Pro Wrestling |OT| It's still real to D-Pad.Life, dammit!
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Thread: Pro Wrestling |OT| It's still real to D-Pad.Life, dammit!
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Wish Toni Storm would announce her retirement. She's the Moxley of the women's division, especially with like 4 title reigns. Toni Kahn's gonna turn her into Charlotte Flair.
Raquel Gonzalez could kind of pass for Chyna too, though I think Rhea Ripley fits the mold better
Might as well do a modern day all female DX, especially since at least half of the women on the roster are obsessed with doing crotch chops and saying "suck it" all the time for some bizarre reason. Am I the only one who has noticed this? Some girl did it this past Tuesday on NXT.
Raquel Gonzalez could kind of pass for Chyna too, though I think Rhea Ripley fits the mold better
Might as well do a modern day all female DX, especially since at least half of the women on the roster are obsessed with doing crotch chops and saying "suck it" all the time for some bizarre reason. Am I the only one who has noticed this? Some girl did it this past Tuesday on NXT.
Baphomet
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Yer Da
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Stardom's losing all of its top stars. Tam, Giulia, possibly Mayu Iwatani in the near future (she finally dropped the IWGP title that she won from Mercedes Mone). The company doesn't even have its original owner anymore. This is end of an era type shit. Ironically, WWE is going through a similar shift. Vince is gone. Cena is on his retirement tour. Even Roman probably doesn't have much time left before he bows out. I don't know where that leaves WWE since we all know Cody sucks and is not up to the task.
Lot of free agents right now, and Stardom is bleeding talent.
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www.f4wonline.com
www.wrestlezone.com
Syuri Ends Mayu Iwatani's 735-Day IWGP Women's Title Reign
For the first time in two years, the IWGP Women's Championship changed hands as Syuri dethroned the dominant champion Mayu Iwatani.
www.wrestlezone.com
Mayu Iwatani announces Stardom departure
Mayu Iwatani is leaving Stardom. The former IWGP Women’s Champion confirmed during a press conference on Monday morning that she would be leaving Stardom immediately, and is no longer a member of the…
www.f4wonline.com
Kenny Omega Gives Honest Thoughts On Tetsuya Naito's NJPW Departure
The announcement of Tetsuya Naito's impending departure from New Japan Pro-Wrestling surprised many people, including Kenny Omega.
www.wrestlezone.com
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Stardom's losing all of its top stars. Tam, Giulia, possibly Mayu Iwatani in the near future (she finally dropped the IWGP title that she won from Mercedes Mone). The company doesn't even have its original owner anymore. This is end of an era type shit. Ironically, WWE is going through a similar shift. Vince is gone. Cena is on his retirement tour. Even Roman probably doesn't have much time left before he bows out. I don't know where that leaves WWE since we all know Cody sucks and is not up to the task.
Alternate take they just had 7200 fans at a show
Lot of free agents right now, and Stardom is bleeding talent.
Syuri Ends Mayu Iwatani's 735-Day IWGP Women's Title Reign
For the first time in two years, the IWGP Women's Championship changed hands as Syuri dethroned the dominant champion Mayu Iwatani.
Mayu Iwatani announces Stardom departure
Mayu Iwatani is leaving Stardom. The former IWGP Women’s Champion confirmed during a press conference on Monday morning that she would be leaving Stardom immediately, and is no longer a member of the…
Kenny Omega Gives Honest Thoughts On Tetsuya Naito's NJPW Departure
The announcement of Tetsuya Naito's impending departure from New Japan Pro-Wrestling surprised many people, including Kenny Omega.
Mayu i is ALL ELITE
Yer Da
Member
Isn't that pretty good for Stardom? How have their other recent shows been doing? I don't follow them but I was under the impression that their business has actually gone up after Rossy left, rather than down like many expected.
Jesus dude, these crowds are getting kind of obnoxious. What chants during Lyra's promo, "one more time" while Sammi was getting beat down. Trying to tell any kind of story when you have fans like this is impossible. The best thing going right now is Cena's heel turn because EVERYTHING he says about wrestling fans is true. They are douchebags and they are fickle.
I also find the therapist dialog he uses funny. When he talks about abusive relationships or not needing validation from outside himself, it sounds like stuff a therapist told him. The Rock didn't turn Cena heel, his therapist did.
