2025 Wrestling Thread - AEW, NPJW, WWE, Indies…

Feel like one rolling thread may be better than one for each company.

Really though I just want a place to complain that Copeland’s tshirt is spelt LEDGEND and yes it took me too long to see L-EDGE-ND but shame on anything who buys it.

Tbh my interest in anything has been mute for a couple months now. Okada-Ospreay and Mone-Statlander at Worlds End were worth getting back involved tho.

Also Wrestle Kingdom was a bit rubbish. ZSJ is great but Umino looks like a bit of a geek. ZSJ wrestles like a heel but he’s a face seemingly just because he’s so respected; Umino wrestles kinda like a face but seemingly no one likes him, so he’s the heel. It was such an odd dynamic. (I’m sure a NJPW enthusiast will tell me I’m wrong but whatever)

Toni Storm’s new lucky newcomer gimmick is hilarious and honestly she’s just the best.

WWE exists. Idk I don’t pay for Netflix and I still hate them for everything Vince related.

The indies seem to just be different types of Kane - Gayne, Blue Kane, Co-Kane etc

The first RAW on Netflix was ... slow. I *love* the post-Kevin Dunn production (best decision Triple H ever made) but the matches didn't really deliver. I never subscribed to the WWE Network, but the archived content on Netflix is good. I took a trip down memory lane this week with the main event of Backlash 2000 and Royal Rumble 2007. Overall I'm fairly happy with the Triple H era of WWE.

I don't watch NJPW anymore but I watched the Omega vs Kidd match to see what all the fuss is about. Great performances from both guys, and Kenny looked in fantastic shape for a guy who nearly died one year ago. Buy MOTY? Seemed like a generic brawl to me.

Call me an old fart, but the hyperbole around certain performers these days is way out of proportion. I'm sure there are younger fans looking at profiles of Bret Hart and Steve Austin on Cagematch and thinking "these guys only had about 20 four-star matches in their entire careers, so what's the big deal with them?"

worlds end was a pretty amazing ppv. i'd fallen off of watching aew regularly just bc of general life shit but that brought me back in. helps that the max deal completely overcomes all the struggles i had watching it on cable

wwe sucks, hogan on raw, rumble in saudi arabia next year wow so much to look forward to

I watched the Rumble.

Dom Mysterio gets wrestling in a way I haven't experienced since TNA Scott Steiner. Hitting a frog splash on Cena and then giving the fans the gun show was glorious. Its a shame I don't watch WWE because I feel like he could be my favourite wrestler.

Nothing happened in either Rumble. Not really. They were still fun. Bianca Belair did a thing in the corner with flips. That was nice. Logan Paul did the Kofi spot because Kofi wasn't in it. Someone from NXT was the runner up in the womens rumble, because the winner was so obvious that they didn't seem to care about the drama of whether someone could beat her. I was fascinated how over the winner of the mens was, I thought he was a mid carder and the last time I watched, he had the worst match at wrestlemania.

Cody and KO killed themselves, that was fun. 20/30 minutes between each match with adverts and showing random ass 'celebrities' was not. How do people watch this stuff regularly? I don't care how good Gunther is, I can't watch a 4 hour show with nearly 2 hours of adverts and filler.

RAW has been good since moving to Netflix. The 2.5 hour run time feels about right. It's long enough that matches don't get shortchanged on time, each week there are multiple matches over ten minutes, and we get to actually see them without poorly timed commercial breaks. And it's short enough to avoid useless filler.

Dynamite last week was boss, with Ricochet v Swerve. Grand Slam Australia this week - it seems like it’s been a shit show behind the scenes, but the card looks like a must see.

intrigued if there are going to be some batshit creative narrative for wwe/tna for the dolph ziggler/etc. characters