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Title: Batista BLASTS AJ Styles
Description: in the London Sun


Big F'N Swigg - October 15, 2005 03:56 PM (GMT)

QUOTE (PWInsider.com)

TNA as a competitor to WWE:
"I've actually not ever watched any of their shows. I saw a press conference that they did, which I wasn't very impressed with. I've also seen clips of their car wreck matches with AJ Styles doing his stunts. That's not wrestling. Wrestling is storytelling. But at the same time, I have friends in TNA and I wish them the best. Those type of matches definitely have their place, it's just not my thing. I also welcome the competition, which I think can only be good for the wrestling business."


This could get ugly

Scrooge McSuck - October 15, 2005 04:03 PM (GMT)
Wow... for the first time ever, the title of the topic lives up the hype. I like Batista, but he's a rather poor wrestler, and without a well booked match that allows all kinds of weapon shots, it shows. He has no place to judge anyone on their wrestling skills, and quite frankly, A.J. Styles smokes him at everything. Even his promos are better, despite his hick voice.

Mad Dog - October 15, 2005 04:22 PM (GMT)
So the guy that can barely do a clothesline without tearing a muscle in his arm and completely failed as champion is blasting one of the better U.S. workers. Yep most be a WWF thing.

Scrooge McSuck - October 15, 2005 04:30 PM (GMT)
Now that I think about it, $200 says Vince put him up to saying that.

dynamite kido - October 15, 2005 05:32 PM (GMT)
Well, I guess the fact that he confuses car wreak spotfests and AJ Styles matches really shows how much big Dave knows about ring psychology. Then again, I find it funny that he trashes the guy that's easily a better worker than BOTH of your main champions.

Whatever. I still find it funny although Vince doesn't think of them at competition why they have talent spew out the TNA name in print interviews constantly.

jamiegeist - October 15, 2005 05:53 PM (GMT)
Yeah, thats not cool at all. Styles knows how to carry a match, and yes, they tend to be spotty, but thats the style. To say he ONLY does car wreck spotfests is just silly. I mean, at least what he does is entertaining. Batista does NOT entertain me.

Mad Dog - October 15, 2005 06:29 PM (GMT)
I think the numbers from the first two weeks has Vince really nervous. I think he worries that UFC and TNA are going to pick at his audience.

Scrooge McSuck - October 15, 2005 06:31 PM (GMT)
I didn't think most wrestling fans liked shoot fighting, and vice versa. I don't mean that none do, but the majority of common wrestling fans don't. Same goes for Wrestling and Boxing.

SamoaRowe - October 15, 2005 06:45 PM (GMT)
I like Batista and all, but I don't fool myself into thinking he is something he isn't. I think he's been a good champion given the circumstances and he's had a few very good matches (and one excellent HIAC). However, for every good match Batista has had, I could probably recall 10 good ones that Styles has had.

Plus, TNA iMPACT has been far more entertaining in two weeks than Raw or Smackdown has been in a while.

prof_plague - October 15, 2005 07:29 PM (GMT)
QUOTE (Mad Dog @ Oct 15 2005, 10:22 AM)
So the guy that can barely do a clothesline without tearing a muscle in his arm and completely failed as champion is blasting one of the better U.S. workers. Yep most be a WWF thing.

How can you say he's completely failed as a champion? With the reactions that guy gets, I wouldn't say he's failling.

prof_plague - October 15, 2005 07:34 PM (GMT)
I have to give kudos to Batista for at least calling wrestling "storytelling." I didn't think many wrestlers still had that beliefs. I can understand why he made comments about that style of wrestling, and taking those kinds of bumps with the ideals of storytelling.

:Hides the fact I like those nice, top-rope high-flying bumps:

Scrooge McSuck - October 15, 2005 07:34 PM (GMT)
I'd say "miserably" is a bit too much, but he hasn't exactly been drawing either. To be fair to him, no one has. Considering some of the abyssmal buyrates WWE has pulled in the last 2 years, I have a pretty strong case in my favor, especially against guys like JBL.

prof_plague - October 15, 2005 07:44 PM (GMT)
QUOTE (SamoaRowe @ Oct 15 2005, 12:45 PM)
Plus, TNA iMPACT has been far more entertaining in two weeks than Raw or Smackdown has been in a while.

