7 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (Sept 15)

6. 205 Live Is Once Again...

Stephanie McMahon Lovingly Tends To Her Dad
WWE.com

...battered by an old WCW pay-per-view in the Network ratings. When Buff Bagwell, of all people, claimed that big guys draw, most fans wrote him off as a fantasist. Leave it to WWE to prove him right.

WCW Fall Brawl 1998 kept original content - marketed as the "most exciting hour on television" - out of the Top 10. To recap, Fall Brawl 1998 was a dud of a show on which so much died a death. The acclaimed Cruiserweight division turned to rust as Silver King botched his way through his crack at the belt. Some of the greatest workers of the 1990s - Scott Hall, Curt Hennig, Scott Steiner - turned in dire performances. Only one of the three truly recovered. And, most depressingly of all, the War Games match devolved from blood-fuelled war to a black hole into which no less than eight bonafide megastars were hurled and destroyed by its pitiful gravitational pull. It wasn't even a spectacle of schadenfreude, à la Uncensored 1996. It was simply awful...

...and a replay still drew in more performers than the beleaguered 205 Live, which Enzo Amore could not save from critical and commercial free fall. You could debut CM Punk on the thing and nobody would give a sh*t. It's aired too late, it's the eleventh hour of original content on a PPV week, and there is so much good wrestling in 2017 that it's honestly getting a bit boring. Or daunting, at least.

205 Live fell to 13th place in the rankings. Not so much unlucky as a fatalistic, institutional failure.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!