Another wrestler from my days of watching has passed. RIP Iron Mike.


http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/663663-former-wwe-star-iron-mike-sharpe-passes-away-at-age-64

I saw something about that on Facebook; R.I.P. Iron Mike.

This is sort of the way I remember him:

Ya know, looking back on that now, he sure was a lot bigger than I remember. He could practically compete now at that size. I just remember him getting his ass kicked all the time.

DallasBlack wrote:

I'm quite familiar with that name from the days the superstars did mostly squash matches on TV. Mike Sharpe was quite often one of the squashees. He was also responsible for training many lower and upper mid-card wrestlers. Sad to hear this.

Speaking of jobbers, one that was always stuck in my mind was Jim Powers. I recently forgot that he used to be in a mid-card tag team, The Young Stallions. Just watched the first Survivor Series and that team was part of it. Always interesting to see how things used to be. One thing you notice is how much bigger they were. Even the high flyers were bigger than most of the wrestlers today. Of course that was mostly the steroids (the body pimples many of them had was a good indication). Even John Cena, Sheamus, Titus, and other power houses look puny compared to the likes of Davey Boy, Don Moroco, Brutus Beefcake, Dino Bravo (though he was more power lifter than body builder), and other power houses of that day. The closest we have to them is Big E. Not all were that bad though. Ted Dibiase, Greg Valentine, Honky Tonk Man, Bret Hart and others had sensible physiques (without being overweight), but even they were bigger than a lot of what we have. They're much healthier and natural now and quite frankly more entertaining in the ring for sure. Sadly though, even the lowest card wrestlers at the time had more charisma than a lot of them. If we could have the personalities of yesterday combined with the natural athleticism of today, we'd have a much better product (sans the horrible booking and storylines of course, they need to change that too).

One thing was funny was the Team Hogan vs. Team Andre match. Don Moroco who was much stronger and bigger than Hogan (reality wise, not story wise-lets face it, much of the billed weights at the time were absurd), couldn't body slam One Man Gang, not even close. Yet Hogan body slammed him with ease. Yet, such was Hogan's fanbase at the time, nobody thought that unusual or unbelievable.

I decided I want to go through all the old Summerslams an Survivor Series PPVs since I still have the WWE Network available to me. So I might come back to this thread with more observations of how different it was back then.

If you have time, watch those classic Saturday Night's Main Events on WWE Network. I recently watched all of them from 1985 (starts after Wrestlemania I) up to 1990 and Wrestlemania VI when the Ultimate Warrior beats Hulk Hogan. Shows aren't long, and there are only a few per year. It went by in a breeze, but I got a good look at all my childhood heroes and storylines I had almost forgotten.

And yes, I remember the Young Stallions. It was nice seeing them again. Paul Roma went on to form Power & Glory with Hercules. I always liked that team. Tremendous finisher. A shame they never got the push they deserved.

I agree those 80's wrestlers look huge, and absolutely unnatural. Muraco, Orndorff, Hogan, Beefcake, Davey Boy Smith, Billy Graham...




That's just not a physique you see nowadays in wrestling anymore. And it's not a bad thing.

Paul Roma frequented the Gold's Gym I belonged to when I lived in Connecticut more than 20 years ago.  What impressed the hell out of me was watching him do tricep pushdowns on the machine with all the weight stack loaded.  

But then Undertaker showed up (no lie!  This was the home state of WWE - WWF back then) and I watched him bench press over 600 lbs in free weights so I sort of forgot about Paul.  Oh yeah, and Randy Savage showed up a little later too.

I was a MAJOR gym rat back then but it was funny to watch me and all the other gym rats scatter so these guys could work out.

The funniest part was the pictures the front desk girls had taken with these guys.  The main receptionist barely came up to Undertaker's hips.  They posted those pics on the bulletin board just inside the entrance.

BTW, regarding tonight's RAW...

I predict the inevitable Jericho heel turn...

Lari wrote:

And yes, I remember the Young Stallions. It was nice seeing them again. Paul Roma went on to form Power & Glory with Hercules. I always liked that team. Tremendous finisher. A shame they never got the push they deserved.

I liked them too but mainly because I liked Hercules Hernandez. Not sure why, he wasn't the greatest performer, but just like Dino Bravo, he was pretty decent for a power wrestler.

That angle with Hercules and DiBiase helped get him over fast. Kind of controversial now that I think about it. A man gets sold to another to be their "slave"? Yeah, I don't see that happening again anytime soon.

But DiBiase was such a great character, a great worker (and a tremendous in-ring performer) that he could pretty much do anything and make it entertaining.

It's incredible he never was the WWF champion. Well, aside from a few seconds.

Lari wrote:

That angle with Hercules and DiBiase helped get him over fast. Kind of controversial now that I think about it. A man gets sold to another to be their "slave"? Yeah, I don't see that happening again anytime soon.

But DiBiase was such a great character, a great worker (and a tremendous in-ring performer) that he could pretty much do anything and make it entertaining.

It's incredible he never was the WWF champion. Well, aside from a few seconds.

One of the best heels in WWF/E history for sure. You always wanted to see him get his ass kicked but were always entertained when he stepped into that ring. He also stood out for not being a glorified body builder. He didn't need a ripped physique or to be able to overpower his opponents, just outmaneuver and/or outsmart them.

In the 80's I loved the heels (with the exception of HTM, he was such a great character actor that I actually HATED Honky, love him now).

Saturday Night's Main Event, I always loved the matches between Hogan and Mr. Wonderful, especially the cage match where they jumped to the floor "at the same time" haha.



You're right, guys were huge back then.

I remember being at a house show and Iron Mike was on the card (either late 80's or early 90's). We were seated near "Gorilla Position" so I could see people behind the curtain. I remember seeing Iron Mike before his match and yelling to him "Awesome, it's Iron Mike! I love Iron Mike Sharpe!" and he cracked a smile while still trying to look heel. I thought he might have been surprised that some high school kid actually knew who he was.

I liked Hercules too, what a great character and a pretty solid looking guy. I knew that he had passed away, but did not know he was only 47. Seems like so many of the guys pass before they are 50 and that is just sad.

Yeah it's very sad. And most of those wrestlers have died from either drug overdoses, health problems, or suicides. There are exceptions like Owen Hart and Dino Bravo* but most are for those reasons.

*Dino Bravo was shot to death by the Canadian mafia for cigarette smuggling.

DallasBlack wrote:

Yeah it's very sad. And most of those wrestlers have died from either drug overdoses, health problems, or suicides. There are exceptions like Owen Hart and Dino Bravo* but most are for those reasons.

*Dino Bravo was shot to death by the Canadian mafia for cigarette smuggling.

Yeah, that Dino Bravo murder is crazy! I remember hearing about that when it happened. I think John Tenta died of cancer (Earthquake).

As for Jericho's upcoming heel turn I expected it last night as well but I guess we will have to wait until Sunday night? Not a subscriber so I will get my RR results from 411mania.com

Jericho is just better as a heel.  All of his mannerisms, catch phrases and facial expressions just work better that way. I do give him credit for still wrestling though AND being willing to put guys over. Between his wrestling career and his Fozzy gig I'm sure he doesn't need the money; he just loves the business. He should be a manager when he decides to give up his in-ring career.