SquaredCircle

WXW is shutting down.

Welcome to the first episode of the student oriented Pro Wrestling show “Dark Prospect” informatively called “Ritual 1.”

The idea behind this show is for students to become accustomed to working for television. Having an idea as to how to stick to their times, thinking on the fly, working hard cam and added cameras but most importantly understanding that you only have 1 take to complete the task at hand; entertain the crowd whilst competing at the top of your game.

As time progresses, you, the fan, will get to know the athletes, their stories and see their progression from what they are right now to the stage they will be at later on these shows and perhaps even in shows near you in the near future. We thank you, the fans, for investing your time and sharing your love for Pro Wrestling with us.

It's Meme Monday! Use this space to share all the funny memes, gifs, pics, and shorts from the week that was in wrestling.

💥 TOP VOTED MEME WILL BE NEXT WEEK'S THUMBNAIL!! 💥

Remember to link your memes so our friends on Lemmy can see them! Thanks guys.

Nyla Rose took out a full-page ad in the latest issue of PWI. I can't. I just can't. 🤣

#wrestling #prowrestling #professionalwrestling #sq #squaredcircle #puroresu #puro #aew #roh #pwi #SquaredCircle

His match on Saturday was stopped early.

The artist formerly known as Elias has returned to the ring with Wrestling REVOLVER.

Velveteen Dream has resurfaced.

Dream appeared at a Dynasty event in Albany, New York on Saturday. He interrupted the opening match and issued an open challenge. In the main event of the show, Dream's open challenge was accepted by American Muscle Alec Odin, who Dream went on to defeat.

Dream (real name Patrick Clark) had largely vanished from pro wrestling after he was released by WWE in May of 2021. He last wrestled back on the December 23, 2020 edition of NXT, losing to Adam Cole.

Prior to his WWE release, Dream had been accused of sending sexually explicit photos to underage children online. Triple H later responded to the allegations by saying that an investigation had been done and nothing was found.

Dream was arrested in August of 2022 twice in a one week period, first on August 20 for first-degree battery and trespassing, then again six days later on drug paraphernalia charges. The battery and trespassing charges were later dropped.

Last month, he released a video apologizing for his recent behavior.

Hello SquaredCircle! Welcome to our Weekly 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).

We all watch a fairly wide range of wrestling, so across all your favourite/usual promotions:

Who is that one wrestler above all others that you just can't get into?

Do you hate their wrestling style? Is their character boring? Do they just not do anything for you? Hate the performer (keep it civil)? Was there some angle that soured you on them? Let us know! (and obviously do feel free to mention multiple people if needed lol).

(mind the mild volume flux at the start)

Spoilers from Rampage.

LOTS OF TNA NEWS AND NOTES

By Mike Johnson on 2024-02-16 18:21:00

In regard to the TNA talent letter sent to Anthem Fightful.com reported about earlier this week, we are told that only a portion of the actual letter had been released online and it was a much larger letter overall. There are absolutely some talents still very angry over the Scott D'Amore exit and they are waiting to see how they are addressed and treated at the New Orleans tapings next week. There are also a lot of people upset the letter leaked, but in defense of that, if someone had given it to me, I would have reported it as well.

Tommy Dreamer confirmed our TNA Creative report earlier today on SiriusXM's Busted Open, noting he is not head of creative and that he, RD Evans and Delirious have been working per usual. Despite all the assumptions about creative and how things will move forward, we reiterate that we are told a lot of things are in flux. There are a lot of people who work for the company pretty much approaching the No Surrender PPV and TV tapings next week "as a litmus test" as one talent described, to see how things will go moving forward between management and talents.

New TNA President Anthony Cicone is expected to be at next week's events. I don't know he would be around at every taping cycle as he has a lot of other Anthem responsibilities.

We noted several TNA talent integrations into AXS TV programming. Those deals were done and talents filmed that content prior to the Scott D'Amore firing.