It's also been the first two episodes on Spike. I sure hope the first few episodes are good. Also, TNA only has one one-hour show a week, while the WWE has two two-hours a week, plus a couple of one-hours on the side.

prof_plague - October 15, 2005 07:46 PM (GMT)
QUOTE (Scrooge McSuck @ Oct 15 2005, 01:34 PM)
I'd say "miserably" is a bit too much, but he hasn't exactly been drawing either. To be fair to him, no one has. Considering some of the abyssmal buyrates WWE has pulled in the last 2 years, I have a pretty strong case in my favor, especially against guys like JBL.

Abyssmal you say...GENIUS!

Abyss should be the new World Heavyweight champion. :)

Scrooge McSuck - October 15, 2005 07:49 PM (GMT)
Maybe TNA and WWE should work together... Abyss vs. Kane! Make it happen! The battle of my two favorite hosses. :D

whitemilesdavis - October 16, 2005 01:27 AM (GMT)
He admits to never watching it, then calls it a car wreck. Hmm.

Big F'N Swigg - October 16, 2005 04:57 AM (GMT)
QUOTE (whitemilesdavis @ Oct 15 2005, 07:27 PM)
He admits to never watching it, then calls it a car wreck. Hmm.

He must post at TSM

prof_plague - October 17, 2005 06:41 PM (GMT)
QUOTE (Scrooge McSuck @ Oct 15 2005, 01:49 PM)
Maybe TNA and WWE should work together... Abyss vs. Kane! Make it happen! The battle of my two favorite hosses. :D

Actually, I though we'd all like to see that match.

Scrooge McSuck - October 17, 2005 07:20 PM (GMT)
QUOTE (TheBigSwigg @ Oct 16 2005, 12:57 AM)
QUOTE (whitemilesdavis @ Oct 15 2005, 07:27 PM)
He admits to never watching it, then calls it a car wreck. Hmm.

He must post at TSM

"I haven't watched ROH, but it sucks dick! No one knows how to work!"

Big F'N Swigg - October 18, 2005 12:50 AM (GMT)
I just thought about something....

Batista doesn't watch TNA, but says that AJ is a glorified stuntman, and insults the company in general.

Batista is MIKE!

whitemilesdavis - October 26, 2005 04:52 PM (GMT)
Meltzer's take on the whole deal:

QUOTE
Batista on Styles " I've also seen clips of their car wreck matches with AJ Styles doing his stunts. That's not wrestling. Wrestling is storytelling."

Meltzer's response "A note to Dave and all those living with blinders on. Pro wrestling is whatever works to the public under the umbrella of pro wrestling. Everything promoted as pro wrestling becomes pro wrestling. From a style standpoint, there is stuff that doesn't work, and may absolutely be stupid, and you can call it stupid pro wrestling, but it's still pro wrestling.

The mentality that only one kind of wrestling "is wrestling" and everything else, even if it draws, or is popular, "is not wrestling", is almost a complete lack of understanding of the business.

You may not like another type of wrestling. I hate "Slash em up for no reason and bleed and go through barbed wire, fire and glass crap" but if there is an audience willing to see it and it's profitable to run, thenpeople are going to do it. Even with few people going to see it, at this point if you just have people willing to do it for little or no money, it can exist. But whatever style garners audience support, that is pro wrestling of it's time

The Sheik did 3:00 main events that consisted of little but blood, brawling that would look terrible by today's standards and bad finishes. Obviously, for years, he was a fantastic draw. Sam Mushnick didn't want him and it didn't work when he did it in St. Louis, but it worked in a lot of places. Later, after time, nobody bought it, and Sheik killed cities. Times changed. What was a great style for drawing money and main event business, ended up killing it due to it's repetitiveness. I think that's the whole point of learning business is to understand these lessons, and not be so blinded as to say Austin and Hogan never came off the top rope, therefore nobody draws money coming off the top rope and when you're on top you can't do that stuff.

