Does Anyone Watch Wrestling? (WWE, AEW, TNA, NWA, etc)
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Great match between Ospreay and Danielson on the latest AEW PPV.
When they concentrate on the wrestling they have some good things going on there. Pity they struggle with poor live audience numbers. Maybe they should relocate to the UK, would be sellouts every week.
When they concentrate on the wrestling they have some good things going on there. Pity they struggle with poor live audience numbers. Maybe they should relocate to the UK, would be sellouts every week.
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Yeah, I just wanted to include at least one tag championship, and it would've been either the original one (80s-90s) or this current one introduced on SmackDown. If the new one had just a tiny pop of colour, it would put it ahead in my book too. If I was allowed an extra row on this shelf of 12 (to make it 15), I'd definitely have both.
But jesus christ they have really done the lineage something confusing with the tag titles. Was this mentioned earlier in the thread?
1983-2002 - Initially "WWF World Tag Team Championship" then I believe dropped to just "WWF Tag Team Championship" in the 90s.
2002-2010 - Titles split, the original on Raw named the "World Tag Team Championship", with the new ones on SmackDown named the "WWE Tag Team Championship".
2010-2016 - Unified and defended as the "WWE Tag Team Championship" with WWE carrying the lineage of the newer 'WWE' version, as it has 'WWE' in the name.
2016-2024 - Titles split again, same as before, with the original being made Raw exclusive and renamed the "Raw Tag Team Championship" and new titles introduced to SmackDown as the "SmackDown Tag Team Championship", but were importantly kept separate even during their unification by The Usos and afterwards until....
2024- ... WrestleMania's ladder match which saw the titles go back to their "Original" (2016) brands, and be renamed accordingly to the current singles World titles.
So today's "World Tag Team Championship" started out as the "WWE Tag Team Championship" on SmackDown in 2002, which was introduced because the "WWE Tag Team Championship" became brand exclusive to Raw and was renamed the "World Tag Team Championship"
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Might try and check it out later, but... consider me one of those people that want to be sports entertained. That's what my issue with AEW is.
If I want to watch something where it's purely based on "I'm better than you" (which is what AEW seems to do, generally) then.. well, I'll go watch UFC or actual sport.
Professional Wrestling to me is like the missus watching Eastenders, or Neighbours, I need a bit more context to 'why' - which I guess is the WWE way, and why they do it better than AEW.
Which... to me, that's sort of the way HHH is doing things too (the stories centering around more of a sporting context usually) but.. I dunno it just works.
Don't get me wrong, I like that there's a genuine second company for wrestlers to aspire to and more options for them to have a living out of the game, but... I dunno, overall it just doesn't do it for me. I'll check in if I hear/see something that is getting me interested (this match being one. Sting's retirement match was another one. Punk coming in was another) but they just can't hold me in, and I can't seem to pinpoint it other than what I've said above.
It's like when I was younger (like 10-11) and first getting into wrestling, and my family was able to 'obtain' access to PPV's (think The Simpsons get cable), and after about 10 minutes into the opening tag ladder match, I just switched it off because it didn't feel right to me.
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I have a similar problem but with both WWE and AEW. I don't know why but I can only watch so much before I'm done. It's moreso now than ever, but a decade ago, New Japan on AXS would hook me for the whole show.
Maybe for me it's the stark contrast between the serious and fun bits NJPW would hit, stuff like Naito's drawn out entries or rolling into a pose, sandwiching action where both wrestlers beat each other to a pulp or in the case of the Juniors, almost 10 minutes of athletic/brutal action...THEN they can struggle to win because everyone is reeling.
Maybe for me it's the stark contrast between the serious and fun bits NJPW would hit, stuff like Naito's drawn out entries or rolling into a pose, sandwiching action where both wrestlers beat each other to a pulp or in the case of the Juniors, almost 10 minutes of athletic/brutal action...THEN they can struggle to win because everyone is reeling.
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Raw tonight.
Battle royale to determine a new women's World champion.
Gunther returns.
Awesome Truth v DIY-World tag title match.
Ricochet & Andrade v Dominik & JD.
Every women on the Raw roster will be in the battle royale. Liv Morgan, Nia Jax and Becky Lynch all included.
Battle royale to determine a new women's World champion.
Gunther returns.
Awesome Truth v DIY-World tag title match.
Ricochet & Andrade v Dominik & JD.
Every women on the Raw roster will be in the battle royale. Liv Morgan, Nia Jax and Becky Lynch all included.
