Squared Circle's August Pro Wrestling Discussion Thread (SPOILERS!)
Hello Squared Circle! Welcome to our Monthly Discussion Thread!
What have you watched lately? Seen any great matches? Have suggestions for things to watch? Anything not getting covered in other threads that ya wanna fill people in about? Questions about promotions, wrestlers, 'the business' or more? Feel free to post below!
(Reminder, this thread can and will contain spoilers for possibly any show. Spoiler tags are not required in here, but if the show just happened try and keep spoiler talk it to its respective discussion thread for the first day).
31 replies
Tony Khan took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
i really do love him :3
also britt and rebel posted a video which destroyed me
i miss them i hope britt comes back at the rebel tribute 😭
I've said this in another thread but I am 100% convinced that Vince is back in charge of booking WWE and has been for the past few months. I've been watching wrestling since the 80s and the current WWE product just reeks of McMahon. He's not backstage or anything but I would bet good money he's being sent scripts, rejecting them, tossing them, sending them back, and giving Triple H his running orders over the phone. Once this Grant stuff finishes arbitration he'll be back on the show full time. Guarantee it. I just refuse to believe that the guy who booked the greatest era of NXT ever is now booking this absolute slop.
nah; unlike triple h vince actually somewhat cared about continuity.
Quick edit/addendum: I'm not defending Triple H. His NXT booking from 2019 onward is the reason I stopped watching WWE programming altogether.
Other speculations:
Triple H is losing touch with the audience and just taking shots in the dark. H was much more 'boots on the ground, finger on the pulse' in those NXT days, and had a better understanding of what fans wanted to see.
There are mandates that H has to follow when booking to appease sponsors (Vince had to deal with this, too). A prime example of this is Mattel, who makes WWE's toys. To put it in simplest terms, Mattel basically ended intergender matches in WWE. It's more nuanced than that, but that's the most I can recall without getting into the weeds.
There's a board of directors that must be catered to, and they don't give a rat's ass about good wrestling matches/stories. They just want 'number go up'. Remember, H is just the booker. He doesn't own the company, he's an employee.
I'm guessing it's some combination of these.
As to your theory: I wouldn't be surprised if Vince is in someone's ear, but Scatman Vinny coming back (publicly) would be pants-on-head stupid. The fed already has a glaring image issue thanks to their open association with Donnie Dickhead. I'm certain there's a good portion of WWE's worst fans that would absolutely cum themselves if Vince returned. But catering to that level of toxicity, when the goal is 'number go up', would be company suicide in the eyes of many, many wrestling fans.
I believe H is the ultimate scapegoat; they've convinced people he's actually in charge of stuff and doesn't have bosses, and when push comes to shove and they go too far some day they'll need to punish somebody, and I think he's the sacrifice.
As to Vince, there's no way he isn't talking to people about the product, his son-in-law, long time right hand man in Nick Khan, and long time billionaire friends that bought the company are all running this show. I don't believe they'd risk bringing him back, but behind the scenes I definitely think he's talking to them.
This is the whole reason I originally started responding, because straight up, absolutely the majority would, after the first and then the second accusations when he came out they were bowing to him and singing his theme song, banger of a song, but shit person that doesn't deserve the exultation he receives.
Of all the things I've said to be quoted, it's gotta be about toxic fed fans creaming their jeans for an octogenarian. lol
Is anyone else baffled at Lucha Underground's upload schedule? They started off posting every-other day, but the last two episodes were almost posted 3 weeks apart. Either they have some top tier analyst that only uploads at the best time based on trends, or the 'post next episode' post-it note keeps falling off the intern's monitor.
It's really weird. I'm going with the person uploading them went on vacation and no one filled in!
Oh shit, they posted one today. Does this mean one of us is the upload person, or do I have some sort of summoning powers? If it's the latter, I'm also baffled that I don't have a bunch of money.
It ain't me! Otherwise I would be bragging about it!
Come to think of it, I spend every day not uploading episodes of Lucha Underground, maybe it's my job.
Don't look at me. I've still gotta book All In.
from the july thread :3
just ordered my first aew haul naturally it’s the willow unicorn trinket, the aew sickos shirt, and the rebel benefit items so congrats to the aew shipping person who gets that order and says “yea that’s about right”
Kevin Owens made a surprise return tonight. Him and Gunther got added to Sami and Ballor, and KO won, making him the #1 contender for the Undisputed Championship. Why didn't WWE keep the belt on Sami so we could have them have a great match for it? Who knows!
whenever cm punk isnt on screen everyone should ask where's cm punk
Aveline (fka Kidd Bandit) announced her surgery date is set and "right around the corner"
Awesome news for her, although her not going by Kidd Bandit will take me longer to get used to than her transition lol.
A special episode of RoH will be on their YouTube channel tomorrow night (Tuesday, Aug. 18). They also uploaded Death Before Dishonor 2003 in its entirety to the channel last night.
Dustin Rhodes continues to be awful. I seriously wonder what his son thinks of this.
Honestly I already lost respect for Dustin with his pro-ICE bullshit, so he can rot for all I care.
Also, Mustafa Ali does not approve:
He's now claiming he just liked the gun and somehow missed the entire rest of the context.
If my eyes roll any farther into the back of my head, Brock Lesnar is going to end my Wrestlemania undefeated streak.
Who doesn't know someone that's so into guns that as soon as they see one they loose the ability to see anything else, and can only overcome this debilitating condition with emojis?
Sure, Dustin.
Oh for fuck sakes what a coward
I know, right? The only thing worse than being a shitty bigot is being a shitty bigot without even the courage of your convictions.
Kofi and Austin Creed have been booked for the next Jericho Cruise.
Bayley took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
That reminded me I wanted to share Nyla Rose doing hers. 10/10 hijinks.
Oh nice! Wonder how I missed that? Maybe she didn't post it on bluesky?
*Checks bluesky
She did not post it to bluesky. But, she did post this.
Dang, she has a great Strong Bad impersonation!