CM Punk & Wrestling's Best Storyline in Years...

[BigCat8]

I can attest to Hero's work ethic, so I don't think motivation is his issue. I would be surprised if there wasn't some underlying issue causing him to have difficulty losing weight. I had heard the thyroid thing, but I also think some long-term sciatic issues also are catching up with him and making him trade gym time for time on the trainer's table.

I haven't seen any G1 since I'm mooching off my buddy's NJPW World account. I'll wait for the end of the tournament and hope I can carve out enough time.

Side note, the only wrestling product I'm consistently watching these days is 205 Live. My man Drew Gulak is killin' it, but even setting that aside, you always get a quality main event out of that show.

[tehgiftofgab]

Nikolai Volkoff died

And Brian Christopher (grandmaster sexay) hung himself in jail... shitty day for wrestling..poor king

[blastmaster]

By many accounts Brian Christopher was a rapist and really shitty guy. Sucks.

Raw was kinda fun. Backstage stories make the show run so much more fluidly. Good stuff from Brock.

[Brougham33]

Swoll Ambrose>>>

Still not that excited about Summerslam, besides Miz and Bryan. Hoping Roman trounces Brock in a squash and Owens cashes in.

Anybody here attending the All In show? Omega vs Pentagon should be insane. Still can't believe ROH/NJPW sold out MSG.

[907]

RIP to The Anvil, loved the Hart Foundation tag team as a kid, and the stable later on after Bret turned heel in America.

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

RIP to The Anvil, loved the Hart Foundation tag team as a kid, and the stable later on after Bret turned heel in America.

Agreed. Not gonna act like he was my favorite wrestler or anything, but he was def involved in some memorable shit.

RIP

[blastmaster]

Loved the old Hart Foundation promos where Anvil would ramble and be unhinges and just laugh and Bret would tell him to take it easy. Great chemistry. By all accounts a great guy.

Kinda excited for Summerslam. AJ-Joe and Ziggs-Seth should satisfy the worker stuff. Miz-DB will be fun. Nervously looking forward to the Braun-Owens/Main event potential. Swerve City and new Dangerous Alliamce please. Lol.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

Hey, did you see that tonight Twitch is FOR FREE streaming AAA's Triplemania? It's the biggest Lucha event of the year and the card looks great. Four-way mask cage match in the main event. https://www.twitch.tv/luchalibreaaa_en" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[battlecatmeowstab212]

Our world would be so different had Chris Hero been able to lose 40 pounds. The idea of him being in the Shield instead of Roman was tossed around but he was too fat. Crazy.

This and the whole "Chris Hero was too fat" story regarding his WWE issues is inaccurate.

Here's the full story:

Punk first pitched The Shield in the summer of 2012. WWE told him they liked the idea but wanted Big Show, Bryan and someone else I can't remember. Punk told them that it had to be all new guys and wanted Rollins, Ambrose and Hero. WWE opted for Reigns instead as they had been wanting to call him up from then-FCW for a while and didn't have a spot for him. If you look at those last days of FCW/early days of NXT, you can see that Rollins, Ambrose and Reigns (then Leakee) were the three most protected and pushed out of the developmental to the point where when The Shield debuted, Rollins was (I believe) still the inaugeral NXT champion.

At the time Chris Hero hadn't had the slightest weight issues and was still in his then-peak condition, feuding with Ricky Steamboat's kid at the end of FCW/early NXT.

Hero didn't have a weight issue until an back injury in 2013. Because of the nature of it (the result of 12+ years of brutal indie matches finally catching up to him) he couldn't train, so he gained weight. Those first few months back (where the first "OHNO IS FAT" photos came from, being that he saw the weight gain as a temporary thing and was wearing his old gear to get the ring rust off, causinging the sizes too small make him appear worse) he was kept off television until he got back into shape. Autumn 2013 when he got back on air for NXT he was in the absolute best shape he was ever in. Watch that last month during his feud with Luke Harper, he looks incredible.

Of course, him returning that year was rushed and he didn't give his back issues enough time to heal. By most accounts from third parties in recent years, his departure had everything to do with butting heads with NXT head trainer Bill Demott, who proceeded to bury him even after he left to all new talent coming in as an example of how someone "wouldn't fit" in developmental.

So Hero returns to the indies/ROH in late 2013 but in spring 2014 his back catches up to him in the worst possible way. It goes undersold how bad his back injury really was. Hero couldn't so much as walk for about a month, and even in those first few shows back once he could return to the ring had to take a wheelchair through the airport to shows.

At this point, Chris was at his heaviest, photos (like the infamous PWG ones) circulated quickly, but instead Chris embraced it. Nobody else on the indies looked like him, and while his body had ballooned up, he still had his stamina/agility/etc.

This was also right when ROH began their relationship with New Japan and, which Chris was appearing with ROH earlier in the year, his relationship with New Japan's overseas competitor NOAH stopped him from returning to ROH. Still spending so much time in NOAH at his newfound size allowed him to make a lot of money, becoming a "Giant hoss" American wrestler a la Stan Hansen, Vader, etc.

