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Monday, November 20, 2017

Randomness (Thunders Arena Edition)

After the success of my Twitter-focused randomness post, I was going to do a Tumblr one, featuring pics like this:

Why jobbers are jobbers. For the view.

Anyway, Thunders Arena was going to be a big part of that story, because their Tumblr account is awesome. So instead, I decided to do an entire post about random Thunders thoughts. They have two great things that you need in your life, if you don’t have them already.


First, Thunders' promotional emails. Second, their Tumblr.

The emails are great to keep up with what's going on, learn about sales and also to get little factoids and insider info. Here’s a blurb from a recent email …

The new Halloween Havoc 2017 matches are not selling as well as last year, if you’re not buying one can you shoot us back an email and tell us why? We put in a bunch more time on make-up and special effects so we thought this would fly off the servers but it has been a very slow seller. Can you tell us why? And if you did get one then please tell us what you liked about it? We would love any feedback from anyone who has purchased it and from people who do not want to purchase it.

Interesting question. Thunders actually sent these to me, but I was traveling and by the time I got home, the link had expired. So, I haven’t seen them, didn’t buy them and can answer this as a customer. Post your own answer in the comments, but here’s mine.

I appreciate the work, but I don't find horror stuff sexy. Scary? Yes. Sexy? No.

Thunders has the hottest guys in wrestling, so adding blood and prosthetics to make them into monsters wasn’t really appealing to me. Plus, I already have three hot Scrappy/Blayne videos. The Mark Muscle/Finn McCool werewolf one was probably closer to my tastes, but the wrestlers just didn't inspire me to press 'buy' immediately then other matches were released hot on their heels.

My definition of a specialty taste.

Interesting idea, just not for me.

The Simpsons does a great job with Halloween. They do a horror vignette, but often do other themes, too. Halloween is scary, but it’s also about dress up. How about a superhero video? Or a sci-fi theme? Or, if they really want to stick with the scary side, maybe something where the guys still look amazingly hot. Ghost. Vampire. That kind of thing.

And maybe release them earlier so I can enjoy them on the way to Halloween as opposed to after Halloween when the spirit has passed.

So that's my answer to that.

The second thing you need is their Tumblr. Why? Because they answer fan questions on there. There’s a ton of inside info dished out and it’s often hot as heck. Consider the following ...

Did you know ...
Marco and Mr. Mike got into a fight and he was forced into retirement…. Marco wanted new matches and wouldn’t take no for an answer, he ended up punching Mr. Mike in the face.

Marco later apologized and is back at it!
Hot. Especially since the Tumblr also said in a different post that "Mr. Mike is 6″2 275 lbs. He was an all American college wrestler, 3rd in the nation." Marco loves to challenge the big boys.

Marco's got a temper?

"I want a match." POW! "I want a match." POW!

Did you know ...
Right now, our 3 most popular wrestlers are Steel, Travis, and Marco.
Interesting. Travis would be a surprise if my reviews of him weren't so popular. However, I should be nicer about his skills, because it sounds like Travis might not be someone I want to criticize ...

I get it.

I get it.

I get it.

Did you know ...
Travis is currently grounded by the state of NJ, he can’t come play right now… however when he’s ready so are we ;)
Enough said on that.


It's up to New Jersey when Travis comes back. :( 
Did you know ...
Jersey graduated from college to be a lawyer … so he probably wont be coming back. :(
That’s nice for him. He was my Rookie of the Year in the inaugural Cavey Awards. I love his adorkable looks, meaty muscles and frequently good gear choices. His match against Dozer was his best and still is a favorite of mine. Here's a thought - maybe "Jersey, Attorney at Law" can help Travis get ungrounded?

Note to self: Idea for a television show. A wrestler/lawyer named Buddy Slam who solves crimes in his spare time.

Jersey in happier (for me) times.

No wonder Jersey wanted to read the contract!

Did you know ...
Steel’s quads are 28 inches around!
Woof. No wonder I love his scissors so much! Speaking of guys who do great scissors ...

Hm, only 28"? I need to measure for myself.

Yeah, that's nice.

Did you know ...
[Talon] left us to get surgery on his leg and we have tried may times to get in contact with him but haven’t heard back.
Sad. Love me some Talon.

Heal up, big guy.

And answer your DAMN phone!

Anyway, fun, right? So make sure to check out the feed for a lot of inside scoop on wrestlers, former wrestlers and the action! And ask your own burning questions!

Alex

11 comments:

  1. Awesome public service announcement! Thanks, Alex! :)

    -JS

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  2. Great shout out. I really enjoy their Tumblr and the insights.

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    1. Very cool.

      Can I ask, did you buy their 2017 Halloween video? Why or why not?

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    2. The gimicks don't really appeal to me. I guess I'm more old school and just like the grappling. Setting it up with some trash talk and back story like "you were hogging the rack doing curls when I wanted to squat so now you must pay" is okay. But I don't really get the superhero, or monster, or whatever thing.

      I did wrestle a guy who was in to the superhero schtick. He wanted me to play the villain, and that was fun. Mostly because he was a little ball of muscle, and it was fun working him over. But it would have been just as much fun without the make believe.

      So, no, this angle doesn't move me to buy it. Blayne is tempting, though.

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    3. Thanks for the reply.

      Hm, I didn't think about 'no gimmick' people. They aren't likely prospects to purchase any Halloween video. They'd likely would stick with the other Scrappy-Blayne videos. So the audience for this is 'gimmick' people, like me, but that doesn't mean we'll like 'monsters'. So Thunders keeps reducing the possible audience as they add elements. Maybe 'monster-lovers' is just too small a group.

      I love that you at least tried superhero play, even if it's not your primary interest. I bet you were a great villain for your little ball of superhero muscle. Sounds awesome. :)

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    4. Please don't think I meant gimmick in any pejorative sense. Not at all. But it will likely limit sales.

      And I like to think I made a good villain for my Cap't America. At least we both enjoyed the match. ;-)

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    5. Don't worry, I totally get it. It was harder to find guys who'd play hero-roleplay, so I just think it's cool you went with it. :)

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    6. Oh, I'm game to do it again for the right opponent. Hint hint.

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  3. Hi Alex,
    I used to read the Thunder tumbler a lot ... but now it seems like I have to "sign up" or "get the app" and I have not seen the tumbler blog since then (I just feel like I have wayyyy too many "sign ups" ya know?) ... thus, I really appreciate your reporting here.

    On the Halloween question... I guess it's ok, but with only a limited budget, I would rather buy stuff that really catches my eye (like Joey King)... and as much as I'm into the super hero genre, I'm not sure I would buy that either... always been an 'old school' rasslin' fan..

    Alex, keep up the good work!
    Ray

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    1. Thanks, Ray!

      I definitely know what you mean about sign ups. I'm the same way with Snapchat. You'd think Tumblr would use Yahoo! ID's, given they own them, but I don't know that they do.

      So there's definitely a crowd who aren't likely to buy any Halloween videos. For those that are, I just superheroes as an example. They've never been done in a sustainable way (outside of my fictional universe), but maybe there's enough for Halloween.

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