Australian Wrestling thread

[kistan]

Bloody good show tonight, I thought Tommy vs Lena and Jess vs Chevs were outstanding, and Waller/Jimmy and Kai/Robbie were both really good as well.

I thought Lena tom was too much i hit a move you hit a move. Lena didn't really get any personality over doing that.

Chevs Jess good layout. Up and down execution. Maybe too ambitious at times. So a win overall

I actually liked the show.... terrifying stuff. Also 2 hr 20. 15 min intermission. Obvious someone else is in charge. Minimal pwa crap as well.

 

[Poison]

Imagine if you’d never seen Australian wrestling before, and you scored a ticket to see Australia’s (self-described) number 1 promotion, and that was the heavyweight title match. You’d think it was a rib.

I offer no criticism of the match itself or the competitors who are both very good (Jess always has been, Charli has improved out of sight). But there’s suspension of disbelief, and then there’s 2x girls at five foot nothing and 55kgs soaking wet in a heavyweight title match.

I must admit I’ve never really “got” PWA. They have put on a bunch of great matches over the years, but it feels like one big in-joke. The main Victorian promotions are so much more accessible to a casual audience than that.

 

[nobbyiscool]

Also 2 hr 20. 15 min intermission.

Give me this, all the time.

I don't really want to go to shows longer than 2.5 hours. If something regularly goes longer than that, I doubt I'd keep going. Quality over quantity every time. It's one of my favourite things about Renegades, and most of my favourite MCW shows are the shorter ones.

 

[auswrestlinginsider]

Imagine if you’d never seen Australian wrestling before, and you scored a ticket to see Australia’s (self-described) number 1 promotion, and that was the heavyweight title match. You’d think it was a rib.

I offer no criticism of the match itself or the competitors who are both very good (Jess always has been, Charli has improved out of sight). But there’s suspension of disbelief, and then there’s 2x girls at five foot nothing and 55kgs soaking wet in a heavyweight title match.

I must admit I’ve never really “got” PWA. They have put on a bunch of great matches over the years, but it feels like one big in-joke. The main Victorian promotions are so much more accessible to a casual audience than that.

This event would've drawn a lot of casual WWE fans because of Waller appearing and the press it has got because of the NRL player James Graham, those fans probably aren't expecting Roman Reigns type heavyweight champions but two women wrestling an indy style match for the men's heavyweight title just is confusing to people, someone brought this up in the YouTube chat and was told "Welcome to the indies" which I think is a shit view.

Also if you're not into indy style bangers then there really isn't anything here for you. This is the WrestleMania type show where are the big feud ending matches? Main event was best friend vs best friend and nothing really happened apart from a great match, Waller and Townsend was slapped together quickly and there was no real personal issue or rivalry there, the only other story going into this match which is the James Graham match is also a lazily put together storyline.

Australia's "number 1 promotion" offers fantastic wrestling matches but when it comes to emotional investment, proper booking and compelling content they fall way short.

 

[kistan]

Listen. They didn't do anything that overtly irritated me. Can we give them that win. Okay is better than horrible. One step at a time.

 

[JustHavinAGeez]

Went and watched Mayhem Pro tonight in Bacchus Marsh, pretty close to a sold out show and some really solid wrestling. It can be a little sloppy at times, but you also have to take into account that it's a promotion built on a training school and thus the majority of the roster are relatively new with a big chunk having less than 20 matches. But the wrestling has good fundamentals, proper intensity and everyone has characters.

What Mayhem does really well, to the point that I think they might be one of the best feds in the country at it, is building tension and animosity in their stories, the JXT/Erika Reid vs JAB & The Cycle story is the best storyline in Aussie wrestling in a long time. I find JXT to be very hokey at times (part of his charm though?), but here he's a genuinely convincing babyface seeking blood after being wronged.

 

[JustHavinAGeez]

Give me this, all the time.

I don't really want to go to shows longer than 2.5 hours. If something regularly goes longer than that, I doubt I'd keep going. Quality over quantity every time. It's one of my favourite things about Renegades, and most of my favourite MCW shows are the shorter ones.

So much this. At most 3 hours with a proper intermission. I remember going to that DMDU Wargames show and even though I live barely 10 minutes away, I was literally exhausted by the end of the night and just wanted them to hurry up.