We are also told there are plans for AXS TV to rebrand in the future.

The latest edition of TNA Xplosion is now on TNA+, featuring Trent Seven vs. Mahabali Shera and Rich Swann vs. John Skyler.

Bhupinder Gujjar will be awarded the St. Clair College Alumni of Distinction at an upcoming ceremony in Windsor, Ontario. There's been a lot of people locally wondering how the Windsor tapings will go with D'Amore gone.

Tickets for the 4/20 Rebellion and 4/21 TV Taping in Las Vegas officially go on sale tomorrow.

NYC is absolutely in play for a potential PPV later this year.

Luchablog:

The source for the Penta/AEW/CMLL story is left uncredited; it does not appear to be Penta itself. It makes the entire story read differently if it is indeed the booker for AAA arguing that AEW needs to stop using CMLL guys, which is a problem with anonymous sourcing. Konnan may not have done it purely for AAA/CMLL reasons – Penta is his guy, he’s sticking up for him – but it’s part of the story if it is him. In the past, whenever a story like this crops up in the WON, Konnan says the same story using many of the same words on his (previously recorded) podcast in the next few days. I guess we’ll know if that sequence happens again.

Robviper was more detailed on twitter:

The AEW/CMLL/AAA bit in the WON fascinates me solely b/c of the usage of the word 'disrespectful'. Straight from Konnan's vernacular. At that point you may as well just open source the comment if it's gonna be that transparent.

Tell me this - was it 'disrespectful' when AAA hid the fact they were not only in bed w/ WWE but also knowingly booked FTR, on loan from supposed partner company AEW, to lose to a WWE contracted wrestler?

(Fun fact: CMLL in one day alone (yesterday) sold ~3x more tickets than AAA did for that event which was the first collaboration with a local promoter. They ran one more show in Acapulco that drew even worse with current AAA mega star Alberto on top & the promoter bailed on AAA.)

To be clear, that event = AAA's TV taping in Acapulco, where Dragon Lee and Dralistico defeated FTR for the AAA World Tag Team titles. Show drew poorly. Per luchablog, "It was a big stadium, AAA didn’t sell 2/3rds of it, and struggled to settle the rest. Maybe the financial loss wasn’t as bad as it seemed, since the local promoter is also the building owner, but it came off as a failure."

Back to RobViper:

But back to the word 'disrespectful' - at the last Impact taping I attended I spent the latter half chatting with Taurus who was booked but not given a match for either day. Not the first or second time that happened. Where was the blind item in the WON about that?

Any guesses on who was the person behind the funnelling of Taurus to Impact?

Konnan.

Anyone know what match Laredo Kid is booked for next weekend? Surely Konnan wouldn't allow his own talent to be 'disrespected' & brought in just to work Xplosion tapings.

Just see through this for what it is... Konnan is very upset at the political lay of the land right now - mainly his non-involvement - so he's trying to cause drama. 💯

If Penta felt 'disrespected', that's a private issue between him & Tony, not one he would run to tell the WON.

The cherry on top, you can find a tweet from Konnan, which is very clearly him seething about the AEW and CMLL working together:

Its really unfortunate when politics override talent in the biz....

Type-up courtesy of reloco93 on /r/SQ

⚡ THIS IS RAMPAGE! ⚡

Tonight, Rampage comes to us from Austin, TX! The card includes:

• NO DISQUALIFICATION MATCH: Jeff Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara

• Anna Jay vs. Queen Aminata

• The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster) & Daddy Ass and BULLET CLUB GOLD (Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, & Jay White) vs. Dark Order (Alex Reynolds, Evil Uno, & John Silver) & Jay Lethal, Jeff Jarrett,& Satnam Singh

• Dustin Rhodes & The Von Erichs in action!

• We will hear from Ruby Soho & Cool Hand Ang!

And more!

