Conrad Thompson on if Ring Of Honor is competition to WWE:
“…it depends on how you explain competition. If it is competing for the same audience then no, it isn’t but if its competing for the same talent then yes. Once upon a time it was when are you going to be on TV again, but with the internet changing it has sort of levelled the playing field. To be honest, it wasn’t the TV deal you wanted, it was the audience who you could sell your stuff too. You have podcasts like this show and Being The Elite which do really good numbers. I don’t think they are competing for eyeballs but for employees, you have someone like Neville or Cody Rhodes who have done it all, but decided it wasn’t worth it and would rather be in control. The result has been not only Is he happier he is making more money and I think WWE is having to compete for those people now.”
“SR: …the story they are building with Roman Reigns is a story of milestones which leads to the moment at WrestleMania. It started with Undertaker and then John Cena and I think the next moment is Seth and Dean tipping the hat and saying there’s the next step. I was thinking, maybe even before that with the return of Kane, which was great because I didn’t see it coming. The idea here is that, it’s not corporate Kane it’s the Undertaker’s brother and he is now going after the guy that retired The Undertaker, he has a reason for doing this and I would imagine that Reigns will retire Kane as well.
CT: It’s great, because we are referencing a storyline that is twenty years ago why not have Roman retire him and I love everything about that storyline you just laid out, wrestling is so fun.”
Conrad on storylines like Kane’s, and Sami Zayn/Kevin Owens being told over the course of years
“CT: It’s a testament to those guys and how great they are that even after all this time it is still entertaining. In the WWE, you see there are feuds that people will complain and say oh it’s that again. A few years ago, they said it about John Cena and Randy Orton and very few people say that about Zayn and Owens because of the strong promos that Kevin puts out there and because of the incredible ways they put together matches, It’s not the same match ever. People knock Ric Flair and Bret Hart saying it’s the same match every time and these guys never have a similar match.
SR: When they do repeat spots, it’s done as a homage and as a tip of the hat.
CT: It’s a fun time to be a wrestling fan and podcasts like this remind you of how fun it can be.“
Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast is published every Thursday morning on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, notsam.com, and wherever podcasts are available.