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Yes, there's a lot of burnout from US Wrestling to be honest. The fact that Raw is 3 hours long (3 hours long) is irritating beyond belief, I very rarely sit and watch a whole show. Smackdown is a lot more bearable, I can do that a bit more often. But for Raw, I only really watch it on the side (like today) if it's a Work From Home day for me on a second monitor.
Have been slowly doing a rewatch from WrestleMania 17 to WrestleMania 19 (currently up to the lead in to Unforgiven 2002), and can actually sit and watch the shows when I sit down for them. I can't do that very often anymore except for PPV/PLE's.
That's a good segue for me - I love lineage lists (did one on the World Endurance Championship recently, which tbh is still a work in progress), but did a full list of "World Champions" and how many reigns they have (at least in my books, there's been a couple small changes) for both Men's and Women's. So... Charlotte is on top of course. Becky is now the second highest of solely WWE branded World Championships.So good for "LOLCharlotteWins" to be given a successor.
Can share more in depth later on if you all want - but essentially (for equality purposes) - both Men's and Women's lists feature the reigns from the same companies. I started with the Men's list, and pretty much included any "World Championship" that was either considered THE championship, or at an equal to THE championship at any point in time (however, this means including it's complete lineage, so modern day NWA is still World Championship status). Plus Japan's two largest companies.
So for Men's that list includes:
- Original World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship, which morphed into the:
- NWA World's Heavyweight Championship, which theoretically split into the following five titles at some point in time:
- WWE Championship
- WCW World Championship
- ECW World Heavyweight Championship
- TNA World Heavyweight Championship
- AWA World Heavyweight Championship
- WCW International Championship (which I believe is Ric Flair returning to WCW with the NWA Championship before WCW unifying everything into the WCW Championship - before WCW and NWA split for good - I'm summarising that very basically there)
- AEW World Championship
- WWE World Heavyweight Championship (WWE recognises the current as separate, but I'm considering it a re-activated title)
- WWE Universal Championship (I am currently considering it deactivated as of the WrestleMania 38 unification match)
- IWGP World Heavyweight Championship (and it's predecessors - IWGP Heavyweight Championship, the offshoot interim championship when Brock Lesnar/Kurt Angle wrestled with IGF, and the first iteration of the NWF Heavyweight Championship, + the original IWGP Heavyweight Championship)
- Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship of All-Japan Pro Wrestling (as well as specifically the lineage of the PWF World Championship that was part of that unification)
- Original Women's World Championship, which morphed into the:
- NWA Women's World Championship. This was also recognised as the WWF Women's Championship until they left the NWA, so all of Moolah's WWF Championship reigns (bar the last one) I have recognised as NWA Women's World Championship reigns. Before that happened though, it was split into the following two titles:
- AWA Women's World Championship
- WWWA Single's Championship (of the now-defunct All-Japan Women's Pro Wrestling)
- WWE Women's Championship (from Moolah's last reign up to the Divas title unification in 2010).
- WWE Women's Championship (current title that Bayley holds, but I am including the Divas Championship lineage in this - this is where Charlotte loses one of her WWE recognised reigns, as to me she just successfully defended her title at WrestleMania 32 and was presented with a new championship belt).
- WWE Women's World Championship (current Becky Lynch title, plus.... whatever the lineage of the other title was)
- WCW Women's Championship
- TNA Knockouts Championship
- AEW Women's World Championship
- IWGP Women's World Championship (only a very recent title)
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Before this year's Rumble and WM I hadn't sat through a full wrestling show in years. It's probably been over a decade since I watched a whole Raw or Smackdown. Mainly just catch the highlights now on Tiktok. Too much talking, too many dull promos and storylines (hello Bloodline). There's only a few who can do it properly and hold the attention.
Also because I've rarely had access to the channels the shows are on here in the UK. Being able to sub direct to WWE for the PPVs now is great (and much cheaper), and next year when it all moves to Netflix I may become a more regular viewer.
Also because I've rarely had access to the channels the shows are on here in the UK. Being able to sub direct to WWE for the PPVs now is great (and much cheaper), and next year when it all moves to Netflix I may become a more regular viewer.
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The only downside of considering the Universal Title deactivated is you nullify Roman Reigns 1000+ Day Reign as his WWE Championship reign only lasted ~700
Though funnily enough even though he lost it, the Universal Title has yet to be deactivated by WWE so Cody is still tecnically a double champion
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Eh, if I do the days as champion list that I may end up doing, that will just mean they equally mean the length of the total reign.
