Scott Keith

Progress Wrestling now available on Powerslam.TV


Hi Scott,


I hope this finds you exceedingly well. Please see the below press release announcing our new partnership with Progress Wrestling. Let me know if you have any questions, and thanks as always for helping us to get the word out!


Best,


Chris

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JUNE 17, 2019

U.K. PRO WRESTLING POWERHOUSE, PROGRESS WRESTLING

ADDING CONTENT TO POWERSLAM.TV

Indie pro wrestling channel Powerslam.TV proud to be working

with the Progress Wrestling team!

Los Angeles, CA – Powerslam.TV, the world’s largest indie pro wrestling channel is proud to announce that they are now working with U.K. pro wrestling powerhouse Progress Wrestling. The Progress team has started with over 20 events on Powerslam.TV from not only 2019, but also favorites from previous years as well. Subscribers to Powerslam.TV can now view such recent events as Corrupted Harmony from March, as well as their three-day event from May, Super StrongStyle.  

Progress Wrestling, headquartered in London, England, launched in 2011, and has been touted as one of the most exciting promotions not only in the U.K. but also anywhere else in the world. While wrestling styles at their events may vary, they are most well known as the masters of the sub-genre known as British Strongstyle, characterized by elements of Japanese wrestling as well as traditional British catch wrestling. Powerslam.TV is owned and operated by the online video platform, Pivotshare, Inc. which powers hundreds of pro wrestling channels from around the world and has been working with the team from Progress Wrestling since 2014. Powerslam.TV, which launched June of 2018, offers over 5,000 hours of pro wrestling content from over 130 brands from 17 different countries. Subscribers can see wrestling events from such well known domestic brands as CZWStudios, AAW, DEFY, and Highspots, along with international favorites such as Over the Top, Pro Wrestling EVE, RevPro, and now Progress Wrestling. Pro wrestling fans can watch on the web at Powerslam.TV, or using iOS, Android, AppleTV, and Roku apps, as well as on the Amazon Channels experience, and select cable TV networks.

The Powerslam.TV team could not be happier to be working with the professionals at Progress. Powerslam.TV General Manager and Head of Digital Publisher Relations for Pivotshare, Chris Woolsey spoke about his excitement for the relationship when saying, “Words cannot describe how thrilled we are to be able to offer our audience content from our friends at Progress Wrestling. We have always had such a great relationship powering their subscription channel, and it just made sense for us to extend that to Powerslam.TV.” He went on to add, “Our goal with Powerslam.TV is to be able to offer the highest quality wrestling content from the best brands the industry has to offer. When we think of the bleeding edge of pro wrestling, there is no other promotion that comes to mind more than Progress. The level of quality that their team consistently produces is a rarity and has become the gold standard in the pro wrestling world.”

Pro Wrestling content creators interested in creating their own subscription video on demand channel for their promotion, can sign up for a free account at Pivotshare.com or email Powerslam.TV directly at [email protected].

About Powerslam.TV

Powerslam.TV launched in 2018, and offers over 5,000 hours of pro wrestling content from over 135 promotions in 17 different countries. Subscribers can view content on the web at Powerslam.TV or on iOS, Android, AppleTV, or Roku devices for only $5.99/month.

For more information and to sign up, please visit http://www.pivotshare.com.

Media Contact

Chris Woolsey

(310) 422-9975

[email protected]

More Like Limping Grounds Am I Right?

So basically the wwe said let’s run back the same card no one liked from super showdown, get rid of the part timer matches that draw in the casual fan, and take out any potential excitement that could come with the possibility of Brock cashing in mib because there’s no way he’s coming to two straight ppvs. If this were a world without the wwe network does this ppv draw tna type numbers?
The show still has tons of tickets left and it's tracking really low in interest, so you could argue it already is in TNA territory.  Pushing that stupid Saudi show back really killed off whatever small amount of momentum they had after Money in the Bank.  Because now we have the rushed build to this one and then another rushed build to whatever the next show is, so that'll be another round of rematches you can bet. 

Muta as Black Scorpion

I’m sure you addressed this, but was this ever an option? Would’ve totally paid off the angle with a legit opponent and the match would’ve probably been great. 
You are correct, it would have been great.  I can see how they might balk at someone without much in the way of English promo skills filling the role, however.  However, the fact that someone who doesn't speak much English was cutting promos on Sting months earlier would seem to be the least of the plotholes anyway, so I think they should have done it.  Plus he was there for the tag team tournament at Starrcade anyway!  If he had a hole for his mouth in the mask, they could do the dramatic staredown and Scorpion would blow mist at Sting and then unmask for the big reveal. 

No Suzuki in G1?!