The attitude that only one way is right, and everything else is wrong, creates a repetitive style and a lack of individuality, which, quite frankly, is a major problem in the WWE these days. It's like when brainwashed wrestlers who don't know history that no high-flier ever drew money, and don't realize that for the standards of their time, Ray Stevens, Mil Mascaras, Dynamite Kid, and Argentina Rocca were great high fliers and not just draws, but people who turned company business around, and those are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to names like that.

In Mexico today, high fliers help bring people back week in and week out in the same buildings far better than anywhere in the world because they are great high fliers, and if pushed and protected, and protected is the key. There is a reason Mistico almost never does jobs and draws money on top being 150lbs, or why the original Tiger Mask, who never did jobs, had so much more impact than those who foloowed him that did.

Styles is, by leaps and bounds, the biggest merchandise and DVD seller in TNA. He's not in a place where he can be a great draw, but within his place, he, by all measurable standards, has been the biggest money producer in the company. Now keep this in mind this is a guy whose interviews are below average, his look is average at best, his size is below average and his push is good, but no better than a half-dozen other guys in the company. Yet by far he's the biggest revenue producer.

I'd say that that would seem to indicate his in-ring must be a pretty major positive to the audience. So what he does isn't wrestling. Times and tastes change, and they are changing faster than ever now. If Styles' stuff isn't marketable and people don't buy it, you can say he's not being smart because he's doing a style that isn't working. If it is working, you can say he's not being smart because of the injury risk. You can't say it's not wrestling.

And if the people buy it, and based on watching crowds react to his matches this year, they do, far more than Bastista's actual in-ring matches (obviously not more than his actual character which is a different issue but also has a lot to do with where each man works), then it's not only wrestling, it's successful wrestling.

There is a big difference between wrestling well within your own style. The funny thing is, most fans recognize it by watching without even understanding wrestling or being told, because it's pretty obvious. In a surprising amount of cases, people who think they are the only ones who know the secret of the one and only way to work and draw money, and that everyone else is stupid, have an ironic view. besides, most of the time when people talk about working in the ring to draw money, it's comical how little they know, because in most cases, the things that make the biggest difference whenm it comes to drawing money on the big stage is not one's work, but one's promo ability and charisma, usually not what they do from bell to bell."


Scrooge McSuck - October 26, 2005 04:56 PM (GMT)
I think I can safely say Meltzer just took Batista to school.

whitemilesdavis - October 26, 2005 04:57 PM (GMT)
Bingo.

dynamite kido - October 26, 2005 05:14 PM (GMT)
That's a hell of a response there by Da Meltz.

SamoaRowe - October 26, 2005 07:47 PM (GMT)
Batista just got owned B)

Mad Dog - October 27, 2005 08:48 PM (GMT)
Reading that really makes you feel embrassed for Batista.

SamoaRowe - October 27, 2005 09:53 PM (GMT)
QUOTE (Mad Dog @ Oct 27 2005, 02:48 PM)
Reading that really makes you feel embrassed for Batista.

Yeah, what makes it worse is that for the most part, I actually like Batista.

Mad Dog - October 27, 2005 10:00 PM (GMT)
I still like the guy. I think Vince made him say this and he's playing the good company guy for the most part.

Scrooge McSuck - October 28, 2005 05:34 PM (GMT)
QUOTE
Samoa Joe recently updated his Live Journal, including a message for the recently outspoken Batista, “Dave Batista... Ehh its not even worth it, I hope your opinion of others made you feel better about yourself.”


HIGH-larious!

SamoaRowe - October 28, 2005 05:35 PM (GMT)
QUOTE (Scrooge McSuck @ Oct 28 2005, 11:34 AM)
QUOTE
Samoa Joe recently updated his Live Journal, including a message for the recently outspoken Batista, “Dave Batista... Ehh its not even worth it, I hope your opinion of others made you feel better about yourself.”


HIGH-larious!

I saw that earlier today and I marked out B)





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