I also find the therapist dialog he uses funny. When he talks about abusive relationships or not needing validation from outside himself, it sounds like stuff a therapist told him. The Rock didn't turn Cena heel, his therapist did.
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That's really good for a woman's show. I don't know if a WWE all woman's show would draw that for all the doom and gloom they basically had their biggest show
BlackDow
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Kind of the same. I'm keeping up to date as best I can by reading about it. But. Haven't watched wrestling. For a while I think it was the AEW PPV but for got its name might worlds end. But tbh. I haven't watched any new matches. Yeah I still watch the undertaker vs mankind hell in a cell from time to time.
Yer Da
Member
Yeh I'm the same. Things just feel pretty flat and there's not much catching my interest.
There are good things here and there but the overall state of pro wrestling in 2025 is pretty poor. The talent sometimes comes through with great promos or matches, but the issue is the booking and creative. It's quite obvious that Tony Kahn and Triple H are stubborn and stuck in their ways. This is the problem, and it's not going to change. At this point we might as well call them Triple Vince and Tony McMahon because the two of them are no different than he was. Tony Kahn is not the "alternative" and Triple H is not the "savior".
To Vince McMahon's credit, at least he was occasionally unpredictable. In that sense, Triple H and Tony Kahn may be worse than Vince McMahon.
AEW is a shadow of what it once was, and WWE has largely gone back to being the product it was when AEW first came into existence. If I had to choose just one to watch though, I'd pick WWE. That's how shitty AEW is right now.
To Vince McMahon's credit, at least he was occasionally unpredictable. In that sense, Triple H and Tony Kahn may be worse than Vince McMahon.
AEW is a shadow of what it once was, and WWE has largely gone back to being the product it was when AEW first came into existence. If I had to choose just one to watch though, I'd pick WWE. That's how shitty AEW is right now.
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Wrestling was never good. You were just at a time and place in your life where you were entertained by it.
For every great Austin or Rock promo there was Mae Young giving birth to a hand and the Finger Poke of doom.
You get a few glimmers once in a while and sometimes wrestling tape into a cultural zeitgeist and gets popular but that's only because you were in that demographic.
If anything the production values are the best they have ever been and the athleticism is second to none.
Its still a bunch of carnies having fixed fake matches with fake storylines and fake characters. That's what it boils down too. You could just be at a place in life where it connects or you can be at time where it doesn't
For every great Austin or Rock promo there was Mae Young giving birth to a hand and the Finger Poke of doom.
You get a few glimmers once in a while and sometimes wrestling tape into a cultural zeitgeist and gets popular but that's only because you were in that demographic.
If anything the production values are the best they have ever been and the athleticism is second to none.
Its still a bunch of carnies having fixed fake matches with fake storylines and fake characters. That's what it boils down too. You could just be at a place in life where it connects or you can be at time where it doesn't
I call bullshit on that.
I hate the, "You loved it because it was your generation" argument. It just sweeps every problem under the rug and hand waives away every argument. That's like saying, "You only like Trump because he's Republican and you're Republican". Um no, I like Trump because of his policies, his track record of success, and the fact that he's the only guy brave enough to tell the fucking truth about everything. He also avoided an assassin's bullet and raised his fist in the air like a fucking badass.
We had legit stars in the 80s and 90s. Wrestlers seemed larger than life. Kayfabe was more in effect and respected. The products were not woke and they were not sanitized. The crowds were better. The product was more legitimately popular and mainstream so it felt more of a part of your actual life because you could talk about it with everyone. No one will ever experience that now. The 80s had clear faces and clear heels, not the ambiguous shit we have today where you can't tell if some people are supposed to be heroes or villains. The 90s had legitimately cool top guys like Steven Austin, DX, and The Rock, not dorks like Cody or the goofball that Cena was throughout his run as top babyface of the company. I remember wanting to BE The Rock and when I was a kid I wanted to BE Hulk Hogan. Only a loser would actually want to be like Cena or Cody. The Rock came back as part of last year's Mania build and STILL seemed cooler than everyone in the company. We went from top guys saying, "Do you smell what the Rock is cooking!" and "That's the bottom line cause Stone Cold said so!" to some stupid nepot baby, politician saying, "What do you wanna talk about?" That's your catchphrase? Are you fucking serious?