Any real life backstage reason we don’t get ageless badass Minoru Suzuki in G1 (whereas we’re stuck with NJPWs version of Baron Corbin, aka Lance Archer)? I feel like we’re being deprived of Suzuki vs Moxley, or Suzuki vs KENTA. Honestly his absence is the only one short of this being a dream line up. Or I just really like old Japanese dudes who give precisely zero fucks, I don’t know.

Meltzer was speculating that he's 51 years old and banged up, and just wasn't going to be able to pull it off this year.  And yeah, he's been notably absent from a lot of the big shows this year as it is, so maybe there's something to it.  

That being said, Moxley v. Suzuki seems to be this weird dream match that a lot of people really wanted, and I just don't know if it could have lived up to the imagined hype.  

Best of the Decade

Hey Scott,
 
With the 2010s coming to a close soon, will you be doing a best of the 2010s match listing? Between WWE, NXT, New Japan, there's some GOOD SHIT to rank.
 
Thanks

Given that I was barely watching for a good chunk of the decade and didn't have reliable access to New Japan until the launch of New Japan World, I'm gonna say "no".  

That’s enough talk about AEW

Let's talk about AEW, instead!

Are there any feuds beyond what looks like the four main eventers (Mox, Jericho, Omega, and Juice Cassidy), or even the big names in general that would interest you? You're not a big indie guy (Ace Romero is the big indie guy!), so I figured your take would be less biased than most, but more informed than others

I'm just excited to see what kind of a tag team division that the Bucks can come up with.  With themselves, SCU, the Lucha Brothers and probably another couple of additions it should make for a pretty great use of the guys on the show.  

Best worker you’ve seen the least of?

Hey Scott, 

Getting into joshi recently, I keep being blown away by some of the workers from 1990s AJW I'd never seen before. Who would you say are the best workers you haven't seen much of? 

I would mostly say guys who are before my time, like Lou Thesz, or guys outside of my sphere of influence that I learned about later, like Akira Maeda.  Maeda comes across as a fascinating wrestler from all the Observer Flashbacks, but I had no exposure to him at the time and he was done by the time I was heavily into tape trading.  Ditto for Riki Choshu, a hugely influential worker who was more of a name than a real star by the time I had access to those tapes.  

This is either incredibly stupid or ingenious. Probably the first.


Why doesn’t WWE bring back the Warrior?

I’m not talking about the Ultimate Warrior- clearly, the WWE is not a world leader in raising the dead, despite having the Undertaker on call. But UW always ranted about how he was “sent” here by some more powerful, more cosmic forces. What if those forces decided that the void left by UW’s passing needed to be filled by a new Warrior…not an Ultimate Warrior, sure, but maybe a PRIME WARRIOR or a PEAK WARRIOR or some marketing word that works with Warrior.

Give the gimmick to a new wrestler with similar traits to Warrior- big, muscular, not great in the ring, loud, looks good in facepaint. Heck, you could play it out for months- he’s a normal guy, but he’s having weird moments. One week, he shakes the ropes out of nowhere. The second, he runs to the ring. Another week, he starts snarling and snoring in a promo. And then, finally…the facepaint. The explanation- the heavens have opened, and THOSE ABOVE HAVE FILLED HIS SOUL WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE WARRIORS BEFORE HIM, and yadda yadda yadda crash crash boom boom crash.

And make sure this one’s not a JERK. (Sorry, Lars!) I don't fault the WWE for wanting to push the idea that the Warrior could be a Pride Month icon; their heart's in the right place. It's not Vince's fault that Hellwig was a world-class jerk and bigot. Why let facts get in the way of a fun idea? Heck, there's no finer way to deal with Hellwig's bigotry than to create a new Warrior that doesn't believe any of the hateful garbage he spouted in his life.

(Sorry, this idea has been stuck in my head for months.)
Imma let you back off from this gracefully by noting that WWE specifically does not own the rights to Warrior or his image or name.  So unless they want to get sued, then it’s a no. 
Also, have you HEARD of the Renegade?

The Viking Raiders

Why haven't the Viking Raiders been on television for several weeks now?  Initially I thought one or both may have been hurt, but apparently they were in the Battle Royal at Super Showdown.  Think Vince has lost interest in them already? 

I don't feel like Vince had any particular interest in them in the first place, to be honest,  Hell, AOP should have been right up his alley and ticked all the boxes for him, and look what happened to THEM.  Plus he was handed Lars Sullivan AND Braun Strowman and couldn't figure out how to book either one of them properly.  I've given up trying to figure it out.   