 

[kistan]

I think this in a way was okay in that they didn't really pwa stuff up. Like sure it wasn't interesting but. We've seen what interesting looks like to them. cough luchi Rogers cough south jordan.

 

[JustHavinAGeez]

Also triple post because I feel like ruffling feathers, yes PWA has very good wrestling. But it's not the "best" promotion in the country for mine, neither is MCW. The three best promotions in the country for the mix of in ring product, storylines and production are SLAM, RCW and EPW. MCW at their best are close but can be hit and miss on story quality, PWA's biggest issue is that so much of the storytelling seems designed to be for the talent and not the crowd, their stories are often disjointed, make no sense or miss parts along the way.

 

[auswrestlinginsider]

Also triple post because I feel like ruffling feathers, yes PWA has very good wrestling. But it's not the "best" promotion in the country for mine, neither is MCW. The three best promotions in the country for the mix of in ring product, storylines and production are SLAM, RCW and EPW. MCW at their best are close but can be hit and miss on story quality, PWA's biggest issue is that so much of the storytelling seems designed to be for the talent and not the crowd, their stories are often disjointed, make no sense or miss parts along the way.

I follow SLAM relatively closely and I cannot agree that they do great storytelling, when is the last time they booked a hot angle? Not shitting on them because I think they're doing great things but I can't say I've ever seen a storyline and gone "Oh, that's different"

 

[nobbyiscool]

Also triple post because I feel like ruffling feathers, yes PWA has very good wrestling. But it's not the "best" promotion in the country for mine, neither is MCW. The three best promotions in the country for the mix of in ring product, storylines and production are SLAM, RCW and EPW. MCW at their best are close but can be hit and miss on story quality, PWA's biggest issue is that so much of the storytelling seems designed to be for the talent and not the crowd, their stories are often disjointed, make no sense or miss parts along the way.

I follow SLAM relatively closely and I cannot agree that they do great storytelling, when is the last time they booked a hot angle? Not shitting on them because I think they're doing great things but I can't say I've ever seen a storyline and gone "Oh, that's different"

Speaking of SLAM, they posted last night that Luke Watts had hurt his neck, and doctors had advised him to drop out of the Arena show... but then the social media post put a question mark over it.

It looked legit, which is devastating for Watts, but I'm not 100% certain either way.

 

[The Majestic]

Hosting it in Sorell has disappointment written all over it doesn't it?

They can't be that desperate for a southern show that you'd hold it a good 30 minutes from Hobart's eastern shore?

I just wanted to post an update to this, as I've spoken to the TCW owners, apparently it was hard getting some places to run shows so this was the main place that would. They had tried the Odeon Theatre but that fell through, ringside seats have sold out already. Hopefully more promotion goes on here.

 

[JustHavinAGeez]

I follow SLAM relatively closely and I cannot agree that they do great storytelling, when is the last time they booked a hot angle? Not shitting on them because I think they're doing great things but I can't say I've ever seen a storyline and gone "Oh, that's different"

They don't reinvent the wheel, but their storylines make sense and have logical and interesting payoffs. Which is more than I can say for PWA or MCW a lot of the time.

 

[JustHavinAGeez]

PWA could've done something, anything interesting this weekend. But they've just done the same shit rinse and repeat. The wrestling is good of course, but it's not really interesting.

 

[nobbyiscool]

I just wanted to post an update to this, as I've spoken to the TCW owners, apparently it was hard getting some places to run shows so this was the main place that would. They had tried the Odeon Theatre but that fell through, ringside seats have sold out already. Hopefully more promotion goes on here.

Then they end up in that awkward situation going forward if/when they're successful and more places are happy to have them. There's a bit to be said for loyalty to venues and communities that supported you when no one else would

 

[The Majestic]

Then they end up in that awkward situation going forward if/when they're successful and more places are happy to have them. There's a bit to be said for loyalty to venues and communities that supported you when no one else would

yeah true, TCW are looking at 3 shows in Hobart for the future, 3 in Launceston and 1 in Devonport to try and make it a truly Tasmanian promotion.