Show starts at 7pm EST | 4pm PST | 6pm CST | 12am BST

AEW can be found on: TNT in the US, TSN+ in Canada, ViX in Latin America, ESPN in Australia, and FITETV/DAZN in the UK, EU, and elsewhere.

Nice to see to AEW Locker room rallying around our fearless EVPs

THE ACTUAL TRUTH ON TNA CREATIVE GOING FORWARD, WHO IS IN CHARGE AND MORE

By Mike Johnson on 2024-02-16 13:25:00

Over the last few hours, there has been a story spreading that Tommy Dreamer has taken over as Head of Creative for TNA. PWInsider.com can confirm with multiple sources that is 100% incorrect.

Here is what we have confirmed after speaking to multiple sources:

*The existing TNA Creative team of Tommy Dreamer, RD Evans and Hunter "Delirious" Johnston will remain in place and continue to work as they did prior to Scott D'Amore's departure.

*The existing team will be supported by Gail Kim, who was already one of the top officials for the company backstage and does so many things from a talent relations and producing perspective that it would take an hour to list all of her responsibilities. So, now Gail can officially add creative to that list, although she had input and a voice in everything she worked on already.

*Jorge Barbosa has also joined the creative process. Barbosa has been a Senior Producer for Anthem Sports & Entertainment for a long time and was the person behind all those excellent Fight Network Diary documentaries focusing on TNA and MMA personalities. He's got a great creative rep from the projects he's worked on in the past.

So, if Dreamer isn't the person in charge, who is?

PWInsider.com has confirmed that Ariel Shnerer will be overseeing all TNA content going forward and will be working in conjunction with new TNA President Anthony Cicione. It will be Shnerer who will have the last word on any talent and creative decisions, although Cicione will be the top of the pyramid. Shnerer is the former General Manager of the Fight Network and has been involved in TNA since Anthem acquired the company. He appeared on TV from time to time as Dr. Ariel, but behind the scenes is where he was really important as he manages the distribution of TNA across Anthem, was involved in securing TNA's deal for DAZN and a number of TNA streaming deals for Roku and Pluto TV, among other platforms. He also spearheaded the launch of the TNA+ streaming service.

So, if anyone is head of Creative going forward, it is Shnerer, not Dreamer.

Already posted it prior to having to go out but:

TNA:

~~Dreamer is the new head of creative. May the old ones help us.~~

Update:

"I am part of the creative team. I am not the head of creative. If I was I'd book myself to beat Moose and win the world title. Everything is still intact from before."

AEW/CMLL:

'The AEW deal with CMLL is that on any TV show that CMLL talent appears on, no other Mexican wrestlers can appear. Doesn’t matter if they work for AAA or not, or did in the past, it’s no other Mexican wrestlers can appear.

Some of the prior Mexican talent is mad that Tony Khan agreed to those terms, noting that AAA never made a demand like that.'

Comment from Luchablog: "every two months AEW fans find out for the very first time that AAA and CMLL are not friends"

AEW:

“When we mentioned last week about morale being the best it has been in a long time, it was noted that the talent is getting along more than it has. But with so many wrestlers under contract and only so many that can be pushed, inherently there is going to be frustration because most on the roster are not people just happy to not show their stuff and perform just because they are making good money. There are exceptions to that rule but when you put together a roster of high level performers they are going to want to perform. There is also frustration from a lot of circles since talent comes to the shows and sees the smaller crowds since the start of the year. Khan always paints a positive picture about the company being stronger due to increased revenues, or bringing up ratings, and there’s the feeling that popularity is declining overall and changes have to be made to turn it around and he’s acting like everything is fine”

NXT:

“Nikkita Lyons is injured again, just coming back from a injury.”

WWE:

“There is said to be far more behind the scenes that hasn’t come out but given the timing can’t be talked about now. But Johnson over the weekend said it was best to be out of the Reigns match, put Cody in, which by this point everyone conceded by then. It was Johnson who then pitched the heel turn and he did pitch the idea of the Reigns & Rock vs. Rhodes & Rollins match for night one. So that was his idea if that is how it turns out.”