Also, you can look at AEW in its first few years and there is a CLEAR difference between what it was then and what it is now. It's not the same. Wrestling sucks sometimes and sometimes it's awesome. It's not "never good". Lucha Underground was fucking awesome. AEW was awesome for a few years. Black and Gold NXT was almost always awesome. You can tell when things are good and when things are bad. Wrestlemania 41 was bad, with the women's triple threat match being the only part of it people are still talking about. Everyone pretty much agrees that the TLC tag title match on Smackdown was better than 90% of the matches on Wrestlemania. Even Karrion Kross did a worked shoot promo about how bad WWE's product is. AEW has had objectively bad back to back pay per views with shitty finishes that pissed everyone off. The women's division is objectively bad because Tony Kahn doesn't care about anyone but Toni Storm and Mercedes Mone. He's not building stars in that division. He's simply feeding everyone to Storm and Mone to be jobbed out.
Production values are irrelevant. No one cares. And a great match isn't determined by athleticism. Sting can't do shit these days and people still loved his retirement match. The psychology of a match and the story you tell in the ring matter more than anything
I hate the, "You loved it because it was your generation" argument. It just sweeps every problem under the rug and hand waives away every argument. That's like saying, "You only like Trump because he's Republican and you're Republican". Um no, I like Trump because of his policies, his track record of success, and the fact that he's the only guy brave enough to tell the fucking truth about everything. He also avoided an assassin's bullet and raised his fist in the air like a fucking badass.
We had legit stars in the 80s and 90s. Wrestlers seemed larger than life. Kayfabe was more in effect and respected. The products were not woke and they were not sanitized. The crowds were better. The product was more legitimately popular and mainstream so it felt more of a part of your actual life because you could talk about it with everyone. No one will ever experience that now. The 80s had clear faces and clear heels, not the ambiguous shit we have today where you can't tell if some people are supposed to be heroes or villains. The 90s had legitimately cool top guys like Steven Austin, DX, and The Rock, not dorks like Cody or the goofball that Cena was throughout his run as top babyface of the company. I remember wanting to BE The Rock and when I was a kid I wanted to BE Hulk Hogan. Only a loser would actually want to be like Cena or Cody. The Rock came back as part of last year's Mania build and STILL seemed cooler than everyone in the company. We went from top guys saying, "Do you smell what the Rock is cooking!" and "That's the bottom line cause Stone Cold said so!" to some stupid nepot baby, politician saying, "What do you wanna talk about?" That's your catchphrase? Are you fucking serious?
Also, you can look at AEW in its first few years and there is a CLEAR difference between what it was then and what it is now. It's not the same. Wrestling sucks sometimes and sometimes it's awesome. It's not "never good". Lucha Underground was fucking awesome. AEW was awesome for a few years. Black and Gold NXT was almost always awesome. You can tell when things are good and when things are bad. Wrestlemania 41 was bad, with the women's triple threat match being the only part of it people are still talking about. Everyone pretty much agrees that the TLC tag title match on Smackdown was better than 90% of the matches on Wrestlemania. Even Karrion Kross did a worked shoot promo about how bad WWE's product is. AEW has had objectively bad back to back pay per views with shitty finishes that pissed everyone off. The women's division is objectively bad because Tony Kahn doesn't care about anyone but Toni Storm and Mercedes Mone. He's not building stars in that division. He's simply feeding everyone to Storm and Mone to be jobbed out.
Production values are irrelevant. No one cares. And a great match isn't determined by athleticism. Sting can't do shit these days and people still loved his retirement match. The psychology of a match and the story you tell in the ring matter more than anything
Baphomet
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Yer Da
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I think Cena and Cody can be quite cringey at times. But they're aimed at kids and kids seem to love them. You mention DX but if you go back and look at them now as an adult they're can be pretty cringey too. Whereas 10-year-old me, who was part of their target demo, thought they were cool.A lot of the time the top acts are aimed at kids and that's ok.
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Nah wrestling is always fake and ghey. Its just fake characters doing fake fixed fights. Its not about generations it's just about being in the right frame of mind that it's fakeness appeals to you at that time. There are plenty of fans who like the ruthless aggression era or new generation because at that time they just were into the wrestling fad.
Wrestling doesn't really change that much aside from the production values and athleticism. It's mainly the same formula with just different fake fighters pretending to be tough guys. The best eras still had all the same bullshit around it just at some point you were part of the audience that enjoys it and then at some point you just grow out of it.