Hero adjusted his gear to more flattering for his new size, and began going on an incredible tear, including match-for-match probably having the best 2016 of any wrestler on the planet.

If you compare his January 2017 return to NXT to now, he has lost considerable weight, but it really seems to me that the company wants him at that size because it's different and they really have no-one else like that.

He had some health issues around the Rumble, but his last few times on TV it seems like they're in the early stages of rebuilding him in NXT. I really feel he'll be main roster bound at some point.

[907]

If so, he's going to have to ditch the NBA All Star Weekend ring gear he's been wearing since he's been back in NXT, that shit isn't a good look. Also, I'm fairly sure that Seth dropped the NXT title before his call up. To Big E, maybe?

[battlecatmeowstab212]

If so, he's going to have to ditch the NBA All Star Weekend ring gear he's been wearing since he's been back in NXT, that shit isn't a good look. Also, I'm fairly sure that Seth dropped the NXT title before his call up. To Big E, maybe?

Nope, Seth held it for about 4 more weeks after his call up before losing it to Big E on December 6, 2012, which didn't air until January 9, so he was recognized as NXT champ those whole first two months after his call up.

[hessbz12]

Had my 20th high school reunion this past weekend and talked to Chris for a decent amount of time. He played football and I played basketball in HS, so we were friends back then. I got a pic with him, but can't figure out how to post it on here. Oh well.

Always been a great guy. I hope he gets called up soon.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

Who caught Triplemania and who caught All In?

[Brougham33]

Just watched Open Mike Eagle hit a hurricanrana and win his debut match against some wrestler he started a twitter feud with on an OVW iPPV. Oh and Mick Foley and Mr. Anderson were in his corner. I feel like our thread won.

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

Just watched Open Mike Eagle hit a hurricanrana and win his debut match against some wrestler he started a twitter feud with on an OVW iPPV. Oh and Mick Foley and Mr. Anderson were in his corner. I feel like our thread won.

[BigCat8]

Just watched Open Mike Eagle hit a hurricanrana and win his debut match against some wrestler he started a twitter feud with on an OVW iPPV. Oh and Mick Foley and Mr. Anderson were in his corner. I feel like our thread won.

Came here specifically to give congratulations to OME. That rana was on point.

[tehgiftofgab]

Holy shit Roman just gave up the belt because he has Leukemia... damn that sucks

[blastmaster]

God that shit got me. Can’t wait for the pop when he comes back.

[tehgiftofgab]

Fucking loved that ending

[blastmaster]

Ballsy as fuck! Pretty much the only way to get heat on Ambrose. Amazing.

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

Best ending of raw since the Festival of Friendship. Ambrose got nuclear heat, I love it.

Get well soon Roman.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

So, since that last post, wrestling world's gotten pretty strange, eh?

[Brougham33]

Strange indeed. What exactly was going on at Raw and Smackdown this week? Other than Kofi, it seemed like no continuation of the storylines from Elimination Chamber, the most glaring was Rousey and Flair no selling the shit kicking they took Sunday. Oh, and kudos to Vince for debuting HHH's top NXT guys to zero reaction in goddamn Lafayette. Honestly outside of Becky and Daniel Bryan, and maybe Shane/Miz not very interested in any of the feuds heading into Mania. Asuka beat Becky clean at the Rumble and just ate a pin from Mandy Rose to set up a feud with Lacy Evans?

Also, the fuck is going on with the Undertaker?

[907]

This has to be one of the least exciting Mania cards I can remember.

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

This has to be one of the least exciting Mania cards I can remember.

I have to agree. As bad as the product has been over the years, there's usually a thing or two on a mania card that excites me, but this year there's just nothing. The thing I'm looking forward to the most is Alexa bliss being the wm host, she's been looking hot af lately.

[907]

I'm sure some of the matches will be good, I just can't say I really care about any of them. Bryan/Kofi should be a good match, at least, hopefully the same with Rollins/Brock. How does KO not even have a goddamn match with 15 matches on the card?

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

I mean yea some of the matches will be fine, in ring talent wise, wwe's roster is incredible, but like you said, why are we supposed to care about these matches? The writing is just so lackluster, most of these matches have no angles behind them. I do like now they built up the Kofi thing, so I'll give them credit on that. Overall tho, the build up for wm has been extremely underwhelming.

[tehgiftofgab]

Anyone else still watch pro wrestling ??

I’m really digging AEW... WWE has/had hilarious drama going on w this latest crown jewel and they’ve still been missing more than hitting as usual

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

Anyone else still watch pro wrestling ??

I’m really digging AEW... WWE has/had hilarious drama going on w this latest crown jewel and they’ve still been missing more than hitting as usual

I'm still watching, but I'm basically just watching NXT & AEW. I still follow WWE news tho, and will continue to watch the PPVs, because I wager on them lol.

NXT is great for what it is, but I really really love AEW and it's potential. It reminds me of WCW (in a good way), and for that I'm oh so thankful it exists.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

Watching WWE/NXT, AEW, ROH, NJPW and following F1RST, 321 and PWG.

If you are all still down to make this thread lively again, I'm down too. I went to Mania/Wrestlecon this year, and then saw so much indy stuff over the summer.