But, specifically what you just said about Cody, is the reason why I considered the Universal Championship as "deactivated" (which is how I treated the WCW Championship when Jericho unified, and the WHC when Orton unified).
Rumble and Mania are the main ones I'll watch start to finish. Summerslam too, and, yeah just some of the PLE's depending on the build.
I'm glad the broadcast structure has worked how it is in Australia though: Foxtel (essentially our Sky) essentially did an NBC and bought out the WWE Network, so all Raw, Smackdown, NXT, archived footage, and live PPV's at no extra cost (until the end of next year I think it is).
Plus, Foxtel has ESPN, which signed a deal to show AEW Dynamite and Rampage live (where possible, otherwise it's on tape delay) on ESPN + on demand for... I'm not sure how long it stays on for, and then they're supposed to be showing the PPV's 30 days delayed on ESPN Australia/NZ as well (but I haven't seen anything on since All In last year)
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Becky Lynch won the Women's title in the battle royal,it was predictably Becky, Liv and Nia in the final three but the match was good overall.
Ludvig Kaiser turned on Giovanni Vinci and attacked him, then walked past a grinning Gunther after so Imperium could be split in the Draft. Both Gunther and Drew McIntyre will be apart of the king of the ring. Chad Gable explained his actions from last week and then verbally ripped into Alpha Academy, Bronson Reed attacked Sami Zayn backstage.
Ludvig Kaiser turned on Giovanni Vinci and attacked him, then walked past a grinning Gunther after so Imperium could be split in the Draft. Both Gunther and Drew McIntyre will be apart of the king of the ring. Chad Gable explained his actions from last week and then verbally ripped into Alpha Academy, Bronson Reed attacked Sami Zayn backstage.
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Gonna make things fun in wrestling with this 🍿
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Yeah its a bummer for Cameron, he was great on NXT but they had no plans for him when he got to the main roster, he seemed genuinely upset about it.
I think there will definitely be more releases in the coming days, especially with the Draft this week.
I think there will definitely be more releases in the coming days, especially with the Draft this week.
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Most likely, and while it definitely sucks for those who get the axe it's also kind of a needed thing because of the obvious roster bloat. It seems to be worse this year than it was in the past few, even with three shows they still don't have enough ideas to go around for all of them or enough time to fit in everyone that's under contract. I'm pretty sure there's a few people that've been listed on their roster page for a few months and haven't even been in a televised match yet.
(Meanwhile, reports say Tony Khan has barricaded his office door with boxes of paper and hooked his printer up to a backup generator.)
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Meanwhile, reports of Khan trying to invent a functional time machine remain unsubstantiated at this time.
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What a beast hey.ALL HAIL VACANT
So. I haven't fully finalised the men's side. But the way I've seen it so far - this is everyone with over 10 reigns (on the men's side)
| Ric Flair | 20 |
| John Cena | 16 |
| Randy Orton | 14 |
| Sting | 14 |
| Triple H | 14 |
| Kurt Angle | 13 |
| Hulk Hogan | 13 |
| Brock Lesnar | 11 |
| Edge | 11 |
| Jeff Jarrett | 10 |
| Stan Hansen | 10 |
| The Rock | 10 |
| Verne Gagne | 10 |
And for over 5 on the Women's side: note - I have now also included the Stardom championship, (which has increased Vacant to 37 on the women's side, but doesn't change anything else for those over 5). Tempted to add the JWP Openweight Championship (only really because that's where Asuka/Kana made her name over in Japan and that's their championship), but will need to do a bit more research on lineage, etc.
| Charlotte Flair | 13 |
| Mickie James | 11 |
| Gail Kim | 8 |
| Becky Lynch | 7 |
| Sasha Banks | 7 |
| Tara/Victoria | 7 |
| Trish Stratus | 7 |
| Angelina Love | 6 |
| Alexa Bliss | 5 |
| Jumbo Miyamoto | 5 |
| Madison Rayne | 5 |
| Melina | 5 |
| The Fabulous Moolah | 5 |
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A few bits of WWE news today.
Firstly they announced some details about the Draft, they said which wrestlers will be eligible on both nights and which brand will get the most picks on both nights, Smackdown will get the first pick on Friday and Raw will on Monday, the most important news though is that most champions will be protected meaning they won't change brands, so Damien, Becky, Sami and Awesome Truth will stay on Raw and Cody, Logan, Bayley and Waller/Theory will stay on Smackdown, the only champs who wont be protected are the women's tag champs The Kabuki Warriors.