I went to Jaded, was a good show, Liam Lacey really needs to fly interstate and wrestle some feds the guys good and one the top TCW stars but hasn't yet ventured out of the state to wrestle.

Allie Galvin has come a long way in the time I've been watching her, she's showing a lot more confidence in the ring and working really well.

Andy Rhodes captured the title beating Zakk Archer.

I'll post more when I do my review of the show in the coming days for PWDownunder.

 

[kistan]

I swear I saw this angle in 2021

 

[JustHavinAGeez]

Colosseum today. Just didn't click for me at all, it wasn't bad by any means but it just felt really vapid. Like they had the potential over this weekend to do something, ANYTHING different, but they did a standard show of business as usual to set up an angle, which as mentioned above they already did in 2021.

Jess is a phenomenal wrestler and I have no issues with intergender wrestling, but seeing her booked to be basically super human in every match is getting really old and it looked glaringly obvious in that main event.

I quite liked North Shore being treated as serious characters and the All Stars vs First Round losers match was a lot of fun. Plus I got a kick of Ricky biting James Graham to allude to the most known moment of the latters NRL career, but yeah it's good wrestling that felt hollow, interchangeable with every other PWA show.

 

[kistan]

If they didn't do the Evans turn and Osbourne Troy stuff already this reign and in 2021. I think it would be fine.

I liked the main event a lot. The finish looked pretty deadly. I haven't seen the rest of the show.

I know the criticism is they didn't do much of anything. But I believe someone else must be running the show and also I think keeping it simple is in their best interests

 

[nobbyiscool]

It was a funny mindset with which to watch the show...

Skip to intermission, and we know we're getting the tag match with the rugby league player and the bizarre heel/face dynamic. We also know at this stage that the Colosseum final is Jess vs Tommy, and I'm fully expecting to read the same old bullshit on BF about a woman beating Tommy.

Which led me to becoming irrationally angry with the tag match. Like, as angry as I ever get watching wrestling. People want to criticise so-called "intergender wrestling", ignoring the fact that everyone trains and works just as hard as each other, and they deserve equal opportunities.

What of the fact that a guy who has been training in "combat sports" for a month can not only compete with, but beat a guy who was a dominant world champ a year ago? That is absolute bullshit to me, both in kayfabe and in reality. We've seen enough footballers try to become boxers to know what would happen if you put a footballer up against a real fighter. And yet we insult wrestling, and wrestlers.

Not only that, but we give him this ****ing plum spot where he not only beats Ricky, but he gets the best of a current WWE superstar! What in the actual **** is that?! Can you imagine what a launching pad that could've been for an actual wrestler? Making a Rogue Army/Tamashii connection, if Jake Taylor or even Richie Mulu is in that position they're a made man!

Then we got to the main event... and for the first half of it every criticism that people try to make about Jess - which I've always felt was about gender - was writ large in this match.

Jess weighs in at I think 58kgs? Tommy weighs in at 140kg. He is literally the last heavyweight.

As you all know, I will argue to the point of a ban that wrestling stories can be whatever you want them to be... but with that said, they still have to make sense in your kayfabe world that you've created. And again, he's literally billed as the last heavyweight. So having the first half of the match being Jess largely getting the better of a walk-and-brawl kind of annoyed me. Forget the "intergender stuff", everything we know about both of them as wrestlers - stylistically, their strengths and weaknesses - it just didn't make a lot of sense to me.

It got better when they got back in the ring - Jess targeted the arm, she did the stick and move little guy vs big guy stuff that she should've been doing all along. The walk-and-brawl felt like a lot of set up - which personally took me out of it a bit - just for the balcony dive.

On Chevs, yeah I'm annoyed that they're re-doing it. It's not even the 2nd time they've done this. I haven't been watching local wrestling that long that I want to be watching repeats.

After their match on night 1 I thought the turn was pretty obvious, but I think I'd allowed myself to become convinced that they'd do something really fun, original, and different, and they'd turn Jess. It would've been so easy too if they'd had her face Fudge in the final, have her need to cheat to win it, then when Chevs comes out and does the "hmmm... ok, well, whatever, congratulations" - Jess wrecks her with the belt and blades her with the sword. I'd love to see someone use the sword.