Warrior

One of the major reasons his title reign flopped was a lack of major challengers.  Earthquake would seem to be a viable challenger but obviously you needed him for the Hogan feud.  Why not have Rude injure Hogan and then have Quake feud with Warrior.  You can always go back to Rude/warrior later.  
Fair question, but apparently Rude and Hogan had heat and Hulk didn't want to work with him for whatever reason.  I've never been clear on the exact reason.  Also, perhaps if Mr. Perfect hadn't been jobbed out to Hulk and Beefcake in short order, he might have been a viable guy to do a run with Warrior as well. 

A little more Sting

Hey Scott,

1. Regarding Sting's drawing power: do you think it's fair that the champion is the one getting the credit for being a draw in these scenarios? Sting was a guy I loved watching chase the title. And NWA/WCW fans were conditioned to that formula. So fans wanted to see Sting chase Flair and Vader, and to a much greater extent, Hogan and the nWo. But even as a Sting fan, once he won the title, my desire to see him actually be the champion dwindled. But that doesn't mean he wasn't a draw, in my opinion. 

2. And further, don't you think we should talk about draws in terms of feuds and not people? Austin/McMahon was a draw. Unless you think Austin would've drawn against Savio Vega and Los Boriquas. I don't. Rock/HHH was a draw. Hogan/Piper in the 80s was a draw. But it seems only the guy holding the title or the face gets the credit. 

Thoughts?
1.  If your desire to see him dwindled once he won the title, then he was a failure as a champion and shouldn't have won it.  Which is fine, not everyone can or should be champion.  Also, Sting didn't draw as challenger, either.  
2.  Not sure what your argument is here.  Vince McMahon was and is one of the biggest ratings draws in wrestling history.  He gets just as much credit as Austin.  Roddy Piper is also one of the biggest draws in wrestling history.  But yes, the guy holding the title often does get the credit.  He also gets shit upon when he doesn't draw, as Sting found out.  That's the biz. 

Hypotheticals

Hi Scott,

I don't know how slow Monday is going to be, so here are some questions for discussion.

1) Roman Reigns has only wrestled in the era of 50/50 booking and nobody being bigger than the WWE brand. If he starts to get a successful acting career and leaves for Hollywood permanently, what does Vince do then? Will it be all double DQs and double countouts to make sure nobody can ever win ever again?

2) What do you think would have happened if Shibata's headbutt had sent Okada to the hospital and forced Okada to retire? What would be the consequences for NJPW (business-wise and booking-wise) and Shibata personally?

3) Part of what seems to make NXT so good is that the roster is constantly changing, which means that it's very hard for somebody to get stale there. Which three people currently in NXT would you either shuffle off to the main roster or release them from their contract because they're going nowhere and it's time for some new blood?

4) If Vince McMahon ever steps down, would the new person in charge allow people to say "wrestling" and "wrestler" again?

1.  Dude, Roman did a job for SHANE MCMAHON.  We're already there.
2.  I think they'd just elevate someone else instead.  Gedo has been pretty masterful with handling guys leaving, case in point the mass exodus of the Bullet Club and then losing the Elite as well.  
3.  They need to move Shayna Baszler to the main roster and forget the Forgotten Sons.
4.  Doesn't seem likely.  The new person will have been trained by Vince. 

Fyter Fest

Hey Scott,

   I was looking up Fyter Fest tickets and there are a ton left.  You can buy groups of 8 still.  With All Out selling out in minutes, any thoughts why these are moving so slow considering the show is less than two weeks away?


Sting is headlining.  

R-Truth

Hi Scott,

What is your take on R-Truth? I think he's carved out a nice niche as a comedic performer for the past decade. All the while, he's won a handful of championships while remaining popular with the fans. He has stayed relatively healthy and has avoided controversy in his long tenure. I say he's a surefire WWE Hall of Famer. 
He's a hell of a worker for his age, too.  I think he actually deserves a bigger and better role than he has, but, you know, he said the name of a city wrong once.  Some things you just can't come back from. 

This is good sh*t?


I had an idea so horrible that it’s within the realm of possibility that Creative would consider it.  Eugene returns to WWE after he’s corrupted by The Firefly Funhouse.  

Man, I gotta lay off the ‘95 WCW.

I was gonna say that I was pretty sure Dinsmore is out of the business, but I checked cagematch.net and wouldn't you know, he's still working the indies as Eugene.  So there you, start printing money!

Plug Request


Hi Scott,


I'm trying to sell my WWE/UFC DVD collection on Ebay and was hoping you'd be willing to share the link with your audience.


I also have about 60 ROH DVD's from '04-'05 as well as about 100 shoot interviews from that era is well that I haven't listed.  If anyone's interested, I'd be happy to pass that list along.