"Rey Mysterio’s return now looks to be in a few weeks."

"He was hoping for late January but is pretty close to being ready to return."

"The only thing we were told regarding WWE writer and producer Jennifer Pepperman’s departure was that she wanted a change. It was noted she was close to Mercedes Mone"

"It’s been noted with Paul Heyman showing up in the Bron Breakker segment on Smackdown, that this could be a subtle start for a program way down the line."

Darby going into business for himself and completely disregarding Stings retirement

Hopefully he gets a hefty fine for this

Edit:

https://www.wrestlezone.com/news/1445262-tommy-dreamer-disputes-report-about-him-taking-over-tna-creative

"I am part of the creative team. I am not the head of creative. If I was I'd book myself to beat Moose and win the world title. Everything is still intact from before."

Full text of letter:

Len and Scott,

TNA/Impact is not just our employer and the company for which we work. It is a family. A family that each of us has grown to love and cherish and trust with our bodies and our careers. A family for which we feel deeply and that desire, above all else, to protect.

We are deeply saddened by the decision to remove Scott D'Amore from the TNA/Impact family. Scott is a brilliant wrestling mind that has guided this company and has it positioned to take the next step upward in our industry. Scott is also so much more than this. He is a trusted friend, confidant, teacher, advisor, brother, and mentor to so many within the TNA/Impact family. Scott has been the heart of the TNA/Impact family for over two decades.

Len and Anthem have been instrumental in supporting and building this company back from the ground up. The contributions of Len and Anthem have never gone unnoticed by anyone in the company, and we want to make sure Len knows this. TNA, simply put, would not have survived without Len and Anthem. Not just financially, but with the undying faith in Scott and us to revive the company that was on the brink of death. Len and Anthem are the foundation that TNA has been able to build upon. We would not have made it back to this point without BOTH of you. The fans know this, and the TNA family knows this.

We come to you to voice our concern for TNA/Impact, our family, and its future and direction. We, like you, wish to safeguard what we have all worked and sweat and bled for to build. We want TNA/Impact to continue grow and to continue to be an enviable place for all professional wrestlers to work.

We understand and appreciate that professional wrestling, at its core, is a business, and that the company must provide a fiscally responsible, financially viable product. At the same time, professional wrestling is uniquely situated. The business of professional wrestling is so much more than balance sheets, downloads, and ratings. The wrestling business is and must be its people, its characters, and its storylines. That is to say, there is no wrestling business without the wrestling creative vision and the right people bringing the creative vision to life.

To thrive, a wrestling company must have both an eye toward business decisions, and its fingers on the pulse of creative decisions and the ever-changing appetite of our fans. It is in light of this concern and our desire to uphold the high standards of TNA/Impact that we offer this letter.

It is our desire to have a dialogue with you and with the company in an effort to protect the present and the future of TNA/Impact for you, for Anthem, for the fans, and for professional wrestlers. We feel strongly that a 'wrestling person' needs to be intimately involved at a high level to ensure that the amazing company we have all built and product we have provided to our fans continues to grow and flourish. It is our opinion that the best possible person for that role was, is, and will be Scott.

We recognize that we do not necessarily know all the facts or details around the decision to remove Scott. In life there is always the rumors, the opinions, and, somewhere in between, the truth. We rarely get to know which is which. It remains our hope and desire that everyone can set aside the past few days and any hurt feelings or unkind words that may have been exchanged, and meet to discuss a path forward that preserves the TNA/Impact family we all hold so dearly.

We remain steadfast and hopeful that this letter can be a first step to opening, and keeping open, productive lines of communication to ensure the TNA/Impact family continues to be a wonderful, unique place to work for years to come. We ask and implore you both to come together and create a resolution that will reunite this family once again.

We look forward to hearing from you and continuing this dialogue.

Signed, Your TNA Family