Secondly we do have a new NXT Champion in Trick Williams, he beat Ilja Dragunov in a great main event to NXT Spring Breakin' night one last night, Ilja will no doubt move to the main roster over the weekend, Roxanne Perez retained her NXT women's title in a triple threat match with Lyra Valkryia and Tatum Paxley.
Thirdly it looks like that new Bloodline attack on Jimmy Uso is a way to write Jimmy off of TV for a while, there are some reports today that he has an undisclosed injury that we don't know what it is or how long he will be out for.
Firstly they announced some details about the Draft, they said which wrestlers will be eligible on both nights and which brand will get the most picks on both nights, Smackdown will get the first pick on Friday and Raw will on Monday, the most important news though is that most champions will be protected meaning they won't change brands, so Damien, Becky, Sami and Awesome Truth will stay on Raw and Cody, Logan, Bayley and Waller/Theory will stay on Smackdown, the only champs who wont be protected are the women's tag champs The Kabuki Warriors.
Secondly we do have a new NXT Champion in Trick Williams, he beat Ilja Dragunov in a great main event to NXT Spring Breakin' night one last night, Ilja will no doubt move to the main roster over the weekend, Roxanne Perez retained her NXT women's title in a triple threat match with Lyra Valkryia and Tatum Paxley.
Thirdly it looks like that new Bloodline attack on Jimmy Uso is a way to write Jimmy off of TV for a while, there are some reports today that he has an undisclosed injury that we don't know what it is or how long he will be out for.
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So from when I looked at how it's all tallied up - for Flair I essentially counted everything the NWA recognised (which I believe is all of those, except the Midnight Rider one), and then looked at the circumstances of what WWE doesn't recognise. The ones they don't recognise essentially center around when he left WCW to join WWF whilst being the World Champion.Probably winning off Harley Race in Singapore, Jack Veneno, Carlos Colon, and The Midnight Rider (who totally was not Dusty Rhodes in a mask).
But really it's whatever fits the narrative at the time
WCW/JCP had as world championships:
- NWA World Championship (until 1993)
- WCW World Heavyweight Championship (1991 until closure)
- WCW International World Heavyweight Championship (1993-1994)
Ric left with the NWA championship (then represented by the Big Gold), and joined the WWF in 1991, and was stripped of the championship which was awarded to the winner of that year's G1.
Because the WCW recognised the NWA Champion as the WCW Champion as of 1991 (this adds another title reign to Flair's overall number), he was also stripped of the WCW Championship, and they introduced a new belt (that round looking thing) which Lex Luger won after Flair's departure to WWF.
When Flair returned, he also brought the Big Gold back with him (similar to Punk coming back with the AEW Championship I suppose), and this was deemed the International Championship (which gives Flair another reign), and then lost it to Rick Rude a few months later.
WWE considers all this as 1 continuous NWA/WCW Championship reign, whereas the 'history books' essentially counts as 3. I tend to agree (at least on the returning as International Champion, especially because it was quickly unified with the WCW Championship, and the Big Gold continued to represent that until WCW's closure), otherwise CM Punk would be a 9 time champion on my list.
I'm probably going to clean up the list again, essentially around what the Original and NWA titles overlap as, and also the Flair business (both those losses mentioned earlier, and the WCW/NWA/International stuff).
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Now I wanna get back on track to figure out who has lineal custody of Dominik Mysterio
(it's probably Cody Rhodes but I dunno I have yet to set rules on this so it may be someone else)
(it's probably Cody Rhodes but I dunno I have yet to set rules on this so it may be someone else)
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Is this basically just whoever beat Rey first after that, and then so on and so forth?Now I wanna get back on track to figure out who has lineal custody of Dominik Mysterio
(it's probably Cody Rhodes but I dunno I have yet to set rules on this so it may be someone else)
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Yep, assuming that custody is always on the line in a singles match. When applied to the WWE Championship, then it gets fun (depending on how things are calculated, noted peas enthusiast Luther Reigns has been a lineal WWE Champion)
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Yeah those kinds of things are fun - I remember someone doing it with football. I'm pretty sure at some stage Australia was a world champion (using that method) hahaha
EDIT: Ah, here we go - Ivory Coast are the current unofficial World Champions
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