Thanks!


Best of luck. 

What AEW has that others don’t

With the news of  DoN getting 100,000 buys and All Out not only selling out immediately but also leaving thousands more wanting tickets, what is it about AEW that is drawing like this? Even when TNA was at its peak with a 1.0 rating each week, they had to hold shows with free tickets while drawing 5-15,000 PPV buys per event. I don't recall ROH ever having the buzz of AEW either, and it's not like resentment toward the WWE product is a recent phenomenon. 

So, what exactly is creating this weird situation of AEW doing so well without even any TV yet?

They must really like the t-shirts I guess.  Also, apparently Cody and the Elite are bigger draws than anyone ever gave them credit for.  Also, New Japan needs to dump their shitty relationship with ROH YESTERDAY and get on board this train and I really don't know why it hasn't happened yet. 

The Emasculation of Miz

I'm not a huge Miz fan (his offense looks too soft and choreographed for me), but for a guy who got himself as over as could be expected and has done a great job, he deserved a lot better. Could the booking have made him look any weaker against Shane?

– Week after week, even when initiating the attack (even with a chair!), he gets left laying or fails to get heat on Shane
– Gets his ass kicked SO badly at WM that HIS FATHER HAS TO BEG OLD MAN SHANE NOT TO KILL HIM, and then he fails to win anyway
– Loses blowoff match and STILL never gets revenge for father getting destroyed 

Pray never to get turned babyface in WWE. 

Can't argue with that.  

Student/teacher storyline

The Moxley dominion promo about a “young lion” he’ll take under his wing got me thinking, either the WWE hasn’t done it in awhile or they have and just didn’t make it any good and I can’t remember it.

It’s such a simple plot, makes good use of (active) ring veterans, rising stars, and has , from what I count, 5 outcomes that you can mold and adapt to who’s getting more over and how the crowd reacts during the storyline :

1) student exceeds expectations, teacher turns heel out of jealousy

2)…or student thinks he’s better than teacher, turns heel

3) teacher warps students mind, they become heel team, student turns face in the end

4) roles reversed from above, resulting in student breaking out as a great heel

5) both become over tag team and teacher gets one more run with gold out if it

…is it just me or is this the perfect use of guys like Nakamura?

Maybe, but you KNOW that Vince would have him be an actual sensei and he'd have to start wearing robes and burning incense and stuff.
But yeah, the student-teacher stuff has been done countless times in wrestling and it almost always works. 

ECW 1998

Scott,

I’m watching ECW Hardcore TV from 1998 and after each episode I’m wanting to see the next to see what high octane bout or moment is next. It’s a period wrestling fans are not too fond of but looking back at it 20 years removed from any context, what exactly was wrong with ECW at this point and why is it I’m enjoying so much more than anything on TV these days?

RVD, Bam Bam, Taz, Sabu, Masato Tanaka, Jerry Lynn, Lance Storm, Chris Candido, Dudleys, Dreamer and others. They might not be considered amazing workers (Tanaka is a god) but the crowd really cares for them and it’s super contagious. It’s very fun to watch 20 years removed.

Back at the time, what were your feelings towards ECW in 1998 and have they changed over time? Thanks

They haven't changed much.  My feelings were that the TV shows were generally enjoyable but Heyman never got the hang of producing top level PPVs, plus the big two were constantly raiding the roster and so we got shit like Justin Credible pushed to the top because no one else wanted him. 

Shane has to EARN his payday, right?

My mind is a little fuzzy here, is this essentially what is happening?

Shane leaves WWE to go run You On Demand in 2009 and did not accomplish much there and he returned to WWE in 2016.

If I remember correctly he had cashed in his share of WWE to help start You On Demand, so his return to WWE might have been because he needed a steady paycheck.

And since Vince does not give jobs, he gives opportunities, why should it be any different for his own son. After all, isn’t that a good life lesson for Shane to learn there are consequences for leaving the family business.

So Shane proceeds to do his poor man’s stunt man schtick and have near heart attack’s on a regular basis. Just because Vince wants him to earn his keep in the ring when he could be doing it in a million different roles in WWE.

Or is it even worse, Shane wants to be in the ring because he is self deluded like everyone else with the last name of McMahon. In which case the only way this stops is if he is injured or he injures someone else.

Crazy daddy issues man

Well his daddy is crazy.
And no, he didn't cash in all his stock as far as I know.  He still has millions worth of shares because it's basically impossible for any of the McMahon family to get rid of all their shares the way that the stock is structured.  Plus just as he was about to cash it in, someone attacked him and stole his briefcase containing the shares, and then the Wall Street official pointed out that the big bell never rung, so it didn't count.