If your not into it now your just at a point in your life where the fixed fake fights aren't appealing to you
I can see how DX might be considered cringe in our current, PC climate. I think when we got middle-aged DX that was just HBK and Triple H it got kind of cringe as they were the equivalent of an aging band trying to be as cool as they used to be. However, the early versions of DX were doing things that were kind of new and fresh in the 90s like invading WCW and the 9th Wonder of the World Chyna, and they were cool at that particular point in time in our culture. Remember that wrestling was MASSIVELY more successful back then compared to now and they were one of the top acts in the company. So culturally speaking, DX was a big deal, unlike 90% of today's wrestlers who are just irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. It's crazy that The Rock, an attitude era star is still a bigger deal than everyone in WWE.
People are STILL copying DX. The Young Bucks were constantly doing "suck its" before WWE took legal action against them, which was pretty petty IMO. And for some odd reason a lot of girls in WWE love doing it now. To me THAT is cringe, but whatever. CM Punk likes to take credit for making little guys relevant in wrestling, but people like X-Pac did it before him and Sean Waltman is cooler in 2025 than sell out, corporate dick sucking, Phil Brooks.
WWE Main Roster Releases
- Braun Strowman
- Shayna Baszler
- Dakota Kai
- Kayden Carter
- Katana Chance
- Cora Jade
- Gigi Dolin
- Eddy Thorpe
- Jakara Jackson
- Riley Osborne
- Joe Coffey
- Mark Coffey
- Wolfgang
- Oro Mensah
- Javier Bernal
- Dani Palmer
Cora Jade sucks. Never was a fan of hers. They have Roxanne Perez, they don't need the inferior Cora Jade.
Dakota Kai deserved better, and her release shows that it's back to the status quo in WWE. She was Triple H's first hire back when we had such high hopes for him being in charge. Now it's like he's Vince 2.0 and her release solidifies that. She could excel in a place like AEW, but we all know that Tony Kahn doesn't care about any woman not named Toni Storm or Mercedes Mone, so she might as well head to TNA or maybe do an excursion to Japan and work some Stardom shows.
Strowman being let go is the biggest surprise. I loved his program with Bronson Reed.
Gigi Dolin was easy on the eyes and the only member of Toxic Attraction that was actually hot. I will miss her.
There's rumors that Austin Theory is next. I honestly kind of like Theory.
Dakota Kai deserved better, and her release shows that it's back to the status quo in WWE. She was Triple H's first hire back when we had such high hopes for him being in charge. Now it's like he's Vince 2.0 and her release solidifies that. She could excel in a place like AEW, but we all know that Tony Kahn doesn't care about any woman not named Toni Storm or Mercedes Mone, so she might as well head to TNA or maybe do an excursion to Japan and work some Stardom shows.
Strowman being let go is the biggest surprise. I loved his program with Bronson Reed.
Gigi Dolin was easy on the eyes and the only member of Toxic Attraction that was actually hot. I will miss her.
There's rumors that Austin Theory is next. I honestly kind of like Theory.
Dakota was too injury prone. I could see her doing well in AEW.
It could end up being good for him. Go elsewhere, get the Vince stink off him, and evolve a bit.
It could end up being good for him. Go elsewhere, get the Vince stink off him, and evolve a bit.
I'm just now catching up on Yoshihiko's 7 star matches this year. He was busy during Mania weekend too:
Yer Da
Member
I don't mean cringe because they weren't PC. And yeh, the middle-aged DX were definitely worse. But I do just mean in general when you now look back at them there was plenty of dorky stuff that worked for kids but maybe isn't legitimately cool.
There were fun things about DX. Like I said, I thought they were cool at the time. A lot of people our age, I'm assuming you're around my age, did too. That's why you still see people, like athletes in various sports, doing crotch chops and that kind of thing. It's still fun to play around with that stuff. But I think the concept of them kinda works better than the reality.
You mentioned the WCW invasion. But is it actually cool when you watch it back? If you showed this to an adult with no prior knowledge of DX or pro wrestling, someone with no nostalgia for it, would they think it was cool? Is it not kinda dorky?
You're right about Waltman though he does seem like a cool guy these days and he did push the boundaries for who could be prominent in WWF